Page 174 of Rose and Shadows
There he was, Sylas at his fucking best with the biting takedowns.
Morien’s eyes flamed with his power as Sylas’ words obviously struck just the way that had been intended.
“You antagonize me once again, wish to strip me of credibility.” He glared at my dad. “And you attempt to portray my victory as an impossibility, as lofty dreams that can never be realized.”
“Your megalomania has made it impossible for you to maintain a healthy grip on reality,” Dad told him. “And without that, you cannot effectively strategize. Although you undoubtedly deserve being torn down verbally as much as physically, my assessment is pure fact, Morien.”
Morien glared out at him. I saw his fingers twitch. His jaw clenched.
Good.He was rattled. Majorly.
It had worked to undercut the fucker and what he’d believed was his carefully laid plan and controlled situation here.
As he went to bite back, because, of course he couldn’t let it go, Sylas made his move, sending a rolling sweep of power out at the hostages that shattered the Dark Fae chains binding them, then also broke theInhibitor cuffson those hybrids who had magic-wielder capabilities.
The moment it happened, it served to cause the next level of distraction, and under my dad’s signal, we moved in, him and his vampires bursting toward several of the Dark Fae, coming up behind them and snapping their necks, killing them before they could use their stolen Celestial and black magic against the hostages to stop their rescue, or us. The Celestial power from the remaining thirty started firing then, though, forcing us into a defensive situation of using our rapid-fire movements to redirect blows away from the hostages.
My dad’s magic-wielders swept blanket healing spells over the hostages, enabling them to get to their feet and defend themselves as well.
He gave the call to evacuate them ASAP, which split the fifteen vampires—ten evacuating a half dozen hostages at a time, with five remaining here to fight with us.
Sylas was wrapping twenty hostages at a time up in his magic and sweeping them toward the pocket dimension exits, while I took to grabbing hold of him and moving him in bursts whenever Celestial power from the Dark Fae fired at him.
I saw my dad protecting one of his magic-wielders who was performing a spell that would note the Celestial signatures of all that stolen power being used, which we’d then send along to Cassius and Ketheron for the Celestial children to lock onto andsiphon. Even the ones The Shadowed agents had killed could still be read, the power siphoned. Given that it wasn’t their power, it wouldn’t just die with them, it would remain—fucking dangerous shit there.
Through it all, Morien was just standing there watching with a studious expression.
On first assumption it looked like he was reveling in the nightmare he’d created and even being one of those assholes who made other people do his dirty work.
But with that studying look, it couldn’t be.
He’d even said that his goal hadn’t been to kill these hybrids in particular, that he was saving his power for a massive display.
Then, why be ordering his Dark Fae unit here to fight back against us as we pulled the hostages free? Why not just lash out at Sylas and try to take what he needed from his son?
I saw my dad and Sylas darting glances over at the bastard every now and then too, clearly on the same suspicious track that I was.
“Something’s wrong, Sylas,” I spoke, as I burst him back again a few feet, a bolt of Celestial power sailing on by.
Even with that, he didn’t break his power stream that was sending the hostages toward the exit a hundred feet away, the way we’d come in.
“I know.”
“You… what?”
“He’s here instead of being with Gregor performing Risen Reckoning, because hecan’tactually perform it yet. His dramatics here point toward exactly that.”
“What? He has enough power with the Celestial and black magic,” I pointed out.
“Those are essentiallyboosters.He still needs enough of a foundation to be able to invoke it, and that lies in necromancy for himandthat spell.”
“He hasn’t been able to feed from other necromancers as, following his murder spree to do just that, they all disappeared,” my dad said, as he burst over, and I looked to see that his magic-wielder was free and clear, off to get those signatures to Cassius.
Thank fuck, we wouldn’t have to deal with this stolen Celestial power and black magic much longer.
Hold on.What they were saying crashed into me, an awful chill shooting down my spine. “He knew you’d come, Sylas. Because of the threat of him using Risen Reckoning on the hybrids here. But we didn’t know he couldn’t perform it, he knew we didn’t know… he didn’t plan to kill these hostages… all he wanted was you. He’s absorbing your power every time you use it, manipulating you into using heavy amounts of it by bringing along these Dark Fae hopped up on black magic and Celestial power.”
“Yes,” Sylas confirmed. “That’s what he’s doing. I can feel the absorption—since we engaged.”
