Soon he was joined by three of his friends. Lillian glanced over her shoulder for aid, but Gregory and Daryna were busy feeding the dome more power, strengthening the areas where the blood witch’s magic was beginning to eat through.
Help came in the form of Resnick and his team. The humans rushed forward, and four of them grabbed hold of the chain and aided her while Resnick aimed at the thick chain links. Strengthened by magic, it wasn’t an easy target. Two direct hits only dented the magic-reinforced metal.
But it still gave Lillian an idea and she summoned hundreds of sharp little shards of shadow magic and sent them chasing each other down the length of the chain toward the enemy combatants.
The first roar of pain was rewarded by a bit of slack in the chain. More yelps of pain reached her ears as further bits of her shadow magic found its way inside armor.
Stanton, Maracle and Brown quickly hauled the rest of the chain inside the dome while Lillian knelt next to Gryton. He didn’t look any better up close. As she studied him, ash and blackened flesh fell from his body.
“Gryton can you hear me?” Lillian asked as she reached for his manacles. A bit of shadow magic found the closure mechanism and wiggled until the cuff sprang free.
“I can hear you,” he said in a voice that sounded as dry, cracked, and abused as his flesh.
Lillian didn’t know what to say to him, so settled for the first thing that came to her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“There is nothing you can do to hurt me more than I already hurt.” Gryton suddenly reached out and grasped her hand.
His touch burned but Lillian held on.
“Thank you. Please talk to me.” There was fear in his voice.
“Daryna is coming. She’ll know how to help you.” Lillian hoped it was true.
As if her name had summoned her, the Sorceress was there. She took one look at Gryton and dropped to her knees. Tears ran down her cheeks as she took in her son’s condition.
She reached out and shattered a collar that was circling his throat. “My child, I’m going to siphon power from you and feed it into the dome. It will get better soon.” Daryna promised.
Lillian held Gryton’s hand while Daryna worked. As promised, the power flowed out of Gryton now that there was no collar preventing it. It must have worked like a one-way valve, allowing magic to flow into him, but not escape.
Once Daryna siphoned away a large portion of the power overloading Gryton’s system, Lillian witnessed a miracle: his body repaired itself, muscle and skin forming over his bones, hiding the molten core she’d seen shimmering between his ribs only minutes earlier.
Daryna was still working to heal Gryton, but he shoved at her weakly.
“Sorceress?” Lillian unfurled a wing and touched the other woman. Daryna felt different, weaker, less substantial. Even Gryton was concerned, so it must be bad. “You need to stop. You’re...fading.”
Lillian wasn’t sure what else to call the dimming sense she had of the Sorceress.
Daryna ignored her demands to stop and continued to draw power away from Gryton. He jerked his hand from hers and crawled a few feet before collapsing.
Even without the link of skin on skin, the Sorceress continued to draw power from Gryton.
“Stop her,” he choked out in a dry, rasping voice.
“I don’t know how,” Lillian said, looking toward Gregory.
“She’s killing herself.”
Crap. “Gregory!”
Her bellow got an instant response from her mate; he spread his wings and flew to their location.
Lillian stepped back and stood with the human soldiers to give Gregory room to work with Gryton and Daryna.
“We’ve got a breach,” Resnick shouted.
Chapter 40
“BREACH, BREACH, BREACH!” Resnick shouted, and his men took up formation in front of a section of dome where a series of fissures were forming. The blood witch and the other captains were now concentrating their attack upon that section of the barrier.
“We weakened the spell by forcing it to expand,” Gregory shouted to Lillian over the increasingly loud hum emitted by the distressed shield. “Once I shore up the Sorceress’s power and heal the damages to her body, I’ll create a second dome inside this one. But I need you and the humans to hold off the Battle Goddess’s soldiers long enough for me to do that. I just need a few minutes.”
“You’ve got it.”
