The Monster Ball Year 2

by Heather Hildenbrand

  He gives me a lazy smile. “I have a lifetime to explore your body, Tansy. Let’s take it slow.”

  He draws my arms from around him and the movement is a little too fast. I fumble with the rubies. He helpfully grasps my hand, and… one of the stones glints between my fingers.

  He freezes. His gaze flies to his ring and back to me. Confusion floods his features. “Tansy… what are you doing with those?”

  I wrench out of his grasp. “I need them.”

  “What for?”

  “I can’t tell you.” I dart toward the front of the cube, whispering a spell as I go. “Love linger, love delay, love stay.”

  He lunges in my direction. “Tansy, wait!”

  My spell takes hold, and he stops in his tracks, his feet glued to the floor. It won’t hold him for long, but it’ll give me long enough to get the rubies to Mother Kadris.

  As I step through the entrance, the cube releases me. I glance back one more time, poised in the opening.

  The look on Alexei’s face freezes me to the spot.

  Betrayal. It floods his features like a knife to my heart.

  His gray eyes are a storm of thunderclouds as he asks, “Was any of this real?”

  My voice fails me. He thinks it was all a ruse to steal the rubies from his ring. I force myself to speak. “All of it. I love you, Alexei Mason. I will do anything to give you the chance to love me back.”

  I spin and race away before he can break free of the spell.

  Chapter Ten

  Racing along the corridor, the rubies held firmly in one fist, I snatch up a leaf from my dress, its golden handwriting glowing at my touch. I release it into the air as I run toward the rainbow stairs, pushing through the revelers to take the stairs two at a time.

  This spell is more dangerous than I would normally use, but I speak it anyway, recklessness overtaking caution. “Illuminate my enemies.”

  My instinctive magic pours through me, triggered by my heightened emotions, so strong that I’m not sure if I’m using the spell or my magic this time. Show me Mother Kadris…

  The leaf flies ahead of me, blazing a path toward the other side of the roof. A glow that only I can see spirals over the rooftop, a swirl of light that settles on a far sunken couch, illuminating her head and shoulders.

  I hurry across the distance, gratified when Mother Kadris jolts as I slip into the seat opposite her. My chest heaves as I slap the rubies on the table and slide them across its smooth surface.

  Her jaw drops. She stares at the stones and then at me.

  I glare at her. “You didn’t think I’d find you without your permission, did you?”

  Her startled eyes flash to mine. “I didn’t expect you to betray him.”

  I pause at her choice of words, considering her carefully. “Betray him…?”

  She continues to stare at the rubies. She seems oddly thrown. Her voice is a murmur. “I thought you would stay with him once you saw him again. I thought you would see that he…” She shakes herself. “You actually stole them.”

  I struggle to make sense of what she’s saying. “We had a deal and I’ve kept my part of it.”

  Mother Kadris’s eyes widen. She leans across the table toward me. “You don’t know what these rubies are, do you? He never told you?”

  If she were cackling or triumphant right now, I wouldn’t think twice about it, but her concern makes me worried. So far, she hasn’t taken the rubies, leaving them on the table instead.

  I have to believe that Alexei will forgive me for taking them. I can even conjure replacement gems for him. I can make it up to him. Once I have the revival spell, he’ll understand why I’ve done this.

  My blank expression must speak volumes because her already-wide eyes turn to saucers.

  “When Alexei received his assassin’s ring,” she says, “he had these stones set into it so he could keep them safe and with him always.”

  My mouth is suddenly dry. “Why?”

  Her gaze lowers to the rubies. “Because they’re his last connection to his mother.”

  I force myself to speak. “In what way?”

  “I’m sure you already know that his mother was cast out of her coven when she gave birth to a baby boy with no apparent magical ability. She then abandoned the child too. What is not well known is that she had no choice but to leave him, or the coven would have killed him. Before she left, she poured all of her love into these stones and left them with him so he would know that she loved him.”

