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Viviana realized then that she was no hter She was a bookwor into battle where brawn and blades were the only things that mattered
Neal roared and spun in a deadly arc The head of one of the sgath flew up into the air while its body continued to claw at hiether!" he shouted "You can do this"
She wasn’t convinced, but if she didn’t do soht that brought a sense of calm down over her She would not let Neal die, not when she had the power to stop it at her fingertips
What she needed was a way to cage the beasts long enough for Neal to kill them--a way to protect hi she could use Steel bars would have been nice, but all she saas a broken pallet stacked with rotted-out sandbags If she used her power to shove the pallet against one of the things and pin it to a wall, thather circled to her left Neal was too busy fighting off the others to stop it
She formed a picture in her mind of what she wanted to do and convinced herself she could s flew off the pallet, freeing it Elation filled her as she pulled on ath closed the distance
The last bag split open, spilling sand between the wooden slats She lifted the pallet into the air, seeing a faint wavering of energy connecting her to it as it y as her straining body would allow, and hurled it at the beast
It hit the sgath, sla snarled and clawed at the wood Its jaws snapped, sending wooden splinters into the air
The pallet iftly cru to uselessness
Panic sliced at her; then she felt a war his own life-threatening battle, he orried about her
She could grow to love a rating pallet in place while she looked around for another option The only thing she saas dirt, sand, and fliive to have these sgath dead, stuffed, and behind glass in some museum
Glass That was it She needed to put thelass
Glass That was it She needed to put theht entered her h her leaped to obey Heat shis left in the pile of sand ath bashed through the reed toward her, only to stop short as it neared the searing heat that was now y funneled through her so fast she could feel it chafing her insides Heat built inside her skin until each breath came out as a puff of steam
"Too much!" she heard Neal shout somewhere outside her world of heat and pressure She didn’t respond She couldn’t stand to let her focus slip for even a second
The sand softened, allowing her to shape it into a thick, viscous blob She kept the heat co while she sent thick tendrils of ath
Neal ju heat She hadn’t realized where he’d gone until she felt his cool touch at her nape
Sonet had stuck against her necklace A heartbeat later, the conduit she’d been using to pull Neal’s power into herself opened wide, letting a roar of energy sweep into her
It was too ritted her teeth and concentrated on finishing the job If she was still alive when that was done, she’d find a way to stop the torrent of power fro her
The e each sgath inside The s hair and the sound of feral screams bounced off the cave walls
She couldn’t breathe Neither could Neal Now that she’d taken care of the threat, she realized she’d created another She’d burned off the oxygen in here
Black spots flickered in her vision Behind her, Neal gasped for air
Viviana cut off the flow of heat, and used the energy seething inside her to push the hot air from the roos as she collapsed to the ground
Neal eased her down, going right along with her as they cruainst the pitted floor His ar against her hair, but she couldn’t get her h to understand his words
Across the roorainy, tarry sheets of warped glass
"Hell of a trick," said Neal "How about we get the gadget and get you someplace safe?"
"Works for me" She reached out with only a faint wisp of power and saw the artifact glowing in her mind’s eye on the floor across the room It was still inside the carved box, unharet up, so she pulled it to her It floated through the air toward the any adjustit all your life"
The box landed in her hand, warm to the touch An instant later, her world went cold, as if all the joy had been sucked fro sh, pained noise ofdarkness fell over her