A vampire glided behind him and snapped his neck, but two more assassins ran in to take his place. I turned towards the node, alarm flaring inside me. If the enemy was here, they might well be attacking the Court of the Dead, too.
I wouldn’t let Devon get hurt again. Lord Blackbourne might be pissed at me for abandoning him in a time of crisis, but what choice did I have? The vampires had numbers on their side, but if the enemy liches had come back—the Court of the Dead couldn’t fall. I wouldn’t let it.
I wouldn’t let the Death King perish before I learned everything else he’d kept from me.
22
I ran out of the street and into the town square, past the Citadel of the Elements. Lord Blackbourne’s words pounded in my skull. You killed Dirk Alban, and Greyson Beaumont helped you do it.
I skidded to a halt in the mouth of a side street, where two more assassins waited. Magic blasted from my hands, knocking them backwards, while bolts of fire shot over the rooftops. More fire mages?
Then Dex flew up to me, his hands sparking. “Can you go five minutes without someone trying to kill you?”
“Apparently not.” Relief swept over me as Ryan and Trix walked towards me, accompanied by the other two sprites.
“The vamps let you go?” asked Ryan.
“Yeah, but the assassins came a moment later.” I indicated the bodies on the ground and the flashes of fire spreading throughout the streets. “I bet they’re on their way to the Court of the Dead next.”
“They’re coming from the citadel,” said Trix.
“Um… what?” I turned that way, and to my utter astonishment, Bria emerged from the front door with a crowd of other mages behind her. “Oh, shit.”
“Liv?” Bria approached us, her hands blazing with fire.
“I guess you saved me the bother of coming to find you.” I called the node’s power to my hands and fired it at her, forcing her to dodge.
“Wait!” She ducked and rolled to her feet. “I’m on your side.”
“A likely story.” I used my spirit magic to knock the nearest attacker down, while Trix intercepted two assassins making their way from a side street.
Ryan’s magic raised two more assassins into the air and flung them into Bria’s path. Flames continued to spiral from the hands of the fire mages, but we must have taken a big chunk of their number out in the earlier battles.
I, meanwhile, made for the node, which glowed like a beacon against the darkening sky. The node brimmed with energy, and as I approached, several figures rose from within, their hands glowing. Spirit mages. Are they with the Spirit Agents?
The spirit mages circled the node, and one moved to stand in the centre of their group. A tall man with longish dark hair and deep-set eyes in a face lined with the merest trace of wrinkles.
“Causing trouble again, Olivia?” he said.
“Who are you?” I said. “Another dickhead from my past?”
“Not your distant past,” he said. “You should know me, though, if you think about it.”
His voice carried a resonance I found creepily familiar… the chill baritone of a lich.
No way.
Recognition hit me. The last time I’d seen this dude, he was a lich. Specifically, Hawker, the first lich who’d betrayed the Death King. Yet he looked human, even more so than the Death King did when he was masquerading as a living person. He wasn’t wearing a mask or an illusion. He was alive and as solid as I was, judging by the knife he gripped in his free hand.
“I thought you were cursed.” I stood my ground, my heart plummeting. “I thought the Crow’s cantrips turned out to be fatal. They killed everyone who tried to use them. Besides, I destroyed his supplies when I blew up his house.”
“You only destroyed some of them,” he said. “It took many sacrifices, and much pain, but I am the first of my kind to walk in the light again.”
No wonder I didn’t recognise any of his allies. They were liches, or they had been. This time, they weren’t decaying or falling to pieces. Or so it seemed.
“If you’re using cantrips, don’t they have a time limit?” I said. “Before bits start falling off you, I mean? The Crow had the best of them and even he fell apart in the end.”
Though admittedly, he’d died because Brant had given him his own dud cantrip. Had one of his experiments really worked after all?
“The Crow was trying to do something extraordinary,” said Hawker. “He was trying to reverse life and death… to make it possible for those of us from the House of Spirit to walk in the light again. And now we have succeeded in that goal.”
