by K. A. Linde
“I have a goddess to kill,” she told him. She rose to her feet. “You have to stay here and answer for your crimes when this is all done.”
He frowned. “So, you saved me just to kill me?”
“No. I saved you because you did not deserve what Malysa had done to your mind. No one does. But it doesn’t mean that you aren’t responsible for so many deaths, Kael. There are a lot of people who will want you brought to justice.”
“What’s justice in war?”
She didn’t have an answer for that. Just an argument. One that they would have to have later. But, right now, she had more important things to do than deal with Kael Dremylon.
“Cyrene!” she heard a voice calling her.
She turned to find Dean striding into the Ring of Gardens. His light hair was messed up, and he was covered in black blood.
“Over here,” she called. “You killed the Voldere?”
“Yes. Two of them. There are more terrorizing the army. Sarielle and Halcyon went to help take them out of the skies,” he told her.
“Creator.”
“And Ceis’f went off after Malysa alone.”
“What?” she snapped.
“Avoca and I tried to stop him, but he was beyond reason. He kept saying he was this close to avenging his people, and he wouldn’t wait around for you. Avoca sent me to get you and ran after him.”
“Ceis’f,” she growled. “What was he thinking?”
“I don’t think he was.”
Kael slowly rose to his feet. “You can’t trust Ceis’f. He’s one of Malysa’s men.”
Cyrene shook her head. “He’s not a traitor. When he found out that Malysa had killed the Leifs in Aonia, he was a hundred percent with me.”
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty doubtful.”
“I thought you were going to kill him,” Dean noted, crossing his arms to stare Kael down.
“I was,” she said. “But I thought I’d try to fix him first. And, in doing so, I broke the curse and cleansed both of our blood magic.”
Kael tipped his head at him. “Guess I’m here to stay.”
“We’ll see about that,” Dean said, low and menacing. He strode toward Kael. “You’ve killed a lot of people. Ten of my sisters and my entire island home. Just because Cyrene didn’t have the heart to kill you doesn’t mean I won’t.”
Dean got right into his face.
Kael just tipped his head up and met his stare. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Would you two stop it?” Cyrene spat. “We have more important things to do right now. Ceis’f and Avoca went to take on Malysa alone! You two can stay here and squabble, or we can go kill the goddess who started all of this.”
Neither of them moved. They just stared at each other. Sizing the other one up. Dean clearly had the advantage. He had magic, and he wasn’t injured. But that didn’t stop Kael from staring at him like he was lower than the dirt on his boots.
Men!
“Okay, fine. You two kill each other. I’ll go save us,” she said. “I have to do everything around here.”
She picked up Shadowbreaker, wiped the blood off of the blade, and then pushed it into its awaiting sheath. Then she grabbed the Hohl blade she’d brought with her, too. She was ready to depart with both when something happened that Cyrene never would have imagined.
Kael held his hand out. “Truce?” he asked.
Dean narrowed his eyes. “After all you’ve done?”
“Let’s survive this fight and then decide what to do after.”
Dean’s eyes flicked to Cyrene and back to Kael. “If she saw enough humanity in you to save you, then I can accept a truce.”
Dean took Kael’s hand. The two men squeezed more than shook. It wasn’t a gentle thing, but neither backed down. Neither said anything else. Some male thing that Cyrene could never understand.
Then, they turned as one to Cyrene.
Dean smiled. “I’m at your service.”
Kael put his hand to his breast in a formal guardsman salute. “You have my sword.”
“It’s about damn time,” she said.
She tossed Kael the Hohl blade, which he deftly caught and resheathed. Then, she turned and sprinted toward the castle. They came up to flank her.
“Do you know where they went?”
“Avoca sent me to get you,” Dean said. “She said Ceis’f knew where to go.”
“Of course he did. Because he’s sending you into a trap,” Kael said, his words coming out pained.
He looked a little pale. There was nothing she could do for the blood loss. She would have left him behind, but it was his neck that he was risking.
“Everything is a trap,” she fired back. “Do you know where she is?”
