Page 124 of The Shade of Things
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Shuddering,I pitched the Ascendant into the crack as hard as I could, draping myself in the revulsion I felt for opening this gateway.
Arlo had kept the amplifier for his own purposes, but I wanted nothing to do with it. If Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof could be convinced of that, perhaps they’d spare me.
The murmuring voices cut out with a shocking abruptness, but Zev screamed, a furious wail that spiked into the top of my head.
Any fear of the vampire’s retaliation fell to a distant second as the crack opened wider, like a mouth with jagged teeth, and a rank wind blew back my hair. Something was watching me. Weighing me.
I backed up with quick, jerky steps, my breath coming in short, shallow pants.
“I don’t want to fly with the angels!” My heartbeat in my ears practically drowned out all other sound. “I want this to end!”
There was a high-pitched scream from very far away. It drew closer and closer, growing so loud that clapping my hands over my ears didn’t dim it one bit.
The light stuttered, and a black ball flew toward me.
I barely jumped out of the way before it hit the wall and unfurled into a limp figure on the ground.
The crack didn’t disappear.
“Close!” Goosebumps skittered over my skin from that unseen presence, but the rift remained. I leaned into my words, throwing all my power behind them. “I COMMAND YOU TO CLOSE.”
Unbelievably, it did.
I crept toward the estrie. She was barely more than rags and bone, her face covered by long, stringy hair, but her chest rose and fell faintly.
“Is she alive?” Zev said.
“Yes,” I said hoarsely.
He ran a weary hand over his face. “You destroyed the Ascendant.”
Dybbuks couldn’t use it on the Gehenna side because they were nothing more than malevolent spirits. Also, they were too busy being tortured. Any other beings there weren’t imprisoned so wouldn’t need the amplifier either. Gehenna was the safest place for the orb to be.
“We had no deal to the contrary.” I notched my chin up. “This concludes our business, yes?”
Zev glanced from the estrie to me and then nodded.
A rush of adrenaline hit me hard, and I went in search of Rodrigo on rubbery legs, finding him standing guard at the top of the stairs. “I’d like to go home now.”
My magic was tapped out so badly that even once I left Blood Alley, I had no juice to access the KH. I just wanted a ride in a warm car.
Rodrigo motioned me to go ahead. “Nothing’s stopping you.”
“I have no purse, no phone, no money.” I waved a hand over my bloody shirt. “And I look like a serial killer. How am I supposed to get there?”
The sooner I did, the sooner I could drink myself into a numb stupor. There had been so much to deal with, from Tatiana to my kid having magic, being a target of not one but three angry magical entities, and now me turning down phenomenal cosmic power. I needed a break. I didn’t want to feel these huge emotions anymore.
I didn’t want to feel anything.
Rodrigo smiled, the first one he’d ever given me that reached his eyes. “Walk.”
Hoping his limo crashed into a fiery wreck the next time he drove it, I left the club, alone in the dark.
My new career had burned to the ground, a woman I admired had played me and been played in return, and for all my feelings of empowerment, I’d been nothing more than a pawn.
Shivering, I left Blood Alley.
