I didn’t think, just reacted.
My mind reached out and caught her in telepathic hold. Like a stray balloon I floated her to me. When she drew close enough, I offered her my hand to ease her to the ground.
“Celeste!” As soon as her feet touched concrete Keni yanked her hand away from mine as if it scalded her. “Your hand! What’s happening?”
Despite my fear of tearing my gaze from the fight for even a second, I chanced a quick glance down.
No. It couldn’t be. I stretched my fingers out and wiggled them. The bones had lengthened to twice their normal size. My normally pale skin had yellowed, the skin ridged in leathery lumps. Black talons that shone like polished onyx curled from the ends of these alien looking fingers.
“I—I don’t know.” I stammered.
Concern snapped Caleb’s beach ball-sized head around. The soft fur of his muffle nudged my elbow, trying to get a glimpse of the deformed hands I shoved behind my back.
“It’s the connection to all of us, isn’t it?” Keni grabbed my shoulders, her nails digging little crescent moons into my flesh. “It’s changing you! Celeste, you have to stop it! Break the bond!”
I met her stare directly. My tone, while quiet, made it clear there was no wiggle room for negotiation. “If I break the bond, they’ll all revert back. I’d be condemning them to a death sentence.”
Rowan’s upper lip curled off his teeth. His powerful jaws snapped and snarled his disapproval.
“Easy, Snowball. I started this and I’m damn sure going to finish it.”
Indecision darkened Keni’s eyes to a deep sapphire and furrowed her brow, but she didn’t argue further. Instead, she focused back on those that needed us. “The lion that fell, we have to help him.”
I craned my neck to peer through the rioting crowd. “He’s getting up. It looks like Keith healed him.”
“Keith? My ex? You gave him wings instead of making him a lion like the other guys?”
“He cheated on my sister.” I let one shoulder rise and fall in a casual shrug as her ex eased the lion up onto unsteady feet. “If I could’ve turned him into a chicken I would have.”
“Get down!” Flames burned within Terin’s sockets as she shouted over her shoulder. Before we could shield our heads, the Conduit of the Phoenix threw her fiery wings out wide. Her internal inferno exploded out into a wall of flame. The force of her skin-searing blast yanked away our footing and hurled us through the library’s chained doors. Glass shattered. Wood splintered. Stucco crumbled as we came to rest amidst the rubble.
Careful to avoid shards, I eased myself off the ground. “Everyone okay?” I asked as I blinked away burning tears from the blast.
“The New Adult section broke my fall.” Keni hiked up one cheek and pulled out a paperback she’d landed on. She glanced at the cover and cringed. “Yikes. Now I’m nervous it may have impregnated me in the process.”
The glow of Terin’s flames glistened off Caleb’s ebony coat as his shoulder blades rose and fell like well lubricated pistons. Rowan stalked beside him, a low rumble twitching his muzzle. Framed by the demolished doorway, they paused. Their alert stares focused within the mayhem. Caleb’s ears flattened. Rowan’s snowy chest swelled.
“What is it?
“Cooooooouuuunnnnnttteeeessssss,” Caleb rumbled.
Rowan snorted his agitation and punctuated the thought with a flip of his silvery mane.
With a bird-like jerk of my head, I peered out into the night. My new eagle vision easily fixated on her, blocking out the rest of the chaotic ruckus. Red waves tossed in the wind behind her as she cantered into battle in her true Centaur form.
“This fight is mine.” None of them could’ve held me back if they tried. Air whistled past my ears as I sprinted out of the library. I sprang over Terin’s flaming blockade, curling in a tight tuck to avoid the fiery licks and snaps beneath me. A low crouch helped to absorb the impact of my landing. Before me the crowd parted. Hooves clicked across the pavement. The Countess appeared, a smug smirk curling her plump lips.
The battle around us stilled. Our spectators inched back to avoid Terin’s ring of fire that closed in to encapsulate my enemy and I. A line had been drawn. The end was here.
“Welcome to Thunderdome.” Malicious intent dripped from my smile.
Chapter 27
“Conduit.” The Countess dragged the point of her pink tongue over toothpaste commercial white teeth. Her venomous ruby gaze wandered the length of me. “Nice hands. I suggest you fire your manicurist.”
