Starlight(Pact Arcanum 4)

by Arshad Ahsanuddin

  He watched Antonio and Rafael surreptitiously as he dialed in the coordinates of the High Tower. Antonio was leaning into Rafael’s arm, but not so much that it was obvious. The moment the teleport field engaged and they found themselves indoors, Rafael wasted no time in draping his arm over Antonio’s shoulders. Still shy in public. I wonder whether Raf or Tony is more hung up on showing affection?

  “Leave them alone, Nick,” said Rory’s voice in his mind, projected through the heavily defended notch in Nick’s psychic shields. “They’ve only been lovers for a few months. They’ll find their own balance. It’s not your problem.”

  “I was just—”

  “You were going to push them. Tony’s a well-adjusted adult. You don’t have to look out for him anymore.”

  Nick nodded almost imperceptibly, conceding the point. They split up after that, the two couples heading for their respective quarters. “Old habits. I’ll always be looking out for him, even if he doesn’t need me.”

  Rory unlocked the door to their suite and entered. “He’ll always need you. But maybe he needs an equal more than an authority figure.”

  Nick followed him inside and closed the door. He was about to frame a reply when a new voice cut across their psychic conversation.

  “Master.”

  Rory stood straight and Nick watched him focus his mind on the Grace. Rory had asked it to shield him from the memories of those whom the Harbinger plague struck down, so he had been relatively insulated from the massacre going on all around them. “What is it? You’ve never initiated contact before.”

  “The last of the Children of Darkness has fallen.”

  Nick stared at Rory’s expression of shock. “They’re dead? All of them?”

  “All of them. Everywhere. The voice of the Red Wind on this world is all but silenced. Only you remain.”

  Rory swallowed in nervousness. “Will the White Wind release me now?”

  “No. The Great Work remains incomplete.”

  Rory clenched his fists in rage. “I’m not going to kill myself just to hand them victory.”

  “I am sorry, Master. I have no answers for you.”

  They continued to argue, but Nick had stopped listening. Out of time.

  * * *

  Down the corridor, in the guest quarters, Antonio relayed to Rafael what he had overheard.

  Rafael’s face creased with worry. “Can you tell what Nick is planning?”

  Antonio reached out with his mind and looked over Nick’s shields, delicately reading the Daywalker’s thoughts without being detected. “Oh, God. He’s going to do it. Tonight.”

  Rafael’s expression grew anguished. “Maybe you should let him.”

  Antonio snapped his mind back in place and faced his lover. “No. I won’t let him die. Either of them. They’re the only family I have left.”

  “Tony, it’s his choice if he wants to sacrifice himself.”

  “I won’t make Uncle Rory go through the rest of his life alone. Not when I can prevent it.”

  “And what about me?”

  Antonio forced himself to see the tears in Rafael’s eyes. “I thought we’d have more time,” he said softly. “I’m sor—”

  “No!” Rafael cut him off, his eyes blazing red. “Don’t you dare apologize! Not when you’re going to do it no matter what I say.”

  Antonio sat beside him on the couch. He tried to take Rafael’s hand, but the other man avoided his touch. “Try to understand, Leshir. I have to do this. There’s no way I could live with myself afterward if I let him go through with it.”

  Rafael didn’t meet his gaze. “Guilt, I understand. That doesn’t mean you have to take his place.”

  “Someone has to die for this to work. Either Uncle Rory, Uncle Nick, or me. I choose me.”

  “I could do it.”

  Antonio shook his head. “The place where Nick is going to fight Luscian is on a neighboring subplane. Uncle Nick can only get there by following his connection to the Crown. I can follow him by tracking my connection to the Grace, but I’m not strong enough to bring you along with me.” Antonio clasped Rafael’s hand in his, and this time, the other man didn’t pull away. “I need your help to make this work. Uncle Nick will fight me. I need your skills to beat him.”

  Rafael took a deep breath. “What if I refuse?”

  “Then I’ll do it anyway, and I’ll probably fail. And I’ll hate you for it.”

  “But you’ll be alive,” whispered Rafael.

