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Shan abruptly bashed her with an attack spell. His magic flamed around her in a sphere of blue bolts and the force of it made her falter a few steps before she caught her balance. Onja then shook the hood off her head and faced him. Blue light blazed in her eyes and her power filled the courtyard with snapping energy.

“This is your last chance to control yourself,” Onja said.

Unintimidated and sick of hearing her voice, Shan attacked again. His magic thrust out from his spirit like a striking scorpion’s tail. His anger and repugnance for her actions were transformed into energy. His spells blazed around Onja. It was time the rys had a King instead of a Queen.

The Queen defended herself. Her shielding magic had been perfected in many ancient battles and she was ready for this challenge from her upstart ward. Shan intensified his attack and walked up to her. His hands roiling with white-hot energy, he reached for her throat. She grabbed his wrists and they grappled. They traded attack spells until Onja finally had to admit to herself that his challenge was at least respectable. She had always suspected that Shan possessed a power that rivaled her own, but rivalry did not mean superiority.

Shan twisted one arm free of her grasp and struck her across the face. It was a savage blow made with his male strength and it knocked her down. Her upper lip was cut on her teeth and her purple blood squirted down her chin. Shan was excited by his success and his attack spells became more potent.

It felt so good to use his power this way. He had never imagined what it might feel like to use battle magic. He knew that long ago rys had used their magic in war, and although he had contemplated the technical aspects of warfare, he had not guessed at the emotional thrill that giving battle produced.

His hunger for victory grew. He forgot his feelings for Onja. His rage consumed memories of kind words and gentle touches. Hurting her was what he needed now. The single throne of Jingten would soon be his.

Again Shan struck her face and reached for her throat with his free hand. He squeezed her strong sleek neck, pressing the jewels of her necklace into the blue skin. The vulnerability of her living flesh against his palm and clamping fingers excited him. He could feel her mortality, and it cheered him toward violent victory.  

Onja had had enough. She was done testing him.

Through the blue blur of their roiling magic, Shan watched the cut on Onja’s lip close and the bleeding stop. She released his other wrist and smacked her palm against his forehead. She struck him with a boulder of magic that sent him backward like a skipping pebble. Shan wobbled to his feet and tried to make his vision stop swimming. Determined to fight on, he raised his hands to cast another attack spell, but enchanted fire encased him. His skin burned and his body felt heavy. Onja gasped a word that completed her spell, and Shan could not move. The energy had coalesced around him and turned into solid stone up to his neck. The hot enchanted stone gripped him so thoroughly he could not even struggle.

His head jerked from side to side. Distress seized the finely chiseled features of his young face. Onja picked herself up and walked over to him in his partial upright sarcophagus.

She gloated for a moment, very much enjoying his panicked realization of defeat. Onja caressed his lips. It had been a long long time since she had dueled with anyone. It had been a genuine pleasure.

“Shan, I will forgive you,” Onja said and cast the next spell that encased his head in stone.

She left him to languish inside the monolith where she presumed that he would learn to hibernate or perish. She expected that he would not have trouble grasping this lesson, and the Age of Onja continued.

The struggle for power and moral conflict continue in The Rys Chronicles fantasy series.

The Rys Chronicles begin in “Union of Renegades” in which the stakes get much higher as Shan enlists the alliances of human tribes to support his renewed attacks on Onja.

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Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I

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