by Linsey Hall
The golden chalice began to smoke and glow bright.
“The chalice’s immortality is enhancing her blood,” Victor said.
“Stop it, you bastard!” Nix yelled.
Victor removed the goblet and stood, then walked over to the cauldron and poured the blood into it. The silver vessel glowed an eerie red, the decorative impressions highlighted ghoulishly. He shook out the last of the blood, then approached us again.
“What the hell is your problem, Victor?” I demanded. My heart pounded a fierce staccato in my chest.
“Oh, I’m sure you can imagine,” he said as he crouched by Del.
She spat at him, and he smacked her, then grabbed her hair and cut her neck with his blade. She shrieked and kicked, but her wound wasn’t deadly either. Just enough to fill the goblet with blood.
I’d been wrong about Victor. He hadn’t wanted my power. Or at least, he no longer wanted it. After he’d failed to steal it from me as a child, he’d set his sights on a bigger prize.
But he still needed me to get it. The Watcher of the Power had said that only the Triumvirate could move the Stone of Power. Apparently, our blood could do that just fine. Especially if it was “enhanced” by the Chalice of Youth.
I thrashed against the demon’s hold above me. Until my hands were unbound or I could at least roll over to shoot them with lightning, my power was useless. But the demon pressed his boot harder into my stomach, not letting me move an inch.
Victor knelt at my side, and bile rose in my throat. I could hear Del and Nix screaming at him, but my rage drowned out their exact words.
“You bastard,” I hissed. “You cowardly, miserable piece of shit. Using your parents’ deaths as an excuse to be a fucking asshole. You’re weak.”
That last one got to him. His impassive brown gaze flared slightly, and he smacked me across the face. Pain flared in my cheek as my head whipped sideways. Head still spinning, I felt the knife cut into my neck.
I thrashed and struggled as the demon held me still. The wound burned as my blood flowed into the cup. I could hear it sizzle when it hit the golden goblet.
Miserable as it was, the process was over too soon. He was that much closer to his goal. Victor stood and walked away from me, the goblet clutched in his hand.
“Is that it?” Del screamed. “That’s all you’ve got? Taking our blood and pouring it in your stupid cauldron?”
“Hardly,” Victor said.
I thrashed against my bindings and the demon who pinned me. I’d rubbed my wrists raw and the rope slid against blood, but it wasn’t enough to allow my wrists to slip free.
I kept my gaze on Victor and Dermot, who watched his master avidly. Fucking moron. Victor wasn’t going to share the power with him. He’d be lucky if Victor didn’t sacrifice him as part of this sick ritual.
Victor poured the goblet of my blood into the cauldron. The silver glowed an even brighter red as it flowed in. When the goblet was empty, Victor tossed it in too. The whole thing flared red and silver. Victor raised his hands over the top, and an inky black fluid flowed from his fingertips into the cauldron. The scent of rot and decay rolled toward me. I gagged.
His magic. He was somehow pouring his magic into the cauldron with our blood.
The potion within began to smoke and bubble, flowing up over the top. What was he going to do with it?
Panic and fear drowned out rational thought.
We were failing! We were fated to fix this, and we were failing! Hundreds of Shifters would die when he got all the power he sought. More, probably. Us.
Victor stepped back from the cauldron, which glowed a brilliant red and smoked like Vesuvius. A second later, the whole thing melted, collapsing in a pile of melted silver and vile potion.
What the hell?
It flowed in one direction, a glowing orange river that began to form the shape of a star.
The emblem in the middle of the courtyard! I noticed it the last time I was here, when I’d been knocked out of the sky by the Shifter’s nets, but hadn’t realized it was anything more than decoration.
But the cauldron was gone. As the potion filled in the crevices forming the shape of a star, I tried reaching for my magic to see if I could access it.
I got nothing but the usual trickle. Though the cauldron was gone, the melted metal was still imbued with the dampening charm. The silver was quickly cooling, turning from red to black. And the charm was still in effect. Now, it’d become part of the courtyard.
