by White, Gwynn
I ignored him and continued my search. Along the way, I found a syringe marked ‘Phantom Accentuating Serum’. I slipped it into my jacket pocket. I found a heavy tranquilizer dart and took that too. Who knew when I might need it. When you didn’t fight to kill, you needed every trick you could find.
Finally, I found what I was actually looking for: a blanket. I pulled it out of one of the drawers, then returned to the cells. I opened the cage with the sleeping fairy, then spread the blanket over his naked body.
“Help me free the rest of them,” I said to Jason and Aaron.
“Stop.”
At Vib’s command, his mages sprang into action. Pearl and Opal slid to either side of their master, protecting him. The other three moved toward me, their steps in perfect sync. They were even breathing in sync.
“I invite you into my home, show you my hospitality, give you a taste of new powers, of what it means to link with another mage—and this is how you repay me?” Vib hurled the words at us. “You try to steal from me! Thieves! Scoundrels!”
I pointed at the cages. “Those are people. They don’t belong to you. They have the same basic rights granted to every galactic citizen.”
“That’s just a matter of perspective, isn’t it? Everyone thinks the fairies are extinct. The Galactic Assembly doesn’t recognize them as citizens. Fairies who don’t exist can’t have rights, now can they?”
I didn’t know why I even bothered.
A cool chill rippled down my spine, like someone had just set my grave on fire. The air popped with static. Magic. It crackled against my skin like the flames of a fire. And that fire was growing hotter with every passing second.
“Nemesis,” Jason said.
Footsteps clicked down the hallway. I couldn’t see the Triad yet, but I could hear her. And I could feel her. Her magic was like acid against my senses.
“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of a Phantom,” she called out, each syllable a punch to the gut.
Jason stepped in front of me, shielding me from the unseen threat.
“Magus!” Nemesis shrieked. Fury rang in her voice.
She stepped into the room, holding a torch crafted from metal. It resembled a small tree in shape; in size, it was only as large as a branch. A flame flickered on each of the torch’s twelve arms. It shone a dark glossy silver-purple, accented with orange sparkles reflected from the wavering flames.
Twenty-one Spirit Reapers—the witches’ elite soldiers—in mud-splattered armor followed Nemesis into the room. They’d clearly been through the storm—and were worse for wear because of it.
But Nemesis’s blood-red leather battle dress looked as immaculate as the day it was made, as though the rain and mud didn’t dare touch her. Her knee-high black boots were glossy and her ghostly pale skin spotlessly clean. Only her spiked fire-red hair and glowing turquoise eyes hinted at the untamed madness within.
“Nemesis,” Jason said, stepping forward.
The witch soldiers drew their guns. Their armor wasn’t quite as good as the vampires’ armor, but it was impressive enough. And there were twenty-one of them—against just three of us. That wasn’t even counting Vib’s children. The odds were not in our favor.
Jason didn’t seem to recognize that. He forced his eyes to phase darker and slid his cold mask over his face. At that, a few of the soldiers took a step back.
“Cowards. You outnumber them seven-to-one. And you’re wearing battle armor,” Nemesis spat, then turned her glowing turquoise eyes on Jason. They hadn’t phased red yet, but she looked far from happy. I guess she hadn’t enjoyed her five hours in line at the Galactic Transportation Authority’s office.
She wasn’t moving forward. She was waiting for something.
Jason sensed that too. “What do you want?”
“What do I want? I thought it was obvious. I want you, Magus.” She’d used his power name. How very civilized of her.
He folded his arms across his chest and said flatly, “You aren’t my type.”
When Nemesis laughed, it was the sound of scraping metal and dying puppies. Even the witch soldiers, her sworn allies, plugged their ears and grimaced. Her laugh cut off as abruptly as it had begun.
“Charming, Magus,” she said. “But, no. I want you for that Elite Phantom brain of yours.”
“How many times do I have to say no before you stop coming to annoy me? This desperation doesn’t become you, Nemesis.”
