Whatever this was, it was getting worse.
From outside, a howl rose. Xander and I both sprinted for the door at the same time with everyone else close behind.
Out in the yard, I spotted several wolves running by. They didn’t stop when they saw us and instead continued up the street, still howling. Sounding an alarm, I realized, as one by one, people and wolves stumbled from their own houses.
The ground shook hard enough to knock a few right off their feet. Others bent to help them up, and they all made their way toward the main road using shrubs and porches for balance.
When the next boom came, I looked up toward the sound of it. The night sky was lit with a large moon hanging low and far to the north. Stars blinked, brighter here than I’d ever seen them. They offered an illuminating view of the heavens and my eyes locked onto what must have been the source of the booming.
“Get down,” Peter yelled a split second before a bolt of utter blackness shot straight down from so far above us I couldn’t see where it began.
It fell vertically as if aiming for the ground in front of my feet, but farther up in the sky, a light flashed as something stopped it from getting too close. When the bolt made contact with the barrier, it produced another loud boom.
The ground shook, and more wolves howled.
Xander and Peter both appeared beside me as if ready to throw themselves between me and the weapon. Xander’s hand slid into mine, reassuring me. I squeezed once then looked up again, tracking the bolt as it retracted and disappeared.
“What was that?” I asked.
“The shield is being attacked,” Xander said with enough disbelief and worry in his voice to rattle me.
“Has this ever happened before?” I asked.
He didn’t look away from the sky as he said, “No.”
Peter looked over sharply at his words. “What can I do to help?”
Beck stepped up beside him with Ben’s hand in hers. “We’ll take you to Neila. If you can help, it will be there with her.”
Peter nodded but didn’t move from my side.
Jalene stepped up. “Xander and I will stay with Alina,” she told him. “Nothing will happen to her. You should go and help fortify the shields.”
“Thank you,” Peter told her and then pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “Reach out to Nightingale. Make sure she and Archer are all right. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nodded and watched as he ran off with Beck and Ben leading the way. The people evacuating fell in behind them with the wolves herding them along and helping them remain upright. “Where are they going?” I asked.
“Center of town,” Xander said. “It’s more open there. Less risk of injury if the quakes cause any damage.”
Like collapsing houses or falling trees. He didn’t have to say it; I knew what he meant.
Jalene tugged on my arm. “We should go with them. Get you some place safe.”
“Hang on, I need to check on Nightingale.” I closed my eyes without waiting for a reply, concentrating on reaching my horse. It took only a split second for me to connect and then another several moments to check on her. My heart rate settled a little as I realized she was really okay. In fact, she was doing much better than we were.
When I opened my eyes again, Jalene was watching me like I was nuts. “What the hell was that?”
“Nightingale and Archer are fine,” I told them. “They sought shelter on the other side of the forest. The ground is stable there. She assumed the booming was thunder, and I didn’t correct her.”
“The attack is localized?” Xander said and frowned, taking another look around, but this time he wasn’t searching the sky.
Jalene eyed me. “Are you trying to tell me you just conversed with your jesup, I mean horse, telepathically?”
I shrugged. “Yes?”
“Girl,” she chastised. “We are going to sit down and get all caught up later. You’ve been holding out on me.”
I nodded in agreement just as another bolt shot downward. This time, it was directly overhead, and there was no mistaking it. “It’s aiming right for me,” I yelled over the sound of the boom. “How does it know?”
Xander tugged us backward toward the cover of the house. I let him even though I wasn’t sure standing so close to the house was any safer. Not with the way the ground was rattling the walls.
“Dark magic isn’t my specialty,” Jalene yelled back, “But I would have to say that someone or something is feeding it your location.”
I looked back at her as another bolt shot downward. “My exact location?”
She nodded, and we both did a scan of the yard. I’d almost given up, noting only the fleeing residents and the wolves who were helping them, but then something caught my eye.
My breath caught.
Just beyond the edge of the yard, a figure bent over the ground. They wore a long, dark cloak that made it impossible to identify them, but the glint of magic as it leaked from their hands was unmistakable. An arm swept up and over as they motioned dramatically toward Xander’s house. Then something sharp and shiny flashed; more magic leaking from their hands.
It was only for an instant, but it was enough. A second later, another boom sounded as another bolt was intercepted.
I was already moving.
Behind me, Xander and Jalene were yelling. I ignored them and ran faster. The Ngili was right here, not twenty yards away. I wasn’t going to stop or wait for anyone.
Jalene’s screams must have carried because the cloaked figure suddenly looked in our direction. The ground beneath my feet wavered, and I zigzagged with its tilt to keep from falling. It was enough to slow me down and before I could reach the figure, he took off.
Magic, latent and thick, coated the ground where he’d stood a moment ago. It swirled like a small cyclone at my feet, and the moment I stepped into the muck, my feet stuck like glue.
Just behind me, Xander and Jalene both came to a sudden standstill as the magic held them rooted too. “What the…” Jalene said and then groaned with the effort of trying to lift her feet.
“It’s a trap,” Xander ground out, struggling uselessly against the force of the roiling magic that held us in place.
