Page 33 of Dragon's Desire

Instead of piercing Legermain's heart and ending this fight once and for all, the bolt struck higher. If Peter was lucky, he might have punctured a lung, but he wasn't a fan of betting on luck.

But it must have hurt because Legermain screamed in pain. Even if the bolt didn't kill him or even pierce his lung, it was enough agony to make him stumble. He grabbed the back of a chair to stop himself from falling over. But he wasn't going to be out of commission for long.

When Peter looked at Kiercy, she had just finished pulling herself to standing. She looked like she'd seen better days. Legermain was one hell of a fighter.

Looking at Kiercy is what cost him the first time, but he needed to know where she was just in case he had to switch to Plan B. He looked back a Legermain, who was standing straight up again and raising the Totem.

"Join me or—"

Peter wasn't going to stick around and let him finish that ultimatum. It was time for Plan B. He ran for Kiercy and leaped, grabbing her and pulling her towards him as he crashed back-first through the window. As he fell, his face was skyward. He saw the flash of light through the window he'd just fallen through.

They'd escaped Legermain's judgment. But now Peter had a whole different set of issues. He braced himself for the pain that was the consequence of jumping out a second-story window.

23

KIERCY

Kiercy realized too late what Peter's plan was. Legermain had hit her hard enough to have her seeing stars. She'd only just picked herself back up and made it to her feet before Peter tackled her and hauled her out the window. After the crashing sound of the shattered glass, she only realized what was happening when the next thing she sensed was that sudden feeling of gravity taking hold.

Peter was beneath her. She wasn't sure if he'd done this on purpose or not, but midair didn't seem like the appropriate place to start asking questions.

She tucked her head into Peter's shoulder. It would have almost looked like a sweet gesture, lovers embracing, if not for the ground rushing up to meet them. At that moment, it was just the safest place she could put her head to avoid her skull smashing into his when they hit the ground.

Screaming wasn't going to help. Instead, she set her jaw so she wouldn't crash her teeth together or bite her own tongue off when they hit the ground. Then she relaxed every other part of her body she could. There was no way this landing wasn't going to hurt, but she would do her best to reduce how much it hurt.

After trying to lessen the chance of headbutting Peter upon impact, there wasn't anything more she could do for him. He was going to hit the ground first. No spell she could recite in time would be enough to stop that. All she could do was hope he survived the impact. Hurt she could heal. Dead wasn't something she would be able to fix.

When they slammed into the ground, the wind was knocked out of Kiercy's lungs, and she was pretty sure she heard a few of Peter's ribs crack. After a very recent beating from Legermain, she was having difficulty telling which parts of her hurt from him and which was from the fall. She guessed there was probably some overlap.

She was dazed, but she knew for sure was that they had to move fast. She rolled off of Peter, probably doing the broken ribs no favors. On the bright side, he probably didn't feel anything because he was unconscious.

She gasped for air, trying to draw in a deep breath. She had to heal him. It was a good thing she'd seen the witch bottle smash on the floor up there. Otherwise, she might have wasted precious time digging through Peter's pockets to get it off him.

It wasn't like she had a lot of time to delay. Even as quickly as they had exited, it wouldn't be long until Legermain sent someone after them. Kiercy still had to deal with the fact that some of those someone's had been people she thought she could trust.

She drew up the arcane energy within her and started casting a healing spell. Using all her magic, she could have probably healed him completely, but then she wouldn't be able to run.

She only put a fraction of her power into it, but it would be enough to heal the cracked ribs and the concussion. Peter's eyes shot open.

"We have to run," she said, pulling herself to her feet.

Peter got up quickly, wincing as he did. His ribs might not be broken anymore, and he wouldn't feel the stabbing pain when he breathed, but that didn't mean he didn't hurt.

They were closer to Peter's car. They got in, and Peter slammed on the gas. The car sped away. Kiercy looked back to see Legermain standing in the window. It looked like he was screaming something.

From this distance, she couldn't even have read his lips. But then he raised his hand, and all she could do was yell, "He's casting," before she heard the tires screeching as Peter slammed on the breaks. The car started to swerve. She had just enough time to look forward and see a column of earth bursting through the street.

Peter jerked the wheel left. He missed colliding with the wall of dirt and rock, but only barely. The passenger-side mirror was torn off the door. Peter then sped off down a side street, out of sight from one pissed-off warlock.

Kiercy was actually pretty happy about Peter's speeding this time. She wanted to get as far away from there as possible.

"My apartment's closer," she said before realizing that was the direction he was heading.

He didn't even acknowledge she said anything and kept driving. Eventually, he slowed down when they were far from the coven building.

As they marched up the stairs, Kiercy felt all the places her body was aching with pain. The drive had been long enough for her to recover from casting spells, though. Once they were inside, she finished healing herself. Then she turned to Peter and finished putting him back together.

When she was done, she started to feel a little woozy. Before she realized it, Peter was holding her up.

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