Cursed of moon

Chapter 20

Shouts and scents of casting magic came from Jakub’s vessel just as Barnabas issued another order to Kaillen and Fallon. The Only Lady I’ve Ever Loved’s sails snapped under the hauling ropes and levers, just as an explosion of magic launched from Jakub’s ship.

Our nemesis’s incoming spell crackled against the illusion shield that Kaillen had cast, and in a shower a sparks, the illusion vanished just as our ships collided.

Since Jakub’s vessel wasn’t fully facing us, Barnabas had the advantage. His bow’s deadly point rammed the larger ship’s hull in a splinter of bone and wood.

The crew aboard the vessel sneered and scowled, their movements frantic as they darted into action. My eyes widened when I took in their vast numbers. Ten, twelve, no twenty . . . there were too many to count.

A flood of magic barreled toward us, cast from someone on the ship I couldn’t see.

“Tala!” Kaillen roared over the screech of crushing wood and bone as Barnabas’s ship began to bob back. “Watch out, we’re—”

I was thrown forward as a huge wave rocked The Only Lady I’ve Ever Loved. A spray of ocean water shot across my face, salt stinging my eyes as I cast a spell at lightning speed, erecting a shield around myself before throwing it toward Kaillen and his friends. Another flare of magic fizzled over my shield, but it held and protected me, Kaillen, Fallon, and—

Barnabas was gone.

The clang of clashing swords filled the air as I blinked and my sight cleared. Barnabas was already on the other ship, sword in hand as he dodged and swayed in a dance of beauty and stealth. A deranged smile had plastered itself to his face, and I had a feeling he was reliving his pirate glory days.

I downed my shield as Kaillen gave me a fierce nod. “We all charge as one!” he bellowed.

I dashed toward Jakub’s ship, potion in hand, as Kaillen and Fallon flew past me, all three of us leaping from The Only Lady I’ve Ever Loved in one giant arc to the larger vessel.

The crew aboard Jakub’s ship all had weapons out or spells flying. My hair blew in front of my eyes when I dipped and rolled as a vampire lunged at me with a two-foot blade. I came up behind him, kneeling on the deck, and grabbed a splintered piece of wood from a pile of ruined rigging. Calling upon the speed and strength of my wolf, I swiveled around and drove it up and into the vamp’s chest.

His eyes widened in surprise just as his body turned to ash.

A ferocious growl came from behind me, then the scent of casting magic as Kaillen became of blur of fire, magic, and spells. He moved so fast that I couldn’t see him, but his scent and the tug of our bond alerted me to the location he was darting toward.

I whipped around, searching for Jakub, but amidst the chaos all I saw were fighting fairies, snarling werewolves, battling sorcerers, raging half-demons, and hissing vamps. But one thing I did notice? All of them had the constellation tattoo on their necks. Only now, their tattoos were glowing.

A sudden melody came from the sea, a beautiful song of promise and love. My body instinctively tugged toward it, my feet itching to move to the rail and throw myself overboard into the watery darkness that would envelop me in a silken paradise.

Dammit. The sirens had arrived, obviously sensing the blood and battle.

I whipped out another shield spell to protect myself from the sirens’ call, just as one of Jakub’s crew members stumbled toward the railing and flung himself overboard. A dopey-looking grin stretched across his face as he plummeted downward. Hisses and the sound of tearing flesh followed below. One sucker down, dozens to go . . .

The flash of a sword swiped toward me from a half-demon just as a fairy came at me simultaneously.

I dipped, narrowly avoiding the half-demon’s blade, as my awakening power slithered out of its cave and caressed my insides. It no longer barreled out of me, but stress apparently still provoked it.

Sweating, I cast a binding spell on the fairy as they both tried to catch me. Concentrating on my awakening power, I beckoned more of it from its black void. It’d been days since I’d last used it, but the intensive two weeks of daily training with Kaillen were paying off.

My awakening magic responded as though it were an extension of myself. It raced through my limbs as its razor jaws gnashed and flowed toward my unsuspecting victims, like a ferocious lion going in for the kill.

I blasted a maximizer spell combined with werewolf strength at the half-demon. The punch knocked him unconscious. Huh. Didn’t know I could combine werewolf strength with my witch magic.

A wave of burning hot fire descended on the half-demon, and a fluttering of internal awareness told me it’d come from my mate. Kaillen’s black flames disappeared as soon as the half-demon turned to ash. I assumed that was so the ship wouldn’t burn beneath our feet, leading to an unpleasant death thanks to hungry sirens waiting below . . .

Kaillen and I made eye contact briefly before two more crew members descended on him.

