Breathless Magic

by Rachel Higginson

  Terletov was talking about the night he kidnapped me from the Citadel. My stomach churned with renewed hatred for Lucan and for this villain in front of me. Kiran was strung tight with impatient retribution and I felt his own avowed hatred for a tyrant we’d killed years ago.

  But I knew details that either Terletov was choosing not to remember, or didn’t know at all. “He didn’t approve of you either. And you didn’t approve of him. I remember that you were disappointed with his weakness.”

  He laughed at me, mocking our dangerous situation with his offhand attitude. “Yes, that is true. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.”

  I grunted because I could see how that would be true between Lucan and Terletov- such was their blind hatred for me.

  “Is that why he let you go?” Kiran laughed without humor. “We’ve thought you escaped this whole time.”

  “Of course, he let me go,” Terletov matched Kiran’s bitterness. “Why would he keep me? I carried out his plan.”

  “Almost,” I reminded him spitefully. “You almost carried out his plan.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Terletov snarled. “I’ve done something he couldn’t. The kingdom is now mine, the Citadel is now mine and soon my own Magic will be mine. There will be no end then. We will eradicate the Shifter problem for good and by doing so we will create as many of these super Immortals as I want to.”

  “Immortal humans,” Olivia wheezed as she tried to stand up.

  And then they launched into a discussion on what Liv’s new breed of Immortal should be called. The whole time I waited with Avalon for our plan to finally fall into effect.

  Finally, there was a knock at the door and one of Terletov’s beefy, but chronically sick, men walked in with a grim expression.

  Our plan was finally “a go.”

  “We’re ready,” Kiran whispered to me. “Titus has Alexi hanging from one of the buildings in the square. We just have to get these people to the tunnel.”

  “Alright, then let’s do this. Let’s get out of here,” I agreed.

  I took the time to explain the plan in a variation with smaller but precise details to everyone in the room. I made them understand by using small hand gestures and words that were mouthed. This had technically been Avalon’s plan but he was waiting for my cue before we could start.

  Once everyone was poised and as ready as they could be, I counted with hidden fingers and released a powerful spray of blue smoke into the room. My healing powers doused everything with hazy blindness and in that exact moment, our small remnants of a Rebellion turned Monarchy attacked.

  The room pulsated with Magic, hatred and pure desperation and our battle grew fierce and deadly very quickly. All I could feel was the energy though, the panicked and determined Magic that flowed into a cauldron of power and strength; it churned around us in a vortex of warring convictions and two factions hell bent on destroying the other.

  But it was energy in the air; electricity I had access to. So, I took it.

  And I would continue to take it. Take it all. I would leave these men, these traitors, with nothing.

  Their blood would be my trophy and their Magic my victory flag.

  Terletov had no idea what storm of pain and retribution I would bring down on him today.

  Chapter Six

  With Terletov gone, the battle became a practiced dance of good versus evil.

  I’d been here so many times before, it was like a routine that I knew all the steps to. Only this time, when I fought I had more to protect. The Crown was mine to hold onto this time, the Citadel my home that I would fight to keep and my babies… I would do anything to protect my little nuggets that weren’t even born yet.

  I also had a deep well of Magic that extended into three other Immortals. We were limitless in our capabilities and even more so when we were together.

  Kiran and I fought back to back, our Magic slicing through the air like a sharp blade with the force of a thousand winds. We worked as a seamless unit of power and grace.

  Kiran’s once-gray Magic combined with my once-royal blue energy and merged into this wispy navy blue hue that had quickly become my favorite of all the colors. Because I was part Titan, I could see the different colors of Magic flash around me as we fought against each other. My friends- the good guys- had a myriad of colors that lit up the room like a color storm of lightning. I watched Olivia’s Magic strike bright white into the air around her and it was the first moment that I actually believed she could be the true Immortal Terletov claimed she was. Her Magic was pure, despite Terletov’s wicked way of turning her. An eternal creature, like Kiran and me, like Avalon and Amelia, I wondered if she was able to grasp the concept better than the four of us. We still struggled with the overwhelming idea. And now we wouldn’t be alone.

  I was more in favor of her relationship with Jericho than ever.

  And as he stormed into the room with impeccable timing and a reserve of more men to fight for our cause, I realized that I didn’t have to worry anymore if they would work out or not. Jericho and Olivia were as sealed as they could be before the final consummation of their relationship.

  Yay!

  Definitely distracted, I received a blast of Magic to my shoulder. The hit of sickly green energy knocked me off balance and I bumped into Kiran behind me. His hand shot out and grabbed my hip to steady me.

  Pay attention. Avalon growled inside my head.

  It’s Jericho and Olivia! I squealed at him. They love each other!

  I felt him audibly sigh as he took the Magic of an unsuspecting henchman that had been building his energy in order to strike out at Sebastian from behind. Would you focus? You can throw them a party later, but I kind of need you alive in order to do that.

  I snorted. He knew I’d be alive no matter what. What a silly thing to say.