  I’m chilled to the core. I stare at the three red stones glinting like a sharp accusation between us.

  “Why three?” I ask.

  “Because one was not enough to contain all of her love.”

  My stomach sinks. An awful yawning trench opens up inside and swallows me. I clench my jaw, trying to fight my fear. Fear of losing him now. “If that’s true, then why do you want them?”

  She hesitates, shakes her head, studies me instead of the rubies. I’m finding all of her reactions completely confusing and contrary to how I expected this to play out. She’s hiding something, but I don’t know what.

  She says, “Because love is the most powerful magic of all.”

  And I took them away from Alexei. The only connection he has to his mother… all her love… stolen… after he offered me everything he has to give…

  I betrayed him.

  I’ve made so many mistakes in my life. Helped where I shouldn’t have helped. Refused to help where I should have helped…

  Now I’ve made the worst mistake.

  He will never forgive me.

  My heart is cold. The warmth leaves me, and the air around me chills. My instinctive magic billows upward, taking control without my volition, freezing the air around us, making our breath frost. I wrap my arms around my stomach, trying to quell the sick feeling, but it’s no use.

  Mother Kadris considers me for another moment before she sighs deeply, breathing out the frosty air, tapping her fingertips on the table next to the rubies. “You have a choice to make now, Tansy Gray. How badly do you want the revival spell?”

  She said that only someone worthy should have the spell. I’m not worthy. I convinced myself I wanted the spell for Alexei, to give him the chance to feel love, but the truth is my motives are entirely selfish.

  I want him to have the chance to love me.

  He will never love me now.

  I have to return the rubies to him, face the consequences of my actions, and then… I have to let him go.

  I reach across the table to take them back, but Mother Kadris darts forward and scoops the stones into her fist. She swiftly deposits them into the pockets of her sleek black pants. “I’m sorry, Tansy. Your choices just disappeared.”

  We are both half out of our seats, face to face across the table.

  Her demeanor changed so rapidly that I’m left spinning. The quiet woman she was moments ago is gone, replaced by a witch of stony determination. Light glints across her face, her colorless eyes reflecting the neon rainbow around us. She hides it but for a second, her focus shifting to the people around us before it flashes back to me.

  Only something important would have distracted her… Something that made her change course…

  I glance left and freeze.

  Alexei storms toward me across the rooftop, his assassin’s magic gleaming around his silhouette. Blazing silver light glows with every powerful step he takes. I’m surprised he hasn’t put his shirt on. I’m not the only one who notices. A number of females in the seats nearby crane their heads to watch him pass. He stops at the edge of the sunken couch, a mountain of muscle towering over me.

  His voice is a stern command. “Tanzanina Gray, we need to talk.”

  Without conscious thought, I float up out of the couch to hover at eye height with him. My hair wafts out around me, and my dress swishes in the growing storm of my emotions.

  Shame and guilt make my power spark. If I don’t calm down, the other partygoers will need protect
ion from me.

  Regret fills my heart. “Alexei… I’m so sorry… I didn’t know what the rubies meant to you.”

  His gaze softens, a perplexed frown creasing his forehead. He sighs, shaking his head. “Tansy… you don’t need to…”

  Movement to my right draws his attention. He freezes but only for a second. His arm darts out, and he pulls me into his side, holding me close, while his other hand rises toward Mother Kadris, his palm out in a defensive gesture. “Mother Kadris!”

  Mother Kadris returns Alexei’s glare with a haughty expression and a growing smile. She floats up out of the couch to hover above the table, staying out of his reach. “Hello, Alexei. This meeting has been a long time coming.”

  “You’re damn right it has. Your assassination has been sanctioned for hundreds of years. Whatever you’re doing here, you will walk away right now.”

  The look on his face tells me that if he could kill her, he would, but The Proprietor’s magic stops anyone dying here.

  She arches an eyebrow at him. “Oh, but Tansy and I were about to make a deal.”

  Alexei’s arm tightens around me.

