Water burst from the top of a bottle refill station situated at the front of the cafeteria and lifted into the air, swarming into a giant ball, and I instantly knew it was Viv controlling it with her water magic. Then she wailed a battle cry.
For the love of all Oreos, please help my sister.
She threw the mass of water at the dark mage, but the dark mage threw her hands up and sliced right through it, the water falling to the floor like a popped balloon. Viv’s plan had been most likely to drown her, something I’ve seen her practice.
The dark mage clapped her hands and stomped a foot. I reached for the sand on the floor, hoping to use it to tear at her flesh and stop her attack, but I was too late.
Her air magic crashed into me, and the ground shook below as her earth magic took root. Rocks and chunks of earth ripped through the flooring, and everyone was sent flying in differentdirections. My back slammed against an uprooted rock and my breath left my lungs. I fell and looked around for my friends. I couldn’t see Ender, but the others were all down. Viv stood and rushed to April’s side before meeting my gaze.
I took a deep breath.Screw it.
I stood and glared at the dark mage, who was now only ten feet from me. She drew a deep breath in through her nose, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.
“It’s just me you want.” I felt the heat of my magic rise—the same magic she wanted to siphon from me. “Come and get me.”
I melded my magic around the water at the feet of the dark mage and froze it.
“Ignis uror. Ignis lucidus…” I wielded a frozen shard like a knife and managed to slice part of her face. “Viam reperi, donec accendat.” I finished the enchantment and flames erupted at her feet. She screeched, the sound laced with more anger than pain. If it wasn’t obvious to my friends that I’d been using elements other than earth, it was now.
A black-veined vine wrapped around my hand and pulled it to my side with enough force to nearly snap my hand in two. I lost the fire that was holding the dark mage in place, and she closed the gap between us, her moves choppy but inhumanly fast. Her hand moved to my neck, wrapping her decaying, boney fingers all the way around. My heart beat harder as she crushed my airway, and vines slithered from my toes to my torso like a boa.
My body was pinned, and using magic without movement wasn’t easily done, especially with my brain in a state of shock and struggling to keep up without oxygen.
Ender’s shadow fell over her from behind and a sickening crunch came from her rotten flesh. The dark mage let out a small cry and released her hold on me. I fell to the floor, gasping for air. The mage glanced down where the tip of a knife protrudedfrom her chest. A second later, she let out a deafening laugh, blood bubbling at the creases of her pale lips.
“How old are you?” I whispered between coughs.
Dark mages were killable; you just had to get close enough. Their magic was strong, but for a dark mage to still be unaffected by our attacks, they had to have been hundreds of years old.
“You missed,” the dark mage hissed and turned around, grabbing my makeshift ice shank and stabbing Ender in the shoulder.
“No!” I roared as I got up, but the vines wrapped around me, trapping me once more.
Ender flinched, but moved to disarm her, blood pouring from his wound. He retrieved the knife in one solid motion and landed a kick to her abdomen. Vines grabbed his wrists and ankles, slamming him against a stone pillar and stopping his next attack.
The vines crushed him against the rock, and he grunted. The dark mage cocked her head toward him, her nose pointed upward as she breathed in.
“What a pleasant surprise.” She glanced between Ender and me. She thrust her hands to the side, her palms bare of the clan mark, and faint screams came from around me as she pushed the others back with a force of air magic.
A vine with black tendrils shot from her hand and wrapped around Ender’s neck. It pulsed against his skin as the veins on his neck turned dark. She was draining him.
Dark mages could only drain ether mages.
And it was going to kill him.
I thrashed against the vines, about to do another fire enchantment, when the dark mage’s hand grabbed me by my throat and lifted me into the air, her cloudy white eyes turning to me.
“You’re next.” Her voice was raspy, like a ghost, and for the second time in my life, I was terrified.
Her hands looked so frail, but they held immense strength as they tightened around my neck. My lungs burned, aching for even the slightest bit of air.
Ender stopped fighting against his restraints, his eyes fluttering shut.
My heart began to crack as if her hand crushed it instead of my windpipe.
The dark mage’s grip never loosened, though something felt different. Her hand was a searing brand—but not of fire. It was powerful energy, emitting at me like a beacon. Not just her hand but her entire body begged me to take it. The dark, deadly magic wanted to be siphoned.
It felt slick and greasy, like black goo. A voice in the back of my head told me to take it, but another warned against it. Was this the darkness calling to me? To take the power and take the plunge into the cold void?
