Storms of Magic Boxed Set: Books 1-4

by Hylton, PT

  His focus did not waiver.

  Rain began to fall on him so hard that each drop felt like the stab of a tiny knife. He pushed it out of his mind.

  In the days after the battle in the Farrow Islands, Viktor had wondered aloud to Dustin why there weren’t more aggressive forms of storm magic. Sure, there was lightning, but that was inaccurate. Other than that, what was there? Wind? Waves? Powerful, yes. But Viktor and Dustin both felt they could do better, especially for battles on land rather than at sea.

  The problem in Dustin’s mind was that stormcalling had been developed specifically to aid the swift passage of ships. That meant Dustin’s training—and the training of all Holdgate Storm Callers—had left out more aggressive applications.

  He gripped his staff hard as the wind and rain battered him. He’d only get one chance at this, so he had to do it right. The anger churning inside him was fuel for his magic, one he’d used ever since his first day as an apprentice.

  But Dahlia had anger too.

  Dustin needed something else, and in that moment, he felt it bubbling up. Love for his friends. For Olaf and Clemens, who he knew were fighting for him on the other side of that stone wall. For Syd and Benjamin, who were leading the raid into the city. And for Abbey, fearless Abbey, who was taking the fight to the heart of the Stone Shapers’ palace.

  The love twined with the anger, fueling him in a way he’d never experienced. And he used it. He used it just as he and Viktor had discussed.

  The sound of something solid hitting the street around Dahlia reached him, and the wind blasting against him waivered. That was all the encouragement he needed. He pushed harder.

  Dahlia cried out as the first of the hail hit her.

  He concentrated, making the balls of ice larger in his mind and aiming them at her exact location.

  Hail struck her, and she shrieked again. And again. And again.

  He didn’t let up. He put everything he had into his assault.

  “Another trick!” she screamed. “I’ll destroy you.”

  He kept pushing harder, calling heavier hail. He lost himself to the stormcalling.

  After a time that might have been a minute or might have been ten, he heard a splashing noise. Dahlia was stepping out of the tub of water. Then he heard the rapid sound of feet hitting the pavement as she ran away.

  For a moment he considered chasing her, but he immediately realized that would mean abandoning his crew. They were counting on him to aid their retreat when the time came.

  Dahlia had escaped, but Dustin couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

  He’d done it. He’d defeated Dahlia.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Five versus twenty. Those were the odds as Abbey reckoned them. It was a rough estimate, considering that many of her opponents were still coming through the holes in the ceiling.

  Giving up was not an option—there was too much at stake. If they surrendered, not only would they die but Dahlia would be free to continue traveling the world, bringing misery and suffering wherever she went.

  Abbey drew a deep breath, and for a moment everything seemed to move in slow motion.

  She saw Magnus’ throne quivering as he began to shape it into some sort of monstrous weapon.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fannar take something from his belt and put it to his lips.

  Elliot and Hekla had raised their swords, ready to swing at the falling Stone Shapers. Gideon was running toward his brother’s throne.

  The crash of the first Stone Shaper’s feet hitting the floor roused Abbey from her strange hyper-focused state, and things sped up again.

  “Abbey!” Gideon called. “I’ve got Magnus. Kill the rest of these guys.”

  She sprang to her feet. “My pleasure.”

  Driving her sword through the chest of the nearest man, she quickly appraised things. Elliot and Hekla were in the thick of it, and another group of five Stone Shapers was approaching them in a tight formation.

  She pulled her sword out of the man in front of her, grabbed him by the arm, and reduced his weight. She then lifted him over her head and charged the five Stone Shapers. She swung the body at them, letting go of it—thus returning it to its natural weight—just as it struck the first man.

  The sudden impact bowled the five men over and Abbey quickly went to work, attacking them with her sword before they could recover.

  After she’d finished them off, she spun and saw another man dashing toward her. The stone in his right hand seemed to be made of liquid as tendrils reached through the air toward Abbey. She crouched under the tendrils and went for his legs, taking him down with one hard cut. When he landed on his back, she completed the job.

