by Riley Storm
“I do not answer to you!” the Magi snapped, gesturing with one hand to his left. Then to his right.
Twin rents appeared in the air, and creatures began to pour through them. They came in all shapes and sizes. Centaurs, Minotaurs, elven creatures and squat, ugly lizard men. Flying pixies and satyrs. She recognized them all from her dreams.
“The Fae,” Khove whispered from behind her.
The Fae. Faeries. Beings of immense power in their own realms, brought forth here to do Korred’s bidding. Amber feared for Kasperi’s life as the Throne Room filled with all manner of magical beings.
“Send them back to the dungeons,” Korred ordered. “If they resist, kill them.”
The assembled army flowed forward silently. It was an eerie sight, sending goose bumps rippling across her skin. The shifters stayed still, until the oncoming horde was less than ten feet from them.
Then someone roared, and the mass of shifters raced forward. Bears lowered their shoulders, moving to the front like battering rams. Smaller Fae were thrown backward, one of the tiny lizard-like creatures landing at her foot. She thought it dead, but it almost immediately jumped back up and raced down the stairs, back toward the fight.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Amber whipped around to see Korred squaring off with Khove, who had been attempting to free the Queen. “She is mine.”
The two of them stared at one another, the rest of the room forgotten. Including Amber. She sat there, the image of perfect and pretty, her collar secured firmly around her neck. The same collar that the Magi had ripped from her pocket and placed around her neck without inspecting it, full of his own insane confidence.
He’d failed to notice the line she’d cut through the runes on the side with Kasperi’s sword. The only thing that had been keeping Amber’s powers in check this entire time, had been Amber.
She couldn’t hope to defeat him, certainly not one on one. She just didn’t have the strength for that. Even if her magic was stronger, which she doubted, if he got so close as to touch her, she was done for. The man was old, but he was still a shifter.
So Amber didn’t try to defeat him in a fair fight. She cheated.
With a shriek, she unleashed a wild blast of power at the Magi. The gust of wind picked him up and flung him across the Throne Room into the pile of Fae, where he was promptly buried under a wave of them as they charged the line of shifters.
“Amber?” Khove asked as she stood up and ripped the collar off, twisting it in half and breaking it.
“Go help them!” she shouted, pulling magic around her right hand, remembering what Kasperi had done to her.
“What about the Queen?” Khove asked, looking at his liege with angst.
“She’s about to have a hell of a headache,” Amber apologized, and without any more warning, punched the woman right in the face. The magically-enhanced blow rocketed her back in the seat, bouncing her skull off the rear of the stone chair.
Almost immediately, the Queen blinked and awareness returned to her eyes. “Nice punch,” she growled in approval.
“What do we do now?” Amber asked, surveying the battlefield before them.
The shifters were putting up a valiant fight, but the Fae were stronger, faster, and harder to kill. She could see that despite the efforts of Kvoss and Kasperi, both of whom were carving a field of dead around them, they were losing.
“Now I do my part,” Kaelyn said, moving to her throne and pulling up the armrest to reveal a panel of electronics set into the stone framework. She punched one and bent over the chair. “To all members of House Ursa currently in Ursidae Manor. The Magi has betrayed us. He has betrayed you. A battle for our very existence rages in the Throne Room. Join us, and fight.”
The Queen finished speaking and stood up, turning to face Amber. “Time to get our hands dirty,” she said, and with a roar, she charged down the stairs, clothes shredding as her body morphed and shifted into a sleek brown bear that bulldozed its way through half a dozen Fae before even slowing.
In the Grand Hallway, Amber saw movement as the first shifters to respond to the Queen’s call came charging down it. Some had grabbed weapons, some were half dressed. They came in all states, men, teens, even a few of the rare female shifters. The reinforcements poured into the battle, shoring up weak spots, vaulting the lines and crushing the Fae underneath.
