Unleashing Magick

by Debbie Cassidy

  “What was that, Carmella?”

  Shit, was he sensing my thoughts? “Nothing. Just mulling over your offer.”

  He was silent a long beat. “And your answer?”

  “Yes. My answer is yes.”

  There was no preamble, not settling in phase, he attacked—rabid and hungry and eager for his pretty new suit. This time, the pain was a new kind of fire. It raked over my mind, over my soul, punching holes into my essence. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

  Fight, my dragon said.

  Fight.

  One moment. Just one moment. He had to slip into my skin. It was essential before Garnet could—

  Every synapse and nerve flared to life with searing pain. The darkness closed in, but if I let it take me, all was lost.

  Fight.

  Yes, it was time to fight. With everything left in me, I pushed back at him. My dragon unfurled, combating him from its space inside me.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “What does it feel like?”

  “You’re fighting. Why are you… Wait. What have you done?”

  Yeah bitch, feeling a little trapped are we?

  “What have you done?”

  My chest ached and my blood throbbed loud in my ears.

  “Let me out.”

  “No.”

  “A trap, you made a trap.”

  He curled into a ball, tighter and tighter and then he slammed into my mind, ricocheting inside me and setting off every pain sensor in my body. Something ruptured, something tore.

  “I didn’t want to do this,” he said. “I never wanted to hurt you, but you’ve forced my hand. You die and the trap dies. You die and I’m free.”

  Oh, fuck. He was damaging faster than my asura power could repair. Oblivion hovered at the edges of my consciousness. And then I felt them, my asura, and at their helm was Vritra. Their signatures hurtled toward me, eager to assist.

  “No, you don’t,” Malachi said

  He wrenched up my shields, shutting them out and closing me in.

  “No!”

  “Yes. Now die.”

  He went for my heart. Slamming into it and sending a shockwave that ruptured vessels. I was dying. It was in the erratic beat of my essential organ and the flood of rejuvenating heat in my limbs. This was my final high before it all went to shit, and I was damned if I was gonna go down without doing a little damage of my own. He was a still curled tight, bouncing around—a ball that could be crushed. He couldn’t be killed, that much I knew. He was cosmic energy but surely he could feel pain. That was something I could deliver. With a final burst of energy, I rushed him, slamming into him and unleashing the dragon. She closed her jaws around him, and began to crush.

  “What—what are you doing?” he asked.

  It wouldn’t be enough. He was too powerful.

  “You can’t hurt me, Carmella. You are nothing.”

  Something stirred inside me, deep in the pit of my stomach, in the place where the fire was born.

  The fire.

  It rumbled and surged upward and then it was pouring over Malachi, engulfing him in intense heat.

  “What? No! Stop. Stop it.”

  Hotter and hotter I burned.

  “Carmella, please stop.”

  “Fuck you, Malachi!”

  And then he exploded.

  The shields came down as Malachi combusted. Particles of his cosmic energy attacked me like missiles, sinking into my essence, and burning a path through me. He was gone. I’d done it.

  I’d actually killed him.

  But the darkness wanted me now. It was safe and warm, and I was so very tired. Motes of cosmic energy settled inside me, searing holes through my soul like molten pebbles. My dragon sank into her box, depleted. This was it. This was…

  I exhaled my final breath.

  21

  I was at a crossroads in a land of silver mist. To my left was a bridge, a monument built of stone and mortar, and to my left was a staircase of crumbling stone lovingly draped in ivy.

  I was dead.

  This was death, and yes, I’d been here before, but there’d been no crossroads, and where the heck was my r—

  “Hello, Carmella,” my reaper said.

  I looked up at him. “We crossed that bridge last time, didn’t we?”

  “Yes, we did.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And then what happened? I can’t remember.”

  The reaper smiled. “You asked Yama for aid and he agreed.”

  “He did? But he didn’t come.”

  “Yama knows when to make a strategic entrance.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It means Yama keeps his word.”

