Page 2 of Rose and Shadows
I cried out at the bone-shattering impact, and I ricocheted off it, landing on my hands in the grass and dirt.
Straining as fast as I could to look up and out at the nightmare scene I’d been headed to, a mixture of shock andterror had me shuddering as I watched my dad dart in front of Velra—a second before the moment of impact.
I spluttered out a scream as Morien’s wave—that demented version of Risen Reckoning—slammed into my dad at full force.
No. No. No!
My dad was wearing one of those face plate masks, all polished metal, and he had a low hanging hood on, so I could only see his eyes, flaming red, while he stared down Morien with his boots rooted to the ground as he stood in front of Velra like a ballistic shield in Ancient vampire form.
Morien jolted as his nuke-level blast was forced to concentrate only on my dad, instead of tearing through Velra and then the entire facility a hundred feet behind her.
“Remnant,” Morien choked.
“Power has corrupted you dearly,” my dad spoke without emotion, just a cold, hard fact.
Morien clearly didn’t like the impersonal nature of it, and he sneered. “And arrogance appears to have twisted you. How incredibly foolish. You’ve just made a suicidal move. Thinking you can absorb Risen Reckoning?” He shook his head. “You feel it, yes? It’s melting your insides every moment you continue to stand in its path. Inmypath. Your healing factor will be overwhelmed soon enough and you’ll be nothing but ash just like the others I saw to earlier.”
“Massacres for massacres’ sake now, is that it, Scion?”
Even though my dad’s voice came out steady—hell knew how—I caught sight of his hands shaking and… and his fingers starting to desiccate. The rest of him was covered, so it could be far more than even that beneath all the leather and robes.
“Ah, old friend, you know all too well that I always have a greater plan.”
He pushed harder then, his magic flaring.
A violent gray glow erupted all around my dad, then bled into him, cracks forming in his clothing, moving deeper to his flesh.
The only sound of the agony that it had to be causing him was a mere grunt.
Badass motherfuckerindeed.
His eyes flickered, that flaming red petering in and out.
I staggered to my feet.
I was healing rapidly, but I was still off-kilter.
It would have to be enough.
But then a whisper on the wind reached me.
My dad’s voice like before, a sound so low that it wouldn’t be perceptible to Morien. Or most others for that matter.
“Do not. He is coming.”
“Hold him!” Morien yelled behind him.
Then I watched as a couple of the Dark Fae used Morien’s magic to invoke Undead Domination, which would enable them to puppet my dad and take complete control.
Fuck, no.
The streaming hit, but ricocheted right off him and shot back the way it had come, driving into the wielders and sending them crying out and sailing into the depths of the forest.
Morien’s eyes widened. “How in Hades did you—”
A violent thunderclap cut him off.
Another and another.
