Bound by Flames

I’d already thought of that, and I smiled at him. “You’re going to say you captured me and compelled me to wrap this around my neck. Kind of like holding a gun to my head, but more magical.”

“You’re insane,” he breathed.

“I don’t think so,” I shot back. “I’m even willing to bet my life that you haven’t admitted the ramification of your spell’s backfiring to anyone, right? That would be too embarrassing for you, and man, would that piss Szilagyi off. The spell he had you cast that was supposed to guarantee my death now has you protecting me.”

“He doesn’t command me,” the necromancer all but snarled. “I outgrew him in power a century ago!”

That was frightening information, but I didn’t let him see how it rattled me.

“All the more reason for everyone to believe that I’m a prisoner,” I said. “Hell, everyone probably thinks I’m a captivity magnet already, but what they don’t know is that I freed myself two out of the four times by single-handedly killing my captors. So, I’ll play the helpless victim, you’ll play the triumphant captor, and we’ll both walk out of here alive afterward—”

The tunnel shaking with sudden, violent force cut me off. Cracks appeared in the stone around us, and the layer of ground rock that coated us was an ominous sign of things to come.

“How much farther again?” I asked.

His smile did nothing to quell my unease. “We’re almost there.”

A few turns later, we reached another open area. At least a dozen bodies were strewn around this new antechamber, each one burned so badly that little more than charred bones remained.

“So much for the captor/captive charade,” the necromancer said, barely glancing at the ones we passed. I didn’t pause to stare at them, either, but that was because I couldn’t risk him trying to wrest the whip away from my neck again.

“These are your people dead at your feet, and you could care less. You’re a real prize of a leader.”

He glanced at me, his mouth curled in scorn. “No, they were Szilagyi’s people. Not mine.”

I kept sneaking wary glances as I followed him to the only exit to this chamber aside from the tunnel we’d entered it by.

“Oh? I thought Szilagyi didn’t command you, so if these were his people, then aren’t you here under his authority?”

“You’re not going to get me to reveal any more information than I already have,” he replied shortly.

Maybe, maybe not. He was arrogant enough to have given me a couple important tidbits already. If I kept poking at his pride, maybe I could get another nugget out of him that we could use.

As we entered the new tunnel, a deafening noise combined with the ground heaving as if shaken by an invisible fist threw me forward. I used my left arm to steady myself, but kept the right one to my throat. Even still, the brutal jolting cut the whip deeper into my neck than I would have liked.

“Let go, you’ll kill us both!” the necromancer shouted, clutching his neck while blood seeped out between his fingers.

My throat burned, too. Not from the electricity, which I was immune to, but the cut. Still, I wouldn’t unwind the whip. If I did, Vlad was as good as dead.

“Not gonna happen,” I spat.

The necromancer stared at me as if measuring my resolve. “Then hurry up, he’s progressing faster than I thought him capable of.”

The tunnel shook again while more thunderous crashes sounded, followed by countless booms and an ominous cloud that rushed into the tunnel. I knew what that meant, and I ran after the necromancer, who had quickened his pace without prompting this time. The cave-in blocked the exit behind us, but after a few seconds of running, we were free from falling debris and the cloud of ground stone.

“He’s already blasted through the three outer barriers around Mihaly,” the necromancer muttered, almost to himself. “If he breaches the door, he’ll kill himself and us.”

“How?” I demanded.

He gave me an irritated look. “Because Mihaly destabilized every part of the dungeon except the room where he is. The door to that part is rigged so that if it goes down, the floor outside of it blows up, then the rest of the dungeon piles on top of the remains.”

And thousands of pounds of rock coming down onto whoever was trapped below would be lethal, even to someone as strong as Vlad. I ran faster, turning the corner almost in unison with the necromancer—and then nearly plowed into him because he stopped so abruptly, I thought he was making a play for my whip again.

“If you,” I began, not finishing the threat when I saw what was right in front of him.

Flames blocked the tunnel. Since he wasn’t trying to scare tourists anymore, Vlad hadn’t bothered to form the fire into wolflike creatures. It was just a solid wall that burned so hot, the heat made my skin start to blister even from several feet away.

“Vlad!” I shouted, fear rising when he didn’t respond. Was he too far away? Or did the continuing sounds from the cave-in plus the roar of the fire drown me out so he couldn’t hear me? “Vlad, listen to me!” I tried again, shoving the necromancer behind me and going as close to the flames as I dared.

That didn’t work, so in desperation, I switched my wedding ring from my left hand to my right, fingers rubbing over the wide, flat stone until I found the essence trail Vlad had left when he put it on my hand again.

Vlad, I shouted with all my mind when I followed it and saw him amidst an inferno. Shattered rock littered the ground and his hands were stretched out toward a wall of black stone in front of him. Vlad, don’t do it! I’m here!