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But when the explosion slams into her defense, the earthen shield shatters. Pebbles fling out. Some scatter across me.
Eliya stumbles back, unable to defend herself from Kaely’s next spell.
“Gelu’vinclair.”
Frost spreads across the floor, thickening as it reaches Eliya’s feet, and shackles her in place. The icy chains spiral up to her knees and then to her chest, rendering her firmly rooted.
All I want is to leap onto my feet. To face Kaely and prove I am not this weak. But my flesh is raw from the flames and my muscles protest at every movement. As does my head, which is rapidly plummeting into oblivion.
Eliya opens her mouth to cry out another spell. But before she can, Kaely callslaxusand teleports across the chasm she created. She appears in front of Eliya.
Kaely tears off the violet ribbon securing her braid and wraps it around Eliya’s mouth. Her brown hair unravels in thick waves. She knots the ribbon in place. Now all of Eliya’s spell-words are muffled. No magic springs to her fingers.
Eliya scowls at her, rage blazing in her expression. Kaely tilts her head as she studies her, amusement glinting in her eyes.
She doesn’t spend long staring at Eliya, though. She soon turns to me, a venomous sneer plastered across her face.
“Even two against one, you cannot beat me. You are this weak, and yet you believe you deserve to become a Mage of Nolderan?”
My nails claw against the coarse stone, cracking from the force. A desperate growl escapes from the back of my throat. I barely recognize it as my own. It sounds too pathetic to belong to me.
“Look at you,” Kaely continues with a dark laugh. “You’re so useless I didn’t even need to break a sweat to defeat you and your friend. Yet all of our tutors favor you. Even Archmage Gidston. How can they possibly think someone this weak is better than me?”
I hate that I can’t deny her words. Iamweak.
When Heston attacked Nolderan and murdered my mother, I wasn’t strong enough to save her. Over these past three years, I have dedicated myself to becoming the best mage I can, but despite all my hard work, I still stand no chance against Kaely. All those times we dueled inside the arena, when I thought we might be at least equals, I was so terribly wrong. With Archmage Gidston there, she was always holding back the true extent of her murderous intent, but today there was nothing stopping her from unleashing her full power against me. Even with Eliya’s help, I was unable to defeat her.
And if I stand no chance against someone like Kaely, how can I protect those I love from the horrors of dark magic?
Fury courses through my veins. My blood boils like wildfire. When I squeeze my eyes shut, I can see Arluin falling at the end of that narrow street—Heston standing over his too-still body. My mother’s face turning to me. Life fading from her eyes, along with the magenta glow of aether. Shadows suffocating her, swarming into her mouth and nostrils, chaining her soul to Heston’s will and warping her into a wraith.
Before I can realize, aether is brimming within me, flooding from my fingers and renewing my strength.
The pain through my head, my scorched skin—they all become nothing. They are insignificant compared to the anguish scarring my heart. Even after three long years, these torturous wounds have not healed. They have only festered.
Kaely doesn’t know pain. She has never watched helplessly as a monster murdered those she loves, unable to save them. And yet she dares to mock me, to stare down at me with that disgusting smugness.
My fists tighten.
Ignira.
My lips don’t move as I cast the spell. The words ring through my mind, drowning out every other thought.
Flames spin from my fingers, gathering into an enormous fireball. The inferno roars through the tunnel as it charges at Kaely. Without the restriction of spell-words, the magic is wild and unbridled.
Kaely is caught off-guard. When the fireball reaches her, she has drawn no aether to her fingers.
She is entirely defenseless.
Though she screamsaquisand fights off the flames which threaten to devour her, I refuse to let her escape so easily. We will settle this once and for all. Never again will I allow her to belittle me.
I weave fire and earth magic together into a fizzling orb of rubies and emeralds. “Magmus!” I hiss, flinging the spell into the stone beneath me.
My magic eats away at the rock and melts it into furious lava. I launch the molten earth at Kaely while she is still fending off my fireball.
The lava encases her and cocoons her in fire. I hear her calling outaquir’muriz, and then her shouts fall silent. The magma hardens into dark, polished stone.
Dread pools in the pit of my stomach.
