“And what about me? I wore you three years ago during the Contest, and yet I’m still alive.”
The sorceress smirked. “The curse cannot work upon one who has already been marked for death.”
Ethan let out a vicious growl, but I merely frowned. She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. “Will you come with us? You are the last stone we need. If you give yourself to us, we can unite the Crystals, and this war can be done.”
“I haven’t yet made up my mind,” the sorceress said. “You have not proven yourself.”
“Not proven ourselves?” Ethan snarled. “We searched for you across the globe, and found you. We came here to Eiragrad. What more must you ask?”
“There is one more trial to face,” the sorceress responded.
“Then what’s my final test?” I asked.
“My power did not kill you when you used me in the King’s Contest. By that alone, I am willing to give you a chance. Defeat me in battle, and I will surrender myself to you,” the sorceress said.
“We will fight you together, and put an end to this,” Ethan growled.
“I am not interested in the strength of a wolf. It is the Worldweaver’s power I seek to test,” the sorceress replied.
“She wants me to fight her alone, Ethan. This is just like you and the wargs. I have to show her that I deserve it,” I told him. “You need to stand down.”
“We don’t know what kind of power she wields,” Ethan argued.
“It doesn’t matter. I know I can defeat her.”
I faced the sorceress, and clenched my hands into fists. “I’ll fight you.”
The sorceress smiled. “Show your power to me, Worldweaver. I will deem if you are strong enough to possess my magic.”
The sorceress cast out her hands. From within them rose flickering Unseelie lightning, black in color and profoundly dangerous. It ricocheted toward me, and I jumped out of the way. The lightning hit a pillar and immediately blew it to ashes, sending stone fragments scattering everywhere. I went rolling to the ground, and winced as I landed hard on my shoulder.
“Emma,” Ethan growled. He crouched down, preparing to defend me.
“Ethan, stay back!” I told him. He bared his teeth, but did as I said and stayed out of it.
I immediately summoned a battle orb and tossed it at the sorceress. It disintegrated the moment it came near her into nothing but blue smoke. She cackled, then sent another lightning bolt racing at me. This one slammed into my arm, and I gasped in pain. I pulled back the sleeve of my robe and saw that blisters were bubbling along the edge of my skin, and my veins had turned black. I found I could still move it, but not without pain.
I used my illusion magic to conjure dozens of swords that spun in the air. I hurtled them at the sorceress, but she dodged most and disintegrated the rest. While she was distracted, I ripped my sword out of its sheath and ran at the sorceress with a crazed yell. I swung it at her, and my mouth dropped open as I watched the blade sail through her body like she was made of nothing but the wind. The wolven stone in my sword made the hilt shake when it made contact with the sorceress’s body, and I had to grip it tightly so it didn’t fling itself out of my hand.
The sorceress gave a cold laugh. “Is that really the best you can do?”
I scowled. Okay, blades wouldn’t work to take this sorceress down. I slid the sword back in its sheath and began dual-casting with both hands. I formed a shield around the sorceress to keep her spells contained, but she touched it with one finger, and the shield burst apart. With my other hand, I cast a whirlwind of blue and silver magic, intending to wrap it around the sorceress. My goal was to imprison her within the whirlwind, and keep her contained until I found a spell that could damage her. But my whirlwind turned into a pitiful gust of blue sparks as the sorceress waved it off, slamming her hand back down so fiercely, it created a crack in the tower. Ethan shook, falling to the ground, while I struggled to remain upright.
It was time for some heavy artillery. I created cannons out of nothing, and shot them off, but the cannonballs broke apart with a flick of the sorceress’s fingers. I attempted to force my way into the sorceress’s mind and take control, but I found every avenue blocked. It was an iron fortress, with nothing inside but a deep span of black that I could tumble inside forever. I froze for a moment, locked within the reservoirs of the stone’s mind before I found myself thankfully loosened from its grip, my legs turned to water at the effort of breaking free.
“A sorry attempt,” the sorceress replied as she kicked me out of her mind. “That won’t work on me, I’m afraid to say.”
I wiped my brow of sweat and gritted my teeth. The Unseelie stone was sentient, but it didn’t have a true consciousness like a person did. I couldn’t overpower the stone without putting my own mind at risk.
I tried whatever ideas broke into my head. I rained down arrows, I created explosives, I attempted to make her see visions and hallucinate.Each spell died out before it had the chance to take effect.Nothingphased her. The pain in my arm eventually faded into numbness as I continued to hurl spell after spell at the sorceress. Everything I cast either faded into nothingness or sailed right through her body, failing to do any damage at all. At this point, I was just tossing spaghetti at the wall to get something to stick, and every attempt failed.
Meanwhile, the sorceress was keeping me on my toes. She used her Unseelie magic to destroy the floor I walked on, creating holes in the stone that, if I were to fall through them, would cause me to plummet downward. I had to watch where I was stepping as the stone crumbled beneath my boots. The pillars in the room fell over, threatening to crush me before I spun out of the way. I used telekinesis to hover the broken bits of brick in the air, tossing them at her with all the force I could muster. I must’ve sent ten massive bricks hurtling at her at once, but all she had to do was look, and each one turned to dust that scattered across her shoes.
One of her lightning bolts hit me in the chest, and I gasped. I swear I felt my heart stop for a minute before it kick-started again, and I fell to my knees. I clutched at my heart, before I had to scramble out of the way. I flung up a shield at the last moment to defend myself, and it broke into pieces almost instantly the moment her Unseelie magic hit it. Ethan watched from a distance, letting out low whines as he watched every spell I cast fail.
The sorceress gave a horrid laugh as she began twirling her hands over her head. A black orb spun above her, spanning outward farther and farther until I got caught up in the fray. Not of my own accord, my wings appeared. The energy the black orb carried sucked me backward, pinning me against the wall. I watched as tendrils of blue magic floated out of my chest and swam away, entering the body of the sorceress as she continued to let the spell fly.
She was taking my magic for herself, making her even more powerful… which was the last thing we needed. I attempted to stop her, and put up a block like I had when the leshane had attempted to drain my power, but she burst through my defenses easily and continued taking what she wanted. The familiar scars from the King’s Contest, where I’d worn the dark necklace, began to burn like a hot iron against my skin. I screamed aloud with the torturous pain, and Ethan gave a few worried barks.
