The Lotus Effect (Rise Of The Ardent) (34 page)

“I will not allow Briggins to get away with what he’s done,” I said boldly. “I will invest
everything
, everything plus all my power, my station, if that’s what’s needed to bring him down. I
will
watch him fall.”

Xander squeezed my shoulder in silent accession to my sudden declaration.

Affery and Afina in unison nodded their own agreement and bowed slightly. Turning quick on their heels, they quietly leapt from the porch and disappeared into the shadows of the night.

I watched them fade away before I turned to stare at Xander with a cold determination. “Tomorrow we fight Sector 4, Margie and Damaris, as according to plan. The final round falls shortly after that. If it’s a fight Briggins wants, then a fight he shall receive.”

With gaze not deflected from the path ahead, I stepped inside the darkness of the hut—the flames of the candles long extinguished by the chill of the night and the absence of a closed door. The news of my mother’s death, raw and unexpected, sent a rush of authority through me, invading my every sense.

Let us hope that
now
, even though she is gone, I can do something of myself that will finally make her proud.
 
 

Of her daughter, Lily Emerson, the Mistress of City Prosper.

Chapter 35

The Mistress With Fire

     
I glanced at Xander, standing tall and ready in his lethal armor. He was once again in his rightful place, fighting by my side. And despite how every other aspect of my life seemed to be crumbling away, he made me feel strong, determined.

He didn’t question me further about the events of last night, knowing I would come to him if I wanted his sympathy.

His eyes though, they questioned me at every moment.

With helm crooked under arm, he caught the way I was looking at him and raised an eyebrow. I assured him earlier that I was fine, but he knew something had changed within me. It had him concerned.

“Lily? You look as though you’re about to go to Market with a newly filled bag of coins. This is dangerous, remember?”

“Not cockiness, only confidence,” I muttered quickly. “I finally have you fighting by my side again and I feel . . .
complete
,
somehow.” I hoped my vehemence alone would persuade him.

He looked at me, eyes appraising. “Just make sure your ‘completeness’ allows you to focus. I can’t have you getting hurt because of it.”

Gliding his helm over his head, he transformed himself from the teasing and kind Xander to the silent, battle-ready one. The side of him that before somewhat frightened me but now felt like a natural presence that I expected, and no longer depended on. A balance to what had awakened within me.

Finally
we had become true partners—each carrying strengths of our own.

~

Time surrounded us like the swirling carousal of my grandmother’s trinket box, the minutes, seconds, interweaving like prancing horses.
 

It was a surreal moment, finding ourselves walking into the cheering mass of onlookers so soon after our triumphant fight with the Shadow Kanes and Sector 5. Over the years so much blood had been shed and soaked into the soil of the Requiem that even the small grasses refused to grow, as if the souls of the lost forbade it.

A shiver ran down my spine at the thought, the area for the first time giving me an uneasy feeling that ached at the back of my throat. The contrast between the cheering crowd and the landscape ragged at my nerves oddly. My assertiveness like that of a faulty machine: flickering in and out of power. I shook my head, dispelling the strange feeling and blinked my eyes, pulling in a deep breath.

And to think, just a moment ago I’d felt so sure of myself.

I looked around, remembering the crowd cheered for us and for change—not for death.

“Keep alert, you never know what new tricks they have waiting for us,” Xander whispered, his gaze far in the distance, swords held prone in front of him. “They however aren’t the only ones with tricks,” he said, his bronze helm turning to me quickly. “If I ask you to trust me, will you?”

I frowned at him, unsure what he was up to. “Of course I trust you.”

“Good, in that case—head towards the rocks and make yourself look vulnerable. Time to draw them out.”

And with that Xander deployed his metallic wings with a great
whoosh
—close enough to my side that it made me involuntarily jump back. The blue jets at his back lit up then and lifted him swiftly into the air. The crowd behind us gasped and fervently applauded the impressive display.

I stood, brow-creased and unsure if I should proceed further from the arena as he had instructed.
Make myself vulnerable? Was I not already vulnerable enough, standing out in the open?

Trust,
I told myself.

Let go of the old. Embrace the new.

Gripping my axe and shield tightly, I starting jogging ahead towards the rocky up-slope to my left. I didn’t see where Xander had gone, anywhere on land or in the sky.

What is he up to now?

Apprehensively, I climbed higher and stopped, looking around for any sign of either Xander or the Klaive donning Margie and Damaris. My breath steamed warmly against the interior of my helm as I searched.

Nothing.
No one
.

An inner instinct however told me they were there, waiting, and watching. I could sense their hidden presence: the prickly feeling of intuition crawling up my skin with the all too familiar clammy sweat of dread.

Vulnerable?
My nostril’s flared from the undesired self-restraint. My chest tightened in disapproval of my next action.
Acting as if I thought it was safe, I reached down to re-adjust the clasp on my shin, carefully placing my axe and shield on the ground beside each boot.

As my fingers fumbled, I listened. I stretched my hearing as far as possible, my every nerve-end flaring, screaming at me to pick up my shield.

Movement to my left made me look up. There was no pretense of hiding anymore. Margie came charging in at my unprotected side, Klaive the length of me held between her equally massive arms. She roared a guttural scream on her approach, making me suspicious of what she was trying to draw my attention away from . . . .

I rolled just in time to miss the swinging edge of Damaris’s Klaive at my back. The Klaive’s end smashed into the ground where I’d just sat crouched, lodging itself and pelting the hard earth over the both of us. The game was up. Now fully trusting my instincts, I hopped to my feet, rotating my axe in my palm for a better grip.

