Secrets Like Glass by Mariah Norris

Author:Mariah Norris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: high fantasy, autistic female protagonist, fantasy city, LGBTQ+, nonbinary best friend, magic as science, new adult fantasy
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
Published: 2023-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I gasp and jerk away in earnest, because Isasar help me, even I understand the threat in those words. But my ankles are still bound, and the moment I pull my arms out of Egan’s grip, they’ll both know my hands are free.

“Ras, is this needed?” Egan says softly in Zhav.

“Once I make her suras, she not escape me.” Grisen, in contrast, speaks Ilun, which means he wants me to understand what he’s about to do. “I control voor of Rafel, I control Rafel.”

He jerks my knees apart and fumbles at the waistband of my pants. I twist frantically in my seat, teeth gritted. Don’t panic, don’t panic, Saeli...

“Oh, don’t worry, voor,” Grisen murmurs, his voice making my skin want to crawl off my body. “You enjoy. Cowls tip velvet like—”

“Shut up!” I shout, jerking so hard the whole stool screeches along the floor. “Rafel will kill you!”

“You think he save you?” He shoves a knee down on the stool, pressing his thigh into my lower body, and picks up one of my legs by the knee. Egan pulls me backward, off balance, and I feel an irrational bolt of pure hatred for the man.

Will you really stand back there and help your lover do this? Have you no self-respect?

Grisen’s hands are at my waistband again, and I know I have to put a stop to this. Grisen thinks he’s cut me off from qi altogether; I have the element of surprise.

I plant my free leg and foot and throw my head backward, slamming my skull into Egan’s nose. It hurts, and I know I’ll have a bruise and a headache later, but Egan releases me with a cry. I then bring my hands around and grab Grisen’s face, rashas qi filling my body so fast I’m nearly dizzy with the heat.

“Why you—!” he yells.

My anjahel senses ripple as he draws qi. I have to disable him quickly, before Egan recovers and I’m fighting both of them. Sleep form, I think, drawing one hand back to tap Grisen’s temple. I’ve never accessed the seventh with rashas before, and Rafel warned me sleep forms are difficult for beginners to set on another anjahel...but Grisen is weak, and I need him out of this fight now.

Purple-white threads coil around my poised fingers. I bring them to Grisen’s head, pushing the spear of seventh strand energy deep. As I press, I accidentally shove myself into anjahel sight. Grisen’s body splinters into purple lines and aura colors, and his hollow pupils dilate. I wind indigo Void threads around my initial spear; his body grows limp, hands dropping away from me.

However, when I try to pull the strands tight around the thread tangle that is his consciousness, I encounter resistance. He gives his head a tiny shake. I push harder, my seventh node burning at the crown of my head.

“Sleep,” I say in Zhav, desperate to plant something in the man’s slimy brain.

Instead, he throws himself back, falling to the floor and breaking the form.

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