"This is unexpected, Josephine," he finally said.
"You were right. I don't want to watch them all die. I'm yours."
His face lit into a brilliant smile and he made a motion for his people to approach me, but I held up my hand and held them at bay.
"I have a condition."
His smile remained, but not quite as bright. "What?"
"I want you to send whatever it is of you that controls people into my body. I know you affect people's emotions. I want you to make it so I don't care about this place or any of them anymore."
His smile dropped completely. "You know I can't do that." The senator's hands fisted as he stood watching me. "This was a trick."
"No." I raised my palms up in placation. "I think you can if it's something I want. You've only tried on unwilling hosts. I want this. You do this, and then we will all leave here together and I'll never want to return to him."
"You want this?" He took a hesitant step toward me.
"Yes. I want to take you into me. It's the only way. You're so strong that I know you can do it." I held my arms out toward him, coaxing and hoping.
He took another step than paused. "I don't know."
"I can't hurt you. You created me. This is how it should be." I took a step closer to him.
He stood still for a minute and then with excruciating slowness, started toward me again.
"You're right. I can."
"Yes. You are the strongest being I've ever met." I waited patiently as he finished closing the distance. We'd gathered an audience, but everyone near the castle was still deep in battle. Please, let this work.
He was smiling again as he reached for my hands and I hoped that I was right, that this would work.
His hands solidly grasping mine, I saw his relief as his energy started to infuse me. I let him offer it willingly at first. I just prayed I was right, that I could maintain myself long enough to pull this off. God, he was strong. Less than thirty seconds and I could already see the magic floating in the air in rainbow swirls.
I could see him, his magic, but it wasn't attached to anything. When I stared down at my body, I could see the magic flowing into me. It was darker and isolated, unlike my own. His was a cancer, unwanted.
His eyes squinted. "I don't think it's working."
"It is. I can feel you."
"But, I can't feel you?" His eyebrows raised as confusion flashed across his face.
I tightened my grasp on him. I almost had enough, now. If I could simply hold on a little longer, I could do this. I watched as the strength of his magic started to waiver in front of my eyes.
"Stop." He pulled at me but I was much too strong now. I watched as I pulled his dark magic from him, and I could see the magic gain its brilliance again as it left him. This creature, whatever he was, never should have existed.
His form, needing the magic to exist, was diminishing as I drained him. He was losing tangibility, now almost just a sheer hologram of himself.
Please, I saw him mouth the words he lacked the ability to say. I trained my attention solely on him as a funnel of wind started to form around us. So close, I just needed to hold on a little longer.
Until I had absorbed everything he was. There was nothing left of him and I collapsed, nearly out of my mind. I shook with the need to unleash this power churning inside of me, but I couldn't even raise to my knees. I lay there, alone, in a funnel cloud of power.
"Give it to me."
I heard the voice come out of nowhere but I recognized the speaker. It was the Earth King.
"How?" I looked around my small empty area. I was alone.
"Place your palms on the ground. I will take it from you." I didn't question how or why, just followed my instincts and did what he asked.
Lying on the snow, cheek flush to the ground, I placed my palms face down. I immediately felt the pull of the Earth King upon them. I hoped my instinct was right, as I didn't know if I could stop the purge of magic that was happening. The magic I had taken from the senator was pouring through me into the ground. I watched as it seeped out, brilliant colors as it had never been when the senator possessed it.
The colors dimmed as the tornado wall around me started to ebb. When I had almost nothing left to give, I felt the pull of the earth subside and I lay there in the snow, amidst the senator's leaderless army. They were no longer fighting, lost for what to do.
"Jo!" Cormac screamed my name from across the courtyard and I watched him run to me.
I used the last of the energy I had left to force myself up. I got to my feet by sheer will alone, and I wasn't sure how I managed to remain standing.
Cormac's arms were around me in the next second.
"He's gone." Tears ran down my cheeks for all to see and I didn't care. I clung to him. "I did it."
"Yes, you did."
I pulled back from him to assess the situation. I eyed the crowd, so subdued now. A changed covered in black scales was the first to move. He took a single step forward out of the crowd, knelt on one knee and laid his axe down in front of him, bowing his head. Slowly, the rest of the crowd followed until every last one had followed suit.
"If you leave now, I will not pursue you. If you don't…" I let my words trail off, the threat clear.
Cormac's hand still in mine, we walked back through the crowd toward the castle as they retreated from it.
Everyone parted as we walked and Cormac's arm circled my waist. "Only a little farther."
I nodded but didn't speak. I was barely holding on; defeating the senator had taken everything I had and more. I saw the crowd part in front of us as my vision blurred, black spots starting to blur together.
When I felt the bed underneath me, I didn't recall most of the walk there. Cormac's body curved protectively around me. I tried to fight the draw of sleep but couldn't seem to keep my eyes open.
"Who's…"
"Sleep. I'll take care of everything." His hand ran through my hair as I rested a cheek against him. "I'll be here when you wake."
I nodded, succumbing to the pull as I heard his last words.
"I'll always be here for you."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Paid in Full
"You sure you're ready?" Cormac asked me as we made our way to the ground floor.
He'd been hovering over me since the senator's death last week. I understood his concern initially; I'd barely been coherent the first few days, only waking to eat. But I was way past the point of cabin fever.
"Cormac, I'm fine. I want air."
He smiled and there was that same twinkle in his eye I'd seen the last few days. It was that made me wonder what was going on.
"Are you going to tell me what it is that you are so happy about?"
He tugged my arm and drew me close. "You'll see."
"No word from Dodd yet?"
"No, but I'm sure he'll eventually turn up. Especially now that the senator killed so many of the rippers, it's a lot safer out there."
I remembered the senator’s snipers spraying into the group of them until they were all but extinct. As long as I didn't do a mass release of magic into the world again, their numbers shouldn't cause a significant problem.
He pushed open the door that led us outside and I braced myself for the cold that didn't come. The snow was gone, leaving the sodden earth beneath.
"It feels like spring." I ripped off the heavy down jacket I was wearing and lifted my arms out to soak up as much of the sun as I could. The courtyard was filled with people sitting outside and children running and playing. It didn't just feel like spring, but looked and sounded like it. Laughter and children giggling rang through the air, sounding more beautiful than any music I'd ever heard. The smell of wet fertile soil and grass met my senses.
"How long has it been like this?"
"It's been getting warmer every day." He held out his hand to me. "There's more."
"More?" He smiled and nodded. I took his hand as we walked out of the courtyard as kids
dashed in front of us playing tag.
We crossed over the drawbridge and I wanted to cry when I stepped into the middle of the Vegas strip. Every place that had a crack of dirt, which there were many, had flowers growing up through it. Flowers that weren't even native to Vegas sprouted as if they had every right to be there, tulips in every color, crocus and daffodils.
"How can this be?" I asked.
"I don't know," Cormac said.
Then, out of nowhere, a shimmering image of the Earth King appeared in the middle of the road. It wasn't the grizzled old man but a powerful male in his prime. Because of your actions, I can now heal the earth. Your debt has been paid.
He smiled and bowed to me, then he was gone.
"What are you looking at?"
"You didn't see him?" I turned and stared at Cormac who looked bewildered.
"Are you okay?"
I felt the tears on my cheeks he saw falling. "I'm perfect."
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Redemption: Alchemy Series Book #4 Page 20