by Jasmine Walt
“Parker, you with me?”
“I’m here. Just. Let’s finish this.”
“Only a couple more rows to go,” Mitch said.
“Hang on…” Harry stopped flipping switches.
“Dammit, Coleman, the switches!”
But Harry was moving away from the console and walking toward the wall, where a huge red push button was encased in glass. Motherfucker! How had we missed that? The kill switch of kill switches. It had to be.
The door shuddered, creaked, and bowed.
“Now, Harry!” Mitch cried.
Harry cocked his elbow and smashed the glass just as the first chimera climbed through the gap in the doors.
Parker turned to face it and emptied her clip in its face. The bullets did nothing to slow it down. It grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet. Its grip tightened. How long did it fucking take to hit a damn button?
The chimera’s grip slipped, and it hit the ground.
“We did it?” Mitch nudged the beast with his boot.
Harry slumped to the floor, hand on heart. “Once this mess is cleaned up, I’m requesting a transfer.”
Melody would have laughed, except she was too busy introducing her face to the floor.
31
Release us.
Release me.
Let it go.
Be one.
Where was I, who was I? That house…where was it? The best mocha in the world. Hands on my body, lean and firm, and that face… A god. My god.
I love you, Varuna.
No. Not my lover. I had another… Someone else… Someone important.
No going back.
Almost home.
Home was a mansion. Drake and…Aaron and Carmella. Home was…Garuda, my Garuda. Had to fight. Had to hold it…
Let it go.
Something glowed in my vision—a solid blue floating rope—my lifeline, my tether. But it was dimming.
Become all.
No pain, no anguish, no loss.
I was slipping. It was too much. There were too many.
Hold on. Sarani needs you. Hold on.
The tether flared with light. The other voices receded as this one became stronger.
They’re waiting for you. Garuda and Sarani. Fight her. You must fight her and release us. Set us free.
Yes. I could do this. I could fight.
The Daughter of Chaos’s voice reverberated in my mind. “No!”
I felt my alternate being torn away. Her consciousness dismantled. Her scream was a tinny wail that trailed off to nothing. I had to fight for her, for all the misguided souls forcing themselves onto my mind. This was my moment. My weapon was safe, trapped in my body outside this place. I just needed to tap into it and channel it.
The grip on me faltered for a moment.
“No. This can’t be,” she muttered.
Something had changed. Her grip had loosened. Time to take advantage. Pushing out with my mind, I searched for the heat of my power, the searing, cutting fire that loved to lace my veins. Where are you?
There…
Yes.
I pulled it to me, drawing on it like a thick, satisfying milkshake through a straw. It came slowly at first, turning my tether crimson. The first hit was dizzying, and then it spread through me like delicious wildfire.
“What are you doing?” the Daughter of Chaos asked.
The souls inside me writhed in ecstasy. They recognized this power. They lusted for it, reveled in it. Their mission forgotten, they rode the high.
She gasped. “Wait…no.”
The connection, the channel from my mind to hers, was unguarded. Her consciousness waited, and it was time to expel the power outward and into her.
“What…what is this. Oh… Oh my…” Her voice ended in a purr.
The alternates screamed, clawing at the power, wanting it back, but I ignored them and expelled the thick stream of energy, white-hot and seductive, straight into the Daughter of Chaos.
The pain ebbed, and she danced—a firefly in the dark, spinning and twirling under the thrall of the divine power I was feeding her. Brighter and brighter she glowed.
Her feet faltered, and she stumbled. “Wait. No. Stop.”
But there was no stopping now. No stopping until it was done.
Finally, my alternates understood. Freedom was waiting, peace was waiting, and the pieces of their souls floated outward to join the effervescent light.
“No. No, get off me.”
Her body vibrated with light so bright it was impossible to see her form any longer.
The end of the rope was nigh. The final push, and I expelled the last dregs of divine power that the gods had gifted the hellhound into the Daughter of Chaos.
The darkness seemed to hold its breath.
“Malina, please…don’t…” And then she was fragmenting into a billion pieces, and the world was filled with glorious, never-ending light.
“Malina, baby, wake up?”
I opened my eyes to my mother’s face hovering above me. Something was pressed to my side. I glanced down to see Sarani’s tiny face looking up at me.
“Is it…” My voice cracked and dried up.
My mom nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
Garuda’s scent hit me first, and then both Sarani and I were on his lap.