The magical creatures struck back, and shifters died. She saw one fierce youngster pierced by the horns on a minotaur’s head and flung across the room. Elsewhere, a black-clad guardsman was swarmed by lizard men who hacked him apart limb from limb. Blood ran freely across the Throne Room, the red of the shifters mixing with the purple of the Fae.
Amber stood frozen for the longest time. She’d never done battle before. Her senses were overwhelmed, her mind locking up, unable to comprehend the sheer destruction in front of her.
Something shook the floor behind her. She spun to see a giant troll coming at her, nearly ten feet tall and eyes of deepest black. It swung a spiked fist at her. She yelped and fell backward, out of the way.
Getting to her feet, Amber shook her head. “That wasn’t very nice of you,” she said icily, calling upon the power within her. “That wasn’t very nice at all.”
Her arms glowed as red bands of magic circled them. Amber didn’t want a shield. She wasn’t on the defensive. Not this time. No more holding back. No more restraint. Now she needed to attack.
With a banshee-like howl, she ran forward, ducking under another slow but deadly strike, and swung her arm at the troll’s leg as she slipped by. A red blade blazed forth from her closed fist, brighter, stronger and more powerful than any she’d called before.
It cut straight through the leg without slowing. The troll fell over with a shriek. More magic filled her body, and she could feel her hair lifted by the power, spreading out like a fan behind her as she strolled down the stairs, hacking and slashing with both hands, destroying Fae as she went.
Amber smiled. Korred had been right. This was true power.
40
His first warning came in the form of a green spear flashing out of the mass of bodies right at his face. Kasperi didn’t flinch, whipping one of his blades up into a blocking position and deflecting the magic.
Someone shouted something unintelligible, and fire splashed across the ground, clearing a path between him and his adversary as shifters and Fae alike jumped to get out of the way. Kasperi slashed one of his swords, stopping it from touching him. It felt good to have the weight of his weapons back in his hands. He’d felt naked without them.
Now though, he faced off with Korred once more. The Magi stood unmoving, twenty feet away, surrounded by a mass of dead, as did Kasperi.
“This ends now!” he shouted at the traitor, leveling a blade. “Call them off, and I may still let you live.”
Korred threw his head back and laughed, a high-pitched breaking sound. The man was clearly insane. He’d lost it. This was probably no more than a video game in his head, Kasperi realized. The man didn’t care about loss of life. All he cared about was power.
Magic flew at him as Korred went on the offensive. Streams of red, green, even deadly blue energy slashed out at him. There was no form to the magic, the Magi simply relying on brute strength to overpower Kasperi. Each attack slammed home like the right hand of Thor, but Kasperi’s defenses held. He stood, legs braced, surrounded by a nimbus of green, as magic crashed against it, light flaring up at every point of impact.
“You can’t win!” Korred howled, stabbing a hand forward again, launching another attack. “I’m too strong. You are too weak.”
Kasperi smiled, and then took a step forward. And another, the attacks still impacting upon his shield like a fireworks show, each one taking a physical toll on his body as he held his shield firm. Yet Kasperi didn’t stop. One step, then another, like fighting against hurricane strength winds, but he continued to advance.
“How is this possible?!” Korred shrieked
, and thrust both hands at Kasperi.
Twin streams of azure magic came at him, splitting into a dozen heads apiece before crashing home against his shield.
Kasperi staggered, and the shield disappeared. He willed it back into being, thrusting one sword up into the air, just in time to stop the next strike. The barrier was now a foot above his head, instead of a body-length away, and shrinking rapidly. He couldn’t hold him off forever.
Bellowing his defiance, he thrust his other sword upward, pushing energy through both of them, trying to hold off the demented old mage. Off to the side, he saw Amber look over, realize what was happening and try to come to his aid. She was too far, and dozens of Fae still blocked her path.
Korred came closer, magic thundering against the barrier, deafening Kasperi, the impacts exploding with light, hurting his eyes. He kept letting magic flow through his swords, hoping against hope someone could get to him in time.
