Even so, Damien looked remarkably calm in the face of what Morgan was sure was his soulmate’s death. And though Isobel’s gaze remained fixed on Damien’s, there was no fear in it, only determination.
Morgan grabbed Lucian’s hand, needing the comfort of his touch. “Why? She killed herself to save us. Why did Damien let her do that? Why didn’t he get her out of there first?”
“Seriously?” Lucian snorted. “No one lets Isobel do anything. She does as she wishes and the rest of us try to keep up. Besides, she didn’t kill herself. It’s just going to take some work for her to get the power under control.”
“Lucian, that’s way too much power,” Morgan said. “I’ve never seen anyone hold so much, not even Isobel.”
Lucian squeezed her hand in reassurance. “Clearly you’ve never seen Isobel bring her full power to bear.”
Sarah gazed at Isobel with sadness in her eyes. “How will she be able to get that under control, no one can handle that much.”
“You don’t know Isobel. I assure you, she’s held more,” Lucian said dryly. Memories of the summer before and the way his little friend had so terrified him and Damien both crowded into his mind. “She’ll be fine. Damien will help talk her down and then she will sleep like the dead.”
He glanced at the church. “I hope they have food here. You think us dark angels are bad, just wait until you see Isobel eat after using so much power.”
Nervous energy filled Morgan and she started to pace. A glance at the demons showed them all creating a perfect line along the edge of the church’s grounds. It looked like they were completely surrounding it. It was going to be interesting getting away. Hounds paced the line of demons, their red eyes following her every move and their drool sending tendrils of smoke up when it dripped on the ground.
Turning back to where Damien knelt in the grass, it was a relief to see the light around Isobel dimming. A moment later, the light disappeared altogether and Isobel went limp in his arms, her eyes closed. Damien hung his head, pressing his forehead to Isobel’s.
Morgan limped toward them. “Is she…”
“She will be fine,” came Damien’s curt answer as he rose and carried Isobel in the direction of the church without even glancing at the assembled demons mere feet away at the boundary of the holy ground.
Morgan sighed as she watched them go. A loud clack, clack made her look toward the demons. A demon-possessed raised a shot gun, the world slowed as Morgan stared at the barrel leveled at her head. The explosion from the weapon deafened her.
The breath knocked from Morgan as she hit the ground under the heavy weight of Lucian. Morgan placed her hands on the back of Lucian’s shoulders and struggled to push him off as Jameth move in a blur. He snatched the demon-possessed and pulled him over the line onto sacred ground. The possessed man screamed as he crumbled into ash at Jameth’s feet.
“Lucian, you’re too heavy, I can’t breathe,” Morgan panted as she tried to get him to move. With the possessed gone the danger was over, why wasn’t he moving?
Jameth and Sarah came to her rescue, pulling Lucian off her. Morgan struggled to her knees. Her ankle, swollen from the hound bite, felt like it was on fire. She turned to make a sarcastic remark to Lucian about him nearly squishing her to death. It died on her tongue.
Lucian lay unmoving on his back with a large hole through the center of his chest. Morgan froze, her eyes glued to the gruesome wound.
“LUCIAN?” PANIC FLOODED every fiber of Morgan’s being as she crawled to where Jameth and Sarah had laid him.
There was no movement, his eyes remained closed, his face gray. It wasn’t possible. Not Lucian. He wasn’t just her dark angel; he was more, so much more than that to her. He was everything, her Thor. “Lucian!”
Morgan’s scream cut through the night as she grabbed his face. His head turned limply in her hands. Cold crept over her, seeping through her veins and coating her heart in ice. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t feel. Something deep inside fractured and, this time, there were no strong arms to hold it together and she didn’t have a hope of keeping it together on her own. Not this time.
Sarah reached to hold her, or maybe help her up, Morgan didn’t know; the other woman’s words were just a jumble of incomprehensible sound. Either way, Morgan didn’t want held and she certainly didn’t want help up. When Sarah tried to tug her away Morgan moved with the speed Jake had taught her and sent the other channel flying. “Don’t touch me.”
