Bound by Ink (A Living Ink Novel) Read Online Free

whine kicked Isa’s brain.
    She’d seen eyes like this once before. And she shouldn’t look into them. Where did that knowledge come from?
    Ripping her gaze away from the unearthly orange filling her vision left her sweating and gasping. Memory opened before her. Murmur had still been a part of her. He’d known this thing, had been afraid of it. It was from his world. What had he called it?
    A Magic Eater.
    Don’t look it in the eye, but don’t let it out of sight.
    Isa glanced back, determined to track the thing without letting it catch her gaze again.
    It lifted sharp-edged wings. Wicked, bloody hooks glistened at each wing tip. It opened its beak in a cry she couldn’t hear and launched at her.
    Through the spurt of adrenaline burning a hole in her gut, Isa reached for power.
    Nothing answered.
    The thing dove for her upturned face.
    She threw herself to one side, hit a car hood, and slid to the ground in front of the bumper. The wind from the Magic Eater’s dive buffeted her as it missed and beat wings as wide as she was tall to pull up.
    Isa rolled.
    The pack slung over her left shoulder stopped her cold, face up to a fresh spurt of icy rain. And to the talons of the winged monster circling for another strike.
    She threw herself right and scrambled to her hands and knees.
    The owl struck her shoulder. Or would have, had the backpack not been there to take the blow rather than her flesh. Her hair fluttered around her face, responding to the rhythmic gusts stirred by flapping wings.
    Shaking, bile biting the back of her throat, she bolted for the narrow space between two parked cars. Gravel atop crumbling concrete and green shards of broken glass dug into her skin. She didn’t care.
    Hampered by the cars, the Magic Eater would have to attack from the ground rather than from the air.
    Isa slid her pack to the ground and slammed her back against a shiny blue car door.
    A whirl of bloodstained white dropped to the ground in front of the cars where she sheltered.
    She fumbled the backpack open, clutching within for anything she could use against the creature.
    What the hell had Murmur said about how to kill one?
    A chill walked up her spine. That’s right. She couldn’t. Only someone without magic could.
    Movement between the cars.
    Her hand closed on a crystal vial. Nothing pinged her fingers. Her bottle of binding ink. A light flashed on inside her head. If someone without magic could destroy a Magic Eater, what would ink Isa had brewed to bind and destroy a creature of magic do?
    The monster stalked between the cars, scoring the metal and paint with those wing-tip talons.
    Isa wrestled the top from the ink vial, risked focusing on the frame of the too-close-to-her creature, and flung the binding ink in its face.
    They both froze.
    Nothing happened.
    Isa sobbed in a breath.
    The thing blinked in so owl-like a fashion, Isa nearly succumbed to the urge to meet its gaze.
    Hurling the empty vial at it for good measure, she swung around on her butt, braced her hands behind her, drew her legs to her chest, and kicked with all her might.
    She connected.
    It fell backward, flailing.
    Isa struggled to achieve her feet. Her legs responded as if her frantic commands to get up had to travel through molasses. Why wouldn’t her legs work? Gasping, keeping the Magic Eater in her peripheral vision, Isa hauled herself up the passenger’s door of the blue car.
    The creature hadn’t attained its feet, either. Nor had it taken wing. It struggled, thrashing like a beetle on its back.
    Isa still couldn’t feel her feet. Holding on to the car, she shuffled sideways, trying to put the car between her and the winged thing.
    Smoke puffed from where the Magic Eater lay. The breeze grabbed the tendril of oily, black smoke. It flagged down the monster’s body toward where Isa leaned against the car.
    The Magic Eater rolled and climbed to its feet.
    Isa’s heart thudded hard.
    Greasy-looking smoke rolled from its face. Orange goo seeped