He would have to kill her.
Kaylee stepped out from behind the display. Reese’s eyes locked on her.
“You’re bleeding,” he noted.
Kaylee shrugged. “Happens when you’re attacked by a T. rex.”
“Kaylee, I want you to know I never wanted—”
“Never wanted this? Never knew exactly what Lesuvius and the Slayers were doing?”
Reese opened and closed his mouth, as though the right words might fly into them.
“If you aren’t going to shoot me then can you please put that thing down?” Kaylee said.
Reese dropped the crossbow with a loud clatter.
“Lesuvius,” he said slowly, “he told me…he promised no one in my family would be hurt. They must have known you were part of it, but they never said anything…no one said anything!”
“Would it have changed your mind if you’d known?”
“Of course!”
“So you only stand by their values if you have nothing in the game to lose.”
“You don’t understand!” Reese’s voice was strained, pleading. It cut through Kaylee like a sour wind, drowning out the sounds of battle ebbing and flowing in the rooms around them. “The Slayers…what they’re doing is right. They’re trying to make the world safer. For everyone.”
“By killing those they deem as dangerous?”
“By killing the monsters who threaten us. Who threaten our way of life.”
“The monsters? And what am I, Reese?”
“Don’t, Kaylee. Don’t make me say it. Can’t you see how much this hurts?”
“What am I, Reese?”
Reese pulled his eyes up to meet hers, but for a moment they weren’t Reese’s eyes, but Brendan’s. They held the same fervor and passion; the same perverted belief that what they were doing was the absolute right thing, end of story.
“You’re a freak,” Brendan’s face said.
“You’re my sister,” Reese said.
“And a dragon-kin,” Kaylee added. “And I promise whatever Lesuvius told you is a lie. He’s using you to get what he wants. Yeah, there are some bad dragon-kin and Convocation members. But we’re no worse than any of the other bad things in the world.”
Reese let out an exasperated breath. Their argument seemed to be taking a physical toll on him. “Then what…then who…?”
“It isn’t as easy as hating the Convocation and blaming all of your problems on us.”
Again Brendan’s face stared back, and Kaylee had to focus to keep staring at him, even though it hurt.
“It has to be that easy,” Reese said. “Because if not—if what he’s been telling me is wrong…then everything I’ve done and believed in for the last year is a lie.”
Kaylee took a hesitant step forward. “It’s wrong. You’re wrong. And I’m sorry he lied to you. But I won’t apologize for what I am, and I won’t make excuses for what you’ve done. That was your decision, and all the consequences that came with it.”
And as she said those words it felt as if she was speaking beyond the room, speaking to someone other than Reese. As she watched, Brendan’s face faded, then vanished for good, leaving only her brother standing before her.
Kaylee put a gentle hand on Reese’s ice-cold cheek. He flinched but didn’t pull away. Warm tears spilled from his eyes. After a moment, he covered her hand with his.
“Please. Don’t hate me.”
“I don’t.”
“You should.”
“I don’t. We can still fix this.”
“How? Lesuvius has the Book. He’s probably already summoned the Herald.”
Kaylee couldn’t help grinning. “It’ll be tough, but I’ll bet Lesuvius didn’t mention that last time he and I met he got his butt whupped.”
“Seriously?”
“Worse than the Scarsdale football team during homecoming.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“First off,” Randy said, “we should stop talking about our feelings and get to actually attacking the guy who’s trying to kill us.”
Kaylee spun around. “Randy!”
Randy nodded, but didn’t stop looking at Reese. Kaylee looked back and forth between them. She was still in shock at finding him here, but it seemed that shock still wasn’t quite enough to dispel the grudging feud between them.
“Guys, you can talk about this later.”
“I agree,” Randy said. “We’ll have plenty of time to sort out our differences when we’re not in mortal peril. That includes telling your parents about your extracurricular activities, Reese.”
Reese grimaced.
Randy closed one clawed hand and the brief hum of electricity Kaylee had just now noticed in the air died. He fixed her with a pointed stare.
