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City of the Sleeping Gods

Page 20

by Olivia Ash


  But he would find a way to do just that.

  He looked over at Ezekiel and Edric and saw the same looks of cold fury on their faces. They too were trying to figure out how to escape their binds. Ezekiel kept trying to pull his hands closer together, probably so he could conjure his magic. Blood trickled down his arms from his wrists as the metal cut into his flesh. Edric was really strong, Andreas had seen him snap a large tree branch in half with his hands, but even he couldn’t break the steal, although he kept trying. Each of them hungered to rip apart the people who had done this to them; the people who were hurting Sophia.

  Watching as she struggled in the chair she was bound to, tore at his heart. The wires that came out of the straps and hooked up to the strange, wooden box on the floor next to her vibrated as she moved but never, unfortunately, broke. He wondered how the contraption worked, how it must be dampening her magic, how it was hurting her. The sallow look on her face told him she was definitely in pain. In all his years, he’d never seen such a machine before. Had never heard of it either. It had to have been something powerful to be able to control someone like Sophia.

  He’d read about anima contritums during his studies at the academy. They were supposed to be uncontrollable people, unhinged by their broken magic, unfit to be around others in society. Dangerous. A threat to the wellbeing of every person in Nighthelm. He now understood Ezekiel’s claims that fear was cultivated in the city at all levels by the reining powers. Before wraiths were allowed in Nighthelm, they were the object of fear mongering. He pulled on his restraints again. If—no, when—he finally got out of the shackles, he was going to show these people exactly what fear meant.

  Winston glanced at Andreas as he jerked on the metal chains. “There’s no point, wraith. You’re not getting out of those chains alive.”

  Andreas pulled harder on the chains, inching himself a little bit closer to Winston, who instantly backed up. “You’re not getting out of this room alive.”

  Andreas glared at him, invoking as much of his wraith abilities as he could. Winston stiffened and licked his lips. His eyes widened, and Andreas saw him swallow hard. He may not have been able to shift—not yet, anyway—but conjuring fear in the coward was easy.

  Grindel, who had been watching this exchange, tapped his staff against Winston’s back. “I’d be careful who you taunt. Even with hemlock, I’ve heard wraiths can still shift.”

  Winston took another step back, moving closer to the strange, robed figure.

  Andreas glowered at Grindel. “You’ll be next, old man. You’re going to die for betraying Sophia.”

  The professor turned away from Andreas’s gaze, seemingly unaffected, but Andreas swore he muttered under his breath, “I know.”

  Frowning, Winston waved his hands at the three men chained to the wall. “Let’s get on with this. We’re wasting time.”

  The headmistress leveled Winston with an icy glare. “You are not in charge here. You are here as a courtesy.”

  “A courtesy?” Winston sniffed. “You wouldn’t have known about them,” he waved his hand at Andreas and the others, “if I hadn’t told you. I expect to be rewarded enormously.”

  Headmistress Mittle pursed her lips, then asked, “And what reward do you want?”

  He gestured toward Sophia, who was still struggled against the straps across her body. “Her. I want Sophia. After you’ve used her, or whatever you need from her, I want what’s left.”

  All three men lurched forward, trying desperately to break their chains. The plate on the wall holding Edric’s cracked under the pressure, and he was able to move his right arm a little more.

  “I’m going to rip your throat out, you fucking bastard,” Edric said, his voice a low growl.

  The headmistress chuckled. “I suppose we should get on with it, the natives are getting restless.” She glanced at the veiled figure. “Shall we start the ritual?”

  The veiled figure nodded.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Sophia

  The Nameless Master lifted one frail, gloved hand, and the headmistress placed a glowing, red knife, with intricate symbols carved into the gold hilt and along the six-inch blade, into the palm. Eyes wide with fear, Winston moved away from the Nameless Master as it walked slowly toward Sophia’s men—Edric in particular—knife at the ready.