Her red lips curled up into a sick smile. “You’ve seen what Vib can do. Join us. We offer you unparalleled powers. The galaxy will kneel before us. They will worship you as a god. You need only reach for greatness.” She extended her hand out to him.
Jason shot her a disdainful look. “I like my powers just as they are.”
“You’re refusing?” her shrill voice echoed.
“Did you expect otherwise?”
“You always have been a fool, Magus.”
She snapped her fingers, and the Spirit Reapers circled around us, closing us off from the exit. Jason remained where he was, his eyes locked with hers, though I knew he simply couldn’t abide the feeling of so many weapons at his back.
“You are trapped,” Nemesis told him. “We outnumber you. Join us and become a god. Or refuse and die. It’s your choice.”
“I could get out of this easily.”
“Perhaps.” She wet her lips. “But what of your comrades?”
Jason turned to track her as she circled around him. When she stopped beside me, he moved forward.
“Not another step, Magus, or I will kill your pretty little pink-haired sweetheart,” Nemesis warned.
So much for wanting to bring me to her mistress alive.
“Do as you wish.” Jason slipped two throwing knives into his hands. “She is nothing to me.”
Even knowing his words meant nothing, even knowing that he was being cold to protect me, his rejection cut me like a hot knife.
Shrill laughter, the crack of exploding glass, erupted from Nemesis’s lips. “You may have a reputation for being cold-hearted, but we both know that’s merely a mask. Inside, you are as weak as the rest of them.” Disapproval lathered her words. “You know what? I’m not going to kill the sweet little princess. Not right away.” She winked at me. “I’m going to play with her first. Let’s see how long it takes to crack that icy resolve of yours, Magus.”
I was ready to punch Nemesis in the face, even knowing that doing such a thing to a mad Triad was a very bad idea. I remembered Nemesis’s powers—and the beating she’d taken before from Jason’s telekinetic tornado. If that hadn’t taken her down, what could?
I put my hands in my jacket pockets. The syringe bumped against my fingers, and I gripped it tightly.
Jason didn’t say anything. He didn’t move.
“No? Still nothing?” Nemesis’s eyes flickered between Jason and me.
I tried to stay calm, even as my pulse raced faster.
“You should be afraid,” Nemesis mocked me. “Your friend really doesn’t care for you. So I’m afraid you must die.”
20
Borrowed Power
I watched Nemesis close in. Her steps were slow and deliberate, as though she wanted to savor each moment. Her smirk grew wider, her eyes redder in anticipation of the kill. She really was a sick beast.
The Triad beast drew two blades. The first was a pretty rapier that shimmered gold and gleamed with an eerie light. The second was a jagged-edged silver dagger. The dagger looked frightening, and it would tear me up nicely if it met my skin—but it was the rapier that was the real danger. Its unnatural shimmer meant it had been forged with enchantment and coated in poison. Nemesis was not the sort of hunter to grant a quick death. She enjoyed playing with her prey far too much, and she would poison and mutilate me until Jason agreed to join her.
The great Tundra would melt first.
Nemesis circled me, trying to unnerve me with her malevolent sneer. The gesture was superfluous. Even on my best day, I knew I didn’t hav
e a prayer of defeating the Triad without an extraordinary helping of luck.
“Here, little bitty pretty,” she purred.
I turned to keep Nemesis in front of me, but I made no other movement. The Spirit Reapers formed a human wall, cutting off Jason and Aaron. It was as choreographed as a dance—had dancing involved blades and guns.
“Well, aren’t you dull,” Nemesis complained.
As she threw a contemptuous look over her shoulder at the Spirit Reapers standing behind her, I pulled the syringe out of my pocket. Without stopping to second-guess myself, I injected the full contents into my arm. Magic exploded in my blood, rushing out from the needle’s entry point, enveloping my whole body until it hummed and crackled like a wildfire. I tossed the empty syringe to the ground.
Nemesis was looking at the soldiers, too busy with dramatics to notice what I’d done. “What fun is a fight when my opponent is too weak and cowardly to fight for her own life?”
That’s right. Keep making snide comments. I’m no threat to a big, bad Triad like you.