“They fell,” he said. “All the Kubera’s creations fell. And then Yama appeared out of nowhere and used his conch to round up the shaitan. It was…amazing. But I knew it was really over when the sky cleared and the humans came to their senses.” He pressed kisses to my cheeks and my forehead. “I knew you’d done it, but I…I didn’t know…”
“If I was alive?”
He nodded.
“I’m alive, but I feel like shit. Everything hurts.”
My mother placed her hand over mine. “You expelled the seal’s power. It will have taken a toll on your body.”
Yes, the seal’s power… I was no longer all-powerful, and… Oh god. I pulled away from Garuda. “The seal’s power made me less naga. It allowed me to be with you.”
He smiled down at me. “You seem to be doing fine.”
I was in his arms, pressed up against him, but there was no fear. Nothing. “I don’t get it. The seal’s power—”
“Had no effect on your primal instincts.”
“Then what did?”
My mother answered for him. “Love.”
He glanced at her, and she dropped her gaze to hide the flash of fear in her eyes.
Garuda sighed. “I believe that your feelings for me allowed you to master your primal instincts.”
“But you let me think the seal was responsible.”
“You needed to believe something, and until you were ready to accept how you felt, the seal would have to do as a crutch.”
Dad had been right. He’d always believed I would master the anxiety.
Garuda pressed a kiss to my forehead. “There’s a whole city to rebuild out there.”
I sighed. “Can it wait until tomorrow? What I need right now is a long, hot bath.”
Epilogue
2 year later
“Mum, Dad says breakfast is ready,” Sarani called up the stairs.
My tummy grumbled extra loud. I set my diary down and rubbed my bump. “You’re a pig, you know that, buddy?”
The door swung open, and Sarani bounded in. “Daddy is bringing up a tray. Shh, he said it’s a surprise.”
Garuda entered and rolled his eyes. “We really need to work on the concept of surprise, bug. Go brush your teeth.”
“But, Daddy, I brushed them yesterday.”
“And the day before,” I added, just to wind him up.
Garuda shot me a warning look before addressing Sarani. “We’ve discussed this. You have to brush them every day. Now off you go. Auntie Carmella will be here in twenty minutes to take you shopping.”
Her eyes lit up. “For a pretty dress?”
“Yep.”
“And ice cream.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Yay!” She bounded out the door. “’Cause Mummy keeps eating it all.”
“Hey!”
“So we have a treat this morning,” Garuda said. “I made bacon, croissants, and a fruit salad.”
“And ice cream?”
He grinned. “Triple chocolate fudge sundae.”
Yep, my lactose intolerance was gone, at least for now. This baby wanted ice cream, and it wanted it in bucketloads. Thank god I was a hellhound—my metabolic rate wasn’t as high as it had been when I’d channeled the seal’s power, but it was still higher than average. Otherwise, I’d be the size of a house by the end of this pregnancy.
He placed the tray on my lap. “So what do you want to do today?”
I’d just shoved a huge spoonful of ice cream into my mouth, but I gave him my come-to-bed eyes.
He snorted and leaned in to kiss the tip of my nose. “That kind of day, huh?”
I ran a finger up his muscular bicep. “No Sarani for the whole morning…”
His eyes darkened, and he leaned in to brush his mouth over mine. “You know you taste like ice cream…down there, right?”
The doorbell rang.
He grinned wickedly. “That’s probably Carmella now.”
He left me to my tray, and I dug in. I’d need the energy for the rest of the morning. I loved this. Us. I loved our little unit. I loved Sarani. Even though my alternate had birthed her, she felt like mine, and she’d soon taken to calling me Mummy. I wasn’t sure how much of her first years she recalled, and we didn’t ask. She was our daughter, and now we were having another child. She’d been so excited when we told her she was getting a little brother, but then there’d been a flash of fear in her eyes. Carmella said it was normal for kids to get anxious when a new sibling arrived, and Garuda and I had done everything to make her feel special. Maybe taking the morning off to rest wasn’t a good idea… Maybe I should get up and take her shopping myself?
No, Sarani loved spending time with Carmella, too. I couldn’t spoil her day. I’d get to see the dress soon enough. I still had to go shopping for mine. After all, we were going to the wedding of the century, although I had no idea what a naga wedding entailed. The invite sat snug in its cream envelope in the top drawer of my dresser. It had arrived a month ago, and the date for the wedding was three weeks from today. My mother was getting remarried. I guessed she’d finally realized how Vinnay felt about her, and how she felt about him. They’d returned to Nagalok a few weeks after the war ended. The nagamuni inside Mum had made it impossible for her to remain any longer without consequences, so it had been with a heavy heart that I’d said goodbye. I hadn’t seen her since. But I received letters from her from time to time. They just arrived on my doorstep as if by magic. I guess the multi-verse was taking care of me, after all. The last one had been over five months ago. She didn’t know I was pregnant, and I had no way of getting a message to her. The wedding would be the only time I’d get to see her for a while.
