Bab 214: You won't make it

When the images faded and the voices died down, the pain grew to another level as black claws began to protrude out of Gideon's fingers, and his skin discolored when black veins surfaced underneath them. 

With great difficulty and gritted teeth, he chanted a spell, repeating it three times before the veins disappeared. The claws, however, remained. 

Evident relief appeared on his face and the groanings ceased. He let out a deeply drawn breath, then opened his eyes to reveal completely black irises.

He waited for a second later before chanting another spell that retracted the claws, and was about to chant a third one when he realized instead of just two heartbeats, there was a third one. Someone else was in there with them.

Gideon quickly tracked the direction the sound of Salma's heartbeat was coming from, and realized the other person was moving in that direction. Forgetting about chanting the last spell, he sprang to his feet, and started toward Salma.