by Sarah Noffke
Stefan brought his swords up, ready to go out with a bang. But something flickered at the corner of his vision, catching his attention.
Standing beside him as casually as if waiting for a bus was a black and white cat.
“Ummm, are you lost?” Stefan asked the feline.
The animal looked at him with a sly grin. “No, but I think you could use some help, unless you’d like to meet an untimely death.”
“I wouldn’t, actually,” Stefan stated. “Do you know of anyone who can help.”
“I do,” the cat said. “Thankfully, you rolled into a territory where I can be of assistance.”
“And who are you?” Stefan asked, realizing he was talking to an animal.
“I’m Liv’s best friend, and you’re someone she won’t want to die. Which are the only reasons I’m talking to you now.”
A cat? I’ve got a cat to help me with a hundred zombies? Stefan thought defeatedly. He shrugged it off, trying to focus.
Stefan nodded, preparing for the first wave of zombies. “Well, okay, kitty. Show me what you got.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Liv knew instantly that her magic had returned. She could feel it flowing in her veins like her family’s blood. It was one and the same.
She also knew that her magic was back because on the hill above her, out of nowhere, a large building had materialized. From it, she could plainly see a beam of red light broadcasting out to the world.
With a deep breath, she took a step. It was time to finally end this.
Liv had the best friends, Stefan thought as he cleanly sliced off a zombie’s head. In a swift movement, he swung around, slashing at three more zombies and sending them back several feet.
He had doubted the little kitty would be much help. Man, had he been wrong. When he wasn’t looking, the animal had transformed into a large black panther and was currently mowing down zombies, killing them faster than he was. In a matter of minutes, he and his new friend had made short work of the zombies.
Stefan looked proudly up at the summit, where he hoped Liv was currently. Maybe today wasn’t his last day on this Earth. He would happily slaughter a thousand zombies if it meant he could continue to fight beside Liv Beaufont.
There was no one in the world like her.
He caught a glimpse as the giant panther ran over a zombie, sliced another with a bat of his paw, and sank his teeth into a third.
“Liv has the absolute coolest friends,” Stefan stated, impressed.
The door to the facility wasn’t locked, which seemed like a no-brainer to Liv. She pushed it open and immediately sucked in a breath. The fumes wafting from the magic tech in the middle of the room burned her lungs. A hot wind circulated through the space, crisping her face. And standing in the middle of the room was the man she’d come to kill.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Adler Sinclair’s long white hair fell down his narrow back. He had his hands extended beside him and chin tilted upward as he marveled at the red beam that shot straight through the opening in the roof and out into the world. It was the signal that kept mortals from seeing magic. It was what was killing them.
Liv held up her hand, but almost instantly, she was lifted into the air by an invisible force and thrown back down to the floor. Her head hit the stone hard, making her taste blood.
The figure who seemed taller than Adler turned around. It was in fact the man she’d grown to hate, but he was different. More powerful. The veins in his face were black, especially around his pale eyes, which were glowing red.
All Liv could think was that he was polluted somehow, but all the wondering in the world wasn’t worth her time or attention. She had more pressing matters.
“So you got passed the zombies, did you?” Adler asked, striding forward, the hot wind rushing past his robes.
“What zombies?” Liv asked, scrambling to her feet.
He grimaced at her. “You’ve been a pain in my side from the beginning. I regretted what happened to your parents and your siblings, but I’ll enjoy what I do to you.”
“You mean when you murdered them?” Liv yelled, her fury unleashed for the first time ever.
With a flick of his wrist, Liv was sent flying into the opposite stone wall. Her jaw smacked against it, and she slid down in a heap of disillusionment to the floor.
“Oh, your smart mouth has always been your shortcoming,” Adler stated.
Liv slid her hand across her mouth, wiping away the blood. Undeterred, she pushed back up. “Why do you hate mortals? Why do you want them gone?”
The question, as Liv had intended, made Adler pause. He was all ego, and therefore, he would need to explain his case. Legitimatize it.
“We never needed them,” he said smugly. “They are waste. Originally they were supposed to be slaves for the magical races. However, they rose up and took positions in the House, and then they went too far.”
“They shouldn’t be our slaves,” Liv ground out through clenched teeth.
Adler laughed, no humor in his tone. “You think you know so much. Always trying to upstage me in front of the council. Your punishment will be long and painful.”
Liv was unsurprised when her feet lifted off the floor and she flew at the window on the far side of the room. Thankfully, she didn’t fly through it, but she cracked it severely with her spine. When she fell to the ground, the glass shattered, raining down on her. Liv covered her face and rolled over on her stomach.
Because there were obviously no time-outs, Adler picked Liv up by the back of the neck and hauled her to her feet. “I’ve worked way too hard for you to ruin things. The Beaufonts seem to think it is their right to expose the truth, but soon it won’t matter. Soon mortals will all be dead, and magic will reign.”
Doing thing only thing available to her, Liv kicked her feet wildly, knocking Adler straight in the shin. He yelped in pain and dropped her as he reached for his lower leg.
