Chapter 206

It was dark magic, it had to be.

Invisible claws latched onto a part of me that was much deeper than mere flesh and bone, wrapping and coiling like the scaled body of a snake. The pleasure soured, and as spasm after spasm rocked my body, I tasted its foulness on my tongue.

I was entangled in it’s grasp, powerless even though mere seconds ago I k****d an entire group of witches with my mind.

The way it split my thoughts like a deck of cards, shuffling through them before turning each one over to inspect it felt like a violation.

Everything hurt. The pain was so consuming that I couldn’t tell which parts of me were still intact. My skin b****d from the silver tipped arrows, stung from the slices in my flesh, and b****d because every movement I made jostled the quills protruding from my back.

The forest was growing darker, the shadows dancing around the edges of my vision. They thrashed and writhed, their whispers just out of reach. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t the forest that was growing dim, slowly draining of color.

It was me. My strength was failing, and I didn’t have nearly enough to fight off the dark magic while also keeping myself from bleeding out.

A splash of crimson blossomed in my peripherals like the petals of a wilted rose.

An idea came to mind, one that would’ve made me sick if I weren’t standing on d***h’s precipice.

When I looked back on this moment, I wouldn’t remember digging my fingers into the dirt to propel myself forward. I wouldn’t be able to recall the feeling of dirt and stone getting wedged under my nails, packed into my wounds as I slid along the forest floor.

What I would remember is the moment I reached her, the witch that shot me.

I’d remember sinking my teeth into her neck, tearing into her flesh with human canine teeth. They were so dull compared to Maya’s, so terrible at slashing through flesh that it was almost a chore to get to what little blood remained in her body.

I swallowed and swallowed, drinking the liquid strength that poured from her body in a sea of red.

My skin began to itch horribly as the wound on my side, where I’d been grazed by an arrow, began knitting itself together. The ones on my back were another story all together. I couldn’t reach to pull the arrows out of my flesh, and I didn’t have enough strength for my magic to get the job done.

“Shadows, I need your help.” I croaked, wincing at how sore my throat felt.

Help…help……help… They whispered in dozens of overlapping voices.

I clenched my hands into fists, unable to look at the stain on my skin and those unnerving veins that crawled up my fingers like poisonous spider webs.

“Can you get rid of this—this evil inside of me?” I tried not to beg them, but I was terrified.

but this was

looked ordinary. Similar to how shadows dance along the walls in a dimly lit

you, master. We

of relief sounded more like a sob, melting the tension in my shoulders until they slumped. The shadows weren’t done, though. Their voices shot out from all sides of the forest, all of

master. So very

and steadied myself. This wasn’t the first time I’d felt pain, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Anything—anything was better than this

it now and you can have the d**d witch’s blood.”

out from the cover of the forest, slinking from behind trees and untangling themselves from

every shadow

to cover my face. Darkness flooded my vision, the impenetrable kind that blocked

but it did come without

in the Shadows, hearing only their chatter when every muscle in my body contracted and every bone flexed. My mouth

to them other than this icy coldness licking at my skin. When one slithered up my neck and forced its

I realize that the Shadows covering my body were there for a

couldn’t move a

had trapped me. Caged me in with their

You mustn’t fight usss…

feel my throat expanding, forced to take in the frigid cold. Time passed languidly, each second stretching on longer than the next. There was ice

felt how desperate it was

my soul and held on for dear life, screeching and roaring against the

ever felt. Worse than crashing a car,

and b**n

until there was only pain, pain, pain.

me lessened, and the Shadows surged at the

ripped away, swallowed by the shadows that then spewed from my mouth in a geyser of

see, the first thing I did other than wheeze and gasp for air was

were gone. It was like they’d never been there, but I knew otherwise. I could still feel the wound it clawed through

forest floor to lap up every droplet of the witches’ blood that was spilled, their whispers

time you draw dark magic into your

will

on their warning because a few feet away stood familiar face.

the h**l was that?” Breyona asked after shifting back into her human

Oh, I think I’m going to be sick.” I groaned. “I can’t shift,

teeth, circling around to the half a dozen arrows spattered around my spine. None had managed to hit it, but there was this painful scratching sensation in my right lung that made me worried one was close to piercing it. Her face paled,

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