by Krista Walsh
Daphne’s glow brightened and a chunk of the ceiling cracked apart. A large boulder fell free, crushing Akutiel’s tail beneath its weight.
He hissed, spitting fire, and grabbed the boulder, raising it above his head to throw it at the sorceress. She raised her hands and stopped it in midair, changing the direction of its arc so it crashed into the side of Akutiel’s head.
While Akutiel was busy with Daphne, Gabe darted closer to make his way back toward Vera, but Zach hurtled toward him and grabbed his arm. “Get Molly out of here.”
The Gorgon-Fae scowled. “I’m not leaving Vera.”
“Lozak and I have a fight to finish. I’ve got him. You watch over the girl.”
He squeezed Gabe’s arm tightly as he looked him in the face. The left lens of Gabe’s mirrored sunglasses was cracked, the arm barely staying in place over his ear. To be safe, Zach kept his gaze focused on the man’s forehead.
“If anything happens to her, I’m coming after you, got it?” Gabe growled.
“If you don’t get out of here fast and let us do what we need to, there won’t be anything to come after,” Zach said.
Gabe released a noise of deep frustration, then stepped toward Molly, who had backed herself against a wall, her eyes wide and her head shifting left to right as she followed the sounds of the fight. With a last despairing glance at Vera, he ran back the way he’d come.
Confident that Molly would be in good hands, Zach turned his attention to Lozak, and his stomach dropped. In the few moments he’d been distracted, the demon had changed again, becoming even larger than he’d been when he’d faced Zach at the college. He’d lifted off the ground and was hovering over Vera, smoke steaming out of his broad nostrils. Vera was lying on her back, scurrying away on her hands and heels. In front of her, the floor was charred black. Even as Zach ran toward them, Lozak drew in another breath, and fire spewed from between his lips.
Zach leaped forward, blocking Vera and taking the brunt of the flame on his own back. The heat pressed against his own, setting fire to his blood and strengthening his anger.
When the last of the fire faded, Zach turned on his heel to face his nemesis.
Last time, Lozak had bolted before they’d had a chance to finish their fight, taking advantage of the magic that had pierced the window. Zach wouldn’t allow that to happen a second time.
Vera got to her feet and stood beside him, her fists raised and determination glinting in her steel gray eyes.
Another bellowing roar rattled through Zach’s head as Akutiel swiped a clawed paw toward Daphne, but she’d drawn water out of the walls and created a shield of ice between them. On contact with the demon’s fiery fist, the ice melted, dousing his arm with cold water that extinguished the flames and revealed the hardened stone underneath. Daphne grinned and flicked her fingers, cracking through the rock and tearing his hand to pieces.
He jerked away and cradled his empty wrist against his chest, then cackled as the fire from his arm extended downward, reforming the limb he’d lost.
Daphne scowled, and the glow around her grew even brighter. She lifted her hands above her head and brought down more of the ceiling. Four large stones the size of the demon’s head collapsed on top of him, crushing him down.
Zach leaped out of the way to avoid being caught in the rockslide just as Lozak’s fist caught him on the side of the jaw. He flew across the floor, but found his footing and lifted himself up, his wings beating hot air around him. He zipped through the air toward Lozak, but the demon once more rose off his feet and bashed Zach around the waist with the girth of his arm. Zach backed away, and Lozak pursued but then jerked to a halt. Vera had grabbed his foot and was pulling him backward, hand over hand. Lozak’s wings strained, but her strength was greater than his. When she had a good grip, she swung him around and into the wall. He smashed through four feet of rock and slumped down, his head wavering as he shook off the dizziness.
Zach landed and stood over him, Vera coming to stand at his side.
Another crash drew Zach’s gaze over his shoulder. Daphne had dropped more stones onto Akutiel, but they hadn’t slowed him down. His fiery frame just burned brighter as he released a roar that set Zach’s teeth chattering with the vibrations. The demon lashed out toward Daphne and she leaped away, fleeing toward the door, goading him to chase her.
