“Dyn!” I cried frantically.
She stumbled, but the spell failed to knock her out. There was no time for another spell, no time to run. She tackled me to the ground and wrapped a hand around my wrist, pinning down my wand. For a moment, we stayed still; her mouth spread into a sadistic smile as she gave me a chance to realize I was helpless. Then, she reared back, ready to lunge forward and sink her fangs into my throat.
“Skal-dyn!”
The spell blasted the vampire off of me and she hit the ground several yards away and didn’t move.
I scrambled up and whirled to face Kayla. Oh no. Would she ask why I was down here? Force me to return to the fight while Alaria escaped?
“Never hesitate with a vampire, Abigail,” she scolded as she strode toward me. “I would have thought you, of all people, would understand that.”
“R-right.”
She gestured toward the unconscious vampire. “Finish her.”
“I…” I tried not to panic. She wouldn’t be the first vampire I had killed, but this was hardly self defense anymore! I certainly couldn’t blame her for attacking me, it wasn’t as if she knew I was here to fight Alaria. But how could I possibly avoid killing her in front of Kayla without revealing myself? Even if I could, I didn’t have a stake. I latched on to the pitiful excuse. “I don’t have a stake!”
Kayla scoffed and actually rolled her eyes. “Use your wand.” She mimed with her own. Of course, blood caster wands had magical iron inside them; if it worked to stab sacrifices, it would certainly double as a stake.
I turned it around in my hand and stood over the vampire woman, heart pounding. I couldn’t do this. On one hand, she was one of Victor’s people, I told myself. It wasn’t as if she was totally innocent… right?
“Well?” Kayla demanded.
“I umm….” I knew that if I hesitated there was a chance it would occur to her I wasn’t using blood magic either. If she grew even slightly suspicious and told Alaria… I took a deep breath, I couldn’t risk it. I was supposed to be a blood witch, I couldn’t seem like I was squeamish about killing someone. Unless… “I’ve never killed anyone that I’m not sacrificing?” I offered lamely. The moment the words were out of my mouth I regretted them; what if she asked me to sacrifice the vampire instead?! An awful sick feeling twisted my stomach as I quickly tried to remember the sacrifice spell.
Kayla snorted in derision, shouldered by me, and drove her wand into the vampire’s chest. “There. Get used to it.”
I nodded and tried to smile.
She spun and strode away from me. Could that be… it? Was I free to get back to trying to find Alaria?
“Come,” Kayla commanded, not bothering to look to see if I was following. My heart sank.
With no choice, I forced myself to follow her.
Chapter Ten
Thomas
My hearts all stopped and I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. Gut-wrenching terror coursed through me as the same feeling radiated from Tethys; I heard a gasp and felt a burst of heat from Charlie, followed by a sharply exhaled, “fuck!” from Danio.
Alaria stood still, regarding us calmly. Had we really come this far, overcome so much, only to fail now?
I didn’t think we would have had a chance of beating her even completely prepared, fully armed, and in perfect shape. Instead, here we were, totally off guard and with one knife between the four of us. Charlie had to be aching from the blood magic, which doubtlessly had weakened him as well. Danio was still reeling from two intense fights; I knew from experience his entire arm was probably still throbbing from the fang punctures, not to mention the bruises and welts from what sounded like a pretty one-sided encounter with Flint – I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a concussion from the stone elemental too. There hadn’t been any time to find out the details of what happened, but I could tell Tethys wasn’t in top shape after his fight with Fletcher and I wasn’t feeling my best either; Kiana had gotten a few good scratches in with her claws and the stake wound from Victor still wasn’t healed.
“Well, well,” sneered Alaria. “What have we here? Come to my private chambers to kill me? You arrogant, foolish creatures.”
How could we have been so stupid? I was so sure it was a labyrinth entrance I never even stopped to consider the stairway could lead to anything else. But here we were, face to face with an arcanist.
