Free Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic by Sam Cheever

force me to kill her?”
    The doors opened behind Yeira and heavy footfalls sounded as the two guards returned. She swung around as they approached, kicking out at their legs before they could grasp her arms again. Pain knifed through her mid-section and Yeira cried out, dropping to her knees as her insides twisted with agony.
    The pain was like someone had shoved a hand into her belly and grabbed her organs, squeezing and wrenching them.
    She could barely breathe, could hardly lift her head to look at Joris as he approached, stopping before her. “I don’t need your cooperation, sister, only your blood.”
    He moved again and Yeira saw the deadly-looking curved knife he held in one hand. The arched blade had a jagged cutting edge and an ivory handle, the image of a raven inset into the handle in onyx.
    She recognized the knife as one of Edwige’s power-drenched ceremonial bolines. Yeira tried to jerk away as the two men holding her wrapped their hands in her long hair and jerked her head back.
    Joris stepped closer with the deadly boline. “I’m sorry to have to do this, sister. But I can no longer accept Edwige’s interference, or for that matter, yours.”
    “So you’re just going to kill everybody who disagrees with you?”
    Joris thought about her question for a beat and then smiled. “What a lovely idea.”
    His hand lifted, the overhead light glinting off the polished silver blade. “Hold her tight,” Joris instructed the guards.
    Yeira wanted to close her eyes but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “She’ll get to you, Joris. You’ll pay for your plotting. She’s smarter and stronger than you are.”
    His hand halted and his smile faltered. “That’s why I need you, my dear,” he told her agreeably.
    His hand sliced downward.
     
     
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Audie stalked back and forth, his hands shaking and his brow sweaty from using a power word. Since his magic-induced reflection of the past had dropped away, ending with the frantic cawing of an obviously agitated raven, he’d paced the hard, dead ground of the poisoned land, his mind racing. He’d heard stories about the dark witch and her familiar, Ebon, the raven.
    If Yeira had been taken by the witch she was in danger. It was possible the raven had seen her and Audie together. And if it had, Edwige would exterminate Yeira.
    The dark one wouldn’t hesitate.
    She was known for her ruthlessness and she’d survived as long as she had by eliminating any of her followers who showed the slightest sign of weakness or disloyalty.
    Audie’s fists clenched on the thought. His heart pounded and pain twisted in his gut at the thought of Yeira in the witch’s hands. He reached for a power word and set it loose. “Retrieve!”
    A dull boom rocked the ground and Audie fell to his knees, his head bowed as he lifted his arms and pictured Yeira in his mind. The dead lands swirled behind a buckling wave of shimmering energy. His stomach roiled with the movement. He closed his eyes on a surge of dizziness. Audie lifted his arms and threw back his head, imbuing the power he’d created with every ounce of energy he could give it.
    The fingers of his energy stretched and burrowed through the layers of time and space…searching. A black wave curled up in his mind, pulling at his consciousness as he fought to beat it back.
    His muscles shook with weariness. The power word and energy he used to enhance it wrenched every ounce of strength from his cells.
    Still the magic came up empty.
    Audie feared it would all be in vain. That they’d taken her beyond his grasp. A terrifying thought pulsed through his mind…a blood-chilling mantra… What if she is lost?
    Audie threw back his head and roared, power surging from him in a final, desperate push. The ground crumbled and swayed beneath his knees, pitching him forward. Audie barely caught himself before his face crashed into the rocky ground. He gritted his teeth and held onto the power for one, last,