Though Morgan knew she had said it, the cold voice that came from her mouth sounded like someone else. She gazed down at Lucian as she ran her fingers over his cool skin, memorizing every line of his face. It’s all she would have of him for the rest of this life. Would he find her in the next? Were they connected like Isobel and Damien? It was going to be a long wait to find out.
Finally, she stood and walked into the church, her body so chilled she didn’t even feel her ankle. Ignoring the rest of the church with its rooms and halls, Morgan went straight to the sanctuary and sat in one of the pews near the middle. She didn’t stare at the cross or other religious depictions; they were just symbols, nothing more. But the Higher Powers were here, she could feel them. The accumulated energy in these places made it easier to connect with them.
No one bothered her. Maybe after what she’d done to Sarah they were afraid to approach her. Morgan didn’t care, she was just glad to be left alone in her frozen world. She opened herself to her power, soaking in the sweet rush of it inside the church, hoping it would thaw her and make her feel. She needed to feel so she could enact a proper revenge.
The sun rose, casting multicolored light through the stained glass windows. Morgan sat unmoving as the shifting patterns recorded the sun’s path across the sky until they disappeared with the coming of another night. At some point, her body made her aware of the fact it was still functioning and she stumbled her way to the bathroom to attend to its needs.
A look at her reflection in the mirror showed tangled hair and hollow, lifeless eyes staring back. Blood smeared across one cheek from a large scrape and a bruise from the shoulder belt made a path across her collar bone. Probably from the wreck. Morgan took in the image of herself with an odd detachment.
The pain in her ankle had finally resurfaced. Damien was busy with Isobel, Jameth with Sarah, both had likely forgotten the wound. Lucy was somewhere in the church, but even the dog must be keeping her distance. Lucian had probably been carried inside as well. Not that it mattered; his body would be nothing more than a pile of ash now anyway.
She was back at the beginning again, just like she had been after Arabrim died. No home, nothing to her name, no one. Lucian had tried to tell her that Jake’s death hadn’t been her fault and when she’d found out her sister was alive, she’d foolishly started to believe him. It wasn’t coincidence that so many around her had died. She was a death magnet except it only hit the people she cared about.
She made her way back the sanctuary and sat in the same pew. The priest of the church saw her and started to come her way. Morgan shot him a look full of the same ice that froze her insides and he stopped in his tracks. After a long time where he just gazed at her, he turned and walked away.
The night crept by, impossibly slow as Morgan tried to form a plan for getting out of the church. She had a demon to kill and if she had to wade through all of those surrounding the church to do it, she would. A tendril of heat worked its way through the ice that held her heart captive and she felt it crack. White hot, burning rage began to well inside.
The demons had taken everything from her, even her sister because although Tara lived, Morgan couldn’t go near her as long as the Kalona touched this world. Her ankle throbbed. Probably getting infected. Not that it mattered. As long as she could finish what her traitorous mother had begun in her first life was all that mattered now.
The sun was just beginning to rise when the rage finally melted all of the ice and all Morgan could feel was the heat of it pulsing through her with
each heartbeat. She was sick of demons, sick of the way they kept tearing everything part, and underneath it all, she was tired. Tired of trying to fight them, trying to fight whatever it was that was determined she never have anything in this life. It was time to kill some demons.
Morgan pushed the doors to the church open and limped out, taking a moment to pause at the top of the steps, her gaze swept over the seething mass at the invisible boundary between them and the holy ground. The pack saw her and sent up howls that should have chilled her to the bone, but couldn’t penetrate the fire racing through her or the red haze that clouded the edges of her vision.
Images of Lucian flickered through her mind and she shoved them away. If she survived this, she could take the time to go over every memory of him, she could open the dam that held back her tears and cry forever. Not yet, not until this was over.
