Come on, Cerri. You’re not this useless. You’ve survived this long.
I did it using potions. While I didn’t have access to my cauldron, I could still make do with a bowl and a microwave. It felt sacrilegious, but I still leapt to my feet and rushed into the kitchen so I could yank open the spice cabinet. Rhoan’s dried herbs cried out to me. Their abilities hummed with urgency.
Now wasn’t the time to sigh with relief. My shoulders were still tight. The sound of clanging metal rushed me. I poured aggressive herbs into the bottom of a coffee mug, topped it off with tap water, and jammed it into the microwave.
This would be gross, but the potion would be explosive. I put my hand to the microwave’s window and let my arcana fill the inside of the contraption. With my foot, I nudged open the drawer filled with vials. Where was the one we’d emptied earlier?
I tucked several more antidotes into my pants pocket and cursed the shallowness of women’s pockets. The fashion industry could suck an egg right about now.
Just as the microwave beeped, I found the empty vial in the sink. It sat on top of a pile of unwashed dishes. They weren’t going to get done any time soon. I had just enough time to rinse the empty vial before I carefully poured the explosive potion into it like it was nitroglycerin.
I had one shot, and my hands were shaking. This wasn’t going to end well.
Stepping outside, my arcana seeped into the ground like rainwater soaking parched land. Plants burst up from my every step. They rose into lush flowering bushes and towering trees. Behind me was an oasis that hadn’t been there before.
The assassin woman laughed. “You think that’s intimidating? I’m not afraid of a bunch of flowers!”
Rhoan clocked her in the side of the head while she was distracted. She reeled from the powerful blow. He opened his arm to me, and I jumped into his embrace without a second thought.
How was he still standing? He’d been poisoned by the barest graze of the assassin’s poison earlier. Since then, he’d taken two bolts worth of the poison, and he was somehow still standing. We needed to get somewhere that the assassin couldn’t find us.
Or, rather, someplace the assassin couldn’t enter.
She’d slipped past Rhoan’s wards using his own magic. I clutched him close and rose onto my tiptoes so I could whisper in his ear. There was only one place that had everything I needed, and I could make sure that she couldn’t follow us.
“Take me home,” I whispered to him.
14
CERRI
His arm on me tightened. He glanced back at the assassin who was steadying herself for another blow. She wavered on her feet, but the way she pinned us with her glare told me that she was far from done.
“How much is Beryl paying you?” I said before I could think twice.
The assassin laughed again. “Do you think you can afford to pay me better? You work at a café,Princess.Your court is dead. You aren’t a queen with centuries of wealth at your disposal. You’re just a mutt’s daughter.”
I nearly flung myself out of Rhoan’s arms so I could punch her myself. The assassin had done her homework, apparently. I didn’t like the conclusion she’d come to. It filled me with an indignant fury that I’d never tasted before.
My arcana unfurled again. Rhoan’s lawn grew lush. A garden slowly rose around us. Hedges sprang forth, cutting the assassin off from us. Before they could rise too high, I asked Rhoan if he was ready, and I threw the explosive potion.
The explosion rocked the tangled bush branches. Rhoan didn’t stick around to see if that worked. He spun with me in his arms and raced towards the nearest hedge corner.
I opened my mouth to ask him why he didn’t just teleport. Before I could say anything, he rounded the corner, and we were suddenly in my living room. Rhoan let me tumble out of his arms. He bent double, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe. Blood dripped from his chest and splattered on the floor beneath him.
“We can’t stay here long,” he said between breaths. “Get what you need, and we’ll run.”
Nose wrinkled, I stretched out my hands. There was still so much arcana inside me. The garden in my core wanted to extend further and further. All I had to do was let it out.
A thick tree trunk rose and covered the apartment door. Behind me, the wood panels over my windows thickened and sprouted tiny green leaves. A myriad of blue flowers blossomed at the bottom. When they wavered, they looked like dancing waters.
The thick barriers gleamed like metal. I ran a hand along the wood and marveled at the feeling under my fingertips. They were like bunker walls. Nothing was getting past these. Not even sunlight.
A light burst into being behind me. I twisted and found Rhoan slumped on the floor with a ball of fire floating in his palm.
Taken aback, I asked, “Since when can you control fire?”
Eyes half-lidded, he grimaced. “This? This is nothing. It’s a cantrip.”