Free Mage Magic by Lacey Thorn

she said. “I need you both, beside me. Not at odds with one another.”
     
    “How touching,” a voice mocked off to their right. “It looks like we’ve interrupted a lover’s spat.”
    Theron and Thedan moved to stand in front of Serenity, weapons flying easily into their hands, and she took a step back, unknowingly forming for the barest of seconds the three-sided triad they all now wore. Then Theron disappeared and Thedan shifted his feet wide, preparing for battle.
    Her eyes adjusted quickly to the torchlight that lit the men facing them. There were seven men with weapons drawn, spread out in a semi-circle around them. Three others stood just behind the one who’d spoken and were holding torches. As soon as Theron disappeared they were on the move.
    “Quick,” the one who had spoken earlier said. “Keep the girl alive. Wilhelm wants her.”
    They were upon them before she could get a spell off. She found herself using her Staff as a defensive weapon to keep them at bay. Thedan had four men on him and she knew from his grunts that they were not giving an inch as they tried to take him out of the picture. Three
     

     
    had headed straight towards her, one of which was the one who seemed to be the leader of the group. He’d given her the advantage though, by letting it slip that Wilhelm wanted her alive. They would go easier on her than her mates.
    A cry filled the air beside her. She glanced towards Thedan just in time to see Theron appear behind one of the four men attacking Thedan. Theron buried a blade deep into the man’s side, taking him out of battle. “Help Serenity,” Thedan yelled as he continued to fight.
    Blood slicked his arm. She didn’t know if it belonged to him or one of the men he was fighting, or maybe both.
    Theron disappeared again and she was snapped back to her battle by a sharp hit to the side of her head. It dazed her for a moment but that moment was long enough for the leader to jerk her to him. The hard press of metal against her throat brought her back and she knew that he held a blade there. Her Staff was on the ground at her feet but she didn’t need it for spells.
    She closed her eyes, placed a hand over his as if trying to tug it from her neck, and whispered a spell that was one of her favourites. As soon as the last word left her lips the leader gave a yelp and dropped the now burning-hot weapon from her throat. He stepped back to cradle his burned fingers and palm against his chest.
    “What the hell?” he said.
    Serenity moved, scooping up her Staff even as more words formed. As she turned there was already a ball of fire in her open right palm and she sent it flying at one of the other two men coming at her. It hit the one she’d aimed at square in the chest, knocking him back to land hard on his ass. He screamed and slapped vigorously at his shirt to put out the flames there.
    She moved to face the other one but he was too close. He swung one meaty fist at her, aiming for the same side of her head that had taken the previous blow. She leant back, raising her Staff and using it to deflect the swing. She could feel the power coursing through her veins and it was almost too much to contain. She formed the ball of energy in her right hand and tossed it to him. He did exactly as she expected and caught it, his eyes widening with shock as it soaked into his skin.
    Then his screams started. She knew precisely what he was experiencing. As the raw energy she’d formed was absorbed it would be like a lightning bolt or, more accurately, several of them, igniting beneath his skin. She turned her back on him knowing that within mere moments he would be dead on the ground. She should have sent a smaller jolt, just enough to incapacitate but not kill. But then she did have her father’s blood as well as her mother’s.
    The torchlight had grown dimmer and now the last torch blinked out and plunged them once more into a veil of blackest night. She vaguely saw Theron in the last