instead of calling a truce, I was becoming more frustrated with each spell as his words hammered against my brain.
There was no question that I was skilled when it came to using magic. I could pick apart charms and curses I had never seen before in a matter of seconds. There was a part of my brain that simply understood the workings of magic even if I didn’t entirely understand the why of it all.
Yet, when it came to a fight with magic, I couldn’t just go on gut. A wrong move on my part and I was dead. Or Gideon. Or some innocent bystander four towns away who was just trying to get to his first cup of coffee of the day.
Damn it! All this raw potential and I couldn’t fucking tap it!
With a shout, I tore apart Gideon’s last attack and tossed a blast of energy at him, rocking him back on his heels. The warlock blinked, looking stunned. Running the short distance that separated us, I plowed my shoulder into his sternum, tackling the taller man to the ground.
While he might have been surprised by the physical attack, it didn’t take him long to recover. My fist slammed into his jaw, snapping his head to the side before he brought both of his fists down on the top of my head. Stars burst before my eyes while sharp pain sliced across my brain. I nearly crumpled. My stomach tried to eject its contents then remembered at the last second that it was already empty, leaving me choking for air.
Gideon rolled away from me, pushing to his feet first. The bastard tried to give me a swift kick to the ribs, but I caught his foot. With a hard jerk, he landed on his ass, disappearing in the high yellow weeds.
Pushing to my feet, I swayed but remained standing. The warlock sat up, frowning at me. I smiled as I kicked him, catching his chin so that his head snapped back. “That’s for ten years of kicking me around,” I shouted.
“That the best you got?” he snarled, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Fuck no!”
Magic forgotten, we were back at each other in a heartbeat, exchanging kicks and punches like a pair of teenagers in the schoolyard. I don’t know how long we went at it, but when I was finally on my back, my body an intricate web of aches and pain, I noticed that the sun was now fully above the eastern horizon but was doing little to remove the deep chill from the air.
Slowly, I pushed myself into a sitting position, a low groan escaping from my split lips before I could catch it. Looking around, I noticed that in our struggle we’d managed to flatten most of the high grasses close by, so that I could now see Gideon’s long body stretched out just a few feet away from me. His chest rose in short little gasps as if taking a deep breath was too painful. I thought I had cracked a couple ribs when I slammed my knee into his side.
“Fucking asshole,” I mumbled, but it was missing the heat I had felt earlier. Right now, all I could feel was pain.
The warlock pushed into a sitting position as well, deep lines of pain cutting through his lean face as he moved. A sharp hiss of air squeezed through his clenched teeth and he pressed on hand to his side. Yep, I’d broken a rib or two. Man, his wife was going to kick my ass.
A bark of laughter jumped from my lips at that errant thought and I followed it with a groan as new pain lanced through my temples.
“What’s so funny? You look as bad as I do,” Gideon said. He tried to glare at me, but he was failing miserably since one eye was already swollen shut and the other wasn’t far behind it.
“Yeah, but I was just thinking that your wife is going to kill me when she sees you and I’m more scared of her than I am of you.”
Gideon snorted, his shoulders moving slightly with silent laughter. “It would serve you right.” But even as he said it, he called his wand to his side from where he’d dropped it in the tall grass. With the oak wand lightly held in his right hand, he whispered a healing spell over and over again while moving the wand from his feet slowly up his body to his