Alice's fingers glowed violet as she dragged her joined hands diagonally through the air. Lilly dropped down and rolled, narrowly avoiding being sliced in two. She could only hope that the wounds her friends had suffered were minor. Mud covered Lilly's pant leg and soaked her sneakers, but she had no time to care. Throwing up a hand, she summoned the power inside her and threw it all at the wards protecting her opponent. Alice took a step back as it impacted, but her shields remained unbroken.

"Fuck this," Lilly clenched her fists and pushed herself up onto her feet. Just as Alice released her next attack, she released her own. Lilly sprinted straight for her, and with all the strength she could muster, tackled Alice around the waist. They went down hard in a mess of limbs. Lilly pinned her to the ground and slammed a fist into her face.

Three punches and still no blood. There was nothing left of Alice's body to bleed. Alice kicked up her legs and locked her arms around Lilly's neck. She let out a cry as her body was thrown over the Niffin's head and into the mud. There was no time to waste, and before anything else, she shielded the spell Alice had conjured. Lilly flipped up to her feet and swerved to the side, scarcely missing a punch to the gut.

With the flick of her fingers, she summoned the dagger strapped to her ankle and threw it forwards. Alice screeched as the blade buried itself into her thigh. Lilly immediately slammed one foot, then a roundhouse kick to the Niffin's temple. Alice stumbled back from the force, but Lilly hadn't seen her hands come up to fold together. Light flashed between them, and Lilly was thrown backward. Her body hit the ground and rolled, dragging across mud and rock to a stop two yards away. Blood dripped from her side, her shirt ripped and torn from the jagged rock she'd slid across.

"There it is." Alice grinned, her eyes shining with manic glee at the sight of blood. Lilly pushed herself up on both arms, struggling as her vision blurred. Alice strode towards her, and Lilly fumbled to her knees. Alice twirled her fingers, and pure blue energy swirled at the ready.

"This power doesn't belong to you." Lilly gritted her teeth and spat a wad of blood onto the ground.

"It will," Alice smirked. She took one more step, outstretching her arm to reach for Lilly's throat. Lilly swung her leg around and swept Alice off her feet. The spell meant for her flew off into a fence post. It exploded in a shower of splinters and sparks. Alice scrambled to stand and blocked Lilly's next swing.

They fought and countered, twisting and shoving in a vicious dance of hunter and prey. Lilly wasn't sure which was which. Hot blood soaked her shirt from the deep gash in her side. Had it not been for the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she might've collapsed long ago. Alice shoved Lilly's back with such force she nearly fell flat on her back. She panted in exhaustion. Every attack was thwarted by Alice's magic, her wards, or her godly stamina. Her eyes darted to where Kady and Julia still sat slumped against the barn. She couldn't tell if they were even breathing.

Lilly blocked another magical cut by the skin of her teeth, and then they were back at it. Lilly clawed at Alice's face, and had she still been human there would've been bloodied gashes all along her body. Any blow Lilly dealt the Niffin was healed within seconds, and all she seemed to be succeeding in was making her unfathomably angry.

A blood-curdling scream escaped her lips as Alice shoved a fist into the throbbing gash in Lilly's side. She collapsed to her knees against her mind screaming at her to shove Alice back. Alice clamped her hand around Lilly's neck, and in a flash, Lilly pulled her closer and used the momentum to toss her over her left shoulder.

Lilly searched the ground for the remains of the only true weapon at her disposal. The arrow was mere feet from her position. She lunged across the muddied ground, fingers closing around its pointed end. A hand wrapped around her ankle and dragged her back through thick mud. Lilly kicked out and jammed her heel into Alice's nose. She heard the furious screech but didn't have the luxury of looking back to see how much damage she'd done.

Lilly scrambled up to her knees and whirled, swinging the snapped arrow through the air in an arc. Alice grabbed Lilly's hand mere inches before the arrow ripped into her stomach. She had somehow managed to stand in the time it had taken Lilly to wield the weapon against her. Alice snarled down at her, bloodied and battered. She, too, was caked in mud and hay and a million other things that lay in the field they fought.

Lilly used her second hand to push the arrow with all her might. Alice fought back with matched strength and determination. They'd found themselves locked in a battle of sheer tenacity and will. Lilly looked up at Alice's unnatural glacial blue eyes and glared with a virulence she'd never shown to anyone else.

