We continued our magical onslaught, and Matthieu thrashed, his rage fueling his sick determination.
He swung his massive claws, narrowly missing Fawn again as she jumped back into the fight, the glidaton long forgotten as the bone dagger was curled in her hand.
Fawn's elemental magic surged, a storm of wind, water, earth, and fire that carried her toward Matthieu with a velocity that defied reason as her spirit magic made her vessel illuminate.
The dagger became an extension of her will, a lethal dance of strikes that carved a clear plan of agony into his monstrous form.
Matthieu let out a guttural roar of pain, stumbling backward as he struggled to stay on his feet. We didn't give him a chance to recover, still continuing to throw our magic at him as Fawn lunged forward with lightning-fast strikes of the dagger.
But the battle took a sinister turn as Matthieu shifted with a surge of magic, revealing a smaller dagger in his hand. “Nice try, sweet mage, but I’m patient. If you won’t give in, I can always wait for another elemental mage to be born that will be better than you.” He lunged the dagger forward with the obvious intent to drive it straight into Fawn’s chest.
I could see the fear in her eyes as she tried to throw herself aside just in time to avoid the fatal blow.
Fear enveloped the bond, but before any of us could react, a dark smoke burst forth, and Jasper materialized between her and Matthieu just as the dagger plunged into his flesh.
The dagger cut slipped deep into his shoulder, cutting down, sending a spray of blood across Fawn’s face.
Jasper’s limp body crumpled against the ground, and blood slowly pooled around him.
Raw agony flooded our bond from him, and Fawn let out an anguished scream and threw herself over his body. His blood coated her as she held onto him, sobbing.
Jasper had takenanotherfatal hit for Fawn, but this time, the fatal hit couldactuallyhave killed him. The dagger was made for Fawn, but Fawn was the reason we were immortal. I didn’t know what the weapon would do to him.
I didn’twantto know.
His breathing was labored, and he was losinga lotof blood.
The only thing that could be heard throughout the throne room was our breaths and Matthieu’s maniacal laughter.
“Sunshine,move!” Casper snarled at her.
As soon as she lifted her head from Jasper’s chest, Casper sent a wisp of light directly through Jasper’s heart—killing him instantly.
16
JASPER
The worldaround me fell dark, and a cold sensation enveloped my body. I tried to move, to shout for Fawn, but I couldn't.
Panic surged through my very spirit as I realized I had taken the hit for Fawn—a hit delivered by the one thing that could kill an immortal mage…but I hadn’t been hit in the heart. The wound was deep enough to cause blood loss, though, and without a healing potion being able to work…
No.
I wouldn’t leave my goddess yet—Casper wouldn’t know how to survive without me either.
I couldn’t be dead—I wasn’t dead…at least, not for good.
Surrounded by a thick fog, I found myself in a dark, almost empty void, and I wasfloating.I realized I was inside Hexarium's spirit realm—the one Fawn had written about so many times in her journals.
But this place didn’t seem to be like the safe haven she had used to regard it as.
The dense mist seemed to crawl inside my spirit, and a coldness settled over my soul.
My spirit never fully detached from my vessel, and somehow, I knew it wouldn’t.
A pool of light blue magical power resided in this space, and a luminous thread connected my spirit to the large well of power. There were five more of them, and then the sixth was black.
Instantly, I knew the black tendril was Matthieu’s soul.
