30. Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
Lucenna
L ucenna ran through the darkening streets as she felt the surges of magic lighting up across the town. She had hidden and fought through the city all day until dark. There were too many to fight individually. If she was to survive, it would take a major blow. She had to hit them all at once.
The cloudy sky rumbled with a coming storm.
She made it to the town square and stopped in front of a flowing fountain. Lights glowed from the alleys as Elite Enforcers surfaced from the night with their staffs. Surrounding her form all sides. Thirty of them this time, from all three guilds.
They laughed, taunting her bad luck. Maybe she might have been intimidated last season, but she had been working on a few things over the winter. About time she got to test her new magic. The mages moved forward, striding through the puddles on the cobblestone.
The mages circled her. “There is nowhere to run anymore.”
Magic flared in Lucenna’s hands. “I wasn't running.”
She had only been searching for an open space. Here was good as any.
A Lunar mage smirked at her. “Long time no see, Lucenna. Let me escort you back home in peace, yeah? I wouldn’t want to be on bad terms with your brother if you get hurt.”
She narrowed her eyes.
At her silence he chuckled. “You remember me, don’t you? I’m?—”
“I don’t care to know what you’re called. You won’t be alive long enough for me to remember.” Lucenna clapped her hands together, conjuring a violent surge of purple electricity.
The mages fell into formation. She struck the ground and bolts of lightning shoot across the wet stone. The mages not ready for the attack were struck with electricity and their screams rang out.
Running forward, Lucenna cast out spheres of purple light at them. They blocked or dodges, some sending out spells of their own. An earth mage waved his staff and the water from the fountain came for her. Lucenna spun and captured the water from the air. She split it apart into razor sharp edges and flung it back. It cleaved the Earth Mage in half. The water carried her on a slide across the square as she fought them back. She swept past two Enforcers, leaping past their attack of fire and removed their heads with a blast of lightning from above.
A roar of flame crashed into her. The searing heat sent her flying back. Her Essence wove through the flames, and she used the force to soften her to a stop. Lucenna took the fire in her hands, letting it build. The Enforcers gaped at her, shocked by this new development. They had not known how much she had been training.
Lucenna smiled sharply at the startled Lunar mage.
With a rageful scream, she sent out the eruption of flame. It blasted through the square, disintegrating everything. The buildings rumbled, debris crashing. Embers drifted down amongst the bodies. As powerful as that blow was, she had only taken out three. Ten were still left.
Another Earth Mage stomped his foot and frost crackled across the grown. Ice shot toward here like spears. Lucenna yanked her fist up and a wall of cobblestone lifted at her feet, taking the hit. She snapped open her arms, flinging the stones out like cannons. The Earth Mage halted them in the air. Not noticing her sliding to him on his conjured frost. With a flick of her wrist, a spear of ice went through him and the next two mages beside him. Their cries fell behind her as she faced the remaining five.
“Lucenna, that’s enough.” The Lunar mage held up a hand. “Stop. It’s me, Artem.”
She halted, staring at him. “Artem?”
The last time she had seen her cousin, he’d been a little boy.
The shock of the reveal left her momentarily distracted. A mage appeared from behind her. He cast out his orange Essence and snatched her feet out from under her. She hit the ground and another with green Essence captured her hands, binding them behind her back.
Enraged, Lucenna screamed, and thunder boomed overhead.
“She can still cast!” Artem warned. “Subdue her!”
They were going to put her to sleep. A
mage holding a staff with a yellow crystal marched toward her. She shut her eyes and tried to fall into the Essencia Dimensio. The light of their Essence lit around her like bulbs of power. More than she had originally anticipated. More Enforcers were lying in wait in case they were needed.
She pulled from the fountain and ropes of water sliced through the air. It cut through the bindings on her wrists. Flipping over, she prepared to fight.
But then the mages jerked, their eyes going wide. Their bodies dropped, blood spilling from their necks.
A black shape sped between the mages, blades flashing in the firelight. Cries and gurgles broke out as blood sprayed in the air and bodies rapidly dropped. The mages forgot about her as they fought their attacker.
The moon caught the edge of his face, the bottom half covered in a mask. Klyde. He leaped through them, severing lives faster than they could realize what was happening. Every spell they cast bounced off his shield.
The spells clashed against an invisible sphere around him.
No, that wasn’t a shield or his coat.
Magic could touch him.
The clover, Lucenna realized.
