“You taught me a valuable lesson.” He shot a bolt of magic at my feet, and I leapt back with my boot tips singed. “No matter how humble or highborn our origins, we can rise above them…or sink below them.”
The magic he was tossing around far outclassed what I had on tap, but I palmed my wand all the same.
“Ah.” I kept on my toes as his strikes landed closer and closer. “Tender about our humble origins, are we?”
He was wearing me down. I knew that. He would keep me dancing until he decided to cut my strings.
Colby would be free of her familiar bond then, and her soul would leave her body.
There was no doubt in my mind he planned to consume it, consume her, as I died bearing witness.
The pointed caw of a crow drew his attention skyward, and he held out his hand.
A hank of long, black hair slid through his fingers. In the dark, it dripped black and slick like blood.
The bottom fell out of my stomach at the sight of Asa’s beautiful hair.
“Your daemon won’t interrupt us.” He let the wind take the strands. “The golem, however, is nine feet behind you to your left. Thaddeus tells me he has the loinnir with him. Kind of him, to bring her to me.”
I whirled around to find nothing but forest behind me, and I had only seconds to grasp my mistake.
A bolt of magic struck the top of my head like lightning and zinged through my body into the ground.
Coughing up smoke and blood, I hit my knees, and Taylor was on me in a heartbeat.
“Think of it like this…” he fisted my hair and cranked my head back until our eyes met, “…your death will seal your reputation. Your legacy will survive untarnished by this pathetic attempt at redemption.”
From the moment Miss Dotha whispered in my ear, I had known my troubles would be over tonight.
A white witch couldn’t beat him. I couldn’t beat him. Unless I was willing to die for it.
And take Colby with me.
Had she been here to ask, I knew the path my brave girl would have chosen.
Fingers tightening on my wand, I began a low chant that swelled in volume until the warmth of my power filled me to overflowing. Light blossomed under my skin, the glow a beautiful white that swelled until it spilled from my pores in a pulse that blinded me.
“Stop.” He cupped my jaw, seconds from snapping my neck. “You can’t defeat me.”
He was wrong, and I was about to prove it to him with deadly consequences for us both.
“Rue might not beable to defeat you,” Clay rumbled at Taylor, “but she can.”
She? She? The only she in his care had no business charging to my rescue.
I would strangle Clay for this. I would have to survive it first, yeah, but then it was on.
Why on Earth would he bring Colby straight to the man whose obsession had cost so many lives?
A featherlight touch anointed my forehead, and more of that sweet, bright power flooded me.
The brightness in me hadn’t been my burgeoning death curse burning up my throat. It was all her.
Of all the hearts I had eaten, none had given me this potent rush. It left me…cleansed…somehow.
And terrified to my core what I might be willing to do to feel this way again.
“Me and you.” Colby’s soft feet brushed tears from my cheeks. “We’re in this together.”