She dropped her hands, letting the vision fade as the three elves crept out of the chamber.
There was absolute silence as she turned to face Elsifan.
He was gone.
She threw back her head and used the Voice of Command. “Elsifan!” An echo came from just behind the throne, and she saw he was trying to open the door that led to their private quarters.
It wouldn’t budge, and Kiersten let out a low laugh as she shook her head. “Even the palace is against you.”
Elsifan sent a blast of blackness toward her, one that seemed to suck all the light from the air around her.
She threw up a shield just in time to watch it wither beneath the blackness. A burst of light from her right took care of it, and Geeeroo was there, pushing the king’s poisonous magic away.
“So you have been doing black magic,” the elder elf said to Elsifan.
Elsifan gave a twisted sneer that bared his teeth. “You only call it black magic because you don’t understand it. But I’m at least twice as strong as you, old one.”
“Really? Prove it,” Geeeroo mocked.
Elsifan sent a blast of darkness at him, and Kiersten felt a stab of terror for the elder elf. When it hit, Geeeroo took a step back, and Elsifan cackled with glee.
But Geeeroo pressed forward, gritting out, “Again.”
This time when Elsifan shot a blast, Geeeroo leaned into it as a burst of white light capturing the darkness.
Elsifan’s eyes widened slightly, and he sent another blast.
Geeeroo repeated the burst of light, keeping his forward progression, and Kiersten and a few others added their magic to it. “You don’t have power in your white magic, Elsifan, or enough power to overcome it. Your soul is dark. You couldn’t be trusted with the most powerful spells. That’s why we hid them from you.”
For a moment, Kiersten felt a burst of hope. Maybe they would defeat Elsifan without any loss of life.
But then two things happened—elves flooded through the door behind the throne and took up position behind Elsifan, and Mordjan breached the palace doors and led the army inside.
Elsifan’s sigh was overly dramatic. “These barbarians you brought are destroying our home.”
“You mean my home.” Kirsten’s look was defiant and full of challenge.
There was a momentary pause as both sides waited for orders.
Elsifan raised his voice. “Fine. I did kill him, but you know he would have kept us stagnant as a race and then stood by and watched as we were all murdered by the Ardaks. I’ve made a deal that will get all of us home. The Ardaks have agreed to take us there, as long as we give them the key to the Crystal Cave. If Kerryth gets the key, we’ll be stuck here forever.”
“You’re talking about the deal where you trust the enemy and give them this entire planet? Do you even care that there are four other realms here and that you would be condemning them all to death?”
The looks on Elsifan’s supporters’ faces were torn. Although they didn’t want to condone her father’s murder, the urge to return to their homeland was strong. And they didn’t know if they wanted to actually begin a battle.
“Besides, he wasn’t going to take all of you! He was only going to take his few most loyal followers.”
Elsifan obviously realized he was losing his followers because he screamed, “For Melamar!” and the elves began to fight. Everything became chaos as fire, ice, and rocks were hurled in all directions.
She sprinted forward, looking for Elsifan, but he wasn’t there when she reached his position. She jumped up the steps and turned, scanning the hall. One thing was apparent in the chaos—Elsifan’s elves were not fighting together as a team, and Mordjan’s squads were going to take them.
It was only a question of how many died in the process—because Elsifan’s followers were not giving in.
She spied Elsifan with Liath and Sepheth on the steps to the right near the wing of the palace by the Ardak landing site.
She sprinted after him, dodging shards of glass, blocking a flaming blade. She heard footsteps behind her and a quick glance told her Durstin and Evindal had also seen him.
“He can’t get away!” she cried.
“Can you stop him?” Durstin shouted.
She slammed the door shut at the top and threw several balls of fire, turning it into a wall of flame.
Elsifan turned to face her. “Your father begged me not to hurt you,” he said with satisfaction. “If only he could see you now. Leading an army of useless elven rejects and non-elves. Look at them dying down there. You were a fool to bring them into our midst.”
“Look at the poor spoiled elf running away from a woman. Your father would be proud.” She looked around the flaming stairwell and then feigned shock. “Oh, I guess he didn’t make it, huh? It looks like my rejects aren’t so useless after all.”
Elsifan threw a small burst of magic at her and they sparred easily, his ice to her fire. He wasn’t trying to kill her, and wasn’t even trying to get away. “You said you found the Cave of Knowledge? Where is it?”
She snorted in disbelief. “You really think I’ll give you the location of the Cave of Knowledge?”
There was an odd look in his eye. “If you tell me it’s location, I’ll give you back the key.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do that, Elsifan. You know I can’t. Giving the Ardaks the Cave of Knowledge would be infinitely worse than just the crystals.”
“I don’t want it for the Ardaks!” His face contorted with anger. “I hate you, Kerryth. My entire life, you’ve been there, blocking me from everything I want. Now, you turn up here, expecting me to just give up, to give you back everything I’ve worked for.”
He took a step backward and threw off three short blasts of blackness, and she countered them with a shield. Then he threw three more in succession, and she could feel her shield weakening.
