by Kristie Cook
A storm of emotions battered at me—relief about Owen, confusion with all of the unanswered questions, anger at his means to reach this end, and so much more, but . . .
“Owen,” I said as I looked back at the lawn in front of the abbey, where Kali stood as though waiting for her betrayer to finish, as if indulging Owen. Her soldiers also stood perfectly still but on high alert. “She’s in Rina’s body now. We can’t . . . ”
“Martin didn’t die. He’s back at that building in Virginia,” he said with renewed urgency. He flipped his hand to the redheaded witch behind us. “Neither did she. Rina won’t die. She’ll—”
“You want us to attack the matriarch?” Tristan asked. “Hurt her?”
“Just enough—”
“Owen,” Vanessa said as she closed her hand around his arm. “I’ve been defending you from the beginning, but this doesn’t help your case, dumbass.”
“Do you have any better ideas?” he demanded. His blue eyes flitted over all of us, but nobody could answer.
What were we to do? Could we trust him, or was this another of his tricks while he still worked with Kali?
“We can’t let her stay in Rina’s body,” I murmured.
“She’s already so weak,” Mom said, her voice full of worry.
As though she’d been listening and had grown bored of indulging us and our debates on how to kill her, Kali called out in Rina’s voice, “Come out, Dorian. You are safe now, darling. Your mother and father are here. So is your grandmother. You can come out.”
A creaking sound, like an old metal or iron door swinging on rusty hinges, came from the abbey’s darkest shadows. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed simultaneously, lighting up Dorian’s figure as he stepped forward.
Dorian, no! I yelled into his mind. That’s not Rina. It’s a trick. Stay away from her!
And without further thought, I flashed to him.
“I warned you,” Kali said over another loud clap of thunder.
One moment of utter peace passed.
Followed by chaos as rapid gunfire shattered the night.
All aimed at Dorian and me.
I shoved my son’s unexpectedly large body back through the door he’d come through and followed him into the tiny, nearly pitch-black room as bullets ricocheted off the old stone walls of the abbey. Screams came from outside. I looked around us, and then up, where I found the only other way out of this room.
“It’s a tower, but no stairs,” Dorian murmured, then he wrapped an arm that was too big to belong to my little boy around me and flew us to a window ledge at the top. Tristan must have seen us, because he appeared in front of us, stopping the bullets in midair and flicking them to the ground.
I peeked around him to see Mom in the center of the abbey’s lawn now, her hands on Rina’s shoulders, shaking her. “Stop! You’re letting her win. You’re letting her hurt your family. Please, Mother!”
Kali gave a quick nod of her head to Noah. He lunged at Mom and wrapped his huge hands around her neck. Winston yelled and blurred toward them, but Kali twitched her hand, and he flew back once again. Mom swung her fists at Noah but she was too small, her arms too short to reach him. She kicked her legs out and struck Noah in the groin, but the kick didn’t faze him. His face contorted with pain as she pushed her Amadis power into him, but she became too weak. Tristan’s hand flew up, and Noah froze. But it was too late. Mom’s body hung limply in his hands, which still held tightly around her neck.
“No!” Rina’s voice screamed in my mind. Probably all of our minds. “Sophia! Noah! Noooo!”
The soldiers stopped firing. Silence filled the air.
“Stay here,” I told Dorian before I flashed to Mom’s side.
Tristan appeared next to me and plowed his fist into the side of Noah’s head, then released his power. Noah dropped Mom as he slumped to the ground. Tristan caught her, and then flashed with her to where Owen still stood with the rest of my team and the Amadis. They’d barely moved by the time I rejoined them. Everything had happened so lightning fast.
“Leave my body,” Rina snarled in our minds. I’d never heard her so angry.
“Not until I kill you once and for all,” Kali’s voice replied. “Soldiers, aim!”
Nothing happened.
Rina’s eyes fell on Noah’s body that lay in a heap on the ground. Her foot swung out from beneath her ball gown and connected with Noah’s stomach.
“No!” Rina cried out.
Noah grunted.
“Soldiers, aim,” Kali ordered again. Noah’s head twitched. All of the soldiers swung around. All of the guns pointed at Rina’s body.
