Page 6 of Rose and Shadows
Shit.Of course that was what she cared about—that those she loved were safe and well, even over her own wellbeing. She was something else.
“I thought—” she started, clearly struggling to believe it.
But her words caught in her throat and we both choked as we saw my dad whipping around the Dark Fae unleashing their power on Ketheron, a second before he thrust his hands through the backs of two of them and punched out their hearts in one hell of a gory display. He swept his hand at others, tearing their heads from their bodies. And then it was back to the heart-ripping, until all of them were sprawled out in bloodied pieces, dead on the grass.
He went to Ketheron and helped him to stabilize.
My attention was taken as Morien managed to get off a blast against Sylas.
He held his ground, but with a noticeable grunt, meaning Morien had hurt him.
But he couldn’t defend himself because he had his right hand aimed at the remaining Dark Fae who’d been holding the others.
As several other blasts assaulted him and his hands shook from the strain of taking it, while still holding Morien down with that leash, he staggered, but his power still grew on his right palm. It circled around the Dark Fae, forming a shimmering dome. But it wasn’t a shield. That was made clear as the few who were still conscious started screaming and collapsing back onto the ground as they’d been trying to get back to their feet.
“Sylas!” Kai called out, apparently figuring out what he was doing.
“It’s the only way!” Sylas yelled back to him. “They’re infected with black magic, wielding Celestial power, and my father has made them capable of channeling his necromantic magic. They’re lethal to all of you. I have to! I fucking have to!”
And then just as Ryker and Kai moved to intervene, Sylas twisted his right hand.
Necks snapped, one after the other, in a brutal display, as he murdered dozens, just like that.
A massacre.
“Oh my God,” Velra uttered.
I cursed and tightened my hold on her.
Sylas turned his full attention and power back to Morien then, and as another blast came his way, he caught it in his hand, then tossed it back at the bastard, making him scream as it slammed into his gut.
Morien let out a creepy laugh, spluttering as Sylas tightened the noose around his throat. “Yet another time you’ve killed because of me,” he croaked.
“What?”
“You feel it? That buzzing through your veins tinged with pain? That’s not you recalibrating to your power after being bound. You would have only felt it as I assaulted you. That strange, acrid tang?”
“You infected me with black magic.”
Morien’s lips twisted. “Yes. Now you’ll have a taste for it. Well, more than just a taste with those murders factored in. Especially as a necromancer… taking lives… the black magic will latch onto that intensely.”
“You want my power, why would you risk corrupting it?”
“It won’t be corrupted once I take control of it. I’ve already prepared. But trying to bear that… hmm… I’d wager you’ll come begging me to end it, to take away the awful weight of it.”
Sylas tugged on the leash, making Morien growl.
And then his power flamed.
A warning sparked in my brain.
In seconds all my senses were screaming at me.
Incoming.
An all-too-familiar incoming.
I saw my dad spin around, registering it too.
