Dark Descent (Codex Blair Book 3)

by Izzy Shows

  I made my way into the crowd then, ceasing to twirl the wand and holding it tight in one hand. I wanted to find Emily, or Lillai, someone that could talk the crowd down from the antsy edge they were all standing on. They were one wrong word away from panic, I could smell it in the air, and I wasn't going to be a good candidate for calming them down.

  Public speaking had never been my strong suit.

  Someone bumped into me. "Sorry, I'm sorry, so sorry." The girl erupted into apologies, skittering away from me with hunched shoulders and panic in her eyes.

  "Hey, it's going to be OK," I said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She flinched and I withdrew my hand, sighing. "We're going to make it out of this alive, OK?"

  "What would you know?"

  It was my turn to flinch, struck by the venom in her voice. Several others turned towards us, watching.

  "We're all in this together..." The words came out slow as I tried to find better ones, but came up short.

  She shook her head. "We're all going to die together! This was a horrible idea, I can't believe Lillai talked us into this."

  "You trust her, don't you? She wouldn't lead you astray." The words didn't sound quite right, and I knew that I was failing to make any kind of difference. I didn't know a lot about Lillai, but I did know that she cared about these mages more than I'd seen anyone care about anything. She wouldn't have brought them here if she didn't believe in what we were doing.

  "Lillai's gone soft." A new voice sounded behind me.

  "Yeah!"

  "She's going to get us killed!"

  "No!" My eyes widened in terror as I tried to fight them. "No, you have to believe in yourselves!"

  "What do you know? You aren't any different from us, just a hedge witch that thinks she's better than us!"

  "No, that's not true!" My breath came in little gasps, I fought the vice that squeezed my lungs together. I didn't know what to say to them to make any of it better, and I was realising that the anonymity that I had fought so hard for was biting me in the ass. They weren't going to listen to me because they didn't know me. They didn't know what I was capable of, they didn't know that I wasn't going to rest until they were all safe.

  All they knew was that they had been brought here to cage a succubus, and they didn't believe they were going to make it out alive.

  I didn't know if I was going to make it out alive.

  You didn't see me making a fuss about it, though. Steel made its way back into my bones and I tossed my head back, straightening my shoulders.

  "Stop." The steel in my bones resounded in my voice. I didn't speak loudly, but firmly, and a hush fell over the crowd. I was suddenly able to see Emily standing at the door, her attention riveted on me.

  "We're going to make it out of this because I said so. I'm not going to let anything happen to any of you," I said, feeling the truth in the words that came out of my mouth. "You don't have to believe me, I don't blame you if you don't, but I'm not letting a single one of you go into this without knowing that I have your back."

  They stayed silent, watching me, until the girl who'd argued with me took a step closer.

  "How are you going to keep us safe?"

  My heart squeezed at the broken sound of her voice.

  "Same way I have been," I said with a shrug. "Without any thanks or gratitude."

  I was the Hunter in the Darkness.

  I was the monster that kills monsters.

  I wasn't going to let a damn thing happen to my mages.

  37

  Just as I spoke, the compound was plunged into the same thick darkness that had permeated the demon's party, and pandemonium was unleashed.

  Screams filled the space and bodies began to slam into each other as the crowd quickly turned into a stampede.

  "Emily!" My voice joined the cacophony of sounds in the building, lost by the tide. I struggled to stay standing, trying to find a rhythm to the pushing and shoving so that I wouldn't fall down.

  A downed Wizard is a dead Wizard, not just when you're fighting something, but also when you've got a hundred or so mages around you all slamming into one another as they try to find the exit.

  "Ignis," I said, yanking my fire wand into the air. Light emitted from the tip, a steady burn of contained flames that I held aloft so that no one would slam into it.

  As if I'd given them a pill to swallow, the bodies around me began to ease, their terrified eyes, revealed by the light, began to adjust and calm.

  "Keep your heads about you!" I started to move through the crowd. "This thing feeds off your energy, if you're putting out a fuck ton of panic she's going to pick up on it and it's only going to fuel her. You're ready for this. You can deal with it." I raised my voice so that it echoed off the metallic walls of the compound, ringing throughout it, and bringing silence with it.

  The crowd began to calm.

  "Emily!" I craned my head about as I called her name again, trying to locate her.

  I saw her at last, her cloud of red curls bouncing as she pushed through the crowd to reach my side.

  "I'm here," she said, panting.

  "Good." I turned in a small circle, looking for Mal. The hairs on the back of my neck stood.

  Something was watching me.

  The succubus.

  She was here, we all already knew that—or at least, Emily, Mal, and I did. The crowd may not have realised that she was amongst them already, and I didn't see a point in clarifying that for them. But we didn't know where she was or when she was going to strike, and that was what made the situation dangerous.

  Give me a hundred angry vampires any day, at least they fight you. This succubus was skulking about the shadows, preparing her strike while I tried to regain control of the mages.

  “We're going to lose”.

  “Shut up.” Mal's voice echoed in my head right when I needed it, and then suddenly he was in front of me, his lips drawn in a tight line and his muscles bunched. He was ready for the fight.