The potion still glowed red in the outline of the star. The earth began to tremble and Victor laughed, a victorious sound that made my skin chill. A great cracking noise rent the night as the ground split open where the potion soaked into the cobblestones. I jerked, trying to scramble back, but the demon held me fast.
The crack streaked open, ten feet long and at least three feet wide. A golden light shot up from the crevice, shooting into the night sky.
“No!” I cried. We must be right over the cavern that held the Stone of Power.
Victor approached the beam of light and held his hand into it. When his skin made contact, the light turned dark. Smoky. My heart thundered in my head. He was taking the neutral power and turning it evil! Taking it into himself.
A black cloud spread out from the vertical beam of light, slowly moving toward the ground to form a dome over us. It reeked of evil, making me shudder and gag.
Panic surged in my chest as I fought the demon who pinned me. We couldn’t just lie here helplessly!
Above me, a flash of red and blue caught my eye. My gaze darted toward it. The dragonets! The four of them zoomed downward from high in the sky, coming to our rescue.
We might make it out of this.
Suddenly, more figures appeared in the courtyard. Aidan, Claire, Conner, and Emile. Some had bandages wrapped around limbs, but they were here. All alive. Somehow, they’d escaped Victor’s ambush.
Then the League of FireSouls appeared. All nine of them. And finally, Aerdeca and Mordaca, dressed in their usual black and white. But it was combat gear this time.
Not only had my friends escaped, but they’d called for help and gotten transport charms from somewhere. Likely from the League of FireSouls, who’d had a stockpile last I’d seen them. They’d managed to break through Glencarrough’s defenses because Victor had taken the Heartstone.
Take that, you bastard.
Hope flared bright even as the demons who’d surrounded us surged into the circle. At least two dozen made it inside before the smoky black dome slammed down around us. My friends were all trapped inside, but the numbers weren’t terribly uneven.
Connor hurled a potion bomb at the glittering blue Heartstone that hovered in the air. It exploded against the stone in a cloud of green, knocking the thing to the ground. It clattered against the cobblestones, and the blue rays of light that had frozen the Shifters faded.
I could barely see through the hazy black dome that surrounded us, but I could make out movement on the top wall. Oh, thank magic, they were unfrozen.
They were still outnumbered by the demons, but at least they had a chance. At least we had a chance, with the shifters on our side. Battle exploded around me, fought hand to hand, weapon to weapon. No magic and no Shifting because of the cauldron.
Aidan charged the demon who pinned me, slamming into him and throwing him to the ground. I struggled to my feet just as Claire reached me. She slashed through my bindings with her sword, then raced to Del.
I spun toward Victor, ready to blast him with my lightning. I might not be at full power, but I was the only one with magic and I’d blast him until he fried. The golden light was continuing to flow into him, probably draining from the stone deep in the cavern below.
Behind Victor, Mordaca stood, her black hair whipping in the wind. She drew a black bow from her back and fired an arrow straight at him, her gaze deadly.
I wanted the kill for myself, but watching the projectile shoot toward his heart made joy leap in my own. He wasn’
t even looking.
But the arrow bounced off of him. Mordaca shrieked, then fired another. It bounced off as well. Finally, Victor glanced toward her, annoyed.
Would he attack or continue to absorb the power? I didn’t want to find out. The battle raged around me as I called upon my magic, focusing on my gift of lightning. It crackled and burned beneath my skin, and I let it go, shooting it toward Victor.
Thunder cracked as the bolt bounced off of him, striking a nearby demon.
Damn it!
“How is he impervious?” Del yelled from where she fought a demon with her sword.
The Watcher’s words came back to me. “He can’t be hurt within his circle of power. This is his circle of power.”
Nearby, Aidan fought off two demons. Aerdeca battled another, wielding a slender black sword like a pro. It was a war zone in here, people falling left and right. Blood everywhere.
“We have to get him out of here, then. Before he finishes his ritual,” Nix yelled.
