Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and Epic Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  “Why didn’t you do that before?” Wash whispered sharply to the spirit inside him.

  He wouldn’t make the cliff. The first grenade had done enough damage that he couldn’t run, so he hobbled. The familiar roar of a massive engine echoed down the drive. He glanced over his shoulder.

  Agathon’s SUV tore down the road, spitting dirt behind its tires.

  Fourteen

  The Fort was old, as was the grounds around it. But it didn’t move. The spirit that inhabited it had great power, within its walls, but not on the grounds.

  With Hetepheres stalking Wash like a villain from an old B-movie, Cait didn’t have time to summon anything from farther away. The moment the witch touched him, she would open a connection to Osiris and drain Wash dry.

  “Faster,” she cried smacking the dash with her hands.

  Agathon gunned it. The engine roared as he tore down the last few hundred meters. She caught a glimpse of Wash falling to his knees.

  There had to be a way to…

  The spirit.

  “Hold on,” Agathon shouted.

  There were three vehicles blocking the dirt road. Hetepheres wasn’t alone. An Osiris Corp. Security team was with her—at least a half dozen that she could see, but their black armor made it near impossible to pick them out against shadowed ground.

  Agathon rammed the first vehicle in line. Sparks exploded out of the front of the vehicle as his SUV blasted the front end of the compact vehicle.

  The sudden impact jarred Cait against her safety restraints. She hadn’t yet recovered when Agathon slammed into the second one. The other vehicle’s doors crumpled like beer cans at a pool party.

  “Take out the goons, I’ll handle the witch,” she told Agathon, popping her harness open. He gave her a short nod and burst out of the doors before the vehicle haulted.

  In the headlights, Agathon almost glowed as he snapped his hands out, forming the arcane blade and shield.

  The goons didn’t wait for orders, they turned their compact automatic guns on him. Hundreds of bullets exploded into the air.

  Caitlin counted to five, making sure the guards were focused on Agathon before leaping out of the SUV. She hit the ground rolling, popping back up and running at the high priest, one hand on her astéri, opening the path she desperately hoped would save Wash.

  Agathon’s laugh rang out. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him dance between the bullets, his shield deflecting those he couldn’t dodge, his sword cutting others in half. It was beautiful, in a violent way. The gunfire turned to screams as he made his way to melee range.

  “Hetepheres, get away from him you bitch!” Caitlin let loose with a bolt of power, summoning it through her link and channeling it through her body. The arcane energy burned where it passed through. Blue light flashed and the ground in front of the High Priestess of Osiris exploded in a shower of dirt and debris.

  Hetepheres turned, unruffled. “My Lord Osiris has no argument with the peace-loving people of Atlantis, Caitlin Vnois. Leave now and this will be forgotten.”

  Caitlin wanted nothing more than to wipe the smug look off the witch’s face, but when it came to pure arcane power, Hetepheres outmatched her.

  Without any spirits of real power nearby, Caitlin had very little else to fight with. The energy she could channel from her astéri was limited, as was her own energy.

  She skirted past Hetepheres, giving her as wide a margin as possible, to come stand by Wash.

  “Get up,” she told him.

  Hetepheres’ eyes narrowed at her. “This is your last warning. My Lord Osiris is a merciful God, but he won’t tolerate interference. The mortal is in possession of something that doesn’t belong to him. We will free him of his burden.”

  “You mean you’ll kill him,” Caitlin spat back, helping Wash to his feet. As soon as their skin touched a vibration leaped up between them. The hairs all over her body stood on end.

  She looked beyond the Priestess. Agathon dealt with the last guard, knocking him down to the ground and slamming the side of his head with his now edgeless sword.

  “You’re alone here, Hetepheres,” Caitlin bluffed, playing for time. “Your guard is gone, and we outnumber you three to one. Time to call it a day.”

  The witch laughed a deep, throaty laugh. “You think you outnumber the High Priestess of a God? Your time on the lost isle has addled your memory, little elf. Your father is a charlatan pretender. Osiris’ power comes from within him. He doesn’t rely on paltry tricks or ancient technology. He is power.”

