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I didn’t feel poisoned. Something had gone wrong with his plan, but I didn’t know what poison he thought he’d used to fake it. Maybe diaxa again? Was it not working because it had been too diluted? I hadn’t swallowed enough? He had every soldier here watching me. Maybe it was best to keep them waiting, watching? Should I fall down or play it slower?
I looked down, by the bottom of the desk. Mouse man was gone, but he’d left little wet footprints behind. Had he fixed the pool somehow? Added some sort of neutralizer?
A loud crashing sound came from somewhere else in the building. It was too loud to be anything but a breach of the fortress. Herrick immediately looked to the door. His soldiers were tense, waiting on orders.
There were more crashing noises erupting from the entrance, along with screaming. We were close, but still so outnumbered. We needed the head of the snake.
“Half of you go, see what that was,” Herrick said, pointing to the door.
Kaden had told me to stall, not do anything drastic. Just stay alive. But if I let these soldiers go and Kaden didn’t have reinforcements yet, he might die.
There was no thinking. I just acted.
“No.” It came out like a deep growl, vibrating through the room. I didn’t know my own voice as all the men around me flew off their feet and went smashing into the walls, their bodies colliding and then dropping to the ground. If they were still conscious, they were lying there groaning.
Except for Herrick. He was still standing. How had he managed that?
“That won’t work on me. Not anymore, anyway.” He walked around the desk, getting closer to me. “Seems the poison might not have worked for whatever reason, but that’s all right. Don’t you want to know why?”
“Sure. Enlighten me?”
He pulled out a chain he had around his neck with a glowing green stone. “I wasn’t allowed to wear this when we met at Erquin’s, but it comes in handy at times. It’s a new trinket I picked up. See how it’s glowing? That’s because you just gave it an awful large charge of power when you sent off that blast.”
There was more screaming from beyond our room, drawing Herrick’s attention. I didn’t know if we were winning or it was a bloodbath, but I could still feel Kaden’s presence. He was still alive, at least for now.
Herrick refocused on me. “Want to see what it can do? How well you charged it?”
He wrapped his hand around the stone, and it blazed to life. I was blasted across the room, crashing into the wall and then falling on top of one of the unconscious soldiers like a rag doll.
I lay there, my head spinning, my shoulder broken, or at least dislocated.
“That was just a teaser,” he said, his voice dull as my ears rang. “Shall we do it again? How many rounds do you think you can take? I know you’re marked, so I’d imagine more than most. But is it limitless damage? I think not, but we’ll find out.”
He wrapped his hand around the stone again, and I was lifted, once again flying through the air—but this time I knew what was coming. I focused my own power, not at him, but to cushion the blow. If I directed anything at him, he’d absorb it. But if I could keep myself alive…
I didn’t slam into the wall this time, but instead felt as if I’d been rammed against a vat of honey, and then slid down slowly.
“Oh, that was tricky,” he said. “Very interesting. How many times do you think you can keep that up? I have to say, you’re much more formidable than your dear old grammy ever was.” He loomed over me, leering.
I knew his game. He wanted power, needed it, and he’d goad me into giving it. I wouldn’t.
“She wasn’t so much a fighter as a follower, ado whatever you needtype. You know,anythingI needed. Didn’t matter how depraved or sordid, she could be counted on.”
I lay there, calm, hearing the commotion that was growing closer, hoping I was buying them enough time.
“She told me stories about your family. How your mother was a useless drunk who didn’t care for you. How your father didn’t want you to have his name. The only reason your grandmother liked you at all was she thought you might be useful. That’s it. She didn’t love you either.”
He squatted in front of me, trying to break me down, saying anything that would make me crack.
And I realized I didn’t care. None of it mattered to me anymore. I didn’t need their affection or approval. None of them. I had a true love that nothing else compared to. Not just Kaden, but I had a lot of love, from many people. It hadn’t ever been me. I wasn’t the defective one. My family had been.
I stared back at him and smiled. “That’s it? That’s all you have? Because it’s not enough.”
Herrick looked down at me, his face contorting in rage, turning bright red because he couldn’t break me. He lunged forward, wrapping his hands around my neck.
He was choking me, and if I blasted him off, he’d use that power to turn around and kill me. If I didn’t, I was dead anyway. I was doomed either way, but if I blasted him, he might have power left in the amulet to hurt Kaden.
I wrapped my hands around his wrist, resisting the urge to give him even a trickle of my power.
