Page 41 of Mistake of Magic
“Lera used my magic during the first trial,” River said, grabbing Autumn’s attention. “If I rupture the damn earth from here to the far wall—”
“You were within arm’s reach during the trial,” Autumn said, shaking her head. “And Shade was flush against her yesterday. Given your failure with her in the practice arena, I’m confident that both strength of magic and proximity are required.”
Coal’s chest tightened. “Not with me,” he heard himself say, already rising to his feet. His heart thundered but he turned to the petite female. “She can feel me at a distance.”
Autumn’s brow creased. “I don’t understand.”
Coal’s fists tightened. “She can feel me at a distance. When I’m in... distress, she knows. As if my fears penetrate into her. I just saw it—she flinched when I reached over the barrier and reacted again to the shocks in my arm. It’s my magic she’s latching on to, isn’t it?”
Autumn nodded slowly, her intelligent eyes sorting through information. “Your magic, unlike River’s, is turned inward. So, yes, if Lera is somehow connecting with you through your fear, then she may be brushing against your magic while she is there. Reacting to it.”
Coal swallowed. “If she can taste my fear when I’m trying very hard to block it, then would my surrendering to it strengthen Lera’s connection to me? Give her better access to my magic?”
“It is possible,” Autumn admitted.
Possible. That was enough. Coal turned to River, gripping the commander’s wide eyes. “I need you to trigger every bloody memory I have of Mors,” Coal said, holding out his wrists as his heart pounded. “Bind me and give no quarter. And then... and then don’t let me bloody kill you, because I’m going to fight like hell itself.”
26
Lera
I’m unarmed, unable to surrender, and trapped with an immortal warrior who believes the only solution to his current problem lies in ending my life. My eyes flick to the top of the arena, where the blinding sun blocks my view of the spectators. But I know my males are there. Watching. Knowing that I’m trying.
Malikai comes at me with his dull sword raised, his hard face set with the determination of a farmer catching livestock for dinner. No anger, no regret, no emotion at all besides an ironclad certainty that in a moment I’ll be dead. The weapon in his hand is nearly as big as I am, his large hands powerful enough to snap me in two.
I dive to the ground. The sand meets me, rising into the air and filling my mouth as I roll over my right shoulder and get to my feet on Malikai’s other side. My breath quickens, my muscles tight and quivering. I wipe my forearm across my face, spitting out sand.
The male snarls, his previously emotionless eyes now flashing with excitement, like a predator who’s caught the first scent of prey. Bloody stars. Throwing the sword aside, Malikai lunges for me, and this time there is no escape as he pins my back to the ground, his powerful thighs straddling my heaving sides.
I buck beneath him, digging my shoulders into the sand as I struggle to make space and slither free. Malikai’s weight is a stone atop me, making each breath a hard-fought chore. Unable to buck the male off, I curl my hand into a fist and swing at his nose.
Which I know Coal said is stupid, but I don’t remember why.
I have my answer in the next heartbeat as Malikai catches my arm easily and barks a laugh. Fishing for my other wrist, the male transfers both to one steel fist. “Might as well put on a show, don’t you think?” he tells me, his white canines flashing in the sunlight. Before I can respond, Malikai’s hips lift for a moment of breath-permitting bliss as he twists my trapped wrists, forcing me to roll. To turn face-down in the sand. Then his weight settles back atop me. “Your males are watching, you know. What do you think they are making of this?” He laughs, stretching my trapped wrists out above my head.
“Is this the bull?” a voice echoes in the darkness of a stone dungeon. “The one you can’t seem to tame?” I know that voice. Just as I know that after today, it will never speak again.
My face is in the sand. I can’t move. Can’t breathe. Can’t scream. Malikai’s weight holds me in place, squeezing away what little air I manage to gulp around mouthfuls of sand. Fear, cold and hard, rushes through me, spurring my heart into a blinding gallop. Above me, Malikai shifts again and something hard, like his knee or shin, presses painfully into my ribs. The bones shift and bend and howl beneath the growing pressure.
My mind goes blank, everything I’ve learned disappearing into a fog of pure panic and instinct. I pull against my hands, buck, scream—
The stone is cold and hard beneath my knees, my binds trapping me to the wall as the qoru approaches, its gray skin matte in the gloom. The folds that pass for its nose compress together as it snorts and opens a maw of sharp teeth to speak. “It doesn’t look all that strong to me.”
“Be careful.” The second qoru comes closer, his stench filling my nose.
“Which of them do you think will scream the loudest when your ribs snap into your heart?” Malikai muses, leaning down to whisper into my ear. “My money would usually be on the mate, but he’ll likely cower into his wolf and stay there for another century or two. River... No, that one likes to put on airs. I truly hope it’s the Mors whore who—”
My elbow moves, breaking the bonds holding me in place to plunge into the horrid fold of flesh passing for the qoru’s nose. Power flows through my body, pulsing with my heart, filling my muscles with blood and strength.
The qoru screams.
Malikai screams as my elbow smashes into his face. There’s a cracking sound and warm liquid soaks the arm of my tunic. The weight on my back lightens, but I’m already pulling my other hand from Malikai’s grasp. Power surges inside me, filling my muscles with heat.
Filling me with hot, blinding rage.
Blood. Enemy blood. The smell of it makes my heart pound with excitement. My nostrils flare, scenting my adversary’s sudden weakness. His close, sweet death. The blood coursing through my veins simmers, each organ it touches lighting with new strength. My lungs fill with all the air in the world, my eyes seeing so clearly that I can count the sand grains beneath my face.
I throw Malikai off me easily, his heavy body sending a cloud of sand into the air as it lands. Blood still flowing from his broken nose seeps into the sand.
