“In truth, I don’t need any help with the Grand Occultarus. It actually listens to my commands,” Lucia said, her face splitting with a vicious smile as the two Ancient women dropped like discarded clothing. Neala’s face was turned toward Violet, her eyes bugged wide in silent horror as she returned to her old torment of being locked in her own body.
Lucia knelt, grabbing Gwendolyn’s chin, and cooed over her. “You should’ve killed me when you had the chance. Look where your revenge has placed you.”
“L…Lucia…” Gwendolyn choked out. Her body was already limp as the dust did its work.
“Languor dust hmm? That’s what you used on me.” Lucia clucked her tongue. “The only substance in the world that makes you fully aware as you sleep. For a thousand years, I was stuck only with my thoughts and visions. I needed revenge. I needed you to suffer for the hell you put me through.”
Standing, she let Gwendolyn’s head thump on the stone dais. She strode up to the Eye of Worlds, placing her hand on its glass surface. “While I slept, this magnificent tool slept with me. We developed a kinship.” Motes of shadow danced around her palm. Those sprites, which had laughed so viciously at Violet, welcomed Lucia like a celebrated friend. “In exchange for its cooperation, I promised to reconnect it to the one place it misses most. The Fell Lands.”
“You’re…mad,” Gwendolyn said on a mere gasp of sound.
Lucia tilted her head. “Am I? I’ve seen so many variations of this moment. The Fell haven’t had a Sorcerer or Sorceress to lead them since we slayed their last Emperor. They’ll follow someone who will put them back on the winning side.”
She turned to Julian when it was apparent there would be no more reaction from Gwendolyn. “You will try to kill anyone who comes near my old body, except for Adrius. Understand?”
Julian’s throat worked, a frown turning down his lips. “Yes, mistress,” he answered.
Nodding to herself, she cast a complicated spell with her hands, her bare feet buoying off the ground as if carried by invisible wings. She floated up over the Eye of Worlds, her hands spreading. Spinning around her like a moon, her occultarus flared to brilliant life as she started muttering an incantation over the massive tool.
“Violet?” The voice whispering in her head was Julian’s, his gaze vigilant as he scanned the eminent area for threats.
“Yeah?” she responded quietly, as if Lucia could hear her even in her thoughts.
“Lucia isn’t my mistress. A Blood Prince called Elandros is. I don’t have to follow her order.”
She breathed out a tense, shaky breath. “What does it matter? We’ve lost anyway.” Another hail of dark tears leaked from her eyes as she blinked, watching tiny bolts of lightning flow from Lucia’s hands down to the giant Eye of Worlds. The shadows within swirled harder and faster the more energy was poured into it.
“You are our only hope. And you’re giving up?” Finally, he sounded like himself, a stern frown pulling at his features. She held up and shook the golden chains, and he released a sound like a small “ah” and nodded curtly. “I can remove those. From what I saw with a different person…your magic and energy should come right back. But she’ll probably attack me the moment she realizes what happened.”
“So…we have one shot. But I don’t have the occultarus that’s attached to this body,” she murmured. Julian wordlessly held up the silver-plated occultarus that’d made the body swap between her and Lucia possible. She still didn’t like her odds, but it was better than laying here and watching Lucia—in her body—open a giant portal to release terrible monsters back into their world.
Determination hardened her from the inside out. No, Lucia wouldn’t succeed today. She had miscalculated and picked the wrong person to mess with. If there was one promise she’d made to Violet that would come true, it was thus: she was not a victim any longer.
She held up the chains. Julian fumbled them over for a few excruciatingly long moments before his thumb pressed to a certain ridge. The shackles sprung free, and she felt a wave of power follow. Magic filled her every pore, so much stronger and concentrated than what she’d been able to wield as a newborn Sorceress. Even her connection to her occultarus felt stronger, and the tool flashed once in recognition that its mistress was back in control.
Above them, the Eye of Worlds started to rotate for the first time in a thousand years. It screeeeeeeched Lucia’s deeds to the whole island.