I’d bet this was what the vampires had hoped I’d remember, or part of it, anyway. But it was too late now. Lord Blackbourne and his people would be lucky to survive, and in the end, the Crow’s death hadn’t stopped his goal’s completion.
“Then what do you want with me?” I said. “Because I’m already alive. Unless you want to reverse that and stick my soul in an amulet like Cobb did, but that guy is a waste of space. He couldn’t even manage to hang onto the soul he risked his life to steal.”
“Cobb is irrelevant,” said Hawker. “Those of us bound to the House of Spirit have suffered far more than he ever has, though we needed his help to take back the Order. I, meanwhile, intend to take back both realms for our own.”
You’re out of your mind. But he’d already lured away a fair few of the Death King’s peers with the promise of returning them to the life they would have lived if not for the curse. Worse, it seemed at least some of the spirit mages were just as power hungry as the Order had always claimed as justification for their punishments after the war.
And that meant Dirk Alban had believed the same. I guess I tried to kill him for a reason, huh.
“You still haven’t said whether you want me dead or alive,” I said. “I have to admit I’m getting a bit pissed off at being left out. How do you know I won’t make a willing ally?”
“You already chose Greyson’s side over ours,” he said. “Greyson, who trapped us, who punished his own kind, and bound us under his rule. Now his people will flock to my side when they see what I have accomplished.”
“What, being a selfish bastard who’s left a trail of dead behind you?” I ignored the mutters from the other spirit mages, who’d spread out as though waiting for orders. “You don’t have much of an army, either. Guess those cantrips need some fine-tuning.”
He couldn’t have an infinite number of cantrips at the ready, and they’d only work on one person at a time. Which made his army limited, at least in terms of living spirit mages. A dozen of them could give me one hell of a headache, but not if I brought backup. I couldn’t think of anything better to do than to stall for time until the other liches showed up. Before they destroyed the Death King for good.
“You have no respect,” he said. “You’d have been safer if you’d allowed Cobb to bind your soul to his. He has an incentive to keep you alive. I don’t.”
His hands glowed, as did his allies’, and a torrent of energy surged towards me. I jumped backwards a heartbeat before it made contact, but the momentum nearly made me lose my balance. He might be alive again, but he was back in full possession of all his powers as a spirit mage. Like the others. No wonder they’d been able to amass a fighting force so quickly.
He advanced on me, away from the node, with several other mages forming a shield around him.
“Too cowardly to fight alone?” I said.
“Greyson uses this strategy himself,” he responded. “He sees himself as the saviour of our House, as though he didn’t condemn us to an eternity of suffering. As though he doesn’t let his people lay down their lives for him. As though he didn’t abandon you to the vampires.”
“You’re wrong.” The Death King had annoyed the shit out of me for so long, but I didn’t believe for a minute he’d let his people sacrifice their lives for him. “I chose to go to the vampires of my own free will. Just like you chose to abandon the man who stuck his neck out for
you when half the Order would have seen you destroyed.”
I reached for his life force, only to fetch up against a barrier. A shimmering current of light surrounded him like an invisible shield, fuelled by the energy flooding from the other mages. So that’s why he has them stand so close.
He raised a palm, as did the other mages. Four currents of light collided with his own, and the combined attack sent me flying into the nearest wall. Hard brick cracked against my spine, and I bit back a scream.
He’s strong. He’s far too strong. The guy was just like the Death King himself—an enemy I shouldn’t be engaging with without backup, let alone with four other fighters lending him their strength.
My back aching, I bolted into the street into the main square, which was still thick with fighting. Assassins fought mages—spirit mages. Hands aglow, they stepped out of the citadel and engaged the assassins in battle.
Wait a moment. They were the Spirit Agents. Please say they’re on my side.
As Miles strode to the front of the group, Hawker and his allies turned on the new arrivals. “You again? I thought you were dead.”
“Guess again,” said Miles.
