Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(67)

Once again, I strained and strained against the heavy ropes that tied me down to the chair. I’d managed to get a little slack in them when Victor had been talking to me, but not nearly enough. I was stuck, like a fly trapped in a sticky web, waiting for the spider to come and gobble me up—or snakes, in this case.

Sweat beaded on my forehead, trickling down my face and neck and spattering onto my long coat. If a pack of tree trolls, rockmunks, or some other monsters had been coming at me, I would have patted down my coat pockets, looking for dark chocolate, white pebbles, or some other small tribute to give them so they would leave me alone.

But copper crushers were one of the few monsters that you couldn’t reason or bargain with. It wasn’t because they were inherently vicious or evil or anything like that. They just didn’t care about anything other than sleeping, eating, and stalking their prey. I hadn’t realized it before now, but the creatures reminded me of Victor’s snarling dragon crest. Maybe that’s why he liked them so much—or at least let them do his dirty work for him.

I forced my gaze away from the slow, slithering snakes and glanced around the warehouse, searching for something, anything, that would help me get out of here. But there was nothing. Just the chair I was sitting in, the snakes creeping toward me, and my Sinclair Family cuff glinting on the floor—

My cuff.

My gaze locked on the silver cuff, zeroing in on the small sapphire glinting in the middle of the metal. I’d run my fingers over that cuff a hundred times since Claudia had given it to me earlier this summer, and each and every time, I’d felt the points of the star-shaped sapphire dig into my skin. I didn’t know if the points were sharp enough to saw through the ropes, but it was worth a shot. Without any magic around to steal, I just wasn’t strong enough to break through the ropes binding me to the chair. So this was my best—and only—option.

My wrists and ankles were both tied to the chair, so there was no way I could stretch out my feet and slide the cuff closer. Even if I had been able to do that, it would have still been down on the floor and utterly useless to me. So I’d just have to go down to it instead.

I started rocking back and forth in my chair, trying to build up enough momentum to tip myself over. From there, I could scoot over to the cuff and hopefully get my hand on it. But the chair was old, sturdy, and heavy, and it didn’t rock as easily as I wanted it to. I planted first one foot, then the other, on the floor, pushing off as hard as I could.

And slowly, the chair started to wobble, even as the copper crushers slithered closer and closer to me.

“C’mon,” I muttered. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon . . .”

Slowly, very, very slowly, the chair started to rock back and forth and I used the momentum to go faster and faster, but I couldn’t quite get it to tip over. With a loud, desperate scream, I pushed off with my left foot, harder than ever before, and finally managed to tip the chair over with me in it.

My head smacked against the concrete floor, reigniting the ache in my face and skull and causing white stars to flash in front of my eyes, but I blinked them away. I couldn’t afford to waste a second right now, not when the crushers were still creeping up on me.

My face was level with the cuff and the light from the bare bulb overhead made the star-shaped sapphire glimmer like a drop of blue blood against the silver. Now I just had to figure out a way to actually get my hand on it. So I dug my right foot into the concrete floor, pushing as hard as I could. The chair was heavy and it didn’t want to move at first, but I kept straining and straining, and it slowly started sliding across the floor, taking me with it one slow inch at a time.

But I wasn’t the only thing moving on the floor—so were the copper crushers, slithering closer and closer all the while, their ruby-red eyes narrowed in thought as they considered the best way to go about eating me. My gaze locked with one of the monsters and its gnawing hunger squeezed my chest, just the way the crusher wanted to squeeze the life out of me.

More sweat poured down my face, my heart pounded, and my entire body ached from straining so long and hard, but I finally scooted myself up far enough to get my right hand level with the cuff. I’d created just enough slack in the ropes to reach out and snag the cuff with my fingertips. I dragged it closer, feeling the star-shaped sapphire prick my skin the way it always did. I quickly bent my wrist back as far as it would go, pressed the points of the star against the rope, and began to saw through it.

The sapphire wasn’t nearly as sharp as I’d hoped, and it was slow going. But I kept sawing and sawing, even as the copper crushers slid closer and closer to me. The snakes were taking their time, enjoying my panic, fear, and desperation, but it wouldn’t be long now before one of them came close enough to wrap itself around my legs and sink its fangs into my body. The monster’s venom would paralyze me long enough for the snake to fully coil its body around my chest and crush my ribs. Death would come quickly after that.

More sweat slid down my face, my wrist ached, and my fingers started to twitch, shake, and cramp from being forced into the same awkward position for so long, but I kept on sawing. My world had shrunk to two things—digging the sapphire star into the ropes and watching the ruby-red eyes of the copper crushers grow bigger and bigger as they slowly slithered toward me.

I don’t know how long it took before I finally felt the slightest bit of give in the rope. I quickly tested it, wondering if I’d just imagined the sudden slack, but I could move my hand more than before. Not much more, just a fraction of an inch, but it was progress. All I had to do was get one hand free, then I could grab one of the throwing stars still attached to my belt and use it to cut through the rest of the ropes.