It was quiet and calm but not quite right.
"Jonny?" she whispered.
Break the weapons to break their power. A strange sense washed over her, and she wobbled, expecting a seizure. Instead, the words repeated in her mind, and she suddenly envisioned a man with green eyes, a stranger she didn't remember meeting.
Ashley shook her head to clear it and began walking. Her instincts tugged her in one direction, to the side of the massive structure where a garage had once stood.
The still form of Jonny made her whole body go rigid. She stared, unable to tell if he were alive or dead, and too shocked to see the god unmoving. He was surrounded by a field of red lightning and black shadows. She ventured into it without hesitation, only for the first red lightning that touched her to shock her like Charles and his Taser.
"Son of a bitch!" she shouted and leapt away.
She eyed the loose power of Jonny. It clung to the bushes and charred remains of the garage, and it stood between her and the Black God. The sense they weren't alone was growing. She didn't have time to evaluate their surroundings to determine how close Valon was or just how many of his vamps lay waiting in the forest. Her thoughts flew to Brandon, and she prayed Charles was telling the truth about saving her brother.
"This is gonna hurt." Ashley scouted a path as free of his magic as possible and dashed to Jonny. Hot fire shot through her as she leapt and sprinted, and she muttered curses with each new shock.
She dropped to her knees in a space free of fog and lightning. The ground around him was squishy and soaked with blood, and arrows stuck out of his back. "Jonny!" She felt for his pulse. It was weak, shallow, his breathing almost too quiet to hear. He was wounded in more places than she could count. "Why aren't you healing?"
Break the weapons to break their power.
Ashley shivered, uncertain how or why some strange voice was in her head. Her focus shifted to the arrows. She straddled Jonny's hips and braced one foot against his back to pull the arrows free. Five grueling minutes later, all six were tossed to the side.
"Break the weapons …" She eyed the arrowheads. They were made of the same material the knife Valon left for her had been. It didn't seem possible they had any sort of effect on him when they were removed.
She rolled him onto his back then leapt away as shadows and lightning sent fire spiraling through her.