Lightning cracked against the stones next to me. It left a black scorch mark on the ground and sent broken bits of rock clattering down the mountainside. I leaped aside as the mage before me shot another white bolt at my chest.
“Behind you!” Audrey snapped from a few strides away.
My feet had barely touched the ground when I blindly jumped sideways again. A second later, black shadows flashed past underneath me. Landing on the sloping ground, I swung around and threw a force arc in the direction that the shadows had come from.
It spun through the air, but the shadow mage managed to duck before it could take his head from his shoulders. I slapped my palms together again. A force wall materialized in front of me right before another mass of twisting shadows slammed into it. Shoving them aside, I got ready to call up an attack, but the gravel underneath me shifted and I lost my balance. My stomach lurched as I slid downwards before I managed to stop my momentum.
This high up, there were stone steps leading up from one level to the next, but the battle had pushed us farther and farther away from them.
Bracing myself against a boulder, I summoned a force arc again and hurled it at the blond shadow mage above. He twisted aside and answered with another cluster of black tendrils. They were shoved sideways as Henry launched a blast of wind from where he was standing in front of Paige and Lance.
It bought me a moment of grace and I shot another spinning arc at my enemy. He barely managed to dodge in time, and the move made him land off balance.
Stones clattered down the mountainside as the gravel underneath him shifted. Panic flashed across his face as he slid towards me at breakneck speed. I touched my palms together and tried to hit him with another scythe, but he was moving too fast for me to aim accurately.
Somewhere behind me and to the right, Audrey cursed while lightning crackled through the air and lit up the otherwise gray afternoon. Green poison magic followed it.
But I couldn’t spare her battle any thought because the shadow mage slammed right into me before I could leap aside or get another attack ready.
Dull pain spread through my bones as his feet hit my ankles, taking my legs out from underneath me. I crashed down on my side while the shadow mage slammed into the boulder I had been leaning against. A huff tore from my chest. Touching my palms together, I pushed myself up on one elbow and threw a spinning arc towards where my enemy should be.
Panic flashed inside me as shadows snaked around my ankles. Wrapping tightly around my legs, they yanked me downwards. Stones dug into my back through my leather armor as I slid towards the mage who was now pushing himself to his feet. But before his shadows could move farther, he had to leap aside as my force arc smacked into the boulder next to him.
I scrambled upright and called up another attack while his shadows shot towards me again. The distance between us was so short now that I had to switch to close combat, and instead of a spinning arc, I summoned a blade. It whooshed through the air as I swung it at the mage’s chest.
One of his shadows wrapped around my wrist and managed to yank the strike aside before it could hit. While I was still trying to recover, another dark tendril curled around my ankle and pulled hard.
My stomach lurched once more as I lost my footing on the uneven ground and slammed down with pebbles rolling down all around me. Darkness flashed forward as my opponent aimed his shadows straight at my throat. I slapped my hands together and called up a force blade even though I already knew that I wouldn’t make it in time.
A blast of wind hit the shadow mage in the back. It sent his attack shooting over my shoulder and then fading out as he stumbled forward and threw his arms out to stabilize himself. I rammed my force blade into his throat.
Shock bounced across his features as the vibrating blade severed half of his neck. Lying on my back underneath him, I yanked out the blade while his body continued toppling forwards. Warm blood spurted from his artery and splattered my face and chest. A second later, his dying weight crashed down on top of me. I let out a huff.
While making the force blade dissipate again, I placed my palms against the dead shadow mage’s chest and heaved him off me. He hit the gravelly ground next to me with a thud and then slid several strides down the mountainside, leaving red streaks on the gray stones.
“Stay down!” Audrey yelled from somewhere up the slope.
I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me, but I remained where I was just in case. It turned out to be a wise decision when a massive poison cloud exploded across the area a second later.
While lying there on my back, I watched the glittering green mist swirl above me. There was only about a foot of clear air between my face and the poison cloud, but it was enough to spare me the effects of it.
Then it disappeared.
My chest heaved, so I sucked in a deep breath before pushing myself into a sitting position. Twisting around, I found Audrey standing above the lightning mage’s corpse a short distance uphill. I blinked, trying to get the blood out of my eyes, before sweeping my gaze over the rest of the mountainside.
Henry was standing on the stone steps that connected the previous level to this one while Paige and Lance waited a little behind him. We had almost reached the top level now, which meant that the mages we faced were skilled enough that we’d had to pull Henry from our formation and instead have him focus solely on protecting the other two. It meant that Audrey and I could keep all of our attention on our opponents, but it also meant that we were outnumbered two to five.
After surviving the never-ending fights in the hills of Eldar, both Audrey and I were experienced battle mages, so we kept doing well. But it was getting increasingly difficult, and after an entire day of fighting, I was exhausted.
Drawing in another deep breath, I pushed to my feet and shot a pointed glance towards the now dead shadow mage before calling down to Henry, “Nice assist.”
He flashed me a smug grin in reply.
Gravel crunched from up the slope. A few seconds later, Audrey appeared next to me. When I glanced down at her, I realized that her chest was heaving too.
