Page 47 of Magic Betrayed

The group exchanged glances, and the moment their attention wasn’t fully on me, I moved. Faster than I’d ever moved before, darting towards the dark heap of Callum’s unconscious form while simultaneously reaching beneath the ground to the swell of water forming under our feet. It had seeped in and filled every available space, forcing its way through every crack and crevice, splitting rocks, turning earth to mud, and mud to a quivering jelly.

Like weeks of flooding rains in the space of a few moments, I’d saturated every inch, and now that it had reached the bursting point, I pushed…

…and the ground beneath my enemies’ feet vanished.

I heard cries of anger as the five mercenaries plummeted at least a half dozen feet downward, into an unnatural sinkhole that yawned wider and wider—a sucking pit of mud that threatened to expand all the way to the river itself.

And as they scrambled to keep themselves from being swallowed up by the mire, I was kneeling on mostly solid ground at Callum’s side.

Or at least what I could see of him, given that he was completely covered in tree roots.

The drus had ambushed him.

Luckily, I already knew a thing or two about repelling this type of magic, thanks to Blake’s attempt to use it when he attacked the Symposium. The only question was, could I divide my attention enough to do it without losing control of the water I’d used to form the sinkhole? I’d pushed the biggest mass of water away from us, but if I failed, it would come rushing back, potentially pulling us both into the sinkhole, or washing away the very evidence I was trying to protect.

Once again, I cursed my own hesitance to practice, and promised myself that if we survived this, I was going to throw every bit of my spare time into learning. Whether for defense or attack—I would embrace every possible use of my power. Never again would I find myself feeling helpless in the face of my enemies.

After a deep, stabilizing breath, I took hold of a part of the water I’d pushed away and brought it hurtling towards me, forming it into fragments of ice as it flew.

I heard shouts as the frozen missiles sliced through the air near the mercenaries still floundering in the mud, and saw a flare of blue as the fae woman began to gather her own magic.

I had only seconds, but if I was fast enough and strong enough, a few seconds was all I would need.

The ice came to a halt in front of me and I shaped it into a ring of wickedly pointed shards that encircled Callum’s position, hovering points-down above the ground.

Now for the trickiest part—dividing my focus yet again.

Reaching deep into my core, I called up the glow of my fae power and pulled a strand of it out into the darkness.

My hold on the water was weakening. It wanted to rush back in and fill the hole, and I could feel it trembling with eagerness to be free. So, of course, that’s when the fae shot a blast of magic in my direction.

I flung myself flat on the muddy ground, getting a mouthful of dirt and feeling the cold and the wet seep in through my shirt, but somehow I hung on. The strand of blue still hovered before me, and I gritted my teeth, forcing it towards the shards of ice inch by agonizing inch.

Pain spiked through my temples, but I did not let go. I used that chain of fae magic to string the ice together like a necklace—every floating shard glittering with power—and just when I felt a warm trickle of blood burst from my nose to cross my lips and drip down my chin, I finally let them fall.

They slammed into the ground and plunged deep—spikes of ice infused with fae magic—and the imprisoning roots recoiled with a silent scream of pain. I heard a hoarse cry from the drus, right before I collapsed.

The mass of water surged towards us before I managed to regain my grip, and I heard splashing from the bottom of the newly formed sinkhole, followed by an enraged roar from the bear. If any of them figured out how to escape this, I was a sitting duck. And the fire elemental… He might not need line of sight to fry me where I sprawled on the cold, wet ground, eyes squeezed shut against the agony throbbing between my temples.

The earth beneath me rippled—the sinkhole preparing to expand—and I gasped in panic, praying I hadn’t set off a disaster I could not contain. One that would devour not only my enemies, but me and Callum as well, along with the abandoned van, and possibly even the parking lot.

But my strength was ebbing, and I could no longer divide my attention. Wasn’t sure I could shield myself if the mercenaries attacked, let alone both me and Callum.

“Raine.”

The sound of my name in that deep, furious voice was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.

Callum was free. He was awake. And he was very, very angry.

“Keep your eyes closed,” he bit out grimly, and with my head still throbbing in pain, there was no danger of me ignoring the request.

I covered my head with my arms and threw every particle of my remaining strength towards holding back the water. But my sensitive shapeshifter hearing caught the whisper of clothing being removed, and I managed to plug my ears just before the roar of a pissed off dragon split the air—shaking the ground, and drawing cries of alarm from the mercenaries.

It was one thing to laugh in the face of a single nameless enemy. It was entirely another to be up to your knees in mud and facing a furious dragon.

“Be careful!” I called, as a new fear hit me… The weight of the dragon could easily collapse the unstable ground beneath us, leaving us trapped in the mud alongside our enemies.

Somehow, he seemed to understand my warning.

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