by Amy Braun
I launched Ki̱demónas into the middle of the cavern. The gorgons writhed away from the spear. Ki̱demónas struck the ground, and I commanded it to ignite.
Flames exploded throughout the cavern, racing along the ground and rising over the backs of the three gorgons. They convulsed and threw themselves to the side, eager to escape the flames. As the gorgons moved away from each other, Thea surged forward to confront the beast in the center with her sai. Selena withdrew her new kukri to take the gorgon on the right, and I called Ki̱demónas back to fight the monster on the left.
Even though they were blind, their senses of hearing and smell were still overwhelmingly powerful. The gorgon swiped its claws at my chest. I blocked its arm with my spear and kicked the blind creature in the chest. It slithered backward, hissing angrily. I held out my left hand and smothered it with fire.
The gorgon snapped back and forth, trying to dodge the heat of the flames. I turned and made sure Thea and Selena were all right. They were ducking and dodging the lightning-quick beasts.
The gorgon facing Thea lunged forward with outstretched claws and open jaws. She twisted away from it, stabbing both her sai into the gorgon’s back and tearing down its hide. It hissed and whipped its tail into Thea’s stomach, knocking her into the ground.
Beside her, Selena faced a gorgon that towered over her. It slashed its claws wildly, forcing Selena to duck and dodge instead of attack. Each step brought her closer to the wall. The gorgon got in a lucky strike and smacked the back of its hand across her face. Selena grunted and crashed into the rocky wall. The gorgon punched its claws at her head. Selena ducked and swept her kukri across the gorgon’s side. It hissed and contorted to face her. Selena got to her feet, staying far from the walls.
A snarl came from behind me. Focused on that sound, I gripped Ki̱demónas and swung the spear backward. It crashed against the gorgon’s head, knocking it into the wall before its claws could gouge into my back.
I spun the spear and launched Ki̱demónas directly at the beast. The gorgon avoided my spear, ducking low and darting off to the side. It moved too fast for me to track. I reached out for Ki̱demónas just as the gorgon rushed me. The spear returned to my grip, giving me enough time to jump back and slash open its face. The gorgon screeched, reeling away in pain, but its claws lashed out and raked down my arm.
I grimaced and punched at the gorgon with my fire. The strike never connected, but the intense heat made the gorgon shriek and back up. I stabbed out with Ki̱demónas, the steel tip of the weapon lodging in the gorgon’s side. It screamed in fury, thrashing back and forth to get off the spear. Blazes of orange flame and the hissing crackle of ice magic filled the corners of the cave, telling me that Selena and Thea were still in the fight.
The gorgon swiped its claws at my head. I ducked low and pulled my spear out of the creature’s side. Then I stepped behind it and stabbed the gorgon’s tail. I filled my hands with fire and poured it down the spear.
It shrieked louder, and then its razor-sharp talons plunged into the flesh of my shoulder. My muscles tore when the gorgon hurled me away from the spear. I landed on my stomach and grimaced at the pain throbbing down my arms. Before I could move, claws curled around my ribs and sank into my chest. Blood flowed from the deep scratches as it raked its hand down my body. I grimaced at the fiery, cutting pain. I scrambled for something to fight back with. The claws on its other hand dug into my scalp. Blood poured down my face. Its jaws opened wide. Saliva dripped from its fangs.
My hands curled around my combat knives. I dragged them free and stabbed upward. The blades sank into its cauterized eyes. The gorgon howled and wrenched away from me, dragging the knives from its eyes and batting them out of my grip. I heaved forward, feeling the blood flowing down my body and face. I staggered, burning from all the cuts and dizzy from blood loss. I pressed a hand to my chest and started a healing spell.
The gorgon’s tail snapped across my chest, and I was tossed through the cavern. I hardened my skin just before I slammed into the wall. Bruising pain filled my body when I dropped to the ground. My shoulder and chest burned angrily, still oozing blood. I had to wipe my face to clear more blood from my eyes. I raised my head and saw Thea hurling ice daggers at the gorgon in front of her, impaling it but not killing it. Selena seared the gorgon slithering for her exposed side.
