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With her attackers momentarily distracted, Jessie transferred her blade to her opposite hand and plunged it through the blond witch’s heart. The cloying scent of burning flesh scorched her nostrils as she watched the light fade from his eyes just before his magic whip flashed out of existence. Then she and Phoenix worked together to dispatch the final three in similar fashion, Phoenix going for the jugular while she mowed them down with her sword. She sustained another whip burn around her neck by the time she could refocus on Orik. He was thoroughly roped, on his knees, sweating from exertion, arms restrained at both wrists and stretched out at his sides.
There were still too many of them to fight off. If he couldn’t shift, they were as good as dead. Orik seemed to understand that fact as well.
He looked at her, eyes pleading, and choked out, “Run.”
She gnashed her teeth. “I’d rather die than let them have you!” With a roar of fury, Jessie unleashed the wild power within her, gave it full authority and allowed it to command her. She raced toward Orik, swinging as she went. Her blade severed the streams of several whips. She felt the magic snap and fizzle and managed to free Orik’s right arm and remove the burning cord around his neck. Color began to return to his face.
“What are you doing?” he hollered, his voice raspy, his tone panicked. “Get out of here!”
“Stay down,” she replied.
“Not a lot of choice here.”
Phoenix joined them at the center of the melee, her fur fluffed and back arched with aggression.
Extending her flaming sword straight out, Jessie addressed the witches. “This is your one and only warning! Retreat now, or you will die this night.” Sometimes bravado won wars before they even began. But she wasn’t bluffing. She felt the power mounting inside her, bubbling over. The ground quaked from it. Creatures in the surrounding forest began to chitter and howl. She felt them watching. Waiting…
“You’re the one who will die,” a man with stringy black hair shot back. “But not before Rathmort steals your power.”
“You mean the coward who ran away the moment things got real?”
Some of them glanced around, seeking their leader and visibly deflating when they couldn’t find him.
Surprisingly, Prince Gideon had stuck around, but seemed to be staying out of the fray, content to let the others do the fighting. “Finish them!” he ordered.
They all sneered at him, as though despising his audacity to issue commands, but did prepare to mount a fresh attack. Jessie could feel their magic building.
Hers was ready to erupt.
“You were warned.” Jessie knelt beside Orik and pushed all her power through her outstretched arm and into her sword. The flaming blade tripled in size. With all her might, she swung it in a lethal circle over her head. Many witches dove out of the way. Others did not anticipate the severity or speed of her attack and were severed at the waist.
Following the blade’s trajectory, the stumps of every tree within twenty meters snapped and exploded at the base, as though sheared clean through. The trees shivered and swayed, the wood creaking. Before they fell in disarray, she turned the blade down and muttered, “Skadoosh,” plunging it in the soil and pouring all her magic out in one massive explosion.
Everything outside the protective circle she’d built around herself, Orik, and Phoenix went flying. Rocks and leaves and witches and trees all sailed through the air on a violent shockwave before crashing to the ground several meters away.
Rising to her feet, she assessed the carnage. There was now three hundred and sixty degrees of wide-open space. A handful of the witches had been impaled on the spiky protrusions of the downed trees. Others were half buried by debris, but still alive.
Now freed of the witches’ hold, Orik stood and gaped at her with wonder and amazement. She grinned up at him, preening.How do you like me now?
His expression said,a lot. But there was no time for a happy reunion. A rageful bellow drew Jessie’s attention to where Rathmort appeared at the edge of the blast area, filling his palms with malicious magic. At the same time, Prince Gideon pushed aside a heavy boulder and clambered to stand. Fury twisted both their faces.
“How do you have so much control over your power?” Rathmort snarled. “You were like a child when I met you. A pathetic, ignorant damsel.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “That was never me.”
He gave her a withering look. “Doesn’t matter. You have killed many of my men. Irritating, but they are easily replaced. And now when I siphon your magic, I will be sure you suffer beyond your own comprehension. You will shriek in agony.”
Around them, Rathmort’s men began to rise, looking disheveled and numbering far fewer than before, but gathering a second wind nonetheless. She didn’t know if she had anotherskadooshin her. Her body felt drained.
Orik placed a palm on her shoulder. “It’s my turn. Stand back.” His body began to shimmer with the beginnings of his transformation. She and Phoenix stepped away, giving him room. One moment he was Orik, her gorgeous goliath of a man, then next he was a fire-spitting dragon, stretching his wings.Magnificent.
“Gideon,” Rathmort snapped. “Time for you to prove your worth.”
For a moment Jessie saw real fear in Gideon’s eyes.Not keen to get your hands dirty while overthrowing a government?
Rathmort shot him a scornful look. After another hesitant moment, Gideon shifted, and two dragons brutally clashed in a tangle of teeth and claws, each trying to tear the other apart.
Meanwhile, the hair on the back of Jessie’s neck rose. She turned to see several sets of vicious eyes trained on her. She could smell an electric charge in the air as the witches amassed power, tinged by vile intent.
