They’re waiting for the Gods, said Kaleal. This is your responsibility if you’re truly ready to bear the mantle of your birth. Geoffrey is your responsibility. His actions reflect on you.
I rubbed my sheathed dagger. As much as I’d preached about finding another way to solve this dilemma, I didn’t know what it said about me anymore that I was seriously considering the idea of slitting his throat. Kaleal was right. He didn’t deserve to live for all the atrocities that he’d committed.
What was almost worse than the executions, was seeing the network helicopter footage of Phenex’s compound reduced to rubble in an earthquake. It was something Geoffrey was quick to blame us for as well, claiming the God of Earth had returned to destroy the evidence of my wrongdoings on my behalf—no matter that the footage of me and Phenex had already been released to the media. Seeing the once-gorgeous castle in ruins had rattled me to my core. I still couldn’t figure out how Geoffrey had done it, but I was convinced he had at least a few of the nero in his grip.
I traced the band that bound me and Maat together. Ryder had shown me how to use my blood to activate the trigger that would signal to the nero I was ready to cash in on what he owed me. He said it would hurt Maat if he didn’t respond, but in the two and a half days since Geoffrey’s threat, I still had yet to hear so much as a whisper.
A door behind us opened and I turned as Pyra clattered down the stairs, her twin shadows in tow. The hilts of the katanas crossed at her back jutted over her shoulders as she adjusted one of her wrist guards. Her red eyes glowed in the early morning light.
“Glad to see I’m not the last one here,” she said around the cigarette tucked in the corner of her mouth. The Fire God had grown quieter, her expressions harder in the hours following the execution. In fact, she’d only spoken to me when we headed for our bedrooms, telling me with callous sincerity that war was about sacrifice and we’d all learned something very valuable that day.
I’d stayed up most of the night thinking about that, wondering about the strangers I’d chosen to surround myself with.
Ryder stroked my braided crown, carefully tucking a loose strand back into place. I hadn’t told him as much, but I was glad he was here with me. I’d come to rely heavily on his unwavering support.
“There was nothing you could have done,” he whispered against my head as if listening to my chain of thoughts. It was also an echo of what he’d told me yesterday. “You could not have anticipated that he would take such extreme actions. Taking the diplomatic approach was the smartest thing you could have done. It shows the world that you tried to reason with him and counters his claims that you act with violence first and ask questions later.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right.” Rose folded her dragonfly wings behind her as she landed on the outside wall of the stairs. Last night, Briar had carefully shaved the fuzz growing on half of her scalp. Her tattooed skin gleamed brightly in the torchlight.
“Thanks, guys,” I said, soaking in their strength. “Let’s get through today.”
“Speaking of,” the pixie said, hooking her thumb around the whip wrapped around her waist, “I have a slight change in plans.”
“Why would you mess with the plan?” Joseph demanded, hopping up the stairs two at a time. He’d gone for a walk earlier, claiming he needed to clear his head. “We carefully laid everything out last night. Everyone agreed on the strategy, and now you’re calling shenanigans?”
“It’s not shenanigans since I’m telling you about it,” she retorted. Briar and Vera dropped beside her, flashing signs that they were ready to go. I frowned. “We need more firepower and I’m going to get some. Three pixies, a handful of Gods, and two weirdos aren’t going to be enough to take on the entire Order.”
“I suppose there’s no stopping you, is there?” I asked, lifting a brow.
Rose swallowed, inky eyes intent. “If you order me to stay, I will. But I’m telling you, as my God, that I have a feeling about this fight. And that feeling is screaming at me to bring backup.”
Ryder removed his arm from around my shoulders and I stood. She crouched on the stone railing to bring us to eye level.
“You know there’s only one way in through the main gate, right? I can’t promise the forcefield they’ve erected over the compound won’t drop down and cut off that channel, too.” I braced my hands on my hips and glanced up at the temple where Oron hovered at the door and then down at the city below, its people getting started with their days. “We hadn’t planned on touching the towers, but —”
“But it will be fine,” the pixie said, flashing her pointed teeth. “You guys will figure it out, bring them down. Have a little faith here. You are a God, after all.”