Alaria’s lips curled into a sinister smile. “Then again, it will be such a pleasure to make you suffer for what you have done.”
Her hands flashed and she spoke so quickly I hardly had time to process that she was using blood magic. Then agony began to course though my body; I gasped and staggered back. Tethys yowled and I sensed his pain too. Charlie cried out and clutched an arm to his body, sagging down to his knees. I forced myself to turn in Danio’s direction just in time to see him – eyes wide with horror and gray with pain – raise a hand to stem the blood dripping from his nose. His veins began blackening before my eyes, as if the blood magic itself was running through them. In a daze, I managed to look down at my arms to see I was affected too.
Was this it?! A simple wave of her hand and the four of us were finished? Dead?
Almost as suddenly as it began, the pain stopped. I watched in confusion as the black marks across my skin faded away with the pain.
“So,” Alaria spat. “You really were on my island. All four of you. And within my barrier.” She shook her head slowly, eyes narrowed at us.
That was all it was? Just a test to see if we had triggered her trap or not? A test and a demonstration of her terrible power.
“You must have been so pleased when it sank,” Alaria purred. Somehow her amused tone was more threatening than her enraged one. “Yet, here you are, spying on me once again. You turned my pawn and his wretched followers against me and my disciples, ruining years of careful manipulation and waiting… I knew it was all a fucking waste of time…” She suddenly raised her voice, face twisting with fury. “Decades upon decades of planning! Little by little claiming my birthright and you miserable beasts dare to desecrate my ancestral home?! The very place where the secret of arcanism was discovered?!”
We exchanged brief, terrified glances. Unless her ability to call up the blood magic that had cursed us in the past only extended so far, she could kill us all with a single spell. Deep in my churning stomach, I was afraid that she had no plans to make it that fast, that easy.
“Are you… saying you’re descended from Dewinnos?” Tethys asked softly.
“You have no right to utter his name!” Alaria screeched.
She hurled a bolt of lightning that threw all of us from our feet, but I could sense the raw energy and pain as it struck Tethys. If nothing else, at least the force of it had hidden the fact I felt it too.
Still feeling somewhat dazed from the unexpected attack, I slowly rose to my feet. Alaria watched us, pure hatred etched across her face, as we stood.
“I suggest,” she hissed, “that you not make me any angrier. I want to enjoy this and I will be quite unforgiving if any of you force my hand.” She took a deep breath. “And… you.”
Everyone’s eyes followed her gaze as she leveled a sinister glare at Danio. “You killed my berserker. And then you had the gall to imitate me!” Before anyone could react she flung out a hand and hurled him into a bookshelf across the room with a crash. “You dared to give my disciples orders?!” she screeched as a ball of lightning burst into life in her hand, whirling and crackling.
“No!” Charlie screamed.
I tore my gaze away from where Danio was frantically trying to extricate himself from the shelving and grabbed for Charlie, but hesitated. Maybe this was our only chance. We would never have the opportunity to even regroup and catch our breaths, let alone get time to come up with any sort of plan. Maybe a semi-unexpected group attack, right now, was the only way we could possibly beat her.
Instead of stopping Charlie, I extended my fangs and hurtled after him. I easily o
vertook him and threw myself at Alaria, sensing Tethys bounding right behind me.
For a moment I felt like I was standing still, held back by an invisible force. I could see Tethys beside me, suspended mid-leap; on my other side Charlie was frozen too, flaring fireballs clenched in each fist.
“Now, now boys,” Alaria scolded. “How rude. Can’t you see I’m outnumbered?”
A rush of wind tossed me backward as easily as a leaf. I smashed into the wall and felt Tethys hit next to me.
Charlie was left alone, with no other choice but to continue his attack. He slammed both hands into her chest and a moment later they burst into flames.
“Char!” screamed Danio. He threw off the last of the debris and lurched to his feet.
I forced myself to get up and caught him before he could rush into the growing inferno. His eyes blackened as he threw my hand off his arm, but he stopped and just watched in shock as the flames continued to grow and spread, leaping higher and higher, licking at the ceiling and forcing us all back closer to the wall.