“Tired?” I said in a mocking tone.
“At least I’m not covered in blood,” she sniped back.
For a few moments, we just glared at each other. Both of us were sucking in deep breaths, and blood smeared across my forehead as I dragged a hand through my hair.
Amusement pulled at my mouth. It made a small smile play at the corner of her lips too.
Not needing to say anything else, we simply started back towards the rest of our company. The three dead mages that we had killed earlier during the fight stared towards the overcast heavens with unseeing eyes as we passed their bodies.
“That was a bit too close for comfort,” Paige said as we at last returned to the steps. Her worried blue eyes shifted between me and Audrey. “Maybe we should make camp on this tier and then tackle the final one in the morning?”
Henry crossed his arms and leveled an assessing stare at me. “I agree.”
“But it’s just one more fight,” Audrey protested. She had to pause and suck in another deep breath before finishing with, “And then we’ll be at the top.”
Paige gave her a flat look. “You can’t even finish one sentence without having to stop to take a breath, and you think you can walk straight into another battle right now? You’ve been fighting the entire day today.”
“I wouldn’t classify those first few levels as fights.”
“My point still stands. And besides, we’re losing the light. I don’t know much about battles, but fighting mages from the top level in the dark sounds like a really bad idea.”
Audrey glanced over at me.
I shrugged.
“Fine,” she said, though it sounded more like a sigh. “We’ll make camp on this level tonight.”
“Agreed,” I said.
Without another word, we started up the steps. I shot a quick look at Lance while we walked.
He had become increasingly withdrawn these last few levels, and he had kept his mouth firmly shut. All he did was watch our battles with wary eyes. It took me until we had almost reached the terrace above us to realize why. He had never seen us fight before. Since I had left the academy so young, I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of battle training the students got there, but I was pretty certain that it wasn’t anything like what he had just witnessed.
While Lance obviously knew that Audrey and I were good, I didn’t think he had truly understood just how good we really were until now. The system that these dark mages adhered to had made sure that there were a lot more of them left alive. Our way of life back in Eldar had killed off great numbers of the dark mages. However, it had also made sure that the ones who survived were incredibly skilled. And now, Lance had seen that firsthand.
I suppressed a smug smirk while we ascended the final steps.
Quite a lot of people had stopped what they were doing to watch the battle from the edge of the terrace. I studied their faces as we came to a halt above the steps. We had just killed five of the people who used to live here, but none of them seemed particularly upset about that. Most gave us an approving nod while a few just drifted off again.
“Is there somewhere we can get cleaned up?” I asked a dark-haired woman who was standing close to us.
She nodded and pointed towards my left. “There’s a natural spring that way. It washes down the mountain so you won’t be contaminating anything.”
I gave her a nod in acknowledgement and started in that direction while assuming that the others would follow. Audrey muttered something under her breath, but the four pairs of footsteps behind me informed me that they were in fact all following me.
As we walked, I studied the area around us.
This was the second highest tier, and it showed. The terrace was covered in flat stones that formed a smooth surface, and the homes looked like actual houses. Viaducts fed water from the mountain streams onto the terrace, and someone had even gone to the trouble of planting decorative bushes along the route we followed. Everyone we met was well-dressed, and they had an air of comfort and ease about them. Compared to the lower levels of the mountain, it was a completely different world.
Water rippled from up ahead.
I expelled a sigh as we at last reached the natural pool that the woman had talked about.
The flat stone terrace continued all the way out to a small waterfall. Water ran down the side of the mountain and gathered in a good-sized depression before it spilled over the edge and continued downwards. There were a few benches around it, but other than that, there was plenty of open space.
“Let’s set up camp here,” I said as we came to a halt a few steps from the pool.
“You really need to stop acting as if you’re the one in charge,” Audrey said with a threatening note to her voice. “Before my patience runs out.”
Raising my eyebrows, I turned so that I could look down at her. “Did you see a better spot on the way here?”
For a moment, she just glared back at me. Then she clicked her tongue and ground out, “No.”
“Thought so. Now, I’m gonna wash off all this blood.” I turned towards Henry. “Could you—”
“I’ll get the tents up,” he finished for me.
Paige glanced between Audrey and me before a wicked smile curled her lips. “I’ll help you. Lance will too. So, Audrey, you can go ahead and wash off the blood as well.”
Audrey narrowed her eyes at her friend. “I’m not covered in blood.”
“Blood, sweat, tears…” She flapped her hands. “All the same.”
Before Audrey could answer, Paige grabbed our gear and ushered Henry and Lance towards the widest side by the pool. From next to me, Audrey forced out what sounded like an exasperated breath. But in the end, she just bent down and pulled out the towel from her pack before starting towards the water. I did the same.
When she reached the water, she started stripping out of her clothes as if there was no one else around.
My heart skipped a beat as she pulled off her shirt, exposing her bare back. Damn, I wanted to draw my hand down her spine and trace the curve of her hips so badly.
Shaking my head, I tore my gaze away with great effort and instead focused on getting out of my own clothes. Blood still splattered the front of my leather armor. I would have to clean that off as soon as possible. But first, I had to get the blood off my skin.