She wouldn’t allow him to win, wanted vengeance for her father. From behind the shield, she used an ancient magic, casting a golden blade of light. It wasn’t black magic, but it was just as powerful. She could feel it pulse with power as it formed. She lowered her shield for an instant, hurling it at him faster than he could blink.
Elsifan’s eyes flew wide just before it hit him squarely in the chest. “No!” he screamed. “This is your fault, you bitch! First my love, my crown, and now my life! I hate you!”
One last blast of magic came from his fingers, hurtling around her shield and slamming into someone behind her. She turned in time to see the blackness hit Durstin in his left side.
He screamed, falling down the few steps to the floor below, and a shiver of terror went through her as she ran to him. “What have you done to him?” she screamed over her shoulder at Elsifan.
Elsifan laughed, blood coming from his lips. “If I can’t have love, neither will you.” Then he fell forward, driving the sword deeper into his chest before he tumbled down the steps. When he came to stop, he was dead.
His sightless eyes were somehow less frightening than they had been in life, and as she watched, his body slowly started to dissolve into thick tendrils of smoke that dissipated into the air.
Then Valdjan was there, searching through the clothing he’d left behind for the golden key. When he retrieved it, he examined it and then put it on a chain around his neck. “I can’t believe he got the key. I hadn’t considered anyone would use black magic.”
“None of us did,” she replied. Though her fingers only slightly trembled, inside she was panicked as she unhooked Durstin’s armor and pulled up his shirt to examine the wound.
Oh, my love, I can’t lose you now.
This throne wasn’t worth it!
I only did it for Aurora!
“That was horrifying,” Mordjan said, kneeling over Durstin. “Damn. We need to stop this fighting if we’re going to save him.”
Nothing mattered except saving him.
“Stop!” Kiersten stood and shrieked, using the Voice of Command
. Almost as one, every single being within earshot stopped and then turned to her. “Aielle! Healers! Help us!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Durstin
Aielle flew to them, and then dropped to her knees to slide the last few feet as she pulled a crystal from her pocket. She hovered it over the wound, the other hand on his heart.
“What is it?” Aielle asked quickly. “What spell did he use?”
“I don’t know,” Kiersten said through a sob.
The pain was agonizing, burning through him from his side, and his body was trying to force him into unconsciousness. He forced his eyes to stay open. He had to live.
“Help me,” Aielle cried, and other healers gathered around him, lending her their energy. He could feel the warmth spreading through his body, trying to fight the ice, but it was losing.
“Fuck, it’s still spreading,” Kiersten cried.
“I don’t know what to do,” Aielle said urgently to Tordan. “It’s literally turning his cells to ice. I can feel it.”
Durstin wanted to reassure his wife, but he couldn’t find his voice.
Roihan stood above him, examining his torso. “We’ve seen this before.”
“Yes, but not in the torso,” Mordjan replied. “How in the fuck are we going to cut that out?”
He felt his heart skip a beat. That sounded painful.
“Cut it out?” Kiersten’s protest was a screech. “You can’t cut it out! He’ll die.”
“Maybe not.” Aria was there, inspecting the spreading ice. “We need to hurry before it reaches his heart. And he’ll need a chip to control what’s left of his organs.”
“Wha—” Durstin asked.
“Do you think you can actually do this?” Tordan asked Mordjan.
“If we have someone to stabilize him with magic, there’s an excellent chance he’ll recover, and it’s better than doing nothing.”
Tordan knelt beside him. “Durstin,” he said urgently. “We can save you, but it’s going to be difficult. We’ll have to get you to the lab at Renwyn, and we’ll have to make you a cyborg. Do you agree to that?”
Durstin’s eyes flew to his wife, before darting back to Tordan. “Serious?” he croaked.
“Deadly serious.” Tordan replied. He shook his head. “I never thought we’d be creating our own cyborgs willingly.”
Roihan spoke up. “Well, if we have to, Mordjan is the best surgeon we have, and I’m sure he can do it. Aria and I will assist him.”
Durstin closed his eyes. There really was no other choice. “Yes. Yes of course.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kiersten
“W
e need to get him to the lab at Rewnyn!” Kiersten waved and a portal ripped open almost violently, but she didn’t take her eyes off her mate.
“Mordjan, Roihan, Aria, with us,” Tordan said. “The rest of you, remain here to heal the injured and detain the elves who fought for Elsifan.”
She was the first to rise and step through the portal to the laboratory, but she stepped aside, waiting as the cyborgs hefted Durstin onto a table. Their motions were smooth and efficient.
“Have you done this before?”
“No,” Mordjan said absently, grabbing some long tubing, a bag, and some small silver things. She followed him, watching as he inserted a silver thing into Durstin’s arm.
Roihan had torn off his shirt, and Aria was bringing a tray of strange-looking instruments.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” she asked desperately.
“Yes, theoretically,” Roihan replied. “We have everything set up the way the Ardaks did, and Mordjan replaced Aria’s arm when she was attacked by an ice monster.”
“But that wasn’t half her body!” She was finding it difficult to breathe.
