by Holly Evans
None of the collared familiars and such paid me any attention as I ran into the middle of their circle and covered them in the alchemist’s powder. Tyn wasn’t there.
“Fuck! Where’s Tyn?” I asked Isa.
“With the tear,” he said.
I’d dropped the damn stopper. I should have checked for Tyn. I’d just assumed he’d be with the others. Fuck. The shadows were piling up around Isa’s weavings, where they tried to tear at the thin threads. There was no time to go looking around the dirt floor for the stopper. I sliced the bottom of my shirt and stuffed that into the bottle.
The ink network flooded my hands, and had reached my elbows by the time I stopped it.
“No. No riding me,” I ground out between gritted teeth.
My vision flashed blood red before the network slipped back down to my hands. Spikes of annoyance sat in the back of my mind, where it brooded and glared daggers at me, as much as a network was capable of such.
“Dacian, stop fucking around and break those collars!” Fein shouted.
I bit my tongue and focused on the ink magic within those collars while trying to stop the network from riding me again. The images slowly formed in my mind of the ink around the poor slaves’ throats. Thick threads of black and navy blue were tightly knotted together in complex designs that made my head swim. I struggled to pick out where one thread ended and another began, let alone how to pull it all apart. They were far more complicated than the collar I’d broken at the alchemist’s lab.
The network had no such problems. It shot over to the ink and began clawing at the threads with sharp black fingers. It hadn’t taken on a fully human form. It was too blurry. The threads in collars tightened away from the network, which made it turn a livid purple colour before it snarled and began hacking at the threads.
“Stop. Stop before you do more harm,” I shouted.
The network turned and gave me a death glare. At least that was the feeling I got. Its face was pure black and flat, entirely without any features.
I ignored it and walked up to the threads, where I ran my fingers over them, hoping to feel something there that would help.
“Acting like a pissy child won’t help anything,” I told the network.
It pouted next to me and watched as I moved my hands over the threads and slowly began to see how the knots were formed. The navy-blue threads were pock-marked, whereas the black ones were smooth and silky. I dug my fingers into a navy thread and gently tugged. It moved, just a little. The network rippled cream and sunshine yellow.
“Gently pull that one,” I gestured to one of the black threads that wrapped around two navy blue threads before ducking into a large knot, “while pressing against the navy blue thread there,” I pointed at the navy thread that crossed it.
The network’s hands reached out and did as I’d commanded. To my relief, the knot loosened. We were making progress. Only a dozen or so knots to get through.
“Dacian! Get those collars broken now!” Caiden shouted.
I couldn’t shout back at him without stepping out of my ink-working state, so I ignored him and tried to find some pattern to the knots while the network worked on that one. I tested the small gaps between the threads and found a little give if I was careful. It took two full circuits around the complete collar before I spotted it.
“On three, you’re going to cut that black thread and pull on this navy one.” I gestured at the narrow black thread running through the heart of the collar.
The network gave me a small nod and one of its hands turned into a vicious-looking blade.
If my theory was correct, then the small black thread was holding the rest of the knots together, and they weren’t true knots at all. If we could rip away the navy thread quickly enough, the knots would unravel and allow us to snip the rest.
“One. Two. Three,” I said.
The network slashed through the black thread and we both pulled on the navy one with everything we had. I dug my heels into the floor and put my entire weight behind it. At first, I thought I’d been wrong and watched with horror as the knots tightened. Suddenly, I fell back on my ass as it unraveled. The network wasted no time in waiting for me to right myself. It savagely tore the remaining threads apart.
I’d barely stood again before the network kicked me out and I found myself face to face with a very pissed off shadow walker.
44
The shadow walker’s blade caught my eye just in time for me to side-step and avoid it slicing my neck open. I twisted away from him and tried to get my bearings, only for him to vanish into the shadow plane. There was no time to figure out where he was going to pop up before he punched me in the kidney and fucked off again. This was going to get tiring very quickly. I allowed Aris out of his tattoo, and the ink network eagerly slipped forward, allowing me to see the magic of the walkers once more. It was a dangerous path, but no more so than to give the shadow predator a chance to get out into the city. Or so I told myself.
