Page 75 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

“I’ll kill you for what you’ve done. I’ll never let you touch her.” Akadian’s face fell dark as his palm began to scorch her skin.

Instinctively, Ambrose pulled one of the daggers from her side and sank it into Akadian’s elbow.

She dropped to the ground as he released her, howling.

Air rushed into her lungs so fast it made her dizzy as she drank the cool air in like it was water in a desert.

Each breath burning as though she’d swallowed fire.

Tucking in, she rolled away and sprang back on her feet to face him.

Though her vision was blurry, she reigned in her focus .

He pulled the dagger from his elbow and her heart clenched. Enraged at his new wound, he tossed her dagger to the side.

Chancing a look around, her sword was only a few feet away. She closed the distance and in a couple strides had it back in her grip, and whirled around to face him.

“Akadian, stop,” she commanded as she pulled her sword up in front of her. “Don’t make me fight you.” She choked on the last word.

Why couldn’t he see her?

Some kind of Mind or Illusion Magick?

Could she undo it?

Akadian stood before her, holding his injured elbow as he bowed his head.

His hair fell in front of his face the way it always did and she longed to be in his arms and to be able to push it away.

Blood dripped from an unknown wound on his head as it splattered to the floor.

She wanted to lift his beautiful face and make him look her in the eye. Make him recognize her.

When he lifted his head and their eyes met, she was sure—there was no convincing him. Whatever hold Casimir had on him was too strong and the Magick he’d used was stronger than Akadian. There was no familiarity behind his eyes at the person he saw.

Only rage.

The room filled with a buzzing so sharp, it licked her skin like lightning. Growing so thick it was difficult to focus as Akadian lifted a hand and she knew what he was going to do.

A wall of bright blue flames formed a circle around them but before it could surge towards her, she swept her hands around and extinguished it. Pulling her wind in a current as it nullified his magick.

His flames burst to life again, filling the room and she reached her hands into the air and sucked all the oxygen from the chamber, just as she had with the dragon, until the last flame was out and she was bent over, gasping for air.

Sweat pooled on her upper lip as she clung to her injured arm.

Every movement felt like it would take consciousness from her but she forced herself to stay alert. To focus .

Again, they rose up around her, blue and bright and beautiful.

So close they licked her skin as she twisted her wrist and his flames rose above their heads and their magick collided into a tornado of Fire and Wind.

It enveloped them, rising above them in a swirling wall of dazzling deadly blue.

They climbed higher, taking the embers to the top of the chamber where they licked the ceiling.

She understood why Casimir chose this chamber. With a ceiling so high, Akadian could wield all he wanted and have plenty of space for his flames to wreak havoc.

Ambrose swept her hand and her twister spread its wisps to every corner of the chamber, extinguishing his flames.

Akadian wasn’t deterred at all. He threw them at her again as her wind pushed back against it with every strike. She couldn’t bring herself to wield an Element that could hurt him. She’d defend herself as she found a way to get through to him.

“Listen to me,” she begged.

For every time he channeled, she countered it with a gust of wind that pushed his fire back. His rage mirrored itself in his flames as they came hotter, faster, bigger. Making it more and more difficult for her to counter in time.

She cried in pain as she missed his next attack and his flames licked her arm and neck, burning the exposed rotten flesh. Screaming, she hit the ground on her knees and forced a gush of wind from her fingertips but it barely touched the flames as her mind couldn’t focus on anything but the pain.

Such pain.

The collar around her neck seared as it heated under his flames, burning the skin underneath. She gripped it tightly and tried to pull it away from her skin but the metal just burned her fingers, causing her to yelp and pull them away.

This couldn’t be happening.

She couldn’t fight Akadian.

She wouldn’t fight back .

She wouldn’t hurt him.

Ambrose tossed her sword to the side, it’d be useless in this fight. She’d never get close enough to strike him and even if she did, she wasn’t sure she could.

She had to remove the illusion.

At any cost.

Ambrose focused her mind the way Magnus had taught her that day in the courtyard.

She imagined what she wanted to see and pushed the image of what was really around them into Akadian’s mind.

He roared and fell to his own knees, clutching his head as he shook it violently.

She pushed through the fog that she felt curled around his mind, a shimmering violet haze that she grazed with her magick and begged it to release.

To give him back.

She tried everything she could to erase the tainted image in his mind, to show him what was real.

To show him the truth.

“Get out of my head!” he bellowed and ran towards her, hands outstretched.

