The candlelight flickered on the walls, as I traced my fingers along his chest.
His hand found mine. “I love you. I’m sorry it took so long to see.”
My heart stopped.
We hadn’t been together long. Weeks, really. But my soul knew the truth. Damian was the one.
“I love you, too.” I interlaced my fingers with his and laid my head on his chest, feeling more content than ever in my life.
21
Neve
We returned to Damian’s house at dawn.
I was barely functional. There’d been a lot of activity and not a lot of sleep. We probably should have gotten more rest before facing the end of the world, but if this was the end, I didn’t regret it for a second.
Coffee would fix everything.
I took a deep breath and leaned against the railing of Damian’s deck. The windows of the skyrises across the channel shone with golden light, and reflections danced on the unusually placid waters of Lake Michigan. The air was still. The calm before the storm.
Damian joined me and passed over a piping hot double-espresso. “Jet fuel?”
I sipped it. “Nectar of the gods.”
He leaned on the railing and set his jaw, brooding on the task ahead. I shifted my hand along the rail, so that it pressed gently against his.
After a quiet moment, he sighed and shook his head, as if waking from a dream. He smiled. “How do you want to do this?”
I took a sip of the strong brew. “I was kind of hoping this moment wouldn’t come, but I’m not gonna be able to breathe until Matthias is under lock and key and we’ve closed the gateway to hell.”
He moved his hand on top of mine. “Agreed. So, what’s our plan? Take out Matthias first or the portal?”
I ground my teeth. “There’s nothing I’d like better than taking that bastard out. But the portal has to be our priority. The longer it’s open, the weaker the veil between the worlds will get. We’ve got to shut it fast before demons pour through Matthias’s realm into ours.”
“So how do we shut it?”
“Ethan is going to teach me an incantation to disable the spell that is keeping the portal open. Unfortunately, any spells that are strong enough to hold open a gateway to hell are going to take a ton of power to break. My magic has grown a lot over the last week. Hopefully, it’s enough.”
Ethan was an archmage from the Hall of Inquiry. He’d helped me seal the Archives when they’d flooded and given us the spell book to banish the marid.
Damian frowned. “That’s a lot of guessing.”
“Honestly, it’s going to be a shitshow. As soon as we start sealing the gateway, Matthias will know, and he’ll show up with his genies and all the forces of hell. We’re going to be overrun.”
Damian rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure we can handle that all at once. We need to divide and conquer. You take the angels and shut down the portal. I’ll take a strike team and try to disarm Matthias before he has time to react. Even if I fail and he escapes, I can buy you time.”
I saw what Damian was doing and pushed back. “No way. That bastard is mine.”
Flames flickered down his arms, and I could feel the tension in his body. “Matthias has nearly bound you twice. He can drain your power, like kryptonite.”
I tightened my fists as my anger rose. “Matthias has haunted my life. He’s like the sword of Damocles hanging over my head. I need to be the one who brings him in.”
Damian hung his head. “I know. I can’t lose you to that bastard, but I believe in you. You’ve done things I never imagined possible. This is your call.”
I clenched my jaw as frustration tore through me. I knew I could defeat Matthias. I’d suffocate him, as the queen had done to the mage that had tried to bind her.
But I couldn’t forget the feeling of the chains of his magic around my throat, choking me, binding me, and draining my magic. I’d felt so weak and powerless.
What if he actually trapped me?
Matthias would have absolute power over me. He’d unleash me on the city and turn me against my friends. I’d become a monster like the djinn. What if I killed Rhiannon or Damian? That was what was at stake. Not my freedom. Not my sanity. Not revenge. But my friends and my home.
I felt sick.
Damian took my hand. “Look, the truth is, I don’t have the magic to close the portal. And I can’t go toe-to-toe with a genie if it attacks. I’ve got fire magic, but I’m not an efreet. You’re the only one of us with that kind of power. Not me, not the angels, not the archmages. You.”
