Page 105 of Heart of Dawn
“Mi—”
“I win. I win. I win. Shall we see what happens as your brain swells? Shall we see, cherry fae? Shall we see?”
I screamed, blood gushing from my nose as pain bloomed there.
“No!” Dawn wailed. “Put it back! Put it back! Put it back!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
MIKO
We’d walked into a trap.
There were twenty blood magi in the wide corridor, lined up in two rows of ten, blood dripping from their fingers, eyes blazing pink. Their magic immediately set my guts to roil.
Red mist streamed from Orion’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
“You won’t have him!” I bellowed, unable to move his rigid body.
“I win!” Dawn cried from their mouths. “I win.”
A replica moved first, letting out a war cry. He barely got three feet before a flash of red light sent him skidding backward. Slimy energy rippled over me.
Fuck.
“You cannot win!” Dawn’s voice bounced off the walls. “You are here because I allow it. I am the end. I am… No! Put it back!”
The ground trembled, a heady scent of cherries filling the room like liberally sprayed air freshener.
“Ori?”
“Put it back!” Dawn screamed.
The magic leaking from Ori turned black, evaporating. He sucked down air, slumping against me.
I held him up. “What happened?”
“Stars…”
“Put the vile fae blood back inside your vile fae body!”
The heads of the magi exploded, a line of balloons popping, spraying blood and brain matter into the air. They all fell, a series of tremors rocking the ground.
“I win. You do not win!” Dawn’s voice seeped through the walls. “You do not win!”
Exploding magi heads didn’t look like Dawn winning to me.
The tremors stopped, everything silent again.
Ori managed to steady himself against me, holding onto my shoulders. “By the stars.”
“What happened?” I asked, smoothing his cheek.
He explained his brief ordeal. His blood resisted Dawn, but not blood magic. Usually. The presence of Dawn changed the rules, Ori’s blood pushing through, making those heads go pop as Dawn lost control of the situation.
God, I just wanted this shit over with.
“Doesn’t mean Dawn won’t recover,” Ori added. “We have to keep going. Is my nose broken?”
