Page 78 of Ava's Love of the Dragons
"Someone who's on my side and not yours!" Quick as lightning, Ava pulled the second dagger from her belt and hurled it at Elora. She raised her hand lazily, causing the weapon to stop in mid-air, its tip turning one hundred and eighty degrees and zooming back towards Ava like an arrow.
She jumped aside, but the dagger still caught her arm. The sharp blade sliced through the sleeve of her tunic and scraped across her skin.
"Perhaps you should rethink your attacks, because I will reverse every single one and direct it back at you." Once again, the sorceress hurled a lightning bolt. Ava deflected it, but the magic blast hissed up her arm to her heart. At the same time, the magistra fired more lightning bolts that hit Ava in the stomach, hip, and ankle. The concentrated attacks were too strong. She lost her balance and fell backward, while the affected areas burned like fire.
Lilly's face appeared before her mind's eye—her cheeky grin, her knowing expression—and the little one whispered incessantly, "Don't give up, Ava. I'm counting on you!"
Ava gritted her teeth and staggered to her feet. As soon as she stood, she tensed her body and raised the dagger. "Is that all you've got?"
Elora grinned devilishly. "Don't worry. You'll get to find out about my most wickedest features."
A strike tore through the building. Draco. Ava looked up at the ceiling. Although she couldn't see him, she knew he wanted to help her.
The sorceress's voice turned cold. "Finally, take care of the dragon. Kill them all. We can stop pretending now that they're capable of defeating us. I'll deal with the guardian alone."
Without questioning the order, the mages rushed outside, while Ava and Elora remained in the huge hall. Although there seemed to be so much space and the room was big enough for thousands of people, Ava knew she couldn't escape the sorceress.
Chapter 34
The Isip stone weakened Elora's attacks, but it wasn't powerful enough to save Ava. She realized this within the next ten seconds as the sorceress attacked her relentlessly. The lightning bolts that Ava deflected with the dagger were less painful. However, she was simultaneously hit unimpeded by other attacks that turned her body into an inferno.
She didn't know if she was sustaining external wounds. Perhaps the person who found her corpse would think she died from an unrecognized internal ailment, since her skin seemed unscathed. But underneath, in her veins, her muscles, in her flesh, it burned as if the sorceress had ignited a fire within her that was consuming her torturously.
Her movements became slower and her limbs grew heavy, even though she was flooded with adrenaline. Under normal circumstances, she would have long since been on the ground, but this was the final battle. The grand finale, with only one of them emerging alive.
Apart from the dagger that the Isip stone was bound to at the hilt, she had no weapon. So exactly what she had feared had come to pass. She could fight with the last dagger. But her hoursof training were useless against a mage. Especially the queen among them.
Her breath was labored, her heart fighting for every single beat, constantly tormented by the magic bolts. Elora didn't even have a bead of sweat on her forehead. Her complexion looked rosy and carefree, her dark eyes glowed enthusiastically, and her movements were relaxed, if not bored.
"Considering the prophecy, I had hoped for more from you, Guardian. You realize that as soon as I want, you're dead, right?"
Of course, she knew that, but she still shook her head. "What exactly does this prophecy say?"
Elora snorted. "You don't even know?"
Yes, she did, if only fragments, but she took every breather she could get, every additional moment she got to enjoy breathing, seeing, smelling, and hearing. To live.
How precious was the time one was given? How valuable in the face of death? Why had she wasted all those years out of fear, out of false pride, because of old wounds she hadn't been ready to forget? She should have savored every moment. Should have consciously breathed, laughed, and loved every second. For all that she hadn't done out of fear, she could never make up for it. It was lost, for all time.
Oh, how bitter regret tasted. How heavily weighed the knowledge of not having tried everything, not having done everything, not having experienced everything her heart desired? She hadn't listened to the voice of her soul. Had hidden it behind her thick wall, behind false pride and arrogance, behind the delusion of having all the time in the world. For while we are given a life, we are not given infinite time.
In this moment, in the face of death, she realized: Life is a gift. Love is a gift, feelings, people, friendships, bonds, everything that makes our heart beat, everything that gives us the feeling of vastness, fullness, and gratitude.
How she had trampled on her life... Not seen the gift her parents had given her, blinded by the anger that her lonely childhood had triggered.
She was flooded with new energy and with it the uncontrollable will to survive.
"I know I can stop the most powerful living mage! And you know it too, that's why you want to kill me. Because you're afraid of me!" She leaped forward and Elora hesitated briefly, but hatred returned to her features and she fired a bolt at Ava that incapacitated her on the spot.
She fell, the dagger slipped from her hand, and she hit the stone floor hard. She lay on her back, motionless, paralyzed, unable even to grasp the dagger that landed with a metallic clang an arm's length away from her.
Elora jutted her chin and approached her. She kicked the blade aside with her black boots until she stood over Ava. Her dark eyes glowed with hatred, with darkness, with arrogance.
"The prophecy changes nothing about the fact that I'm going to kill you now. Take your last breath, Guardian, and die knowing that you couldn't save any of them!" She drew back, then formed a blue bolt in her hands and was about to hurl it at Ava, when suddenly Elora hesitated and widened her eyes.
Ava's heart was pounding in her throat. She expected the final blow, expected death, so she'd tensed all her muscles as if the hard-earned corset could protect her somehow. The seconds felt terrible, only delaying death, and she couldn't stand it any longer.
"Just do it already!"
