Rag and Bone (A Charm of Magpies) by KJ Charles

Author:KJ Charles [Charles, KJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal, historical, interracial, m/m, multicultural, gay, romance, Victorian, fantasy
Published: 2016-03-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

One more time. He was going to try this one more time, and it was going to work because there was no reason it shouldn’t.

Ned took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and tried to shout.

It didn’t come. He could feel the air stick in his throat, like a door slammed shut, but he couldn’t force a bit of it out, no matter how hard he tried, and while he tried, he couldn’t even breathe. It was the awful silencing of a nightmare, only he was awake, and he wished to hell this was a dream.

He tried again to force out the cry for help, but there were black spots gathering at the edge of his vision. He gasped air, hunkering down to a squatting position and ducking his head between his knees till he could see clear again.

He was in a deserted house of some kind. Or, at least, this room was empty, bare-walled, the floor dusty, with sticks of broken furniture, rusty nails and bits of brick scattered around. No table or chair; an empty grate. There was an old oil lamp, full, which he’d got burning, but that was it for signs of habitation. The windows were shuttered and the door shut, maybe bolted, but that didn’t matter because, along with not being able to shout, Ned couldn’t walk up to it. He could walk round the centre of the room, but it felt like there was an invisible wall set up a foot inside the actual walls, letting him go that far and not a step further. A wall that kept out sound too, because he couldn’t hear the slightest noise from outside.

He’d been brought here, trapped and silenced by magic. That was undeniable, no matter how much he’d have liked to believe otherwise. Someone wanted him out of the way. Someone—and Ned did not feel at all chipper about this—was keeping him here on purpose.

Someone. The sod.

Ned had been in the paper store, stacking his latest load, when he heard noise from the rag and bottle. That was meant to be closed up, and just because Voake was dead didn’t mean anyone could rob him, with Ned on the premises. So he’d headed through the connecting door, pushing his sleeves up in a meaningful sort of way, and seen a man standing there caressing that damn beardy jug like he loved it. What the hell are you doing? Ned remembered demanding, and the man had said, Ned Hall?

It was all a bit unclear after that. He’d tried to fight and was pretty sure he’d got a punch in, because his knuckles stung, but otherwise… He remembered the fellow’s eyes, and then a sort of happy feeling, like everything was all right and there was no need to worry. A drifty, unreal sensation of movement, like walking in a dream, and a tiny part of his brain screaming at his body to wake up, wake up, stop letting this happen!

He hadn’t.

He’d blinked awake after who

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