Song of Resurgence (Ballads of Mae Book 2)

by Salem Cross

  In my arms, Mae flinched and let out an agonized groan. Immediately, I relaxed my hold on her and brought her closer to my chest.

  “I understand. I would accept no apologies, either, in your position,” Nikolas acknowledged. “But I want to offer something else that will be more beneficial to Mae’s well-being… I can heal her.”

  There were three gasps of shock behind me. Diane snarled and shook her head. “What are you talking about? That’s impossible,” she demanded. “None of us have such abilities.”

  Nikolas glanced at her before turning his attention back to me. A shadow of pain and disgust rippled across his face.

  “My god was Wyvonine, a god who took pleasure from those that suffered. When he created me, he gifted me with the ability to heal others, just so he could continue their suffering,” Nikolas explained without any inflection. “Please, allow me to do this one thing. Allow me to save her, Rylan.”

  Foolishly, my heart fluttered at the hope he had ignited. He could be lying. He was half the reason that Mae was dying. His sudden change of heart was suspicious, but… Did I have a choice?

  “If you can save her, do so. If this is some sort of trick, I will pull your still-beating heart from your chest before you can inflict further damage,” I vowed through gritted teeth.

  “I will save her,” Nikolas promised quietly. The hard lines in his face softened ever so slightly. “I committed an act so foul the half of my soul I carry has been stained beyond repair, but it is worth it to try… And while my time on this earth may be over soon, it does not have to be so for Mae or you.”

  I nodded my head to indicate he could approach my mate. I forced myself to place Mae’s body on the ground, but I kept one of her hands in mine. Diane moved so Nikolas could take her place. He sunk to his knees slowly on the other side of Mae and gazed upon my mate’s face with sorrow. As he reached out to touch her with both hands, an involuntary snarl bubbled up in my chest. Nikolas paused to gauge my reaction. With a deep breath, I collected myself. I nodded when I was under control of my murderous instincts. He reached out with both hands and placed them upon her chest. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. When he looked up at me, his irises had changed to black.

  “This will hurt her, but it will fix her,” he told me softly.

  Without waiting for me to acknowledge his words, Nikolas began the healing process. Blue light emanated from his palms. The light soaked through the bloodied and torn shirt into Mae’s body. Mae twitched. The movement was so slight that I almost thought I had made it up. I heard a muffled snap, and Mae’s leg twitched hard. Her lips parted just enough to groan in distress. Another snap, followed by a hard jerk of her jaw caused another, louder, moan. She cried out as a blue light began to glow just beneath the entirety of her skin. Her arms weakly began to flail. I grabbed both of her hands and held them to my chest

  It will be alright, I promise, I whispered into her mind, praying that it was true.

  Everything hurts. Her voice was so small and far away it scared me.

  But she was talking. She was back with me. My heart somersaulted.

  I know, my Mae Flower. Bear with me just a little bit longer, I assured her.

  Mae’s hands began to warm in mine. Sweat beaded her brow. To my surprise, the swelling and discoloration in her face began to decrease. The dark bruises that marred the skin began to fade before our eyes.

  So hot, she whimpered.

  It is almost done, I promised and kissed her knuckles.

  Sweat dripped down her face, and tears slipped past her closed eyelids. It was a small relief to see that these tears were crystal clear and not blood red. Another cry, strangled and pained, echoed around us. Her body gave a dramatic jerk before going still. Nikolas removed his hands from her chest. Mae’s chest rose slowly, and then she gave a long, grateful sigh. Her eyelids fluttered open, and although her gaze was unfocused, my heart cried tears of joy. Behind me, I could hear noises of surprise and gratitude. Mae’s brows came together, and her free hand fluttered towards the shackle around her neck.

  Without hesitation, I reached forward and unclasped the cursed metal. As I threw the shackle to the ground, a sigh escaped Mae’s lips. Where the shackle had once been welded to her skin, there was now thick and angry scarring wrapped around her neck. It would be a gruesome reminder of the suffering she had endured. Of my failure to protect her…

  Mae, I called to her as I scooped her up and pulled her into my chest.

