Chapter 13: Combined Powers

GABRIEL

The Fire Slifer burned as brightly as the sun in the sky. Her heat baked every inch of the throne room with her wrath.

Gabriel smiled at the spectacle.

Evine had warned him that Lydia would come to stop his ascent to the throne. She had expressed her desire that he crush her beneath his boot heel.

Evine seemed to speak of the Slifer with a hint of jealousy. Gabriel couldn’t understand why, but it wasn’t his place to question her.

Everything that he did was for his dark mistress. If she asked him to uproot every mountain in the world, he would spend his life accomplishing that very goal—or die trying.

The little woman with the fire-streaked hair was too confident for her own good. She had escaped his wrath the first time they met, saved by the old wizard’s teleportation.

But this time, things would end differently. Gabriel would do as he was ordered. By the end of the day, he would make sure her heartbeat had ceased, that the hot blood inside her body would turn cold forevermore.

“Come on, Gabriel,” she screamed. “Let’s finish this once and for all!”

He could feel her emotions. She spoke with certainty, but he knew it was false confidence.

~If you want my best,~ he thought, ~then prepare to die.~

Gabriel closed his eyes and reached deep inside. The power in his being grew with every beat of his heart. With little effort, he pulled the shadows from the corners of the throne room and brought them down on Lydia’s burning body.

~BOOM!~

The weight of his magic pummeled the young Fire Slifer.

A smothered yelp escaped her throat.

The throne room darkened. For a gloriously long moment, it seemed like her fire would be extinguished without a proper battle.

~This was too easy!~ he thought.

In a matter of moments, the Slifer would be dead, and he would take out the rest of her comrades one by one. Victory seemed within reach. And nothing they could try would stop him.

LYDIA

Lydia almost couldn’t believe what had just happened.

She’d let Gabriel catch her off guard and brought her crashing to the floor. She could feel the dark magic constricting around her from all directions. The battle had nearly slipped from her grasp.

But Gabriel seemed to forget one crucial factor. He always underestimated Lydia’s desire to win. And that desire translated into the power she could generate.

The shadows tried to swallow her whole. Darkness closed in around her, threatening to extinguish her fire.

A yelp escaped her lips, more surprised than pained.

~Don’t give up!~ she urged herself.

With a shield of fire, she burned off the shadows and burst through the darkness. Her smoldering figure lit up the room like a firework. Even the king of shadows had to cover his eyes from the magnificent display.

“Thought it’d be over so soon?” she said slyly.

She pushed out a double blast of fire from her palms. Gabriel flew back into the wall as the flames knocked him off his feet.

Lydia felt emboldened by the effort. She floated off the ground, levitating over the throne that Gabriel had tried to reclaim.

“This will not end well for you,” Gabriel said stoically.

“I was hoping you’d learned that I don’t like to be threatened,” Lydia spat back.

A vicious shadow bolt flew right at her face. Lydia deftly dodged the attack and sent out a few more blasts of her own. Gabriel was back on his feet and moving quickly around the room. His swift movements made it hard to home in on his position.

“Gabriel!” she called out. “Stop this. No good can come of us fighting each other!”

The king refused to listen, answering her pleas with shards of razor-sharp shadow that whizzed by her ears.

She knew it was probably hopeless. But this was her mate! A battle ending with one of them dead… Lydia pushed those thoughts away. It was too hard to think about losing Gabriel.

She’d longed for his touch for three months. He swarmed her dreams and filled every waking moment of her life with longing.

And all that energy spent to find him… Just to realize he was trying to end her life…

“Don’t you remember me?” she pleaded.

A few blasts of fire skipped off the stone in front of him. He was slowing down. But that didn’t mean she needed to hit him to take him out.

Maybe she could reach through the fog that Evine was using to cloud his mind. Maybe she could find the man that she had grown to love.

“I don’t want to hurt you anymore,” she admitted. It felt good to speak to him like this—even in his twisted state.

“I thought I lost you once,” she continued, “and it nearly killed me. I love you, Gabriel.”

The king came to a halt. He looked up at Lydia. His eyes seemed to be searching…remembering the person who hovered above him…maybe her attempts were actually working!

Gabriel’s hands shot up quickly and sent a massive blast of shadow magic past Lydia. It missed, but she quickly realized she wasn’t the target.

The wall above her began to collapse. Stone fell from the stone ceiling, crashing into the ground below.

