“Anyone want to go for a steak after this?” Evan asks. “Assuming we win, of course.”
“Of course we’ll win, we’re the Penetrators,” Iya shouts.
“Who all would like to vote Iya out of our group?” Evan asks.
Everyone raises their hands. Even Badrick hobbles on three paws so he can raise one.
“Funny,” Iya says. “I have been good. Miles, I did not penetrate the human, as you told me not to, even though he asked me to.”
Sam’s face turns bright red. I could probably fry an egg on it, it’s so red.
“I told you that you could if he asked you to,” I say.
If a bull’s face could show horror, Iya’s is showing it right now. “Seriously? Oh heavens and hell… I have made great mistakes,” Iya cries. “Sam! He says it’s okay to penetrate you!”
“I’m going to run ahead and hope I get killed,” Sam says as he takes off jogging.
Suddenly, the ground begins to shake, and Badrick leaps back.
“Let’s move out,” Evan says.
Badrick jumps into a run as Havoc flies above me to lead the way.
“Follow me, I’ll weave you around the guards and get you to the shrine,” Havoc says, so I tell Badrick since he can’t hear him.
Suddenly, a woman steps before us and raises her hand as she begins to chant. The ground beneath our feet begins to shake and Badrick stumbles. Marco swoops down from the air, holding his spear high as he drives it down at the woman. She falls back as another woman, identical to the first, steps forward, but Badrick avoids her before I can see what tricks she has up her sleeve.
I can see Baron fighting a werepanther as Evan lifts up his bow. The shrine is just in front of us, when I hear a flutter of wings. Badrick pulls up quickly as Rehna’s two gryphons hit the ground.
“Go, I can handle them,” Badrick says.
I leap off his back and hit the ground as he runs toward them. They rush in with claws and beaks, ready to tear into him. Badrick slams a paw into one, driving it to the ground as the other leaps into the air and dives at him. I slide past them as I rush through the door and step into the front room.
“Miles,” Rehna says from where she’s kneeling at the altar.
She rises and turns to me, wearing her full suit of armor, lance at the ready.
“Havoc, find the celestial being. Rehna will just continue to heal if the being isn’t stopped,” I say.
The celestial being is the woman who looked into our minds when I first brought the detectives here. I only realize now how dangerous that had been. It was a good thing that I hadn’t completely opened my mind to her. The celestial being has kept Rehna young and alive for many years. She never ages, and I know from experience that every hit Rehna takes, unless it is a direct kill, will heal within minutes as long as the being is near her.
“I’m on it,” Havoc says.
“Be safe, she’ll be guarded.”
“You’ll never touch her,” Rehna says as she smiles at me.
All I can see from beyond her helmet is her smile and her cold eyes. She pulls the face protector down as she turns to me. The armor is white with a peculiar glow to it. It’s clearly meant for her, and it allows its wearer full movement because it fits her perfectly.
“Of all people, Rehna, how could you do this?” I ask.
She chuckles. “You don’t know me as well as you think, Miles.”
“Obviously,” I say as I pull my sword free and face her.
She lets out a battle cry and runs straight toward me. I raise my hand and call for fire as it races along the ground. She brings her hand up, and a barrier comes with it, blocking my fire and letting it die. She spins around and brings her lance down hard as I leap back to avoid its pointed end. The issue with fighting with a sword against a lance is that she has three times as much reach as I have, so I’m stuck spending more time dodging than swinging.
She drives it down hard, aiming it toward my legs as I step back to avoid it and then move in. I swing my sword as I invade her space and bring the blade down across the seam of her armor, but it bounces right off. The jar of it radiates up my hand as I hold onto the hilt tightly. That’s when she hits me with her lance, forcing me to move back.
“Nice armor there,” I say.
“It’s made from dragon skin,” she says.
I raise an eyebrow. “What? Dragons aren’t real.”
“They used to be,” she says confidently.