  What was she thinking? How did she feel? What could I do for her? Mae turned her head, slowly, as if testing to make sure it would not hurt, and our eyes locked. Her brown eyes were slightly glazed over, and her eyelids half drooped.

  Rylan, the relief in her voice was profound.

  More tears rolled down her cheek, and I reached up to wipe them away.

  Do not cry, I scolded her gently.

  My heart was dancing in my chest. The knot in my throat was working its way loose and the tension in my body began to recede.

  Cain tried to spellbind me, she told me as she touched the scarring around her neck.

  My whole body recoiled. That was what had caused her so much pain. The sick feeling returned as I realized how dangerous binding her power could have been. She could have died.

  I thought I lost you, I whispered in her mind.

  The angst I had been feeling crumbled into pure unadulterated relief now that she was safe in my arms. It did not matter that our lives were tied together. Even if they were not, the thought of living in the world without Mae was unfathomable.

  “She will be tired and sore for the next few days, but you can take her back to the house without an issue,” Nikolas assured me.

  Mae flinched at his voice. She turned her head to look at him, and I watched the distrust coat her expression.

  “Do not fret,” I assured her. “You will never see him again after today. He may have saved your life, but that does not release him from his sins.”

  Mae’s eyes turned violet as she assessed the Guardian who had tried to kill her. Nikolas sighed so deeply one would have thought he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. He pinned her with a solemn look and opened his mouth to speak.

  “Dear Mae, I was wrong about you. I have seen the purity in your soul and heart. I know what I have done is unforgivable, but I hope you will understand, at the very least, that my intentions were not malicious. In an attempt to make things right I pledge my life to you. Wherever you lead, I will follow. Forever.”

  “That is a very moot vow,” Diane snapped from behind me. “Since your life will end the moment she gets in the car.”

  Mae shook her head slowly. She closed her eyes, and her body went utterly still. For a moment, I thought she had fainted. When I gripped her more tightly, her eyes fluttered back open. She looked up at me with a mixture of determination and exhaustion.

  “No one is going to kill Nikolas,” she declared with a raspy but determined voice. “We’re going to need everyone if we’re going to stop Ekon and Cain. I know exactly where their main hideout is, and I know they are two weeks ahead of schedule, giving us only two weeks before the end of the world is here.”

  My grip tightened on Mae again. This was it. This was why we had come here, to stop the gates from opening. The threat was real.

  “Cain has been taken care of,” I assured her.

  “Good,” she said as her eyes closed again. “One less asshole we have to deal with.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Mae

  To say the next few days were strange would be an understatement. First, there was the fact that we now had an additional forty-two Guardians living in the house. I found myself being barraged with gratitude and constantly being touched. The contact ranged from clasping my shoulder in camaraderie to a caress on the cheek. It was uncomfortable to find myself surrounded by people who thought I was some type of savior. To go from being reviled to respected by most of the warriors in the house gave me whiplash.r />
  When I complained to Rylan about it behind closed doors, he said, “Imagine being rescued after years of imprisonment and being able to truly appreciate it. You not only saved them from a terrible end, but your presence allows them to enjoy the fresh air, their renewed strength, and the ability to connect with people they have not seen in who knows how long. To them, and me, you are a blessing.”

  After that, I never complained again.

  If they weren’t touching me, they were stroking the purple quartz necklaces that they proudly displayed around their necks. Calling Katie had been one of the first things Arthur had done to ensure everyone’s safety.

  With so many Guardians in the house and the majority of them malnourished, drastic measures had to be taken to feed everyone. Every morning Zara would appear in the driveway with a tour bus full of unsuspecting, compelled humans who served as breakfast for everyone. The tourists would file out of the bus and stand there, unmoving, while Guardians came out to feed on them. When the Guardians had their fill, the tourists would climb back on the bus, and Zara would take them back to where she found them. By the fourth day of this, I made sure to avoid looking out the window. It was an eerie sight watching people stare blankly at the house while they were being fed on.

