Crowned

by Christina Bauer

  Kade could order the palace mages to cast a few spells and shore up the Orb of Holding, but all of Rowan’s people were still blocked behind Petra’s Bone Wall, along with Petra herself. Rowan and I could boost up the Orb of Holding as well, but we’d both depleted our magick in order to get rid of the Sire and Lady. And I couldn’t speak for Rowan, but I not only felt empty, I was exhausted too. My mind felt numb from processing so much magick. Normally, I’d rest for days after what I’d just done. Here, there was no time.

  Viktor raised his fist, showing off the totem rings that gleamed on his fingers. He called out the words to launch the spells hidden within the bands. “Attack!” Blue lights flared as the hidden spells came to life.

  This was where all Viktor’s planning came into play. His totem spells were all about empowering his army of Changed Ones. Before, the Changed Ones had been mostly human. Now, they all transformed into full hybrids of humans and animals. Lions, eagles, and reptiles…every kind of predator now stood across the meadow from us. They beat against the wall of the Orb of Holding with ferocious power.

  The spell burst apart. The Changed Ones were free.

  Viktor raced toward us with a hoard of berserk animal warriors behind him. The Sword of Theodora gleamed in his fist.

  I searched my soul, looking for any kind of hybrid power left inside me. I was empty. My gaze locked with Rowan’s. “I’ve no magick left. You?”

  Rowan shook his head and raised his hand. “We need to recharge.”

  I pressed my palm against his and tried to pull Necromancer power into my body. Exhaustion was getting the better of me. No matter how hard I pushed myself, I could only pull in a thin trickle of blue light. Pathetic.

  Rowan wasn’t doing much better himself. “I’m too tired. I can’t recharge.”

  “We need help.” My gaze ran across the orange totem ring on my own hand. An idea formed. “Whatever power you have, focus it into your totem ring. Maybe we can summon Mlinzi and Walinzi.” It was an outlandish plan, but as least it was one.

  “Right.” Rowan glared at his own totem ring with such intensity, I was surprised the metal didn’t disintegrate under his stare.

  For my part, I channeled my paltry bit of Necromancer energy into my orange band while repeating the same thoughts, over and over. “We need you. Help us.”

  At the same time, Viktor and his army of Changed Ones rampaged closer. Viktor ran before his warriors, a maniacal gleam in his eyes.

  I stared down at my hand. The last time the totem ring activated, it glowed orange. Now, the metal looked ordinary and dull. The same was true with Rowan’s ring.

  The plan to summon the trickster gods wasn’t working.

  Time to fight.

  It took a huge effort, but I was able to force myself to face turn and face Viktor straight on. I imagined myself standing strong and tall but in reality, I mostly wobbled. Reaching out with my mage senses, I pulled in whatever Necromancer energy I could find. Another pathetic stream of power wound up my arm. If I got lucky, I might be able to cast a fireball spell. One.

  Rowan stood by my side. His hand glowed red, too, and the light of his magick was just as weak as mine.

  Viktor was closing in.

  Twenty yards.

  Ten.

  One.

  My brother paused before us and raised the Sword of Theodora high. “I told you that you’d power the gateways for me. Thank you for my empire.”

  He never got the chance to lower his blade.

  All of a sudden, the gateway behind us flared with orange light. The stone arch burst as two gigantic monkeys leapt onto the meadow. It was Mlinzi and Walinzi, and they were angrier than I’d ever seen them.

  “Kill!” cried Mlinzi.

  Viktor stood frozen in shock, the blade still held above in head. “What in the worlds are you?”

  Walinzi pursed her long lips. “I’ve seen this one. He causes you trouble, doesn’t he, Elea?”

  “He was about to run me through with a sword, actually.” I was proud of how little I slurred my words.

  “Yes, brother. You may kill him. Use the Sword.”

  Mlinzi hopped up and down, crying out “ooo-ooo-ooo” noises as he swiped the Sword of Theodora from Viktor and jammed the blade through my brother’s chest. A beam of crimson light flared up from the wound. At the same time, the last rays of the Martyr’s Comet cast the meadow in a blood-red glow.

  Viktor howled, pain etched into his pale features. He wasn’t a willing sacrifice, and agony was the result. It felt as if a year slowly passed while he died. In reality, it was probably a matter of seconds before my brother was gone.

