They’re going to surround us, then attack from different angles. I’m not going to have time to blast them all, despite the fact I still feel the power tingling in my hands.
It’s not enough to knock them backward.
It’s not going to be enough to hurt them.
There are too many to keep at bay.
I draw my elbows to my ribs, as if summoning my power to curl inward. I feel it coalesce and gather behind my breastbone, burning, but not in a painful way.
In a powerful way.
I throw my hands out toward the first animal again before it can even advance another step. The light that radiates from my palms is much brighter. Within the stream of energy or magic or whatever it is, I can feel that it contains death. It’s a distinctly sharp, focused feeling, and I know when it hits, that it will kill whatever it touches.
The blast hits the first creature, but it isn’t thrown back like before.
It’s obliterated into a burst of white sparks that zing outward and leave trails of sparkling dust in its wake. I vaguely hear a cheer of excitement from Deandra, but I ignore it.
Instead, I face the next creature, who just stares at me warily. The other one starts to back up. I don’t underestimate their intentions or their abilities, throwing one hand at one creature, and the other hand at the other. Two streams of death rays simultaneously blow them into a million sparkling fragments, which float to the ground and eventually disappear.
The excitement of my accomplishment is too much to contain. I jump in the air, punching a fist up in victory and yelling out to the creatures who are nothing but a memory. “And that is how you do it!”
Whirling to Rainey, giddy with excitement to have shared this important milestone with my bestie, my smile slides off my face when I see the pole and Rainey are gone.
I waste no time, not even bothering to turn back to Deandra and Carrick in the stands. I pull them toward me in my mind, bend distance, and step right into Deandra with fury. “Where’s Rainey? What did you do with her?”
Deandra laughs and waves a hand. “You’re silly. She was never here. That was just a magical image of her.”
I should be relieved that she never put Rainey in danger, but instead, I’m pissed at her audacity. She preyed upon my fears and with the hum of power still burning in my chest, I throw my hands out.
A white light doesn’t emerge, but I didn’t intend it to. I only intend to knock her on her ass. An invisible wall punches into her, tossing her back a good fifteen feet where she bounces off one of the marble benches before falling to the floor.
She’s not hurt but her ego is bruised. Deandra jumps up, one high heel she’d been wearing missing, and circles her hands, muttering some language I don’t understand.
I do realize that she’s calling forth magic, so I ready a shield to protect myself.
“Enough,” Carrick roars, and it’s not just a regular roar. It sounds like it’s broadcast over loudspeakers and it booms around the entire arena, stopping Deandra’s motions and causing me to warily move a few feet away from him. He lowers his voice to a normal tone. “Enough.”
“That bitch put me in a horrible situation and used Rainey against me,” I complain, and I know I sound pathetic.
“How dare you call me a bitch, you bitch,” Deandra snarls back. “And besides… it worked, didn’t it?”
“When I was terrified that my friend might die,” I point out. “That was a very specific scenario.”
“And yet you called forth an attacking power you’ve never been able to do before.” Deandra crosses her arms over her chest smugly. She manages to look stylish and haughty, even missing one heel. “Try it again without the fear.”
Tipping her head to the right, she nods toward the middle of the arena. Planted in the middle on a large tripod is a circular bullseye she must have conjured.
Her gaze comes back to me. “Go ahead. Blast it.”
Dubiously, I glance at it, to Carrick who watches me impassively, and then back to Deandra. Clearly, my confidence has started cooling.
She tips her head again toward the bullseye, and I turn my attention back to it. Now in the middle of the target is a picture of Deandra’s face, and I can’t help my smile.
I look back to my enemy, the woman I hate most in all the world, to find her smirking at me.
And reluctantly, I realize I don’t hate her at all, though I still dislike her very much.
I call the power inward, but, this time, I give it some specific instructions. I throw a hand out toward the target, but rather than light or an invisible blast, an arrow shoots forth. It whizzes through the air toward the target, then plants its tip right in between Deandra’s eyes.