The sorcerer slipped The Eye into his pocket and began swirling yellow magic in his hands. “Okay, when I say so, you need to cut her left arm with the dragons blade and her right arm with the druids blade at the same time. Ithasto be at the sametime.”
Oh,God.
Ardan adjusted himself so that he was standing over me, then fell to his knees, straddling me, lining up the blades over my arms. Some part of me had sort of hoped he was some old guy with backwards views that might just need educating, but seeing him greedily hang over me with those knives, I could see his mind was sick beyondrepair.
Before I could think of what to do, the truth witch yelled, “Now!” and saturated my body with a yellow syrupy magic that coated my skin. Ardan’s wrists came down lightning-quick at the same time, slicing huge gashes into myforearms.
My dragon raged inside of me, as a burning like I’d never felt before laced up my arms, into my neck, and toward my head. It felt like I was onfire.
Fire.
My dragon couldn’t shift, not with these yellow bands, and I couldn’t blast out with my magic for fear of a coma, but there was one thing I could do without my staff, without my necklace. I dug my bare heels into the earth and prayed that Mother Earth was here with me, aware of what was going on and able to help. I tried not to lose my shit as green dragon magic lifted off of my left arm and orange druid magic lifted off my right, mingling into a purple mass beforeme.
Ardan greedily began to inhale and suck it intohimself.
I shut everything out—the burning in my arms—the fact that I was pretty sure I was dying—Logan screaming through the bond—my dragon trying to hold on—memories of my mother … I turned everything off and focused solely on the pulsing of the Earth's energy at myfeet.
I was Racine McCallister’sdaughter.
I was a firedruid.
I would be the death of Ardan if it was the last thing I did. Even if I died in the act, I vowed to leave Earth without his evilpresence.
I took all of this will, this might, and I pushed. I pushed so freaking hard that the yellow bands holding me snapped. Ardan’s eyes widened as flames began to lick up the thighs of his pants. If I burned with him, then so beit.
He blinked out of existence then, stopping the fire from engulfing him but also freeing me. I jumped up and the green, orange, and purple swirl of magic that had been leaving me slammed back into my body, causing the syrupy yellow spell to fall away too. My fire had been snuffed out, but at least I was free. I didn’t intend on letting them get the drop on meagain.
I ran my magic along the ground to where the truth witch stood, stunned, and lashed out again. Flames ignited him, and in a panic he screamed, patting his pants down as he ran, colliding with the barn doors and bursting them open. But not before catching the corner of the door on fire. Wasting no time, I ran to where my staff had fallen and wrapped my fingers around it just as a ball of purple magic arced through the air and slammed into mystomach.
The breath went out of me. It felt like I’d never get oxygen again. Heat saturated my body, sweat falling down my face, but thank God I didn’t catchfire.
I spun about in an awkward half crouch to see Ardan, free of my flames, standing ten feet away from me, purple fire in his hands, eyes alight withpride.
“It seems I got enough of your magic, I don’t need you anymore. This should befun.”
The flames that had lit the barn door on fire licked up to the wall, catching the dry wood instantly. I was trapped and that mofo had some of my power to use againstme.
I didn’t bother talking to him. I had nothing to say. I only wanted to kill him. I thrust out with my staff, blasting a bolt of purple magic into him. He hadn’t been expecting it and it slammed into his right shoulder, tearing a deep gash, crimson blood seeping from the wound. I didn’t wait for the next hit, I reacted like Isaac taught me, like the Earth was urging me. Pulling on my druid master, I felt for my connection to him; he was here, within my heart, always. The Earth had linked our powers and I was going to use that to my advantage. Bringing my staff down hard, I stared at where Ardan was standing, and sure enough the earth sank, grabbing hold of his ankles, pinning him intoplace.
I stepped towards him, staff pointed at his chest, ready to finish him off. The barn was getting smoky; I’d need to leave soon or burn alive. He threw his good arm out and a gust of wind picked me up, tossing me sideways. I sailed across the barn, trying to keep the grip on my weapon, unable to do anything but brace myself as I slammed through the closed barn doors, tearing gashes into my bare arms. Landing hard on the rough ground outside, I heard a snap, and then a sharp pain in my side told me I’d just broken arib.
Before I could even get up, Ardan poofed over me, holding purple fire in his hand, blood dripping from his injured shoulder. He opened the palm of his good hand, pointing it right at my chest. A gust of wind so strong it made my lips peel back pinned me in place. I couldn’t even move my arms to fight back or protect myface.
This was why Isaac had always said it would take the two of us to defeat him. Ardan was as quick as the wind! Stronger than a tornado, and now he could throw purple fire! I was soscrewed.
Just when I’d resolved myself to die at the hands of this maniac by my own fire, I saw a streak of black in the sky, coming up over the burningbarn.
Logan.
His wings blocked out the sun for a second and I looked up to see that Nadine was riding him, Sophie’s harpoon gun gripped tightly in her hands. Relief crashed through me at the sight of my best friend alive andwell.
Ardan’s wind magic cut off as he spun, to see what had blocked out the sun, but it was too late. Nadine had fired. The arrow sank into the meat of his abdomen. He cried out, losing the purple fire magic in his hand. I kicked out, free of his wind trap, and my heel connected with his groin. He keeled forward, rolling over me and to the side, hands gripped on the shaft of the arrow protruding out of his stomach. Just then, the ground started to shake. I looked up to see Isaac coming around the barn with Keegan, Eva, andDanny.
If we allowed Ardan to concentrate and regain his mental control, he would just disappear.No.This was ending now. I couldn’t live one more second sharing space with this douchebag on Earth. I popped up onto my knees, ignoring the pain in my ribs, and raised my staff, coming down hard with the gold stake, puncturing his thigh. He cried out and thunder crackled overhead as a great gust of wind picked up, tossing my hair allaround.
Isaac ran at us, and midway slammed his staffs into the earth again. Ardan’s feet sank four inches into the earth. That’s when the lightning started. How a man who could control wind, also controlled lightning I had no idea. Seemed like it should be a fire druid thing, but lightning arced from the sky and licked the ground a mere few feet from where Iknelt.
The barn was on fire, Logan was landing, and everyone was running to take cover. It was like a nightmare. The only thing I could do was push my fear down and block everything out. I extracted my staff from Ardan’s leg just as he somehow found the strength to burst from his dirt restraints and rise up, creepily as if the wind were pushing him from behind. He hovered a few inches above the ground before slamming back down. He looked weak, too weak to keep up this charade for much longer. Lightning came down again, and this time I thrust my staff up to catch it, for fear it would zap my head. The lightning connected with the staff’s crystal, sending a jolt of power into my hands. It was hot,really hot, but I didn’t dare letgo.