Both women were slashed to ribbons, and their limbs shook as they fought. Or maybe that was my vision. The gorgons were too quick. All it would take was one bite or slash from the gorgon’s claws, and one of them would die.
No. I’m not going to let that happen.
I pushed another thread of healing magic into my chest and clotted the bleeding on my scalp and shoulders. Then I pushed to my feet and shouted, “Get in the tunnel!”
Selena shot a blast of fire then looked at me. A shadow dragged over me—
I rolled out of the way when the gorgon darted for me. Its head slammed into the wall. I had bought myself only seconds. I held out my hand and commanded Ki̱demónas back into my grip. The gorgon contorted, sweeping down for me again. I swiped up with my spear, cutting along the monster’s chest. I raised my hand to aim fire at it, but another spear of fire shot over my shoulder and smashed into its chest.
Selena turned, having just saved my life, and pressed her back to mine to fend off the other gorgon.
“Thea,” she called, “get over here!”
I growled, “This isn’t what I meant when I said—”
“I heard you, Derek,” she snapped back. She grunted, and flames billowed from her palms. “But we’ll survive if we fight together, and I’m not going to run away so you can get ripped in half by giant snakes.”
I knew I would never convince her otherwise, and I didn’t have the strength or energy to try. Thea scrambled to our side and shot up a wall of ice. The gorgon pursuing her slammed into it face-first. Howling, it barreled around the wall and right into the fury of Selena’s flames.
“Whatever you planned, Derek,” Selena shouted at me as she held off the gorgon, “now is the time to do it.”
The gorgons closed in for the kill.
A whipping tail snared Selena’s legs and knocked her off her feet, nearly taking me with her. Startled, Thea called for her friend, accidentally letting her guard down, allowing the gorgon to sneak through. It exploded through her ice wall and launched at her. I reached back and wrapped an arm around her, pushing her down with one hand and stabbing the flying gorgon in the mouth with my other hand…
Opening my back to the gorgon I’d been fighting earlier.
I Adapted, freed the Rage, and moved fast.
Fire and aether exploded out of my back and shoulders, erasing all traces of pain and blocking out everything that wasn’t a gorgon.
I glanced over my shoulder. Whips of smoke lashed at the gorgon charging for my back and closed around its face, smothering it before it could sink its fangs and claws into me. The one I’d been fighting shuddered and crumpled. It was finally in too much pain to move, and it wisely died. The second one, which had been battling the water scion, was far more resilient and foolish.
I raised my hand away from the water scion I was protecting and pushed fire at the gorgon that had tried to kill her. It shrieked and slithered backward, smoke pouring out of its blistered face. Hearing another cry of pain, I twisted and hurled Ki̱demónas at the gorgon attacking the Farseer. It had wrapped its body around hers and was crushing her to death, until Ki̱demónas plunged clean through its throat.
I straightened my body and recalled my spear. It tore itself out of the neck of the gorgon who’d been strangling the Farseer. She groaned and rolled away from the gorgon. The bloody creature slumped onto its side.
The spear shivered in my grip, singing a song of war.
The two burned and bleeding gorgons slinked away from me, leaving streaks of blood on the stony floor. I stalked closer, gripping Ki̱demónas in one hand and filling the other with inky aether and smoldering fire.
Then I lashed out.
I hurled the spear at the burned gorgon, piercing it through the neck. Its back curved and the spear tip pierced its tail, pinning it in a deformed circle.
I whipped the aether toward the second gorgon as if throwing a lasso, and I was an excellent wrangler. The loop closed around the gorgon’s neck and cinched tight. It bucked and yowled, clawing its scales and skin in an attempt to free itself. Then I bunched my muscles, grabbed the aether whip with both hands, and pulled.
The colossal monster glided across the floor and stopped right at my feet. It tried to bite me, its pathetic movements flinging blood from its punctured throat everywhere. I reached down and closed my hand around its neck, then I let go of my flames.
They exploded from my fingertips and closed over the gorgon. Flames consumed the creature. It bucked and shrieked in my grip, and its howling turned into gurgles as its flesh melted. I watched it boil and turn to ash through the red curtain of my flames.
