Chapter 6 Rune #2
“Shit.” My instincts were screaming at me that we’d made the wrong decision by letting him go. Granted, I knew that much to start with. It was why I had voted for leaving him in the circle in the first place.
A glamour peeled away in magical layers, revealing a man who was no phantom. He was the warlock.
His smile curled. “I knew you’d come,” he said, eyes locking onto me. “You couldn’t leave me alone, could you, Mirabelle?”
Mirabelle?
My blood turned to ice.
“He’s not the phantom,” I cursed. “He was never the phantom.”
“Then where is the phantom?” Aura asked.
“The phantom…no. You’re not a phantom. You’re not Mirabelle. She can’t be saved anymore,” the warlock choked out. Raw sadness filled his tone, but his dark eyes were trained on me.
“Get back!” Dimitri’s voice sliced through the quiet. He moved with vampire speed, positioning himself between me and the warlock.
“I got her.” Slater pulled me into his chest, pivoting back.
The warlock’s hands were alight, veins glowing with deep molten gold as power surged toward his fingertips. A blast of energy erupted outward from them with a concussive crack.
Dimitri didn’t flinch. He raised one arm, bracing with his body and catching the blast like he was a fucking shield. Golden sparks burst off him and seared into the ground, but he held his position easily.
His boots ground into the dirt, but he didn’t allow himself to be pushed back.
I’d never seen a vampire catch a magic spell like that before, and I hadn’t known it was possible.
The warlock stumbled, blinking furiously.
Dimitri turned toward us, his face grim. “We need to regroup—now.”
The warlock’s expression twisted and cracked into something far too calm for my liking. He raised one trembling hand and pointed a glowing finger at the back of Dimitri’s skull.
My heart plummeted.
I couldn’t let him get his ass killed after he’d just saved me.
“Move!” I lunged before I could think, pulling away from Slater and slamming into Dimitri just as another bolt of fire-magic exploded forward.
We tumbled to the side, and his cinnamon and nutmeg scent hit my nose in a way that made my heart still.
A searing wave of heat tore through my ribs. My breath left in a violent whoosh as pain ripped down my side.
I screamed, but the sound barely escaped, muffled by the pain flooding my body. I hadn’t expected the pain to be so intense within a simulation.
I hit the ground with a thud, right next to Dimitri.
“What just happened?” Dimitri’s voice cracked, sharp with panic. He pushed to his knees beside me, his eyes wide. “You just…took a hit for me?”
“You did it for me first.” I forced a broken laugh, coughing through the already easing pain. “Don’t turn your back on an enemy.”
He stared at me, like he didn’t know whether to strangle me or thank me, which was very relatable.
The warlock let off another attack, and Dimitri turned to face it, protecting me as he did.
“Rune!” Koa’s voice cracked as he dropped to his knees beside me so fast he skidded across the ground a few inches.
Smoke curled lazily from the wound in my side. My shirt was half-melted, sticking to blistered skin that oozed and split with every breath I took.
It fucking hurt. Sweat beaded at my temple.
“Fates,” I hissed through the pain. “Haven’t been hit like that in a while.”
The scent of seared flesh and scorched fabric clung to the air. Pain lanced through me before dulling and repeating the cycle.
My vision blurred.
“In a while?” Slater’s voice was sharp and angry. “What does that mean?”
“Tell me who else hurt you like this,” Zuko gritted out. “I’ll kill them.”
“Sparring with other agents.” I shifted but was nearly paralyzed by the pain. My ribs felt like they’d been peeled open. Breathing fucking hurt. Talking was worse. “Firedrake burns hurt worse than phoenix burns. Either way, I haven’t lost a sparring match in years.”
“Then why aren’t you healing faster?” Eleanor’s worried tone hit my ears.
“Give me space,” Koa barked. His hands shook as he reached for me. “I’ve got you,” he whispered to me. “Trust me?”
I nodded. “Do what you have to.”
He shoved my torn shirt up, eyes widening at the sight of what had to be charred flesh over my rib.
I didn’t look. I couldn’t pick my head up to, even if I wanted to. Thankfully, it was already healing on its own.
“Oh Fates,” he breathed.
I grit my teeth as another wave of agony hit me, along with trickles of my magic pushing to heal it. “It’s rude to stare. I’m already healing. Give me a boost.”
“Your pain tolerance is admirable,” he murmured, pressing both palms over my wound gently.
A gasp punched out of me. Our skin-to-skin contact was searing and cooling all at once.
Blue fire erupted from his palms, licking across my skin. It melted my agony into a heavy pressure before it turned into raw pleasure. His magic poured into me in a wave of shimmering warmth, like sunlight cracking an icy pond.