“Someone made that up just to make you pay a fancy price for their suit,” I say.
She glares at me. “It’s dragon skin.”
“It looks like metal to me,” I say.
“Dragon. Skin.”
“Sure, sure,” I say as I assess the situation, but Rehna doesn’t give me time.
She stabs at me as I move back, so I swing my sword, knocking her lance away. I call upon the name of fire and drive it at her as she gloats. She doesn’t even block it this time. She just stands with arms outstretched like she’s calling upon the gods to shoot me down. When the fire hits the metal (not dragon skin), it doesn’t even damage it.
She laughs as she walks toward me. “Not so powerful now, are you? I had this dragon skin armor designed specifically to deter your magic.”
“My magic? You’ve been thinking about my death for a while?” I ask in surprise.
“I knew you were too smart, you’d figure it out,” she says.
“Actually, Lanni did,” I say. “I was kind of just put at the forefront of this operation because I have more power than the rest of them.”
I pull a marker out of my pocket and start to draw on my hand.
“No, you don’t,” she says as she rushes straight at me. I do manage to dodge the blow to my head, but in the process, smear the symbol on my hand.
I grab for the air and bring it down as it swirls around her. She growls something at me as the wind magic flings her back, off her feet, and she slams into the wall. She rises to her feet as I try to fix the smudge on my hand. But now I have to draw it on my other hand, and I am not ambidextrous. A blind three-year-old could have drawn a better symbol on my right hand.
She rushes at me, so I realize that it’ll have to be good enough. I meet her in the middle of the room, and knock her lance away, but she’s too far for me to reach. She steps to the side as I push away from her lance, and she pulls a knife out as she lunges at me.
I, admittedly, am not expecting it, and she catches my arm with the knife. I fall to the side to avoid a more fatal blow before rushing in. I clap my hands together as I call upon the earth to aid me. I press my hand against her armor, so my palm is flat against it, and the magic explodes between us. She’s flung away from me, hitting the ground on her back as I drive my sword down. The moment it hits her armor, the metal of my sword shatters and I fall forward.
“That was my favorite sword!” I cry as I hold up my broken sword. It’s about half the length now, and her lance is still full length.
As she stands, I see a crack in her armor where I touched it. So the spell did work. I just have to keep working. Keep moving. Keep alive.
She swings hard before swooping up. You’d think being in a small room like this, she would choose to use a sword instead of such a long instrument of death, but she is phenomenal with it. It’s apparent by how she’s driving me away from her.
I back up into a corner, hoping it will block some of her swings, but they just become tighter, forcing me into a smaller area. I shove fire at her again, but she doesn’t even blink as she moves toward me. So I pat my pockets down, looking for something to aid me. All I have is my wallet, so I chuck it at her. It smacks her helmet and she jerks back, startled. I rush in and set my hand against the same spot on her armor and push my magic into it. The tendrils snake through my fingers and wrap into a ball that explodes, throwing her back. It sounds like a small bomb when it goes off, making my ears ring.
Even as she stumbles back, she moves her lance, catching me in the side
. I turn and rush in for her as she swings her knife at me. This time, when she turns to face me, I see that the metal is blackened and cracked. There’s a gap where the metal has begun to separate, and I rush for her. She’s expecting it and swings her lance, catching me hard with the handle as I’m thrown back against the altar. I fall into it as the stone cuts into my back, and she charges at me with a battle cry.
I scramble back, rolling over the altar and hiding behind it as I light the entire room on fire. With enough smoke and flames, she might not be able to see where I’m at. I keep the fire burning even though the shrine has wards to keep anything from catching on fire. I slide around the altar and see that the flames are making it hard for her to see me crouched so low to the ground. So I move toward her, crawling on my hands and knees (yes, you can still look badass while crawling) and leap forward as she turns toward me. I drive my broken sword through the crack in her armor and keep pushing as it sinks into her skin.
