Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(75)

Lifting her hand to his, she turned and pressed a kiss to his palm, then turned back to the door niche to call the magic that would let her through.

At least they'd made it there without any Mage trying to stop them.

The thought went through him like a bolt of lightning. No Mage had tried to stop them. He grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait."

Ariana glanced at him. "What?"

"It's too easy. This is the trap."

She turned slowly back to face him. "I have to go through if I'm going to save them."

"Hookeye knows we're here to breach that spirit trap, and he controls every Mage and Ilina in the room. Yet no one tried to stop us."

"Maybe he doesn't know this is the door."

"Regardless, no one followed us. He wants you to go through that door."

Her lips pressed together. Slowly, she nodded. "You're right. But what are we . . ." Her gaze flicked behind him, eyes widening. "Kougar, look."

He whirled toward the battle, seeing immediately what had caught her attention--the glimmer of firelit magic circling the floor around the statue of the first queen. Enclosing the Ferals.

He lunged for the balustrade. "Trap! Out of the temple! Now."

But his warning came too late. Even as he shouted the words, the magic shot up, arcing over the statue to form a glimmering, gleaming bubble. A bubble trapping all five Feral Warriors and nearly twelve Ilinas, including Melisande and Brielle.

The moment the trap snapped closed, all the Ilinas except Melisande fell unconscious, as if the one calling the shots didn't want the Ferals harmed. As if he wanted them alive for what came next.

The Ferals leaped for the bubble, fighting to break through with knives and claws, but their efforts were futile.

Disbelief and denial tore through Kougar's mind like shock waves. "The spirit trap."

"Yes." Ariana grabbed his arm, her hand trembling. "I can feel the magic."

"He's going to send them all in." The Ferals wouldn't die for days. But Ariana's friends would be dead the moment they hit the trap.

Below, the Mage sentinels and those Ilinas not caught within the bubble turned in perfect unison toward the stairs beneath where he and Ariana stood. As if they shared a single mind. And they did, didn't they?

Hookeye's.

Chapter Twenty-two

Mage poured into the upper gallery from the two hall passages on the far side of the dome. Triple the number of sentinels that Kougar had believed were in the temple. They split their forces, circling in both directions, coming at Ariana and him from either side as more started up the stairs.

Surrounded.

Ariana glanced at him, her knives at the ready. "I don't suppose you have a plan."

"Only one. Find Hookeye and kill him." Which conveniently left out the part about fighting their way through several dozen Mage sentinels--Mage they shouldn't kill.

"Right," Ariana muttered. "All this time I didn't dare turn to mist. And now that it no longer matters . . . I can't."

"At least I can shift." But as he called on the power of his animal, as the magic swept through his body, nothing happened. The sparkling lights flashed and spit, then went dark, like electricity shorting out. "Scratch that. The Mage magic in this place has us both stuck in human form."

"You cannot stop me, Feral."

At the sound of the familiar voice ringing out across the dome, Kougar's gaze jerked toward the other side of the gallery as Hookeye stepped out from behind the advancing sentinels to stand at the railing.

"Opening wormholes into the old Daemon spirit trap is a difficult task," the sorcerer said, his expression preoccupied, as if he were talking to himself. "Mystery caught two Ferals. I've caught the rest. Except you." He nodded. "I'll catch you, too."

"Don't count on it."

Hookeye blinked in surprise. "The Ilina won't save you. Don't think she'll save you. She can't survive that trap any more than you can."

As the first of the sentinels reached them, Kougar drew his sword. If Hookeye said anything more, it was lost in the clang of metal on metal.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hookeye lift his arms high above his head, his eyes closing, his mouth moving as if he intoned some chant.

The spirit trap. He was opening the spirit trap!

"Stop him!" Ariana cried, coming to the same conclusion.

Kougar lunged into the fray like a madman, hacking at limbs and tossing sentinels over the balustrade in a desperate race to reach the soulless sorcerer before he completed his spell and took the lives of their friends.

Below, Lyon and the others watched, listening to the chant that spelled their doom, fury on their faces. Only Vhyper's face held little but the same flat expression he'd worn since he returned. As if he couldn't gather the will to care that his life was about to end. Or the lives of his brothers.

Kougar's stomach twisted with sick fury. If the sorcerer succeeded, there would be only two Ferals left. Himself and whoever the goddess marked to take Foxx's place. Unless Hookeye was lying, and Ariana was in no true danger from that trap and could free them.

And if Hookeye was telling the truth?

Goddess help us all.

The rage had become Hawke's constant companion. His only companion, leaping up out of nowhere to consume him for minutes or hours at a time in a berserker's haze. If he were able to move, he was certain he'd find his fingers and mouth dripping with claws and fangs. And blood.