The fluffy purple sky shifted down, enveloping us, and chocolate welled up and flowed in little eddies and streams around us, carrying marshmallows on top.
He licked his plush lips, his eyes darting again. Then…he smirked. It was the first I’d ever seen him do it.
“You’re pretty hot when you grin. Has anyone ever told you that?” I built up my power, circling him slowly.
He stalked toward me, wariness in his eyes, his grin fading. Then his gaze darted to the wounded baby elephant. He had a few heartstrings hidden deep down inside of him, it seemed.
“Don’t like when someone mentions your appearance, huh?” I badgered. “Have you gotten a complex from women treating you like a side of beef all your life?”
His gaze bored into mine. “You are world class at sensing and exploiting weaknesses.”
“I’ve had to be. Working in a magical community while hiding my magic… It helped me develop a sort of”—I flung an air spear at him that erupted in fire at the last moment; he swung his sword in a graceful circle, deflecting it—“penchant for survival.” I grinned. “People don’t focus on you so much when they’re battling their own demons.”
“You should not actually throw the air with your hand. You don’t need to, and it alerts me to your plans.”
“Riiight… Put that on the list of items to practice.”
“Yes.” And then he burst into movement, zipping across the clearing like a phantom, shadows draping around him, making it hard to track his movements.
I threw up an air shield, and then made copies of the baby elephant. Yeah, I could do that. I stamped those suckers all around us as Cahal tried to bash through my shield with his expert sword moves.
“Help them,” I pleaded. “Don’t let them die.”
He crashed into my air shield as I readied another elephant calf behind him. His eyes darted, and he jerked away from the one nearly at his side. It made him bump into the apparition behind him, but his back pushed through the image. They weren’t solid, and I didn’t know how to infuse enough air into them to make it so. Not yet. It was a work in progress.
I backed it away.
“They’re dying,” I hollered, putting as much drama into it as I could. Blood gushed, the little babies faltering, and his body tightened.
And then I crashed a second wall forward, smashing him in between them.
He flattened against the wall in front of me. His sword sliced into his forearm, and his cheek smeared against the hard air. Red-tinged spit dribbled out of his smooshed lips and leaked around his chin.
“Say uncle,” I yelled, using all my power to keep him put, shaking with the effort as he tried to buck and create some room for himself to escape. “Say uncle!”
He tried to buck again, and I dumped all I had into my magic, no longer focusing on keeping the world intact around us. The fluffy sky started to dissolve like cotton candy in the rain. A leg fell off an elephant, and it hobbled before bending to breaking knees.
“Yield!” he mumbled through still-smooshed lips.
“I said say uncle, not yield. You have to say uncle or I won’t let you out.”
Another elephant crashed to the ground, and the illusion of blood spread across the ground. My faltering magic couldn’t hold the original design. This was so much more gruesome than what I’d created.
Cahal jolted, his eyes wide as he caught sight of it. He bucked wildly, the wall pushing back.
“No you don’t.” I gritted my teeth and balled my fists, needing to visualize the air pressing against him. “Not this time. I will not lose at the final moment and get beaten up for my efforts. I will win this time. Say uncle!”
Another elephant crashed to the ground. I gave a fourth a little push to do the same, since Cahal was obviously reacting to the sight of them hitting the dirt, lifelike or not.
“Uncle,” he finally said, going limp. “Uncle.”
I tore the air away, panting. Working quickly, I tore the rest of the scene down, letting my magic dissolve back into the world, raining down through the moon-soaked night like acid across a painting. Darkened grass took the place of the gumdrops. Just over a berm, the liquid-black ocean shimmered as it lapped against the flat sands. The twisted wood cleared to a landscaped and carefully tended front yard, little potholes dug into it from my boots or my scuffle with Darius. A large mansion wavered into view behind us, the pool in front of it lit from within with eerie blue light. When Darius had organized a retreat to hide me away from the world, he’d done it like he did everything else—in style.
Cahal wiped his lip with the back of his hand, his eyes burning into mine.