by Ben Hale
Unbridled wrath amplified her voice, causing him to recoil again. Doubt flitted across his features, and she bombarded the gap with curses. Then Keidon's expression filled with malice, and he cast a single imaging curse. Iris's shield stopped the damage, but the image made it through.
And she saw her mother.
Iris hadn't heard from Trina since Alice had been ejected from Auroraq. With Alice controlling her magic, Trina had been forced to join the Harbingers against Iris. Now it appeared she had tried to escape.
Bound in gravity chains, Trina's expression appeared weak, yet defiant. She knelt in a darkened cell, staring at the orb of pulsing magic in Alice's hands. Her cheek twitched, and she licked her lips as she yearned for the return of her power.
"You will kill your daughter," Alice commanded softly. "Or you will never feel your magic again."
Trina clenched her eyes shut and jerked her head. "Even my magic is not worth harming my children." Her tone wavered but carried enough steel that Alice sighed in regret.
"I believe you," Alice said quietly, and then motioned to Varson.
He smiled as he stepped from the shadows and raised his hand to strike. Trina issued a small smile before the blow fell. Then her dead form fell to the ground, and Alice turned away in disgust.
"Go to the Spirus and finish this," she said. "Keidon will handle Iris . . .”
Iris snapped back to the present with two omnipresent thoughts. Keidon meant to use this memory to break her—and in the end her mother had fought for her. Her gaze settled on Keidon and his confident sneer faded.
"You will die like your mother," he shouted, but his voice echoed shrill and empty.
"Not from you," Iris said.
Empowered by her mother's defiance, she struck him. He screamed as energy ripped into his skull. Sparks exploded across her body and streaked toward him, merging with the magic assaulting his mind. Her eyes turned purple as she poured her magic into a single spell.
"You cannot defeat me!"
The fear in his voice was evident as she stalked forward. He sent a barrage of attacks, but she swatted each aside and closed the gap. Then she raised her hands and summoned the threads her army had been feeding her. Purple sparks coalesced into a wicked scythe of pure, flowing energy. She screamed as she swung it.
He raised his hands as if to block it, but the blow passed through them. The scythe continued on through his body—and every shred of magic surrounding his form winked out. He crumpled to the floor, his eyes wide in disbelief. The magic coming from him faded into nothingness.
"You lack the power to perform a horrending hex," he mumbled.
The energy scythe disintegrated as she released the threads back to her army, and she sank to her knees. "You're right," she said. "But I can sever your body from your mind. Without it you cannot feel the threads." She flashed a grim smile. "Enjoy the silence, Keidon."
She rose and walked away, leaving Keidon with the awful realization of his future. He had been paralyzed from the neck down, and his magic was gone. His cry of anguish reverberated around the chamber, echoing loud through the sudden quiet.
With the rock trolls and the MIO task force, Harry had gone down. Upon his death his body had reverted back to the balding, overweight man. Nearby, Elena had suffered a similar fate. Dozens of corpses littered the ground around her, and Agent Pierce lay slumped against the wall, alive, but fighting for breath. Darting through the carnage, Iris raced to where Jack had fallen and caught a thread.
TESS! Jack is hurt!
***
Tess Gated directly into the map room, and her eyes widened in shock. Bodies and chunks of fading magic littered the chamber. Half the map had gone dark, and most of the techno walls had been reduced to sparks and shards of magic. Then she spotted Iris. Leaping into the air, Tess bolted to her.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"Varson called for Jack to surrender. Jack refused."
Tess wobbled in the air and touched a wall to steady herself. Then she turned a corner and spotted her dad. Surging ahead, she alighted at his side. Her frame went rigid as she saw the extent of the damage to his body.
Kate appeared in the broken window. Carried by Stel, she landed hard, and Stel collapsed off to the side, his little body trembling with fatigue. With a shaking hand, Kate touched Jack's neck, and her face went white.
"His pulse is weak." Her mom's eyes sought hers. "Can you heal him?"