  The meadow’s grounds rumbled beneath our feet. Great fissures opened up in the earth. The Martyr’s Comet flared its brightest shade of red yet. We were almost out of time.

  “Quickly,” I said. “We need to place Viktor’s body on the gateway.”

  Rowan bent down to lift Viktor in his arms, but Walinzi was too fast for him. She scooped up my brother’s body and chucked it into a nearby gateway with all the ceremony of tossing out an old banana peel. I suppose that’s what she thought of him in the end: garbage.

  Like I’d seen in the vision with Kila Kitu, Viktor’s dead body flared with violet light, a brightness that seeped into the gateway around him before being transferred into the surrounding arches. One by one, the nearby gateways lit up with searing violet light. The earth rumbled as the great breaks in the ground pressed back together.

  Our world was healing.

  Viktor was dead.

  It didn’t seem possible, but it was happening all the same. I made a mental note to visit every Seer and spell Caster who’d said it was impossible for Viktor to become the sacrifice and explain to them what had actually happened. In detail.

  The light from the Martyr’s Comet disappeared. Viktor’s body became transparent as a ghost’s, and then he was gone as well.

  Across the meadow, the bone wall cast by Petra crumbled into dust. Beyond it, I could see how the Necromancers and Casters had turned into a combined army in order to defeat Petra. Her body lay lifeless on the earth. My eyes stung with sadness. She hadn’t been evil so much as weak, and it cost her everything.

  Walinzi plunked down beside me, fanning herself with the end of her long orange tail. “It seems you and your mate are now rulers of an empire. What do you plan to do with it?”

  There was no question on that count. I turned to Rowan. “Are you thinking the same that I am?”

  Rowan gave me one of his most crooked smiles. “We’ll hold a festival that will be the greatest ever seen.”

  “Precisely. We’ll need to be crowned—both of us—and we’ll hold the ceremony right here. You and Mlinzi are invited, of course.”

  Walinzi kept fanning herself with her tail. “We’ll check our schedule.”

  Across the meadow, the Caster army whooped with joy. Many pulled out skins of whiskey and passed them around. Another group broke into song, the words lauding all the glories of Rowan and me. A few Necromancers even joined in the tune.

  And right here, in this moment, the world was perfect.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Rowan and I stood at the far end of the Meadow of Many Gateways. Casters and Necromancers alike milled around the periphery of the long rectangular grounds, waiting for the festival to start.

  Technically, they had to get through our coronations before the festival actually began, but that was a minor point in Caster culture. My Necromancers joined in the fun, not drinking themselves silly, but not sitting in a corner speaking in monotones, either. Also within the crowds roamed many Changed Ones. With Viktor dead, they were no longer a threat and could be reunited with their families. It had been sad work, but our palace mages had found the dead bodies of the Changed Ones that Viktor had killed in testing out his army. Over the past weeks, we’d held mourning ceremonies for all those lost. It had been a hard month for my Caster people.

  But that was over now and a coronation
was about to begin. I wore my formal Caster gown, which was little more than a band of leather that covered my chest, hips and waist. I’d paired it with a hooded black cloak to celebrate my Necromancer rule as well. Rowan had done the same. He wore his leather trousers and nothing to cover his chest, paired with another black cloak to match mine. We were going to become Genesis Rex and Regina, Tsarina and Tsar.

  Or we would do so once our guests of honor arrived: Mlinzi and Walinzi were expected at any moment.

  In the meantime, everyone else seemed to already be here. Kade, Amelia, and Jicho were in the crowd, along with Nan, Mrefu, and a good number of the Zaidi. Even Amelia’s brother Philippe and his new wife had journeyed in for the occasion. Philippe was now married to none other than Veronique, another woman with Necromancer power who’d been imprisoned with me in the Midnight Cloister. I could never imagine that girl being happy, but Veronique positively beamed with joy as she walked about at Philippe’s side. Another young survivor from the Midnight Cloister, the six-year-old Ada, trailed along with them as well. Ada was now their adopted daughter. Somewhere during the last few months, Philippe and Veronique had resolved their differences, eloped, and adopted a child. One of these days, I’d have to corner them and get the full tale.

  Behind us, a gateway flared with orange light as Mlinzi and Walinzi burst onto the scene. As always, the ground shook as they landed beside us.

  “You’re late,” I said to Walinzi.

