We slammed into each other, and I shot flames into his face. Energy lit up the room, his red countering my blue. The magic traveled through our weapons, adding another layer to the battle, turning each moment into a dance on the edge of disaster.
We came together, grappling for purchase, beating at each other’s wards with our power. His mist closed in from behind me, its acrid stench scorching my lungs.
Hesitation meant death.
I focused inward, channeling pure energy from my court’s core into my outstretched hand. A burst of light erupted from me, blasting his venomous cloud apart and scattering it against the dungeon walls. The room cleared, and I sucked a deep breath of untainted air.
Kerune's eyes narrowed with frustration, he moved with blinding, magically enhanced speed, flitting to where my fury still hung from the wall.
With his blade pressed against her throat, he sneered. “Drop your dagger. Lower your wards. Or I’ll drive this knife through her, into the wall.”
Her gaze pleaded with mine, and I knew what she asked.
Let her die. Use the distraction to kill him.
I gave her a subtle shake of my head and dropped my blade and my wards.
64
TEMPEST
“Sorry, love,” Vexxion said softly. “I’ll never sacrifice you to survive.”
We were both too eager to die for the other, but while I wanted to curse him for not taking the chance he’d find with my death, I understood.
Love you,I sent out, hoping it reached him.
Warmth coasted across my soul, telling me it had.
“Aren’t you two sweet?” Kerune’s lips twisted into a sneer. “Both willing to die for each other. Too bad the king wants her alive.” A flick of his hand sent Vexxion against the wall, pinning him in place with bands like the ones holding me away from my magic. He kicked Vexxion’s dagger, and it clattered when it hit the wall.
Advancing on Vexxion, Kerune snaked his knife through the air. “You, however, I’ve been told to eliminate.”
“No,” someone snarled.
My breath jerked in at the word, and my eyes widened as Airia appeared in the cell with us.
It was her—yet it wasn’t.
The voice was right, but her form had morphed into a thing of grotesque elegance, a being made up of carmine-red scaly skin. Her hollow eyes bored into my soul with an eternal hunger that made me shiver despite knowing she was a friend. Her hair, once lustrous and dark, now fell in gorgeous, red-tinged misty shadows around her face. Her skin stretched thin over her muscular limbs, and her fingers ended in long claws capable of unspeakable harm. Wisps of her dress clung to her frame. She was a glorious, monstrous princess.
No, the regal slant to her head told me this was a queen of all she surveyed.
“A wraith,” I hissed. “You’re the wraith.” From the board, the one hovering near the high lady.
I suspected the Airia I’d worked with in the castle aerie had died and the wraith took her place. Had she come to defend us, or would she strike the final blow?
“High lady,” she said in a voice cut through with shards of glass. She floated across the floor and stopped beneath me.
Kerune continued to snarl about all the things he’d soon do to me.
Do you see her?I asked Vexxion, and he frowned, shaking his head.
My friend had loosened my magic enough that I could speak with him.
She was darkness herself, and while I should cringe from her, I smiled.
“Welcome, Airia.” I shoved the words up my throat, making them burst through Kerune’s binding magic. “Have you come to play?”
