Anna still seethed, but she would heed Draydrak’s words. None of this was Obsidian’s fault.
“I won’t fail Obsidian.”
“Good. Because your magical ability will increase tenfold and give you a fighting chance against a djinn of this one’s strength.”
“Go, Anna, rescue your Rasoren and forge a soul bond of a strength never seen before.”
She did, winging her way closer with each heartbeat.
Chapter 46
Anna battled the storm as she circled the island in large loops, drawing closer with each revolution. Obsidian was down there somewhere. Her magic might not be able to separate him from the maelstrom created by his power, but her keen gargoyle sight served her well, scanning the land.
Ah, there.
He looked like nothing more than a tightly curled bit of darkness against the pale sand of the beach. But it was him.
Curling a wing, she changed direction and arrowed towards him.
The crosswinds and layers of wild magic buffeted her, tossing her around in the air. She overshot her planned landing site next to Obsidian and crashed into the surf at the edge of the beach instead.
Sand, wind, and rain pelted her in vicious waves. She formed a translucent shield of magic to protect against the worst of it. Then dropping to all fours, she stalked across the beach, her talons digging in against the gale-force winds.
When she got closer to Obsidian’s location, she saw why she’d overshot her target. He sat within a protective dome. The storm winds circled it like the eye of a hurricane.
Inside the air was calm, not even a little breeze to stir his mane.
She hoped this dome was the reason she couldn’t touch his mind.
Though the way Obsidian was kneeling with his muzzle tucked against his chest, wings mantled around him, and rocking back and forth ever so slightly as magic continued to bleed off his skin didn’t look good.
She shouted his name.
He didn’t respond.
Or maybe it wasn’t that he didn’t respond. Perhaps he couldn’t, his mind trapped inside the memories.
There was one ray of hope. His magic didn’t consider her a threat, and she was able to touch the dome without harm. After a moment of gentle coercing, the magic of the dome-shield granted her entrance.
She went to him then and knelt without hesitation, placing a hand on his shoulders. His magic stirred in acknowledgment of her presence, licking and caressing along her skin in recognition, but it didn’t attempt to drive her away or otherwise harm her.
Running her fingers along his spine, she moved them up under his thick mane until she could stroke the back of his neck. As a child, he’d always found that comforting. She hoped he still did.
While he couldn’t respond, he might still be able to hear and feel.
“Oh, my brave Rasoren. I’ve failed to keep this horror from you. I’m sorrier than I can say but know I’m here with you. You’re not alone.” Her gargoyle nature stirred in response to his distress, her magic reaching out, seeking a way into his mind.
At first something within him resisted. Then the link flared strongly, sucking her deep into his thoughts, a passenger in his mind.
Freezing in surprised recognition, she looked around at the parking lot she found herself in. It was the dark of a November night, a familiar crispness in the air that promised winter’s return. Light from the bar’s neon sign reflected in the puddles.
Vicious ghosts from a dark point in her past were here as well, flowing around her, on the hunt.
Their voices, the tone of their laughter and excited grunts chillingly familiar. Their faces were clearer than they’d ever been before. The smell of fries, beer, and cigarette smoke strong.
But this time they were not hunting her.
She discovered a new horror as her link whispered that they were attacking her Rasoren. And in the nature of these past memories, he could not fight or change the outcome. He could only huddle on the alley’s cold, wet pavement as he relived what had happened to her—a hapless passenger caught up in the memories.
Rage slowly built within her, replacing the horror and fear.
Seeing the vision-ghosts of her assailants no longer inspired dread. No. But it triggered something else—her berserker rage.
She welcomed it.
These lesser beings might once have harmed her, haunted her mind for months, but no more. They were weak. Easily torn to shreds with her talons.
The fools!
They thought to harm her Rasoren.
She struck out with her own magic, wrapping Obsidian’s mind in layers of protection before she turned her attention to the vision-ghosts. Even as the rage urged her to act, her mind remained sharp. She continued with caution, very much aware this was no regular battlefield.
These were her memories transferred into her Rasoren’s mind.
She wasn’t really here. These weren’t enemies she could just gut and claim victory over.
No. This would need a two-pronged attack.
First, she merged her mind with Obsidian’s more firmly, feeding him her love and strength. Magic flaring, it expanded, surrounding him in a protective shield.
In the real-world, Obsidian moved closer, and Anna curled around him, drawing him into her warmth and vitality.
“We are not victims. Together we are far too strong for some wispy dark memories to do us harm.” She came to kneel next to his shoulder and turned his face to look up at her. “Look upon the horror. Acknowledge what I once endured so there will be no more secrets between us. But then see me as I am now. Strong. Fierce. Whole. Know that I survived. I overcame that one dark night in my history. They did not tarnish my mind, my soul, or my sense of worth. I see that now. You showed me that.”
“Anna?” He blinked up at her. Seeing her for the first time.
