Mercy Temple Chronicles Box Set 2

by Ciara Graves

  The aura grew more, stretching until it surrounded us.

  Mercy drew back, eyes wide. I knew what was coming, but wasn’t going to let her lose herself.

  I spun her around, holding her against my chest as the black aura collapsed into her. But this time, it didn’t disappear completely.

  Mercy screamed, kicking and arching her back.

  I held on, willing my energy to go to her.

  The magic from the dome tugged at me as I became surrounded by so much evil.

  “Rafael, you need to get out of there,” Gigi warned.

  “Not happening. Keep going.” My jaw clenched from the strain of keeping Mercy with me.

  The aura pulsed in time with the spell, almost filling the whole dome.

  Mercy whispered my name, begging for me to get out.

  I didn’t move.

  When the aura attempted to close in around her again, I took the brunt of the hit. We fell to our knees, hitting the stones together.

  I grunted at the throbbing in my knees.

  Mercy’s back arched violently as the dragon within her held on.

  “You can do it,” I whispered urgently, unsure how much longer my strength would hold out. “Remember all you’ve done. All you will still do. You are not weak.”

  She repeated the words, then ended on a scream as the aura exploded from her body.

  It swirled around the top of the dome, a black shadow with grey and red hovering inside it. The shape shifted into a dragon as the black aura parted. The dragon roared, deafening me, then dove toward Mercy.

  I shielded her with my body. The dragon struck my back, disintegrating into smoke.

  “Mercy.” I gave her a gentle shake.

  She laid in my lap, eyes shut, not moving.

  I checked for a pulse and sighed in relief to find one.

  She breathed in harshly, then let it out. Her hand found mine and squeezed.

  That was all I needed.

  I hadn’t noticed how much the last few seconds alone took out of me until the room spun.

  I grew lightheaded and ended up lying on the floor with Mercy in my arms.

  She was alive and the evil was gone.

  I shut my eyes and passed out, her hand held securely in mine.

  Chapter 13

  Mercy

  I stood in the beam of sunlight streaming in through the window.

  A familiar hand rested on my shoulder.

  I leaned back into Rafael’s warmth, closing my eyes, and wishing we could stay here, hide away forever.

  “You ready to go?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around me.

  “I’m ready to end this.”

  I’d awakened that morning lying in a plush bed with a down comforter, and Rafael passed out next to me. He’d woken up long enough to ask me if I felt like shifting into a dragon and going on a murdering rampage. I’d told him no, then he bundled me into his arms, and we proceeded to fall back asleep.

  Later, when we woke up for the day, I waited to see if I felt anything different. The dragon was gone from my body. My speed and my strength would be diminished, but, thankfully, there was no sense of emptiness.

  In fact, it was like I was complete. Like I was finally the person I was meant to be.

  “We’re heading out in ten.” He kissed the top of my head. “Figured you might want to get yourself armed for the fight.”

  “Be a good idea.”

  “Have you tried yet?”

  I knew what he meant.

  I held out my hands, letting the sun wash over them. I hadn’t attempted to use my mage powers yet, unsure if I was stable enough to do it. The curse was a part of me, and now, I accepted that it always would be. That did not mean I couldn’t use what power was available to me.

  Something else had happened the moment evil and the dragon were torn from my soul. Something deep. A revelation hit me that all this time I’d been holding myself back. I’d feared opening up. Feared seeing what I could truly do even with the curse.

  I’d been scared that Rafael and I weren’t meant to be, and that I was dragging him down with me.

  Last night, he’d walked into that circle knowing full well he might not walk out again. He’d stayed by my side and showed me exactly how strong I was. I knew our love was solid, but in those few seconds, the realness of it, the depth of those emotions finally hit me. With Rafael, I could do just about anything.

  His hands moved to my shoulders as I flipped my hands over, palms up.

  I shut my eyes and breathed in deeply, then let it out slowly. Heat rose within me, filling every inch of my being. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know fire appeared in my palms.

