Origin of Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Protector #3)(50)

My leg burned with pain, though there was no visible damage to it. Claire skidded to a stop next to us, huddling against the rock and panting.

“Oh my fates, this is insane,” she said.

Aidan bent over my leg. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I gasped as the pain spread. “I don’t know what it is.”

Aidan pressed his hand to my leg and fed healing energy into me. Warmth pushed the pain away and I sagged. Behind me, magic plowed into the stone that protected us, reverberating through the rock. It’d blast the whole thing away eventually.

I looked over at Ares and my friends. Their rocky shelter was about fifteen meters away. Ares knelt over Del and Connor, no doubt healing them with his vampire blood.

Aidan peered out from behind the rock, squinting toward the castle. He cursed and pulled back. “They have a celestial stone. It’s how the magic is finding us. It’s a form of remote security that is used when you don’t have a lot of manpower.”

“So it’s directing the magic to shoot at us?” I peered around the rock. Finally, I caught sight of it, a gleaming crystal suspended halfway down the castle wall, sitting on a little ledge and contained within an iron cage. It was at least twenty feet off the ground, with the wall soaring up a total of forty feet, give or take. The magical jets were blasting off the top of the wall, firing straight for our rocks.

I ducked back behind the rock. “They’ve got it right out in the open there.”

“It needs to be able to scan the whole field.”

My mind raced. “Your fireballs can knock the magic off its trajectory?”

“Yes,” Aidan said. “It’s just the aim that’s hard. I don’t always hit it.”

“But you could.” I looked at Cass and Aidan. “Give me some cover.”

“What—”

I lunged away from the rock outcropping before Cass could finish. The problem with fighting battles alongside your loved ones was that someone was always trying to stop you from doing the dangerous things.

That included me. I wouldn’t give her a chance to volunteer. And though Ares was faster than me, he was too far away and too busy healing Del and Connor.

My heart lodged in my throat as I sprinted onto the field. It was fifty meters to the castle wall. I was out in the open. Alone.

It seemed like all the magic directed itself at me. I raised my shield, deflecting a bolt that sent a shockwave streaking up my arm.

From behind me, Ares shouted. I prayed he didn’t follow.

Fire shot through the air over my head, deflecting many of the jets of magic. Thank you Cass and Aidan.

I sprinted, lungs burning, toward the castle wall. Blasts of magic plowed into the ground around me. They slammed into my shield, nearly sending me to my knees. I pushed myself harder, only thirty meters away now.

Fewer blasts of magic plowed into the ground as Cass’s and Aidan’s aim improved. They were knocking more out of the sky. My plan really depended upon them providing full cover.

Twenty meters away.

A blast of magic hit my shield. I stumbled, almost falling, but pushed myself forward.

Ten meters away.

No blasts of magic hit my shield or landed near me. Please guys, keep it up.

Eight meters. No blasts of magic.

Seven meters. Still clear.

The celestial stone was just ahead of me, sitting on top of a little stone shelf, contained behind an iron cage.

I tossed my shield away and conjured a pole for vaulting. I shoved it into the ground, taking off with a leap. As I sailed through the air, I prayed for beginners luck.

Wind whistled by me as I flew toward the crystal. When I was near enough to grab it, I let go of the pole and reached for the stone shelf that held the shining stone.

I grabbed the edge of the shelf, hanging by one hand, and reached up to touch the crystal. I called upon my destroyer magic, letting the rushing wind soar through me and out into the crystal. Desperation drove me forward, pushing my magic into the sparkling stone. Magic sparked and shivered as the crystal fought back, but a moment later, it crumbled to dust.

The magic blasts stopped abruptly.

Holy fates. It’d worked.

But for all the effort I’d gone to, I freaking hoped it would have worked.

My arm muscles burned, reminding me that I was hanging by my fingertips twenty feet over the ground. And I was no Cliffhanger.

No surprise I hadn’t thought this through all the way.

My stomach churned as I looked down, past my dangling feet toward the ground below. The fall would break my legs.

“Nix!” Ares’s roar sounded from close behind me. A moment later, he stood beneath me. “I’ll catch you.”

Thank freaking fates, because my arms and fingertips were about to give out. I let go, dropping into Ares’s arms.

He caught me without staggering, which was really quite impressive, then set me down.

“Thanks.” I turned to find my friends.

They were running across the field, slower than Ares, without his vampire speed.

“You. Are. Insane.” Cass scowled.

“I guess what I don’t have in magic, I have to make up for in guts,” I said.

“You’ve got guts,” Del said. “No question about that.”

I grinned, then turned to the wall and looked up. No guards peered down, which confirmed Aidan’s theory that the security system was remotely operated by the crystal. Didn’t mean there weren’t other dangers past the wall, though.