Eventually, I wore down the Ward on the manacle enough to help the boy free one hand. Then we worked on the other together, taking turns by passing the key back and forth as our hands cramped, and panicking as the teeth filed down on the key and we had to start using the other edges. When the last manacle’s Ward was weak enough for the kid to free himself, the first thing he did was grab my hand and light the room up.
“Hope you were serious about that Mark.” He smirked, and a burn that lit up my inner arm and the back of my neck dropped me to the ground.
“I thought you were worried about Amy’s response to.. This..” I waved a hand at the strange design now etched into my inner forearm. He shrugged.
“I was. But I thought it would be better to have some insurance before we go out there.” H
