With deft mental fingers, Selia began to unwind the pieces the kept her muscles locked. Strand by strand, she pulled the components free from the other woman’s energy. Something cool slid along her cheek. She ignored it. A pinch of pain along her arm almost distracted her, but she kept her focus firm.
Finally, she dissolved the enchantment and dispelled the remnants of Perim’s energy. Her muscles went lax all at once, and she stumbled as her legs almost gave out beneath her. She threw her arms out to the sides to try to regain her balance but still almost went down.
Searing agony shrieked from her shoulder, heralded by an ominous crack. From somewhere, Iren cried out her name. As Selia dropped to her knees, she could only pray he didn’t try to rescue her. Miaran, the pain… She couldn’t move her left arm without almost blacking out.
She spun, tumbling onto her bottom with a thump that drew a scream of pain from her throat. Perim stood over her with a triumphant grin. Blood dripped from the tip of her knife and plopped onto the stone beneath them. For a moment, time suspended as they stared at one another.
Selia’s shirt clung to her back, and a suspicious amount of wetness soaked the upper edge of her pants. She didn’t have enough healing gift to probe the depths of the injury, but she suspected it was bad. If she was going to defeat Perim, she’d have to move fast.
“Iren,” she sent. “Contact your father. Now.”
“I can blast her from back here.”
“Now,” Selia ordered.
She darted forward and slammed her hand against Perim’s ankle. Then Selia shoved her own surprise spell straight through the woman’s shields.
Chapter 28
Aris would never experience life quite this way again.
He could touch any lifeform. Alter or destroy it. But first, he would have to find it. He swam in a sea of life magic, and though he could pick out individuals here and there, like a single grain of salt, retrieving anything specific would be impossible. Only Kezari anchored him, but even she struggled with her merging.
“What do you want me to do now?” he asked her.
“A gate must be created.” Her thoughts quieted briefly as she considered. “The energy that was released here is reverberating through Earth. I suspect a great deal is about to change. We need a faster connection between Earth and Moranaia than the Veil and a safe place for our people to stay once they arrive.”
Cold washed over him. “I can’t set up something like that. Selia or Kai, maybe, but—”
“The god and the girl will handle the gate,” Kezari interrupted. “It’s the fortress we must construct. Hidden. This place will require constant guard. I will build the tunnels and chambers. You find a way to give them life. We’ll never have this kind of access to raw energy again.”
He followed Kezari with his mind through the layers of earth to the very top of the mountain. Meticulously, she formed tubes for air and light, doorways and stairs, hallways and rooms. And he trailed behind, cajoling plants to life where he could. Moss and vines to obscure. Flowers in the entry, along with a few small fruit-bearing trees. In one large chamber where Kezari had brought in a fair amount of natural light with a crystal set into the tube above, he coaxed forth the beginning of several crops.
As Kezari directed her attention to the original entrances to this cave system, closing them permanently, uneasiness began to invade his consciousness. He didn’t need to create life where she sealed the rocks. He should return to the fortress and do more work there. But he couldn’t. Something was wrong. Some discordant energy amidst the flow.
His muscles clenched. All of the sudden, he felt exposed. His body was suspended in the column of light, and he couldn’t see beyond it no matter how much he squinted. Were the others safe? Selia? Iren? Another hint of that dark power brushed him, and he let out a mental cry at the sensation.
Perim.
Impossible. She was on Moranaia, hiding on the dragons’ isle. Could his connection to life energy stretch that far? His throat burned, and Aris swallowed down bile. He sensed Kezari’s concern, but he was too paralyzed with fear to reassure her.
Then his son’s voice broke into his mind. “Onaiala is in trouble. She’s hurt. That woman is here.”
Fury and pain coalesced until Aris burned with it. The light flared around him, and he let the power build within him. “I will do what I can.”
“There’s a lot of blood. Hurry.”
Blood.
Shuddering, Aris reached for Kezari. “Selia is under attack. I must descend.”
