Shock pulsed in the man’s eyes as the vibrating sword I had called up extended all the way into his chest. I didn’t waste time on watching him die. Instead, I let go of the force blade and summoned a spinning arc. Before the guy’s body had even started crumpling towards the floor, I leaned sideways and threw the force arc towards the men who were standing behind Audrey.
Her green eyes were wide with disbelief as she stared at me.
Metallic clanking filled the room as the sword that the man had taken from me clattered down on the stone floor. The sound snapped the three guards out of their stupor, but it was already too late. It had barely been more than a few seconds since I had rammed the blade into their leader’s chest, but a few seconds was all I needed.
My force arc cut their heads from their shoulders before they could do anything more to hurt Audrey. Time seemed to move incredibly slowly as I watched the spinning arc cleave through flesh and bone. The guards still had that stunned expression on their faces when their heads started sliding off their shoulders and fell to the floor. Metal clanked against stone as the knife the middle guy had kept against Audrey’s throat hit the ground. Three heads bounced down afterwards. It was followed shortly by the rest of their bodies.
That’s when the screaming started.
The two sisters from last night were standing a short distance behind Audrey, and cries of fear and sorrow tore from their throats as they stared towards the dead man at my feet. Audrey, who was still on her knees, whipped her head towards them.
A door burst open on my left. I took off towards Audrey while three more people poured in from the other room. Touching my palms together, I hurled a massive force wall in their direction. Magic glittered between their hands, but my attack hit them in the chest before they could fire anything. It wasn’t enough to kill them, but it struck all three of them at once and sent them flying backwards. Dull thuds echoed as they crashed into the wall behind them.
“Which one?” I demanded as I skidded to a halt in front of Audrey.
She nodded towards the man on her right. “Him. Left pant pocket.”
The two sisters let out another scream from where they had taken cover behind a large wooden chair. I flicked a quick glance towards them while I shoved my hand into the dead guy’s pocket and fished out the key to Audrey’s handcuffs.
“Not them,” she said. Her voice was cold enough to send frost spidering across the floor. “They’re mine.”
A faint click sounded as I unlocked the handcuffs around her wrists. But I couldn’t stop to say anything else because the three men that I had flung into the wall were staggering upright again.
Shooting to my feet, I touched my hands together and threw a force scythe towards the ones on my right. Next to me, Audrey dropped the manacles on the stone with a clang before slowly rising from the floor.
The two people on my right crumpled back to the ground as my attack cleaved their chests in half, but the final one on my other side shot a lightning strike at me. I threw up a force wall right before it could hit my heart. White light flashed around the room as the lightning bolt zapped into my shield and crackled outwards.
More people ran into the room through the open front doors. But before they could do anything, a cloud of poison magic exploded across half of the room. I used the moment of surprise to hurl a spinning arc at the remaining guy by the wall. It took his head off before he could dodge.
Moving so that I could see both Audrey and the people who had poured across the threshold from outside, I kept my gaze flicking between them to see what they were planning on doing. A few of them had brought their hands closer together, but so far no one had called up any magic. Instead, they all just stared between the slashed bodies on the floor and the poison cloud that now enveloped the two sisters.
Now that the urgency of battle had died down, I realized that neither of them had used any magic. They must have been born up here to parents who were strong. How ironic. Two mages skilled enough to make it to the top level had ended up with two daughters born without magic. Sometimes fate really was a fickle bitch.
“Where are your smirks now?” Audrey said, and the vicious coldness in her voice made even my skin prickle.
The two women were on their knees, choking and dry heaving on the poison in their lungs. Panic and terror flashed in their eyes as they stared at Audrey.
“I said…” She prowled closer to them while the glittering green mist billowed around her. “Where are your smirks now?”
Since their limbs were probably unresponsive, all they could do was look up at her with fear on their faces.
For a few seconds, she just stood there, staring them down.
The group of people by the front doors only continued flicking their gazes between her, me, and the dead bodies around us.
Then Audrey raised her leg. Planting her foot against the closest woman’s shoulder, she shoved her down on the floor. A thud rang out as the sister with straight hair landed on her back. Audrey cocked her head and watched her for a few seconds before doing the same to the other one.
When they were both lying on their backs, she must have increased the strength of her magic because they suddenly started twitching and squirming on the floor. Audrey only stood there, staring down at them.
My heart beat hard in my chest as I watched her. Fuck, she was glorious.
Rustling and scraping sounds came from the sisters as they continued struggling on the stones.
Then they stopped.
Blank eyes stared up into the ceiling as their bodies abruptly stopped moving.
Audrey watched their lifeless bodies for a few more seconds before slowly turning towards me and the group that had gathered by the door. Ice seemed to crackle across her features. And when she leveled those hard eyes on the people by the threshold, a few of them actually flinched.
Behind her, the shimmering green mist continued swirling even though everyone was already dead.
Looking straight at the group, Audrey just cocked one dark eyebrow at them in silent challenge.
They looked between her, me, and the dead bodies on the floor again before exchanging a glance. Then they dropped their gazes. Keeping their chins lowered, they backed out of the building and closed the doors.
Once they were shut, Audrey at last let her magic fade out.
For one very long second, she just stared at the closed doors. Then her knees buckled and she crashed down on the floor. Something between a gasp and a sob ripped from her throat before she started sucking in rapid breaths. I hurried towards her.