“Yes,” he said. “Upper-terrace balcony. She wanted the best view of your demise.”
“Of course she did,” she grumbled. She glanced at him once more. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“No, but…if I can help stop her, I hope it will make up for some of what I’ve done.”
That was admirable at least. Even if it was to save his own ass. He didn’t have to. He could have run. Run from his kingdom and wife and baby. Run as far as the ends of Emporia and started over. Never did anything to atone. This was a start.
They slowed as they approached the corridor leading to the upper terrace. Kael had to rest his back against the wall and close his eyes, breathing hard. Cyrene didn’t ask him if he was okay again. She knew she’d get the same answer. But she still looked at him with concern.
He opened his eyes and stared back at her. “I’ll be fine.”
Dean snorted. “Don’t bother lying to her. You’re white as a ghost. Maybe you should stay here.”
“I’ll survive,” Kael growled. Some color came back to his cheeks as anger flared. He pushed off of the wall and put his palm on the pommel of the Hohl blade. “It’s just up ahead. Let’s go.”
Cyrene looked to Dean as Kael strode past. She mouthed, Thank you.
He’d had enough tired soldiers to know what buttons to push to get them moving again.
Dean just grinned and nodded.
They followed behind Kael, nearly to the terrace, when a shadowy figure appeared at the end of the corridor. Kael came up short. Cyrene and Dean moved to either side of him.
The figure dropped his hood, and Merrick’s face appeared in the gloom.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” Merrick said with a sneer.
Cyrene had no idea how she had ever thought that Merrick was a man. At first glance, he’d had the appearance of a man. Edric’s personal guard and then Kael’s. A man who had come out of nowhere to the highest position for a soldier in the land. He’d even slept in Edric’s chambers for protection.
Though, now, Cyrene could see that he was very clearly a Nokkin. The first and deadliest of Malysa’s creations. Though perhaps the Voldere now outshone him. He had once been Doma. Until Malysa had gotten her hands on him and distorted him and all his kin into monsters who fed on magic and were nearly impossible to kill.
He radiated evil and wrongness. She didn’t know if he had been able to tamp it down before or if all the magic being used was feeding his sinister side.
Either way, he made her shudder.
“It has been a long time coming,” Merrick said, taking another step forward.
“Well, we’re here now,” Cyrene growled.
Merrick snarled at her. “I would end your life slow and feast on your magic for years to come. But alas, my mistress desires you. You are free to pass.” He stepped back and held his arm out.
Cyrene narrowed her eyes. It had to be a joke. He wasn’t just going to let her walk right by him. “What’s the catch?”
“None.” Then, he added, “For you. The others must try to go through me.”
Cyrene removed Shadowbreaker from its sheath. The familiar weight a blessing. “No deal.”
“Cyrene,” Dean said, “you need to get to Avoca and Ceis’f.”<
br />
“Not without you.”
“I can handle him,” Dean said.
“And I owe him a debt,” Kael growled. “I’d like to repay it for the last two years of torment.”
Merrick grinned evilly. “I was hoping you would say that.”
Then Merrick removed his own blade. It was black as night, double-edged, and twice the length of his arm. She’d never seen anything like it.
“Last chance, Domina,” he said like an insult.
“Go,” Kael said. “We have this.”
“Together,” Dean agreed, nodding at Kael.
Cyrene whirled Shadowbreaker once and then stepped forward toward Merrick. She waited for the double cross. Waited for the moment when he tried to grab for her magic, and then she’d be ready to slay him, as she had his brothers and sisters. She’d be happy to rid the world of the last Nokkin.
But she made it past him without incident. Her eyes flicked back to Dean and Kael. “Please don’t die.”
She got a wink from Kael and a small smile from Dean before she rushed past the Nokkin and to the main event waiting on the terrace beyond.
