by Jessica Cage
“That, was an indicator.” Laurel’s eyes widened as she looked Nitara over.
“An indicator of what?” Nitara took a step back, not liking how the fae woman eyed her.
“Of—” Laurel began to explain, but the swirl of green and orange light took her attention away. She joined the other fae around Praia, ready to defend her. Nitara, however, remained relaxed.
“It’s all right, these are friends.” Within a moment, the smoke cleared. The nearly empty field became flooded with bodies as Bruto and Ardyn arrived, bringing with them were over fifty wolves, most of whom were in their wolf forms. And just as the fae had arrived with Praia, the unconscious form of Ryesen drifted in the air between them. Marcus, her grief-stricken mate, remained close by her.
“Zaria.” Ardyn ran to her side before the smoke could fully clear. “What happened?”
“Long story short …” Genesis spoke for the first time since his arrival, and Laurel and the other fae charged the field around themselves having just noticed him and Rosie. When they arrived, Genesis lifted a cloak that hid them from the fae. He needed to be sure they weren’t foe. “Settle down, fae. This has been really interesting, but to answer our buddy’s question, the spell just kicked into high gear. It seems there was a missing link and the firebird was it.”
“Rosie.” Bruto moved over to her side and Genesis gave him room. He touched the shell that contained her and sighed when there was once again no response. “We need to get ready. How long until the witches get here?”
“Something tells me we’re out of time.” Laurel pointed to the clouds rolling in from the north. As it neared, it shadowed the ground and brought in a thick fog that eliminated all visibility. When the fog cleared, the coven leaders from the light and dark sides of the Collective stood there in dark robes, along with the strongest witches of their sides who’d chosen to help them.
“Why are we not ready?” Azalea looked over the area. The altar was in place, but no one else was. “I gave specific instructions. Who are all of these extra people?”
Her annoyance was echoed by the other witches who had arrived with her.
“Seems we found a kink in the plan. There is one missing. Jinn is going to get him.” Genesis retorted, “Not to mention that you’re a bit early on the schedule.”
“We felt a shift in power, we had to get here faster,” Azalea snapped. “What happened here?”
“Where is Cairo?” Nitara noted the missing leader of the light witches. “I assumed she would be here.”
“She has decided to remain at home to help prepare the defenses should things go wrong here.” Azalea rolled her eyes. “Which is to say she was too afraid to come. But don’t worry your head, I promise to be on my best behavior. There is a common interest at hand.”
“Wait, who is Jinn going to get?” Bruto interrupted them, unconcerned about the lack of Cairo’s presence.
“To cut another long story short,” Nitara responded, “Bukai. There was a link in the spell that tied Akasha to all of this. Once she died, it transferred to the person strong enough to sustain it.”
“We need to prepare. Arrange the bodies and their anchors. He better get here soon.” Azalea issued the instructions and the members of the covens went to work finishing the preparations for the ritual spell.
Once the witches were finished prepping the area, and imbuing it with their magic, it was time to move the bodies of the women into place. There were five witches for each unconscious body; they would serve as the spiritual guard throughout the process. One by one they wrapped their magic around their ward. With the growing pressure, their power shattered the barriers that held them.
“Our magic is now the catalyst for all that is to come. Each must be protected by the source. Daegal is primarily one of us, so it is our magic that must serve as their protection,” Azalea announced as the groups moved, pulling the unconscious women with them. “Now we must all take our places, there isn’t much time.” She looked to Nitara. “Can you tell if Jinn is near?”
Nitara shook her head and tried to keep the fear from her expression.
“We will do as much as we can. Just know that we cannot finish this until he gets here. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to hold this, but we’ll have no choice but to wait for his arrival.”
She walked the semi-circle created by the herbal mixture surrounding the altar. As she did, she pointed to the spots where they were to be positioned. The first was Praia. She stopped to the west of the altar, the position of the moon, and pointed her finger, lighting the ground where the witches moved. Once in position, she touched Praia’s forehead; her eyes lit, and then she turned her finger on Laurel. “You, you are the anchor for the fae.”