  With the addition of Jericho and his team we were able to take over the room easily.

  Kiran saw this before I did and addressed his cousin, “Bastian, what’s the rest of the Castle like?”

  “We freed what Guards we could. They’ve taken what control was available but the battle wages on.” And then he grinned because he was a bit of a sadist and super excited for all the recent fighting.

  Who was I kidding? Every guy in this room was enjoying the recent break from peaceful boredom. I could see it on all of their smug faces and the flare of drama they used to steal Magic. They were blood thirsty, the whole lot of them.

  “Behind you,” Sebastian suggested casually.

  Kiran and I spun around and blasted the would-be attacker in the chest with a steady stream of combined energy. The Magic sent him soaring into an ancient tapestry that hung on the wall. He cracked his head hard and slid down to his ass. I stepped toward him and with a hand stretched forward began to pull on his rancid electricity. His back bowed with the effort to physically restrain his life force that I would take so easily.

  I looked down at him with pity. He was young, younger than me. Just a kid really, and now his future was being stripped from him.

  “What did he promise you?” I asked before I could stop myself. Why would someone with such a long life ahead of him, give it up in service to a monster?

  “Everything,” the kid whimpered. “He promised that we could have everything.”

  “And what did I take from you that you could not have?” I demanded. How selfish and greedy did one have to be to feel slighted in our world?

  “You kept the Magic,” he rasped out as I drained the last ounces of the only strength he could ever know. “You promised to set it free, but you didn’t.”

  I took a step back, completely surprised by his accusation. I stared down at him as he slumped to the side and caught his upper body with a bent elbow on the cold ground.

  Unbidden tears pricked at my eyes and I knelt down in front of him. My hands shook with fury, so I tightened them into balls in my lap. I leaned forward and met his dead-eyed stare. He met my steady gaze with a confidence I
knew was misplaced and built on lies.

  “I didn’t keep the Magic,” I told him. My voice trembled with frustrated conviction. “If he told you that then he lied to you. The Magic is free. The Magic has been free.”

  He shook his head but fear lit his expression and he struggled to sit up. “No,” he argued. “You have it.”

  “I’ve never had it,” I spat out. “Never. The Magic has been free since Lucan died. And as long as I rule it will always be free.” He grimaced at my words; I could see the indecision war in his head. So I proved my point. “Where’s the death? Where’s the King’s Curse? It’s all gone. All of it. You took my friend and you tortured her, you broke her. You did everything you could to murder her. But why couldn’t Terletov end her? Why is she here today? Alive?” His eyes flickered to Lilly who was still cradled in Talbott’s arms. His sword stayed ready in his free hand but he would not engage and risk hurting Lilly. Thankfully, he didn’t need to. We had this. I returned my attention back to the fallen soldier in front of me. “I released the Magic years ago. And my Kingdom will reap the benefits of all the power and authority that belongs to them. But you won’t. You believed the wrong man and now you will pay the price of your foolishness. You can wander this world mortal and powerless. You can live a life without the Magic that belongs to you. And you can die a painful but deserved death. I’ve taken what belongs to you because you tried to take what belongs to me. But I won’t kill you. Instead, you can have the death you accused me of bringing to my Kingdom.” I stood up and looked down at his stricken face with pity. “You can decide the difference for yourself.”

  “Eden,” Kiran called to me. “We need to go.”

  I left the man wallowing in his own tragedy and joined my husband. I had been called the next Oracle most of my teenage years, but the entire time I had almost failed to understand what that meant.

  In my adult life there had been little use of the Oracle talent. The peace we’d enjoyed over the last few years had allowed me to shelve most of my stronger Immortal skills because they were unnecessary.

  A few times over the years, something had happened or I had said something with such absolute certainty that I knew, without a doubt, that the Oracle I was prophesied to be was manifesting itself in that moment.

  This was one of those times.

  I felt the Magic pump through my body as an entity of power all its own. Indivisible from my blood, but potent, consuming and stronger than any other thing I’d encountered before.

  The Magic was free.

  And while we’d speculated this over the past couple years, I could now say without a doubt that it was. My people could enjoy the promise of our heritage and the hope of a brilliant future.

  But we had to stop killing each other first. Because Immortality was not a concrete concept. Immortals still died, lives still ended. We knew that better than anyone with the recent deaths of our dear friends.

  We needed to end this civil war and find a peace and strength that could last us forever.

  “Are you alright?” Kiran asked as his eyes took in my appearance.

  I patted my hair that hung all around my shoulders. I could only imagine how crazy I looked right now. My black, curly hair was wild and untamed, my skin felt as though it were glowing from the use of so much Magic; my clothes were disheveled, my bottom lip swollen from a blast of Magic I hadn’t prepared for. The Magic popped and cracked inside my veins with a ferocity that shocked my nerves with each beat of my heart. I could feel it slide and hover over my skin and in the air around me as if my body was not enough to contain the vivid power and strength that had manifested with the Oracle. I was wired. I was more than a little bit unstable. I was a hot mess.