Liv scrambled away, running past the source of the signal and surveying it quickly. The power source was thankfully on the ground. All she had to do was get close enough.
Like a wind blowing across the floor, Adler arrived in front of her in an instant, regarding her with those blood-red eyes. “I’ll enjoy killing you. It will only add to my power.”
“The thing is,” Liv told him, peering around him, “I wasn’t really planning on dying yet. And about that power that you’ve stolen? I’m here to take it back.”
Adler, who never liked her jokes, actually laughed. Then he lifted his hand, which was covered in black veins. But Liv was already prepared. She raised her palm into the air, blocking the spell he’d shot at her. She couldn’t use magic to kill him, but she could use it to defend herself.
Continuous lightning shot between Adler and Liv’s hand, bouncing back and forth as she tried to keep him back. He was incredibly powerful, a force unlike any she’d ever encountered, but still, she was able to push him back several feet. When he was almost to the far wall, she ducked behind the magic tech, swiftly putting the device John had given her into the power source and starting the virus.
Before he could locate her, Liv rolled out from behind the device, pulling Bellator from its sheath.
If Adler was intimidated, he was hiding it. He casually looked at her sword and scoffed. “Do you really think your little sword can kill me?”
Liv shook her head. “No, my giant-made sword can’t.”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you doing with a giant-made sword?”
“I’m using it to take you down.” She turned Bellator around and sliced the blade across the palm of her hand. Her blood dripped from her palm to the floor, landing strangely like plumes of smoke.
This obviously threw Adler off, making him frown. “What is this magic?”
Liv stepped forward, dropping Bellator with a loud clang. “It isn’t magic, Mr. Sinclair.”
He backed up several feet, fear evident in each of his steps. He was confused, and for a man who nee
ded to know what was going on, this was the best possible way to knock him off-balance. With each step, he seemed to shrink, his eyes dulling in appearance.
Liv allowed her blood to drop to the ground, sending smoke up. She pressed her fingers into her palm, making the blood leak out faster. With each drop, the strength drained out of the man before her.
“My blood is the same as that which ran through Guinevere Beaufont’s veins. And you killed her, taking my mother from this world,” Liv said, tears aching in her throat.
Adler stumbled back over wires, falling on his backside.
“Theodore Beaufont was the best man I’ve ever known, and you killed him because of your selfishness,” Liv continued, her blood continuing to spill, leaving a trail behind her.
Adler’s skin had returned to its usual appearance, transparent and thin. He shook his head. “No! No!” He raised his hand, but nothing happened.
“My sister Reese was a creative soul who would have gone on to do amazing things, but you couldn’t allow that, could you, Mr. Sinclair?”
The smoke from Liv’s blood wrapped around her like a cape, making her feel powerful. Supported. Loved.
Adler had backed up to the far wall. His hair was falling out suddenly, and his face was covered in wrinkles. Whatever magic was at work here wasn’t normal. It was the undoing of evil.
“And Ian,” Liv began. “He was braver than you or Decar or any other Warrior out there.”
“Decar…” Adler said, his eyes lighting up.
“Yes, if your brother was alive, you could summon him, drawing on his strength, exactly as I’m pulling my family’s power from you.” Liv tilted her head to the side and opened her bloody palm. “But he’s dead. My giant friends killed him, and we took back the real history.”
“No!” Adler yelled, but it was too late.
Liv lifted him into the air using magic, the same way he’d done to her. However, when he was high enough, she released the magic binding him, gifted to her by her family’s blood. Liv wrapped her hands about Adler Sinclair’s throat and pressed, cutting off his supply of oxygen. His weak attempts to fight her were futile. Liv was an incredibly strong Warrior for the House of Fourteen. Every mission he’d sent her on to endanger her life had prepared her for this moment, making her stronger than the weak man before her.
After only a short moment, Adler’s body went limp. It wasn’t the grand ending she’d pictured, but it worked. Liv stepped back, allowing Adler to fall lifeless to the ground, his neck covered in her blood. And then it turned to smoke, igniting him and turning him into a bonfire.
Liv jumped back, fanning away the smoke.
She glanced over her shoulder at the magic tech. The huge beam of light was gone. The device had worked. The signal was dead.
The fire fueled by Adler’s body was growing. Liv picked up Bellator and ran for the door. She was only a few yards from the facility when an explosion threw her forward. She rolled, covering her head. When she turned back, she was certain of one important thing.
That piece of magical tech would never operate again.
Chapter Forty
The council was silent for a long moment. Finally, Haro looked up, pure amazement on his face.
“Everything you say here is true?”
Liv caught Stefan staring at her before she nodded. “Yes, it’s all true. Soon mortals will be recovering from the attempt to murder them. Then they will see magic for the first time in over a century.”
Clark held up the Forgotten Archives. “I’ve made copies of this book and sent it to each of you. It will fill in everything you need to know.”
Raina shook her head. “This is so…strange. House of Fourteen? Why didn’t we know that?”
“Adler Sinclair had been working on this for a long time,” Liv explained. “He murdered my family. He did everything he could to keep the truth buried.”
“But why?” Hester asked.
