Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,98

I flew, sending bursts of bleakness through my mind as I crashed down on the pavement outside.

It hurt. In a lot of places.

I groaned against the blazing pain and flexed my limbs to check for broken bones. That hurt even more, and a whimper escaped my lips before I heard Lysander’s steady footsteps in the corridor. I couldn’t take another hit like that, so I crawled forward to a short ledge and tipped my body over the edge. It was only about three feet to the ground, but landing hurt almost as much the second time. At least he couldn’t see me from the greenhouse door.

I huddled back against the wall, digging ammunition out of my pocket and reloading the revolver as quickly as I could. The footsteps paused, and then I heard a low, hollow chuckle. “Hiding? Truly? All right, little deathling, I’ll play.” There was a long scrape as he sent giant potted plants flying off the ledge over my head. They crashed to the ground with enough force to shatter the enormous clay pots. I covered my face against the impact, but a few bits of broken pottery scraped against my hands. I gritted my teeth. Tossing stuff around, that was garden-variety witch magic. Where was he getting it?

Then I remembered the security guard. Right. He’d taken a life, which for a boundary witch was like the fuel to do regular spells. How long would the magical energy from a human death last? It wasn’t something I’d ever cared to find out.

“I admit, I didn’t expect you to fire,” Lysander continued. “You have more courage than most of those who have challenged me. Unfortunately, no more intelligence.” He’d moved in the opposite direction from my hiding spot, and I heard another crash as he threw something else. “You think you’re safe because your magic doesn’t want you to die,” he called out, “but that only means I can cause you that much more pain before your body yields.”

Think, Lex. Okay, first thing, I needed to disarm him. I couldn’t take away his magic, but maybe I could force him to use up whatever he had left. There were no other people here he could rob of life, so he’d have no other way to get energy for trades magic. There were still the plants, but corpse flower aside, how much magic could you wring out of plant life?

I stood up and turned around. “If it’s any consolation, you’re a huge disappointment to me too, Father.”

He whirled around, irritation crossing his face. I could barely see him through the darkness and the always-moving wisps of ghost, but in this lighting his blue skin almost cast an eerie glow. Then he smiled, and his body seemed to suddenly sink into the cobblestones.

My mouth dropped open as he disappeared. The draugr could swim through earth. Kirsten had mentioned something about this ability, which explained how he could constantly rise and fall from the grave, but I’d forgotten. No wonder Lysander was hiding in the Botanic Gardens. It was nothing but natural earth and graves.

Before I could begin to contemplate a move, his body rose back up from the ground and resurfaced about three inches in front of my face. I took a few quick steps back, and registered that he’d changed again. Gone was the eight-foot-tall behemoth I’d first met, now replaced by a smallish man of about five-seven. So the more magic he used, the smaller he got. Good to know.

“Disappointment?” he sneered, as if all I’d wanted my whole life was a birth father who could melt into the ground. “You spend your life as a vampire’s lackey, wishing you could be part of the family that pretends to accept you. Whereas I . . .” To finish his point, he thrust out an arm, like a dancer reaching for his partner, and I could feel the brush of magic again. It was as if some sort of force was being sucked into his arm. I was so focused on him that it took me a moment to realize that every single plant on that side of his body, for as far as I could see, had just shriveled up and died.

And the draugr grew in front of me. Theatrically, he thrust out his other arm and did the same thing on the other side. The power seemed to visibly rush up his skin and toward his face, which suddenly grew as his mass increased. I stumbled backward,