Page 111 of Creatures of Chaos

I get a quick look at it before Talon shoves me behind him. It’s an enhancer. Another one of the magical objects the game master hid in the ruins. It’s shaped like a horseshoe, with four different gems that amplify a creature’s natural magic embedded into the metal. Enhancers are very rare and very expensive. I’ve only ever seen one in a museum.

“I’m giving you a chance to bow out on your own terms,” Chase says, and Talon chuckles darkly.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“I’ll use it. I will.”

“Then do it,” Talon says as he shifts his stance. I know what he’s doing. He’s getting ready to charge the dragon shifter.

I peek around Talon, and Chase’s gaze tracks to me and then shifts back to Talon. “I don’t want to hurt her,” he says. “I know she’s close with our heir. But I will if I have to.”

The mention of Becks makes my heart squeeze.

“This is a lot of talk and not a lot of action,” Talon says, sounding deceptively bored.

“I have to win this competition. You don’t know what this will mean?—”

Talon jolts forward in the middle of Chase’s sentence, moving so quickly he almost blurs, taking him off guard. Ducking, Talon plows into Chase’s gut, sending him flying back onto the cobblestone street.

Chase lands hard, cracking his head against the stones. Sitting up, he touches the back of his head and his fingers come away coated in red. He tries to push to his feet, but Talon is already on him, delivering an uppercut followed by a cross to his temple that puts him out.

“Where’s the enhancer?” I say, searching the stones around Chase but not seeing it anywhere.

“There,” Talon says, pointing down the street to near where Titus and Damon are still trading magical blows.

Titus shoots a ball of white faelight at Damon, but he doesn’t have time to dodge the streak of dark shadow magic that Damon fires off and takes a hit to the shoulder. When Titus falls backward from the hit, Damon advances on him, but then his gaze catches on the enhancer.

Oh no.

Talon and I take off, but Damon is closer and scoops it up. Immediately, he shoots shadows at Titus that cocoon him in a ball of darkness. I can hear Titus shouting from within the blackness, but I don’t know what to do about it.

Talon doesn’t hesitate, and matching shadows whip from his palms and shoot toward Damon, squeezing him like a vise,but with the enhancer he’s too strong and quickly breaks free. Turning on Talon, he blasts him with a stream of dark magic. It hits Talon in the chest and sends him sailing right into me. We go down in a pile of limbs and roll until we come to a stop with me on top.

“Are you okay?” Talon asks, but before I can even nod Damon follows up with another blast.

I lift my arm to shield us, praying the cuff works like it did before, and it does because right before the magic hits us it explodes. When we look up, Damon hasn’t waited to see if he finished us off. He’s going for Titus again, who has broken free of his shadow cage and is flinging white faelight at the vampire.

Damon dodges the attacks, and then suddenly Titus falls to his knees, grabbing his head, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Horror washes through me. “What’s he doing to him?”

“Compulsion,” Talon says grimly, and I gasp, remembering what it was like to be under vampire compulsion. Titus is mentally strong. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have passed the compulsion trial, but he can’t hope to break free while Damon has that enhancer.

Titus’ back arches and he lets out a pain-filled bellow.

“He’s hurting him,” I cry, and Talon and I scramble to our feet.

Damon slowly walks toward Titus, his face expressionless, almost vacant.

“We’ve got to get that enhancer away from him.”

“But how?”

Talon glances down at the cuff around my wrist, and I can read the indecision in his eyes. I can also guess what he’s thinking.

“Let’s do it,” I say. “I’ll distract him, and when he attacks me, come in behind him and get that enhancer.”

He presses his lips together, not liking that plan, but we both know it’s solid.

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