I shook my head, feeling wildly out of my depth given the extremity of our circumstances. However, I couldn’t say that, not right now, not when everyone was looking to me to lead this assault. Which meant—
“You get your allies, and you get to Rome as fast as you can,” I demanded, gripping her shoulders. “That’s an order.”
“Promedis ad.” She raised her palm and lanced a straight line from the heel to the tip of her middle finger, the sign for commander, and one of weighty respect I didn’t feel like I’d earned.
“You heard the lady,” Rose called to her mates who let out whoops as they launched into the air, wings humming. She tipped a salute with two fingers. “I promise, we’ll be there at noon.”
She better, because that’s when we’d agreed to meet with Geoffrey and turn ourselves over.
The pixie didn’t look back as they vanished into the sky.
When I turned, I shrugged at Joseph who seemed downright thunderous, his chest heaving. He really didn’t like having his carefully laid plans messed with. Finn had emerged at some point and hovered at his side, tugging on his lip ring. As the God of Air collected himself, our small group drew together.
“Would you mind reviewing the plan again?” I asked him. “This time, taking into account that the pixies might not be with us until after we’ve started negotiations?”
He shot me another look, slashing his fingers through his hair, but withdrew a folded document from his bag. We knelt in a circle on the stairs as he flattened the page and started talking.
I snagged Finn’s hand and drew him close as we poured over the map. The steady warmth of his skin and the familiar pulse of his water magic soothed my nerves. The Order headquarters was large and sprawling, built in seclusion on the far outskirts of Rome. The Order owned the land in a one-hundred-mile radius around the facility, ensuring no homes or businesses would be built that could threaten its intense desire for privacy.
The headquarters itself was surrounded on three sides by a cliff that stretched several thousand feet in the air and ended in a long, sheer drop-off. The only way through the cliff was to take a narrow, winding path that ended with a pair of iron gates. Caging in the fourth side was a heavily fortified wall that butted up against the banks of a river that whirred and churned with whitewater rapids. Seven towers that loomed high over the dozens of other buildings that composed the campus. Three of them controlled the magical barrier that formed a forcefield around the city.
“It’s imperative that we bring that forcefield down.” I pointed at the towers in question. “I know we hadn’t planned on destroying the forcefield, but that’s Rose’s only way in if she’s not there when we enter.”
“It’s also our way out if things go badly,” Ryder chimed in. Pyra scoffed. “Not that things will go badly, but you need to consider it as a possibility.”
Oron raised his hand, drawing our attention. With quick, sure signs, he offered to destroy the towers. He figured it would be a simple matter since the structures themselves were likely made of some kind of stone or earth material.
“That works for me,” Joseph said after I translated for Pyra. “It seems like our easiest option right now, and you won’t necessarily need to get close to them to bring them down. That brings us to t
he center of the compound. I assume that’s where Geoffrey will meet us.”
In the center of those buildings was one tower that loomed taller than the rest, the main headquarters that used to house the Council and Geoffrey himself. It was situated next to the training facility and barracks that housed the bulk of the Order army.
The campus was sure to be heavily armed, heavily staffed, and one-hundred percent prepared for us. And we were about to walk in like we owned the place. Granted, we kind of did.
“Everyone clear? I don’t want any mistakes,” Joseph said as he folded the map up again. We collectively nodded, a sense of resolve binding us together.
“You all should be prepared, though,” Pyra said, stubbing out her second cigarette while fixing her intense gaze on me. “There is a possibility that your nero friends could die, or may very well be dead already.”
Tightness clenched in my chest as I brought the branded bracelet to my lips.
I refused to think of that as a possibility.
There was no way Maat’s oath would linger if he were gone.
You need to be ready for anything, Zara, Kaleal chided. This is the biggest battle you’ve fought yet. I guarantee things won’t go as planned.
I shut her out as best I could, though she continued to mutter in the background.
