38. Rohak
Chapter 38
Rohak
I t was the shrill voice of a woman, the statement loaded with a type of rage and pain that could only come from someone who had been through hell and back.
I couldn’t make out her features in the dark, but I could imagine the etching of fury on her face.
The blond man spun and swore, the flames behind me suddenly dying. I took a chance and ran over the singed line of stone, making a quick decision to veer toward Jax and Sol. A quick glance told me that they were the only two of our Mages left standing and fighting on this side of the street.
I swore as Sol was hit simultaneously by a blast of Pain and rooted to the spot as vines from an Earth Mage held her to the ground. She rendered a scream that sounded like the keening of a wounded animal, her body collapsing to the stones as she tried to claw at her chest. Her Vessel immediately dropped next to her and tried to keep her hands away from her breast, where she was urgently digging. Sol’s fingers were already covered in blood, her nails broken to the quick as she dug through leather and muscle. She fought against her Vessel, screaming all the while.
Eventually the Earth Mage overpowered Sol’s Vessel and strapped him to the ground with vines that slowly tightened until he was unable to breathe. Sol’s hands immediately flew back to her chest, carving through muscle and bone, blood sluicing through the widening hole in her torso.
She’s going to claw out her own heart . The thought had me quickening my pace and I got as close as I could without alerting the Mages to my presence.
Without sparing another minute, I called forth my Destruction Magic from the crystals pressed tightly to the skin on my forearm.
The rush was immediate and the feeling heady, like a drug that offered to pull me into a constant high. The feeling of finally touching my power again after a prolonged period of abstinence was euphoric, a feeling so ecstatic it was borderline sexual. I moaned in spite of myself, the sound swallowed by the night and battle raging around me. My magic rushed through my veins, activating the latent power in my blood, and I opened my eyes to the familiar sight of ash curled with embers lit in my palm.
I sighed, finally feeling whole and complete once more, before I unleashed a wave of magic so powerful it almost knocked me off my feet.
I sent my ashes and embers after the Pain Mage first, his eyes widening comically as he quickly withdrew his power from Sol and tried, vainly, to send a burst at me. My Destruction ate his feeble attempts in the air before they even had a chance to hit me. The Pain Mage scrambled back, trying to outrun my magic, but nothing could outrun Destruction Magic once it had a target.
My ashes and embers quickly wound around his body, encasing him so thoroughly that I could only see his outline through the thick smoke.
“Feast,” I growled, and my power listened. I felt a surge as my magic devoured the Pain Mage, the innate magic in his blood traveling back to me and into my own, and I quickly turned my cloud of Destruction to the Earth Mage who had both Sol and her Vessel pinned. My eyes would be sparking and glowing by now, the color matching the embers in my magic.
The cloud of Destruction wrapped around the Earth Mage and devoured him just as quickly. I got a rush from the innate magic running through my blood and, with great effort, pushed my power back down, cutting off my channeling through the crystals.
I would have to find a way to burn off some of the extra innate magic I now carried, or I would risk inadvertently drawing on my power when I was unconscious. I took a few heaving breaths once my magic was controlled again, feeling bereft and cold at the sudden loss. My hair was plastered to my head with sweat and my hands shook as I took quaking steps toward the ground where Sol and her Vessel lay, still.
I fell rather ungracefully to the ground and quickly checked for breathing and a pulse on both. Sol’s was weak, but present, while her Vessel’s was strong. He groaned as I checked him for wounds and sat up in a daze.
“Thandi, I need you to listen to me, quickly.” My power was humming in my veins, just out of reach, and I needed to expend it and protect my other Mages. “You need to stem the blood on Sol’s chest and get her somewhere safe, can you do that?” Thandi groaned again, his head in his hands, but nodded.
“Very good,” I said and pushed myself quickly to my feet.
I surveyed the scene, finding my next fight when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. The blond man was fighting someone as they grabbed at a woman standing just outside the inn.
Who was he fighting? I didn’t recognize the Mage and I turned my feet and made my way toward the commotion.
As I got closer, the realization dawned on me. The blond man was fighting one of his own Mages.
But why? The day and circumstances just kept getting stranger, and more than ever, I recognized the need to bring one of them home with us.
My gaze inadvertently met that of the woman’s and her eyes shone with defiance. She lifted her chin slightly as if challenging me to step toward her. She was pale and gaunt, her curly hair matted in a bun on her head. Strange tattoos trailed down her arms and hands, and she cocked her head as if studying me when I didn’t rise to her challenge.
Something about the woman drew me toward her, I don’t know if it was the magic in my veins or the defiance in her gaze, but I found myself drawn to the conflict between the blonde Mage and the rebel. They were scuffling, hand-to-hand, and I wondered why the Mage didn’t simply use his magic.
“We need the bitch!” the rebel, a short and scrappy teenager with a pockmarked face, said as he tried to wriggle out of the blond man’s grasp.
