I scoffed, though the idea wasn’t a bad one. I just ran the risk of destroyingeverything, not only the rebels.
As I contemplated doing just that, I heard a shout from behind the blond Mage.
“Come and get me, you fuckers!”
Chapter 38
Rohak
It was the shrill voice of a woman, the statement loaded with a type of rage and pain that could only come from someone who had been through hell and back.
I couldn’t make out her features in the dark, but I could imagine the etching of fury on her face.
The blond man spun and swore, the flames behind me suddenly dying. I took a chance and ran over the singed line of stone, making a quick decision to veer toward Jax and Sol. A quick glance told me that they were the only two of our Mages left standing and fighting on this side of the street.
I swore as Sol was hit simultaneously by a blast of Pain and rooted to the spot as vines from an Earth Mage held her to the ground. She rendered a scream that sounded like the keening of a wounded animal, her body collapsing to the stones as she tried to claw at her chest. Her Vessel immediately dropped next to her and tried to keep her hands away from her breast, where she was urgently digging. Sol’s fingers were already covered in blood, her nails broken to the quick as she dug through leather and muscle. She fought against her Vessel, screaming all the while.
Eventually the Earth Mage overpowered Sol’s Vessel and strapped him to the ground with vines that slowly tightened until he was unable tobreathe. Sol’s hands immediately flew back to her chest, carving through muscle and bone, blood sluicing through the widening hole in her torso.
She’s going to claw out her own heart. The thought had me quickening my pace and I got as close as I could without alerting the Mages to my presence.
Without sparing another minute, I called forth my Destruction Magic from the crystals pressed tightly to the skin on my forearm.
The rush was immediate and the feeling heady, like a drug that offered to pull me into a constant high. The feeling of finally touching my power again after a prolonged period of abstinence was euphoric, a feeling so ecstatic it was borderline sexual. I moaned in spite of myself, the sound swallowed by the night and battle raging around me. My magic rushed through my veins, activating the latent power in my blood, and I opened my eyes to the familiar sight of ash curled with embers lit in my palm.
I sighed, finally feeling whole and complete once more, before I unleashed a wave of magic so powerful it almost knocked me off my feet.
I sent my ashes and embers after the Pain Mage first, his eyes widening comically as he quickly withdrew his power from Sol and tried, vainly, to send a burst at me. My Destruction ate his feeble attempts in the air before they even had a chance to hit me. The Pain Mage scrambled back, trying to outrun my magic, but nothing could outrun Destruction Magic once it had a target.
My ashes and embers quickly wound around his body, encasing him so thoroughly that I could only see his outline through the thick smoke.
“Feast,”I growled, and my power listened. I felt a surge as my magic devoured the Pain Mage, the innate magic in his blood traveling back to me and into my own, and I quickly turned my cloud of Destruction to the Earth Mage who had both Sol and her Vessel pinned. My eyes would be sparking and glowing by now, the color matching the embers in my magic.
The cloud of Destruction wrapped around the Earth Mage and devoured him just as quickly. I got a rush from the innate magic running through my blood and, with great effort, pushed my power back down, cutting off my channeling through the crystals.
I would have to find a way to burn off some of the extra innate magic I now carried, or I would risk inadvertently drawing on my power when I was unconscious. I took a few heaving breaths once my magic was controlled again, feeling bereft and cold at the sudden loss. My hair was plastered tomy head with sweat and my hands shook as I took quaking steps toward the ground where Sol and her Vessel lay, still.
I fell rather ungracefully to the ground and quickly checked for breathing and a pulse on both. Sol’s was weak, but present, while her Vessel’s was strong. He groaned as I checked him for wounds and sat up in a daze.
“Thandi, I need you to listen to me, quickly.” My power was humming in my veins, just out of reach, and I needed to expend it and protect my other Mages. “You need to stem the blood on Sol’s chest and get her somewhere safe, can you do that?” Thandi groaned again, his head in his hands, but nodded.
“Very good,” I said and pushed myself quickly to my feet.
I surveyed the scene, finding my next fight when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. The blond man was fighting someone as they grabbed at a woman standing just outside the inn.
Who was he fighting?I didn’t recognize the Mage and I turned my feet and made my way toward the commotion.
As I got closer, the realization dawned on me. The blond man was fighting one of his own Mages.
But why?The day and circumstances just kept getting stranger, and more than ever, I recognized the need to bring one of them home with us.
My gaze inadvertently met that of the woman’s and her eyes shone with defiance. She lifted her chin slightly as if challenging me to step toward her. She was pale and gaunt, her curly hair matted in a bun on her head. Strange tattoos trailed down her arms and hands, and she cocked her head as if studying me when I didn’t rise to her challenge.
Something about the woman drew me toward her, I don’t know if it was the magic in my veins or the defiance in her gaze, but I found myself drawn to the conflict between the blonde Mage and the rebel. They were scuffling, hand-to-hand, and I wondered why the Mage didn’t simply use his magic.
“We need the bitch!” the rebel, a short and scrappy teenager with a pockmarked face, said as he tried to wriggle out of the blond man’s grasp.
The blond Mage didn’t say anything, he just tightened his grip on the other, but I could see the younger man breaking his hold. The younger man suddenly twisted and drove the heel of his palm into the blond man’s chest, winding him. The rebel instantly turned and ran to where the woman wasstanding, her eyes widening slightly. She took a sharp step back, and the rebel crashed against the wards.
