Angelique would have given the constellation the bug-eye treatment, but her lightning strikes had started a smolderingfire.
Angelique flung a water spell, putting out the patches of blackened grass that had caughtfire.
Based on the squeals of the goblin and the thundering of hooves, Pegasus was descending on another goblin. (And Evariste thought it was a good idea toridesuch a creature? If she hadn’t been so desperate on Roland’s behalf, she would have planned to walk the remaining distance toMullberg!)
That means there are two goblinsleft…
A shrub rustled, and Angelique started slapping another lightning spell together. When she looked up to narrow in on the last two goblins, her heart flung itself into herthroat.
One of the goblins stood in front of her, an arrow knocked in its crudebow.
She tried to discard her lightning spell and instead cast a defense shield, but the sluggish change was tooslow.
The goblin peeled its lips back in an unholy smile and loosened itsarrow.
Angelique steeled herself for pain and clamped her eyes shut…but feltnothing.
She slowly opened her eyes, her pulse throbbing in her ears when she saw the arrow hovering a hand’s width from her right eye. It floated there, the end of the arrow quivering slightly as if the arrow had been jammed into a rockwall.
Whatthe…?
A spark of silver floated past her nose, followed by a silvery flourish of magic. It took Angelique a moment to realize her core powers—herwar magic—had reacted, stopping the arrowmidair.
Her arms prickled in fear, but Angelique took a gulp of air and loosened her lightning spell, frying the archer where hestood.
Everything went bright, the earth shook, and the goblin was takenout.
Numbly, she cast another water spell when she could see again—putting out any tiny flames the lightning might have caused—and tried not to think about what her magic had justdone.
It wasn’t entirely shocking that her magic reacted on its own. Elemental mages commonly had such connections with theirpowers.
But Elemental mages don’t control bladed weapons. If my magic reacts on its own not to defend me, but toattack…
Pegasus screamed, jerking Angelique from herthoughts.
She looked up to find the horse galloping towards her, and stiffened. “What—”
Pain exploded in the back of her head, and she toppled like a choppedtree.
The ache made it hard to think, but she curled around Roland’s saddlebag, shielding him as best as she could. Her stomach rolled with the pain, and it was hard to seestraight.
A goblin screeched over her, and Angelique peered up, squinting through thepain.
The mountain goblin clutched what looked like a club. Its eyes seemed to glow as it wound up for another hit, once again aiming for herhead.
Angelique grabbed her magic and twisted it as quickly as possible before jabbing a finger at thegoblin.
Her spell hit him mid-swing, throwing him back head overheels.
As Angelique pushed herself up onto her forearms, her stomach protested, and the world tilted. But she grabbed for her magic, yanking a rock as big as Pegasus’ head from the earth. A push of a spell, and the rock sailed through the air, smashing the goblin in the head, downing it with a singleblow.
Chapter 4
Angelique groanedand let herself collapse back on theground.
She was vaguely aware she should use a healing spell on herself, but her skull throbbed withpain.
Her eyes started to flutter shut, until pain knifed through herfoot.