66
The Link
Cyrene strode toward the terrace with calm resolve settling over her. The terrace was a large balcony that jutted out of the side of the castle, overlooking all of Byern. Cyrene could see her armies still at battle. They’d made it through the streets of the capital city, and Indres were crashing down the cobblestoned walkways. The Laelish Market was overrun. Dead littered the ground. She didn’t know how many of her friends lived or died. But she could do nothing for them if she did not end this fight. Right here and now.
She focused in on the present. Avoca stood at the ready, facing two giant Voldere that appeared to be Malysa’s personal lap dogs. None of them moved. Avoca just glared at them, tears streaking her cheeks.
But the real focus was on the main part of the balcony where Malysa stood with Ceis’f on his knees. His own Leif blade at his throat.
“You can still turn,” Malysa told him. “You fought well. You have the anger, the vengeance. And I have no quarrel with your people. Your magic is natural, and I have no desire to kill you. Just the abominations that were created in the humans.”
“You killed my entire family in Aonia. Everyone that I knew,” Ceis’f growled at her.
“That was ill-advised. They were protecting Doma.”
“We had nothing to do with them.”
“If you side with me, you can keep your pretty princess over there. Start a new world of Leifs.” Malysa laid out everything that Ceis’f had ever wanted. “It would be a new paradise.”
Cyrene narrowed her eyes as she stepped forward into view. “Liar.”
Malysa’s head snapped up. “Ah, there you are.”
“I’ve come to stop you.”
Malysa grinned. “I thought you might say that. But haven’t you realized yet, Domina? There is no stopping me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Cyrene said, menacingly removing Shadowbreaker. She could feel the hum of the Tendrille blade and the call of the full honeycomb. But it would have to wait until later. She would probably need it against Malysa.
“I find your resistance amusing. It only feeds my creatures. All the blood. All the suffering. All the death.” She smiled cruelly. “Once we have cleansed the world of your kind, then we will live in peace once more.”
“You don’t want peace.” Cyrene continued to move forward. “You want war. You wouldn’t even know what to do with peace. If you won here, then you would just find another world to terrorize. It would never stop here.”
“Uh, uh, uh,” Malysa said. She wagged her finger at Cyrene. “No further.”
Cyrene didn’t stop walking. She had no intention of listening to what Malysa had said. But she took one more step and ran smack dab into a barrier. It was so solid that it felt like stone, but it was completely see-through. A real work of art as far as magic was concerned.
And she could sense nothing through it. Not how powerful Malysa had grown since she saw her a few days earlier. Or what else might be on the other side. Cyrene used the energy that normally brought down a barrier, and it did nothing. She inverted the energy, as she had done on the guards. Again, nothing. She frowned. What in the Creator’s name kind of shield was this?
Malysa cackled. “And you try to claim that you are a Doma? Do you know we were taught that little number in our third year? I suppose Benetta trained you the best she could. But still, you are inadequate.”
Cyrene gritted her teeth as she worked her magic on the shield.
“And don’t worry about your little friend. She would have cried out, but I’ve silenced her for the time being. She kept trying to interfere with our fight,” Malysa said. “I couldn’t have that. So, right now, she’s a statue.”
Cyrene glanced up at Avoca and realized she hadn’t moved an inch. Not one since Cyrene had come inside. Creator! They were so outmatched. She was powerful, but Malysa was infinite. She’d had thousands of years to master her craft. Cyrene had had two. Just two.
“I’ll make a wager with you,” Malysa said, the corner of her lips curling upward. “If you can take my barrier down by the count of five, then I’ll let your friend go.”
“No,” Cyrene said. “I’m not negotiating with you.”
“One.”
Cyrene started to sweat. There was no way she could get it down in time.
“Two.”
She needed to figure it out. It was woven elements. She’d seen something like this before.
“Three.”
Less air than regular shields. No spirit though.
“More time,” she growled.
Malysa ignored her. “Four.”
Okay. Okay. Here it was. She could sense the make of it if she reached for it. She tugged on the edge of the weave.
“Five.”
The shield was down.
Cyrene stepped through. “I did it.”
Malysa smiled and released Avoca, who gasped and clutched at her throat.