Zach had no idea what she was thinking, leading the monster in the same direction Gabe had taken Molly, but he didn’t have time to warn her. In another moment, she was gone, Akutiel close on her heels, hunching over to get through the tall doorways.
As soon as she disappeared, Zach turned back to Lozak. The demon was still on the ground, his shoulders heaving with the rise and fall of his deep breaths. It wouldn’t take much to kill him now.
Zach reached into his core to find the strength to do it. Fatigue weighed him down and left his muscles sluggish, but he did his best to ignore it and summon a fresh wave of vigor. He had no idea how much longer they had before the Collegiate stepped in, but he couldn’t waste any time.
Closing his eyes, he drew in a deep breath. Energy and fire prickled its way under his scales, rising up between the cracks and flowing down his arms. In his left hand, the sword pulsed, the white light blinding even behind his eyelids; in his right hand, the whip crackled and popped.
He had the strength to see this through. Just a few more minutes, a few more punches, and he could put this all behind him.
A soft hand rested on his arm and tugged him backward. Zach opened his eyes as a rumble of stone sounded in front of him, and his heart stopped on seeing Lozak rise to his feet. Gone were the scales covering his skin, replaced by a sleek, glossy flesh that appeared to be made of stone itself. The tips of his wide fingers had taken on a reddish hue, and around him the crushed rocks rose into the air.
Lozak grinned. “The project to create you may not have gone according to plan, daemelus, but Mayes had no intention of stopping at one failure. I am the future — the soldier you could have been. I am your destruction.”
Throwing up his hands, the rocks flew outward, blacking out the room in a hail of stone bullets.
34
Daphne’s muscles strained as she ran through the corridors. Her heart was racing so fast she tasted blood, and she swore her lungs had forgotten how to work. But she had to keep moving. She didn’t want to take a wrong turn and lead Mayes to Gabe and Molly, but she couldn’t stay in that room anymore. The stones had done nothing against him, and she’d already drawn all the water out of the walls. If she wanted to make a stand, she needed new ground.
She rounded a corner and spotted Gabe and Molly up ahead. Behind her, Mayes’s heavy footsteps were getting closer. Gabe caught sight of her and slowed, but she shook her head. Not wanting to give away her position, she flapped her arms at them to run, desperate for him to understand.
Molly had to be the priority. It was the only part of their plan that might give two of them a chance to live through this.
He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped and shoved Molly out of sight. Daphne whirled around to find Mayes coming around the corner. Summoning her magic, she launched a ball of golden energy at his chest. It forced him backward a step, giving just enough time for Gabe to whisk Molly away before Mayes realized they were there.
Daphne crossed her fingers that Gabe would get the girl to Allegra without trouble. Hopefully he’d already found a way to destroy the software. Then all the rest of them would have to do was keep everyone occupied until the Collegiate had their way. Which couldn’t be much longer now.
Sweat dripped down her back, and she swallowed hard as her throat closed. Turning down the corridor opposite to the way Gabe had gone, she picked up her sprint again, letting her breath out in a whoosh of relief when Mayes’s footsteps followed her trail.
This wasn’t the path she’d thought her life would take. She’d believed that if she put her dark magic aside and only used her power to help people, she’d live a life like her mother an
d grandmother. Quiet. Productive. Full of tiny tricks to scare the kids on Halloween and make household chores a little easier. Instead, she was being chased by a devil while an immortal group of scholars waited to blow her up.
Destiny could be a real bitch.
Daphne turned another corner and found herself in a room that probably wasn’t even half the size of her living room, one with no way out other than the door she’d entered through. The torches were out, leaving the room pitch black except for the glow she lent it. Although she doubted that would be a problem for long. Already the corridor was bright with Mayes’s fire.
Her heart raced, and she summoned her magic into her hands. Fear fought temptation as she stood on the outward edge of her power, the threshold wobbling under her feet.
