And I will make myself a thorn in their side for fuckingever.
Evram is struggling, but he isn’t grand magus for nothing. He manages to focus the magic of his wand so tightly that he can gather it, and there is a growing ball of white-hot angel magic at my throat.
I am screaming.
I am incandescent.
I am power incarnate.
And I ambetterthan him.
I have had to do more with less. I’ve had to be better than anyone else would dare to dream.
The power surrounding me, burning off me, I funnel into a single point. Like compressing the power of a thousand suns.
And I snap his goddamn wand in two.
Just like the last one after all. No matter how much power he brings to bear against me, the result will be the same.
The crack sounds unreasonably loud in my ear, like the snapping of a bone.
A surreal beat, in which Evram’s eyes widen in shock.
And then the shockwave blasts us both back with a thunderclap.
Chapter 14
Ifly backward, hitting the water with a crash. The shockwave took out my clever little walking-on-water spellandmy personal shield. That never happens: I literally learned to hold that shield in my sleep.
So I am more than a little stunned when I hit the water, am plunged under the water, hit the groundbeneaththe water which knocks the wind out of me, gasp, inhale water, start choking—
There goes my graceful fucking victory lap.
Anyway, it takes me a minute to first get my base shield back in place, because I’m at least that well trained, and then to get back on my feet and stop hacking and be able to see again.
Understandable, maybe, but in a fight to the death, that amount of time could have ended me.
Even if my spellwork is still on point, I’m clearly out of practice with the physical side of duels—my whole body feels wrung out from the choking, from smacking against the ground at speed, from taking the echoes of the grand magus’ hits while we fought.The only reason I’m not dead is because I took out Evram’s wand first.
That, and Nariel standing in front of me?
That sobers me fast as my hacking finally quiets down enough for me to hear Nariel saying, “You are not the only one who can infuse power into a wand. Merely the one with an entire cadre of angels behind you to back up your work.”
What the hell, he’s taking credit for breaking Evram’s wand?
I freeze as my brain catches up.
He thinks if the angels know I can break an angel weapon unassisted that they’ll kill me.
Fuck, I didn’t think of that. But what the hell else was I supposed to do?
While Nariel hides me from Koshiel’s focus, I take quick stock of the situation. All the High Earth guards are still keeping back, many still getting to their feet. Destien is hauling Evram out of the water—the old man’s arm is bleeding, probably slammed back into the shrine—but Destien will have him conscious again in no time.
A quick glance reveals Brook is much farther back than I left her, no longer anchored with magical binds to this world. She’s nearly invisible as she’s sunk all but her head below the waterline to be as unobtrusive as possible, but she lifts her arms to give me a quick double thumbs up.
Destien didn’t abandon her injured, then, and got her into as safe of a position as he could before returning to assist his superior officer. I’m honestly not sure what to make of that.
Then Koshiel says, “I sensed no angelic magic on her wand,” and my attention whips back. She’s calling the bluff.