Liv lifted her chin, calling on the strength she’d felt on the top of the Matterhorn. “Because he was afraid that mortals would change magic, but what we need to know is that magic only exists because of mortals. They are the moral compass we need in this House to regulate our power.”
“Is this about registering magic?” Lorenzo asked.
“No,” Clark cut in. “That’s the opposite of what we need. That’s control, which solves nothing except to turn power over to those who aren’t qualified. Instead, we need to come together. That starts with mortals coming into the House. And then elves, gnomes, giants, and whoever else will help us to maintain justice.”
“You can’t really be insinuating that we should allow other magical races as well as mortals into this place?” Bianca asked, her tone high-pitched.
Liv cut her eyes at Emilio. “I’m absolutely suggesting that. And we need to stop worrying about diluting our bloodlines and instead concern ourselves with loving one another.”
“This will take time,” Haro said cautiously.
“Then it will,” Liv stated with authority. “But it will start today.”
“Who are you to tell us what will start today or anything else?!” Bianca screamed.
Liv held out her hand casually, and a holographic image of Father Time appeared. “I’ve decreed that Liv Beaufont, Warrior for the House of Fourteen, will be in charge of rounding up the Mortal Seven and returning them to their rightful spots. Once they are in place, I expect the House to serve justice as it was always intended to do. Anyone who opposes my order will see their time on Earth cut dramatically short. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please see my elf delegates.”
Liv closed her palm when Papa Creola’s speech was over. “Well, I say you argue with Father Time on this one, Bianca. Really tell him off. I’ll give you his direct line.”
“This is ridiculous!” Bianca yelled, rising to her feet and running from the Chamber of the Tree.
Liv shook her head, hiding the grin that was begging to be released.
Haro leaned forward. “This is a lot for the Council to digest. However, there’s no way to refute the evidence you’ve presented. Warrior Beaufont, you have your orders. Other Warriors, your jobs are to help mortals acclimate to the changes about to befall them.
“The rest of us will need to brush up on the forgotten history, and then I suggest we all come together. There has been a lot of treachery among our members, but I hope we can put it behind us to create a better tomorrow for mortals and the magical races.”
“To a better tomorrow,” Hester said, and the others in the room repeated her words, tightening Liv’s chest and making her realize that happy endings might actually be possible.
Chapter Forty-One
The bones crunched under Talon’s foot as he tried to take a step forward. He crumpled to the ground again. The opening to the Black Void was far away, and he was still so weak. Yes, he could control things in the House from this place, but he couldn’t influence them the way he needed to.
Decar was gone.
Adler was dead.
He was all the Sinclairs had left.
And he was going to have to get stronger faster if he was going to stop this.
Talon had won this war once, and he would do it again. One girl might have brought mortals back, but it wouldn’t last. All he had to do was wait, recuperate, and draw on magical reserves, and one day, he’d be strong enough to rise again.
In the meantime, he’d have to wake someone to help him.
Lying his face on the cold stone floor, he searched in his mind for the girl he was connected to through blood, Adler’s deceased sister’s child—an orphan who had gone unnoticed. However, she was a Sinclair, and she was powerful. Only a young girl, but an illusionist, and the rightful person to inherit the role as Sinclair Warrior for the House of Seven. He would need her to move forward, to take over what was rightfully his.
Talon drew her to him with a power no Sinclair could resist.
Across the globe, Kayla Sinclair awoke su
ddenly, sweat beading her forehead. She’d had the strangest dream. But it wasn’t a dream.
She pushed her blankets off her lap and stood suddenly, her long white hair falling over her shoulders. Although she wasn’t sure why, she knew she needed to get to Los Angeles immediately. She was needed at the House of Seven. There was a role that needed to be filled, and it was her birthright.
Chapter Forty-Two
“Well, that was easy,” Stefan said, when the last Councilor filed out of the Chamber of the Tree. For once, Liv had stayed behind after the meeting, telling them she needed some time there to think. Stefan had stayed too, and now they were face to face, with the lights of the tree twinkling over their heads.
“Yeah, we just had to battle a few hundred zombies, kill a madman, and wake up the entire population of mortals,” Liv said casually.
“I didn’t even break a sweat,” he said with a wink.
From the corner of her vision, Liv saw Jude stride out of the darkness. She tensed.
“What is it?” Stefan asked, sensing her stress.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that Jude and I are working through some trust issues,” Liv said as Diabolos landed beside the white tiger. She relaxed.
Stefan pointed to the other side of the room, where two green eyes shone in the dark. “I think you’re safe as long as your best friend is around.”
Surprised that Plato was showing himself in front of another, Liv nodded. “Yeah, I’m really lucky. I have the best people in my life.”
“I think we’re the lucky ones,” Stefan said, reaching out and grabbing Liv’s cape. He tugged her forward, and she allowed it.
Out of everything that had happened, this was the most surprising part. Liv had expected to avenge her parents’ death. There was never a reality where she didn’t fight to the death to finish what they had started, and she was not going to stop until mortals were freed from the brainwashing. But love? That hadn’t been in the cards. Or at least, she hadn’t expected it.