“Not unarmed, skizik.”
Connected as they were, he didn’t have to ask what she meant. Aris held out his hand, fingers slightly cupped, as Kezari gathered the energy and concentrated it, forming metal into blade while he grew a hilt of living wood. The column sparked green as together they fired the sword—honed it.
When it finally settled against his palm, Aris tightened his fingers around the hilt and let the cool comfort of life ease the fear coating his mouth. Perim had done her best to destroy him, but she’d failed. And he would die a thousand times before he let her kill his beloved.
Perim screamed, and Selia almost released her out of instinct at the sound. Her stomach lurched. But even as revulsion swamped her, she continued pouring the jagged energy straight into the other woman. Like lightning striking water, the charge continued into Perim until it reached the shield Selia had cast to contain it.
The knife clattered to the floor and the woman toppled. Selia slammed her body over Perim’s as the energy crystal sputtered out, and her own cry sounded at the pain in her shoulder. But training had taught Selia to disconnect temporarily from her body. She ignored the agony shrieking at her mind and shifted until she straddled Perim, her knees digging into the woman’s shoulders.
Perim’s head lolled against the stone, and her breath came in gasps. Selia stared down at Perim’s cruel but beautiful face. So much pain caused by one person, and for what? Everyone knew you couldn’t force a bond.
“Why?” Selia snapped as the woman blinked up at her.
“Escape,” Perim whispered. “I didn’t want to die there. I needed to control a dragon. Make it fly me free.”
Selia’s fingers balled into a fist. “I don’t suppose you considered asking Aris and Kezari for help?”
“I will not be dependent on another. Can’t count on anyone but yourself.” Perim shifted beneath her. “Not even for a bond. I never would have kept him, you know. I would have killed him first.”
Her vision whitened with fury, and for once, Selia didn’t reach for her magic. Instead, she slammed her fist into the woman’s nose with the force of seven years’ worth of agony. Her cry of pain mingled with Perim’s, and Selia wavered on the edge of consciousness as the wound in her shoulder tore with the motion. But it was worth it. So very worth it.
Should’ve teleported her gods-cursed heart to another dimension.
Selia shook out her hand and wondered if the blood was hers or Perim’s. Didn’t matter. The woman heaved beneath her, struggling, so Selia lifted herself up and slammed back down to knock the air from the other’s lungs. Perim’s breath rushed out, and she went still.
But Selia barely noticed. The light was blurring, Perim’s face a swirling mass of blood and hatred. Clechtan. She couldn’t lose consciousness now. Perim would kill her for sure and then try for Aris.
Or Iren.
Selia shoved her trembling fingers in her pocket and scrabbled for another energy crystal. She would empty herself accessing it, but it was all she had. If she died torturing someone, it would be better than letting this woman loose on the others.
Blood transmutation. That might be the easiest from her current position.
Gods forgive her soul.
As Aris shoved his body free of the rift, rock rose from below to meet his feet. He blinked to clear his vision, but his mind and spirit were still linked with the column behind him. Around the rift, Kezari was creating a framework for the portal from ston
e, but he was more concerned with his son. Aris could sense him nearby, but his sight kept blurring. Finally, Iren’s pale face clarified as Aris descended to the floor of the cavern. His son practically vibrated with energy, life magic but other elements, too.
“I can’t get a clear shot,” Iren said, his voice ringing with pain. “I could do a fireball, but…”
A new kind of energy buzzed through the air, and Aris spun to face the source. Selia stooped over a prone Perim, but the surge of power obscured his physical sight after a couple of heartbeats. His beloved was about to cast a spell, and it had the taste of darkness.
“Selia!” Aris shouted.
Or he tried to. He had no clue which dimension the words rang into, and he didn’t wait to find out. He hefted the glowing sword in his hand as he charged across the space between them. He might not have begun the bonding process with Perim, but stabbing her was going to hurt.
“You’ll kill yourself,” Perim gasped.