Holding up her hands in front of her, she stared down at them as they shook violently. It just made her breathing speed up even more.
I dropped down on my knees in front of her and started reaching for her. But then I hesitated. My own hands were red, and my face and body were covered in blood too, from when I had slaughtered my way up the steps in a mad rush. And even if they hadn’t been, I wasn’t sure if Audrey wanted me to touch her right now. Paige and Henry were on their way up with Lance. Maybe waiting for Paige was the best move.
“He almost cut my hand off,” Audrey gasped out between strangled breaths. “He almost cut my hand off. He… If you had gotten here one second later, he would have…”
My heart almost cracked. Lingering panic flashed in her eyes and her chest rose and fell rapidly as she stared down at her shaking hands. I knew that for someone like Audrey, losing a hand would have been worse than death. Even with Sam’s healing magic, there would be no fixing it. Her magic, her power, everything she had worked so hard to build, would be gone forever.
“I know,” I said gently. “But he didn’t. He didn’t cut off your hand.”
She was starting to hyperventilate, and I wasn’t even sure if she had heard me.
“Audrey.”
No response. She just kept staring down at her trembling hands while shallow breaths rasped through her throat.
Reaching out, I wrapped my hands around her wrists. My blood-soaked hands left red smears on her skin, but she didn’t seem to care. Instead, her eyes just shot up to my face.
“You’re okay,” I said, holding her gaze. “Both of your hands are still here, and the people who tried to hurt you are dead. Now, take a deep breath.”
“Breath?” she pressed out.
“Yes.”
My whole chest hurt just seeing her like this. I knew how much she hated anything that made her look weak or vulnerable. I didn’t think reacting like this made her weak, but she didn’t know that.
Drawing her towards me, I pulled her onto my lap and wrapped my arms around her instead. Her chest rose and fell rapidly against my body.
“One deep breath,” I said as I rested my chin on the top of her head. “Just one. You can do that for me, right?”
It took a few seconds, but eventually I could feel her chest expand in a deep breath.
“Good. How about another one?”
She didn’t reply, and her chest kept moving in rapid breaths for a little while longer. Then she sucked in another deep one.
With my arms wrapped around her like that, I just held her tightly while she got her breathing back under control.
Once her chest was moving at normal pace again, her whole body just went limp in my arms. Resting her cheek against my chest, she sat like that for a while without saying anything. I kept my arms around her.
“Are you okay?” I asked eventually.
She drew in a deep breath. “Yeah.”
Another short silence fell. I couldn’t see her face from this angle so I wasn’t sure what was going through her head, but I didn’t want to let her go so I did nothing to move her off my lap.
“Thank you,” she said in a quiet voice. “For coming for me.”
“Of course I came for you.”
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Things like that always seemed to slip out much more easily when I wasn’t looking her in the eye, which was incredibly dangerous. So I cleared my throat and gently lifted her off my lap.
Both of us avoided eye contact as we climbed to our feet again.
I knew that she was feeling embarrassed by what had just happened, and what I really wanted to tell her would only turn both of our worlds upside down, so instead I fell back into the familiar pattern of joking insults that we’d gotten used to at that point.
While straightening, I raised my eyebrows and smirked at her. “Did you actually thank me just now?”
“Yeah.” Uncertainty blew across her features for a second, but then she saw the grin on my face and her shoulders relaxed. Huffing out a breath of amusement, she gave my shoulder a shove. “Don’t get used to it. Bastard.”
Before I could reply, the doors were shoved open behind me. I whirled around, ready for another battle, only to find Henry, Paige, and Lance walking inside.
Henry’s eyes scanned the entire room, taking in every detail and piecing together what had happened, before he met my gaze. I gave him a nod in answer to his silent question.
“Audrey,” Paige blurted out.
She started towards her friend, but only two steps into the room, she noticed the mass of bodies. Four of them were missing a head, and two were split in half across the chest. Her eyes widened and she slapped a hand in front of her mouth.
By the threshold, Lance finally moved fully into the room. He was still wearing handcuffs, and he was carrying most of our tents and packs. But as his gaze landed on the bloody corpses as well, he dropped everything he was holding, turned around, and threw up in the corner.
Audrey and I exchanged a look of dark amusement.
While Lance vomited in the corner, and Paige tried her very best not to do the same, Henry closed the doors behind him and then moved over to me and Audrey.
She nodded towards the guy who I had killed with the force blade. “That was the leader of this terrace. He was a stone mage.”
“A stone mage?” Henry said as he came to a halt next to me. “Damn, that’s rare. No wonder he was king of the mountain.”
“So if that was the top dude…” Paige began from where she was still standing a few strides away. She had to pause and press a hand to her mouth again for a few seconds. Then she sucked in a breath and finished with, “Does that mean we can just walk up to that Enhancer thing now?”
Lance vomited loudly in the corner again.
“Yes,” I said. “And no.”
“We can reach the entrance now,” Audrey elaborated. “But this is where the really difficult part starts.”
“The difficult part?” Paige stared back at her. “You mean to tell me that getting up this mountain was supposed to be the easy part? Not that I contributed much to it. But still. You three looked like you had your hands full just getting us here.”
Henry chuckled and shot Paige a small smile.
It surprised me enough that I forgot what I had been about to say.
However, before I could figure it out, Paige shot the three of us a mischievous grin and then spread her arms.
“Well then, what are we waiting for?”