  “Mercy,” Rafael whispered in awe.

  My eyes fluttered open. My jaw dropped in silent shock. The fires were a vibrant red, shifting and churning on my palms. They swirled around my fingers then spread up my arms toward Rafael. They didn’t burn him, instead, caressing his cheek as I turned around to face him.

  The curse was there, I sensed it, but somehow, I knew what I could handle now. Knew how much power to pull on. I could control it far better than I ever had before. The flames receded into my hands. I closed my fists around them.

  “I think I’m ready.”

  He cupped my cheek, then leaned down, brushing his lips against mine. When he rested his forehead on mine, I shut my eyes, burning this moment in my mind to remind myself what I had. I needed to survive, and so did Rafael.

  An hour later, we reached the Fed offices where our fighting force was amassed.

  There were far more people than I expected. The building was packed.

  The Hunters made up a decent chunk, but the number of armed agents surprised me. It seemed that Governor Rickshaw had brought every one of his men. Gigi’s coven had come. As had Bowen and the vampires who’d survived the attack at the mansion. Todd hovered nearby. Wesley and Shep were here talking with Nor. Horace was with them, too. He looked more than ready to kill something, eyes narrowed, hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

  When we reached the conference room where the battle plan was being discussed, the room quieted.

  Hilfer came toward me, eyeing me closely. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it.”

  “I did.”

  “You look good.”

  “I am. Now. No evil. No dragon. Just Mercy. The cursed mage.”

  The quiet room became even more so at my words.

  Hilfer held out his hand. “I’ll take you in any form. You’re a true warrior, at the end of the day, and that’s exactly what we need.”

  I took his hand and shook it firmly.

  He glanced toward Rafael, then back to me. “You two are just in time. We’re finishing up our plan of attack.”

  “Attempt at a plan of attack,” Nor corrected.

  “Looks like we have a small army,” Rafael commented.

  “Latest reports are not good.” Hilfer slid a piece of paper across the table. “That’s the last word from my scouts, about six hours ago.”

  “Nothing new?” I frowned as I glanced at it.

  I was more than a little concerned. Our small army might not be enough. I never had a chance to contact the shifters. Or any others for that matter. And it was too late now to wait for anyone. I didn’t want to say it aloud, but I was leaning toward our being screwed.

  “As of six hours ago, we lost contact with the scouts.” Hilfer looked pissed as he rubbed his forehead. “We have no eyes inside Sector 13 anymore. We’ll be going in blind.”

  “Then we go in blind.” I set the page down. “The longer we wait to attack, the more time she has to carry out the final ritual and raise the Blood Moon.”

  “It’s still daylight,” he said, motioning to the windows.

  I noticed the day had become overcast since we’d arrived.

  “And? You think that’s going to stop her?” I argued.

  “We’re not even sure if she charged the rest of the ley lines,” Rickshaw informed me, standing next to No
r at the far end of the table.

  “But there’s no reason why she won’t,” I muttered. “If we’re going to do this we need to move fast. We need to start the attack before she has a chance to convert her army into hybrids.”

  Hilfer backed away from the table. “You’re right. We need to move now.”

  “And do what?” Rickshaw growled, not looking happy with our lack of an actual strategy. “I’m not putting my men into a war zone without a plan. It’s bad enough we’re going to be outnumbered.”

  “The plan is simple. We find Shuval and stop her.”

  Rickshaw crossed his arms. “That’s it?”

  Hilfer nodded. “What else is there?”

  “What about her entire army?”

  “None of that will matter if we destroy her. She’s the source of all this dark magic. She’s the one who’ll be driving the final ritual. If we kill her, the magic will be cut off. The longer we wait, the more time she has to start killing and stealing abilities and essences. Is that what you want?”

  “Gods, no.” Rickshaw looked aghast.

  “Then we need to move now.”

  “Actually,” Rafael said, holding up his hand, brow furrowing, “we should wait.”

