Anna’s hand on my arm trembled with the strength of the maelstrom as it scorched through Lucas and her, to me.
That power was terrifying, but I sensed it was only a fraction of what the Perditor could deliver. A stream, rather than a river, scaled down to what Lucas could handle. Even then, his pain was palpable.
I took what they offered and pushed my power harder. The tendrils crashed up against the bloodmagic, but it couldn’t penetrate. The battle sizzled through me, painting my mind in color—blood crimson, writhing through my pulses of blue and green.
Isobel’s lips peeled back in a smile of triumph. “Can’t do it, can you?” she taunted. “I am too powerful, even for the Perditor.”
“You are delusional, Isobel.” I spoke through clenched jaws. “If he were here—you two would take the realm down.”
“But he isn’t here,” she hissed. “And you don’t have what it takes.”
Lucas screamed as light flashed, and a pulse of agony surged through me.
The power cut off, and Isobel’s eyes gleamed in triumph as the bloodmagic reached for me.
“Now,” she said. “You will do my bidding!” The bloodmagic scorched through my brain, washing away everything I was…
I screamed, but even as another lash of Finn’s cursed whip struck him, Lucas straightened. His eyes flashed green. And then they turned solid silver.
“Not on my watch,” he snarled, his voice unnaturally deep.
What came at me then wasn’t like anything I’d ever experienced before. It blasted through Lucas—I felt Anna grab at it, attempt to sculpt it, but it erupted straight through her and exploded into me.
No chance to mold it, and it would have been disastrous to even try. I fed the chaos straight to the fiend within me.
It went for Isobel with mental teeth bared—I shook her grip off my arm, and wrapped both hands around her throat as it smashed aside her bloodmagic barrier like it were made of paper. She gasped and her hands snapped to my wrist, struggling to pry me free, but my tendrils thrust deep, and then the fiend began toshred. It spun like a disk of lethality, slicing her brain to ribbons.
She shuddered around my hand, and hot blood flowed from her nose, eyes, and ears.
I couldn’t have stopped it if I wanted to. I rode high on the core power, my rage and pain coalescing into triumph as her life essence waned.
Finn screamed obscenities and abandoned his icefire whip, trying to nail Anna and Lucas with an energy blast. They slid behind me, and I kept Isobel as a shield. Still, the power reverberated around us. Anna’s nails dug into my arm as she fought to hold on. Lucas was almost ripped away.
I raised one of my hands and let Nikolai’s power envelop the three of us. Then I shaped it, elevating it to deflect Finn’s attempts at revenge.
I looked toward the cage, and met Aurora’s eyes. Glimpsed the hatred before she redirected the bloodmagic at me.
It bounced off Nikolai’s power. But we couldn’t keep it up much longer. Lucas was gasping in agony, and I braced myself against Anna’s pain.
And still, Isobel held on. She clung to the bloodpower, and I sensed that Finn helped her use it to defend the last bit of herself.
I glanced past Aurora to the cage, and my heart stuttered.
The form within it straightened and stood. Its eyes blazed at me, and they, along with the wings sprouting from its back, werebronze.
Then the metallic bronze gaze altered to scarlet. It raised hands that glowed as orange as the scales chasing up its arms.
“Now might be a good time to finish this—” Lucas began.
My stomach clenched in dread, just as the flames shot from the creature’s hands, straight toward Matt, who stood only a few feet from us.
“Matt!” Anna screamed.
I flung the energy shield I’d erected toward Matt.
And the flames surrounded us…
49
