“I don’t want to fight you,” Aiden said. “Call this off. Leave us be.”
Gage shook his head, his eyes never leaving Aiden’s face. “I can’t do that, Aid. It’s too late. You chose your side, and it’s the wrong one. Too much harm is being done. If you think I won’t fight back, you’re wrong.”
Marley’s heart broke when Aiden leaped at Gage and he sidestepped. Maybe he would fight back, but he really didn’t want to. He still hoped he could get through to his brother somehow. Aiden used his momentum to swing around and plow into Gage’s side, taking him to the ground. Dirt and grass flew into the air, evidence that Aiden, at least, was trying to use the flux against Gage. Marley didn’t think Gage would even be tempted to use the power Riley had given him. He was saving it for something bigger, but he also didn’t want to hurt his brother. Under the goddess’s influence, Aiden might not have the same restraint.
Marley had to stop this. She twisted her arm out of Cressida’s grip, the movement turning the other woman to face her. Her hand itched for the syringe in her boot. “This isn’t about them. It’s about you and me. So let’s have at it.”
Cressida rolled her eyes. “If you insist.”
They lunged at each other in unison, locking hands around biceps and leaning into each other like wrestlers. Marley didn’t have any power, but despite the encroaching insanity, she still had strength and control on her side. Cressida dragged and shoved but didn’t budge Marley more than a few inches in any direction.
What was she doing? She had all the power of the sun at her disposal, and she was wrestling? Cressida knocked Marley back and followed the push with a wave of energy. Marley held her breath, steeling herself for the combination of pleasure and pain. She would weather this and anything else Cressida gave her.
But it didn’t happen that way. When the energy sank into Marley, her vision tinted green again, and her muscles tingled and tightened, but it didn’t hurt like the nullifications had. And it definitely didn’t have the strength of the pulses in the bistro or even the strikes she’d given Marley in New York. Cressida swung both arms to one side, then swept them up and out like a wave. Marley leaned into it, and the same thing happened.
And then she understood. Hope flared, bright and clean, almost clearing the haze. Cressida had loaded her team with so much flux she’d depleted herself. Maybe not enough to have a significant impact on her mental condition but enough to weaken her.
They could win this. And maybe do it without anyone dying.
Marley stopped playing defense and charged the goddess, yelling like they taught in her self-defense classes. It seemed the right thing to do. But she’d miscalculated. Cressida might be weaker, but she wasn’t helpless. Instead of sending another useless wave of energy at her, she followed Brad’s lead and used it to rip out a couple of seats from the front row. They tumbled through the air at Marley. One only grazed across her thigh, but the other came at her head. She managed to catch it with her hands, but the momentum took her to the ground and the impact knocked the air out of her lungs. Dry grass poked through her shirt into her skin, making it itch and burn until a conflagration roared around her. Unreal. Ignore it.
Chris must have been partially trapped under the seats until Cressida ripped them out because he followed them, leaping over the rail and landing twelve feet below. Riley was ready for him. She sent one of the seats back at him, pinning him to the wall. But her distraction left Sam vulnerable. Tony, recovered, stuck out his foot and tripped Sam. Marley could almost feel the ground shake when he fell. His head bounced off the ground, and he lay still.
On the other side of the field Nick was on his knees, Brad’s arm around his neck, the flux enhancing him enough to do what he normally would never have the strength for—suffocate Nick. Marley thought of Quinn in New York, with no clue what was happening here. She could not go back and tell her sister that Marley had let her husband die.
But the fight was on too many fronts. Whichever way Marley went would leave the others vulnerable, and Cressida could join the attacks on any one of them at any time.
But she didn’t attack anyone. She tilted her head back in a melodious cry, flung out her arms, and rose into the freaking air.
Wind swirled as it had by the bistro, and she hovered a foot off the ground. Real or illusion, Marley couldn’t tell. Cressida’s voice reverberated around the stadium, the steel and concrete and plastic becoming her loudspeaker.
“Honor me, my sons. Claim your tributes. Thrive on the souls of your enemies. Together we shall be powerful enough to rule all.”
