Page 30 of Risen
I rose with the darkness as I shed my human-shaped disguise, growing physically taller, while my aura spread out in an infinite way that I knew would drive most mortals insane.Skeletal limbs unfolded beneath my tattered cloak, and I knew my eyes were burning like coals in the dark.My magic was terror, raw and uncut, and too massive to fully comprehend, and I poured it into the cultists, drinking in their fear.
Their voices broke.Some screamed.Some dropped to their knees in the impenetrable blackness where only I could see, clawing at their faces.The strongest tried to hold the chant, but with no light, there were no reflective surfaces for them to summon more of their ilk.I pushed harder, peeling their courage from their bones like skin from an overripe fruit.
The naga soldiers faltered, staring into the void-like darkness that surrounded them.Even the griffins shrieked, feathers puffed in alarm, though I was trying to focus my magic on the cult.My own court held steady, but I could feel their focus on me—Yukio’s coldness grew sharper, Martina shifted to her chupacabra form and paced along the wall, Cicely’s calming aura trembled, Robin’s fire hovered between fury and awe, but even the alpha dragon felt a shiver of fear—I could taste it in the air like the faintest hint of a savory treat.
The cult didn’t stand a chance against my true form.They broke ranks, scrambling, tripping over one another in their desperation to flee.Some felt for the few unbroken mirrors, clawing at the surfaces in the dark, trying to crawl back inside.But the living shadows that poured from me swallowed them whole.
One still stood, somehow protected from my power—maybe by whatever dark magic they were using.The Mother had her hood thrown back, eyes wild, mouth forming words I didn’t understand.Somehow in the chaos and distraction she had managed to grab hold of Ruya while I fed.She raised her blade to my omega’s throat.But I didn’t get the chance to react, to flay her mind the way I so desperately wanted to.
Queen Cat shrieked.The sound cut sharper than my magic.Rats poured up the stairs and from the cracks in the floor, dozens, hundreds, their teeth bright, their eyes lit with her fury.They swarmed The Mother as she released Ruya and tried to back away, biting, clawing, dragging her down until her last-ditch attempt at spellcasting cut off in a wet gurgle.
Perhaps the cult leader had been right to fear Ruya’s ability to speak with animals all those years.I bared my teeth in a skeletal grin at the deliciously dark justice.
Odin swooped low, as unimpeded by my darkness as the rest of the animals seemed to be.His wings beat furiously, knocking a cultist into the waiting claws of a griffin.Vlad shrieked overhead, and his presence added to the nightmares of another cultist who was currently lost to a phobia of flying rodents.
The place was filled with screams—cultists, animals, the whispering hiss of shadows, echoes of things not meant to be heard.And under it all, the steady thrum of my power, dragging terror from every corner, whipping it to a glorious crescendo, then devouring it with glee.
Finally, the last cultist fell, leaving a ringing silence in the blackness.The darkness covered the stairwell and landing, not a separate thing, but a part of me—this was who I was.A being literallymadeof terror and darkness.
I tried to return to human form, but the shadows still wrapped around my body, slick and hungry, and I was loathe to give up the expansiveness of my being.My breath was a ragged, echoing death rattle.My court was frozen around me, beneath me,withinme, lost to the massiveemptinessthat was me.I could feel the currents of the aether flowing through me, connecting me to the universe, to the ever-expanding darkness of time and space.
The human mask I had worn before was nothing more than a husk, a shell drawn over this vastness in some ridiculous attempt to contain it.I couldn’t make myself small again.I wouldn’t.
Robin’s voice cut through the dark, the husky sound tinged with her own nightmares, but steady.Confident in my ability to control myself.“Enough, Dusek.”
It took effort to pull the shadow back.More than it should have.It wanted to stay, to feast.I tried to force it down, inch by inch, until it coiled small again, tucked under my ribs where it belonged.But the vast monster inside me wouldn’t be contained.
Then something caught my attention.A flicker in the darkness, like a silvery fish darting through rippling water, there and gone again in a flash, so fast you wondered if you had really even seen it at all.I crouched, my skeletal knees nearly reaching to my ears, a long, bony hand brushing aside the edge of my frayed cloak, which was really the fabric of darkness and terror.There.Ruya.She was so small I could cup her in the palm of my hand, if I wanted to.
Her sightless eyes seemed to shimmer in the dark, lit from within by her own power.Her chin was lifted, shoulders back, tendrils of her long silver hair coming loose from its tail to glimmer around her neck and shoulders with an ethereal inner light.
“Dusek,” she said with a soft smile, reaching a hand up into the darkness as if she could see me there, looking down at her from above.A pulse of power radiated from her—omega, witch, tinged with the death-magic of her banshee blood.“Come back to me now.”
I was no alpha, to be commanded by the whims of a silly little omega, a mortal.And yet...her words, and her aura, snagged on something inside me.The part of me she and the others had so lovingly nurtured for so long now.The part that believed that maybe I was more than just a monster...
The lights flickered back on as I exhaled, folding myself into the human-shaped form that contained my power.I shrank down until I was standing before Ruya, my hand outstretched toward her cheek.I started to pull back, but a warm hand on my shoulder had me freezing up in surprise.Sadavir, giving me a silent squeeze of encouragement before he moved away.
Ruya took my outstretched hand and twined her fingers with mine as I looked around me and took in the carnage.The floor was slick with blood and broken glass.The mirrors were cracked, their surfaces blessedly dark and free of cultists.The naga stood tense, blades still ready.The griffins panted, wings drooping.
Robin jerked the hem of her shirt straight and ran a hand over her hair, pushing back a few escaped strands of red-gold.“If you arequitedone, bubak,” she said with a haughty little huff.“I’d like to get my magic back now.”
Sanka snorted a laugh.“After that onslaught, these wards are paper thin.”He turned back to the wards, channeling a burst of magic that brought the shimmering protection down in a wash of sick energy.
Robin pushed past him and threw the doors open as we all prepared to face the emperor and his stolen magic.I could sense that he wasn’t alone, now that the ward was down.A few more guards lingered in the ballroom beyond the doors, and I was pretty sure at least one of them was a strong sorcerer.
Everyone fell into position, joining Robin as they prepared to surge forward.But Ruya paused, lifting my hand and pressing a kiss to my knuckles.Her voice was gentle but urgent, as if she couldn’t bear to let me go before she said what she needed to say.Her words arrowed straight through my heart, as if she knew exactly what I might be thinking.“You saved us all.There’s nothing monstrous about that.”
I glanced one last time at the cult’s remains, at the rats dragging pieces into the dark, scented the fear still clinging to the walls like mildew.“I terrified you,” I said, my voice heavy with apology.
“And I’m perfectly fine.”She didn’t flinch.“Both can be true.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but the fighting had started again.My alpha needed me to help her see this done and the missing part of her magic—of hersoul—restored.I squeezed Ruya’s hand one last time, then drew her behind me as I flowed forward.“Stay in the hallway.”
I was prepared for her to argue, but a masculine scream interrupted her protests.The sound came from behind us, rather than from the battle in the ballroom.My head snapped toward the sound as Sadavir froze, tilting his head, letting Martina and Yukio surge past him.He couldn’t hear, but I thought maybe he could feel the anguish that scream carried.
“Where is Josh?”Ruya demanded, her sudden fear palpable to my heightened senses.
“And Cicely,” Sanka snapped out as he dodged a burst of magic from inside the ballroom and blindly hurled his own ball of angry red magic back at the caster.“They were right here.”
