As I was patting myself on the back for winning the first round and trying to figure out my next move, I lost concentration. That was all Damien needed, and a powerful stun strike broke through my shield and hit me on my leg. I staggered and fell to my knees.
I channeled my powers into healing myself from the inside. Penelope had taught me how to do this. I shook off the effects of the stun immediately without much effort. There were murmurs from the crowd, and I realized that I was not really supposed to know how to shake off the effects of a stun strike and heal myself, since I was still considered a novice. I had no choice, though. The stun would have left me too disoriented to have continued with the final round, and Damien would have won by default.
I tried to clear my head and concentrate on the last round. If I lost this, Damien would win the duel. After that, he would expose me to the world. The time to act was now.
He came slowly closer, circling and taunting me, as I tried to stand up. “You thought no one would find out who you are.” His voice was soft so only I could hear what he was saying. “But now I will destroy you. I will make sure you join your parents in the afterlife.”
The mention of my parents gave me the strength I needed to push more magic into my shield. I was finding it more and more difficult to concentrate with him badgering me. I was upset and frustrated that his taunts had made me lose the second round, and now he was going to try to do it again. I ignored him and focused on holding my shield.
Damien started hitting me with a barrage of stun strikes and push strikes. I maintained the shield, and his strikes bounced off it, but I was getting tired.
I could hear someone in the crowd whispering, “She might as well give up now. The Blackwater boy is quite obviously a better warrior.”
I willed myself to stand up. This was my last chance.
Damien’s strikes were getting fiercer. I realized that he wanted to end this and was giving it his all. I gathered my power and strengthened my shield. In his frustration, Damien even tried a lightning strike on me, which was against the rules. It was weak, and it effortlessly bounced off my shield and fizzled out, but no one stopped the match or disqualified him.
I cleared my head and calmed my racing heart, taking deep breaths. I shut out the voices around me, just as Uncle Gabriel had taught me in my first concentration lessons. I was now more than determined to do my best and show everyone what I was made of.
I knew I had been told to keep a low profile, but at this moment all I wanted to do was make sure Damien didn’t leave this match conscious.
Uncle Gabriel’s warning resounded in my head, but I pushed it from my thoughts and concentrated on the task at hand. A powerful stun strike would knock Damien out for a few hours at least, and the match would be over.
“Give up,” Damien was saying. “You can’t defeat me. I will always be stronger than you.”
Damien was still trying to taunt me, but this time I ignored him and looked deep inside myself. The white light was growing fainter, but it was still there. I knew there was only one way to finish this. I pushed away the nagging warnings in my head and yanked the amulet from my neck. I held my shield, never taking my eyes off my opponent.
Instantly, my magic started to grow. Power rushed into me from all sides, even up through the earth, one of the greatest sources of fae magic. White light pulsed through my veins, and I was overwhelmed by the rush of power that rose like a tidal wave inside me. I knew what I had to do and how to do it, but my magic was still growing. Power coursed through me, and I instinctively raised my arms in front of me, with my palms facing Damien.
I had intended a simple stun strike, but suddenly I couldn’t control my power. My fae magic was mixing with my mage magic and fueling it. I tried hard to get it under control, but it was useless. It was still growing, like a huge ball of light that was ready to burst out of me, and I shook from the concentration it took to try to control it.
At the back of my mind I heard someone shout, “Can you feel that? I have never felt such power before!”
Someone else said, “Look at her, she’s glowing.”
Unexpectedly, and much to my utter dismay, I lost complete control over my magic. Powerful bolts of raging silver fire exploded out of my palms. It shattered Damien’s shield and hit him directly in the chest. He went flying a few feet and landed on his back, screaming in terror as silver fire enveloped him.
I was horrified. What had I done? When I looked down, I was hovering a few inches off the ground. I panicked and fell back down on my knees. I looked down at my hands; they were still spitting silver sparks. Penelope had told me that silver fire was the weapon of choice of fire-fae warriors.
The whole school was in an uproar. Penelope tended to Damien, whom I had just set on fire. Luckily, she had already put it out.
Professor Dekela’s voice reverberated through the arena. “Please do not panic. Our healer has this under control. The student will be fine.”
Shouts of, “She’s no mage, she’s fae,” resounded through the arena.
Another shouted, “She is no ordinary fae. Can you not
