Page 29 of Tethered Fates

Ignoring my brother, I stalk inside.

I pass the little landing, devoid of any shoes despite the shoe rack, and into a living room. The carpet is an off-white and brown pattern that belongs in the 70s; the burnt-orange wallpaper matches the armchair and sofa. Everything smells of the dust motes that drift in the air, catching the faint light that filters through heavy velvet curtains framing a singular window.

On my right is a clean kitchen. On my left, a hallway thick with shadows. Luc doesn’t need to be told to head for the kitchen on silent feet, as Vidar and I go the other way.

A strangled gasp bursts from my throat when, without warning, Vidar sharply hauls Luc and me back.

“What the—”

WHOOSH!

Something red flashes through the air—something hardened to the point of resembling metal—and punches with a CRASH into the wood-panelled kitchen cabinet. A dark-red chain connected to the spear clinks in the ensuing quiet, held taut by whoever waits in the hallway.

“A blood mage,” Vidar growls, freeing us both.

“How?” Luc bites out. “I don’t smell the rot of blood magic.”

“I can see it well enough,” I snark back.

“Shut up,” Vidar snaps, just as the crimson spear is jerked back to its owner. Only for a second chained blade to shoot from the murky hallway, shattering wood and ceramics in the kitchen. “We need to stop the mage.”

The spear is snapped back, only for another three to fire—all chained, deadly sharp and with enough powerful force, the kitchen soon becomes a wreck.

“We need a distraction,” I whisper. “Those aren’t normal spears; that’s powerful magic.”

“Sen, you bastard!”

I turn as a very sweaty and out-of-breath Kate stumbles into the flat. She pulls up short, eyes round at the blood spears when they’re snatched back into the darkness, jumping when a new one barrels into the kitchen with a crash.

“Fuck!” she cries out.

“You don’t happen to have a gun, do you?” Lucero asks, far too calmly given the situation we’re in.

“Does it look like we’re in bloody America?!” she snaps.

Luc shrugs. “Worth a shot.”

“No, but that does give me an idea,” I say to Luc. “Remember Prague?”

Luc smirks.

Vidar groans. “Oh, for fuck sake—”

I push Vidar into the path of the hallway, and a moment later, he’s speared through the stomach.

“Oh my God!” Kate screams, his blood splattering her clothes.

“Fucking offspring,” Vidar grunts in pain, then grabs the chain with two hands, giving it one sharp tug.

There’s a yell as a figure comes barreling our way. Luc easily grabs hold of them, my forearm immediately wrapping around their neck.

“Let me go!” shouts a male voice, and I finally get a look at our blood mage.

For all the trouble he’s caused, he’s a little thing. Almost pretty with his brown hair flying over his dusty brown skin, elfin-looking with his pointed features. Angry light eyes and a flaring button nose, spittle coming out between his clenched teeth as he struggles.

“This is our blood mage?” Luc scoffs. “He’s a kid.”

“I am not a kid!” he hisses.