His counterattack threw her back and nearly drove the desk through her shields.
“You cannot defeat me, your highness. Neither can that child. One of you will give me what I want; it’s just a question of the price you wish to put on your temporary refusal.” He paused. “Or do you think I am not capable of convincing you to do as I ask, even if your sister is dead?”
Magic lashed across the room like a whip. With a shriek, Lily collapsed as it cracked hard against her meager defenses.
Ashe gasped. Propelling herself from the floor, she rushed toward Lily and then skidded, retreating as bursts of electricity sliced across her path. She tumbled down behind the desk and then scrambled for her feet again, only to freeze at the sight of Cole helping the girl sit up.
“Damn you, stop it!” Cole shouted over the fallen bookcase.
Jamison ignored him. “I can kill her without touching my son, your highness. Bring this to an end before you lose the last family member you have left.”
“She matters to me too, you bastard!” Cole yelled. “You can’t–”
“Or would you prefer Lily to be the one who watches her family die?”
Magic slammed into the desk, crushing her backwards till only an inch remained between her and the wood.
“I can give you luxury and peace. A tranquil life of utter safety with all you and your baby sister could ever ask for. Or you can spend every waking moment learning the price of refusing me.”
Lightning snaked around the desk, stabbing her shields. Sparks hit her, burning as they burrowed into her skin, and she choked, her fingers digging into the carpet at the pain.
“Goddamn it, Dad! You–”
“Quiet.”
Another blast struck, raking over her shields as it sent the desk skittering away and left nothing between her and the Taliesin king. She gasped, tears stinging her eyes as she fought to hold her defenses against the sparks of magic crawling into her.
“It’s your choice, your majesty,” Jamison said calmly, watching her. “Like binding my people, like leaving us captive for half a millennia, like everything that has led to this point… it has always been your choice.”
Lightning cut through her shields, and she screamed as it slashed her back, leaving hot wetness pouring down in its wake. Across the room, she saw Lily scrambling to reach her, her hands clawing at Cole as he held her back.
“Please!” Cole begged. “Stop it! You’re not… this isn’t you! You’re not like this! You’re not–”
“Quiet, Cole.”
Another bolt hit her. She couldn’t even scream. Her arm gave out, sending her crashing to the floor.
“What is your decision, your highness? I will convince your sister to help me. Your death will not spare her that.”
The magic seared through her, setting every vein on fire, and lightning slashed her again.
“Ashe! Ashe, listen to me!”
She dragged her gaze from the bloodied ground.
“Just do it,” Cole ordered intensely. “Do what he says.”
Horror twisted through the pain as she read his meaning. Her head shook as sparks crawled over her skin.
He met her eyes. “Do it, Ashe.”
She gasped, choking on a sob as another blast sliced her back. Cole’s face crumpled at the sight and across the distance between them, she could see him whisper a single word.
“Please.”
Tears fell on her scalded cheeks. Magic struggled up around her, dragging from the depths of all she had left as the lightning devoured the last of her defense.
“Do it!” he shouted.
She reached out, ripped the magic from Lily, and then flung it all at the young man who wouldn’t look away from her eyes.
The air around him shattered like glass. Iridescent shards flew apart, hanging weightless for a moment before racing at her in a thousand pieces of color and light. Lily screamed, her fingers clutching Cole as Jamison started forward, his face white with horror and rage.
And time slowed. The fragments slid through the air, whispering like a fingertip across crystal as they came.
Cole collapsed.
She closed her eyes.
And the broken pieces struck her skin.
Energy flooded her, spreading like wildfire through her veins, and bringing Lily’s magic on its heels. The abyss rushed in, eroding the island of her power like sand beneath a tide.
She unleashed the magic at the darkness.
The void hit.
And then everything was gone.
*****
Darkness surrounded her, perfect and still. She couldn’t feel the ground, or any brush of wind. The air echoed in a muted scream and the sound of someone calling her name, but the noise was distant. Paused.