  Antonio turned Rafael’s head so their eyes met. “Leshir, please. Help me.”

  “Couldn’t you just warn Rory what Nick is planning?”

  “Uncle Nick would find a way to make it work, only he’d be on guard against me as well.”

  Rafael touched Antonio’s cheek gently. “How long do we have?”

  Antonio turned his head and kissed Rafael’s fingertips. “He’s going to wait for sunrise, when Uncle Rory is weakest.”

  Rafael took a deep, shuddering breath. “One night to say goodbye.”

  Antonio rested his forehead against Rafael’s and closed his eyes. “I love you.”

  “Not enough.”

  * * *

  Nick held Rory’s sleeping body close to his chest after they made love. As the sky began to lighten, he eased away from Rory and got dressed quickly. He sat back on the bed.

  Rory stirred from sleep. “Nick?”

  Nick touched Rory’s lips with the tip of his left index finger. “Shhh. Don’t worry. Trust me.” Then he clamped his left hand hard across Rory’s mouth and called Reaper to his other hand.

  Rory came fully awake and stared at the flaming, blue sword. Eyes wide, he tore his gaze away and looked at Nick in terror, reaching up to claw at Nick’s hand over his mouth.

  Nick turned the sword point down. “I love you.” Then he drove the blade into Rory’s chest.

  Rory’s body spasmed on the bed as he tried to scream.

  Nick felt a telekinetic attack try to throw him across the room, but was braced for that, and resisted. Rory’s thoughts tried to batter down his shields and invade his mind, but he held fast.

  Soon, Rory’s struggles quieted. The blue of the runes embedded in the blade burst into bright, white radiance, and Nick was rocked back on his heels by the power that exploded in his mind. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he pulled Reaper free from Rory’s chest and wiped away his own tears. Then he leaned down and kissed the dead body’s lips. “I’m going to set you free, Leshir. Soon it will all be over.”

  Then he dressed the body and gathered Rory into his arms. Holding Reaper tightly in his hand, he stood and began casting the spell for planar travel.

  * * *

  Antonio turned away from the window. “It’s time.”

  Rafael didn’t speak, merely extended his neck, exposing his throat.

  Antonio leaned down and drove his fangs into the vulnerable flesh. The bridge opened up between them, and Antonio drew out Rafael’s experience as a warrior, the skills of a lifetime of battle as a soldier for House Tervilant. When he drew back, Rafael collapsed, gasping and weak.

  The Daywalker could only watch as his lover began casting a spell, ropes of magic spinning chaotically around him, until they wrapped him in their power entirely. Then the bright spellform disappeared, taking Antonio with it, leaving only an afterimage in its wake.

  Rafael lay on the floor and wept.

  CHAPTER 50

  April 2143; Elsewhere

  Nick laid Rory’s body on the gravel of the crossroads, and strode forward to face the ghost of Luscian. “Hello, Father.”

  Luscian inclined his head. “Nicholas. I see you took my advice after all.”

  “The Grace said I could bring him back with his soul intact if you helped me.”

  Luscian laughed. “Which I will not. So why did you come?”

  Nick raised his sword. “To take your place.”

  Luscian smiled widely, showing his fangs. He held out his hand and another sword app
eared in his grip, the twin to Nick’s but the runes and flames were white. “I suspected as much. Very well. Take this sword from my hand and you will rule the Crown fully, for the first time. But don’t think I will let you have it easily.”

  Nick circled to judge his opponent’s style. He had fought Luscian once before, but that had been a century ago and this was not truly Luscian. Who knows what this shade is capable of?

  Luscian waited calmly, his sword raised. “Attack, my son. I have all the time in the world.”

  Nick leapt forward and stabbed at Luscian’s chest.

  Luscian countered effortlessly, and the two of them began to spar for real. Blue flames met white repeatedly as sparks flew. Finally, Nick retreated, breathing heavily.

  Luscian chuckled. “You beat me before by channeling the power of the Wind of Earth. Now you have only your pitiful skills to draw upon. You are no match for me.” Then he attacked in earnest, the flames of his sword moving in a blur of white light.