  “I’m fine,” I told Kiran instead.

  He shook his head, indicating he didn’t believe me. “You look… brighter,” he murmured and then captured my mouth with his.

  My hands dropped to my side, useless and weak. He devoured me in that moment, while the battle raged and screamed around us. Kiran took my mouth hungrily, claiming me… possessing me in the heat of so much destruction and uncertainty. And I was helpless to stop him. I let him consume me, drinking in the fiery electrons that sizzled and snapped with the current of my high voltage electricity. I was a live wire, and Kiran was the only conductor that could ground me.

  He took the excess Magic through the kiss, drawing it into his body with every stuttering breath, every hot connection of our tongues, every sweet press of our lips. He balanced me out and made the Magic manageable again. We shared the crushing power then, equalized it between us.

  He pulled back and I could see exactly what he meant by “brighter.” His turquoise eyes glittered in the hazy room, his already tanned skin glowed golden and perfect. His Magic shimmered in a glaze of navy blue aura all around his body and his lips were bright red from our recent kiss.

  God, I wanted this man.

  “What is this?” Kiran asked me in a rasping voice.

  “The Oracle,” I smiled sweetly at him.

  “You prophesied?” he demanded, some of the awe and wonder replaced with concern.

  “I did.”

  Kiran glanced around the room, assessed what was left of the battle and when his eyes came back to mine they were decidedly mischievous. “I’m going to get you alone by tonight.”

  “And why’s that?” My smile wobbled and my stomach tumbled upside down.

  “I have a question about the future,” he told me with a playful frown. “I’m very uncertain about something and I’ll need your expert opinion.”

  “Is that so?” I laughed.

  “Very.” He leaned down and kissed the top of my head and then grabbed my hand so he could lead me from the room.

  It was time to escape.

  “Titus?” I asked once we neared the door.

  Kiran looked around the room but we were the last ones left and not every enemy remaining here was defeated. He pushed me into the hall and locked the double brass doors behind us with Magic. The men on the other side started banging on it immediately, but they were effectively locked in for now.

  “We’ll have to grab him,” Kiran decided. Sebastian and Avalon disappeared around the corner. “Let your brother know.”

  I was just about to send Avalon the message when the corridor flooded with more of Terletov’s men, including the man himself. They all held handguns with bullets that I knew from experience would knock even us out. We wouldn’t stay permanently unconscious like other Immortals but we would be out long enough for them to have a serious advantage.

  And I couldn’t risk that with the babies.

  Kiran felt the same way, I could sense the frustrated resolve in his Magic. We both put our hands in the air with the universal sign of surrender and kept our backs to the doors behind us.

  “Were you just leaving?” Terletov asked purposefully ignorant, his Russian accent thick and heavy over his consonants. His breath came out in short pants and he swiped at spittle along his bottom lip. He did not look well. His face was flushed at the same time it seemed to tighten across his face. He seemed more skeletal than man in this light and I pictured him as a distorted version of the Grim Reaper with a scythe and hood.

  “We were,” Kiran answered politely.

  “But won’t you stay awhile,” Terletov pressed. He stepped to the side and waved his hands for us to walk.

  Without another prompt we moved forward. Kiran and I stayed close together, letting our shoulders bump and knock with every step. I was glad he was with me. We would get out of this mess easily as long as we had each other.

  Terletov’s men stayed on either side of us in military-like rows. They marched just like an army as well, with their bodies stiff and at attention, their eyes straight forward and their weapons at the ready.

  We knew he’d been building an army all this time, but I hadn’t realized until this moment that it was an actual army. I had believed he controlled a band of deserters, brutish men with vendettas to
fulfill and no real training or discipline.

  I had been wrong.

  And being wrong had cost me my home and my Kingdom.

  I would never underestimate this man again.

  I just hoped it wasn’t too late, now.

  Where are you? Avalon demanded internally.

  We got held up.

  What do you mean you got held up? His telepathic voice was a harsh snarl and I could sense his building panic.

  By Terletov. I answered calmly. Don’t worry. I don’t expect this to last long. We’ll catch up.

  Eden.

  Do you have Titus? I demanded, tired of his older-brother over-protectiveness. We were equally in danger and I had Kiran to protect me now. He could give up the whole totalitarian-family-member thing now.

  I felt Avalon hesitate and look around their party. No. He finally said. We don’t.

  We’ll get him, too. I felt a little smug at that. Don’t worry that you forgot him.

  I’m not worried. Avalon barked. We had a plan.

  Sure. I internally smiled just to piss him off. Sure, you did.

  Just, Eden. His anger dissipated into something much more intense. Be safe, alright? Get out of there as fast as you can.

  Yes, boss. I ignored the emotion in my chest. I would be fine. Kiran would be fine.

  And keep those babies, safe, yeah?

  Yeah. This time the sweetness of his words couldn’t be ignored. You too, Avalon. Get everyone out of here. Get them to safety. Don’t come back for us unless I ask you to. We’ll be fine. And I want to believe you will be too.