His skin prickled as he searched the fog swirling around them. He sensed something there, lurking out of sight. His heart rate spiked as a layer of sweat sprouted on his skin. Had the Lycan caught up to him?
They flinched at Geon’s scream. His body hurled past Von and slammed into the ground.
“Geon!” He rolled him over onto his back. The boy stirred, moaning. At the sound of approaching footsteps squelching in the mud, Von took out another knife.
A woman appeared from the mist with eyes that glowed violet. A curtain of shimmering white hair cascaded around her stunning features etched in fury. It was the young woman he’d stolen the Luna Medallion from—the woman he didn’t stop to think twice about who she was. Which, Von realized, was a grave mistake when she conjured forth a blue sphere of magic in her hand.
He stumbled a step back. God of Urn. It couldn’t be.
The sorceress grants her sorcery …
“Release the girl and return what you stole from me at once!” she hissed. “I’ll not say it again.”
Von looked at Dyna. If he could he would, but Tarn would never accept his failure. “It’ll be the end of me if I do.”
Purple electricity crackled around the sorceress. “I will be the end of you.”
A horrid chill crawled down his back at Death’s cold hand brushing against his neck. This had been the warning he had since he left camp, the warning that his time had ended. He had no hope against magic.
No.
He refused to die here and never see Yavi again. He made a promise that he wouldn’t leave her alone in this world and he aimed to keep it.
Von’s boots shifted through the mud as he moved into a stance with determination. The knives flipped in his deft hands, and he regained assurance in their familiar weight. He had killed many with them, in odds as risky as this. He had not killed a woman before, but there was nothing he wouldn’t do to return to Yavi.
The sorceress narrowed her eyes at his resolve. “You have made your choice.”
She flung her sphere of blue magic. Von ducked, and it exploded behind him. She cast a volley of brilliant spells, missing him by a hair as he dodged and dove. Each move brought him nearer until he reached a good distance. He launched off a boulder and threw his knives at the sorceress. With a sweep of her arm, an invisible force knocked them out of the air.
Damn. He must get closer.
A streak of lightning came for him. He careened out of its path, heat singeing his neck. He rolled across the ground and tossed another series of knives, one after the other. She pitched them away with a flick of her hand. It was enough to distract her for a second.
Von sprinted for the sorceress. He dove under her last attack at close range and came upon her startled face as he slashed for her throat.
The knife bounced off an unseen barrier with a loudclang.
The collision rippled the air between them, revealing a transparent golden shield. She sneered. With a wave of her hand, a blanket of Essence ensnared tight around Von, sparks of electricity zapping him. He cried out, convulsing violently. He tried to break free, but he couldn’t move an inch. The magic had immobilized him. She flicked her fingers upward, and he lifted off the ground a foot above her. By her smirk of victory, he knew this was it.
He lost.
The sorceress pointed a glowing finger at him. Von stared into the vivid, purple beam and held onto the image of his wife. Her smile. Her voice.
I love you more than my own life.
The sorceress gently tapped his forehead. A blow exploded in his head as though she had cleaved his skull. His vision blackened, and darkness consumed his world.
Then he fell into oblivion.
Chapter 41
Dynalya
Commander Von hung suspended in the air by a cloud of purple Essence. Limp and lifeless. With a flick of her wrist, the sorceress released her magic, and he hit the ground with a heavy thud. He didn’t move. The boy who’d been watching the magic skirmish from behind the tree closed his wet eyes and dropped his head against the trunk.
Dyna’s vision blurred. She didn’t want Von to die. She didn’t want anyone to die.
“Are you all right?” the sorceress asked her.
