Bound Read Free Page B

dirt. Rough and unknown, but familiar somehow.
    He pointed to the first. “Water.”
    Clattering feet sounded at the far end of the tunnel.
    Broken Nose indicated each mark in turn. “Breaking. Cold. Barrier.”

    Runes
    The lead soldier was a woman. She shouted, “freeze by the authority of the Ilsan Republic.”
    Hannah couldn’t look away from the mark on the ground. The symbols seemed charged, almost alive.
    Another soldier bellowed from farther back in the tunnel, “Cabbot, take them alive.”
    Broken Nose whispered, “don’t think about anything except these marks. Concentrate on Jason.”
    Jason.
    Memories washed over her so powerfully, she could smell Jason’s scent, hear his steady breathing in her ear. Her emotions became a raging demon. She was so wrapped up in herself that she barely noticed Broken Nose tracing more symbols on her back.
    The temperature in the chamber plunged. A low rumble shook the cavern.
    Hannah’s breath came out in a puff. Her senses sharpened so that her mind like the tip of a blade. She was in control.
    Broken Nose ripped her backward just as the wall exploded. Water burst into the cavern between the lead soldier and the ones behind. Freezing wind instantly filled the room. The jet of water froze. The eruption ceased. A shimmering wall of ice stood a few paces away, separating Hannah, Broken Nose and the one soldier from everyone else.
    Hannah stood on shaking legs. Majick. Did I do that?
    The soldier screamed, “witch!”
    Hannah turned.
    The soldier attacked, brandishing a blade at Hannah’s throat.
    Hannah dodged clumsily to one side, stumbling away from the dagger but straight into the soldier’s arms. They grappled in each other’s embrace for a moment, but the soldier forced Hannah to the ground. Hannah dug deep inside herself, using the flood of turmoil left from the burst of majick. She thrust everything she hated onto the soldier: Ilsa; slavery; Jason’s Death.
    Gushing pain. Boiling anger.
    Her skin tingled. A wild, corrosive smell filled the room. She grabbed the soldier’s neck. The soldier’s fingers loosened instantly.
    Hannah shoved her opponent against the wall. Red lines sprouted on the soldier’s face, spider-webbing down her cheeks and neck before disappearing beneath her uniform. The woman shook. Eyes bulged. Then silence.
    Hannah stepped back.
    The soldier fell, the lines on her face turning black and blistering, eyes closed, still as Jason in his coffin.
    Hannah gulped. Had she . . .
    “She’s not dead,” Broken Nose said from behind. “No one can kill with majick alone.”
    Hannah allowed herself a guarded breath. Her body felt like a live wire.
    Jason secretly knew a little majick even though he was Ilsan. All Hannah had ever seen him do were simple things: make a book levitate or a coin vanish. Nothing so raw. Nothing so powerful.
    Bit by bit, her heart rate slowed. The room warmed and the stench of Wild Majick faded. For the first time, she noticed a pile of half-buried bones an arm’s reach away. The skull on top eyed her, almost speaking to her.
    Am I going to end up like the Melor Royal family?
    The soldier Hannah had burned wore a badge that read, “Cabbot.” Marissa Cabbot , thought Hannah, though she couldn’t say how she knew that.
    A purple flickering light stole Hannah’s attention.
    Broken Nose ran his fingers over the glowing symbol etched into the wall. Light oozed from the Rune like syrup spreading through the cave, filling the nooks and crannies. Broken Nose removed his hand and the light retreated.
    Hannah blinked. No wall remained. The liquid light had eaten away the rock.
    A crash sounded from the other side of the ice wall. The Ilsans were breaking through.
    She turned back to the newly made escape. Smells of the West floated through the opening: pine trees, fresh snow, and a hint of smog. Daylight streamed in bright and clear. She followed Broken Nose through a narrow tunnel, crawling the last stretch and breaking into