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I slipped Stormslayer free of its sheath on my thigh and wielded it with my non-dominant hand, Nik’s sword tightly gripped in the other.

The first Noctani moved forward so quickly I could barely track her.

The space in the room didn’t allow much room for us to outpace one another.

That could be used to my advantage. Level the playing field.

She snarled as she came at me, her fangs showing, dripping with saliva as she went straight for my neck.

I easily pushed her back, burying Stormslayer deep in her chest. She hadn’t even tried to protect herself—she was only focused on one thing: my blood .

The Noctani might be faster and more dangerous, but they weren’t necessarily smarter.

Another Noctani was on me in a mere moment and I did my best to keep him back, crouching down as he wielded his sword, swiping over my head in a smooth arc. He was fast, but so was I. He had to be at least twice my size if not bigger, and there was no escaping this room. Alastir had ensured that.

We were all trapped here.

I called on my magic to propel me faster, lightning streaking through the sky right outside the window. The bright flash drew my attention, and out of the corner of my eye a deluge of rain poured down from the sky right outside the window.

The sun was no longer in sight.

I allowed more magic to simmer to the surface, my amethyst coated blade clashing with the Noctani’s. His own sizzled and disintegrated, as if my magic were the antidote to whatever dark magic had created it.

The Noctani stared at me in shock. I took his split second of distraction to my advantage. I sliced Nik’s sword forward and the Noctani’s head fell clean from his body, thumping to the wooden floorboards beneath us.

Two down.

The small space was working to our benefit. The Noctani weren’t able to move as quickly to evade us, which was one of their only strengths. As I turned to see where Donika was, I felt the wound on my abdomen re-open—as if it had been freshly stabbed again.

The pain of it caused me to press my eyes closed, falling to one knee. I gripped the blades tightly in both of my hands, trying to push myself back up to my feet and off the floor. I ground my teeth, a cry escaping me as I forced myself up .

My eyes found Donika, alone in the corner of the room. A wicked smile creased her lips as she watched the melee unfold.

She might not have been able to send the Noctani onto the battlefield to kill Nik, but she had somehow gotten a message to them, regardless. Had it been Zachariah? Corian? Was she connected to them in a way I didn’t know about?

I stormed towards her, my footing slick against the blood spilled across the wooden floor.

Before I could make it to her, a third Noctani intercepted me, this one with an axe in one fist and a sword in the other.

She had her hair tied back, bite marks decorating the column of her neck.

Her eyes were as black as Donika’s as she stepped into my path and advanced towards me.

I surged towards her first, allowing my magic to propel me forward faster than her eyes could follow. She crossed her arms, throwing me back at the last moment. But not before I broke the skin against her forearm with Stormslayer.

She recoiled with a hiss, spittle flying from her fangs. She ducked low and before I could push more magic out, she swiped the axe across my leg as I backed away. A hiss escaped my own lips as she tore through my skin.

Blood trickled down my leg as I circled her, both of our hands filled with weapons.

She tracked my every movement with her black eyes, not underestimating me as the others had.

She surged forward and our blades clashed.

As she snarled—pushing back—I allowed magic to sear through my blade and into hers.

She dropped it with a clatter, craning her head back only to bring it back down with force, smashing into my own temple.

I staggered back, my vision spotting black for a moment. In that singular instant where my vision had gone dark, she had composed herself, regaining her blade. I blinked away the spots, focusing my gaze back on her.

Blood trickled into my eye, a wide gash must have opened on my forehead where she had bashed her head into mine. I bit my lip as I surged forward again, sliding across the floor and swiping the sword against her outer thigh. She caught me as I slid by, wrenching me back by my hair.

A cry left my mouth as she grabbed a fistful of it, tilting my head back to expose my neck.

No, no, no. I couldn’t let her bite me. Anything but let her bite me.

If my magic was stolen, it was all over.

I steeled myself, and as she brought her head down towards mine—my hair still fisted in her grip—I brought Nik’s sword up. It sliced straight through her open mouth, protruding out the back of her throat.

She fell to her knees beside me, her eyes opened in shock.

Her grip released on my hair and I stumbled to my feet, sliding the sword free from her.

Somehow she wasn’t dead yet. As she gargled on the ichor that poured forth I buried the sword in her chest. Her body fell to the bedroom floor beneath me, motionless.

I turned to see Puck approaching Donika, the remaining Noctani occupied with fighting the other resistance members .

“Puck, no!” I cried over the melee.

She would kill him without a second thought. He couldn’t stand against her.

She was mine to kill.

Puck met my gaze and stepped back, arms raised. He moved to help Tess with the Noctani she currently battled with across the room.

I approached Donika slowly, her back pressed against the wall, her hands hidden behind her. She watched me advance—her expression unreadable. The battle parted as I made my way towards her, whether by choice or by spell, I wasn’t sure.

“It ends here,” I called over the sounds of clashing metal.

“I agree,” she said, pushing back away from the wall and coming towards me.

My feet were shoulder width apart, Stormslayer in my left hand, Nik’s sword in my right. The wound on my stomach was throbbing, but I sent a pulse of magic down the bond and received one back.

Nik was ok. For now.

The battle was wearing on me, my muscles becoming sore, my energy depleting. I pushed more magic into the storm in the sky and released it, thunder rattling the windowsills as it snapped free.

The storm was its own, and I allowed that magic to siphon back into me, energizing me once more.

I could tell that Annelise was fading and would need energy soon. Luckily, she could pull from my storms, too .

A sense of calm settled over me as Donika approached, her steps slow and careful across the floorboards. She didn’t make a single noise as she approached me, her eyes on the darkened sky through the windowsill at my back.

I reached out to one of the storms and pulled more energy, the storm bucking against me at first but quickly relenting. I allowed the energy to fill me until I thought I could burst from it, as if it were filling every inch of me with raw, unfiltered power.

Right as I was ready to detonate, to end this once and for all, Donika brought her hand forth from behind her back. In her palm was a spinning ball of raw, dark energy.

It was black magic streaked with grey, a hurricane of power within the palm of her hand.

Her eyes tracked my body from my feet, across the weeping wounds on my legs, the stab wounds on my abdomen from Nikolai, across my chest where my tunic was torn. Over my forehead where the gash still bled into my eye.

Before I could register what was happening, before I had a chance to release the energy I had collected from the storm above, she hurled the black magic at me.

I felt Alastir’s border spell snap as my body went sailing across the room, falling through the glass window.