She didn’t bother trying to barter with or warn the goblins. She hit them with a water spell that burst above them, creating a torrentialdownpour.
The goblins emitted garbled screams—more bothered than hurt—but most importantly, the ones with bows were too busy wiping their faces to get another shotoff.
Angelique crept closer to Pegasus as she released anotherspell.
The scrubby bushes closest to the goblins swayed. Their roots—growing unnaturally fast under Angelique’s direction—shot out of the ground and wrapped around the goblins’ankles.
The goblins squawked, but most of them cut through the roots with crude knives or rusty battleaxes.
One of the lead goblins snarled and chucked a crude wooden spear ather.
She ducked, and it whistled past, just barely missing herhead.
Muttering a few words she never would have let loose in Evariste’s presence, Angelique channeled more of her magic as she prepped her next spell. Her actions grew frantic as the goblins started to step away from the ring of still-wet ground, and she released the spell as she finished twisting the finalpiece.
The ground beneath the goblins—softened by the water and shrub roots—snapped open, closely resembling the gaping jaws of atroll.
Goblins fell in the pitch-black hole, screaming as they tumbled down. Some scrambled at the mouth of the hole, but the rocky soil gave way beneath their claw-like hands, and they plummeted to theirdoom.
The lead goblin—who had jumped to freedom before Angelique managed to loosen her spell—sprinted towardsher.
Angelique stiffened and started to form another spell, but Pegasus charged ahead of her, loosening another few curse words of surprise fromher.
It looked like he would collide with the goblin, but at the last second, he spun around and kicked out with his hind legs, hitting the goblin with an earth-shakingcrack.
The goblin screamed as he was tossed backwards, hitting the earth with such force, he rolled and skidded straight into the gapinghole.
Just as his shrieks started to fade, Angelique’s earth spell finished running its course, and it snapped shut. Brown grass smoothed over the barren patch, making it indistinguishable from the rest of theground.
Angelique readjusted her grasp on Roland’s saddlebag as she eyed the remaininggoblins.
Most of the pack was swallowed up by the earth, but six of them had survived. They spread out, making it impossible for Angelique to hit them all with a singlespell.
Grimacing, Angelique twisted her powers into weathermagic.
Pegasus pawed at the ground—shedding blue-hued sparks that made Angelique nervous given the dry state of the vegetation surrounding them—and tossed hishead.
With my luck, we’ll defeat the goblins and start a massive fire. Because it’s not good enough to be fleeing the country so I can break the law and have a run in with goblins. No, we have to toast my buns while we’re atit.
“Pegasus,” Angelique called in her friendliest voice. “Could you perhaps be persuaded to return to myside?”
The equine’s ears went flat, and he bared his teeth at the closestgoblin.
Angelique made a face at the constellation’s backside, but her voice stayed pleasant as she continued to channel her magic into a new spell. “Please?”
The equine screamed a challenge at the goblins again, then turned around and pranced back to Angelique, circling aroundher.
The six goblins crept closer, hefting their weapons and cackling to oneanother.
Angelique mentally marked the two standing closest together—who unfortunately were also the farthest from her—and loosened herspell.
Black clouds swelled in the sky, and two white-hot lightning bolts struck the two goblins, frying them to acrisp.
The lightning strikes shook the ground and crackled with such a loud, thundering boom, Angelique’s ears rang, and she only saw white for a fewmoments.
When she could finally see again, one of the four surviving goblins was running for themountains.
Pegasus took off after it with a snort, catching it in the span of a breath. The constellation clamped on the goblin’s neck with its teeth and flung it, snapping itsneck.
