Chosen Destiny (37 page)

Sorcerer and many
merdanon
and
tandini
. They want us to try to find if there are any

others over here.” Jaeson put his hand on her shoulder. His fingers tightened.

“They don’t need help?” She didn’t want to leave them in danger.

“They can handle them. The quicker we find the person in charge of this castle and

begin fighting them, the faster the illusions disappear. The minor sorcerers won’t keep

the others too long.” Samiel’s eyes locked on the dark wood of the door.

“Let’s go then and find out who is behind this.” Meagan drew in a deep breath.

“No separating. I don’t want to be cut off from you like the others were cut off from

us.” Samiel frowned down at her.

She could tell that he was really worried. It wasn’t just the usual dragon arrogance

or protectiveness. She had to admit that he had cause. This was strange. She tightened

her fingers around the hilts of her weapons and tried to concentrate on calming her

racing mind and heartbeat.

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“I’m staying right beside you.” She put both of her blades in one hand for a few

moments and reached out to squeeze his hand. She wouldn’t mind some reassurance

herself.

Jaeson’s fingers gave a slight push on her shoulder. “Let’s move.”

They walked slowly to the door. It opened before they reached it. Samiel stepped in

first, but he kept his fingers on her shoulder. Almost as if he was afraid that the door

would shut, separating them. She didn’t mind. That was something she wanted to

avoid just as much as he did.

The round room was large and seemed to be empty at first. Meagan looked around.

There were no other doors, no obvious entrance or exit other than the one behind them.

The domed ceiling was painted with gold and blue. She didn’t see any place for

someone to be even watching them up there. They were here. She could feel the

building magic. Where were they?

“You brought your two guardians with you. I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping

to face you alone.” Doria’s voice rang in the cavernous room.

“I like them and they’re rather useful to have around.” Meagan simply shrugged.

Doria’s comment wasn’t entirely unexpected. Her motive would have been

transparent even to a young witch. Meagan wasn’t going to get defensive and separate

from Samiel and Jaeson. The tactic was so obvious she didn’t feel anything but a little

amused.

“They certainly are keeping you close, or is it the other way around? Aren’t you

confident enough in your power to come at me on your own?” Doria put a hand on her

hip.

Meagan rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Your taunts aren’t going to work. I’m not

that stupid. You’re time is up, Doria. Even now, they’re clearing the
tandini
and

merdanons
from the building. The other Dark Sorcerers will either flee or be captured.

Regardless of which choice they make, you will soon be facing more than me and my

men.”

“They’ll be occupied for quite a while and no one can get in here. I’ve made sure of

it. Even if you kill me, you won’t be able to get out. You’re trapped.” Doria smiled

grimly.

Meagan tilted her head as she tried to sense the magic around the room and not

that inside it. It was a little hard to do, but she could tell there was some strong spell

work there. She wasn’t too worried about being trapped forever in here. All spells

would fall with time and enough force applied to it. What worried her was Doria’s

attitude. Doria didn’t plan to walk away from this at all. That made her far more

dangerous than the normal Dark Sorcerer.

Meagan swiped her blades in front of her gathering energy. “Let’s get to this. I

believe there’s a celebration being planned in the village for when we finally defeat you

and your friends.”

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“Sadly, you won’t be able to attend it.” Doria hurled an energy ball at Meagan’s

head.

Meagan flinched back instinctively even though she knew her shield would hold.

Bright light exploded in front of her eyes. She blinked, clearing her vision. When she

could see clearly, she hurled a ball of power at Doria. It burst against the woman’s

shield. She could tell by the way the magic burst against the shield that it was strong,

but she didn’t think it was going to be strong enough to hold for long. Not with the

amount of power going into the shield around the room. For some reason, Doria didn’t

seem to care about winning. The only real purpose Meagan could find was that Doria

wanted to do as much damage as possible.

“Your attitude’s a little different from our last encounter.” Meagan drew her blade

back and forth gathering power.

“You’re going to pay for what you did.” Doria hurled another burst of magic at her.

“I only did what I was supposed to do. I protected the village and will continue to

do so.” Meagan drew her blade in slow sweeps gathering the power.

She waited until the light faded. She wanted to draw more from Doria. More anger

and more power from her. Meagan could tell that for some reason Doria was furious.

Provoking her more was the only way Meagan was going to get any answers.

“You killed him.” Doria flung two quick orbs at Meagan.

That energy was strong. Meagan pushed a little more power into her shields. She

saw Samiel hurl a ball of fire at Doria. It burst against the shield. Jaeson followed

Samiel’s lead and slammed two bolts of energy across the room. Meagan kept her

swords ready, but decided to conserve a little power. They might need it to get out of

here. Doria was burning through her magic without much encouragement. That

statement about killing someone was informative enough to let her know what had

Doria so furious.

“The only person I’d take down would be a Dark Sorcerer and everyone knows

they deserve what they get. The rampant destruction they cause is reason enough.”

Meagan smiled and shrugged because she knew it would enrage Doria.

Doria shrieked and gathered a huge ball of energy above her head. She launched it

at their shield. Meagan was prepared for it and the shield held without any trouble. She

didn’t want to kill Doria unless it was absolutely necessary. Meagan knew if she could

keep Doria mad enough it wouldn’t be. She sliced a ball of power right at Doria.

“Do you actually expect sympathy? After you’ve attacked the village where you

were born and the coven where you were taught? After using and draining who knows

how many witches? This world is better off without you and those like you.” Meagan

kept her tone as righteous as possible. She knew it would only add fuel to Doria’s

anger. The self-righteous, I’m-better-than-you-because-I-took-the-the-right-path

attitude wasn’t really her style.