Waiting.
She drew a trembling breath and her gaze fell, finding her own body despite the black. Light glowed from her, as though the power she’d taken lit her from within. But frail, black lines traced jagged paths through the glow, like remnants of a lightning strike.
The ghost of a memory drifted past, vanishing before she could grasp it all. But it’d hurt. She remembered that much. There’d been a sudden darkness. And pain.
A flash caught the corner of her eye and she looked up. The world seemed to quiver and as she watched, a glimmer broke the black, faint and no larger than a grain of sand. Her eyes tracked across the void as others joined it, first a few, then more, each one pricking through the darkness like stars emerging in the night sky.
She paused. Not stars. Magic. Her skin shivered as more appeared, and the hairs on her arms rose, as if tied to the lights in the sky.
As if bound to them.
The stars grew brighter and the quivering became a low rumble, radiating from the heart of an earth she couldn’t see.
A breath slid from her. They were wizards. Each light. Each star. Wizards bound to her, with their magic rushing down to course beneath her skin.
Just as it had always done.
In the darkness, the rumbling grew louder. The air shook, carrying a scream and the sound of her name.
She stared in awe. She’d lived at the heart of this. She’d just never been able to reach it. She’d never had the strength. But it was a part of her, just as it had been for her father and all her ancestors before him.
“I am the spell,” she whispered.
The rumbling became stronger. The stars grew bright, burning away the darkness. She could hear Lily past the noise, and through the fading shadows, she could see Jamison. He was turning toward her, lightning leaving him slowly to strike her again.
It was so clear. The connection from herself to him, stretching out to the Taliesin through their king. She could feel the same within her to the Merlin and, with a thought, she could direct the light inside her to take any of them, bind them.
Even kill them.
She shivered, shying from the thought. Binding the Taliesin would be enough. The world just needed to be the way it had been. And it would be so simple. The magic beneath her skin connected her to them all.
Though none were like the stars.
Her brow furrowed. The magic of the Merlin and Taliesin was hazy, like moonlight pushing past a cloud, and while that of her own people glowed vaporously behind the mist, the Taliesin shifted in shades of transient gray.
And both felt wrong. There hadn’t been anything like that around the stars. If anything, with their magic pouring into her, there almost hadn’t been anything left beyond the fragile sphere of their light.
She blinked, her gaze going to Cole.
Realization settled over her like snow.
“Didn’t know what it was going to cost,” she whispered.
In the distance, Lily was screaming. Electricity crackled as it cut the air. She looked back to Jamison.
And she could hear the abyss roar.
She could send the magic through him. She could bind the Taliesin and the Blood, and give the Merlin the power to end the war. It was all h
er father had worked for, everything her people had fought and bled and died to achieve.
It would be so simple.
But the world just needed to be the way it had been.
Light spread from her skin. Magic swirled around her, spinning faster and faster. The desk disintegrated as she rose to her feet, and the carpet shredded beneath the wind. The lightning of Jamison’s attack scattered across the face of the whirlwind and as she straightened, she could see him stumble back, his rage transforming into horror.
He lifted a hand, and another blast rushed toward her.
She let the magic go.
The light erupted. Debris rushed away as though propelled by a hurricane, and Lily hit the floor, her fingers digging into Cole as it swept over them. Wood and stone strafed the walls and shattered the windows, but the magic continued on, rolling from the building to explode across the sky.
And like smoke, the abyss faded away.
A breath slipped from her. Glass tinkled down, pinging from the window frames to drop to the street, and a breeze drifted past the broken windows, carrying the distant sounds of the city as it twisted through her hair.
“What…” Jamison gasped. “What have you done?”
She looked over. On the other side of the office, he stumbled to his feet, staring between her and his shaking hands.
“Ended it,” she answered.
A choked sound escaped him. Rage spasmed across his face, growing stronger with every heartbeat. Lightning gathered in his palms, and at the sight, triumph flared amid the fury in his eyes.
