The Invisible Ring

The kind of web Black Widows used for their dreams and visions. The kind they used to entangle a mind and draw it into a living nightmare.
    He struck out desperately, but the power only got through the shrinking spaces between the strands. Fed by his own strength, the strands in the tangled web swelled like fat slugs.
    Panicked, he tried again and again.
    *No, Jared! Don’t attack it! Don’t feed it!* Thera’s voice sounded like ice-coated fire.
    Trembling, he obeyed.

Was this how Garth had felt? Had he done the same thing, unwittingly aiding in his own destruction?
    *Hold your inner barriers, Jared,* Thera said. *I know how to get rid of this.*
    She didn’t sound as confident as her words, but since he didn’t see another choice, he again obeyed. His body was shaking, but he felt distanced from it, unconnected. If he tried to raise his arm, how long would it take his body to receive the message—if it received it at all?
    Without warning, a psychic knife came whistling down— a long, sleek blade, its edge glowing with icy Green fire.
    It hit his inner barriers with enough force to make him gasp. It struck again and again, slicing through the sticky strands, charring the severed ends.
    As sections of the tangled web fell away from him, little balls of psychic fire struck them, burning them to ash.
    He endured the blows as Thera’s Green knife continued to hack at the tangled web.
    Finally, enough had been cut away for him to be aware of something outside himself. Something that sounded like a roll of thunder, like the roar of a waterfall.
    Like the sound of power gathering before it was unleashed.
    *Leave it, Thera!* Jared shouted. *Get away from here!*
    The Green knife paused.
    *Mother Night,* Thera whispered, swiftly breaking contact with him.
    Jared shook his head to clear it. His connection to his body still felt sluggish. Strands of the tangled web were clinging to his inner barriers, making him feel tainted, but he was no longer imprisoned.
    Hands grabbed him. He stumbled.
    “Jared!” Thera shouted. “There must have been another spell in those buttons. I can’t tell how strong it is. I don’t know if we can shield against it. We have to run.”
    His legs just wouldn’t obey him. “Go,” he said. “I can’t run.”
    Swearing, Thera tugged him away from the rock, toward the road. “Damn you to the bowels of Hell, you stupid man. RUN!”
    She gave him a vicious clout. He couldn’t tell if it was physical or psychic, but it got his legs moving until he was running away from the rock, running up the road.
    Feet pounded behind him. Two horses galloped toward him.
    Seeing them burned away the last of the sluggishness.
    He ran faster.
    How dare she ride toward danger? How dare she risk herself? When they got out of here, he’d show her the sharp edge of his temper. Just see if he didn’t.
    *Blaed!* Jared roared. *Protect Lia! Shield Lia!*
    *Get down!* Thera yelled. *GET DOWN!*
    He saw Blaed sweep Lia out of the gelding’s saddle, pull her to the ground, and cover her.
    He tasted bitter jealousy that he was still too scrambled to use Craft, that he wasn’t the one shielding her, protecting her.
    Thera knocked his legs out from under him. He went down hard, then tried to shake her off when she landed on his back. Wrapping her arms around his head, she buried her face against his neck, and enclosed them both in a Green shield.
    The ground shook under him as the area around the flat rock exploded. Small stones and dirt rained down on them.
    Thera pressed against him harder and kept muttering, “Mother Night, Mother Night, Mother Night.”
    Moments later, years later, there was silence.
    Thera rolled off him, quickly stood up, and moved a few feet away.
    Shaken by everything that had happened, Jared moved more slowly. He noticed that Blaed, too, was slow getting to his feet.
    Lia, on the other hand, strode toward Thera, her face tightened by anger. Her gray eyes looked stone hard.
    “You stupid bitch,” Lia shouted. “I’ve been lenient about allowing you to use more than basic Craft, but I did not give you leave to play around with spells you have no training to handle.”
    “Nothing would have happened, Lady , if you hadn’t tried to block it,” Thera shouted back. “If anyone’s to blame for this, it’s you .”
    Jared shook his head, as if that would clear away the confusion. What were they talking about?
    “Who do you think you’re talking to?” Lia shrieked.
    “A sexless bitch, that’s who! If you had any heat between