  There was no time to consider the devastation she’d just caused, taking down seven men in less than a minute. Her friends were still in danger.

  She risked a quick glance around the room. Gideon was standing in front of the throne, his hands on either side of it. The stone chair was quivering wildly, but it wasn’t changing shape. Sweat stood out on both Gideon’s and Magnus’ foreheads.

  Hekla and Elliot stood back-to-back, slashing at any Stone Shaper foolish enough to step into sword-range. They batted aside stone attacks and struck, quickly bringing down two opponents.

  An inhuman howl of rage rang out from the far corner of the room. She spun toward it and saw Fannar taking on two Stone Shapers. He was moving more quickly than Abbey had ever seen him do, and his fighting style was completely different than usual. Instead of his signature precise strikes to his opponent's strategic weaknesses, he was hacking and slashing wildly. His seax was constantly in motion.

  He pivoted to strike another Stone Shaper, and Abbey caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were solid brown.

  Seiderdrek. That was what Fannar had raised to his lips before the fight.

  There was no time to think about it. She dodged the stone spike aimed at her face and quickly dropped another Stone Shaper.

  She looked around; there were only seven Stone Shapers left. Elliot struck with his twin swords, making it six.

  Fannar mowed through two more in his feral rage, and there were four.

  A few moments later, none of the Stone Shapers were left standing. None but Gideon and Magnus, who were still locked in their mental battle for control of the throne.

  Sweat poured down their faces and their eyes were locked on each other as if they couldn’t move them.

  “I have him,” Gideon grunted, his voice strained. “Not sure for how much longer. Somebody lend a hand?”

  Elliot marched toward the throne. “Magnus, for what you did to Ragnar, what you did to the people of Gren, and what you tried to do to me, here is your reward.”

  The Stone Shaper chief had just enough time to let out a grunt of protest before Elliot sank both his swords into his heart.

  Gideon stumbled backwards as the mental battle dissolved. Abbey steadied him, then put a hand on his shoulder.

  “You okay?” she asked. The man had been a tyrant, but he was still Gideon’s brother.

  Gideon nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on Magnus’ body. “He deserved that. After everything he’s done, the people he’s hurt, this was justice.”

  “That doesn’t mean you don’t hurt,” Abbey said.

  Gideon turned away. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got a heart of stone.”

  Abbey gave him a moment, but only a moment. Then she said, “We have to go. When I asked Magnus where Dahlia was, he said, ‘Your friends will find out soon.’ That leads me to believe she’s not in the palace.”

  “We have to get back to the ship,” Elliot said.

  “Fannar, you good to go?” Abbey called.

  The Barskall stood panting, his seax dangling from his hand. His only response was a growl.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” She turned to Gideon. “Get us out of here. Dahlia is not getting away from us that easily.”

  * * *

  Dustin couldn’t see Olaf, but he could c
ertainly hear him.

  “Come on, you stony bastards! Taste my iron. Feel the sting of my blade! You’ll be telling your grandchildren the story of how you were killed by the great Storm Raider Olaf!”

  “That doesn’t even make sense,” Clemens called over the sounds of battle. “How can they tell their grandchildren something if they’re dead?”

  “It’s an analogy, dummy.”

  There was a brief silence during which they heard only the thud of iron weapons against stone.

  Then Clemens said, “I don’t think you understand what an analogy is.”

  Dustin heard their conversation, but he was cut off from the two men by the ten-foot wall the Stone Shapers had raised before Dahlia attacked.

  That was okay with him. He needed to focus, because there was only one thought burning through his mind. There is no way Dahlia is escaping again.

  She’d escaped the battle in Holdgate. She’d escaped The Foggy Day. And now she was on the verge of escaping again. Dustin would not have it.

  At the same time, he couldn’t chase her through the streets of Ammaas, streets she almost certainly knew better than he did. The Foggy Day was counting on him to help cover their escape if things got dicey, and it would be beyond irresponsible to abandon them.

