Gideon flung the fireball at me, starting the fight.

I ducked it and swung my sword through the air, making the lightning on it crackle and leap to the nearest wizard.

He yipped and backed up a step, but the eight other Tellier wizards closed ranks on me.

I forged a shield of pure magic and slid it around to cover my back, my thoughts tripping over themselves as I tried to both defend and come up with a strategy.

Gideon threw another fireball at me. I had just enough time to shoot off a stream of water, which hissed and evaporated when the attacks collided, filling the air with hazy steam.

I couldn’t see them, but more importantly they couldn’t see me or each other.

I held my breath as I listened.

Grass crunched under boots to my left, and I swung my hand through the air, shooting off a thin line of blue flames.

A woman yelped in pain, and I flung baseball sized chunks of ice now that I’d narrowed the area down.

She shrieked, and Gideon cursed.

“Someone clear this steam,” he shouted.

A massive wind curled around me, almost knocking me off my feet until I stabbed my katana into the lawn and held on to its hilt.

The steam cleared out, letting me see my victim, who was clutching her bleeding head.

My hours of practice with my shield paid off. One of the wizards flung what sounded like a massive rock at it—which ricocheted off it and hit the attacking wizard with a painful thud. Eliciting an airless wheeze.

I glanced at Mason. He had his arms folded across his chest and was leaning against the porch railing with a look of expectation.

I’d have to lure him out—let him think House Tellier had me almost beat so he could make the finishing blow himself, and then I’d get him and all the Tellier wizards with the lightning attack that affected a large area—the same kind I had used on Rupert.

The trickiest part of that would be letting the Tellier wizards beat on me without getting badly injured so, when Mason finally stepped in, I’d still have the strength to defeat him.

The woman with the bloodied head was slowly crawling away—bringing it down to an eight on one fight, though a quick glance behind me confirmed the wizard who had tried to go through my shield was still plastered on the ground, struggling to breathe.

Four wizards rushed me at once, coming at me from the sides.

I ducked the fire attack and sliced through a dagger-sharp icicle one of them had thrown at my chest, my katana cleaving it like butter. The third wizard created something that looked like a prickly vine—even though it was Tellier orange—and flung it at me. I rotated my katana and cut through it, but instead of dissipating the attack, it separated, one vine wrapping around each arm. The thorny bits dug convulsively into my skin, creating rows of deep scratches and making it hard to hold on to my katana.

I clenched my teeth as I made blue fire dance up and down my arms, burning the vines to ash, but pain still rippled through my muscles. While I tried to adjust my hold on my katana’s hilt, the fourth wizard tried to knock me to the ground by raising the turf beneath my feet.

I threw myself into a sideways roll, my shoulder taking the brunt of the force before I popped back to my feet, coming up just behind one of the wizards.

Scratch that—it was going to be equally hard to hold back from using an area attack. Eight wizards was a lot of targets when I could only hit one at a time.

The closest wizard turned around, but he was so slow compared to the quicksilver vampires.

I rotated my wrist, swinging my katana so the hilt faced out, then popped him on the side of the head.

He went down like a sack of potatoes, which was pretty gratifying because for once I actually felt physically strong. (Let me tell you, it required a heck of a lot harder of a hit to take a vampire down!)

I was still stupidly celebrating this feat when one of the female wizards created a dozen dagger-sharp icicles and flung them at me in such quick succession I couldn’t possibly block or duck them all.

I avoided the worst of them, but one skimmed across the top of my shoulder, slicing straight through my protective shirt and through muscle. It wasn’t deep, but every arm movement made pain rip through that shoulder. Even worse, another skimmed the top of my hand.

Memo to self—buy protective gloves, too.

I didn’t want to get a worse injury, so I swung my magic shield around so it was in front of me.

The wizard who had almost knocked himself out on my shield was standing on shaky legs—and we couldn’t have that.

A chunk of ice to the knee dropped him again—this time with a painful crunch.

The wound on my hand trickled blood across my fingers, which made it harder to keep the correct hand positions on my sword.

I swiveled my shield to my back as I turned, taking quick inventory of the wizards.

“Now!” Gideon shot off his stupidly-beloved fireball at me, along with five of his wizards.

I jumped to the side, but they kept firing, and I knew I didn’t have the footing for another dodge, so I threw my shield in front of me as I tried to recover my form.