I let go of his hand and leaned against the railing, putting my palms against my head.
He was right. And the portal was everything. Matthias might slip away, but if we didn’t get that portal shut…
“This is your call on how to proceed,” he continued. “We can all go and make a stand at the gateway, or we can split up and I can distract Matthias while you shut the portal.”
I rested my head against the post and weighed the options.
Closing the portal had to be our priority, and Ethan couldn’t do it without my magic. I hadn’t told Damian, but I was worried it would take a wish. He wouldn’t want to risk the inevitable consequences, but it might be the only way.
As much as I wanted revenge against Matthias, Damian could buy us time to get it shut.
I didn’t like the way my thoughts were leaning, and I let out sigh. “You know, whenever people split up in horror movies, they die.”
He smiled. “Fair point. But I have no intention of that. I’m just trying to give us a fighting chance. Matthias distracted us with the attack on the Archives before he hit Bentham. We could do the same to him.”
“I can’t believe I’m considering this lunacy.”
“We don’t have to.”
Memories of our past battles with Matthias tugged at my mind. “No. I think it could work. But won’t Matthias just teleport away if you get the upper hand? He disappeared when I tried to pull him into the Realm of Water and vanished after Spark attacked him outside of Bentham.”
“Teleporting and planes-walking are not part of his magic, as far as I know. He must be using some kind of transport charm. If we can surprise him, we can disarm him and knock it away. My hope is he’ll hesitate for a single, fatal second when he sees me. We were allies for centuries, and I think he’s still holding out some hope that he can turn me to his side.”
“And you won’t hesitate for exactly the same reasons?”
Damian brushed the hair away from my face. “I have a very good reason not to.”
Warmth flooded me.
Planting my hands on his chest, I slowly pushed him back against the railing and dragged his mouth to mine. I’d give him a reminder of all the good reasons he had.
Gods, we’d better make it through this.
Two hours later, our team had assembled in an empty warehouse that Damian owned. Matthias seemed to have informants everywhere, so we had to keep a low profile.
Ethan had inscribed a large teleportation circle in the middle of the room—our gateway to the Realm of Chaos, aka Matthias’s realm. It was based on the photographs Damian had taken during his visit to the Searing Citadel a week ago.
We hadn’t activated the portal yet, but none of us stepped across the boundary. Teleportation circles could be touchy things, and no one wanted to accidently scuff a rune and send us all to Timbuktu.
The team was small. Jaxson and eight shifters. Nathaniel and a dozen other angels. Ethan, Rhiannon, and Spark. It wasn’t much, but we needed stealth and speed more than we needed numbers, and most of the Order’s personnel were busy preparing the city for attack. The rest of the angels would be ready to protect the city, too, if we failed.
I caught everyone’s attention with a gust of wind. “As you all know, Matthias is assembling an army and is probably intending to invade Magic Side. We need to strike first and cripple their operation. Our objectives are to capture Matthias, close the gatew
ay to the hells, and recover prisoners. Closing the gateway will be our number one priority. If we can’t get it shut, I have no doubt that the city will be overwhelmed.”
I passed out a series of sketches that Damian and I had made. “These are maps of the Searing Citadel, Matthias’s base of operations in the Realm of Chaos. Damian and I are the only ones who’ve been in the tower before, so we’ll each lead a team.”
I gestured to Ethan, Rhiannon, and the assembled angels. “Our team is going to shut down the gateway to hell. Things are going to get rough. Ethan and I will unbind the spells keeping the gateway open. We don’t know how long it will take, but if the portal is large, it might take time. Undoubtably, we’ll be attacked from all sides—both by hordes of demons coming through the portal, as well as those already in Matthias’s domain. The angels will keep the demons off, and when the genies show up, I’ll keep them at bay.”
Damian stepped forward. “Shifters, you’re with me. We need to buy Neve time. We’ll infiltrate the tower and ambush Matthias. Once he’s neutralized, we’ll free the prisoners and get them back to the portal. Stealth will be key. We need to preserve the element of surprise if we’re going to have any shot at him.”