Laurel walked over to join them at the point. When she did, the light from the ground lifted and formed a tether that wrapped around the unconscious woman and her friend.
Azalea did this for each of the affected. For Ryesen to the south, Marcus was chosen. For Zaria, to the east for the sun, her anchor was Ardyn. She arrived at the northern point and paused. “We need the bear, we can only do so much without him here. This must be done correctly.”
“Fuck,” Bruto growled. “Where the hell is he?”
“What is that?” Ana, a small witch with from the light side of the Collective, drew attention to the tree line.
What seemed like fireflies, yellow orbs that danced around in the darkness quickly revealed itself as something more. Slowly the orbs increased in number until there were hundreds, no longer dancing but constant and unmoving. They waited silently, watching the display closely until there was movement yet again. From the shadows, the largest set of lights moved forward until it broke the tree line and revealed the sleek jaguar.
The beast made a gradual approach, and as his massive paws carried him forward, his body shifted mid stride to the human counterpart. Magua appeared, shoulders back and head high.
“Dammit, man.” Bruto released the deep breath that had nearly choked him. The fear from the unknown eased away. “You sure know how to make a damn entrance!”
“What can I say, it’s what we do best!” Magua laughed but the hearty sound was cut short as the ground beneath their feet began to shake.
“Now what?” Azalea asked, frustrated with the delays in the progression of the ritual.
“Something tells me we won’t be waiting long for Jinn to get here.” Magua pointed to the horizon where the trees shook, and some fell completely, sending the thunderous sounds of their breaks echoing out around the field. He let out a deep growl, a signal to his men to get in position.
From the trees they emerged, hundreds of shifters of every variety. They formed a barrier line between the altar and the arriving threat.
“On your guard!” Magua yelled out, and everyone braced themselves for impact.
The first to come into view was Jinn, five times his normal size and carrying an unconscious bear over his shoulder. The second he entered the field, he held his hand out behind him and blue strands of light erupted from his palm, spreading out in front of the trees to create a barrier. Without word or request, Bruto, Genesis, and Nitara lifted their palms to use their magic to reinforce his and create a barrier that wrapped around the entire field. Magua roared and the felines ran forward, passing Jinn who ran toward the altar.
“Whatever the hell the plan is here, we better hurry this up. I had company on my tail.” A moment later the barrier was slammed with the bears. They quickly spread out, surrounding the field and clawing at the barrier. “I’m not sure how long that is going to hold up!”
“Here, bring him here.” Azalea pointed to the empty spot. When Jinn laid the bear on the ground, he was surrounded by the group of witches that would bind him to their magic. His body lifted as the others had, and Azalea called for Magua to act as anchor. “You, you will be his anchor?”
“Me?” Magua returned to the center.
“Yes, you are the closest to him.” She raised a brow. “The
bond between you two is quite strong in fact.”
“Right, okay.” He stepped into place, ignoring the questioning look from the others.
“We need to hurry this up!” Bruto yelled. “The bears have something up their sleeves!” In the distance, at the farthest point of the field, a piercing light shot out from the trees and into their collective barrier. “Whatever that thing is, it’s strong!”
“Hurry, the last one!” Azalea instructed the witches who surrounded Rosie to move. They climbed the steps to the refurbished altar and centered Rosie’s body on the platform. “You.” Azalea looked to the djinn who held the magic strong enough to fuel the barrier. “You are her anchor.” She lifted her hand, and when she did, Bruto’s light burned so bright that it nearly blinded everyone around him.
“Bruto, calm down!” Nitara ordered as Genesis left their line to join Rosie at the altar. Jinn replaced him, lending his magic once again to the barrier.