“On it!” Aidan yelled back. He charged Victor, slamming into him with all his might, clearly attempting to carry him outside of the smoky barrier.
Normally, he’d have no problem. But Victor didn’t budge, fixed in place by the same magic that protected him from Mordaca’s arrows and my lightning. Instead, he lashed out with an arm, throwing Aidan off him. Aidan flew twenty feet through the air, propelled by Victor’s unnatural strength, and crashed into the ground. Connor raced to him, fighting off a demon as Aidan rose.
Dread filled my chest, a black tar that made it hard to breath. I turned to Nix and Del, whose faces looked as panicked as I felt. The battle raged around us.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“I don’t know!” Nix cried.
A flash of blonde hair caught my eye as a person shouted. Corin, the FireSoul leader.
“Corin!” I yelled. “Are there any more transport charms.”
“No!” She yelled as she stabbed a demon through the stomach. “We used the last one to get here.”
My head began to buzz as the terrible dread grew. No charms and my magic didn’t hurt him. He was impervious to all attack.
“What do we do?” Nix cried.
“I know.” Del’s voice was deadly calm. “Cass will take my gift. She’s the only one with the power to actually use it inside this hell bubble.”
My heart dropped to my feet. “What do you mean, take your gift?”
Del’s eyes were serious. “You know what I mean. You take my gift, like a FireSoul would. Then you can transport him out of here and kill him.”
Bile rose in my throat as Nix gasped. “No! No, Del! She can just Mirror it.”
My whole body turned to ice.
Del’s voice was steady as she said, “No, she can’t. She already tried when we were tied up. Right, Cass?”
“I tried.” My voice was lead. Around us, the battle raged. Bodies were on the ground. Some of them had to be my friends. We were running out of time. “It didn’t work.”
Everything inside me screamed as Del said, “You have to do it, Cass. You heard the prophecy. One of us will fall, only to rise again. That’s me.”
Tears burned my eyes, and a rock lodged in my throat. “No,” I croaked.
“I’m the one!” Del cried. “I am Death. What can dying do to me? I am the only one with a gift that can help you kill Victor. You must take it and defeat him.”
“No!” I screamed. I couldn’t think clearly. I didn’t care if she was right. I didn’t care about prophecy. All I could think about was losing Del. My world was pain and terror. “No!”
Del stepped forward. “I love you, Cass.”
“No, Del—”
She thrust her sword through her chest. The silver blade sank deep, somewhere left of her heart.
Nix screamed. I might have screamed. I didn’t know. There was a roaring in my head as I stared at Del.
She fell to her knees, her eyes wide. Blood marred her lips as she croaked, “Do it before…too late.”
I dropped down beside her, tears blinding me. I clutched at her jacket, sobbing. “Del, no! Del!”
Her eyes met mine, pleading.
Steal her power? I was supposed to steal Del’s power? My deirfiúr?
Nix fell to her knees beside me and grabbed my shirt, shaking me. I looked up.
“Do it!” Her gaze was hard. “Now! If we don’t defeat Victor, we won’t be able to get her back!”
I sucked in a shuddery breath, my mind whirling with panic. Nix was right.
My heart skittered deep down in my chest like a frightened animal, unable to be present for what I was about to do. Pain such as I’d never felt surged through me as I looked down at Del, whose eyes were closing.
No. I couldn’t be too late.
“I love you, Del.” I sobbed as I pressed my hands to her chest and reached for her power. My stomach heaved as white flame licked down my arms and into Del.
No matter how long I lived or what I witnessed, this would be the worst moment of my life.
I forced myself to grasp hold of her transport gift. It was ephemeral and light, like a piece of gauze, but I grasped it and drew it into me.
When I’d taken the last of it, Del shuddered and lay still. I fell back, away from her body, and retched until there was nothing left in me.
My mind screamed at the horror of what I’d just done, but I shoved it aside.
Del was dead. There was no way in hell I’d fall apart and make her sacrifice worthless.