Bolts of energy flew left and right, and I got in a few hits of my own, knocking one of Hawker’s allies off his feet. Yet I couldn’t get near the man himself, not as long as he remained hidden behind a shield of other mages.
The bloody hypocrite. He has some nerve criticising the Death King’s methods and then using his allies as pawns.
Bria ran among the Spirit Agents and fired off a blast of fire, knocking one of the assassins over.
“Hey!” I shouted at her. “Whose side are you even on?”
“Not theirs,” she said.
“You tried to kill the Death King.”
“We came to an understanding.”
“You did what?” But it seemed she’d brought the Spirit Agents through the citadel of all places. Had they been hiding in there all along?
Before I could ask what she was playing at, twin bursts of energy collided overhead, forcing me to duck. Nearby, Sean was locked into a battle with one of the other spirit mages. He must have run straight to the Spirit Agents after his escape from the Order. He caught my eye and nodded, and the enemy thrust a palm into his chest, drawing out his life force.
I ran up to the attacker and shoved him off Sean, grabbing the current of energy in my hand. The enemy squirmed free an instant later, but breaking the connection gave the other spirit mage the chance to get back on his feet.
“Thanks,” he gasped out. “Liv… you have to stop him.”
Easier said than done. But I had to take down Hawker before he broke into the Death King’s castle and destroyed him—or used one of those cantrips to bring him back to life only to give him a permanent death.
But what if that’s what he wanted?
If the Death King got hold of Hawker’s cantrips, he’d be able to break the curse and his people would be free. The curse would be over. Yet in the process, they’d lose the protection inherent in being liches. It wasn’t up to me to make that choice for them, but it sure as hell wasn’t up to Hawker. And if I let him and his allies continue, they would finish what Dirk Alban had started and bring about the deaths of everyone I cared about.
Hawker and his four spirit mages advanced through the crowd, blasting aside anyone who challenged him. Sean moved in behind me, beckoning to another spirit mage, and two others moved in front. Their hands glowed, forming a shield around me.
Surprise jolted to my core. They were imitating the positions of Hawker’s followers and loaning their power to me. This must be a spirit mage fighting formation for a reason, and sure enough, I felt the bolstering strength of four separate currents of energy as I aimed an attack straight at Hawker.
He spun around, and our twin currents of light collided. Our shielding mages faltered one by one until just the two of us remained.
Hawker’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t beat me using spirit magic alone, Olivia.”
No. I couldn’t. I reached into my pouch, but instead of a cantrip, I found myself holding the soul amulet Cobb had tried to use on me. Inspiration struck.
Time to find out if I was spirit mage enough to pull this off. Hawker had no shield left. I wouldn’t have a better chance.
I gripped the soul amulet in my palm as I advanced on him, calling magic into my hand. He did likewise, and we circled one another.
Then I reached up and grabbed for his soul. Energy slid into my hand and I tugged, hard, but my grip slipped before I could grasp it.
Guess I’m not strong enough yet after all.
Then another hand joined mine, and a dark presence stepped to my side, cloaked in shadow.
The Death King had arrived.
23
The King of the Dead joined me against Hawker. My fingers grazed the spirit mage’s soul, but alone, I couldn’t even strip out his life energy. Two people were better than one, though—and the Death King hadn’t come alone. Liches emerged from the node to battle those who’d turned on their master, and the air was soon thick with flying balls of energy.
“So you decided to stage a war in the city of Arcadia instead of coming directly to me?” the Death King said to Hawker. “I took you for a fool, I admit, but not a coward.”
“Forgotten Olivia’s betrayal already, Greyson?” he said. “Did you know she always planned to turn on you after she’d killed Alban? I suppose the missing memories are a convenience in this case.”
“Stop talking,” said the Death King in a low, deadly voice. “I should have killed you the instant I suspected you coveted my position.”
