Magic Undying (Dragon's Gift: The Seeker #1)(2)

A barren hellscape stretched ahead of me, jagged black rocks and crevasses reaching deep into the ground. More flames flickered up, dotting the miserable landscape here and there. Were they cages made of flames, holding other people as that one had held me?

The air shimmered with a weird gray haze. It was opaque in places, but the fog occasionally cleared to reveal a beautiful meadow. Like another world overlaid on top of this one.

Though there was beauty, it was mostly hell.

Shivers ran across my skin.

I wanted to go home.

Longing filled my chest as I reached up and touched the golden comms charm around my neck. My touch ignited the magic and I grinned.

“Cass? Nix?” I hoped either of my deirfiúr would hear me through their identical comms charms.

Deirfiúr was Irish for sisters, though they were my sisters by choice. My team. I prayed to magic that they’d survived the battle that had killed me.

And just because I was in hell didn’t mean they wouldn’t have my back. If they were somewhere in this godforsaken wasteland, I’d find them.

The charm crackled, its magic no doubt interrupted by the fact that I was in hell. I didn’t even know where this particular Underworld was located, but it had to be far away from our home in Magic’s Bend, Oregon.

The charm continued to crackle, but no voices came through.

“Nix? Cass?”

Still silence.

I was on my own. Okay. I could handle that.

“Escapee!” a deep voice roared.

I jumped, losing control of my Phantom form and turning back into my normal self. My heart thudded in my ears as I spun in a circle, searching for the voice.

Three massive figures charged toward me, leaping over the crevasses in the rock. They were some kind of demon, dark gray with massive horns. Weapons hung off their bodies, clipped to leather utility vests. As if they had so much killing to do they needed to dress up like deadly Christmas trees, with pointy things hanging all over them.

“Shit!” Time to go!

I spun and raced in the other direction, careful to keep my footing on the rocky ground. One fall and they’d be on me. My lungs burned as I sprinted, jumping over ditches and dodging rock outcroppings.

Damn, I needed to work out more. I was a mercenary and a treasure hunter—I normally did the pursuing. Being chased really wasn’t working for me. Although to be fair, dying might have slowed me down a bit.

Something heavy slammed into my legs, wrapping around them so I tripped and crashed to the ground. My skull slammed against the rocks. Pain pierced my head as my vision turned gray. The jagged black rocks tore at the side of my face. Warm blood trickled down my skin.

Panic sent shivers through me. I needed to reach my legs and cut off whatever bound me, but my head was spinning like an overpriced ride at a carnival.

Through my hazy vision, I caught sight of a massive figure looming overhead. It bent down and grabbed the back of my jacket, yanking me up. I’d barely maintained my grip on my sword—an ingrained habit—but a big, booted foot kicked it from my hands.

“No!” I reached for it as it flew away and clattered to the ground.

“You don’t need that where you’re going,” a deep voice growled.

“Jerk!” I thrashed in his grip, my head still spinning from my fall, but he had almost two feet and a hundred pounds of muscle on me.

When he swung me over his shoulder, my stomach slammed against his back, knocking the wind from my lungs. This close, I could get a sense of his magic. It smelled like rotten eggs.

Ugh.

“Take her to the Warden, aye?” a voice said from my side.

“Aye,” said the demon who held me. “This one is strange. No one has ever escaped the holding cells.”

I blinked, trying to get my wits about me, but it was slow going with my pounding head.

The demon shook me, probably for the sheer joy of it. My brain rattled in my skull.

“What were you expecting to accomplish, girly? Make a run for it? You want the Warden hunting you down?”

No, I really didn’t want to be hunted by some dude called the Warden. But I wasn’t going to hang out here, either.

The demon holding me started to jog, and I bounced against his back as I tried to catch my breath and get my bearings. My sword glinted silver against the black rocks, growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

Damn it, I loved that sword.

Even farther away, something blue swooped through the air. It was too big to identify, but probably just another hellbeast I didn’t want to encounter. A distant shriek sounded and I shuddered.

Nope, I didn’t want to run into whatever that thing was.

Or the Warden. I needed to get away from these bastards before they reached the mysterious Warden, whoever that was.

But my pounding head made it hard to focus on my magic. It wasn’t easy to turn into a Phantom, but I’d been growing more practiced with it. If I’d ever needed to adopt my Phantom form, now was the time. I’d have to kill these bastards to keep them from telling anyone what I was, and I was willing to do that. But could I even kill them in the Underworld?

I had no idea. I’d have to worry about that when the time came, because I didn’t want to end up wherever they were taking me.

When I caught the thread of my magic deep within me, I pulled on it, envisioning my Phantom form. The power flickered within me, growing stronger as I fanned the flames.