  Something about the deadly look in his eyes took my breath away—I had never seen him fight before. I had sparred with him, but that was a far cry from the real thing. Here he was, standing in front of me in his usual get up, but he looked like he could kill you just by looking at you. There was something primal about him that couldn't be denied; he was the promise of death itself.

  "Oh good, you're here," I said, cracking a grin. It was the only thing I could think to do so that everyone would stay calm. If I was calm then they would be calm, and that's what we needed right now.

  "Emily, we're going to need you keeping a fountain of holy light going—"

  My words were lost in my throat when a deafening roar echoed throughout the room. I was driven to my knees, barely managing to hang onto my wand and keep it upright. It was the only source of light in the room, and even then, it was fighting to stay lit. I wanted to put it out, to conserve the energy that was within, but I didn't want to risk the stampede again.

  Terrified screams broke out in the room again, and when I dragged my head up I saw several shaky hands pointing above and behind me.

  Ah, fuck. It's always above you, you know. It can't ever be in front of you, ready to fight you. No, it's always in the most inopportune and bloody creepy spot possible.

  I pivoted, staying crouched, and looked up.

  A goddess of a woman floated above me, golden hair rippling out at all angles and blown by a wind that didn't exist. She wore a Grecian gown with a plunging neck line and a slit that rode all the way up her thigh. She was beautiful beyond words, but all I could think about was the vortex of black death I had seen at the demon's party when Emily had brought about her holy light.

  She may wear a mask, but I wouldn't be fooled by it. Not this time.

  "You fools. You thought your numbers would protect you from me. I will feast on your very souls." Her voice was hauntingly beautiful, the kind of sound that made you ache in places you wouldn't tell your mum about, and I felt my heart lurch in response.
/>   No. I held the image of her true form in my head, glaring up at her.

  "You're going to have to go through me," I said, standing up and squaring my shoulders.

  She cackled, not even looking at me. "Won't you dispose of her for me, darlings?" She cast her voice out like a net upon the mages.

  I didn't understand what she was talking about for a minute, she didn't have any darlings there with her—it was just her, and it was going to be easy to take her down because there were so many of us. Plus, I had a paladin on my side. She was going the fuck down.

  Except almost half of the mages were standing up, their movements jerky at first but smoothing out as they turned all at once and faced me. Their eyes were dead, soulless.

  She'd compelled them.

  The absurd side of me was chanting that I was right about her being able to compel people, and that she'd forced mages to places they wouldn't otherwise have gone so that she could eat them in relative comfort. Take that, world. I was right about something.

  Except the other side of me was screaming at me to move because holy fuck, that was a lot of mages ready to kill me.

  "Oh, and sweetie, before you think of letting your paladin turn her light on me, which would be very rude...Darlings, do kill yourselves the moment her holy light is seen."

  There was no sound of affirmation from the mages, but I didn't need it to know that they would do whatever she asked.

  "Now, what are you waiting for? Kill them!"

  38

  The compelled mages moved as one for a moment before they all splintered off, grabbing their sentient counterparts, and attacking with fervour. Some of them resorted to fist fighting, others attacked with magic. It was sickening, watching brothers turning on one another, struggling to get a shield up in time to stop your brother from killing you when he didn't even know what he was doing.

  They had us at a distinct disadvantage—they were trying to kill us.

  I ran into the fray without stopping to think about it, shoving my wand into its holster. I wasn't going to be doing any magic if I could help it; it wouldn't be fair. There was no way in hell any of these mages could hold their own against me, and I didn't know that I could keep the bloodlust in check long enough to hold myself back from killing them.

  My eyes zeroed in on a young girl—couldn't be more than fifteen, what the fuck was she doing here—that had been knocked to the ground, her hands above her face in a futile shield against her attacker. The attacking mage had his hand yanked back, it blazed with fire, and was about to slam it into her face.

  Forgetting the decision I had just made, I raced forward and dragged my ice wand out at the same time.

  "Glacio!" I snapped my arm out, aiming at his hand, and watched as it was instantly encased in ice. That wasn't going to do much to stop him from pummelling her to death, but it would stop the instant threat. I holstered the wand and kept running, shoulder checking the mammoth of a man once I reached him.

  Now, I am not a small girl, not by anyone's standards. I am taller than most men, and the past two years had been all about eating healthy and working out—I had muscles. The more strength you had, the more magic you could do, and I was intent on bulking up enough to be a magical bruiser. What I didn't have in finesse, I could make up in brute strength.

  I barely nudged the guy.

  Keep all that in mind, and now remember that he was straddling a fifteen-year-old girl who probably weighed eight stone soaking wet.

  I was glad that even though I hadn't moved him, I had succeeded in getting his attention. He ignored the girl beneath him, shoving me to one side as he stood from her. I heard her sobs begin, now that she realised she wasn't dying the reality of the situation was hitting her.

  I didn't have time to comfort her. I had her attacker to deal with.

  He was a giant brute of a man, I'd guess twenty-five stone and six feet tall. His knuckles were bloody already, and a glance at the girl told me that there had to be another victim lying on the concrete somewhere.

