Page 3 of Rose and Shadows
The sky split open.
Flash lightning lit up the darkness.
Crimson lightning.
Fucking shit.
Was it really—
A massive stream of red power shot down from the sky in a sudden rush, hitting the ground right between my dad and Morien.
In several flashes of ferocious lightning, it snuffed out.
And there in its wake was none other than Sylas in a primed crouch.
His flaming eyes burned into Morien’s.
His lips lifted.
And then he smashed his right fist down, his power radiating out like a shockwave that smashed into Morien.
The bastard screamed as his power cut out in one shot and he was blown back into the forest.
Velra stumbled forward a little as the Undead Domination hold was broken on her.
Sylas briefly glanced behind him, needing to check she was all right, even in the midst of battle. I smiled to myself.
Then his gaze went to the Dark Fae and I saw him register the situation—that they were holding Kai, Cassius, and Ryker with necromancy infused with Celestial power.
He grimaced at Ketheron growling and uttering pained cries on his knees, clutching his head as some of the Dark Fae continued to torment him to keep him down.
He clenched his fists and I saw him note Ryker’s presence, a heavy look passing over his face. With all his unlawful activities, the vigilantism, it being known that he’d performed that outlawed spell,Auctoritas Mortis, and now it being clear he was no longer bound and therefore a threat again… it didn’t bode well for him. Here he was not just out in the open with his power, but engaging in battle and unleashing heavy magics. And I had a sinking feeling that he’d figured out a way to end this current battle and it involved crossing more lines. Right in front of the Head of the Guardian Movement.
“You allow them to constrain your power,” Morien spoke as he teleported back into the fray a few feet from Sylas, his palms upturned and live with his creepy gray and black power.
“My power just had you on your ass, father dearest.” He rubbed the fingers of his right hand together, making a show ofsparks of potent lightning erupting, something he was somehow able to do just from that slight gesture and also control to an insane degree.
Morien delivered one of his sneers. “How are you wielding your magic?” He frowned as he looked Sylas over standing there in all hisAlmighty Necromancerglory, his crimson power radiating off him furiously, his long hooded leather coat flapping behind him from the force of it all, his brown closely-cropped hair with the red spikes shooting straight up, so rigid, and radiating power too.
Sylas eyed the psychopath steadily, not giving anything away in his expression.
I mean, his father had been dead, he hadn’t seen him in years, now he’d just come at the ones Sylas loved, and yet he was showing next to no emotion at all.
Oh, fuck.With his magic back, he had to be employing that extreme level compartmentalization of his. A good thing in a dicey battle face-off situation like this, but really not beyond that. Not withus.And not for him.
“You know, most parents who haven’t seen their flesh and blood for years would at least commence with a ‘hello.’ Maybe even a ‘how are you?’”
Even as he delivered that, he did it stoically.
But Morien wasn’t stoic about it.
He couldn’t take his eyes off Sylas.
In fact, he was so focused on him, that he didn’t notice that Vorzyr and Nyx were just finishing up with the last two sets of groupings of hybrids that they’d gathered to teleport.
I saw my dad had shifted to beside Velra now, instead of in front of her, and she was working to heal him with her purple Dark Fae magic, sweeping it over the length of him, back and forth.
While she was doing that, though, my dad had a hand behind his back, and from the angle I could just about make out him sending hand signals. Some sort of military gestures that Vorzyr Titanus was picking up on, taking note of, and reading well. He’d grown up in the Dracoryn Realm, which at the time under his family’s House Titanus rule, had been super militaristic, so it made sense he’d be able to interpret those sorts of gestures.
