“Vaguely,” she says. “They were killed, were they not?”
“Yes, I believe that Havoc and I had killed them all, but someone is now using their name.”
“Copycat?”
“Not exactly. It’s different. They’re magic users that are now targeting nonhumans or users. It makes no sense. Valmah de Rizen was dedicated to eradicating every nonhuman. But now they’re made up of nonhumans?”
She looks thoughtful as she tries to comprehend what’s going on. “So… could there be a significance to the name and organization? It could be something as simple as instilling fear in those who know of the name.”
“I suppose, but there have been other radical organizations which were more resented and more widely known,” Johnson says. “Before this, I had never even heard of them.”
“Unless they don’t care about causing fear in anyone but those old enough to know who they are,” Rehna says.
“That’s true,” I say. “My interest was only piqued because of the organization. You have already been targeted once. It will likely happen again.”
“Do you think they want me gone just because of my position?” she asks.
“Most likely.”
“Are they targeting other district bosses?” she asks.
“I’m not sure,” Johnson says. “Right now, we are in the dark about a lot of their actions. We have just now enlisted Miles’ help because he knew about the organization.”
I see Havoc’s body grow stiff as his attention turns to the forest. I close my eyes before kneeling and touching the ground with my hand. I can feel the forest compress, like it’s trying to hide itself from a malice that is invading it.
“Havoc,” I say, and he leaps onto my outstretched arm as a raven. I pluck a feather out, and he glares at me.
“Ow that hurt, dickhead,” he says into my mind as he pecks my head and rips out a chunk of hair. Not because he needs it for a spell like I do but because he’s an asshole. Then he spits the hair out and leaps into the air.
“What’s going on?” Rehna asks.
“Shh,” I say as I place the feather between my lips. With it there I can wind my magic around it, allowing me to see through Havoc’s eyes as he searches the trees. It’s easier because we are bound together and already have a link between us. Suddenly, the ground begins to quiver, and I pull the feather out from my lips.
“Necromancers,” I say as I walk out of the shrine.
Everyone follows me as Rehna shouts for those in the area who can’t fight to get into the building.
“No sign, Havoc?” I ask out loud. Even though he can’t hear me from this distance, the link we share through our minds allows him to know what I am saying and allows me to hear his voice in my mind.
“Nothing. They’re hiding,” he says.
“They have to be strong to be affecting us from here,” I say as the ground begins to break. Earth rises up, and I hear roots cracking as the dead are forced through them.
“Should I return?”
“No, I can handle it here. Find them,” I say.
“Understood.”
The cracks in the ground spread as I watch a hand reach out of the dirt and drag itself up.
“What the hell?” Sam whispers.
The dead are rising all around us. Humans, wolves, horses, gryphons, weres, anything that has ever died in these woods is at the necromancer’s fingertips. I pull my sword from where it rests at my side and slam it into the ground. Fire races out from it, tearing through the skeletons, and turning their bones to ash. But that spell only works around twenty feet of me and I can’t use it multiple times without draining my magic. It’s also hard to keep the flame hot enough to burn the bodies the farther it spreads. The other issue is the bodies that haven’t been rotting for hundreds of years. On top of that, I have to deal with the shrine, the people I want to keep alive, and the trees. I’m sure Rehna wouldn’t be impressed with a massive forest fire.
Hundreds more come to join, and I realize that this can’t be the work of one necromancer. I move toward a dead man that is running at me and cut his arms off with my sword before grabbing his skull in my hand.
“Vehath,” I whisper, and my magic snakes down my fingertips, right onto the skeleton’s skull as it finds the death magic that allowed it to rise and live again. It winds around it, proving stronger, and chokes it out. The necromancer feels me instantly and drops the hold on the dead man, but I get a glimpse of where they’re at. It feels like there are four of them from what I can tell so far.
“Near a river, Havoc. The river has a fork in it around a large boulder,” I say.
“Understood,” he says.
I turn back as an undead werewolf rushes at me. I slide back as I raise my sword up and swing. It catches the werewolf on the side and rotting flesh falls from its body as it slams down to the ground. I rush forward and drive my sword through the bones, severing its head from its neck. Rehna has her lance and is swinging it flawlessly through the air, tearing through the bones like they’re paper.
“Rehna, protect me,” I say.
She nods, so I close my eyes and cut my hand with my sword. I let the blood drip down onto the ground, and the earth eats it. I slam my sword down and then kneel, so I can grab a connection to the earth.
“Disha fel veyon dethcka,” I whisper.
“Miles, don’t!” she yells as she runs for me.
“I will not hurt their souls,” I say, but that’s probably not why she’s telling me to stop.
“That’s black magic,” she says.
“I am stronger than the black magic I use,” I say as I keep reciting the spell in my mind. I say it aloud once more and then slam my hands down. I can feel the black magic swirling around me, mixing with my magic as it invades the earth and races along it, tendrils reaching up and grabbing onto the dead that were still moving toward me.
I look up and watch as the undead that are fighting the gryphons, weres, and protectors of the shrine stop moving, and all look at me. I can still feel the necromancers’ magic inside of them, fighting against mine, but I am winning.
