Page 58 of Jade Lion and the Witch Boy
But I flex my arms. It feels so real.
I crane my neck around to see Ashley staring at the rock wall. Shards and pebbles of geo arcanum are strewn about the ground. I clench and relax my paws one more time.
I’m in control!
“Rarrrgggh!” I roar, and emerald bursts of arcana leave my body like a shock wave. Ashley is pushed down, and my magical energy breaks her shield spell.
“Wha…what?” Ashley asks in distress. She hastily stands up, and I walk over to her. I growl and bare my fangs. If she thinksshe can control me and get away with it, she is clearly mistaken. “My…my hex! But how?”
“You are not in control of this body anymore,” I say in my deepest, most threatening tone. I get on my knees and grab her by the throat with both paws. The fear in her eyes is deliciously satisfying. She has no way to reinstate her hold over me.
“Stop!” Two wizard guards rush up to us, wielding their geo arcanum in a threatening stance. “By order of the Sorcery Protection Enforcement of the Union of Mages, you are both under arrest!”
I look back down to see Ashley nervously crying under my hold. It would be so easy to paralyze her, punish her for what she’s done.
“Kai, stop!” In the corner of my eye, a face I did not expect to see arrives. Taina is rushing up to me, now in line with the guards. “You don’t have to do this!”
All of my rage wants to be unleashed. The fragile, vengeful witch in my hands used me like a blunt object. She hurt people, with every intention of hurting more. She should not be allowed to live. The world will be better without her.
“I know Ashley controlled your mind, but you’re free now. Please, Kai. Don’t be the monster she made you to be. It’s not what Seb wants.”
I glance at Taina, the guards, and back down at Ashley. After snarling, I take in a deep breath. “I could end your life in an instant right now if I chose to.”
Ashley trembles in my hold, knowing this could be her final moment.
With a small growl, I loosen my hold. “But that is not the type of man that Sebastian could love.” I shove Ashley to the floor and stand up. “You are banished from our coven for committing this atrocity. You will never be able to cast spells,and you will never be accepted among wizards or witches. And if you ever threaten my family again…”
I flash my claws at her. Ashley seems shaken, and I know I’ve made my point. With a sigh, I walk toward Taina as the guards slowly approach her. There are so many things I want to ask her, but I’m interrupted by a commotion behind me.
“I still have all the POWER!” Ashley shrieks. Turning around, I witness her cobbling together the shards of geo arcanum on the ground. “I can still make you SUFFER!”
“No, stop!” the guards say in unison. I stand in front of Taina, shielding her, as the wizard guards put up energy barriers for themselves.
“You will burn! You…will…” Ashley lifts up the shards in her arms, at least twenty pieces, and they all float in the air. A red glow emanates from her body, and she is clearly preparing for a magical blast. The geo revolves around her, like planets in a galaxy, faster and faster.
Before I can cast any counterspells, I sense a massive shift in energy. The red arcana is quickly pulled inward, like a small vortex, inside Ashley’s body. The geo arcanum shards, floating a moment ago, fall to the ground.
And Ashley looks dead. Her skin is charred, and her hair has fallen off. Her clothes are tattered, and I can smell the burnt flesh from yards away. However, she is alive, at least for now. When the wizard guards rush to her, she coughs and stares forward unblinking.
Ashley debilitated herself.
I exchange a horrified look with Taina as three older wizards in white robes approach. “It’s Sorcery 101,” the older Black man says. “We must never use more than one shard of geo arcanum at a time. The magical feedback could be catastrophic, hence…” He vaguely points at Ashley being whisked away by the guards.
Another one of these regal wizards, an older White man, approaches me and taps my elbow. “It’s so great to finally meet the fabled Jade Lion. I wish it were under better circumstances.” We all glance at more wizards cleaning up the mess of shards. They’re using brooms and clear bags, and it is comforting to see they’re familiar with mortal methods of cleaning.
“Give the man some space,” the third wizard, a Brown woman, says. The other men defer to her, and I know instinctively that they are heads of the Union. She turns to me and adds, “Sir, we have a lot of questions. But first…”
She points in the distance, and my heart drops. I rush several yards to the periphery of the room, shifting into human form as I go. I kneel down where Anika and Lisbeth are both seated. Propped against a wall is the man I love.
Seb is unconscious. And he’s pale, thinner, and looks as though he could die at any moment. “No…nonono.” Tears well up in my eyes as I hold his hand. His pulse is thready, and he seems so frail. The sad look in Lisbeth’s eyes confirms what none of us have to say. He sacrificed his life force just now to free me.
“No, no, please, Sebastian. Please don’t leave me. I love you, so please don’t…” I rasp. My soul shatters, and I hug him. I try to infuse my arcana into him to heal his heart, but to no avail.
“That’s the cost of the spell,” Lisbeth says quietly. “His blood, his life force…it can’t be replenished by magical means.”
Tears fall down my face as I shake my head. “We have to do something,” I say in a broken voice. He’s on the cusp of death, and my world shatters little by little.
All this power, and I cannot heal the man I love, my fated mate.