Charlie and Alaria were completely obscured by the towering flames. The floor began to burn in an expanding circle around them, as the air filled with smoke, stinging my eyes and searing my nose.
Suddenly, Alaria began to scream.
Could it be working?! I hardly dared to hope. There weren’t very many magics that could survive the temperatures a fire elemental could withstand, especially while being targeted by one.
Then, to my utter horror, I realized Alaria’s shrieks weren’t from pain.
She was laughing.
All at once the flames began to swirl around each other, faster and faster, drawing together into a ball around the people at the center. Before I could react they exploded outward; I barely had time to brace myself as the wave of fire hit me. It burned for a moment and then it was over.
I raised my head slowly, just in time to see Charlie collapse to his hands and knees, while Alaria towered above him, unharmed. She casually waved one hand and sent him flying, nearly crashing into me and Danio.
We managed to catch him, his skin was so hot it burned my hands, but I didn’t let go, he could hardly hold himself up. Charlie raised one hand, curling and uncurling his fingers, as tiny almost pitiful sparks popped and faded in his palm. He had burned himself out, I realized, and used up a level of energy that should have killed anyone who wasn’t a fire elemental, but Alaria didn't have a mark on her.
She watched us for a moment, then began to laugh. “I've already taken a fire elemental’s powers,” she cried with glee. “You cannot hurt me!”
The flames had damaged a shelf on the far wall, it swung for a moment, then fell with a clatter. Alaria glanced in its direction, momentarily distracted, so I lunged at her once again.
I knew it was futile, but it was better than standing around waiting for her to pick us off one by one, like she seemed prepared to do.
It was a blur of total chaos.
I tried desperately to do anything I could to slow her down, twisting and turning, looking for anywhere to grab or kick or bite. Tethys bounded into the fray with me, a whirlwind of white fur and snapping fangs. Beside us, Danio kicked and punched and threw everything he had at her. After a moment Charlie joined the fight, doing anything he could just to get in her way and slow her down, even though was obviously exhausted.
Alaria avoided everything. I wasn't entirely sure if she was just using her air elemental abilities to give herself enhanced speed or if she was somehow using them to slow us down.
In all of our decades of fighting together, I had never imagined any sort of magical being, alone, that we couldn't take down. Yet with all four of us giving everything we had, we could barely even scratch her. At last I managed to catch her elbow; I threw both arms around it and hung on for all I was worth, hoping to impede her long enough for someone else to get in a strike that would weaken her.
She easily tore her arm through my grasp and punched me right in the chest, the force of it hurling me backward. For a moment I was just stunned; she had landed the blow close to, if not right on, the still unhealed stake wound and the pain made my vision blur for a moment.
Alaria was too strong; her strength wasn't just enhanced by air magic, she had sacrificed a stone elemental too. That was the only thing that could explain her ability to overpower me.
A moment later the others crashed into the wall beside me with gasps and grunts of pain.
“She has stone magic,” I warned them.
“Not in her skin,” Danio said, sounding winded.
I looked at Alaria and could indeed see a thin scratch across one arm, not nearly enough to slow her down, but proof enough that her skin was not as hard as a stone elemental’s.
“I got her too,” TS growled.
I nodded, I had sensed it when he managed to bite her.
“Well,” Alaria said with a smile. She didn’t sound remotely tired. “That was quite enlightening and somewhat entertaining. I suppose I should thank you.” I swallowed nervously; forget out of breath, she didn’t even sound concerned. “I have not yet been able to test my abilities in such a manner. It was quite interesting, but I've never had a taste for hand to hand combat, I much prefer to inflict pain in other ways...” Her grin widened and I felt a chill. “I so rarely get to explore the limitations, both physical and magical, of so many different magics…” Her smile faltered and she narrowed her eyes in annoyance. “Some of my disciples say I’m sadistic. They see my experiments as torture; I see them as ways to expand my knowledge of the powers I take for myself. As you so astutely pointed out, I do not yet have the skin of a stone elemental… something I intend to remedy. Yet it means that something was missing from that particular sacrifice…”
Alaria paused, as if she fully intended to think about it right then and there. “Of course,” she continued after a moment, letting out a dark laugh. “I have done quite well in mastering other stone elemental abilities.”