  The air crackled around her. Wind sprang from nowhere, a howling gale that whipped Caitlin’s hair around and filled the air with debris. A crack of thunder split the air, shaking the ground. Caitlin clung to Wash’s arm to maintain her balance.

  “You have made your choice, little elf,” came a voice, words echoing from all around her. The air grew heavy, and rain poured down on them, soaking them instantly. The curtain of water blocked out everything—light, Agathon, Hetepheres. Nothing but darkness, rain, and cold.

  Nothing but Wash’s hand in hers.

  “I’m here,” his voice whispered, near her ear.

  “Do you trust me?” she shouted over the sound of the rain.

  “Of course,” came his reply.

  “Then hold me.”

  His arms wrapped around her, pulling her close, even as the vibration between them rattled every part of her.

  Squeezing her eyes shut, Caitlin willed her soul outward. The physical world vanished, along with all sensation. The astral world appeared lit up like a thunderstorm. The magic Hetepheres channeled, burned through the sky to crash down around them.

  Wash held her close, his face buried in her hair. He was trying to protect her as best he could, and she loved him for that.

  But she didn’t need Wash. She needed what was inside him.

  Come out! she commanded.

  Wash’s spectacular aura sparkled as the spirit within him emerged. The man she knew as Thomas Washington vanished, replaced by a towering statue of perfect gold and only the barest of features.

  “She’s here because of you,” she said to the spirit.

  The figure nodded. “Of course. As is your Thomas Washington.”

  “You brought him here?”

  “No. Osiris did. He is a being of great power, but his power, like yours and mine, has rules. As long as a greater power is near—the spirit pointed at his own chest—he can never truly be great again.”

  Caitlin recalled the vast feeling of depth she felt when last she encountered the spirit.

  Her astéri led to the elven heart, a magical battery so powerful only the magical energy of the world could feed it. When that magic faded, the energy in the astéri bled to the rest of the world. The elves relied on their power for their abilities and their long life.

  Without the astéri, they would have all died thousands of years before. It was why they sank the island, they couldn’t stay on the surface without their elven star bleeding its energy into the empty world.

  Osiris was no different. How he survived the magical drought was beyond her, but he had.

  Now he was here, trying to regenerate his power. Any spirit significantly large would draw power to them, and away from Osiris…

  Her eyes went wide. This spirit was larger than Osiris. “But Osiris is a god! How?”

  The storm in the manasphere shifted, the wind, rain, and lightning, circled him now as he held out his arms. Bolts of electricity fed him and the magical wind picked up, whipping Caitlin’s hair about.

  He is no god, child. Just old. Old and spared by luck.

  The spirit spread his hands and flicked his fingers. Lightning rained down around them. The seas to the north raged and the waves rolled in like small hills.

  I am as old as the Earth itself, child, I am as infinite as the sea and sky. Osiris desired my death and used your Thomas Washington as a tool to deliver it.

  Caitlin shook her head, “You can’t kill a spirit,
not really. I know—”

  You know nothing. Osiris possesses forbidden knowledge, which he used against me. This human preserved me from death.

  “Then save him now! I’ve felt your power. Use it to protect him.”

  The spirit shook his head. His mortal form will not withstand such power. He will die, and I along with him.

  Caitlin shook her head, she wouldn’t accept there wasn’t some way. Any way.

  “Use me,” she said.

  I cannot. I am linked to this human now. I cannot leave him, and I cannot stay.

  “No, you don’t understand. Our power isn’t compatible. Whenever Wash and I touch, you disrupt any power I attempt to channel by drawing it into yourself. It’s why my spells fail around you. You are the deepest well in this part of the world.”

  “Use me. As you channel power through Wash, shunt the extra through me. It will keep him alive.”

  You were fortunate, before. My power may destroy you.

  Caitlin closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “He would do it for me.”

  So be it.

  The sky blackened. Pain tore through Caitlin, pulling from her a scream of agony as fire consumed her.

