| |
Damien
Magic cracked and spat at him from Bowen’s wand, but Damien was already moving. Wind grabbed at the snow in the trees and on the ground and spun it in a violent vortex that descended on the witch, trapping her like a snowglobe.
“Damien,” Anna called. “You can’t kill her! She needs to live.”
He turned a wide-eyed stare at Anna. “You can’t be serious.”
Yellow-gold light flared to life inside the globe as Bowen sliced her way free.
“Very serious. If you kill her, they’ll never stop searching for you. They will kill you, and the rest of your people will be imprisoned or worse. Please, don’t kill her!”
Gritting his teeth, Damien nodded. He’d been about ready to summon a thunderbolt that would have obliterated the loathsome witch, but instead he lifted a palm and a blue-white fork of lightning spat across the distance at Bowen.
This time though, the Initiate was ready, and a silvery curved wall about six feet in front of Bowen deflected the blow aside.
Damien grunted as the return strike swept in with unexpected speed and smashed him to the ground, the same black energy as before pummeling his left shoulder. Pain lanced into his core and he closed his eyes against it, rolling with the impact.
“For interfering in Winterspell affairs, and for assaulting an Initiate of Winterspell Academy, I hereby sentence you to death!” Initiate Bowen proclaimed, going on the attack as she came in at Damien from the side.
“We’ll see about that,” he growled, his earlier restraint fading as he got a better idea of the Initiate’s strength and powers.
Blackness came at him again, but it was met with blue-white lightning that stopped it cold, tendrils of azure energy working their way deeper into the magic until it simply shattered Bowen’s spell.
The skies above rumbled ominously, and Damien grinned. That wasn’t even him. The storm from earlier was moving in now, perhaps summoned by his own anger, perhaps of its own volition. But as the weather broke over them, he launched a blistering assault on the witch.
Blast after blast, from his hands and from the skies above slammed into her protective shield, shrinking it in diameter and forcing her backward.
To her credit. Bowen tried to fight back, but the storm was Damien’s home, his element, and he opened himself to it completely. Air swirled and snow came with it, moving so fast the little snowflakes cut like ice. Damien was no frost dragon, but the winds were his, and he used them now.
A tremendous bolt of lightning shot down from the heavens, exploding on the ground less than ten feet from the witch. The shockwave blasted the Initiate from her feet, throwing her across the ground like a ragdoll.
Damien gestured and lightning jumped across his body as he prepared to strike one more time.
“Don’t kill her!” Anna shrieked. “You can’t kill her!”
“She deserves it,” he rumbled, turning to face Anna, fully aware of the fearsome visage he must cast, his eyes likely disappeared behind the turbulent storm clouds of blue-white energy that infused his body, lightning crackling across his skin like he was some sort of godlike figure from myth.
“I don’t care,” Anna snapped, standing her ground. “You kill her, and we’re done. Over. Understood?”
Damien reared back, surprised at her outburst.
“You would do that for her?”
“She’s a witch, like me,” Anna said softly. “She’s just been misguided by someone with a lot of hatred. She could still come around. But not if you kill her.”
Damien stared. “You are a remarkable woman,” he said quietly. “Just when I think I know you, you go and show me another side of you.”
He gestured distractedly and a blast of lightning shot out and took Bowen in the chest just before the recovering witch could cast another spell.
“Very well.”
The lightning energy dissipated. But not the winds. Damien focused and the air rushed in, wrapping itself around Bowen like a blanket and chains before lifting her into the air.
“What are you doing?” Anna wanted to know.
“Sending her back to the Outpost. Where she can’t bother us.” He flicked a finger and the package took off, bouncing off a nearby tree trunk as it went. “Oops.”
Anna glared at him, but he just shrugged. “Guess my aim was a little off.”
Then, closing his eyes, he let the power leave him, emptying his body of the excess energy.
“You done?” Anna asked uncomfortably, looking around.
“Yes, why?”
“Uh.” Anna pointed at the wall of snow surrounding them. “What’s all that?”
“That’s the storm,” he said. “I’m just keeping it at bay from us so that we’re comfortable.”
A twelve-foot radius around Damien was cleared of the heavily blowing snow, which reduced visibility to near nothing on the other side of it. The blizzard was here, and it was a brutal one.
“What do we do now?” Anna asked, stepping closer to him.
“Now you come with me,” he said.
“What? To where?”
Damien grinned, putting an arm around her. “To my lair.”
Anna shied away. “What? Your lair? That doesn’t sound ominous and threatening whatsoever!”
“Oh, but it is,” Damien rumbled deeply. “Very ominous. Super-duper ominous.” He grinned, letting her know he was joking.
“You’re sure?”
“Well you can’t exactly go back to the Outpost, now can you?”
Anna shrugged. “I’m sure Bowen will fly back to Winterspell. They’ll spend a day deliberating what to do. We’ve got some time before we really worry about that.”
“Then you can spend it with me.”
Damien gestured, and two storm stallions, similar to the animals he’d seen in the barn, just larger, shimmered into life. “Do you trust me?” he asked calmly, holding out a hand to Anna.
She looked at him, at the stallions, then at him.
“I do,” she said quietly, and took his hand.