A sharp squeal pierced her left eardrum, and she cried out, pressing her hand to the side of her head.
“Daphne, can you hear me? Are we back?” Percy’s voice filtered through the earpiece.
“I hear you just fine, Percy,” she said. It didn’t matter if Mayes was listening. His footsteps were getting closer, sliding against the stone. She suspected he’d slowed down just to mess with her head.
“How are you holding up?”
“Things aren’t that great here, to be honest,” she said. “I’ve got Mayes tucked with me into a corner of the prison, but, well, he’s big.”
“Daphne, it’s Emmett. Can you get out of there?”
Tears prickled her eyes as Mayes appeared in the doorway. Even though she couldn’t see his face clearly through the fire, she swore he was grinning. “I don’t think so, Emmett.”
“Then fight,” he shouted, and she winced. “You’ve got to get out.”
“Don’t you worry,” she said, struggling to keep her voice steady. “I plan to put him to the test.”
Opening her palms wide at her sides, she summoned her magic down her arms and into her fingers. It surged warm and strong inside her, as though a small sun were forming deep in her core. She closed her eyes and cast her mind across the room, picking up the location of Mayes’s energy in front of her. Concentrating, she stepped one foot onto the spiritual plane, wanting to see the real threat she knew existed beyond the physical. Sure, he was big, but she was more worried about him trying to get her with his fire. If she wanted to avoid the worst of the heat, she had to see it coming.
Although her mind was still aware of the voices in her ear and the movements of Mayes in front of her, all of her focus was on the wavering image of the spiritual plane, the layer over the world that not many people had the opportunity to see.
She’d always loved how peaceful it was. Such an easy place to sink into and feel her magic. With a deep breath, she drew more power into her hands. Mayes’s tail whipped toward her, and she grabbed hold of the fire energy within it, manipulating it so she could guide the tail away. She threw it back toward him and wrapped it around his throat, taking pleasure in the irritated hiss that worked its way through his lips.
His fire grew brighter, and more sweat seeped out of her pores. She tried to lure the flame of his power out, pushing it away from herself, but there was too much to control. Even from across the room, it was burning her. If he took another step closer, she’d be consumed by it.
Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she descended another level into her magic. She’d drawn so much of it now her hands were shaking, and she could barely keep her legs steady.
She opened her eyes in time to see Mayes raise a hand. He struck a backhanded blow across her cheek, the fire turning strands of her hair to cinders and blistering her skin. She couldn’t prevent a scream from passing through her lips. Daphne flicked her fingers toward the wall, and a bubble of water flew toward her, settling against her face. The coldness was a balm against the burn, but she knew it was only a temporary solution. If she wanted to use water against this son of a bitch, she’d have to get him outside and into the sea, but at the moment that was out of the question.
“I have to go deeper,” she said.
“What? Daphne, no. There’s got to be some other way,” Emmett said.
She closed her eyes and ignored him as he kept talking, submerging herself further into her power. It sang through her veins, growing more difficult to control. It had been so long since she’d held this much strength in her palms. Not since she’d siphoned Jermaine’s magic out of his blood, on that fateful night that had changed so much of her life.
Back then, she would have relished this sensation of teetering on the edge. This floating feeling, as though she no longer had both feet on the ground. Now it scared her. She felt herself slipping below the surface of her own magic, sinking too far to pull herself up with ease.
But it still wasn’t enough to push Mayes back. She felt him testing her, feeding her some of his magic just to see what she’d do with it. In her mind, it floated toward her in red-hot streams, pulsing with life. She grabbed hold of it and wound it through her own golden threads, basking in the warmth that filled her muscles. She’d promised herself she’d never use anyone else’s power again, but he was offering it to her. It was right there, so easy to reach. If she could draw enough of it into herself, maybe she could weaken him. It would be worth it in the end, wouldn’t it?
Stop this.
What remained of her rational mind fought back, and with the last amount of sanity, she rejected his gift with a yell, hearing the layers of magic around her voice. She unraveled Mayes’s power from hers and released it into the ether to dissipate into the air.
