The light from countless attacks crashed against the unstable dome, which had visibly thinned in certain areas, resembling a fading soap bubble.

  “Are you aware that you may have doomed us all in your attempt to find your lover? Do you even care?” Ariandel asked.

  Emily hummed and shrugged.

  “I’m not saying I was down there, but if I were. It would not have been my intention, no. Oh, and Alex is not my lover.” Emily grimaced.

  Ariandel’s wisened claw tapped on the soft wooden desk leaving divets in the material.

  “Your intentions aside, it happened. During the chaos, a man by the name of Umbra escaped. Like you, we had originally hoped he would connect us with the Weeping but we never got him to talk. And now he’s free. Do you understand now? We’re fighting an internal and external battle. All because you wanted to find one man.”

  Emily’s eyes remained trained on the window as she stared at the city. The face of the bound man appeared in Emily’s head and she looked at Ariandel.

  “Allegedly…”

  Ariandel sighed staring daggers at her.

  “I invited disaster into our home, so I may as well make the most of it. Since you’re terminating our contract, we’ll give it one last try and then go our separate ways. But I’ll have no reason to shield you from the authorities once the contract ends. Make your preparations.”

  Emily pressed her lips together but had expected as much.

  “Genevieve has brought the improved relic and we’ll begin the installation once everyone has gathered.”

  Emily nodded lazily and got up, heading towards the door.

  Ariandel called from the door as she left.

  “I know it's going to be hard, but try not to mess anything up on your way there.”

  Emily rolled her eyes at the man and headed to the main study.

  When she arrived Genevieve was already sitting there snacking on some small pastries.

  She glanced up as Emily arrived, her brows knitting together and her lips pressing into a thin line.

  “I’m glad to see you Emily, I was kind of worried, what with everything going on out there.”

  From her concerned look, Emily could only assume Ariandel had not said anything to her yet.

  They chatted for a while, and Genevieve was confident this iteration of the relic would be the one. She had closed all the redundant loops and neatened up the ward structure, now the rest was up to everyone else.

  Emily listened to the woman talk as the others arrived. Zila and Conner got there first and greeted the two of them before going about the preparations.

  Neal arrived just before Ariandel, and he glanced at Emily with a frown. He had a few bumps and bruises from the looks of things, but otherwise, he was alive.

  The last thing Emily needed to do was drain some livestock, but before she could, Ariandel called them all together.

  “Alright, now as discussed we’ll only have time for a single test, so we’ll have to make the best of it. The council had already convened and put out the call for solutions. If we can’t find one, we will have to power the veil personally and I know none of you want that. Luckily the subject we have this time is of high quality, so-”

  Emily frowned as the hairs on the back of her neck rose just too late. There was a sudden impact from behind as she caught herself.

  A snarl escaped Emily’s mouth as she moved her blood from her chest but the weight on her back suddenly grew and when she was forced to the ground. Emily focused behind her and spotted Neal grinning at her with his hand extended.

  Emily’s body was sluggish and weightless as though underwater. The conjured bubble of liquid surrounded Emily completely, tightening over her body.

  Emily's face twisted into a savage scowl as she pulled blood from her chest.

  “No, none of that!” Neal said as he made a short series of hand gestures. When he finished Emily’s churning blood fell silent as though a screen had descended down between her and it.

  “Whatever method you use is usually quite ingenious, it took me a while to figure out how you cast without gestures, but in the end, you still need life source to manipulate it.”

  Emily’s nostrils flared as she realized she could still hear the outside world.

  “Ariandel, what the hell do you think you are doing?” Emily ground out.

  The rest of the room stared at Emily, ready to react if Neal failed. The only one to show a look of horror and shock was Genevieve.

  “Yes Ariandel, what is the mean of this?”

  Ariandel looked over to Genevieve with drooping brows and shook his head.

  “I’m sorry, Gene. But this woman is too dangerous to be left alone in our city. She’s the one who caused the collapse of the veil. At this least, like this, she can do some good for our experiments.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Genevieve spluttered but looked at Emily with fear.

  “Great…”Emily muttered. Being double-crossed was never fun and Emily usually tried to be the one doing the double-crossing, but when working with people like these there was always a risk.

  “Miss Emily, I won’t even bother saying I’m sorry here as it would be a lie, but I will ask you to try your best to survive. Because if you do we can use you in the Well to great effect.”

  “Our contract is still in effect, Ariandel” Emily ground out.

  Actually, our contract was null and void the moment you found Alexander.

  “Fuck you, I never said I had him.” Emily howled.

  Ariandel sighed as he shook his head.

  “Woman, I have men all over this city. I dispatched them the moment you arrived here. You think I wouldn’t know what was going on in my own home? Now, you have a choice: Do you want Zila to numb your body, or are you going to fight us?”

  Emily’s fists clenched as she fought the sinking feeling in her gut.

  “Only if you have grape flavor.” she mocked as she struggled against the watery constraints.

  Ariandel shook his head slowly.

  “Fine, have it your way” he sighed.

  Genevieve glanced between Emily and Ariandel, seeming to wake up.

  “I won’t do this. I can’t experiment on Miss Emily, Ariandel.”

  Ariandel turned to Genevieve.

  “My girl, you are an incredible woman, but we both know you have yet to step out from behind your brother’s shadow. Now, I can complete this implant without you, but you will give Emily the best chance at survival.”