Artem backed away as Klyde finished them off. More Elite Enforcers appeared from the shadows. His blades got through half of them before they realized he was no ordinary human. Klyde hooked his leg around a mage’s neck and brought him to the ground in one fluid motion. He twisted his knee, and she heard the neck snap.
“Klyde!”
Artem knocked him with a blast of Essence. The spell hit, but the clover took the brunt. Only the force of the blast slid his boots back.
An Enforcer ripped debris from the ground and hurled it at Klyde. Magic couldn’t touch him, but physical objects could. Lucenna threw out her hand. Purple mist snatched him of the way. Klyde hit the ground, and she slid him across the cobblestone to her side as she rose to her feet.
Her eyes flared vivid purple. “I told you. I don’t need you to protect me.”
Lucenna walked ahead of him toward the Enforcers as the sky rumbled overhead. Her Essence made the air hum and crackle with violent energy. The Enforcers readied their glowing staffs.
“Careful,” Artem said. “She’s dangerous.”
She smirked. What an understatement.
Purple electricity crackled off her as she conjured whips of light. Lucenna lashed them out and snatched up the remaining mages in them. Their screams rang through the square as they were electrocuted to death.
A force collided into her. It flung her back and she rolled, crashing into the fountain.
“Lucenna,” Klyde rushed to her.
Groan, she sat up with her vision spinning.
Slow clapping snatched their focus to the figure walking into the firelight.
“Magnus’s eyes glowed vivid purple. A thick shield glowed around Artem. The only mage he had bothered to protect.
“Father don’t underestimate her—” Artem cut off at Magnus’s sharp look. He ducked his head.
“I see you have started tapping into magic of the other elements,” her uncle said tightly. “I am tasked with stopping you before you master all three.”
Lucenna smirked and wiped the blood from her nose. “You can try.”
She got to her feet. Magnus’s power rippled through the air, making her faintly gasp from the force. It was heavy, powerful, and fully charged. Oh, that bastard. He sent a full force after her. Not because he thought they could take her down. But because he wanted her drained first.
Klyde moved in front of her.
Magnus narrowed his eyes. “What is this?”
“No one.” Lucenna yanked Klyde out of the way and hissed at him, “Stay back.”
She could feel Magnus’s Essence crawling through the ground, filling every breath she took. He was far past the capability of any mage she had faced, including her father.
“Halt!” A group of Shield Guard dwarves came running with the axes drawn. “Detention of refugees is illegal in Dwarf Shoe. Stand down or be?—”
Magnus idly flicked his hand. The awful sound of bones snapping rang clear as all their necks broke at once. The dwarves dropped dead.
Lucenna stifled a curse. She knew her abilities, as well as her capabilities. And she was not ready for this fight.
With the little Essence she had left, her only option was to hold Magnus in place. For only a moment in time. And it was going to take everything she had.
But Lucenna had to distract him first. “Did my father send you?”
“No.”
She chuckled drily. “Ah. So your master did.”
Magnus halted, electricity crackling around him. But he was still and that was all she needed.
“What did the Archmage promise you, uncle?” Lucenna canted her head. “A place in his counsel? Or my father’s seat as Head of the Lunar Guild?”
His glowing eyes stayed on her.
“Something more?” She smiled. “I wonder how generous he will be once you return forty Enforcers short.”
The tension eased from Magnus’s expression, and it was his turn to smirk. “Why do you assume the Archmage sent me?” His glowing eyes dropped to the ring on her finger.
Her heart dropped. No … he couldn’t be involved. Magnus would say anything to make her falter.
“He sent me here for you, Lucenna. Is it not time for this to be finished?”
Her magic dimmed, her thoughts tangling as she went still.
When it’s finished, I will find you…
That’s what was promised on their wedding night when he caught her escaping out the window.
“Prince Everest is waiting for you.”
Her chest heaved with a shallow breath.
Magnus stepped closer, and his voice dropped to a lulling tone that made her vision sway. “All obstacles from your path will be removed. You don’t need to run anymore. Return to Magos and take your rightful place beside him—as his queen.”
Klyde’s hand closed over her arm and the haze on her mind snapped clear. Lucenna hissed at Magnus, fury rising in her blood. “You attempted to use cognitive magic on me.”
And it almost worked.
Magnus’s eyes narrowed on Klyde’s hand. “What are you doing?”
He couldn’t understand how a non-mage had broken his spell.
“He killed half of the Enforcers, father,” Artem told him.
Magnus stared at Klyde with furious outrage, then he said to her, “Are you with him ?”
“He is the least of your concern.” Lucenna snapped her fingers.