“You dare attack me when I am stronger than all four of you?” I ask. They can hear me through the bond created by my magic. And through it, Havoc can feel their location. “Whoever sent you is either a fool or does not understand my power.”
An undead man closest to me looks up. “What if the one who sent us does know your power and knows he’s the only one who can control it?” it says. I can tell it’s one of the necromancers speaking to me through the dead man, but the words send a strange chill down my body.
I growl as I stare the undead down. I can feel the spirit of one of the necromancers flickering out, telling me that Havoc must have found her. The moment her life is extinguished, some of the undead drop to the ground as bone and ash.
“I have lived hundreds of years since I last saw him. He does not know my true power,” I growl.
“He does, and he’ll take the rest of what keeps you human and use it for his own,” the undead says.
“Then why’s he hiding behind people like you?” I hiss.
“The time isn’t yet right.”
I can feel it the moment Havoc kills the necromancer talking to me, but that’s fine. I have no further need to hear about my nightmare come to life. I have heard enough. Within minutes, all four are dead and I urge the deceased back to their resting spots. The earth closes, and I drop my hold on everything and stare at the spot where the undead who’d spoken once stood. Havoc lands before me, breaking my contact with the ground, and I look up at him. His clothes are bloody, and he has a hungry look in his eyes as I let my head fall against his chest, completely exhausted. Black magic has a way of consuming the caster, and I used too much of it.
“Well, old friend, looks like our nightmare has come back to life,” I say.
Havoc sets a protective hand on my back as he looks out into the woods where the four necromancers lie deceased.
Ch
apter Six
Havoc is reading a book in the library when I walk in. He doesn’t even bother to look up at me as I approach, so I push his book away and sit down on his lap with my back against his chest.
“Hmm… thought you didn’t want me anymore,” he says.
Oh, don’t I know that I shouldn’t be doing this.
“You’re such a child. I never said that. Just because I didn’t want to have sex then, it didn’t automatically mean that I hated you,” I say as I turn my head to look at him.
“No one has ever turned me down,” he says, voice thick to the point it’s almost a growl.
“How are you so childish?” I ask. And why do I still want you?
“Hmm…” He leans toward me and kisses me on the neck softly, and I can’t help but lean into it. “So… do you think Geoff is alive?”
“I’m not sure alive is the correct word. We did a pretty good number on him,” I say.
“You’re upset.”
If Geoff is honestly back, upset wouldn’t cover it. “A bit. I thought that nightmare was over with.”
“How’d you come into Geoff’s possession?” he asks curiously.
“I burned down the orphanage I was in,” I say. “He heard about it.”
“On purpose?” he asks. “I mean I always knew you were a bit devilish, but even I wouldn’t burn down an orphanage.”
“God, no. I had trouble controlling my emotions. The man in charge was an asshole. He took my friend and nearly beat him to death so I, accidently, burned the entire place down while watching. I didn’t kill anyone, though. It was as if the fire burned around each of us. That’s the moment Geoff decided I had potential.”
“I want to see,” he says.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Alright,” I say as I reach back and set my hand against his eyes. I throw him right into the moment, allowing him to see it as if we are living the moment as it happens.
It’s so dark in the room they’ve placed me in. It’s been days since I’ve seen anyone and I’m hungry, but I’ve at least stopped crying. I was so scared I’d killed someone, but Diana snuck by to tell me everyone was okay. I still feel a little sick though. I knew I had an affinity for fire but… I never imagined I could do something like this.
I close my eyes and the door opens, startling me. Cliff is there and I flinch back, but he grabs me by the hair and drags me out. “Here. Just take him,” Cliff says as he pushes me forward. I fall onto my hands and knees as I try to blink away the brightness.
“Get up,” says a man I don’t recognize.
I stand up and look at him. He’s a tall man with short, dark hair and piercing gray eyes. He looks as average as any other man, but there’s something about him that instills fear in the pit of my stomach. My body tells me that this is a monster I should fear, but I don’t know why. He doesn’t look like a monster. The smile on his face looks almost kind compared to the hell in here. He reaches out and cups my chin, and I instantly feel the magic bubbling through his fingertips. I can see it moving and jerking about, but it’s dark, almost black. I shy away from him and thrust up a barrier. He watches me for a moment, and then his soft smile turns to a grin.
“I’ll take him,” he says.
“Good. Don’t ever bring him back,” Cliff says as he pushes me forward.
“Come along,” the man says. “What’s your name?”
“Milliant,” I say.
“What a ridiculous name,” he says as he takes me home.
For a few days, he allows me free roam of his mansion, and I walk about it in a state of confusion. I have never even seen a home such as this one. I cannot believe that I am allowed to move through it freely. I wander a bit but am nervous and mostly stay to my room. The room is larger than the house I’d lived my first six years in. And all around me are so many things filled with magic that I can feel my own magic bustling inside of me.
“Milliant, come along,” Geoff says, and I follow him into his work room. “I will teach you everything I know, if you’re worthy. Do you think you’re worthy, Milliant?”
“I don’t know,” I admit.
He smacks me across the face, startling me. “Answer again.”
