Cecilia scrambled from the place, ignoring the searing pain from the slap and her bound wrists. She rushed toward Miles, who was fighting to refill his lungs, his body slumped where the vines had dropped him.
"Miles!" she cried out, her voice ragged with fear and agitatation. She struggled desperately with the ropes binding her hands, and to her sheer luck it wasn't strongly tied so it loosened, then went straight to him. "Are you okay?"
Miles coughed violently, dragging in a shaky breath of air, and nodded weakly, his eyes still burning with lethal determination.
The leader of the ambush, witnessing the failure of the vine spell and the sudden paralysis of his fellow witch, bellowed a command to the remaining two witches: "I said kill him! Send those two to their graves, now!"
