Page 66 of Kiss of Magic

“Never thought you would.” Her cells reached peak capacity and she smiled grimly. “Now shut your eyes.”

Then she blasted the troll into smithereens.

Blake shielded his head as rock-like body parts rained down. Denara stared in shock.

“Why?”

“Because Blake’s right, much as I hate to admit it. You and your dark mage friends are psycho. A bunch of madmen tried to impose a new world order here once, in this realm, did you know that? It ended in war and genocide. I want no part of that.”

“But you would live like a queen! You would have everything you ever wanted!”

“Everything but my sanity. Sorry, bitch. No deal.”

Denara’s face tightened with anger.

“If you won’t co-operate through free will, then you’ll do so through coercion. You’ll find dark magic can be very persuasive, my dear.”

She raised her hands. Thick rope-like twines erupted from the ground, stretching and undulating towards Dani across the small space, intending to pinion her. Dani blocked the magic with her own, changing the twines to rose petals that fluttered around her.

“You can’t beat me,” she said. “I’m the key. I have the power of the ancients in my blood.”

“And I have dark magic in mine,” hissed the older witch.

She raised her hands again and this time she blasted witchfire from her fingers. Dani met it with her own. The two streams of green smashed into each other with a high-pitched whine. The resulting sparks were so bright, Blake had to turn away.

“You’ve been in the human world too long,” snarled Denara. “You’re too soft.”

“And you’re unhinged.”

“This can only end one way. With you bending to my will.”

“You’re deluded. Walk away while you still can.”

“I don’t think so, my dear. You’re not strong enough to defeat me.”

As if to demonstrate, Denara’s witchfire surged forward. Dani gritted her teeth as she tried to compensate.

“You’re really starting to piss me off, you know that?”

“Is that supposed to scare me? You’re just a child having a temper tantrum.”

Dani’s eyes narrowed.

Yes, her temper was a flaw. She knew that. It had got her into trouble more times than she could count. But sometimes, it was also a source of strength. She smiled coldly at Denara.

“You want to see what real anger looks like? You got it.”

She tapped into her emotions. She’d been attacked, kidnapped, attacked again, locked in a cellar, subjected to torture, and if she ever got out of here she’d be dragged to England for a ritual which would kill her.

Ofcourseshe was fucking angry.

Her rage grew steadily and she let it fuel her magic. Her witchfire brightened until it was more white than green. Hotter than the flame of a welder’s torch. And it crept steadily closer to her opponent.

Denara called on the remaining cache of dark magic churning in her body and poured it through her fingers. But no matter how hard she strived, she couldn’t reverse the flow of energy. The witchfire was now just a handspan from her face.

Too late, the older witch realised she was outmatched. She threw Dani a despairing glance.

“But your people want to kill you!”

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