Marley struggled to her feet. “You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me.” But the guys ate it up. Aiden, who hadn’t seemed to be putting much effort into his attack on Gage, fought more vigorously. Gage couldn’t simply deflect and avoid anymore. He swung a fist into Aiden’s ribs, his expression more pained than Aiden’s gasp.
Cressida cackled and glared down at Marley. “I warned you. I tried to help you. You defied me, betrayed me, and now you’ll pay.” She pointed but not at Marley. Several feet away, Riley screamed and crumpled.
“No!” Marley clenched her fists. No. She would not react like Lahr wanted her to. The goddess wanted to go after Marley’s team? Fine.
She dashed across the grass, putting all her concentration into her speed. Tony was closest. He stood next to Sam, kicking him even though he was clearly unconscious. The guy didn’t see Marley coming until the last second. She had only one chance. She jumped, getting a couple of feet into the air, and was right on target. Tony’s eyes widened when he realized what was about to happen, but he couldn’t get away. Marley hit him, taking no chances. Cheek to cheek, hand to hand, hand to throat.
The flux screamed into her so fast it was like her body had sucked it in. Tony grunted and fell, taking Marley with him. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her body was paralyzed, shocked by the enormity of the flux she’d altered. Every cell burned as if it had been plunged into boiling water.
She shuddered, fighting to take in air. The intensity faded, leaving her limp.
Get up. You’re not done.
She rolled to her side and glanced at Tony. He was unconscious now. Sam was awake, too alert for the head injury he should have had, so Marley knew he’d been faking. He spotted Riley and rage took over his expression, but he didn’t go to her. Instead he took the zippered case out of the back of his jeans and opened it. After a few seconds of frantic fiddling, he raised a copper tube to his mouth and blew.
A tiny dart flew through the air toward the goddess. Marley watched in despair as the wind took it far off course, missing Cressida by so much the goddess didn’t even notice it. Maybe Sam did have a head injury, after all.
Christopher was next closest to Marley. When Riley went down, he was free, though he seemed uncertain what to do next and Nick needed her help more in that moment.
Sam was with Riley now, checking her pulse, and Chris headed their way but warily. He obviously hadn’t expected the fight to be so even. Marley got to her feet and ran toward Nick. Brad didn’t see her coming he was so intent on choking the life out of her brother-in-law. Nick had at least gotten a hand up around Brad’s forearm, and while he didn’t have the leverage to pull it away, he’d gotten a little air. His color wasn’t so red-verging-on-purple.
As Marley ran, Nick heaved himself to his feet and used Brad’s weight to pull them both backward until they hit one of the curtained frames. It fell, and they landed on top of it. When Brad lost his grip Marley was there. She didn’t go easy on him. She closed her hand over Brad’s face and squeezed, almost enjoying the cool rush of the flux this time.
Nick sprawled awkwardly across the metal tubes with one hand at his throat. Marley bent to him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, wheezing, and curled his body to try to get up. Marley helped him to his feet. He stared across the stadium. “Son of a bitch.” His voice rasped. “Sam missed.” He fumbled at his back pocket, where Marley assumed he had the
second dart.
“Don’t bother. The wind took the first one. You’ll never be able to compensate for it.” She yanked up her jeans and reached into her boot for the syringe. “Plan B.”
Nick coughed and braced his hands on his knees, still laboring to breathe. He gestured at Cressida, who appeared to be lost in the funnel of air around her, her eyes almost closed. She didn’t seem to have noticed that Marley was up on the scoreboard, with Brad and Tony taken care of.
But maybe her threat at the bistro had been all rage and bravado. Maybe she wanted all of this to be over as much as Marley did. She’d just been fighting for so long, she wasn’t capable of surrendering.
“I’ll get her.”
“Wait!”
She ignored Nick’s rasp and ran across the field. She hesitated when she passed Gage, struggling with Aiden in a slow-motion fistfight, but there was no time. She had to tackle Cressida while she wasn’t paying attention.