Lydia tried to fly out of the way but was hit by a piece of debris. She fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

Gabriel looked at her, emotionless. He hadn’t listened to her words. He was only searching for a way to destroy her.

She watched him close in, spotting the jade-green gem on his forehead. She had to find a way to break his connection to Evine…

LUCIUS

The shadow beasts were damn near impervious to everything they threw at them. Even with their powerful magic, Dorian and Elise were at a standstill with the nightmarish creatures.

Aero fought by his side while Lis stayed behind them, avoiding as much of the onslaught as possible.

“This is all we need,” Aero said, nearly out of breath. “A bunch of shadow creatures that won’t die!”

Dorian conjured yet another bear that met its equal in Gabriel’s shadow beast. The two creatures clawed at one another as their roars echoed around the halls.

“Watch out!” Lucius called.

Elise heard his warning and turned around just in time. She saw the shadowy tiger attacking from behind and summoned a wind gust. The tiger was swept off its feet and tumbled down the hallway, knocked immobile.

“We need more of that!” Lucius said hastily. “Or else we’re done for!”

He tried to focus his attention on the nearest creature, but the throbbing in his head was nearly unbearable. It had only been a few minutes since his last drink, but already his body was craving more.

~If this isn’t my wakeup call,~ he thought sourly, ~then I don’t know what is.~

He generated an electric shock that sent a shadowy wolf collapsing in convulsions. The attack might have been successful, but it caused his heartbeat to pound in his ears like a war drum warning of the apocalypse.

“Bloody hell!” he yelled to no one in particular. “Can’t we catch a damn break?”

They were giving everything they had and then some, but the creatures just kept coming!

Lucius chanced a glance inside the throne room. Lydia was hovering in the air like a risen phoenix. Her flames were mesmerizing.

She was their only hope. If Gabriel could somehow be defeated, the shadow creatures would stop regenerating.

“To the throne room!” he yelled.

“Are you crazy?” Dorian asked. His celestial eagle swooped at the head of the shadow bear, tearing fur from its ears.

“Maybe so,” mused Lucius, “but that’s the only thing we’ve got going for us.”

LYDIA

Gabriel’s attention was pulled from Lydia as the others poured into the room. This was unexpected, but Lydia didn’t mind one bit. It gave her time to blast the debris from her back.

Now that she was free, she could join her friends. If this was how it all ended, at least they would be fighting together.

She flew over to join ranks with her team. Gabriel lifted his hands. More shadow creatures formed around him.

This was it. The final charge to determine the outcome of this battle...

Elise readied for the next assault. The swirling gale sucked the fire from Lydia’s body, mixing it with the heavy winds.

“That’s it!” Lydia said with sudden inspiration.

She turned to Elise. “I need you to trust me. Now focus…”

Elise nodded with determined eyes.

“Create a tornado unlike anything you’ve ever made before.”

“In this little room?” Lis said, worried.

“Stay by my side in the eye of the storm,” Elise warned her friends. “And we won’t get sucked in.”

Within moments, the winds that whipped around them intensified tenfold. As the powerful gusts continued to gain strength, the group moved as close to Elise as possible.

Gabriel sent out his shadow creatures to attack, but the king had waited too long. The beasts were hit by a wall of wind that sent them flying across the room.

Lydia smiled as confusion overtook Gabriel’s previously stoic expression. He shot blasts of shadow energy into the tornado, but it did no good. His legs began to tremble as the storm finally reached his position.

Reaching out a hand to the winds, Lydia watched with delight as it sucked up her fire. The Wind and Fire Slifers’ magic combined, creating something absolutely awe-inspiring...

A fire tornado!

The blazing winds lashed at Gabriel’s skin. He tried to shield himself but stumbled over his own throne. The ruthless gusts tossed him across the room and pinned him against the wall.

One by one, his helpless shadow creatures burned up with the impressive force of the tornado.

Gabriel tried one last time to push against the winds, but it was no use. His head was flung backward and collided with the wall, nearly knocking him senseless.

“Alright, now it’s time,” Lydia called out.

Elise released the tornado, and the winds slowly died down. Lydia sprang forward as Gabriel tried to muster enough energy to stand up. With a final blast of flame, she hit him in the chest, crumpling him to the ground.

Cheers filled the throne room. The battle was won!

Gabriel would only be out for a bit. Evine would surely come looking for her prized possession.

They didn’t have any time to lose…