Audrey raised her arms and drew her fingers through her hair. I didn’t even know when my eyes had returned to her, but I suddenly found myself staring at her again as she shook out her hair before winding it up into a bun and tying it there. She was only wearing her pants and a brassiere, and the muscles of her back shifted with every move she made. That overwhelming urge to trace my fingers over her body hit me straight in the chest again, and I had to squeeze my hands into fists to stop myself from doing just that.
“When we head for the top level tomorrow,” Audrey began as she turned around.
But then she trailed off when her gaze landed on my face. It took me a moment to realize that I had been staring at her. Grabbing the hem of the shirt I wore underneath my armor, I yanked it over my head just to have something to do.
“Maybe we should head up just the two of us,” she finished. “That way, they will only send down two people to battle us, and then we can have Paige, Henry, and Lance just sneak up when they’re all dead.”
I dropped my shirt on the ground next to me. “That’s actually a good strategy.”
Her eyes flicked down my bare chest. It made warm satisfaction swirl inside me.
Meeting my gaze again, she shot me a pointed look. “Always with the actually. How can you still be surprised that I’m smart at this point when—”
“That was a fantastic battle,” another woman’s voice interrupted.
Audrey and I blinked at each other for a second before turning to face the source of the voice.
Two women were standing a short distance from us. They looked to be a few years younger than us, but both of them carried themselves as if the world usually bowed at their feet. The one on the left had wavy hair while the other one had straight, but apart from that, they looked very similar with their brown eyes and brown hair. If I had to guess, I would say that they were sisters.
“We watched the fight from the terrace,” the one with wavy hair continued as the two of them drifted closer. “And I was incredibly impressed by your way of using force magic.”
“Thanks,” I simply said since I wasn’t really sure what they were after.
“Are you aiming for the top level or are you staying here?”
Suspicion flared up inside me. “Why?”
“Just wanting to know if we’ll be spending a lot of time together or not.” Before I could say anything else, both she and her sister raked their eyes up and down my bare chest and arms. “Are you going for a swim?”
“Would be odd to be taking my clothes off here otherwise, wouldn’t it?”
They giggled before exchanging a conspiratorial look. Next to me, Audrey’s spine had gone rigid. While flexing the fingers of her left hand, she stared at the two sisters with eyes that seemed both freezing cold and burning with fire at the same time. Confusion rippled through me, but before I could ask her what the problem was, the woman with straight hair spoke up for the first time.
“We were actually thinking about going for a swim too.” She gave me a sweet smile. “So I think we’ll join you.”
Green mist exploded across the stones.
I jerked back in surprise as Audrey shoved a cloud of poison down their throats.
They sucked in choked gasps before crashing down on their knees. Their arms hung limply by their sides while they doubled over and dry heaved from the poison.
That strange expression of freezing flames burned in Audrey’s eyes as she leveled a stare dripping with threats on them. “Once I allow you to breathe again, you will take your business elsewhere. Is that clear?”
The two sisters stared up at Audrey as if they couldn’t believe their eyes or their ears. Shock and incredulity washed across their features, but were quickly replaced by panic as they doubled over once more when Audrey most likely increased the strength of her magic.
“I said,” she ground out. “Is that clear?”
While still doubled over and dry heaving, the two of them nodded desperately. Audrey kept them like that for a few more seconds before letting her poison dissipate.
Coughing filled the evening air as the sisters sucked in deep breaths while scrambling to their feet again. Fear and indignation shone in their eyes. And for a moment, a hint of rage flared up too.
Audrey just arched an eyebrow in silent challenge.
For a few seconds, they only watched each other. Then the brown-haired sisters turned around and disappeared back the way they had come with fast steps.
I turned to stare at Audrey, but she was still glaring after the fleeing women. What the hell had that been about?
In an effort to lighten the tense mood that had settled, I let a smirk spread across my lips as I baited her with a teasing, “Are you jealous?”
Something flashed in her eyes. But when she turned to face me, there was only contempt on her features. “No, I was protecting us from a potential security risk. We don’t know who they were or what their endgame was, and you were just going to let them swim here with us like some kind of idiot? Is your ego really that easy to play?”
Embarrassment shot through me. To dampen it, I pulled anger back around me. “Security risk? We’ve slaughtered our way up the mountain. I think I can handle two random people who just wanted to swim.”
“Swim? They were flirting with you, you fucking idiot!”
“So? What does—”
“You and Henry can share a tent tonight,” she cut me off, her eyes flashing. “I’ll be sleeping alone this time.” Snatching up her shirt, she pulled it back on before yanking up the towel from the ground too. “Have fun swimming.”
Utter bewilderment swirled inside my chest as I watched her stalk away.
It was almost as if she was…
Shaking my head, I shoved the thought out of my mind before I could finish it. Who the hell knew what went on inside Audrey Sable’s head sometimes? But whatever it was, it most certainly wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Because she was right. Letting those two random women swim with us would have invited unnecessary risks. I had known that, and still I had been about to let them do it.
And the reason for that was very simple.
I had wanted Audrey to be jealous.