  I gave Rafael a doubletake. “What?”

  “When we rescued you, Shuval was in the middle of some sort of essence transfer shit, right?”

  I nodded slowly, thinking I knew where he was headed.

  He continued, “She was weak, so weak she couldn’t even fight back. I knocked her on her ass with a shotgun blast. It didn’t kill her, but it weakened her.”

  “So we wait until she starts to raise the Blood Moon because she’ll be in a weakened state,” I finished for him. “This could work.”

  “I think it could,” he agreed.

  “No,” Rickshaw snapped. “You just said the longer we wait, the more lives are lost. What happens if we wait too long and half our attack force goes down?”

  “There’s a chance we lose half of them if we attack too soon and Shuval is at her full strength,” Rafael replied just as hotly. “You haven’t seen what she’s capable of. We have, up close and personal. This will be our only chance to stop her.”

  “Then we wait,” Hilfer said, nodding. “It makes sense. But we have to time it just right.”

  “Which means we have to get eyes into Sector 13, inside the fortress,” I said. “There’s no way. Whoever we send in will get caught.” I noticed Todd hovering outside the conference room next to Bowen. “Unless that person is already dead.”

  “Todd?” Rafael asked.

  I nodded. “Todd. He’s a ghost. If he’s caught, what can they do to him?”

  “Right, we send the ghost in first,” Hilfer said, running with our plan. “We wait for his signal, then we attack. It’s going to take a hefty amount of power to get through the forcefield around Sector 13 now.”

  “Are Sycamore and his mages here?” I asked.

  “Standing by. Along with several witch covens.”

  “Should be enough. They blast a hole and we get inside. The rest of the transports need to be shut down. One team should take care of that. We don’t want anyone escaping,” Rafael directed. “Another team needs to head straight for the fortress. Shuval should be inside.”

  “And if she’s not?”

  Rafael shrugged at Rickshaw’s question. “Makes it easier for us if she’s out in the open.”

  “I’ve already evacuated the sectors butting up to 13,” Nor told us. “There should be no outside casualties.”

  “Unless we don’t time it right and the Blood Moon ritual starts killing our numbers. You two have no authority to dictate what our force does. None.” The veins in Rickshaw’s neck bulged as he glared from me to Rafael.

  “Right. Because you’d be doing so much better without us,” I argued.

  “You are a bounty hunter. He’s nothing but an agent. Neither of you has the experience to deal with this situation.”

  I glanced around the conference room, wondering if anyone else felt that way. Every set of eyes glowered at Rickshaw, clearly not in agreement with his words.

  “You want to make a better plan?” I asked him quietly, at the end of my patience. “I’m all ears, Governor.” I waited. When he said nothing, I turned back to Hilfer. “We need to be ready to move at a moment’s notice. Get everyone ready.”

  He was turning to leave when the lights flickered.

  I became light-headed. I grabbed the edge of the table as a rush of power crackled across my skin.

  Rafael growled, clearly feeling it, too.

  “What the hell was that?” Rickshaw demanded.

  “The ley lines,” I whispered. “She’s done it. They’re charged.”

  “Then we’re on the countdown.” Hilfer rushed out of the room.

  I was hot on his heels

  This plan would work. It had to.

  I checked my swords again. The blades extended smoothly and collapsed easily.

  Rafael had his sword in hand and more daggers sheathed at his sides. Guns were a waste of time for us.

  We’d formulated a more direct plan. The task of taking down Shuval fell to Rafael and me. Our only job was to get inside, reach the fortress, and kill that murdering bitch. A gun alone wasn’t going to take her down.

  Relieving her of her head and heart, that’d do the trick. It had to.

  Setting her corpse on fire would seal the deal.

  “It’s taking too long.”

  I sheathed the collapsed swords at my hips, shaking my head at Rickshaw. “Give Todd time. That place is a maze. We don’t want him being seen while he’s looking for Shuval.”

