My blows were coming slower and slower, and it was all I could do to parry the hard, vicious slashes of Katia’s daggers. Deah was slowing down as well. All Katia needed would be another minute, maybe two, and she would be able to disarm one of us. Then the other would fall and she could cut us up and take our magic at her leisure.
The magic chilling my body wasn’t enough to help me defeat Katia. I needed more magic to stop her from killing us, which meant that I had to get closer to her. Had to get her to use her strength directly on me so I could absorb as much of her stolen magic as possible. Unfortunately, there was only one way to do that. I had to actually touch her.
I winced. This was going to hurt.
Deah managed to throw Katia back, and she lost her balance and stumbled over one of the chairs. I took the moment to creep closer to Deah.
“When I tell you, unload on her with everything you have!” I hissed.
“Lila! Lila, what are you doing?” Deah hissed back.
Katia got back up on her feet. I raised my sword and charged at her, screaming all the while. Katia smirked, realizing that it was a desperate tactic, but she let me come at her, just like I wanted. I lashed out with my sword, even though I knew that the blow wouldn’t even come close to nicking her. Katia blocked my attack, but instead of stepping back, I dropped my sword and darted forward, wrapping my hands around her wrists.
The second my skin touched hers, cold magic surged from her body into mine. But Katia wasn’t worried at all by my change in tactics.
“You stupid fool,” she snarled. “You’ve just made it that much easier for me to do this.”
She shook off my hold on her left wrist and slammed one of her daggers into my stomach. I screamed, even though the horrible wound sent even more magic spinning through my body, the power whirling around and around like an icy tornado inside me.
Katia yanked the dagger back out. She started to wrench herself away from me, but I lashed out and grabbed hold of her wrist again. We seesawed back and forth for a few seconds, with her trying to break my grip, and me digging my fingers and nails into her skin as hard and tight as I could. At the same time, I reached down and hooked my socked foot around one of her ankles, throwing her off balance and spinning her around so that her back was to Deah.
“Now!” I screamed.
Deah didn’t hesitate, stepping forward even as my scream echoed through the boathouse.
Katia cursed, finally realizing what I was up to. Once again, she tried to break my hold, but it was no use. Even as she struggled against me, all she did was make me stronger and stronger, and I tightened my grip, my fingers pressing down, bruising the bones in her wrists.
A second later, Deah rammed her sword into Katia’s back.
Katia let out an agonized scream at the mortal wound and arched back, as if trying to push Deah’s sword out of her body. The daggers dropped from her hands, thumping to the wooden floorboards, and blood bubbled out of her lips.
Katia stared at me, her green gaze dimming by the second, the magic and color leaking out of her eyes as they resumed their normal hazel color. Her emotions slammed into me as well, even as the power and life drained out of her, and I felt every single agonizing moment of the red-hot wound in her back.
It matched the dagger wound in my own stomach.
Katia struggled and struggled, still trying to break my grip, but I tightened my hands around her wrists and held on. She let out one final, choked gasp, then slumped to the floor—dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Katia might be dead, but she was still going to take me down with her.
I was holding on to her so tightly that I fell on top of her, and it took me a few seconds to loosen my grip. I managed to roll off her, every motion making more and more pain shoot through my stomach. On the floor, I could see my blood mixing with Katia’s, which was bubbling away like acid. I wondered if that’s what stolen magic did to you—ate away at your insides like acid because it didn’t truly belong to you. That would be some twisted poetic justice.
I pressed my hand over the wound in my side, but blood kept pouring out from between my fingers.
“Lila!” Deah rushed over to me. “How bad is it?”
“Bad,” I rasped through the pain. “You need to get out of here . . . go get . . . some help—”
Thump-thump-thump.
Thump-thump-thump.
Thump-thump-thump.
Outside, footsteps pounded, coming closer and closer. Deah got to her feet, stepped in front of me, and whipped up her sword, ready to face whatever new danger this might be.
The door burst open, and Devon and Felix raced inside, both of them holding swords.
The three of them stared at each other for a second before Deah let out a tense breath and lowered her weapon.
“You guys need to help Lila. She’s hurt.”
Devon dropped to a knee beside me, his eyes going wide with shock at all the blood on me. “Lila—” he said in a strangled voice.