The next thing I knew, a net spread forth from the turtle. It happened so quickly and was so damn complete, I had to doubt my eyes.
I’d had difficulty fighting the rock warrior when I’d been at top power. Whatever the heck this net was, it was obviously far more powerful than I was. Because the rock warrior thrust forward, but the net caught it. It was suspended there as if in a spider’s web.
I fell to the side as it dropped its grip on me. Staggering backward, slipping in my own blood from my previous death, I jerked up and fell against the wall to my side. “What the hell is that?”
“You have activated the ancient Santini charm,” a disembodied magical voice said from nowhere. I was vaguely aware that it was coming from the shell of the turtle in my hand, but it sounded as if it was being beamed here from some other source.
“I’m sorry, what?” I spluttered so quickly, I could’ve perforated my throat. “An ancient Santini charm?”
Santini charms were old by definition. They weren’t made anymore. Santini was very much dead. She had been one of the most powerful witches of her age. She had operated for several hundred years. Though I didn’t know too much about them as, before this crazy adventure, I’d thought I’d never come across one, I did appreciate that most of the charms came from the Middle Ages.
They weren’t ancient. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Maybe the Santini charm could read my mind. “This charm is based on ancient magical technology from Greece. It can be used to trap any magical object within it.”
I spluttered. “Any magical object? Really? What about Hilliker?”
“This charm does not possess contemporary facts, but it can trap any magical object within it.”
“How long?” I spluttered.
“Indefinitely. The object will be trapped until the user – which is you – decides to release it.”
I’d assumed Hilliker had picked up every single Santini charm in existence. But he clearly hadn’t picked up this one. When I’d run back to the tunnels to get the rest of Hilliker’s Santini charms, I had done it on the premise that maybe there would be some others trapped in the vaults. I hadn’t honestly thought there would be, though.
I stood there for a few more seconds until I realized I didn’t have the time to spare.
I jerked backward. I stared down at the cracked shell. “Can I use you again?” I tightened my fingers around it.
“No. This is a single-use item.”
I stared at the rock warrior. It tried to scream, but the spider webs just grew up over its mouth and locked it in place. I did not feel sorry for it, even though it looked alarmed enough that its eyes widened to be twice their original size.
I placed the turtle shell down. It would’ve been damn useful in my fight with Hilliker. But then again, even though the Santini charm had promised that it could work on any magical creature, I doubted it would work on Hilliker. Who knew what he was anymore? I’d... dammit, I’d died again. Which meant the Banished had more power.
I paled. “Which means Hilliker will come back quicker.” I stared at my watch. I had just wasted five minutes. It was 25 minutes until the end of the world. Though Hilliker’s hands hadn’t been around my throat when I’d just died, he would still have gained an advantage from my death. So maybe I only had 15 minutes left now?
Becoming as pale as a corpse, I jerked around and threw myself forward. Staggering, I pushed away from this section of tunnel.
I came across another gnome, but this time, I acted first. I had less magic, but I had a heck of a lot more determination. As my desperation flared within me, it dragged the magic out of my soul, and I managed to knock the gnome out well before it could finish swigging on its little bottle of whiskey.
Staggering, I started to question everything. With 15 minutes, could I even find Sonos, let alone break him out?
God. I was running out of time. And maybe I was running out of hope, too. Because every single time I tried to grab my cross to give myself some much-needed encouragement, it would slip out of my sweaty grip.
Maybe it was a sign of things to come. Maybe it was a recognition of the fact that I did not have a frigging chance anymore. Because as I ran around a corner, I came face-to-face with one of those white and black priests. The guy’s skin was pasty white. It looked as if it had been made out of plaster and painted on. His veins, however, were pitch black. As for his eyes, it looked as if they’d been injected with squid ink. As soon as he saw me, he turned, his robes whirling quickly. They plastered around his knees as he jerked his hands up. His bony fingers protruded out of the ends of his sleeves, looking more like snapped bones than actual hands. He spread those fingers wide.
I came to a skidding stop and brought my arm up. I didn’t have time to cast a sophisticated spell, so I just let magic spill around me. I was immediately disheartened by how little there was. It looked as if it had been completely doused – as if once I’d been a fire, but someone had thrown me underwater and kept me down.
The guy hissed, and magic started to twist and twirl around him. He was a body magician, and his force took the shape of snakes. They looked deadly, and their forms blazed like fire. As they twisted around and around his form, I watched their mouths open wide until suddenly, he snapped his fingers, and they sprang toward me. Instinctively knowing that my wall of magic wouldn’t take his attack, I ducked to the side and went on the run.
I was no longer injured in any way. Fortunately the resurrection magic had seen to that. But there was only so much I could do in these close confines. I tried to run up the wall, but it was hard to get traction. There were more chunks of magic ore everywhere, and if I was stupid enough to accidentally touch one, they vibrated dangerously. If I fed them too much magic, as I’d said before, there would be a cave-in. I knew that it would not affect the priest. He’d find some way of programming it so that it would only crush me. And hell, maybe he suddenly figured out that was an option, because as I ran up another section of wall to flip over his head and get some distance between us, I watched him send that charge of magic smashing into the stones beside me. There were several massive chunks of ore. As he fed them magic, they jittered so dangerously, they looked like atoms that were getting ready to split.