  Ezekiel and Andreas shouted at the Nameless Master, both yanking hard on their chains. But it was fruitless; they were never going to break them.

  Sophia pulled and wriggled against the restraints, frantically dipping into the reserve of her magic to summon everything she had. She would destroy Nighthelm, including the oracles, if it meant saving the men she loved from death. But every attempt was blocked by the machine. She could feel the hum of energy emanating from the wooden box, bouncing off the glass walls to smother her, to inhibit her. The power of her magic was there, just hovering below the surface; just out of reach.

  The robed creature swiped the blade across Edric’s bare torso, slow and deep, until he cried out in pain. Blood ran in rivulets over his pale skin, soaking his pants crimson. Her heart leapt into her throat and she pulled on her restraints again.

  “Stop!” Sophia yelled. “Don’t hurt him!”

  The Nameless Master did stop, but only long enough to move over to Ezekiel and perform the same act. Ezekiel tried to move away but the blade still found his flesh, slicing him deep. This wasn’t just a ritual. This was torture. They wanted to break not just her body and soul, but also her mind. This monster wanted to carve up her men in front of her until she watched them die slowly and in extreme pain.

  It was so much like last time. She remembered clearly now. In a tunnel under the mountain. She was there with her older sister, and they had been running from something. The urgency to get away filled the void. Her parents weren’t there, they had died sometime before that. Tears leaked from Sophia’s eyes as she remembered her sister, Madison. They’d been together, she had held her sister’s hand. Then the grimms had come in a whirling, vicious black cloud.

  They had descended on her sister, ripping her from Sophia’s hand. Her screams as she was consumed by gnashing teeth and hooked talons still echoed in Sophia’s mind. She remembered cowering on the ground, her hands over her head, waiting for her death. Wishing for it, in a way, so the echoes of screams would stop. But it never came.

  The grimms had stopped their ravenous feeding frenzy and just left her alone, sobbing. The next thing she remembered was seeing another, dark form hovering near her. She’d thought a lone grimm had come back to kill her, but it wasn’t a grimm. She now knew it was the Nameless Master who had come for her.

  Sophia pulled harder on her binds. Her wrists were rubbed raw from where the leather cut in. She refused to let this happen. She refused to watch the people she loved most die in front of her. Her men made her feel sane, kept her untamed magic at bay, and made her feel almost normal. She needed to draw on the control over her magic they helped her have in order to do the opposite. She needed to bring about her magic the way she wanted to, to finally command of it in all its untapped power.

  Reaching deep inside, she summoned her magic. All of it. Every wild, chaotic part of it, and directed it at the machine she was tethered to. It burned through her like wildfire. Within seconds, the machine stopped buzzing and the wood cracked down the middle. The wires melted, dripping copper onto the floor. She then directed her magic toward everything at once, flinging it all around her. The glass cube shattered into thousands of pieces. The sound of it nearly deafened her.

  Headmistress Mittle, the Nameless Master, and Winston were thrown back by the frenzied wave of energy, glass shards nicking faces and hands, but Grindel had been prepared for her explosion and had made a protective bubble around himself and her three men. Pieces of glass bounced off the invisible field, and fell to the ground like frozen raindrops.

  With little effort, Sophia snapped the leather straps off her wrists, ankles, and chest and then bolted out of the
chair. She shot magic at the chains on Edric, Andreas, and Ezekiel, freeing them even as she ran toward them. When she reached Edric, she tore at the sleeve of her shirt and then held it against his wound. There was a lot of blood, but the cut didn’t look as deep as she’d expected. The way the Nameless Master had swiped the blade, Sophia thought it had hit bone.

  He grabbed her hands, stilling them. “I’m all right. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  His touch calmed her a little and she was able to take in a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry about.” He brought a hand up to his mouth and kissed it. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “Surprisingly, I feel strong.”

  When he released her, she moved over to Ezekiel to check on his injuries, but he had already placed one of his hands over his chest and the cut knitted together from his magic. She glanced at Andreas, who had been spared from the torture. But something was wrong, as he was doubled over breathing hard.

