Last Stand (The Black Mage #4)(90)

I recovered my vision just as my best friend ducked low, narrowly avoiding a dagger to the ribs. She had a set of arrows hovering above her hands. They soared through the air the same moment fire appeared in the Black Mage’s palms.

No.

Hysteria exploded in my chest, and I couldn’t think. I just moved.

Twin streaks of magic shot out of each of my hands.

And the two hit the wall. Ella slumped to her knees at my left. There was the crunch of bone to my right. My vision locked on a staggering king with a thin trail of blood trickling down the corner of his mouth.

“Your fight isn’t with them.” My fists were shaking as I screamed. Fury made it hard to focus on anything other than Ella. Ella. I couldn’t watch my best friend go down fighting a battle I was too afraid to fight. “It’s with me!”

For a moment, Darren didn’t move; he just stared.

And then he threw back his head and laughed. “Finally.”

“Ryiah, no—”

I twisted my neck and shared one last look with my brother and friends. Ian was struggling against my brother’s hold. Alex refused to budge, his gaze locked on mine. I could see the resolution in his jaw and the agony in his eyes. He would honor his promise, even if it cost me my life.

Ella just watched me, hot resignation staining her cheeks. She knew why I had stopped their duel. She knew what I wanted.

She knew I could never forgive them if it was someone else.

She looked away.

My words were barely a whisper. “I’m sorry.”

I couldn’t let them die at the hands of the boy I loved. My fate was sealed the moment I betrayed a king.

Ian fought my brother’s grip. “Ryiah, don’t you dare—”

I shut my eyes and sent a bolt of power at the ceiling. I didn’t wait for the torrent to land as my feet hit the air.

I just ran.

I ran and ran as fast as my legs could fly. I could hear Ian’s bellow as I increased my pace. My lungs burned like fire as I crossed the threshold just in time.

“Ryiah!”

The mage’s words were cut off by the thunder of ice and snow. An avalanche of rock followed as the cave’s ceiling came crumbling down.

Shards of ice cut away at my clothes as I continued to run. A misting of white cloaked the air, and I was choking on dust. The walls quaked as I ran.

And then it was over.

I ducked just as Darren did the same, and the two of us ended up in a wide passage much brighter than the rest. A frozen pool of water was at our feet, lit up by the gaps of starlight above.

There was a mountain of rubble behind us, and I could hear Ian’s muffled shouts as he tried to cast a way through. He wouldn’t reach us. Nobody would.

The overlook was our only way out. That, or an army of mages paving a way through debris. Rebels or Crown’s Army soldiers, it didn’t matter. By the time they reached us, only one would be leaving the cave alive.

Darren cleared his throat. “You could have killed us both.”

I withdrew a broadsword from the scabbard at my waist. “If that’s what it takes.”

The two of us circled, and for a moment, I was back in the Academy armory. It was the two of us and a winter solstice as a boy taught a girl how to fight.

I swallowed and shoved the memory back. That Darren was gone. This was a cruel stranger in his place. He might not be his brother, but he believed in Blayne’s lies. He would kill for them.

He had already shown me exactly what he was capable of.

I couldn’t keep clinging to the past.

Everything we had…

Say it, my brain screamed. Admit everything you have is gone.

The king was the first to lunge. I caught the glint of bagh naka in each of his fists. The brass blades were attached to his knuckles by a leather thong. He swiped in and then crested right, ducking back out before I could place a hit. His footwork was fluid like a jungle cat in shadows, his blades like claws.

But I wasn’t second best for nothing.

I spun and twisted, cutting and lunging in return. Everything I did, my magic mirrored his assault. My muscles knew the patterns without recall. So many years of practice, my body recognized Darren’s next choice before it caught up to my thoughts.

And he, mine.

It was just the two of us, pulses beating out the frenzied dance as we twisted and turned in the fight of our lives.

…But every chance I could land a blow, I was still holding back. I knew it. He knew it. My heart was caught up in a deadly game, and it was blocking my mind when I needed it most.

Come on, Ryiah, fight.

Darren’s gaze locked on my own; something twisted in the crevice of my lungs.

Fight.

My grip faltered and a ripple of agony shot down my arm as one of Darren’s blades caught on my sword, forcing it to the side as the other swiped at my casted shield, the screech of metal grating in my ears.

My knees buckled under the weight; my mind cried out at the mounting pressure of his magic against mine.

Fight.

Gods blast it, he could have killed my friends!

He was waging a war.

How much more would it take?

Fight him.

Steel took up a reservoir around my heart and the projection lunged. My casting became a chain. I dropped the sword and ducked, twisting right. I used the end of my chain to catch on one set of blades as I coiled it around the second. In the blink of an eye, I had his bahj naga in chains.