I tried to dodge out of their way, but I wasn’t quick enough. One large chunk about the size of a human head smashed its way free from the wall and shot toward me.
Screaming, I jerked a hand up. I couldn’t use magic to protect myself. Do that, and I would only make the cave-in worse. So I just had to take it as that rock smashed into my side.
It was enough that it didn’t just instantly rob me of air, but it plastered me against the wall. It also broke my arm.
As I heard the bone snap, there was another sickening crunch from behind me. The priest didn’t run in close and wrap his hands around my throat. Instead, he appreciated he was onto a good thing. He sent more charges of magic spinning into the room. They smashed into the chunks of ore, ripping them out. Soon they spun around me.
I screamed as they battered me.
God. I was going to die. Again. And that was only going to buy Hilliker yet more time.
I should... I should never have come here. Yes, Sonos was my hope, but in trying to get him back, I would have to sell every other hope I’d ever had.
I was battered and bruised, and soon enough I fell down to my knees. There was nothing I could do to stay aloft. A massive stone suddenly came snaking down from above.
I tried to jerk back and out of its way, but that would be when one of the priest’s snakes locked around my leg and thrust me forward. It pinned me on the spot. That stone did the rest. It struck my chest. Without magic to protect me, it crushed me.
This was it. I was about to die again.
The priest wasted no time. He crunched in close and wrapped his hands around my throat. He followed me up as the resurrection magic lifted me and spread my arms. I watched his face spread with relief, his lips opening wide
and his eyes opening wider. He took in the moment, drinking it in like an alcoholic who’d come across an unlocked bar.
As the resurrection light spilled through me, coalescing on my injuries and healing them in one glorious moment, I felt more of my light leaking out of me. It was channeled through his hands, down his body, and into the floor.
I.... This time I would have even less magic and even less of a hope. That was a fact this bastard clearly knew, because as I finally came back to myself, he smiled. His eyes, which had always been filled with that black pernicious squid ink, now glittered with total death. They looked as if they’d been carved out of obsidian. No, the heart of some meteorite whose only purpose was to destroy all life on Earth.
He hissed, and his fetid breath broke across my cheek. I felt his fingers lock around my neck and tighten. So this was it, ha?
I was going to be killed. I had four frigging lives left.
I wouldn’t make it to the last one before Hilliker broke himself out. I squeezed my eyes closed and got ready to say sorry to every single person I’d failed.
Mr. Fenticle wouldn’t have a chance. When Hilliker broke out, he’d kill the little guy in an instant. As for Sato and Barney? They’d be gone. And my sister... I couldn’t even go there.
And Sonos? Sonos would....
I couldn’t finish that thought. Because that priest snapped my neck.
Resurrection magic blasted around me. Even though I knew I was getting weaker, I swore it was even brighter than it ever had been before. As it glowed through these cramped tunnels, it lit them up as if a star was being born.
That priest’s eyes became even wider – even greedier. If he kept going like this, his damn eyeballs would swallow the whole world.
I watched the resurrection magic spill from him, sink into the earth, and disappear.
Wherever the Banished was, he would be getting closer and closer. I said wherever he was, but I swore I felt his intelligence picking up through this very room. And if I thought the priest’s greed was bad, it was absolutely nothing compared to that ancient force. It circled me like a pack of wolves just waiting for me to drop my defenses. I knew that it would feast on me – rip me apart from the inside out. It would squeeze every single last drop of strength from my soul until I was nothing more than a damn husk.
I waited as the priest’s fingers tightened around my throat once more.
Two lifetimes. This was it. It was over. I had a chance to think that, then... I thought I heard something.
It was distant. So distant that it probably didn’t exist and it was just my mind playing tricks on me. But it was there. And in a moment when I thought nothing else could command my attention, it did.
For it was Sonos’s voice.
It wasn’t clear enough that I could hear what he was saying. But the tone, the pitch – it was all the same. It was Sonos.
In a moment where I didn’t think I could have hope, it brought it to me. It lifted me up. He gave me wings when I thought I would do nothing but sink right through into the Banished’s cold and forever-encompassing embrace.
My lips cracked open just as that priest brought his face forward and went to laugh in mine as he went to kill me again. “Sonos,” I whispered.
The priest’s face twitched. “You’ll never break him out. You have no power. And as I kill you one last time, you’ll have even less. You’ll have no magic at all. It’s over, Cursed One. Give up the rest of your light so the Banished may live.”
I didn’t pay attention to a damn word he said. I peeled my hearing. I waited to hear Sonos one last time. If I would die, at least he’d be with me in some way.
But I did not hear him, and the priest’s fingers tightened.
If I’d still had that turtle, I would’ve been able to trap this bastard.
I had nothing. Nothing but my own two hands. I was back to having the magic of an untrained preschooler. This priest, on the other hand, had the magic of a true master. There was nothing I could do.
No. There was one thing. I grabbed my cross with my weak hands.
