Chapter 26
The pain came and went like tides, the effect of the magic numbing him and then releasing him. Dane groaned every time the aching returned, the feel of wrenched shoulders and bruised ribs. He alternately couldn’t feel his fingers and felt them as sausages or twigs—magic, messing with his mind.
They didn’t have long. Irreversible effects could start less than a day into extreme exposure, and while he couldn’t judge the time perfectly, the fact that it was dark and getting colder by the minute wasn’t a good sign.
“Dane?” asked Sean, words coming to him as if from a distance and then smacking against him like he’d been shouted at. f*****g magic. “You still awake?”
“Yeah.” He spoke toward the lump that was probably Sean. The moon was low yet and not giving much light, and Dane c