Then the unthinkable happened. His first sword cracked. Then the other groaned, and a heartbeat later shattered into a hundred pieces. The explosion slammed Kasperi to the floor, where he lay on his side, watching his other sword split and topple over.
“So reliant on your tools,” Korred sneered. “You’ll never understood the true meaning of magic.”
He raised a hand, and blue magic slithered forward, stabbing down toward Kasperi’s heart.
Thrusting a hand into the air, Kasperi called upon the magic, begging it to work. Willing it to appear. Ordering it to protect him.
A circular shield the color of the sky spun into existence, catching Korred’s strike and deflecting it before falling apart.
“That’s not possible!” the Magi gasped, trying again.
But he was too late. He’d run out of time. Kvoss slid in from the side, thrusting his pink plastic horse high into the air. A green dome covered them both, easily shunting aside the blow.
“Fine. The two of you will die together then,” Korred snarled, thrusting his hands up at the ceiling, intending to bring it down upon them.
“Maybe,” Kasperi said. “But that’s the difference between us. You will die alone.”
And he flung himself flat as Amber howled her terrible scream and unleashed her darkness. It exploded out from her like a shadowy bat wrought through with ochre veins before plunging into Korred’s torso like a spear.
The magi shrieked in pain, tearing his vocal chords apart. Kasperi clamped both hands over his ears but it made no difference. The dark magic surged into him as it left Amber. His frail body shook, unable to handle the spell.
Then he thrust his hands skyward and the magic exploded from him, a giant fireball surging upward as it impacted upon the roof.
Kasperi and Kvoss were already moving, shouting for everyone to evacuate. Chunks of steel and stone tumbled downward, fire quickly eating up the ancient tapestries as it surged across the roof and down to the floor.
He ran forward and snatched up the barely-conscious Amber, risking a glance behind him as he fled with the rest of the shifters into the Grand Hallway. He was just in time to see Korred throw up an arm before he was buried under a thunderous crash as the roof fell on him.
Almost immediately after that, the Fae snapped out of existence, their link to the material world severed with Korred’s death.
Dozens of shifters thundered down the hallway and out the main entry into the chill winter. It was dusk, he saw, and only then realized he’d been inside so much he hadn’t even known what time it was.
A smaller brown bear came up to him and shivered, before it shifted back into the form of his Queen.
“Kasperi,” she said, the nudity not bothering her.
Modesty was a terrible trait to have as a shifter, and as the Queen of House Ursa, Kaelyn was above acting like that.
“My Queen.”
In his arms, Amber stirred awake. “Did we win?” she asked, putting a hand to her head. “Ooooh, that hurts.”
“We did,” the Queen said, coming closer. “Thanks to you, and your mate. We won. In addition, it appears you have helped us finally expose the traitor that has so long plagued our ranks.”
“So many died in there though,” Amber said, recovering some of her strength. “So many brave shifters.”
“We lost heavily this day, yes. But now we are united at long last. That will make us stronger than before,” the Queen said fiercely. “We will mourn, but we will mourn as one.”
“I don’t understand something,” Kasperi said somberly, holding Amber tight as she snuggled into the crook of his neck, giving him a gentle kiss. His lips twitched into a brief smile as he glanced down at her before continuing. “Why did he do this? Why now? He screwed up and exposed himself.”
The Queen looked puzzled; she had no reply.
“He didn’t screw up,” Amber said. “Not really. His mistake was putting too much faith in my ability to kill you while under his spell. If I’d succeeded, then things would have been much different. Kasperi wouldn’t be dead, I’d still be under his spell, and Kvoss wouldn’t have acted against him. He could have secured his spot. Only luck meant he failed.”
“It wasn’t luck,” Kasperi said, “it was something else.”
“What?”
“Love. I love you too much to let you kill me so quickly. You’re going to have to do it slowly and painfully over the next few decades.”
Amber laughed, and he laughed alongside her. Eventually, the Queen joined in the morbid humor, even as around them their friends and comrades helped the wounded, setting bones, holding closed wounds, and supporting those who had lost loved ones.