  Mother Kadris’s cold gaze falls on me, and my heart sinks.

  In my mind, I replay every comment she made, every move… her initial desperation to get her hands on the rubies, then the surprise and concern when I brought them to her. Her reactions have been a series of contradictions that I struggle to make sense of. The only answer… is that she wanted to make sure I would be desperate to get the rubies back.

  I made a deal with a witch who consumes souls, and she played me. Well and truly.

  Alexei growls. “You can’t have Tansy’s soul.”

  “That’s up to Tansy, isn’t it?”

  A glance to my left tells me we’re drawing attention.

  I murmur, “Perfect power protect this place with my presence.”

  Every supernatural around us slows and stops moving. In the background the rooftop entertainment pauses, even the latest smoky neon illusion—a gorgeous stallion—pauses galloping through the air midstride. The music stops and silence settles around us. The warehouse is still. Everyone in this place will remain unaware of what’s happening around them and shielded from any magic that spills their way.

  I tip my head back to meet Alexei’s worried eyes. “I will get the rubies back. I promise.”

  I push from his arms even though he reaches for me. “No, Tansy—”

  I soar up to Mother Kadris, remaining beyond her reach. My scathing tone cuts across the space between us. “You’re just like all the others. All of the witches coming after me for my supposedly limitless power. Never mind that I’m irreversibly damaged.”

  Her mouth twists as she inhales as if she can already taste my power. I guess she can, considering that it’s sparking all over the place. “Tanzanina Gray, your belief that you’re damaged is born of guilt, not truth.”

  I flinch at her harsh tone. My mother’s final whispered words… It’s not your fault, baby girl. I was only three years old, but the memory replayed for years after. It was as if my power was stuck in that moment, and every time I tried to draw on my power, the memory resurfaced. It took me years to learn how to repress it.

  The neon lights flicker as my anger grows, clouds drawing across the stars, darkness descending over the rooftop. Crimson light builds around me as my rage grows. “Of course I feel guilty! It was my power that killed her!”

  “It was your power, but your aunt was in control of it. She took you hostage and used your power to kill your mother. You had no control. You were only a child.”

  “I know that!”

  Concern lights her eyes. “Then forgive yourself! Until you do, you will never know your own power.”

  I recoil from her. She’s playing mind games with me again, making me believe that she cares when she doesn’t. It’s all manipulation. I hone my rage into pinpoint focus. “You will give me back the rubies.”

  Her eyes narrow. Her grip relaxes on the rubies for a moment but then tightens again. “Only in exchange for your soul.”

  I grind out. “That’s not happening.”

  She smiles. “Reach deep, Tansy. You will need your greatest power to defeat me.”

  She rises upward. Electricity crackles around her, and wind wails around us. The thunderclouds thicken in the sky above, forming a mass of darkness that descends toward us so rapidly that it obscures the rooftop within seconds. Black clouds swirl around us, enveloping us in a cold mass that makes me shudder. Only the space between the three of us remains lit as the light from her power and my rage intermingle, crimson striking white.

  Electricity gathers around Mother Kadris’s torso and arms. Her hand flies out, and a bolt of power streaks through the air, but not at me. Alexei is already on the move, his assassin’s magic a silver haze as he darts through the clouds. Her lightning bolt hits the couch where my protection spell absorbs it without any damage.

  She follows Alexei’s path, sending bolts of electricity streaking after him as he leaps to the next sunken couch and the frozen supernaturals in it and dives toward the table, scooping up two wine glasses. In any other situation, he would be able to break them and use the glass as weapons, but my protection spell will prohibit that. Nothing in our surroundings can be damaged or broken.

  I spin back to Mother Kadris, rage spiraling through me that she’s targeting Alexei, my protective instincts rising fast. I step forward, my arms rising. I must have brushed the leaves on my dress because spells—so many spells—rush into my mind.

  “Defenders defy death,” I whisper.

