Page 48 of Pawns of Fate

ROSE

R ose watched with horror and a little admiration as Kagon wrestled Lysander. She did not doubt that without Lysander’s magic, Kagon would have easily beaten him into a pulp. But Lysander’s shadows were vicious and fully focused on Kagon.

Which, Rose realized belatedly, left her and Nicholas free.

She looked at her husband, and her heart leapt into her throat. Nicholas was stealthily moving toward his sword. If he could get the weapon and cut through his ropes, perhaps he and Kagon could overpower Lysander. Hope erupted in her chest.

Her eyes snapped back to the fight. If Kagon lost, she would distract Lysander long enough for Nicholas to get free.

“We’re going too far; you’re going too far, Lysander,” Kagon shouted above the clash of limbs and shadows. “We’re no better than the tower if we go about it this way.”

“Traitor,” Lysander snarled, “choosing them after everything we’ve been through?

Everything we’ve done? You’re developing a conscience now ?

” Lysander was practically howling now. “I can fix that, though.” A howl of wild laughter escaped his mouth as he activated a rune on his arm that twisted like a snake.

“You kept a control spell!?” Kagon’s voice was full of rage. He lunged, but to no avail. Kagon’s form warped, and he turned into the large, black snake Rose and Nicholas had first seen.

Lysander’s shadows snatched him up, wrapping around and around the thrashing creature.

“Of course, I kept a control spell, you idiot. I couldn’t have you biting me with those stupid teeth—all that venom.

I needed a failsafe.” He ran his knife along the edge of Kagon’s fangs, taunting.

“No reason to keep it now, though. I certainly don’t need you to assist me in your human form anymore.

” Lysander winced and stabbed his knife into his arm, into the heart of the still-active spell. Kagon’s body shuddered.

“You’re a monster!” Rose cried out almost subconsciously, drawing Lysander’s attention to herself. Panic flooded her entire body; she felt like a rabbit caught in a trap from the way Lysander pinned her with his glare.

“He betrayed me!”

“All he did was tell you to stop torturing people! Now you’ve killed him!” Rose sobbed.

“Is that what you think? No, Kagon is very much alive. He’s trapped in his snake form.”

“So you’ve doomed him to life as a snake?”

“No,” he said with a wolfish smile. “I can make another spell. As long as he doesn’t bite me.” Lysander’s shadows released Kagon, who made no move to attack the shadow mage.

The wild hope that had bloomed inside her began to wilt. Even if Nicholas had made it to his sword, Rose wasn’t sure her husband could take on Lysander in his current state, and there was nothing she could do to stop the madness.

But then, as if in answer to her thoughts, a bolt of silver lightning struck Lysander from behind.

NICHOLAS

He watched in horror as Lysander doomed his comrade to life as a reptile. What wasn’t this crazy bastard capable of?

But Kagon’s valiant efforts weren’t in vain. He’d bought Nicholas enough time to grab his sword and cut his way out of the ropes.

“You’re a monster!” Rose’s voice cried out. Nausea flooded through Nicholas, but he fought the fear. Hearing his wife’s terror caused something inside of him to lose control .

Nicholas started actuating the strongest spell he could.

It would only knock Lysander out for a minute, but it would have to be enough time for Rose to run away.

Nicholas eyed the mess of spell circles and runes Lysander had etched into the druid ruins.

Once Rose was free, all it would take was a few good sparks to bring this whole cavern down, and Lysander with it.

Nicholas felt the mana flow through his veins and into his sword as the spell came to life. He launched the bolt at Lysander’s back.

“Rose, run!” he bellowed. Lysander’s knees hit the cavern floor.

But Rose didn’t run. Instead, she screamed, “Not without you!”

Damn it all. Didn’t she understand? He wasn’t York. His magic wasn’t strong enough to protect them both. Buying her enough time to run away was the best he could do.

Nicholas actuated another bolt of lightning and charged at Lysander.

His sword could cut through shadows; he’d sparred with Syzman enough times to know that.

He’d also sparred with Syzman enough times to know that he didn’t have a chance at actually defeating Lysander.

If Rose wouldn’t run, they were both doomed.

A massive spell circle, darker than night, encircled Lysander, and blackness erupted around him.

Shit. His sword couldn’t cut through that.

Before the wave engulfed him, Nicholas looked over at Rose, who was still rooted to the spot, though her aura was glowing now. Why, why, why wouldn’t she just run ?

“Rose! Go!” he shouted. Desperation clung to his throat, and his chest tightened painfully. Then the darkness overpowered him, and the world turned black.

ROSE

“Rose, run!” Nicholas’s voice was a yell of desperation. But how could he ask that of her? Abandon him? Now? That was the one thing she couldn’t do.

“Not without you!”

A nightmarish spell circle appeared at Lysander’s feet, leaking pure darkness.

Rose’s heart threatened to beat out of her chest, and all of the blood in her head rushed to her limbs as every fiber of her being urged her to flee.

But she couldn’t run. If she left Nicholas now, she’d never see her husband again.

Why, why, why did she have to be so useless, so weak?

She escaped Hector’s cruel grasp only to fall into Lysander’s pit of despair.

