Page 22 of Faeheart
But the leader of the group merely raised a hand, and both my illusions and Caden’s vines disintegrated into ash. The magical backlash hit us like a physical blow, sending us staggering.
“Pathetic,” the leader called out, pushing back their hood to reveal a woman with silver-streaked hair and cold eyes. “Is this the best the academy can offer? A half-breed, a fae whore, and the great hope of the Thorne family?”
Elias’s grip on my hand tightened painfully. Through our bond, I felt something shift inside him. Rage replaced fear, and determination overtook confusion.
“Stay behind me,” he whispered, his voice different somehow, resonating with power I’d never felt from him before.
“What are you?—”
Before I could finish, Elias stepped forward, placing himself between us and the attackers. The pendant at his chest blazed with blinding light, and I felt a strange pulling sensation, as if he were drawing magic not just from himself but from me and Caden as well.
“You want me?” Elias called out, his normally perfect posture now radiating dangerous power. “Here I am.”
The leader laughed again. “Surrender now, boy. Your family’s betrayal must be answered with blood.”
“My family?” Elias’s confusion flickered briefly through our bond, but he didn’t falter. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you made a mistake coming here.”
“The Thornes promised us you would join our cause,” another attacker snarled. “Your father assured us his son understood the need for purity.”
I watched Elias’s face harden as understanding dawned. “My father doesn’t speak for me.”
He raised his hands, and I gasped as pure magical energy began to swirl around him. It wasn’t the structured, formulaic spells I’d seen him practice, but something older, wilder. It was magic none of us knew how to use or control, but he was doing it, somehow, on instinct.
“Elias,” I warned, feeling the bond between us stretching dangerously as his magic built to impossible levels. “You can’t channel that much power alone!”
But he wasn’t listening. The air around him crackled with electricity, the scent of ozone and something ancient filling my nostrils. Through our connection, I could feel him reaching for something beyond himself, beyond even our binding, something primal that lived in the spaces between realms.
The leader raised her staff, dark energy coalescing at its tip. “Kill him! Kill them all!”
Six streams of corrupted magic shot toward us like vipers striking. Elias threw up his hands, and a shield of pure energy materialized, but it was already fracturing under the assault, his untrained wild magic buckling beneath the coordinated attack.
“He can’t hold it!” Caden shouted, dragging himself toward Atlas’s fallen form.
I made a split-second decision. Lunging forward, I wrapped my arms around Elias from behind, pressing my chest against his back. The moment we touched, our pendants flared in unison, and I felt our magic interlace like fingers intertwined. The shield solidified, turning from transparent to a swirling opal barrier that reflected the attackers’ spells back at them.
“What are you doing?” Elias gasped, his body trembling with the effort of channeling so much power.
“Helping you, idiot,” I growled in his ear. “You can’t do this alone.”
Through our connection, I pushed my chaotic fae energy into his structured channels, feeling the way our magics fought before finding an unexpected harmony. The sensation was intoxicating, like nothing I’d ever experienced before, wild and precise all at once.
“Caden!” I called out. “We need you!”
Caden hesitated, torn between us and Atlas’s unconscious form. The leader of the attackers seized the moment, redirecting her staff toward him.
“The half-breed dies first,” she snarled.
Time seemed to slow. I watched the bolt of sickly energy streak toward Caden, saw his eyes widen in terror, felt Elias’s panic surge through our bond. Without thinking, I reached through our connection, grabbing hold of Elias’s magic and pulledhard.
The world exploded into light and sensation. Elias screamed as power poured from him into me, far more than I could safely handle. My fae nature responded instinctively, channeling the overflow toward Caden through our shared bond.
The moment it touched him, something extraordinary happened. Caden’s dryad heritage awakened in a dramatic display. His skin took on a greenish hue, and leaves sprouted across his body as he thrust his hands forward. The bolt meant to kill him dissipated against a wall of thorny vines that erupted from the ground, encircling Atlas’s fallen form protectively.
“Impossible,” the leader whispered, taking a step back.
But we weren’t done. The three-way connection between us had stabilized, magic flowing in a perfect circuit that amplified with each passing second. I felt myself shifting, my true fae form emerging. I was taller, wilder, my skin glowing with internal light and my hair moving as if underwater.
“You wanted to see what the Thorne heir is capable of?” I laughed, my voice echoing with otherworldly resonance. “Let us show you.”
