Robbie raised his hand and Emma didn’t move as the goddess used him to pour energy over her. Her clothing didn’t vanish, exactly, it rearranged itself, hugged her flesh like a sexpot video game character’s would, and then changed to a deep, cold black. It moved with her, as if it was alive.
“What is this?”
Katherine stepped forward and reached a tentative hand out to touch it. “It’s the Gate.”
“What?”
“It’s a living, breathing piece of the Gate. It’s the goddess herself. It’s a giant soul stone, Emma.”
Holy crap. “Is it going to eat me?”
Robbie spoke, his voice not his own. “It is immune to their Angel’s Fire, and will help you control your own, Timewalker.”
Emma’s rage returned with the reminder that the Queen had taken Ajax. “Let’s go.”
“When the Gates open on Itara, I will release my lost sons as well.”
“Fine.” Emma didn’t care right now. She had one job to do. The Itarans could worry about a few thousand Triscani Hunters invading their world.
“You must help the Itaran people, Emma.” Robbie’s black eyes lit from within for the briefest of moments. “There are only a few thousand Immortals, and they do not have Angel’s Fire to protect themselves from the rage of their lost sons.”
“They’re the ones who threw them away like trash.”
“No. They are not. That was Sora and her line. The rest of the Immortals are as innocent as your humans.”
Emma really didn’t want to hear any of this, but forced herself to think it through. “Okay. We’ll do our best.”
“That is all I ask of any of you.” Robbie nodded, regally, and the body language was so foreign on a teenage boy’s body that Emma had to shake herself to stop from staring. “A few minutes, Timewalker. Then the Gates will open for you.”
Robbie stepped backward into a black void and disappeared. A few minutes? She was going to go insane. Every second gave the Itaran Queen a chance to hurt Ajax.
Chapter Eighteen
Ajax hung from chains in the Queen’s throne room and listened as the rulers of Itara filed in for an emergency session.
They’d taken him from Earth, stripped him of his sword and warrior’s clothing, placed him in soft garments more suited to sleeping than killing, and left his feet bare.
They may as well have hung him in rags.
The seven Circles were all represented in full, with two hundred fifty-three females sitting in judgment on him. The innermost circular table sat seven. The next, twenty-one. Each ring, each long circular layer, increased in number until the outermost circle was reached. The seventh circle was the least respected, as they held the smallest amount of power. But eleven females from each family line sat around its edge, seventy-seven in all. They handled most of the day-to-day government on Itara. They were not without power or connections, but they were not the first Circle either. Those seven females were feared nearly as much as the Queen.
Each member of the Circle had been accompanied by at least two armed guards, some brought three. Ajax did a quick calculation. If Droghan showed up with thousands of Triscani, there were almost a thousand Immortals in the room, including thirty-seven from the Queen’s line, thirty-seven females, including the Queen herself, with Angel’s Fire. He’d take four-to-one odds against the Triscani. It was a lot better than he’d been expecting.
He just hoped he wasn’t trussed up like a sacrificial lamb when the Hunters Gate opened.
The throne room was huge, capable of holding three times the number seated without feeling full. He remembered well. He’d once hosted a dance for two thousand here, with Angeline on his arm and the confidence of a fool in his breast.
That seemed a lifetime ago. And indeed, he did not miss this room or these females. Many of the faces he recognized from before, but not all. Seemed the shift in time that occurred when they’d chased the Triscani ship through the wormhole had not left Itara unaffected.
But the Queen, Nelina, still held the throne like a venomous spider, waiting to strike.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” The Queen stood on a raised circular platform in the middle of the ruling body and made her case for killing him.
“As you all can see in your displays, Ajax, son of Azubah, my own nephew and great grandson of Sora, our beloved High Queen, has denied the right granted him by prophecy and refused the throne of his own free will.”
Murmurs accompanied the Queen’s announcement, then quiet chatter as the ruling Circles inspected the copies of his letter that appeared on the view screens built into the tables that created the Circle. Bran had been right. He’d handed the Queen his head.
