High in the air, above New Perth, the two mages stared at one another.
“Don’t forget, Riley. My orbs are up here too. Not inside this globe, but you can’t stop them, and when they explode, everyone beneath you is going to die. You see, you’ve already lost, you just don’t know it.”
Believe, Riley thought. Believe and stand true.
“All this talk, but I’m tired of the yip-yap. Time to die, Rendal.”
Riley threw her sword and it streaked forward blade-first, a fiery trail rippling behind it. The sword swerved right when it reached Rendal, circling around and around and also moving up and down. The flaming sword was creating a cocoon of fire around the dark mage.
Riley barreled forward, more flames blazing from her hands.
Rendal tried to drop below the flames but Riley thrust her hands forward and more fire met him. It hit the mage in the shoulder, causing him to spin toward the outer globe.
Laughter boomed around Riley—the sound of gods laughing.
She paused in her flight, the sword pausing as well.
Rendal spun to her. He was laughing, his voice projecting through the air. His shoulder was bare and bleeding, the bracelet on his wrist pulsing bright red.
“You can’t beat me, girl. These are mere parlor tricks.” His voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, easily as oppressive as the heat surrounding her.
He’s trying to psyche you out. That’s the point of all of this.
“Watch, and you’ll see real power.”
The mage waved his hand above his head, and a patch of the fiery globe disappeared. Riley stared through it and saw an orb floating in the air to the right.
She knew what was about to happen.
No!
Riley launched herself upwards, her hand extending and her sword hailing to it.
She saw the small patch of flames started to reform itself, hoping to keep her in. Riley burst through it, her clothes catching fire. She didn’t care.
The orb was in front of her now, blinking wildly. Riley sliced at it with her sword, cutting the thing in half. It fell through the globe below, catching fire as it did.
A cooling field rolled across Riley’s body, killing the flames that still sputtered on her clothing.
“Look around you, girl. There are orbs everywhere. You cannot possibly stop them all.”
The voice boomed from inside the globe. Rendal was still in there.
Riley looked around. There were blinking orbs strung across the sky.
One, a hundred yards away from her, exploded. Fire rained down, and Riley watched as it engulfed both people and buildings, destroying everything it touched.
“There’s nothing you can do, bitch. It’s all over.”
No, Riley thought. That’s not true. It’s what he wants you to believe, but you know the truth. You know all you have to do is believe in yourself, and you can kill him.
The fiery globe had closed again, and as she looked into the distance, another explosion lit the sky. More people would die beneath it. She had to stop him now.
Riley dropped back into the globe, this time using a forcefield to keep the fire from singing her.
Rendal’s face was grim.
“Wanted me to run around the sky chasing your little bombs, didn’t ya?” Riley asked. “That way you could distract me.”
Rendal said nothing, only shot his hands forward and sent electricity flying toward her.
Riley launched herself at Rendal, sending her own electricity back at him.
The two currents slammed into each other, a thunderous roar echoing across the sky.
Riley felt Rendal’s strength, his magic pressing into hers.
Believe, she thought.
Riley moved forward inch by inch, the strands from her electricity ensnaring his.
It’s working. It’s fucking working!
It was; Riley was moving forward, and Rendal’s space and power were being reduced. He was faltering.
Her brow was covered in sweat, and as she looked around, she saw that the globe was closing in on them. Rendal was bringing it closer, wanting to burn her to death if he couldn’t electrocute her.
“Try what you want, Rendal,” she gritted out. “It’s over.”
Riley was five feet away now.
She knew what to do. It was the same thing she’d done with Eric when they’d battled on that ladder.
Riley dropped. Her electricity died and Rendal’s streaked through the air, missing her completely.
Within half a second, Riley rocketed back up, this time behind Rendal.
He saw her coming and began turning, but he was too slow. He’d just managed to face her when Riley plunged her sword into his gut.
His mouth opened as if to speak, but no words came out.
The two mages floated in the air, staring at each other. A stream of blood rolled over his lips.
“All the evil you did, Rendal? It had nothing to do with magic. All you cared about was power. Power over New Perth. Power over me. And now you have none. It was all such a waste.”
Rendal tried to smile, and it was a gruesome, bloody thing.
“Even now, you’re incapable of goodness,” Riley whispered.
She felt her sword growing heavy, and she knew what was about to happen. None of the nanocytes in his bracelet could stop it.
Rendal started to fall, and Riley pulled her sword out. The red in his eyes faded, his body heading toward the kingdom below. Riley looked up at the globe. The fire was disappearing, and large patches of blue sky were visible in its place.
Rendal’s reign of magical terror was finished.
William threw a man off him, sending the guard flying ten feet from the platform. He knew what was happening above, but also that he couldn’t control it. He had to protect the Prefect.
The battle was ferocious, Rendal’s men fighting tooth and nail.
Soldiers kept rushing onto the platform, but William, Alexandra, Worth, and Eric were managing to hold them off.