As the link between Rosie and Genesis was formed, Bruto managed to bring himself in check again. Azalea began the ritual chant as she completed the circle once more. With each passing, the witches who stood as guards joined her. She started with Zaria. As she spoke, the phoenix emerged and the space around her became as hot as the fire that burned from within like the flame of a thousand suns.
With Ryesen, she chanted, and her wolf brought forward the spirit of the land and earth. The wind rushed around them, carrying with it the warmth of Zaria’s fire. When Praia was reached, the fae glowed, filling their circle with the light of the moon. And when she reached Bukai, the bear became man and then returned, bolder, bigger, and stronger. The sky opened up and released a snowfall that turned to steam when it hit Zaria’s heat and stirred around them in Ryesen’s wind.
Azalea approached the center, and the witches who surrounded Rosie stepped down from the platform, leaving her with Genesis. The chanting continued, and for a moment, everything went still. Silence drowned the field. For an instant, life was peaceful, surreal. Everyone watched as the world slowed to a beautifully painful stop.
There was hope. This was working. As their spirits lifted and they believed they would win, the darkness beneath the surface of Azalea’s magic broke through. The ground beneath their feet trembled and a concentration of dark energy beat the spot beneath the altar.
There was no time to react. There was no time to save them.
The ground opened, and the altar disappeared taking Rosie and Genesis with it.
.
14
“What the hell?” Bruto dropped his hand cutting his power off from the barrier that stood between their group and the threat of the bears. He ran towards the altar but slammed into the protective spell surrounding the witches. “Rosie! Fuck. Azalea, let me in!”
Azalea turned to him, eyes glowing with power that echoed in her voice when she stated, “You will not disrupt this circle!”
“Bruto, get back here!” Jinn called. “We can’t hold these damn bears off without you! We need to reinforce this, and now!”
When Bruto ignored him, he turned to Nitara. “We just need to keep them out until the spell is done. We don’t want to start a war. Once he is awake he can call them off!”
“Hey,” Nitara called to the fae woman whose eyes were locked on the ones inside of the circle, “you mind lending us some of that moon power over here?”
Their hesitation was brief, but then they joined her and Jinn, and opened themselves up to the moon. The light from above reached down to the ground, flowing into their open mouths. Their bodies charged with its power as their hands lifted and light shot from their palms to reinforce the field.
“Good!” Jinn called. “We just need to keep this up long enough for them to finish!”
“Bruto?” Nitara called to the man who was now on his knees outside of the circle. He couldn’t respond to her call. “Snap out of it!”
Azalea’s voice strengthened as her spell worked. While she continued, those who anchored the unconscious began to speak in a tongue that was long lost to the world. Ardyn’s body glowed green as his voice took on a demonic nature. Marcus’s body fought a shift that took him in and out of human form. Nose turned to snout and back, hand to paw and back. His chant sounded like a cry of agony. Across from him, Magua suffered the same reaction. Laurel was the oddity; her flesh flushed with the light of the moon and her face morphed, time and time again, as the scar across her skin opened and closed to reveal another person entirely. Each time, a new face emerged.
The ground trembled beneath them, threatening to give way and swallow them all. From the spot where the altar once stood sounds of agony rose. A battle ensued beneath the surface.
Rosie’s eyes opened to the darkness of the underworld. Wrapped in the heat of Genesis’ touch, his voice rumbled in her ears, pleading for her to awaken.
“You must wake up, my sweet Rose. Fight him.” His dark tone urged her. “Fight!”
“What the hell is this? Where am I?” She struggled to see, but the only light was that of the flames dancing along his skin.
“You’re in the crosshairs,” Genesis explained. “It’s the space that exists between your realm and mine, The Bane.”
“What?” Rosie began to struggle but her limbs felt heavy. “Why am I here? What the hell did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything, but there is something trying to pull you there. Something dark wants you in the Bane. The only thing stopping that from happening now is me.”
“What is this? Why is any of this happening?”