Nemesis was not even holding her weapons correctly—at least not the way she should hold them for a fight. She twirled them loosely with her wrists, flicking them in the air to dress up her taunts. I would have been insulted if I hadn’t been grasping for every advantage.
Nemesis took a step forward. And another.
I held my ground.
Nemesis yawned. “Someone at least give the girly a weapon. I’m bored to tears.” She snapped her fingers at the closest soldier, a stubbly-faced man who didn’t even look old enough to grow a proper beard. “You, Croton. Give her your pocket knife.”
The young Spirit Reaper pulled a compact folded knife from his pocket and slapped it into my hand with an apologetic look.
“Hey, Girly,” Nemesis called out.
“I thought it was ‘Pigtails’,” I replied drily.
“Do you prefer that one?”
“No.”
“Ok then, Pigtails.”
Ha. Ha. Ha.
“Do you know how to use that?”
I flipped open the pocket knife. The blade was no longer than my index finger and hardly thicker. “To cut strawberries? Yes, I do that all the time.”
Nemesis’s smile widened. “You’re funny. When Magus finally agrees to help me, I may just let you live to see—”
I aimed a kick at Nemesis’s right wrist, putting as much power into it as I had. Crack. The Triad’s wrist broke upon impact, and her hand sprang open. Clank. Her rapier slid across the floor, its blade sinking into the wood front of the cabinet.
“Playing with poison is not nice, Nemesis.”
Nemesis shook out her wrist, which appeared to have already healed. She stepped over to the cabinet to pull the rapier out of its wooden front. It was stuck. She looked up and glared angrily at me. Her eyes boiled over, phasing a deep, sanguine red.
“So you’ve got bite after all,” she said, advancing again. “But that was stupid.” She tossed the dagger to her right hand. “Very, very stupid.”
I saw it before Nemesis even moved: she would go for my stomach. The Triad lunged, and I sidestepped. And again. And again.
“Is running away all you can do, Little Mouse?” she growled.
“You have so many cute names for me. Does that mean that you really do like me?” I countered.
“Hardly. You are nothing but a pathetic, spineless girl. You let better warriors fight your battles for you, and when it’s your turn, you are helpless. I would rather be dead than helpless.”
“Someday, someone will take you up on that offer,” I warned her.
Nemesis bared her teeth. “Be my guest. But no. Not you. I can see it in your eyes. You find the idea of killing anyone absolutely abhorrent. How quaint.”
“I might make an exception for you.”
“No. No, you wouldn’t.” Nemesis’s eyes danced with mad delight. “Let’s just cut to the conclusion of this charade. You are completely outmatched and haven’t even the slightest intention of killing me. I, on the other hand, am a practiced fighter and killer. We both know how this will end. Save yourself the embarrassment and yield now. I promise to—”
My second kick to Nemesis’s right wrist snapped the bone just as surely as the first had. This time, the dagger slid under the legs of a shocked Spirit Reaper and came to a stop before Aaron. The vampire pressed the toe of his boot over the black handle and crushed it with his sole.
“Stop doing that,” Nemesis growled at me, shaking out her wrist.
Wow, two breaks to the same bone in under five minutes, and still she healed nearly instantly. What would it take to really bring her down?
I shrugged. “You underestimate me. I’m faster than you think.”
“Not fast enough.”
I saw the attack coming, but I was too close to her to evade. Nemesis swung her arm out, grabbed me, and threw me overhead halfway across the room. I barreled into the line of Spirit Reapers, and six of them toppled over. As I hopped over their tangled bodies, back toward Nemesis, startled shouts told me that my comrades had taken full advantage of the distraction.
Nemesis launched two knives the size of bananas at me. I dodged, and it was a good thing I had. At that speed, they would have taken my arms off. Nemesis kicked high, aiming for my head. I blocked, but the force of the impact nearly brought me to my knees.
I pushed back with my mind. A breeze tiptoed across my fingertips, building up until my skin buzzed with power. A gust shot out and catapulted Nemesis into the nearest stone wall.
