Page 38 of Heartless Enemy

With a blast of water, he shoved my attack sideways. But because of the change in shape, the sharp metal sheet sheared through the fire mage’s arm on its way past instead.

Screams of pain tore from his throat.

While he was distracted by his severed arm, I shot another sheet at him.

Blood sprayed into the air as it took the fire mage’s head clean off his shoulders at the same time as Eve rammed her sword through the wind mage’s chest.

The fire mage just crumbled to the ground, already dead, while the wind mage let out gurgling noises.

A few steps to the right, the water mage stared with wide eyes at his now slaughtered companions.

I closed the final distance while Eve yanked her sword out of her victim’s chest and gave his body a shove with her boot. He toppled backwards and slammed into the now bloodstained grass.

“Fuck,” the surviving water mage stammered. His blue eyes were wide as he flicked his gaze between me and Eve. Then he dropped to his knees and held up his hands. “Please.”

Disgust flitted through me as I stopped before the pathetic man. Dark mages didn’t beg. By acting like this, he was giving us all a bad name.

Eve, her bloody sword still in her hand, sauntered up to us and came to a halt next to me.

“Who do you work for?” I demanded.

“N-no one,” the guy replied. There was genuine confusion on his face as he blinked at me. “We just rob travelers on the road and keep the money ourselves.” His gaze darted to his slaughtered friends, and then he amended it to, “Robbedtravelers on the road.”

Eve and I exchanged a glance. So, they weren’t Christian White’s people then.

“Look, I’m sorry,” the water mage blurted out. “We shouldn’t have attacked you. If we had known who you are,whatyou are, we would never have… I would never have…”

There weren’t exactly a lot of metal mages, and if their hunting grounds were this close to Malgrave, they must have at least heard about me.

Eve arched an eyebrow at me in silent question.

I discreetly shook my head.

However, our captive picked up on the gesture anyway, and fear flooded his features as he snapped his terrified eyes to me. “No, wait, please. I’m sorry. I’ll do anything—”

His words were abruptly cut off as Eve discharged a lightning bolt straight into his heart from point blank range while his gaze was still locked on mine. His heart stopped immediately and he slumped to the side. Dead.

Once more, I was surprised by how merciless Eve had become in such a short amount of time. A few weeks ago, executing someone without a trial would have been unthinkable for her. And now, she had just killed a guy begging for mercy on his knees without so much as batting an eye. Granted, it had been someone who had tried to kill us just a few minutes ago. But still.

Eve was still in that phase of free fall. At some point, she was going to reach one of her hard limits. I just wondered when that would be.

“He would’ve tried to kill us the moment we let him go?” Eve guessed.

“Probably not. But he would have told people that his crew had been wiped out by a metal mage. And then White would’ve found out that we’re not in Malgrave anymore and that we are in fact on our way to him, which would ruin our element of surprise.”

“Good point.” She wiped her bloody blade on the dead water mage’s shirt and then slid it back in her scabbard. Straightening, she gave me a considering look. “But then that means that you probably shouldn’t use your magic in public at all until we’re back in Malgrave.”

I blew out a long breath. I didn’t like the idea of that. I didn’t likehiding. And I despised the thought of not being able to use my magic freely. It was why I had destroyed the Blade of Equilibrium in the first place, after all.

But Eve was right. If someone saw me use metal magic, there would always be a significant risk of word making it back to White. And without the element of surprise, we would never be able to kidnap his healer and get out of there alive.

“You’re right,” I said at last.

“Of course I am.”

I let out something between a laugh and a snort.

Eve moved so that she was standing right in front of me. A sly smile played over her gorgeous face as she rose up onto her toes and brushed her lips over mine.