His gaze rose to hers. Slid to Lily. And his lips curled into a smile.
“Don’t,” she warned.
His hand flung outward.
Her defenses were faster.
White light rushed from her, shattering the blast. In a wall of wind, it slammed into him and threw him back. He gasped, his hands flying out to claw for the window frame as his eyes went wide.
And then the world was at his feet.
Forever at his feet.
She closed her eyes as his screams faded from the sky.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Ashley?”
She opened her eyes. Crouched a few yards away, Lily was staring at her. Woodchips and carpet fibers flecked the girl’s hair and her face was bloodlessly white. On the floor beside her, Cole lay motionless, and the little girl’s fingers trembled as they clutched him.
Ashe exhaled, an ache twisting deep in her chest. And she knew it would grow. In the next days, in the next moments when reality sank in, what she’d done was going to hurt like hell.
She swallowed and crossed the room to lower herself down by the young man’s side. “Lil,” she said quietly, reaching out to wrap her fingers around the girl’s hand.
Cole stirred beneath them.
Ashe jerked away, her gaze going to Lily. “How did you–”
Lily shook her head. “I-I didn’t. Did you…?”
Ashe looked back down, shaking her head as well. All around him, the strangely missing feeling she’d grown so accustomed to with the cripples was gone, and nothing was in its place. No crystalline glow like the Merlin. No shadow.
Just… nothing.
“A-Ashley?” Lily tried again.
She glanced up to see her sister staring at her, one hand hanging timidly in the air as though afraid to touch her.
“I’m fine, kiddo,” she assured the little girl, returning her attention to Cole. She didn’t want to think about it. About the pain or what Jamison had done. Nothing hurt anymore, despite the blood she could feel drying on her back. And Cole was alive. They all were.
That was enough.
Cole coughed. His brow furrowing, he rolled to the side, pain clear on his face.
“What…” he managed hoarsely. Coughing again, he shook his head and then pushed away from the ground.
Ashe reached down, helping him sit up. Breathing hard, he blinked as if trying to focus.
His gaze went beyond Lily and found the windows.
For a heartbeat, he froze. Haltingly, his gaze scanned the room, and his brow twitched down, as though contending with something he didn’t want to believe.
“He…” Cole began, and then he swallowed hard. “He, um…”
“I’m sorry,” Ashe said quietly.
The air seemed to press from his lungs. With an anguished expression, he closed his eyes.
She looked away, silent as the minutes crawled by.
Cole cleared his throat. “I, uh… I thought I was dead,” he said, his voice tight with the effort at normalcy.
“Me too,” she replied.
He paused and then drew a breath, visibly pushing the pain aside. He glanced back at her.
For the second time in as many minutes, he froze. “Holy…” he started, shock washing every other expression away.
She stared at him. “What?”
His gaze darted from her to Lily and back. “You…”
She glanced at Lily. The little girl was watching her too. “What?” she pressed.
“You look like her,” he explained. “I mean…”
“N-not like the Merlin,” Lily finished warily. “Human.”
“Glowing human,” Cole added.
Ashe paused. “What?” she said again.
A groan sounded behind them. She turned sharply, her hand tightening around Lily’s as shredded sofa cushions rolled back from their mound by the pockmarked remnants of the wall.
Thelma sat up. Her eyes blinked blearily and her bony hand lifted to pat uselessly at her wild gray hair. Dazedly, she looked around the room and then paused as the three of them came into view.
Her mouth dropped open.
“It…” she gasped. “It’s gone!”
Her skeletal fingers clawed at the cushions as she scrambled to her feet.
“She talking about the Merlin thing?” Cole asked, watching Thelma warily.
Ashe gave a careful shrug, not looking away from the woman either.
A smile broke out across Thelma’s face. She stumbled from the pile, only to halt in shock as she saw the blood on the tattered back of Ashe’s shirt.
“Hurt?” the old woman cried. “Hurt you?”
“I’m fine.”
