by A. K. Koonce
Her wrists turn with ease and a crackling shield of green and white magic ricochets the blast of flames.
Her jaw tightens with an eerie smile, and I know the moment she sets her sights on the alpha shifter. My elbow hits hard against Rime’s ribs. His body slackens and then I leap. My own defensive magic stings through my fingertips.
That emerald color lashes out of her palms and it collides against my blinding white power at the very last second.
I have to protect them. If I do nothing else right in my entire fucking life, I have to protect them.
The strength of her magic pounds against mine, knocking over and over into it in pulsing colors that mingles into mine. I feel that sickly, weird dark energy crawl to life as if it knows I need it right now. I refuse to release the foreign magic within myself.
My magic blooms, growing in size against hers. My right hand shakes, pain stabs along my skin as I hold her off with trembling efforts.
It isn’t enough.
A gasp tears from my throat the moment her magic bursts through. It cuts against me. It slices along my skin like a knife ripping up my arm, aiming for my heart.
“No!” Ellise’s shriek of horror is almost a match for my scream of agony.
White spots blot my vision. Sinister morphs, black smoke billow up around the massive beast. A howling bark echoes, and all I see are the shining white stars kissing the darkening sky. Pain like I’ve never felt burns into my very bones. My head turns against the brick ground and my body trembles involuntarily.
I see him. I see my sweet hellhound snapping sharp teeth and burning fire from his jaws.
And that vow to protect them swirls alone through my thoughts.
The mage storms closer to the hellhound without fear. Her hand rises. Green embers of magic highlight her striking palm.
But I’m quicker.
With a frail burst of energy, white colors stream from my fingertips. They hit with impact blooming against her body.
It’s a perfect hit.
The white colors fade. My eyes drift, nearly closing.
The last thing I see is Sinister there, confused and alone. The mage is gone.
Because disappearing spells were always my specialty.
Eighteen
Home
The deepest sleep envelops me. Too many faces flash through my mind. But her image overshadows all of them.
My offer still stands, friend. Mistakes were made, but you and I are sparrows of a feather.
A beat passes and my eyes flutter open just as her words echo into my thoughts.
Attika awaits.
The deepest green eyes shift over my features. Steady fingers trail along my jaw before he pushes my hair back from my eyes. In an almost familiar, dark room, two shifters and a demon sleep on cots along the wall. A single window allows soft moonlight to shine into the shadows. It’s an attic and for a second, I wonder if we’re back at Prince Linden’s castle.
I can’t tell if hours or days have passed. Everything in me hurts and I won’t say it, but there’s an alarming numbness that’s settled into my right hand. I focus there and no matter how hard I try I can’t lift my fingers.
Fear crawls into me but I force myself not to show it. I stare up at Kain as he waits patiently for me to speak.
“Where are we?” The whispered words grate along my throat as my tongue slides across my dry lips.
His gentle palm stays in place against my jaw, and for a moment I wonder if he actually heard me.
“You tell me. After you vanished Ellise, your fingers sparked and then all five of us were here. You disappeared. Again. And this time you took us with you, Arlow.”
My heart skips a beat at the sound of his words and his thumb slowly drifts back and forth against my skin.
I took them with me.
My instinct—as always—was to run. Except this time, I couldn’t leave without them.
Am I really powerful enough to vanish four shifters—excuse me—three shifters and a … cursed hellhound?
The blanket is heavy against my chest. I sit up and he never takes his hands off of me. Kain steadies me as I walk past Sinister’s cot and on unsteady legs I make it to the small window. White dirt streaks down the glass, hazing the scene before me. My hand hangs weighted at my side, refusing to lift no matter how many times I try. The gashing scar that’s healed there runs from the back of my knuckles all the way up to collar bone.
“Sinister was able to heal your wound,” Kain whispers, his attention following mine closely.
He’s wrong; Sinister sealed the skin but the wound is far from healed. The tingling numbness eases the pain but it’s damaged; the scar, the nerve endings. The whole thing is terrifying every time I try to so much as lift my pinky. The long pink scar jutting down from my collar bone to my wrist is an ugly, marring thing. It’s my reminder that I made an ally and turned against her as quickly as the wind changes.
I could see it in her eyes; she didn’t mean to harm me. I hate that things were ruined for our future before they even began. Will I see her again?
The offer still stands. Her voice still spins through my thoughts.
The thought that I might never have that obtainable simple life that she filled my head with twists my stomach as a shaking breath leaves my lungs.
And then I look up and that breath catches once more.
Miles and miles of endless sea wash back and forth beneath the starry night sky. Ships dot the dark waters. They sail in toward the warm light of the tower along the coast. A wide cobble street separates me from that beautiful sandy shore.
“We’re in Warf,” I whisper. Kain’s hold on me tightens. He pulls me against his chest and just holds me as I look out blankly at the place I left so many years ago.
I vanished us from escalating danger. Just to bring us back to my homeland.
The most dangerous place of all for a hiding mage.
The End.
Thank you for reading Maiming! Arlow—as well as a few sexy shifters and a hellhound—will return in book four, Sustaining, in February!
Preorder Sustaining here!
Also by A.K. Koonce
The Mortals and Mystics Series
Fate of the Hybrid, Prequel
When Fate Aligns, Book one
When Fate Unravels, Book two
When Fate Prevails, Book three
Resurrection Island
The Royal Harem Series
The Hundred Year Curse
The Curse of the Sea
The Legend of the Cursed Princess
The Hopeless Series
Hopeless Magic
Hopeless Kingdom
Hopeless Realm
Hopeless Sacrifice
The Harem of Misery Series
Pandora’s Pain
The Severed Souls Series
Darkness Rising
Darkness Consuming
Darkness Colliding
The Huntress Series
An Assassin’s Death
An Assassin’s Deception
About A.K. Koonce
A.K. Koonce is a USA Today bestselling author. She’s mom by day and a fantasy and paranormal romance writer by night. She keeps her fantastical stories in her mind on an endless loop while she tries her best to focus on her actual life and not that of the spectacular, but demanding, fictional characters who always fill her thoughts.