  Nick was driven back, until he made a mistake and left himself open just slightly. Luscian thrust under his guard and drove the point of his sword into the left side of Nick’s chest.

  The Daywalker stumbled back and fell to the ground, coughing blood from his injured lung.

  Luscian stood over him in triumph. “Now I will take your sword to reclaim the Crown, and then, blood of my blood, I will take your body and Soulkiller will walk the Earth once more.”

  “Not today, you won’t,” said Antonio, brandishing his slender blade.

  Luscian turned away from Nick and studied the new arrival. “So you are the great Harbinger, whose blood is death. You destroyed the race that I created to serve me, boy. You will not kill me as well.”

  He attacked, his blade singing as it rang off the spell-hardened steel of Antonio’s blade.

  Nick lay on the ground, desperately regenerating the damage to his lung.

  Antonio’s voice spoke in his mind. “Get up, Uncle! We have to work together to take him!”

  Nick finished the repair and got to his feet just as Luscian disengaged in apparent disgust.

  The Nightwalker spat at Antonio’s feet. “Borrowed power, borrowed skills. Does no one remember how to fight with honor?”

  Nick raised his sword again. “I saw something you said once in Rory’s memories. You said you were no slave to honor. Well, neither are we.”

  Nick and Antonio attacked simultaneously, their movements timed in unison through the link that Antonio had forged between them. Slowly, they drove Luscian backward, and it was the Nightwalker who was on the defensive. Finally, Nick struck hard at Luscian’s sword, knocking it out of position just enough that Antonio could dart forward and stab the point of his sword into Luscian’s abdomen. The shade staggered as the wound bled pure magic instead of blood.

  Nick prepared a follow-up attack but was brought up short when Luscian’s injury burst into flame. The Nightwalker screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, the white sword falling point down to stick in the earth. As Nick watched, the form of his sire was entirely consumed, leaving nothing behind.

  “I wondered if that would work,” said Antonio.

  Nick stared at him. “What did you do?”

  Antonio raised his free hand to show the healing slash across his palm. “I poisoned the blade with my blood.”

  “But the Grace doesn’t work on the Firstborn!”

  Antonio smiled. “The Redeemer’s power doesn’t work on the Firstborn. I guess the Harbinger’s does.”

  Nick turned back to face the empty ground where his tormentor had lain. He shook his head in disbelief, then focused on the white sword protruding from the ground in front of him. “It doesn’t matter. I have what I came for.”

  As he reached for the white blade, a telekinetic pulse knocked him off his feet. Dazed, he watched as Antonio walked forward and dropped his mundane blade on the ground. Understanding flashed into his mind and he screamed. “NO!”

  Antonio ignored him, and casually wrapped his hand around the grip of the white sword and pulled it free.

  Nick climbed to his feet. “What the hell have you done?”

  Antonio shuddered. “I can feel them, screaming in my mind. So much hatred, so much despair. How do you bear it?”

  “Antonio, put it down!”

  Antonio shook his head. “No, Uncle. I’m not letting you do this alone. Either you let me help you, or you let Uncle Rory die.”

  “Help?” screamed Nick. “You’ll die! You call that helping?”

  Antonio faced him with icy calm. “Either he dies or I die, Uncle. You have to decide. But no matter what you do, it won’t be your head on the block this time.”

  “Tony, you can’t do this. Give me the sword.”

  “No, Uncle. We do this together or not at all.”

  “I’m not going to kill you!”

  “Then you killed Uncle Rory for nothing.”

  Nick stumbled backward as if he’d been struck. He swallowed hard. “No. I won’t let either of you die.”

  Antonio smiled. “There’s no alternative.”

  “Yes, there is,” said Lorcan.

  CHAPTER 51

  Both Nick and Antonio gaped at Lorcan, standing casually next to Rory’s body, surrounded in a nimbus of blue light.

  Nick took two shuffling steps forward. “Ruarc?” His voice cracked.

  Lorcan smiled. “Hello, Nicholas. They said I couldn’t return to my own plane, but they never said I couldn’t visit an entirely different one. Clever of you to find a loophole.”

