“I’m better now,” she promised, squeezing my arm as I helped her up off the ground. “And Matthieu and his fuckinghordeneed to die.”
Her wind magic surged, propelling her forward with an unprecedented swiftness toward Matthieu.
He and his horde were caught off guard, a momentary hesitation that allowed Fawn to launch a devastating attack of spiritual energy.
She closed the distance between them, her hand clenching around his swollen neck. The dagger sparked ominously with magic as it plunged into his chest cavity with a sickening squelch.
Matthieu's form staggered, surprise contorting his features, his monstrous physique reeling from the unexpected assault. But Fawn wasn't done, and she gave him no time to recover. She pulled the dagger out and shoved it into him again and again until she couldn’t anymore.
Her knuckles were white from how tight she held the dagger during the relentless attacks, but it didn’t stop her from delivering one final powerful blow with every ounce of strength that remained inside of her and us.
A thunderous roar reverberated through the chamber, Matthieu's pain and fury merging into a primal scream of torment.
“His spirit is stillveryattached to his vessel!” she cried out.
The blood pouring from his chest wasn’t the same as it would’ve been had she hit him in the heart. There wasn’tenoughblood for that.
A chilling revelation that sent a shockwave of dread through the bond.
The force of her wind magic around her turned into a hurricane-like gust that sent him flying across the room and crashing into the stone wall with a deafening thud. The monsters beside him howled in pain and fear as they scrambled away from us, trying to escape before they were hurt again.
Phantom pains were true in bonds, even for monsters, it seemed.
The dagger forged to end himhadn’tkilled him, but it certainly hurt him—which could only mean one thing…
My heart raced as I watched the battle unfold, my mind racing to decipher a solution.His heart wasn’t in his chest.
“His heart isn’t in his chest!” I shouted at her the moment the thought came to mind.
“What?” she exclaimed, panting heavily as she tried to catch her breath.
I pointed at his chest. “He must’ve moved it somewhere else when he transformed! We need to find it, love, or we won’t be able to defeat him!”
Determination radiated from her every pore as she readied the bone dagger, her movements a blur of calculated strikes that aimed to uncover Matthieu's heart. The onslaught of stabs elicited agonized bellows from him as he tried to escape.
He bellowed in pain and rage before an opening presented itself. He seized Fawn by the waist and hurled her across the room, her body colliding with the unforgiving stone wall.
My heart constricted as I watched her impact. Her vessel collided against the unforgiving stone surface, and the bone dagger slipped from her grasp as she dropped.
Pulling a few more healing potions from my rune, I flicked my wrist and sent the potions toward her.“Drink them now!”
Fawn was able to catch them with her wind magic and glide them to her to take safely, and unlike the first time, the potions worked through her body alarmingly well.
She was up on her feet and fighting against a glidaton with her magic to retrieve the bone dagger again.
“Buy me time!” she shouted at us, sending a jolt of adrenaline through us.
Aimon slammed his hands against the ground, causing the earth to tremble. He summoned sharp stone spikes that pierced Matthieu’s flesh.
He roared in pain, but his resilience was impressive for an insane mage-turned-monster.
Silas moved forward, his palms swirling with water as he conjured a torrential rain that cascaded down upon Matthieu, soaking his body and chilling him to the core as a sheet of ice built on his skin. As the rain intensified, the small chilly rivulets turned into bitter raging streams, threatening to sweep him off his feet.
Casper sent beams of golden light shooting toward him as the rain skewed his vision, forming radiant chains that wrapped around his limbs, restricting his movements.
Jasper weaved wisps from the shadows as he summoned darkness that snaked its way around him, sapping his strength and eroding his defenses.
I joined the assault, sending forth potions brewed to cause muscles to contort and ripple with pain. He writhed from the agony that must’ve been zapping at his vessel.
