Free Shadow Reign (Shadow Puppeteer Book 2) by Christina E. Rundle Page B

anger?
    “Cast it,” she said.
    “I can’t. Nothing happens.” That was a lie. Nothing happened that she wanted to happen, but I could feel the energy it summoned. I wanted to go Utan’s route. The blades were physical. I already knew the outcome of using them.
    She picked up the bucket that hung on the metal hook beside the fireplace. This time when I took a breath, I noticed that not all the herbs she burned today were her every day usual bunch. There was something tart among the burning cylinders.
    “Cast your circle, child. Protect yourself from what’s coming.”
    “I’m not afraid of the dark.”
    My heart was pounding. I didn’t believe for a second what I said to her. With everything that happened, I lost a great deal of my fear, but something unnatural was creeping into my dreams of late. It felt so real. I woke with the sensation that it touched me. That feeling was sneaking up on me and my spine tingled with awareness.
    “You want to survive? Learn how to face and control these spirits with your energy. They know your open to them. They feel that emptiness inside you,” she said.
    She turned the bucket and the sand poured slowly over the fire. The flames licked around it, trying to exist until the sand finally took the last of the light. The only light now came from the tiny palm sized cylinders that burnt with incense and the black candle. The shadows started moving and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. A cold breeze blew through and the candle went out.
    Sweat tickled my skin. I shrugged off my fur coat and tossed it out of the circle so I wouldn’t slide on it. The dark was solid and I pulled off my eye patch. I could see Zephyr’s aura, gold outlined her body.
    The shadows separated themselves from the dark and started moving towards me. They stretched, shapeless and long, reaching for me like the entity that resided here. Lingering smoke curled around Zephyr. She stared in my direction, but she wasn’t looking at me. She couldn’t see in the dark.
    “What do you see?” she asked.
    My inner turmoil didn’t mirror her excitement. I was too afraid to speak. This was new and its energy was angrier than the spirits I’d dealt with.
    “Zephyr, light the fire.” I was surprised my voice didn’t shake.
    The old woman stood against the wall, useless now. The air grew too thick to breath. Weeks of lessons and I couldn’t remember a thing she taught. My mind was blank.
    “Zephyr, please.”
    She never moved. I had to pull myself together and think this through. First part of the lesson was forming a circle. It didn’t work the first time because I didn’t use salt. I fumbled with the drawstrings on the pouch at my waist. The grains did little to calm my nerves as I walked the circle and called to the four corners.
    I kept the circle small, but pressure threw me from the ring before I could close it. Airborne for barely a moment, I slammed hard against the wall. Pain rocketed through my skull and down my spine. I tasted blood, but I couldn’t tell if it came from my mouth or from something internal.
    “Fight back. Protect your body,” Zephyr ordered.
    I barely heard her over the pulsing in my head. I hope she had something stronger I could take. Ghostly fingers pressed into my neck, forcing me to stand. The pressure became dangerously tight. It was trying to suffocate me. I flung the salt in my hand at it and it screeched, shoving me away and darting up into the ceiling.
    Until now, I didn’t notice how the ceiling swirled with fog. There was something about the gray and purple swirls that said it would be extremely cold. The wind whipped my hair around my face. It was trying to push me so I got down on my hands and knees.
    Force caught the back of my neck and squeezed before sending me face first into the ground. Stone scratched my cheeks, peeling skin. I kicked upward, but my foot went through air. It was impossible fighting something that wasn’t physical.
    Pain pinched