Darkness Revealed (Guardians of Eternity #4)(69)

“A lovely thought, but why does she think I’m the heir destined to send her to hell?”

“You possess the blood of the ancients.”

“And?”

The dark gaze briefly flicked toward the nearby door before returning to Anna’s grim face.

“And she has devoted her life to killing off Arthur’s line. It doesn’t matter if you’re truly the Destined One or not, she can’t let you live.”

Anna’s heart clenched with a sharp, poignant pain. So much death. So much loneliness because of a stupid vision.

“She slaughtered my entire family,” Anna muttered, unable to conceive that anyone, queen or not, could be so evil.

“Yes, if I were you I would…” Without warning, Clara launched herself forward, clearly sensing Anna’s distraction. Anna barely had time to gasp before the woman had plunged a knife into her stomach, sending her flying backwards.

Scrambling back to her feet, Anna ignored the blood flowing down her body and swiftly ducked as Clara threw another punch.

“Damn you,” Anna muttered.

“You are the one who will be damned if you don’t get on your knees and do exactly as I say.”

Wrenching the knife from her gut, Anna gritted her teeth as a strange buzzing rushed through her body.

“Are you mental?” she rasped, forcing herself to concentrate on remaining upright. Damn, the blood still flowed from her deep wound, defying her usual ability to heal herself.

“No, I’m very, very clever,” Clara warned. “That knife was hexed, and unless you allow me to remove the curse you will die.”

Well…crap.

She didn’t know anything about hexed knives or curses, but she did know if she allowed this woman to gain the upper hand she would soon be Morgana’s plaything.

She’d rather die in this barn than allow that to happen.

Sensing another attack, Anna threw out her hand, as much to shove the woman away as to harm her. Her powers, however, had other ideas. As her palm connected with Clara’s arm the woman shrieked and the stench of burning flesh filled the barn.

Anna grimaced, but there was no time to feel guilt as Clara hit her with an unseen force that felt like a sledgehammer to her chest. She grunted in pain, fairly certain that the damn fairy had just broken her rib. Another blow hit her forehead and more blood began to flow.

She struck out, blinded by the blood and only managing to skim the woman’s cheek as the fairy jerked backward.

“Stop this or you’ll die,” the woman hissed. “Only I can break the curse.”

“I’ll risk it,” Anna managed to mutter before being launched backward by an unseen strike to her chest.

“Allow me to bind you and I promise I won’t hurt you anymore.”

Riiiight.

Anna pushed herself upright. “You’ll just hand me over for Morgana to kill.”

“If you’re the Destined One then you’ll kill her,” Clara taunted, her powerful fist connecting with Anna’s chin.

Dammit, she was being pummeled like a punching bag. If she didn’t start fighting back she’d soon be dead.

Ignoring the pain that flared through her body, Anna forced herself to focus on the heat that swirled around her. She wasn’t certain she could control the wind enough to keep it from knocking the barn down on top of them. If Levet still lived she couldn’t risk hurting him even more.

Besides, her smoldering fury demanded something more than a breeze.

A red haze shimmered before her eyes, her mind so consumed with the power she was building that she barely noticed the blows that Clara continued to strike against her. Not even when Clara launched forward and scratched her nails down her neck.

“Stop, you bitch,” Clara hissed.

“This will stop…now.” Grasping the fairy’s arms in a tight grip, Anna allowed the pent-up heat to charge the air around them.

At first she could feel nothing but the prickling of her own skin and Clara’s frantic attempt to free herself. The heat almost seemed to be waiting for some direction.

Or maybe some mystical, magical word that she didn’t have a clue about.

Wouldn’t that just be perfect?

Panic began to rise, but before it could fully take on a full-throttle status, the glint of the emerald, which she now had pressed to Clara’s arm, caught her attention.

With a strange, hypnotic pulse that light began to fill the barn with an eerie green glow. Clara gasped, her gaze shifting to the gem that would make any fairy green with envy.

It wasn’t envy, however, that twisted her beautiful features. Instead it was a stark, disbelieving fear.

“No…please, no.”

Her plea might have swayed Anna. She didn’t possess a vicious enough heart to enjoy inflicting pain on others. But the choice of stopping was taken out of her hands as the emerald flared and without warning a fierce explosion rocked the barn.

Anna felt herself being launched backward, a searing pain racing through her blood. Then, with a crack that resounded through her brain, her head hit the far wall and she fell heavily to the dirt floor.

“Anna…Anna.” A tiny hand touched her hair and Anna managed to lift her heavy lashes enough to find Levet’s face swimming before her dazed eyes.

“Levet?”

“Oui. Do not move.”