TANGLED, genya safin

chapter two.

I swallowed, "Thank me?" I asked almost shakily, "For the gift you gave me," and that suddenly made me realize that everything I'd dreamed about were warning signs. I should have known, should have been more careful.

My gaze momentarily flickered to the scars on his cheek, "No," he said with a small smile, "not these. But they do make a good reminder."

"Of what?" I asked, curious despite myself. His gaze was gray flint, "That all men can be made fools. No, Freya, the gift you have given me is so much more greater." He turned away. I darted another glance at Alina and then at Mal.

"Unlike you," the Darkling said, "I understand gratitude, and I wish to express it." His hands were raised, and I knew what was about to happen.

Darkness tumbled through the room. "Now!" I shouted. Mal and Alina drove their elbows into the heartrenders sides. At the same moment, I threw up my hands and water appeared I sent sharp blades around me as Alina sent blazing light around us. Blinding them.

I peered into the seething blackness, trying to find my target. But something was wrong. I'd seen the Darkling use his power countless times before. This was different. The shadows whirled and skittered around the circle of Alina's light, spinning faster, a writhing cloud that clicked and whirled like a fog of hungry insects.

Alina pushed against her power, but they twisted and wriggled nearer. Mal stood beside her. Somehow he'd gotten hold of Ivan's knife. "Stay close," Alina said.

I raised my arm out of instinct.... and something stepped out of the darkness. It's a trick, I thought but the creature looked all too familiar from my nightmares. It was a creature wrought from shadows, its face blank and devoid of features. Its body seemed to tremble and blur, then forms again: arms, legs, long hands ending in the dim suggestion of claws, a broad back crested by wings that roiled and shifted as they unfurled like a black stain. And it did not fear the light. It did not fear Alina or me.

It's a trick, my panicked mind insisted. It isn't possible. It was a violation of everything I knew about Grisha power. We couldn't make matter. We couldn't create life. But the creature was coming towards us, and the Darkling's Grisha were cringing up against the walls in very real terror. This was what had so frightened them.

I pushed down my horror and summoned up water, sending an unforgiving arc its way. The water sliced through the creature. For a moment, I thought it might just keep coming. Then it wavered, glowing like a cloud lit by lightning with the fragments of my power visible and gleaming in the darkness, and blew apart into nothing. I had time for the barest surge of relief before the Darkling lifted his hands and another monster took its place, followed by another, and another.

"This is the gift you gave me," said the Darkling, "The gift I earned taking your power, Freya." His face was alive with power and a kind of terrible joy. But I'd see strain there, too. Whatever he was doing, it was costing him.

We backed away towards the door as the creature stalked closer. Suddenly, one of them shot forward with astonishing speed. Mal slashed out with his knife. The thing paused, wavering slightly, then grabbed hold of him and tossed him aside like a child's doll. This was no illusion.

"Mal!" Alina cried out. Alina lashed out, sending arc after arc at the creature, but then the creature was on her in seconds. It seized her, and revulsion shuddered through me.