I held up one talon and turned it over to admire it. “You like ‘em? They were a gift from a friend of yours. Speaking of,” I sniffed the air and groaned my appreciation, “he was right. Your kind does smell delicious. Like cheeseburgers, cotton candy, and happiness.”
Green flames flared in her crimson irises. “I see you’ve learned just enough backstory to make yourself even more annoying. Brava.”
“Enough to make you sweat.” With one deadly curled claw, I pointed at my forehead. “You’ve got a little something right here.”
She flipped her head in a motion more equine than human. Her cascading hair rippled to reveal the supple curve of her bare breast. “We’re surrounded by flames, you twit. Someone with your blaring insignificance could never garner that kind of reaction from me.”
I threw my arms out to the sides and peered around at our fiery prison of solitude. “And yet, here we are.”
“You still think we’re equals in this?” Her pert nose crinkled with amusement. “How tragically simple of you.”
Power emanated off of her, sizzling through the air with a palpable force, and all I had to counter it with was brute strength. Not that I could let that matter. I couldn’t back down or show even the slightest weakness. My life, and the lives of all those around me, depended on it. “If that really is the case,” I stiffened my jaw and forced a smug tone despite my own trepidation, “this should be over quick.”
Her face dawned with maniacal glee as she beckoned me to her with the curl of one finger. “Show me what you’ve got, little girl.”
No further invitation was needed. I flipped into an aeriel and drove my heel down hard into her jaw. As she stumbled back, I pounced. Claws swiped at flesh. Balled fists connected in what should’ve been bone crunching impact. I held nothing back, but unleashed all my pent up fury. The malicious sorcerous, however, didn’t lift one finger to fight back. Instead, she laughed. Quiet at first, a light-hearted titter, that built and swelled with each of my paltry attempts to engage her. Panting from the exertion, I inched back a step … then another. Not a scratch, blemish, or mussed hair altered her demented perfection.
“Such fever. Such zest. How does it feel to know it was a complete waste?” Her dainty wrist flicked to her side. Sparking azure tendrils sizzled from the tips of her fingers. “Now, it’s my turn.”
A loud crack echoed through the night as she snapped the whip-like coils in my direction. I leapt in the air in a side-tuck, barely missing her strike. Mid-rotation, she unleashed the same weapon in her other hand and sent the sizzling vines hungrily snapping for me. An anguished scream tore from my throat as I was knocked off course by the lash that sliced across my shoulder. Air was forced from my lungs as I slammed to the ground. Skin hung from bone in three angry slices across my upper arm. Rivulets of blood streamed down my arm, but I didn’t have time for the pain. Panic bubbled in my gut as hoof beats closed in. The claws of my good hand scratched across the ground as I scrambled to get my feet under me.
Just as I planted one foot, my wrists were yanked out from under me by the sizzling coils that snaked around them, charring and blistering the skin beneath. The smell of my own burning flesh filled the air. My pulse drummed in my ears like whirring fan blades. Hooves clacked closer. I bit back a pained whimper as my arms were wrenched out to the sides, the coils shredding tissue from bone. The Countess kicked the back of my knees, knocking me to the ground. With a hoof pressed to the middle of my
back she forced me forward, my arms arced up behind me at an unnatural angle. Tears streamed down my face at the white hot pain of my shredded shoulder popping from its socket.
She leaned over me, her hot breath assaulting my cheek. “Open your eyes. Look at them.”
Through a haze of pain I lifted my weary head. Through the flames I could make out the silhouette of two lions; one black and one white. They paced along the perimeter, snarling and snapping their jaws in an anxious need to help. Behind them stood Kendall, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. My name formed on her quivering lips, but the sweet serenade of her voice died before it reached me. I didn’t know where Gabe and Grams were but I said a silent prayer that they would stay away.
“Go ahead,” The Countess hissed in my ear. “Call out to them. Let them be your saviors. I’ll reward their heroics by letting you live … long enough to watch them die.”
“Stay … back …” My weak plea wasn’t meant for my captor. Those words, forced through laboring lungs, were sent with an empathic push of self-preservation to Caleb and Rowan.