Chapter 42
Alex
ALEX STUMBLED HIS way out of the palace, gaining back his more fluid stride in stages as he fought the worst pain of his life. He’d emptied the contents of his stomach twice until all he had left was water and bile. Still, he persisted. He eyed the grand staircase that descended into the city and held fast to the side so he wouldn’t tumble several stories to his death.
He felt his new power trickle in through his inner beast. The animal instincts were always a manifestation of his magic, growing stronger over time to the point where he had to assert dominance and control of his own body. Now, he felt those instincts more and more strongly until he and his magic were once again one and the same. He understood Sirius and his constant anger so much better when his own beast bayed for blood.
He and the beast were in complete agreement—they would tear Lucia limb from limb for what she’d done when she was in the proper body. A part of him hoped she could feel his fury over whatever shred of bond remained between him and the body she’d stolen.
His boots were a few short steps from steady ground when a piercing shriek boomed from the center of the island. Grunting, he covered his ultrasensitive ears and felt a shift in the night air. Every pore on his body prickled to instant awareness moments before it happened. Silvery moonlight burned above him, breaking through the palace in the shape of a full disc. In the land of constant gloom, the moon was like a spotlight. The white stone of Nyixa started to glow from its cold glare.
Only one moon, though—and it wasn’t from Earth. He knew the sun was up on this midsummer day. This island was just a step away from magical Faerie.
He mustered his resolve, at first jogging and then sprinting toward the center of the island and the Eye of Worlds. The massive orb’s swishing was audible to his sharpened hearing. From what little he knew of the thing, it was a bad omen.
A cloud of darkness swept by him as he ran, turning pitch-black eyes his way briefly. Adrius, inclining his head with a severe frown. He bore himself swiftly on magic. He returned the acknowledgement, glad the king got off his throne for something. “Lucia’s not Lucia right now,” he warned.
“What do you mean?” Adrius demanded, taking his full form as he emerged into the ruined square where the Eye of Worlds sat.
Julian was bent over Lucia’s body, helping her to her feet. He wondered fleetingly when his friend had gotten here, but now wasn’t the time to ask questions. Several stories above them, Violet’s body channeled magic into the magical tool as it picked up speed. “Lucia and Violet have swapped bodies.”
“That’s impossible,” Adrius said flatly, drawing his sword in a scrape of metal. He marched swiftly across the square until two people emerged from the shadows. Alex only recognized them by their Blood Prince maroon eyes.
“The queen requires full concentration,” said the thinner of the two, drawing two pistols with a fumble. Adrius scoffed, probably not realizing how much deadlier the smaller, modern weapons were compared to his sword.
The other Prince cracked his knuckles, face hardened with determination. He said nothing, charging directly at Adrius. “Step aside, Taryn. I don’t want to hurt you,” the king said. He caught Taryn’s fist, thrusting him away.
Alex rushed the other man as he took aim at Adrius with both pistols. One went off, the bullet embedding harmlessly into the side of a collapsed building. “If it isn’t the queen’s new plaything,” said the Blood Prince.
Snarling like an animal, Alex tried to force a demi-shift and felt his body responding to the technique for th
e first time. His hand transformed into a heavy bear paw, scoring deep furrows in the other man’s face. “Never,” he snapped.
Disengaging and touching the wounds, he shook his head. “My queen said you’d be asleep.”
“Surprise.” Alex didn’t give him a moment to rest, trying to wrest one of his pistols away as he hulked up with a gorilla’s strength. The demi-shifts were the pinnacle of shapeshifting strength, giving him the control of his human side with the best aspects of his inner beast.
A bullet whizzed past the two of them. Julian was on his feet, Lucia’s body gone. He was holding the smoking gun, cold gaze focused on them. His fingers jittered on the trigger, sending a second shot awry. But it was the distraction Alex’s adversary needed, landing a punch to his sternum and sending him to the ground with a wheeze.
“It’s really too bad the queen needs you,” he said scornfully, bashing Alex over the head with the butt of his weapon. “I don’t know what she was thinking, picking you for a mate. Taryn and I have both served her faithfully since before you were born.”