The world came to a standstill.
The crackle of fire and buzz of magic vanished. The flames were still in place, the rain hovering in the air. Klyde muttered a low curse. Artemis and Magnus were frozen in front of her but only for a split second.
Essence rippled around him, and he gaped at her angrily. “No!” He lurched forward, his hands flaring purple.
“Enjoy your stay.” Lucenna snapped her fingers again and the world flashed a blinding light.
They fell backward onto the fountain ledge. Klyde held her as she breathed heavily, feeling her strength wane. But Magus and his son were gone.
“Lucenna? What happened?” Klyde asked, brushed her wet hair out of her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Yes…” Lucenna wheezed. “I need a moment to gather my bearings.”
Klyde was quiet as they looked around at the mess she made. “Good Gods,” he muttered. “I still don’t quite understand what happened.”
“I’ve trapped them in a rift within the Time Gate. But it won’t hold Magnus for very long, and I am out of magic.”
“All right. I got you.” He supported her against him so she could sit up right. He was firm and warm.
She blinked blearily up at him. “You came back...”
“Did you really expect me to leave?” She was rendered speechless by the intensity of his storming blue eyes. “You can’t do that, Lucenna.” He shifted his position around and took her arms. She felt how they shook. “You can’t toss me aside like I am some rubbish to forget in the rain. Damn whatever comes. I am with you. From here to the end.”
Lucenna couldn’t do anything but take in a shaky breath. She sniffed, fighting back the knot in her throat. All she could manage was a short nod.
Blood was dripping down his arm. “You’re injured.”
“I’m fine.”
“Let me see.”
He slipped his jacket down his arm enough to reveal the gash. It was shallow. Must have happened during the fight. Lucenna tore off a piece of her blouse and wrapped it around his arm.
“You’re not as mean as you pretend to be,” Klyde murmured.
Lucenna rolled her eyes as she fastened his bandage in place. “Then what am I?”
Klyde’s eyes searched hers and the rare lack of humor in them made her still. “Angry,” he said. “You’re angry that this is your life and how helpless it makes you feel. So now you must prove to the world that you’re not.”
She gritted her teeth. “I am not helpless.”
He brushed the hair from her temples, and the gentle stroke of his fingers eased the rigidity from her body. “I know, lass. You’ve never had to prove it to me.”
Why did he have to say things like that to her? Her eyes stung and she blamed it on the smoke.
“We need to get out of here.” She managed to get back on her feet without falling over.
Klyde sheathed his weapons and slipped his hand around hers. “Let’s go.”
They left the remains of the mage battle behind and ran into the night. The reached a street of inns where they managed to steal a horse from a stable.
“We should take the next exit out of the state,” Klyde said as he helped her up onto the saddle.
“No. Manus will expect that. We need to join the others,” she said. We are stronger together Rawn had once told her. It was about time she started following that. “Our only way out is to finish the plan and steal Tarn’s ship.”
Now that Magnus was on her tail, putting a league of water between them was her only chance.
Klyde paused, looking pleased by that suggestion. “To Kelpway, then?”
Drawing on the last of her power, Lucenna shut her eyes and cast a location spell. She searched through the darkness until she spotted a faint green light. The glowing bulb Dyna’s Essence flickered in the Essencia Dimensio, as though hiding behind a veil. Cassiel’s damn barrier. Lucenna could hardly see it and she sensed she wouldn’t be able to for long.
But she managed to cast a tracking spell on Dyna, and the light moved rapidly away. To go at that speed, she must be on Tarn’s ship.
Lucenna’s eyes snapped open, and the path of purple flames sprouted through the streets ahead. “Dyna’s not in Kelpway anymore. The others won’t find her there. They will have to move on. What is the next harbor?”
“Argent Cove.” Klyde mounted behind her, taking the reins. About a day’s ride ahead. Rest so you can recover. I will get us there.”
With a snap of the reins, he galloped away down the path of flames. His free arm pulled her close within the shelter of his warm chest. Lucenna didn’t have the strength to protest. The fight had left her drained, and her mind was too preoccupied taking apart what Magnus had said.
Obstacles…
The word left her with an unsettling feeling. It drummed against the pulse in her temples. Lucien was calling but she couldn’t answer the orb now. Tomorrow. She would call him tomorrow and share what their uncle said. Her heavy eyes drifted shut. It was lies. Or maybe she didn’t want to believe Everest was capable of being involved in something nefarious.
Lucenna was asleep as soon as they crossed the edge of town.