  He’d watched Dahlia run down the road that stretched in front of him, and he knew she’d almost certainly head back to the palace. She was powerless without the tub of seawater she’d left in the middle of the street, and she’d want someone to protect her.

  Dustin knew the general route from here to the palace. He closed his eyes and channeled the storm magic. This would take total focus. He pushed away the sounds of the battle raging just beyond the wall and began the push-and-pull conversation with nature that was storm magic.

  He exhaled and tried to relax every muscle in his body. He inhaled, and power filled him. Then he went to work.

  He channeled lightning.

  A bolt shot from the sky and struck the street not five feet away from the tub of seawater Dahlia had abandoned there.

  Not bad. That was the closest he’d ever come to a small target.

  But one lightning bolt wasn’t enough. Not even close. If he wanted this to work, he’d have to strike the same spot dozens of times.

  Another lightning bolt hit ten feet away from where the first had touched down. A bit farther than he’d hoped, but still pretty damned accurate when it came to wielding lightning.

  Before he could call down another bolt, the wall to his left began to quiver.

  “Oh, shit!”

  The wall sank downward, melting back into the street, and a moment later it was gone. A grinning Stone Shaper stood in its place.

  “Invading our city with your damn storm magic,” the man growled. “I’m going to rip you to pieces.”

  Dustin pointed his staff at the man and fired. The energy hit the Stone Shaper, knocking him flat on his back.

  Dustin shook his head. “You loved storm magic when Dahlia did it. That’s a double standard, and I won’t tolerate it.”

  A group of five more Stone Shapers ran toward him, and his jokes were immediately forgotten. Thankfully they fell before they reached him, victims of Benjamin, Syd, and the Storm Raiders hot on their heels.

  “Everyone all right?” Dustin called to them.

  Syd grimaced. “We’ve lost three already.”

  Olaf’s voice came from the other side of the wall on Dustin’s right. “Bring that wall down or I’ll chop off your damn arm!”

  A moment later the wall quivered, then disappeared into the road. Olaf stood over a fallen Stone Shaper, sword at his throat.

  “Get out of here before I change my mind!” he yelled.

  The Stone Shaper stumbled to his feet and sprinted into the darkness.

  “Glad to see we’re all back together,” Dustin said. “I need your help. There’s no time to explain, but I need to concentrate. Keep the Stone Shapers off me.”

  Clemens stepped up beside him. “You got it.”

  Dustin planted the tip of his staff on the road and once again called the lightning.

  A bolt struck near the tub. Then another. And yet another.

  As he worked, he sensed the battle around him. He felt the heat coming off Benjamin’s fireballs and heard the clang of Syd’s twin swords, but he didn’t open his eyes. He kept calling lightning bolt after lightning bolt, hoping Abbey saw.

  “Oh, you son of a bitch!” Olaf screamed.

  The cry was filled with such fury that Dustin couldn’t help but open his eyes.

  Clemens was down, clutching a wound in his shoulder, and Olaf was charging the Stone Shaper standing over him.

  “You hurt my friend,” Olaf yelled as he ran. “Now you will burn!”

  He raised his sword, and suddenly the blade was on fire. He swung the flaming sword, but his opponent quickly conjured a stone shield.

  Olaf was unfazed. He struck again, this time plunging the fiery sword into the man’s neck.

  As the Stone Shaper fell, Olaf turned toward the Arcadian blacksmith. “Benjamin, did you see that? I did it! Can you believe it?”

  Benjamin’s eyes widened in surprise. “Honestly, I can’t. Nice work!” He paused, cautiously watching the flaming sword. “Just be careful with that thing, okay?”

  Dustin once again closed his eyes and called lightning.

  He had no idea if this desperate gambit would work. For all he knew, Abbey and her team were still inside the palace looking for a woman who wasn’t there.

  He didn’t want Dahlia to escape, and he couldn’t abandon his crew to chase her, so he called the lightning.

