Song of Resurgence (Ballads of Mae Book 2)

by Salem Cross

  “Nikolas just get the others and go,” I snapped. Rylan, Cain’s down here with me and Nikolas. He and Ekon are behind this. Tell the others.

  The others will handle it, Rylan said. I am just above you. I can see the bodies that Nikolas has laid out.

  There’s not enough room for anyone else down here. I don’t know if this came out as a whine or a statement, but with the weight of the tunnel crushing me it was hard not to feel panicked.

  “We were worried that you had been murdered,” Nikolas said incredulously. “Is Zein somehow a part of this too, then?”

  “Zein? Oh no, quite the opposite. The poor fool accidentally stumbled upon my park rangers carrying out a sacrifice to the gods after trying to find me at my residence. Unfortunately for him, I had been there watching the sacrifice. When he killed my rangers and headed home, I followed and took care of him before he could tell the others. I knew he would be quick to alert you all. I would have brought him back here to join the others, but he was quite a fighter, so I killed him and made it look like a suicide.” Cain paused and a manic giggle drifted from his direction. “Well… I tried to make it look like a suicide. I, perhaps, got a little carried away after I sent the suicide note.”

  Zein’s wings pinned to a wall with a bloody message written between them came to mind and I shuddered. That’s what his carried away looked like? This Guardian was insane.

  The sound caused a thrill of fear down my spine. I glanced at Nikolas who took a step closer to me and Cain. Cain laughed again.

  “I made it look like a suicide for each of the Guardians I managed to kidnap,” he said after getting ahold of himself. “I wondered if any of you would be suspicious at the rise of the suicide rates in our species within the past century but no. Apparently you are all such a miserable lot that suicide seems more plausible than a fellow Guardian being kidnapped.”

  Next to me, Nikolas snarled.

  “Nikolas, just go!” I cried out as the roof dropped a foot.

  It couldn’t have been more than a few inches above where he stood. He needed to get out of here with the others. Cain and I could share a grave if that was what it took to stop him.

  Rylan, Cain admitted to killing Zein, I reached out to Rylan.

  Forget Zein! Tell Nikolas to get out of the way! Rylan roared in my head.

  “You must be the True One,” Cain’s tone came out mocking. “I wondered what the little bitch who bested us would look like. You are just a child. The rangers were quite quick to alert the others of the presence of a ‘true god’ in our midst. Once I heard of your presence, it was easy to follow the trail of magic you leave behind. When you defeated me the other night, I could have sworn I had a real adversary, but look at you.”

  Cain paused. I couldn’t see his face but I could almost feel his eyes traveling over my body.

  “You’re a mess. You’re dying right before my eyes.” The man chuckled. The sound was dark and sinister. “But do not fret. I will save you, child. You may have taken my Guardians, but they were all but drained anyway. The power that is coursing through your veins will more than make up for their loss. In fact, I am sure with your power, Ekon and I will be able to open the gates sooner than expected.”

  Something moved in the darkness. I could feel the air move as whatever it was passed me and slammed into Nikolas, who was thrown backward. As I opened my mouth to scream, a thick gas suddenly clogged my throat and entered through my nostrils. I tried to cough, but my body refused to obey any command I gave it. As icy darkness coated my senses and forced me towards unconsciousness, I felt my power fade. My eyelids closed of their own accord, and I could hear the rest of the tunnel fall in on me.

  Rylan…

  ***

  I drifted in a strange haze as my body swayed. Odd… I shouldn’t be moving. I should be crushed under tons of stone and debris. How wasn’t I dead? Where was I? The feeling in my limbs slowly started to return. I hadn’t even noticed that I had lost sensation in them. With the ability to feel my limbs came the pain of every ache in my body. I groaned.

  A few minutes passed before I realized I was being carried. I opened my eyes, but when I did everything appeared blurry. I squeezed them shut as dizziness swamped me. I knew it wasn’t Rylan who carried me. Was it Nikolas? I began to panic.

