Page 43 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck

But first, I needed to actually survive.

I stopped clawing and pulling at Nile’s wrist since it was getting me nowhere and felt along the table, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. I brushed the glass pitcher with my fingertips and seized hold of it, bringing it up fast and striking my uncle in the side of the head.

It exploded on impact, slicing his cheek and my hand in the process. He loosened his hold on me enough for me to scream. And scream I did.

Lightbulbs began bursting in the courtroom, one after another, as electric sparks came shooting out of them.

Nile glanced around, glee filling his dark gaze. “I knew it! I knew there was hidden potential in you.”

He thought I had something to do with what was happening?

Nile laughed, cocking his head to the side as blood dripped down his cheek from the cut on his face. The crimson liquid dripped onto his suit jacket, marring his otherwise pristine state. He glanced at the blood on his shoulder, seeming unfazed by the cut on his face.

I jerked my sliced hand close to me and was thankful to see the cut was small. A piece of glass was still embedded in it though. I didn’t pull it out, worried if I did it would bleed more.

Nile reached for me, and I slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch me!” I shouted. More sparks flew out of the light fixtures. Some even began coming from the outlets in the wall.

The judge’s microphone crackled before it began to spark too.

All of it seemed to turn Nile on more and more. He grabbed my good hand and held it as he stared around in wonder. “Rachael, this is brilliant.”

I tried to yank my hand free, but he had it in a death grip.

He brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it.

I spit in his face and brought my knee up fast, striking him in the groin as the side entrance to the courtroom flew open. Drest and Goodfellow were through it in a heartbeat. The sparks stopped at once.

Nile doubled over and released my hand with a grunt.

Drest moved with a speed that was anything but human. He slammed into Nile, knocking him back from me, sending him skidding across the floor.

My uncle slammed into the judge’s bench and pushed up fast with a roar that reverberated through him.

Goodfellow hurried to me. “Rachael!”

I twisted and he grabbed me, dragging me back from the commotion in a gentle manner. He wrapped his arms around me and the same feeling of being safe washed over me. It was so fast and instantaneous that a little part of the back of my brain thought it was artificial. That the feeling of serenity and safety was somehow manufactured. The rest of me welcomed the feeling and didn’t give a crap where it came from.

Drest went at Nile, looking lethal. He yanked Nile off the floor, jerking him to his feet as if he weighed nothing.

I gasped at the raw display of strength.

Goodfellow tried to usher me out of the courtroom, but I shook my head. “Rachael, let him handle this.”

Nile took a swing at Drest, and I was shocked to see it connect.

From the looks of it, so was Drest. The two began to trade blows, slamming into the clerk’s desk before ending up across the well to the railing before the gallery.

Goodfellow made another attempt to get me to leave, his attention going to the floor near the defendant’s table. Nile’s discarded cuffs were there, looking as if something had melted the metal in spots. Goodfellow’s gaze snapped in the direction of Drest. He motioned with his head to the cuffs.

Drest took note.

Nile yanked off his suit jacket and hiked the sleeves of his dress shirt before grinning at Drest in a way that said he was going to make it a fight to the death if permitted.

I gasped as I saw my uncle’s exposed forearms. They were covered in tattoos that were a mix of alchemy, Fae, and Celtic symbols. There were also ones I didn’t recognize the origin of, but I’d seen them before in books kept in my father’s study. One of the symbols stuck out more than the others. It was the very symbol that I’d been sure I’d seen on the robed man.

Nile treated his body like a temple and wasn’t one for tattoos. At least he hadn’t been. Evidence to the contrary was all over his arms.

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