Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 38711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Well, at least he wasn’t lying. Once Fulton got going, stopping him would require brute force. He gave off that thorough, scorched-earth vibe.
“I know you care what happens to these critters.” Wayne dangled the melalo by his wing. “Or you wouldn’t be out here on that porch. You’ve heard people say that a man has to do what a man has to do. Right now, you are that man. You can save everyone, Finn. All you have to do is go inside, grab your dog, and walk across this yard to us. That’s all. Simple. Do that and nobody else dies today. I give you my word.”
Finn swallowed. He seemed resigned.
“Take the deal, kid,” Fulton said.
“I give up,” Finn said.
Wayne shook his head. “Don’t look at it that way. You’re not giving up. You’re doing the smart thing. The noble thing.”
Something was brewing inside Finn. The shepherd puppy rose from her haunches and slunk to the front door.
Finn squeezed the staff. Klyuv’s eyes bulged.
“Come on down.” Wayne waved him over. “You can do this.”
Finn opened his mouth. “Drop the melalo and set the antidote on the ground.”
The two mercenaries stared at him.
“I don’t want to write this big check.”
Fulton looked at Wayne. “What the fuck is he talking about?”
“Who knows?”
“Do it now,” Finn said.
“That’s it,” Fulton snapped. “Playtime is over. Now we’re doing it my way.”
“Remember, alive,” Wayne said. “Him and the dog.”
“On me!” Fulton stepped forward. “Arrowhead formation in three…”
Six soldiers stepped forward, taking positions behind Fulton in a rough triangle, like a flock of geese orienting behind the leader.
On the porch, Finn gripped the staff with both hands and planted it in front of him.
“…Two…”
The wall of the ward anchored to the nithing poles turned visible, a translucent barrier of pale silver. Fulton thrust his hands forward, and drew them apart, as if opening curtains. A gap formed directly in front of him.
A blinding white clump of magic accreted inside Finn, a storm pressurized into a tiny, hyper-dense point in his chest. The mercenaries didn’t feel it behind their ward.
Fulton smiled. “…One.”
Golden chains made of light snapped to Fulton from the six mages, funneling power into him. He opened his mouth, his eyes burning with magic. Flames sheathed his arms.
“I accept,” Finn whispered, his voice unnaturally loud. “Help me, Morena!”
The shepherd howled, her wail an eerie primal song filled with bloodlust.
The melalo clamped his beak onto Wayne’s fingers. The mercenary flung him aside. The creature took off into the woods faster than Roman had ever seen him move before.
The blizzard inside Finn tore free. Ice shards stabbed out of the ground, crowding each other, charging toward the mercenaries like frozen waves. Cold gripped the yard, bitter, polar cold, as Winter herself exhaled. The Christmas tree snapped and splintered, its sap crystallized in an instant. Two birds plummeted from the sky, frozen in mid-flight.
The waves of ice slammed into the nithing poles and crunched, speeding up their shafts, turning the poles into six frozen popsicles. The runes winked out, extinguished. The ward tore, and seven people cried out in a chorus from the backlash. The mercenary mages stumbled back.
The biggest wave headed straight for Fulton.
A jet of flames erupted from the mage’s hands, punching into the wall of ice rushing at him.
The ice kept coming.
Fulton screamed, his flames turning white. Steam burst from the impact of fire and ice.
The staff danced in Finn’s hands. He grunted and pushed, struggling to put all he had into it, but he had nothing left.
The ice slid another two feet and stopped. Another half a foot, and Fulton would have lost his hands.
Finn slumped, hanging on to the staff to stay upright.
Fulton’s flames died. He bent over in half, breathing heavily like he’d just sprinted 400 meters.
Wow. The kid packed a lot of power. Not much control but a lot of raw force. Roman smiled. Morena? would have her hands full with this one. Served her right.
The ice waves cracked and collapsed.
Fulton straightened. “Arrowhead on me!”
The six mages stepped forward like zombies rising from the dead.
“That was good, kid,” Fulton called out. “I took you too lightly. But now you’re done and I’m not. Not that you will get a chance to use it, but let me give you some advice. When it comes to magic, it’s all about staying power.”
Finn stared at him, rage burning in his eyes.
Fulton raised three fingers, then two. The golden chains shot to him again.
Finn stumbled. His body went one way, Klyuv went the other, and Roman stepped out onto the porch, catching both.
Finn gaped at him.
At the property line, Wayne swore.
Roman spat an incantation. Bone chains erupted from the ground, seizing Fulton and the six mages behind him into bone collars. Roman thrust his hand out, closed his fingers, and yanked. The chains dragged the struggling mercenaries into a clump, winding around them with Fulton in the center. Roman jerked them up, slammed them on the ground, jerked them up again, and hurled the whole mass of people and bones into the trees.