She cries out as she stumbles back. I pull the sword free as I press my hand against another weakened spot in her armor and tear another break into it. I slam my sword through it and she falls back.
“Havoc, please tell me you’ve stopped the celestial being!”
“Working on it,” he says in my mind.
“We can’t have her heal,” I say.
“Working on it means I’m working on it!”
“Work on it a little faster.”
“Maybe if I hadn’t been stabbed, I would be working on it harder?”
I quickly shut up and focus on keeping Rehna down. “Why did you do it?”
She laughs as she looks at me. There’s blood running down her lip, but I know if Havoc doesn’t stop the healing soon, she’ll be back to normal in minutes. “All of it was Geoff’s idea. He saw how powerful Valerie was becoming by feasting on the hearts of those with magic. He knew you were stronger than him. He knew it was only a matter of time before you overthrew him, so we planned it all. He knew it all. I told him of your plan to attack him, and he agreed to fight. He knew he wouldn’t win, but he knew that if he died, he could come back as something greater. Something bigger than all of us. A god.”
“He’s not a god,” I say.
“But he will be. So during the fight, he hurt me on purpose so no one would suspect me, and I could stay close to you. Harvor and I were going to bring him back to life after he’d died. But then Harvor was killed, and without the mage, I had no way of finding anyone powerful enough to resurrect Geoff. So, I took his body and had the celestial being, which Geoff gave me, keep his body from decaying. I also forced her to keep me alive so that when I found someone strong enough, we could bring him back. I did about six months ago and was finally able to bring Geoff back to life. He becomes stronger every day. And soon, he’ll be stronger than all of us,” she says with a grin as she sits up. She must have started healing, but I don’t do anything yet.
“Where is he?”
She just laughs. “I won’t tell you that.”
“I have stopped them,” Havoc says.
“Perfect,” I say as I set a hand against her chest. The armor shatters, and I press my sword against her throat. “I told you it wasn’t dragon skin.”
She glowers at me, but she knows not to move. Havoc returns with the celestial being behind him. She must have been forced into aiding Rehna, or I doubt Havoc would have let her live.
“You okay?” Havoc asks.
“I’m good. What about you?”
“I have a stab wound… oh wait, that was from you. Nope, I’m fine,” he says, and I glare at him.
“You’re going to have another one if you don’t drop it. Now go get Sam or Johnson. They can take her to prison and see if they can get any information out of her,” I say, and Havoc leaves to find them.
“I’ll never speak,” Rehna says.
After a moment, Sam and Johnson return with Havoc.
“Do they need help outside?” I ask.
“No, the fighting seemed to have stopped with Rehna’s fall,” he says.
Sam fastens the handcuffs embedded with runes on Rehna which won’t allow her to use her magic. Knowing they’ll be safe, I leave her to them. Then I step outside to where everyone else is waiting.
“Everyone okay?” I ask.
“For the most part,” Evan says. “You realize you’re now boss of this district?”
“What?” I ask as I look at him, startled. “Nope. Not gonna happen. Evan, you can be boss.”
“I’m already boss of a district.”
“What about Marco?” I say as I look over at Marco as he stares at his hand in horror. I notice there’s a very small splotch of blood on it.
“My face!” he screams as he touches his face again. “My FACE has been cut!”
“Never mind,” I say.
“My beautiful face is ruined,” he says as he looks around with wide eyes. He literally has a scratch the size of a fingernail on his cheek.
Lanni looks at him. “I think I’d be more worried about the chunk of flesh hanging off your leg,” she says as she pokes it.
I look down and realize that someone has flayed open his leg and a piece of it is dangling.
“Women are drawn to scars on the body, but my face cannot be blemished!” he says.
“It looks pretty bad,” she says as she pushes down his pants and looks at the cut. “Maybe a bit of glue will fix that right up?” Then, as we all watch, she pulls his boxer briefs down. “Your penis is really not that huge. You had me believing it was really big.”
“Somehow, I think you’re most fit to be the boss,” Evan says as he turns to me.