It’s not as if I’ve been shy to hits and harsh words, but I thought he’d be different. “I will try to be, sir.”
“Better.”
“Take your shirt and pants off,” he says, and I’m so scared of him that I do so without hesitation.
“Lean against the wall,” he says, so I do as I watch nervously. He has a brush in one hand and ink in the other. Then he begins to paint symbols on me. Lines that stretch from my hands to my chest, over my neck, and down my legs. I’m confused, but I still know that what he’s doing has to be some type of spell.
He whispers something, and I watch him nervously. My magic is bristling uncertainly along my skin.
“Do you know what I just did?” he asks.
“No,” I admit.
“I just locked your magic away, so it doesn’t consume you. You’ve gone too long without learning the right way to use it. This will allow you to learn simple spells safely first.”
“Yes, sir,” I say.
“And if your magic ever gets out of control, all I have to say is Silvé,” he says.
Pain tears through the markings, and I scream as I drop to the ground. As quickly as the pain comes, it’s gone, and I’m left kneeling on the ground, staring at him with wide eyes, full of fear. I thought I feared Cliff. But that is nothing compared to the fear I now feel for Geoff.
I yell the word for fire at him and he grins at me, making me realize that I just did a very stupid thing.
“Silvé,” he says, and I fall to the ground as pain consumes me.
It feels like someone is taking a knife and shredding the skin he’d drawn the ink on. He looms over me while grinning, and I realize that I have left one hell and walked into another. But this hell has a monster in charge.
“Stop,” Havoc says, and I look over at him. “I don’t want to see you tortured.”
I laugh. “It’s alright. I thought you were into BDSM.”
“Only when I’m the one doing the torturing. The only one who should be allowed to beat you is me,” he says as he pushes my head down, forcing me to lie over his legs, and begins smacking my ass.
“Oh my god, you asshole,” I say as I reach up and grab the white horn snaking around his head and yank it down.
“Ow, you little fucker,” he hollers as he dumps me onto the ground and then pins me there with my arms above my head.
“Like that’ll stop me from doing whatever the fuck I want,” I say as I bring my foot up and let my toes slide over his groin.
He looks down at my foot and then up at me and raises an eyebrow. I smile at him, and he leans in to kiss me as he releases my arms. Instead of letting myself be pulled into the kiss, I bring my hip up, throwing him forward, and then hook his arm and draw it down as I flip him onto his back and sit down on his stomach.
“Oof… you little shit,” he says.
I look down at him as I grin. He reaches for me, and I shake my head. “No touch, big boy,” I taunt, and my control over him forces him to put his hands down at his sides as he looks up at me with a raging glare.
“You think you’re fucking cute, don’t you?” he asks.
“Of course,” I say as I ruffle his black hair. “What do you want me to do?” I lean forward until my lips are half an inch from his. “Do you want a kiss?”
“Not from you,” he says defiantly.
I grin as I lean close enough to kiss him. Instead, I take his bottom lip between my teeth and pull it gently. “Funny.”
“Let me go, or when I do get loose, you’re not going to enjoy it,” he growls.
“So scary,” I say as I slide a hand up my shirt as I rock my hips on his stomach. “I’m. So. Scared. Of the big. Bad. Demon.”
I know I’m being dumb, but sometimes, I just can’t
help myself.
I push my shirt off and drop it onto the ground before leaning back against his knees and unbuttoning my pants. He’s watching me intently as I pull the zipper down and begin to work my pants off my hips. I slide them down one side then the other as I put my feet in his face. I take my briefs with them, so I’m sitting naked on his stomach.
“Too bad you don’t want me to touch you,” I taunt as I run my hand down my stomach and over my cock. “Because I could use a big, hot, cock right now. Not yours. But you know, if there’s one around,” I say.
I can feel his hard cock against my ass, eager to join in. “Let me go.”
“Nope.” I lean forward and lick his throat. Then I bite it before sitting up. “Not going to happen. What is this nasty thing jabbing me in the back? Put your legs down,” I order, and he fights it, but it’s a losing battle. All too soon, he’s lying completely flat on the ground, so I slide my butt over his groin until I’m lying on his legs and unbutton his pants. “How embarrassing.” I release his erection. “Your words are all ‘no, I’m not enjoying this. No, I don’t like you’ yet look at how hard you are.” I lean forward and go to lick the tip before looking at him, startled. “I forgot. You didn’t want me to touch you… sorry.” I slide over his erection, letting it brush my thigh as I sit back down on his stomach.
“I never said you couldn’t touch,” he says.
“But… when I tried to kiss you… you said not from me,” I remind him.
He grimaces.
“Oh well, I’ll pleasure myself,” I say as I get up and head into my bedroom.
“Come back here right this moment!” he yells.
I grab the lubricant from my drawer and return as I watch him. “Or what?”
“Or when I get loose, I’ll fuck you so hard you won’t walk for a week.”
I snort. “You’re not that good, I’m afraid.” I sit down on his stomach again, and as he’s watching, I pop open the lid of the lubricant and squirt a nice pile right on his forehead. I laugh at the murderous look on his face.
Happy Endings Page 8