Page 293 of The Lands Defying
He’s toying with him.
My eyes slide to Charles as anger settles in my gut, before slowly moving and spreading throughout my body.
Darius groans, his body going taunt for a moment and Charles attacks, striking him with a sword in the side of his stomach. I gasp, my fingers curling into the stone as Darius spins away from him. Charles laughs, watching as blood splatters the floor from his injury and Charles throws more magic at him.
They go back and forth with magic and steel, blow after blow as Darius puts magic at his back to protect against beasts, as Drax continues his own savagery.
“Foolish boy, you could have had it all,” Charles spits as he sends magic his way, catching his throat while Darius manages to stab a spike into Charles’s shoulder. “Power, females, the people would have bowed at your feet!”
A shadow moves in the corner of my eye, and I glance at it, heart pounding as I see Darius’s magic creeping up against the bottom of Charles’s barrier, spreading out like cracks, trying to get through.
My eyes slide to Darius.
He’s sneakily sent his magic here to try and free me while he’s also fighting.
Darius jabs forwards, and Charles places a barrier up to block him before going on the attack again. I notice more dark patches appearing, slower this time, and they are right behind Darius, whose magic seems to have slowed down.
Oh Gods, he’s weakening.
I look at his magic on the barrier and swallow roughly.
It’s because he’s helping me.
Come on, Rhea, move.
“She will never be yours again, Alpha Darius.” Charles manages to grab him with magic, binding his arms at his side, squeezing so tight that he drops his blade.
“No!”
“Ahh!” Darius suddenly shouts and my head snaps to him, seeing his body still and rigid. Purple magic circles him in a fast turn, and Darius’s own magic tries to swallow it, but it escapes every time.
“Dar!” I whimper as Charles walks toward him. Darius struggles, mindful to send out shards of attack to try and keep Charles at bay, but it’s not working, Charles just blocks them with his power, knocking them to the side with shards of his own.
I hear a howl, then I see Drax leaping out of the fray of rogures, coming to his keeper, but the rogures that were slowly appearing out of the ground behind him, arrive.
“Darius, move, you have to move!” I get my arms under me, only for them to give way as I smack my chin off the stone.
“You thought you could best me?” Charles snarls. “I have years on you, boy. I looked after you after your father passed, I taught you how to be a Higher, I praised you to others, and you dare raise a blade to me!” His hand snaps out, and blood seeps from Darius’s lips as his head swings to the side.
“Darius!” I shout frantically, eyeing his power next to me. His gaze flicks to mine and I swallow roughly.
He’s distracting him, but at what cost?
“Lasandrhea seems worried, shall we go to her?” Charles turns, but Darius’s magic comes out and grabs hold of the power binding him. Charles stops. “You think you can get out of my power? You think you could kill me?!” Charles continues as I try to move, to do anything. “I am more than anything you could ever be, Heir of Cazier,” he spits, and then his hand is around Darius’s throat.
No.
Charles has caused so much pain and suffering. He stole children, stole my childhood and family, controls the roguresand beasts and continues to kill anyone he chooses for his own gains.
He will not take my Vihnarn.
He will not.
Darius’s face turns a dark shade of purple and my palms hit the floor, a cry coming from me. I push back and sit on my knees just as a sliver of his magic breaks through, Charles is too distracted with Darius to notice.
He thinks he is unstoppable, that he will be a God, but this is not how it ends.
My face heats and I feel a flicker within me, feel it bubble and expand before it zips around at high speed and I grab hold of it, yanking it to me with so much force that it steals the breath from my lungs.
