Page 50 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)
The walls creaked and groaned while the building rumbled and shook.
Stones dislodged, and when they gave way, they flung outwards as rotating boulders that crashed outside.
Once the supporting walls were broken, cracked, and crumbling under the strain of her magic, the ceiling instantly toppled inwards.
Before a ledge of ceiling could land on her, Lindiwe turned incorporeal, rendering her magic inert. But the damage was done.
And as the castle tilted to one side and collapsed inwards, she shot forward through the falling rubble.
The flurry of dust and carnage was difficult to see through, especially when it obscured her line of sight.
In the encroaching darkness, she followed the only light she could see – a pink shimmering dome.
The moment she was inside it, Lindiwe turned physical and conjured a shadowy blade. She had to orientate herself to strike Katerina in the heart, and the woman’s blue eyes widened. Just as she sucked in a breath to scream, Lindiwe lunged to stab her chest.
Claws gouged into her right biceps.
With one of his hands high on her biceps and the other around her elbow, the instant he grabbed her, he used the momentum to shove her arm downwards quicker than she could figure out what was happening.
He shoved his knee up at the same time her arm came down, and her humerus bone snapped.
A bloodcurdling scream burst from her. Turning into a Phantom proved futile when she flickered in place against the white-hot pain. The shock of it halted her as tears welled in her eyes and bile rose in her throat, her body rejecting the agony.
She made another dagger form and slashed it at him.
She cut a deep gash down his face before it stabbed into his arm, but he only glared.
When she pulled it out to attack again, trying to get him to let go, Katerina bounced forward with a grunt.
The woman wrapped her slim arms around Lindiwe’s left arm and held it in place so she couldn’t defend herself.
Jabez then twisted, and Lindiwe tried everything in her might to get away. Her skin tore, and the already broken bone crunched and further separated as he stretched and mangled her arm before he yanked it off.
“An arm for an arm,” Jabez sneered, tossing it to the side.
Her dismembered arm slapped against the inside of the pink dome, splattering blood across the surface before it hit the ground with a thud.
Freed from Jabez, Lindiwe dropped to the ground to kick Katerina’s ankles and make her release her arm. Her heart was racing, adrenaline and fear of more pain rushing strength into her bloodstream – which only made her pulse dangerously faster.
Lindiwe’s sight warped in and out while she tried to get her bearings. The inside of her mouth was flooded with drool, and she swallowed it to push down the nausea that cramped high in her gut.
Tears of agony had long filled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop to register anything other than the need to escape.
Phantom. I need to shift.
Covering the bloodied stump of her right arm, she fled while attempting to morph forms, and flickered between the two. Jabez chased her around his dome as Katerina screamed and tried her hardest to avoid getting in the middle of them.
Darkness surrounded them completely, the layers of Jabez’s castle still on top of them.
Ducking underneath Jabez’s arms, using his Elven height against him, she managed to suck in a breath that pushed clarity to the surface.
She let go of her injury and made a thin blade form in her hand.
When her back shunted against a shimmering magical wall, she stabbed it backwards as hard as she could muster.
The thinness of the blade ensured she was able to stab through his ward. She hadn’t known it would work, as it depended on whether the ward was made to protect against slashing, impact, or penetrative damage.
It was enough that she was able to slice sideways.
And with her momentary clarity, she was able to turn intangible... just as his castle came down on top of them. He roared when they were buried alive under what should have been an unbearable weight.
But Lindiwe knew they weren’t crushed, based on the constant sounds coming from within, even when she floated upwards through the rubble.
“Stop fucking screaming!” Jabez bellowed. “Or I’ll end you myself!”
Katerina instantly went quiet.
When Lindiwe exited through the top of the ruins, half of the building had collapsed, while the other side creaked and groaned as chunks fell.
The Demons she’d thrown against the walls were already climbing through the outer parts of the debris.
They shook their bodies and hair of dust and rocks before dragging their sorry arses away to the surrounding areas.
I have to get somewhere safe. The fact that she could stay a Phantom was a miracle, but her strength was waning.
She doubted she’d get far in the middle of the Veil, but it was less inhabited compared to the outer rings. If she could find somewhere to stem the bleeding, she had medicinal herbs she could use to aid with the pain and potential infection.
Lindiwe didn’t consider this a failure.
She may not have killed Katerina or Jabez, but she was sure she’d frightened the shit out of them. She’d proved she was someone to be wary of, and that her threats were anything but empty.
She was deadly, and would only be more prepared and cunning next time. She had all the anger, determination, and will, and all the time in the world to be locked in battle.
The winds picked up speed, and the first pattering droplets of rain fell through her transparent body. Thunder rumbled before a flash of light forked across the dark sky, and it mimicked the aura of her rage.
Fuck you, Jabez.