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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A m I willing to risk my soul?

As I fight the shiver raging down my spine, a glance to my left tells me we’re drawing attention.

I murmur, “Perfect power protect this place with my presence.”

Every supernatural around us slows and stops moving. In the background the rooftop entertainment pauses, even the latest smoky neon illusion—a gorgeous stallion—pauses galloping through the air midstride.

The music stops and silence settles around us. The warehouse is still. Everyone in this place will remain unaware of what’s happening around them and shielded from any magic that spills their way.

I tip my head back to meet Alexei’s worried eyes. “I will get the rubies back. I promise.”

I push myself from his arms even though he reaches for me. “No, Tansy?—”

I soar up to Mother Kadris, remaining beyond her reach. My scathing tone cuts across the space between us. “You’re just like all the others. All of the witches coming after me for my supposedly unlimited power. Never mind that I’m irreversibly damaged.”

Her mouth twists as she inhales as if she can already taste my power. I guess she can, considering that it’s sparking all over the place.

“Tanzanina Gray,” she snarls, “your belief that you’re damaged is born of guilt, not truth.”

I flinch at her harsh tone. My mother’s final whispered words echo back at me… It’s not your fault, baby girl.

I was only three years old, but the memory replayed for years after. It was as if my power was stuck in that moment, and every time I tried to draw on the strength within me, the memory resurfaced. It took me years to learn how to repress it.

The neon lights flicker as my anger grows, clouds drawing across the stars, darkness descending over the rooftop. Crimson light builds around me as my rage grows. “Of course I feel guilty! It was my power that killed her!”

“It was your power, but your aunt was in control of it. She took you hostage and used your power to kill your mother. You had no control over that. You were only a child.”

“I know that!”

Concern lights Mother Kadris’s eyes. “Then forgive yourself! Until you do, you will never know your own power.”

I recoil from her. She’s playing mind games with me again, making me believe that she cares when she doesn’t. It’s all manipulation. It has to be.

I hone my rage into pinpoint focus. “You will give me back the rubies.”

Her eyes narrow. Her grip relaxes on the rubies for a moment but then tightens again. “Only in exchange for your soul.”

I grind out. “That’s not happening.”

She smiles. “Reach deep, Tansy. You will need your greatest power to defeat me.”

She rises further upward. Electricity crackles around her, and wind wails around us. The thunderclouds thicken in the sky above, forming a mass of darkness that descends toward us so rapidly that it obscures the rooftop within seconds.

Black clouds swirl around us, enveloping us in a cold mass that makes me shudder. Only the space between the three of us remains lit as the light from her power and my rage intermingle, crimson striking white.

Electricity gathers around Mother Kadris’s torso and arms. Her hand flies out, and a bolt of power streaks through the air, but not at me.

Alexei is already on the move, his assassin’s magic a silver haze as he darts through the clouds. Her lightning bolt hits the couch where my protection spell absorbs it without any damage.

She follows Alexei’s path, sending bolts of electricity streaking after him as he leaps to the next sunken couch and the frozen supernaturals in it and dives toward the table, scooping up two wine glasses.

In any other situation, he would be able to break them and use the glass as weapons, but my protection spell will prohibit that. Nothing in our surroundings can be damaged or broken.

I spin back to Mother Kadris, rage spiraling through me that she’s targeting Alexei, my protective instincts rising fast.

I step forward, my arms rising. I must have brushed the leaves on my dress because spells—so many spells—rush into my mind.

“Defenders defy death,” I whisper.

Creatures form in the darkness, solidifying out of the clouds and taking shape around her.

A fierce, black bear rises up, its claws bright in the lightning as it slashes at her, catching her sleeve and shredding it.

At the same time, a black stallion races toward her from the side, and a dragon soars over my head, breathing electricity.

Her eyes widen moments before a wash of dragon’s breath envelops her.

At the last moment, she spins and soars upward in the air, narrowly avoiding the claws and hooves, but the dragon’s fire singes her high heels as they slip off her feet. Her shoes fall to the ground, where they smolder in a heap.

I rise upward with her, and the dragon follows me, circling back, its wings whooshing, parting the clouds as it flies.

Mother Kadris gives me a wicked grin. “That’s more like it, Tansy.”

She spins, pouring her power through the bear and stallion and into the dragon, no doubt trying to break it before it breaks her.

Alexei is safe from her for now, but I don’t let up.

“Stun my heart. Feel my pain.” Crimson light pours from me, hitting her ribs just as the dragon explodes in a whoosh of light that sends us both spinning to the ground.

I regain my balance, flinging light at her in stunning blows. She struggles to shield herself, a glistening barrier forming around her body before she retaliates.

Lightning streams my way. The two beams of light merge, my power racing along hers, meeting in the middle in an explosion of energy and thunder.

I dig my heels in and absorb the impact. The explosion is like a whisper across my skin, barely shifting me, while she screams and stumbles backward, nearly falling into a sunken couch full of frozen supernaturals.

Just then, Alexei darts from the cloud cover, running straight at Mother Kadris. He smashes both of the glasses against the edge of the nearest table as he runs so he’s left holding the jagged stems.

I gasp with surprise, because he shouldn’t be able to break the glass like that.

He leaps, one weapon punching toward her throat, the other clutched low.

At the last moment, Mother Kadris jolts out of his path, narrowly avoiding being impaled.

She snarls at Alexei as he ducks and rolls. “You missed!”

He dashes across the nearest tabletop and lands on his feet. “No, I didn’t.”

Still holding the jagged stems, he points at her waist.

She glances down. Her pants pocket is slit across the bottom, the material flapping in the wind.

Alexei raises his fist, the rubies glinting in his fingers.

Shock rages across her face.

He darts across to me, his hand outstretched. “Tansy, take them!”

Mother Kadris flings her free hand wide, screaming at him. “Pain!”

A bolt of green light spears at Alexei, striking him in the back. He jolts and drops to his knees, roaring out his agony.

His eyes squeeze closed, blood streaming from his nose. “Tan-sy!”

Bracing for the torture, I throw myself into the emerald light. Pain spears through me, burning my skin.

I gasp, scream, push against it, trying to shield us both.

He meets my eyes, his own widening. Maybe he didn’t think I would step in front of him. Maybe he thought I’d use my power first, but there isn’t any pain that I will let him suffer alone.

I don’t have time to wipe the blood streaming from my own nose.

Shield.

Power flickers around me, a protective shield forming, but not fast enough.

With a roar, Alexei twists and flings the glass stems at Mother Kadris, one aimed at her shoulder, the other at her neck.

She tilts her head, her power flares, and both stems rebound.

One strikes the floor, but the other…

Oomph.

Shock freezes me to the spot.

I stare down at the stem protruding from my stomach, sensing the blood trickling from the wound.

She shot the stem into me.