Kissed by a Dark Prince(108)

He clasped Thorne’s right shoulder and looked deep into his red eyes. “Protect the females.”

Thorne’s features set into a hard scowl and his eyes glowed like the fires of the underworld. He nodded, shoved to his feet, and took up his broadsword.

“Kill the wench.” Thorne tossed the words on a black snarl and loped off towards Olivia and Sable, his wings shrinking into his back at the same time.

Olivia would be safe now and so would Sable. Thorne wouldn’t allow anything to happen to them. He would protect them with his life. It eased Loren’s mind and he turned to face Kordula.

She stood a short distance away, working her dark magic on her fingers. The bones grew out of the severed ones and then muscle, vein and tendon covered them, and skin formed. She raised an eyebrow at them, turning them this way and that to inspect them, and flexing them.

Her red gaze sought Thorne but landed on Loren. Her scarlet lips twisted into a sneer and she looked across at Vail where he battled Bleu.

“Release my brother, Kordula,” Loren said.

She smiled wickedly. “Never. I utter one command and he will kill himself... and what will you do then, noble prince?”

Olivia had been right and Kordula had just confirmed it for him.

Loren growled, gripped his black sword in both hands before him, and focused on it. He hadn’t fought like this in countless centuries, not since before Vail had gone to war with him because of Kordula’s twisted scheme, but he would return to his roots now and hope it would give him the advantage he needed over the dark witch.

He closed his eyes and released the hilt of his sword, holding it between his opened palms and keeping it from falling with his telekinesis. He drew his palms apart and felt the shift and the drag on his power as his blade succumbed to his mental command, splitting in two.

Kordula’s gaze burned into him.

Loren closed his fingers around the hilts of his twin blades and opened his eyes, fixing them on Kordula.

She made a low unholy sound and attacked him, sending bolts of red lightning streaking towards him. Loren blocked the first four, rapidly becoming accustomed to using two swords at once, and dodged the remaining three, strafing to his right. They struck the gravel drive and sprayed dirt and stone into the air. He used all of his speed to come around behind Kordula and lashed out with the blade in his left hand.

Kordula swept her healed hand out and deflected it using one of the black discs of power. She failed to notice his other blade as she worked her spell and he thrust forwards, burying it deep into her shoulder. She cried out and swung her left fist, catching him hard across his cheek and sending him smashing into the ground.

Olivia called out to him.

Loren refused to heed her or look her way, unwilling to risk giving Kordula a chance to attack and land another blow. He rolled away from the sorceress and called a portal, and sank into it.

He reappeared above Kordula, dropping out of the night air, and brought both of his black blades over his shoulders and then swung forwards with them. They sliced through the darkness towards Kordula and she looked up, her red glowing eyes shot wide and she dropped to her knees, holding both hands out above her. A black dome formed over her and his blades struck it hard, the vibrations from the blow numbing his hands through his armour.

Loren kicked off from the dome, flipped in the air, and landed in a crouch nearby. The moment Kordula lifted her spell, Loren sprang at her, thrusting forwards with the sword in his right hand and preparing to bring his left one around in a sharp arc from below.

She grinned and Loren barely avoided skewering Vail as he appeared before him and lashed out with his own twin blades.

Bleu roared something dark and vicious in their language and teleported into the fray, knocking Vail out of the way and rolling across the ground with him.

Loren attacked Kordula again, weaker this time as fear of accidentally killing Vail played on his mind.

Kordula stood her ground and flicked her left hand out towards him, and he dodged right as thin black streaks like long needles shot from her fingers. He failed to evade them all. Fire seared his left shoulder and the impact spun him around, the world whirling across his eyes in a blur. Not magic. They were made of the same metal as his armour, able to penetrate it.

The ground came at him fast and he dropped one blade, pressed his hand into the gravel, and flipped himself over onto his feet. He growled and called his sword back to him, and grinned when he spotted Sable’s throwing knives on the ground just ahead of him.

He spun to face Kordula, sweeping his right arm around at the same time and using a telekinetic wave on the blades. They shot towards her. She deflected the two he sent at full speed and moved too early to block the third, her mistake in thinking he would send all at the same speed costing her. The short ringed knife grazed her neck, slicing through her flesh and her dark red hair. Blood cascaded down her throat and chest and she covered the wound with her hand.