Lillian sprinted to join the humans. Standing just off to the side on Resnick’s left, she began summoning a new barrage of tiny shards of shadow magic. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them spinning through the air, hunting those closest to breaching the dome. Her efforts were rewarded by new snarls and screams of pain.
When the largest fissure expanded enough for the first enemy swords to pierce the barrier, Resnick and his team started targeting the owners, aiming for anything they could hit through the narrow opening. More screams and roars of pain and the occasional cloud of red spray announced when their bullets found a mark. Not all the blood was red, but when hit, they did bleed. Bleeding was very good in this case.
The fallen bodies piled up, which strangely helped slow the growth of the shield’s fissures. Lillian could only speculate the bodies were absorbing some of the magic meant to erode the dome.
Shouting encouragement to her human allies, Lillian called more shadow magic and sent several waves of obsidian shards flying. Soon more bodies were adding to the insulation around the shield.
At least until the enemies figured out what Lillian was doing and started to drag their dead out of the way.
Resnick cursed but didn’t stop firing. Soon more bodies took the place of the ones removed.
Lillian sent another wave of shadow magic through the barrier and then glanced over her shoulder at Gregory, Daryna and Gryton. Gryton’s recovery was astonishing. He was sitting up, and his skin had regrown over two-thirds of his body. It still had to hurt like a son of a bitch.
When he opened his eyes, she was suddenly staring into his blazing amber gaze. She watched in shock as the rest of his wounds closed before her eyes and he was suddenly whole. He glanced over his shoulder at Daryna and then he looked back toward Lillian and the human soldiers.
His lips compressed, fire and rage burning in his eyes. Lillian began calling more of her shadow magic, thinking Gryton had played them all. But his fiery gaze slid past her and Resnick’s team. They weren’t Gryton’s targets.
He stood, stark naked and fully healed, his only clothing a fine coating of ash. Then before her eyes, the ash transformed into armor, the protective covering growing out of his body. As he walked past her, she realized it wasn’t metal at all, instead a material forged of his very magic.
A raging ball of fire appeared between his outstretched hands. With a violent motion, he pushed it away from his chest, sending it speeding toward the dome. The power hit the shield and raced past it to incinerate the first line of enemy soldiers.
More soldiers rushed forward to take their place, and beyond them, Lillian could still see the blood witch working some great spell. She didn’t know what it would do but knew it couldn’t be good.
Gryton was formidable, but he’d just about died. He couldn’t be a hundred percent right now. Lillian doubted if he was in any condition to match spells with the blood witch.
They needed the Avatars back in this fight.
Lillian glanced over her shoulder and found Gregory kneeling over Daryna. He’d slashed open his forearm and was trying to strengthen her body with his potent gargoyle blood.
“I’m beyond healing,” Daryna whispered into Lillian’s mind.
Lillian jerked in surprise and then glanced down to meet her doppelganger’s gaze.
“It is time that you claim what is rightfully yours,” Daryna said.
Gregory didn’t stir from his work, so Lillian doubted he was aware of what his other half was saying.
“Gregory is strong. He might be able to heal your body
enough that we can make it home.”
“No.” The one word was accompanied by a small shake of her head. “We must strike now while we’re here in the Magic Realm. We have an opportunity to land a great blow against our enemies. But I’m not strong enough. Only the true Sorceress has a chance.”
Daryna was talking about her own ending like she wanted Lillian to do it. “No.”
As much pain and grief as her doppelganger had caused her, she didn’t want to see Daryna die because on a deep, secret level Lillian didn’t want to become the Sorceress. “But you’re still alive. Gregory is trying to heal you.”
“Yes. The beloved idiot can’t face the thought of seeing even a temporary clone die. He’ll also see my death as causing the death of his mate as well. He thinks he can save us both. He can’t. And there is only one Sorceress. You.” Daryna held up a shaking hand. “Come, claim what is rightfully yours. Save everything you love.”