The desperation in her voice felt like a physical blow. "I'll try," Tess said in a strangled voice, and blinked into her magesight.
And saw the truth.
Tears blossomed to her eyes as she saw the extent of the damage. Burns covered most of his body, and several bones were broken. Two of his ribs had caved in, puncturing his lungs. Her hands trembled as she placed them on his burned flesh.
"It's too much." Tess choked the words out.
Fear gripped her, but she used her magic to seal the worst of the wounds and ease the pain. He groaned in relief, and his eyes fluttered open. Angry tears leaked from Kate's eyes and she turned to look at him.
"You promised you would survive, Jack."
"I promised that Tess would."
"I'm here, Dad," she said, and clasped his hand, shocked by the weakness to the grip. His eyes sought hers, and were surprisingly clear.
"Ignite the oil," he said, his voice faint.
"I don't know what you mean," Tess said as tears wetted her cheeks.
"Ignite the oil, Tess," he said. "It's the only way to stop . . ."
"Jack," Kate's voice was barely a whisper. "I need you."
His hand shook as he raised it to her cheek. "I love you, Kate."
"I love you too." Her voice was barely audible.
"Dad . . .," Tess pleaded, "I can't do this without you."
His eyes closed, but opened again to look at her. The light was fading, and helplessness bound her like steel shackles. How could she be the oracle and unable to stop this!
"I love you, Tess," he mumbled. "You're the reason I was fighting. You're the reason everyone is fighting . . ."
Tears filled Tess's vision, and she wiped them aside with the back of her hand. Her emotions tore through her like shrapnel, puncturing her heart and mind.
"I love you, Dad."
Her throat hurt. Everything hurt. How could this be happening! Her mental scream went unanswered.
A small smile appeared on his lips. "Keep us free, Tess . . ."
The light faded, and his body relaxed. Tess clenched her eyes shut against the truth, but it did not stop the tears. She fought to breathe, fought to think, fought to scream. Nothing came out. After an eternity Kate reverently place his hand down and moved to Tess's side. Kate's arms slid around her shoulders, but it only magnified the rending of her soul.
"I couldn't save him."
Kate held her. "No one could."
The grief in her voice sent a lance through Tess's wounded heart. Tess had failed her father, her mother, her family. How had she not foreseen this? Wasn't that exactly what she was supposed to do? But she knew it wasn't. Her fear for her parents fate would have closed off their future from her farsight. Guilt washed over her as she realized her lack of courage had cost her father his life.
"I should have stopped this." She bit the words off with a rancor that surprised even her.
Kate caught her shoulders and forced Tess to meet her gaze. "You don't have the power to stop everything."
Iris spoke from the hall. "She's right, Tess."
The sadness to her tone caused Tess to look up at her. Then she saw the anguish in Iris's expression, and knew it mirrored her own. Reaching out to her, Tess drew Iris to her side.
"It will be okay," she whispered to herself, and then again in her mind. It will be okay. She kept repeating it, over and over again until the words filled her mind and a numbness filled her soul. It didn't make a difference, and eventually the words changed.
It will never be okay.
Part 4
&nbs
p; Chapter 35: Wrath of Oracles
Time passed, and Tess did not move. Rage and grief grappled within her, leaving her numb and raw. Then she heard a voice.
"I'm sorry, Tess," Siarra said. "But we have to go."
"Where have you been?" Tess asked. Even though she knew it wasn't Siarra’s fault, she couldn't keep the anger from her voice. If Siarra had been here . . .
"I'm sorry for your loss, young one," Siarra said quietly.
Her regret drew Tess's gaze, and Tess blinked in surprise. Covered in wounds, Siarra stared at Jack's body, her features tight with sadness. The expression deflated Tess's anger, and reminded her that she wasn't the only one who had lost a loved one.
"Where were you?"
"I lack the time to explain," Siarra said. "We must go."
"Where?" Tess asked as she rose to her feet with Iris and her mother.
"The southern flank has no army. If we fail to act it will be over."