  Nick ran to him and wrapped his arms around Lorcan. He laid his forehead on Lorcan’s shoulder. “You’re alive,” he whispered. For an instant, the entire universe stopped, and he wanted nothing more than to stay in that moment forever.

  Then he raised his head and stared at Lorcan in suspicion. He took a step back.

  Lorcan watched him impassively.

  “No scent,” said Nick. “No heartbeat. No breath. What are you?”

  “I’m still Ruarc, as much of me that can exist in this form.”

  Nick raised his sword uncertainly. “What are you talking about?”

  Lorcan sighed. “I was dying. The White Wind made me a proposition. Leave life behind and join them, or live on in a crippled body. They also told me that if I went back, you would have lost today, but if I went with them, I might be able to influence the outcome. So I went with them. I stepped outside of time and saw the universe from the outside, the entire tapestry of time and creation laid out at my feet. It was simple enough to make a few changes to the design.” He glanced at Antonio. “Like creating an extra link between you and Rory so that you would hear anything the Grace said to him.”

  Antonio’s eyes widened. “You brought me into this? Deliberately? Why?”

  “So you would be here today, in this place. So that your blood would give Nick the edge he needed to win.” Lorcan held out his hand. “So that you would give me that sword, and everything that goes with it.”

  Antonio looked from the sword to Lorcan’s hand and back. “You came for this? But whoever holds it will die.”

  Lorcan smiled. “I know.”

  Nick started at that. “Wait.”

  Antonio stared at him. “Uncle Ruarc, are you asking me to let you die in my place?”

  “Yes. Just as you planned to die in Nick’s place.”

  “Uncle, I can’t just—”

  “Rafael is waiting for you, Tony. Are you really going to leave him alone for eternity?”

  Antonio’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Did you arrange that, too?”

  Lorcan chuckled. “No.” He glanced over his shoulder at Nick. “There were any number of timelines in which Rory, Nick, and I were together or apart, but in every pattern, you and Rafael always found each other.” He turned to face Antonio again. “He’s your destiny, Tony. The destiny you chose for yourself, every time. Are you ready to throw that away?”

  “What if I’m not ready to throw you away?”
asked Nick.

  Lorcan turned around and faced him. “You’ve already let me go once. Mourned and accepted my death. You just had the timing wrong.”

  “But—”

  Lorcan swept his lover up in his arms, whispering privately in Nick’s ear. “Nicholas, listen to me. I can’t go back with you. They might not even let me return to this plane to meet you. No matter what, you will lose me after today. Don’t let Sean die because you want me to live.” He kissed Nick’s cheek. “I have seen things you can’t imagine, everything the universe has to offer. I’m ready to face what comes next. Don’t deny me this. Please.”

  Nick pulled away and regarded Lorcan with tears in his eyes. Then he reached into his shirt and lifted a chain from around his neck. Dangling from it was a plain gold ring. “You left this behind.”

  Lorcan smiled sadly. “I needed the spell you cast to follow your life to this plane, or I would never have found you.”

  “Then it’s time you took it back.”

  Lorcan took the ring. He slipped it off its chain and carefully returned it to its place on his left hand. “I’m sorry I won’t be there for your wedding.”

  Nick smiled. “You’ll be there. In spirit.”

  Lorcan leaned forward and kissed Nick on the lips. Then he shifted his gaze to Rory’s body. “I don’t know how much time I’ll have once the Crown is destroyed. I might not survive long enough to say goodbye. If I don’t get the chance, tell Rory that I loved him, and I will be waiting for you both when you finally join me.”

  Nick said nothing, only nodded.

  Lorcan walked back to Antonio. “Give me the sword, Tony.”

  Antonio reversed his grip and held the handle of the blade out to Lorcan.

  Lorcan grasped the sword and took a deep breath as the unholy power of the Crown flooded through him. Then he walked back to Rory’s body and knelt at his side.

  Nick went to his knees on the other side, and laid his palm over the gaping wound in Rory’s chest. He looked at Lorcan. “Ready?”