It was over in seconds. I stood up and heard a gargled hiss at my back. The final gorgon had managed to free itself from my spear and charged for me. I sent a command to my spear. It flipped and pierced through the gorgon’s back, the tip erupting from its chest. With another wave of my fingers, Ki̱demónas ignited. The gorgon became a beacon that illuminated the entire cavern. It hissed and yowled until it was ash.
All the gorgons were dead. Surely there were more? Dozens of holes filled the walls. The cavern was a veritable hive of monsters, and we had not held a quiet battle.
Or had they seen what happened to their nest-mates and knowingly backed down?
The possibility made me smile.
“Derek.”
I turned to the voice. It was the Farseer. She and her dark-haired friend were huddled together, both of them looking small and scared and weak. The Farseer was the only one who managed to hold my gaze.
“Derek, that’s enough.”
The Rage rumbled in my chest, as if laughing. So I snickered.
There’s never enough.
I turned away from her, looking around the cavern for an exit. Dead gorgons littered my path. I burned all of their bodies. The women called my name, but I didn’t turn back.
“This is what I had planned to do,” I replied over my shoulder, “and you asked for it.”
As I walked to the far end of the cavern, I felt a dull prodding in my mind. It made me pause. I couldn’t hear what it was, and it wasn’t pain. But it was familiar.
Just beyond the wall.
Perhaps there was a tunnel or a secret door through the honeycombed room. But the prodding was coming from directly behind the wall in front of me, and I wasn’t in the mood to wait.
I pressed my hand to the stone and sent out a burst of fire and aether. The aether served as the pressure, and the fire served as the heat.
Stone exploded around me, chunks of stone landing at my feet. The blast wave pushed dust and debris from my face. I chuckled. I’d never blown something up with magic before.
“Derek, you need to come out of the Rage.”
I turned, surprised I hadn’t heard the Farseer come up behind me. She was brave, standing only a foot away from me. She must have stood directly behind me to keep away from the blasting rocks. Her fists were balled and her eyes hard.
Cute.
“Why would I do that? I have so much more magic to use.”
“You’re bleeding like a stuck pig, and you’re not being discreet.” Her silver-blue eyes darted to Ki̱demónas. “Let go of the spear.”
I gripped it tighter and pushed my aura toward her. She grimaced and leaned back, wary.
“Think twice before you tell me to do anything again,” I warned her.
She stood in place, staring at me with concern, and what looked like heartbreak.
There was an odd twinge in my chest. I didn’t know what it was or why it was there. I shouldn’t have cared. I didn’t care.
And yet…
The Farseer grit her teeth. Her eyes turned cold.
“Fine. I won’t tell you to do anything.”
I smirked. “Smart woman.” I turned to the newly created hole in the wall and stepped forward. A quick glance told me I’d opened up a path into another network of tunnels. Convenient.
A thudding pressure hammered into my shoulder, right near my neck. My fingers spasmed, and I dropped Ki̱demónas. I whirled around and took a punch straight to the chest.
My heartbeat stuttered, and the Rage faltered and slipped.
Dizziness hit me, and I swayed. Hands gripped my shoulders and kept me from smacking my head on the floor. I had used most of my magic and could barely keep my eyes open. Pain flooded me from head and shoulders to chest and stomach, all the way down to my shins. I felt like I’d been run over, dropped from a building, then run over again.
“Derek?”
I blinked, seeing Selena kneeling in front of me even through my blurred eyes.
“Selena, what…?”
It all came back to me—the way I’d acted, the things I’d said.
The risk she’d taken punching me when my head was swollen by the Rage.
Another spike of pain went through my skull, quickly followed by a sweep of shame. I cupped my head in my hands.
“Oh, gods. I’m so sorry.”
Her fingers curled around my neck and shoulder. “You’d godsdamned better be. And I’ll forgive you when we get out of here with Liam, Corey, and Mason.” Gentle lips pressed to the crown of my head, and warm magic knit my wounds back together, easing most of my pains. “Maybe leave Ki̱demónas sheathed for a while. I don’t like punching you.”