That voice had delivered years of cruelty, a torment beyond the physical. It had become his inner voice—but no more. He would fill the dark abyss of her influence with his own power even if he died in the process.
As his rage mounted, the real world became clearer. Just enough. He could see what was needed to end Perim’s life. “Move back, Selia.”
She shoved herself away, rolling from Perim with a cry of pain. As Perim scrambled up to her elbows, fear overcoming her usual mocking expression, Aris shoved the tip of his sword downward, straight into her heart.
Then he twisted. The blade was forged in life, but the opposite side was death. A verdict he had no qualms about delivering. He shoved his magic through the sword, the perfect conduit, until his vision went green from the glow. With another twist, he ordered the spark of life to return to the ether.
There must be no mistake. No way for her to escape death.
Aris did his best to shield himself, but the backlash was pure agony. He fell to his knees, buffeted by the storm Perim’s death unleashed. His fingers tightened on the hilt of his sword, and he jerked it free. He would have no more connection to her, not even through the blade of a sword.
He sensed Kezari, then, wrapping her mind around his as she often did her wings around his body. The storm faded, and Perim’s darkened spirit passed fully into the next life. He neither knew nor cared where her soul would end up. Judgement was for the gods. As he opened his eyes to focus on her lifeless face, he felt none of the satisfaction he’d dreamed of for all those years.
All that coursed through him was relief.
“Onaial?” Iren asked softly from behind him.
“I’m here,” Aris said. An odd comment, but somehow fitting. “Guide me to your mother. My vision…”
Iren’s hand wrapped around his arm as Aris shoved to his feet. Still bound to the rift, he tried to keep the power coursing through him from leeching over, but his son hissed out a breath and jerked free. “Sorry, I…” Iren stuttered. “Just circle the…the body here. She’s on the other side.”
A shiver passed through Aris at those words. The other side. He didn’t care where Perim had gone, but he certainly cared about Selia. He followed Iren around Perim’s corpse. Selia wavered in and out of his sight, a dark stain pooling beneath her huddled body.
Aris knelt beside her, settling his sword to the side. He would not touch her with Perim’s blood, though the blade itself might be able to aid in the healing. He didn’t need it. He rested his hand on her back. Selia’s chest fluttered with breath—but barely. Without thought, he reached for the power his connection to the rift granted.
He grasped life. Wholeness.
Then he directed it into Selia.
Selia forced her eyes open as the power inside her waned. For a moment, she feared she’d taken damage to her vision, for the nearly blinding light had faded to a dim glow. But the world clarified quickly, settling into Aris’s glowing face.
She gasped. His skin shimmered, and his eyes blazed green as he stared at her. It had been his power filling her, returning her torn flesh to its original life. What had happened? She’d been constructing her final spell against Perim when Aris had cried out for her to stop. After that, there was only darkness.
He wasn’t himself. Normally, his forehead would be creased with worry lines, and he’d be demanding she tell him how she felt. But there was a fathomless weight to his regard, a hint that he wasn’t quite…alone. Or perhaps he was only more aware, more powerful. With her second sight, his link to Earth’s energy glowed like the sun.
Selia reached up a hand and cupped his cheek. Ever so slightly, he leaned into her touch, and his gaze softened. “I must…” he began, his voice low and rough. “The rift.”
“Go,” she whispered. “But bring yourself back to me. And only you next time.”
She thought his lips curved upward, but he stood and bent to pick something up before she got a good look. As he strode away, Selia gathered her energy and shifted herself to a sitting position. Her head spun, but the sensation passed quickly. Just in time to see Aris approach…an archway formed of stalactites and stalagmites? That hadn’t been here before she’d passed out. A set of steps led up to the bright white of the former rift, now anchored between the stone.
What was going on?
Selia could barely make out the forms of Eri and Loki on each side of the stairs, their hands still entwined with the light beside the base of the arch. Her body trembled as she shoved herself to her feet with the aid of a stalagmite. But her gaze stayed on Aris as she rose, even after he disappeared into the gate.
