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34
Raven
“How did you even get out?”I asked, hoping he’d go into an elaborate bad-guy speech. I had no idea what I was going to do and I needed time.
He grinned, showing his fangs. “I control light. I am the shadows. There is no prison that can keep me.”
My stomach twisted into knots as I thought about what I should do. This wasn’t about getting something from me. This was about taking me out. And I was not going to go down today.
It dawned on me that he had yet to call his shadow magic. Whatever his plans were, he’d kept the lights on. I had to attack first.
Quickly, I called to my magic and it surged through me, rising up in response to the fear gripping me. I lifted my hands and launched fire at the fae.
When the flames cleared, he was gone. But I knew he wasn’t actually gone. In the darkness of the vine covered enclosure, there were too many shadows. “Where are you?”
“Everywhere,” his voice filled the air around me, ethereal and echoing through the space. “Nowhere.”
I shivered, turning in a slow circle as I looked for anything that stood out. “Leave me alone. Just go away.”
“After what you did to me?” His voice was more solid now.
I turned toward it and saw him standing in front of me again. “You have no chance against me.” He clicked his tongue. “And to think, I offered to take you back with me.”
“You had no good intentions,” I said. “That book was dangerous in your hands.”
“And who put those ideas in your head?” he asked. “My old love, perhaps? The one who betrayed me before you?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I made my choice.”
“You made a poor choice, taking her side,” he said.
This time, when he used his shadows, I could see them. They slithered toward me like tentacles, reaching for me.
I darted away from them, my skin already crawling at the thought of him getting his shadows on me.
The shadows moved slowly, swirling like smoke. They adjusted, slithering toward me.
I wasn’t going to be able to outrun them. Lifting my hands, I called the fae magic. I’d had limited success so far, but I had some shadow powers of my own. I grabbed hold of his shadows and tugged on them. They resisted my magic, still fighting to come toward me.
I wasn’t able to send them away as I hoped, but I had enough in me to keep them from coming closer.
“You’re learning some,” he said. “Too bad it’s not enough.”
Sweat formed on my brow and I struggled to hold the shadows at bay. I didn’t know what would happen if he won, but I wasn’t willing to find out.
I pushed against the shadows, using everything I had to send them back to him. My magic hummed within, rising up to force the shadows back. The new magic I’d gained seemed to be waiting in the distance, unwilling to give me a boost.
The shadows gained ground, one of them slipping past me. It wrapped its way around my ankle and tugged. I stumbled, nearly losing my hold on the other shadows.
This wasn’t working. There had to be something else I could do. While holding off the shadows, I called to the new magic. The magic that gave me the boost when I was opening the portals. It felt different, but it wanted out. I could tell it was ready.
I grabbed hold of the new magic, forcing it through. I had to control these shadows. With a scream, I threw everything I had at the shadow fae, going right for the source.
A burst of white light exploded from me, sending all the shadows away and leaving me standing in a circle of light.
The shadow fae growled and quickly rallied. He sent his shadows toward me again, but they stopped short, unable to pass the light around me.
He pulled his shadows back.