  Rickshaw muttered under his breath and stormed away.

  “You admired that guy, huh?” I asked Rafael as his lips thinned.

  “Used to. Now I’m starting to wonder.”

  Around us was the rest of our makeshift army. The witch covens stood in huddled groups. Their white magic flowed freely around them, strong and pure. I hoped it would be enough to beat back the evil.

  The mages—led by Sycamore—stood near the witches. Together, they had come up with a direct attack against the magical forcefield surrounding Sector 13. Not like we could use the transports to get in.

  Oh, no. We had to do it the old-fashioned way.

  We were clustered at one of the three main entrances into Sector 13. More of us were at the other two, but our main fighting force was here.

  Using the transports would be a terrible idea. For one, they’d be guarded if Shuval was smart, and sadly she was. And secondly, they could be booby-trapped for all we knew. Crashing through the main gates was our best chance to get inside.

  My eyes roamed from the mages and witches to the Federal agents and Rickshaw’s men. Most were in riot gear. Hilfer approached, eyes focused on the gate down the road from us. I expected there to be guards at the top of the wall. There’d been no sign of any yet.

  “You think he was spotted?” Hilfer planted his hands on his hips.

  “Todd was an assassin when he was alive,” I said quietly. “He’ll make it back to us when the time’s right.”

  “You sure about that?”

  The sky darkened, the grey clouds turning an inky black. Thunder rumbled as lightning lit up the streets. It cracked sharply, striking less than a mile away. The wind gusted around us, tearing leaves from trees and creating whirlwinds.

  I watched the sky, waiting.

  “Mercy,” Todd whispered in my ear.

  I swallowed back a yelp. “Well?”

  “The ritual’s started. That Blood Moon’s going to be rising any second now. If you’re going to attack, do it now.”

  “You know where she is?” Rafael asked.

  “The chamber you were in,” Todd said, nodding to me, “there’s another set of doors directly to the back of the room. She’s in there. Another one of those damned dead tree circles.”

  “Which means she’s going to be encased in a magical barri
er.” I blew out a furious breath. “And here I hoped she’d let us waltz in and kill her.”

  Rafael’s grin caught me off guard. Then I was smiling with him. We broke out into laughter.

  Hilfer shook his head. “You two are crazy.”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” I mused. “If the ritual’s started, then we have to move.”

  Hilfer whistled and hustled toward his Hunters. The witches and mages closed ranks. I stayed to the side and out of the way. We could do nothing until they broke through the gate. And they would. There was no room for what ifs.

  Shuval was going to die today.

  Or we were.

  A burst of white magic and mage fire shot toward the gate. It crashed into it like waves against cliffs, rolling back over itself, bashing into the gate repeatedly, gaining more strength with each hit.

  My swords extended to their full length.

  Rafael adjusted the grip on his blade.

  Bowen and Horace were nearby, faces set and ready to kill.

  Even Wesley, that pain in the ass gryphon, was here. And Shep, as ever, was at his side.

  Gigi stood with her coven, her hair blowing wildly around her face and her eyes solid white. We were doing this for her, for everyone with magic running through their veins. For all the races. For all of humanity.

  The storm in the sky intensified, but the rush of power from the mages and witches drowned out the thunder.

  The gate buckled, and the emerald forcefield protecting Sector 13 shimmered, then cracked. Bits of it fell away, after which, it disintegrated. The metal gate shrieked as it was twisted and torn from its hinges.

  One final thrust of magic and the forcefield shot back into the sky with a thunderous roar. The gate was now a mangled hunk of metal on the ground.

  Rafael and I exchanged a look, then took off at a sprint for the open gateway.

  Battle cries echoed behind us.

  I didn’t have to look to know the rest of our forces followed.

  A loud siren, used for state emergencies, wailed the moment we stepped on the streets of Sector 13.

  Gargoyles flew overhead. Shifters in their massive wolf forms rushed to meet our attacking force.