"She's right," Iris said. "The hole is hundreds of miles. What can you do?"
"I know not," Siarra replied, "but we cannot allow our foe to claim victory."
Kate squeezed Tess's hand. "Go. I'll take care of him," she said.
A wave of emotion swelled within Tess, but it did not evoke tears. Her eyes fell on the second body in the room, and her grief hardened into anger. The rage swept across her frame with so much heat that a fever burned her skin. Her arms trembled with the desire to strike at Alice. Then she remembered her father's words.
Ignite the oil . . .
She hadn't understood before, but now the words brought back a memory. When she was a little girl they had gone on vacation to visit some friends in east Texas. While there Jack had taken Tess to see an oil rig.
"How much oil is down there?" Tess had asked, fascinated with the machinery.
Jack had smiled. "The reservoir it draws from is half the size of the state . . .”
Ignite the oil.
All her rage and anger settled into a resolve so hard she tasted steel. "I know what to do," she said and turned to the door. Siarra fell into step beside her.
"Tess?" Kate called.
Tess turned on the threshold to see her mother's hardened features.
"Burn them to ashes," she said.
"You can count on it."
Two minutes later Tess and Siarra rose into the air above the Halo of Dawn, and hovered at the Gate. Iris stepped into the firing sphere of the weapon and called up to them.
"Are you certain you can do your part?" Siarra asked.
"They killed my dad," Tess said evenly. "I'm not going to fail. Iris, make sure we're on target."
A moment later the sun lit the horizon. As the sun rose the weapon beneath them began to brighten. Fire and light coalesced as the asunder hex and the meteor charm came together. Then it fired in a mighty eruption of heat and blinding light.
Wrapped in a heat shield, Tess and Siarra were engulfed in fire as it disappeared through the Gate—and reappeared in the sky above Texas. Falling with the churning ball of fire, Tess heard Siarra through the mental link.
Follow my lead.
Drawing on the energy all around them, Tess and Siarra altered the huge ball of fire. The colors of magic arced into view and merged until they became the powerful white magic. As it fused with the fireball it began to change shape.
The front extended and tightened, sharpening until the enormous ball resembled a bullet. Orange fire gradually brightened to pure white and shimmered with power. As they passed fifteen thousand feet the meteor had become a fifty foot projectile that burned at over four thousand degrees.
Fire blossomed at their passage, igniting the air in a trail that extended to the Gate far above. Tongues of fire burst into view and curled away into ash. Then the air around the shaft began to spin, darkening into a massive cyclone. Instead of drawing upward, the enormous tornado sucked downward, speeding the projectile until it emitted an ominous whine. The sound continued to rise until it erupted in a tremendous boom.
The tornado briefly ballooned outward as the projectile breached the sound barrier. Then it tightened further. Standing at the top of the supreme weapon, Tess held the magic together with an iron will, her mind fused with Siarra's. Fueled by the image of her dying father, she poured every ounce of power she possessed into the weapon.
This is for you, Dad.
Just before it struck the Earth, she and Siarra dived free. Tumbling through the tornado wall, she managed to right herself in time to witness the impact. The massive projectile struck the earth and disappeared from view. Rocks and a nearby road were tossed into the air as the ground rippled away from the epicenter.
Tess flew to Siarra and they rose together. The seconds passed, and Tess looked to the wall of Dark rising a hundred miles south of them. Hoping and praying their efforts had worked, Tess dropped her gaze to the ground . . .
And saw it shudder.
Rumbling like an earthquake had struck, the Earth trembled. Far beneath, the enchanted drill had pierced the massive oil reservoir—and kept going. Seconds later it struck the molten magma beneath the earth.
Oil cascaded down the steaming column until it reached the burgeoning magma, exploding a pocket out of the compressed rock. The hole allowed more oil and magma to touch, igniting a larger hole and sending a ripple through the ground. On the surface, Tess and Siarra turned and streaked away as the ground reacted to what was happening beneath.