A political pawn—now an experimental one.

And for what? Her useless aura. Nicholas thought his lightning magic was weak, but at least he’d managed to fell Lysander for a moment.

All Rose could do was make the insane mage even stronger.

Rose glanced down at her arm and realized the enhancement spell was still active. A mad idea crossed her mind .

She didn’t have to increase Lysander’s mana flow. She looked over at Nicholas. The shadows were already engulfing him, smothering him. There was no time. If she didn’t do this now, Lysander would kill him.

Rose stifled the panic, the feral terror that coursed through her body.

She had to access the aural plane, had to calm the storm of desperation that raged through her body.

She needed something to focus on. She thought of Nicholas—of how her life had changed since meeting him.

She thought about all her friends and family in Onanish—Ava, Lyla, Betty, the marquess, even York and Syzman.

She thought about the pleasant nights she’d enjoyed with Nicholas, thought about how they were so connected now that even their auras had mixed, and there it was.

The physical plane melted away, and Rose found her consciousness fully aware of the aural plane.

For once, the connection was so strong that it was hard to stay tethered to the physical plane. She could hear Nicholas yell, but it sounded like he was underwater.

Ropes of obsidian mana knotted around Lysander and Nicholas, threatening to overwhelm them both.

“You came back.”

No, no. Rose didn’t have time to resist druid magic right now. She needed to help Nicholas. Rose ignored the voice and made sure not to look at its source.

“Join us. Please, Rose.”

The voice was so clear, so welcoming, so persistent. But she couldn’t give in. She had to find the threads of Nicholas’s mana and manipulate them, somehow .

“Leave me alone!” Rose shouted. The ball of light shuddered. Shit. Now she had to contend with angry druid magic, too.

“What’s wrong, Rose?”

“He’s dying, my husband is dying! And I have to help him.” Her voice came out sharper than intended. She dared a glance at the druid spirit. It looked dejected, light shining less brightly than it had yesterday. Had she hurt its feelings?

Her consciousness took a step toward Nicholas, but it felt like walking against a windstorm. She was moving too slowly. Frustration bubbled inside her, threatening to untether her. No, no, no. She didn’t have time for this!

The light shuddered again, and the world froze. Lysander, his magic, even her husband. Nothing moved but Rose and the ball of light.

“You love him?”

“Very much.” Rose walked to him, suddenly uninhibited by the forces that slowed her earlier. She dared another glance at the spirit. It was shining more brightly now, bouncing slightly, as if the mention of love had improved its mood.

“I understand. I loved once, too.” Rose had never heard a more wistful voice in her life.

The urge to join the light tugged on her mind again, but in an almost…

playful manner. Rose only had to look at Nicholas’s face to squash any urge to join the light.

Worry for him flooded her entire being. The spirit seemed to have stopped time, but she couldn’t be sure how long it would last. She still needed to help him.

“Will you help us?” she asked the spirit. Who knew what it really wanted? Rose decided that it couldn’t hurt to ask .

The ball of light shuddered, wiggling back and forth.

“What will you do if I help you? I don’t want any more spells here.” Rose could feel it pointing to the floor, where Lysander had defaced its home. She could feel its suspicion in her own body.

“We could erase those spells,” Rose replied hastily, “but only if you can take care of him for us.” She pointed to Lysander.

The ball shook back and forth. “I can’t stop him, or I wouldn’t have let him ruin my home in the first place.”

“Just help my husband defeat him, then,” Rose proposed, a little hope daring to find its way into her voice.

The ball of light chuckled. “You can do that, little mage.”

A part of Rose wanted to argue, to tell the spirit that she was not a mage. But again, her concern for Nicholas drowned out all other thoughts. She reached out and touched Nicholas’s frozen cheek, wanting to soothe the pain she saw painted on his face.

She’d seen his aura before. Sparks of silver lightning, though there were a few traces of pink now, which warmed her heart. And this time, she could see the flow of lightning mana through his body, like thin veins of silver light that merged on his heart, forming a delicate knot.

“You can do that, little mage.” The spirit’s words started to make sense to her. Lysander’s insistence that aura and mana were two sides of the same coin started to make sense to her. She could do this.

Rose reached out and held the knot of Nicholas’s mana in her hands. She willed it to grow.

Her breath stilled for a moment, and then, the knot began to grow, sparks of electricity, silver and pink, dancing and growing stronger around it. Even the veins of mana that flowed through Nicholas’s body grew from small streams to rivers of shimmering energy.

“I told you.” The ball of light bounced up and down in a way that seemed to indicate it was pleased.

“Thank you, thank you! How can I repay you?”

“Set me free,” the spirit replied with a hint of sadness.

“How?”

“I don’t want to live with the madman’s mess anymore. His spells ruined my home.”

“Are you certain?” Rose yelled, feeling the tug of time restarting around her and her consciousness drawing closer to her physical form.

“Take care of my descendant.” The little ball of light flew over to Kagon and enveloped his reptilian body.

It shone impossibly bright for a minute, then disappeared entirely.

But before Rose could ask any of the thousands of questions that tugged on her mind, her consciousness fully returned to the physical plane.