“Gods, you shouldn’t have done that. If I’d reacted, if I’d hurt you—”
“That wouldn’t have happened.”
I raised my head and looked into her eyes. Those bright, beautiful, stubborn eyes. “How can you be sure?”
Selena smiled. She pressed her palm over my heart. No doubt, she could feel it racing.
“I trust you. And I know you have a crush on me.”
I wondered if it was dark enough to hide the blush those words put into my cheeks. I took a breath to say something to her—what, gods only knew—when Thea approached us.
“Gods above and below,” Thea rasped. Her eyes went to my dirt-and-blood-stained hands. “I had no idea… I didn’t know you could do all that. Your aura is strong with fire alone, but that aether…”
I didn’t reply. She wasn’t telling me anything I hadn’t already thought myself.
“Well, this is convenient.”
I recognized the voice at the same time Thea gasped. I rolled Selena aside and sprang to my feet, grabbing my fallen spear as I moved. It trembled, still clinging to the energy my fire and aether had given it.
A wall of ice sprang up from the ground and protected the attackers in my newly created tunnel. I enflamed Ki̱demónas and melted the barrier of ice, squinting to see through the flames.
Pain exploded in my ribs. Thea and Selena screamed. I fell to my knees. I looked down to find a spike of ice jutting from my side. I reached for the spike to draw it out or melt it when that godsdamned voice shouted, “Lock him up!”
More ice swept through the cavern, slicking the floor and gluing my knees to the stone. I grabbed the spike embedded in me, but more ice blocks slammed into my stomach and froze my hands to my body.
Selena and Thea tried to get to me but couldn’t get traction on the slick ground. Ice quickly locked them in place.
Kallis, Alexi, and Catalina strode into the cavern, glancing at each of us in turn with smug expressions.
Kallis’s sharp blue eyes moved to me. “Thanks for the demolitions,” he drawled. “Led us right to you.” He looked at the gap I’d created between the tunnel and the gorgon cavern. “How you managed to blast through ten feet of stone is a mystery,” he grinned, “unless that aether I was hearing about had something to do with it?”
I said nothing. Catalina laughed and patted me on the head. “D
on’t be too hard on yourself, handsome. We already knew.”
If their ice hadn’t been freezing me to the ground, those words would have done it. Catalina saw my surprise and smiled wide.
“Where are Mason and Corey?” I growled. “Where is my brother?”
She backhanded me across my face. “Handsome men don’t need to talk.”
“Alex,” said Thea, “where are they? What’s going on?”
Thea’s ex-boyfriend strode toward her. He reached out, and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike her. Instead, his fingers traced her hairline, the cuts on her face, the skin of her cheek and jaw. His thumb lingered on her lips. Trapped in ice that was not her own, there was nothing she could do to stop him.
“You were supposed to die,” the quietest Faidon said. “Olivia promised me you would die. Then I wouldn’t have to do it. Yet here you are.”
“Maybe you should have manned up and done it yourself,” Thea growled.
Alexi stared at her, his fingers playing idly with her dark hair. He seemed outside of himself, as if he were looking at the shell of the woman he’d once loved. He gave her no reply and stepped away from her.
“You don’t need to worry about your brother and your friends,” Kallis stated when his son returned to his side. “We kept them alive because we were waiting for you.”
Even through the pain, I could think only about seeing my brother. I knew it had been him trying to reach me when I was lost in the Rage and blasting through the stone wall. He was alive, and that relieved me, but if they’d been waiting for me…
“What do you mean, waiting for us?”
Kallis smiled. “Why tell you, when I can show you?”
THE WALK WAS a short one. Our hands and wrists were bound behind our backs with a coat of ice. I was out of magic—the ice dagger was pulled from my side and the wound healed just enough so I wouldn’t bleed out, courtesy of Catalina’s rough ministrations—and from their exhausted postures, so were Selena and Thea. The three of us were ready to collapse and rest, but that wasn’t on the Cetea’s agenda.
We were dragged out of a dark tunnel and pulled into a new cavern. Its power was overwhelming. I felt it thump through my boots and pulse in time with my heart. The Heart of the Devourer’s pull had felt similar.