“I thought I’d find you here, Kaylee. Right where you can get in the most trouble. A T. rex? Really?”
“I asked, but they were all out of rhinos.”
Randy chuckled. “That,” he pointed at Reese’s magicked gauntlet. “You actually know how to use that thing?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Lesuvius is almost done with the spell and Alastair and Zaria have almost broken through to the second floor. I’ll take on Lesuvius and I want you two—”
A sudden blast of nausea slammed into Kaylee’s gut. The air itself turned acrid. A wrongness seeped into her bones, a perversion of magic itself that made her skin crawl.
Randy pushed himself off the nearest display case he’d slumped against. For once he almost looked scared.
“Crap. He finished faster than I thought. Hurry!”
Kaylee followed Reese back through an adjoining chamber and up another corridor leading to the Grand Hall. Each step towards it weighed her down, as if the strangely emanating light up ahead was pushing her back.
“It’s the Herald.” Randy put a hand on her back and held her in place. “His very presence affects our kind. You need to fight it. Use your magic to block his out.”
“How?”
Randy rapped his knuckles on the top of her head.
“Please tell me all that teaching I did didn’t slip right through your skull.”
Kaylee crouched, her legs suddenly unsteady. Every pulse of magic ahead battered on her, but she drew from her magic within, dispersing it through her body, creating a dampening shield.
“Better?” Randy said after a moment.
Kaylee stood. “Better.”
Reese was motioning to them from the doorway to the Grand Hall. Beyond him, Kaylee could see Jade’s motionless form. The two of them had been split the second the T. rex had gone after Kaylee. Now, Kaylee swallowed a sob at seeing her friend lying there. If anything had happened to her...
Kaylee burst into the Grand Hall. Lesuvius stood before a burnt orange portal that had opened in the ground. Kaylee stared at it, her mind trying to grasp what she was seeing. It didn’t make sense. Inside looked as though time itself had been shoved in a blender and liquefied into a viscous substance. It was impossible to make out any solid shapes. Just staring at it made her head hurt.
“Ah, the brat returns,” Lesuvius said. “Too late, I’m afraid.”
He didn’t seem surprised when Reese took a place beside Kaylee. “I won’t lie and say I had high hopes for you, Reese. Your name will be erased with theirs as soon as—”
“Miss me, buttercup?” Randy said, appearing on Kaylee’s other side. He cracked his knuckles, each snap sending up a shower of sparks. “Nice portal. Looks like you’ve been busy.”
Lesuvius snarled. A white bolt of magic erupted from his palm, scorching the place Randy had stood just a moment before. The sour taste in the air was replaced by growing static and white-hot electricity. Randy charged and slammed into Lesuvius. The two went tumbling away in a flurry of magic and dragon claws.
Reese pushed Kaylee towards Jade and used his magic gauntlet to conjure a protective shield as the nearby Slayers fired their crossbows. “Get her out of here!”
“What about the Herald?”
Reese grimaced as another volley of shots cracked his shield. The portal remained open, and now Kaylee could make out a figure forming above it.
“We’ll stop it somehow. Go!” He leaped towards the Slayers, forcing them to scatter.
Kaylee grabbed Jade’s arm. Her insides screamed her friend’s name, but she tried to remain calm. A pulse, she needed a—There!
Jade groaned when Kaylee flopped half her body over one shoulder and Kaylee could have sobbed with relief. The opposite stairwell was directly in front of her. If she could reach it before the Slayers noticed—
An explosion ripped her off her feet. Kaylee went tumbling into the mammoth’s display, tucking Jade’s body close to her. Through the haze of disorientation, she could make out Slayers pouring from the first floor, firing backwards as they ran. Behind them, Alastair’s shouts were growing louder.
“Kaylee!”
Okay, now she was seeing things. Specifically, Edwin and Maddox, hurrying over from across the hall, ducking low to avoid any wayward spells.
“Kaylee?” Edwin’s voice was murky as the blast noise cleared from her ear drums. “Can you move?”
“Jade,” Kaylee said, though her mouth felt like it had cotton balls stuffed in it. “She’s hurt.”