“Did Kvoss make it out?” he asked suddenly, looking around.
A shape emerged from the doors, the smoke swirling around him.
“Fire’s out,” Kvoss called. “Once we clear the smoke, it’ll be okay to enter.”
Several black soldiers of the House came out after him, carrying more wounded and dead.
“I can help with the smoke,” Kasperi said, moving to let go of Amber. “I think I can manage the magic to do that.”
Amber just clung tighter. “I can help too,” she said. “I’m not letting you go on your own. Not now that I just got you back.”
Kasperi looked helplessly at his Queen, who just chuckled and laughed at him.
“Kasperi?” Amber said.
“Yes, darling?” he said, giving Kaelyn a friendly glare at her lack of help.
“Stop staring at the beautiful naked woman,” Amber said playfully, but with an undertone of seriousness.
“Yes, dear.”
41
“Hey, gentle there,” she admonished playfully as Kasperi dumped her on the bed post-shower.
“Oh, now you’re made of glass,” he teased, falling into the covers next to her, not bothering to pull them back.
“You should always treat me like that, except when I don’t want to be treated like that.”
Kasperi’s head rose just enough for her to see his face scrunched up, both eyebrows lifted into the wrinkles of his forehead. Then he coughed. “Right.”
She laughed and wearily snuggled into him. “Are we actually done this time?”
His reply was muffled, but affirmative, and Amber sighed heavily in relief. “I’m exhausted.”
“Same.”
“Stop speaking into the sheets,” she said, giving his bare behind a fun slap. “You’re going to drool all over them.”
“I do not drool!” Kasperi protested, flipping up onto his side.
“Tell that to your pillowcase in the middle of the night,” she fired back without hesitating.
Kasperi gaped at her silently for a moment. “Rude. You’re lucky I love you.”
Amber shivered, snuggling closer to him. “I am lucky,” she whispered, feeling immediately warmer as his skin pressed to hers. “Very lucky.”
Her mate leaned in and kissed her forehead gently, fingertips dancing playfully across her collarbone, touching nothing but bare, empty skin. Amber hadn’
t been adamant when she said she wouldn’t ever wear the collar again.
Something had changed when Korred had taken over her mind, and then when she’d attacked him with her magic. Her control had increased, the fear of her magic dissipating as she realized she wasn’t at its mercy and it no longer haunted her dreams. The collar was still close by her at all times, of course. She wasn’t stupid, and the rest of the House wasn’t quite willing to let her wander around without it just yet, but it was never on her. Just in her possession.
Together, they’d helped the rest of the House dig out from the fire and explosion. The funerals had been first, and she’d discovered that shifters didn’t mourn their dead like humans. The funerals were much happier things, celebrations of life. Lots of alcohol, and very few somber moments. Once the last of those had passed—there had been too many, even for the normally jovial shifters—they had worked on the repairs to the House.
It still amazed Amber how strong and durable shifters were. The speed with which they had cleaned up the wrecked Throne Room was unbelievable. Each of them worked with the strength and endurance of ten human men, which translated to remarkable amounts of work being done every hour.
Now that the worst of it was done, they could finally relax, take a long, cleansing shower together, and now get some sleep. Amber snuggled in closer, trying to picture herself being anywhere else at this moment.
“Amber?” Kasperi looked down at her sharply as she jolted in sudden realization. “Are you okay?”
“Okay?” she asked dreamily, looking up into his face. He looks better with a bit of stubble instead of clean shaven. “I’m better than okay, Perri. I’m in love.”
“In love?” he asked, starting to sit up.
She grabbed him swiftly and pulled him back down. “Yes. In love. I’m in love with you.”
It was the first time she’d said it back to him, and watching the shocked reaction play slowly across his face was one of the most satisfying moments of her life. Amber was well aware he’d been wondering if she would say it back anytime soon, and he’d deliberately not over-used the phrase for her benefit.