Incandescent: Magic Unknown by Sarah Chayer

Author:Sarah Chayer [Chayer, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-19T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Wake of Destruction

The calls of songbirds woke Kris. Why were they so loud?

Dazed, she opened her eyes slowly, and it took a moment for her vision to adjust to the sight of the forest surrounding her.

What . . . ?

She was lying in a patch of grass in the shade of the canopy, an army-green bomber jacket draped over her. Kris hurled it aside, slid away through the grass, and scrambled to her feet.

Realizing she was still in her pajamas, she looked down at her bare feet before scanning the woods around her. The trees stretched on in every direction. How had she gotten here?

“Kurt?” she called out. Her voice echoed through the woods, but there was no reply. She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Kurt!”

The dark world in her mind was empty. No matter how far she traveled, there was no sign of the shimmering, translucent wall she had grown so familiar with. She couldn’t even reach Kurt telepathically.

Kris wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. She hesitated and then took a step in each direction, unsure which way to go. How do I get out of here?

She stared down at the green jacket, and after a short debate with herself, snatched it up from the undergrowth. She shook it off and draped it over her shoulders, hugging it tightly around herself.

Through the branches, she could make out the twinkle of sunshine, the sun still low in the sky. If that was east, then she knew which way was north. If she followed it until she found a road or something familiar . . .

The crunch of dead leaves behind her made her stomach drop.

Kris whirled around, both fists raised. A young man wearing a white, ribbed tank stood a few feet away. He had ashy brown hair and a thin beard, and he laughed as he held his hands up in mock surrender. “Whoa, easy.”

She immediately recognized him as one of Tynan’s goons from the cemetery. The teleporter.

Panicked, Kris lunged forward and swung a fist at him, but he leaned back and easily avoided it. The bomber jacket slipped off her shoulders into the dirt.

“I’m not going to hurt you—”

She threw another punch, blowing past his head as he bobbed away. In one swift movement, he withdrew a short, thin chain and looped it over both of Kris’s fists, then pulled on it to trap her wrists together in front of her.

“What the—? Let go.” She jerked her arms back, trying to slip free, but the chain pulled tighter. The metal cut into her skin.

“I just need you to relax and listen to m—”

“Relax?” Kris tried to pull her hands apart again, but he wrenched back on the chain. “Relax? You have me in chains!”

She charged at him and reached for the chain, but he twisted it around his palm until it was pinched tight against Kris’s wrist.

“Where am I? Why did you bring me here?” she said. Trying to back away, she stumbled over the bomber jacket and crashed down on her hip.

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