“Look out,” Hol y yel ed as she emerged from the woods.
My head snapped in the direction she pointed. The magic circle now had bright red cracks like blood veins snaking through the barrier, and at the point where the disruption charm touched it, the barrier bulged, the thick magic inside pressing against the weak spot. Like a crack in a dam, the magic began trickling out around the charm. The ful force of the magic would be next.
of the magic would be next.
I turned, intending to run for the shelter of the trees. I didn’t have time.
Arms grabbed me, dragging me down and pressing me flat. Magic roared across my back, tearing at the bit of skin exposed on my shoulders. The smel of singed hair and burned clothing met my nose as the shock of the blast faded. I struggled to push to my knees and discovered that not one but two bodies covered mine.
“Let me up, guys,” I said, sliding out from the tangle of arms. “Everyone okay?”
I received an immediate nod from Death. Falin just rol ed to his feet and offered me a hand up. Well, the three of us survived. I glanced around to assess the rest of the group.
A second copper disk lay on the ground, the dragon apparently having gotten caught in the crush of the magical tide. The other dragon was missing, momentarily at least.
The gray man and the raver hadn’t bothered taking cover from the blast and they looked fine. I didn’t see Hol y or PC.
My throat cramped. The dog had been inside the circle last I’d seen. The blast wouldn’t have caught him from the inside. The dancers al stil spun and leapt, so clearly the explosion of magic had affected only those of us outside.
But where is Holly?
Then I saw her red hair as she passed a dancer who had dissolved down to his sternum. With the circle down, the spel on the enchanted panpipes had spread. Al the dancers glowed the light yel ow color I associated with humans. As the only other human in the clearing, Hol y had been cal ed to the dance.
Chapter 38
“Hol y!”
Her head swiveled in my direction, her green eyes huge and terrified, but she didn’t stop dancing. She couldn’t. The circle was gone and the magic dispersed around the clearing, but it wasn’t like the magic vanished. The piper continued to play, the spel taking shape behind her.
I dashed forward only to be knocked back by a blast of air. Dirt and leaves swirled around me as the last remaining dragon swooped out of the sky. It landed between me and the broken circle, blocking the way. Falin grabbed my shoulders, pul ing me farther from the beast. It opened its mouth and fire fil ed the air. A wal of heat cut across our path.
Damn it.
“We have to stop the piper.” Because regardless of who was under that cloak, she was not going to dissolve my best friend.
The dragon fanned silvery wings and released another bal of fire. I dove to the right, Death and Falin at my side, and the raver and the gray man dove in the opposite direction. The air heated, my lungs burning with each panicked breath. I glanced at the destroyed circle. Hol y stil danced, and she stil looked whole, but . . . How long will that last?
“Distract it,” I yel ed over the wal of flames now separating Death, Falin, and me from the raver and the gray man.
“Distract it how?” the gray man cal ed back as I fought to
“Distract it how?” the gray man cal ed back as I fought to draw my dagger. “Think it would like a sonnet?”
As if in response, the dragon slashed at the gray man, its wickedly sharp claws slicing through the air. He dove aside, and the construct caught grass.
Now or never. I dashed forward, Falin and Death on my heels.
Falin lifted his dagger as he ran. He changed his grip as if he would hurl the dagger, but as his eyes cut over the dancers, he shook his head. “I can’t get a clear shot.”
I didn’t stop running, but sent my power ahead of me. The dancers were dead. My power recognized that fact. A dead body wasn’t a natural place for a soul. I reached through the spel that kept the bodies dancing as if it weren’t there, and the souls popped free. Five bodies col apsed, the spel releasing them now that they couldn’t fuel the ritual. A clear window to the piper opened.
We’d reached the edge of the broken circle, and Falin threw his dagger without changing stride. The blade gleamed in the moonlight, the fae-wrought steel unmarred in my grave-sight. His aim was good. Perfect. The piper looked up as the blade approached, her cloak flaring with the movement.
Then everything went wrong.
The long-coated reaper appeared. He knocked the piper aside, and the fae blade passed harmlessly through his torso. He turned, a snarl-like smile curling his lips as he focused on us.
The piper hit the ground, and the music stopped. Al around us, dancing bodies froze, dead muscles turning stiff.