Breathless Magic by Rachel Higginson

thousand winds. We worked as a
seamless unit of power and grace.
    Kiran’s once-gray Magic combined with my once-royal blue
energy and merged into this wispy navy blue hue that had quickly become my
favorite of all the colors. Because I was part Titan, I could see the different
colors of Magic flash around me as we fought against each other. My friends-
the good guys- had a myriad of colors that lit up the room like a color storm
of lightning. I watched Olivia’s Magic strike bright white into the air around
her and it was the first moment that I actually believed she could be the true
Immortal Terletov claimed she was. Her Magic was pure, despite Terletov’s
wicked way of turning her. An eternal creature, like Kiran and me, like Avalon
and Amelia, I wondered if she was able to grasp the concept better than the
four of us. We still struggled with the overwhelming idea. And now we wouldn’t
be alone.
    I was more in favor of her relationship with Jericho than
ever.
    And as he stormed into the room with impeccable timing and a
reserve of more men to fight for our cause, I realized that I didn’t have to
worry anymore if they would work out or not. Jericho and Olivia were as sealed
as they could be before the final consummation of their relationship.
    Yay!
    Definitely distracted, I received a blast of Magic to my
shoulder. The hit of sickly green energy knocked me off balance and I bumped
into Kiran behind me. His hand shot out and grabbed my hip to steady me.
    Pay attention .
Avalon growled inside my head.
    It’s Jericho and
Olivia! I squealed at him. They love
each other!  
    I felt him audibly sigh as he took the Magic of an
unsuspecting henchman that had been building his energy in order to strike out
at Sebastian from behind. Would you
focus? You can throw them a party later, but I kind of need you alive in order
to do that.
    I snorted. He knew I’d be alive no matter what. What a silly
thing to say.
    With the addition of Jericho and his team we were able to
take over the room easily.
    Kiran saw this before I did and addressed his cousin,
“Bastian, what’s the rest of the Castle like?”
    “We freed what Guards we could. They’ve taken what control
was available but the battle wages on.” And then he grinned because he was a
bit of a sadist and super excited for all the recent fighting.
    Who was I kidding? Every guy in this room was enjoying the
recent break from peaceful boredom. I could see it on all of their smug faces
and the flare of drama they used to steal Magic. They were blood thirsty, the
whole lot of them.
    “Behind you,” Sebastian suggested casually.
    Kiran and I spun around and blasted the would-be attacker in
the chest with a steady stream of combined energy. The Magic sent him soaring
into an ancient tapestry that hung on the wall. He cracked his head hard and
slid down to his ass. I stepped toward him and with a hand stretched forward
began to pull on his rancid electricity. His back bowed with the effort to
physically restrain his life force that I would take so easily.
    I looked down at him with pity. He was young, younger than
me. Just a kid really, and now his future was being stripped from him.
    “What did he promise you?” I asked before I could stop
myself. Why would someone with such a long life ahead of him, give it up in
service to a monster?
    “Everything,” the kid whimpered. “He promised that we could
have everything.”
    “And what did I take from you that you could not have?” I
demanded. How selfish and greedy did one have to be to feel slighted in our
world?
    “You kept the Magic,” he rasped out as I drained the last
ounces of the only strength he could ever know. “You promised to set it free,
but you didn’t.”
    I took a step back, completely surprised by his accusation.
I stared down at him as he slumped to the side and caught his upper body with a
bent elbow on the cold ground.
    Unbidden tears pricked at my eyes and I knelt down in front
of him. My hands shook