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“You’ll pay for killing him. You’ll die a slow painful death here. Meagan, your

dragon friend will eat you so that he has a better chance of surviving.” Doria glanced

significantly at Samiel.

Samiel laughed. “We won’t be here that long.”

“Yeah, I’d bet we’ll be out before the end of the day.” Meagan leaned briefly against

Samiel.

“You’ll never get out of here.” Doria glared and slammed three quick balls of

energy against Meagan’s shield.

Meagan shook her head, but tossed some magic toward the shield guarding Doria.

“Why is every Dark Sorcerer I meet so damned overconfident? In your case Dark

Sorceress, but still. There are three of us in here and more out there. One way or

another, the shield surrounding this room will fall.”

“No!” Doria slammed glowing balls of energy against the shield right in front of

Meagan.

Meagan saw Jaeson’s magic flare over Doria’s shield and knew the magic was going

to fail soon. She looked from Samiel to Jaeson and noticed that they seemed a little more

tense. Meagan formed a ball of energy and was a little relieved to notice that they held

back. This wasn’t the time for mistakes.

The energy flared over Doria’s shield, but it held. Samiel formed a ball of fire and

tossed it. The shield flickered as the flames licked over it. Meagan sent away her

weapons. She wouldn’t be needing them for this. She formed a light ball of energy.

“Go ahead. Kill me. You know you want to.” Doria’s words came from between

clenched teeth as she stood there with her hands at her side.

Meagan threw the ball, but it didn’t hit Doria. It wrapped around her, binding her

magic. Doria screamed and ran toward the shield. She hit it and bounced back. The

woman stumbled and fell onto her butt.

“I don’t need to kill you. Aside from that, if I did, you’d never see the man whose

loss sent you out of control. I didn’t kill the sorcerer if you’re talking about the one from

the last battle. He was captured and sent to the prison world of Tomeai. You can join

him soon.” Meagan shrugged.

“You’ll never get out. We’ll die here.” Doria’s shoulders slumped.

“Don’t be any more stubborn than you have to be. There is another
Tiria
in the

world. If they can’t do it with sheer force or it’s impossible to access it from in here,

they’ll call her in to do it.” Meagan walked over to the door to inspect it. The shield

wasn’t where she could get to it right now, but maybe if they worked at it.

“The others are through with the battle out there. They’re beginning to work on

this. They’ve found where it’s anchored to one of the power stones. It will be broken

soon regardless of what we do, but let’s see what we can do.” Jaeson’s hand rubbed in

small circles at the base of her spine.

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“Samiel, can you burn through this wood?” Meagan ran her hands over the surface

of the wood. She had a feeling that the shield wasn’t touchable from either side and that

was going to make it difficult regardless.

“Let me see what I can do, but if she thought of that, I’m sure one of the stones will

fail with enough force.” Samiel turned his gaze from the door to the wall.

“If you punch that stone, you’re going to break your hand and I don’t want to listen

to any whining.” She folded her arms across her chest but didn’t move.

Jaeson laughed and pulled her away from the door. “He won’t punch the stone, but

you’re right, he would whine.”

Samiel formed a ball of fire and tossed it at the door. The flames flared higher and

then dissipated. She saw a char mark, but even as she began to hope that they’d be able

to dig away the charred pieces the blackened mark began to fade. She tossed a narrow-

eyed glare over at the bound woman. Doria smiled and looked to be gloating, but she

didn’t move.

Samiel walked over to the door. “Jaeson, find me a patched stone, please.”

She knew why he was looking for a stone that had been sealed recently by magic. It

would be the easiest place to get through to the shield. Getting through to the shield

would save the magic of those outside and their own. Jaeson held out his hands and

closed his eyes.

“Up there.” He sent a tracer up to the point where the domed ceiling met the stone

walls. “It’s a whole section of them. It looks like there was another battle in here at some

point.”

Jaeson pulled Meagan back as Samiel changed forms. The large dragon flapped his

wings and rose off the ground. His front claws raked and pulled at the stone glowing

from Jaeson’s tracer magic. Bits of rock fell to the ground. She bit her lip, waiting. The

stone didn’t regenerate like the wood did.

A pile of rubble littered the floor when Samiel descended to the floor. He didn’t

change forms. He simply stood there waiting. She summoned her weapons and walked

over to him. He took her into his paws. Wind buffeted her as he propelled them off the

ground.

“Tell them the shield’s coming down, Jaeson,” Meagan yelled as they rose.

Samiel lifted her to the spot he’d cleared. She could feel the energy pulsing from the

shield. She stuck her dagger into the opening. It hit stone, but also found the shield.

Energy roared through her. Her head tilted back and her breath rushed out of her. She

didn’t even have the air to scream. Her body shook and every part of her felt

oversensitive and raw. The power alone was almost too much. With the arousal, she

didn’t know how long she could hold it and stay sane.

Jaeson was there as Samiel lowered her to the floor. His arms folded around her

and she felt a sharp sting as his fangs sunk into her throat. He took a bit of the power,

but it wasn’t enough. Samiel took her into his arms when Jaeson released her. He

moved her shirt to the side and his teeth pierced the spot where her throat and shoulder

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met. He pulled the power from her. When he stepped back, she knew that he’d taken as

much as he could, but the magic still felt too high.

“Don’t worry. There are vampires and dragons right outside that door who will

help with the excess.” Samiel handed her the vial of antidote.

She sighed with relief. “Let’s get our captive and get out there then. It’s time for her

to join her favorite Dark Sorcerer.”