Assassin of Curses: (The Coren Hart Chronicles Book 3) Jessie Eaker (best reads txt) 📖

myst, there is no way we could have stopped her should she have decided not to go along with us, or worse, escape. In fact, back in the castle dungeon when Fumiko was interrogating her, she could have easily stopped it, or for that matter, broken out of the cell altogether. But she hadn’t used it.

Fumiko said she was acting differently. But I couldn’t help but wonder...

Why?

It was well past midnight when we got back to the inn. I was relieved to see Oddfrid sitting with Spraggel and Zofie in the barn. Our belongings had been packed, and all of them had on their cloaks. I immediately went to Zofie and hugged her. She obviously could not return it, but this one was more for me. I was still shaken by what had just happened. I couldn’t get Troy’s terrified expression out of my mind.

I quickly explained what happened, and Oddfrid agreed we should leave quickly.

“I could use a bit more rest since this will be the farthest of the portals, but it shouldn’t be a problem. I definitely think it’s riskier to stay than it is to go.”

He did look more rested, but I could still tell he was not up to his full ability yet. But we really needed to get away in case the local authorities decided to investigate. Since we were foreigners, there was no telling how they would treat us.

Under Oddfrid’s direction, we tied ourselves together in the same order as last time. And once more, he had us hold hands and gave us the warning that no matter what happened, never let go.

I firmly held Zofie’s hand, taking comfort in it even though she did not grasp mine in return. As for Cabrina, I didn’t think it was possible, but she held my hand more tightly than she did last time. I was afraid she was going to squeeze it off.

Oddfrid gave us one last careful once-over before closing his eyes and beginning to hum. He was a terrible hummer. I was going to have to ask him why he did that.

Like last time a glowing bubble of blue light grew up from the floor to completely enclose us. I winced as Cabrina’s sweaty hand gripped mine even tighter.

“I don’t like this,” she moaned.

Suddenly the floor vanished from beneath our feet, and we fell. The barn’s interior slid by as one would expect when falling into a hole.

As had happened last time, we dropped into a darkness so total that it seemed light could never be bright enough to illuminate it. Then up became down, and right became left, leaving me totally disoriented. The ringing sound returned and grew to a near-deafening volume, while the smells and tastes came and went faster than I could process. However, since I knew what to expect, this time didn’t seem as scary. It isn’t so bad, I told myself.

We fell a remaining few inches onto the wooden floor of a large building. A warehouse? As I made sure Zofie was all right, I noticed that Oddfrid didn’t drop the sphere surrounding us. I heard Cabrina gasp.

Looking up, I saw we were surrounded by a ring of quite unsavory men and women brandishing a menagerie of weapons. And standing at the forefront with her arms crossed was a figure I dreaded to see.

Lilith.

She was grinning. “You’re late.”

“You moved the beacon,” accused Oddfrid. “That’s forbidden.”

She shrugged. “A girl’s got to do, what she’s got to do.” She pulled her sword and tapped the myst shield around us. “Drop the barrier, old man. I have no quarrel with you. Cooperate and I’ll let you go. Besides, what can you do? You’ve got to be almost out of myst.”

As I eyed the mob around us, I realized there was no way out. We were caught.

Oddfrid looked at me, and I was convinced he was going to hand us over. Then his eyes fell on Zofie. His expression immediately hardened—

And he began to hum.

Oh, Creator!

I could feel the myst gathering.

Lilith’s eyes went wide in alarm. She looked over her shoulder. “Stop him!”

A woman in the robes of a myst adept stepped forward. But it was already too late. The floor disappeared, and we fell through.

Once again, we were immersed into an absolute inky blackness, and I quickly lost all sense of direction.

Then Oddfrid cried out in agony.

It felt like we slammed into a stone wall at full speed—my head jerked at the impact. We emerged into an early dawn sky. I gasped at the frigid air blowing past me so fast it hurt. And suddenly, my disoriented brain realized we were falling with the wind whipping past us. Off on the horizon, I could see the sun peeking over the edge. It had been after midnight when we left, so we must have traveled quite the distance. Looking down, I could see only white puffy clouds, and below that, the ground racing toward us. Glancing over at Oddfrid, I noticed he had blood leaking from his nose, and his head rolled loosely.

What had happened?

Cabrina grabbed my arm so tightly I could feel her fingernails gouging through my cloak. And on the same arm, the charm on my wrist began glowing red hot. If it wasn’t for the frigid air blowing past us, it would have burned through my cloak.

I shook off the fog still clinging to my brain and frantically tried to think of something I could do. If I still had Abe, I maybe could transform Zofie into something that could save us. I glanced at those with me. But that wouldn’t work since the bird would have to be large enough to carry five people. And anyway, Zofie couldn’t use her myst right now.

I saw Fumiko with eyes closed, and she seemed to be