As I felt the Banished’s presence increase in the room – as I became all too aware of its greed – I waited, not to be killed, but to find a chance – any option. Any hope. I wanted to hear Sonos’s voice one last time. I wanted to know that he was still alive.
The priest tried to tighten his fingers around my neck. I heard the squeeze of his skin against mine. I waited for him to complete the move and kill me. But it didn’t happen. It couldn’t.
He let out a frustrated blast of a breath. He tried to tighten his fingers again, but I heard as he failed.
I was only vaguely aware of it. Most of my mind was turned toward the impossible hope of hearing Sonos one last time.
“Give in,” the priest said, his words snapped and vicious.
When I didn’t give in, he brought his other hand up, wrapped it around my neck, and tried to squeeze with all his might. I was aware of how much his muscles were bulging. He was using all his considerable force. And yet, somehow, impossibly, it wasn’t enough.
“Give up,” he roared, his countenance fracturing. Gone was the strident power and arrogance. In its place was this desperation that pulsed in his eyes.
He suddenly saw that I was clutching hold of my cross. He yanked it out of my grip. He tried to pull the necklace from my throat, but he couldn’t do that. The chain simply wouldn’t break.
He snarled and brought his face close. “There is no more hope for you, Cursed One. You have barely any magic left. There’s no way you can get away from me.”
I stared at him. “And there’s no way you can take away my hope.”
That just incited him. He grabbed the cross and tried to yank it off my throat even harder. It was so violent, it should hurt my neck, but even as the cross strained against the chain, it didn’t. It always felt like a gentle, motherly embrace.
The priest suddenly gave up. He screamed again. It was so full of frustration, I was surprised he didn’t lash out and start smashing up the walls.
“Give up,” he shrieked. He tried to crush my throat again, but it just wouldn’t happen.
... Had it always been this easy? To stop Hilliker and his priests from killing me, had I simply had to clutch hold of hope like this?
He suddenly dropped me. I knew better than to think that he was giving up. He shoved a hand quickly into his sleeve and withdrew one of those green syringes. I’d seen one of Hilliker’s priests use them before. As soon as he injected it into his throat, it would give him unimaginable power. It would also release his body to the Banished.
I paled. I should just turn tail and run, but it wasn’t as if I’d be able to get away from him. So I just sat there, watching as the guy all but killed himself. He injected his neck, that green liquid instantly snaking through his bloodstream.
His head jerked back, and his eyes rolled into the back of his skull. It lasted for a few convulsing seconds until he turned his head down and smiled. This dark energy picked up across his mouth. It darted over his teeth. It was too much for them, and I watched the enamel crumble into dust.
“No more delays.” He opened his hands and shot toward me.
I couldn’t stop him from picking me up, and nor could I stop his fingers from wrapping around my throat. The only damn thing I could do was hold on to my cross with all my frigging heart.
But that wasn’t hope. Not really. You can hold on to something desperately without ever actually thinking it will help you. Hope is a far trickier and more elusive emotion. To truly hope that something will change – that you will be saved, that you will finally get the power to save yourself – you must fundamentally think it is possible. And to do that, you must do the hardest thing of all. You must keep your mind open when the world around you closes in.
I squeezed my eyes closed. As his fingers tightened and tightened around my throat, I tried to keep hold of that hope, even though it felt as if I was trying to open a box when reality itself was actin
g together to keep it closed.
The priest’s fingers strained once more. I heard as his muscles practically twanged. He was now pushing so much magic into the move that it crackled around me. It was blistering the air. Heck, there was so much that it was activating all of the ore around us.
... The ore.
I’d previously said that I only needed to keep my hope open long enough for me to find an opportunity, and I finally chanced upon one.
I didn’t jerk my eyes open and stare at the surrounding walls. I wasn’t that obvious. All I had to do was hold on just a little bit longer. The more magic this idiot used and the more he lost himself, the more he’d forget exactly where he was.
I clutched my cross tighter, but that wasn’t quite enough. As I felt his fingers finally gain traction, I did the one thing that had saved me earlier. I listened with all my heart for Sonos’s voice. And more than that, I used all my heart to believe that he was still out there.
The priest screamed in frustration, the move so dark, I thought it was suddenly coming from the mouths of all men. For he wasn’t just screaming himself. The Banished was filling this room. That fell creature’s dark presence was everywhere. It wanted to snap my neck and feed on my resurrection magic so much that as the priest failed, I thought the very air would explode.
“Just die.” The priest dropped me and proceeded to build a lethal charge of magic in both of his hands. Presumably he would smash it across my face repeatedly like that rock warrior had done.
It was finally enough. I heard a crack from the wall behind him. The priest didn’t even bother to turn. He jerked forward and went to flatten me with his attack. But the wall beside him buckled. The magical ore within smashed forward. It shot toward him. He jerked around just in time for a massive boulder to collect him on the chest. It didn’t squish him flat, even though it would’ve completely crushed me. Magic wrapped around his form, rippling up his chest and slashing down his legs. With a huge, earsplitting grunt, he managed to break through the boulder. But the magic involved only sent more chunks of ore spilling out of the walls and shooting toward him.
Better off Dead Book Four Page 11