Crescent Legacy, Nicole Taylor [best 7 inch ereader .txt] 📗

craglorn had shown up since the barrier was completed. By the time I’d reached the spot where it had attempted to cross, there was nothing left of it but a pile of ashes. Later that day, the second came along for a stickybeak and got zapped, as well, but by the time the sun rose this morning, they seemed to have learned their lesson. Don’t try to eat the zappy magic.

I cast out my senses and felt the lingering shadow deep in the forest past the ancient hawthorn. The third craglorn was waiting for a weakness in the barrier to reveal itself or for me to come check on it, it wasn’t clear. It paced like a starving lion that scented blood on the air but couldn’t get to it.

Still, I couldn’t leave it lingering out there. There would be a whole lot of freaking out and severed limbs if someone stumbled across it, so I followed the path down the hill away from the tower house, my boots crunching on the gravel underfoot. There was another added benefit of my new witch mercenary slash commando job title. I had killer calves, a smaller waistline, and buns of steel.

The forest was becoming familiar now that I’d walked the breadth of it. The rise and fall of the land, the twisting of trees, the fallen foliage, and the rocky landscape were as normal to me as all the buildings and shops in Derrydun. My magic spoke to the land, guiding my way toward the shadow at the border, and it wasn’t long before it grew darker. There was a chill in the air that I’d learned was yet another witchy omen, this one a warning.

I saw the craglorn through the trees, so inky blue it was almost black. When it sensed me, it clambered toward the barrier, stopping well short of the zap zone.

Up close, it was hard to believe they were fae before. Ancient, lost, trapped in a world that wasn’t their own and cut off from the one thing they needed to survive. The other realm must be steeped in magic, I thought. Absolutely dripping with it. Magic must be their oxygen.

I wondered what this one was. Was it like the man who’d stolen Alex’s face? Or the spriggan who’d tricked Boone and killed my mother? I didn’t know how many kinds there were, but I figured there were more than two.

“Who are you?” I asked, no longer afraid of the creature standing two meters away from me.

Eyelids closed over its black eyes before they opened again.

“You’ve been driven mad by hunger, haven’t you?”

It blinked at me again, and I wasn’t sure if it even understood what I was saying.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said. “But I will protect myself and those who live in this village. Do you understand?”

It raised its hand, its talons unfurling slowly. Swallowing hard, my gaze locked onto the razor-sharp tips, my stomach churning. Thank goodness it couldn’t get through the barrier.

“I…” the craglon rasped. “See… You…”

Before I understood what was happening, it stepped toward the barrier and thrust its hand through. The air shimmered and flared gold where its arm touched, and I stumbled back in surprise. It wasn’t meant to do that!

I called on my magic and pushed back, forcing the craglorn away. As it pulled its arm back, the barrier flexed and snapped. The shockwave ricocheted through my outstretched arm and blew me off my feet. I landed on my ass, my head spinning and my ears ringing so loudly, I couldn’t hear anything else but distortion.

Rubbing my temples, I tried to sit up, but I wasn’t sure which way that was. A shadow loomed, and everything in me was screaming danger, but the synapses in my brain were misfiring.

Claws scratched my chest as its hand pushed down onto my stomach, then… I gasped as I felt it sucking greedily at my magic, pulling my Legacy through my skin. It burned, pain blooming through my gut and falling outward. Oh, cac, this was how it felt?

I called on my magic, but all it did was make the craglorn drain me faster. The only thing that was left to do was get it off me the old-fashioned way.

I kicked with all my strength…with a little magical oomph to go with it. It cost me, but the craglorn went flying, hitting what was left of the barrier. It fizzed and crackled, zapping the creature, but there wasn’t enough juice to turn it into ash.

“I told you,” I cried as I dragged myself to my feet, feeling like I had a bad case of indigestion. “I told you I’d protect myself, but you didn’t listen.”

The craglorn rolled onto its side, hissing and spitting, its back burned from where it had struck the barrier. Blue ooze was weeping through its seared flesh, and I curled my lip.

“I want it back,” I exclaimed, advancing on it.

I felt violated in the worst possible way like it had sucked out part of my soul and ate it for brunch.

“Mmaaggiicc…” it wailed.

“Mine.” I stretched out my arm and called it back, my Legacy flaring through the craglorn’s skin as I returned the favor.

I had no idea what I was doing, but something inside me sputtered and flared into life. I pulled my magic back out of that thing, siphoning the golden light it had feasted upon like I was scooping the tasty icing off the top of a slightly moldy donut. How I knew how to do it was beyond me, but I wasn’t asking questions.

It writhed on the ground, and I felt a pang of pity for the twisted thing it had become.

“I don’t want to do this, you know,” I said. “But I have to.”

Calling on the entirety of my Legacy, I enveloped the craglorn with golden light, reducing the creature to ash. There was no getting around the fact I had to fight them. None at all.

Glancing at the quartz on the ground, I