Everyone double-checked their weapons stashes while Ryder prepared himself to teleport. The sensation of his magic buzzed against my skin like static. He’d told me he could handle a group as large as ours since he’d had two months to relearn how to use his magic, and I trusted his abilities. I felt in my pocket for my lighter and Phenex’s knife, then hesitantly squeezed the vial through my shirt.
“Zara?” I blinked at the sound of my name from Ryder’s lips. He was holding out his hand, the unbroken link in our circle of arms and hands. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” No. The answer was a large, resounding no, that I’d never be ready for what was coming. Rather than cave to my doubts, I laced my fingers through his. “Let’s go destroy an empire.”
Chapter 33
The animals and insects knew what was coming.
Our feet kicked up dust on the red-rock path of the canyon. Not a branch stirred, not a single bird chirped. The world had fallen eerily silent, the tension a palpable thing that pressed hard on our inner ears. I tapped first my water bracelet then the brand above it: one a promise to someone else, the other a promise to myself.
Ahead, iron gates rose from the earth like fierce defenders. Emblazoned on the front were the twisted tentacles of the Kraken, the scaly hide of what could be a dragon, the sleek feathers of an eagle, the curved fangs of a ramalia, and other representations of the Great Beasts who’d come before and would long survive our demise. When our toes touched the reaching shadows of the twisted tops of the iron spires, we halted.
“This is it.” I eyed the outpost on top of the cliff and the figures veiled behind the tinted glass. Geoffrey would know we were here. Pyra snapped her fingers, encouraging flames to run down her arms and around her heels. Joseph spun a mass of air around him, kicking up dirt and debris.
At our flank, Finn had already adopted his true form, and smoke curled from his nostrils as he scraped at the ground with his hooves. Ryder flexed his wings as he waited for me. I scanned the skies. No sign of the pixies in the clear, blue expansion.
“I’m not one for fancy speeches,” I said, calling my ice sword to my side, “so I’ll keep it simple: save our allies, take down Geoffrey, and whatever you do, don’t die.”
Pyra grinned toothily, the intensity of her flames growing exponentially as she pulled forth a crown of embers. Oron raised his hand, his twisted mask firmly in place as he examined the gates. The hair on my neck rose when he whistled three somber notes.
With a groan that echoed down the canyon, the cliffs holding the gates upright on their massive hinges shifted, bowing outward. The gates creaked as they took on more of their own weight, but the earth didn’t stop moving, rolling and rumbling as it retreated. Oron’s hand fisted and a screech screamed down the pass as the gates ripped away, their bases hitting the earth with a thud. At first, they stood there, held up by nothing, perfectly balanced, before Joseph hit them with a strong gust of wind. Slowly, they fell away from us and crashed in the compound, a plume of dirt and dust mushrooming up around them.
We moved forward as one before the ground stopped grumbling. Our boots rang out with every step as they crossed the broken doors. Joseph flicked the dust away with a sweep of his hand, revealing a street lined with soldiers on both sides. The black-clad, heavily armored figures clutched guns and swords and crossbows. They stood at attention, and the path they created led right to the core of the complex and the obsidian tower spearing the sky. I spun my sword loosely as the soldiers closed rank behind us. The little display didn’t matter. I could sense the magical barrier closing behind us.
There was no way out.
In the reflective visors of the soldiers’ helmets, I saw my own glowing eyes and those of my companions. Despite what Ryder had cautioned earlier, we all knew there was no leaving this place without a victory.
When we finally reached a clearing at the center of the small city, Pyra was burning so bright it hurt to look at her, and Joseph shook with the force of the tornado he kept contained inside. My eyes narrowed as I took in Geoffrey standing at the center of the clearing.
The man I’d once thought dead—and wished he’d stayed that way.
