Page 154 of Living Legend

She looked as prim and authoritative as usual. She didn't look wary of my appearance, but she did look determined as yellow sparks danced around her fingertips. They flashed, causing me to blink as I felt the electricity in my feet and ankles. She wasn't so far away that I couldn't make out her facial features, and the look in her eye told me she didn't want to hurt me, but as her eyes darted to what surrounded me, it told me what I wanted to know. She was trying to practically exorcize this darkness away from me and that darkness was giving her a fight.

"Dani!" a deep voice I knew too well yelled. With that voice came a lithe ringing in my ears, a musical warmth, a song that lulled my frantic heart. The light I had discarded pulsed against my heart, right as I felt a presence at my back as I caught sight of Nick standing next to Natalia, Reese at his side.

I turned around, just to be pummeled to the ground by Elise, who, in my weak moment, had ripped herself out of her restraints. She placed her palm on my chest and thick leeches of venom ran across my body. I screamed out so loud, I practically lost my voice. Then she was off me, blown back by a gust of wind that also sent me skidding across the ground. The trees rattled, the shingles shook on the adjacent buildings and mounds of dust rose around us. I coughed and held my hand up to my chest, raking my nails over where I still felt the remnants of her venom.

The colors in my vision were starting to return and that light warmth, that musical voice, was still there, humming against my heart, but the darkness loomed. It wanted back in, and they were both tugging at me as I climbed up to my knees and pushed off the ground.

"Dani!" I heard his voice again and heard scurrying feet. I felt his warm hand on my shoulder at the same moment I felt that light peek out behind its hiding place. I looked up at him as he started to open his mouth, but a vengeful Elise flung her hand out, sending a red pulsing flame our way. I started to stand, but Nick reached up to his sword with speed I didn't know he possessed and blocked her advance, sending the flame back towards her. Elise twisted around, letting the flame past her arm.

"Oh, this one's quick!"

"Elise, stop!" Nick pleaded, holding his sword out, his expression that of a man who didn't want to fight.

"How cute," Elise said, shooting flame after flame of red magic at him. Each time, he blocked them. His blade moved at different angles to volley them back at her. Enchanters dodged them as they bounced around. He lunged towards her, just to have her catch his sword in her hand. She pressed against the blade, digging the sharp edges into her fingers and shoving him back hard. Elise grunted and lassoed a dark red rope around his sword as he thrusted it at her and ripped it out of his hands, throwing it to the side. "Maybe I don't need to hurt her; maybe hurting you will do the trick."

I pushed back the light I felt, shoving back into its hiding spot, and pulled whatever darkness I still had out, letting loose a surge of dark magic right at her abdomen, the darkness in me starting up again like it wasn't just electrocuted, right as she opened her palm to let that fucking toxic venom out to play. An arrow shot from the sky and landed right through her shoulder, causing her to stumble back, my magic missing her and barreling through one of the shops. I looked up to see Reese hovering above us, his large, narrow white wings flapping.

Elise ripped the arrow out of her shoulder in one movement and threw it on the ground. Her eyes flamed and she hurled towards us. I stood, stalking past Nick and launching myself towards her, but then the ground rumbled beneath us, the feeling of an earthquake beneath our feet. The grass and dirt started to crack underneath us, pebbles and shards of rock flying around us. I felt something rough slide around my ankles as I tried to swat the pieces of rubble away. I tried to take a step but couldn't. Elise had stopped as well, trying to take another step forward, but she was halted. I looked down at my feet and noticed branches were cuffed around my ankles. I was lifted up and then everything turned upside down as I was hung by my ankles, the blood starting to rush to my head immediately. I looked over at where Elise was strung up as well. The branches scratched at my skin and my shirt started to fold down, exposing my stomach.

Natalia walked casually towards the center of where our entire fight had taken place. She pressed her lips together, clearly thinking of what to say.

"You think hanging me with a tree is going to stop me, you witch?" Elise shouted, flicking her fingers and making a noise of pain as she rolled her wounded shoulder. Blood seeped out of the wound from Reese’s arrow. She tried again, but nothing came out and another searing sound of pain left her lips. "What the fuck is going on?"