  Genevieve looked horrified but Emily wasn’t paying attention anymore, she was looking for a way out of this. Desperate Emily reached out to Cupcake who had remained outside the tower. If she could just disrupt them for a minute that would give Emily enough time to escape. The Rime wolf responded but then the connection faded shortly after that.

  There was no way she would allow them to experiment on her if she could help it. Glancing about the room Emily saw that both Neal and Connor were watching her closely.

  Emily punched the sphere in an attempt to break it but all that did was force her to heal her bruised hand.

  From the feel of things, her life force was still there, just locked away. The same could be said for her source, but there was one key difference from when she was in the Well.

  A Jailer was able to lock down skills, but whatever Neal was doing was only binding her source to an extent.

  It did not mean she couldn’t activate a spell, just that she would have to call twice the normal amount of source. So with nothing left to lose Emily made a short hand gesture and triggered a ‘lift’ spell. Unfortunately with so many prying eyes, she couldn’t hide this fact.

  Neal’s lips curled into a smirk, his eyes narrowing with a glint of derision.

  This just served to piss Emily off more so she poured source into the spell, in an attempt to launch the Mage across the room.

  Both of their spells wrestled against one another. One tried to seal, while the other tried to push back the effects.

  It was a magical wrestling match, with both sides locked in a stalemate.

  That was the case until Emily's raw source began to overwhelm him.

  She gulped in power from the surrounding air, causing Neal’s bubble to tremble. His face had lost its smile, and a frown replaced it.

  “She’s still trying to break free, help me” he growled.

  Both Connor and Zila glanced at one another and began casting. The weight pressing Emily down more than tripled as they joined the tug of war. They were far more skilled than Emily but without any other option, she decided to overpower them. Ashe had said her source capacity was exceedingly high, it was time to test just how much she had.

  They re-established control over their spell but not for long as Emily moved more and more source to the front.

  All three Mages began to sweat. Emily only needed a small window, and they were dead. The amount of source currently flowing through her was causing the air to pop and crackle. It was only a matter of time until their spell failed.

  “Ariandel! Help, she’s going to push us back”

  The Silvaren seemed to have been lost in conversation with Genevieve. He turned and waved his hand at Emily. Right away it was as though the tower itself had fallen on her.

  All the available source in the area crushed her resistance like a bug. Emily groaned as blood trickled down her nose and bridge.

  “Now-now. You are going to take part in this test, even if it’s the last thing you do.”

  Emily wanted to shout and scream but with such force pressing down on her she couldn’t even move let alone protest.

  The other three let out a sigh of relief and Emily heard Genevieve try to argue again but she was silenced.

  “If you are not going to be of help then leave, don’t make me send you away,” Ariandel snarled.

  Genevieve’s face was a mask of worry and betrayal.

  Suddenly Emily was lifted and slammed down onto one of the operating tables face first, her bridge exposed to the air.

  The more she fought the tighter the pressure grew until Emily couldn’t even raise her eyebrows. Ariandel’s strength outclassed her in every way, and her life force was useless beyond her body at this point.

  The scene around her was a slew of activity as they all prepared.

  Then, finally, the sound of latches clicking on a small case resounded beside Emily’s ear.

  Power surrounded her and then the chill of metal on her skin caused Emily to shiver. Especially because she knew what the relic was capable of.

  Unfortunately, she had a front-row seat to find out exactly what it felt like. The relic began to hum, vibrating violently as it pressed against her flesh. The rune-covered piece of metal burrowed into Emily’s skin with an unnatural precision.

  The moment it settled, the world erupted into streaks of blinding white light. Agonizing pain coursed through her body as relentless waves of power surged within her. Emily thought she might be able to harness the energy to fight the tower off, but the searing pain, was like being electrocuted, making it impossible to focus on anything else.

  In fact, even healing herself became difficult to concentrate on, but luckily, as the tumors began to settle in on her spine, ruby guardian kicked in.

  Healing her wounds and naturally drawing on her life force. Emily helped where she could, but it was negligible.

  Pain and cold revenge became the only things Emily clung to for what felt like hours but could only have been and couple of minutes.

  The power streaming into Emily stabilized and her muscles trembled at the mistreatment they had endured.

  Everything spun, but Emily was certain she could hear laughter and cheers. Then a warped voice appeared near her right.

  “Well, now that wasn’t so bad. Congratulations Emily, you’re the first survivor.”

  Emily wanted to be snarky but all she could do was pant as she struggled to get her eyes to focus on the man.

  The voice receded and she heard him speaking to someone else.

  “We’ll have her transported to the Well. I’ll commission the council to give us more prisoners. I may have just single-handedly saved the city. Neal, you’ll go with this foul woman. I’ve had a blinding spell weaved into it, not to mention the failsafe-”

  At this point, Emily had managed to refocus on the room and the activity going on.

  Genevieve stood there a mask of concern covering her face, but before anyone could do anything the room shook. The tumors grew rapidly and then all at once the window on the tower exploded inwards and figures stepped into the room.

  Ariandel didn’t have time to react as a sword shot out and speared the man in the stomach.

  Stepping through the mist was the very man who she’d freed from his blinding just hours ago. Ariadne had called him Umbra, but that was not what caught her eyes.

  Emily's fuzzy hearing managed to make out Alex’s familiar voice.

  “Emily? Where are you!”

  Blood points: 303