Barely.
“When she gets down from playing around in the sky, I’m gonna kill her!” William shouted as another guard came from his right.
He battered the man’s sword away with his (he’d stolen the late Harold’s), then grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off his feet.
“Worth, are you doing anything over there?!” he called.
“Worth beating them all!”
William laughed, smashing the soldier in the head with the hilt of his sword and tossed him off the platform.
“Look!”
It was Alexandra, and she’d turned her face to the sky.
“I ain’t got time to look up there! I’m too busy saving your asses!” William shouted back. Yet, as he stared around the platform, he saw no other soldiers were attempting to climb up. The entire crowd was staring into the sky.
William turned his head as well.
The globe of fire was dying, and…
“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” William screamed.
He went to his left, grabbing Mason and Goland by their collars.
He hopped off the platform just in time.
Rendal’s body crashed into it, the blocks beneath him breaking and sending up a plume of dust into the air.
William looked back into the sky.
The globe was gone, but Riley remained in its place. The orbs had disappeared, all of them dropping with their master—and apparently unable to explode in the air without him to control them. Some had gone off when they hit the ground and fires were roaring in other parts of the kingdom, but most had simply fallen.
Still using magic, flying above the entire kingdom, Riley’s voice soared across the square.
“If you served that dark mage, leave now. Do not go to your homes or places of rest. Do not take a single item. Flee this kingdom and never return, for you will get no more opportunities. If you served Rendal Hemmons in any capacity and you’re still in this kingdom by nightfall, your life is forfeit.”
William watched as people started to flee—men and women alike. They didn’t try to fight him or anyone else, only saw the blonde woman flying in the sky and knew they had no chance.
“She’s such a damned showoff,” William grumbled.
“You think you can let us go?” Mason asked.
William looked to his left, realizing that he was still holding the Assistant Prefect by his collar. “Oh, sorry, sir.”
He released both men and turned away from the platform.
“It’s like a stampede,” he said. “Buncha cowards running now that their leader is dead.”
William glanced at the platform as Riley landed. She stared at the body for a few moments, although William couldn’t see it from his vantage point.
“You finally kill him?” he joked.
She nodded, her face hard.
“Took ya long enough.”
That got a smile out of her, and she walked toward the edge.
Worth, Alexandra, and Eric came around the side, meeting William.
“You magic,” Worth said with a grin. “Told you. You magic.”
Riley nodded. “You did tell me. Thank you, Worth. For everything.”
“Eric!”
William whipped around, recognizing the voice.
It was Erin.
She was beautiful, rushing across the square toward her son. She reached him and swept him into a fierce hug. Eric embraced her back.
“Stop drooling, chubby,” Riley said as she hopped off the platform.
“Hush yer trap,” he told her but didn’t take his eyes off Erin.
After she finished hugging her son, she turned to him. “How are ya?” Her smile was brilliant, and William couldn’t help but give her one in return.
“My lady, are you okay?”
“Oh, Father and Mother save us all! Will you two just get married already?” Riley laughed.
William felt his face turning red, but he didn’t say anything.
“Go on,” Worth whispered. “Time for you to be man.”
And damn it, it was.
William walked across the space separating them, took Erin in her arms, and kissed her.
“Whoo!” Riley shouted.
The two kids scurried up, Lucie coming with them.
“Get a room!” Kris yelled.
“Disgusting!” Brighten added.
“I’d wash my mouth out with soap if I were you,” Lucie said.
William finished his kiss, looked at the three of them, and said with a massive grin, “As soon as I’m done here, you’re all dead.”
Then he kissed the beautiful woman again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Riley was on one knee, her head bowed.
William was to her left, his head down as well.
“You know he’s just making you a second Right Hand because he doesn’t want you to feel bad, right?” Riley whispered.
“I know that while you were up there playing pattycake with Rendal in the sky, I was keeping Mason and Goland safe,” William replied.
“Can you two please hush?” Mason whispered harshly from the throne.
Riley giggled, then grew quiet.
They were at court. A month had passed since Rendal’s insane reign had ended. Almost all of those who followed him had taken Riley’s advice, scattering to the winds. The others? Well, they had gotten what Riley had told them they would.
Alexandra had returned to the Chosen to gather the remaining people and bring them back to New Perth.
A week ago, Goland Ire had stepped down as Prefect, and his son had ascended the throne.
Which had left William in an awkward place—more or less without a job.
Riley had laughed and laughed.
“You’re going to end up homeless and starving, chubby!”
“There’s no way you can work for anyone else. I mean, who would hire you? You’re big, clumsy, and can’t take orders for shit. Too stubborn!”
William had looked like he was going to bash her brains in, but Riley couldn’t help herself.
Of course, Mason had told Riley what was actually going to happen. Mason would have two Right Hands, and when Mason sired a son, William would serve him.
“He’ll serve my family as long as he wants to,” he’d explained.
