Page 35 of When Storms Collide

The thunder boomed overhead once more as the sounds of fighting filled the clearing. I could see Tess engaging with another Noctani out of the corner of my eye before focusing back on the one before me. This was truly a nightmare. I hadn’t wanted to fight them, but I could see there was no other option.

A Noctani was sneaking up behind me and I turned quickly, plunging the dagger into her neck. They were coming from every angle. We were outnumbered. I cut a glance towards Puck, who had been disarmed, and he and Nik grappled with Nik’s broadsword.

What a fucking mess.

I turned from the Noctani, sliding my blade out of her neck to face the next one. This man was much taller than me, his muscled arm grasping a club in his fist. My vision snapped away quickly—to an image of that club buried deep within my skull—but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.Had it been a vision? Or had it only been my own fear, materialized?

I dodged the club as it came towards me, right before it could crush me beneath its weight. I kicked the Noctani in the back of the legs, but he didn’t budge. I brought Stormslayer into an uppercut towards his chin, but he batted my arm away as if I were merely a toy. The hand not holding the club swung towards me—too quickly for me to dodge—and it slammed into the side of my face. I could taste blood as it filled my mouth, my head turning under the force of his fist.

Before he could get another hit in, I flattened to the mud, rolling to escape his grasp. His club swept towards me again, and I narrowly avoided it, stepping back into the clutches of two other waiting Noctani. One grasped my arm and twisted it behind my back hard enough that I heard a crack in my shoulder, my arm going limp and Stormslayer sliding from my grasp. My legs were kicked out from under me before the Noctani pinned my other arm behind me. I hung my head, the tendrils of my auburn hair darkened from the rain dripping onto my cheeks.

“No!” Tess cried, lunging towards me.

In that single moment of distraction, Nik was able to get the upper hand. He slid the broadsword free from Puck’s grasp and hitting him in the temple with the hilt of it. Puck’s body slumped into the mud before he lay there, motionless.

I pressed my eyes closed, unable to watch as he approached Tess from behind. She was too focused on me. He smacked the hilt of the sword into the back of her head as her gazeremained locked onto me. She slipped to her knees before sprawling in the mud.

He hadn’t killed them.

He hadn’t killed them.

He hadn’t killed them.

I kept repeating it to myself over and over again as he moved towards me, wiping the mud on the broadsword off on his wet tunic. If he had wanted to, he could have. They were merely unconscious. The rain hadn’t let up, and the storm raged above us in earnest now. My magic pulsed right beneath the surface, begging to be set free.

I wanted to release itbadly, but I had no idea what would happen if I did. It had been disastrous every time my unbound magic had lashed out before, and I doubted it would be any different this time. But what other choice did I have?

Before I could reach for it as a last resort, take the risk of using my unbound magic to get out of this mess, Nik placed a hand on my shoulder.

I recoiled away from his touch.

Was this the part where he sunk his fangs into me, draining me of any and all storm magic?

A tear slipped free and ran down my cheek, but with my hands bound behind my back I couldn’t reach up to wipe it away. I didn’t want them to see me cry. I was completely and utterly defeated.

Nik’s hand found my jaw, and he grasped it, turning my face up towards his. He ran his thumb along my cheek, capturing the single tear with his finger. He stared at it for along, interminable moment before slipping the finger into his mouth to taste it.

“Please,” I begged, “please just let me go.”

He narrowed his eyes down at me. “Afraid I can’t do that, Firecracker.”

Nik tilted his head to the side as he gazed down into my face, before slamming the butt of his sword against my temple. Everything went black.

The familiar sensation of dream walking settled over me, but I hadn’t remembered falling asleep.

I had been knocked out.

But now I was in The Stone Palace, and Corian and Donika stood before me. Corian’s gaze locked onto mine, and I could see in his expression—in the lines of his face—that he could see me standing before him. He turned back towards Donika, not revealing my presence.

To what end? What was he doing?

Donika ascended the dais and sat atop her gilded throne, parting the skirts of her intricately beaded dress as she sat. She tossed her blue-white hair over her shoulder, reaching out to pet one of the grey wolves who sat at her side.

“Any word from him?” she asked, not bothering to lift her gaze to Corian, who stood before the dais.

“Not yet, but I suspect his presence alone will have ensured her swift capture. The sight of him would rattle the bitch, surely. Willing or not… she will go with him,” he replied.

Donika smiled. “Yes, I suppose that would be quite a shock.”

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