Lee was already prepping his holy fire as they continued running. It felt strange to focus on his ability without giving it his complete focus. The heat across his palm was unsettling, like the sensation of holding a hot pan with a towel, the temperature aggressively seeping into the buffer with each passing second.
He skidded to a stop across the snow as his target came within reach. His temples pounded as he extended his arm, and he could tell from the pressure in the front of his face that his nose really, really wanted to do some more bleeding.
He growled as he released the holy fire. His eyes were more adjusted to the ambient light, and this time, he was able to get a sense of what it looked like in action. White-blue flames extended from his palm in a sudden burst, engulfing the frost troll with such intense heat and power that he could see the silhouette of its outer flesh disintegrating, followed shortly after by the bones underneath.
“Ugh.” Lee wavered on his feet, tasting and then spitting blood onto the snow.
“Come on!” Harper grabbed his right hand, wincing in surprise as she made contact, no doubt due to the residual heat. Lee still held Tess’s ethereal hand in his left, and the three of them ran together, a chain of human and ghost, desperate to make it to the safety of the First Tower before being overrun.
The roars and groans of the undead trolls grew louder, closing in on them ahead of the press of putrid flesh. Harper was first through the door. Lee felt the ground shake under his feet as one of the trolls lunged, trying to grab at him before he could slip into the tower.
A force spell from Harper knocked it back, not far, but far enough. Lee dove in through the gap, pressing his back to the doors as soon as he was through. Harper worked the physical lock, and the two of them breathed short-lived sighs of relief.
The doors groaned ominously as one of the trolls hurled its bulk against it. Lee was already moving, hurrying toward the lift that would bring them to true safety. He stepped onto it and felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight.
A wall of crimson energy formed behind him, cutting the lift off from the First Tower’s lobby and separating him from Harper. Lee swore under his breath and pounded his fists against it to no effect.
“Harper!” he shouted.
She hurried over, her expression growing hard as she realized what was going on.
“This is what she wants,” said Harper. “For you to face her alone.”
The First Tower’s door groaned again as the trolls made another valid attempt at knocking it down. Lee pressed his hand at the translucent blockade of crimson energy, focusing on his dispel ability.
He saw an effect, though not as much of one as he needed. A small, fist-sized hole formed as he pressed his hand against the barricade. Harper shook her head.
“It won’t be enough,” she said. “Go. Face her, Eldon. It’s what we came here to do.”
“You’ll never survive once the trolls get through that door!” he snapped.
“I’ll manage.” She flashed her teeth in a devious grin that almost made him a believer. “We don’t have time to waste. The risks were apparent to both of us from the beginning.”
“Here.” Lee pulled his pistol out of his jacket and forced it through the hole he’d made. “This won’t do me any good against Eliza, but it might help with the trolls. Aim for the head.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Harper let her hand press against the barrier in the same spot as his. “Good luck, Eldon. Don’t get yourself killed.”
“Right back at you.”
He heard the door groan again as he stepped over to the lift’s control rune. It took all the willpower Lee possessed to make himself trigger it, sending the lift groaning upward, and leaving his former master behind to fend for her life.
CHAPTER 40
The lift was slower than usual as it gently ascended the First Tower. It left Lee with too much room for his thoughts, with only the soft thrum of arcane essence to distract himself. He kept thinking he could hear Harper entering the fight in the lobby below, catching hints of battle cries and growling trolls, tricks of his overactive imagination.
“We’re almost there, Tess,” he said. “Soon, this will all be…”
He trailed off, catching sight of her face in a sliver of illumination from the dim light far above. She was crying and shaking her head, her lip quivering with terrible, inconsolable panic.
“Lee,” she whispered. “I can’t hear anything.”
“Tess!” He hurried to her side, taking both her hands into his. “It’s okay. Just breathe.”
He felt like an idiot, and worse, like a helpless one, trying to reach her with words when she couldn’t even hear him.
“I’m scared…” She trembled, an ugly cry escaping her throat as she shook loose more tears. “Lee, I’m so scared.”
“It’s going to be okay, Tess.” He hugged her, his arms sinking ineffectually into her ethereal body. “Even if you can’t hear me… Even if you can’t see me. It’s… it’s…”
“I’m sorry, Lee.”
“Don’t say that!” He tightened his jaw, trying to keep his own emotions and expression in check, but for whom? “Everything is going to be okay! Eliza will be there at the top, and I’ll face her, and…”
She was trembling. He would have given anything to take her, to hold her. He wanted to pull her into his mystic stream, but he didn’t. He was afraid of what would happen, afraid of how she’d react. Afraid of what he’d see.
“I’m not ready to say goodbye yet,” she whispered. “Lee… I’m not ready.”
She let out a sob that hurt worse than any other pain Lee had ever felt before. It made him wish that he were deaf, that everything afflicting her could be transferred to him. He just wanted to save her.
“Nobody’s saying goodbye, Tess,” he whispered. “I’m not saying goodbye!”
He tightened his grip around her as though to shield her from reality. He wouldn’t say goodbye. She’d be able to hear him again and see him again. Everything was fine.
The denial tasted like poison, but it was all he had. The truth was too much, just too fucking much.
