Her chest caught with a frightened breath.No.
A spell circle flashed around Anon’s wrist, power pulsing. Gritting her teeth, Dyna conjured a flare of pure green flame and took aim. She cast it with a scream, and the blast blazed through the air. Anon threw up a shield. It blocked her spell, but the force knocked him off his feet, throwing him to the sand. Anon glared at her, furious.
He rolled to his feet only to block Raiden’s glowing sword made from magic.
“Get him out!” Dyna shouted frantically to the others.
Zev, Klyde, and Keena ran for the boulders pinning Cassiel, but red elves swarmed them. Raiden and Anon fought across the battlefield, their enchanted weapons and violent spells tearing through the atmosphere with their power.
Dyna quickly took a rope out of her satchel. Tying it to a beam, she tossed it out of the opening in the wall.
“Enough!”Leif roared.
She froze, and her heart sank. Cassiel was still trapped, and Anon had Raiden on his knees, a glowing blade at his neck.
King Leif clutched Garaea to him, a knife pressed to her throat. “We end this now, Altham. Either your son stands down, or you lose a daughter.”
Immediately, Altham held out his hands in surrender and dropped his sword. “All right,” he said warily and nodded at his son. “It ends here.”
“On your knees.”
Gritting his teeth, the King of Red Highland slowly lowered to the sand.
Everyone lowered their weapons, but Anon didn’t surrender.
The red prince sneered at Rawn on the ground. He was on his hands and knees, his wide eyes fixed on his son. “You’re right. We end this here, father. Beginning with the Norrlen line.”
“Put the knife down!” Altham shouted at both his son and Leif. “I command it!”
“Why? We have the upper hand. You have daughters and sons to spare. But this one,” Anon sneered as he pressed the blade’s edge against Raiden’s throat, making it bleed. “He is precious to them.” Anon laughed at Rawn as he shook on the ground, fingers digging into the sand. “Your son will bleed out the way your sister did, Norrlen. And I will carve my name into him next.”
Raiden glanced at Dyna from the corner of his eyes, and she read the message. She was the only one who could do anything now.
Taking a breath, she conjured a bow in her hands and aimed with a special arrow she had saved in her quiver. One with a hindrance rune carved into the arrowhead. Exhaling a breath, she released. The arrow flew across the field and pierced Anon’s thigh. He staggered back with a curse. Raiden twisted free and ran back to his father’s side.
With an enraged curse, Anon ripped the arrow out at the same time a ring of red runes blazed around Rawn. It wasn’t his Essence. The crimson veins of power streamed from the wounds in his body.
Blood.
They crawled over his hand and raced along his arm in twisting trails that glowed as Rawn chanted. The blood magic snaked over his shoulder, up his neck, and across his face. The glow in his teal eyes brightened as his power streamed out, shining through his skin.
“Still clinging to hope, Norrlen?” Anon laughed and strode toward him confidently, chanting a spell of his own. But none responded. He halted, staring at his hands.
Dyna smirked. Her arrow had nullified his magic. By the time Anon realized he couldn’t call on his Essence, Raiden had conjured bindings of teal light around his legs, trapping him in place.
The prince’s eyes widened. He grew panicked, flailing to break free as the crimson spell circle around Rawn bloomed with light and lifted into the air above him. The lines of blood flashed brighter. Pressure built against Dyna’s Essence so powerfully, and she felt fear.
The Red Highland elves fled.
The Greenwood elves ducked.
The wind went still, and all fell silent.
Rawn lifted his hand. A red glow lit up his bleeding fingertips, palm aimed at Anon. “You should have run.” Then he calmly cast his spell with two eerie words.“Anadaug Erg’nas.”
The spell blazed out in a sharp wave. A crimson blade swept clean through Anon and every red elf standing—like a scythe. The mist of blood sprayed into the air.
The prince froze, his eyes wide in disbelief.