The Queen continued. “It was the great Celestina, lost to us for many years now, who told of the forbidden son who would one day be King.” She twirled for dramatic effect, her white dress an elaborate arrangement of silk and translucent layers. Ajax hoped she tripped on it and broke her neck. “And now he dares come before us, not just to renounce the throne of Itara, as if it were nothing, but with the Mark of a traitor on his body.”
The ladies all gasped and Ajax paid closer attention. What was she talking about?
“He bears the Mark of a Timewalker on his ankle.”
Now the women broke into a frenzy of chatter. One of the eldest ladies, a powerful member of the innermost Circle of seven, rose to her feet. She was dressed in emerald green and though she looked young and beautiful, she was ancient. He could feel her power from across the room. Thankfully, she was not of the Queen’s line. She did not look at him with hate. “Is this true, Ajax? Do you carry the Mark of a Timewalker?”
He saw no reason to deny it. “Yes. But the Queen is mistaken. I have no intention of walking away from the throne. I will be King, and Emma, the Timewalker who has Marked me, will be my Queen.”
A solid wall of female outrage swelled in the room but Ajax ignored them all. The Triscani would be here any moment, and so would his Marked Mate. Then the real fun and games would begin.
The emerald woman spoke directly to him as the noise died down. “To carry the Mark of a Timewalker is to commit high treason against the crown of Itara.”
“By whose authority? The Timewalkers have been revered for centuries. Held sacred by Itarans and humans, both.”
“No, false King.” The Queen twirled again, whipping her skirts around her as if she could whip up the ladies ire with her dress. Perhaps it was working, for many of the woman who’d been curious before now glowered at him. “The Timewalkers bear the genetic inheritance of our worst enemies, the Nameless ones who are locked behind the Gates. They have broken their treaty with us, the treaty to end the Thousand Year War. They have tampered with Time itself, and they shall be hunted and killed, both on Itara and on Earth, to the very last.”
The assemblage murmured in agreement and Ajax said nothing, his mind a whirl of thought. He was unprepared for her pronouncement. Completely shocked by the Queen’s claims. Could it be true? Were the Timewalkers on Earth descendants of their Immortal enemies? Those for whom the Gates had been created to end the Thousand Year War?
Did it matter to him?
No. No one would hurt Emma and live.
“Nice try, Nelina. Now are you going to try to claim that the four thousand Triscani that are about to crash your party are descendants of some mystery race as well, and not your own sons?” The Queen whirled on him, rage making her face twist into an ugly mask.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask your favorite Triscani traitor, Droghan. He’ll be here any minute, and he’ll have thousands of your forbidden sons with him.”
“You lie.”
He ignored her and spoke to the males who lined the walls with their swords and armor. “Be prepared for a fight.”
“Quiet. Traitor.”
“I am no traitor to Itara. You are. And your dirty little secret is about to bite you in the ass.” The females assembled were movin
g quickly but efficiently, motioning for their guards to come forward and retrieve them. They believed him, or were at least prepared to take precautions. He doubted anyone had spoken to the Queen in such a manner for hundreds of years. If ever.
Just as the first of the females got close to the doors, the explosions began. Screams filled the chamber as the primitive weapon sealed the doors. And because they were in the Queen’s chamber, the crystal formations and minerals coating every surface prevented the Archiver born from porting anyone out of the room.
They were trapped, but not panicked. These were Immortals, not school children.
Then he saw the Black Gate form on the opposite side of the room. Triscani poured through like water and the females drew blades from hidden places inside their gowns. The Queen’s line, those with Angel’s Fire, fought back at once, eliminating as many as they could, but they couldn’t stop them all. There were too many.
The warriors in the room stepped forward and began collecting heads. But it wasn’t going to be enough. They were rusty and out of practice, and the Triscani were savage. They were going to lose.