The purple smudges appeared around me. Fein was going toe to toe with one of them, his white hair almost glowing under the soft light of the orbs around his head. He refused to give the shadow walker any space and had somehow stopped the bastard from slipping onto the shadow plane like my opponent was. The elf kept in close to the walker, stopping him from being able to kick or move too much. His blades moved incredibly quickly, each glinting under the light as he slashed and carved the walker’s torso. The walker didn’t stand a chance. Every time he tried to block Fein’s blows, the elf twisted his arms and slipped under the walker’s defences without any apparent thought. I hoped I never had to fight him. I wouldn’t stand half a chance.
My walker appeared next to me. I saw his hand going for my throat out the corner of my eye. I grabbed ahold of his wrist and moved to twist his arm behind his back where I could slit his throat. The bastard darted onto the shadow plane, taking me with him. Everything was pitch black, and yet the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I could feel eyes watching me from the depths, and I got the distinct impression the owners of said eyes were far closer than I’d like. Somehow, I managed to keep hold of the shadow walker and threw my weight onto his back when he jumped onto the physical plane once more. He landed with a groan and enveloped us both in shadow.
“I swear to the gods, if I ever see another fucking shadow, it’ll be too soon,” I muttered.
The shadow pressed against me and wrapped me in a dense cocoon, slowly squeezing the air from my lungs. I stabbed the shadow walker in the base of the neck and hoped he’d die before I did. The cold was beginning to take hold when it dissipated, leaving me gasping for breath.
“Stop fucking around, Dacian, we have to go and get Tyn,” Luka shouted.
I looked around and saw the cavern was empty. The circle of slaves was gone. The cougars and Caiden stood staring at me, while Keirn frowned and glanced between Isa and the exit to the cavern.
How long was I wrapped in that fucking shadow? I shook my head and double-checked the bottle of powder from the alchemist was secure before I followed the cougars out into yet another tunnel. Isa was looking tired, the fluidity of his movements diminished. Caiden stayed close to him, which raised my hackles more than I wanted to admit. It really wasn’t the time to be feeling jealous about my ex.
Tyn and what I assumed was the shadow walker leader were in another cavern. I was wondering how the sweet fuck the city was standing on such an extensive network of caverns, tunnels, and the like. The earth magicians must have woven some impressive magic around the entire area. The tear between the planes was clear enough that it glowed a lime-green colour in the darkness. It hung over a large black pool of liquid before Tyn, a gaping hole between the planes. The shadow predator stood watching over the room, deep orange orbs of liquid fire burning with ill intent in a face of razor-sharp edges and long teeth. I really didn’t understand how the shadow walkers had managed to convince themselves that bringing that thing onto our plane was a positive move.
“You need to stop them from shadow walking,” I said to Isa.
“I need to close the tear between the planes,” he ground out.
“Keirn, we need you to bind the three of us so Isa and Dacian can combine their magics and use mine as a power source,” Caiden said.
Keirn looked between the shadow walkers that were circling around us, slowly closing in while the cougars and Fein slashed at them. He gave a sharp nod and began speaking in rapid elvish while making slow sweeping hand gestures towards me, the hound, and Isa. I felt it click into place, the almost physical sensation of being tied to them and the access to Isa’s weaving magics. The ink network poked at the new magic and recoiled with a hissing around.
Caiden threw a bottle of ink at my feet.
“We need to stop this,” he growled.
With that, the chaos descended.
The shadow walkers somehow multiplied in number. They went from ten or so to thirty or more. The ink network grasped onto the puddle of ink at my feet and wasted no time in throwing itself into it, producing a great beast much like the one that had formed at the bar. I lost sight of the others as the darkness descended, and my vision became smudges of purple and green against a canvas of pitch. The cold wrapped around my hands and stiffened my fingers, trying to cut me off from the magic. The network responded aggressively, and Aris sank his teeth into someone nearby. The pleasure the great snake felt when a shadow walker screamed in agony rippled down the bond and made me smile.
