Page 64 of A Deception of Courts

“I’m not leaving,” I growled, more to the universe than Rafaela. Icy winds enveloped me, picking my admission and amplifying it. It tore the dark locks of hair from my forehead as it picked up in a frenzy.

Rafaela hoisted her hammer above her, gritted her teeth and then nodded. In a blink, she shot skyward. Rafaela was airborne, charging toward the three creatures with a scream of war. I admired her strength and prowess, it inspired my own.

This was my land, regardless of how, on the surface, I was disconnected from it. Deep down, swirling among the power my bloodline permitted, it was mine.

No longer held aloft by the welcoming torrent of my conjured winds, my bare feet pressed back to the cold stone as I prepared myself. Even at a distance, I could hear Rafaela’s war song.

The Draeic were equal in size, but each born from different shades of night. Their hulking bodies were covered in an armour of sharpened scales. The closer they grew, the more I could see a form of what seemed to be light exposed beneath their layer of scales. Crackling red fire. As though lava flowed beneath, shown only through the cracks. Much like Duwar had looked when he presented himself in the mirror, standing proudly behind Aldrick. The monsters belonged to him.

My eyes devoured the creatures, searching for a weakness. The one that flew to the left of the formation struggled to keep height. It was subtle but enough for me to notice.

Its leathery wings were covered in tears and jagged holes. Moonlight easily speared through the thin membrane that stretched between their boned frames.

I wouldn’t allow them to get any closer.

She met one of the Draeic head-on with equal confidence, hammer swinging in a blur of gold, colliding with the side of the creature’s maw. There was no sign of hesitation as Rafaela’s stone-grey wings carried her toward them. The hammer ruptured against scale, the Draeic roaring in agony, thrown into the front of another one of the creatures. They collided with a sky-shattering boom.

Wasting not another moment, I ran. This time to the outer edge of the balcony that we had, not moments before, been talking together by. The peace of our conversation was a distant memory. The harsh presence of stone pressed into my hip as I leaned as far over the edge as I could until all I could see was the darkened drop below.

Instinct drove me. I pushed my power into the surrounding air, and it welcomed me. Like a leech upon flesh, the winter air drank from me. I envisioned every flake of snow and ice entrapped within the winds that whirled around the castle. Honing my focus was as easy as conjuring a thought. Every one hardened and sharpened in my mind’s eye, forming the snow into intricately crafted blades.

I blinked, and the dark glittered with static flakes that hung like stars across the landscape. There were so many of them that I couldn’t fathom a number large enough to guess. Then, with clear precision, I guided the winds and pushed those crafted blades of ice straight toward the Draeic.

Another boom echoed across the landscape as Rafaela’s hammer crashed into the snout of one beast again. Beside them, she looked small, but her strength was mighty. Unrelenting just like the storm I’d conjured.

My assault met the third of the Draeic. I felt every shard tear through hardened skin with the ease of a knife through butter. Over and over, I willed the ice to return, ripping, scratching, stabbing. A gust of silver wind engulfed the large beast completely in a vortex of my blizzard.

I revelled in the monster’s howls as my power tore it to shreds. It was ripped part, bit by bit, caught in a web of my own making. My body tensed against the power, arms still outstretched, as I forced more of my essence into the winds until it was as much a part of me as my own hands.

A sudden, sharp tang of copper filled my mouth. My teeth bit hard down into the sides of my cheeks as I focused on destroying the creature. I brushed my tongue over the mess of flayed skin, using the pain to hone my focus.

I knew the very moment the Draeic stopped struggling within the vortex of ice and ruin. There was no noise anymore, no struggle. Only the continuous roaring of the Draeic Rafaela still fought. I couldn’t look to see if she needed help, not until I was confident my victim would no longer be a threat.

A sudden heavy, unwanted rush of tiredness overcame me. Fog shrouded my mind, the world spun out of control. I withdrew my power, falling over onto the stone wall of the balcony as my knees gave way. My lungs burned as I inhaled frozen air deeply, forcing as much breath back into them as I could muster.

Something warm trickled down from my nose. Lifting a finger to check, it came back red and wet with blood. But all of my discomfort was not strong enough to stop me from witnessing the annihilation my power had achieved.

Lightheaded from the draw back of my power, I watched the Draeic as it fell from the sky. Its body was a bloodied, broken mess of limbs and bone. Meat hung from its corpse. The wings were so torn that even if it had survived, they wouldn’t have kept it airborne.

I glimpsed its gouged eyes and shattered jaw. Then it was gone. Falling into the dark. Its death was so terribly silent, until the shattering explosion of its body meeting the ground far below echoed up the sheer face of the castle’s walls.

My relief was short-lived as Rafaela’s scream cut through the daze of power and tiredness. I looked up to see her body, grey wings folded protectively over her, hurtling through the night. From the arcing swing of one of the monster’s spiked tails, I knew it had hit her.

I screamed her name, my voice filling the dark void between us. No room for thought, only action, I released my power again, recognising the slight strain on it. I thickened the air, trying to soften the inevitable fall. There was resistance, but it worked enough to give her the time she needed.

Just before Rafaela slammed into the castle walls below the balcony, she threw her wings out and regained control. Blood smeared her cheek as she looked up at me. I spotted a dark stain spread at the side of her waist that she had not seemed to notice or care about.

Everything that followed happened so quickly.

Rafaela flew upward, wings cascading powerful gusts down upon me. “I need to get you out of here.”

“No, I can stop them.”

Rafaela’s bloodshot eyes suggested she didn’t believe me. “You can’t. They are Duwar’s creatures – made of dark power – the more you use against them the more it will drain you.”

Was this what was happening to me? How I’d reached the limit of my power so quickly.

“This is my domain; I’ll not let them take it!”

---