8
Perry lay on the straw, his breath weak and ragged as the Scryer placed one final Shadow leech on his outstretched arm. It made a soft caw, then turned to shuffle back into the darkness. He watched it go with heavy eyes, wanting desperately to close them and sink into oblivion but a sliver of hope kept him awake. Sienna and Mila would not leave him down here to die. He just had to hold on a little longer …
The pain was a pulsating wound, his magic draining away with every heartbeat. A death of a thousand cuts as the leeches sucked the fire from him. When the Scryer gulped down the creatures again, it would absorb his magic with their flesh, perfect parasites existing in symbiosis.
There was no reasoning with them, no moral argument that could be made to stop their malevolent consumpti
