No other choice, Amma stepped out from around the pillarto face Delphine.
“Oh, there you are.” Delphine twisted lazily toward her, legs crossed, unconcerned.
But Delphine had no control over Amma, and so she sprinted, knife brandished.
The woman’s eyes flashed, and she snapped. A glint of arcana bolted through the air, and Xander’s shadow imps popped up just before Amma. Even without features, the amorphous blobs of haze looked confused, but only for a moment before their rounded edges turned pointy and menacing.
Amma slashed through the first creature, refusing to stop. The shadows only dispersed around her blade, but she could see through to Delphine still seated on her throne, amused. The shadows reconvened, blocking her, and claws dug into her arms. Amma grit her teeth and slashed again, this time cutting through the parts of the imp it had made corporeal to grab her. Something like blood spilled out of it, and it hissed, releasing her. But there were more, and her wielding hand was twisted against her back. She kicked through a pall of smoke, nothing there, and rammed her head backward, connecting with only more haze.
“Xander,” she shouted, “make them solid or call them off!”
“They’re not mine to control any—” Xander’s shout was cut off with a grunt, and Amma knew he would be no use. The imps were Delphine’s.
But Quaz wasn’t. He propelled himself off Amma’s shoulder, and his manic screeches filled the air as the pressure on Amma’s arms was released. She stumbled away from the cloud of imps and growing carnage. That bloody, black sludge Amma had cut out of one of them was flying everywhere. Quaz was but a blur of red amongst the haze, somehow tearing through shadow imp after shadow imp as they converged until it was only hisdiminutive form left, breathing hard and covered in infernal goo.
Elated, Amma almost went to him, but a shock of arcana overcame the imp, and he rose up without the use of his wings.
“Quaz!” Amma reached out, but the imp was dragged through the air, mimicking the flick of Delphine’s hand, and then the magic around him dispersed, and he fell into the divot at Delphine’s feet. Amma could not see into the pit where he had landed, but Quaz had wings, and once he recovered, he would fly out, she was sure.
Nothing left between them, Amma ran again, and Delphine actually stood from her chair, the amusement struck from her face. More shadow imps blocked the path, and Amma skidded to a stop—these were the last of the ones Xander summoned, but there was nothing to help her if she got too close, her dagger mostly useless against their arcana. She needed to fight magic with magic.
Amma sheathed her weapon on her thigh and turned back, running for the pillars.
“Kitten, what are you doing? You’re meant to stab her!” Xander choked out, but despite that he was clearly in pain, it told Amma he was still alive, both fortunate and not.
Amma reached the column covered in tangled briars and grabbed the lowest of the dried-out tendrils. Thorns pierced her fingers and palms, and arcana flooded out of her. Glass burst overhead as the vines came to life, trailing over the ceiling rafters and shooting downward, finding the imps and strangling them until they exploded into nothingness. Amma groaned as she felt her energy drain away, but it didn’t matter as she looked back over her shoulder, watching the greenery snake out of every crevasse in the temple and shoot toward Delphine.
The woman’s face blanched as the vines converged, and she jumped up onto her throne as if standing on the seat would be enough to get away from them. Amma grinned, sweat on herbrow. If she was meant to stab her, she would just have to do it her way.
But then Delphine’s face took on a stark coldness, and she screamed as she ripped both of her hands through the air. The struggle between the blood mages stopped, and Damien turned from Xander as if he weren’t there at all, striding back across the temple. Amma felt the magic freeze in her veins, trapped under Damien’s dead gaze, absolutely no recognition it was her he marched toward with ill intent. It had been so long since she’d been afraid of him, if she ever really had been, but now?
She whispered his name, stumbling away from the pillar. The blood mage said nothing, his strides long and fast, but then he stopped short, slipping backward.
Xander was there, the whip doubled over in his hands and brought over Damien’s head. In a choke hold, Damien was dragged back against Xander. “Oh, no, you’re not ignoring me for heragain,” he groused, white hair wild as he struggled to hold the blood mage back. Damien’s lifeless eyes remained trained right on Amma as if Xander were not even there.
“Enough!” Delphine shouted, and Xander and Damien were thrown apart by a burst of arcana that pulsed so strongly it cracked the stone floor. The men splayed out away from one another, and Xander spat blood as he tried to stand, slipping in the gore already there. “Did you forget that your injuries give me control?” Delphine ripped a hand downward from her spot high on her throne, and Xander groaned, a bolt of arcana running over him and pressing him into the ground.
Amma was woozy, so much arcana drained from her, but she still had her knife, unsheathing it and sprinting once again. With everything she had, she charged the woman, so close, and then she was rent right off her feet.
Damien had her by the arm, yanked backward painfully. Amma raised her free arm with the dagger, then gasped, quicklyresheathing it on her thigh. “No, it’sme,” she cried, but Damien didn’t give her a second glance, dragging her toward where Quaz had fallen.
Amma’s feet scuffed as she fought against him, but arcana that she had so recently delighted in wrapped once again around her limbs, forcing her to stand before him, that divot at her back. Amma was dangled backward, just like before, and then she looked over her shoulder.
CHAPTER 24
REVENGE-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
Forty eyes blinked up at Amma on faces smeared with dirt and, if she wasn’t mistaken—and she’d seen enough of it to know—blood. Quaz’s blood, most likely, since he’d fallen into the divot that she was now teetering on the edge of. Damien bared down on her, Delphine willing him on from atop her throne surrounded by thorns.
“Well, do it already!” Delphine’s voice was tight as she settled herself back down in her seat and eased her skirts around her. Lips twisted into a pout, she clasped her hands in her lap and waited, but Damien’s grip on Amma’s arm loosened.
Amma ripped her head back toward Damien. Hehadto recognize her, even with that deadened look, those violet eyes that said nothing, the tiny cuts and bruises on his cheek that weren’t healing like she knew they would if he were fully in control. She threw her free hand around the back of his head, unable to pull him closer, but she could touch him. It didn’t need to be harsh, she didn’t need to dig claws into his neck or tug at his hair, she just needed to make contact.
“Bloodthorne, don’t drop her!” Xander’s sputtering voice came from across the temple’s hall. It was a surprise to all of them, even Damien’s brows twitching at the blood mage advocating for her life. “Think of the talisman—it would be such a waste!”
Amma groaned in the back of her throat.
But Damien tugged her away from the pit and the hungry mouths inside. Amma staggered again, and there was a brushover her thigh followed by the cold bite of metal against her throat.