The blond Mage didn’t say anything, he just tightened his grip on the other, but I could see the younger man breaking his hold. The younger man suddenly twisted and drove the heel of his palm into the blond man’s chest, winding him. The rebel instantly turned and ran to where the woman was standing, her eyes widening slightly. She took a sharp step back, and the rebel crashed against the wards.
“Those won’t hold you forever, witch,” he spat, clawing at the invisible barrier.
I cautiously approached, the man never straying from his target, and could see runes etched into the ground.
Protection Wards .
My eyes instantly zeroed in on the tattoos that littered the woman’s fingers and arms. Unsurprisingly, the tattoos were also runes. Some I could read—like ones for personal protection and minor health—but others were impossible to decipher.
Suddenly, it dawned on me, and I was struck dumb.
She can read runes. And not just the known runes, either.
My magic snuck out of its own accord, my guard down due to my shock over the woman in front of me and wound itself around the snarling and half-feral rebel. In seconds, his body was reduced to ash. I wrestled for control over my power before locking it back down, tight.
The woman just stared at me. No shock, really no emotion registering on her face.
“Did you create these wards?” I finally croaked out.
She rolled her eyes before stepping away from the barrier and retreating to the safety of the inn. Just before the door closed in her wake, I caught a glimpse of the building’s interior. Bodies were huddled together in a mass, whether from fear or fever, I didn’t know.
This is worse than I thought .
“Take her with you.” The blond man’s voice was in my ear, and it was everything I could do to keep my magic in check from the surprise.
I spun to face him. “What did you say?”
“Her,” he said quietly, gesturing at the door. “Take her with you, keep her safe.”
Keep her safe . The Earth Mage’s words echoed in my mind.
“Is that Faylinn?” Her name felt sweet on my tongue, and I was struck again by the thought that I should know who she was.
The blond man smiled cryptically at me before backing away.
“This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go, but she’ll have a plan when I get back,” he said as he backed away from the wards .
I shook off the strange encounter before diverting my attention to the last group of Mages fighting. Many of the rebels fled during combat, most likely when I unveiled my Destruction Magic. I was a powerful Mage, one of the most powerful in Elyria, and my Destruction Magic was unparalleled.
I didn’t use it often, but when I did, there was little hope of survival. You didn’t live unless I actively wanted you to live.
I set my mouth in grim determination as I neared Lex, Ilyas, Sasori, and Cal. I was pleased to note that Cal still had his full group of Mages, our only losses so far being those in Jax’s group. Lex and his Vessels were reduced to swords and knives at this point, their magic well spent, and many of the rebel Mages were suffering from the same draining.
I grabbed Lex’s shoulder as he saw me approaching.
“Incapacitate the big fucker. He’s coming with us,” I yelled in his ear over the cacophony of battle. He grinned at me, blood splattering his face and hands from where he’d stabbed and slashed at the attacking rebels.
“With pleasure,” he purred.
He grabbed Ilyas’ forearm around the pommel of his sword, and I saw the sticky honey-like magic of Pleasure flare to life in his palm.
Apparently, he wasn’t out of magic .
He directed a jet of it at the Earth Mage, spearing his heart. A look of pure, unadulterated bliss crossed his countenance before he dropped to the ground with a thud. A lazy smile stretched across his scarred face, and I saw his dick start to rise in his pants.
“Please don’t make him touch himself, Lex,” I scolded as I watched the man’s hand drift toward his pants.
“But it’s so fun,” Lex whined, but relinquished his attack on the Earth Mage. “I’m tapped out, anyway,” he grumbled before releasing Ilyas and turning back to where his Vessels were locked in a standoff with two other rebels.
At the sight of their commander falling, the rebels faltered and began warily backing away from our group.
“Fall back!” The shout came from the blond man near the inn. The remaining rebels didn’t need to be told twice. At the man’s command, they turned on the spot and ran, jumping over the bodies of their fallen Mages and villagers alike, a few tripping and falling in their haste.
“General?” Lex asked .
I hummed and called on my magic once more, the feeling still heady and euphoric, though with less urgency this time, and sent trails of it at the backs of the retreating rebels.
Subconsciously, I avoided the blond man and the few rebels who were in his vicinity. My magic touched the backs of nearly a dozen rebels, felling them as they fled, their screams dying abruptly in their throats.
The blond Mage pulled his horse to a quick stop and spun to face me, a look of respect and fear written in his gaze.
He gave me a jerked nod before urging the remaining horses into a gallop.
I watched his retreating back until I could no longer see it, knowing somehow that tonight wouldn’t be my last encounter with the strange blond Mage.
As the rebels retreated, the residual fire from their Elemental Mages wound down and eventually petered out completely, bathing the street once more in darkness just as the first rays of sunlight crested the horizon.
The sudden light from the sunrise shone on the street, bathing the carnage from the last few weeks in a radiant glow. But no amount of golden rays could mask the utter destruction and stench of death that blanketed the town.
I let out my breath as I looked around and ran a hand through my hair.
We have a long few days ahead of us, I thought, just as the door to the inn banged open and the mysterious woman, Faylinn, stepped through the door.
“About time you showed up.”