by N M Thorn
“…Eleonore has been gone for a few days already,” said the first mage. “Do you know what’s it all about?”
Eleonore? Oh yeah… The Head Mage. Eleonore Bonneville.
“No,” replied the second mage. “And that’s the problem. She disappeared so suddenly that she didn’t leave any instructions on who should be taking care of the Order while she was gone.”
“Don’t you feel it? I’m sure her disappearance has something to do with that.”
“Yes, I could feel the darkness rising for a while. What I don’t understand is why Eleonore didn’t send any of us to research the situation and deal with it. She even had that Celtic god at her disposal, but she preferred to run him around, doing some petty training-level tasks.”
“Whatever was rising is here already,” said the first mage, shaking her head. “I could sense the battle. It started a while ago—the confrontation between the light and the darkness. And the light is losing…”
Aidan is there, I am sure, thought Tessa, pressing her hands to her chest, her heart pounding against her ribcage. This is the battle he wanted me to stay away from. The light is losing? She felt a cold sweat running down her back. Aidan… No… I have to be there, by his side.
Forgetting that she was supposed to be careful, she ran straight into the Mages’ Wing. She heard both women screaming after her, but she ignored them. She didn’t stop until she reached Missi’s room. Tessa banged on the door frantically, but no one answered. After a minute, the door next to Missi’s opened up and another young woman in her pajamas peeked outside.
“Tessa, what’s with all the racket?” she asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes. “Don’t you know? Missi is not here. Ms. Bonneville sent her away on some mission a few days ago.”
“She’s gone?” asked Tessa, dumbstruck.
“Yes,” replied the young woman, “and you shouldn’t be here either. If the mage on duty catches you, you’ll be in trouble. More than you already are…”
“Never mind that, Lily,” Tessa cut her off. “Do you know how to summon an Archangel?”
“What? Are you out of your friggin’ mind? An apprentice of your level doesn’t have what it takes to summon someone as powerful as an Archangel—”
Lily was still talking, but Tessa didn’t listen. She ran to the Guardians’ Library. Without slowing down, she kicked the door open and zoomed inside. Tall shelves with thousands of books surrounded her. Reading the labels on the side of shelves, she proceeded deeper into the library until she found the shelf labeled “Summoning Spells”.
With horror, she realized that every book on this shelf was locked. She stomped her foot and kept browsing the shelf until she found what she was looking for—a thick old book in a leather bind. “Summoning Angels, Archangels, and Divine Beings” was written on the spine of the book.
Tessa tried to pull the book from the shelf, but it didn’t budge, locked with a heavy chain. She needed to call a librarian, but she had no time for it. She also knew that because she was the lowest level apprentice, they would never allow her to read this book anyway.
If I break the chains, they will expel me, and Aidan will suffer for it. A thought flashed through her mind. The light is losing the battle. Aidan may get hurt, or he could be dead. For all I know, there are ways to kill gods. Let them expel me. As long as he is alive and well, I don’t care.
She connected to her power, collecting electricity at the tips of her fingers. A low thunder rumbled in the library as Tessa hit the lock on the book with a lightning bolt. The lock broke, and the book fell into her hands.
Tessa sat down on the floor, quickly flipping through the pages until she found the spell she was looking for. She re-read the instructions a few times, committing everything to memory and got up. Channeling a little bit of her magic, she used it to draw a complicated rune in the air. Tessa observed her handiwork, comparing it to the picture in the book. The rune looked perfect. She touched it and whispered the words of the summoning spell calling to Archangel Uriel.
A shower of golden sparks erupted in front of her and Uri dropped through it, falling to his knees. He wrapped his arms around his head, staring up at Tessa, his eyes bloodshot.
“Tessa?” he moaned. “Stop the summoning call. You’re killing me.”
“Oh my god, it worked!” yelped Tessa. “Oh, no… how do I stop the spell? The book didn’t say that.”
“Goddammit!” growled Uri, his face covered in perspiration. “Say Incanto Comlium and that should kill the spell.”
“Incanto Comlium,” said Tessa quickly and Uri visibly relaxed, slowly rising to his feet. He grabbed the book from the floor, reading the words of the summoning spell Tessa used.