  “Do not fret, child. We are almost to our destination.” The mocking tone of my kidnapper sent chills down my spine.

  Cain.

  What was he about to do to me? What had he already done without me being aware of it? I tried to struggle in his arms, but I didn’t have complete control over my body yet. I reached for my power, but the dizziness made it hard to concentrate.

  Rylan? Rylan, Cain has me, the words felt slurred in my head, and I knew, somehow, that my message had not gone through. Was this Cain’s doing?

  A strong smell hit me. It was a mixture of puke, shit, and death. I tried to struggle again, wanting nothing to do with whatever had caused the smell to linger in the air. I opened my eyes, and this time I found my vision clearer. I looked up to see Cain’s face staring directly ahead of us. I didn’t think I had any expectations of what our foe would look like. But good looking wasn’t it. He was a lean individual with a strong jawline, a thin long nose, and thick brows. He had high cheekbones, a very slight five o’clock shadow, and thin, pink lips.

  “Where are we going?” I demanded.

  I wanted my voice to sound strong. Unfortunately, it hardly came out as a whisper. He didn’t answer me. To him, I probably wasn’t worth his time. That was fine. If he wanted to pass me off as someone of no consequence, it would only benefit me. It would make it easier to thwart his plans if he didn’t take me seriously. I was going to stop him. I just needed a little more time to collect myself.

  Somehow, I needed to find the strength to struggle out of his arms, run away, and recover. It sounded easy enough. When I tried to struggle in Cain’s arms again, I found moving my arms and legs was getting easier. Cain came to an abrupt stop. The scraping of metal captured my attention. I turned my head to see a werewolf standing before us. The creature was even more hideous up close. I expected it to snap or bite me, but instead, it held still while holding open a rusty cell door.

  Cain stepped inside and unceremoniously dumped me on the stone floor. I hissed in pain as my head smacked against the hard floor. Cain stood over me, watching me with disdain. Oddly enough his gaze didn’t scare me as much as Nikolas’s had. Not that Cain’s black eyes were not frightening. I could feel the evil in him as surely as I could feel my own unsteady heartbeat. He looked over his shoulder to the werewolf still standing at the cell door.

  “Get the bindings, and find Ekon,” he ordered.

  The werewolf nodded before shuffling away. Cain turned his attention back to me. I struggled to sit up and felt a small victory when I made it. It was cold down here in what I assumed was a dungeon. It was poorly lit with torches burning along the wall, too far apart to see much of anything. Somewhere close I could hear a moan of distress and the scratch of chains against the ground. The sound was chilling.

  Rylan, where are you? My voice sounded less slurred but full of fear.

  I couldn’t tell if this time I had managed to get a hold of him or not. I had a feeling I had been unsuccessful again. He always answered me if I called him.

  “I sense how different you are,” Cain said after a short silence. His tone was thoughtful. “You could almost be a god with that power running through your veins. But I have spoken to and been in the presence of true gods. Their very being causes one to quake with fear. Looking upon you, being in your presence… It only makes me laugh. But I am curious, so maybe you will fill me in with some details?”

  Cain sighed and pressed his index finger against his lips as he thought over his questions. He pulled his hand away from his mouth and asked, “How did you find out what we were up to?”

  I gave him a sweet smile, ignoring the pain in my jaw. “My mother had a vision that the world was going t
o end, so she sent me to stop it from happening.”

  “Did she now?” Cain mused as he stroked the stubble on his chin. “I suppose I can believe a simple witch was able to have such a profound vision of the world that she knew coming to an end. But I cannot believe she knew exactly where to look. How did you find us?”

  “She had help from my father to figure it out,” I baited the Guardian.

  I knew my answer was vague enough to annoy him. Cain’s eyes narrowed.

  “Your father is where you must have gained such power since you do not smell like a witch,” Cain said, more to himself than to me. “Your father, who is he?”

  “He calls himself Zyroe. He figured out where you were going to try to open the gates. He and my mother created me to stop you,” I told him matter-of-factly.

