Page 140 of The Nymph Prince

“Let me go with you,” Seth said. “Please. I can help. Whatever it is, I can help.”

“I can do it, Thery. I can do it,” Seth said with big brown eyes and bouncing blond curls in his hair. He was only four years old and wanted to do everything his big brother did.

“Not this time,” I told him. “Trust me.”

Seth gave a sad nod and gripped his sword tighter before facing the warriors locked in a seemingly never-ending fight.

I turned toward the temple.

The seer stood in the doorway, her black gown blowing in the breeze. The blackened smile stretching across her pale face made her look absolutely terrifying.

I didn’t fear her. Without Haman’s spirit guiding her, she was only a low-level human witch with hardly any magic of her own.

A majority of her power had come from him.

“Another young warrior come to die,” she said in a scratchy voice that grated on my nerves. Then, her head twitched to the side while the rest of her stood still. “What’s this? Not just any young man, no, not at all.” She sniffed the air before cocking her head and regarding me with white eyes. “It cannot be. Yet, it is. Such a clever soul, yes it is, to find a warm body to call home.”

I had not the patience to listen to her words. To stand in place while she rambled her nonsense. I drew my sword and charged her.

A bit funny how she was a seer, someone who tampered with evil in order to see future events, and yet she hadn’t seen me coming. Without Haman, she was nothing more than a living corpse, rotted to her core.

My sword plunged into her stomach. Black blood oozed from the wound, coating the blade. And she laughed; a horrid sound that seemed out of place given the fact she was about to die. Or perhaps that was it…she’d wanted me to kill her.

I stepped back, yanking my sword from her stomach.

“How peculiar,” she whispered after touching her wound and examining her bloody palm. Her body swayed a bit, threatening to topple over but somehow staying upright. “The icy claws of death have hold of me, but I feel…” Milky-white eyes flashed to me, visible through the tear in her black veil. Slowly, they darkened until they were a rich blue. “Warm.”

I watched as her decayed body fell to the floor and turned to dust.

Her black gown was all that remained.

Near the altar, three of the hooded men lay dead on the floor. They hadn’t turned to dust like the seer, but their degree of rot had significantly progressed. Bone protruded from their sickly, grayish skin. The rest of them were nowhere to be seen. They must’ve fled like the cowards they were.

Through the open doorway, I saw the battle. It was nearly over. The remaining dark mages were losing their strength, which made their powers less effective. Avalontis warriors trapped three of the mages, backing them into a corner before killing them.

Fire caught hold of several buildings, lighting the otherwise black night. As smoke rose into the air, I left the temple and watched it swirl above the town. The tavern lit up red and the wood creaked as it was engulfed by the flames.

It was the second time I’d watched Black Hallows burn.

33

Lorcan

My energy was draining. I’d been fighting for ages; an endless battle of pain and chaos. Every enemy I killed, another took his place.

Only one remained. And he had the face of the man I loved.

It’s not your Alek, I had to remind myself as I dodged one of his blows.

My eyes burned with tears as I fought him. The eyes he glared at me with were the same eyes that used to crinkle with a smile when I did or said something silly. The lips he spewed hatred from were the same ones that used to lovingly press to my head in the middle of the night when he thought me to be sleeping.

Malik and Reif took position on each side of Alek—no, Haman—and attacked simultaneously. Haman was strong, but he wasn’t at his full strength. That was clear in the clumsy way he moved as he began to tire.

Alek told me that magic had to be recharged. It wasn’t an infinite supply. When he used his powers, it took a little bit of energy from him. The more powerful the magic that was used, the more it drained a mage. Even Eva had to take a break when she used a strong healing spell on someone.

No matter how evil, Haman couldn’t go on like this forever.

Neither can we, I thought as my arm muscles protested from the weight of my sword.