Margie, wasting no time, switched with her partner and came at me full force.

I hoped Damaris would’ve had trouble retrieving his deeply embedded weapon. To my unfortunate luck however, Damaris yanked at the hilt with brute power, releasing it from the ground’s clutches with almost no effort at all.

Fantastic. Now I’m being double-teamed.

I blocked one powerful blow from Margie with my shield, finding myself having to arch backwards from a swing that Damaris aimed at my midsection.

The air whistled from each missed strike, my enemies putting as much strength into their attacks as they could.

I stumbled as I blocked Margie’s powerful two-handed overhead swing—the force of the impact immense. My insides cringed when I stepped onto unsteady ground and felt myself beginning to fall backwards.

Margie’s satisfactory smile spread across her face. Taking the advantage, she charged, her Klaive’s tip a hairsbreadth away from my neck.

—Just before I would’ve been skewered to the ground, familiar hands grabbed at me from behind, locking around my middle, and lifting me higher and then
even
higher
into the air.

“
Xander
? Nice of you to finally join us!” I scolded loudly against the roar of the wind. Even over my angry panic I couldn’t help but notice that I was indeed flying, extremely far up in the air, unharnessed and vulnerable to a death should Xander’s grip falter.

“Sorry I’m late. This is the part where I need you to trust me,” Xander called out directly above my head.

“
This
part?” I screeched back at him over my shoulder.
I frowned, my eyes widening as my mind ran frantic with what he might’ve planned.

“Their armor is far too strong and resilient to have weaknesses against our bladed attacks. Even if there were any, I tire of thinking of the many ways you could get hurt in the process of looking for them. I say we end this fight quickly.” His fingers tightened around my middle.

I tried to turn my head to look at him with warranted disbelief.

“So
what is it
that you propose to do about that?” I yelled through bared teeth, truthfully terrified of his answer.

“We have to do this quickly before they crawl back into their hiding,” he said as he circled back to where we were before. Looking down, I saw Margie and Damaris directly below. Two tiny smudges looking back up at us.

“Oh, no. No. NO.” I shook my head frantically when I realized what he wanted me to do.

He’s going to drop me on TOP of them?

“Hit your Defyer, Lily. Don’t think, just do it.”

“You’re insane! The fall is going to break every bone in my body!” There was no masking the fact I was paralyzed with fear.

“Trust your suit. I’ll be right behind you—but make sure to extend your shield.”

“
Trust the suit
? You’re turning me into a human projectile! No, Xan—”

Before I had any chance to argue, Xander reached around me, hitting the middle of my chest with his fist—employing the Defyer himself.

That bloody Arsehat.

Air warped and wrapped around us as it sucked into my center. We lurched to the ground a few feet as my mass increased tenfold. Xander grunted as he struggled to keep us aloft, the force of the Defyer applying an overwhelming amount of pressure on the both of us.

Through the whirl of pulsing energy I could see Margie and Damaris still standing below, eyes cast upon us with a curious malicious intent.

“Release it now!” Xander commanded just before I thought my skin would surely stretch away from the bones. I moved my shield in front of me.
I can’t believe I’m doing this
. Squeezing my eyes in dread, I positioned my index finger over the release in my palm—and pushed.

What happened next made me scream.

The barely contained pressure was released so suddenly that I could’ve sworn the sky exploded above us. Xander’s fingers loosened and let go, allowing me to plummet from the sky at such a speed that even my eyes teared from behind the safety of my helm.

Squaring my shoulder against the onslaught of force, I held my shield as far out in front of my chest as I could. If I hadn’t made sure the shield was in place before—there was no fathomable way to secure it now.

I angled my eyes downward and saw the red splotch of Margie’s battle helm and the dark horned one of Damaris’s growing larger and larger.

Shield
.
Shield
.
Shield
. My one and only thought was making sure my shield stayed in front of me and not have it thrust out behind me—an action, which would surely dislocate my arm from my shoulder. I gritted my jaw against the pressure that was now splayed against my every joint and muscle. The short span of time in which I’d been airborne seemed like forever, though I could only rationalize only a few seconds had passed since Xander had
dropped
me.
Xander better hope he makes it out of this alive, so I can Kill. Him. Myself.

Their helms came into focus now.
Tightening my shield arm, I braced myself for immediate impact.

—The wave of energy that proceeded before me hit them first. The ground rippling beneath each of their feet. Not even a full second had passed when a punishing force exploded up the length of my shield bearing arm, vibrating all the way to my ears. I grunted out, not fully aware of what was happening. My shield had connected with one of the two—hitting so hard I feared I shattered their entire body like glass.

Xander’s winged presence closed in behind me—him taking out the other which I hadn’t hit. He tracked me as I continued forward, my downward motion knocked off kilter and spiraling wide to the left from the brutal impact.

This is going to hurt
.
Bones, I’m going to die
. I continued forward towards the ground at a speed I knew—suit or no suit—would break a few choice bones.

I held my breath, tensing my body.

Bronze glistened from the corner of my eye. Xander lunged, grabbing at my armored waist, the action propelling us sideward and into a spin just before we both slammed to the ground.

A plume of dirt shot into the air. A human-sized crater rippling and growing larger as it moved away from us.

One breath.

Two.

Three: I was still alive.

I groaned, probing my body from head to toe with my mind for injury as I lay there on the broken earth. Though sufficiently rattled, there were none.

Among the cloud of settling dust, I sat up and coughed violently, yanking off my helm so I could spit the dirt from my mouth and gather my breath more effectively. I opened my eyes to see that I rested upon Xander’s chest, him taking the brunt of the impact.