“I was so happy… when we first met.” Tess reached her hand out, trying to touch him, but not knowing where exactly he was. “You saw me, back then. That meant so much to me, for you to just… see me.”
“I remember,” he said, praying his words would somehow reach her. “We went for a stroll across campus that night. Remember that, Tess? Let’s go for another stroll.”
He felt something, then. A loose, sinking chill from within his arms, from within her. Like trying to hold onto smoke in the wind, grabbing at the falling autumn leaves. Reflexively, he pulled her into his mystic stream, but it was already too late. He shut his eyes.
“Tess,” he said. “Please. Let’s take another stroll, okay? Just one more.”
He kept his eyes shut. His chest shook. His face was hot and wet, painful from the way he’d twisted it.
“Please, Tess,” he whispered. “I’m not ready yet.”
The lift let out a groan as it reached the top floor. The door slid open, and he could feel the presence of Eliza’s crimson aura from her perch in the islands above. Lee finally opened his eyes, aware of what he wouldn’t see waiting for him.
She was gone. He wiped a hand across his face.
“It’s okay…” He clenched his teeth, shaking his head. “No, it’s okay. You… just went on ahead. Right, Tess?”
Silence. Lee felt a grievous moan escape his aching throat. He brought his palms to his forehead, hitting himself, making the pounding on the outside match the pounding on the inside.
“You did so good, Tess,” he muttered. “I never got to tell you. You knew I loved you, but you never knew… how much, I think.”
He laughed, tears still streaming down his face. “Now you’ve got me talking to myself. That’s your fault, not mine.”
He slammed his fist into the wall of the lift and screamed out his ange
r and despair, pushing all the air out of his lungs right up until his voice let out an ugly, defeated crack.
***
It felt like hours before his legs were capable of moving him again, though really it couldn’t have been more than a minute. The lift had dropped him off at the top balcony, which connected directly to the lowest of the Zephaphine Islands. Lee stumbled out, still breathing shakily, feeling both light-headed and like he had a migraine in that unique way that only happens in the aftermath of true heartbreak.
The world looked blurry to him, even though he’d already expended all his tears. He felt his body moving on its own as he stumbled across the first of the artificial islands. Eliza had arrayed them in the shape of a spiral staircase, with only a small horizontal and vertical gap between each one. It was easy to traverse them, which was extremely lucky.
The crimson aura intensified as he neared the final island, giving off heat and presence as though it was a substance on the air. As Lee took the last step leading to the top, he blinked, focusing on the face of his onetime lover and classmate.
Eliza was sitting at a table, clad in a skintight black bodysuit, smiling as she sipped a glass of wine. The aura of power didn’t radiate from her directly, but instead began a few feet away, giving off the impression of her being within a sphere of normal reality surrounded by shimmering crimson magic.
“Ah, Lee!” She grinned at him, one of her eyebrows rising in expectation and greeting. “You’re right on time. Here, I have another glass. Take a seat, and I’ll—”
He was suddenly in front of her, though he hadn’t intended his legs to close the distance that fast. His right hand shot out, seizing her by the neck. Lee felt the holy fire rumbling through his fingers. His grip tightened as the fury took hold, and he doubted he could have released her from the chokehold if he’d tried.
She was impressively light, which he knew because he’d lifted her into the air. He watched Eliza’s eyes bulging with surprise and panic as she tried to pry his arm back. Lee realized he was also using his dispel ability, coating his hand in anti-magic, preventing Eliza from using her immense supernatural power to interact with it directly.
It almost felt like his own mind and train of thought was playing catch-up to the actions of his heart and soul. Eliza had taken Tess from him. It was already a foregone conclusion. The question of whether he was capable of killing her was far less pressing than how he would find meaning in life once it was done, without Tess to lean on for support.
He would do it. He saw the moment when Eliza realized she’d pushed him too far. He saw the moment when her tactics changed. A scene began to play within her eyes, crimson characters on a circular stage. It pushed outward, power burning against Lee’s face, and then pulled him in.
***
The faces of Eliza’s family, her sisters, her mother and her father, were reversed from when he’d last seen them. Tears of despair had become tears of joy. Lee watched her from the doorway, near smothered in the middle of a group, laughs and questions echoing on the air.
Martin Willis, Eliza’s father, slowly shook his head, a grin spreading across his face. He reached out, shaking Lee’s hand with both of his, eyes intense and misty and beyond all else, grateful.
“You kept your word, Lee Amaranth,” he said. “You brought her back.”
“It wasn’t easy.” Lee folded his arms, catching Eliza’s gaze for a moment as she surfaced under the loving crush of her family. “The demon that had possessed her nearly gained full ownership of her body. I was able to force it out with my…”
He blinked, feeling his explanation fall short as he tried to recall how he’d done it. He looked back to Martin, who was still grinning, still shaking his hand.
“What Lee is saying, I think, is that this is only the beginning,” finished Eliza. “There are more demons out there, and with the Unavowed Queen defeated, they’ll be vying for power of their own. We have a responsibility to hunt them.”
“You take care of my daughter,” said Martin. “I trust you.”
