throw it.
“Brea. Don’t be a child.” Lochlan raised his hand and somehow summoned the crystal, catching it in his outstretched hand and stuffing it back in hers.
“Why don’t you show me how to do that?”
“Because you haven’t mastered the most basic mechanics of magic that even our youngest children learn through instinct alone.”
“How about we do the not-talking thing again for a while?” Brea felt like crushing the stupid crystal in her bare hands.
She spent the next hour running the gamut of her emotions, searching for the right thought or feeling that would stimulate her magic. But the darn thing refused to light up again.
Looking up, Brea saw stunted trees and cactus replacing the barren desert sands they’d traversed. “Where are we?” Brea yawned, reaching for her canteen.
Lochlan pulled her back against his chest, his arms tense. “Quiet, Brea.” That was when she realized he gripped his sword in his free hand.
“What’s going on?” she whispered, not liking the way Lochlan’s soldiers had fanned out around them. Before he could answer, a crossbow bolt slammed into a boulder just feet from Brea and Lochlan. She nearly jumped out of her seat, but Lochlan’s arm was like a vise around her waist.
Several more bolts whizzed past them, and a battle cry echoed through the sparse forest as men and women charged toward them. Brea’s heart lodged somewhere in her chest as Lochlan and his men entered the fray.
“Take this.” Lochlan shoved a huge round shield in front of her. Brea clutched it tight and huddled behind the barrier. His arm slid around her again, but his free sword hand hacked away at the nearby soldiers.
“My uncle’s men.” Lochlan snarled in her ear. “None of them leave this place alive!” He shouted to his men.
Brea had never experienced a battle up close before, and she had no desire to experience this one. Ducking her head behind the shield, she just managed to avoid an arrow to her face. The shaft stuck in the shield, and as she reached to snap it off, three others replaced it.
Adrenaline and fear shot through her system. Still clutching the crystalized sand, it blazed with the yellow light of her magic now.
Lochlan struggled with a fierce warrior Brea thought she recognized from the Iskalt delegation party in Fargelsi. Their swords clashed, and Brea screamed, clutching the shield, grateful for Lochlan’s hold on her.
“You can tell Callum O’Shea he’ll have to do far better than an ambush in the desert. I’m coming for him and everyone who serves him,” Lochlan snarled, sending the man flying from his horse. Lochlan turned his horse around to meet another attack.
“Loch!” Brea screamed, and her magic exploded from her body in a useless wave of yellow light.
The soldiers kept coming, and Lochlan slashed his way through them with his soldiers at his sides. He was ruthless in his rage. The icy blue light of his magic tipped his sword, dropping his enemies one by one.
“There’s another one.” Brea pointed at a woman charging past Finn with a determined set to her jaw.
She was so focused on the woman she didn’t see the man riding toward them until it was almost too late.
Lifting the heavy shield, Brea deflected his sword, saving Lochlan from a grievous injury.
“Stupid girl.” The man spat, his blade coming down on her.
Brea felt the tug and rip of fabric first as the sword bit deep into her shoulder. The shock of his cold magic lit up her insides as the soldier sliced down her arm. She screamed in agony as her arm went limp, and she dropped the shield.
“Brea!” Lochlan shouted over the din of battle.
Magic churned under Brea’s skin, latching onto her fear. Without a thought to what she was doing, Brea grasped hold of her magic and sent it soaring toward the man who’d tried to kill Lochlan. The last thing she saw was the horrific sight of the man’s head parting ways with his body before her magic rebounded on her and darkness won.
Chapter Seventeen
Pain seared through Brea, and she woke screaming as someone bent over her with a burning blade pressed to her shoulder. “Stop! Stop!” But he didn’t. Her eyes found Lochlan over the man’s shoulder, and she grit her teeth. “I hate you so much right now. What is this guy doing to me?”
Her fingers dug into the blanket beneath her as she bucked off the bed.
Hands gripped her shoulders, holding her down, and she looked up into the face of Finn. “You