Summon (39 page)

Malice ceased flailing and gripped Daphne’s arms.
Bright light poured from his palms onto her skin.

I gagged.

Her flesh burned. Cooking meat.

Daphne’s body seized. Her eyes scrunched as bloody
tears streamed down her cheeks, but she clung on, and continued to suck. Her
cheeks rhythmically hollowed with the spurting gulps.

Ripples of mottled light pulsed from Malice’s
vertically supine form. Cracks appeared in the godling’s immortal armour. “You
love her,” he rasped. His reddened eyeballs strained to look at me. “And she
loves you.” Tears slipped past the thick rimming of his ebony lashes. “Then
pray Bondye honours the gift I give.”

Something hot gripped my insides and squeezed.

Daphne arched, crying out around the mouthful of
throat she suckled.

Laughing hysterically, Malice stiffened. His eyes
rounded with terror, but he chortled. Bellowing guffaws until hoarse.

The sinister light intensified and poured in shafts
of brilliance from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

The world turned white and silent.

Death is
so still
.

Daphne exploded into ash.

I shut my eyes. “Be waiting for me.” Fire blasted through
me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Rae

Intuition
lifted my chin rather than dropping it when the ground trembled. My eyes closed
momentarily as I sought the origin. The grave disturbance creating the peculiar
wrongness
that sapped the strength
from my limbs made the earth quake.

Steadily forging a path to me through the endless
throng of zombies, Breandan brought a vampire to her knees. He roughly grasped
her shoulder and chin ready to tear her head off.

He stiffened mid pull.

Agony etched his face. He hunched over and covered
his chest with both arms rocking side to side.

Currents of energy belonging to Lochlann and Daphne
snapped leaving a vast ache. The warning scarcely prepared me as their voices
ripped through my mind. Parts of me shattered, pieces of soul I’d never get
back.

Shoving Maeve away, Marinette clutched her chest.
Bloodied fingers clawed at her heart. “
Ti
Malis
.”

My eyes pinged between the uneven skylines either
side of the river then narrowed in pain as light exploded from the upper storey
of a high rise and a plume of dust blanketed the landscape.

Stumbling to her feet and away from Breandan, Gwendolyn
grasped her fortune and ran.

Yelling a word of power, the zombie Ana faced
exploded into a pile of mush. Her eyes narrowed with deadly promise as the
vampire Queen whooshed past.

Maeve crawled towards me.

I grabbed her outstretched hand to jerk her closer.
Her warm palm clasping mine was bittersweet.

Swinging round, she shuffled on her side. Tremors
wracked her frame, but she pressed her lips together to hold back a whimper and
shoved hair from her sweaty cheek.

Marinette stitched her composure back together,
eyes glacial with hatred. She screamed. The ears of the zombies bled. The
werewolves fell to the ground whining.

Throwing her whole body into the motion, she
punched the air.

Lightning shot in every direction. Again and again
the godling swung, battering her enemies
and
her acolytes. She raged until her ire honed on the energy shield I used to
protect my allies. She rained blows upon us. On the fringes of my barrier those
not sheltered became airborne.

Clerics, shifters, Knights, and goblins clustered
deeper into the protection of the shield or fled into the foggy streets of the
city.

I chanced an anxious look at my life mate. I was
too far to protect him in his grief, and Marinette was an unpredictable danger
between us.

Throaty roars amped the intensity of my panic into
a freefall. Baako, Amelia and Kalcifer charged Marinette from separate directions.

“
Amelia
,”
Ana screamed. “
Don’t!
”

The godling held up a palm. Baako slammed into an
invisible wall, knocking himself unconscious. Spry, Marinette dodged Amelia’s
leap and slashed her snowy underbelly with a knife. The werelynx yowled and landed
awkwardly on her head.
Snap.
I
flinched at sound of her neck breaking. Her lax bulk skidded across the slushy
ground leaving a smear of blood. Marinette twisted, and with a skilled flick of
the wrist loosed the bloodied knife. It embedded between Kalcifer’s eyes. The
Alpha collapsed. His dead weight sank into the mud, and his furred sides
deflated with his last breath. His twitching paws stilled.

Threads of energy tied to me vanished.

A wail of denial ripped from Ana. The
grief-stricken sobs inflicted shallow cuts to my heart until the distressed
organ seized.

The werewolves threw back their heads and howled.
The melancholy sound rose and fell and the werecats added their caterwauls to
the baying.

Marinette struck the largest beast across its
muzzle. “Silence. You made your choice.”

Tears overflowed and dribbled from my chin as I
stared at the Alpha. I managed a fleeting look at the gutted werelynx sprawled
in a growing puddle of blood.

Face hot, I rubbed my chest with the heel of my
palm. The magnitude of sorrow entombing my senses caused the bleakest terror to
overwhelm me.
I worked so hard to have a
plan. This isn’t the future I fought for. Too many die. And it hurts.
The
collective anguish affected me in a physical way. Turning my body to lead and my
resolve to mush.

“Hai!”

My tear-swollen eyes wheeled to the source of the
rallying salute.

Emerging from the river to scramble up the
waterlogged bank was a fairy Knight. His dark hair plastered to his rugged
face, and his armoured trousers were dented or altogether missing in odd spots.
Patchy bruises and slashes crisscrossed his chest.

Kian swayed at the summit of the incline then
straightened to stand tall and proud.

Stormy clouds rumbled and rolled low at his back.

Angling his sword towards me, hope burned in his
eyes. “
Don’t give up
.”

The muscles defining his physique tensed in
readiness. Exhaustion bled from his features and his expression transformed
into the fiercest of scowls.

