Mercy Temple Chronicles Box Set

by Ciara Graves

  I turned around and with my left, aimed my magic right at the barrier. It resisted at first, but then a crack formed, and it shattered. “Get them out.”

  Rafael immediately moved the innocents toward the crack. As soon as they were clear, their bodies sagged, and they held their heads as if awakening from a dream. One by one, he shoved them through and hope grew within me.

  Envy was strong, but I was stronger.

  When the last person exited the circle, Envy screamed his rage. He pushed himself off the tree, and the force of his momentum crashed into me.

  My boots dug into the dirt, and I threw both hands up to ward him off.

  “You are nothing compared to me, little girl.” He raised his hands high, and a crackling green orb grew between his hands. “Nothing. You will pay for this.”

  He threw the orb at me, and it crashed against my crossed arms, driving me back again.

  “Mercy.” Rafael charged forward.

  He was thrown off his feet and right through the crack. He just got back up when the barrier sealed itself, cutting him off from me. He smashed his fist against it, sending ripples across the wall, but it held strong.

  “No, Mercy, get out of there!” Rafael yelled.

  “Oh no, she’s not escaping. Not this time,” Envy snarled. “You escaped your fate once. It will not happen again.”

  Another orb hit me and the power that burned so brightly within me sputtered. Another orb and another struck me. My knees shook as badly as my arms. My feet slid more until I was only a foot away from the barrier. Envy’s power lashed out, striking me in the back, each hit drawing a cry from me.

  Rafael threw his body into the barrier.

  “No! Damn it!” He cursed and yelled as an orb struck me once more, and my power went out completely. “Mercy, fight! You have to fight!”

  I reached toward my pistol, but my hand stilled, caught within Envy’s grasp. With his other hand, he grabbed me by the throat, squeezing until black spots filled my vision. He lifted me off my feet as if I weighed nothing at all. I kicked out toward him, but my blows were too weak to hurt him.

  “You will watch her die,” Envy said with an evil sneer. “Then it will be your turn.”

  “Mercy!”

  Unable to speak, I glared at Envy, wishing it was enough to scare him. All he did was cackle then throw me across the clearing.

  I rolled, teeth clattering as I hit the ground. When I came to a stop, I propped myself up in time to have a boot hit me square in the face.

  I rolled over again, cringing as blood covered my face, warm and sticky.

  Green tendrils of magic surrounded me and lifted me off my feet, suspending me in mid-air above Envy.

  “You are just like your father,” he sighed. “Always thinking you’re better than everyone. Thinking you’re stronger than everyone. But you will always be nothing. She wants you alive though I can’t for the life of me understand it.”

  “Dragonborn, asshole.” I spat at him. Blood and spit covered his face, and I smiled when he flinched. “You’ll never be that.”

  “No, perhaps not, but what’s so great about being dragonborn? You’re persecuted all your life. Have to hide away. Not tell a soul who you are. Can’t even shift properly. You can keep your dragon blood. Shuval will punish me for this, but in the end, she will come to understand that you would never follow her. You will forever be a hindrance.”

  The tendrils squeezed me hard. If they didn’t stop, my ribs would break.

  I strained to get free, but then he let up, and I sighed in relief until I saw him grinning like the madman he was. Great. He wasn’t just going to off me and be done with it. He was going to torture me, first.

  My gaze shot to Rafael, ready to yell at him to get out of here and leave. That he didn’t need to see this, but then Envy launched me through the air again. His power lashed out, hitting me in the legs and back, as I scrambled to get away. My hand found my gun, and as I flipped over, I fired until the magazine was empty, aiming for his face. Every bullet missed.

  He wrenched the gun from me, tossing it aside.

  A furious bellow of rage that struck me right down to my core made Envy freeze.

  I turned my head just enough to see Rafael.

  He was hunched over, outside the barrier. He held his head like he was in pain, eyes flaring red as he roared again, every muscle straining.