“Yes, that’s it.” Anna continued to caress his face.
“They were so strong. But I am stronger. How could I have not fought my way free?” He sounded lost and confused. In shock, most likely.
At that moment she hated the God of Death.
“In life, we sometimes meet opponents we cannot fight. But I will show you the way free of this nightmare.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Now follow your Kyrsu.”
She went on the attack, her talons digging into the memories, shredding them as she summoned a second wave of magic. Beside her Obsidian came to his feet, shaking off whatever spell had held him immobile.
Together they destroyed all that remained of their tormentors.
When it was done, they started on the memory of the location, tearing it apart piece by piece.
Afterward, Anna and Obsidian reached for each other, burying their muzzles in the other’s manes.
“Oh, my fierce, beautiful one,” he whispered close to her ear, sadness thick in his voice. “I understand now.”
“No, you don’t, because you feel sadness. This moment is not about sadness.” Her mind expanded more, sweeping him in, surrounding his consciousness until she was everything. And then she shared herself, her emotions, what they were to each other. What he meant to her.
In response, his mind and magic reached deep, mingling with hers until he was a part of her, their thoughts, emotions, memories, their very souls, joining to form a new wellspring of strength and power.
Now fully merged, their bond finally fulfilling its potential, their minds sought out every bit of fear, discomfort or scrap of loneliness and set about erasing it all with the warmth of their acceptance and love.
Their bond was a strong heartbeat in their minds. Immense strength flowed from it, feeding both their souls and their magic.
“I think this must be a little like what the Avatars feel,” she said in soft wonder.
“Mmm,” he agreed with a delighted mumble, almost a purr.
“I understand now what Death wanted us to experience. It wasn’t the horror. It was this. Guess I won’t hold it against him.”
Anna sighed and stretched. Though she was aware this present ‘body’ wasn’t real. Her body was still sitting on a beach, inside a dome-shield with a hurricane raging outside.
Obsidian was still holding tight, but he lifted his head and looked around as if sensing the storm as well. “Ah. It’s as Lord Dray said it would be.”
“The storm?”
“He didn’t say I’d call a hurricane to our shores, but he warned my power would slip my control.”
“We need to deal with it before it destroys the island.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
They were both reluctant to let the other go, but at last, Obsidian released his hold on her waist, and she dropped her arms from around his shoulders. With those actions their minds disengaged.
Anna blinked to find herself alone in her own mind, sitting on a beach with Obsidian’s body curled around her.
The dome still held, thank god.
While they’d been distracted, the storm had drifted to the east, heading toward the mainland.
“Damn. I’d say you leveled up.” Anna added an accompanying whistle.
Obsidian raised his head, taking in the beast raging across the sky. “Are you up for this? You used a lot of magic to reach me. I can steer it off course and back out to sea by myself if needed.”
Anna leaned forward, bumping him in the shoulder with her muzzle. “I’m good. Let’s go put a leash on the monster.”
“Come,” he said as he took to the air, his larger wings sounding like thunder as he fought to get airborne in this wind.
Anna launched herself into the sky after him. When she caught up, she touched their link, “You know how to control that thing?”
“Of course.” He rolled an eye in her direction. “But do you?”
“Not fair. You’ve got years more experience at wielding magic than me.”
“What I know, you can access as well.”
She wasn’t about to trust her new knowledge during a magic-induced hurricane. “Let’s work together. That hurricane is savage, and it isn’t getting any prettier.”
Obsidian studied the storm. “We will learn the limits of our new strength together.”
Then he opened his mind fully to her, and together they summoned more power. Though this time, they would be capturing the storm and reeling it in.
While he braided their power into an invisible tether, she created spells across the island to act as anchors.
The storm fought them, resenting being shifted off its course. But Obsidian was skilled, looping tether after tether around wind currents forming the storm until, at last, they’d managed to leash the monster.
Captured, they forced it to spin around its island anchor. It was still a huge monster, but it was under control.
Only their shields protected them from the buffeting winds, but they weren’t done yet. Together, they directed more magic into the storm, spinning it out into a glimmering net, where it captured and drained away the storm’s fury little by little.
After fifteen minutes, the winds dropped. The clouds soon began dissipating.
“Not half bad, partner.” She lengthened the last word into a drawl and grinned at him. “We can add masters of meteorology to our resumes.”
He gave her his best ‘humans are odd’ look. Then ruined it by nuzzling her nearest wing. She returned his warm affection in kind.
They wandered down the beach together, and then, neither of them in the mood to return to Haven yet, settled under one of the big leafed palm-like trees. There they sat and watched the still rough ocean in silence.
Their link remained open, thoughts flowing freely between them. They didn’t need words. There was a profound understanding between them that required none.
She leaned into him, and he mantled a wing around her.
His invitation was more than physical, and she was soon looking into his mind as some of his youthful adventures with Truth and friends played out in his memories. She, in turn, showed him some of the long summer camping trips she took with her family as a kid.
