Red Blood (Series of Blood Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best short books to read .TXT) 📕

his teeth red. “I’m here with you. We can do this. Together. Together, remember?”

A tear slid down her cheek as the pain became overwhelming. They existed not in the room at the back of Bones’ house. They existed only through frayed nerve endings and tearing flesh.

She did not know how long she held onto him. She did not know what time was or even who she was. In those few remaining moments where the magic they used took and took and took, she ceased to exist entirely.

Then the pain came rushing back. Her eyes snapped open just in time to meet Wolfgang’s gaze once more. He followed the track of the tear down her cheek and slowly exhaled. His eyes burned an unnatural blue.

From between his lips, a fine blue mist crawled. It sparked in the light and moved through the great lightning strikes of magic inside the circle, through the shield itself. She recognized the light. It was the same blue light that had saved her in the swamp. The same blue light that had enchanted her with every piece of magic he had made.

Though she was in great pain, she managed a weak smile. “Hello, friend.”

The mist brushed against her lips, and she opened her mouth. Inhaling was easy to do. The mist was cold where she was burning hot. Her throat was soothed by its presence, and her heart eased as it settled against her soul.

Lyra thought she could hear it sigh. She felt something shift inside of her and wrap welcoming arms around the smallest bit that remained of Wolfgang’s soul.

His physical body stiffened and squeezed hard on the mess that used to be her hand. The magic inside the circle grew until her ears popped. She watched in fascinated horror as her pinky and ring finger turned to dust and blackened ash completely.

She screamed. Or perhaps it was Bones. She didn’t know what the horrid sound in her ears was until she fell back against the floor and scooted to the wall. Her hand was clutched to her chest.

No, not her hand. Lyra realized with horror. It wasn’t a complete hand anymore. There were important pieces missing from it now.

She couldn’t look at it. Instead, she watched as the circle disappeared. Lying on the ground was what remained of Wolfgang. Black ashes covered a charred skeleton.

“Bones.” Her voice was broken and didn’t sound as though it was hers at all. “Bones, please.”

She didn’t know what she asked of him but apparently he did. Stiffly, he walked over to check on the body. There wasn’t any flesh left on it. Not really. Wolfgang was gone. In his place was a skeleton that was black as night.

An ugly sob wrenched its way out of her. “Dead?”

She couldn’t hear the word right. He couldn’t be dead, he had been so certain this would work. Death wasn’t strong enough to take him. He wasn’t even supposed to exist!

Bones did not touch him. He leaned down to look at the skeleton were its eyes should have been and blew away some of the ashes.

“Not dead.”

She did not know what relief had truly meant until those words rung in her ears. She sagged against the wall as all the energy in her body disappeared. Weakness made her limbs heavy as the words echoed in her mind. Not dead. Not dead. Not dead.

“Then why isn’t he—”

The body moved. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t a body. The fingers of the skeleton crooked and curled in on itself. In a great movement, the skeleton cracked and groaned. It sat up and turned its head towards her.

Blue electric lights formed in the eye sockets. They were mesmerizing in beauty as they swirled inside the cavity.

“Lyra,” Bones said carefully. “You should leave.”

“You know I won’t.”

She shifted only to pause when the skeleton stared directly at her moving foot. Its hand flexed, and light sparked from its fingertips. The warning was received. She would not move.

“Wolfgang,” she said. The eyes were looking at her now. She saw no recognition of who she was. Or who he was. “Your name is Wolfgang.”

“Lyra, this is a bad idea. He does not recognize either of us.”

She wasn’t certain Bones was right. Wolfgang was staring at her, and she was the least threatening one in the room. Bones was easily twice her size and slowly inching up behind it. Yet it still stared at her.

“Your name is Wolfgang. I met you with one shoe on outside a magical shop. You didn’t like me at first, but you did later. You brought me to a tea shop and then down to your home underground.” Her voice became stronger as the eyes shifted to look her up and down. “You showed me how magical you were. You made me not frightened of the Lords of the Black Market. You saved me in a swamp, and you brought me here.”

A tear slid down her cheek. She was leaking from her ears too. She tried to not to think about her hand, which lifted to brush away the trickling water. She knew fingers were missing.

“You need to remember me,” Lyra said. “You wanted to help us. You wanted to save your people. You want to save me.”

The skeleton shivered. The blue light of its eyes began to glow, and its body changed. Tendrils of light grew and twisted along the bones like ivy growing upon tree limbs. A faint halo outlined him until they tangled with the beating heart glowing red inside the cage of his ribs.

Armor formed along his body. Bone-like armor that was grey and aged. Magic created something out of nothing, which none of them had ever seen before. No pain. No price. Just instant gratification.

When the magic was completed, a skeleton did not rise before them. The creature which slowly stood to its great height was no man. He was a Lich King. The tendrils of magic reached upwards, and a blue, glowing crown formed above his head.

The skeletal jaw