Mordjan glanced up at Tordan. “We should remove her.”
“No,” Tordan said. “I’ll take care of it.” He took her arm and gently pulled her over into the corner.
Kiersten resisted, wanting to stay by Durstin’s side.
“Kiersten, look at me,” Tordan ordered.
Her gaze flew to him for a moment.
“This surgery is Durstin’s only hope. You’ve tried magic, and it didn’t work, and we don’t know how else to counter Elsifan’s black magic. I need you use your magic to balance his energy, to make sure that he survives.” Tordan paused, his eyes searching hers until she nodded. “You should know that this surgery is going to be gruesome. We’ll need to cut into his torso to remove all of the ice. He will need serious, sustained magic to ensure his body doesn’t go into shock, that we don’t lose him.”
She was paralyzed with her gaze locked on his steel-gray one.
“Can you do this? We still have time to bring Aielle and some other healers in.”
She forced herself to break his gaze and glance back at Durstin. “No. I mean yes. I can do this. My magic is stronger than theirs.” She stared down at her hands in disbelief. “I can’t believe it isn’t working.”
“I will need you to brace yourself. If you need to close your eyes, you can, but you can’t stop your magic at any time. We’ve learned that’s why so many of us died. The Ardak technology is built to modify the body, not to work with it. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she said quietly. She closed her eyes, pushing away her fear, the feeling of helplessness because her magic hadn’t worked. She focused on her love, using it to draw up her magic from her inner core. Durstin needed her more than ever, and she wasn’t going to let him down.
Tordan clasped her shoulder. “Good. Then let’s get back. Just remember, whatever else you do, you need to keep the magic going, so we can save your mate.”
They were almost back at the table, and Kiersten gasped. “He isn’t my mate.”
Tordan frowned. “What?”
“I never officially mated with him because I was hiding who I was.”
Tordan frowned, glancing at Durstin on the table. “I thought that was why he was still alive.”
“No. He’s just a stubborn male.” She paused. “But I’m going to mate with him now.”
Tordan’s frown changed to a smile, and he led her back to the table. “That is the right thing to do. The love between you is strong and the mating will make both of you stronger.”
She nodded. “I have no reservations. I never have. If he had known who I was. . .”
Tordan nodded. “I’ll leave you with him now.”
Durstin’s eyes were closed, and he was so still that for a minute she thought he was dead.
She swallowed, feeling suddenly self-conscious with all the sets of eyes on her. “Durstin?”
He took a moment before replying. “Yes?”
“I’m going to bind myself to you to make the surgery easier,” she told him. “I just wanted to make sure that’s okay with you.”
He clenched his fists and opened one eye. “What do you mean? What is binding?”
“It will make you heal faster, and your life span will be longer.”
He eyed her carefully. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine,” she laughed lightly. “It isn’t me who’s turning to ice.”
“No, I mean, once you lose . . . the magic for my healing and increased . . . life span.” His breath was labored, and he closed his eye again.
“The effects for me are minimal, but for you, they are great,” she said truthfully. She didn’t care about having a long life span if Durstin wasn’t in it.
He opened his other eye, his gaze piercing. “No. Don’t do it.”
She felt hot tears rush to her eyes. “Are you still that angry? You don’t want to be tied to me?”
He exhaled, wincing. “No . . . just . . . don’t want to take . . . your magic. I can do this . . . without it. And what if . . . I die?”
She clasped her hand in his. “I won’t let that happen. Let me do this, Durstin. I love you. I should have done it a long time ago. And you have a much better chance to live if I do.”
He closed his eyes. “Your choice. I love you, Kiersten. Kerryth. Queen of . . . my heart.”
“I love you, too.”
She caressed the hair back from his forehead. She was glad he’d allowed the binding—doing something like this without his consent was something she had never considered. Especially since she didn’t know if he’d forgiven her for lying to him.
She leaned over him, whispering in his ear. “I’m sorry for not telling you who I was sooner, my love. Durstin, I bind myself to you and give you half of everything I am. Let my strength be yours. Let my magic be yours. Let my fortune be yours. Let my happiness be yours. Let us share our futures together.”
She opened her heart, allowing her magic to bind them. She should have done this long ago, when she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
There was no outward change in appearance, but Durstin’s breathing slowed, became easier.
Mordjan inserted a needle into Durstin’s good arm, connecting it to a tube of blue liquid.
She cringed as it entered him. “What is it?”
“It will put him to sleep, so he won’t feel pain. Make no mistake, though, he will still need your magic to sustain him.”
Durstin seemed to fade, his breathing becoming slower.
Mordjan nodded in satisfaction and turned to her. “Do you want a blindfold or can you use a magic shield or something? We might have something around here that we could use as a divider,” Roihan asked kindly. “It might make you less likely to see something by accident. And this is going to take hours.”
“Hours?” she said, aghast.
“Surgery is not like magic. Every single thing has to be done by hand. It’s an intricate, detailed process.”
She shook her head. “I should have known. I’ve seen blood and death before. It’s just different, because I love him.”
Durstin (Cyborg Warriors Book 6) Page 12