My back arched hard off the ground, air slicing from my lungs as his magic threaded into the core of mine.
His healing was intimate in a way I hadn’t expected.
Koa sank into the marrow of my soul, tugging at threads I hadn’t known were loose.
His essence embraced me, a comforting presence I hadn’t known I’d been missing.
I moaned, unable to stop the sound from escaping. It was raw and involuntary. The sound echoed through the trees.
Zuko appeared on my other side, crouching low, grin wicked and breathless. “If she makes that sound again,” he drawled, “I’m going to lose it.”
“Distract me,” I pleaded, trying not to hit a peak in front of everyone in a broadcasted simulator. “Your venom.”
“My venom will distract you, if you can handle it,” he murmured with hesitation.
“Focus!” Dimitri barked from above. “Fates above, this is a combat simulation. Get your hormones under control!”
“I am focused!” Zuko hollered back to Dimitri.
I turned my head. My chest was still heaving as I locked eyes with Zuko. His pupils were blown wide, his molten-orange gaze flicking hungrily across my face. The feral gleam in his eyes sent a new flush under my skin, even as Koa’s magic rippled through me.
“Venom?” I rasped.
Zuko leaned closer until his lips brushed the shell of my ear. “After we pass this simulation.”
My breath hitched. “Promise?”
He grinned, leaning back on his heels. “I never go back on a promise, pretty little poison.”
The nickname he’d given me seared my heart like a brand.
Koa’s magic slowed to a simmer. The blue flames in his hands dimmed, but his hands didn’t leave my ribs until I was fully healed.
He helped me all the way to my feet, his arm wrapped around my waist. We both were trembling slightly. His cheeks were flushed a deep crimson, and the blue glow of his special power of healing was still visible in his irises.
Coolest special power to heal I’d ever seen.
“Never had anyone react to my healing like that,” he said softly, not quite meeting my eyes.
I tried to laugh, but it came out broken. “I’ve never reacted to healing magic either…not like that. Are you sure your special healing power isn’t extra special?”
“I’m positive,” he assured, scratching the back of his neck. His ears had turned red. “But I am glad you’re okay. You didn’t take longer than a minute to heal. That’s impressive on its own, even for a basilisk.”
“Thank you,” I murmured. “I feel great now.”
“Good.”
“We have to do something!” Aura’s voice cracked through the chaos, firm despite the tremble in it. She raised a hand, fingers glowing with imp magic, her eyes locked on the mad warlock. “We can’t keep going like this!”
Her magic zig-zagged before it struck above him in a chaotic zap.
The warlock stumbled back as a branch fell off the tree above us and hit him in the head. He roared as if he were a wounded animal.
Slater took advantage of the distraction and lunged. His chaos magic crackled through the air like a thunderstorm. From him, Snakey launched forward with a shrieking hiss, the air warping around the still-enormous spectral serpent.
“Bind him!” Slater snarled.
Snakey coiled with impossible speed, his obsidian-scaled body slamming into the warlock and wrapping tight around his torso and arms.
The warlock screamed as the manifestation squeezed tightly, pinning him in place with violent shudders of magical energy.
“Mirabelle!” the warlock bellowed. The name tore out of him like she alone had the key to break through his madness and anger. “Mirabelle, I’m here! I’m right here! Please, don’t—” His power flared again, a desperate flare of grief-ridden magic.
“Don’t hurt him!” Eleanor cried out, stepping forward despite the magical explosions. Her hands were raised in a pleading gesture. “He’s not in control. He’s clearly broken!”
“He’s already tried killing us!” Dimitri shouted, stepping between Eleanor and the warlock. “We can’t let him loose again.”
“Snakey, tighter!” Slater barked.
The chaos serpent hissed gleefully and grew. He was now six-times his usual size, now towering, wrapping again and again around the warlock’s thrashing body, squeezing until bones creaked and sparks sputtered from the warlock’s fingertips.
“Snakey? You named him Snakey?” Zuko chuckled, pushing his hair back from his eyes.
“He said he named him when he was four,” I explained.
“Ah.” He frowned. “You two had a lot of bonding time, didn’t you?”
“Jealous?” Slater smirked.
“Focus,” Dimitri snapped at them, but I was already focused.
The warlock’s head lolled, jerking from side to side. He was muttering again, his words barely coherent. His lips didn’t stop trembling. “She was here…she was here, I felt her. I tasted her name on the wind. Mirabelle…please don’t go. Please don’t leave me again…”
Each word he spoke shattered a little more of the man’s mind. His eyes flickered with fading gold as he bucked helplessly against Snakey’s hold.