Of Blades and Shadows (Soul Stealer Saga Book 1) by Belle Manuel

Author:Belle Manuel [Manuel, Belle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

When I open my eyes, we are both in the Nether. Everything is sharper now, a thin veil of shadows coating the real world as I look around. Dušan’s grip is tight, and I notice a blade in his hand that wasn’t there a moment ago. He presses the tip into my arm and then blood is pouring out, when I try to scramble back, knocking over the bowl of powders and sands, his grip only tightens. I wince and yell at the pain that erupts from my arm but he seems unphased, his grip still tight.

Dusan makes another cut further up his eyes scanning the world around us as the purple Marks on his torso begin to glow. He locks his hand tighter around mine. “Feel,” he urges, pressing two fingers into the thick blood at my wrist.

With determined strokes, Dušan drags his bloody fingertips up his bare arms, drawing symbols and wards in sickly-dark red.

Feel, he says. That’s about as helpful as his last bit of advice. “You’re great at this.”

My arm is pouring thick, red blood, and it’s starting to make me sway in my spot. Or is it the incense he burned? Why can’t I focus?

He smirks and brings the blade to his bare arm and slices it with a loud hiss. “Feel for something that doesn’t make sense. Then follow.” Dušan draws symbols and wards up my non-injured arm with his blood and I feel something snap within me, something like a tether, a call, a link within my mind. He slices his forearm the same way as mine, drawing more symbols along my arms and legs.

That icy chill I was able to feel when passing him earlier has been amplified, thrust to the forefront of my thoughts as the wound on my arm begins to slowly knit closed. I close my eyes and let myself feel the world around me, pushing away the feeling of lightheadedness.

A distant ache starts in my gut, forcing me to stand up to alleviate it. Dušan lets me, his eyes wide and lips parted as he watches me pace away. I gasp as the ache clenches hard and shifts into this overwhelming feeling of being so terribly disoriented. It’s like being lost within the world, no direction open or available for me to choose.

“Now pull on it, the same way when you called Mos,” Dušan murmurs, still seated away from me. “Pull on it carefully,” he adds. His voice swims through my thoughts like a blade through shadows, slicing and disappearing too soon to react.

A spike of something stabs through my mind and I drop down to my knees. My magic flares, burning and searing its way across my skin as I cry out. Stumbling fingers try to scratch at it, make it stop, though I know it isn’t something I can make go away.

“Ari, you’re being dramat—” Dušan starts, but is muted as an overwhelming cacophony of voices erupts through the Nether.

Help me! Please!

She can hear us!

I groan against the noise, ears aching as I take it all in.

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