“It’s Daegal, and the bond that exists between you and him because of what I did to you.” He paused, struggling to speak the words. “Rose, I am so sorry.”
“Save it.” She wanted to pull away from him, but knew that if she did, it could mean being lost between realms forever. “Get me out of here.”
“Yes, of course, there is just something I need to do first.”
“What’s that?” Rosie was afraid to ask. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good.
There was a long beat of silence before he answered her, and when he did his words broke on the deep tone of his voice. “I have to kill you.”
“What?” She tried to pull away from him, but he was stronger than her. He held her in place as he continued to explain.
“It has to happen this way.” Genesis held her as tightly as he could. He wrapped her in his arms hoping to ease the fear from her heart. “It’s the only way to break the bond.”
“I don’t want to die.” Rosie’s voice was small and fearful.
“If you don’t die now, countless others will.” Genesis ran his hot hand across her face. “I know you Rose. That’s not who you are. You take care of people. You take care of those you love.”
“Are you sure this is the only way?” The tear that fell from her eye sizzled and turned evaporated as it met his flesh.
“No, I’m not. But I do know that we need to end this Rose, we have to.” Genesis looked out into the distance as if he saw something approaching. “He won’t stop. Not now, not ever.”
“Genesis …”
“Yes?”
“I still haven’t forgiven you.” Rosie admitted it for herself; the truth that she had ignored for centuries. She was still angry with the man who’d taken so much from her.
“I haven’t earned it, but I will.” His words resonated within her heart as Genesis let the fire that lived within him explode, giving a brilliant light to their surroundings, and revealing the chaotic landscape of a million worlds colliding, before darkness took her over and everything went cold.
“Rosie!” Bruto’s voice cried out above the sounds of hell. Inside of the circle, everyone dropped to the ground; lifeless bodies lay broken. Bruto pounded on the barrier keeping him away from the body of his love, who’d reappeared on the broken altar. Genesis was nowhere to be found. “Azalea! Drop the fucking shield!” he yelled, but she didn’t respond. He looked back at the others still fighting to hold the bears off. “
Fuck this!” Bruto stepped back and unleashed his wrath on the barrier spell.
He struggled at first. Azalea’s spell was strong, but the sight of the blood spilling from Rosie’s laxed mouth was all that it took to give him the strength he needed. Orange light wrapped around the dome of energy that kept him away and constricted until the barrier spell shattered like glass. The moment it fell, he ran for Rosie, and pulled her into his arms. “Rosie, baby, no,” he cried. “Don’t go.” Without thought, Bruto began to sing, the song that brought the two together. With every part of his soul he fed himself into the lyrics and reached to her through the darkness.
“I will not lose you!” He tightened his arms around her, and everything stopped. His eyes lifted from her face to those around him; time itself had frozen with his agony. All that he could do was sing. Nothing was heard, nothing existed but the sound of his voice. In every note was the love he felt for her, in every octave change was the passion, the dedication, the promise he made to her. As he sang, her light began to shine again. At first a dull flicker, it brightened with every word that danced across his tear touched lips until it wrapped around him. He let his own shine and blend with hers in a show of light that at first blinded him like hot fire to his eyes as it ripped through the land and shattered the world around them.
“Bruto?” Rosie’s eyes opened and her voice was echoed by the gasps of the fallen as they too returned to life, and the screams of Jinn and Nitara as the shield that kept the bears at bay fell, neutralized by Rosie and Bruto’s magic.
“Someone needs to wake Bukai! Now!” Jinn yelled as the bears ran forward.
“Shit, he isn’t getting up.” Magua shook the bear’s body and looked to Jinn and Nitara for help with tears in his eyes. “Why isn’t he getting up?”
“Yeah, well, we have about two seconds before those bears are on top of us!” Ardyn coughed as their roars reached his ears.
“Move.” Azalea stood and shot a bolt of light into the bear. Bukai choked on the air that had been trapped in his lungs as his eyes opened to the face of his friend.