Scorched by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #7)(43)

“I…I think I killed her,” she said in a hollow voice, a faraway look in her eyes. She was leaning against Fenris now, who had joined us on the floor, and his arm was around her. “The day she died, she’d locked me up in my room for smashing one of her potions. She was in her potion workshop in the backyard, and all I could think about was how much I hated her, and then…and then…” She hiccupped, her eyes filling with tears again. “The workshop caught on fire.”

“And you were in your room?” Fenris asked, not a shred of judgment in his voice. When she only nodded, he said, “It takes very strong magic to start fires from a distance. And strong magic is very hard to control for a beginner.”

“He’s right,” I said, meeting her tearful gaze. “I had a lot of trouble controlling my magic at first, too. Whatever might have happened to your mother that day, it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident.”

“It wasn’t,” Rusalia wailed, throwing her head back and tearing at her hair. “I hated her so much then. I just wanted her to die! And she did! It’s all my fault!”

She collapsed into a puddle, weeping. Fenris reached for her, intending to console her. Just as he touched her shoulder, a powerful vibration, stronger than any of the ones we’d felt previously, rocked the earth beneath us. The basement walls shuddered, and something above us groaned.

“W-what is that?” Rusalia whimpered, lifting her tearstained face from the earth. The sound of something heavy collapsing sent a burst of fear through me.

“We’ve gotta get out of here.” Heart thundering in my chest, I scooped Rusalia into my arms and turned toward the exit. “Fenris, let’s go!”

Another tremor, even stronger than the last, shook the walls and floor as we ran for the stairs. I nearly tripped as I fought to keep my balance with the child in my arms, and that was when the quake chose to strike with full force. The three of us went crashing into the back wall as the very ground churned beneath our feet, and the sound of the roof and walls above the earth tumbling down sent a flash of horror through me. Magorah save us, we were about to be buried alive!

“Shield,” Fenris cried as a huge chunk of the basement roof caved. He threw himself atop Rusalia, who’d fallen to the floor, and we both shouted the spell the Garaian Emperor had used during his trials to stop that wall from falling on him.

A blue shield burst into life overhead. Chunks of concrete bounced off it and rained down around us. Only we hadn’t quite been quick enough because one of those chunks struck me in the left shin. Sharp agony radiated through my leg as the bone fractured, ripping an involuntary scream from me.

Fenris cried out in pain as well, the scent of his blood filling the air. I twisted toward the sound frantically, trying to stamp down my own pain and see what had happened to him and Rusalia.

And that, of course, was when the lights went out.





16





Between Fenris and I, we managed to stop the worst of the rubble from falling on us. But even with the two of us working together, we weren’t strong enough to put up a shield to cover all three of us completely without using up every ounce of magic we had. As a result, a huge chunk of concrete had fallen on my exposed left leg, crushing it. Fenris had been hit by debris before the shield had come down fully—his left sleeve was shredded where rubble had hit him, and his hips had been crushed by a steel girder. It was a miracle Rusalia hadn’t been hit by it, and I couldn’t believe Fenris was conscious enough to continue powering the spell.

“Nooo.” Rusalia sobbed beneath him. To our horror, a huge ball of flame burst into life within our shield. Fenris used his magic to snuff it out immediately, but it was too late—I’d felt the huge whoosh of air as the flame had immediately begun sucking on oxygen.

“Put her to sleep, then heal yourself,” Fenris ordered. His dark hair was matted with sweat, and his jaw clenched with effort. “I will focus on maintaining the shield as you do.”

I did as Fenris said, pulling Rusalia from beneath his torso before she was suffocated, and using a sleep spell to render her unconscious. As for my leg, I judged the severity of the break as best I could, then decided I wouldn’t heal it completely. I had little experience with healing as yet, and doing so would be another huge drain on my magic. Fenris, hurt even worse than I was, didn’t have enough power to hold the shield for long, and I needed to heal him, too. Instead, I staunched the blood flow, then used my power to give a little boost to my shifter body’s natural healing process. On its own, my leg would heal fully in a couple of hours—now it would be within the next sixty minutes.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think we had that much time.

“Okay,” I said, turning back toward Fenris. “Let’s get this heavy bastard off you.”

“No,” Fenris snapped, but it was too late—I was already lifting the girder off, using a combination of magic and my own shifter strength. Despite his protest, he sagged in relief when the weight was off him, and his face relaxed some. Panting with the exertion, I dropped to my knees next to him.

“Stop,” he barked when I reached out to touch him. “You don’t have enough energy to heal me and tunnel your way out of here. Conserve your strength.”

“How the hell am I going to get us out of here, if half your body is broken?” I argued. Another tremor hit, and we flattened ourselves against the ground as more debris came crashing down. “By Magorah,” I growled through gritted teeth. “That’s all three floors on top of us.” I diverted my power back toward the shield, relieving Fenris of the burden somewhat. If the spell failed, we were all doomed.