Blood of the Hunt

Blood of the Hunt - Chapter 8

Seraphine eyed the swaying rope bridge ahead of her doubtfully and then mentally calculated the drop into the great, green maw of rainforest jungle below.

"Are you absolutely sure this is necessary?" She asked her overly-enthusiastic travelling companion.

Magnus bounded ahead of her onto the rickety slats that had not yet been eaten away by the humid climate. He turned around with a wide grin under the brim of the worn, brown fedora he had dug up for the occasion. "This is the best part! Come on!" The vivacious warlock flitted across the bridge, his dark leather pack bouncing on his back. When he had reached the other side, he spun around to check her progress and saw that she was still standing on the other side. "It's fine!"

She rolled her eyes, the red rings around her irises gleaming dully, and took a deep breath before carefully stepping out and getting a death-grip on the fraying rope sides. Fraying rope. Lovely.

Magnus still hadn't told her why they had needed to fly to Bolivia as the next part of their search for answers, and he was staying uncharacteristically silent on the matter. She would have been quite content to pursue their quest to the Spiral Labyrinth as she had originally intended, although she hadn't been there in decades, but he had asked that they leave it as a last resort. Personally, she would have preferred that they left the four-day trek through the jungle as their last resort, but she suspected that he wanted to avoid facing the warlocks of the Spiral Labyrinth a while longer, and perhaps their connections to Tessa.

Half-way across, she made the mistake of looking down instead of keeping her eyes trained on the tan shirt and rugged khakis that her half-brother was wearing in his very best imitation of Indiana Jones. The view was dizzying, and she felt herself sway in response. Living on the 22nd floor of a comfortable, Toronto condo had not prepared her for this. She panted lightly and felt herself start to sweat.

The humidity added to her light-headedness and she felt a flash of heat shoot through her like...

Oh, no.

"Magnus!" She screamed. "It's happening again!"

Heedless of rotting boards, the deteriorating ropes, and the staggering drop, she threw herself forward and raced across the remaining distance as the feverish rush building inside of her took hold.

Magnus' hands came up, fingers crooked, and a look of intense concentration drew his brow into a crease. Seraphine's hiking boots touched down on solid ground once more for only a second before she cried out again and a torrent of flames burst out from her body in a deadly fan.

The fire rolled back in on itself as it encountered the protective shield Magnus had woven, and Seraphine vanished from sight when the brilliant globe of light consumed her. The earth rumbled under their feet in response, and the canopy swayed overhead as the currents of magic warped the air around them. As suddenly as it had begun, it was over.

Seraphine gasped in half a breath and then promptly launched into a coughing fit when Magnus dropped the shield. He knelt down at her side and held her as she leaned into him for support.

"It's getting worse," she wheezed.

"Now, now," he said soothingly as he patted her back, "don't worry yet. We still have time."

She hacked indelicately in response and dabbed at the tears in the corners of her eyes. "And when, exactly, do you propose I should start worrying? Before or after I've melted my flat?"

Magnus tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "After. Definitely after."

With a huff of disapproval, Seraphine struggled back up to her feet and dusted off her toffee-coloured denim pants. At least these...attacks... were sparing her the indignity of burning off her clothing. She didn't think she could have abided them otherwise.