  * * *

  “What do we do now?” Elliot asked.

  “Damn good question,” Abbey said. “All I know is we’re not going back to that ship until we find Dahlia. Let’s start by—”

  A massive flash of lightning lit the sky, interrupting her.

  Hekla whistled. “Your Storm Caller friend is putting on a show.”

  “Yeah,” Abbey answered, “but how long can he keep it up?”

  The Stone Shapers were warriors. They wouldn’t remain panicked over the storm magic for long. Soon they’d regroup and begin organizing, and then The Foggy Day would have no choice but to retreat. Abbey was already considering the thought that they’d be left behind and have to flee the city on foot. Not the ideal option, but to take down Dahlia? Hell yeah, she’d do it.

  Which way would the woman have gone? Maybe they should head straight back to the ship, or—

  Another bolt of lightning split the sky, coming from the same direction.

  Something about the lightning bothered her, but it took her a moment to figure out what. Then she got it.

  “Hang on. Dustin doesn’t use lightning in battle. He absolutely sucks with it.”

  Elliot nodded toward the area the lighting had flashed. “Then what the hell is all that?”

  “Two possibilities,” Abbey said. “Either it’s Dahlia’s doing, or Dustin is trying to send us a message. Either way, we need to get over there.”

  They walked toward the lightning, following a narrow road. Abbey hadn’t exactly mastered the layout of Ammaas, but she thought they were heading in the general direction of The Foggy Day. It certainly wasn’t the most direct route, or the one she would have thought to take.

  As they walked, the lightning flashes became more frequent and more powerful.

  “If that’s Dustin trying to tell us something, he wants to make damn sure we understand,” Hekla said.

  “Yeah.” Abbey was beginning to worry. What if the lightning flashes were Dustin calling for help?

  Something in the road ahead caught Abbey’s eye. A group of figures stumbled toward them. It was hard to get a count, but then lightning flashed and she thought she saw six individuals.

  “Look alive, people,” she said, raising her sword.

  The group had spotted them too, and they rushed forward. Lightning flashed again and a female voice cr
ied, “They’re with the Raiders. Kill them!”

  Fannar hadn’t said a word since leaving the palace, but at that he charged forward, snarling as he ran. The others followed closely behind.

  Abbey reached a Stone Shaper who had formed his stone into an axe. She ducked his swing and stabbed him in the stomach. He fell with a cry of pain.

  Abbey looked around and saw that her friends had taken care of the others in the group. All but one—the woman who’d ordered these men to attack.

  “Hello, Dahlia,” Abbey purred.

  Dahlia had been crouching before, trying to make herself small, but now she stood to her full height. “Hello, Arcadian filth.”

  “Aw, you remember me,” Abbey said sweetly. But the joke felt hollow.

  For a moment, no one spoke.

  Then Dahlia said, “I thought for sure you’d kill me at some point during the journey to Gren.”

  “I’m here to make up for past mistakes.” Abbey raised her sword.

  It was odd, the way Abbey could only see her silhouette. Then the lightning flashed and she lit up for a moment before fading back to a vague shape in the darkness.

  “I’m not going to try to bargain with you,” Dahlia said. “Not this time.”

  “Good. It wouldn’t help.”

  “I will ask one question, and then you can do your worst. What’s the one thing you know about me?”

  Abbey responded immediately. “That you’re a cold bitch who uses powerful people to enact her plans and then makes sure they take the fall when things go wrong? That you are so overconfident that I’ve been able to sneak up on you and stop your plans three times now?” She paused. “Oh, sorry. I guess that was two things.

  “No.” Dahlia’s voice sounded different than usual. More manic. “It’s that I’m a survivor. Every time you stopped me, I came back stronger than ever. You killed my captain and stole my ship, and I responded by coming at you with a Barskall armada. You drugged me and held me captive, and I surprised you by escaping. Forty-eight hours ago I was your prisoner, but now I’m partners with the Chief of the Stone Shapers.”