  He glanced up at her, a pained look on his face. “Hemlock in my blood. It’s stopping me from shifting.”

  Ezekiel put a hand on Andreas’s shoulder. “I got you, brother.” He then put both hands onto Andreas’s chest, his hands instantly glowing blue.

  Andreas sucked in a breath, and winced.

  “Aw, don’t be a baby,” Ezekiel said.

  After another few seconds, Ezekiel dropped his hands and took a step back. “Better?” he asked.

  Andreas coughed hard, expelling a chunk of dark sludge, then nodded, rolled his shoulders and neck, then came to stand beside Sophia. Edric and Ezekiel joined her as well.

  As one entity, they turned to face their enemies. It was time to finish this once and for all.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Sophia

  Winston was the first one on his feet after the magical blast, and running like a coward across the great hall to the door. He bolted the door behind him as he escaped. Fine. Sophia didn’t care about him right now. He was irrelevant. She would make sure he’d get his comeuppance, eventually. The Nameless Master and Headmistress Mittle were the ones she would see punished immediately.

  The Nameless Master stood and aimed to throw the knife at Sophia, but Grindel reached for the blade, turning it, and stabbed the creature in the side. Sophia gasped at the sudden betrayal. The creature screamed in agony, and Grindel grabbed the hilt, pulled it out and tried to stab the Nameless Master once again. But the headmistress was there in a flash, and with a blade Sophia hadn’t seen before, slashed open Grindel’s gut with one lethal swipe. Sophia raced forward as he fell, casting a shield of protection as the Nameless Master and Headmistress Mittle tried to attack him again.

  A blast of magic from Ezekiel pushed the Nameless Master back just as Edric and Andreas rushed into the fray. Edric spun a bo staff he must’ve found discarded in the room, a weapon she’d trained with before, and Andreas twirled a short dagger in his hand. She recognized it from the last training session she’d had with Grindel in the hall. When they’d been leaving, he’d told her to leave it, that they would have use for it again when they returned. Had Grindel known then what was going to transpire?

  As her men fought the headmistress and the Nameless Master, pushing them back, Sophia cradled Grindel on the floor with her arms, holding him close as he bled out. She had tried to stem the flow of blood by balling up his robe and pressing it against his stomach, but it was too late, the wound was too big and too deep. There was nothing more to do than just hold him.

  He lifted a bloody hand to her cheek. “I’m so sorry it all turned out like this.”

  “Don’t talk, save her strength.”

  “For what, my child? I’m dying.”

  She shook her head, but it was in vain, she knew his death was imminent. She could smell it on him.

  “I’m proud of you, Sophia. Proud of the woman you grew to be.” He coughed, blood bubbling up between his lips.

  She wiped it away with her remaining sleeve. “I thought you had betrayed me.”

  He shook his head. “When I realized the headmistress was actively trying to delay your healing, I ingratiated myself with her over many years until she trusted me. I needed to find the identity of the Nameless Master, the power behind the orders that had corrupted the woman I had once admired and respected.” He coughed again, wracking his body from the force of it. “All I got was this.” He shoved a bloodstained envelope into her hand.

  She blinked back tears as he winced at the pain of his death. While Edric and Andreas continued the fight with the Nameless Master and the headmistress, Ezekiel crouched next to them and examined the wound. He glanced up at Sophia and gave a small shake of his head.

  “It’s beyond what sorcerers can heal.” Ezekiel squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

  “You can’t die,” she said to her teacher. “Not when I know the truth.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto Grindel’s robe, staining it a dark green.

  “You are the daughter I never had. A daughter I couldn’t be more proud of.” He moved his hand to lay it over hers. “I’m glad to see you finally healed.” He nodded toward Ezekiel who stood nearby ready to defend her, and Edric and Andreas who fought hard to protect her in this moment.

