I could try the black cloud again. She clapped her hands but immediately shook her head and didn’t even bother. And that would do who knows what to everyone standing in front of me. I’d like to leave this place with more than only two weak fairies. She set a few of the Wisemen’s robes ablaze with blue fire, and they flailed for a few seconds before one of their own extinguished the flames.
A rush of green and blue sparks crackled across the walls of the cavern and rushed toward each other from every side to converge on the floor at the back. She whirled to throw another warded shield at the ground this time and block the streaking energy from coming any closer. It worked, and she was vaguely aware of Joseph redirecting an attack that was definitely meant for her before it would have struck her in the back of the head. She spun and started to thank him, but the sound of desperate chokes and gasps made her pause.
The woman who hadn’t yet left her cage had been caught in the blue and green sparks. The spell must have barely brushed her hand, which was now crooked and charred. Black, peeling flesh was visible all the way up her arm and across her neck and chest. She convulsed and fell, gasping for breath where the entire side of her chest had burned completely through.
Oh, man. Lily raised her hand to at least knock the woman unconscious, but a gentle, firm hand settled on her shoulder.
“Wait.” Without looking at her, Neron stepped past her across the raging battle in this small cavern and stepped into the woman’s cage with her. She stared at him with wide eyes while her chest heaved and drew no air in return. The death witch knelt beside her and leaned over her. He ran a hand through her singed hair as he whispered something. She had enough strength to clasp his hand and nod intently. He nodded in return and muttered something else as he covered her eyes with his hand. With his one hand still shielding the dying woman’s eyes, he jerked some kind of hunting knife from his belt and plunged the blade deeply into her charred chest.
“What the hell?” Lily shouted, ducked a wayward razor-sharp spell spiral, and firing at her attacker with a burst of intense force that pounded the Wiseman’s head against the wall behind him. She stared at Neron. He led us down here to slaughter us. Why did I let myself trust a necromancer? She started toward him, hoping to end the betrayals now so the rest of them might have a chance, but stopped when she saw what was happening.
Thin black lines like veins spread across the burned woman’s skin, snaked their way toward the knife in her chest, and slithered into his fingers and into his arm. He muttered something no one could have possibly heard over the crash of spells and the snarling werewolves and the shouts of the other freed prisoners as warnings. When the black lines reached his face, his eyes bulged before they were completely consumed by the same blackness until they were nothing but two large, lightless orbs—all black and more terrifying than she could ever have imagined.
His chanting rose above the clashing and the fighting in one long, low, continuous tone. Slowly, the death witch stood and stepped from the cage. His first attack of black, smoke-like magic struck the closest Wiseman in the chest, enveloped the man completely, and elevated with ease before it hurled him so hard against the stone that it broke his neck. More black lines flared to the surface of the dead Wiseman’s skin, only to erupt and stream toward Neron’s chest. The necromancer took in a quick, hissing breath through his teeth, and the volume of his chanting rose.
“Stop him!” The Wiseman who shouted was the next to go.
Neron raised his other hand toward the man, who clawed at his own throat until he drew blood but still couldn’t breathe. His face turned an alarming shade of purple before he died and the black lines beneath his skin were absorbed by the death witch too.
The power of his death magic finished in a few minutes what the rest of the freed prisoners might never have accomplished. His magic stopped each Wiseman before they could cast their spells against him, and with each of their deaths, his own power grew. Lily didn’t catch all the ways their attackers died. She was too busy watching the incredible power within the man who’d seemed so ashamed of what he was born to do.
Snapping bones echoed around the cavern, which was otherwise silent but for his ongoing incantation. He shouted now, his eyes nothing but all-black holes, and sweat beaded on his forehead. When the last two adversaries fell their broken bodies crumpled beneath the force of his attacks, Neron screamed. His hands shook with the force of all these men’s lives having fueled his death magic, and his black eyes were fixed on the wall. The screaming didn’t cease—he didn’t seem able to stop, even to catch a breath—until the walls around them began to tremble. A sheet of dust and a few pebbles rained down on them, and Lily took her chance.
She stepped behind him and place a gentle, cautious hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Neron, you did it.”
Whether it was her words or the fact that he’d reached his breaking point, the scream died in the necromancer’s throat with a wheeze and he dropped to his knees on the cold stone. He panted, his head hanging almost completely to his chest, and swayed there for a minute before he stilled.
“Neron?”
When he looked at her, his eyes were completely clear and the whites restored to their proper place. “Did I hurt anyone?” he whispered.
She blinked. “Well…”
“Only the people who needed hurting.” Romeo jerked his pants on and buckled his belt. He clapped a hand on the death witch’s shoulder and shook the man gently. “That was incredible.”
All the freed prisoners stared at their avenger, the cavern completely silent again. The gray wolf rose into the form of a naked man, and Reggie stepped forward toward the puddle of his clothes on the floor. “Holy shit, man.” The woman shifted behind him and simply stared at Neron until her fellow werewolf bent over in front of her to collect her clothes. She stopped with a grunt of disgust, leaned away, and rolled her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at him.
“Is that all of them?” one of the fairies asked from the far corner.
