Relief weakened Ellis’s knees, and she slumped against the wall. Her mind reeled, unable to comprehend the victory she and Zeph had won, even as she sat in the midst of shattered glass and the flickering remnant of the witch’s dark magic. Her skin was feverish with spell-casting, and she brushed at tendrils of curses that clung to her skirts.

Pushing herself away from the wall, she trod with weary feet across the room to Zeph. His grin was bright as sunshine, though dark magic still smudged across his freckled face. The magic sparked, bright and malevolent, startling Ellis so that she flung a repellent spell at Zephyr’s face without thinking. With a flash, he rocketed backwards across the room, crashing into a banquet table with enough force that it splintered. Ellis gasped and sprinted after him, her heartbeat thundering under a layer of clammy sweat and dread.

But her cries were met with laughter that rang with victory. Zeph glowed under a layer of his own protecting magic, and in a moment he had swept all thoughts of desolation from Ellis’s mind with an enchantingly perfect kiss.