Kian sounded a battle cry and barrelled forward.
His rage amplified the resonant ululation torn from his lips.

Marinette didn’t blink.

She grabbed the sword he swung at her neck and
yanked it from his grip. Her hand wrapped around his throat, and she squeezed
until his legs buckled.

Maeve made a strangled noise.

“Enough.” My voice was a whisper.
I can’t watch another die.
I knew Kian.
I desperately wanted him to live a long life. I
felt
his faith in me, and needed to be worthy of it. I lifted off
my hands onto my knees. “Marinette. Stop.”

“It hurts doesn’t it?” She loomed in the centre of
her creatures. “When an acolyte dies it
burns
.
Drains you of strength and will. I’ve lost thousands of worshipers. Now you
know how it feels to hear their cries and be unable to wield your fury to
avenge them.”

Marinette dragged Kian’s sword across his throat.

For a precious moment, it appeared she spared him.
His flesh was whole, and his eyes round with astonishment.

The fairy Knights fighting their way to the river
cried out in a jumbled fusion of alarm and shock.

I sagged in relief.

A suspended heartbeat later, Kian’s gaze locked
with mine. My breathing hitched. I saw past his bewilderment to the truth.

Those lovely eyes dimmed.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Rae

Kian’s
throat peeled apart and gaped wide. Red drenched his chest.

Starbursts of pain exploded throughout my body.
Slumping, I stifled a moan. I scrubbed my chest harder as a heavy ache besieged
me.

Marinette’s breathing deepened. “I want you to feel
his devotion leech from your veins.
Feel
it
.” Hot blood flowed. Her hands were slippery with it. “Choke on it.” She
licked her lips, then a fingertip, which she extended to me. “Taste it.” Marinette
discarded Kian’s remains. She grinned at the demons gathering around us. “Does
another hero seeking to end me?” She wriggled her fingers at the sprawled body.
“I mean to make this corpse the base of a mountain. Come. Amuse me with your
bravery and I’ll make it swift.”

Do
something.
Any moment her mad
whims could fix on the heart of my power, Breandan, who stared into the
distance mumbling. I didn’t want to draw needless attention to him, but I
couldn’t watch her freely take life.
Do
something.

The truth locked me to immobility.

Marinette was too strong.

Then
become stronger.

I tried to remember alternate outcomes where
Marinette died, and I survived our struggle. No matter what I recalled the
answer remained constant.

I need
Breandan.

Having the strength to defeat evil single-handed
was the dream of many warriors. I didn’t aspire to be an untouchable hero. The
bravery Kalcifer, Amelia and Kian showed humbled me, but I felt no shame
needing my antithesis, the male to my female, death to my life to feel whole
and able to vanquish my enemy.

Inhale.
Blink. Exhale.

Life mattered. Preserving it at all costs
was
a worthy cause, but
I
defended it for love.

Do
something.

“I remember the first time I saw you.” Maeve lay
next to me curled on her side. She looked oddly calm. “I thought I was going to
die. Then I heard a noise and saw you, golden eyes peering through the leaves.
You looked so frightened.” Her face creased. “I was meant to die. I didn’t. As
they tortured me I knew you’d find me. Fate took me, so you brought me back.
Saved me again and gave me a gift.” Her fingers grazed the amulets nestled on
her chest. Her lip wobbled. “I’m on borrowed time.”

Overwrought, I shook my head to clear the haze. I
wanted to say something kind to give her courage.
I know what it’s like to face your own death.
“Eve–”

“I am the issue of a Warrior. My brothers are War
Lords. My mother was a Battle Maiden blessed with a glorious death protecting
her Tribe. I will do this.” She gave me a stern look. “Understand I was hard on
you because I love you, sister. Take care of Breandan. Watch over Alec.”

Maeve staggered up and unhooked the bow from around
her back. She tossed it. Unbuckling the leather strap across her chest with
shaky hands, her arrow quiver followed. She took a step then spun. She searched
the shifters on her side of the bank before her gaze skipped across the river.

Alec prowled on the other side.

Tears streamed down her face. “I’m sorry,” she
mouthed.

Snarling, Alec jumped into the churning water.

I scanned the mêlée for my Familiar. I just about
wept in relief to spot the tenacious shifter shuffling in my direction. “Baako.”
I stabbed a finger at Alec who paddled doggedly against the current. “Get him
out of here.”

He hesitated, and I scorched the ground beneath his
paws forcing him to hobble towards the water.

Baako used his hefty mass to corral a wet and
exhausted Alec towards the restless werecats gathered down the bank.

Their Alpha’s suffering pulled the shifters to the
heart of the conflict.

Marinette eyed the advancing fairy with
unrestrained glee. She waved aside her wolven guard. “Few escape my grasp. None
return to face me once they have.”

As Maeve passed Kian’s body, she knelt and stroked
closed his staring eyes. Lifting her chin, she stood with cool regal and gilded
on. “You’re not the first to underestimate me, so before I lose my nerve….”

Maeve hauled back and slapped her across the face.
The smack was full-bodied, her whole palm making contact.

The godling’s head cracked to the side with an
ear-splitting
thwack.

Patting her scarlet cheek, Marinette cackled. “Such
a fiery temper. They took
you
lightly?
I’m surprised they dared condescend.”

Maeve shook out her hand, lips thinned to a waxen
slash of victor’s determination. “I will overlook my usual vexation if you do
one thing.”

“A final wish?” Marinette grinned nastily. “I feel
gracious. My prey seldom lives long enough to beg such a request.”

Maeve grabbed the godling and wrapped around her.
Thrusting her face into Marinette’s, she hissed. “
Feel it
.”

The amulets burned white-hot between them then
exploded in a blinding curve of light.