Page 33 of Darkness Rising
What he doesn't realize is that we're all broken. Lost souls always manage to find one another. They steady the recklessness that beats within us. They make us a little more sane in an insane world.
That is the reason we were accepted into the Wild Hunt.
And that is the reason Nollix snaps.
Nollix brings his blade up high. He jars it down with great strength, ripping through the air. It happens so quickly. One moment, my father is clutching ahold of my wrist. The next minute, his arm is laying in a bloody mess on the floor.
Nollix straightens his shoulders as he stares with a crazed look into my father's eyes. The angle of his jaw tightens as his lips purse tightly together. Blue smoke wafts from his blade, steaming between him and the King.
Jeriko slams the hilt of his blade into Nollix's back, causing him to stumble forward. When the two face one another, deadly tension fumes through the room. Strong winds twirl through the room with unstable forces. Nollix swings his arm up, the stone the building is made from pulls from the structure. It twirls with the breeze. The tower shifts as the far wall crumbles down to the ground far below. Nollix pushes hard at the winds and throws the debris squarely into Jeriko's chest. It hits with a solid thud and slams the Fae to the ground. The room shakes from the jarring impact.
Jeriko is not a Fae to fight with. He's arrogant, and there's a reason for that arrogance. He shoves off the crumbled stone and stands. Rage shakes through him. His fingers arch as his own magic swirls. He reaches for the flame that's dancing within the lantern.
The wind carries the embers, streaming with fire like a tornado stemming straight from the underworld. The fire streams right into his hands and fear trickles all through me.
I step in between Nollix and Jeriko.
He hates me. I see it in the sneering way he looks at me. Jeriko looks at me right now like he wants nothing more than to burn me from existence.
Fire strikes out from his palm, blazing through the air. But the wind is my friend as well as his.
I put every ounce of strength into my magic and the air hits the fire with a burst of embers. My jaw tics as my assaulting breeze sweeps up the flames and carries them high into the night sky like a comet striking across the heavens.
During the chaos, Link doesn't move an inch. He keeps his sword held low as he watches my father who in turn watches the three of us.
"What is your name?" My father nods to the Fae who's glaring daggers at me.
"Jeriko."
"Jeriko, I admire your power. If you learned to harness it, you'd be a man to be feared."
If he learned to think before he leapt, he'd be a real threat. If he used his brain sometimes instead of his brawn, he’d be a real man. If he was smarter than the average mound of shit, he might be a decent person.
This world is full of possibilities.
"If I asked you to join me, would you?" The King’s question leaves a lingering silence behind it.
I turn to him. My father stands with one fucking arm and a hole in his abdomen, asking for allies in a game I wasn't aware we were playing.
"Of course, my King." Jeriko's voice holds more respect than I've ever heard from him. “I am a man of loyalty.”
My sword slices through the air and before I can bring it down on Jeriko, Nollix is there in front of me. I stagger back just slightly. Anger rips through me.
Is he protecting him?
They’re old friends. They’ve been in the Hunt long before Link or I showed up.
"Jeriko," Nollix strides toward him. "You're fucking serious right now? If you join him, there's no coming back." Nollix is seething, his anger shakes right into Jeriko's face.
And Jeriko’s expression is one of disregard.
"You are too weak to see the silver lining. Too," he pauses as his attention shifts to where I stand just behind Nollix, "too distracted to see what our future holds."
My father's voice cuts off Nollix's response.
"That's the spirit."
Link points the fuming tip of his sword toward my father. With the room’s attention on Jeriko, Cameron quietly picks up the book of Severed Souls. He holds it tightly in his hand.