The darkness began to clear as the ink beast tore through the shadows, leaving shreds of shadow clinging to the exposed brickwork like limp ribbons. My mind was split between the beast, trying to control that, while also fighting with a particularly aggressive older shadow walker. She kept prancing around me and dipped in and out, slashing at my periphery with her small black blades. I was tired and had no patience for such games.
She hadn’t paid any attention to Aris, and the snake took advantage of that. I stepped forward, slashing my blade at her lower abdomen while Aris struck her upper thigh. The walker yelped as his long fangs cut through her flimsy black trousers and tore through her muscle. She stumbled and tried to cut Aris, but he moved too quickly and bit her calf, giving me the chance to slit her throat. My attention was drawn back to the ink beast as the shadow walkers threw their own equivalent at it.
The two hulking beasts raged at the far end of the cavern. Their sharp forms clashed as the ink beast clawed at the shadow creature’s face and tried to sink its teeth into the spikey neck of the shadow. Isa’s weaving magic hardened the plate armour of the ink creature, giving it strong resistance against the shadow’s determined bites. The ink backed the shadow up against the wall, where it tore the other’s throat out and howled in victory. The sound reverberated around the space and sent a chill down my spine. It wasted no time in hunting down the shadow walkers. It tore the walker that Caiden had been fighting from the hound’s grasp and tossed her effortlessly against the wall, where she crumpled and tumbled to the floor.
All that was left was the shadow walker leader, who still had Tyn by the throat. Fein was circling around him, his ears pinned to his skull and his teeth bared as he looked for a way in. The ink beast joined Fein in his circling, and soon so did the rest of us. Isa remained at the back of the group, his eyes fixed in the tear within the planes, his hands moving in swift complex motions. The ink network tugged at me and flickered baby blues around my vision. The sensation of weaving entered my mind. I needed to help Isa.
“Dacian, the powder!” Shadow called over.
I threw him the bottle of powder and took a deep breath, placing my faith in the ink network.
Isa was growing pale. He needed my help. I had no clue what I was doing. I had to pray the network wasn’t trying to screw me over.
The network tugged at my fingers, trying to make them form delicate threads of gold.
“Weave,” it commanded.
“I’m not a weaver.”
“Stop fighting.”
I ground my teeth and glanced at Isa. A sheen of sweat coated his brow, small creases of concern spreading around his eyes.
I gave my hands over to the network and allowed it to form the threads. I watched with awe as the golden threads of ink spooled around Isa’s pale blue threads and began to fly back and forth across the gaping hole between the planes. The shadow predator roared and snapped its teeth at the threads, but it was too late. The hole was closing, my magic and Isa’s patching it back up. The almost physical sensation of the planes separating again was a bizarre one. It was like I was connected to a membrane on a level my mind couldn’t quite comprehend. Was that how Isa felt when he used his magic?
Shouts went up just before the final stitch was sealed. It was done. The ink network abandoned me and left me to drop to my knees in absolute exhaustion. I put my face in my hands and tried to calm my racing heart while I gasped for breath. It was over. We were safe.
45
The only sign that anything had happened at all was the broken glass of the bottle of ink Caiden had thrown at my feet. The shadow walkers were gone. I assumed they’d returned to the shadow plane, but I had no real idea. Fein had been the one to deliver the killing blow to the shadow walker leader. Luka said the elf moved with scary precision and speed when the leader had looked away for barely a second.
The captives were all dazed but physically unharmed. They didn’t seem to have any idea why they were there or what had happened. They were gently guided back out into the city. Fein carried Tyn in his arms. No one said a word about the tears, the tender kiss he placed on the Cait Sidhe’s cheek, or the way Tyn smiled when he did so. I ignored the way Caiden pulled Isa to him, and lost myself in Keirn’s arms and gentle touches. Relief had overwhelmed me when I saw that my elf was relatively unscathed.
“We need a holiday,” I said.
Keirn laughed. “Yes, we do. I’m sure Vyx will have something to say on the matter.”
“She’ll probably be glad to have the apartment to herself for a while.”
I allowed myself to focus on the frivolity of a holiday with my beloved elf, all too aware of the person that followed our every step through the city. That was a problem for another day.
Join the Ink world newsletter to be notified about new releases, sales, and other exciting news about books set in this world.