The Triad sprang to her feet and immediately launched two small black throwing knives at me. Though she still looked dazed, Nemesis’s aim was spot on. Or it would have been had I not foreseen the attack and ducked. The knives clanged dully against the wall behind me. We continued to circle each other.
A crooked grin flashed across Nemesis’s lips. “Surprise, surprise. And I thought I was the only one.”
“Madwoman?”
“Triad.” She stepped forward. “You may be of some use after all, Pigtails.”
I picked up the knives and threw them at Nemesis’s chest, knowing she would catch them. She did, returning them with double the force. They hit the cabinet and sank into the wood paneling on either side of the rapier. The move was so ridiculous it had to have been planned. Nemesis was showing off. Grinning, she continued to close in on me, her enormous shadow trailing her across the torchlit wall.
“I’m not,” I told her, backing up. Come on, just a bit closer.
“Not what?”
“A Triad.”
Nemesis leered. “Your performance suggests otherwise, Princess.”
So it was Princess now. I’d been upgraded from Pigtails.
“Yes, my Empress would be very interested in you,” she said.
Nemesis nearly stumbled over her feet, but she didn’t seem to notice. She pressed on, thinking she was backing me into a corner.
“It’s a wonder what a magic serum can make happen,” I said.
“Sneaky. You took one of Vib’s potions.”
Yes, I had taken a potion to give me Phantom powers. It was the one I’d swiped from Vib’s cabinet. Actually, I was pretty sure he’d seen me, but he hadn’t said anything, probably so he could see the effects of it on me. That was more important to him than winning this battle. Vib was a true mad scientist.
Nemesis said, “But there’s only so much a serum can do. You can’t enhance what’s not there in the first place, Girly.”
So we were back to Girly again.
I ignored the nickname. “A serum can make a lot happen. Or make a lot not happen. Like that dart I hit you with while you were proving what a vicious knife-juggler you are.”
Nemesis’s hand shot to her neck.
“That’s the problem with you, Nemesis.”
The Triad yanked out the tiny black dart and crushed it in her hand.
“You think you’re so high above us all that you are untouchable.”
&
nbsp; Nemesis collapsed to one knee.
I walked up to her. “But you can be taken down, just like the rest of us.”
Nemesis glared up at me, her eyes screaming murder. “I’m not down yet.”
I kicked her in the face. She tried to block, but the drugs had made her slow. My boot slammed into her face, and then she was out. I ran to the nearest cage and reached through the bars, yanking the collar off the hellhound. The beast turned into a beautiful female fairy with midnight skin and silver hair. I fastened the collar around Nemesis’s neck.
Jason and Aaron were still busy fighting the witches. They were down to eleven soldiers. Make that ten. No, nine. Wow, they were really efficient. And they worked pretty well together for two guys who basically hated each other. If not for all the blood, their fluid battle dance might have even been beautiful to watch.
I shot a Phantom mind blast at Vib’s bodyguards. As one, they crumpled to the floor. Then, redirecting my magic, I plucked the collars from the fairy prisoners and locked them around the five mages. It was almost too easy. The serum made it possible.
Vib watched me, intrigued. Even as I collared him, the look in his eyes told me it had all been worth it, just to see what I could do with one of his serums.
Our enemies were down, the battle over. I turned toward Jason and Aaron. I almost didn’t recognize the person I saw in the mirrored walls. My eyes were phasing, burning with blue fire, oozing raw power. That was a purely Phantom thing.
“What have you done to yourself?” Jason ground out, walking up to me.
“It was…necessary,” I said, tendrils of Phantom energy lashing out with every word.
“How is this even possible?” Jason asked Vib, his eyes wide with shock. “No serum is this potent. If I hadn’t already known she’s a Prophet, I couldn’t have told her apart from a natural Phantom.”
Vib just smiled. “She is special. So are you.”
“How much of Vib’s serum did you take?” he asked me.
I hiccuped. “Enough.”
“She took the whole dose.” Vib’s eyes shone with admiration. “Remarkable. You are positively glowing, Princess.”