Their steps halted, yet they found no peace in the matter.
“Aren’t we the righteous one?” The Countess tasted my sorrow by catching one of my tears with the tip of her tongue. “All you did was ensure that their last memory of you will be watching your die while they did nothing.”
She released her hold and stepped back. My battered, aching limbs fell limp at my sides. Enduring stabbing needles of pain, I pulled my arms in tight to my chest and dragged myself across the ground. Every movement elicited another anguished whimper to escape my trembling lips. The pavement rubbed away skin, leaving angry sores from the friction, as I propelled myself forward with my forearms and knees in an awkward army crawl.
It took her one stride to make up the distance I’d earned with my efforts. Sharp nails scrapped my scalp as the Countess weaved her hand into my hair and yanked my head back at a sharp angle that lodged my breath in my throat. The night stilled. Demons and humans alike gathered to watch my degradation with their individual vested interest. Some panted for my blood. Others ached to free me. The snaps and hisses of Terin’s fiery wall was all that kept those I loved at bay. For that, I was exceedingly grateful.
“This is the hero you chose to follow!” the Countess hollered at the townspeople as she held my head like a prize. “Did you really believe a girl so young could be your town’s salvation? Now, all of you will learn the same painful lesson I did,” she dipped down to snarl against my ear, “you can never trust anyone associated with the Council.”
She threw my head to the ground. My brow cracked against the unyielding pavement with a hot rush of pain. The air sizzled as she activated her torturous tendrils once more. The first strike lashed across my back as four surging bands seared through my flesh. Her other arm arched back and administered a blow that sliced through nerves straight to the bone. Again and again she delivered fresh blows more powerful than the last. The fight drained from my body, leaving behind a lump of flesh that jerked and quivered under each hate-filled lash.
“You have lost everything to protect your precious Gryphon, but where is he now?” she screamed and brought both hands down in a criss cross mess of gore and blood. “Where is your hope now?”
I yearned for death. Could feel myself inching toward it, eagerly dipping a toe in that final good night …
Distracted by her own rant, she paused my lashings to pace the perimeter of the flames. Her voice came in forceful stutter stops. “Show your face, you … coward! She’s not the one I want! Don’t make her die for your sins!”
The night’s silent response tossed fuel on the inferno of her hate. A crazed shriek tore from her throat as she raised the whips high over her head and galloped toward me to deliver what was sure to be the death blow. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the sweet relief of the end.
A scream—no—a roar, primal and raw, cut through the night. I forced my heavy lids open and tried to focus on reality’s harsh lines.
A tawny mass leapt over a sea of red. Grey fur retracted in a fang-baring snarl as the two masses collided.
“Grams?” I croaked. My palms scraped across the ground as I struggled to pivot even an inch to see.
With her ears flat to her head, the Grams-lion pounced. Her claws sank into the Centaur’s side, yet they spilled no blood and left no mark. Time slowed. The Countess’s face drained of emotion, to a stillness far more frightening. Dagger-like nails sank into Gram’s jugular. The Countess used Gram’s forward momentum against her to flip my grandmother over her head and plant her face first into the pavement. Bone cracked. Vertebras crunched. Gram’s eyes stared back at me … her pupils slowly dilating.
“No, no, no, nooo!” I shook my head, denying the truth seen by my own eyes. Wincing at the pain that I refused to let slow me, I scuffed and scraped my way to her side.
My nemesis’s lips moved in a hate spewing rant, but my ears were closed to it. Whatever she said or did to me was inconsequential. All that mattered now was Grams. Adrenaline granted me the strength to pull myself up on one knee, then the other. My legs quaked and repeatedly threatened to buckle, but the sheer force of my will denied them of that option.
With the faintest of motions, Gram’s chest rose and fell. Her breathing was labored and shallow—but it was there. I gathered her head and shoulders into my lap and cradled her in my arms. “I’m right here, Grams. I’m so sorry. You never should’ve been put in the middle of this.” As I gently stroked her cheek I noticed the color draining from her face, making the contrast against the red gash in her neck even more gruesome. “But you can’t leave me. You hear? I can’t do this without you.”