  She pressed a kiss to his forehead as his body went stiff, then suddenly lax. His head slumped to the side, and she stared into his steel gray eyes, but she knew he was beyond seeing her. He was beyond everything now. She slowly drew her fingers over his face and closed his eyes.

  “Rest now, Father.” She settled his body gently onto the floor.

  Boiling with rage, Sophia turned to glare at Headmistress Mittle, wondering who she hated more: the headmistress who killed Grindel, or the Nameless Master who nearly killed her men. She jumped to her feet and raced toward Headmistress Mittle, magic already forming in her hands.

  She sent a beam of fiery light flying just as Edric joined her. Together, they attacked Headmistress Mittle; Sophia with magic, Edric with the skill of the bo staff. The headmistress blocked the magic with a shield she must’ve learned to make from Grindel, but Edric’s staff hit her in the flank with a sharp snap. She let out only a tiny grunt of pain, but it filled Sophia with pleasure to hear it. To know the headmistress was fallible. That Sophia, with the power of her men beside her, had the strength to hurt her. Hopefully even kill her.

  She and Edric kept attacking in unison as the woman slowly lost ground, backing up farther on the platform, precariously close to the edge. Sophia was filled full of fire and fury so powerful that her very veins burned with rage. Her focus was so precise on the headmistress that she almost missed it when the nameless creature screamed with hate, its voice nearly piercing her eardrums, and turned into smoke, effectively deflecting a magical attack by Ezekiel. The shadowy form looked so much like a grimm that Sophia wondered if this was whom they were being controlled by.

  Instantly, Andreas shifted into his wraith form, following the smoke through the room. The two shadow creatures battled in the air, black streaks intersecting and colliding. At one point, they spiraled around each other, tendrils of darkness intertwining. Sophia could hardly distinguish the two, the only difference was the red glow of Andreas’s eyes. Along the ceiling smoke and shadow twisted and coiled, until there was an ear-piercing shriek, then Andreas was slammed into the ground, He shifted back to human on impact. The Nameless Master escaped through the crack in the door.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Sophia

  After determining that Andreas was uninjured, Sophia charged toward Headmistress Mittle and then kicked her in the stomach, knocking her off the platform and onto the stone floor. Seething with fury, she jumped down to follow and then loomed over her sniveling form. Edric, Andreas, and Ezekiel watched from behind on the platform, giving her room for her revenge.

  The headmistress swiped at Sophia’s legs with a small knife in a last ditch effort to injure. Sophia evaded the attack, and then kick
ed the blade out of her wrinkled hand. Looking down at the woman cowering on the floor, Sophia couldn’t believe she’d ever been frightened of her. Gone was the perfectly put together woman, with the fancy clothes and jewelry, with every silver hair in place and impeccable. She looked like an old, frail hag now without any power.

  “You didn’t find me in the mountain tunnel by accident, did you? You didn’t take me in by the kindness of your heart to help me, to heal me. It wasn’t an accident. You were the one who broke me.” Sophia clenched her hands into fists, tamping down the urge to use them on the old woman.

  “Yes,” the headmistress hissed, “you were broken on purpose. And I was the one who was commanded to do it.”

  “My family was slaughtered. My parents, my sister… she was only three years older than me. She was all I had left.” Her voice nearly broke.

  Headmistress Mittle just stared at Sophia without comment, her bottom lip quivering a little. Was that remorse? Or was it just self-preservation? Did she fear what Sophia was going to do with her? She hoped so.

  “You could’ve refused. I was just a helpless little girl,” Sophia said, her voice even although it so wanted to break.

  The headmistress shook her head. “The Nameless Master controls people everywhere in and beyond Nighthelm. There is no escaping its commands.”

  “It doesn’t control me.” Sophia lifted her chin up in defiance.

  The headmistress laughed, the very sound of it dripped with venom. “Don’t you understand girl? You have a singular purpose that you will never escape: to serve the darkness.” She lashed out with her magic as she jumped to her feet. The woman was quicker than Sophia gave her credit for.

 

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