Dream Walker✔️

7.5

Still sitting on the floor, I pressed my hands against the lowest bolt. It was just as hard as the first, only I messed up a few times and let gusts of hot air shoot away from my hands. The voidcats didn't look so good. They were breathing heavily, and the kittens kept whining.

"Just one more. Hold on for just one more." I was saying it to them as much as to myself. Swaying to my feet, I grabbed the final bolt.

The next thing I knew, I was on the floor with Saefera looking down at me and my whole head pounding. Someone had moved me across the hall, and the voidcats' cell door was wide open. They'd left. Seeing as they hadn't taken me with them--and Saefera hadn't made any attempt to carry me out of here--I had a feeling my suspicions about her were correct.

"Let's leave now." I lifted my head, but a bolt of pain across my temples brought me down again. "You'll need to carry me."

Avoiding my gaze, she sat on her haunches. "I'm sorry, Mars. I never wanted anyone to get hurt. As far as I know, there's nothing stopping the voidcats from leaving, and your friends, they'll be safe with my family until the portal opens. But I can't let you go. I promised Ren. He says they've got a way to take your magic without killing you. Then I'll take you to your friends."

"You believe Ren?"

She shrunk back. "I believe him when he says he'll do anything to get you. If I didn't take you here alone, he would use your friends against you. He would kill them if he thought it would help him."

"I'll fight back. I won't go quietly."

"You won't win."

"I know." My eyes stung, but no tears came. At least I had that much going for me. If this was the end, I didn't want to go out whining or crying about Saefera's betrayal. My friends were safe. Fleck's family was safe. They were all much better off than they would've been if they'd stayed, because they wouldn't have won against Merlin either. Not without casualties.

Gritting my teeth against my pounding head, I propped myself up against the wall. "When Ren and Merlin kill me and inevitably fail to revive their dead relatives, you'd better do everything in your power to get some of my magic to Aster. He needs it to turn back to normal before he goes home. If there's none left of mine--or if mine doesn't work once I'm dead--raid the greater life dragon's corpse and get an amulet made. Then get it to Aster, obviously."

"Okay." Her voice was painfully quiet. "I've got to take you to the lab now."

I lifted my arms. "Take me to my death."

"It might work. You might be okay."

"Keep believing that if it makes you feel better, but I'm not in the mood to sit around here worrying, so go on now. Pick me up."

She laid down in front of me. "You'll have to climb on."

Climbing wasn't exactly in my skill set at the moment, but I did manage to flop over her back like a meat scarf.

She stood and carried me through a series of halls to a grand cavern filled with tables of odd devices and potions. She set me on a raised platform in the middle of the room and retreated to a corner. I didn't like the look of the platform, so I rolled toward its edge.

Metal bars shot out of the ground, forming a roofless cage around me. If I had enough magic to stand up, I could transform without getting crushed in the small space. Only, I was having trouble staying seated when my whole body wanted to curl up in the fetal position and whimper for a while.

"I wasn't sure you'd go through with it," Ren said as he emerged from a door across the room. He nodded at Saefera with an appreciative smile. "Good job."