“That is depressing,” I say.
“I agree because you’re not very fit, but somehow you’re the most fit.”
“Evan?” I ask.
He plays with his little plant necklace. “Hm?”
“You have daisies braided into your beard and you think I’m not as fit as you are?” I ask.
Epilogue
We head into Rehna’s shrine where the state council has agreed to meet. There are a few of Rehna’s affairs that need to be situated, so we thought it would be best to do it there. When we arrive, the only people already here are Evan and Willow. It looks like Evan has Willow cornered while telling her the significance of a willow tree, and Willow is trying to assure him that her mother wasn’t even thinking about a Willow tree while naming her.
So Havoc and I sneak past them and head into the shrine.
“Finally, you are to become boss. And when you do, I want a statue erected in my honor,” Havoc says. “Nude statue.”
“With a tiny little leaf over your genitals,” I decide.
“Are you saying my genitals can be covered by a tiny leaf?”
“Wee tiny,” I say as I hold up my fingers to show how tiny it needs to be.
“Erect me a statue,” he growls.
“Yeah… that’s probably not going to happen. And as soon as I find someone adequate to run this place, I’m dumping it off on them,” I say.
“Have you ever wondered why your mother sold you for a bag of potatoes?”
“Well, seeing as she actually didn’t even think I was worth that much and just left me on the street, no, can’t say I have ever wondered,” I say.
“Huh… Well, anyway, the moral of my story is that you’re an idiot for not staying as the boss.”
“That’s not a moral,” I say. “And I will stay as the boss for a short period of time.”
He grumbles but stops when he notices me running my finger over something in my hand. “What’s that?”
“You were complaining that I never got you a gift while your favorite owner made you a cloak,” I say.
He gives me a devilish grin. “Ooh, you got me something. Better be expensive.”
“Uh… yeah sure,” I say as I hold up the ring between my index and middle finger. There’s a green hue about the metal that makes the words written on it appear to almost shine white.
&
nbsp; “Are you asking me to marry you?” he asks.
“No!” I say as I look at him in shock.
“Good because I’m already married to like three people, and a fourth would be a bit too much.”
I glare at him as he laughs. “I’m joking! I’ve only ever gotten married once, and I didn’t know at the time that we were getting married. She spoke another language, and it was a confusing time, but she’s been dead for like four hundred years, so you have nothing to worry about. I didn’t even get to sleep with her!”
“You know what? On second thought, I’m tossing it.”
“No! Let me see it.” He holds his hand out, and I stare at his fingers for a moment before dropping the ring into his hand.
“I made it out of the metal from Rehna’s armor so it will never bend or break,” I say.
His eyes go wide. “So this is made of dragon skin?”
“For heaven’s sake, dragons aren’t real!” I say.
He laughs as he runs his fingers over the markings I drew onto it. Even though it was done with just ink, the magic keeps the words burnt into the metal.
“Aren’t you going to put it on?” I ask.
He twirls the ring around between his fingers and looks up at me. “I don’t know… I can feel your magic in it, and I don’t recognize the spell, so I’m a bit wary. I mean, for all I know, this could force me to be your sex slave for eternity.”
“As if you would complain,” I say.
He nods slowly. “You’re right!” he says as he slides the ring onto his finger. As soon as it’s in place, the spell glows, and I’m pleased it actually worked. “There’s a lot of magic in this little thing. What is it?”
“It’s a spell that will allow a demon to never have a master again. The demon can roam the earth of its own free will and never have to abide by any mage’s command. Besides my own of course. I don’t want you to get too cocky, but if I were to die, you would never be used by another mage.”
Havoc is staring at me, expression unreadable.
I shift, oddly nervous. “So… do you like it? I mean I can make you another one that forces you to be a sex slave if that’s what you prefer? I can wrap it in Komodo dragon skin if you want so you can tell people that it’s dragon skin.”
Happy Endings Page 22