I gritted my teeth, straining as I tried lifting my feet to chase after the mysterious figure, but it was already halfway across the stretch of lawn.
And I was stuck.
We all were.
At the edge of the trees, the figure stopped. I expected it to keep running and disappear entirely but instead it turned back.
From here, I couldn’t make out a face underneath the drawn hood, but I knew without a doubt that it was watching me. My skin crawled as magic licked its way over my boots and up my legs.
Jalene screamed, “Alina!” She struggled harder to reach me, but it did no good.
I stared back at the obscured face of the Ngili, struggling to call my own power to myself. But the heat remained nothing more than a warm blanket against my skin. Slowly, the dark magic coated me, blotting out the warmth and leaving a piercing cold in its wake.
It snaked upward, covering my waist and torso like a fluid.
I knew that once it reached my face, I would suffocate.
My heat sparked then waned, my full power just out of reach. Like a memory too fuzzy to be recalled.
“Alina, use your heat,” Xander shouted.
I looked over at him in time to see a thick bolt of lightning shoot straight from his fingers into the muck at his own feet. It made no dent in the magic’s hold, but he continued to fire anyway, shooting another then another. But the magic only began winding its way up his body now, too, and he turned his attention to fighting it off.
Not that it did any good.
I bit down on my lip, concentrating hard against the frigid layer of magic clawing its way up my body. It was at my chest now, inching closer to my mouth.
A single strand—like a gnarled finger—reached my lip. I recoiled, but the magic didn’t stop,
and I had to shut my mouth to keep it from winding its way down my throat.
It wound upward and my breathing hitched as it reached one nostril then another.
Panic gripped me, threatening to paralyze me before the fight was even over. The reality hit me, and I felt the smug satisfaction of the Ngili from across the grass. It understood at the same moment I did: I was going to suffocate right here while it watched me die, and then Xander and Jalene would die too. All because my fear was greater than my ability.
I watched as the Ngili took a step closer, obviously sure of its kill now. Its shoulders shook with the snarling laughter that drifted over above the sound of the wind and the boom still coming from the battle that raged above my head.
“Alina, use your heat,” Xander called again.
I tried to tell him I couldn’t summon it, but my words were cut off as the last of my breath was stolen. The magic covered my mouth and nose now. I gasped, struggling harder and trying not to completely panic.
“Yes, Alina. Use your heat,” came a twisted voice. It was deep and dark, twisting because of the magic until it was nearly unrecognizable as a Zorovian. “Or have you forgotten that too?”
Something inside me snapped.
Suddenly, the heat inside me exploded; a firework igniting in a space too small for its spark. My glow blazed suddenly to life, sending a flash of light and lava-coated sparks from my chest and fingertips.
Jalene screamed, but it abruptly cut off as her own mouth was covered by the magic stealing its way up her body. Xander’s eyes went wide, but he kept his mouth shut as tendrils snaked along his bottom lip.
The sparks fell at my feet, instantly burning away the magic the moment they touched. A second later, I stumbled sideways as the heat rolling off me melted straight through the filth coating the ground.
The cold pressure against my mouth and nose vanished, and I doubled over, gasping for air. My head spun as oxygen filled my lungs, chasing away the dark stranglehold the magic had used.
When I could see straight, I straightened and doubled back, using the intensity rolling off my body to cut Jalene and Xander free as well.
Lava-coated sparks fell from my hands as I moved between them. Wherever it fell, the magic vanished. My steady stream of liquid fire ate through the dark cloud until there was nothing left.
By the time I’d finished, the Ngili had disappeared. I scanned for some sign of where it had gone, but there was nothing.
“Thanks,” Jalene said gratefully when she could move and breathe again. Her expression was strained, and she rubbed absently at her chest where her own glow emanated from. “That was…”
I didn’t wait for her to finish before heading for the trees.
“We need to move. It went that way,” I said, breathless with impatience. We didn’t have much time before we’d lose its trail altogether.
“Wait. Do you hear that?” Xander grabbed my arm, and we all looked up at the sky, searching the empty expanse.
“I don’t hear anything,” I said.
“The bolts are gone,” Jalene added.
As I watched, a flash lit up the sky, flickering once before fading away again. It was a white light—strong and pure like the glow that came from my own chest. A different sort of magic. And the crackle in the air that followed was a scent I knew all too well.
“Peter,” I said. “He’s repaired the cloaking magic. We’re safe.”
“The bolts have stopped,” Jalene said.
“We ruined the spell,” Xander said, frowning at a pile of rocks nearby.
I exhaled, impatient to return to the hunt, but the rocks caught my eye, and I went to get a closer look. What I saw wasn’t a pile at all but a carefully placed altar of crystals and stones. In the center was a dead bird—the same kind I’d seen the other day in the woods, complete with a blue mohawk.
“The Ngili,” Jalene breathed.
“He went that way,” I said, starting for the trees.
“No.” Xander grabbed my arm, and I swung around, temper blazing.
“Let go. We can still catch him,” I argued.
“Crashing through the woods in the middle of the night is suicide,” he said.
“I have my glow,” I protested.
