Get up and make yourself useful,Ciaran snarked back. His annoyance and impatience tingled down my spine as if his emotions were bleeding seamlessly into mine.
Damn. This was going to be a nightmare.
As it were, I was practically coming apart at the seams with far too much magic coursing through me and was in desperate need of an outlet. So I forced myself to get up, feeling Sage watching me as I followed Rian to stand next to Darragh and Ciaran.
They had managed to reestablish a shield with the use of the Light magic they used through me, and the Sylvan were pacing in front of it. The creatures were completely enraged, pristine robes whipping around them without exposing even an inch of what was beneath. I was almost convinced they were made of nothing but stardust.
I was desperate to unleash all the magic that the others had poured into me in order to forge our bonds. Rian had cautioned me to be strategic with how I expelled so much raw power. But my magic had always worked best for me when I allowed it to be guided by instinct.
Which was why I wedged between Ciaran and Darragh to the front. They instantly knew my intentions thanks to the bond and dropped the shield in front of me to erect it anew behind me just before I detonated.
My power had always been uniquely versatile just like the natural world that it mimicked. It was tenacious and stubborn; it found a way even when it seemed impossible. It was patient and gentle at times, and it was indomitable and merciless at others. I trusted it when three spiralling beams exploded out ofme to slam into each Sylvan.
The monsters were confident in their ability to absorb what had looked like Light magic and hadn’t bothered to block themselves. But what they had not expected was what Ciaran and Darragh had been holding back because neither of them wanted to risk wielding Rian’s power…
I was not afraid. I had already used my healing magic to seamlessly combine Light and Shadow before.
A wail of shock and horror erupted out of the elves as they were speared unexpectedly by the shards of Rian’s magic hidden in the Light. I saw blooms of even brighter white spreading across their chests almost like blood.
“I told you that I would fracture you,” I reminded them while they all stared down at their chests in what I could only imagine was complete shock. Then they raised their heads slowly, and the ground shuddered violently.
“Abomination,” hissed one of them with such vicious disgust that it permeated the air with a burning scent.
“Yeah, yeah,” I hissed dismissively as I felt the others experimenting with the way I had melded all the magics. Rian was as nervous to handle Light as the others were to touch his magic. But with access to my power and mind, they were all able to copy what I had just done.
The elves geared up for retaliation, but Rian, Ciaran, and Darragh lined up next to me and unleashed their own beams of melded magic. Even Sage was contributing his depleted energy as much as he could so each of us were pouring our unbridled fury into the assault.
And as one, we unleashed the wrath of the Wild Hunt upon the Sylvan.
The elves were able to block the initial onslaught that slammed into their shields, but the cores of shadow began to pierce through. Their shields shattered into shards of fractured light, and the elves were sent skidding backward across the flagstones with stardust swirling around them.
I could see the moment when they realized the tables had turned against them. Rian had been able to withstand them for a time with his shadows, and I had been able to chase them away with an unexpected use of Sage’s Light. With those powers now combined in a way that I knew the Sylvan must loathe, and then magnified in four riders, we had a chance to inflict some real pain. And the lines of light bleeding through their robes like cracks spreading across their bodies was proof wewerehurting them.
But it was taking far too much energy to keep up such a merciless barrage.
Just as I realized this, I heard a ringing sound that was similar to the vibrating tone of the portal doors opening. The sound grew louder until it was a shrill whistle that overpowered all other sounds. I fought the urge to cover my ears even before I realized there was blood caking the fur inside them and dripping out of my helmet.
“Stop!” shrieked someone from behind me suddenly, and I barely cut off the flow of magic before Amira had grabbed my arm and wrenched me around to face her. That ringing sound was cut off suddenly.
“What are you doing?” I snarled, although I hesitated when I noticed the metallic tang of blood in my mouth. Every breath was being dragged in raggedly and seemed to sting like I was sucking in tiny shards of glass.
“You don’t know what the consequences might be for hurting them!” she shouted at me. Then she turned her imploring eyes up to Rian who had also halted his assault and was breathing hard with brittle control.
There was a logical part of me that knew she was right. The elves had slumped to the ground before us with light fracturing under their robes. There was no way to know what would become of them if we continued to pummel them with Rian’s magic. Would they turn into Mavaari? Would that unbalance something vital somewhere?
“I know that you are hurt and angry, and I amsorry!” Amira insisted, her voice shaking with her raw emotions. “But this could have consequences foreveryone. You may avenge Sage only to doom him all over again with this!”
My temper flared in response to the suggestion that my actions could hurt my mate, but Ciaran grabbed my arm.
She is right. It is time to go,he agreed with her.
Summer,Sage whispered more urgently, his voice like a sweet caress in my mind. His soothing aura calmed me until I could finally start to let go of the ball of hatred that was clenching so tightly in my chest.
But theyhurtyou, I objected reluctantly.
And you have hurt them back. More than anyone could have ever expected. Now take me home,he pleaded.
That was a request I simply could not ignore.
