Hunger Untamed (Feral Warriors #5)(77)

The temple grew darker as Hookeye's magic sucked the very light from the room. The sorcerer stood with his hands straight in front of him, his eyes closed as he fought to pull open the gates to the Feral's personal hell. He didn't sense the Ilina hovering above him until it was too late.

As the bottom of Ariana's feet grazed the top of the sorcerer's head, she turned solid. Hookeye jerked, trying to duck away, but it was too late. His own magic had the now-corporeal Ilina sinking into the surface where she stood.

Sinking down into Hookeye's skull.

The sorcerer screamed and flailed, grabbing her ankles and trying to pull her loose. But the magic was too strong. Her feet slowly disappeared inside his head.

Hookeye collapsed, unconscious, Ariana falling with him. She crashed into two half-frozen Mage, knocking them down even as they broke her fall.

Kougar struggled forward, the black ooze reaching his waist. The air in the temple began to blow in a spinning wildness as the vortex prepared to open. The spell had been completed, the magic engaged.

He reached Hookeye just as the bottoms of Ariana's bloody feet emerged below the Mage's jaw. Ariana struggled to sit up as the black ooze climbed her shoulders. But the fire in her eyes as she met his gaze was pure bloodthirsty triumph.

"End it, my beast."

With a roar that melded with the wild wind's, Kougar sliced through the bastard's throat, through windpipe and spine, and cut off Hookeye's head.

At once, the black ooze fell away, sinking back into the floor, leaving only the acrid smell of sulfur behind. Murmurs of confusion and cries of fear rose with the din as the Ilinas emerged from their enthrallment and the Mage sentinels, no longer bound by their leader's poison, turned toward Kougar, raising their knives to renew their attack.

"Roar!" Kougar yelled as he took on four Mage at once, standing over Ariana, who was unable to stand herself.

"We're free!" Lyon's voice carried to him on the roar of the wind.

A quick glance over the balustrade told him what he needed to know. The bubble was gone, the floor glowing, but not yet open. He caught sight of Ilinas stumbling free of the circle, while Ferals snatched others, slung them over their shoulders, and ran.

An unnatural, earsplitting scream nearly blew out his eardrums as a red glow erupted inside the temple, and the wind blew gale force, piping hot.

He didn't have to look to know what he'd find--a spinning vortex in the middle of the floor. A wormhole straight into the spirit trap.

"To battle," Ariana cried, her voice a command ringing over the vortex's howl. A command to her maidens. "Fight the Mage!"

The few Ilinas on the gallery walk shook off their confusion and turned on the sentinels they'd fought beside moments before. As two Ilinas dove in to draw off Kougar's attackers, he scooped Ariana into his arms, Hookeye's bleeding head still dangling heavily from her feet.

She slung her arm around his neck. "Get me to the door so I can save your friends."

"Wouldn't diving into the vortex be quicker?"

She looked at him askance. "Hookeye's vortex? No thanks. I'm going in the way that won't get me killed."

"The way he wanted you to go."

Her eyes narrowed. "He's dead. And your friends will be, too, if we don't hurry."

"True enough." Kougar turned and pressed through what was left of the battle, four of Ariana's maidens taking up guard positions around him.

"The poison?" he asked. "I can't feel it any longer."

"It's gone." Ariana's voice rang with a relief as deep as her eyes. "It's over."

That part was over. His own life no longer hung in the balance, and neither did Ariana's maidens'. But Hawke and Tighe were another matter. As, he feared, was Ariana herself. Not until he saw her emerge from the spirit trap would he breathe freely.

As he neared the second alcove where Ariana had said the door was located, Lyon and Wulfe barreled up the stairs.

Lyon eyed Ariana's feet with a lift of a brow.

"We're going after Hawke and Tighe," Kougar told his chief. Ariana was, at least. He'd help her as far as he could.

Lyon's gaze swung to Ariana, but words seemed to elude him.

Ariana reached out and touched Lyon's arm. "I'll bring them back to you."

Lyon dipped his head. "And I'll be forever in your debt. We all will."

Kougar ducked inside the alcove, nearly bumping his head. Ariana reached deeper, around the statue. As she pressed her palm against the back wall, she began to sing, her soft, musical tones calling a curling trickle of magic. Moments later, the wall beneath her hand began to shimmer.

"Let's go," she urged.

Kougar eyed the wall skeptically. "The statue?" There was no way in hell he could squeeze past it.

"Walk right through her."

Right through stone. Damn Ilina magic.

Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to let go of logic, he stepped forward, pressing through a statue and wall as if they weren't even there.

One moment they were being buffeted by the hot tempest of the temple, the next, a frigid wind whipped at his face, sending Ariana's unbound hair flying. They stood on the temple's celestial roof, looking out over the rugged, snowcapped peaks of the mountains. Surrounded by the sudden silence and stillness, but for the biting wind, the battle that raged within the temple might as well have been a world away.