He took a deep breath, and I braced myself, my hands touching the ground. Instinctively, I sought out a warren to jump to even though I knew that there were none nearby. This was why I’d placed the portal here. No one could get here quickly. Not without the portal that I’d hidden.
Instead, I pulled on my second power. Strength over stone. A power I used very rarely. It was more draining, and it came from my fairy side, a side far more common.
Nyx breathed out, and a blast of flame came rushing towards me. I pulled up on the stone under the soil of this field, and a door-sized piece of stone rose from the ground in front of me. A shield from the flames that threatened to burn me alive.
The flames whipped around the stone, singing my shoulders and my cloak. Pain flashed in my shoulders from my burns, but I knew the wounds were minor. My dwindling power flooded the burns and healed them, leaving me with only a burned cloak.
I quickly made two copies of myself and began my counterattack. I sprinted around the stone while one copy leaped over it and the other ran around the other side. Nyx would need a moment to recover from that strong of an outpouring of energy. Dagger in hand, I and my two copies raced towards him.
Everything suddenly became incredibly hot as Nyx raised his hands to either side. The air around Nyx began to waver, and I jerked to a stop, the copies continuing towards him.
They caught fire as they stepped five feet away from him, their bodies turning to mist and fading almost instantly. I threw my dagger once again, and Nyx couldn’t dodge it as he held the power around him.
As it flew through the air, it seemed to slow as it passed that point where my copies burned up, and then it slipped through, hitting Nyx in the chest. He grunted as the tip buried into him almost an inch deep.
Unlike a normal man, it was not a fatal wound for Nyx. Nyx was born from the blood of dragons, and his flesh was stronger than that of normal Fae. The dagger slowly sapped him of his power, though. If I’d been holding it, I’d have been gaining that power, but I couldn’t get close enough to him.
Finally, he let the shield down, and as he reached for the dagger, it turned to mist and reappeared in my hand. He began to race towards me, his hands firing burst after burst of fire at me, and I danced around them. Each one got closer, but so far, I’d managed to survive each blast.
The very air in the field seemed to be on the verge of catching fire with so much heat. This was not going well. I had to get close enough to fight him, but my powers were nearly useless against him, and he knew all my tricks.
Throwing daggers at him was only going to get so far. I danced closer to the stone that I’d raised from the ground, using it as a shield.
“Fight me!” he roared from twenty feet away. I tried to center myself. How could I get to him? How could I get through the fire to force him into an actual knife fight? I was at a disadvantage in a knife fight, but at least there was some chance of regaining some of my energy. The next time one of those fireballs hit me, I wasn’t going to be able to heal myself or I’d be completely drained.
“Fine. Come fight me and quit throwing those fucking fireballs.” He laughed and it sounded like rocks grinding together.
“So that you have a chance? No, Sebastian. You’re already almost drained. You’ll be dead soon enough.”
I heard him take a deep breath, and I touched the stone in front of me. It broke at the ground level, and I heaved, picking it up. Then I threw it. Powering it with magic and using my power to enhance my strength, it flew through the air at Nyx. His eyes grew wide as the giant stone became bigger and bigger in his eyes.
I immediately sprinted towards him, my body following the stone. He couldn’t follow through with his attack or he’d be hit squarely in the face by a three-hundred-pound stone.
He dropped to the ground, his chest pressed to the burnt and ashy grass, and I pounced in a last-ditch effort to get on his back. He rolled just as my dagger dug into his shoulder, ripping free of the blade.
He screamed as it tore through the flesh and blood spurted from the wound. Without hesitating, as he rolled, his arm shot upward towards me, and a flash of light blurred my vision.
Pain filled my chest. A fireball. He’d caught me squarely in the chest with a fireball. I had pulled only a touch of power from him with that strike. If I healed the wound, I would be nearly mortal.
I stepped back, blinking away the light blindness. And I saw her. Running into the field. Nyx saw my gaze shift and he followed it.
“Don’t stop me, and I’ll let you live,” he growled, pain still tinging his voice.
I could barely move. Everything inside me screamed to heal and run. Jump into a warren and get away to feed.
But I couldn’t. I gritted my teeth as Nyx stood up and began walking towards Rose. She stopped several hundred feet away from him and seemed to realize how bad of a mistake she’d made.
I tried to ignore my wounds and chase after Nyx to at least draw his attention long enough for Rose to get away, but my legs failed me. I hit the ground hard, and I screamed as my burnt chest slammed against the ground among the charred grass.
Nyx and Rose both turned to look at me, but Nyx turned away almost immediately. He knew that I would never be able