  When the new Guardians had recovered enough to join the rest of us, they bombarded us with questions about what they had missed out on in the world while they had been imprisoned. In return, the newcomers informed us of what they knew of Cain and Ekon’s plan. The magic Nikolas and I had found swirling around in the glass case in the laboratory was nothing compared to what was being stored at Elliot’s Peak. After hundreds of years of drawing powers from Fae, Guardians, witches, and wizards, Ekon certainly had enough to open a door into any realm he wanted.

  They confirmed my story that Ekon and Cain had used the park rangers to kill visitors of the park so they could be used in an undead army for the gods upon their arrival. But the army wasn’t only filled with the undead. Ekon had many creatures at his disposal. Most were there willingly. Ekon even had a hand in the genetic mutation of the werewolves. He’d used humans who had volunteered to permanently become monsters. He then experimented on them until they were cunning beasts rather than the mindless killing machines a typical werewolf would have been.

  While learning Ekon’s plan was terrifying, it was also exciting. Ekon no longer had the element of surprise on his side. He knew we would know where to look for him now, and that we would learn about everything that he had been up to. We could prepare appropriately for whatever he threw our way.

  The house was filled to the brim with Guardians. With the ability to feel emotions, the house was loud with laughter, playful debates, and passionate speeches. Then, there were the orgies. If there weren’t two orgies happening somewhere in the house at any given time, it was a slow day. One night, I had slipped from my bed and had gone downstairs to get a drink of water only to find a handful of Guardians all tangled up in each other right there on the kitchen floor.

  Embarrassed, I had tried to slip away unnoticed only to find Rylan had followed me down to the kitchen. I wasn’t surprised. Rylan had not left my side since our return to the house after Nikolas’s attack and my escape from Cain. What did surprise me was when he pressed my back up against the wall, just out of sight of the Guardians, to kiss and caress me passionately until I was delirious with lust. When I was sure he would throw me over his shoulder and carry me upstairs to ravish me, he surprised me further by pulling his erection free, slipping my panties to the side, and thrusting up into me right there with an orgy happening only a few feet away. The kinkiness of the act sent me spiraling to a whole new level of arousal, and when I came, I had to bite into Rylan’s shoulder to keep from giving away our hiding spot.

  But the strangest thing of all was how easy it was to control my power. It came to me with such ease, it was almost a joke to continue to practice with Rylan, which I did every morning. I could focus my power to blast a single target. I could catch whatever I wanted on fire and even put it out on my own. Even the lightning would bend, arch, and twist in whatever direction I wanted it to go in.

  Even though I did not need Rylan to run interference when it came to the destruction, I did need him to help me maintain a healthy level of power within my body. Whatever power I threw out, Rylan pulled it back and recycled it back to me. While I might feel physically spent after practicing, I never felt drained as I had in the past. It was a heady feeling knowing that with Rylan’s assistance, I could take on the evilest person in the world.

  Which was exactly the type of confidence I needed. It was precisely what we planned to do in just two days.

  The planning had started the morning after our return. The second group that had gone off the day before had spread out, veering unknowingly towards Elliot’s Peak as they searched for signs of our enemies. The group stumbled across the sights of the ritual sacrifices. Luckily, even without the new Guardians’ warning of a zombie army, the group had burned the piles of bodies that had been poorly covered up with dirt. They found symbols burned into the ground and mutilated wildlife that was strung up high in the treetops.

  They also figured out how the werewolves were able to vanish without a trace. There were trees within the forest that, if approached by a creature cursed with dark magic, would become doors that led down into the mining tunnels. They had managed to capture several werewolves and used them to access the tunnels. While they had not caused miles of the tunnels that ran under the park to dramatically collapse, as I had, the group did manage to cause a few cave-ins to prevent the enemy from having so many access points to emerge from.

