Crest, Primrose, and Lazare seemed to relax, but Galendra—sharper, apparently, than the other three—screamed. Wordlessly, she pointed to the fragmented middle pieces of the table—where Angelique had smashed through to clear paths for dragging Tristisim and Felicienne to safety, creating jagged and splintered breaks in the wood—which glowed silver.
Angelique laughed mirthlessly as she unleashed her magic. It engulfed the remaining chunks of the table and flung them against their magic shields, the force shattering the remnant pieces. The attack made cracks spread across the shields like spiderwebs. Angelique couldn’t help but smirk.
To think the shields had given me such trouble when fighting Acri. Puss was right—a little bit of practice can go a far way.
“How did you know?” Primrose howled.
Happy to further distract them, Angelique answered as she reclaimed the splintered bits of table, readying for another assault. “Did you really think just a few lines from you—who’ve been nothing but judgmental and annoying—were going to make me betray him? Oh, and there was one major mistake you made.” She made a show of tapping her cheek.
“Impossible—we never accounted for your foolish trust,” Crest snarled.
“Yes.” Angelique leaned forward, grinning when she felt her magic swirl around her eyes, casting everything in a silvery light. “That, and the little fact that since the moment we stepped inside Hallowed Hall, you’ve been ignoring Evariste. You never acted as if you feared he would run or react. Almost…as if you knew his magic was sealed.”
Angelique barraged them with her arsenal again, smirking when she felt the shields weaken further.
Galendra shrieked and covered her head with her arms. “Run—we have to run!” she sobbed.
“Quiet!” Primrose snarled. “We’re full-powered enchanters and enchantresses! She couldn’t possibly—”
There was a clang as a halberd fell into Hallowed Hall, skidding past the war mages guarding Evariste, Felicienne, and Tristisim. It was followed by a short sword, a scimitar, and then a wave of glittering weapons that poured in from the hallways, answering the call of Angelique’s magic from the various guards and armories located around the fortress.
Crest swore; Galendra whimpered; and Primrose bolted, running for the back of the room.
“Don’t, you nitwit!” Lazare shouted a moment too late.
The shattering of glass revealed the far back of Hallowed Hall was actually a massive glass mosaic window, which was blackened on the inside to block out light.
The window crumbled, letting the dusty light of twilight pierce the darkened hall and revealing the snaking maze of various, interconnected rooftops of the fortress.
Primrose picked her way through the shattered window and stepped onto the slanted roof. “Come!”
Galendra and Crest ran after her, but surprisingly, it was Lazare who zipped his way outside and across the rooftop with a shocking amount of spryness Angelique had never before witnessed in him.
Angelique ran after them, crushing glass under the heels of her boots as she jumped and nimbly cleared the jagged edges of the broken window.
A yank of her magic added the broken pieces of the stained glass window to her arsenal and brought the weapons zipping after her.
It only took a few daggers to make Crest’s shield crumble.
He grabbed at a necklace that dangled from his throat and tried to restart the spell.
Angelique launched a dozen arrows at them, but Galendra blew them off course with a gust of wind.
Primrose tapped her magic, and ivy that grew up the sides of the buildings snaked its way toward Angelique, growing thorns the size of Angelique’s thumb as it slithered closer.
Angelique effortlessly sliced through the tendrils with shards of glass from the broken window. Looking ahead, she saw the rooftop curved around in an s-shape.
She jumped over the side of the building, dropping down one floor onto the roof of an interconnecting walkway. She rolled when she landed, taking off some of the strain of the fall, then sprinted across her shortcut, slicing off the long loop the traitorous Council Members had to run.
Her stride was long and sure as she ran across the roof, her senses stretching farther and farther as she ran. When she glanced back, she could see her silvery magic coating the walls of the fortress, sliding up and down the buildings as it invaded, looking for more weapons, more blades, just more.
It only took a nudge from her magic to smash several dozen daggers into the wall looming above her, creating convenient hand and footholds to scale the wall.
Angelique scrambled up the wall and pulled herself onto the roof.
Primrose careened to a stop, and Lazare almost ran her over, bringing them a step closer to Angelique.
They turned around to look back at the way they’d come and were greeted with a glittering cloud of bladed weapons.
Primrose swung back around to sneer at Angelique as Crest and Galendra caught up. “You can’t think—”
Angelique reached for her magic, and the weapons barraged the four Council Members, battering their renewed shields with such strength, they fractured the magic within moments.
“Why are you attacking?” Crest made a wide gesture and pelted Angelique with water droplets that stung even through her clothes.
“You’re with the Chosen.” Angelique ignored the painful rain and instead picked out several polearms that were shorter and sturdier than a regular spear and perfect for impaling. “I’m not going to try to chat with you!”
Galendra’s face was pale, and her lips seemed slack with fear. “You’re trying to kill us!”
“Obviously. That’s the whole point!” Angelique put an extra burst of power on the polearms. She smiled in satisfaction when they punched through the cracked shields, making them disintegrate.
Actually, I’m trying to capture them for Severin to question. But I like them scared and sloppy.
“This is impossible!” Galendra hiccupped in her fear, and her voice was taut like a harp string.
Angelique released a round of arrows, but Lazare yanked the enchantress out of the way so the arrows uselessly pelted the roof.
Galendra didn’t seem to notice the narrowly-missed danger. Her eyes were hazed with fear as she gaped at Angelique. “You were raised so you wouldn’t do this! You were taught and punished so you’d never fight back!”
In years prior, that statement might have been enough to make Angelique’s heart sputter.
But she had lost countless fights to the Chosen and the black mages. Experience told her the only shot she had was to keep fighting.
She could evaluate her life later. Now, all that mattered was capturing them. So Angelique didn’t even blink, didn’t falter a step. Rather, she gritted her teeth and pulled all her weapons in, aiming them at the Council Members.
“We have to jump! Primrose!” Crest leaped off the side of the building, his fellow Chosen members jumping after him.
Angelique wasn’t able to change the direction of her weapons quite fast enough, so they pounded into the roof, punching through the ceiling with the potency of her magic.
She growled in frustration as Primrose caught Crest, Lazare, Galendra—who had to be yanked over the side by Lazare—and herself with strengthened ivy vines.
Lazare cast a large shield, which bubbled around them as Angelique threw more of her magic after them.