  Wash held Caitlin tight as a scream ripped from her throat.

  Then the pain hit him. Every cell in his body burned as power flowed through him.

  He opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. The agony drove all thought from his head. He couldn’t move.

  All at once, his memories flooded back to him.

  He’d been here on a dive, hired by the four mercs who later tried to kill him. He remembered landing in San Juan, touring the underwater bay in Osiris’ tower. The way the crab suit felt around him as they descended into the Milwaukee Deep.

  Wash knew, now. He knew who inhabited him.

  Say my name, came the voice, deep and resonant.

  Still holding on to Cait, he turned to face Hetepheres. Her eyes were wide as her own power crackled around her.

  No, not around her. Around him. The power the witch channeled flowed into him. Through him. Through…

  Wash spoke, but his voice was not his own. It boomed with power not his own.

  “I am Hurrikan.”

  Lightning showered the ground around him, vaporizing dirt and leaving behind blackened bits of glassed Earth.

  The ocean moved behind him ahead of an approaching storm. Trillions of gallons of water… what had Cait said? Movement gives spirits their power?

  “Your master has failed, little witch,” Hurrikan spoke through Wash. “I am the ocean, the sky, the East wind, and you… are nothing more than a speck upon the open sea.”

  A vast depth spread out beneath Wash. He could feel the ocean floor, and an expanse of water so vast he couldn’t wrap his mind around it, all moving and rushing and crashing, creating Hurrikan’s power.

  Hetepheres diminished as the wide open sea poured into Wash. He stood above this, above these people. He was more than a god, he was a force of nature. Reaching up, he released the full force of his storm upon the witch.

  Hetepheres screamed as the power of the storm struck her. The witch threw up her arms to form a shield, and it shattered beneath Hurrikan’s might.

  And then… so did she. Washed away clean as a beach after a wave.

  He turned to the sea, his home. It called to him, pleaded with him to come home.

  “Wash?” came a mortal voice.

  He ignored the buzzing of the tiny speck beside him. The sky darkened as his power roared. Waves the size of hills crashed into the city. His feet grew cold as water flooded the peninsula.

  “Wash, stop!”

  Another step. Soon he would be in the cold embrace of his home, his place.

  “Wash!” a voice like crystal bells ringing in the choir called to him.

  He looked down to the life form holding his arms. Her black hair was wet, pasted to the sides of her face. Her green eyes gazed up at him, and he stopped. Those eyes. The person behind them was important to him.

  I wish to return to the sea.

  “Wash, please. Hurrikan cannot go back to the sea without taking you with him and you will die.”

  There was something he needed here, something more than the deep could offer.

  Let me return to my home, Thomas Washington.

  “Wash, stay. For me?” Caitlin’s eyes pleaded with him.

  Release me!

  I can’t, he told the spirit.

  You can, but you will not!

  No, Hurrikan. I can’t. Wash took a deep breath. This is what love is.

  Thomas Washington shivered as he became two beings again, and Hurrikan diminished, fading into him.

  As the power withdrew, the two sunk to the ground. The water that had flooded the castle receded as the hurricane died and storm vanished, almost instantly. Their knees dug holes in the muddy ground as they embraced. Wash held her close, breathing in her scent.

  “The spirit,” he said, cheek pressed to the top of her head. “He’s… the actual…”

  She nodded against his chest. “The spirit of all hurricanes. Poseidon, Wash. How?” she asked, pulling back to look him in the face.

  He shook his head. He remembered now, the one-way mission. How they’d disguised a nuclear bomb as a sensor array, sent it down with him, and detonated it when he found the shrine.

  The shrine! It was buried five miles beneath the surface. There, the immense statue of a golden man told him how he would die. Wash couldn’t prevent the bomb from detonating, but he could merge with the spirit, and it would save him.

  “Osiris, he used me as a bomb delivery to destroy Hurrikan’s shrine. It worked, but Hurrikan merged with me and now…” Wash shook his head. “I don’t know what happens now.”