As a fresh onslaught of tears fell, subtle warmth sprouted between my bloody and battered shoulder blades. It bloomed across my ravaged back, easing the pain and sprouting a delicate flower of hope that was nourished by every physical and emotional scar I’d suffered. Cartilage grew from my shoulder blades in a glorious expansion that brought no shock or fear … only peace.
My shoulder found its way back into the socket with a loud pop and a rush of that needles and pins sensation. That allowed me the range of motion needed to roll my shoulders and release my new feathered appendages. Beautiful earth-toned wings spread wide to the sides of me, their span expansive enough for me to tuck the base of them in behind me and curl the length around Gram’s feline form.
Protectors glow with a calm illumination, but I wasn’t a Protector. My healing light exploded in a bright beacon that scoffed in the face of subtly. Behind my eyes, Grams appeared as the twinkling essence that weaved life into her being. Her injuries appeared to me like snags in an intricate tapestry. Those were the areas I focused on, scooping out bits of my own light to fill in the gaps in hers.
“I’ll never stop. You have to know that. You could save her today and I’ll just take someone else you love tomorrow. You can’t be everywhere all the time, Celeste. One day I will claim one of them—by death or a sentence of servitude. It’s just a matter of whom. Your sister? Your mother? Gabe?”
If the Countess had continued to rant like a surly drunk, I could’ve tuned her out. It was her steely calm and pointed emphasis of my brother’s name that prompted me to risk a peek through my parted feathers.
Gabe, naked and exposed, knelt at the Countess’s feet. Panic darkened his gaze to a deep cobalt blue. Her whip-like coil sizzled and sparked around his neck, holding him at her mercy. In her hand … a branding iron.
“Do you know what a Cerberus demon is?” the Countess asked as she rolled the iron between her thumb and forefinger. “I bet your friend the Gryphon does. He would know all too well the consequences of such a beast being unleashed from the confines of Hell. Perhaps he’ll give you tips on how to kill your own brother?”
A forceful yank of her wicked tendril slammed Gabe backward, leaving him sprawled on the ground. His eyes bulged from his reddening face as he clawed at his throat and gasped
for air. With a great flourish she flipped the iron rod like a ceremonial baton. Her stare bore holes into me as she lowered the iron …
I felt the swell and didn’t refuse it.
Accepted the change, without thought to the consequences.
Feathers ruffled and smoothed across my head and down my neck.
A threatening growl rumbled up from my barrel chest.
My tail whipped from side to side, warning of my fury.
Gabe grit his teeth to clamp down a scream as the very edge of the iron scorched a crescent moon into his chest, directly over his heart. Before she could roll her wrist and complete the branding ritual, I spun and reared up on my hind legs. The swipe of one talon knocked the iron from her hand.
Shock widened her eyes into perfect Os as she reeled back in awe of my new sizable form. “No … it can’t be.”
“Retract your weapon. Now.” No humanity remained in my deep gravel tremor.
Without hesitation she retracted her coil, allowing Gabe to roll to his side and morph to lion. “You can’t be here. It’s not possible.”
Auburn waves bounced over her shoulders as she shook her head in a meager attempt to deny my new formidable stature. Her gaze pulled to the right, homing in on her possible escape route before she gathered the courage to try for it. With one step forward I squashed that idea. Panic drained her milky complexion ashen. Her mouth open and shut but failed to form a sound as she backpedalled, eager for distance between us. Her hooves betrayed her by tangling beneath her, sending her tumbling to the ground. By the time her rump met the pavement she had reverted to her two-legged state. The fall didn’t slow her. Immediately she began dragging herself away from me in a desperate crab crawl.
All this time. All the venom within her, and all it took was being face to face with the same kind of creature that slaughtered her village to shatter her icy façade. For a brief moment the girl buried deep within the malevolent schemer appeared—and she was terrified.
I lowered my beak to my chest and arched my wide neck in a predatory hunch as I stalked after her with slow, deliberate strides. A pained yelp escaped her trembling lips as the tips of her fingers found the edge of Terin’s blockade.
Ascension (The Gryphon Series) Page 18