Page 88 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

Osiris smiled. “That right there is why you are going to lose this battle, demi-lord. You think you’ve overpowered me when all you’ve really managed to do is temporarily pull the wool over my eyes.” His smile widened. “All I had to do was simply pull it back.” Then he lunged for the demon who dared to take over what was his rightful domain.

* * *

Gabby stood frozenas she stared up at the dragon. But she wasn’t sure if it was the beast that paralyzed her or the fact that a girl was riding the monster as if she’d somehow tamed it.

Power radiated through the clearing as the elementals and elementalists fired their magic at each other, all determined to destroy their enemies.

Gabby wanted to look around to see how she could help, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of the dragon. It was almost close enough to touch.

“What do you want?” Tara yelled up at the dragon girl.

The girl didn’t even acknowledge Tara’s words. One second, she was sitting on her hovering dragon, looking super badass, and the next she was swooping downward. The dragon’s claws opened and wrapped around Aston, picking him up in a surprisingly gentle manner. Then the dragon flew away with the girl on its back and Aston in its clutches.

“Did we just let that bitch take Aston?” Shelly asked.

All Gabby could do was nod. They’d all been frozen, whether in shock or fear or both, but none of them had moved, not even Ra, which was surprising.

“Why didn’t we move?” Gabby asked no one in particular.

“Because we couldn’t,” Ra said, his voice a deep rumble filled with anger.

“What?” Liam asked as he placed a hand on Gabby’s face, his eyes asking if she was okay. Gabby nodded to reassure him

“She’s a witch,” Ra said. “She put a spell on us. She’s powerful. I didn’t even notice it until I tried to move and couldn’t.”

Elias started to say something, but then he dove to push Tara out of the way as a bolt of power flew past them. They’d managed to be distracted from the battle raging around them.

“We’ve got to get Aston back,” Liam said, “but we can’t do that until we deal with this.” He pointed to the warriors, professors, elementalists, and elementals battling the witches, dark royals, demons, and acolytes that had apparently shown up at some point while they’d been dragon-struck.

Another bolt of power zipped toward Elias, and Ra threw out his hand, fire shooting from it and stopping the magical projectile that had been about to hit Elias. They all turned and looked to see who was shooting at Tara’s soul bonded. Gabby didn’t recognize him, but apparently Shelly and Tara did because they spoke at the same time.

“Tucker,” they both growled his name.

“Who’s Tucker?” Gabby whispered to Liam, who was standing partly in front of her. It was cute he thought he was going to protect her.

“The dude who had Shelly thrown into hell,” Liam answered.

“Ahh,” Gabby said with a nod. “So, he needs to die.”

Shelly turned and grinned at her. “I knew you were going to be the perfect addition to our girl posse.”

“Less talking, Shell, and more fighting,” Gabby said as she took off at a dead run toward this new foe. She was itching for a fight and sick of standing on the sidelines.

“That woman’s going to be the death of me,” she heard Liam yell as he chased after her.

Tucker’s eyes widened as he realized he’d bitten off more than he could chew. Elias came around his left, and Ra was on the right. Liam, Gabby, Tara, and Shelly came straight at him. They threw elemental projectiles at Tucker, but he brought up a wall of water that completely encircled him.

“I just want Tara,” he called out through the water shield. “Give her to me and you can all walk away alive. I’ll make sure of it.”

“I just want every day to be a great hair day, but guess what, Tucker?” Shelly snarled at him. “We don’t always get what we freaking want!”

Gabby pushed out a steady stream of fire, trying to break through the water shield. Ra did the same thing, and then Shelly caught on and she added her own fire. Gabby was impressed at how quickly Shelly was learning how to use her new power. Ra was probably a big part of that, but the girl seemed to have completely embraced her new life, and that made Gabby like her even more. Great, she thought to herself, she was rocking a girl crush.

The water shield that Tucker had been hiding behind dropped, but instead of revealing Tucker, there was an empty spot where he’d stood only moments before.

“Damn,” Gabby huffed. “That was disappointing.”

“He’s a coward,” Tara said. “There’s no way he’d stay and fight if he thought for a second he couldn’t win.”

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