  Instead of balking at the information as I had hoped, Cain chuckled.

  “I am surprised to hear that Zyroe sired a child. He was a god that had very little interest in copulating with humans. I am sure he regrets the decision now. It seems you have failed at the only task ever required of you.”

  “I’m not dead yet,” I stated, with a little too much confidence for someone unable to stand. “I can still stop you.”

  “You are not dead yet,” Cain confirmed with a nod and a half-smile. His smile fell, though, as he stared into my face. “A daughter of a god… I wonder if your blood is as potent as your father’s? It is rumored that the taste of a god’s blood would give me great power.”

  I tried to keep my heart rate steady, which was easier than I thought given how slowly it was moving. Rylan had warned me never to let anyone else taste my blood. I wasn’t about to cave and let someone try it now. I sighed and held up my wrist to him.

  “Okay, give it a try,” I offered with a shrug. Cain’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. With a roll of my eyes, I pressed on, “Go ahead, give me a lick. The others said it was delicious. The best thing they have ever tried… Well, that was before two of the three just dropped dead suddenly. The other went bat-shit crazy. He gouged out his own eyes before the others could stop him.”

  I paused, then added in a whisper I hoped sounded fearful, “That was a little scary.”

  I was a terrible actress, but I sent up a prayer that Cain was believing it. Cain made a look of disgust and shook his head.

  “The gods will grant me power of my own before long. I do not need to sample tainted goods,” he told me. “In any case, you have failed at your job of stopping us. Even if you were at full strength, there would be no way the Guardians with you would trust you enough to lead them into battle. I know my brethren. They probably recoil from your very presence.”

  Cain squatted down to get eye level with me. His smile grew wider.

  “Those poor fools. They simply do not understand. We were created to serve our gods. We were rightfully punished when we turned on them. It was Ekon’s idea to set things straight, to make things right again with our masters. We will be servants to our great creators again, not babysitters to the creatures who should be worshipping our gods.”

  I blinked in confusion. Shaking my head, I asked, “I don’t understand. Why would you want to be enslaved again? From what I’ve heard, it sounded awful.”

  “The others will be enslaved once more,” Cain assured me with a malicious grin. “Serves them right for turning their backs on their masters. We will be rewarded. Not only will they be pleased that we were able to bring them back, but we will have an army of the undead waiting for them. The park rangers were quite useful when it came to bringing us sacrifices. You know, it took some tweaking, but we were able to alter the very makeup of dark magic. Can you believe that? We made it nearly impossible for anyone to sense it, and we could use it to control the minds of humans. Instead of compelling one human at a time, we could control the entire National Park Service here. We will show the gods how much we have evolved and what we have learned. They will be quite impressed at all we have accomplished for them.”

  “What guarantee is there that they will reward you? And with what? They’re going to destroy the world. There won’t be anything to give you.”

  “There is power, my dear child,” a light, raspy voice answered from behind Cain. “They will reward us with our own power. People will worship us.”

  While I couldn’t see the newcomer right away, hearing the voice scared the living shit out of me. A heavy sense of dread seemed to float into the cell with us, followed by a chill so cold I had to bite my bottom lip to stop from crying out in alarm. The hairs on my arm rose, and my hands trembled in fear. My power surged under my skin, lighting up my veins. Cain’s eyes swept over my body, and a cruel smile twisted his features. He knew I was scared. He also knew I was too weak to do anything about it.

  “It will be what some call the day of Judgement,” the raspy voice continued.

  I looked past Cain to see a man standing just outside the cell door. He was cloaked in a thick material that seemed to naturally billow around his form. The air went from offensive to downright dangerous. As if the very air around him was toxic. A heavy sense of foreboding warned me that this was the man I needed to concern myself with, not Cain. Cain rose from his squat and turned to look at the man behind him.