We’d only had a few short weeks together, but I missed her terribly. There was so much that I missed: Dad, Ajitah, the triplets, and Aria. They’d passed through my life and left a mark on my soul. On days when I felt nostalgic, I wrote to them in the diary Dad had left me and reminded myself that we would all be reunited one day, but not now. Not today. Right now, life was for living.
My phone buzzed, and I checked the message—a summons from her majesty herself, Miss Melody Parker. Monday morning sharp, it said. Man, that woman was a slave driver. Ever since Garuda and I’d agreed to work with the IEPEU on a consultant capacity, she’d been on my case to join up full time. She’d already recruited Carmella into the training program. Truth was, Melody enjoyed barking orders. I’d bitten my tongue the first couple of months on account of her almost dying while trying to flip the kill switches for Kubera’s monsters, but after that I gave her a piece of my mind. She tongue-lashed me back, and we’d been friends ever since.
“Hey.” Garuda popped his head around the door. “I’m gonna nip to the store down the road and pick up those icky green pickles you like and some snacks for movie night. Is there anything else you fancy?”
“Is that tonight?”
He frowned. “I can cancel if you like…”
I waved him away. “And pass up the opportunity to watch Drake and Carmella pretend as if they aren’t totally doing it?”
He chuckled. “I’m just gonna call them on it.”
“No. Don’t you dare.”
He stepped into the room and closed the door. “On one condition.”
He had that look in his eyes, the one that told me Sarani had left and we had the house to ourselves. The one that said I could make as much noise as I wanted. My breath quickened.
“What condition?”
“You let me get a taste of your cream…”
Well, how could a woman argue with that?
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About The Authors
JASMINE WALT is obsessed with books, chocolate, and sharp objects. Somehow, those three things melded together in her head and transformed into a desire to write, usually fantastical stuff with a healthy dose of action and romance. Her characters are a little (okay, a lot) on the snarky side, and they swear, but they mean well. Even the villains sometimes. When Jasmine isn’t chained to her keyboard, you can find her practicing her triangle choke on the jujitsu mat, spending time with her family, or binge-watching superhero shows on Netflix. You can connect with her on Instagram at @jasmine.walt, on Facebook, or at www.jasminewalt.com.
DEBBIE CASSIDY lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and Space Fantasy.
Connect with Debbie via her website at https://debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter https://twitter.com/authordcassidy Sign up to her newsletter to grab a free short story, and stay up to date on new releases: http://www.subscribepage.com/f6u2k8
Also by Jasmine Walt
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Debbie Cassidy
Marked by Sin
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin—Coming Soon!
The Baine Chronicles Series:
Burned by Magic
Bound by Magic
Hunted by Magic
Marked by Magic
Betrayed by Magic
Deceived by Magic
Scorched by Magic
Taken by Magic (Coming Soon!)
The Baine Chronicles: Fenris’s Story:
Forsaken by Magic (Novella)
Fugitive by Magic
Claimed by Magic (Coming Soon!)
Saved by Magic (Coming Soon!)
The Nia Rivers Adventures:
Coauthored with Ines Johnson
Dragon Bones
Demeter’s Tablet
Templar Scrolls—Coming Soon!
Also by Debbie Cassidy
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Jasmine Walt
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin
The Witch Blood Chronicles
(Spin off to The Gatekeeper Chronicles)
Binding Magick
The Sleeping Gods Series
Forest of Demons
Desert of Destiny
Novellas
Blood Blade
Boxsets
Legends of the Damned - Unleashed
Anthologies
Not Just Voodoo - Deadtown
Winter Solstice – First and Forgotten
Books Written as Amos Cassidy
The Crimson Series
Crimson Midnight
Crimson Darkness
Crimson Dawn
Crimson Chaos
Raven’s Call - A Crimson Series Prequel Novella
The Shadowlands Series
Shadow Reaper
Shadow Eater
Shadow Destiny
Tales from Beyond the Veil – Novella series
Scarlett’s Path
A kiss of Silver
Ash Rising
Tainted Snow
Standalones
Hawthorn
Aurora