I nodded. “We’ll give Damian’s team a five-minute head start to get to Matthias. Then we go.”
“Where’s the portal located? I don’t see it on this map,” Nathaniel asked.
“That’s the tricky part. Matthias’s fortress is positioned on an island of ice floating in midair. Our informant, Zara, told us that the gateway’s not inside the tower. So, it’s either right next to the tower or on an adjacent island of ice. We’ll have to hunt for it, but it should be big. That means Ethan and Rhiannon, you’re gonna have to hitch a ride with an angel to get there.”
Rhiannon raised an eyebrow and gave Nathaniel a lascivious look. To be fair, he was unbelievably perfect if you liked pretty boys. She did.
Damian heaved a bag onto the table. “This mission is incredibly dangerous. We think we’ll get the drop on Matthias, but things could go bad, fast. These are transport charms. If you’re overrun, use them. If you get cornered, use them. No last stands. If this doesn’t work, we’ll need all of you to defend Magic Side, and we don’t want to add to their cadre of captives.”
I tossed a transport charm to Rhiannon and started passing out the rest to the shifters. “Any questions?”
22
Damian
Jaxson and his shifters formed up around me at the edge of the teleportation circle. They were wearing tactical vests and armed with savage-looking knives.
I tapped a composite dagger on my belt. “Make sure you’ve got nothing metal on you. Matthias is an iron mage,” I reminded them. “He’ll use it against you.”
“We got the memo. We’ve got fiberglass knives. No guns,” Jaxson growled.
His expression was laser focused, and I could feel the restrained power of his aura, tightly coiled, like a viper, ready to strike.
“Remember, the angels want us to bring Matthias in alive. He’ll have some sort of transport charm, and we’ll need to stop him from using it. And Jaxson, if for a second you think he’s going to get away, kill him. We can’t risk him getting to Neve.”
“Sounds like we should just kill him then.” He gestured to Nathaniel at the edge of the room. “Fuck the angels.”
My stomach twisted. Matthias had been my brother. And I’d be left with promises broken to Zara, Neve, and Nathaniel.
I nodded in assent and pulled my dagger from my belt. “Let’s go.”
Ethan and Neve lit up the teleportation circle. The runes around the edges sparked to life, and the circle burst into flames. The center started to undulate like a mirage, and we shot through.
The ether pulsed around me and shot into a dark chamber supported by tall, thin pillars.
A pair of demon sentries jerked to life as soon as we stepped through. I surged forward before they had a chance to react, ramming my knife through the neck of the one on the right as it started to shout out a warning. I tossed the body to the ground and spun.
The second demon lay on the floor beside Jaxson, its body broken and contorted in impossible ways. What had he done to it?
I reached for Matthias with my dragon sense. He was here. Close. Two floors down.
The runes of the teleportation ring crackled and sizzled with magic as the rest of the team burst through the portal one by one. I grabbed Neve’s arm as she came through. “Only two sentries. Either Matthias has no idea we’re coming, or this is a trap. Be on guard.”
Neve grimaced. “I’ll assume the worst.”
“Who knows. Maybe we’ll get lucky this time. Give me five minutes before you attack the gateway. By then, we’ll have either brought Matthias down or created a big enough distraction to give you cover.”
“Please be careful, Damian,” she whispered.
I softly traced the line of her jaw, trying not to show how much I feared for her. “I will. You, too. Don’t take any chances. If it looks like Matthias is going to corner you, planes-walk away. Let the angels handle him. The city needs you on its side.”
She caught my wrist as I turned. “I need you at my side. Don’t forget that.”
I hadn’t told her that I’d given up my angel powers.
“I won’t forget.” I turned and strode toward the door, my dragon roaring with each step.
Jaxson and his team were waiting at the exit. “All clear,” he growled.
