Page 98 of A Petal in the Crown

“Find her,” Gray ordered. “Tell the others. Wehaveto find her.”

Gray’s ears rang with the clash of swords, his boots slick with mud and blood. Soldier after soldier, he slaughtered them, swiftly and violently, fighting his way further and further south. He couldn’t stay to protect his army, couldn’t remain behind to keep his soldiers safe.

Not with Lea out there somewhere, alone with Alaric and Eudora. The guilt threatened to crush him, each step forward feeling like a stone cast against his soul. But if he didn’t find Lea, they would all die. Every last one of them.

Erik and Janelle continued to fight near him, staying close and guarding him from behind. They moved as one—forward, forward,forward—until the fighting became more sparse and the sounds of battle faded to a dull roar behind them. Gray broke into a sprint, able to reach full speed now that he wasn’t dodging attacks and corpses.

But he didn’t make it more than thirty feet before he was thrown to his back in a violent crash. Two massive paws landed on his chest, pinning him down, and his heart nearly stopped as the gaping maw of a fenrir inched closer to his throat, its teeth already dripping with blood.

Chapter 64

Lea

Alaric’s eyes bulged, capillaries bursting as he thrust out a hand and tightened his fingers into a tight fist. Instantly, Lea's throat squeezed closed, a rope made of air wrapping around her neck and tightening until she couldn’t breathe. Panic bubbled through her chest, so potent she almost missed it when a cold chill ran down her spine.

Death, she recognized, was already coming for her, before she’d even had the chance to try to take Alaric's magic. Stars dotted her vision as her body fought for air, but she forced her heart to slow, trying to conserve oxygen. She gathered her sword's energy in her chest and, with a grunt of effort, shot it forward—a gust of wind that threw Alaric backward. It was just enough to cause him to loosen his hold, and she sucked in a hungry breath, oxygen returning to her bloodstream and her vision becoming clearer.

She cast her shadows around herself, as thick and dark as she could make them, only stopping once she was unable to see her hand in front of her. She didn’t need to see. Her shadows had already mapped out the woods around her: the lake's edge where the water slowly lapped against serrated rocks, the makeshift throne, the narrow trees.

Alaric cackled, a truly unhinged sound that sent chills down Lea’s spine. "It's so fun when you fight back," he said, his voice light. "It's beenboring just killing again and again and again. It’s been too easy, you see. But youuuu…" He drew the word out, his pitch lilting up as if starting to sing. "Yougive me a challenge."

A pop of fire exploded to her left, dirt and mud flying through the air and splattering her face. Lea jumped, sucking in a sharp breath and wiping her eyes. As silently as possible, she crept toward Genevieve.Pop!Another explosion, this time ten feet ahead of her.

"I can smoke you out, I guess," Alaric said, and Lea pictured him stroking his chin, pretending to ponder. But she knew him better than that. He loved the hunt every bit as much as he loved the kill.

Genevieve screamed as another explosion cracked only feet behind her, and Lea darted forward, sensing her opportunity. With a flick of her wrist, she severed the ropes holding her wrists in place. "Run," she whispered in her ear, still mapping out the forest around her with her shadows.

Alaric had wandered in the opposite direction, still taunting her, still teasing her and describing the horrible things he planned to do once he caught her: plucking out her eyeballs, pulling out all her teeth one by one, peeling her fingernails from their beds before chopping up her hands knuckle by knuckle.

Genevieve's breaths were ragged as she twisted toward the tree line, ready to follow Lea’s orders and run to her escape. But in the blink of an eye, the map in Lea’s mind changed. With a snap of his fingers, Alaric was in front of them, his sword already stabbed through Genevieve's gut. Lea launched at him, swinging her own sword in an arc in an attempt to get him to back away, but it was too late. Genevieve fell to her knees, blood oozing from her mouth and nose, a horrible gurgling sound sputtering from her throat.

Alaric didn’t take the time to savor his kill. Instead, he ripped the sword from Genevieve’s stomach and lifted it to Lea'sthroat. Lea ripped his arm back with her shadows, Genevieve’s blood flinging from the sword and across her face as she knocked it away from her neck, but she wasn’t strong enough to dislodge it from Alaric's hand.