“I got her.” Maddox crouched and easily scooped Jade in his arms. Some of the Slayers had noticed them now. The group ducked as lancing bolts of light snarled over their heads. Edwin fired back with some of his own, forcing some of the Slayers to cover.
“Get Jade out of here!” Kaylee shoved Maddox towards the stairs and she and Edwin slid behind the nearest mammoth’s leg, Edwin hugging her close as another volley of spells tore out chunks of fur and plaster right beside them.
Kaylee whipped up a small frenzy of ice with one hand and lobbed it over her. The ensuing cries of pain told her she’d partially hit her mark.
“Lesuvius finished the spell,” Kaylee said. “There’s no way to stop the Herald.”
A pulse of sick magic even stronger than before washed over her. Edwin held her steady as Kaylee cried out. It was a clawing pain on the inside of her skull. She forced her mind to focus, drawing more of her magic over her, forcing the Herald’s out.
When the sensation passed, Kaylee risked a look. The portal was still there, but it was smaller now, shrinking every second. Now, a fully-formed figure stood atop it.
He had no face. Where his features should have been was instead as blank as a wall of rock, yet somehow infinitely more terrifying. He was dressed in Arthurian armor, perched upon a black horse with weeds and swamp moss writhing between the beast’s partially skeletal ribcage. In his hand was an ivory horn with a single crack down the center.
The thing turned its face towards her and Kaylee’s world stopped.
The Herald had arrived.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kaylee couldn’t move. Her legs grew so weak that she sank to the ground. Her scaled hands clacked on the tile as they shook.
Then Edwin grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her into cover.
“Kaylee, focus on me.” His voice sliced through her terror, his calming tone grounding her again. “Keep your magic shield up. This guy uses paralysis and fear to win. We can beat him, we just have to keep moving.”
As if to prove his point, Edwin suddenly pulled her up again, nearly dislocating Kaylee’s shoulder.
“Run!”
Scalding heat grew at their backs as they broke from behind the mammoth’s leg, followed by an immense explosion and the creak of an exhibit toppling over. The smell of charred plaster clouded the air.
The Herald lowered his hands, then turned his attention to the other fighters around the room. Kaylee slid in next to Edwin behind the next display.
The Grand Hall was absolute chaos. Maddox had managed to escape with Jade, but Reese was still holding back the other Slayers. One of their magic gauntlets had flown off and he was scrambling for it. Alastair, Zaria, and Protectors were engaged in a deadly back and forth with a group of Slayers in the gallery beyond. The far wall exploded and Randy landed in a heap on the floor. Lesuvius walked through the hole. His muscles had swelled to an almost grotesque size. There was a barely restrained aura of magic surrounding him.
“Finally going to pay your penance, Richards?” Lesuvius jeered. “You’re a few years too late and too weak for that.” He gripped Randy by the collar and held him so they were face to face. “When I ask you something, I don’t take no for an answer. You embarrassed me.”
Randy gave a bloody grin. “Oh dear, did I? Thing is, my friend, you embarrassed yourself long before I did.”
Randy lowered his voice so that Kaylee missed what he said next, but Lesuvius’ eyes bulged with rage. He brought up a swirling ball of magic. “Die.”
“You aren’t moving your feet,” Randy said.
He turned his palms down and shot a bolt of electricity into Lesuvius’ legs. Lesuvius jerked, then roared in pain, hurling Randy through the wall of the Ancient Celtic hall.
“What’s taking so long?” He barked at the Herald. “I’ve done my part, Herald! Summon the Hunt!”
“I have not yet regained my strength,” the Herald replied, his voice rasping, slithering through Kaylee’s senses.
“Then hurry it up! I’ve wasted enough time already.” Lesuvius hurled himself after Randy.
Edwin grabbed Kaylee’s arm. “I’ll help Randy and Reese. You need to destroy the Herald.”
“What?” Kaylee’s voice came out as a breathy squeak. “How do you expect me to do that?”
“Remember when we fought the scarabs? Remember what I said then?”