“You’re okay!”
At Iren’s cry, she turned to her son. He rushed toward her, his arms open, but she held up her hands. “I’m covered in blood, my love.”
Iren’s brow furrowed. “No, you’re not.”
Frowning, Selia glanced down. He was right. Her clothes were smeared with dirt, and both her pants and shirt bore several small tears. But no blood. She studied the back of her right hand, but there wasn’t so much as a scar to show where she’d broken her skin punching Perim. That was almost a shame. She would’ve loved showing that trophy off.
Selia held out her arms and sighed with contentment when Iren threw himself against her for a hug. “I guess you’re right.”
Chapter 29
Power wavered on the air and thrummed through the floor beneath Vek’s feet. The electricity was out, so a ball of mage light illuminated the unusual group gathered in his living room. His skin prickled as his gaze landed on Naomh sitting on one side of the long couch. A Seelie Sidhe lord in his living room. Unbelievable.
Caolte leaned against the window frame, the Chattanooga skyline at his back. Young Maddy knelt beside Fen’s prone form on the other end of the L-shaped couch, and her girlfriend, Anna, perched beside Naomh and nibbled on the tip of her finger as she stared at Fen. A veritable party of beings Vek never would have invited into his home.
But as needs must.
He paced in front of the window and behind the couch, finally stopping to lean on the back and study his nephew. Fen was deathly pale, his moans now silent. The girl was doing some kind of scan, and the energy had Vek’s teeth grinding together. Better than Naomh’s attempt, though, which had released so much Sidhe magic into the air that Vek had wanted to vomit.
He’d borne that indignity, and it hadn’t even helped. Naomh hadn’t been able to heal the poison—he’d tried while they waited for Maddy to pick them up. Perhaps his lack of connection to the environment had altered the results. He’d refused to set foot on the ground, hovering like an idiot where anyone could come along and see.
“If Maddy’s attempt fails, perhaps Naomh should try again,” Vek said. “He might be able to properly ground his magic now.”
Naomh sneered. “A talented mage does not need to touch the soil to connect with its power.”
“To keep to this foolish pact—”
“Your kind might have chosen to forgo your word, but we of the Seelie
are nobler than that.”
Vek let out a snort. “You’re full of something, but nobility isn’t it. Why do you respect a treaty the humans barely remember?”
“We gave an oath, and—”
“You didn’t give anything,” Vek interrupted, leaning forward. “Your ancestors promised the human sons of Mil that you wouldn’t step foot on the surface, sure. Of Ireland. You ceded Ireland, not fucking Chattanooga on the other side of the world. Stop hovering like an idiot whenever we go outside.”
A choked noise echoed from the window. Then Caolte burst out laughing, the sound so sudden and unexpected that Vek stared. “What?”
Caolte shook his head, a grin wreathing his face. “I pointed out something similar on our last visit to this region. Perhaps he’ll listen for once.”
Vek’s brow lowered. “Really?”
“Maybe it’s my Unseelie blood, but…” Caolte waved a hand. “I think it’s foolishness at this point. Besides, from the feel of the energy increasing like the tide, I’d say things are about to change.”
Naomh crossed his arms, his jaw clenching. Why did he cling so tightly to the old ways? Vek studied the Sidhe lord curiously. He obviously wasn’t a stickler, or he wouldn’t be here at all. Thousands of years before, the Sidhe had lost a war with the humans, Milesians, and sworn to remove themselves to the underhill realms a dimension away. The oldest wouldn’t allow their feet to touch the surface, but they also wouldn’t consider entering an Unseelie prince’s living room.
Beside Fen, Maddy stirred, her eyelids fluttering open. “I can’t fix it, either,” she whispered.
Vek muttered a curse beneath his breath. “I don’t understand. The energy fields are clear now. There was no mistaking that after the final wave.”
“Maybe it wasn’t connected to the rift,” Maddy said with a frown. “He took Kien’s blood, right? He could have done something to it before passing it along to Fen.”
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