Dragon Prince

Chapter 10: Stealing Is Wrong... Unless It's From Pirates!

CHAPTER 10

STEALING IS WRONG... UNLESS IT'S FROM PIRATES!

Raine ran ahead of Neil further into the maze, cursing her luck.

Things were so much easier when boys were intimidated by her.

She reached a dead end and swore rather loudly, turning to face Neil who was slowly approaching her, twirling the small throwing knife between his fingers.

It was creepy how he had a gleam in his eyes as though he found this mere sport.

"Come on, Neil," she pleaded, trying to reason with him. "I know you're under a spell. You have to fight it,"

He continued to approach slowly and she took up a fighting stance, tossing her headdress and mask to the ground.

"Okay then," she muttered. "Looks like I have to beat some sense into you,"

Kicking forward, she aimed for his jaw with a side kick but he expertly evaded it by swerving to the side.

Not the least bit deterred, Raine delivered a right hook to his face which made him stumble back a little before gaining his footing.

He blocked her oncoming punches and kicks, delivering a few of his own while trying to slash at her with his knife.

Raine managed to body slam him to the ground by using his own momentum against him but he held onto her arm with one hand and sliced at it with the other.

With a hiss of pain, Raine staggered away from him, clutching her bleeding arm to her chest.

Neil rose slowly, shaking his head.

Taking off in a random direction, Raine tried to remember her way around the maze but came up blank. She found herself at the centre where a large beautiful fountain was placed with a statue of a woman pouring water into it from the jar in her hands.

Panting and out of breath, Raine looked behind her only to see Neil tackle her to the ground. She fought off his attempts and managed to flip them over so she was straddling him. She knocked her elbow into his temple and rolled away from him and shakily tried to get to her feet.

Neil tried to do the same but with his back to her, she noticed a faint golden glow on his back. It was only because of his cotton shirt that she was able to see it and for a moment she wondered what it was.

She reached into the fountain and cupped her hands, she then splashed the water she had gathered onto Neil's back and quickly tackled him back to the ground - this time, with him on his stomach.

She locked his arms behind his back as he tried to squirm free. With a lot of struggling and punching, she managed to pull his shirt up and see the glowing mark on his back.

A rune!

She had read much about them in the books in the palace library. Fairies use runes to channel their magic whereas the magic bestowed upon humans by the fairies themselves only required willpower as it wasn't as powerful.

The only way the governor would know about rune magic was if he either harnessed dark magic by killing a fairy or if he had somehow captured a fairy and had placed a compulsion spell upon it.

The Festive Moon is when fairies are most likely to be spotted in order to renew their magical abilities every five years. It was possible he could have captured one then.

No wonder fairies did not want anything to do with humans.

Raine quickly rubbed at the rune with her forearm despite the fact that she was rubbing a bit of her blood from her wound on it.