“But Gregory—”
“Is wrong this one time. He knows it but can’t help but fight for the life he so desperately wants. A life with you as his mate and me housing the other half of his soul. But our hamadryad only did this so that I could buy you time to save our children. Both of them. Now they are safe. Gryton here with us, and our youngest sleeping back in our hamadryad in the Mortal Realm. My task is complete, and my time is gone. I must be allowed to die now so our soul can return to you.”
Lillian went to the Sorceress and then knelt next to her. “I will try to reason with Gregory.”
“There is no reasoning with him. You should know that.”
“Then what?”
“Shape your shadow magic, make it into a dagger and drive it into my heart. Be fast and sure.”
Lillian recoiled. “I can’t. I can’t take your life!”
“I am dying. Gregory is just prolonging my life a few hours. We don’t have time to waste. The blood witch is even now finishing a spell that will crush the shield protecting us. If you love Gregory and our children, you will do this thing.”
Lillian felt herself shaking. The Sorceress’s words were true, but what she asked was...was too great.
“The fissure is getting bigger,” Resnick warned. “Look out. We’ve got incoming.”
Behind her, one of his men screamed. She jerked up in time to see an arrow buried in Stanton’s right thigh. Magic circled the wooden shaft in a sickly swirl. The human didn’t have long to live if someone didn’t do something. Gryton stepped in and ripped out the arrow. Stanton swore in pain, but just yanked something out of one of his pockets and packed the wound while the others continued to aim at the enemy.
Gryton returned to lobbing more of his fiery balls of magic, but bright light seeped between the seams of his armor and Lillian knew he wasn’t out of danger. His magic was still testing the limits of his control.
She knew what she had to do.
Tears running down her cheeks, she looked up at Gregory as a long, deadly dagger appeared in her fist. It shimmered, absorbing all the light that touched it.
“Forgive me, Gregory,” Lillian whispered as she drove the sharp tip down into the Sorceress’s heart.
“Lillian, no!” His startled gaze met hers and then he whispered, “I could have saved her.”
“No, you couldn’t.”
A wave of power rose up and slammed into Lillian, tossing her back. She hit the ground and rolled a few times before landing belly down. With a grunt, she lifted her head and realized the power had tossed her a good twenty feet from where she’d started.
At first, she’d thought Gregory had attacked her, but then she saw him rolling to his feet an equal distance away from where Daryna lay. He’d gotten slapped by the same backlash of power that had sent her flying.
Above the Sorceress’s body, what looked like a small sun flared and grew as it expanded outward. Ropy tendrils of power flared and lashed the air, whipping in all directions.
“Mother!” Gryton called from somewhere behind and to the left of Lillian.
If he would have said more, she never heard. The small but ever enlarging sun was streaking straight toward her. It hit with the force of a train but didn’t send her flying this time. Instead, it lifted her up, holding her suspended above the ground, where it circled her with swirling cross-currents of power.
It was hard to think, even harder to breathe. She couldn’t see anything beyond the glowing power or hear anything over the crackle of white noise. Then in a heartbeat, the blinding light, pressure, and power vanished.
All the world went with it.
Chapter 41
OH, SHE HURT. EACH individual nerve in her body complained of some unknown trauma. Whatever the cause, her body lay curled on its side and urged her to remain still until her magic had repaired the damage. And yet, her beloved gargoyle must be battling a great enemy, something powerful enough to lay her low.
They were in a battle then. At that understanding, power rushed into her body, a mix of both warm power from the Magic Realm and the colder, cleaner magic from the Spirit Realm. She formed patterns of battle magic in her mind, shaping them into defensive spells and destructive offensive weavings.
But before she sent them on the hunt, she needed to remember just what had happened. Why were her thoughts and memories so strangely jumbled? Confusion lay over her in a way she’d never experienced in any of her lives.
Great Mother, what new foe did they face?
A very deadly dangerous one, apparently.
She stirred and turned her head, instinct guided her gaze to her other half.
Exhaling in relief, she reached for the mind of her beloved gargoyle. “You are well?”
