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The Queen’s head whipped round to watch me, a nasty grin forming as she opened her mouth to speak. She didn’t get the chance to make a sound though, as I conjured a blast of air with a wave of my hand that sent her flying across the clearing like a rag doll.
I ran to Briar’s side, crouching and checking her over. She groaned lightly but pushed up to sitting, giving me a wry smile.
“Thanks C, are you ok?”
I blinked. “Me? You just flew.”
She huffed a laugh and nodded to where our mother was dragging herself back to her feet across the clearing. “Yeh, well I wasn’t the only one.”
I winked at her. “You might want to stand back. I’ve got this.”
I helped her clamber up beside me and we turned to face our mother, together and united against her for the first time since we were children. Subtly, I cast a shield of air around the pack, who were torn between watching us or grieving their fallen kin. Liam and Zeke knelt beside their parents, still trying to revive them as the others stood around them protectively, and I knew the Queen wouldn’t hesitate to lash out at them if she had the chance.
“You littlebitch,” hissed the Queen as she marched back towards us.
As I’d predicted, her conniving gaze swivelled to the pack and her hand shot up, a shower of ice spears bouncing off my shield in the next second. Her eyes widened in shock as she realised what I had done, her steps faltering as she looked back to me.
“I’m going to suggest you leave,” I said simply, letting my fingers spark with power.
She laughed, though the sound was strained. “Do you really think you can defeat me, Cordelia?”
I quirked a brow at her. “I don’t think you have any idea what your daughters are truly capable of.”
I threw up another shield as she abruptly launched a wall of fire at us, watching it rapidly burn a path over the grass until it collided with the invisible barrier. Her flames seemed almost sentient as they crackled and curled to the edges of the wall, trying to find a way around, but I curved the air around us as Briar edged closer to me, finding it surprisingly effortless to control this shield while maintaining the one I had placed around my pack.
I sensed my mother’s power pressing harder, my heart pounding with the adrenalin of the moment even as I inwardly marvelled at how little effort it was to fight back.
“Ok, we just need to weaken her enough that she gives up on this plan,” I said to my sister over the crackling of the flames. “It can’t end today, but we can save the pack.”
Briar was looking at my shield in awe, a bead of sweat running down her temple from the heat surrounding us.
“How are you doing this, C?” she asked.
I gave her a half smile. “You should spend some time in the human realm. Then you’ll really understand what your magic can do.”
I pinched my fingers together, taking control of my mother’s flames and extinguishing them in a heartbeat, dropping my own shield in the process. I wasn’t stupid enough to maintain two shields at once, it would only drain my strength, and the one around the pack was more important.
The Queen was staring at me with a mixture of rage and pride.
“You really are more than I imagined,” she breathed, her gaze calculating before she gave a sharp shake of her head. “Not that it m...”
She cut short as Briar launched another ball of fire at her, larger this time, but nothing compared to what the Queen had produced. With a sneer, she deflected it back to us, aiming directly at my face and forcing me to extinguish it before it hit.
A gasp escaped Briar as, in my moment of distraction, the Queen flicked a hand and shot power at her, throwing her backwards. She flew through the air towards the forest border, and it was only Hawk’s quick reaction that saved her from smashing into a thick oak. Sprinting for her at an almost impossible speed, he shifted back into human form mid-leap, catching her in his arms and sending them both rolling into the forest and out of sight.
My gut dropped in panic, but I spun to face the Queen again, refusing to give her any more advantages and trusting that Hawk would take care of my sister.
“One down,” she quipped, raising a palm and sending a tornado of air swirling towards me.
With a wave of my hand, I calmed the storm, suppressing her magic once again as the air she was manipulating readily obeyed my commands over hers. Her eye twitching in fury, she pointed at my feet instead, directing thin whips of vines out of the ground to ravel around my legs and attempt to pull me down into the loosening soil. I reached for them with my power, needing only a nudge to send them back into the dirt and shake my boots free of earth before stepping forward and looking back to my mother.
The arrogance was gone from her face as she whipped up her hands and began to form ice crystals, stepping back as I continued to walk towards her. A wave of my hand had the ice melting away faster than she could conjure it, her hands wet and dripping as she gaped at me in shock and realisation.
I had enough power and practice now that I could defend us here, that I could squash her attacks without a second thought. She had already drained a lot of her strength while torturing us, wasting it on flashy, painful spells in her arrogance, and she would need a lot more power and the backup from her crushed guard to fulfil her plan here today.
I was under no illusion that we could really defeat her in this moment, the prophecy had been handed down for a reason after all, but this was enough to make her realise that she didn’t have the control here anymore.
She dropped her attack, reaching up with one delicate hand to smooth down her ebony hair as she glanced to the north. I smiled inwardly, knowing she was calculating her way out of here, but refusing to drop my guard yet.
