Page 76 of Magic Hunted
“How did you find us?” Titan said.
My lips drew back and I bared my teeth. “Taught me…well.”
His lips thinned. “As tightlipped as ever, I see. The exact reasons won’t matter. This is the last thing you do, sewer-rat.”
“Going to…kill you,” I spat.
Titan’s flat, dead eyes peered down at me. “From where I’m standing, that’s an empty threat. You’ll die, but not before you watch as my comrades kill everyone who dared be here with you.” He shrugged, as though there weren’t people dying around us, or elves on warbugs trying to get close to him or the rest of The Six. As though he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Then after this cave floor is filled with a river of blood and you’ve lost everything, I’ll slit you from neck to cunt and dig that grimoire out of you with my bare hands. Consider it your punishment for hiding it from me all these years.”
My stomach churned because he would try. Not that he’d find it even then. It physically wasn’t inside me. It was locked in a metaphysical cage no one could get to except me. “You’re a sick fuck.”
He cackled, his face lighting up with warped humor. “You’ve lost your manners while you’ve been away from me, sewer-rat.”
“Made me…worthy,” I said, my breaths rattling my chest. I was worthy enough to keep the grimoire safe. Worthy enough to save worlds. I didn’t buy into Titan’s lies any more. My mates and their love had assured that.
“There’s nothing worthy about you. I own you. You’re anything I say you are. You breathe because I allow it. You eat when I say so. Beg because I demand it. Every action. Every thought. Everything of you is mine. Mine for the giving and now for the taking.” His lips peeled back as bolts of his magic slammed into me. The corrosive burn of his acid ate through my skin. Tore through sinew. Dissolved muscle and bone until I was nothing more than the agony shattering me apart.
A far distant part of my mind recognized that I really was no match for Titan because he was so much stronger than he’d ever been. His power had grown. Shanyirra was right. What was once shared between six had grown more potent between four.
A panther’s snarl cut through the roar of Titan’s magic. Ashir, Dias and Savvas were poised on the same ledge I’d leapt from, their glowing eyes trained on me.
“No!” The word choked in my throat as Ashir leapt onto the cave floor, Dias and Savvas quick to follow. Titan would kill them without a second of hesitation. They couldn’t die.
I wouldn’t let them.
My magic leapt to life, surging through my body in a cascade of brilliant green. Like oil to water, Titan’s magic recoiled. I gritted my teeth, encasing my magic around his, pushing it away as I’d done before.
“What are you doing?” Titan bellowed. “How are you doing that?”
Titan threw more bolts at me, thudding into my body with the impact of burning arrows. I gasped as his magic seared me. He was impossibly strong. His magic pushed mine back as agony liquefied my bones.
My magic alone wouldn’t be enough.
I wasn’t enough. I couldn’t withstand the force of his magic. It tore through every cell in my body and all I could think about were my mates and the life with them that would be denied. They’d changed me on so many levels. Made me stronger. Made me want things for my life I thought I’d never have. They’d given me back my reason to live and I wasn’t strong enough to fight for it anymore. My body wasn’t going to regenerate. Not from this. I would be incinerated and turned to ash, and with it my part of the grimoire would be lost forever.
The grimoire rocked on its tether and a shower of sparks erupted through me, merging with my bright green. As though it understood it couldn’t hide anymore, golden Fae magic flowed through my veins alongside mine, lending me its strength and power. Fae magic burned inside me, warm and pure, waiting for me to direct it.
Blood fizzed in my veins, the pain shooting through me receding to a distant part of my body. I clambered to my feet, sweating, gasping for breath, mind reeling, but upright. I sent a charge of magic into my palm. A green and gold ball appeared in a brilliant shower of sparks.
“That magic is mine. Give it to me now!” Titan snarled. I stepped toward him, enjoying the look of dawning horror playing on his face. The unsure step back he took as I kept approaching.
“The grimoire will never be yours. You stole the magic and corrupted it. It’s time to pay for that crime,” I said.
I hit him in the chest with a surge of power. Green and gold glitter showered off him from the impact. The magic burrowed into him, shredding his shirt and blackening his skin. His legs buckled. He held a shaking hand to his chest as horror washed over his face. “You can’t do this, not to me!”
“Can’t you handle what you’ve dished out?” I said.
His face shone, covered in perspiration. Glowing green and gold rushed beneath his skin, burning through his veins. He crashed onto his knees, fingers clawing his chest for the magic he would never dig out. “Mercy. Please, Haera.”
A disbelieving laugh burst from me. Dots of rage danced in my vision. The mixed magic inside me churned, driven into a thunderstorm. “How does it feel to know you have no power? That you can’t fight back. I’ll make you feel the pain you inflicted on others. The people you killed without thought. The lives you destroyed. How does it feel knowing you can’t do anything about it?”
His gaze slipped past my shoulder, settling on something behind me before his eyes hardened. “There’s always a way to control. It’s only a matter of finding a weakness.”
Magic danced in Titan’s hands. Spears of it streaked toward me. I ducked to avoid them, turning at the shocked cries of pain from behind. Ashir, Dias and Savvas lay on the floor, Titan’s magic lashing around them.
“Give me the grimoire and I’ll spare your mates,” Titan said, the sneer I was so used to seeing on his lips.