Alex saw stars as he dodged the next bludgeon, rolling to his feet with a cat’s grace. “Maybe she wanted someone with a brain in their skull,” he grunted.
His outraged reply was drowned out by a flash and a loud crack of thunder. And then another. They both glanced up to see Violet and Lucia circling each other midair, tossing projectiles at once another. From Violet’s body’s hands came lightning bolts, which she shot one after the other, her head thrown back in a soundless cackle.
Lucia’s body only dodged, wavering uncertainly as she made a clumsy symbol midair. She threw a fireball back, but it tumbled past to fizzle on the rocks. His heart lurched at the display, not needing to see how vicious the real Lucia fought to know that his mate was outmatched in experience.
He took the other man’s momentary distraction and used it to grab one of his weapons. He fired a bullet into his kneecap, sending him howling to the ground and grasping his bleeding leg with a pitiful moan. “Shoot him! Kill him!” he screamed back at Julian, who turned his gun reluctantly toward Alex.
Realization hit him a moment before the bullet did, whizzing off his arm in a hot trail of pain. He couldn’t see Julian’s enthralled expression this far out, but it was the only explanation. Bending down, he slammed the butt of his weapon down on the Blood Prince’s head, silencing his cries as he knocked him unconscious.
Julian’s arm dropped. Alex glanced to where Adrius and Taryn were still fighting, equally matched as they traded blows with growing ferocity. He decided that they could handle each other and rushed over to his friend’s side. “Are you yourself?” he demanded.
The other man shook himself, breathing hard as he turned a hooded look Alex’s way. “Elandros was controlling me, but you knocked him out…I’m so sorry—”
“Save it.” They’d have plenty of time to talk it out later. “Do you see the occultarus orbiting around them both? The magic orb?” Julian nodded curtly. They watched the Sorceresses trade magic.
“It’s made of glass,” Alex said, lifting one of the two pistols he’d stolen from his opponent. Julian mirrored him, eyes narrowed in concentration.
Chapter 43
Violet
VIOLET MAY HAVE been in the stronger body, but she found herself dodging lightning strikes rather than making her own magic in return. She knew why Lucia went for the spell and started using it back, her eyes feeling like they were melting in their sockets as flash after flash blinded her. To make a lightning bolt, the hand gesture was to extend her fingers and thrust out her arm. It was one of the least complicated gestures to make for such a devastating effect.
Below them, the Eye of Worlds picked up speed. She was worried it would open a portal any moment, spilling out the creatures that’d made vampires a necessity all those years ago. There were maybe minutes left before their darkness was unleashed on the world again. And Lucia wasn’t going down without a vicious fight, firing magic constantly.
“Give it up, girl. You’ve lost.” Lucia spoke with Violet’s voice. She’d even taken that, assuming everything about her.
“Never,” she hissed.
“I won’t have the Fell spare you. They’ll eat you all—even your mate.”
Violet gasped, her gaze flashing downward. She saw Alex’s graceful figure sprinting across the courtyard, heading for Julian. As she did, Lucia hit her square in the chest with a blast of electricity. Her muscles danced erratically with the surge, and she dropped several feet with a panicked cry.
“Think I would spare him, did you? I only needed him to power the portal. He is not trustworthy enough to sit by my side,” Lucia laughed.
“You mean…he won’t lick your boots,” Violet managed to say, floating out of the way of the next blast of lightning at the last moment. “He saw through you, didn’t he?”
“Shut up, girl,” she snarled, clawing both hands and charging a ball of electricity over her head.
She couldn’t help it, she snickered. “Even in my body, you couldn’t seduce my lifemate!”
“I said… shut up!” Lucia roared, the energy building and mounting between her palms.
Violet heard a more subtle popping noise from below, her eyes widening with shock as a bullet struck the occultarus orbiting her real body and sent it hurtling backward. She watched Lucia turn toward it too, just in time to watch a spider web of cracks form around the impact point. It wobbled violently, exploding the next moment in a hail of glass shrapnel.