“You miss them.”
His words weren’t a question.
“It feels like a lifetime since I saw any of my brothers or either of my parents.” She shrugged. “Not that we ever see much of each outside of the Mackenzie family reunions. Too busy with careers and life. But we used to at least text or chat from time to time.”
She paused as something else occurred to her. “I wonder what my family knows, if anything? My father is a brigadier-general. He’d know all or at least some of what happened to me back on Earth, but the rest of my family probably wasn’t granted clearance. I wonder if my father has given up hope and thinks we’re dead.”
Then his mind was answering even before his words. “While it’s been thirteen years here in Haven, it will be like no time at all has passed in the present. For our families, it will only have been the few months that we were trapped in the Battle Goddess’s kingdom.”
“Right. I keep forgetting about the time travel part.”
“I will do all in my power to see that you get to reunite with your human family.”
“Deal. And I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you get to see your sister again…and reunite with your father one day after he heals.” She paused. “We can visit with your battle-ax of a mother as well, I suppose.”
Obsidian snorted. “She’ll be very pleased with you.”
“I doubt that. She hates me.”
“She admired you, actually.”
“Really?” Doubt was probably etched on her face because he laughed at her.
“At first she didn’t, but she soon saw how you protected me.”
He fell silent and nuzzled her hair again. She thought he was finished talking, but he started up again, his tone soft and kind. His accompanying thoughts were as well.
“Years ago, back on Earth, do you remember the time Gryton invaded Gran’s home by night and he tried to capture us? We were weaponless but fought him anyway. While I was keeping him busy, you got his dagger and used it against him.”
Anna glanced sidelong at him and arched a brow, wondering what had triggered that memory. “Yep. The bastard just about charbroiled us.”
“Just before that, while we were still fighting. I thought you the bravest and fiercest being I’d met. Your soul was lovely. I knew then that you were the one the Divine Ones had chosen for me.”
“You were young. It was infatuation. A crush. But I am flattered.” Usually, the dread would be kicking in at the mention of anything that smelled like a relationship conversation, but strangely she was okay with this.
“That’s true. Though it grew into true love as I matured. What I feel now is a much more adult version of that same love.”
A smile touched her lips, realizing something else.
“I loved Shadowlight like a little brother.” She reached out to pat his cheek. “But you I now love as a partner. Just couldn’t admit it right away. Waged a bloody, internal war to deny it, in fact. Looking back, I know it started that first night I woke here in Haven and you took me to the cliff side forest where we just talked. I was grieving the loss of Shadowlight, but even then I knew this Obsidian fellow was a good sort and I could trust him.”
“We agree we love each other?” His lips curled back in humor.
“Yes.” It came out easily. That surprised her. “Still, I’m not certain…”
“If we’re ready for romance?” He looked thoughtful, his mind on the other end of their newly strengthened link was calm. “I’m not either. I love you. You saw that in my mind, but our link is so new. And after everything that—”
“After everything that happened, we need time to process all of it and see how that affects us.” She lay back on the sand and stared up at the stormy sky.
“Yes.” He joined her, his wings spread until one touched hers.
“You know, this island wouldn’t be so bad with a cold beer and minus the storm clouds. We should come back here so
me time.”
“We could bring lots of food with us. Make a day of it swimming and fishing.” He sighed and stretched.
“You can do all the fishing you like. I’ll be on the beach sunning myself.”
“Hmm, that has merit too.”
“Damn straight.”
In that moment she knew her world was perfect.
Chapter 47
Three days after Obsidian had called a storm into being, Anna was back in the practice ring, facing off against Banrook. In other words, getting her ass kicked across the sands by the big brute. He’d grin occasionally and praise her.
Then he’d proceed to knock her on her ass.
After the ninth time, he just shook his head and called for a halt.
“Don’t know why I bother,” he said, sounding grumpier than usual. “Might as well take a break since your mind is not on the lesson.”
It was true. Usually, Rook would have her full attention. Today it was divided between the ring and the council chambers. Rook had said it was more important that Anna continue her training since she still hadn’t reached Obsidian’s level of mastery.
That meant Obsidian was in the council chambers with the Masters discussing preparations to abandon Haven. That a djinn had returned to the Magic Realm and might be able to sense the portal spell had created quite the stir. They also discussed what to do with the gargoyle legion.
If they just suddenly appeared in the present-day Magic Realm, the Battle Goddess would sense the shift in the magic flows. It would betray the gargoyles’ numbers.
Because of that, Thayn had mentioned taking the gargoyle army to Earth instead. There they’d be able to hide their presence from the Battle Goddess.
“Yeah, that’s going to go over real well back home,” Anna said along their link.
Obsidian agreed, and then explained again about how the governance on Earth worked to the Council of Masters. He suggested a small contingent go first and negotiate to secure permission for the rest to come.
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