  Creatures form in the darkness, solidifying out of the clouds and taking shape around her. A fierce, black bear rises up, its claws bright in the lightning as it slashes at her, catching her sleeve and shredding it. At the same time, a black stallion races toward her from the side, and a dragon soars over my head, breathing electricity.

  Her eyes widen moments before a wash of dragon’s breath envelops her.

  At the last moment, she spins and soars into the air, narrowly avoiding the claws and hooves, but the dragon’s fire singes her high heels as they slip off her feet. Her shoes fall to the couches, where they smolder in a heap.

  I rise with her, and the dragon follows me, circling back, its wings whooshing, parting the clouds as it flies.

  Mother Kadris gives me a wicked grin. “That’s more like it, Tansy.”

  She spins, pouring her power through the bear and stallion and into the dragon, trying to break it before it breaks her.

  Alexei is safe from her for now, but I don’t let up.

  “Stun my heart. Feel my pain.” Crimson light pours from me, hitting her ribs just as the dragon explodes in a whoosh of light that sends us both spinning to the ground.

  I regain my balance, flinging light at her in stunning blows. She struggles to shield herself, a glistening barrier forming around her body before she retaliates.

  Lightning streams my way. The two light streams merge, my power racing along hers, meeting in the middle in an explosion of light and thunder.

  I dig my heels in and absorb the impact. The explosion is like a whisper across my skin, barely shifting me, while she screams and stumbles back, nearly falling into a sunken couch full of frozen supernaturals.

  Just then, Alexei darts from the cloud cover, running straight at Mother Kadris. He smashes both of the glasses against the edge of the nearest table as he runs so he’s left holding the jagged stems. He leaps, one weapon punching toward her throat, the other clutched low.

  I gasp, holding off attacking her in case I hit him. He shouldn’t be able to break the glass like that.

  At the last moment, Mother Kadris jolts out of his path, narrowly avoiding being impaled.

  She snarls at Alexei as he ducks and rolls. “You missed!”

  He dashes across the nearest tabletop and lands on his feet. “No, I didn’t.”

  Still holding the jagged stems, he points at her waist.
r />   She glances down. Her pants pocket is slit across the bottom, the material flapping in the wind.

  Alexei raises his fist, the rubies glinting in his fingers.

  Shock rages across her face.

  He darts across to me, his hand outstretched. “Tansy, take them!”

  Mother Kadris flings her free hand wide, screaming at him. “Pain!”

  A bolt of green light spears at Alexei, striking him in the back. He jolts and drops to his knees, roaring out his agony. His eyes squeeze closed, blood streaming from his nose. “Tan-sy!”

  Bracing for the torture, I step into the emerald light. Pain spears through me, burning my skin. I gasp, scream, push against it, trying to shield us both…

  He meets my eyes, his own widening. Maybe he didn’t think that I would step in front of him. Maybe he thought I’d use my power first, but there isn’t any pain that I will let him suffer alone. I don’t have time to wipe the blood streaming from my own nose.

  Shield.

  Power flickers around me, a protective shield forming, but not fast enough.

  With a roar, Alexei twists and flings the glass stems at Mother Kadris, one aimed at her shoulder, the other at her neck.

  She tilts her head, her power flares, and both stems rebound.

  One strikes the floor, but the other…

  Oomph.

  Shock freezes me to the spot. I glance down to stare at the stem protruding from my stomach, sensing the blood trickling from the wound.

  She shot the stem into me.

  Chapter Eleven

  Alexei’s horrified shout meets my ears as the rooftop shifts. He catches me as I fall, his big arms a welcome pressure around my back, supporting my head and neck. “Tansy!”

  In the distance, Mother Kadris’s quickly blurring figure screams another spell, and Alexei’s upper arm swings in her direction against his will. One of the rubies zips out of his hold before he clenches his fist, trying to hold on to the others, supporting me with one arm while his other is stretched beyond endurance. He clenches his teeth, clutching on to the stones and me at the same time.