I had my doubts about that but I smiled anyway. ‘History was never my favourite subject at school,’ I murmured.
A flicker of amusement flashed across Hugo’s face. ‘What kind of treasure hunter are you?’
I looked at Baltar, who was crooking his finger towards the house as if he could coax Lady Rose out by dint of his crappy personality. ‘The kind who wins.’ Then I withdrew Gladys from her sheath, threw my head back and roared at the top of my lungs.
Baltar froze as Hugo and I emerged from behind the shrub; he obviously hadn't been expecting company. With surprise on our side, we fired off two powerful blasts of magic before the fiend could react. I directed a wave of earth magic at the space around his feet, opening up a wide trench between us that would buy us space to continue attacking from a safe distance.
Hugo ignored Baltar and focused on the sorcerer, who was arguably the more dangerous of the two where Lady Rose was concerned. He shot a ferocious surge of air magic at the nervous man, yanking him upwards several feet and stopping his attempts to break the ward. The sorcerer squeaked as his arms and legs flailed uselessly in mid-air.
Baltar recovered quickly and his smooth, golden face twisted into a snarl. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ he spat.
I didn’t waste my breath answering him; he’d find out soon enough. Instead, palms tingling as I stretched my magic, I used the same trick Lady Rose had employed against us and sent several scorching fireballs in his direction. Fire didn’t really harm fiends but the force of the fireballs certainly could. It was a testament to my training with Hugo’s Primes that I no longer required kindling to create a blaze; these days, all I needed was oxygen.
As I had done earlier, Baltar flipped out a stream of water to extinguish the fire. Three seconds later he was howling as scalding steam enveloped his body. ‘Impressive,’ Hugo said.
I grinned. ‘I’m a fast learner.’ I nodded at the hovering sorcerer. ‘Can you deal with him while I take care of Baltar?’ Unlike Hugo, I could kill the fiend. My cursed heritage had to be good for something.
He nodded and darted around the steam cloud to the sorcerer. At the same time, Baltar strode towards me, flicking his wrist to shoot out earth magic and repair thetrench I’d created. His face was contorted with anger; it was surprisingly satisfying to see his fury escalate so quickly.
‘Go Daisy!’ Otis shouted from several metres away.
‘Kill that fiend!’ Hester screeched.
Baltar’s eyes narrowed. ‘Your name is Daisy? So that makes you – what? Bosom buddies with Lady Rose?’
I ignored my flash of confusion; there would be time to puzzle over his words later. I licked my lips, tilted my head and tossed out a burst of water magic. A perfect sphere of icy water smacked into his cheekbone. It would do little more than sting, but I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I threw out another burst and sent a cricket-ball sized sphere towards his stomach.
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ he asked.
Making you angry, I answered silently. I launched another watery ball at his groin and smiled when I hit my target. Slim would be very proud of my precision.
Baltar scowled. ‘You stupid woman,’ he muttered. ‘You can’t seriously think that will hurt me?’
I ignored him and aimed two balls of water at his eyes, temporarily blinding him. He growled and answered with a jet of fire, but his aim was off and I scarcely needed to sidestep to avoid its searing heat.
I glanced over his shoulder to check on Hugo, who was visible now that the steam cloud had dissipated. He had brought the quaking sorcerer down and was preparing to haul him away from the battleground. Baltar appeared oblivious. Good: my distraction technique was working.
Gladys buzzed repeatedly, her hilt warm in my hand, but Baltar was still several metres away from me. I needed him to drop his guard further and come in closer before I swung her blade towards his heart.
I smirked at him. ‘You missed,’ I said. I sent him a ripple ofearth magic that made the ground rumble and shake. Baltar kept his footing – but only just.
His glistening golden cheeks had turned scarlet with embarrassment or anger; it didn’t particularly matter which. He snarled again and took three more steps towards me. Only a few more and I’d have him.
I had a far greater chance of success if he came to me rather than the other way around, so I stepped back, hoping that he’d think I was trying to put more space between us.
He laughed coldly. ‘I may have missed but you can’t harm me.’ He thumped his chest. ‘I am a fiend! As a mere elf, you cannot do anything that will affect me.’ His red eyes glittered. ‘In minutes you will be dead.’ He raised his long index finger and a bolt of lightning zapped towards me.
This time he didn’t miss.
The lightning slammed into my shoulder. The pain was excruciating, reverberating through my body in snaking, agonising threads. I staggered backwards, barely managing to keep hold of Gladys as my knees gave way, and I fell. Tiny lights danced in front of my eyes and nausea rose in my throat.
I swallowed hard and ignored the faint smell of my burning flesh. My tinnitus made an unwelcome return, buzzing in a way that made me want to screech with irritation, but I did my best to ignore it. I looked up and caught a glimpse of Lady Rose’s pale face at one of the windows. I wanted to shout out to her that this was part of my masterplan and that I knew what I was doing, but I couldn’t make a sound.
I reached inside myself for the strength I knew I had. I was Daisy fucking Carter and I was strong – I was certainly far stronger than Baltar realised. His lightning attack had knocked me for six but I was recovering quickly. It helped that Hester and Otis were screeching support from a corner of the mansion; every fighter should have a cheerleadingsquad.
I stayed down, hoping to goad Baltar into coming closer for his kill shot. To encourage him, I flicked out more water magic but made sure it splashed weakly into the ground in front of me. ‘I’m not dead yet, you fucker,’ I whispered.
I knew from the look in his red eyes that he’d heard me. He took one step in my direction and I tensed, praying he would come close enough for me to thrust Gladys into him. Then he paused and looked over his shoulder.