Her own tone was guarded, Ashe could tell. But she couldn’t bring herself to change it, any more than she could decide what to think. They wouldn’t be here if not for Thelma.
In how many ways, she wasn’t sure.
Tripping over the last of the cushions, the old woman came closer and then sank down beside them. The smile returned to her wrinkled face as she looked between the three of them, and then Cole flinched as her arthritic fingers wrapped around his hand.
“Did so well,” she told him approvingly. “My little one. My brave paladin.”
“You keep calling him that,” Ashe said before Cole could speak. “What does that mean?”
“Defenders. Ones who gave the magic you gave back.”
Ashe’s brow flickered down. “You knew about that?”
“Excuse me?” Cole cut in.
“Of course,” Thelma replied.
“But how?” she asked. “No one’s ever–”
“I’m sorry, can we go back for a sec? Gave what magic?”
Thelma turned to him, looking mystified. “Your magic.”
“I don’t have any magic.”
The old woman blinked perplexedly.
“Ashe?” Cole tried.
She swallowed. “Actually, you do.”
“Uh, no…” he corrected. “Pretty sure I’d remember that.”
“Didn’t know?” Thelma asked Ashe, pointing to Cole in baffled surprise.
Ashe shook her head. “Nobody did. That’s why everyone calls them cripples.”
The old woman’s eyebrows rose.
“Ashe,” Cole said, sounding more than a little unnerved. “Look, you realize who we’re talking to, right? You can’t just–”
“I’m not,” she interrupted ed
gily. “And you do. I don’t know how, but you do. Merlin bound it. He took what you have and bound it to make his family into the spell.” She paused. “And I have no idea how, or why, or what the hell that means.”
For a heartbeat, he watched her.
“What the hell’s a paladin, Thelma?” Cole asked, turning to the old woman.
Ashe exhaled, her heart slowing again.
“Defenders,” Thelma repeated. “Watchmen on the hills. The ones who saw how people fit together, connections they shared. Weren’t like the firemen, destroying and burning and creating all those wars. Wouldn’t light the night sky or make wet wood burn. But saw the differences, the samenesses, and protected those they served. Those they loved. Guarded them against what they couldn’t see.”
She paused. “But you gave it up.”
As Cole’s brow twitched down, she shrugged. “Didn’t mean to, I know. Plan was only to help. Give the connections to make the spell and share the sight of who was who, so people didn’t have to be afraid anymore. So many betrayals, back then. So many families lost when friends didn’t turn out to be friends. Paladins couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t protect everyone. So you shared the sight. The connections. Let the others see what you saw, let him use the connections you could feel so he could take the magic from the ones who started wars. Let him use all of it.
“Didn’t think it would take it away.”
The old woman picked at the debris beside her crossed legs. “Never knew he’d need to keep it forever, either,” she mused. “And Merlin didn’t want to. Poor man. Hated what it did. Knew you accepted it, though. Saw the good it made, the lives it saved, even if it cost you. Even if you couldn’t be near your friends anymore. Hurt so much. The magic. Pulled and burned and caused so much pain. Spell did that. Took all your beautiful protections and sight, and made them all backwards. Gave nothing but a view of your world that hurt when you came too close to anyone who wasn’t outside, and used the spell to give your last strength to wolves when they attacked.” She shook her head sadly, her gaze going to the broken windows. “So horrible. So high a price.”
She sighed. “Cost you too, though, I guess,” she continued, looking back at Ashe. “Cost everyone. Nothing without a price. Not like the paladins, of course. Nobody paid like them. But weakened the others. Differences weren’t natural, and needed strength to see. Drained them to see it, though they didn’t really care. Eventually forgot life before the differences came along. Forgot so much when all the pieces tossed up by the war finally came down. Just glad to be alive. Didn’t seem important that everything was out of balance. That new things were over them now, making them strange. Birds fled. Dogs barked. All so very strange. So weak. So much a shadow of what they had been.”
Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) Page 37