Neither of these women was as they were when they first met. Innocence spoiled quickly under duress, and for Lilly, it had hardened into a fierce unmatched power. Alice's magic was all that remained in this shell of a person. The arrow inched back from Alice's stomach ever so slowly. Lilly's arms shook with exertion. If either one released their hold, it would all be over. The severed end of the arrow was jagged and splintered, and if she failed to pierce Alice's skin, her own would surely be the sacrifice.

Alice's body jerked forward, her eyes growing wide with confusion. Her mouth parted with an exhalation of breath. The arrow slipped from her grip, and Lilly plunged the tip hard into Alice's stomach. The pointed edge of a serrated blade protruded from the Niffin's chest. Looming over her was Saia.

Lilly fell back onto the ground, her body collapsing from the lack of rivaled force. Alice stared forward with glazed eyes, her body swaying for a moment. Lilly's tiny dagger still stuck out from Alice's thigh, and pure blue light spiderwebbed out from the wound. The light surrounding Saia's long dagger was much brighter, and her chest was alight in a woven constellation of raw magic.

"Lilly!" Dani sprinted towards them from across the clearing. Her face was painted with concern and terror. Saia yanked the blade from Alice's chest and watched as the body crumpled to the ground in a heap.

Lilly couldn't move. Her legs felt like jelly, her arms like lead. She looked to Saia, who was much more composed. She seemed completely unfazed by the fact that she'd defeated Alice with one blow. Lilly let out a harsh breath and began to stand.

Blue light flared, and Lilly cried out as a blade cut through the muscle and tendons of her shoulder. Alice was before her, alive and without a scratch. The arrow was clutched in one hand, and Lilly's dagger was now lodged in her own shoulder.

"You didn't really think that scrap of wood and metal would kill me? Did you?"

"Get away from her!" Saia charged, slashing her dagger through the air. She would've succeeded if Alice had not flung out a hand and hit her with a pulse of magic. Dani, who had been beside her, was caught up in it too. Before Lilly could do anything more than scream their names, Dani and Saia were suspended before her. Their hands clawed at their necks in vain, where an invisible force had coiled around them.

"That is enough of your games!" Alice snarled a demonic screech that one might hear from a territorial wildcat. Her stark white hair whipped around her face as she jerked her head between the two women dangling at her mercy, and Lilly, who watched in terror. "Either you give me your blood, right now. Or I snap their necks."

"They have nothing to do with this." Lilly tried to keep her voice strong and unwavering, but the pleading was unmistakable. "Let them go."

"They just stabbed a dagger through my back. Do you think I give a fuck?" Alice's fingers twitched, and Dani cried out, her legs kicking desperately for any hold.

"Wait! Wait!" Alice raised a brow in interest as Lilly shouted. "I'll do it. Just let them go." Alice's smile made Lilly's stomach churn.

"Wise choice." Saia and Dani collapsed to the ground, their bodies still as the grave.

"No!" Lilly tried to push herself up and run to them, but her legs betrayed her.

"Oh, relax." Alice rolled her eyes at the dramatics. "They're just paralyzed. They'll be free as soon as you're dead." Lilly swallowed hard and turned her head to face Alice.

"You let them live. All of them," Lilly nodded in the direction of Kady and Julia.

"Yes, Yes. Now, get on with it. You know what to do." Alice eyed the dagger buried hilt deep in Lilly's shoulder. Hesitantly, Lilly reached up to grip it. Setting her jaw, she yanked it from her flesh with a groan of agony.

And then, with a sorrowful glance towards her friends, Lilly brought the sharp bloody edge to her palm. She let out a sharp hiss as she dragged the edge across her skin, leaving a thin trail of blood behind. Lilly did the same for the other, and there she knelt in the mud of an abandoned field, before a monster of pure magic. Her blood began to mix with the murky rainwater that had yet to sink into the earth. Alice pulled a small bottle from her pocket and held it out before her. Words of the ancients joined the soft rustle of long grass in the wind, and the harsh breath of Lilly, gradually bleeding out.

The blood began to lift from the ground, from her palms, and draw into the bottle. Alice grinned with such triumph that Lilly wanted nothing more to cry, to fight till her last breath. This was not the death she wanted. Knelt before an enemy, helpless and imperiled. There was nothing to do but let it happen. The others would be dead otherwise. Alice took three taunting steps forward, looking down upon her prey in indulgence.