Pain jolted through my head. The same icepick agony of before, and now I knew for certain it came from Kali. Had Rina tried to shove her out? The sorceress was becoming aggravated.
“Leave her alone and come get me,” Charlotte taunted. “It’s me you really want, isn’t it?”
“It was tempting before,” Kali sneered, “but I think I’ll have more fun with Owen. You obviously won’t kill me in this body. You’ll never be able to once I’m in his. But first . . . soldiers, fire!”
The tat-tat-tat of automatic gunfire rattled through the night. Again.
Owen thrust his hands toward Rina. I jumped onto Mom’s body, and Charlotte threw a shield over the both of us. I lifted my head to see several bullets stop in midair all around my grandmother and then fall to the grass below. More bullets missed Rina and her shield, flying across the abbey’s grounds. Rina’s hand jerked, and Kali’s staff shook. A bullet whizzed by Rina’s ear. Owen shoved his hands out harder, but Kali fought against his shield.
“Mum, I need help,” Owen yelled.
“Blossom,” Charlotte called out to the witch. “Hold my shield over here.”
Blossom thrust her hands at Mom and me, her face straining with the power she gave it.
“Disarm them!” Tristan shouted as he blurred in one direction of the circle of soldiers. Vanessa took off in the other direction. A crocodile, a tiger, Solomon, Julia, and the rest of the Amadis followed them, while I remained plastered to Mom.
Winston blurred straight to the sorceress herself, although I didn’t know what he planned to do since she occupied the matriarch’s body. Before he reached them, though, Kali’s staff pointed at him and flames flew out of the blue orb. Fire engulfed him. I clapped my hand over my mouth as he screamed and the fire brought him to his knees. His body writhed on the ground as he tried to smother the flames, but the sorceress continued shooting more at him.
Mom shifted underneath me, and her eyes flew open. Winston’s shouts immediately drew her attention. She pushed me off of her and raised her hand. Water shot out of her palm and across the lawn to her lover’s body, dousing the flames. But Kali wouldn’t relent, and it became a battle between her and Mom. But Mom wasn’t strong enough and would quickly lose.
“Alexis, now! While she’s distracted,” Owen yelled at me.
Not knowing what else to do, I pulled my dagger out and charged for my grandmother. If Owen was right about Kali being at her weakest now, maybe I could slash through her shield and push enough Amadis power into Rina’s body to force Kali’s soul out.
I’d almost reached her when the sorceress banged her staff against the ground. The breath slammed out of me, and all of my power and energy went with it. I crashed to my hands and knees. Kali drew on my power again, and this time she was quickly draining me. Charlotte, Owen, and Blossom slid to their knees, too, while still trying to shield Rina, Mom, and me.
“She’ll grow too strong,” Owen said, his voice croaking as he strained against the sorceress. “You have to hurry!”
He’d barely said the words before he collapsed. His shield over Rina fell. Kali cackled and threw her arms in the air, and all of the gunfire ceased. Her gaze fell on Owen with a gleam in her eye. She moved her staff to point it at him.
“No!” Charlotte yelled, throwing herself in front of her son. “You take me, you bitch!”
“Gladly,” Kali said through Rina’s smile. Lightning shot out of the staff and hit Charlotte. The warlock’s body fell next to Owen’s. “Time to finish this night once and for all.”
“I don’t think so,” Tristan growled, and he paralyzed Rina’s body.
Her form trembled against his power, but not because Kali fought Tristan. Rina fought Kali, trying to push the evil soul out. A ghostly image began to emerge from Rina’s body.
“Alexis, I need your help, darling.” Rina’s voice grew weaker in my mind with each word.
“No!” the sorceress shrieked.
“One . . . chance,” Rina said. “Now!”
The muscles in Rina’s neck strained, and her eyes popped wide open. A combination of pain and effort mixed in the scream that emitted from deep within her. With every ounce of energy I had left, my hands and feet scrambled at the ground until I could push myself to my feet. I staggered and lurched toward my grandmother. The gauzy image of the sorceress grew larger and more whole as Rina pushed the soul out of her body. My arm felt dragged down as though a magnet in the earth pulled my dagger toward its center, but I forced it up. I lifted the blade to waist height and then straight out in front of me. Rina’s hands reached out for me, for my arm, and she helped me lift the dagger higher. Over my head.