“And that’s what he’ll be counting on,” Xander shot back. His expression hardened as he added, “You saw how easily its magic stopped us here. What sort of traps do you think it will set for you in there? What would have happened if he’d decided not to run but to stay and fight?”
“I…” I trailed off as I realized what a good point he made.
“The only reason he ran was because he was hoping those black bolts would finish the job,” Xander went on.
“Xander’s right,” Jalene said with enough regret in her voice to cushion my disappointment at least a little.
“But we were so close,” I told her.
“I know,” she said, clearly agreeing with me. “And we’ll get him. But not tonight. Not when we’re at a disadvantage like this.”
I sighed, hating their logic. The heat in my veins wanted action. It wanted out, and I had nothing to aim it at now. Instead, I forced it to cool and nodded slowly. “Fine. Let’s find Peter and the others and make sure this cloaking shield is going to hold up until we can stop this little minion from painting a bull’s eye on my back.”
I started for the road, and Xander and Jalene fell in on either side.
“What’s a bull’s eye?” Jalene asked. “My language skills suggest a large cow but that can’t be right.”
I cast a glance at her and saw her brows furrowed in confusion. “A target,” I clarified.
“Oh.”
We fell silent as we made our way toward the center of town. A crowd had already gathered, but with the danger past, they were milling around and chatting instead of huddled and panicked like I’d assumed.
My shoulders sagged in relief as I spotted Peter approaching from the other end of the street. Neila and Eamon were with him, sticking close and ushering people out of the way so he could pass. He walked with stooped shoulders, obviously exhausted.
“Peter,” I said, throwing my arms around him and hugging him tight. “Thank you.”
“You’re all right?” he asked, worry lines creasing his forehead as he searched me for injuries.
“I’m fine. We found the Ngili doing some sort of spell again. We think it was using magic to call those bolts here,” I told him.
“He got away,” Xander added to an already growling Eamon.
“We’ll send a tracking party,” Eamon began, but Xander shook his head.
“We should wait until morning,” Xander said. “The dark magic used on us back there was powerful enough. If he’s still nearby, he’s going to be ready and waiting for whoever comes looking.”
“We’ll wait for first light,” I said.
Everyone nodded.
“In the meantime, Peter and Neila need to rest. Expending that kind of energy wasn’t easy,” Eamon said. I noticed Neila’s head drooping. She looked just as exhausted as Peter.
But she nodded. “Eamon and I can put together a team to go out at first light, tracking whatever trail they can find.” Her gaze cut to me. “They’ll report back before engaging,” she added.
“Thank you,” I told her.
“And we’ll need to call a council meeting as soon as possible,” Xander added. “Jalene, I want you to sit in and offer testimony about what happened tonight.”
Jalene nodded soberly. “We have a much bigger problem, don’t we?”
My stomach tightened. I knew what she meant, and my body reacted even before any of them could say the words. “Tharos,” I said quietly. “He knows where I am.”
“We don’t know that for sure until we find the Ngili,” Xander said, squeezing my hand. I knew he was trying to reassure me, but we both knew I was right.
I looked over at him. “Tomorrow at dawn.”
“What about it?” he asked.
“I�
��ll be in the field behind my house for training,” I said.
He nodded. “I’ll send word to Dominik.”
“Thanks,” I told him, ignoring the growing pit in my stomach.
It wasn’t enough—not even close—but it was all I could do. That was twice now I’d faced down an enemy and choked. I had to find a way to grow my power. Otherwise, next time, the Ngili would win for sure. If I couldn’t find a way around whatever was blocking me from accessing what I knew was inside me, the least I could do was make it hard for him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Peter complained until the moment he fell asleep, but no amount of arguing swayed me. It was my turn to watch over him. The entire night, I sat beside Peter’s bed while he slept, doing my best to doze in the chair I’d swiped from my bedroom. Xander slept on the couch and twice I almost went to wake him up. Not for anything romantic—okay, maybe a little for that—but to strategize.
Come morning, there would be a dark witch to hunt, and time wasn’t on our side. If tonight’s attack was any indication, the Ngili was growing more powerful by the day. And if my response was any indication, I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop it.
Thinking of Xander again—wanting the comfort and reassurance I knew he would give—I resisted the urge to wake him. Instead, I opted to remain in my chair and keep a watchful eye on Peter. He slept fitfully, and I knew from experience that meant he’d overexerted himself.
I’d done the same only once before when we’d first arrived on Earth. My lack of memory had eaten at me until fear and anxiety had broken me down. My mental state combined with the physical strain Peter’s training exercises had put on me led to an exhaustion that lasted nearly a week.
The internet had computed my symptoms and called it mono—whatever that was. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I understood what it really was. Peter had reached the bottom of his well of power—and he’d pushed right past it for more.
Whatever he’d done to strengthen our shields wasn’t something he should repeat.
Not ever.
If Tharos found us again, there would be no keeping him out.
I wouldn’t let Peter do this to himself again. Not for me. Not for anyone. I, on the other hand, had the opposite problem. And if I didn’t figure out how to dig deeper and uncover what I was really capable of, everyone here would die when the darkness arrived.
The Girl Who Called The Stars (The Starlight Duology Book 1) Page 21