  I glanced down at my ethereal body, heart pounding in my chest. “So, what happens to me this time? Do I die?”

  He winced. “Not really.”

  “But I’m here so…”

  “Yes, but you cannot stay.”

  “Huh?”

  The gray mist was hurtling away and darkness was cocooning me once more.

  “Carmella, no. Please. Come back to me.” Vritra’s voice was a tether reeling me back toward the light. “I need you, baby. I need you with me.”

  What was this? Where was I? Something slammed in to my chest, a fist? No, it was hot, real hot and tingly. Ooo. My eyes popped open and Vritra’s face swam before me.

  “What the fuck?” He shoved me away, a sob tearing from his throat. “Malachi. It’s Malachi.”

  What? I sat up. He was staring at me with a twisted expression of horror.

  “Vritra, it’s me.” I held out my hand and pushed out with my asura power.

  He flinched as it brushed against him, and then his chest rose and fell in an erratic breath. “Carmella? It’s really you?”

  “Fucksake, have I grown horns or something? Yes, it’s me.” I pushed wet tendrils of hair off my face, and spat out rain water.

  “Your eyes, baby. What happened to your eyes,” he asked.

  Cries and exclamations drifted down off the stalls as the humans who’d been enthralled woke up to crazy town. On the other side of the wall, the yaksha who’d been working for Malachi snapped out of his control. Many scattered. but several attacked the djinn only to be cut down.

  “He’s gone,” Garnet said. “Malachi is gone.”

  “You bound him?” Mira asked.

  “No.” Garnet looked at me. “What did you do?”

  He was staring at my eyes too, with a weird expression, part fascinated, part horrified. I grabbed Vritra’s outstretched hand and pulled myself to my feet. “A little incineration.”

  Around us, the fire began to die. How long had I been out? Not more than a couple of minutes, if that. It had felt like ages.

  I pushed my way to the front of the mass, and stood with my arms folded staring down Hunter and his army. “Your numbers are severely diminished. The cosmic god your people allied with is gone, and your yaksha army has just scattered. So, why don’t you fuck off back to your world?”

  The djinn exchanged glances, but it was Hunter who spoke. “We have our orders and, until they are rescinded, we will act accordingly.

  Vritra growled low in his chest, his voice was smooth and even in my head. “You got enough juice to fight?”

  I raised my hand and flexed my fist. My skin shimmered gold, dancing with motes of light. Weird. “We won’t need much juice.”

  “Carmella?” His face was a question mark.

  Yama was coming. The reaper had said he was. “I’ll explain later, but for now we just need to hold the line.”

  The fire died and the djinn roared.

  Come on, Yama. Come the fuck on.

  As the djinn charged, a dark portal ripped open to their left. The humans screamed in terror, but I let out a whoop and punched the air. And then Yama and his reapers came pouring through.

  22

  Yama’s army cut off the djinn, making a wall between us and them.

&nbs
p; The djinn skidded to a halt.

  “He came. He actually fucking came,” Vritra said.

  Yama stared down at the djinn from atop his majestic horse made of shadow and smoke. “Leave now and keep your souls, or stay and have them ripped from your dying bodies.” He cocked his head. “It is your choice.”

  The reapers cracked their silver whips, shadows clinging to their powerful forms. Several of the djinn backed up muttering amongst themselves. But Hunter held up his arm, fist closed and the chatter died.

  “We do not run from a fight,” Hunter said.

  Yama inclined his head. “I admire your tenacity to follow orders. However, you are vastly outnumbered. So I ask you, is this a cause worth dying for?”

  Malina had told me about Yama, about his thoughtfulness, his moral compass and his ability to pass fair judgment. He wasn’t a rush-in-and-kill-them-all type of guy. He dealt in death, but he respected life. It was obvious in his attempt to save the souls of the djinn. He was giving them an out, but from the look on Hunter’s face, it wasn’t a path he was willing to walk.

  “We die for our council. We fight until our orders are retracted.” Hunter raised his sword and with a battle cry worthy of an Oscar he attacked.