"You forgot one thing." Lilly pursed her lips and lifted her chin in defiance.

"And what is that?"

"Blood magic is far more powerful than anything a Magician can ever contain. And you come from the power of a Magician." Lilly shot her bloodied arm out to clamp it around Alice's forearm. "I'm a Maegi." Alice tried to pull back, the sudden panic washing over her face and dissolving any trace of smug triumph. Lilly began to chant, over and over, the ancient Mayan spell she'd spent hours upon hours memorizing.

Quentin had emerged from the Tesla Flexion and revealed the only way to kill a Niffin. Lilly made the decision so long ago, not knowing if she would ever need to put it to action. Alice began to thrash and pull and screech with all her might, but Lilly felt the point of no return. Saw the cracks in Alice's skin flare with cerulean light and expand until she could no longer keep her eyes open. Lilly flinched back as the light swelled to an unbearable crescendo and then vanished altogether. Lilly's eyes fluttered open to find herself alone in the middle of the clearing, covered in her own blood that still gushed from open slashes.

"Lilly!" Feet thumped across the ground towards her as Lilly swayed on her knees. The world was beginning to grow from sharp and unyielding to dull and hazy. She was so exhausted. It seemed to crash upon her all at once. Her body collapsed against Dani's, head lolling to the side as the strength to hold it up faded from her body with her very lifeblood. A hand clamped around hers, and frantic words murmured. Water dripped onto Lilly's shoulder, and she couldn't see where they were coming from. Maybe it was beginning to rain again. Maybe the darkness around her vision was only the clouds rolling in, and soon the thunder would return to shake her awake.

Lilly wanted to say something, but she couldn't quite form the words, neither in mind nor on her lips. She felt the familiar warmth of magic flow through her and felt herself dip in and out of cognizance. Kady brushed away the smeared mud on her pale skin. Julia knelt beside her, a hand pressing down on her hand and another on her shoulder. Light blossomed behind her eyes. She faintly heard Dani whispering words of comfort in her ear. It would all be alright. She'd be fine. They'd help her. It would all be alright.

As if she'd been shot up with pure adrenaline, Lilly's eyes shot open. Her body bolted up with a strangled gasp. Julia jumped back so as not to smash heads with her. She'd been leaning over Lilly's body, her hands pressed into her gushing wounds as Dani shook, cradled, and rocked the limp form of her best friend.

"Oh my god." Dani pushed herself up on her knees and threw her arms around her. Lilly was too confused and shocked to do anything other than a blink away the fog and sit upright. Her eyes drifted down to where her hands lay palm up in her lap. The bloody jagged gashes had vanished, and in their place were two neat pink puckered lines. There was no pain, no throb of anguish coming from her shoulder.

The dagger was tossed to the ground beside them, lying forgotten in a pool of blood. Soaked in scarlet from head to toe, Lilly shivered as a gust of frigid wind blew through the fields and chilled the clearing. Dani pulled back swiftly with wide eyes. "Oh, shit! You must be freezing, of course!" Before Dani could remove her jacket, Kady draped a sweatshirt over Lilly's shoulders and pulled the front tight around her. It reminded her of her childhood when Evelyn would bundle her tight in winter clothes and woolen mittens.

"How-" Lilly breathed, her eyes glued to the deadly ruby red stain around her body. She should be dead. "How am I here?" Julia gave her a wan smile.

"I think our Lady Underground gave me one last gift." Lilly stared slack-jawed at the woman who had saved her. Of all the people in the world, she never would've guessed Julia would be the one to save her life. Julia dropped her gaze to where she knelt in the still damp mud.

"Thank you." Lilly nodded shakily, and Julia looked up to find that her thanks were sincere. Her dark brown eyes were steady, and Lilly furrowed her brow in earnest. "Although," she frowned, looking over at Dani and Saia wistfully. "I'm not sure how much time it bought me." She may not have been in pain after Julia's miraculous healing spell, but she was no longer alone within her body. Alice roared deep beneath the surface. Kady set her jaw and lifted her chin. She reached out to take Lilly's bloody hand in hers.

"Enough to find a way to save you."