She rolled free and kept going, up to her knees. Her heart stuttered when she realized there was nothing she could do, no way she could pull him free before it engulfed him. The amethyst in her hand was useless to her, and she couldn’t get close enough to Zach for him to take it. Not without—
“Annie, please.” Pain edged his voice.
Frantic, she searched her brain for a spell. Her ring flared, sparks dancing across her hand—but it was no match for what threatened to devour Zach.
Her gaze skated around the room, as frantic as her mind, and skipped back over a small object, almost hidden under the velvet.
The box.
Not thinking, not daring to hope, she lunged forward and yanked it out of the velvet. With a shout she pushed off the floor and threw it at the elemental.
Impact shredded the huge column. The box fell and bounced across the ground, smoking.
Annie threw herself forward and wrapped both arms around Zach’s waist, yanking him out from under the fallout. His scream bounced off the walls. She’d never forget the agonized sound of it.
Lowering him to the ground, she found the source of his torture. A long tendril twined around his left leg like a fiery snake.
“Damn you—” Not thinking, she swept her left hand across the tendril. Her ring burst into life, shocking her. A cascade of blue sparks surrounded the tendril, eating at it until it collapsed around Zach’s leg in a shower of ashes. The rest of the elemental shot straight up, pounding against the magical barrier. It made her head spin. Bracing her hands on the ground, she leaned over him. “Zach—oh, God, please—Zach.”
“Here,” he whispered.
Annie pressed her forehead to his for a second, so relieved she couldn’t talk. Tears burned her already smoke stung eyes. “What were you thinking?”
“That Mom would kill me if I let you get hurt.”
“Oh, Zach.” He closed his eyes, his face grey under the sweat soaked hair. “Don’t you die on me. I’ll never be able to face her if I don’t bring you back.”
“Okay.”
She let out a shaky laugh. There wasn’t time to do anything for him, but she remembered Claire’s trick with the amethyst, the night she helped him fall. Closing his limp fingers over the pendant, she kissed his cheek. “Just hold on to this, rest for a minute. I have some business to finish.”
“Annie.” He looked up at her. Pain shredded his whisper. “Counter spell—in the knife. Handle. Don’t hate me.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Diana has the knife.”
“Let me rethink that.” A smile touched his mouth, and his eyes drifted closed. “Thanks, honey.”
She brushed hair off his cheek. He was already unconscious, the slight rise and fall of his chest the only proof that he was still alive. She spotted the blood staining his skin, under the torn sweater. And swore at the long ugly wound just under his left ribcage.
Fury burned away the fear, the uncertainty. Her ring hummed, and she pressed her left hand to her stomach. Tears stung her eyes.
Blinking them clear, she reached in, layered as much power as she could afford over the protection spell. More than she could afford. “Hang on, baby. We’re almost there.”
She flinched as the elemental battered harder at the block, determined to be free. Blue fire sparked out of her ring, and it felt—impatient. Startled, she glanced down at it. What it did to the part of the elemental that went after Zach shocked her. But as much as it enhanced what she had, she knew she didn’t have to power to take on the source.
So she was going to cheat, and hope to hell it worked. She whispered the first quick binding that came into her mind as she backed toward the box, never letting the elemental out of her sight.
“For the greater good of all and with harm to none,
This spell is bound, and will not to be undone.
By the power of three times three,
As I will, so mote it be.”
It fell flat. But it got the elemental’s attention.
“Damn it—”
She repeated it, feeling even less successful, started in on the third time—and let out a cry when she lost her balance and fell backward. The tangled and burned length of velvet wrapped itself around her feet. With a shriek that sounded like triumph, the elemental circled her. She could have sworn it was gloating.
And while it was doing that gloating, she took advantage, crawling toward the box. It looked bent, but it was still in one piece. She could work with that.
She reached for the box—and her ring flared in warning just before heat licked her back.
“No—” Annie lurched sideways, slamming into the wall. Pushing hair out of her eyes, she recoiled as the elemental hovered in front of her, feet away. “Now you’re just toying with me. You’re going to regret that.”