She backed up, trying to get some distance from his sword so she could take his magic without the threat of him jamming it between her ribs. Rolling his eyes as if inconvenienced, he twisted a finger, a ring of fire bursting around them, trapping Lea inside with him and Eudora.

Lea tried to lunge toward him, to swipe her sword with enough force to cut through the tendons of his legs, but he was too fast, too powerful, sidestepping her with ease. "Such a disappointment," he sighed. "I expected more of a challenge thanthis," he said dramatically, but a smile twisted his already cruel features.

Lea stepped back, her sword still tight in her fist. She’d hoped to injure him, in some way first. To distract him with a painful wound, in the hopes that she could make him drop his defenses and distract him as she wormed her magic inside him, but he’d grown too strong. She was no match for him. Not physically.

Praying that Evangeline would still be able to help her from wherever she hid, Lea tunneled inside herself, forming a thick shield of shadows and air around herself to block Alaric and Eudora’s attacks. Alaric's eyes went wide with rage, and he leapt forward, crashing his sword into the shield, but it held firm. Planting her feet, she gripped her sword in both hands and isolated her primary magic, once again picturing it as long moonflower vines creeping toward him, spiraling up his body until they pierced through his skin and inside Alaric's chest with a snap.

She pictured her shadows morphing into chains and draped them around Alaric, holding him in place as she grasped at his magic. She wrapped her vines around a piece, the feeling of his power unnatural and foreign. It wasn’t Alaric’s magic she held, but someone else's. Magic he had stolen, but it didn’t matter whose magic she took first. She had to takeevery last drop. She branched her vines out, wrapping them around as many pieces as she could, and began to pull.

Alaric paused his attack with his sword, his face turning blood red as he grit his teeth and lifted his chin. He roared toward the sky, his magic exploding outward in a mighty wave that broke the chains of darkness holding him in place.

With inhuman strength, he lifted his sword over his head before once again bringing his weapon crashing into her shield. It vibrated so hard her teeth rattled, but somehow, it held strong as she continued to pull Alaric's magic inside herself. Pain seared behind her eyes, a pounding, throbbing agony that spread into her forehead and through her temples, down her throat and into chest. Still, she pulled harder, spreading her vines and grabbing more and more of his magic.

Eudora stepped forward, her calm exterior faltering as her eyes widened, a hint of panic crossing her face. She clawed and banged against Lea’s shield of shadows and air, trying desperately to break through, but Lea funneled more power into it, determined to keep them out. She just had to get Alaric’s magic. Had to last long enough to drain him, and then, as long as she died with the sword in her hand, she could kill him. She wouldn’t fail this time.

Alaric screamed as she ripped more power away, dropping his sword and holding his hands out to throw a stream of fire into her shield, so hot she could smell her skin and hair burning. But even the pain of her burning skin was nothing compared to the agony surging through her body as she pulled another surge of Alaric’s power inside her chest.

Lea felt Evangeline’s shield around her life force strengthen, holding back death as he clawed at her heart. She could feel death squeezing, pulling and ripping and tearing, but never hard enough, never with enough force to break through Evangeline’s protection and take her soul. She reinforced Evangeline’s shield, keeping death from sinking its clawsinto her flesh, then pulled harder, a chunk of Alaric's magic snapping off the mass of power inside him and clicking into place with a sickening thud in her chest.

Lea doubled over, retching onto the ground as pain enveloped her. Blood dripped from her nose and ears, and her vision went blurry, but she forced herself to stand. Eudora screamed, something Lea couldn’t hear through the blood roaring in her ears. Her eyes were wide with panic, and she continued banging against the shield, then raised her hands, muttering something incomprehensible.

Lea worked faster, pulled harder, another piece of Alaric’s magic severing from his body and shooting inside her. Alaric’s mouth dropped open, his face paling as Lea stole more and more from him. Piece by piece, it melded with her own in agonizing waves, the pain growing more intense as Alaric grew weaker. He turned his head, meeting the witch's eyes.

"No!" Eudora snapped, as if reading Alaric's mind, knowing he wanted to flee. "We end this. Here and now!" she ordered, closing her eyes and resuming her chanting.

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