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But, she had a plan. A tedious plan that had only been available to her because of the trap.

Antoni Barros, like most spellcasters, didn’t comprehend nulling principles. But with Chloe, the most potent null in history, as her best friend, Rowan did.

First, any nulling object had to make at least a secondary contact with the target. This meant that standing on the floor with just her heels as a barrier, the nulling was successful. But, when she climbed on top of the camp bed, the nulling spell had to go through the legs of the bed, the two-inch mattress and her shoes to get to her. This made the spell ineffective.

Second, magic corroded physical elements. Gold, already a soft workable metal, didn’t require more than a low flame to target the weakest points of the cage, their soldered joints.

The tedious part of her plan was the fact that the air inside of the cage lacked magic. To overcome this, she had to connect to the air outside the bars to gather magic.

Though small by nature, her hands were initially too large to fit through the bars without her skin touching the sides, which meant she only had four fingers available to channel the magic in as her other hand cast the flame spell on the joints. When the space got large enough for her to comfortably cast she could work faster but her succubus’ starvation had her hands shaking so hard that they sometimes bumped against the metal and killed her spell.

She also had to deal with the fact that she couldn’t just let the rods of the cage drop, as the noise they would make would alert Barros. So she’d created a bed of sheets to cushion their fall. As touching them to prevent them from falling nulled her as well.

She needed to remove only two more bars to have enough space to squeeze through, but she wasn’t sure she could get out in time to save the woman.

“Don’t you dare die.” Rowan kept her voice calm and low.

“It wasn’t so bad. This little life of mine.” The witch’s voice was barely discernible. “I think I’m ready.”

Rowan growled. She willed the fire to burn hotter.

“The only thing I regret is never having a child.” She laughed, “By my age, my grandmother had half a dozen.”

“How many would you have wanted?” Rowan only had one more bar to go. She could keep the witch talking while she worked, she could get to her in time.

“Just one. To think the Young line will end with…”

Rowan didn’t look over. She couldn’t risk shouting to wake the unconscious woman. She was sure Barros would come, and she just needed one more joint.

With a soft pop, her freedom was at hand, her heart thumped hard against her chest as she gently placed the bar down next to the others before squeezing through the opening.

She winced when the magic the nulling spell had held at bay crashed into her, cramming her full of power in mere seconds. She used the magic to conjure two lock picks.

It wasn’t her strongest skill, and under the pressure of Cherry’s oncoming death, Rowan’s nerves were so frayed that she slipped several times.

Axel’s voice flitted through her head.“One thing at a time. Don’t worry about the future, just focus on the thing in front of you, then worry about the next step.”

A steady breath later, the lock gave way. She swung the door open and ran to the woman. The magic that she had just accumulated fled her blood, and she had to deal with it, slamming back in once she left that null cage as well. Dragging Cherry as gently as she could manage while time was against her was rough. She didn’t have Louisa’s or Axel’s superstrength and the unconscious witch weighed more than she had imagined.The noise she was causing should have gotten their captor’s attention.

As if summoning him through mere thought, she heard the door slam open behind her. But he was too late. Cherry’s legs cleared the cage threshold, and she phased without a second thought.

Before her, the world reassembled into the hospital wing of the Eastern Elven Kingdom. A woman with hair streaked with all the colors of the rainbow screamed and dropped the papers she had been carrying as she had just tried to pass Rowan.

“Please help her, Miasma.” was all Rowan said before she phased back to the room, facing down the blonde-haired man whose eyes widened at her reappearance.

Rowan snarled as she removed all the mental gates that held her magic at bay. She knew a threat when she smelled it and the witch was indeed powerful enough to claim the position of Elder. Magic that had already been pouring itself into her veins flew like a torrent through her so hard she could feel gashes on her skin open up.

The roots from the trees outside of the window shattered glass and broke through the concrete walls at her call. They began wrapping around him, but he summoned a fire shield that burned everything to a crisp.

Taking a deep breath, Rowan commanded the oxygen in the room to leave. His flames died, and the branches wrapped around his neck. Antoni easily snapped the restraints, and he backed up into the hallway, gasping for air as soon as he left her oxygen deprived domain.

She followed with her momentum, allowing the roots of the trees to pass through the foundation of the house up through thefloorboards to tangle around his arms and legs, reinforced with layers of branches.

Again he tore them away as if they were nothing more than strips of paper and he launched at her, his clenched fist landing in her solar plexus that both sent the breath out of her and her body flying backwards through the crumbled wall. She tumbled to her feet and dodged a punch to her face that made her eardrum throb with its force. He was fast. And strong. He had held back when he attacked Cherry.

Rowan grimaced when he landed a kick to her side, but she used the opportunity to grab his leg and throw him off balance with a push off the floor.

As he landed, she climbed over him and grabbed his head.