  Was I a shitty person for being glad it wasn't the girl? I should be upset that it had happened at all, but I was glad it wasn't the girl. I wanted her to make it out alive. She shouldn't be here in the first place.

  He grunted at me, the only warning I got, before he slammed into me and knocked me to the floor—apparently, this was his go to move; pin the girl underneath you.

  Dumb move, wanker.

  "Incendium." I lit myself on fire.

  OK, calm down, it wasn't a big fire, just enough to spook the bastard and get him off me. I wasn't trying to kill anyone. For all I knew, this guy baked brownies in his spare time. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had fallen victim to an evil succubus. I had to remember that, I had to not kill people.

  I whipped out my ice wand, twirling it around in one hand and aiming it at his feet. "Glacio!" I uttered the word again, and ice sprang forth. Now he had a pair of shoes to match the glove I'd given him; his feet were frozen to the floor.

  Good, he was going to at least be contained for the moment. I holstered my wand again, ignoring his shouts and promises of death, and looked around.

  It was hard to see anything that wasn't two feet in front of you; magic had abounded all around us and was effectively acting like our own little fireworks show. It broke through the darkness and allowed light to shine, but it was so intermittent and haphazard that it was impossible to get a good look at anything.

  I wanted to find Mal and Emily, get things under control, but the world was panicking all around me and I didn't know what to do.

  I darted deeper into the crowd, continuously having to stop to pull one mage off another and keep them from doing something they'd regret when they came out of this spell. If they came out of the spell.

  I shook my head at the same time as I drove my elbow into a woman's windpipe, snapping my arm up so that the back of my fist connected with her forehead.

  "Stay down," I said, panting. She didn't move. I crouched beside her, checked her pulse quickly, and when I was sure she would live I stood and continued on again.

  It was impossible to find heads or tails of yourself in this crowd of bodies. There were so many of them, and they just kept smashing into one another and then turning around and smashing into someone else...

  It was a damned good thing I was quick on my feet, I thought to myself as I dodged yet another blow headed for my ears. Quick legwork brought the attacker crashing to the ground, my booted foot braced against their throat.

  Don't use magic, don't use magic, don't use magic. I stared down at their dead eyes, saw the way they didn't feel anything, and compared it to the rage boiling within me.

  Fight, fight, fight!

  I felt heat surround my left hand as it clenched into a fist as if it belonged to someone else.

  STOP.

  Pain lanced through my head and I cringed. I caught sight of the fire in my hand and hastily put it out, shaking my hand for good measure. Fuck.

  Just. Fuck. What was I going to do with myself?

  Raven was right, you can't control it, something's wrong with you.

  No, I was going to be fine.

  Wrong, wrong, wrong, you're going to DIE.

  I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, the metallic taste of blood rushing into my mouth. Clarity. Beautiful, beautiful clarity. Pain had always been my best friend when it came to times like this, where I couldn't think, where I couldn't figure out who or what I was.

  Pain could always remind me.

  I twisted my foot, kicking up at the man’s jawline just enough to smack his head into the concrete of the floor. He didn't look up at me. I knelt to check his pulse as well, satisfied myself that I hadn't killed him, and got up again.

  It was going to be a long bloody battle if this was how things were going to go—trying to incapacitate people who are trying to kill you is hard as hell.

  I jogged through the crowd again, being stingy about who I stopped for now, trying
to figure out who could take care of themselves and who actually needed me. I was surprised that a lot of the mages were beginning to hold their own, now that the shock of fighting their friends had worn off and they understood what needed to be done.

  I felt almost like the captain of an army, checking in on the people as I went, correcting a stance here or there when it looked like they would hurt themselves if I didn't intervene.

  Relief began to wash over me in waves, and then I saw Mal.

  Black energy was pooling in one of his hands at the same time as he was fighting multiple mages with his free hand—just bloody wrecking them while standing still, preparing the lethal blast.

  No, no, no, don't do that! I screamed inside my head, but I knew that he couldn't hear me. It would be folly to let your guards down in a fight like this. I scrambled to run, dead set on stopping him from murdering a bunch of compelled mages that didn't know what the fuck they were doing.

  I vaulted over downed mages, skated beneath a pair of outstretched arms, and dodged multiple blows; running as if my life depended on it. I couldn't let him do this, couldn't let him hurt people.

  Damn it, we'd had this conversation once already. Did he remember nothing?

  I had intended to slam into him, distract him, something, but that didn't end up working out for me. Instead, I had misjudged the direction I was running in—I was aiming for the people he was about to hit.

  Squeezing my eyes tight, I pushed the final amount of speed into my movement and flew through the air.

  "NO!" I heard his voice roaring in my ears as heat kissed my cheeks, and then it was gone and I was crashing onto the floor.

  Wheezing for air and incredibly disoriented, I looked up in time to see a murderous Mal standing over me. He reached down and gripped my arm, dragging me to my feet without ceremony—we both knew what it would mean if we allowed ourselves to fall to the ground for too long. No doubt he was mad at me for letting that happen, not to mention interrupting him.