I ducked just as Darren did the same, and the two of us ended up in a wide passage much brighter than the rest. A frozen pool of water was at our feet, lit up by the gaps of starlight above.
There was a mountain of rubble behind us, and I could hear Ian’s muffled shouts as he tried to cast a way through. He wouldn’t reach us. Nobody would.
The overlook was our only way out. That, or an army of mages paving a way through debris. Rebels or Crown’s Army soldiers, it didn’t matter. By the time they reached us, only one would be leaving the cave alive.
Darren cleared his throat. “You could have killed us both.”
I withdrew a broadsword from the scabbard at my waist. “If that’s what it takes.”
The two of us circled, and for a moment, I was back in the Academy armory. It was the two of us and a winter solstice as a boy taught a girl how to fight.
I swallowed and shoved the memory back. That Darren was gone. This was a cruel stranger in his place. He might not be his brother, but he believed in Blayne’s lies. He would kill for them.
He had already shown me exactly what he was capable of.
I couldn’t keep clinging to the past.
Everything we had…
Say it, my brain screamed. Admit everything you have is gone.
The king was the first to lunge. I caught the glint of bagh naka in each of his fists. The brass blades were attached to his knuckles by a leather thong. He swiped in and then crested right, ducking back out before I could place a hit. His footwork was fluid like a jungle cat in shadows, his blades like claws.
But I wasn’t second best for nothing.
I spun and twisted, cutting and lunging in return. Everything I did, my magic mirrored his assault. My muscles knew the patterns without recall. So many years of practice, my body recognized Darren’s next choice before it caught up to my thoughts.
And he, mine.
It was just the two of us, pulses beating out the frenzied dance as we twisted and turned in the fight of our lives.
…But every chance I could land a blow, I was still holding back. I knew it. He knew it. My heart was caught up in a deadly game, and it was blocking my mind when I needed it most.
Come on, Ryiah, fight.
Darren’s gaze locked on my own; something twisted in the crevice of my lungs.
Fight.
My grip faltered and a ripple of agony shot down my arm as one of Darren’s blades caught on my sword, forcing it to the side as the other swiped at my casted shield, the screech of metal grating in my ears.
My knees buckled under the weight; my mind cried out at the mounting pressure of his magic against mine.
Fight.
Gods blast it, he could have killed my friends!
He was waging a war.
How much more would it take?
Fight him.
Steel took up a reservoir around my heart and the projection lunged. My casting became a chain. I dropped the sword and ducked, twisting right. I used the end of my chain to catch on one set of blades as I coiled it around the second. In the blink of an eye, I had his bahj naga in chains.
Before Darren could react, I contracted my arm, pulling the king in until the two of us were just a hair-width apart. Then I sent him soaring across the ice as far as I could throw.
I clenched my eyes shut as he landed flat on his back; his head hit the ice with a hard thud.
It’s not him, it’s not him, it’s not him. The lies weren’t working; I could feel myself starting to break.
Craccckkkk.
My eyelids fluttered open in time to catch Darren’s hand against ice.
I lunged to the right as a fissure ripped across the floor like a legion of teeth. I landed with my thigh just narrowly avoiding a large skewer of ice.
There was a crackle of bright yellow and gold as Darren pushed himself to his knees.
I knew what was coming next.
My casting caught the blunt force of Darren’s lightning at an angle, the energy crackling in a ball above my head. The effort to keep Darren’s magic at bay was like pulling my limbs from their sockets. The agony that tore up my spine and into my mind was like a molten trail of metal burning me from the inside out, incinerating the air in my lungs as it turned my senses to ash.
My vision faded to black, and it was all I could do to stand there and hold, the projection a bubble ready to burst.
It was boiling over, and my lungs expanded as I clung to my casting for all that I was worth.
Hold.
My heels dug into rock as every ounce of my will battled his.
Hold.
Spots of red mixed in with black, and I wasn’t sure if I would die from the casting or the flames writhing inside my head.
And then, like a bit of flint against steel, my magic caught. The casting ignited. A wave of cool relief washed over my bones as the weight disappeared.
My vision returned as I collapsed, keeled over with my face between my legs. The lightning was gone.
I spewed saliva and blood as I gulped in great gasps of air.
“You’ve gotten better.”
I glanced up through sweaty bangs. Darren was leaning heavily against a column of ice, one hand propped up to keep him from falling, his other on his knee as he swallowed, his crown askew.