“Of course I don’t! That was forever ago!”
“Just look.”
Kaylee followed Edwin’s finger and peered at the Herald. He hadn’t attacked anyone else. In fact, he’d barely moved at all. He sat in the same spot, head bowed, as if he’d simply nodded off in the middle of the fight.
“Look closer at his body,” Edwin said.
Kaylee really didn’t want to, but she did. She narrowed her eyes.
“He’s…see-through.”
“Barely,” Edwin agreed. “He’s not done manifesting in the physical plane. The components of the magic Lesuvius used to summon him are still pulling themselves together.”
Kaylee laughed nervously. “Lesuvius does have a tendency to pick the slowest summoning spells.”
“And we’re going to use that against him. Same principle with the scarabs applies here. There’s no counterspell, but if we can hit the Herald—and by we I mean you—with enough power, it’ll disperse whatever hold he has here. Hopefully badly enough that Lesuvius can’t summon him for a long, long time.”
“Edwin…”
“Kaylee,” he titled her chin. His face looked so earnest in his belief that it hurt. “I know you can do this.”
Kaylee let out a calming breath. She pulled her focus from how much pain she was in and the battle around her, and instead concentrated on the magic inside. A burning coal of power settled in her stomach, ready to be unleashed. A growl of indoor thunder rumbled overhead.
A single drop of rain pelted Edwin’s glasses. “That’s my girl.”
“You’re sure this is the only way?”
“The best way, yes. I would never ask you if I weren’t.”
“You’ll owe me big time if I live through this.”
Edwin placed gentle hands on either side of her face. “How about I pay a little thanks in advance?”
Thunder roared as Edwin kissed her. No matter how hard she tried Kaylee couldn’t tell if it was his warm lips or her magic that sent a bolt of energy shooting through her body. Her fingers laced through his hair, intertwining even as his own fingers cupped the back of her neck. Sparks trembled up and down her arms. She leaned in, trying to draw closer, wanting to taste more of him.
And then they broke apart. Edwin’s glasses were eschewed. His hair stuck out as if stru
ck by lightning.
“Should have done that a long time ago,” he said breathlessly.
Kaylee forced her own heart to stop pounding. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you forget it.”
“Be careful.”
He waited until the nearest Slayers were distracted and then leapt into the fight, hurling bolts of magic at their exposed flanks.
Her mind still shooting off a hundred thousand different directions, Kaylee re-focused on the Herald. His head was still bowed—charging, asleep, whatever. Vulnerable. That’s all she cared about.
Every cell in her body railed against her as she stepped out of cover and ran at him. She was the prey in this scenario, the rabbit defying the wolf with nothing but a bundle of lightning cupped in one hand.
Kaylee wrapped herself up in her magic and gave another burst of speed. She drew back her arm…
The Herald’s head snapped up a moment before Kaylee collided with an invisible barrier. She stumbled back. Her mouth filled with blood as she bit her tongue. Her knee throbbed where she’d slammed it into the wall.
“Interesting…” the Herald’s murky voice pulled her away from the sudden pain. “Clearly you don’t know how our relationship works, beast.”
The Herald’s horse stomped its hooves, snorting hissing steam. The Herald lowered one hand and aimed it at Kaylee. Swirls of magic gathered within it.
“I am your death, and you cannot escape me.”
The attack decimated the tiles where she’d stood. Kaylee rolled, pulsing wind magic to shove herself away. Her feet barely brushed the ground as she rode her storm’s current of air, keeping one step ahead of the Herald as he reined his horse around to follow her.
Kaylee leaned in and struck again. Her claws raked the barrier, but it didn’t do any good. She tried hitting it with ice, her claws, even more lightning, but every time the Herald was there to intercept her attack.
“That is enough!” He roared.
The horse stomped its hooves and a sudden blast of magic threw Kaylee back. Needles of darkness cut into her skin.
“You bore me, dragon,” the Herald said. “Surrender, tell all those who fight with you to surrender, and when I call my master he may yet be merciful.”
Dragon's Curse (Heir of Dragons: Book 2) Page 22