Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,117
as I poured more lightning into him. A shield of blood magic wrapped itself around him as I noticed that we appeared to be in a bedroom. The remains of the huge four-poster bed were littered all across the floor, and feathers floated around the room.
Arthur pulled himself up out of the remains of the bed and launched himself at me. Shadows leaped out of the ground, smashed into his chest, and threw him aside, and he collided with the window at the far end of the room, the glass spiderwebbing from the impact.
I crossed the room and drove a blade of fire down at where Arthur’s head was, but snakes of blood magic shot up at me, wrapping around my arms and causing me to yell out in pain as I tried to pull away. I felt the magic move up my arms, the agony almost all I could think of. I ignited my fire magic, spreading it up over my hands and arms, covering my upper body and forcing the blood magic to leave.
I pulled away the second I could, putting distance between myself and Arthur as he got to his feet. “Did you think it would be easy?” he asked.
I tried to get back to my feet, but branches had covered my legs, pinning me in place. I tried to burn them away but couldn’t both remove them and defend myself from a kick from Arthur that would have probably knocked me out without a shield of fire protecting me.
The branches snapped from the heat, and I grabbed Arthur’s foot as he tried a second kick, wrapping my arms around his leg and lifting him up and over my head, then dumping him on the ground behind me with a crunch.
I was punched in the head before I could move further, then kicked in the chest with enough force to cause me to fly back across the room into the one remaining wooden bedpost, which exploded. The pieces appeared to move apart before they slammed back into me at high speed, causing the air to leave my body. I fell to the ground and saw Demeter walk into the room.
She wore red-and-green leather armor and was barefoot, her long hair flowing freely over her shoulders as she moved her hands. The wood from the broken bed launched at me while magical vines wrapped around my neck.
“Nate,” Demeter said, in the same tone one would use to call someone a shitbag, twisting the vines around my throat further.
Fire ignited over my hands, and I grabbed hold of the vines, incinerated them, and dropped to the floor. A moment too late I noticed that Arthur had gone, and I was hit in the side by a blast of air magic that threw me across the room. Arthur was on me in an instant, throwing punch after punch at me that I couldn’t block or deflect, driving me down into the floor. He stomped on my chest, and I felt something give.
“Damn you,” Arthur shouted at me, kicking me in the ribs. “You are a continuous thorn in my side. But at least I’ll get to kill you and Lucifer now.”
He looked over at Demeter, who passed him something while I placed my hand under his armored trouser leg and unleashed a bolt of lightning directly into his skin.
Arthur screamed in pain but kept his mind enough to stomp on my head, breaking my nose in the process.
More vines covered my body, and I felt them tightening as Demeter reached down and grabbed my arm, keeping it out of the vines. I used my blood magic to start healing my chest and nose, but it stopped almost as soon as it started, and I looked up at Arthur, who pointed to the sorcerer’s band on my wrist.
Arthur picked me up by my throat and held me against the wall, my feet dangling above the floor. “This is a special band I had made just for you,” he said with a smile. “Of all the bands in the world, this one is unique. No key. I’m going to make you watch as I kill everyone you care about. You were made to kill me, Nate, to hurt me. But still, I was benevolent. I gave you the chance to stand beside me, and you spat in my face.”
I spat in his face in response.
He punched me in the stomach, and I gasped in pain, unable to breathe properly.