Chapter 134 CHAPTER 134

Chapter 134 CHAPTER 134
Panic swallows my mind whole, I'm unable to think.

I just know this cannot happen, Zade can't be frozen in place while being so close to death.

He looked horrible, wounded, nearly destroyed and now I've frozen him.

I'm still in chains, still drowning in a pool of poison that somehow wasn't enough to stop this power from exploding but I'm in panic and can't make a plan.

A robot by my side twitches; its programming failing as the magic forced it to stay in place.

Then it falls, and fizzles out, dying and so do dozens of them, crashes sounding all around me.

It takes me back to a memory of Momma and me dancing, I was fourteen and we were baking in the kitchen, dancing to one of her favourite songs.

I'd mistakenly hit the bowl and the whole mix came crashing down.

Instantly, tears flooded my eyes, I was so sure she was going to whip me like Miss Kate always did back at the orphan but more than that, I'd felt horrible for wasting food that she struggled so hard to get.

Instead, she hugged me.

It was that place that brought me back to my mind.

“I need to get out of these chains,” I say to myself and I look at them.

I can't break the locks but they were dug into the ground and the tiles were breakable, the floor around Zade was filled with scratches and marks.

So I pull.

And pull.

And pull some more.

All I was able to do was dip myself into more mind-boggling pain.

Tears were blurring my eyes but I realised my original plan had to change.

The last time this happened, in that pool back in the mountain cave in Drakkonia, I had screamed at him to move until my throat gave out. I’d begged, cried, shaken him, breathed into his mouth while he turned blue. It was sloppy and desperate and it took far too long.

I can't do any of that right now. I'm chained to a chair ten feet away from him and every second his chest stays still is a second closer to him dying on this floor.

So screaming at him to move won't work.

I can't unchain myself and carry myself out of this place, Zade has to be unfrozen so he can help us out of the chains.

I could see the keys dangling from Baldwin's frozen pockets.

But I remembered the last time this happened, Tharagaun helped.

Now, from the look of that tail, I doubt the dragon is in any shape to help.

It's left to me to unfreeze him, and not just that, I must unfreeze him alone or we'll be back to square one.

“Okay, not a big deal,” I whisper, ignoring the pain in my spine, neck and basically every spot in my body.

I'm used to it is what I tell myself as I slow down my thoughts and process how I managed to freeze them in the first place.

First I was terrified, seeing Zade in the position he's in now is enough motivation to get me there.

Then I felt the urgent need to do something, and looking at Baldwin, that remote in his hand was doing the job.

And then, something did happen inside me that had sealed everyone's fate. It was pure and raw and powerful.

I just couldn't tell if it happened on its own or if the factors I noticed were responsible for it.

But still, I try to pull at that same thread inside me, the one that snapped when Zade's scream turned to surrender.

Because I have to pull this thing back. Whatever I pushed out, I need to pull it in. Like sucking venom from a wound, only the venom is mine and it's spread across every mind in this building.

I close my eyes and reach inward for the place it came from. That hot, sharp space behind my ribs where the command was born. It's still pulsing, still pushing outward, holding everyone in place like a fist that won't unclench.

I tried unclenching it, like forcing a toddler’s fingers away from their obsession.

Nothing happens.

I try harder, pulling at the edges of the power that had saved and doomed me, trying to drag it back inside me. It resists, like it's found a shape it likes and doesn't want to shrink.

My body screams from the effort, the poison in my veins fighting against every internal muscle I'm using. Sweat runs into my eyes and mixes with tears I didn't know were still falling.

I pull harder.

And then… something shifts.

Not much, but enough that I feel the hold loosen, just a fraction, like a frozen lake developing its first crack.

Zade's finger twitches.

“Yes!”

I nearly sob with relief but I don't stop pulling. I hunch forward and clench my fists, dragging at the power like hauling a net out of deep water, every inch costing me something I don't have a name for.

His chest rises. One breath, shallow and strangled but real.

The blue starts retreating from his face. His scales flicker, a ghost of gold returning.

“Yes! Wake up Zade!” I scream loudly and desperately.

His eyes blink and the emptiness slowly drains out of them, replaced by pain and confusion and then recognition as he sees me across the room, chained and bleeding and crying.

"Baby I don't know how long this will last but you need to move fast," I choke out. "You're not tied down so get the keys and unchain me. Baldwin's pocket."

He looked at me like I was a stranger but I didn't have time for that.

We don't have the time for that.

“ZADE! KEYS! NOW!”

The power didn't hold as much power over him, I was too weak to handle it on two fronts but he moves, thankfully.

He drags himself across the tile, every movement costing him, his broken tail leaving a smear of blood behind him.

Then I hear it. A sound that turns my blood to ice.

A twitch from Baldwin's hand. The one holding the remote. His fingers are moving, tiny spasms as the freeze loses its grip on him too.

I can't pull back the power selectively. It's all or nothing. Every inch of hold I release from Zade, I release from everyone else.

"Zade, hurry!"

He reaches Baldwin, fumbles at his pocket with hands that are barely functioning, and pulls the keys free just as Baldwin's eyelids flutter.

Then he quickly crawls over to me. He's no longer confused or shocked or dazed. He's slowly understanding the situation but he has the urgency I need and he unlocks my wrists first, then my neck, then my waist, his fingers shaking so badly he drops the keys twice.

Baldwin's head moves. A centimetre to the left. His eyes are still glazed but they're tracking now, trying to focus.

I took the keys from him and unlocked his own as well, and began pulling him to one of the several doors.

But then I pause.

"The book," I gasp as the bastard’s fingers begin moving, "Where is it?"

“He dropped it behind that door when you blacked out the second time. Can't we come back for –"

I leave him standing and rush into the door and thankfully, the robots were all on the ground and the book was on the ground, open.

I pulled it together and ran out, as best as I could with my body barely able to function.

We stumble through corridors of half-frozen people who are twitching back to life, the building is waking up around us and we're running out of time.

We get to the gate and I push him out and follow right out, the gate sluggishly shutting behind us.

Then we run towards our car that's still parked at the entrance of the library. I don't know how I'll drive in this condition, darkness dancing at the edges of my eyes but I know I must.

There's no other option.

The second I turn on the ignition using the wire method I learned on TV, I hear Baldwin's voice, groggy, furious, screaming something I don't catch.

But I pull the car onto the road and I drive.

I see him from the rear view mirror chasing a running car like a madman.

And then I smile.