Page 33 of Risen
Acacia screamed again, that same enraged, animal sound she had made when I killed her sorcerer and ruined her ritual.She grabbed Josh’s shoulder and spun him away from me so she could kill me myself.But Josh was no longer her puppet.He had broken the final thread of their forced maker bond and he wasn’t going to idly sit by and watch her kill me.
Acacia was older, undoubtedly more powerful.But Josh was driven by pure, unbridled fury.I tried to dampen my magical awareness as the overwhelming pain and pent-up fury poured out of the other beta.
Acacia had kept him and Sadavir as slaves for years, she had attacked Josh, savaged him, and turned him into a vampire against his will, then used him to manipulate and attack the people he loved.She had violated his body and mind.
I pressed my hands to my temples and sank down against the wall, crouching in the corner as the two vampires tore at each other in a flurry of violence, moving so fast my eyes couldn’t follow.My head pounded in time with my heart, icepick stabs of pain searing through the synapses of my fried empathic powers.I wanted to help, but I could barely draw breath through the pain and backlash of overexerting my magic.
Upstairs, the screams of the dying cultists faded, and I dimly registered that Dusek’s terrifying aura started to withdraw from the stairwell.
Acacia’s laugh came out bright and careless as blood splattered the wall—hers or Josh’s, I couldn’t tell.“You can’t win, boy,” she taunted.“I am aqueen.And you’ll never be anything more than a human worm I gifted with a little bit of bloodlust.”
Josh didn’t respond to her taunting.He continued snapping at her, darting in and away with a constant low growl, like a feral animal, wounded and with nothing to lose.I pressed my hands harder to my temples.He was lost to his trauma.But was that a weakness or was it giving him an edge?
Sucking in a deep breath, I pushed my sluggish magic outward again, reaching for his mind, trying to get a trickle of mind speak through his new mental shield.Nothing she says is true,I whispered.Only lies leave her lips.Nothing about you is weak.You areglorious,Josh.
I listed to the side, black spots dancing across my vision from the overuse of my magic.
Acacia made a sound I had heard many times in the fae court, when I was under O’Dell’s thumb.It was the sound people made when they realized the knife they brought for backstabbing was suddenly sticking out of their own chest.
Everything slowed, their frantic motion coming to an abrupt halt as Josh drove his hand through Acacia’s chest with a wet crunch.Not pausing, he yanked his hand out of her chest in a spray of blood, fisted one hand in her hair and gripped her shoulder with the other.Then he ripped her head from her body.
I gagged, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away as I watched her body fall to the floor.Josh stood there for a beat, panting and staring into space.Then, he came back to himself, starting and jerking backward when he realized he was still holding her head.He threw it down the stairs with a choked sound, just as several sets of feet came pounding down the stairs toward us.
Josh looked at me with an expression I couldn’t name, his mouth opening and closing without producing sound.I winced.I wanted to wrap him in comfort, shield my fellow beta with my magic so he could come down from that whole...thingwith some sort of gentleness.But I just didn’t have anything left to give.My magic wasn’t all that strong to begin with, and I had flung everything I had at him earlier.I lifted my hand and wiped the trickle of blood from beneath my nose.I needed---
“Cicely!”Ruya had frozen for a moment when she reached the landing—probably to use her magic to scan for wounds.She unerringly rushed to my side, crouching down and reaching for me, her warm golden magic already rushing through my body.
I sighed in relief.She couldn’t fully fix my magic depletion, but she could mend me well enough to get back on my feet.That done, she immediately stood and turned toward Josh, as Sadavir pulled me to my feet and into a one-armed embrace against his side.The naga’s alpha aura wrapped around me, seething with misplaced worry.But his eyes were glued to his other beta as Ruya fussed over him.
Meanwhile Dusek hovered on the stairs, half his attention clearly focused on what was going on up above.“We need to go,” the bubak said, his deep voice conflicted.“They’ve breeched the ballroom.”
I shrugged out from under Sadavir’s arm and headed toward the stairs.But the naga ignored Dusek’s urging and immediately moved to Josh, reaching for his face, but not touching him, hands hovering a breath above skin until Josh leaned into his palm.Sadavir pressed his mouth to Josh’s forehead—the gesture silent, but full of so much devotion—then turned his head to kiss his hair, his temple, a swift brush against his lips.He pulled back to sign one word.“Free.”
“Yes,” Josh said, and I had to blink rapidly to prevent tears from falling from my eyes at the wealth of emotion that burst from them both at that one word.
“We need to move,” Dusek said again, practically vibrating in place with his need to move.“Acacia’s death is good news.But Robin needs us.”His dark gaze fixed on Ruya and I knew what he was thinking.Ruya was in danger by being here.But Robin might need her omega mate at a crucial moment.I knew just how critical the right presence could be at a key moment—hadn’t I just seen that play out with Josha and Acacia.
Ruya’s attention snapped to the ceiling above us as if the stones had whispered directly into her ear.Her aura—calm, determined, and full of some sort of sad resignation—suddenly filled the stairwell.She touched Josh’s arm one last time before she turned toward the stairs.“I need to go.”
He nodded, awkward with the attention, and immediately jerked into action, trailing after her.
Sadavir and I hurried to follow, and a skitter of unease ran down my spine.I knew Josh wasn’t as well as he seemed.There would be backlash later.Heavy emotions that would try to cripple him.But now wasn’t the time to try to help him.This was it.The rebel court was facing off with the emperor, and there was no guarantee any of us were going to walk out of this alive.
Chapter 15
Ruya
Thebattlealreadyragedin the ballroom, and I didn’t need working eyes to tell me it was fierce.
I reached out and gripped Cicely’s arm in a silent demand for information as we crept along the outer wall of what felt like a cavernous space.Brief images and hurried thoughts filled my mind as he divided his attention between me and the fight.Sadavir and Josh stood between us and the fighting, the three men keeping the weak omega safe.I could feel Robin from here, her fierce, fiery aura stronger than ever, spiking erratically with bursts of power that made her earlier struggles seem like nothing in comparison.The room flared intermittently with light that I knew was dragon fire.The emperor hid behind another line of guards, flinging spells that I knew no sorcerer could craft with their own power alone.Fire, stolen magic, and the coppery scent of blood hung in the air around us.
“You,” the emperor was saying as I did my best to creep closer to Robin without getting in the line of fire.“I thought I exterminated all of the lizards in this city.”
“Youtried,” Robin hissed, and another flare of light and heat told me she’d just tried to roast her enemy alive.Someone screamed.A name flitted through me but I pushed down my banshee instincts—not one of ours.
Unfortunately the scream didn’t belong to the emperor either.He continued to taunt Robin, probably hoping to use her rage against her.
“Oh, were you there?You must have been no more than a snot-nosed brat at the time, cowering away somewhere with the rats and cockroaches while I cleansed the city of your ilk.”Another flare of magic, followed closely by a blast of Yukio’s frosty power.The emperor’s voice was calm and unconcerned, as if he were discussing the weather.“But now that I think about it, I do recall the list of the dead was missing a child—I assumed one of the shifters at the insignificant wretch.”