Natalia clucked her tongue, holding up both her hands, palms up. Cuff-like yellow circlets were wrapped around our wrists. "You will stop this now, orIwill finish this fight for you. I suggest you get your situation figured out before we meet what is waiting for us, because with you both acting like children, you might as well be as good as dead!" She sauntered over to Elise, and I watched as best I could from my inverted perspective as her tattoo pulsed and glowed. "You will want to get that looked at if you don't want to expire sooner than you'd like." Elise nearly seethed with anger, but then made a face when it looked like steam was coming from her shoulder wound.

I caught Nick's eye, and he almost looked apologetic, if not a little unnerved.

"Just let me go!" Elise cried, making herself sway back and forth as she tried wiggling out from the branches.

"Are you going to behave?" Natalia asked.

"I don't know, ask her. She started it," Elise said, nodding over to me.

Natalia glanced up at me, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow.

"I'll behave," I answered. The colors that had vacated my vision returned to their normal state, the smoke around me having left just as quickly as it came. The warmth and light in my body peeked out again, almost sighing when it noticed everything was alright.

We both fell to the ground with a thud without warning. Elise started to get up and make a move towards me, but she collapsed again, the steam from her wound becoming more apparent. Natalia's honey eyes gave her a once over. "Behave and let the healers fix it."

"What is it?" Elise said through her gritted teeth.

"Angelic magic infused in the bow. Fun fact, little one: most angel weapons are infused with light magic," Reese said, landing on the ground with a soft thud. He pulled his wings in until they disappeared behind him. He knelt down beside her. "It's disrupting your freaky darkness, basically causing your ass to malfunction. How does it feel to be so weak?"

"Reese, lay off, alright?" Nick said, pulling his best friend up and away from her.

Enchanters with white collars around their burgundy tunics hustled over to Elise and cautiously reached down to help her up. I walked over to where Nick and Natalia stood, glancing at Reese, who had a self-satisfied smile on his face. I glanced around at the mess we had made. The cracked tree trunks, a destroyed building, and the ground was cracked and scattered with indentations from our bodies. The main crowd of Enchanters had gone, but others stayed to start picking up bricks and debris, all while giving me exhausted looks.

"I'm sorry," I muffled out, hoping that only Natalia would hear it.

"As long as you've reeled it in, that's all that matters. I would ask that you don't use my home for your revenge again." She wiped her hands down her long skirt but refused to look at me. I knew she meant my overwhelming darkness, and as I searched my body, it was there, but it was dormant. I was back to my regular self. I could feel the lingering power trip still in my veins but nothing resembling what was there before. The healers came to me to help but I waved them off. "We should prepare to leave, when your, umm…when she is done being looked after." Natalia fluttered her fingers towards her left side, and I watched as she brought Nick's sword back over to him, placing it in his waiting hands. They nodded towards each other as if they had a mutual understanding.

"She would have killed you!" We all turned to see Elise struggling in the arms of the healers. "She would have killed you if I had just let you do whatever thefuckyou wanted!" She shoved away from the Enchanters, who made little effort to get her back. Elise stalked over to me, but made no move to harm me, at least not with her magic or her fists.

I stood in front of Nick and looked her over. "What are you talking about?"

Elise blinked rapidly, her long lashes hitting the tops of her cheeks. She pointed at my chest. "That little thing inside of you, that stupid fucking angelic light, it was never going to go away. Lilith knew that when she brought you there, but I had no ideawhatyou really were. All I knew was that she told me to make you lethal, make you tough, make you feared and revered." She squinted her eyes at me. "And that's what I did. You were pathetically simple when I met you, but you took to fighting and torture so quickly. You kept questioning things, like something was holding you back, and I couldn't take it, so I asked Lilith what your deal was.”

I tried to settle my heart as she spoke. She articulated every word and never took her eyes off me. "She confided in me what you were and that you were to be kept on track. If you defected, if you let that little light of yours take over, if you became something I couldn't keep in line, if I couldn't shove that demonic energy down your throat so your angelic light would be nothing more than a memory, she would rip your fucking throat out! She would kill the light and the dark. She gave you that dagger to feed your darkness. She didn't want something she couldn't control, and she has been controlling you, Dani, with little things here and there this whole time, herpatheticlittle pawn. Her fearless little Soul Seether. Whether Nicholas told you or I did, it doesn't matter; telling you wouldn't have changed a fucking thing. Idon'tknow what her end goal really is, Idon'tknow who she's working with, and frankly, you don't have time to figure yourself out, despite how muchsomeonewould like you to." She cut her eyes to Nick. I heard his quick intake of breath, and I stuck my tongue in my cheek.

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