Soul of Flame (Imdalind Series #4)(96)
I dropped my hands as the last of the liquid fire seeped into the ground around me, the useless attack turning to little more that ash. I was unable to stop the fiendish smile that spread over my face, the gleam now a stark contrast to the fear that was seeping through Ovailia’s eyes. I said nothing as I stared into her, knowing full well that she had just sent her best weapon my way, and I had demolished it.
“I am going to destroy you!” Ovailia screamed as she rushed me, her intent clear. If magic didn’t work, she would do her best to rip me apart with her bare hands. Good thing I didn’t mind playing dirty.
My heart thudded with adrenaline lined fear as I ran at her. Ready to meet her head on, ready to finish this.
We met in the middle of the clearing, our magical pulses colliding in sparks of black and grey as fists met skin. Ovailia threw frantic punches as she screamed, my own retaliation serving more as a block while I tried to claw and scrape at her in any way I could. I reached forward blindly, winding my fingers around her long hair before I took two wide steps forward, pulling her by the long strands as I whipped her around behind me. My hand slammed into the small of her back as my muscles pulsed with a maniacal energy. I threw her through the air, sending her hurdling away from me.
“You are not who I am meant to fight,” I screamed in frustration, hating the way my voice deepened, how my sight fueled the words and told me they were true. Even if they were true, I didn’t want them to be; I didn’t want the words to escape me.
My muscles tensed and flexed as I faced her, the strength that I did not know I had engulfing me. Ilyan’s magic surged as I screamed, my magic stretching toward him, pressing into him, his pride for me surging as Ovailia ran back to me, a long snake of an attack dripping like tar from her fingers before she sent it through the air at me.
“Do you really think you can fight Edmund? That you can defeat him?”
My heart thudded at her words, at the meaning behind them. Everything in me tightened as she rushed me, my anger rippling over me as I pressed my hand toward her attempted attack, one pulse of my magic turning it into smoke.
“I know I can!”
“And stay alive?” she taunted, her tactic changing as she tried to pull out the madness that they had implanted in me.
I swallowed as I tried to control my panic and narrowed my eyes, fighting the fear that tried to pull into me, desperately fighting against her games.
My magic moved, unbidden, to Ilyan as I focused on her, the spaces of each Trpaslík laid out as Ilyan twisted and turned in his fight with them. As soon as he felled one, another one would stream through the trees toward him. One after another I could feel them as they ran toward him. I could feel them cut him, feel his blood drip over his skin. He needed help. I needed to get over there, but with Ovailia breathing down my neck, I knew there was no way.
I didn’t pull my scowl off Ovailia as I let my magic surge into Ilyan, pulsing through him as his attacks grew in strength and exploded out of him as he wielded my power, taking down several with one simple attack.
That’s my girl, Ilyan’s voice filled my head, and I fought the smile that wanted to seep over me.
“Didn’t think so,” Ovailia said, pulling my mind right back to her, only to see her move from my line of sight.
She moved so fast I barely saw her, her body right in front of me one minute and behind me the next. My body tensed in fear as her hand wrapped around my braid as she pulled it down, my back arching uncomfortably at the forced movement.
“You might as well give up now,” she grunted in my ear as the smell of burning hair met my nose. “Die now, die later, what does it matter?”
Her voice ground between her teeth, her words a taunt that hit more in fact than in fiction. She just didn’t need to know it, and right then, it didn’t matter.
I screamed as she pulled me down further, my back aching as the fragile bones bent unnaturally. The smell of the beautiful braid as it burned beneath her fingers hit my nose, the heart-wrenching aroma growing as she destroyed the most precious thing that anyone had ever given me.
I screamed louder at the smell, my heart ripping open at what she was doing. My magic surged in my frenzy, the air prickling as my magic exploded in a flame of white light, the pulse of energy releasing my hair from her grip as she fell away from me.
I had wanted to fight her, to defeat her. But now, smelling the charred remains of Ilyan’s gift, it became more than that. It became an angry flame that wanted to destroy her. I lunged at her as she stumbled away from me, my legs locking around her waist, pinning her beneath me as I compacted her into the dirt. I pressed my hands against her face, my fingers clawing into her as I kept her in place, the fire of my magic working through her body as the earth attempted to swallow her.
The earth beneath us rippled like quicksand as I screamed in anger. The dirt swallowed her body as the ferocity of my magic led it on. My body ached as my heart thundered against my chest, my blood heating as I stared into her, watching her fear seep through her eyes before the movement stopped, her own magic beginning to fight back. The dirt that had been engulfing her began to shake, small explosions popping around us as Ovailia screamed against my hands, sending an explosion of earth right into my face. I fell away from her as the pulse threw me to the ground, the simple weapon blinding me as I scooted away from her over the piles of dirt I was now surrounded by.
I wiped the dirt from my face in a panic, my chest heaving in fear as I tried to regain my vision, knowing she wouldn’t wait. I wiped the dirt from my eyes when her fist made contact with my stomach. I could taste blood and bile on my tounge as lightning struck into a tree right behind her, sending it into a blaze, the dried leaves that covered the ground catching and spreading the fire as it moved to surround us.