Tasting Darkness

As I got dressed, I couldn’t help but wonder what caused the anger sizzling through the bond. I knew it had something to do with Lycus’s father, yet it seemed like so much more than that. Yet I couldn’t ask because it was obvious whatever it was, they didn’t want Kalen to know. So instead, I followed Darius down to the training grounds.

Kalen was particularly antsy today, jittery and excitable, and I was sure it was the buzz of Darius’ magic that caused it. Darius watched him as we walked, and I could sense Darius’s worry and moved to slip my hand in Kalen’s as I caught up to him. The recruits were all waiting by the training grounds, nervously looking around, when I noticed the hundreds of Phoenixes on the roof.

I gulped, knowing my magic had brought them here, yet Darius didn’t seem to mind as they watched with their eagle-like eyes. The men took their places, yet no one moved to train with me, and Kalen wasn’t allowed, so I faced Darius instead. He quirked an eyebrow at me.

“Challenge accepted then. Don’t think I will go easy on you because you’re a girl,” he chuckles. I smile at the challenge. “And don’t think I will go easy on you because you’re my mate!” I tell him, and the gasps from the crowd of men were loud. They knew, but it was the first time I had outwardly claimed them back.

Yet Darius doesn’t seem mad at my words. “We’ll see then,” he chuckles, moving into the circle. For the most part, we worked on fire magic, seeing as that is what most of those here contained. Yet as Darius and I trained, I was beginning to understand why he was so feared among them.

He had not only the stamina to keep up with my attacks but those the men would sometimes hurl his away. He didn’t even break a sweat while I was becoming drained of power and exhausted from it. My vision blurs as I dodge another of his fireballs

. Our training had turned into a game of violent dodgeball. Everyone joined in. Yet I was exhausted when Darius called out for everyone to pack up. Yet as they moved around, they were still fooling around, and a fireball raced past me, and he growled, catching it and hurling it back, making the man who tossed it scream when it caught his clothes alight.

“Aleera!” Darius calls, and I look back just in time to see one coming straight toward me. Ducking a blue ball of flames from one recruit, I shriek when another is hurled, and I close my eyes, waiting for the impact as I toss my arms out, feeling my magic fizzle out as I try to block it.

I gasped, knowing I was about to be burned, when I felt the heat blast around me, only to open my eyes to see the fireball split in half and go around me; the whistling of the wind was loud and I realized Darius used air magic to deflect it. His growl is thunderous.

“Ah, come on, Darius!” one of the recruits screams out, none of them wanting to quit their stupid game. “No! We are done for the day.

Pack up!” Darius orders, yet the energy around the field we stood on was fully charged, and Darius curses, making my brows furrow. “Half an hour more, and that’s it.

Aleera, off the field, you’re exhausted,” Darius says, and I wasn’t going to question him, I was exhausted, and power drained, yet as I blinked, walking toward Kalen, my vision blurred, and my stomach cramped from the stitch in my side. Suddenly, the field goes quiet, and I rub my eyes, trying to clear the sweat from them.

Opening them, I see Kalen get to his feet, and the look of pure horror on his face makes me turn to see portals opening up everywhere on the field. Stunned, I stopped when one man suddenly screamed out, “Power hunters! ” he bellowed while another screamed that we were under attack.

Hundreds of portals opened up, and I stopped in my tracks when I saw Darius turn to look at Kalen and I before wind rushed toward me, and I was tossed backward as he lifted his hands.

I smack into something hard and hear the person grunt, only to realize I hit Kalen before seeing the portal Darius created open, only for us to smash into the ground when his magic dropped abruptly, and the portal closed. I shake myself, rolling off Kalen to see Darius fighting alongside his men as they try to stop them from getting to us. I get to my feet to go to help them when Kalen rips me back.

“You have no magic,” he says, ripping on my arm and trying to pull us away from the fray. “Kalen, get her out of here!” Darius screamed before being blasted with green magic and tossed into the castle’s stonework. My eyes took in the scene as I watched their recruits slowly getting taken down when I felt my infinity mark burn violently, as Kalen called for our mates.

Yet Darius staggered as he got back up when Kalen screamed when he was hit again, trying to protect one of his men.

“No!” I screamed as the figures in hooded cloak’s stalked after him, yet my mind was reeling as to how they got past the wards. However, my scream made them stop and turn toward me, and Kalen and I gasped when Kalen tossed up a shield as they threw their magic at us. He grunts, deflecting it, and I look to the rooftops before sticking my fingers in my mouth.

I needed magic, and those birds were full of it. What I wasn’t expecting was the moment I whistled was the beat of their wings as if they were waiting for the command. They all took flight, circling the sky above, and I ran toward Darius as they all started diving, helping out the men and going for those in the hooded cloaks.

1 Yet even that was not enough when I felt the air expel from my lungs and my entire body became paralyzed, and every muscle in my body tensed and locked, and my nerve endings felt like they had been put on fire.

“Aleera!” Kalen screams when I see Ryze attack the hooded person who had me trapped in his magic just as another of my phoenixes fell from the sky, hitting the ground near me only to be pounced on by the hooded figures as they slaughtered him.

His squawks would forever haunt me when a mighty screech was heard above, and I gritted my teeth while Ryze tried to get the man to release me from his magic.