She crossed the room away from us. I watched her nervously as she rested on hand against the wall, then turned back to us with a devious smirk. For a moment, nothing happened. Then I heard a crunch of stone and felt a rush of alarm from Tethys.
I turned and stared in horror as the floor beneath him began to break. He tried to jump away, but his legs were caught. The stone crumbled, then began to climb up his legs, trapping him. Alaria laughed as he fought to escape as the rocks slowly moved up over his legs and to his chest.
As I rushed to help, I saw Alaria flick her hand in my direction and a gust of wind hurled me across the room. I crashed through a door and slammed into the far wall.
I started to stand, but an almost instant splitting headache drove me back to my knees. How hard had she hit me? I looked back through the splintered remains of the door and could see Tethys still struggling against the rocks. Only his head, tail, and some of his back were still visible and I could sense the stone was closed in around him so tightly it was making it hard to breathe.
I fought to get back to my feet, but my head was absolutely throbbing and an intense wave of nausea washed over me. It was then I realized there was a funny haze around the doorframe I had crashed through.
Oh shit!
Panic gripped me and I staggered up and managed one step before going back down. I tried to take a deep breath and all I could smell was my own blood; the taste of it filled my mouth as the sound of it rushing drowned out every other sound.
I could hear Alaria laughing, but it was muffled, like she was much farther away than she really was. “My, my,” she said. “Aren’t you impertinent, going right into my bedroom like that.”
I collapsed to the ground as the pounding, crushing pain in my head overtook everything else around me. I heard a distant shout that sounded like my name but couldn’t even lift my head. Everything began to blur and darken. I knew that I had to get out, but my limbs felt numb and heavy; I was trying to move them, but couldn’t tell if I actually was.
The vague s
ense that I was moving struck me and all at once the intense pain faded. Everything still ached, but the incessant pounding had stopped. For a second I felt relieved, until the spots dancing in front of my eyes dissipated enough to see that Alaria was the one who had dragged me out of her room.
She dropped me on the floor, but before I could even think to react, she grabbed me by the neck and easily lifted me off the ground.
“Fascinating how quickly the hemorrhaging begins…” she said in a voice that still seemed oddly muted. She roughly turned me back and forth, examining me with a twisted smirk.
With that she slung me away. I hit the ground and barely even felt it.
“Tom!”
Danio appeared in my line of vision and gently rolled me partway over. I tried to speak but ended up spitting out blood instead. His eyes churned and darkened as he turned his attention to Alaria.
“And then there was one,” Alaria taunted. “I confess I would have expected you to be the least interesting, seeing as you have no special abilities to speak of outside of water and there isn't any here.”
“I get by,” Danio told her flatly.
Alaria laughed cruelly. “Although water elementals aren’t without other traits, I suppose.”
I forced myself up onto one elbow, shaking, as I tried to see what was going on. Alaria was standing in the middle of the room and I could sort of see Danio standing next to me, but trying to turn to look up at him made my head pound, so I stayed focused on her.
I found it a little easier to hear what she was saying when I could see her lips, although everything was still somewhat muted and the small black blobs were still floating in front of my eyes. I couldn't smell anything except my own blood and reached up a trembling hand to try and wipe away some of it from beneath my nose. Everything felt so strangely detached I honestly wasn't sure if I was successful.
Alaria flung out her arm and I waited for something to happen. To my surprise, instead of attacking anyone, she had used her abilities to get a knife from somewhere. It flew across the room into her hand; she examined it for a moment, then held it up.
Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6 Page 73