The soul released, but Kali’s yells of frustration turned into a shriek of victory as she streaked toward Owen and Charlotte.
“No!” Vanessa threw herself in front of the gray light of the ghostly image.
Blossom’s hands shot out and created some kind of block. The soul’s light slammed into an invisible wall and plopped to the ground with a sickening splat like an egg hitting a rock.
I plunged my dagger downward at it.
Into the swirling light.
An ear-piercing siren screamed through the night, making my toes curl. I slashed and twisted the blade in the gauzy substance until the soul became nothing but a stringy clump wrapped around the tip, and I could barely hold my grip on the dagger. The icepick in my brain dug deeper as Kali continued screaming. I began to sink to my knees, my trembling legs unable to hold me any longer and my head close to exploding. Tristan caught me and held me upright as my shaking hand fumbled inside my jacket for the soul jar. As soon as I freed it, he grabbed the small container and twisted the lid off. I lifted my dagger with Kali’s soul on the end of it and wiped it into the jar as if it were nothing more than extra mayonnaise on a butter knife. Tristan clamped the vessel shut, and it sealed with a hiss.
The world fell silent.
No more sorceress screaming her last moments. No more gunfire tearing apart the night. Even the thunderstorm quieted, as though the sorceress herself had brewed it. Perhaps she had.
Dorian landed next to me and whispered, “Hey, Mom and Dad.”
I tackled him in a hug and peppered kisses all over his face, not quite believing I actually held my son—my baby—again after so long. Without pulling away long enough to study him, I could tell he’d grown quite a bit in the six months since he’d been taken. I wouldn’t worry about that right now, though. I would push away all the negative thoughts for the moment and focus on the boy finally swathed in my arms once again. My Dorian. We had him back. Tristan wrapped his arms around both of us, and my heart swelled at our reunion.
But something about the moment gnawed at me.
Tears and anguish and heartbreak in the distance.
Sobs. Loud, ugly sobs. And not mine.
Mom’s.
But Mom never cried, let alone sobbed.
With a surreal sense of this-is-not-happening, I turned my head toward the ruins of the abbey, toward the sounds of loss and desperation. My head tilted at the sight of one body huddled between two others, as my brain slogged through the last few minutes as though my heart tried to prevent it from remembering. From remembering Mom trying with all her might to put out the fire consuming her soul mate. From remembering Rina’s small body crumpling to the ground once Kali’s soul had been exorcised.
One moment I held my son in my arms, and in a flash, I fell to my knees next to Mom.
“No, Winston,” Mom cried, tears and snot flowing down her face as she held the vampire’s burnt body in her arms. “You can’t leave me again, my love.”
I rubbed my hand down her back, but it was Rina’s small body, so tiny and frail looking, that caught my attention. She lay so still on the ground. Too still. But her eyes, warm and brown and full of wisdom and love like they always were, rolled toward me.
“Rina?” I said as I crawled over to her. “Are you healing?”
She blinked slowly. Very slowly. So slowly I thought she might not open her eyes again.
“Rina,” I said more urgently as I placed a hand on her shoulder. I wanted to shake her, to wake her up, but I feared I’d break her even more.
“No, darling,” she finally said.
“Tristan!” I yelled, jumping to my feet and searching him out. “Hurry! Rina needs you.”
“No,” my grandmother gasped. Mom’s body heaved as she looked over at us, at her mother. She choked back another sob and joined me at Rina’s side. My eyes jumped to Rina’s hand, which twitched as though reaching for mine. I sprang to her other side and fell back to my knees before taking her hand into mine. Julia appeared next to Mom, and Solomon at Rina’s head. He lifted her shoulders and pulled her halfway into his lap. Rina whispered, “It . . . is time.”
Solomon stroked Rina’s hair, and Mom pressed her palm against her mother’s cheek.
“I know, Mother,” she said while tears continued to stream down her face. “You have been so strong. But you can rest now.”
“What?” I demanded.
“She knew it was coming,” Julia said quietly.