“Good. You work well under pressure.” Malysa clapped her hands twice in mocking congratulations. “I do have one question for you, Cyrene. However did you stop being susceptible to blood magic? That was not a fun surprise.”
“I thought it was fun,” Cyrene said as she strode forward with Shadowbreaker at the ready. “Now, release Ceis’f and face me. Aren’t you tired of hiding?”
“Oh, I know you thought it was fun,” Malysa said, ignoring the rest of her statement. “But there are consequences to your actions.”
She took another step forward. “The great goddess of destruction, who claims to be a god straight from Domara, can’t even face a lowly half-breed.”
“You can’t bait me, Cyrene,” Malysa said. “We’re discussing the consequences of you slaying one of my Voldere and then avoiding the blood magic. Was it the diamond? You didn’t have it on you then.”
Malysa greedily looked at her neck where the diamond now hung.
“I did have it on me, but I didn’t wear it on my neck.”
“We checked you.”
“Then, perhaps that’s Merrick’s fault,” Cyrene said, tugging on the bond with Avoca to check on her.
She’d slowly gotten to her feet, and she was reaching for her ice-white blades.
“And now, you wear it openly to prove that you are not afraid of me?” Malysa asked with a laugh.
“I wear it openly because it is the heirloom of my people. It is the Domina diamond, and I am the Domina. That is who you face.”
Malysa shook her head. “That is the diamond of my people. I took it from my father in Domara, and it belongs to me.”
“Then, come and get it,” Cyrene growled.
“Uh, uh,” Malysa said with a tilt to her head. “You did it again. We got off topic. We were discussing consequences. And here is yours.”
Before Cyrene could dive forward or throw her magic or do anything to stop it, Malysa drov
e the Leif blade through Ceis’f’s throat. And then pushed him backward where he lay, bleeding out on the balcony floor.
“No!” Avoca shrieked.
Cyrene’s hand was raised and her jaw open. But there were no words. Nothing came out. Just horror at what she’d witnessed. She and Ceis’f had had their differences, but they had always been on the same side. He had always been fighting for the same thing she was even if he did not know it. And in the end, he had just been trying to avenge his people when he went after Malysa. There was even a cut on Malysa’s brow that had to have come from Ceis’f’s blade.
And now, he lay, drowning in his own blood.
The last Leif of Aonia.
Gone forever.
“I don’t like to be toyed with,” Malysa said. She toed Ceis’f’s twitching body. “And you toyed with me, Cyrene.”
“That is all you have done to me for two years!” Cyrene cried. “There was no reason for you to kill him. Your fight is with me.”
“He fought for you. He sided with you. Then, he was my enemy,” she said as if it were simple calculus.
“You’re a monster.”
“I should have done it long ago,” Malysa told her. She sidestepped the flow of Ceis’f’s blood. “He was always cursed to die. He told me so when I came for him and asked for him to convert the Leifs to my cause. He said that he had looked into the Mirror of Truth and seen nothing. I found that interesting. So, I let him keep his head, even after his refusal. Now, I see that his future was destined here. So that I might kill him in front of you for his insolence and yours.”
“You could have been great,” Cyrene said. She tore her eyes away from Ceis’f to stare at Malysa. Not with hate, but pity. “You have so much capacity for goodness. I’ve seen it before.”
“I am doing good in this world.”
“Matilde was snappy and irritable and easily annoyed. But she was also kind and generous and quick to offer a hand. She knew the value of love. She could finish Vera’s sentences. They were two peas in a pod. And you could have had that.”
“I did have that,” Malysa snapped. “Then, it all changed.”
“Or perhaps you changed. You became jealous of Benny’s happiness and new life. You didn’t see how you could fit in anymore. And, when she had her baby, you lost it. You saw it as a problem instead of the solution. You should have seen that all that Benny wanted was your love and affection. She wanted you to help raise Selma and the other children. To live a happy life and prosper. But that wasn’t enough. If you couldn’t have it all, then it wasn’t good enough for you. And you had to take it out on the one person who loved you unconditionally.”