the tree to his head.
I crouched to jump.
Volod shot his gaze and his arm up.
And shot a bolt of power at me.
“Bitch!” His power slammed into me with so much force I flew from the branch, back against the tree trunk.
I cried out from shock and pain. My chest burned from his magic.
Volod shot another burst of power from his hand.
I pulled a glamour and moved just in time to avoid getting hit.
Splinters flew from the tree trunk. Several buried themselves in my biceps, and one in my neck. I winced but held back a cry of pain.
Volod looked for me but my glamour was too strong.
He sniffed the air. “I can smell you. I can smell your blood.” His voice was low and dangerous. “I can feel you. You’re still mine to command, Nyx.”
I got to my feet and pulled out the splinters, gritting my teeth from the pain.
“Come out and play,” he said then shot a burst of his power in my direction.
I barely dodged it and barely maintained my glamour. I drew my sword. I’d have to come out of glamour to fight him, but I’d kill him. This time I’d do it right.
Sword in hand, I charged him. I let my glamour drop just as I raised my sword.
Volod threw up a shield. I hit the shield hard and bounced off it, landing on my backside.
I vanished again behind a glamour. I’d play cat-and-mouse with him a little more. He’d have to drop that shield to try to harm me with his power.
Slowly I walked in a circle around him. He sniffed the night air and turned in the same direction I was moving.
“Avanna,” I murmured to cleanse myself of the blood. He was tracking me just by the smell.
I continued moving, but he paused. When I was behind him, I raised my sword and dropped my glamour.
“You’re dead,” I growled.
Volod whirled, his hand ready to send power at me as he dropped his shield.
I stepped into his space, swinging my sword.
His power hit my sword so hard that I lost my grip on it. It flew from my hands and clanged against a stone on the forest floor.
I grabbed a stake from my weapons belt and charged him, my arm raised with the stake in my fist.
Volod blocked me with one arm and sent his other fist into my gut.
Air whooshed out of my lungs. I stumbled back.
He dove for my sword and grabbed it before I could reach him.
Volod swung the sword at me. I ducked and somersaulted backward out of reach.
My breathing was coming harder now as adrenaline pumped through my body.
I clenched the stake in my left fist. With my right I drew a dagger. I missed my Dragon-clawed daggers, but this would do.
Volod lunged for me with the sword. Instead of backing up, I tucked myself in a ball and somersaulted forward.
I felt the dangerous flash in my eyes as I came to a stop and shouted over the wind, “This is for Rodán!” I jabbed the dagger into his belly and opened it up.
Volod cried out, clearly in pain as he instinctively grabbed his belly. I surged up and slit his throat. “And that’s for Nadia.” Blood gushed from his wound and sprayed me.
“This is courtesy of me to you.” I rammed the dagger into his chest and impaled his heart, twisting the blade. “For everything you’ve done.”
Volod went instantly stiff. Then in what felt like slow motion, he rocked on his heels and fell to the forest floor, landing on his back.
I stood over him, staring down at the eyes that could no longer see the trees they were staring at. The cruel mouth that would no longer give orders that would destroy lives.
My whole body trembled as my mind tried to process the facts.
Volod was dead.
Volod was dead.
He would never harm another paranorm or human again.
I dropped to my knees and tears flooded my face. I sobbed for the people I loved, their lives forever lost.
And I cried for myself.
FORTY
“Let’s go, honey.” Colin wrapped his strong arm around my shoulders and helped me to my feet. “It’s all over.”
I didn’t know if my legs would hold me as I rose and looked down.
All the evil, all the pain associated with Volod, over.
It didn’t seem real, but there he was at my feet. That cold lifeless face with a permanent look of surprise. I didn’t think it had ever occurred to him that he could lose. That I could