The wind buffeted her as she closed in, plastering her shirt to her body and raising her hair straight up in the air. But the gale was only as strong as it had been at the bistro, and it wasn’t going to stop her.
Nothing was.
…
This was the most ridiculous fight Gage had ever been in. Not that he’d been in many. Most had been with his brother and had been fiercer than this one was so far, probably because they’d actually wanted to hurt each other back then. The main difference, though, was the magic.
Riley hadn’t given him much. Just a taste, she’d said, only enough to make him strong enough to leech Cressida. Still, it stirred in him constantly, a frantic energy eager to be used. He struggled to keep himself from using it against Aiden. It would be so easy to form a shield or bind his brother. Except Aiden was holding back, too. He pummeled Gage with bursts of energy and with his fists, and used the power to bring whatever loose objects were at hand into the battle, but he didn’t do anything that caused any damage. That told Gage at least part of Aiden didn’t want to be here doing this.
Gage let him land a few punches, mostly defending, but when Aiden let down his guard, Gage hit him just hard enough to remind him of the stakes.
“Look around,” Gage half pleaded, half ordered. He gripped Aiden’s shoulder. “Your team is losing. If you kill any of us, you’ve ruined your life. If you kill me…” He left the rest unsaid, holding Aiden’s uncertain gaze for long seconds.
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” Aiden said. Gage almost let himself be relieved, but suspicion halted it right before Aiden continued. “It’s not murder. It’s self-defense.”
“Against what?” He let go of his brother and lifted his hands in the air. “How could you possibly make a case for self-defense? You weren’t invited here—you just showed up. Your guy made the first move, the first attack on Marley and then on Nick.”
“Preemptive moves. You all want Cressida dead.”
“That’s the last thing we want.” Rage that had been buried so deep Gage hadn’t even been aware of it exploded into him. “We’ve done everything possible to protect people, including you. Including her. You have no idea the sacrifices people are making. You asshole!” He swung. Aiden’s cheekbone crunched under the blow, and Gage’s knuckles split open. He didn’t care. When Aiden fell back, Gage followed. Blood spurted from Aiden’s nose at the next punch. The one after that crushed his lip. Aiden couldn’t block the hits or get leverage to make any himself, and an instant later, Gage was shoved up and back without being touched. He shifted to launch himself back at his brother, and then he saw Marley and froze.
Cressida was hovering a few feet off the ground, pieces of grass and other tiny bits of debris swirling around her. Marley propped the busted seats against the wall and climbed up onto the rails in front of the seating area. She held the rail, leaned out, crouched, and leaped.
The instant she touched Cressida, the wind stopped. They crumpled to the ground in a heap.
“Marley!” Gage ran across the grass, but his legs were heavy and the distance stretched ahead of him. A nightmare made real.
Gage heard his brother running behind him, but Nick beat them both there. He slid to a stop on his knees, thrust the needle in his hand into Cressida’s neck, and pushed the plunger.
“Nooooo!” Aiden screamed. He plowed into Gage and tumbled to the ground next to her. “You’ve—”
“Sedated her,” Nick growled. “So we can put an end to this once and for all.”
Gage stood helplessly by as Sam helped Marley to her feet. The fall hadn’t been that far, but she still could have broken an ankle. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” She circled the group, approaching Christopher. He stood over Aiden and Lahr, not even noticing when Marley laid a gentle hand on his arm. Then he shuddered and looked at her, his face almost expressionless.
“You’ve got to do this now,” Nick said to Gage. He held up the syringe. “She’s too powerful for this to work very long.”
“I know.” But Gage moved away to intercept Marley. Her eyes weren’t the same aged-newspaper yellow as the other day. Now they were a dull gold, almost brackish. Her movements were slow, heavy, like she could barely move her legs. She went straight for Aiden but only took a few steps before her legs buckled. Gage caught her under the arms, before her head hit the concrete. “Marley.”
She twisted her head and blinked up at him. Her eyes were glazed. She had to grab his shirt to keep herself steady. “I have to get Aiden,” she whispered.