  “Leave him alone!” I found my feet and managed to catch Envy off guard. I popped him in the jaw then landed a second hit to the side of his head.

  He staggered away from me, sputtering words as his hands lashed out and more magic struck me like blades, slicing through my clothes. Blood spread along my arms, weakening me.

  “That is not me,” Envy said, sounding curious. “It appears he is facing his own demons. Too bad. He won’t get to see you die.”

  Another tendril grabbed hold of my ankle and dragged me right back to Envy.

  I dug my nails into the dirt, but there was nothing to grab hold of.

  I had one dagger. Just one. I reached for it as I neared him.

  Blade in hand, I flipped myself over and threw myself at him. I dragged the tip down his face starting at his eye and ending at his chin. His high-pitched scream urged me on. I brought the blade down, burying it in his shoulder.

  A bright burst of green exploded from his center and threw me into the barrier. Blood blurring my vision, I wiped it off my face, and threw myself at him again. I grabbed hold of my dagger, yanked it out and jammed it into his other shoulder.

  “You bitch!” He grabbed a chunk of my hair, tearing me off him and yanked the dagger free. He held it over me, unable to get free of his hand, his blood dripping onto my face. “Now you die!”

  The dagger rose higher, but I refused to shut my eyes.

  Rafael’s bellow of rage split the air again, but this time, there was a fury behind it I’d only ever heard one time from one demon, and he was only a half-demon.

  This yell was much more lethal, far more dangerous.

  Envy and I turned at the same time.

  Rafael was outside the barrier, eyes crimson, muscles bulging, and face contorted. His gaze shifted to me. He snarled, but that wasn’t the Rafael I’d gotten to know over this past week. Oh no. That was the true Rafael. Whatever journey his mind had gone on was over and left him unburdened from his past. It also left him dangerous as hell. He was more focused than I’d ever seen him before. His anger was palpable and took my breath away.

  He growled as he reached for the barrier.

  Envy smirked and started to chortle, but then his eyes glistened with uncertainty and fear as Rafael’s extended black claws pierced the magic and shredded through it.

  “No,” Envy whispered. “That’s not possible.”

  Rafael stalked closer, eyes flickering from me to Envy. He bared his fangs.

  “Apparently it is,” I mused. “That’s my demon.” Where those words came from, I didn’t care.

  All I cared was that this enraged demon was coming to save my ass.

  Again.

  God, I was going to owe him big time for this one.

  Chapter 15

  Mercy

  Antonio grabbed me around the middle and lifted me off my feet. He threw me across the open space, but I managed to stay on my feet and meet his next attack with a hit of my own.

  He easily matched me in size, and I was barely able to defend myself as his rage pounded down around me.

  My own rage barely scratched the surface, but a part of me held back. Though this was only a small part of my brother, he was still my brother. Destroying him didn’t seem like a possibility.

  I punched him in the gut.

  He doubled over.

  “You need to finish this,” the other me said, standing right behind Antonio’s body.

  “Working on it.”

  “Work faster,” he said and pointed to the door. “Mercy needs you.”

  The second he said her name, the grey world around
us parted, and a glimpse of whatever occurred outside my mind reached me.

  Mercy was alone in some green dome of magic facing down a man with fangs. A hybrid like Liam?

  The image vanished and then Antonio slammed into me.

  I grunted as I kept my feet and took a hit to the gut before I spun around him and decked him in the face.

  The grey parted again, and this time Mercy was being attacked by the man. His magic lashed at her, striking her arms and legs. She was losing the fight.

  An echo of my own shouts blared around us as I tried to get to her, but I wasn’t strong enough. Couldn’t tap into my rage out there because I was using it in here.

  “Looks like you won’t have to kill her after all,” Antonio said with a leer. “She’s going to die. And you are not going to be able to save her.”

  “The hell I won’t.” I punched him once, then twice in the face, driving him back.

  The door shimmered into view.