The Queen made the same assessment, he could see the moment the realization dawned on her face. She turned to him then, the fury in her eyes more than just anger at him. Perhaps rage that Droghan had betrayed her? Or anger at herself for being fooled?
He stared at her, unflinching as she raised her hand and fired a blast of white light straight at him.
<><><>
Emma paced in her new attire, shocked at the freedom of movement and confidence the clothing gave her. If it did what the goddess promised, and helped her control fire, she’d burn them all, every single Itaran who’d laid a hand on Ajax.
“Easy, tiger.” Zoey stood before her armed with her usual camera and a smile. The woman was crazy if she was going into battle with that.
“Please tell me you at least have a knife.”
“I’m a total klutz. I’d just cut myself with it.” Zoey shook her head. “Besides, I don’t need one. I have Aron.”
Emma shook her head and figured both Zoey and Aron must be crazy. But then again, Aron was twin to Ajax, and just as lethal. But she wasn’t Zoey. She didn’t care about pictures or data. She only cared about Ajax. “I want to kill them all.”
Mari laughed from beside her. “You totally look the part, like Black Widow from The Avengers. I’m insanely jealous.”
“What does this Black Widow do?”
“She kills bad guys.”
“Perfect.” She was ready for that. Three days ago, if anyone had told her she’d be not just willing, but eager to kill the Queen of Itara, she would have scoffed. But three days ago she hadn’t been head over heels in love.
They were all gathered, what she’d come to consider her new family. The five Darkwalkers, Teagh and Katherine, Mari and Raiden, Zoey and Aron. Bran, alone and looking angry, as usual. Other than her family, and Ajax, these people were pretty much it for her. But she discovered that she cared what happened to each and every one of them. The Timewalkers were her friends and confidants, the only females who understood her frustration and her fear when it came to being the Marked Mate of an Immortal.
The Darkwalker males treated her with deference and respect, thankful that she’d freed so many of the forbidden sons from their torment. They’d follow her into hell and back, and she knew it.
And Ajax? She resumed pacing, her hands on fire to ease some of her inner turmoil.
Katherine looked like she was about to say something, but froze as a true Gate opened next to her. They could see through it to the chaos on the other side. The Itaran throne room was being flooded by Triscani, and the Immortals were losing the fight.
She didn’t ask permission or wait for an order. She ran straight into the melee and looked for the only one here that mattered to her.
She found him in seconds, drawn to his energy instinctively. With so many Immortals in the room, the air was buzzing with the combined flavor of all their separate powers. Emma had never felt anything like it before, but attributed it to the suit.
He was in chains, his hands above his head, but appeared to be unharmed. She breathed a sigh of relief as he argued with the Queen. But then the Queen raised her hand and shot Angel’s Fire at him.
Power exploded from Emma, not a contained fire, but a blast of light so bright it ate the little ball of light the Queen had tossed at Ajax and turned every Triscani between her and Ajax to dust. At least fifty.
She wasn’t even tired.
The Queen looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Emma, saw that she was advancing. Her eyes held malice, and she turned, jumped from her raised dais at the center of the room, and disappeared, weaving in and out of battling bodies so fast Emma couldn’t take aim at her.
The Queen was headed for Ajax, and she was going to beat Emma there by at least a minute.
Emma broke into an all-out sprint and dodged the last Immortal with a Triscani impaled on one sword as he took the Hunter’s head with another. She dodged the rolling head to find the Queen a few steps from Ajax. The Queen raised her hand and fired before Emma could react.
“No!” Emma screamed, but it was too late. Time seemed to come to a crawl as she watched the flash of white light envelop Ajax completely.
The Queen whirled, her arm raised at Emma, and fired. Emma ignored the stupid female as the white light hit her chest and flowed into her like a long-lost friend.
She couldn’t see around the Queen or her ridiculous plumage. “Move. You stupid bitch.” Emma fired a blast of fire at the Queen and didn’t stop to admire her work as the Queen was thrown out of her way.
