Page 87 of A Court of Sugar and Spice
“Move aside, Magda,” Fin says. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“You can’t be capable of much, I’ll wager, after you spent so much magic impressing the Rat King tonight. Yes, we allowed you to drain yourself on purpose, so you would be weak. As helpless as you are stupid.” She laughs, thin and poisonous.
Finias chuckles. “I was drained, yes, and exhausted, too. But my energy recharges much faster than most, and you kindly allowed me the time I needed.”
A flicker of alarm enters Magda’s eyes.
“And now, dearest,” says Fin. “If you would hold onto me, please, and stay quite close.”
I wrap my arms around his body, pressing my cheek to his chest—and the world explodes around us.
The first pulse of rainbow light from Fin’s hands shatters the entrance to the cave system, cracking it wide open to the dawning sun. Magda disintegrates on the spot, reduced to black dust on the wind.
“Perfect. I need sunlight for this spell,” Fin says casually. “Switch to my back side, would you, love?”
He’s turning to face the tunnels we came through, from which echo the shouts of the Rat King’s oncoming soldiers. I duck behind him while he faces them. Another burst of iridescent magic rockets from his hands, traveling in a vibrant, humming wave down the underground corridors, destroying every rat-soldier it strikes.
He blasts them again and again, while we back away from the lair toward the treeline.
“We’re going to fly in a minute, sweetheart,” he says. “Be ready.”
But I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. More soldiers, pouring out of a side exit—a hidden tunnel nearby. Some of them are carrying crossbows. One creates a ball of black lightning with his hands and flings it toward us.
“Fin, to the right!” I scream.
“Fuck,” he hisses. He fires own pulse that collides with the incoming spell. It fizzles out, and he casts another light-wave to disintegrate the soldiers.
“More on the left,” I warn him. “Conjure me a weapon, so I can fight!”
“I can’t. I can only conjure clothing, sweets, lights, a few other items—nothing metal—”
“What about that trick you did with the chair in your house? It disappeared and then reappeared somewhere else! Do that with one of the rat-soldiers’ weapons! Or with us!”
“It doesn’t work like that! There’s a very limited range to that ability, and I can’t move something as large as our bodies.”
“Give me something, Fin,” I persist. “If you can conjure boots and belts you can make mesomething—how about a whip?”
“Brilliant woman,” he says, and the next instant a long leather whip, sheathed in a pink glow, appears in my hands.
He sends off a volley of his striped candy darts, then several swarms of the burning rainbow orbs he used the night his house was attacked.
A group of rat-soldiers slip through his guard on the left, so I lash out with my whip, striking the leader in the face. But the rat behind him stops and unslings a crossbow from his back.
“Fin!” I scream, and he whirls just in time to demolish the whole cluster of rats.
The soldiers keep coming, flooding out of the lair, shooting spells and crossbow bolts until I’m sure the entire underground maze must be empty. Fin must have slaughtered hundreds by now. His forehead is filmed with sweat, and he’s panting heavily.
He rallies for another concussive blast of magic, wiping out the next wave of the Rat King’s forces. When no one else appears, he nods wearily.
“We have to go,” he says. “I think I got everyone with magic and crossbows for now, so they can’t shoot us down. Come.”
He vanishes his cloak, and his wings flutter to life. The next second I’m caught up in strong arms, borne upward in a rush toward the bright sky, toward freedom.
The second after that, a strip of writhing shadow coils around Fin’s throat.
He chokes, his golden eyes going wide.
More shadows slash his wings like dark blades, shredding the gauzy blue.