“Never use this summoning spell again, Tessa,” he said quietly, throwing the book on the floor. “It’s designed to torture the person you’re summoning. I’ll teach you how to do it properly later. Now, what did you want? Why are you summoning me when the city is under attack?”
“The city is under attack?” mumbled Tessa then she grabbed Uri’s hand. “Where is Aidan, Uri? Take me to him. This is why I summoned you.”
Uri stilled, gaping down at her. “Aidan is not in the city, Tessa. I can’t take you where he is. Sorry.”
“Uri, please,” she begged, tears rising in her eyes. “I must be with him. Mages are talking… They’re talking about a battle between the light and the darkness. They said that the light is losing. I feel it right here.” She pressed her hand to her heart. “I must help Aidan. My place is by his side. Please! I love him, Uri!”
“Fine,” he said finally. “But I still can’t take you where Aidan is. I have no power to travel to that place. But I’ll take you to Angelique. She’s a seer. Perhaps she can tell us what’s going on.”
“Let’s go, let’s go,” Tessa rushed him, seizing his hand.
Uri snapped his fingers, and they vanished from the library.
They materialized behind Angelique’s condominium building. Uri pressed his finger to his lips, gesturing for Tessa to be silent. As they walked around the building toward the main entrance, Tessa heard a loud howl and a scream filled with terror that followed it. Uri tensed, staring in the direction of the sound.
A moment later, Tessa felt freezing wind sweeping by. Uri grabbed her arm, pulling her toward the building.
“What’s going on?” hissed Tessa.
“I told you. The city is under attack. Demons, phantoms, ghosts, you name it—it’s here,” barked Uri. “Dammit, too late.”
He pointed up. A dark cloud was moving fast in their direction. A few terrified people were running along the street toward the building.
Golden flames wrapped around Uri as he assumed his angelic form. His golden wings opened up to full extent, and he rose in the air. Without caring who could see him, he unsheathed his sword, blazing with gold flames. As the dark cloud came within his reach, he swung his sword, channeling his power through it.
Tessa couldn’t see what kind of monsters assailed Uri, but he spun in place like a golden tornado incinerating every single one of them. People froze in place, staring at the sky in awe. A few minutes later, Uri slowly lowered down next to Tessa, sheathing his sword. His wings folded behind his back and then dissipated together with his golden fire.
A woman approached Uri and reached with her hand to touch him but quickly pulled away. “I’m sorry,” she said with a shy smile, “I don’t know who you are… or what you are… but thank you. You saved us all.” She turned around to see her friends. “I just wanted to tell you that your secret is safe with us. We’re never going to tell anyone about what happened here.”
“Thank you,” said Uri, smiling back at her. The woman nodded to him and walked away with her friends. Uri sighed and sent a small amount of his magic after them. “In a few minutes, they will forget everything that just happened.”
“Let’s go,” said Tessa, pulling Uri toward the building. But before they opened the door to walk inside, she heard sounds of heav
y steps and turned around. Her eyebrows climbed up as she watched two medieval knights riding toward them. The knights stopped their horses and dismounted.
“Father Beaumont?” she mumbled, blinking a few times at his shining chainmail and breastplate.
He smiled. “Hello, Tessa,” he said with a light bow. “I wish we had time to chat, but my friend, Luc de la Crosse, and I are slightly preoccupied at the moment.”
“My lady,” said the second knight with an elegant bow.
“Uriel,” said Father Beaumont, sounding urgent, “what are you doing here? We need you in Parkland stat. A huge motorcycle gang of demons broke into a residential neighborhood. Akira and Yaroslav are holding them down, but we need your help. With your purifying fire, you can exorcise all of them in a matter of minutes.”
Uri grunted, throwing a scorching gaze at Tessa. “I’ll be there in a few minutes, Raoul. Just hang in a little while longer.”
Raoul nodded. Both knights mounted their steeds and vanished. Tessa and Uri walked into the dark building. The power was down, and the elevators were out of service, so they took the stairs to the third floor. Uri halted in front of the door with the number 313 on it and knocked. The door opened up immediately.