“Probably.” Joseph scratched his wild beard. “At least all of them in the temple right now. I bet you there are more, though. There are always more somewhere.”
“They have a library.” A woman with a shaved head wound a strip of cloth around a cut on her hand and nodded toward the staircase. “You might even call it a reliquary. I bet you those assholes have everything we’d need to buy ourselves more time and get everyone else safely outta here.”
The still naked werewolf jerked his even further ripped shirt over his head and smacked his hands together. “Let’s get our asses to that reliquary, then.”
The other magicals murmured assent and moved toward the stairs. “Hey.” Romeo nodded at the two werewolves. “Eat the purple flowers.”
Reggie raised an eyebrow and decided a wolf who’d risked his ass for a group of strangers might be trustworthy enough. He nodded in response and waved everyone else up the stairs behind him.
Joseph stopped at the foot of the staircase and turned toward Lily. “Are you comin’?”
“We’ll meet you up there.” She glanced at Neron, still slumped on his knees, and the two fairies in the corner. “After we get them outta here.”
“Okay. Be safe, huh?” He nodded at her and her friend and darted up the stairs.
By the time she looked at Neron again, he crawled on his hands and knees toward the open cage and the woman with his knife still protruding from her chest. He stopped when he could lean over her face, her legs stretched out toward the wall in front of him, and cupped her cheek upside down. “Thank you for your sacrifice,” he muttered and closed her eyelids gently. When he yanked the knife free from her chest, he had to use both hands. His face expressionless, he wiped the blade on his pants a few times and returned to his belt. With one hand, he grasped one of the iron bars and pulled himself to his feet. The death witch met Lily’s gaze and swallowed. “It would not have been possible without her.”
“I understand that now.” She glanced at the woman’s
body. “What did you say to her before you…” All she had to do was look at his knife.
Neron sniffed. “I told her that if she placed her death in my hands, I could end this fight and keep everyone else safe. Because she was already leaving this life, I asked her if she wished to die faster and with a purpose.”
“And she said yes.” She nodded.
“I have to take a life to use my magic.” He stumbled out of the cage, righted himself, and shook his head slowly. “And I do not take a life unless I mean to use it in a way that serves others.”
Romeo cleared his throat. “That’s probably the most powerful thing I’ve heard in…man, a long time.”
The necromancer smirked and shrugged. “Well, I cannot do this every day.” The werewolf snorted and the two men laughed together like they’d told a dirty joke instead of rescuing a group of magical prisoners betrayed by the Wisemen at Ichacál while saving their own skins too.
Lily shook her head and turned toward the fairies. “Are you all right?”
The stronger one nodded, but the fairy in her arms looked like she was about to pass out. Her head rested limply on her thin knees. “She needs help out of here, though.”
“No problem.” Romeo slipped his shirt over his head and stepped toward them. He stooped and lifted the emaciated fairy gently from her companion’s arms. The stronger one stood and swayed a little before she nodded at him. They moved toward the staircase, and Lily looked at Neron.
“Can you make it up there?”
“Very slowly.” He smirked again.
“All right.” She joined him and slung his arm over her shoulder. They were about the same height, so she could at least be a useful support.
Before they reached the stairs, he turned and looked over his shoulder at the far wall where her light still illuminated the black silhouette on the white stone. “Your wings of smoke, yes?”
“Yeah.” She exhaled a long, slow breath. “Your dreams were eerily accurate. They’re still not mine, though, but I’m starting to think I know who they belong to.”
Thirty
Lily and Neron caught up to Romeo and the fairies fairly quickly, mostly because the werewolf seemed to have a little trouble deciding how to make his way through the labyrinthine hallways of the temple. When he saw them, he rolled his eyes and tried to gesture around him. It was difficult with an almost unconscious fairy in his arms. “I have no idea how to get out of here.”
“I do.” The death witch removed his arm from over her shoulder and nodded at her when she raised her eyebrows. “I can walk now. Thank you, Lily.” He led them down one passageway after the other, and she kept her ball of white light trailing ahead of him to light the way.
By the time they reached the temple’s main entrance hall, Neron’s people had stirred from their rooms and emerged to see what all the noise was about. None of them had known how to find the source of the short, violent battle below the temple itself, but they stared when the two witches, two fairies, and the single werewolf emerged from the hallway on their left.
“What happened?” Aluino moved quickly toward them and thrust his hand toward Neron.
The necromancer clasped his kinsman’s forearm with a grim nod. “We found the true nature of this place.”
The villager studied his companion’s face and his eyes narrowed for a second before they grew wide in realization. “Did you—”
“Yes. It was necessary.”
“And totally freakin’ worth it,” Romeo added. “In case you were still undecided on that part.” No one spoke when he moved forward toward the large anteroom where they’d been fed an excellent meal only a few hours before. He set the weak fairy on a pile of pillows against the wall, and her companion crouched beside her. “Does she need anything right now?”
“Only time.” The stronger fairy’s purple gaze sparkled in the semi-darkness. “Thank you.”
“Absolutely.” He scratched the back of his head, nodded, and turned to rejoin Lily and the gathered villagers.
“So how can we be sure we are truly safe here?” Chalina asked.