I listened at the doorway, even though Jaxson’s senses were far superior to mine. He nodded and we slipped into the hall. The shifters all either had claws or knives out. It was time for close, quiet work.
Jaxson and I alternated the lead, leapfrogging each other from corridor to corridor. Some of the doorways led to barracks or guard rooms, and I quickly locked those with spells. Ultimately, our cover would be blown, and I wanted to slow their counterstrike as much as possible.
Matthias wasn’t moving. That meant time was on our side.
Jaxson ducked his head around a corner, pulled back, and raised a hand. We stopped.
He held up three fingers. Three demons. Then he pointed at the two female shifters. They followed him around the corner with blinding speed. There was the muffled sound of combat, and then almost immediately, deathly silence.
I brought the rest of the team forward. Blue blood spattered the walls and dripped from Jaxson’s clawed hands. I assumed all three demons were dead. Possibly more. It was difficult to tell from the carnage.
Even though the bodies would dissipate into smoke, remnants of the fight would be visible. Our clock was officially ticking.
One of the women had shifted into a wolf. She sniffed a disarticulated arm and then padded down the hall after Jaxson.
We slipped into the stairwell and raced two floors down, slitting three more demons’ throats on the way. The wolves moved like ghosts, sticking to the shadows. I paused beside Jaxson at the next corridor and whispered. “We’re close. Next room.”
Matthias’s presence felt like flames in my chest. Very close.
Jaxson nodded and held up four fingers. More than I would like. He could hear the heartbeats or smell them. Odds were, with four someone would make noise.
I motioned at three more werewolves. They stepped forward, and I drew a line across my throat. Slowly, I laid one hand into the other and mouthed, Put them down quietly.
The werewolves nodded and whipped around the corner. I jumped out and shot a bolt of ice through one demon’s eyes and another bolt into the throat of a second. Two shifters caught and silenced both of mine, while Jaxson and the she-wolf ripped out the throats of the other two demons.
There had been one short exclamation. That was it.
I crept toward the door. Matthias was inside talking to someone. He wasn’t alone. Jaxson cocked his head for a second and held up two fingers. Good.
I quickly wove a spell to unlock the door, then I turned and nodded to the shifters. We burst in.
>
Matthias looked up in shock as I slung a bolt of ice straight into his chest. It was a glorious moment.
I surged into the room as a purple demon roared, leapt over the desk, and unleashed a cloud of balefire. Necrotic burns blistered across my exposed skin, though my efreeti magic protected me from the worst of the flames. I unleashed a storm of hail, but the purple flames swirling around the demon melted it instantly.
Guess I’m fighting fire with fire.
Matthias staggered to his feet and reached for a beaded necklace around his neck. A transport charm.
As if reading my mind, Jaxson and his wolves tore into the room. Jaxson rebounded off the wall and slammed into Matthias. He ripped the transport charm from Matthias’s neck, leaving a set of bloody claw marks in his wake.
I ducked the demon’s massive fist as Matthias drove a gleaming dagger into Jaxson’s shoulder. Before I could shout a warning, Matthias flicked his wrist and Jaxson hurtled through the air.
Power over metal.
I blasted a bolt of fire into the demon’s face, and two wolves grabbed his arms. I whipped my dagger out and finished him with one deft thrust through the base of his skull.
Jaxson yanked the dagger from his shoulder, flicked it through the barred window, and gave a savage growl.
I pointed my bloody knife at Matthias. “It’s over, old friend. Submit.”
He arched his eyebrows. “Oh, I’m certain we can come to some arrangement. How about I pay you off?”
Matthias flicked his hand and a chest on the desk exploded. Coins sprayed through the room like a shotgun blast.
I flung up a thin wall of ice just in time, but Jaxson and his wolves took the brunt of the shrapnel. Howls erupted throughout the room as coins and ice chips rained down around me. Gold, thank fates. Silver would have wiped out the wolves. Even so, those in the room were tattered and bloody.
Broken Skies (Dragon's Gift: The Storm Book 4) Page 14