“We’ve got you cornered now.”
Their laughter swarmed around her, taunting her bad luck.
Lucenna might have been intimidated last season, but she had been training over the winter. It was about time she tested her new abilities. The mages moved forward, striding through the puddles in the cobblestone.
They circled her as a sunmage said, “There is nowhere left to run anymore.”
Purple Essence flared in Lucenna’s hands. “I wasn't running.”
She had only been searching for an open space. Here was as good as any.
“This does not need to go any further, Lucenna” A lunar mage in dark blue robes offered her a kind smile. His white hair reached his jaw. He was young, perhaps sixteen or seventeen. Not an Enforcer, then, but clearly a noble. “After four years of running, you must be tired. Allow me to escort you back home in peace, all right? I wouldn’t want to be on ill terms with your brother if you get hurt.”
She narrowed her eyes. He was an acquaintance of Lucien?
At her silence, the young mage chuckled. “You remember me, don’t you? Well, it has been some time. I’m?—”
“I don’t care to know your name. You won’t be alive long enough for me to remember.” Lucenna clapped her hands together, conjuring a violent surge of purple electricity.
She cast it to the ground, and bolts of lightning shot across the wet stone like living eels. The mages not quick enough to block the attack were struck, and their screams rang out. Ten down.
The mages fanned out, and the crystals in their staffs flared with light. Their magic crackled violently in the air.
“Only subdue her!” the lunar mage commanded. “Our orders are to take her alive.”
Lucenna would rather die fighting. She had come too far to allow a mage to capture her now.
Running forward, Lucenna cast out spheres of fire at them. The mages blocked or dodged, some conjuring spells of their own. An earth mage waved his staff, and the water from the fountain rose up in a torrent. Lucenna spun and took hold of it, hurdling the burst of water toward the mage. It crashed into him, tossing him across the square where his body smashed into a building.
One more.
Two sun mages sent a sweep of fire at her. Lucenna threw up her shield, and the flames clashed against the protective barrier. Reaching for the skies, she yanked down her arms with a scream, and a barrage of lightning fell from above.
The lunar mage threw out his hands, catching the lightning before it hit him. Three Enforcers were not so lucky. Their smoking bodies joined the rest.
Lucenna sneered. “You need to move faster than that.”
A roar of flame crashed into her from the left. The searing heat sent her flying back, but she wove her Essence through the flames, turning them purple. Lucenna landed in a crouch, and the fire flared in her hands, building into a spinning maelstrom. The Enforcers gaped at her in bewilderment. They either weren’t warned she was a Transcendent, or they didn’t expect her level of power.
Lucenna released a tsunami of flame. It blasted through them and crested over the square, disintegrating everything. The charred buildings rumbled, debris crashing. Embers drifted down amongst the bodies. She panted, her veins throbbing. As powerful as that blow was, she had only taken out six more. Ten were still left.
Another mage stomped his foot, and frost crackled across the ground. Ice shot toward her like spears. Lucenna yanked her fist up, and a wall of cobblestone lifted at her feet, taking the hit. She snapped open her arms, flinging the stones out like cannons. The earth mage halted them in the air—leaving himself open. Lucenna flicked her wrist. Spears of ice went through him and the next four mages beside him. Their gurgled cries fell behind her as she faced the remaining five.
“Lucenna, that’s enough.” The lunar mage held up a hand, taking a step back. “Stop. It’s me, Artem.”
She halted, staring at him. “Artem?”
He was Magnus’s only son. The last time she had seen her cousin, he’d been a little boy.
Whips of orange Essence snatched her feet out from under her. She hit the ground, and another mage captured her hands with bindings of green light, tying them behind her back.
Enraged, Lucenna screamed, and thunder boomed overhead.
“She can still cast!” Artem warned. “Put her to sleep!”
A sun mage holding a staff with a yellow crystal marched toward her. She shut her eyes and fell into theEssentia Dimensiofor some manner of escape. But her heart sank when many colorful lights lit up in the dark void all around her like bulbs of falling stars. Essence of the Enforcers. Much more than she had originally counted. So many more were lying in wait in case they were needed.
Lucenna looked up at the glowing crystal above her head, her breath shuddering. Then her mother’s voice swept through her memories.Show them what it means to be a sorceress.