  She gave me a sly grin. “Just because we’ve decided to permanently live in your world, it doesn’t make you the rulers of me and my brother. We answer to no one.”

  “Kill,” said Mlinzi. These days, that was his stock answer to everything. Walinzi said it was nothing to worry over, so I tried to ignore it.

  Rowan turned to me. “Are you ready to start us off?”

  “Mostly.” I’d been successfully avoiding public speaking. Now that I was ascending my thrones, that time was over.

  “You’ll dazzle them, I know it.”

  Rowan raised his arms and the meadow fell quiet. Every set of eyes seemed trained on me. He lowered his arms again; this was my signal to start.

  I cleared my throat. Now, I could use magick to enhance the sound of my voice, but Rowan and I planned a major casting for today, and I needed all my power for that spell. Instead, I simply spoke as loudly as I could. “My people, Necromancers and Casters! Today, Rowan and I stand before you t as your Genesis Rex and Regina, your Tsarina and Tsar. Normally, this coronation would involve hours of ceremony, rites, and speeches, but I know my Caster subjects wouldn’t appreciate that.” Some of the Caster folks cheered at this.

  As we’d planned, Rowan then continued the speech. “However, this morning is about a new era and doing things differently. Elea and I wield new hybrid powers now, and that means change. The old ways must be ended. Never again will someone need to sacrifice themselves with the Martyr’s Comet. Elea and I have another way to keep our world safe.”

  It was my turn to speak again. “Plus, we know how our people enjoy a nice display of magick.” The Casters cheered once more. I was fairly certain some of them had already started celebrating, even though it was fairly early in the morning. “So without further ado, we invite you to witness the launch of our new regime.” I looked over to Rowan. “Ready?”

  “Absolutely.” In this moment, all the love in the world seemed to shine in his eye. I couldn’t imagine a better way to start our new ceremony and life together.

  Moving in unison, Rowan and I knelt down and set our palms flush against the ground. We’d spent days sharing energy and hybrid power. Now, both of us were ready to cast the mother of all spells. As we’d learned, all we had to do was ask our hybrid power for help.

  “We’re ready to begin,” I said.

  “Free these worlds,” added Rowan.

  Instantly, cords of violet power wound down our arms and burrowed their way into the earth. The hybrid magick had begun its work. Seconds later, purple ropes of light and power burst up again from the ground, winding themselves around the gateways closest to Rowan and me. After that, the cords moved on to the next archways, and the next. Soon, every arch on the Meadow of Many Gateways was buried under tangled layers of light, ropes, and magick. It was a beautiful sight.

  Closing my eyes, I gave the hybrid power one final command. “Now.”

  A series of deafening booms sounded as one after the other, the gateways burst into rubble. The crowd toasted, cheered, and sang. Some children began crawling up the tails of Walinzi and Mlinzi, who then proceeded to give monkey-back rides to anyone who asked, so long as they were children. The adults were invited on their backs only to be summarily dumped off again by “accident.” These were trickster gods, after all. No one truly expected them to change.

  And so, the festival of our coronation had begun.

  Now that the gateways were gone, I stood once more, as did Rowan. I looped my arms about his waist and leaned into his chest, simply because I could.

  “You know something?” I asked.

  “Tell me.”

  “This may actually be the greatest festival of all time.”

  “Indeed.” Rowan gave me one of his most beautiful grins, the one where his dimples popped out. “Well, now that you’re queen, you need to join in the fun. Are you ready, my mate?”

  And in that moment I did feel ready, but in more ways than one. Sure, I was about to join a party. More importantly, I was truly ready to embrace a future with my mate. And like our bond, I trusted in that completely.

  The End

  Also from Christina Bauer:

  The Paranormal Romance Best Seller, Angelbound

  Also From Christina Bauer:

  A New Shifter Romance, The Fairy Tales of the Magicorum Series

  Also From Christina Bauer:

  The Snarky Dystopian Series, Dimension Drift

  Also From Monster House Books,

  The Urban Fantasy Romance Series, Circuit Fae

  Christina Bauer thinks that fantasy books are like bacon: they just make life better. All of which is why she writes romance novels that feature demons, dragons, wizards, witches, elves, elementals, and a bunch of random stuff that she brainstorms while riding the Boston T. Oh, and she includes lots of humor and kick-ass chicks, too. Christina lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.

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