Death Wind (Elven Alliance #3) - Tara Grayce Page 0,87

but even then the blue magic seared against her eyelids. She covered her head with her arms.

Several sharp cracks sounded in quick succession. Farrendel’s magic lessened.

Essie lowered her arms and blinked several times past the dazzle of magic. She squinted at Farrendel.

Magic still flowed down his arms, crackling around him. He rolled, pushed himself onto his elbows, then onto his knees. When he raised his head, his silver-blue eyes burned, his expression hard. He rose to his feet.

Essie would have run to him, kissed him, but he was all Laesornysh at that moment, hard and fierce.

Julien gestured at the door. “We should get out of here. We came in the back way, and we can get out that way.”

“Where is Weylind?” Farrendel’s hands clenched around bolts of power.

“He’s—”

A boom shook through the stones around them. Something tugged deep inside the heart bond, and Essie pressed a hand to the wall, her shoulder bumping into Edmund’s. She could sense a blast of Farrendel’s magic, though it wasn’t coming from him.

No, instead, she could feel Farrendel drawing that power to him. A surge of magic flowed through the stones, and the dungeon cell lit blue for a moment as blue lightning swarmed over Farrendel before settling, glowing, around his hands. His stance steadied even more, something in his eyes glowing hard and deadly.

Julien’s mouth twisted with something between a grin and a grimace. “I think they set off the bomb at the gates.”

“Then we will be going out the front.” Farrendel stalked past them, his magic sparking around him. He disappeared out the door.

“Do you think he knows the way out?” Edmund pointed toward the now empty doorway.

Essie shrugged. She didn’t know Farrendel’s plans as there hadn’t been a good way to communicate them through the heart bond. Though, she wasn’t sure Farrendel was even sticking to his own plan at the moment.

Melantha was still unconscious, slung over the elven scout’s shoulder. If she knew, she wouldn’t be telling them any time soon.

This wasn’t how Essie had pictured this rescue going. Somehow, she had imagined something more...romantic. Maybe a kiss, though she would have been happy with a hug.

But it was all right. What had she expected, really? They were in the dungeon of the enemy fortress. It was probably an inopportune time for kissing or hugging or anything romantic. Highly illogical to waste time with any of those things, after all.

Later. They would have time for that later. First, they needed to catch up with Farrendel, then they had to finish this once and for all.

FARRENDEL STALKED down the corridor, noting the footsteps following him. Edmund, Julien, Essie, and the others. As long as they were behind him, they would be safe. He brushed past the dead troll bodies lying on the floor.

He let his magic flood him, lending him strength. After two weeks of idleness, he probably should not be standing, much less walking. Somewhere, distantly, he felt the weakness in his muscles and body. But with Melantha’s magic lending him strength and his own magic filling him, he felt powerful.

Normally, he used as little of his magic as possible, aware of how much destruction he could cause.

But now, everything in him had been stripped raw. Emptied. And he did not care if he destroyed this fortress stone by stone. As long as his family, both human and elven, survived this day, he did not care how much destruction he caused.

He could feel the way the stone still pierced him. Last time, the trolls had kept the stone just beneath his skin. Restraining him, but far from killing him. This time, the stone burrowed deeper, tearing through him with an abandon that told him King Charvod did not intend for him to survive a second time. Farrendel was not meant to survive this rescue.

Fine. Embrace the pain. Embrace death, for he was dead already. If he was not meant to survive, then King Charvod would not survive this day either.

King Charvod had tried, but Farrendel had not broken. He had become stronger. Stronger in the knowledge that pain meant nothing to him anymore. Stronger with the fire that burned in his chest.

Not fire. Magic. So much magic. Perhaps today Farrendel would find out just how much of it he could unleash when he did not care about the consequences.

Farrendel paused in the chamber at the end of the dungeon corridor, the one Melantha had described with the pool of water in the corner.

Which way? Farrendel closed his eyes and stretched