Page 77 of Her Royal Blood

Halo rushed to Cheyenne to help heal him. As much as I wanted to worry about my brother, I didn’t have time. I neededto stay in the fight. I had to find Polonius and end this craziness now. Aria was trying to blast through Sire’s shield while he and Polonius ran into the fray. They hid among the fighting soldiers. Aria ran after them, blasting Sire with her magic but she was starting to falter.

Through our bond, I begged her to stop fighting Sire and to let the other mages help us.

He’ll only hurt you, Aria and take you away and if he does this war is over. Don’t let Polonius win, hang back. Save your magic.

Though I knew she could hear me I prayed that she was actually listening. I needed her to hear the urgency and truth in my words. She was stubborn, fierce, powerful, but in this she needed to relent and let others who were stronger and more capable take up the fight.

Stumbling over the uneven ground, with her magic depleted, Aria stopped to take a breath and watched as Sire and Polonius got away.

What do I do now?She sounded desperate and frantic as if her whole world was crumbling and it was, but I wasn’t willing to lay down and die. We had hundreds of troops who had come to our rescue, we only needed to kill one man, just one.

Amadeus saw Aria fall down and ran to her aid. He brought her up from the ground, while I fought Crypt Claw who came at me the moment they recognized who I was. All of the fighting was happening outside the gates of Onyx Rah, no one got into the city, but we’d be sitting ducks if we didn’t kill as many as we could. So when the airbus fell just outside the gates we engaged in the fight. I battled as many Crypt Claw as I could and Amadeus went after Sire, blasting him with his magic the moment he found him, proving to not only be the more skilled mage of the two, but also the more powerful.

Amadeus was back.

I turned back to Halo and yelled, “Get Cheyenne out of here. Get behind the gates, both of you, and find shelter until this is over.” Halo looked like she was about to say something so I threw her a cautioning look. “Don’t fight me Halo. Just do what I say, follow the orders of your king.”

With that Halo bowed her head and helped Cheyenne to safety. While Halo was moving Cheyenne, Amadeus pelted Sire with magic, but Sire wasn’t deflecting it, instead he was blasting Aria, who was struggling to stand. Amadeus couldn’t protect Aria and defeat Sire, so I sliced through the neck of the Crypt Claw wolf that attacked me and I ran to Aria. At the very least I could shield her with my body. My wolf could feel Aria losing the fight. Not only was her magic depleting, but her body was feeling the ill effects on the continuous magical onslaught. Soon she’d be very sick and injured.

Aria’s magic was strong, and she was powerful, but without training and time to rest, her power was like an explosion, powerful for an instant until it was gone. Dimitri stopped fighting the Crypt Claw warriors and immediately took up Amadeus’ fight against Sire so that he could attend to his daughter and restore her magic.

Amadeus held Aria in his arms and swirled magic around her to bring her back from the brink. I sprinted away from the battle to find Polonius. Sire’s magic was staring to fail under the power of Dimitrius’ onslaught and within moments Amadeus had rejuvenated Aria. I could feel her healing. As soon as Sire weakened, Dimitri used his magic to explode the tanks and cannons and set fire to the destroyed airbus that was still loaded to the ceiling with extra weapons and ammunition.

I saw Sire’s distress and knew that the only way I’d kill him was if I caught him in a moment of weakness. I shifted into my wolf. Amadeus took a moment to stop blasting Sire and help Aria to her feet and in that instant Polonius’ wolf appeared out of thethick tangle of trees and pounced on Amadeus, knocking him to the ground. Before Pononius could take a fatal bite out of the mage’s stomach, while Amadeus was still in his human form, I pounced on Polonius just as he was about to bite.

I lunged with all of my strength forcing Polonius away from Aria and Amadeus. I had him pinned to the ground when Aria jumped to her feet and raised her sword above her head as if she was about to decapitate Polonius, when Sire blasted her right in the chest with magic again.

Chapter 26

Aria

Exhausted and nearly out of energy, the jolt of Sire’s magic burned me from the inside out. I thought this was the end. I was only allowed a few moments of joy. It seemed like my life was meant to only be suffering, and when I finally was allowed to envision something beautiful for our future and it was gone. Sire had me Frozen in place with his searing magic. Everything in me was on fire. Lex had Polonius had shifted and Lex had him pinned to the ground, both wolves were snarling and gnashing their teeth at one another. I still had my sword raised over my head ready to strike Polonius down.

“Do you really think he will give you power after you defeat us?” I asked Sire while I was hardly able to speak through the pain. “As soon as he marries a mage and has a mage child, or several, you will be useless to him.” I choked on my words, but had to say them. “He’ll discard you just the way he did Gabrielle when you’re no longer of use to him.” I fought with the last of my magic to rip myself out of his spell and moved my arms a fraction of an inch, but it was something.

“Polonius will have his mage children with you and you, Aria, will keep me alive and relevant,” Sire said and I had to laugh.

“Why would I?” I was almost delirious at that point. “You’ve done nothing but hurt and betray me.”

“And teach you, and make you stronger than you thought you could be,” he had a point, but he was still our enemy.

“Together we could have won. You could have served Onyx Rah with Halo and I, mentoring and teaching us both. Three powerful mages and one glorious kingdom and yet you chose Polonius because you thought he would rule Voltaire and let you be the most powerful mage in all the land. But Polonius won’t choose you in the end and you know that.” I was losing strength again, barely holding on.

Suddenly, Sire’s magical assault on me ended and my body crumbled to the ground just so that I could breathe. He approached me and crouched down to my face as Amadeus, Polonius, and Lex’s wolves fought viciously.

“I buried Gabrielle and if this ends as I see it might I will bury you as well. You deserve that much.” With that he stood up and went to Polonius’ aid.

“You could have been so much more, Sire Vanoire,” I yelled to him. “You could have been a hero, but now, you’ll likely be buried too.”

Scratched and bloody, Polonius shifted back into his human form as did Amadeus and Lex, who were less battered than Polonius. Sire walked behind Polonius providing his protection.

“Kill Amadeus and Lex, and disable Aria so that she may never run from me again,” Polonius ordered with a darkness in his voice I’d never heard him use.

He had been menacing, cruel, and ruthless, but this was something even more sinister. This was hate, pure unfiltered malice spewed from his lips as he looked directly into my eyes. He meant every word, he’d kill my family and maim me, just for his greed and desire for power. Without Sire’s magic on me,I rallied the last nugget of strength and focused my energy. I'd only have one strike, one chance, to kill him.

Sire raised his arms to exact Polonius’ command but instead of casting his spell, he removed the teeth from around Polonius’ neck. Without them, Polonius was vulnerable to magic. In an instant Polonius used his sword to stab Sire, slicing it through his gut as Sire keeled over to the ground.

Instead of rushing Polonius with my sword as I had planned, I pierced him with an incantation that impaled invisible spikes through his chest, arms, legs, and face, pinning him in place so that he couldn’t move.

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