***
Rezkellene had chosen an aged man as his vessel, but like all demons, he’d been no less powerful for it. Lee crouched next to the newly exorcised victim, helping him sit up against the wall and assessing his injuries. Mostly scrapes and the hospital visit would likely be cursory compared to some of their other targets.
“He packed quite a punch,” muttered Lee. “But he was no match for a mystic on a mission, in the end.”
Eliza cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at him, one hand posed on the side of her delicate hip.
“You helped too,” Lee admitted. “Come here.”
She grinned and put her arms around his neck. “We’ve done such good work recently.”
He kissed her, letting his hands settle on her butt as her soft body melded against his. “I agree. We’re overdue for a vacation, aren’t we?”
“More like early retirement,” said Eliza. “This was the last one we were tracking. We can relax, Lee. For the time being.”
“Relax?” He grinned at her, letting his lips tease the edge of her neck and drawing a tiny, pleasured shiver out. “I had a few other things in mind.”
***
Lee kicked his shoes as he stepped into the kitchen. Eliza had already set an open beer out for him on the counter, and he took a sip and slid his teaching folder to the side.
“Did our old instructors at Primhaven do this paper grading?” he asked, with a sigh. “I felt like our education was a little more… hands on.”
Eliza whistled as she took in the thickness of the pile of ungraded quizzes. “I’d think they’d give you a little more leeway. You’re teaching a class on mysticism, after all. Does the Head Wizard at Stonepath really care that much about your methods?”
“They have all sorts of standards and expectations,” he said. “Still… It’s worth it when I get to come home to this.”
Eliza grinned and came around to set a hand on his shoulder. It was late, past dinner, and she’d already changed into her nightclothes, a simple red satin robe that brought out the auburn in her hair.
“I put Alice to sleep already,” she whispered. “We have the night to ourselves.”
“Alice…” Lee blinked, feeling the oddness of the name as he said it aloud.
“She wanted you to read to her again,” said Eliza. “Make sure you’re back on time tomorrow.”
“Ah…” He tried to shake the feeling away by physically shaking his head. “Right.”
Eliza frowned as she noticed the expression on his face. “You look stressed. Here. I have one more surprise for you…”
She opened her robe, revealing what was, or rather, wasn’t underneath. Her breasts were large and pale, and still as firm as they’d been back when they’d been in school together. She pushed herself forward, letting Lee’s arms envelop her inside the thin fabric of her robe.
“Maybe it’s time for us to start trying again,” she whispered. “For another? How energetic are you feeling tonight?”
“Honestly, I feel a little…” He trailed off as he felt Eliza’s hand began to massage him through his trousers.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered. “You’re looking at me like I’m some kind of demon.”
***
No more than an instant had passed, and all of a lifetime. Lee stared into Eliza’s eyes, the Unavowed Queen’s eyes, still bulging from the squeeze of his fingers around her throat. Crimson energy swirled around them, centered in the eye of a hurricane formed from demonic evil.
“Lee…” Eliza managed to croak out.
He felt his hand loosen as more images came to him from their fantasy. The birth of their daughter, Alice. The death of Eliza’s father. All the times they’d made love as adults, Eliza moaning as she rocked her hips back and forth.
It was her eyes. The pull was still there. Lee tried to glance away, eventually resorting to flinging her to the side, instead. Eliza gasped for breath, landing on the table sh
e’d set out earlier for the food and wine.
“Why?” he shouted. “Why show me that? You have all this power. What makes you give a damn about me?”
“You think I have the power.” Eliza let out a shrill, unnatural laugh. “You have no idea, Lee Amaranth.”
“Enough,” he said. “This ends now.”
He flexed his fingers, letting the holy fire build within his hand. It came faster than it ever had before, as though some internal dam had burst.
“So that’s it, then?” Eliza glared at him. “And for what? Revenge? Are you so pathetically lovesick for a woman you never met in the actual flesh, to begin with? A little ghost whore, stuck out of time! Be with me, Lee, and I’ll give you so, so much more.”
Lee snorted. “I promised her I wouldn’t make a deal with you, and that’s one I’m still good for.”
He saw Tess’s face as he flung his holy fire forward. Her smile, dimpled and cute, with faint freckles on each cheek that looked like maybe, just maybe, he could brush them right off. He would never break a promise to her, even if it meant throwing the dice with his life.
Eliza screeched as she collected crimson power to serve as her counter. Holy fire met scarlet energy, the forces turning beam-like as they vied to overwhelm one another. The upper floating island became a gradient of white-blue, orange-red, and fluttering purple.
Eliza was still screaming, but Lee was as calm as he’d ever been. His nose had come unplugged at some point, and blood was streaming down his lip and chin. It was a price he was more than willing to pay, one he’d grown accustomed to.
The balance of power shifted back and forth, but slowly made progress in one direction. Eliza was too much for him. He watched the crimson slowly overwhelm his own ability, pushing toward him like the inevitable approach of death.
He wasn’t going to lose. Lee felt a sudden surge of willpower. It felt like Tess was there with him, shouting to him from the sidelines, cheering him on with her corny encouragement. Hot tears joined the blood already streaking down his face. No, he wasn’t going to lose.
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