My binding spell on the fairy shattered, and in an instant, he leaped to my front with his weapon in hand.

I bent backward, my body arching as his blade swung toward me as he tried to corner me by the rail, and it struck me that he wasn’t trying to kill me but instead he was trying to capture me. I bent my knees and flipped in a backward somersault, landing on the balls of my feet just as I flung my awakening power toward the fairy.

Tiny strands of magic intermixed with zapping power flew out of me as my invisible tentacles wrapped around the fairy like an octopus’s arms. My power bit into him, and my awakening power’s teeth serrated through his i

His feeling of surprise hit me first. Then his fear. I sank my claws deeper into him, hacking through everything that made up his essence. He cried out as his magic spewed from him like a volcano. Fairy magic flooded my pores.

My wolf whined at the intrusion of a foreigner’s energy, but I reassured her for a split second before pushing her back as I concentrated on extending my power.

More tentacles slithered from me to every opponent on the deck as sweat trailed down my skin and soaked my clothes. My power moved so fast and speared each opponent so quickly, that I didn’t have time to corral their magic as it poured into me.

Those strange octopus-like arms latched onto one supernatural after another. One. Two. Three. Four . . .

My entire body trembled at the exertion of sinking my magical teeth into so many at once. A wave of dizziness swept through me, but one by one, our opponents were begi

But where was Jakub? I sca

Fallon’s brow furrowed when a fairy he’d been battling abruptly fell to his knees, his features anguished. Only Kaillen knew what was happening as Fallon turned to a new opponent as he and Barnabas continued hacking and cleaving their way through everyone in their paths.

The assassins moved with deadly grace, their strikes solid, their movements coordinated with cool precision. Fallon’s face was a mask of efficient purpose, while Barnabas still wore that maniacal grin.

Our enemies were a

“Tala!” Kaillen called. “It’s too many!”

My body began to sway, but my awakening power knew no bounds. It flung and pounced as a primal feeling of revenge swept through me despite my fatigue.

Sweat poured from me in rivers as all of the supernaturals I’d latched onto moaned and writhed, collapsing one after another. Their magic siphoned to me, filling me with brimming strength and heat, yet I still didn’t know how to wield it.

My knees buckled.

So much magic. So much power. It flooded me as I took all of their rage and hate, their lust for the battle, and their feelings of terror as they realized that they were losing control, and that they no longer owned their magic, but I did.

Fallon and Barnabas stopped cleaving supernaturals in two when they realized their opponents weren’t falling from their strikes, but instead from an invisible force wielded on shadowed wings and misted claws.

Kaillen and his friends surveyed the damage as a colossal amount of magic hummed through my veins and flooded my senses. It was too much. I couldn’t contain it. I needed to release it, needed to get it out of me, needed to—

“Your ancestors would be proud. Your power is quite impressive.” A detached clinical-sounding voice flowed toward me from the back of the ship.

I clumsily twirled around, since I felt drunk on the raging power flowing through my veins. “Where are you?” I hissed.

I surveyed the area, barely able to do more in my debilitating position as power vibrated through my body. I directed all of my attention on the source of where I thought the voice had come from.

“I didn’t expect you to pursue me but am pleased you did,” Jakub continued. “It’s interesting that you thought you could catch me, if that’s what you were attempting? But I’m glad I’m here to witness this, to know beyond any doubt that you truly are the blood descendent. The key.”

Kaillen snarled and lunged, but Jakub-Dipshit was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t see him, yet I could sense him. Something prickled along my skin and tingled my nerves.

He’s hiding under a cloaking spell. That realization snapped me upright, because it meant he could be anywhere.

I staggered around, searching for any hint of Jakub’s presence as Kaillen and his friends did the same. Instinctively, we formed a circle, our backs to one another so that we were all facing outward.

I nearly buckled as the last of the crew members died from my power. “Why can’t we see him?” I managed. “We’re all strong. We should be able to see through whatever cloak he wears.”

“Because I’m commanding more power than you,” Jakub answered in that cold tone again, except he was closer this time.

I swung toward his voice, and the power that I’d harvested from the fleet of supernaturals surged against my skin.

“Tala,” Kaillen said, and then groaned, as the strength of my caged power barreled toward him on the mating bond. His growl came just as something cold caressed my skin.

Jakub.

A powerful zap of magic snaked over me, and my eyes widened when I recognized the feel of a portal key about to activate.

I rocked myself back, knowing that if I didn’t escape Jakub’s grip, he would steal me away by using the portal key I’d sensed, and the two of us could be anywhere in seconds. I would be alone. Trapped. Potentially at his mercy.