  With this information, the Guardians had enough to strategize an attack. It was agreed that offense would be the best tactic. We would approach Elliot’s Peak at midnight, the darkest hour. A group of Guardians would have already planted bombs earlier in the tunnels, which would detonate on the west side of Elliot’s Peak. It wouldn’t cause a ton of damage but enough to draw attention to the area and away from the rest of us who would be lying in wait on the east side of the mountain range.

  Once enough commotion was raised, it would be my turn. Ekon’s power supply was somewhere in the center of Elliot’s Peak. A few Guardians suggested sneaking me into Ekon’s lair to destroy everything that way. The idea was shot down by the majority, who agreed there were too many unknown factors to be a plausible plan. Rylan came up with the idea that satisfied everyone. He simplified my role to one simple task: bring down the entire mountain. Everyone else would do their part to keep Ekon’s minions away from me.

  I did not doubt that I could do it. With how strong I was and how destructive I could be, taking down a mountain almost seemed like a fun challenge.

  While we were as ready as we ever would be the night before our attack, I felt uneasy. I walked out onto the deck, which still had holes from the gargoyle attack, and leaned against the railing trying to set aside my discomfort for a while. The trees around us were beginning to change color. There were hints of purples, yellows, and oranges beginning to flare up in the thick green foliage. The cold breeze that drifted through the night caused bumps to rise on my arms. Fall had officially arrived, and nature was preparing to give us a beautiful display of change.

  “It is a beautiful night, is it not?” a soft voice said behind me.

  I turned around to find Diane stepping out onto the deck with me. She moved gracefully around the large holes in the deck to come to stand beside me. She looked out at the forest around us and a smile tugged the sides of her lips. I turned to look back out at the park.

  “It is,” I agreed. “I hope we will get to enjoy it without this black cloud hanging over our heads soon.”

  “I have seen many seasons come and go. This one will be like all the other autumns that have come before it. Do you know what I hope, Mae?” she asked, turning her head to look at me. I looked at her with a frown. “It is my hope that I get the opportunity to know you better.”

/>   I smiled, “I’d like to get to know you too.”

  “It is hard being a mother, Mae,” she said slowly. “You only want the best for your children. Rylan is my only child. I was unable to conceive again once I gave birth to him. I suppose I spoiled him a little while he was a young boy. I did whatever I could to make him smile.”

  I tried to picture Rylan as a young boy. Did he have long blond hair or did Diane keep it cut short? Was his laughter as infectious as it was now? Had he been a stubborn child or easy-going? I tried to imagine it but I struggled to see past the handsome man he was now.

  “When he reached maturity, I watched the life drain from my son’s eyes as his emotions faded. His eyes stopped twinkling with mirth and his mouth never turned upwards again.” Diane said after a pause. “I lived in a constant state of fear for the last one thousand, eight hundred and forty-two years that Rylan would cave to the darkness and take himself out of my world. That fear kept me up at night. I reached out to him constantly to check in on him. When he called me a few weeks ago to tell me about you, the moment I heard his voice I already knew that fate had blessed my son.”

  Diane turned her body to face me and I mimicked the movement. She took my hands in hers and said, “When he spoke your name I heard the reverence behind it. He laughed with merriment. Mae… Do you know what that did for me? To hear his delight? I wept happy tears long after we had hung up. You gave me back a piece of my heart I did not realize was missing. My son walked this earth with me and yet… he had been lost to me as well. He is back and that is because of you. Thank you, Mae. I hope once all this is over we can become good friends.”

  My heart swelled at her words. I gave her a weak smile and said,

  “You don’t care that I’m not right for him? My father is a—”

  “Nonsense,” she said, cutting me off sharply. “You are absolutely right for my son. I do not think I have met a woman with a heart as pure as yours and a soul to match it. You will find that fate does not make mistakes when it comes to pairing mates.”