He growled and pressed forward. Daphne felt her skin drying out with his closeness, her lips cracking. She threw out her magic and wrapped it into the energy creating his fire, pulling it toward her since she couldn’t push it away, doing everything she could to separate the monster from its strength. If she could weaken him, she could destroy him. Even if she destroyed herself in the process.
She felt him fighting back, trying to achieve the same goal as she was, but she summoned more magic to block his attempts. Her entire body trembled with the effort of holding both spells, but she persevered, giving a deep groan as she felt her ribs strain with the pressure of it.
“Daphne, pull back,” Emmett was shouting in her ear. “I can hear you, dammit. Answer me!”
“I have to do this,” she said through clenched teeth. She wanted to tell him to stop barking at her. She had to concentrate. One slip and Mayes would get past her shield. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if he did. Would he try to drain her power into himself, or would he be satisfied to burn her up, treating the threads of her magic like streams of gasoline, ready to ignite at first contact?
The thought of the possible consequences made her push harder against him, drawing out his power thread by thread and releasing it into the air. Her hold slipped and half a dozen streams zipped toward her, lashing at her energy.
Screams filled the room around her head, and it took Emmett and Percy yelling at her to realize they were hers. Suddenly, she wasn’t standing in a dark room in a prison, but in an abandoned hospital, fighting back clouds full of Morgrin demon energy to save hundreds of ghosts from being consumed.
This was her life now, she realized, and the coolness of calm settled over her, slowing her heartbeat. The moment she’d decided to walk in the light, she’d sealed her fate to sacrifice herself for the greater good. It had to be this way to protect the balance between the mundane and the otherworld. With Mayes out of the way, the threat would be gone. New Haven would be released from whatever cage had been set over it. She just had to hold out a little longer.
“I see your thoughts,” Mayes said, his voice as deep and rumbling as though it came from the bowels of the prison. “You seek to defeat me, to devour my power and leave me empty. But your attempted sacrifice would be futile. I was among the first to pass into this dimension. For thousands of years, I have walked this world, gaining in strength. You are powerful, sorceress, but do you honestly believe you alone are enough to defeat me
, when so many others have failed? Even the wretched guardians could not contain me. I was locked in their darkness for centuries, with only my own light to keep me from going mad. They kept me bound. They starved me. They tortured me. All, they claimed, for the good of the world.” He moved closer. “But what good forces us to hide our true faces? That is not safety — it is slavery. The guardian concept of balance was backward and ill-conceived. Let it go as it deserves. You still have a chance to help me achieve my goal. With our strength, no one would stand in our way. You would have space to learn how to control this power you possess without losing yourself to it. You would finally be free to become all you were destined to be.”
Tears were streaming down Daphne’s cheeks, but the air in the room was so hot that by the time they reached her chin, they were dry.
His offer tempted something deep within her. It echoed the words her father had told her as she grew up, as he’d pushed her to learn more, learn faster. He’d wanted his daughter, the child of two strong bloodlines, to break boundaries. She’d followed that path for most of her life. Then she’d finally turned away, and where had it gotten her? Here. Burning up with her own power.
“Daphne.”
The new voice in her ear jarred her out of her thoughts, and her eyes flew open.
“Daphne, it’s Hunter. Emmett called me. He told me something’s happening. Baby, you’ve got to come back. Whatever you’re doing, you’ve got to stop. I walked away once, but I won’t do it again. Not this time. I know you’re strong enough to fight this. Percy’s let the others know you’re in trouble. They’re coming for you. Just hold on a little longer, Daph. Just be strong for me, okay?”
A smile touched Daphne’s lips as Hunter’s words wound through her mind, obliterating Mayes’s vision of an all-powerful future. Compared to the man calling to her now, it meant nothing.
“I love you, Hunter,” she said, relieved that she could tell him one last time. Wishing she had more time to tell him what he meant to her.