Hundreds of miles of Earth lifted and then settled. A moment later it heaved, and the quake could be felt all the way to the Stacks. By then the cavern in the Earth had grown sufficiently to allow the entire billion-gallon reservoir to seep toward the magma . . .
The state of Texas shattered, sending chunks of rock skyward faster than a bullet from a gun. Millions of Twisted were incinerated in a blast so massive the entire tectonic plate shook.
Cities like Dallas were erased, snuffed out of existence in the span of a heartbeat. Roads, abandoned homes, and trees burst apart into motes of sand, twisted metal, and slivers of charred wood. Then the other half of the oil field detonated.
The southern coast of United States exploded into oblivion. Huge portions of the ground disappeared in a wall of fire, ash, and soil. The ocean in the Gulf of Mexico recoiled from the blast—and then poured into the gaping wound the blast had left. As lingering pockets of the massive oil field continued to explode, the water burst into steam on contact with the extreme heat.
Clouds of vaporized ocean water rose into the sky, joining the dark cloud of ash and soot that had begun to drift west. Superheated by the magma, the tremendous plume of steam became a lethal barricade, causing the Dark to grind to a halt. Tess witnessed the expanding carnage from ten miles north.
"Southern flank is closed," Tess said.
The bitterness in her voice was strong enough to taste. Her entire vision could not capture the sheer breadth of the destruction they had wrought, yet it failed to fill the void in her heart. Then she recalled how Siarra had disappeared.
"What are you keeping from me?"
Siarra stared at her for several seconds, measuring her. Then she let out a breath. "Alice had been preparing a way to live forever."
Tess's eyes widened. "Is that possible?"
"It is called the Immortals curse," Siarra admitted. "But the cost is heavy."
"I don't understand."
"If Alice had been killed her mind would have transferred to the Immortalian. With flesh made of magic, she would have lived for an eternity."
Tess felt a tightening in her chest at that prospect. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Hawk did not wish to burden you further," Siarra said. "Our weight is heavy, and cannot be carried by another. I have done what I could to aid you, but our foe remains. If we do not emerge victorious, she will certainly find a way to complete her quest."
Alice.
The name echoed through Tess's mind like profanity. Was there no limit to her ambition? Was it not enough for her to deci
mate the population of Earth and enslave the survivors? How many had to die before her thirst for dominance would be quenched? She thought of her father, who had stood defiant until his final breath. Her hands balled into fists, and her anger burst across her once more.
No refuge on Earth would protect Alice now. Not the Dark, not her legions of Twisted, not even her generals. Nothing on Earth would stop Tess from exacting the full measure of justice from Alice. With fire burning in her veins, Tess caught a speck of energy and Gated them both back to Auroraq.
It was time to end it.
Chapter 36: All-Seeing Iris
After watching Tess and Siarra go through the Halo, Iris returned to the command center to wait. She paused on the threshold. They had defeated Varson, but the victory had come at a cost. A third of the generals lay dead, and much of the techno walls had been destroyed. She closed her eyes as she thought of her mother.
After Iris's father had left, Trina had fallen into the threads and not come out. Derek had been forced to place their mother into a facility that could care for her. Iris had visited often, but Trina never came back to reality. Then Alice had stripped Trina of her magic and sent her to convince Tess and Iris to join her. They had refused, and Trina had joined the Harbingers. Now she was dead. A hollow pit opened in Iris’s gut, and she felt an ache for the mother she had never truly known.
For the first time in years, the voices of her techno friends were quiet—not because she could not hear them, but because they had voluntarily withdrawn. It was the greatest gift a techno mage could give another. As the battlemages floated the dead out of the room, Iris turned away. The motion caused her to wince.
"Let me take a look at those," a voice said, and she turned to find Quad standing by her side.
"I'm fine."
"Have you seen yourself?"
Iris shook her head. Too busy watching people die.
Ignoring Iris's protests, Quad pulled a bottle of All Purpose Wound Filler and began to squeeze drops into Iris's wounds.
"They're not that bad," Iris said through clenched teeth.
