I ran to help Santino, pulling him up with one hand and scorching the gorgoth with all the power I could muster.
Santino recovered and grabbed my hand. “Run!”
We sprinted through the towering bookshelves and deserted corridors of the huge library. The creature was fast and gaining on us; its growls echoed through the room.
“This way.” Santino pulled me through a door that led out into an open courtyard.
What I saw before me made my blood run cold.
The palace courtyard was immersed in chaos. A group of guards were engaged in a bloody battle with four gorgoths that flew through the terrifying melee, slicing open necks and chests with their sharp fangs and deadly claws. Bodies lay strewn on the ground as guards fell under the massive strength of the demon creatures.
Santino removed a dagger from his boot and swiftly threw it at the closest gorgoth, hitting his target in the eye. The gorgoth screamed and fell to the ground, alive and thrashing. Another gorgoth was surrounded by spear-wielding guards, and Santino raised his sword, rushing into the throng.
But the magic I felt moving toward me was not coming from the gorgoths, and I turned toward the darkness that threatened to engulf us all. Four hooded figures stood perfectly still in the middle of the courtyard, watching their henchmen wreak havoc on the Brandorians. I paled.
The Drakaar.
The sorcerers of Dragath removed their hoods, causing a shiver to scuttle down my spine. Their faces were sharp and angular, human-like in their outward appearance, with the pale white features and blond hair of the northerners. But what I saw in their eyes when they looked at me made my magic recoil as if it wanted to hide. Dark black pools that seemed to have devoured whole worlds gazed at me. Their necks and parts of their faces were covered with black tattoos that glowed with a strange magic, depicting ancient symbols that swirled over their pale skin. The power they radiated was nothing I had ever felt before, not even from Lucian.
Not human.
One Drakaar smiled when he saw me, a feral grin with a terrifying glint of teeth, revealing elongated canines that could tear out my throat with a single bite. He reached out his hand toward me and latched onto my magic like a leech, sucking the very life force out of me. I struggled to get my power back under my command, but it would not obey me.
There was a flurry of shouts and screams as Santino’s mercenaries entered the fray. On Santino’s orders, they battled the remaining gorgoths, who slashed and dismembered palace guards three at a time. Santino continued shouting orders to his men, clear and precise instructions on how to kill the gorgoths.
He ran up to me amid the chaos. “You must remove your amulet, Aurora.”
I hesitated. I was not ready, I had not mastered my control yet.
“Now!” he shouted as he ran ahead to battle a gorgoth that had felled at least ten of his men. Santino swerved and danced around the creature, never giving it a chance to get a hit in. His sword flashed lethal in his right hand as he slashed the back of the gorgoth’s knees, then its wings with the dagger he held in his left. The gorgoth crashed to the ground as Santino took a running leap, pouncing on the monster and burying his sword up to the hilt in its chest.
One of the Drakaar raised his hand, and I could feel the ancient hum of dark magic as tendrils of dark shadow lashed out at Santino, picking him up and flinging him against the far wall.
I had seen enough. I had to do something, I had to overcome this fear. I was a warrior trained to fight, but I knew this was a battle we could not win. If I could muster enough power to hold them off, I might be able to get us clear of the citadel with our lives intact.
I removed the chain from my neck, and both my hands shone with silver fire as my fae magic awoke and responded, unbound by the fetters of the amulet that held it in check. The darkness hit my shield and tore against it, trying to find a way in. Raising my hands, I released the silver fire that rose in my veins, lashing out at the sorcerers of Dragath with everything I could muster.
But the Drakaar only hissed and faltered momentarily, my magic hitting a shield that absorbed my silver fire into the blackness as if it was never there.
As the sparks abated, the first of the Drakaar smiled, his canines flashing like daggers in the moonlight. “You have power, little princess, but not the skill or the experience. You still do not know how to use your fae magic, and I will enjoy killing you slowly.”
The Drakaar sorcerer raised his hand—I could feel a crushing weight around my shield, pushing against it and threatening to shatter it completely. An ancient evil seeped out of his very pores, feeding on the terror that lay thick in the air, suffocating all hope and light, replacing it with despair, pain, and sorrow.
I drew more magic into me to strengthen my shield, but the sorcerer’s power was more formidable than I had anticipated. The other Drakaar added their sorcery to the assault, and my legs started shaking. I fell to my knees. The pressure of trying to hold my shield against the crushing darkness was too much.
“There will be no escape this time, Aurora,” a familiar voice drawled. I looked up. Brandon stood in front of me surrounded by the Drakaar sorcerers, a satisfied smirk on his chiseled face. “There is no one who can save you now.”
My anger flared and I wanted to strangle him. My magic blazed in response and I threw a stun strike at him, but the Drakaar were shielding him, and he remained unharmed. Silver fire started to form in my palms as I desperately
