Page 49 of Renegade Queen

But the only way that would work was if I stopped getting distracted by the men around me and how I needed to keep them safe. Dying right now wasn’t exactly conducive to that. As I narrowly missed another slash of a sword, I had the sobering realisation of just how close to that I was.

My sword glanced off The Endless before me as I got first-hand experience of the enchanted armour.

I backed off, circling my opponent as we both eyed each other, assessing our next move. Those glowing eyes felt like they could see inside my mind, and as I went to stab my sword into an opening I saw on his left side, it dodged, making me think it actually could.

As he drove his sword down, aiming for my right shoulder, I managed to recover by grabbing his sword wrist and throwing my weight into his body to bring my sword back up under his arm, trying to slash at the weakness in his armour there.

And it barely made a scratch.

The Endless slammed into me in retaliation, and I saw my mistake as I lost my balance and began to fall. It had been so long since I’d been in a sword fight that I’d forgotten how important it was to keep a solid footing.

It could be a fatal error.

For someone else.

Before hitting the ground, I pulled the vines away from the three bodies behind me. They cracked through the air like blood-soaked whips as they lashed out at The Endless, driving him back, so he couldn’t kill me while I fell. Seeing it stagger back even just one step gave me the hope that I could actually do this.

It also gave me the room I needed to engage my brain for possibly the first time since I’d charged in here.

I’d ignored that magical connection I had to the world around me since we’d come here. Used to the silence of the human realm, I didn’t seek out the hum of the land anymore. Sending my power into the ground, though, had reminded me that magic was everywhere in Nymeria, and it was more than willing to come out and play if you gave it the right incentive.

But now that I was tapped into Nymeria, I could feel everything around me, and one thing stood out so much that it was practically screaming at me. It was exactly like how I’d tried to explain to the guys why being human here was so dangerous. Except it was coming from the Endless in front of me.

It took half a step forward, hacking at my vines with its sword as it fought to gain ground and reach me again. And even though it was starting to cut them away, there was more than it could ever cut away on its own. Yet it didn’t change its tactic. It didn’t adapt. It saw the route and charged ahead, relying on its own brute force.

And it gave me the opportunity I needed to figure out what it was I was fighting.

It was more than a void of magic, though; it was like a black hole. Whatever existed inside that armour was being pulled away to another place. I could feel the corrupted magic starting to seep from the armour and claw at the landscape as it searched for another food source because the one on the inside was nearly drained.

And it needed more.

It was an unending hunger, and I had a terrible feeling this was why it fought so hard to reach me.

But I wasn’t like whatever poor fae was trapped inside. An idea was forming in my head that was either the best one I’d ever had or possibly the thing that was about to get me killed.

I was totally killing it with these suicidal plans today.

Before I could talk myself out of anything, I dropped my sword and leapt. The vines parted, letting me pass easily. Of course, they wouldn’t fight me when I was the one breathing life into them.

The Endless staggered as I slammed into it, but it didn’t fall. I didn’t exactly have the full force of a bear to put behind me.

But I clung to that thing like a fucking spider monkey, and now that I had both of my hands free, I did the one crazy thing it wasn’t expecting. Slamming my hands to each side of its helmet, I pushed and forced as much of my magic inside it as possible.

It fought me at first, and it was the first time I’d ever experienced having to make my magic do something. It didn’t come as easily as breathing this time. It kicked and screamed like a wild animal, not wanting to run up to a predator and lie down in front of it as its next meal.

Then, as I finally started to get it to move how I wanted, the magic seemed to realise what I was doing. And that tidal wave came once more, and it rushed to fill the void inside the armour.

I felt whatever power reinforced this armour buckle as it cracked beneath the force of what I sent inside. But my aim wasn’t to crush this thing, but to fill it.

The golden metal grew hot under my hands as it glowed, yet I didn’t stop.

Because I could feel it.

I could feel whatever had control of that void inside start to crack. At first, it opened its jaws and greedily swallowed the magic. It was a mistake whoever had control of this would never forget. Because it gave way far too easily, and where there was ground to take, there was control to be taken.

And it wasn’t just my magic that was fighting for control. It wasn’t just the magic of Nymeria that had rushed to my aid. It was a glimmer of a fading light buried deep inside this creature that had just about given in.

The glowing blue eyes that had chilled me to the core flickered; they dimmed and then shone like the echo of a heartbeat as we fought for control. Before too long, a pair of wide, frightened brown eyes had taken their place.