“Oh, but you’re too fond of giving people second chances,” he said. “Aren’t you? Even her—"
The Death King slammed into him, cutting off the rest of his sentence. My hair stood on end with static as the two spirit mages—one living, one dead—collided in a clash of bright energy that blurred my vision. Darkness and light fought for dominance, while my grip tightened on the amulet. If I bound Hawker’s soul, I’d also turn him immortal again, which might end up being a downside. Instead, I shoved it back into the pouch and threw a paralysing cantrip at him from behind.
The cantrip fizzled out on contact, while Hawker held the Death King at bay. “You can’t hurt me, Olivia. I’m far more than a simple human this time around.”
Chills washed over me. Then my body froze, locking to the spot as two liches closed in. Hawker shot me a wicked smile of pure malice.
“Stop—that.” I reached wildly for a source and drew on the nearest fire mage’s magic. The heat unfroze my limbs and fire blasted from my hands, setting the liches aflame.
The Death King advanced again, shadows darkening around his edges in a manner that made him look more demonic than I’d ever seen him. Yet Hawker had him on the defensive. The two were master spirit mages, but Hawker had one advantage: he didn’t care who he hurt. Streams of energy flowed from the nearest mages to him, friend and foe alike. He was draining them all to boost his own strength.
His attack smashed into the Death King like a freight train. I found myself flung backward, off my feet. I hit the ground hard, rolling upright to find the Death King next to me, feet braced on the ground.
“Are you okay?” I wheezed.
“He has too much resilience for a human.” He remained upright, but his voice sounded as breathless as mine. “He’s feeding off the others. If he pushes too far, they’ll die.”
“More of a problem for us than for him,” I gasped out. “But—I thought you’d want this. The curse broken. Your people freed.”
“That’s not what this is.” He straightened upright and caught his balance. Hawker had drained his life force, too. “This is his attempt to re-establish the spirit mages as the dominant force and restart the war they failed to win the first time around. I cannot allow that, and I cannot allow him to take over the House of Spirit.”
Hawker strode towards us, a wicked light in his eyes and
the lives of a dozen or more spirit mages fuelling his strength. “I said they follow a false king, Grey… it should have been me, not you. And it will be. When you are dead.”
The Death King stepped into the way, and the two collided in a rush that sent a wave of ice crashing over me. Streams of energy spiralled outwards from their hands. The Death King was trying to drain him, but he simply held too much power.
Then a spiralling thread of energy appeared, linking my own spirit to Hawker as he drew my life force out of me, inch by inch. No.
I caught the thread in my hand, tugged desperately, but Hawker held fast, his power spiralling around him in circles. Like a node, feeding on the strength of the few mages still on their feet. One fell. Then another. Disbelief filtered through, but as the Death King had told me, once we were linked, there wasn’t any way for me to survive.
“Liv!”
I didn’t see who shouted my name. The buzzing of the node drowned out all other sound. The energy slid from my bones, from my blood, removing all sensation. With my last reserves of strength, I staggered towards Hawker and dropped to my knees.
My hand closed on a knife discarded in the dirt.
Sean ran towards me, diverting Hawker’s attention. His fist shot out, yanking the life force from within the other spirit mage. With shaking hands, I lifted the dagger and thrust upwards into Hawker’s chest.
Hawker staggered, and the current of energy stopped flowing between us for an instant. I dropped to my knees, drained, my vision blurring. Sean lay nearby, his eyes sightless. He’d given his life for me, and yet…
And yet I was dying. I slid out of my body, floating upwards, propelled by some instinct I had no control over. Hawker, still bleeding freely, turned heel and vanished in a flash of light.
The Death King approached, and it was strange to look down on him as he bent his head, his hands turning my body over. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this. You were supposed to live.”
He rose to his feet, gripping the soul amulet in his hand. Then his gaze locked onto where I floated, detached from my body. A dreamlike sensation took hold as he reached out, his hand closing on me… on my soul. At once, I stopped drifting, held captive in his hands.
Trial of Shadows (Order of the Elements Book 3) Page 22