Tristan appeared next to me. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Rina said, her voice weak. “They . . . are waiting.”
“She insisted on seeing Noah first,” Solomon said. “I told her it was a bad idea.”
Rina’s eyes rolled upward to look at Solomon, and her mouth jerked in a sad smile. “No, darling. I needed it.” She looked at Mom. “Tell Noah I love him.” She struggled to pull in a breath as her gaze traveled to the faces hovering over her. “I love . . . all of you. I am . . . grateful for . . . my life . . . with you. But . . . I must . . . go.”
“No, Rina,” I cried, not wanting to believe any of them. “You can fight this. You can’t give up!”
Her hand gently and oh so lightly squeezed mine. “I don’t . . . give up. I . . . ascend.”
Her eyes closed. Her head lolled to the side. A peaceful smile donned on her lips.
Julia cried out and threw herself on top of Rina’s body. Solomon stroked Rina’s head, and Mom scooted away, toward Winston again. She pushed herself to her knees and then folded herself over them, crying into her thighs, both hands reaching out to the side of her. One still held Rina’s hand and the other rested on Winston’s charred body. Pieces of his skin flaked off and disintegrated into ash.
Without thinking about it, I somehow managed to push myself to my feet. Tristan sprang up and wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him tightly, my cheek pressed against his chest as I inhaled his tangy-sweet scent and let it wash over me, calm me, bring the relief we deserved. Relief that we had our son, and we’d rid the world of an evil sorceress. Relief that although we’d lost Rina, she’d no longer be sick and weak. Relief that the fighting had ceased, and we would lose no more. At least not tonight. For the moment, anyway, we could live with a little peace.
But hot tears streamed down my cheeks as I took in the scene surrounding us.
Blood soaked into what once had been sacred grounds. Several Norman soldiers lay bloodied and dead after taking hits from their own men. Others stood like statues, no life in their eyes. Noah lay on the ground, though not dead. Blossom tended to Jax’s injuries off to the side of the circle of men, while Vanessa and Sheree helped other hurt Amadis. Charlotte and Owen remained unconscious, but thei
r chests rose and fell, so I knew they weren’t dead.
But Winston appeared to be.
And Rina definitely was. My grandmother was . . . gone.
A familiar, icy voice resonated from the dark on the other side of the abbey: “Such a shame, all of this destruction because of a mother’s wrath.”
Chapter 24
Tristan and I both stiffened.
Dorian, get back to the abbey, I mentally yelled at my son. He flew overhead, his form disappearing into the dark ruins right before another emerged from the shadows.
Lucas walked out to where we could see him, and he stood with the toes of his black boots inches away from the far side of the abbey proper, inches from the line of the sacred grounds. His white-blond hair was pulled into a ponytail that draped over his shoulder. His brow was scrunched together over his eyes that looked dark now, but I knew were ice blue like Vanessa’s. And he held Sasha in his arm, his other hand slowly petting her.
He had been behind Dorian’s kidnapping all along. Behind the mages’ deaths and Sasha’s injuries. And her disappearance, too, apparently. He’d orchestrated it all. And he was ultimately responsible for the destruction around us. Including my grandmother’s death.
My eyes cut to Tristan.
His cut to me.
We both lifted our chins in a slight nod.
And we charged the fucker.
My hand held my dagger as I streaked toward my sperm donor.
In the two seconds it took to cross the lawn, however, Noah and several of the Norman soldiers gathered around Lucas. And they were huge. Their muscles bulged out of their clothes, ripping them into shreds, and they grew two feet as we watched. Fire filled their eyes, and as one, they all let out a terrifying growl.
Tristan suddenly stopped in front of me and threw his arm out. I slammed into it as though it were an iron bar.
Lucas snickered from behind the wall of men. “Too bad you can’t hurt them, eh? They’re only human, after all. There’s nothing you can do.” He lifted his lip in disgust as he surveyed Tristan. “All that power we gave you gone to waste because of your beliefs. Sure, you could probably kill me—I guarantee there’s no hope for my soul—but who are you willing to lose in the process? Alexis?” The guns all pointed at me. “Dorian?” Some of the soldiers aimed toward the abbey. “I won’t need them anymore, so why would I let them live?”