The Mages behind the wall slammed both hands on it in surprise.
I ignored the shouts called toward me and grabbed one of my swords, letting my power pulse through it. I glowed brightly before I ran straight at the golden wall. My sword arced down to stab through the protection directly in front of Elder Jacobs. I grunted as I pulled down hard, my sword of pure power cutting through it as I tried to slice it fully…and stopped.
I growled in the face of my King. His eyes glowed fiercely as he stood in front of the Elder I wanted to tear apart. He whispered softly, “Caro, fight it. Whatever it is…fight it.”
I inhaled, shaking my head hard, and stumbled back from the wall. My sword was deeply imbedded in the golden protection as I stared into glowing brown eyes. I screamed as I dropped to my knees, a bit of sanity returning. I fought against the whispering, lulling, coaxing demands, shaking hard and sweat coating my body as a flash of white light erupted in the room around me.
There was a beat of silence, and a few gasped murmurs behind the wall, and suddenly the room shook as Leric’s voice boomed, “Jesus fucking Christ! I’m gone for a few hours and you two let her get in this state! Goddamn it!” A few more interesting curses flew through the room, the entire place shaking in his fury. I rocked back and forth on my knees, hands fisted in my hair, growling quietly. His bare, tanned feet stalked toward me, white silk pants flowing over the tops of them as he barked, “Elder Jacobs, let my damn father down.”
I closed my eyes—the venomous, taunting whispers had taken over again, my control shot—and I pounced on Leric as soon as he was close enough, taking his legs out from under him. I chuckled, full of evil, as I heard him grunt, his back slamming against the ground. I was instantly on him, my legs on either side of his hips and my glowing hands around his neck. I sent my power down through my hands, the power of the stars’ fire. I blinked as he only raised a white eyebrow. He was not disintegrating as the evil told me he would do, not even glowing except for his eyes shining up at me.
Leric’s lips only tilted up at the edges. “Don’t feel too bad, Sprite. At least you took me down.” He snickered quietly, brushing a piece of my sweaty hair from my forehead. “Fuck, you really are cute when you’re trying to threaten me.” His head tilted on the floor, my hands falling to either side of his head. “But how about I get rid of the evil? Though I don’t mind you straddling me, I’d much rather have you do this with a very different intent in your beautiful eyes.”
He threaded his right hand through my hair, his grip bruising as he yanked my face down to his and connected our mouths, inhaling heavily. I groaned in appreciation against his lips, glowing brightly. All the evil I had consumed was being ripped out of me, my Core flaring as he stole it in one extremely long inhale. My body went limp on top of his, my face sliding to the ground as his hand relaxed in my hair. His lungs filled with air and, sounding like he was holding in a lungful of marijuana smoke, he muttered on a grunt, “Jesus Christ, Sprite. That was way too fucking much for someone your age.” I blinked, barely able to open my eyes as his chest deflated with his exhale. He was slowly blowing out what appeared to be sparkling stars. He had no damn problem processing the evil into purity in a matter of only moments.
“Show-off,” I whispered breathlessly against his jaw as my eyes shut in exhaustion. I was not really able to move yet. “I killed them all.”
“Yes, you did,” he drawled as he stood, still holding me easily. He propped one of his hands conveniently on my ass to balance me since my legs weren’t gripping very tightly around his waist. My arms were like limp noodles over his shoulders while my head rested in the crook of his neck. My eyes were not about to open anytime soon. “And I did notice my dad floating in the air, and that very lovely sword in their protective wall.”
“It’s my sword,” I griped. “You know, Leric, one of those fuckers actually stole it while I was fighting. I didn’t even know they could do that.” I yawned. “It was trying to slaughter that deer up on the wall.”
Leric’s chest started shaking. “They’re not all the brightest.”
I growled on a slur, “So I chopped his head off instead.” I snorted. “Got my damn sword back.”
“Sounds like a fair trade to me,” Leric murmured on a dry chuckle, still gripping my ass with one hand while petting my hair with his other. He eventually began walking somewhere when I was quiet for a minute, almost dozing. “King Collins, you can let the shield down now.”
I heard King Collins hum just as quietly, and then he spoke softly. “I do appreciate you bringing my Prodigy back from the brink of what appeared to be insanity, but I think we’ll keep the wall up if you think you’re going to take our memories of this.”
I groaned, “King Zeller tattled.”