“The other witches went to the Wisemen’s library first,” Lily explained. “They think they can—”
“Hey! Hey…guys!” Reggie barreled around the corner from the right-hand hallway and sprinted directly toward them.
Rosalía darted forward before she could even process what the kid was doing. With a wordless shout, the girl raised both hands and sent the same forceful spell of nothing but pressure she’d used inside the white van. The werewolf catapulted back like he’d clotheslined himself on an invisible wire, and the child clenched her hands into tiny fists. Her suspension spell was precise and essentially perfect—if she hadn’t mistaken him for an enemy. His arms raised over his head, and the girl witch less than half his age stretched him horizontally in mid-air and pinned him there.
“Rosalía!” Chalina barked.
She whirled around and lost her concentration. Reggie thumped to the floor and groaned when his head cracked against the stone. “He was attacking you.” Rosalía gestured toward the aching man behind her and Lily pressed her lips together as she approached her.
“He was a prisoner downstairs, kiddo. Romeo and I helped to free him, and he helped us fight our way out again.” The girl’s eyes grew incredibly wide as she searched Lily’s face. Please don’t cry.
“Oh.” Rosalía blinked quickly, met her teacher’s gaze again, and smiled. “But it was perfect, right?”
A choked laugh escaped her, and she closed her eyes to pull herself together again. “Yeah. Yeah, it was perfect. Do you know how to make it better?”
“How?”
“Make sure you’re casting your spells on the right person.” She raised an eyebrow, and with a flashing grin, the child darted around her and disappeared through the villagers milling around the entrance hall.
“Jesus Christ.” Reggie finally managed to roll over and push himself to his feet. “I swear, this place is a goddamn—”
“You were gonna tell us something,” Romeo cut in.
The other werewolf shot him a scathing glance but nodded. “Yeah. Those witches found the reliquary, I guess. They’re working up this magical doohickey spell thing to protect the temple grounds and everything in it. They wanted to spread the word that everyone needs to stay here until they finish their little ritual or whatever. Ow.” He pressed his hands into his lower back, leaned a little, and cracked his spine. “What’s wrong with that kid?”
Lily glanced at Chalina and Aluino with a proud smile. “Absolutely nothing.”
It was basically impossible to go back to sleep after everything they’d been through that night, especially for those who’d fought their way through Ichacál’s false Wisemen and witnessed the terrifying power of a death witch who only used his magic when all else failed. The sun had been up for less than an hour when Lily and Romeo strolled across the temple grounds, listening to the chaotic cacophony of so many jungle birds’ voices greeting the dawn.
“Well, another mystery solved.” She kicked at the loose earth. “Kind of.”
“And it still doesn’t feel like a win, huh?”
“Well, not really. I went back and searched that cavern. There was absolutely nothing else from my mom there—no clues and definitely no hidden messages. I even searched that huge bird on the wall.”
He slipped his hand into hers and squeezed it gently. “This isn’t a dead end, Lil. Hey, I’ll go back in there with you, okay? I can help you look. We both do better as a team, right?”
“I don’t know if that’s gonna do anything this time.” She looked at him with a grimace of disappointment. “She was in that cage, Romeo. Right there and only a few months ago, and people saw her alive. I know that shadow-bird’s hers. I have no idea how or why, but I…I feel it. And there’s nothing else here. I think…” She dragged in a breath. “I think she was taken away from here before she had the chance to leave me any more clues.”
He tilted hi
s head in his habitual thinking attitude. “I have a hard time believing that. Think about it. The woman carved her language into the actual stone-button that opened a hidden door in a wall. She left all that stuff with Melissa years ago. Do you really think she didn’t think everything through?”
She sighed. “Not if she was taken by these people, whoever they are. Not if she was kept in a cage underground and forced to relinquish her magic to those…” She gritted her teeth and shook her head. “I don’t know what to do now.”
“Okay, hold on.” They stopped walking. He turned to face her and took her other hand in his too. “You can’t start thinking like this now. Seriously. We’ve come this far, and honestly, I’m not gonna let you give up.”
“Let me, huh?” She uttered a wry chuckle and shook her head. “Why? Okay, I’m so glad you’re here with me, but if this is it, why would you keep pushing?”
Romeo puffed out a sigh and glanced at the jungle canopy. “Yeah, I knew you were gonna ask that. Okay.” He grimaced and squeezed both her hands. “There’s something I haven’t told you. And honestly, I have no idea how you’ll react, but I can’t keep not telling you.”
She turned her head away from him a little. “Okay…” What did he do?
“Lily, I—”
“Hey! There you are.” Joseph jogged across the temple grounds toward them, his hair cleanly brushed away from his forehead, although he apparently hadn’t touched the beard. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“No problem.” Romeo released her hands and folded his arms.
Lily glanced at him, then looked at the other man. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine. We have a few warded shields up around the place. Oh, and a couple of stacked charms and something the witch with the shaved head said would keep us silent. Whatever that is.” He looked at the hardcover book in his hand and smacked it with the back of a hand. “So I’m gonna sit tight and…you know. Do some light reading.” He chuckled.
Any Witch Way (The Witch Next Door Book 3) Page 21