Behind him, as I’d expected, knelt Maat and three other nero hostages. Cuffs wrapped around their wrists and ankles, chaining them to the ground. Beside them stood a helmeted figure clutching a sword. Maat’s eyes widened as he surveyed us, though the others offered little reaction. Their faces and arms were speckled with blossoming bruises and long, bleeding cuts that made my own blood boil. I still didn’t understand how Geoffrey had captured them. Surely they would have put up a fight that, even with the massive amount of resources at his disposal, he would have had a difficult time countering.
As my fellow Gods lined up shoulder to shoulder, slow clapping filled the square, reverberating off the cobblestoned streets and glossy glass walls of the buildings.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Zara,” Geoffrey called, his hands meeting twice more before lifting toward us in greeting. Behind him, the twisted, spidery column of the primary tower loomed impossibly tall, maybe fifty stories or more. “All of you, in fact. It’s a glorious day in history: the day the Gods surrendered.”
His words had the effect of throwing gasoline on coals.
Not yet, Kaleal whispered, twining herself around my mind in a smoky haze. Not yet.
I choked back the burning sensation and made a show of scanning the buildings and skies. “I can’t help but notice that you didn’t invite any reporters or camera crews to witness such a monumental occasion.” I tapped my chin. “Convenient.”
“Some things are best left for the historians to sort out,” Geoffrey said. “I had a feeling things might get a little… messy.”
“It doesn’t have to.” I took a calculated risk and moved toward my enemy, wicked glee slashed across his scarred face as he matched my strides. “Give us our friends first and I’ll happily turn myself over.”
We stopped mere yards from one another, close enough for me to see how much he’d aged in these past few weeks. Thin lines fanned from his lips and eyes, wrinkling his forehead underneath a thick swatch of dark hair. His back arched, spine slightly twisted from an injury I didn’t remember doling out.
“No,” he spoke with quiet finality, nodding toward the dozens of soldiers surrounding us, weapons at the ready. “I don’t think I’ll be doing that. I don’t trust you and you don’t trust me, but I’ve got something you want, and to get it back, you’ll give me what I need.” He stepped back. Behind him, four figures strode through an opening left between a few of the Order soldiers. These beings weren’t human, nor were they soldiers, if their blue and silver unifor
ms were any indication.
Elves, Kaleal snarled as a woman with milky skin stepped up beside Geoffrey. She hooked her hand in her belt as she examined us. The God inside me recoiled.
But the elves serve no one, she spat furiously, and rarely make themselves known. Take care, Zara, elves are particularly nasty creatures. They can—
“Consider these wonderful individuals my highly specialized, extremely adept special police force,” Geoffrey said, cutting off the voice in my head. “I think you’ll find they’re uniquely situated to counter your own magnificent abilities.”
I glanced at Joseph who lifted his brows a centimeter. He was as in the dark as me.
“It’s truly in your best interest to cooperate. You see those shackles your friends are wearing?” Geoffrey moved toward the nero, leaving me with the cluster of fey that made my skin crawl. “Those are specially crafted by the elves, unique creations designed to bind magic to the user. Once in place, they’re immobilized, their magic harnessed. The cuffs are powerful enough to even hold back the torrents of power inherent to, well, you.”
The woman I’d noticed before tugged a set of cuffs from a pouch at her hip. My magic recoiled from the metal as if burned. The three other fey removed similar cuffs, eyes fixed on the Gods lined up behind me.
“Time to put this ordeal behind us, Zara,” Geoffrey said, waving at the figure standing with the nero. He removed his helmet, revealing a fifth elf who drew the gleaming rapier at his side. Without hesitation, he wrapped his fingers deep in Maat’s hair, tugging his head back and pressing his blade against the sun-darkened skin. I barely contained a snarl as the woman unraveled the cuffs before me and dangled them tauntingly. “Surrender peacefully and I’ll let them go. You have my word.”
The steel in my spine hardened as I calculated the situation, taking in all the players, their motives, even the addition of the elves who we certainly hadn’t expected. I turned to my fellow Gods, the bravado stark on Pyra’s hungry face and the quiet resolve on Joseph’s. As one, they inclined their heads and a small tremble trickled through me.
Fan the Flame Page 21
