SWNOVELS Chapter Locked Outside Time
Calisto’s Cottage, Dread Country
RADIX MALORUM
Radix had only one more stop to make. The Water Priestess’s cottage. Deep in the heart of Dread Country, was the sacred Water Priestess. One that could move through the outer realms of time to retrieve things or bend fate ever so slightly.
That wicked little Water Priestess had evaded him one too many times. Now her beloved Forever Knight was nowhere to be found.
No dragon to protect you now...
Little Merlinus killed somewhere in the midst of battle. Now his lovely little mate is up for grabs.
Radix wasted no time knocking on the flimsy wicker door.
Changing his form from the non-threatening wizened old man, his hair burned to black and his eyes turned a vibrant orange with flames burning inside. He blew the door aside as he approached.
But the purple eyed woman was waiting for him. Damn her.
She stepped to the side of the flying wicker, kicking up a bucket of water near the door. Using her magic, she pulled the liquid from the bucket as it lifted, redirecting its momentum to douse Radix. Blocking his flame before it could erupt.
His enraged hiss made steam spew from his lips and his pointed teeth. “Just tell me where it is!”
“I will never tell you of the Stronghold, Old Demon.” Her face twisted in a cold smile. “You forget I do not fear you.” She spun and dodged another bout of flames which singed the wall where she’d been. Her blue cape snapping.
Rounding to face him, she said scathingly, “You’ll have to slit my throat.”
“You have made that offer afore.”
“Many times!” She spat.
“Calisto, Love…” He coaxed. “You know as well as I your mate is lost. You saw him fall.”
He tried to kill her spirit.
“Oh, he’s out there, Demon.” She shouted in defiance. “I feel his breath as surely as my own. I can sense the distance and the break in who he is. But he is there. And I can feel him reaching for me even now. Feeding my power!”
The demon quirked a brow. “And what is it you intend to do with that?”
“Lock you out of time and into the realms bordering it, where you may only haunt the edges of life.”
“Oh, do try.” He smirked and twisted his head to the side.
“I think I will.” Purple eyes glinting she gathered wind from inside the cottage until the air grew so thin it was hard to breathe.
“Do...” He invited.
When she pulled every bit of wind and time she could reach, she blasted it at him with the momentum of a hurricane. Tearing the cottage apart and winding them both in its spinning breath.
Radix flattened his palm toward her and turned a finger which drug her across the ripping planks of the floor.
When she tried to use her magic to lock her in place, he ripped it loose. Like ripping her fingernails loose.
She shrieked as she skid across the remaining floor and into his reach.
Catching her by the throat, he lifted her.
“Enjoy your little spell, Dread.”
“No. No!” She flailed wildly.
He heaved her into the storm, before ejecting himself from the twining winds, to the safety of the trees nearby.
Feet sliding to a stop, he watched the smoky hurricane ripping apart all it affected. Sucking up the mass of black hair, dark cloth and flailing legs. Her blue cape ripped free from her collar and spun in the ferocious wind.
Calisto’s strange eyes glowed purple as she tried to fight the momentum of her own magic.
Too late.
The spell was cast and now it swallowed her whole.
Radix smiled gleefully and turned his back on her shrieks as the hurricane began receding. The bottom closing and sealing upward, tossing her higher into the sky until it slowly burned itself out. Sealing the world in dark silence. Taking the Water Dread with it.
Little Water Dread gone forever.
Radix smirked. Spotting the dark blue cape the wind had carried to the meadow before him. Grasping it on his way by, he returned to the darkness of the trees. Glancing over his shoulder, when he caught shouting from behind him. He glimpsed the huge redheaded barbarian galloping over the field before transitioning to human form to enter the cottage.
Close behind him was the damned tracker.
He led the barbarian to me. Damn that one!
I really must do something about that tracker. He haunts my every step!
Radix swore under his breath. Recognizing that had he taken only a few minutes longer his efforts could’ve been foiled by the duo rushing to the Water Priestess’s rescue.
Well you are too late! He pushed trees aside and headed deeper into the woods. Determined to lose the tracker today.
And kill him soon after…