Now the two of them knelt before Mason, joking like kids in front of the entire court.
“Have you asked her to fucking marry you yet?” Riley asked, lowering her voice even more.
“Don’t make me kill you right here,” William growled. “Not like this, in front of all these people.”
“You need to do it, and soon. That’s too pretty of a woman. Someone’s going to sweep her up.”
Mason stood from his throne and walked down the steps to the floor. “You two make any kind of ceremony ridiculous, you know that right? You’re whispering like the whole damn place doesn’t hear you. Erin is over there grinning her face off right now, listening to the two of you talk about her.”
William groaned, and Riley saw his face flush.
“Sorry, chubby.” She smiled.
“Dead to me.”
“Let’s get this over with before I’m removed from power,” Mason said. “Looks like I’m running a damn mockery of the court.”
He sounded angry, but Riley knew he wasn’t.
“As Prefect of New Perth, leader and ruler of the kingdom, it is my duty and honor to appoint a new Right Hand to serve and protect me. William Teller, you served my father with distinction for many years. Do you remember the oath you took before him?”
“I do, your Grace.”
“Do you reaffirm that oath to me? To protect me, my family, New Perth, and its citizens against all enemies, domestic and foreign?”
“I do, your Grace.”
Mason took his sword from its sheath and touched it to each of William’s shoulders. “Rise, Right Hands.”
Both Riley and William stood.
“Turn around and meet your kingdom…as if they don’t already know you two.”
The Right Hands turned and looked at the small crowd. Lucie, Brighten, and Kris. Worth. Alexandra. Erin and Eric.
Our family, Riley thought.
At that moment, she thought of another person.
Linda.
The woman across the continent who’d told Riley that to beat Rendal, she had to believe. Riley knew that William hated her, although he hadn’t mentioned her since everything had ended. Riley didn’t do so now.
Looking at the happy faces before her, Riley recognized the truth. Linda had told her exactly what she needed to hear. She’d done everything perfectly, from psychic magic to belief, to saying Riley wasn’t ready.
It had all been orchestrated so that she could defeat Rendal.
Riley wished she was here to see this. That she knew Riley had won.
I see it.
The three words were simple, and they were spoken to no one else in the room but Riley. She knew the voice.
It was Linda’s.
Riley smiled.
“Ah, the hell with it,” William grumbled.
Riley shook her head, coming back to reality.
“This don’t go well, it’s your fault, skinny.”
He didn’t look at her as he marched across the room.
Heading straight for Erin.
Riley’s eyes widened.
William got down on one knee and pulled a ring from his pocket.
“My lady, can I have your hand in marriage?”
Erin squealed. Squealed. Riley had never heard the woman make such a sound.
“Yes!” She reached down and tugged William upward, then kissed him hard on the lips.
Mason walked over to Riley. “He had that ring on him. The bastard has been planning this, huh?”
Riley was grinning, her hands folded across her chest like a schoolgirl. She was almost too happy to speak. “He’s been planning it since the moment he met her.”
Riley and Mason walked
over to the couple, the crowd growing bigger around them.
As she put her arms around the newly engaged pair, she knew the nightmare was over.
Peace had come to New Perth.
Epilogue
Rendal was dead, and that made Linda very, very happy.
She’d watched it happen from her ruined city. She’d concentrated extremely hard and found her way across the continent, all the way to New Perth.
She had watched the young woman battle the old man. Riley might not have believed, but Linda did. She knew the Right Hand would come around eventually. It would happen when her back was against the wall and she had no choice but to prevail.
Linda felt like maybe she hadn’t let Ezekiel down. Perhaps it had just taken her this long to achieve what he wanted—magic spreading across the kingdom in a positive way.
Maybe she had done exactly what she was supposed to.
A month and a half after Rendal’s death, Linda left her house and began walking the deserted streets. The moon was high in the sky, shining through the partial cloud cover. She could hear the beach lapping lazily on the shore in the distance, but the rest of the night was still.
Something was bothering Linda for the first time since Rendal died. She didn’t know what it was, but it was like an itch in the middle of her back that she just couldn’t reach.
Something’s wrong, she thought.
No, that’s just me being a worrisome old nag. An old biddy, as that William would call me.
Yet, she didn’t believe that. Her intuition was usually right.
Linda kept walking, minutes turning into hours. She hardly saw the streets before her or the buildings around her. Her mind was focused because the itch wouldn’t leave.
She reached the crumbling statue where William had confronted her and sat down.
Her eyes turned red, and her mind swept out across the land.
She remained like that for long minutes, searching.
Finally, she found what had been bothering her incessantly, and her mouth dropped open.
Does anyone else see this? she wondered.
She didn’t think anyone did.
Miles to the south, Linda was witnessing something truly awful.
She saw three mages standing in the desert. Fire streaked out from their feet, forming a triangle.
Magic Unchained (Hand Of Justice Book 4) Page 17