As she descended the stairs, Morgan pulled on her power until she felt the faint burn, and then she pulled some more. No matter how much she opened herself to it, or how much she pulled, Morgan would never be able to take in as much as Isobel had held. But if she pushed herself, if she could walk that razor edge between power and certain death, she could do more than ever before.
Morgan walked until she stood between the church and boundary. If she could gather all of the pieces of herself that had shattered and send it all out, she could end this in more ways than one.
Even outside the church, the power filled her with a sweetness that was hard to resist, and she didn’t. It filled her, burned until it crackled through her body. Closing her eyes, Morgan shut out the overwhelming screaming of her internal radar.
A deep breath to steady herself against the torrent. She let the white hot rage feed her power to a greater height, gathered her pieces, and then released them in a river of flickering symbols. Instead of placing the circles on the ground, and then trying to find the right symbol, she allowed the symbols to find the right demons.
Like magnets, they flew toward the demons, sticking to them and creating a circle. Morgan lost count after twenty circles had gone up. The howls from the pack quieted. She didn’t open her eyes to find out why as the symbols picked their way through the dark gathering.
Feeding her intentions into her power, she whispered the words of banishment and shoved them at the demons with everything she had. Screeches filled the air and then cut off. Morgan opened her eyes and despair washed over her.
Everything she had, all of the power she could hold, and it had barely made a dent in the demons. Empty spots briefly showed where her targets had been banished before they filled back in and several collapsing circles showed where her power just wasn’t enough to do what Morgan had hoped.
Wrapping her hands around her middle, Morgan sank to her knees as tears coursed down her cheeks. It wasn’t enough. She wasn’t enough, had never been. Her lack had allowed Arabrim to die, Jake to die. It had made her unlovable to the many foster parents that were supposed to care for her, made her invisible on the streets to people who could have helped.
“Morgan?” Isobel’s voice sounded shocked and worried. “What have you done? Why?”
Morgan couldn’t answer; the fire eating away inside kept her jaw clamped shut. The sweetness of it bordered on pain and she knew she needed to back the power down. Morgan struggled to control it. The grief and despair that had taken over, after the rage burned away, left her teetering on the edge.
Tuning Isobel out along with everything else, Morgan concentrated on pulling the sizzling strands of power back. And then wondered, why? If she burned up right then and there, the Kalona would have no reason to go after her sister or anyone else she cared about. He would remain tied to the doorway. Without her heart, he couldn’t increase his power.
It wasn’t the same as killing him. Maybe that was best she could ask for in this life. According to Sarah, it would still be her responsibility in the next life. Maybe she would have better luck next time.
Shaking her head to dispel the thoughts, she grabbed more of the power and shoved it down. Now wasn’t the time to debate this. Not when she was so broken and not when it would be too easy to step off the edge.
More power came under her control, even as she shivered. The cold wasn’t a good sign, but it wouldn’t do to dwell on it. Better to focus on bringing more of the power in. Closing her eyes again, Morgan focused as intensely on this battle as she ever had any of the physical fights she’d been in.
More power came under control and then slipped away as grief invaded her concentration. In that moment, Morgan trembled with the effort to just hold on. To keep her emotions from allowing everything she’d already pulled in from releasing again.
Large hands cupped her face and she shook harder. Now was not the time for her brain to play tricks on her, it was also not the time to be going insane. If madness was going to take her away, it needed to wait until her power was under control.
“Morgan, look at me.”
Morgan groaned at the sound of the familiar voice. Stop it! Just stop it you stupid, crazy imagination. You can make me live in a dream world later. I’m sure Isobel and Damien will even find a nice, cozy, padded room for you to inhabit once this is over. For now, just wait your turn.
“Morgan, you’re burning up. I need you to look at me.”
She didn’t want to give into to the temptation, but the idea of seeing Lucian again, even if he wasn’t real, was more than Morgan could resist. Her lids fluttered open and Lucian’s tawny eyes filled her vision. His hands, cool against her superheated face, felt so real.
