A Darkness Unleashed (Book 2) by J.T. Hartke Read Free Book Online

Aspect, drawing only a small amount of its quicksilver fog into his mind. He then spread it out about him, searching the room with its tendrils. He found Maddi’s trail, much as he had earlier in the day. Several other life patterns crossed it, ones he did not recognize. But hers was unmistakable, and Tallen followed it to a shelf stacked with medical journals.
    He took up Air, a large amount of it, and the shelf ripped away in the grip of his magic. Behind, a narrow staircase descended between stone walls. Tallen used Psoul to follow the trail of Maddi’s life pattern into the tunnel, creating a small ball of Fire and Air to light his way.
    For quite a few yards the tunnel twisted and turned between the walls of various rooms, but Tallen could sense Maddi’s trail with ease. Down another long, steep flight of stairs he descended. Cold dampness let him know he was below ground. His little pool of light faded in the distance. He ran along the tunnel, desperate to ignore the pain of his injury, a sense of hurried dread roiling in his guts.
    With every step, his wrist throbbed and his fingers felt numb. Whenever he tried to flex them, bolts of pain shot up his arm. He struggled to ignore it, but his steps slowed with no regard for his will. Even his desire to save Maddi could not drive him past the pain.
    Tallen cursed into the dank corridor. Damn the Waters, I wish I knew how to heal myself. The throbbing drew so much of his attention that he almost missed the shadow leaping at him from the edge of his pool of light.
    With his power already in his grasp, it took only a fraction of a second to lash out with Earth-hardened Air. The dull, wet thunk of a crushed abdomen reached his ear as the attacker’s body flew back into the darkness. Tallen reached out again with a mist of Psoul, finding one more armed man ahead. I’m tired of this fight. I have to find Maddi. He dipped into the man’s life pattern, crushing the throbbing force he found there.
    Without a second glance, Tallen stepped over the already-cooling corpse.
    Just ahead, he sensed Maddi next to the bare flicker of another pattern. Her form remained clear to him, but he did not recognize the smaller one. Two other patterns stood nearby, one roiling with what Tomas called psahn .
    It feels somewhat like the Psoul Aspect, but different, sort of…distilled.
    Tallen dashed the last few steps at a run. He stretched to snuff the life force of the two men hovering over Maddi, but the distance, combined with his pain and extended use of power, stymied his efforts. Varana told me that I must remember no pool is inexhaustible. I must reserve some strength.
    He drew back with his Psoul mist and dimmed the magical light. Once he closed more of the distance, he reached out again with the Psoul Aspect to find the men. Maddi huddled before them, her life pattern flickering.
    “Maddi!” Tallen squeezed the easier target, dropping another armed hireling. He reached to the second pattern, prepared to do the same. But before he could infuse the target with his Psoul energy, the pattern snapped back at him. Beyond the strange draining of his reservoir of Psoul, Tallen felt the concussion physically. He collapsed to his side. The pain in his broken wrist throbbed back to the front of his perception, threatening to overwhelm his consciousness. He cried out in agony and lost all sense of the others ahead.
    Floating on the edge of awareness, he willed himself to focus. He brought himself back from the edge of the abyss, and forced his body and his mind to work.
    Fighting the pain and rage threatening to drown him, Tallen staggered to his feet and took a breath. He could not call for the Psoul mist; the shimmering Aspect slipped from his grasp, his connection dimmed by the counterattack. Air, however, came at his summons, and he threw a tentative shield in front of himself. A few stumbling steps farther and Tallen walked into torchlight.
    A figure stood up before him, shadowed by