  Caitlin's long, slender fingers slid up his neck to grasp his face. “Now, you stay with me.” She pulled his head down and pressed her lips to his.

  Her kiss was a warm ray of sun on a cold day, the first flower of spring after a long winter. He fell into her, pulling her close and holding on tight.

  Fifteen

  “Cute, but aren’t we forgetting something?” came a smug voice.

  Caitlin opened her eyes, pulling away from Wash.

  Damn. He’d forgotten all about the people still here. All of them.

  Caitlin stood, grasping Wash’s hand and pulled him up. He was shaky, without Hurrikan’s power to sustain him.

  Then she realized how bad their situation was. Duval had Agathon down on his knees with his big revolver pressed up against the elf’s head. The other three mercs were in a semi-circle around them, their guns pointed at Caitlin.

  Pierre and Daphne walked into the circle, and the smug human mage slow clapped as he walked.

  “Impressive show, but your power disrupted all magic, even your Visiliki over there,” he nodded toward Agathon.

  “It’s Vasilikí,” Caitlin snapped. “And just who in Hades are you?”

  “Why, I am your brother-in-law, dearest Caitlin.”

  Caitlin froze. What had Daphne done? Daphne didn’t care about much but herself, even sniffing at the Atlantean traditions… but to marry a human?

  “You’re a liar,” Caitlin said coldly. She slipped away from Wash, letting the comfort of his touch go as she marched forward. With Hetepheres gone, the spirits of the island returned, rushing through the grass, the sky, even the rocks at her feet. And with it they brought her power.

  Caitlin let her vision slip back into the realm of the astral, the violet hues of the other world splashed across her eyes highlighting everyone in a kaleidoscope of pinks, purples, reds, and in the case of the orc, darkness and a void.

  She flickered her vision across him noticing the lesions in his astral form, a sure sign of augmentation and surgery.

  However, the orc was not her concern. Pierre was. The human had one arm wrapped around Daphne’s waist, but in the astral world she saw the truth and cursed herself for not seeing it sooner. A thin chain of light wrapp
ed around Daphne’s throat, connecting her to him. He’d enslaved her, somehow.

  Caitlin blinked away the other world, now she knew. There was some small comfort in knowing her sister hadn’t actually meant to kill her. Some. However, the foolish girl had gotten herself into this long before the bastard in front of her had chained her.

  “You have some skill, Pierre, but she is a princess of Atlantis, and only a marriage performed by our parents can be recognized. That will never happen. Release Agathon, release my sister, and you can walk away. Defy me and the true power of Atlantis will burn you to ashes.”

  She put one hand to her throat, fingers clasping her astéri. Opening the portal, she enticed the spirits of the wind to her. The air exploded in a gale roaring down from the sky whipping clothes and hair alike.

  She smiled. The moving air had attracted a spirit of lightning. With it, she would easily be able to destroy…

  Daphne casually pulled a long silver blade from her coat and pressed it to her own neck. There was no light in her eyes as she moved. Like a puppet.

  “Sweet little Daphne likes to brag,” Pierre said as he disengaged from her. He absently brushed her hair back pulling on her head to expose her throat even more. “She told me all about your tricks, Caitlin. All about your necklace…”

  Caitlin swore. She could kill him easily enough, but if he’d somehow implanted an order in Daphne to kill herself, then Caitlin might as well just kill Daphne for all the good it would do.

  Duty waged war with her anger. All her life she’d come behind Daphne, cleaning up all of her messes, even the ones she’d inflicted on Caitlin herself, only to be reminded, again and again, of her own insignificance.

  Now, here she was again.

  “Regardless of what she’s told you, my parents will never pay a ransom. Once they’ve found out what you’ve done… there is no place you can hide.”

  Pierre waved a derisive hand. “This isn’t about money. Well, it was, until we found out that you had survived and Daphne told me all about your little secret. How you channel your power, how you stay young. I want it, Caitlin. I want what your people have selfishly denied us. I want immortality.”