Dark Waters by Liia Ann White Page B

distract her,
but it would make the witch think she had the upper hand. “I take after my
mother.”
    A circle of flames appeared and closed in on Adora . Concentrating her energy, she tried a trick her
mother taught her.
     
    “If you concentrate hard
enough, you can feel the energy that controls the opposing magic. Pull on it.
Bring it toward you and combine it with your magic.” She smiled momentarily at the
memory. She’d managed to feed off her mother’s magic and knock down an entire
wall with the flick of her finger.
    Closing her eyes, she listened to the crackle of the flames,
feeling for the underlying energy. Like water in the air, it was always there.
She just had to look and feel really hard to find it. A tingling in her
fingertips told Adora the magic was connecting with
her. She focussed and pulled on the energy, almost sucking it into her body.
    When she opened her eyes at the startling shriek Maleficent
let out, she noticed the flames were almost gone.
    It worked! she thought
triumphantly.
    “Foolish girl.” The witch laughed and took a
threatening step toward her. “You think that will work? Your mother tried that. Moments before I killed her. She had the same proud
expression on her face that you do now.”
    Adora froze. The mention of her
mother could have just been an effort to distract her. “You know nothing of my
mother. Or her death.”
    “Oh, but I do, child,” she said in a condescending tone.
    “She died in battle, not at the hands of you.”
    “Is that what you were told?” Maleficent laughed. “She was
caught in battle. The soldiers brought her back here so I could study her. Try
to steal her magic–if it were possible. Unfortunately, she kept fighting my
magic so I had to kill her.”
    Adora grimaced and clenched her
jaw, watching as the witch inspected the staff she held in her hand
    Adora hadn’t noticed the staff before.
With two loud thumps to the ground, Maleficent looked at her and gave an evil
grin.
    “And I’m going to kill you just like I did her.”
    Fury rose in Adora’s chest,
warming her from the inside out. Magic tore through her veins like a bushfire,
ready to destroy everything in its path.
    Before she had a chance to attack, guards
burst into the hallway followed by
Kiel
. The elf sneered at her before
ordering his guards to attack. Wielding her sword, Adora spun in a circle, her trademark move, taking down two guards and slicing the
head clean off another. Before the others attacked, she sped to
Kiel
and held her blade
to his throat, sure to bring up her defensive barrier as well.
    “I’ll spare your life if you tell me you didn’t betray Randor . You didn’t come straight here and tell the witch
what we were up to.” Her tone was low and deadly. She didn’t want him to
misconstrue her words for being soft.
    The elf’s nose twitched and his thin lips pursed. “I didn’t
tell her what you were up to. I went straight to the queen.”
    Suddenly his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. A
glowing blade appeared through his chest, pulling out as he dropped to the
ground. Randor stood behind him, a true picture of mouthwatering masculinity. Covered in blood and sweat, his
clothing was torn and his expression was fierce.
    Adora gave him a look of empathy
and turned just in time to see a massive ball of red energy flying at her.
Reflexively, she stuck her arms up in front of her and formed a wall of magic,
which absorbed the energy ball. With a sigh of relief, she felt the muscles in
her body tingling with a strange sensation of power. A sensation she’d never
experienced before.
    Looking up to see an expression of disbelief on Maleficent’s face, she smiled an evil grin. She’d apparently
just done the impossible—completely absorbed another witch’s magic and stored
it as her own.
    Disbelief quickly turned to rage as the witch brought her
hands up, flames burning all around her, as electric energy clustered in her
hands.
    “Your mother could never