My mind was blank as I stumbled to my feet, unable to look at her for fear I’d fall apart again. I charged Victor. The battle raged on as I ran. I had one task, and I had to complete it. But where would I take him?
The Watcher’s words drifted through my mind.
I could only defeat him on familiar ground, where I could draw from ancient power that was mine.
The Black Fort.
I was almost to Victor, who still stood above the crack in the ground, soaking up the magic. I hurled myself at him and hung on tight, reaching for my magic and Del’s gift.
Please, let me have enough.
I envisioned the Black Fort and sent us through the ether, tearing Victor away from his horrible ritual and the devastation he had wrought.
15
We crashed to the wet grass inside the Black Fort as pouring rain pounded down upon us. Victor’s enraged roar was as loud as the thunder cracking in the distance. Away from the Gundestrop cauldron, the power that flowed through my veins was strong enough to take my breath. Like an electric current.
I tore at Victor’s pockets, trying to make sure he had no transport charms. I wouldn’t let him escape. Victor threw me off him and surged to his feet. His face was twisted with a rage unlike any I had ever seen.
As I scrambled up, I reached for my magic, but he hit me with a sonic boom that blasted me backward. I flew through the air and skidded on the wet grass. Raggedly, I sucked in air, my whole body aching like a giant had stepped on me.
Shit, shit, shit.
Weakly, I crawled behind a nearby standing stone. Victor stood in the center of the circle, not far from the statues of Del, Nix, and me.
“You can’t hide, you worthless bitch,” he roared.
Hide? As if I would hide.
I was supposed to call upon the power that was here and mine, according to the Watcher. But how?
I had no idea, but I needed to do something.
Rain poured down on me as I called upon my magic, gasping when it surged through me like a tidal wave. I’d make a lightning bolt so powerful it’d turn him to ash. As it cracked and burned beneath my skin, I envisioned a bolt the size of a train. I liked the idea of killing him with Aaron’s gift. It would be a bit of vengeance for Victor’s former slave.
When it had grown to full size and strength within me, I lunged from behind the stone and hurled it at him. The crack of thunder deafened me, and the blast of light blurred out our surroundings.
Just as th
e bolt was about to crash into Victor, he threw up a shield, deflecting it. It ricocheted off, crashing into a nearby standing stone. The rock exploded, sending shards straight for me.
I dodged, throwing myself to the ground and covering my head. When I looked up a second later, I saw Victor throwing another sonic boom at me. I tried to dodge, but it picked me up and threw me again.
When I crashed down, I tasted blood in my mouth.
I didn’t stand a chance as long as he could see me. And I wasn’t using my magic most effectively. Rage and pain made it hard to focus, but I tried to shove them aside, focusing only on killing Victor. I was fated to stop him. If I failed, then what? He’d finish the horrible job he started.
No way I could let that happen.
I lay still, playing dead as my magic prickled beneath my skin, ready to be released. I started with illusion, grasping the elusive filaments of the gift and imagining my body disappearing. The magic felt almost weightless as it flowed through me, making my limbs feel light. They disappeared, then my torso too. Victor’s roar of rage indicated that my head had probably gone as well. I crawled away from where I’d lain so that he couldn’t blast me.
But this wasn’t good enough. I needed a distraction. I envisioned dozens of me, all running around inside the circle.
The first one appeared. Victor shot it with a sonic boom. The noise cracked in the air, making my eardrums ache, but the illusion of me was unaffected.
More illusions appeared until two dozen images of me ducked and weaved through the standing stones. Victor shot each one, roaring when the sonic booms did nothing.
Eventually, he’d hit the real me on a streak of luck. I had to act.
He was definitely trapped here without a transport charm and getting madder every second. He’d planned this for years, and I’d stopped him.
When his back was turned, I called upon my gift of lightning, sending a massive bolt right at his back. There was no way he’d turn in time to see it and block it.
He didn’t block it. The bolt, which was as wide as he was tall, slammed right into his back. He flew forward onto his front. I expected to see him smoking and dead, a black crisp of a man.