“Uri, thank God. I was just about to summon you,” said Angelique, ushering them inside her apartment.
“Not another summoning,” mumbled Uri, rubbing his forehead. “What’s up, Angie?”
“Uri, I need you to take me to Zane—”
“What the hell is wrong with both of you!” yelled Uri, throwing his hands in the air. “Do I look like an Uber driver to you? Did you see what’s going on outside? People are dying! Vampires are working with the FBI to save humans and you want me to drive you all over the world? I should be out there, doing my job and taking care of people.”
Tessa and Angelique exchanged a look and shouted at the same time. Uri pressed his hands to his ears, gazing heavenwards.
“Please, stop!” he yelled. “I’ll do what you want. Angelique, Aidan is in the Dark Nav. I have no access to the realms of the dead. Can you see anything related to Aidan? Anything at all?”
“No,” said Angelique, turning to Tessa. “I’m sorry, it’s been a few days since I had my last vision. I see nothing. But my intuition tells me that I should be next to Zane. Now.”
“Fine. I’ll do what you want. I’m wasting more time arguing with you two.” Uri raked his hand through his hair. “You know that if we all survive this mess, both Aidan and Gunz are going to kill me. Together.”
“You’re an Archangel, you’ll survive,” retorted Tessa. “Where is Zane now? Since you can’t take me to Aidan, take us both to Zane.”
“Fine. Dress warm. I’m taking you to Arkhangelsk, to Mount Karasova. It’s north of Russia,” said Uri. “Do it quick.”
“Before you take us to Mount Karasova, can we please make a quick stop at Zane’s house?” asked Angelique, a guilty smile on her face.
Uri threw his hands in the air, a low growl rumbling in his chest. “Fine. Just do it quick.”
Angelique ran into her bedroom, and a few minutes later came out dressed in a warm jacket and boots. In her hands, she was holding another jacket and a small box. She gave the second warm jacket to Tessa. Uri waited while she put it on. Then he took their hands and sighed.
“God knows, I shouldn’t be doing this,” he muttered and all three of them vanished from the room in swirls of golden flames.
Chapter 38
~ Zane Burns, a.k.a. Gunz ~
In a heartbeat, the world around him became a gut-wrenching mayhem—howling, roaring, tearing at the soul and clawing at the flesh, blinding and deafening havoc. As usual in extreme situations, his military training took over and Gunz dropped to the ground, covering his head with his arms.
As he was lying down, sprawled and helpless, while all hell broke loose inside Mount Karasova, Aidan’s words resonated in his mind with pain. They failed to stop Zmey two times. This was it. This was their last chance to stop him. There will be no other opportunity. It’s now or never.
The roaring of the winds was unbearably loud and terrifying, but he lifted his arm just a little and peeked outside, searching for Kal or Mrak Delar. Dark swarms of sand and small rocks were swirling within the cave in a continuous nauseating motion. As soon as he lifted his arm, his face got bombarded by the sand, with the strength of an industrial sandblaster and he had to shut his eyes.
In the split-second that he had, he didn’t notice Kal or Semargl anywhere. He knew that Karma was on the other side of the cave, next to the stone monolith, so he didn’t look for her. But he found Mrak Delar right away. The Master of Power was lying on his back just a few feet away. His face wasn’t protected from the winds and the dark mass of sand swirling in the cave. Blood was trickling down from the corner of his mouth.
Dammit, if he stayed like that, he’d get killed by this sand and projectiles that were flying around. Gunz lowered his arms and crawled toward Mrak Delar, holding his head as low as he could. Fighting the wind, it took him a few minutes to reach him. Keeping his eyes tightly shut, he touched Mrak Delar’s face, feeling the warmth of his skin. The Master was alive. He pulled himself over Mrak Delar covering his face the best he could.
“Master, are you okay?” Gunz hissed and felt the light movement of Mrak’s arm.
“I’m alive… overused my — ahhh — just need a few minutes—”
“Would Fire energy help?” asked Gunz, carefully trying to connect with the elemental fire.
