Page 22 of Light Magic
“Thanks,” I said to the vines, amused. One, that was so cool. Two, why didn’t the hall do that with all of them?
Before I could dwell on that question, another imp jumped on my back and bit my injured shoulder. I screamed, reached up, picked the damn thing by its pointy ears, and threw it at the wall.
Once more, the vines enveloped the creature.
Groaning, I switched my sword to my left hand. Thank goodness I had been trained in both, but of course, one was always better than the other, and it wasn’t my left side.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Levi asked. He had created a pen of shadows and was corralling the imps inside, while still fending off the ones that escaped him.
“Just …” I touched my shoulder and my fingertips came back bloody. “Shit.”
He glanced at me. “What is it?”
Was that worry in his voice? Nah, I was too wound up to hear or think clearly.
I tried maiming the next imp who came for me, but the little thing moved fast, and I ended up stabbing him through the chest instead of slicing his side, as I first planned.
Damn it.
A sudden force on my back made me fall to my knees and lose the grip on my sword. I twisted and slapped one of the three imps that had jumped on my back before he took a bite out of my chin. Then a fourth one appeared, a bigger one, at least a head taller than the others, and a lot stronger.
It stepped on my belly, taking my breath away.
I jerked, got rid of one imp, but the other two held my arms to the sides, while the bigger one sat on my stomach, as if this was a show. I reached for my sword, but it was just out of reach.
With a scream, I was able to fling my arm hard enough to jostle the imp holding it and stretch my arm a little more. I touched the sword, closed my hand around the hilt, and brought it down on the closest imp. I immediately swung to the other one and slashed it in half. Then I aimed at the bigger one?—
A darkfire bolt hit the demon square in the chest and it flew back several yards.
I sat up and glared at Levi. “I had it!”
“Of course you did, sweetheart.” He moved his hands and shadows wrapped around the bigger imp, lifting it up and holding it in place.
Levi got the mirror from his pocket and pointed first at that bigger imp. It was sucked into the mirror in less than three seconds. Then he turned the mirror to the eight imps he had corralled and sucked them in too.
I pushed to my feet, wobbled, and placed a hand on the wall vines to steady myself.
When all the creatures were gone, Levi pocketed the mirror and faced me. His eyes narrowed. “When will you not get hurt, sweetheart?”
“When I have my magic back,” I snapped.
He looked me up and down. “Ready for more?”
No, I wasn’t. I was tired, breathing hard, the wound was shallow but throbbed, the sword was the wrong one for me, and I was upset about all of this. If only I had my damn magic …
But I wouldn’t stop, not now.
I inhaled deeply to steady my racing heart, stood taller, and nodded. “Ready.”
6
Levi and I worked for hours last night, and we captured another harpy, a kitsune, and three ghouls, and we killed some of them. I had gotten another slash to my upper arm, and a graze of teeth on my back, all of which Lacey had healed in the early hours of the morning.
“Did we catch them all?” I asked, praying the answer was yes.
“No,” Abbie said. “We’re still missing two ghouls, but they are nocturnal and won’t come out of hiding until this evening. We should go rest now.”
Levi handed the mirror to Abbie, who went to put the creatures back into their prisons with Maggie’s help.