Page 187 of Rose and Shadows
Sylas flicked sparks of his magic behind him, and it broke Undead Domination on Cassius and Rhyza.
I saw him consider doing the same to me, but something flickered in his gaze and I caught sight of a trickle of his crimson magic discreetly traveling across the ground instead, barely perceptible.
It encircled the bottom of the dome around me and then faded into it and out of sight.
What was he—oh. He knew Morien wanted to take me and the baby. With Sylas needing to focus on Risen Reckoning, if Morien tried to escape while he was handling that, and tried to take me, Sylas might not be able to stop it. So I had a feeling, knowing how his mind worked, that he’d just tethered both me and Morien unbeknownst to him, so he could pull both of us back if Morien tried to jump into a portal and disappear.
I smiled inwardly. He’d just trapped the maniac.
Cassius’ white power flamed then and he added it to the wall, standing between Ariana and Mia.
Rhyza rushed over to help with the evacuation, where Remnant and Lazriel embraced her with such relief. Lazriel kept looking over at me, Cassius, and Sylas, though, so terrified for us, Remnant and Rhyza working to offer him any comfort that they could.
Morien roared as he saw the evacuation was speeding up, already two hundred hybrids gone from the battlefield now. He thrust more power forward, sending Sylas staggering back, just ten feet from the magical wall.
Morien laughed as Sylas’ shield shuddered, his palms flickering unsteadily.
“Even with your black magic immunity, the boost of your power thrumming through my veins has rendered you unable to match me.”
“You know how I love to push the boundaries of what’s possible, old man. Sometimes those boundaries can be pushed too far and I’ve been guilty of that.” He called over his shoulder. “Right, Ry?”
“You’ve struck a healthy balance now.”
“I have, yes.” He glared at Morien. “Unlike you, power-hungry fucking fool. You see, striking that balance is actually anadvantage. It made certain parameters much clearer to me. It’s how I was able to determine a solution to this very situation we now find ourselves in.”
“What are you—”
Morien’s words caught in his throat as Sylas eased his palms apart, and it forced Morien’s stream into two at the tail end.
“No!”
Sylas smirked and pulled his palms further apart, separating the stream further down, the gray shimmering waves being pulled away from their targets.
Ryker smiled. Cassius’ eyes shone. And Kai, of course, smirked darkly, knowing the psycho was about to get his. I heard a shocked curse from Lazriel. The others on the frontline held steady in deep concentration.
Sylas’ hands shook as the stream furthered into two split rivers.
And then he suddenly thrust his left palm forward.
It sent the left stream whipping around and slamming into Morien himself.
The asshole shrieked as it desiccated half his body in seconds.
His power barely held, and Sylas took full advantage of it, slamming his palms together and creating a shockwave that blew Morien back.
Risen Reckoning cut out.
Morien scrambled back to his feet and went to fire at Sylas, his body moving in an unbalanced way because he was half-desiccated.
Sylas batted his magical pulse away, then fired again and again and again, blowing Morien back into a tree.
The second he hit and ricocheted off it onto his front, Cassius burst into the fray and fisted his straggly hair, dragging him up close.
“There will be no peace for you, no afterlife, just obliteration.”
And then squeezed his glowing white hand around Morien’s throat and yanked, tearing his head from his body in a brutally gory display.
He growled and kicked the body away, then dropped the head on top of it, and turned to Sylas. “Do your thing. Ensure he does not return again.”