It blocked the fire attacks, which bounced off its blue surface—raising shouts of surprise from the wizards.

Unfortunately, those shouts covered up the movement directly behind me.

The buzz of magic came too late.

The fire had been a trap—distracting me while another wizard threw a rock boulder the size of a watermelon at my head.

I dropped to my knees, but the thing smacked into the top of my head, scraping across it.

Pain radiated from my skull to my toes, and my stomach quivered as I dropped, my muscles giving out.

I could barely even think as the pain swam through my system. If that rock had hit me dead on, it probably would have killed me.

“Hazel!” That was Felix calling for me. I could barely hear him over the ringing in my skull.

Wishing I had been a bit faster and managed to dodge more of that attack, I shook my head as I tried to clear my vision of stars. Thankfully, the buzzing hum of my shield hung over my prone body, so the rest of the wizards couldn’t pile on me, but my skull was seriously rattled.

I was now a fairly easy target for Mason. Hopefully he would take the bait—or I was going to have to gamble and get the Tellier wizards as a group and then chase Mason. There was no way I could take another hit like that and not drop.

I made a show of trying to regain my footing, and instead fell flat on my face. But my ploy worked.

Mason was slowly crossing the lawn, his charming smile growing with every step he took.

That’s right, come closer…

Chapter Twenty

Hazel

Blood dripped down my temple as I watched Mason. When I looked past him, a part of me couldn’t help but be irritated.

My family—who outnumbered Mason and his minions—all stood and watched me with pale faces.

Momoko was crying, her face pressed into Felix’s chest, but none of them tried to help me.

I mean, they didn’t have magic, and this fight was between me and Mason…and yeah, none of them had the physical strength or training I’d received at Drake Hall. But were they seriously just content to stand there without a fight and watch as I got the life beaten out of me?

There was something broken about that. I knew they loved me, but Medeis was a peaceful House. A pacifist House.

And we wouldn’t survive if that didn’t change.

Mason stopped just a few feet short of me. His wizard’s mark burned across his skin as blue magic encased his fists.

“Unfortunately it seems you still aren’t strong enough to run House Medeis,” he said.

“Because you hide behind the troops of another House!” Mr. Clark shouted.

Mason swung around to scowl back at the House.

I gripped a fistful of grass and pushed myself onto my knees. My stomach was still quivering, and I had the faint desire to throw up. But I couldn’t stop now—I could win if I just kept going.

A rancid taste filled my mouth. I tried to swallow it as I managed to stand. The ground seemed to swivel under my feet, but I mentally marked the House Tellier wizards.

It looked like I had subdued three of them. Gideon and the rest stood around me in a circle. Hopefully I’d be able to make an attack wide enough for all of them.

Mason gave me his attention again as I picked up my katana—my blood had turned tacky and sticky on the hilt. Cleaning it was going to be disgusting.

“You’ve learned your place now,” Mason said. “You were never fit to run House Medeis. Neither were your parents.”

“You say that as if you aren’t the worst thing that ever happened to our House.” I laughed, wincing when it hurt. I started to discreetly pile magic around my feet, building my power for my next—and final—attack.

Mason shrugged. “The wizarding community doesn’t agree with you. The respectability and general rank of House Medeis has increased.”

“Ahh, Mason.” I pushed my katana into the ground again and held on. “Didn’t I already tell you? I’m not fighting you for the House, but my family.” I smiled. “Checkmate.”

Mason frowned. “What—”

I unleashed my magic, causing massive lightning strikes that struck the area in a twenty-foot diameter around me.

The first struck Mason, instantly flattening him and making his clothes smolder.

The next hit Gideon—making the Heir yell in pain and flinging him a few feet as the ground beneath my feet glowed blue with my magic.

Bolt after bolt struck, splitting the air, burning the ground, and the attacking wizards.

A few House Tellier wizards dragged themselves out of my circle. I got Gideon twice, but Mason I struck again and again as blue sparks danced around me and the area was such a violently bright blue it was nearly impossible to see.

The ground rocked, and the air trembled with electrical currents.

I yanked my sword from the ground, and the lightning bolts stopped striking and instead arced around me in a beautiful show of crackling lines and hissing sparks.

I wiped more blood off my face as I knelt down at Gideon’s side.

He made a mewling sound, but he couldn’t get his limbs under control to move away from me.