  A reaper to Yama’s left lashed out with his silver whip and caught the djinn in the chest. The djinn’s bellow cut off, he froze, mouth still open, and then the reaper pulled back his glowing whip, and the djinn fell to the ground. The reaper cracked his whip again and an ethereal form appeared—thinner, younger than the green djinn, but from the set of his jaw and the tilt of his eyes it was obvious this soul belonged to Hunter. It stared at his body on the ground, then up at Yama.

  “What happens now?” he asked.

  Yama shrugged. “I cannot answer that. You do not belong to me.”

  The soul glanced over his shoulder as if in answer to a summons and then he vanished.

  Yama focused on the remaining djinn. “Will you stay or will you go?”

  One by one, the djinn began to dematerialize and the green grass of the stadium was finally empty.

  It took a moment for it to hit home. A moment where the humans sobbed in relief clutching their loved ones who were pouring down off the stands, a moment where the supernaturals whooped and high fived and where Vritra pulled me into a tight hug. It took a moment, and then Yama dismounted and walked toward me, our gazes locked around Vritra’s bicep, and memories slammed into my mind—images and sound bites and shit. I’d died and walked the bridge. I’d secured Yama’s aid and…I’d been given forty-eight hours to come back. My hands grew cold, my blood turned to ice, and my mouth parted on a silent curse. My body seized up as I tensed in Vritra’s embrace.

  He’d said he’d come for me.

  My time was up.

  “Carmella, what is it?” Vritra asked. He pulled back to look into my face.

  Standing on tiptoe, I tilted my chin up to his and kissed his face, his cheeks, his chin, his lips.

  His brows snapped down and his fingers bit into my shoulders, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “Why does this feel like goodbye?”

  Because it was.

  He scanned my face. “Carmella, you’re scaring me.”

  “Vritra, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Allow me,” Yama said. He towered over us, his godly form perfect and powerful.

  Varuna joined us. “It is good to see you, Yama,”

  Yama smiled tightly, but didn’t return the sentiment. Couldn’t really blame him after what the gods had done to him, even if their actions had been born of the best of intentions.

  “What’s going on?” Vritra asked Yama.

  “When Carmella came to me to ask for my aid, it was on the day she was marked for death.”

  Vritra went absolutely still. “No.” It wasn’t a question or a statement, it was a fact. “No. You cannot have her.”

  Yama, smiled and continued. “I gave her forty-eight hours to do what she felt she must, and to say goodbye. I told her I would help her and when we were done, I would take her with me.”

  But I’d forgotten. “I didn’t remember.”

  Yama’s gaze softened. “Yes, you never asked to be allowed to recall your visit. An oversight on your part. But the deal was made, and the deal stands.”

  Vritra stepped in front of me. “I won’t let you take her.”

  He would fight the god of death for me, all my asura would, but it would serve no purpose. I’d made a deal and it was time.

  I pressed a hand to Vritra’s back. “I have to go.”

  The asura closed ranks around me, their power brushing mine. Their love, their acceptance and their sorrow communicated to me so clearly it was a vise around my chest, tightening with every breath.

  I squeezed Vritra’s hand. “Every living thing has its time. I’m mortal and this is mine.” I blinked back tears, because I was damned if I was going to go into death sobbing and screaming.

  Yama sighed. “Yes. Every mortal soul has its time. But…” He smiled, his eyes lighting up. “There is only place in the Underworld for one god.”

  “What?”

  He grinned, and his perfectly stern expression was transformed into something breathtakingly beautiful. “You are no longer mortal, Carmella. Cosmic energy is now a part of your soul. Can you not feel it?”

  The hot pebbles that had sunk into my soul, the gold shimmer to my skin… Could it really be? I reached out to the skein and it rushed to meet me. My power, my energy, my magick, it was still tethered to our world through me, even though I was no longer the anchor. Would I give it back to the witches? If I did, then things would need to change, an overhaul of the balance of power.

