Pain flared to life along my spine as my curse was activated, but then almost simultaneously, my healing power kicked in to dampen the agony.
I hit the ground hard and then looked up into Blair’s face as she loomed over me.
‘I can’t fly. She’s using her powers to freeze me here,’Yanric warned from the ground next to me.
Two others emerged from the dark shadows: Erica and Mindy, Blair’s little sidekicks.
“Ariyon was mine,” Blair growled between gritted teeth.
‘I have the feeling we are about to get a beating.’I felt Yanric struggle, but he was pinned.
Suddenly an unseen force wrapped around my neck, and I was being lifted up off my feet.
‘I don’t have powers to fight,’I told Yanric as panic rushed through me, causing my heart to skip a beat.
‘Guess you’ll have to go old school,’Yanric said, as black shadows began to crawl at the girls’ feet. Yanric was able to use some of his power at least.
‘Old school, how?’I managed to think between my panic.
‘Punch her in the face, pull out her hair, kick her. On my signal,’Yanric coached.
A wave of pain rushed through me from Blair’s earlier touch, but the marks on my hands glowed and spun as the healing magic dissolved the discomfort. This seemed to enrage Blair.
“I’d be doing the school—no, the entire realm—a favor by…disposing of you!”
Erica and Mindy looked at Blair with shock. “Dude, we said we were going to scare her off, not kill her,” Mindy said.
My arms were pinned to my sides, but my legs were free.
Blair shot me a malicious glare. “She killed Ariyon and stole his powers! She deserves death!”
‘Now!’Yanric cried, and the shadows at the girls’ feet raced up to their faces and wrapped around their eyes, blinding them.
I snapped out with my left foot and connected with Blair’s stomach.
She grunted, keeling forward, and the power over Yanric and me dropped. I rushed her, swinging up with my fist, just like I’d learned in weapons class, and it smashed into her nose. Pain exploded between my knuckles, but the satisfying crunch of bone was worth it. Blair’s shrill scream rose into the night, and then Yanric unleashed a torrent of bird pecking. He attacked herface like a crazed animal, and she flailed her arms trying to get away from him.
Erica and Mindy took one wide-eyed look at each other and then bolted, wanting nothing to do with my psychotic bird.
A chunk of Blair’s blond hair fell to the ground, and I winced.
‘Okay, that’s enough. Let’s go!’I jogged toward the courtyard exit, but Yanric kept on his attack.
‘She was going to kill you! I want to disfigure her for life.’He sounded way too happy about his current position.
Blair conjured fire in her hands, and I growled at my bird.‘Let’s go! She’s got fire, so unless you want to become a ball of burned feathers—’
He backed off and soared through the air over the courtyard as I took off at a run. Adrenaline rushed through me at the narrow escape, and I peered over my shoulder every few seconds, waiting for Blair to come out with a stream of fire and ignite me, but she stayed put.
I slowed when I reached the guards at the gate and smiled innocently at them. Then I broke into a run again, racing through the West Side gates and down to my street. Finally, I stood, huffing and puffing before my door.
‘Holy Fae, that was…’I was at a loss for words.
Yanric stuck out his little pink tongue and licked Blair’s blood off his beak.‘Amazing.’
I shook my head.‘Horrifying, I was going to say. Blair went psycho. Do you really think she would have killed me?’
‘I don’t know.’Yan sounded scared.
