Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

seemed to be on the verge of recovery, she brought to bear another of her power words: ‘STUN’ ‘FREEZE’ ‘BURN’ ‘BREAK’ ‘SHATTER.’ She knew ‘DIE’ wouldn’t be effective. Not until she wore him down. As she fought, she was always on the move – something she had learned from Catriona.

She kept her grounds’ defences powered down because they would be ineffective against him – after all, they had been useless against her when she took the Black Tower. Better to keep them intact for more mundane threats, rather than let Aden destroy them. She did, however, instruct her elite guards to stand ready in specific positions around the ‘battlefield.’ They would not interfere unless Dreya mentally ordered it. If things started to go wrong, they might prove enough of a distraction to let her execute an emergency teleport, but she was confident that would not be necessary.

Principally, they were there for another purpose. Not having a temporal element to her magic, unlike Catriona, Dreya needed time to weave her magical shields into the right form to absorb or deflect the energy of his beam cannon. Not just around herself, but around her guards, as well. Now they were all ready. So, taking another leaf out of her girlfriend’s playbook, she decided it was time to set a trap with an easy escape, see if it would goad him into springing the real trap.

Instead of attacking him directly, as she had been, she ‘trapped’ him in a twenty-foot-tall cylinder of fierce, magical flames. This was the moment Dreya would find out if she’d got her calculations right, although if she hadn’t, she didn’t suppose she’d live long enough to regret it. Her four death knights stepped out onto the battlefield, coming to stand at four compass points around the column of fire. The three ghouls also emerged, floating ten feet off the ground, again forming a ring around the fire. Dreya levitated at the pinnacle of an irregular pyramid, relative to her guards.

Aden recovered quickly, flying up and out of the firetrap, pulling his powerful cannon out of his pocket dimension.

“Big mistake, little pet,” he taunted. “Some of your pinpricks were actually starting to hurt. But as fun as this has been, it’s time to have you put down.”

As much as he was trying to hide it, in reality, he was in a lot of pain, and the humiliation of that pain being inflicted by a mere mortal helped morph that into rage. A rage that he channelled into his cannon blast as he streaked upwards towards Dreya, following in the wake of his own power. He expected the blast to kill the witch but instead, she absorbed what she could and reflected the rest, the beam splitting into three until they each hit one of her ghouls. Each ghoul absorbed as much as they could, channelling and equalising it in a ring between them, before passing it down to the death knights. They, in turn, created their circle of power, completing the circuit. Before Aden knew what was happening, he was hit by eight separate high energy beams. Trapped inside this pyramid of power, he couldn’t escape. Since the attacks were coming from all directions, there was nowhere to go. He tried to teleport, but Dreya had already taken steps to prevent that. Finally, the beams stopped, and he fell all the way down to the ground, hitting with a hard impact.

Dreya floated gently down and disclosed, “I’ve been working on my own version of what you just did. Let me show you.” A beam of magical energy shot out from her hand, backed up by the extra power she had gained from absorbing part of his attack. “I think I’ve got the technique down pretty well, but I’d appreciate any feedback you might have.” She shot him a second time. “Well?” She shot him a third time. “Did I do it right, or do you have notes?”

Now that he was stunned, she began siphoning off his power, taking as much as she dared to absorb without risking her own safety. Once he was sufficiently drained, a power word backed up with blood magic should be enough to finish him.

“I suppose this is the part where I make some grand, gloating speech while talking about myself in the third person,” she deadpanned as she checked the preparation of the power word – this was one she did not want to get wrong.

As she prepared, however, she felt that post-hypnotic suggestion kick-in again. The same voice that had been telling her to kill Daelen was now warning her it was too soon. For a moment, she thought she caught sight of a shadowy figure at the edge of her vision. Perhaps the source of the warning. Refusing to be dictated to, however, Dreya chose to ignore it.

“But in the interests of avoiding the clichés, all I’ll say is—” she never got to the word ‘DIE’ because Aden pulled out a knife and threw it at her. Not expecting that kind of attack, she only partially deflected it, and it took a slice out of her right arm. It only took her a moment to recover, but it was long enough for Aden to open up a Prismatic Sphere and escape.

Dreya swore, cursing herself for her hesitation and letting him get way. She’d won the battle on points but missing out on the kill was annoying as hell. Still, there was nothing to be done about it now. Thanks to Aden, she was more powerful than ever – or she would be after she’d rested and healed. She’d just have to kill the dark clone another day. Kill him and drain his power. She couldn’t take it all at once without harming herself, but between Dreya and her elite guards, it would be safe enough. Or maybe she’d go after Daelen next. She was happy for Cat to gain his knowledge – she was exceptionally good at that – but when the