  I sprinted toward it.

  Antonio bellowed and tackled me to the floor. We rolled, and he ended up on top of me. He got three solid hits to my face, then I snatched his wrists and lifted myself up, headbutting him. I flipped us over and nailed him in the ribs with my knee.

  “No.” My own voice yelling startled me.

  I glanced up in time to see Mercy being dragged back toward the man. She had a dagger in her hand. She threw herself at him.

  Antonio’s fists hit me, and I staggered away from him, shaking my head to clear the blurred vision. “She is going to die. And you are going to watch. Do you hear me? She deserves to die. They all do.”

  “She did not kill you.” My anger reached its peak. “She is innocent, just like we were.”

  “She’s a mage.”

  “She’s so much more than a mage.”

  Mercy screamed, and the man’s yell joined hers. She plunged the dagger into his shoulder, and his power blasted her back. She slammed into the barrier, bloodied and gasping for air. She wasn’t going to last much longer. I had to get to her before it was too late.

  “You like her.” Antonio snarled, outraged. “How can you like her?”

  “She saved my life more than once,” I told him. “And I am going to save hers tonight. Move on, Antonio. I will not ask again. Let go of your hatred and move on from this place.”

  His eyes flared red, and he roared. “You will not save her.”

  Time had run out.

  I shut my eyes, taking a deep breath. When I let it out, the rage I had been too scared to let loose on my brother, on anyone, these past few years burst forth.

  The roar that exploded out of my mouth stopped Antonio in his tracks. My face shifted in my rage, and my muscles bulged as I paced toward him, closing the distance between us in three long strides. He aimed a hit at me, but I sidestepped it and drove my fist up, under his ribs. He gasped for air, but I didn’t let up the attack, not this time. My brother died that night in my arms and what remained inside my head was nothing worth saving.

  Mercy was the one who needed me now, and I would not fail her.

  Another glimpse of the fight outside my mind appeared, and I watched as she threw herself right back at the man and yanked the dagger free from his shoulder only to drive it into his other one. The wound on his face bled profusely, and for a split second, it seemed like she might get the upper hand. Then he snatched a handful of her hair and yanked her head back exposing her throat.

  I bared my fangs at the sight, then turned my attention back to my brother.

  “I’m sorry,” I told him as I drew my fist back for the final blow.

  He snapped his jaws at me, more of a wild animal than a demon anymore. “You will regret this. She will betray you. She will be the end of you.”

  “Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.” I drove my fist right through his chest.

  He gasped, clutching my arm to draw me in closer. “Death. That’s all she’ll bring you.”

  He sucked in another ragged breath then his body collapsed on my arm. Bit by bit, it broke away into nothing and disappeared until it was just me and the door.

  The scene was playing out still, and the man held the dagger over Mercy’s throat, ready to bring it down and kill her.

  Demon rage in full throttle, I stormed for the door and shoved it open.

  I slammed back into my body, clutching my head as I roared at the throbbing pain in my temples.

  I blinked, clearing the fog away.

  I raised my head, Mercy and the man watched me from the other side of his magical barrier. No magic was stopping me. Not now.

  The pain and guilt I carried around for far too long was gone, and all that was left in was Mercy.

  The dagger hovered over her, ready to kill her.

  I reached toward the barrier. The man smiled, assuming I couldn’t get through.

  He couldn’t be more wrong.

  I slammed my claws into the barrier.

  At first, it resisted and tried to throw me back, but I dug my feet into the ground, snarling as I pushed forward even harder. A crack formed in the barrier, then another and another, as my claws pierced the magic and I stretched the opening wider and wider.

  The man stared at me in disbelief.

  After what I’d been through in the slums, and what I just relived, his magic was nothing to me.

  I stepped through the opening and bared my fangs, moving closer.

  Briefly, I worried my full demon rage would scare Mercy, but when my eyes locked with hers, there was no look of fear. There was only awe, followed by relief she was not going to die today.

