No, Dyna was sure of it. This power had the same potency as when the sorceress had trapped her in a rift in the Time Gate. And now her spells ripped through the air, violent and powerful, fueled by an intensity that only meant one thing. She was fighting for her life.
Dyna ran into the trees, and Cassiel muttered a curse.
“Wait!” Zev sprinted after her.
“We mustn’t interfere in mage battles,” Rawn said.
Zev caught her arm. “What are you doing?”
“She’s in danger.”
“How do you know it’s her?”
“I know it’s the sorceress, Zev. I’ve felt her magic before. If this is what I think it is, she will need our help,” she said, and his face tensed. He knew about the history of her village and what women faced in Magos.
The sorceress was a refugee. To be fighting like this meant Enforcers had found her. Dyna couldn’t simply ignore that. Neither could he.
Zev inhaled a breath, growing serious. “If so, I’ll help her, but you will stay back. They cannot see you.”
She nodded, and they ran together for the sounds of the battle, the others following close behind.
The rain pattered loudly against the leaves, and an icy wind wailed. Flares of color and lightning lit the woods in split-second flashes, each a warning before a deafening explosion. Their boots squelched through leaves and mud as they followed the sporadic lights beyond the backdrop of convulsing, dark clouds.
They reached the end of the woods when a blue blaze came for them. Rawn ducked. Zev yanked Dyna out of the way. Cassiel dove over her, his wings splaying open to cover them. The spell smashed through a tree, splintering it to pieces. Burning debris hit him, and she winced at his pained grunt. Her back ached as if it had hit her instead. Cassiel shook off the splintered wood as he stood.
“This was a fine idea,” he said stiffly. “When are you not seeking to get yourself killed?”
Dyna ignored his offered hand and got to her feet. “About as often as you seek to be so ill-tempered.”
Zev motioned for them to be quiet and hide. She lowered behind a large boulder with him and peered out.
The sorceress stood in the center of a field with vivid purple light outlining her silhouette. Long white hair whipped around her in the raging tempest. Purple light flared over her hands, up her arms, and neck. The power crackling in the air prickled against Dyna’s senses. The glow in the sorceress’s eyes brightened as rage transformed her delicate features.
The hooded figures surrounding her threw a volley of spells. Her angry screams rang amongst the blasts as she hurled spells in return. They deflected her attacks and the earth burst where they hit, dirt blasting with ear-splitting explosions. Dyna choked on smoke and the magic strangling the atmosphere with static.
A mage lifted a staff with a light blue crystal, and three pillars of water formed in the air like volatile sea creatures that snaked for her. She threw out her hands and a blast of electricity pierced through the spirals of water and struck the mage. The attack launched his burning body across the field, his screams wailing overhead. He crashed by where they hid in a smoking heap, breaking his neck on impact, and the glow faded from his eyes. Two more bodies already lay on opposite sides of the field.
Dyna exchanged an awed look with Zev.
“She may not need our help,” he said.
But seven mages remained. They continued their onslaught of assaults. Water, fire, earth, wind—a wild mix of elements brutally attacking the sorceress at once. She strained under their force, holding out her trembling arms as she defended herself with her magic. Dyna read the exhaustion on her face. Power spilled from her in relentless droves. Too much. Elves and the fae drew their power from nature, and overuse rendered them exhausted, but mages drew power from themselves, and there was a limit to how much they contained.
Dyna shook her head. “She won’t last much longer at this rate, not against so many.”
The sorceress reached for the sky and slammed down her fist, spearing a mage with a blade of lightning—another dead. Thunder boomed in the sky, and a barrage of lightning bolts speared the field. The mages leaped out of the way, some throwing shields, others returning an attack to counter. The sorceress stumbled, and her arms fell limp at her sides. Her wet hair clung to her face, shoulders heaving.
The mages closed in on her.
“There are too many,” Dyna said. “She can’t fight them all by herself.”
Zev grabbed her when she tried to stand.“Stay.”
“But—”
“We cannot fight against their power,” Cassiel said on the other side of her.
“Be that as it may, I will not stand by while they outnumber her,” Rawn said. He withdrew an arrow from his quiver and loaded his bow.
