Page 29 of Risen
Robin turned, her dragon eyes blazing as she pushed Ruya behind her.“Get—”
But the cultists were already among us.
A cultist emerged from the wall sconce behind Robin and lunged at Ruya, knife flashing.My shadow moved faster than thought, rising from the floor to catch his wrist and twist.The snap was music to my ears, but his scream was sweeter.
The rest surged, chanting louder.The wards above us pulsed in time with their voices, feeding them.Cicely’s calm cushioned us for one heartbeat longer.Then everything broke.
The fight was chaos in the tight space of the stairs and the corridor.Naga blades cut bright arcs, blood spraying across the tiles.Griffin claws raked across any vulnerable bit they could reach, leaving cultists shredded and screaming.Sanka shouted spells as he and the curse breaker scrawled glowing symbols into the air, trying to stop the cult while still holding the emperor’s escape portal closed and keeping erecting their own wards to keep him from sneaking out in the chaos.
I dematerialized and moved through it all like water through cracks.My shadow swelled, slick and black, covered now and then by bits of tatty robe, choking people, wrapping ankles and dragging cultists off their feet.One tried to stab me.His blade passed through nothing, then I was behind him, whispering fear into his ear.He dropped the knife and sobbed, eyes wide, before a griffin’s beak ended him.
But there were too many.For each cultist we dropped, two more seemed to crawl from the mirrors, chanting louder.The air grew thick with the reek of incense and old blood.
Thenshewas there.The Mother.The head of the coven, who had kidnapped Ruya as a child, blinded her, and kept her locked in a tower in a pocket world her whole life, using her healing powers for political gain, andsellingpieces of our sweet omega on the black market…
The seething darkness in side me swelled, begging to be released.
“Ruya,” the woman snapped, her voice full of command, as if she actually expected everyone to just… obey.“Come here now, child, and I will spare your life.You can atone for your sins, be cleansed of the impurity you’ve subjected yourself to.You can stand beside us as we take over the city.”
My anger and darkness writhed inside me, trying to break free of my control.Howdareshe even look at Ruya, let alone speak to her of rejoining their fucking cult.The pained expression that crossed my trinket’s beautiful face made me want to unleash my true form then and there, damned the consequences.
Ruya’s shoulders hunched for a heartbeat, until she somehow found the strength to straighten them and glare toward where The Mother had spoken.“Never.”
Sadavir threw off the cultist he’d been busy pumping full of paralytic venom and coiled his snake lower half around Ruya, baring his fangs at The Mother in a protective display that would make most people piss themselves.But the cult leader was flanked by her followers, and they all held corrupted magic in their hands.Robin deftly stepped between Ruya and her tormentor once more, her dragon eyes glowing and her hands tipped in dragon talons.Ripples of flame flared here and there over her body, outlining her in dragon fire.
“I warned you once,” she hissed, her husky voice full of death.“To keep your fucking hands off my mate, hag.”
The Mother scoffed.“As if I’m afraid of a lowly animal, when I wield the power of the goddess.”She raised her hands, causing the sickly green energy there to dance along her fingertips.“You served your purpose by getting rid of the emperor’s guard, trapping him in his little hole, and weakening his protections, so we can finish the job.But you and your disgusting court of creatures won’t be stepping up to take his place.”
Ah, so that’s what this was about.Sheplanned to take his place.I didn’t know if the attack on The Fox was related, or if that was just another attempt to take Ruya back, retaliation for stealing from the cult—or perhaps a bid to grab themselves a powerful healer before they went up against the emperor.But the reason The Mother was here now, why the cult hadn’t bothered trying to find us while we were hiding with the naga… was because she was waiting for us to weaken the syndicate so she could swoop in at the last minute and take the emperor’s place.
Which meant she knew we had been planning this attack.Someone had leaked information.Again.
Robin didn’t bother speaking.She simply inhaled, long and deep.When she exhaled, fire erupted from her lips, burning through half a dozen cultists at once.They screamed and writhed, trying to use their magic to put out the flames—but dragon fire is notoriously fast burning and hard to extinguish.Ruya sang a counter-hymn to their screams, her rich alto voice rising to an eerie pitch as she compulsively sang the names of the cultists who rapidly turned to ash.
As if the violent display had been a signal, everyone burst into motion again.Josh snarled, fangs bared, yanking a cultist close then sinking his fangs into the man’s neck.Sadavir crushed another, his coils snapping bones.
And still they came, flowing through the mirrors and every reflective surface, like they were portals—some sort of demon magic, I was sure of it.Cicely started smashing mirrors with the butt of his gun, and Martina followed suit.But the glittering shards still littered the floor, and cultists somehow materialized through them, as well as every shiny, gilded surface around us.
Their chanting wormed under my skin, clawing at my spine and draping over me like a heavy blanket.“Net!”Sanka shouted.“They’re casting a fucking net.”And our sorcerer already had his hands full with the spells he was currently juggling.If he focused on the cult he’d have to drop his hold on the emperor’s portal and the asshole would get away.Again.
My bubak writhed, begging to be set free.It was too dangerous.In this tight space, I was a threat to everyone here, not just the enemy… I clenched my fists and tried to push it back, but it wasn’t enough.The cult’s voices rose higher, pressing against my ribs from the inside.I couldn’t transform here.I couldn’t.Some of my court knew what I was.But… some of them didn’t understand the true horror.For some reason, I froze.I just… couldn’t reveal the monster.
Shuddering, I looked up, met Ruya’s wide, blind eyes as she pressed herself into a corner behind Sadavir.I knew she couldn’t see me, but… for one startling moment it seemed as if she was looking right into my soul.Then Sadavir moved, and I met his eyes instead, as he punched a cultist in the face.Not afraid of you,his citrine gaze seemed to say, before he lunged to the side and sank his venomous fangs into a cultist who had tried to sneak around him and make a grab for Ruya.
A burst of ice magic froze three cultists solid and turned the top of the stairs into a slippery death trap.Martina had gone half feral again, and she fought to keep Cicely safe behind her, even as he calmly picked off cultists with his handgun whenever he could get in a shot in the close quarters.My eyes lit on my family one last time, committing their faces and auras to my memory,promisingmyself I could do this.I could be who I was and still come back to them.
Robin appeared before me, ripping a cultist nearly in half with her claws and darting into my space just as a spell hit her and made her grunt in pain and start bleeding from her eyes.“Bubak,” she said, her low voice as calm as if she were taking a leisurely stroll through the garden.“Stop stalling and help us.Let it out.”
Her words, and her bright gold eyes staring directly into my soul, shook me out of the weird freeze I had been stuck in.
It felt like I was moving in slow motion, possessed by someone else as I reached out, gripped the back of her neck, and yanked her close, pressing my lips to hers in a hard kiss before I could even think about what I was doing.My alpha tensed, but didn’t pull away, and the sliver of fear my aura pulled from her only seemed to fuel her dragon, making her aura flare in response.She bit my lip, her fangs drawing blood.
Then she pulled back with a growl.“Don’t hold back, bubak.”
Releasing her, I closed my eyes and let go of my tight hold on the human mask I wore.
The shadows tore free of me, a black tide spilling out of my center and across the floor.The lights guttered out.The cult’s chanting faltered.