  “Back away from her now and drop the dagger.” My words came out in a ragged growl.

  “Who are you?” the man asked.

  “Drop it,” I repeated, ready to dive forward.

  The man smiled wide revealing fangs. Another hybrid like Liam. I was right.

  Blood dripped down the right side of his face from a cut in the same fashion as Mercy’s scar. There was a reason for that, that’s what instinct told me, but now wasn’t the time to ask who this man was. Mercy was in danger.

  The man’s eyes glowed a disgusting green as power expanded from his hands and up his arms.

  I waited for the discomfort to start, to feel my scars itching and twinging. I waited to become irritated by the stench of magic in the air. There was none of that anymore.

  He opened his mouth, most likely to say something.

  I was done listening.

  I threw myself forward without a sound and took him down, shoving Mercy to the side and out of harm’s way.

  The man raised the dagger high and brought it down.

  I caught his wrist before he could touch me with the blade and tossed him away from me.

  The dagger fell from his hand as he scrambled to get back up. An orb of green light grew between his hands. He threw it at me.

  I dodged it then wrapped one hand around his throat. In my rage, lifted him off his feet.

  “You’ll… regret this… demon…” he sputtered, beating at my arm to release him.

  “Doubt it.” I dragged him closer, roaring in his face then threw him into the dead tree behind us. Giving him no time to recover, I charged in and slashed my claws down his chest, ripping through his robe.

  Something fell to the ground between us. Uncaring what it was, I kicked it aside and kept up the attack, not giving him a chance to use his magic.

  Mercy may have started the fight, but I was going to finish it.

  He was weakening, the power in his eyes sputtering in and out as he struggled to summon his magic.

  I raised my hand to strike him again.

  He slammed his palm into the trunk of the tree.

  A force blasted me backward to the edge of the barrier. It did the same to Mercy, sending her flying, landing right next to me.

  By the time we were getting up, an arched doorway had formed in the tree, and the man sneered as he backed into it.

  “I’ll see you again
soon, Mercy,” he said then with a wink, disappeared completely.

  “No,” Mercy screamed, running to the tree, but the archway closed. “Damn it.” She banged her fist on it, tearing at the bark with her bare hands until they were bloodied.

  I ran to her side and caught her hands.

  She yelled in fury attempting to break away until I barked her name and she stilled, glaring at me.

  “You should’ve killed him. Why didn’t you just kill him?”

  “I don’t know who he is. Mercy, where are we? What the hell is going on?”

  She sighed heavily, hanging her head. “Right. You’re back.”

  “Back?”

  “From whatever crap you were doing inside your head,” she muttered. “Good timing, though. Ah, thanks for saving my ass.”

  “Why did your ass even need saving?” I asked as my rage slipped back under the surface now that the immediate threat was gone. “Mercy, talk to me. I’m a bit lost. What did you get yourself into this time? Who was he?”

  What was left of the magical barrier cracked and shattered, falling harmlessly to the ground around us.

  Figures stood in the trees, all of them looking as confused as I felt at that moment. What were they all doing here? Supes and humans?

  I was extremely lost, not understanding why they would all be here with us. Or where here even was. The dead tree in the center of the clearing was odd. At our feet was a strange circle made of rocks connected with lines burned into the ground. Nothing about this place was good. There was a hint of evil lingering in the air, even now.

  I was about to grab Mercy by the shoulders and demand she answer me, but her eyes fluttered, and she staggered into my chest.

  “Mercy?”

  “Sorry, lost more blood than I thought in that fight. Damned magic took the rest out of me.” She puffed out her cheeks, looking toward the people. “We have to get them out of here.”

  “You need to answer my questions.”

  “Rafael, listen to me. Please. Those people need to get to safety, I’m in serious pain and losing blood and would like to get to my place before I collapse. Come with me. I swear I will tell you everything about tonight. Trust me.”