“Please don’t do this right now,” she begged the apparition through gritted teeth. “I can’t…can’t control it with this…”
Lucian’s thumbs brushed against her cheeks as he held her steady. “I’m here; you don’t have to do this. We have other ways out.”
Morgan blinked, trying to keep his eyes in focus as her control slipped and more shivers made her tremble. Through sheer force of will, she grabbed the escaped power back. Who cared if it was just a hallucination, his eyes still steadied her.
“You can do this, Morgan. You got this,” Lucian said with utter confidence in his voice.
His gaze never wavered as she stared into the depths of it and, bit by bit, got control of the power, pulled it back in, and drew it down until she finally had it at a level she could safely release.
Without the need to concentrate on the battle with her power, everything that had happened, along with the fact that she hadn’t slept in two days, came crashing down and her body finally threw in the towel. Morgan fell forward, fully expecting to face plant on the ground. Instead of passing through the apparition her mind had conjured to help her, she collapsed into Lucian as his arms pulled her tight against the bare skin of his chest.
Morgan closed her eyes and drifted, soaking in the warmth of him, the scent of his skin. Was he really alive? Really there? Terrified it was all in her head and she really had hit the ground, Morgan didn’t want to open her eyes, until her hand skimmed over his chest and felt the smooth skin and hard muscle turn rough and giving. She frowned and jerked her lids open.
Her hand rested on a wound that was just beginning to heal directly over his heart. “Lucian?”
His arms shook a little as if the effort of holding her was too much. “I’m here.”
The strain and weakness that threaded through his voice made her look at his face again. Lucian’s skin was still too pale and pain etched lines around his mouth and eyes. Morgan’s head swam as she tried to process the information. It was more than her over-tired, over-taxed mind could handle. In self-defense, her brain shut down, taking her with it into a black nothing where she could rest.
MORGAN CLAWED HER way out of sleep, chased from her restful place by the nightmare and her demon radar screaming in her head. Bolting up, she looked around wildly, trying to get her bearings in the unfamiliar room. A bunch of blankets and a pillow made a pallet on the floor where a desk had been shoved against the wall.
It looked like an office. Was she still inside the church?
Tossing the cover aside, Morgan made to get up and fell back as deep, aching pain radiated from every joint and muscle in her body and a gnawing hunger ate at her stomach. She groaned and closed her eyes as she tried to figure out why everything hurt so much.
A rustling made Morgan open her eyes again. Isobel knelt on the floor next to her with a glass of water in her hand. “Finally, she decides to wake.”
“What?” Morgan asked, her voice coming out rough and groggy.
“After your display on the front lawn of the church, you passed out and have been asleep for almost an entire day. Lucian was beginning to worry you wouldn’t wake.” Isobel handed her the glass of water. “Don’t worry, I assured him you would.”
Morgan pushed herself into a sitting position, an effort that drew another groan. “Why do I hurt so bad? And why am I so damned hungry?”
“Power overdose. The pain should clear up in a few hours, a day at most. I’ll get you something to eat in a moment.”
“Ugh.” Morgan took the glass and gulped the water down. The last thing she wanted was a reminder of her failed attempt at killing a bunch of demons.
When the water was gone, Morgan handed the glass back to Isobel and very slowly got to her feet, using the wall as a support. “Where’s Lucy?”
“With Lucian, where she’s been since he was shot. Which you would have known had you let anyone near you or listened to a word they said,” Isobel said in a reproving tone. “You don’t help anyone, yourself included, when you shut everyone out.”
“I wasn’t myself. I’m sorry.” Morgan hoped her friend would forgive her. “I really thought Lucian was dead and I couldn’t handle another death.”
A horrible thought crept into Morgan’s mind. “I didn’t dream him helping me did I? He really is alive, right?”
Isobel smiled. “Of course he’s alive. The only way Lucian can die is if he’s beheaded, or if he burns himself up with power.”
Bound by Legend: A Bound Novel Page 27