Read Online Target Of The Orders (Book 3) by Ron Collins - Free Book Online Page B

cracked before falling.
    Kalomar screamed and leapt away to avoid being crushed.
    The pounding of hooves thundered through Garrick’s ears, and his heart pumped. He was losing ground. The Lectodinians had him running in circles, and the net was drawing tighter. His shield would not last forever.
    The door to the house opened, and Arianna’s father and brothers stepped onto the porch, each carrying curved blades.
    “Go back inside!” Garrick yelled.
    But her father bellowed something Garrick was unable to decipher, and did not retreat.
    In the sudden lull, the mages cast a cloud of sorcerous blades that glinted like silver hornets.
    He fortified his barricade, but the razors tore a hole in its fabric and more blue magic flared. Kalomar screamed in agony. Pain burned through Garrick’s leg. He defended himself by sending a bolt of pure energy back in the direction the blast had come from, but there were so many of them—row upon row upon row, and his life force was fading with each exertion.
    He smelled the thick bile of his hunger stirring. Its essence was strong and firm, growing more powerful as time passed. It flexed its maw now, and its head swayed to and fro like a black dragon rising from the dead.
    More magic flashed ahead of them, and Kalomar reared, throwing Garrick and Will into the air.
    Garrick pulled Will around so he padded the boy’s fall. His ankle made a sickening crunch as they landed, and the impact knocked the breath out of him.
    “Run!” he yelled as best he could and pushed Will toward a bush.
    Will scampered for cover.
    The heat of his life force slid toward his injured ankle, but he didn’t want to divert attention from the shield.
    Another bolt of magic flared. Kalomar screamed again, then fell heavily sideways.
    Garrick tried to stand, but pain streaked his ankle.
    His stomach churned.
    The hunger grew colder.
    Hurried footsteps crashed through the brush—more mages. The Lectodinians had learned. They were taking no chances here—they had probably sent everything they could spare and then some.
    It was over.
    He would lose here.
    Garrick had just grown to believe he could take care of himself, and now he had been caught unprepared, yet again. No, that wasn’t correct. He had been caught unprepared
because
he had begun to think he could handle himself.
    It was the hunger that spoke to him loudest now—the dark, angry fury that lay just under his skin. He had to do something, and he had to do it now or he was going to lose everything.
    Flames burst a few strides away.
    He stood firmly despite the pain in his ankle. He funneled magestuff from his link, and he pulled every bit of life force he could muster from inside. He spooled it all, waiting until he had enough energy built up, holding off, depleting himself until the darkness came forward in full measure.
    He called on it now, bringing that hunger forward with a purpose. And, this time Garrick welcomed it. He dropped the shield around him, and he looked at the approaching mages through eyes on fire. He reached out with his wild magic, searching for every Lectodinian he could find, mapping the distance with that hunger, and feeling each target.
    Arianna’s father drew near, muttering curses and wielding his blade.
    “Get away!” Garrick bellowed.
    A Lectodinian blast struck Garrick in the chest, and he froze with pain as the blast seeped into his being. He gathered the spell's energy into himself, though, and poured it back into his own spell work. With a single thought, he unleashed a thunderclap—a raging torrent of silver-blue energy that snaked across the forest with a flickering strobe that froze everything in place.
    One Lectodinian carried a predatory smile.
    Another, an expression of shock.
    Garrick’s spell took them all at once, the scintillating fingers of his magic snaking out and scoring them all full-force, the power of the sorcery fueled by his anger and his need for vengeance. Energy sizzled. Life force mixed with