Lucia screamed aloud as her spell failed her, falling straight on her head. Her body went shock-still midair, tipping backward and falling head-first toward the ground in a flash of blonde hair. “Violet! I got her! Stop the portal!” Alex bellowed.
Violet turned to the giant tool spinning furiously and generating its own version of electricity in pitch-dark sparks of lightning. She grasped her own occultarus with a shaking hand, knowing she had seconds. Reaching with her magic, she stared directly into its dark surface. Her reflection showed the body she’d been shoved in, riddled with black veins and a Fell’s soulless stare.
It shifted and changed while she watched, becoming her actual self looking back at her, wearing that beautiful silver gown.
“Stop!” She shouted the command with everything in her. “You have to stop!”
Something within the massive tool pushed back at her. She had the sense it was asking something.
“Are you willing to pay the price?”
Her reflection changed to that of a different woman, a blonde with a crown of golden hair and eyes of the same shade. She stood against a backdrop of ashy dunes, surrounded by shadowy people. “Nyah, long-lost queen,” it whispered. It was talking to her in a chorus of quiet voices, like its laughing sprites all whispered in her ear.
“You have to stop,” Violet said, not recognizing the woman who wore tight-fitting leather clothing, her gaze piercing and fierce.
“Are you willing to pay the price?” it repeated. It projected a monster creeping up behind the woman, its many-fanged maw sinking into her flesh. It ate the proud queen in great bites right before her eyes as she cried out in shock. “This fate awaits her. You could save her.”
She wavered but realized that it was stalling once more. For whatever reason, the Eye of Worlds wanted this particular portal open. “You’re lying!” she shouted. “Stop! I command you to stop!”
“As you wish.”
It didn’t slow down so much as try to abruptly change direction. It was like throwing a car in motion into sudden reverse. Metal grinded on metal, and the whole structure wobbled with a piercing shriek. Its metal support buckled as she watched with her mouth hanging open in shock.
Sheets of glass cracked with the sound of shattering ice. It shook as violently as Violet’s body’s occultarus had before it exploded. She scrambled to fly out of the way, thinking the same thing would happen here. Down below, she saw several shocked faces—all the Blood Princes had arrived to tackle the threa
t or each other. Friend and foe alike watched cracks thread through the glass dome.
It didn’t explode—yet. But the first chip fell from it, landing on the white stone in a shattering smack. “A thank you for my freedom, Sorceress,” the chorus of voices whispered in her ear. A massive pulse of magic followed, invisible but felt. It raced over Violet with the force of a tidal wave, and she felt herself freeze, pinwheeling through the air as she began to crash. She squeezed her eyes just before the moment of impact, hearing the muffled thump of flesh and clothing hit the ground. But she didn’t feel any pain from crashing.
She gasped and opened her eyes just to find herself in Alex’s arms. Her whole body hurt, still twitching uncontrollably from the massive surge of electricity it’d taken. Her body! She lifted a smooth, silver-veined hand, seeing a glass shard sticking out of her forearm. “Violet?” he said tentatively. “Is it really you?”
“I couldn’t be happier to see you if…if I fried. Which I feel like,” she said, working a stiff jaw.
Alex made a choked sound somewhere between a laugh and sob, bundling her close.
“Sorceress!” Adrius bellowed. “Get us to safety! Now!”
They startled apart. Violet spared a glance for the Eye of Worlds, which continued to rock violently. It would explode at any moment, and this time, the blast would be much worse than her occultarus shattering from a bullet. But that meant she didn’t have her magic tool to help her spell work, and her arms felt like putty now that the aftershocks were subsiding.
“Put me down,” she whispered to Alex. He steadied her as she wobbled, her fingers trembling. It felt like an eternity before she locked her thumbs and forefingers in the symbol for portal, connecting it to the only place she could think of—Alex’s mansion. Jaromir went through first, carrying Gwendolyn’s body in a fireman’s carry. Korin followed with Neala. A massive wolf with a bloodied muzzle came next, whom she assumed was Sirius. His red gaze flashed to her briefly before he was gone.
Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1 Page 25