“Yes…”
Gunz allowed the fire energy to flow freely through him, circulating it through the Master of Power. A few seconds later, he felt Mrak’s hand squeezing his elbow and stopped. As the winds kept ravaging the cave, they stayed down in the same position.
After a while, the noise started to subside; the wind slowed down and then died out completely. The silence that cloaked the cave was bloodcurdling, agonizingly pressing on his stretched nerves. Gunz carefully lifted his arms and peeked out. The sandstorm was gone, but so was Mount Karasova.
He scrambled up to his knees and surveyed the area, awestricken. The mountain was gone. He was sitting on a piece of flat land, a small lake glistening with the reflected light of the moon just a few yards away. The broken stone monolith still remained in the middle of the area that once was a cave.
A tall bald man was standing next to the monolith. Morena, the goddess of Winter and Death was standing by his side, her hand on the crook of his arm. A sword, glistening like ice, was in her other hand and with horror, Gunz recognized Aidan’s sword. Valeria Demidova and another woman were standing on either side of them, like loyal bodyguards. The man had the eyes of a serpent, yellow with vertical red pupils. In his hand he was holding the Axe of Perun. It wasn’t hard to guess who he was.
Gunz started to rise, but the man wagged his finger at him, an evil smirk revealing his long venomous fangs.
“Nuh-uh, little lizard. Stay where you are. On your knees. I like you in this position.”
Zmey stepped aside and now Gunz could see Kal and Semargl, both encapsulated into blocks of solid black ice. He cringed, knowing perfectly well the pain Kal and Semargl were in. Morena ran her long nail over the ice and then turned to Gunz.
“I hope you remember what I can do to you.” She flicked her hand at the block of ice. “Defy me or my lord Skiper-Zmey and you’ll see what else I’m capable of, Fire Salamander. Besides, you don’t want your little girlfriend to die, do you?”
Angie? No, she can’t be here…
Morena stepped aside and Gunz saw Karma. She was down on her knees, next to the monolith, her arms and legs set in ice. But even if she wasn’t in restraints, Gunz didn’t think she could fight. Everything about her—her head, bowed down to her chest, and her hunched shoulders—was betraying her true state of mind. She was broken, unwilling to fight even for her life.
Gunz sighed, raising both his hands up. “What do you want from me, Morena?”
&n
bsp; “First of all, learn some respect, fire-worm,” she seethed.
Morena pulled her arm back and struck him with Aidan’s sword, penetrating his shoulder. Gunz grunted, grabbing his shoulder and bent forward. Blood spilled through his fingers, dripping down his arm. Morena snickered and pulled the sword out, forcing another cry of pain out of him.
“Now, let’s try it again,” drawled Morena, gesturing to him to proceed.
“What do you want from me, my lady?” Gunz repeated his questions, anger turning him inside out.
“Much better,” said Morena. “Master of Power. Is he alive?”
Gunz glanced at Mrak Delar. His eyes were flooded with the blackness of his power, as the Master was trying to show him that he was ready to fight. Like the best painkiller, an angry ecstasy coursed through Gunz, and he felt the fire rising in his eyes, making them glow red.
“He’s alive, my lady, but he may as well be dead,” he said. As proof, he picked up Mrak’s arm and let it go. His arm dropped down lifelessly. “He’s hurt physically and drained magically.”
Morena exchanged a quick look with Zmey and he nodded at her. She turned to Gunz, staring down at him in disdain. “Lift him and deliver him to my lord,” she ordered.
“I would need to get up for that, my lady. Can’t do it on my knees,” muttered Gunz, hiding his glowing eyes.
“Don’t get smart with me, lizard,” hissed Morena. “Shut your mouth or I will shut it for you. Do as you are told!”
Gunz pulled Mrak up, throwing his arm over his shoulders. “Jesus Christ all mighty, you are heavy, man,” he hissed as he dragged him to Zmey. “Now what do you want… my lord?”
Zmey grabbed Mrak’s hair, yanking his head up and checked his face, narrowing his reptilian eyes. “Perfect,” he muttered, letting go and wiping his hands on his pants. “You can put him down at my feet. I’ll deal with him later.”