Page 35 of Risen
I wanted to stop and wonder over this new ability.According to the others, my powers were still developing.And I had gained a significant magical boost from bonding with Sadavir, and from whatever strange magic flowed through me during our trip to the naga temple.Was that why I could suddenly meld with my creature friends?
There was no time to question the how and why of it now.I had to move.
As the surprise wore off, I worked to fully anchor myself in my power.I closed my eyes and let the connection take over, my animal friends giving me glimpses of the room as we went.The place would have been fascinating in any other situation.Arches made up of blocks carved with art deco renditions of Aztec faces surrounded the perimeter of the ballroom, and a curtained stage stood not far from where we were.The emperor stood on the stage like he was the main attraction, hurtling balls of stolen magic at Robin and the others, who paced before him just out of reach, boxing him in.
Bodies, and bodyparts,littered the hardwood of the sweeping ballroom floor.
This close to the stage, I could feel the full force of the emperor’s aura, as well as the auras of my mates.I had thought the cult overpowering.I had thought Acacia venomous.But the emperor’s presence was something else.It was the weight of decades of stolen life, layered thickly over the black rotted heart at his core.The air hummed with malignance.He had manipulated this corner of the paranormal world for nearly a hundred years.He carried the weight of each evil deed etched into his energy—into his soul.And I knew he would happily add Robin’s destruction to the layers of death and pain, if he could.
The prophecy stirred in my mind, the wild fae elder’s words playing on repeat in my head.Either I killed the emperor myself, or my life and Yukio’s would be forfeit to the magic of the bargain.I clutched the hilt of the ritual blade I had hidden in my pocket.My breath trembled as I inhaled, trying to prepare myself.Trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do now.
Even if Iwascapable of stabbing a man, there was no way for me to get to him.He was up there on the stage hiding behind his stolen magic—power that Robin, Sanka, and the others had yet to fight through.What chance did I have?
“Enough, maggot!”Another surge in Robin’s magic, a bright flash of orange and gold, only this time much sharper.She had shifted into her dragon form.
A shout drew my attention the right, back toward where we had entered the ballroom.“Fuckers!”Martina grunted from somewhere across the room.
“More reinforcements,” Josh muttered in my ear, suddenly at my side once more.He shoved me back against the wall, further from my goal.“Stay here with Cicely.”His voice was low and deadly.“Stay behind me so Sadavir has room to move.”
They were setting up layers of protection for me, I realized.Sadavir was a strong fighter, and he was needed now, as more syndicate goons arrived, pouring through the ballroom doors to defend their leader.But Sadavir wouldn’t want to leave me unprotected.If someone managed to slip past him, they’d be met with a vampire, then a fae with mind tricks, before finally getting to me.
The gesture warmed my heart, but it also made a lump of ice form in my gut.I was an inconvenience that caused them distraction when they needed to focus on the fight.I wished I was more useful in this sort of hand-to-hand situation.But… the more space my protectors gave me, the more chance I had of getting close to the emperor.Josha and Sanka were distracted by the fight.I just needed to get Cicely to look the other way.
Robin roared.
The sensation of strong magic…shatteringnearby stole my breath away, followed by a whoop from Sanka.“Fuck yeah!”
The emperor’s last wall of wards was down.There was nothing separating him from the angry dragon now.
I wanted to cry out for Robin, afraid that she would throw herself into danger without a thought for her own safety, now that she could reach her prize.But my throat closed up with fear.I couldn’t distract her.Not now.
In my fear, my connection to the animals wavered and my vision shut down, leaving me blind once more.
The crash of a dragon landing on the stage was earsplitting.I knew without being able to see that Robin was destroying the emperor’s pedestal.The emperor met the beast with a surge of dark flame that was visible to my magical senses rather than my physical sight.Fire and dark magic collided in the air.The ballroom filled with the roar of it, and a suffocating wall of heat pushed in on me from all sides as the heat and magic filled the ballroom.