“I know.” His voice cracked. He didn’t want to let her, but even though Aiden was his brother, he knew they couldn’t trust him with so much power. But a second later, her body went limp. Her head lolled against his shoulder. He called frantically to Nick, unable to check her pulse.
Nick hurried over and lifted her into his arms. “She’s breathing,” he said. “Finish it.”
Gage couldn’t stand watching her being carried away. A deep breath steadied him, and he turned, brought up short by his brother, held immobile by Sam. Tears streaked Aiden’s face.
“This is wrong,” Aiden cried out. “You can’t do this to her!”
“What do you think we’re going to do?” Gage couldn’t dredge up any emotion. He was so tired.
“You just told me you were trying to keep people from being killed. How can you—”
“For God’s sake, I’m not going to kill her!” Okay, maybe a little emotion. “I’m going to leech her!” The words rang out, too loud.
Aiden stopped struggling. “What do you mean, leech her?”
“I mean I’m going to drain her of all of the energy she’s stored. If I can get it all, it will damage her vessel enough that she can’t absorb any more.”
Aiden drew in a short, startled breath. “It’s a cure?”
Gage lifted a shoulder. “Depends on how you look at it.”
His brother looked down at Cressida. She wasn’t completely unconscious, but she clearly had little control. Her eyelids lazed half-open, and her movements were minimal and aimless.
Aiden turned back to his brother, his expression clearer, more shrewd. “You keep telling me flux is dangerous.” He looked at where Nick held a still-unconscious Marley. “What is this going to do to you?”
Surprised that he’d asked, Gage didn’t take the time to answer. He just bent over Cressida.
“Can you hear me?” he murmured near her ear. She nodded. “I’m going to leech you, Cress.” It seemed smart to use her nickname. How much more personal could you get than what he was about to do? “Do you understand what that means?”
She nodded again. Her hand rested on his arm, and her eyes opened slightly wider. Her gaze bore into his, weaker than he’d seen before but lucid enough to convince him she understood.
He closed his eyes and rested his hand on Cressida’s abdomen. Then he tuned in to the energy inside him, getting a feel for it. Its properties, its strength. It was shiny and hard even while fluid, flexible yet strong enough to hold up a building. Like
the metal that was Riley’s source. He held on and reached outward, imagining part of him traveling into Cressida, seeking her energy.
It walloped him upside the head like looking suddenly into glaring sunlight. He actually flung his free hand in front of his face, even though the sensation was wholly nonphysical. But it was right there, so much of it, so easy to touch. To take. Gage drew on it like sucking through a straw, just as Quinn had explained to him. At first it flowed without resistance, gold and light, filling him. Elation rose and popped and rose again.
Gage tried to direct the energy down into his body to make room for more. He drew harder when the light dimmed, the energy thickening. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he leaned forward to place his other hand on the goddess. “Don’t lose the connection,” Quinn had said. “It might not be possible to get it back.”
Now the energy was sludge, heavy and slow. It glopped and settled inside him. He felt sick, and a headache started to pound in his temples. The gold darkened further, and Gage could sense that it grew black the deeper he went, toxic. He hesitated, knowing instinctively that it would burn, and worse. The stream slowed, reversed. He almost let it.
But then he thought of Marley, who still had to nullify Aiden. He couldn’t let this all be in vain. He grabbed on and drew harder, hauling back. His lips drew back from his teeth and he vaguely heard a keening growl that came from his own throat.
Then something shifted. The energy split, some pouring faster into Gage, the rest going—out, into someone else. It had to be Aiden, the only other one capable of doing this.
His brother hadn’t abandoned him. Gage focused. The blackness reached him, and hell, yeah, it burned. The heat of the sun scorched him all the way through, even before the toxic energy was internalized. He screamed, grit his teeth, and pulled harder. He sensed Aiden doing the same next to him. The last bit parted and slid inside them both with a whip-crack that Gage thought might have severed his spine. His body convulsed, muscles cramping, and he clenched his jaw to keep the screaming under control. Except he could hear it anyway, feel it in the rawness of his throat.
Sunroper (Goddesses Rising) Page 30