She grimaced as her magic stretched her awareness across the blades, spears, and arrows. The goblins made curious noises as they tried to brush the silvery magic off the weapons and failed.
Ignoring their panicked yelps, Angelique yanked a finger up, and the weapons pulled free from the goblins’ grasp, hovering above their heads.
Before the goblins had a chance to react, she twisted her magic, flinging the weapons back at the goblins, finishing them off with a frightening efficiency.
The sour scent of bile and blood assaulted Angelique’s senses. She gritted her teeth and hefted the weapons back up in the air, repositioning them before sending the second attack at the few goblins that had survived the first.
Angelique squeezed her eyes shut as the goblins died with gurgles. She relinquished the grip her magic had over the weapons and shivered.
It’s done. For now.
Her stomach twinged, but otherwise she felt no discomfort—besides the persistent nagging sensation that it shouldn’t be this easy for her. Magic shouldn’t be dangerous—
“See? What did I tell you? I’m completely unharmed.”
Chapter 7
Angelique snapped her eyes open, and she finally noticed the lone figure standing among the slaughtered goblins—King Themerysaldi the Idiot.
“Though in standing here, I must be forced to admit that you have the aim of an elf,” Themerysaldi said. “That was exceptional all around.”
Angelique slapped her hand on a nearby tree trunk—both to steady herself and to keep from storming out to the king. “You really are insane!” The rough bark of the barren tree dug into her palm. “Why did you do that?”
“To prove my point,” Themerysaldi said. “You’re not going to hurt anyone, Angelique. You’re too righteous—your magic would never allow it.”
Angelique rubbed her temples—which were tightening with a headache she was starting to suspect would plague her whenever she had to deal with the brash Elf King. “Very well—I understand. My magic isn’t dangerous.”
“Do you really believe that, or are you just saying that so I don’t do this again?” Themerysaldi squinted at Angelique as his archers picked their way through the goblins, gathering up the torches and dosing them in piles of snow before they could start a fire.
“It doesn’t matter,” Angelique said. “You should never walk into a mage’s spell. That’s an even more foolhardy move than what you called Evariste’s dunce-like behavior.”
Themerysaldi shrugged. “It was a good experiment—one you can’t deny gives you proof.”
“You’re right,” Angelique agreed to placate him. “I will be sure to meditate on it later. When I’m not slaughtering goblins.”
“Hmmm.” Themerysaldi turned around to address his archers. “How is the main force? Have they figured out our plan yet?”
“No, Your Majesty. I’m not certain they have the necessary intelligence,” once of the archers reported.
“They have to, don’t they?” Themerysaldi said. “Or how did they manage to muster like this? Even if the Chosen are organizing them, their cooperation for this large of a force goes against typical goblin nature.”
Angelique relaxed a little and kicked a little snow that was drifting around the base of her tree, scattering white snowflakes across its bark.
Hopefully Themerysaldi was through with his experiments for the night.
She petted Pegasus’ silken neck when he came over, investigating her skirts as he sniffed for treats. Themerysaldi really is an idiot. But even he is wise enough not to pull such a stunt again.
Except he wasn’t.
He did it again, and again, and again. In fact, in every goblin force Angelique faced, Themerysaldi popped up in the middle of them like a large, suicidal boil.
By the time the sun was thawing the sky to a soft blue—Angelique couldn’t tell if it had slipped over the horizon yet due to the trees, but as the sky lacked the gold, pink, and orange colors that usually accompanied a sunrise, she suspected it wasn’t yet up—Angelique was paranoid and exhausted, but satisfied she’d managed to finish off the last band of goblins.
Sweat trickled down her back as she splayed over Pegasus’ back and glared at the idiot Elf King, who was giving a few remaining orders to his people before he joined her to ride back to Sideralis.
Once he finished, he turned away from his people and strode up to his waiting mount—Pookie, his massive, coal-black unicorn. He glanced at Angelique before he swung up onto his mount’s back. “You look terrible.”
Angelique puffed up with anger. “I wonder why!”
“Did your price activate?” he asked.
Angelique sat up and twitched her skirts into place. “No,” she admitted.
Though I’m not sure if that’s because of the way I used my magic or because I spent most of the night watching out for your foolish neck!
Themerysaldi nudged Pookie into a walk, leading the way back to the elven territory. “That’s a good sign—for you. It means you can manipulate your powers. I suspect the harder and faster you pull your magic, the harsher the price is. It seems that if you keep a connection with it, it delays your price at least by a little.”
“You mean as long as I use my core magic in a steady stream, my price won’t activate?”
“Unless you pull hard, yes.” Themerysaldi held the reins in one hand and gestured with the other. “I wish I could teach you more. But unfortunately, the way we use magic is different enough, I can’t offer more than my observations of your power.”
Angelique shifted—Pegasus had magicked up tack for her, so she was comfortably seated in a saddle rather than being forced to cling to the constellation’s bare back. “It is helpful, still.”
“Even though you don’t want to use your core magic? Ever?” he asked.
Angelique nervously dug her fingers into Pegasus’ mane. “My magic still frightens me,” she said, slowly. “But I’m aware that learning more about it would prepare me for the future. So the next time a black mage tries to steal someone away right in front of me, I’ll stop them.”
No matter how afraid Angelique was of her magic, that was something she knew in her heart. She’d find Evariste and stop the black mages—no matter what the price was.
“Angelique…about Evariste.”
Angelique glanced at King Themerysaldi. “What of him?”
He directed Pookie around a tree, then met Angelique’s gaze. “I saw him after he was taken. Based on the timeline you gave earlier, I suspect it was only a day or two after.”
All air left Angelique’s lungs. “What?”
“Two women, a man, and a sorceress the others called Suzu brought him here to Alabaster Forest. That’s how they got through our wards—they used Evariste and his position as elf-friend .” Themerysaldi grimaced. “They also used Evariste’s magic as the power source for our curse.”
A tingling numbness settled into Angelique’s bones. The pained throb of her heart filled her ears as she struggled to adjust to Themerysaldi’s news.
They used Evariste’s magic? How? It must have nearly killed Evariste—he loves the elves!