Page 104 of Heart of Mischief

Rattatosk was ready for her attack this time. He dodged to the left, to the right, leaping into the air, dropping and rolling across the ground like he was putting out a fire. He was sofast. Charlie threw current after current at him, but they wouldn’t hold him for long.

She needed something bigger. Something more permanent.

Levitation.

That was it. She could lift Rattatosk as high up into the air as possible and drop him. It would be risky. She’d have to stop throwing the currents she was using for defense to summon enough power to lift him. Even then, she had no idea if she’d be able to target such a fast-moving creature. But it was the only option she had.

Now or never, Charlie.

She reached down into herself, searching for a current strong enough to capture a monster.

As soon as her defenses dropped, Rattatosk roared and took off toward her. He tore across the ground, claws ripping out stones and thick chunks of dirt along the way. Charlie panicked, her mental grip slipping every time she tried to grab ahold of a current. They slid through her fingers like sand, leaving her defenseless, and Rattatosk was almost there, just a body’s length away, his jaws spreading wide…

A pillar of shadow slammed into him from the side.

Rattatosk flew across the clearing, crashing hard into a tree. The shadow pillar bent and stretched, wrapping around both the monster and the tree trunk like a boa constrictor. It pulled in tight, pinning Rattatosk to the tree.

Charlie spun around, ready to yell at Elias for ignoring her and shifting into mare form. But when her eyes landed on him, she didn’t see a boy made of shadow.

She saw only a boy.

Just Elias, standing beneath a pine tree, staring down at his hands.

“Did you just…” she asked, trailing off in amazement.

When Elias brought his eyes up to meet hers, they were wide as Frisbees. He nodded.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” she whispered.

“Neither…” He looked down at his hands again, blinking. “Neither didI.”

Their moment of wonder was short-lived. Behind Charlie, a great ripping sound tore through the air. She spun around to find that Rattatosk had torn the tree out by its roots, using only the strength of his legs and back.

Good gods.

Rattatosk pulled at his shadowy cords, managing to loosen them. He was too strong. Too powerful. When the cords were loose enough, he swung his torso violently to one side, sending the tree flying toward Elias. Too late, Charlie grabbed for a current of magic to shove the tree out of the air. Thankfully, Elias was faster; he threw up both hands, sending two jets of shadow smashing into the tree trunk, shattering it into thousands of pieces.

The monster roared in frustration.

“Tell us who’s controlling you!” Elias yelled. He held his hands out to either side, conjuring a half-dozen knives of shadow fromthin air. The knives shot across the clearing, aimed at Rattatosk’s the chest.

“Never,” the beast hissed, springing out of the knives’ path and grabbing hold of a tree trunk with all four of his clawed hands and feet. Another shadow dagger materialized by Elias’s head, which he launched at the tree, but Rattatosk pushed off just before it hit, grabbing hold of a second one. Elias conjured yet another knife, and they repeated this dance a third time, then a fourth, then a fifth, Rattatosk leaping between trees like a huge, monstrous version of the squirrel he was supposed to be. “Besides—you’d never believe me if I did.”

“Try me,” said Elias, shooting one last knife.

Rattatosk dropped from the tree, landing on all fours on the forest floor. He let out a hideous, mucus-filled cackle. “It will change everything you thought you knew.”

This was Charlie’s chance. Now, while Rattatosk’s attention was on Elias. She took a deep breath, centering herself as she reached inward and grabbed the strongest set of currents she could find. She wove them into a net and shot them forward, praying they would hit their target—

But just before they did, a Tasmanian Devil slammed into Rattatosk’s face.

“Shit,” Charlie yelled as her magic lifted both Henry and her target into the air. She yanked on the currents, splitting open the net and scattering it in all directions. Rattatosk and Henry fell to the earth.

The vätte didn’t even miss a beat. He descended upon Rattatosk like the vicious tornado he was, going straight for his yellow eyes. Rattatosk roared with pain, swiping at Henry with his long, venom-laced claws.

“No!” Charlie screamed, but Henry was just fast enough. His flying blur of green limbs and nails and teeth dodged out of the way as Rattatosk’s claws soared through open air.

A hand closed around Charlie’s arm. She almost screamed before she realized it was Elias.