“Yes, my love. I am...well.” He tilted his head, his ears shifting between uncertainty, shock, and a touch of grief. He didn’t come any closer. “And you?”
“I am...confused my—” She halted mid-thought. She’d been going to call him Durnathyne, but that wasn’t correct. He was Gregory in this life.
Levering herself up onto her elbows, she glanced around. She’d been face down on the ground. Spitting out a mouthful of dirt, she made a new discovery. She had a muzzle. Glancing down at her body, her eyes grew wide. Oh! She was gargoyle...but that...that was wrong.
And, yet, it wasn’t. More memories arose from her consciousness. Yes, because of the Battle Goddess’s manipulations, she’d been born as a dryad this lifetime, but the changes didn’t end there.
She was gargoyle. Oh, but wait. She’d also been raised thinking she was human. More memories asserted themselves and with them came clarity.
Tearing her gaze away from her body, she looked around.
They were in a vast dome that sheltered two hamadryad trees. Others were within the dome with her and Gregory. Her beloved came forward and pressed his forehead against hers.
“My Lillian, do you remember me?”
She laughed, a great rolling sound. “Of course I do. My heart, how could I ever forget you?”
He rumbled and pushed his muzzle into her thick mane. “You remember you are Lillian?”
Yes. She’d been Daryna in her last life, but then had been reborn and named Lillian in this life. Although, there were a few strangely recent memories of Daryna mixed up with the ones from this lifetime.
Ah yes. Her hamadryad had cloned her body to temporarily house her soul because she was in danger.
Even as her memories began to sort themselves out, she glanced around at the other beings in the dome with her. One was incredibly powerful. She’d felt his magic pulsing against her skin even when she’d awoken and started to search for her other half.
This male was familiar, his power strangely akin to hers and Gregory’s. Ah, yes, there was a reason his power tasted of the Avatars.
He was Gryton.
Her son.
By the Light! She and her beloved had begotten a child.
At that moment all her memories snapped back into their proper place and she remembered.
Everything.
Every evil twisted thing the demigoddess had set in motion.
“Beloved?” Gregory’s hands came to rest on her shoulders and his mind brushed against hers as he helped her to her feet. “Do you remember who you are?
Lillian welcomed him in.
“I am Lillian. And, yeah, I remember every evil thing the bitch goddess tried to do to us.”
With understanding came anger, the need for revenge. But even greater than that was the need to save all she loved. Gregory, Gryton, Major Resnick and his team, she would protect them all.
“Sorceress?” The word was uttered by Gryton. Her son.
“I prefer the name Lillian, but you can call me mother, I suppose.”
Well, shit. That was going to take some getting used to, but for now, she had other things to deal with.
Lillian narrowed her eyes. For one thing, she owed the Battle Goddess the mother of all beatdowns for what she’d been about to do to Gryton and all the Earth. If the Battle Goddess had succeeded, she would have killed millions!
Gran, Jason, the pooka and unicorn, all would have died.
Everything she knew and loved destroyed along with millions of innocents.
And among that massive loss, there would have been one other tiny soul.
An innocent she and Gregory had brought into the world together!
Lillian had come so close to losing everything.
The Lady of Battles sought to kill the Avatars and both their children, and she didn’t care how much collateral damage she racked up to achieve that goal.
Rage ignited in Lillian’s soul, but her mind turned calmer as her anger built.
The Battle Goddess would feel the repercussions for what she’d done.
Narrowing her eyes, she turned in Gregory’s arms until he was standing behind her and then she held out a hand to Gryton.
He hesitated at first, distrust shining in his eyes. In the end, he came forward.
When his burning hot hand engulfed hers, she remembered how close she’d come to losing this child before she’d been given a chance to really know him.
Oh, she remembered the many mistakes her doppelganger had made, but even if Lillian could have unmade all those poor choices, she still would have given Gryton a chance to repent for all the horror he’d caused.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 118