She couldn’t let him reach her. If he caught her again, she could consider herself as good as dead. She willed her body to respond. Demanded it.

He was faster.

One hand reached for her chest, wrapping around the chains connecting her collar to her corset. She planted her feet, kicking up and away from him, the force of it snapping her chains to pieces as they fell off and broke away.

“Casimir!” Akadian’s fury rolled out of him as he lunged for her again, determined to get her back in his grasp.

The fire in his eyes a clear threat that— if released—would burn her alive.

Blood dripped from his wounds and splattered the floor but his injuries didn’t appear to slow him even a little.

She twirled her body and missed his next advance, but only just.

How he could keep fighting with all his wounds was a true testament to the power of the royal class. He moved as though no amount of pain could hold him back.

She needed to put more distance between them.

She scanned the room for anything she could use that could defend herself against a royal, but all she saw were weapons she’d have no chance of using and couldn’t bring herself to, even if she could.

The room was empty aside from the chair and devices that had been used to torture him.

No window.

No door.

No escape.

Akadian waved his hands and flames rolled their way around the perimeter of the chamber.

Rising so high and fast they began to eat all the air in the room as it quickly filled with a thick, black smoke.

The flames surged as though they had a life of their own, claiming everything they touched to ashes in a matter of moments, even the stone walls.

Wyldfire .

The smoke took no time filling the space, pushing down on them from above as his flames inched closer, hot on her back like liquid magma.

Ambrose tried to wield but between the heat forcing itself from every direction and the smoke stealing her breath away, she couldn’t focus enough to channel anything. Her eyes burned and she didn’t want to use her magick without knowing where it would land.

His flames raged higher and wider as they closed in on her.

Tendrils of fire scorched her back and she cried out as it touched her. Singeing her nerves to the bone.

She dropped to her knees where the air was cleaner.

Heat pulled into her chest with every breath she took and her head swam.

Lost in a sea of blue flames, she couldn’t see where Akadian was through her clouded vision.

She was going to die.

And Akadian was going to be the one to kill her.

She gasped but her lungs failed her.

A presence moved behind her that for so many months had given her comfort—and even now made her heart flutter with emotion. He might as well have struck a dagger through her chest and pierced her heart.

He reached down and lifted her sputtering to her feet. Bringing her face level with his as his eyes flashed with victory.

“I told you I’d kill you,” he sneered and placed a warm hand on her chest. “You can’t escape this time. This is your end, Casimir.”

“No!” She couldn’t control it.

Couldn’t stop it.

Dark clouds formed and thundered above their heads as the walls around them shook. Purple-white hot streaks tore through the room around them, striking wherever they could.

The chair burst into flames when her lightning touched it.

The wall exploded and broke into pieces.

Her clouds grew into a swirling tempest as purple-white light clashed in every direction above.

Ambrose grabbed the second dagger from her side and plunged it straight into Akadian’s stomach. She kicked the hilt until it buried the entire blade into his abdomen.

One last strip of lightning, reached down from the storm above and hit Akadian directly where the dagger lay inside him.

His body convulsed, limbs bending back in horrible ways as purple-white light came from his open mouth and eyes—her lightning exploding inside of him. The thundering explosion that followed wasn’t enough to drown out her screams.

“No!” she cried, agony filling her as she watched his skin glow bright and purple.

A hole formed in her chest where she knew her heart should be as though it had just been ripped out. She grasped her chest as her screams filled the chamber but all she heard was the sound his body made when it hit the ground.

And didn’t move again.

Her storm clouds grew as heavy as the pain in her chest before rain came pouring down and washed away his fire just as it almost filled the entire chamber .

“Akadian!” Ambrose rushed to his side, hands shaking as she reached for a pulse.

His eyes didn’t open and his chest remained still.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Please, gods, no!

Lightning ripped through the space around them with the tear in her heart. Thunder shook the walls as stone began to crumble at her feet with each scream she released. Rain cascaded and mixed with her tears as her cries filled the chamber.

This couldn’t be real.

It couldn’t be.

Ambrose’s head swam as the space around her disappeared.

Faint applause grew to a roar.

In less than an instant she was back in the Grand Hall surrounded by nobles and royals and what she could only assume was the remaining Trial Champions who hadn’t made it to the end—but managed to survive.

She didn’t care.

Completely drenched, she leaned over Akadian’s lifeless body as the crowd around her cheered and clapped.

Casimir raised his hands in the air, grinning from ear to ear. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your first-ever CHAMPION!”