Page 90 of Prince of Storms
“Enough of your games, Rica,” I said, walking forward, summoning power with each measured step. After the first one, my arms tingled with lightning as miniature bolts jumped from hair to hair.
By the second step, my vision turned brighter, my eyes filling with a silvery-blue glow. The third step saw lightning begin to swirl around me in an oval pattern as I bent the energy with the sheer force of my will.
“Last chance!” I howled over the growing tempest around me, harnessing all my powers. “Surrender!”
The Vorgan leaped at me, all six legs extending forward. It intended to rip me to shreds. It would have worked … if I wasn’t prepared for it. They’d given me too much time to channel power. Far too much.
I extended a single finger and made contact with the snout of the Vorgan as it came for my neck, intending to sink its teeth deep into my skin. In that instant, I discharged every joule of energy I had summoned, sending it all into the shadow monster.
The Vorgan lit up like an oversized Christmas tree, its entire body becoming visible and coherent in that one moment. Then it hurtled across the room and partially through the wall before slumping to the floor. There was no further movement.
“You killed him!” Rica shouted and hit me with a blast of lightning far stronger than I’d thought her capable of.
It was my turn to fly backward. Wings shot out from my back mid-flight, stabilizing me as I dropped to the ground, breathing hard, my hair all sticking straight out, while residual bits of energy skipped between my teeth and fingertips.
“Why won’t youdie?!” Rica shrieked, coming at me in a continual onslaught of lightning bolts, each strong enough to seriously hurt one of the other dragons in the room.
Because of that, I couldn’t deflect them aside. Not without being sure where they would hit. Mia was in the crowd somewhere, and I had to protect her at all costs. I would rather die than know that my actions hurt her somehow.
So I accepted each blast, absorbing them into me, and shunting their power up, through the roof and into the sky above. Debris rained down around me as the energy peeled the ceiling and roof back. Plaster, pieces of wood and framing, shingles, and more clattered down around my feet, many of them hitting me and bouncing away.
The sky rumbled ominously as I messed with the weather system by dumping so much energy into it. Rica just kept coming. I’d expected her to be untrained, but it seemed she’d found a way to learn the strength of her powers.
I didn’t shrink under her onslaught, but the fury with which she attacked meant I wasn’t on the offensive at all. The sounds of fighting continued around me as the other princes battled their Vorgans. I dared not risk looking to see how the battles went. I had to trust in my comrades to do the job I’d asked of them.
“Rica!” I bellowed over the near-constant crack andboomof lightning and thunder. “Cease this madness. You’ll kill us all!”
She either didn’t hear me or didn’t care. The wind whipped around her wildly, catching her hair, tugging it out behind her. Her eyes, normally as pale gray as mine, were filled with blue-white energy. Her mouth was open, though no further screams came from it. All she was doing was pouring every ounce of energy she had into her attacks on me.
“I don’t want to do this!” I shouted at her. “You’re my family!”
“Tor!” a voice shrieked.
The Vorgan I’d electrocuted came hobbling back into view. Its body was crusted and burned, with some parts still smoking. But it was still mobile enough that it had somehow gotten into the crowd and snatched Mia. She now hung in its jaws, her face white as snow.
Glancing behind me, I saw a path of bloodied and battered dragons. At their center, Ty was leaning over Surge, helping him reset his arm. Ty’s entire left side was covered in blood, and his right leg didn’t seem to be working properly either.
Turning back to Rica, who had paused in her assault to gloat, I shoved my anger to the side. It was not the time to act irrationally. If I did that, Mia would die.
“Here’s my offer to dear brother,” Rica crooned. “You give me the throne, and she’ll live long enough to be a crone. Ha!”
Lightning gathered in my left palm. The sound of battle still filled the room, as did the moans of the wounded behind me.
“Ah-ah-ah!” Rica admonished, waving a finger. “Do that, and she gets it.”
The Vorgan brought one of its foreclaws up, resting it on Mia’s belly. She whimpered in fear.
“Tick-tock, Torrent. Tick-tock. Make up your mind,” Rica said. “I don’t have all day. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seve—”
Vil came soaring through the air, sword in hand. Silver flashed.
And the Vorgan’s head fell from its body, depositing it and Mia to the floor rather roughly.
Rica screamed in fury, and power gathered anew in her hand. There was no way I could gather enough of my own power to stop her before she struck Mia down. So I didn’t bother.
With a howl, I thrust my hand skyward. Using what little power I had, I reached into the sky, merging my strength with the wild storm raging overhead and calling its power to me.
Then I slammed my hand into the ground. Lightning followed my command, a bolt as broad as my shoulders struck Rica in the head, flowing through her and into the ground, where it dissipated through the floor and walls. Many dragons were thrown from their feet, struck momentarily numb by the blast.