  “The gods will cleanse the earth of those who will not accept them,” the man said quietly. “Those left will love their gods and their worship will bring the gods back to full strength. When they see all that we have done, the gods will thank us with our own followers, our own slaves, our own land. No longer will we have to mingle with those unworthy. I have been planning this since the gods were banished. I have wanted this for so long… stealing the magic from others has been a slow process. It was not until this modern day science came along that things really began to pick up pace. All of my hard work, all of this planning, everything is coming to fruition, and it is marvelous. I welcome the fiery wrath that will befall this world.”

  “Ekon, meet our little friend. She will be the last little bit of power we need to open the gates,” Cain greeted the man pleasantly as if they were merely neighbors and not two people looking to bring upon the end of the world.

  “So much power from someone so young… How glorious. She will help tip the scales in our favor,” Ekon sounded beyond pleased.

  I pulled my knees up to my chest and found the movement was no longer sluggish or difficult. Even though there was still pain, either from Nikolas or my fall into the tunnel, I knew I could get to my feet if I had to. Whatever Cain had done to me was wearing off. The moment I had an opening, I was going to fight my way out of here.

  “We must be quick. She’s dying on us,” Cain said with a sigh. “Perhaps we will patch her up while the wolves get the machine ready.”

  “Make it happen. Have the others destroyed, we no longer need them now that we have her,” Ekon agreed. He paused for a moment before he continued, “With her here, it will be only a few days before the gods arrive.”

  “We were already ahead of schedule by two weeks,” Cain mused. The smile on his face was sickening. “I’ll get the wolves to grab medical supplies while they put a capsule into the van. It would be ideal to have her at the base camp,” Cain said, more to himself than to Ekon. He looked at me and grinned. “Maybe you will catch a glimpse of Elliot’s Peak before you die. It’s a lovely mountain range. A perfectly remote area with a weak clinch in the gates. The gods will be able to come through unnoticed with ease. By the time they let loose their wrath, it will be too late for anyone to stop them.”

  “I’ll stop your plans,” I told them both. “I’m not going to make any of this easy for you.”

  My power was there and ready for me to use. I was beyond tired, my body ached, and it was a long shot, but if I could just have a few more minutes to recover, I could get to my feet and fight these two men. I wasn’t sure I would win but I’d be damned if I just rolled over.

  Both men chuckled, but it was Cain who responded, “Oh, but child, you already have. You walked right int
o our lair and handed yourself right over to us.” He paused while he ran his fingers through his hair. “And everyone who has entered here made that same statement. So far, none of them have succeeded. Even without being spell-drugged, you can hardly stand on your two feet. Now you’re about as harmless as a maggot.”

  Movement behind Ekon drew my attention. The werewolf had returned. He handed something to Ekon, who chuckled and handed it off to Cain.

  “I have things to do back at the base camp. I will see you there,” Ekon said. He studied me. “Make sure we hook her up quickly. She does not look too well.”

  With that, he turned and walked away.

  Shit, I was losing my opportunity to take him down. I tried not to panic. Did I have it in me to jump up and fight right now? My limbs were heavy but mobile. My power was still there, waiting to be used. I wasn’t completely drained yet.

  Cain toyed with the object Ekon had passed to him. Up close I could see it was a thick metal shackle. Cain reached down for something by his feet, and that was when I noticed the chains. They were short and attached to a welded metal hook in the wall. Realizing he was about to chain me up, I attempted to get to my feet. I had hardly gotten to my knees when Cain grabbed my wrist and dragged me closer to him. He lifted the metal shackle that the werewolf had brought.

  “Do you know what spellbinding is?” he asked.

  All the blood drained from my face as horror choked me. I looked at the metal shackle then back to Cain’s face. Oh god no. Not that long ago, I had spellbound myself to keep my power from hurting others. Back then I had trapped my power behind a neatly built wall in my head where I managed to keep it at bay. If I accidentally let my power slip past that mental wall, I received a painful shock to my system.

  Back then my power had been trapped in my mind. But now my power ran freely through my body. There was no trapping or hiding it any longer. If he put that shackle on my neck, who knew what would happen? I highly doubted it would be a simple shock to my system this time. Cain must have read the horror in my face because he laughed.