When her vision focused on the pillar, she laughed in relief when she found Ajax smiling at her, completely untouched by the Queen’s attack.
Emma raced to him and kissed him. “Thank God. Why aren’t you dead?”
Ajax kissed her back. “You. I burn with Angel’s Fire every time we make love, Emma. I don’t think it can hurt me. Not while I carry your Mark.”
Emma hugged him tight, then looked up at the chains. There was no way she could pull them off. “Where’s the key?”
“There isn’t one. They are held by the will of their maker.”
“Who made them?” That jerk was going to be moved to first place on her burn list.
“The Queen..”
“Of course, she did.” Emma was done waiting to kill her.
Emma turned just as a sword arced toward her head. She had no weapon drawn and reacted on instinct. Emma raised her arm to block the blow.
Emma expected to be cut, badly, but the black armor she wore sang with a high, peeling note, like a bell ringing, as the blade made contact. It hurt, and she’d bleed, but the armor held, and the sword didn’t cut clean through.
“Impossible.” The Queen held the sword, her calculating gaze as patient as a spider’s with Emma trapped in her web. “Where did you get that armor?”
Emma and the Queen circled each other, the Queen’s eyes inspecting the suit, but not with curiosity or confusion, with anger, like a spoiled child denied a toy only to discover her mother had given the toy to someone else.
“You know where.” Emma clenched her hand as a warm trickle of blood flowed to her palm from the injury.
“The goddess has not set foot on Itara for centuries.”
Emma flexed her wrists, prepared to strangle the woman with her bare hands if that was what it took. “And why is that, Nelina?”
“Because, she was more powerful than I am.” The Queen’s calm answer reminded Emma of the psychopaths’ profiles she’d studied during her psychology lessons with Bran. No emotion. None. It was creepy.
The Queen swung at her again, and Emma dodged. “Sora didn’t deny her sons their destiny, you did.”
“My Aunt Sora was my first kill. I convinced her son to take her life.” Nelina smiled at the memory.
“Droghan?”
“Yes. And he’s been mine ever since.”
<
br /> Ajax yelled from behind her, and despite the chaos of battle, all the noise, she’d hear his voice anywhere. “Come on, Emma. Hurry up and kill the bitch so I can get out of these chains.”
The Queen had her back to Ajax now, and heard every word. Enraged at Ajax, she took another swing at Emma. This time, instead of dodging, Emma rushed inside the Queen’s reach and tackled her to the floor of the chamber. Momentum, and the silky glide of the Queen’s dress brought them to a halt at Ajax’s feet.
Ajax kicked the sword from the Queen’s hand and put his foot over her neck to help Emma hold her down.
Emma didn’t need the help, but she welcomed it anyway as she called her fire and asked it to burn.
The Queen screamed as the flames consumed her, and Emma felt the evil burn and burn, nearly as hot as when she’d burned through the small army of forbidden sons on the beach.
The Queen was gone, white ash beneath her hands.
The chains holding Ajax dropped away and he lifted her into his arms. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
Three words before they turned to join the fray. It was enough.
Ajax picked up the Queen’s sword and charged into the fight. The Immortal numbers were thinner, perhaps a quarter of them gone, turned to ash by the Triscani Hunters that remained. There were too many, and they were too hungry.
The Itarans were going to lose this fight.
Ajax stepped up behind a Hunter and turned him to ash moments before the Triscani managed to touch a woman who had fallen to the floor. Emma watched her Mate hold out his hand and help the female to her feet. She wore an emerald-colored dress, and she was too beautiful to be real.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.” Ajax moved on and the female turned, raising her arms toward a group of Hunters a short distance from her. The Triscani floated off the floor, dangling like meat as the warriors they’d been battling hacked at them with swords.
There weren’t many females left shooting the Angel’s Fire, and the few who remained were being overrun with Triscani, as if Droghan had ordered his Hunters to kill those females first.
White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5 Page 20