  “Carmella?” Vritra said softly.

  I blinked up at him. “I’m no longer mortal?”

  Yama nodded. “Your sacrifice, your fight, and the cosmic god’s ultimate demise infused you with cosmic energy. Your mortal soul died and was remade into the divine.”

  “That’s why I ended up by the bridge.”

  “A short visit while you were remade.” The world ripped open and the portal appeared once more. “And now it is time for me to take my leave.”

  “Wait! What about my reaper? Will he get to ascend?”

  Yama’s eyes twinkled as he glanced at my abdomen. “Oh, yes. Soon.”

  I placed a hand on my stomach and then locked gazes with him. “Wait. You don’t mean that—”

  But he was already turning away. He leapt up onto his mount and galloped into the portal. The reapers followed and the tear in the fabric of our world closed neatly behind them.

  “Do you think it’s really over?” Mira asked. “What about the other cosmic gods that agreed to help Malachi?”

  “I don’t know.” I turned my hands over and flexed them watching the gold shimmer across my skin. “Maybe I can ask them.”

  Vritra pressed his lips together. “Be careful.”

  While the witches and IEPEU ushered the humans out of the stadium, I closed my eyes and reached out to the cosmic gods. They were here, nearby, watching.

  “You did well.” Yule’s voice filled my head.

  “You’re all right.”

  “Yes. Cosmic gods aren’t easily hurt. But I see you found a way.”

  “And the others? I need them to leave. Now.”

  She laughed. “Don’t worry. They are already gone. Once Malachi fell, they lost interest in the venture. Taking a world is far too much work. Malachi was…different.”

  “You’re leaving too?”

  “Yes. I just wanted to say goodbye and good luck. You are one of us now. Our cosmic energy courses through your veins, and is in the fabric of your soul. If you should ever need us.”

  “No, thanks. I think I’m good.”

  She laughed again. “I cannot say I blame you. Farewell, Carmella Hunter.”

  I opened my eyes. “They’ve gone.”

  It was over.

  EPILOGUE

  Four Months later
<
br />   Christmas Day

  “It’s tight, isn’t it?” I turned this way and that staring at my reflection in the mirror. The calf length shimmery blue dress clung snugly to my overripe body and stretched across my abdomen.

  Vritra approached me from behind and slipped his arms around my waist—my thicker, burgeoning waistline.

  I met my eyes in the mirror, my gold flecked silver eyes. It was a side effect of the cosmic energy in my veins. “Urgh, I’m a whale.”

  He chuckled into my hair. “You are beautiful. Glowing and sexy and mine.” He nipped my earlobe.

  He still found me sexy, even with the bump and the fatter arse and damn, I had such awful wind most days. But he still wanted me. True love for sure.

  I turned away from my reflection and into his arms. “Your son likes to kick. A lot. And right now I need another pee.”

  “Go.” He patted my butt.

  I was almost five months pregnant and already as big as a house. The doctors said it was a big baby, and that I was small, so it would probably have to be a C-section delivery. But I was determined to do this naturally, if possible. Pee done, I flushed, washed my hands and brushed my hair back over my shoulders. My stomach fluttered in anticipation, or maybe it was the baby doing somersaults. Christmas had always been about mum, dad and me around the table, a quiet affair, and then after mum realized I wasn’t hers, it had been just me and my aunt. Aunt was away for the festive season this year, she’d taken mum with her, hoping to build bridges between them. My thoughts drifted to Velomina, the mother I could have had. She should be here, but I hoped that wherever she was, she was finally at peace. I’d dreamed of a home, a place of my own and a family to fill it, and I finally had that. I left the washroom to find Vritra adjusting his cuffs.

  I slipped my arms around his waist and looked up into his chiseled face. “Thank you for hosting dinner.”

  He offered me a crooked grin. “Anything for you, besides, you made the asura’s year. They don’t usually celebrate Christmas. For us, it’s all about Diwali, but this will be a nice change. Did you see Gita’s face with the Christmas tree?”