I hung back with Cicely, but my hands shook.Not from fear.From certainty.I had known since the elder whispered it that this would be mine to do.Robin could burn everything, but I had to be the one to end it.Somehow.For some reason, it had to be me.And I didn’t think I wanted to know what would happen if I failed—if the wild fae elder saw me taking out the emperor… that probably meant that Robin would fail.And the only way she would ever let herself fail was if she died in the attempt.
The emperor was stronger than I had feared.Cicely touched my arm, and his mind magic gave me a flash of sight long enough for me to see what was happening.Robin’s magic and her physical form were powerful, but the emperor was using her own stolen magic to fight her.It gave him an advantage he shouldn’t have.He twisted her flame into coils, drinking it in twisting it, then wrapping her in the warped power of her own birthright.I could hear the resonance of hersoul, the way a mother hears a child’s cry in the dark—the pitch of it wrong, strained, breaking.Robin staggered, her wings spasming.
Somewhere from the side, another sorcerer got in a burst of nasty magic that hit her in the side, throwing her to the floor.Where was Sanka?Yukio?Martina?Dusek?In my desperation, I managed to reach for my animals again, and saw through their eyes, what Cicely wasn’t showing me because he wasn’t looking that way.The others were busy fighting for their lives against the emperor’s sorcerer and a group of guards.Martina was lying on the floor in a heap.A thought had my gaze shifting perspectives as one of the rats scurried to her at my silent urging.She was still breathing.Just unconscious.
I shifted perspective again, to Odin as he soared above the chaos.Dusek could probably overwhelm the emperor now that his last ward was down, but the bubak was caught in some sort of spell, his shadows writhing around him sluggishly as he hung suspended in a magical bubble in the air.
I shifted my focus back to Queen Cat, to Robin.The emperor gripped her birthright orb in one hand as he held out the other hand toward the dragon and Isawthe magic and lifeforce he was pulling from her.
He was going to drain her completely.
He laughed, smug and disdainful, the sound of a man who always got his way.“All this power was wasted on you.”His voice was steel dragged across bone, grating at every fiber of my being.“But don’t worry.I’ll make good use of it once you’re dead.”
Robin snarled, and the vision in my mind faded again, leaving me to stare at the shifting light and shadow blurs before me.Cicely couldn’t hold his mental projections for more than a few seconds at a time, and my grip on my new ability was hit or miss.I made a keening sound in my throat, swallowed it down through sheer force of will.I felt Robin’s aura flicker and collapse in on itself.My dragon alpha was dying, and her death song was caught in my throat like shards of glass.
The others struggled to fight their way to her with magic and muscle, engaging the emperor’s guards and dodging his spells.I could feel them moving about, sense their cold resolve and deadly determination to reach their princess.But they would be too late.I could feel the song swelling in my throat, demanding to be set free.Holding it back wouldn’t prevent her death.The banshee song was a premonition, not the cause.But still, I refused to loose the shriek that tore at my chest.
No.I wouldn’t let it end this way.I moved, clutching the dagger at my side so hard that my hand ached.I clenched my teeth together around Robin’s death song.I would not sing her soul to the otherworld.It would not end this way.
Cicely tugged at my hand, trying to hold me back when I moved toward the stage.I shook my head fiercely and yanked at his grip.I needed to go.I had to do this.But… how?I couldn’t even see where I was going.How was I supposed to do anything when I couldn’t fuckingsee?Fury rose up inside me, a wealth of rage and shame that I thought I had long-since processed and healed.The cult had done this to me.The Mother took my sight away to keep me small and helpless.I wished I could singherdeath all over again.Wished I had been able to see the look on her face when the rats tore her apart and Dusek devoured her terrorized soul.
I yanked at my hand again, shocked when Cicely didn’t resist.Instead, he led the way, pulling me into a run while Josh was distracted.To the right,he said in my mind, his voice terse and full of a slurry of dread and resignation.Stairs.Left.Crouch down.
