Page 45 of Retribution

And I knew, I knew without a single doubt that I had no choice. I knew the boys wanted me to use my powers limitedly for fear of the repercussions it would have on our daughter, but I was in a position where I had no choice. If we wanted to live, I had to fight. I couldn’t stand behind them. I couldn’t pray a solution would come when the solution pulsed through my veins.

“Magic. It’s the only way,” I mumbled before closing my eyes and letting the energy pull toward me.

Chapter 25

STERLING

I feltthe moment she pulled the energy around her, and I panicked. “We can’t.”

She ignored me. “Horo and Michelle. I need you to free them.” She took a deep breath. “Melt the chains if you can. Do what you have to. Just set them free. Start with Oak.”

I knew it was easier said than done. Anything that could take down the mass of the man that was Lenin was strong. Oak was barely holding on to his consciousness, and Justice, well, he was a snarling mess, but he was conscious. Mad and aware, and I knew that when he was free, the alpha that lurked underneath his skin would be furious, ready to pounce, ready for payback.

“Liberty, do you think this is wise?” I had to be sure. I knew what was at risk, but did she?

“We can’t defeat them without magic, Sterling.” She paused, her hair flowing crazy around her face. “We can’t let her win.”

“Okay.” The words only held resignation because she was right. We couldn’t fight magic with a dagger. It was like bringing a glass of water to a field on fire; the impact would be minimal at best. The bones of the beast in front of us creaked as its body finished forming, and I knew our time was up. “What do you want me to do?”

She let the magic bring forth fire that flowed from her fingertips. The worms that were inching closer burst into flames. “Be close. I need you close.” I wasn’t sure why, but I prayed it wasn’t because she was anticipating needing healing.

She called her ice, wielding it in streams as she directed it to the bones in front of us, and I think I understood what she was trying to do. If she could make them brittle from the cold, then there was a possibility that she could break them. The others read her thoughts too because as I was inching forward, so was Maggie, a thick piece of wood that had fallen from the structure in her hand. I bent and grabbed one as I approached. We reached the bony limbs at the same time, swinging with all the force we could muster; only we were ricocheted backward, pushed until we fell, unable to even dent the unmovable object.

Greta watched, the cackling nearly unbearable as Liberty gave up on the ice. Her body tightened, and worry filled me, worry for what was happening inside of her while she fought the monsters outside. But she pulled from her pain, and below us, the ground began to rumble as roots from the nearby tree started to shoot through the flooring, wrapping around the bone, forming itself around it as if it was creating a tomb for the being.

The wood sprouted more and more roots, growing in thickness, gaining strength, weaving in every crevice and out every hole, until tiny leaves began to form. The leaves took on life, moving around the room, aging, developing. And as they grew, the bones started to crack with the pressure pushing on them until the beast that once stood before us as a decaying mass exploded outwards, sending shards of bone in every direction. In its place stood an Oak tree, as grand as a tree that sat for centuries untouched.

Power zipped toward us, and before I could register the change in the air, Liberty had a shield up, forcing the stream back. She was panting as she held it, her energy already waning as her body labored in every way possible. She saved us when she freed those people back in Switzerland so many weeks ago.Her. Our help was damn near minimal. But now, we could no longer coast by. She needed us. She needed strength. She needed to save the fucking paranormal world and deliver our daughter in peace.

She stepped forward, her body moving toward Greta, the air around us chilling. Fury coursing through her body. “I’ve done nothing to you.”

To the side, Oak’s body fell from the chains, and I took comfort knowing it was possible. That freeing them was possible, and I wondered if the witch in front of us was weakening with Liberty’s power. Controlling a giant beast and holding the chains couldn’t be good on the energy. Hell, I was tired, and I used no magic at all.

The tornado that whirled over Greta’s head began to violently pick-up debris, and as she released it toward us, she screamed, “You’ve existed.”

The power behind the tornado was too strong for Liberty; her shield dropped, and the whirlwind lifted us in the air, lifting every single person who wasn’t chained down, turning us in circles as it raised us. We had nothing to help us as we spun freely in the air, our voices and screams to each other drowned out by the whooshing of the intense wind.

I struggled as I tried to control my movement, but each turn made me flip. Each reach only propelled me rapidly forward, and if I didn’t make small precise movements, I would tumble uncontrollably into summersaults until I crashed into whatever large object stopped me. Liberty and the others fared the same, each of them floundering to gain purchase to anything they could. Each of them failing.

I needed to reach Liberty, needed to hold her and feel for myself that she wasn’t harmed, even while we all were in a vast amount of danger. But I couldn’t get to her. The moments ticked by, the movement becoming more violent, the sound increasingly impossible to be heard over, and even if I wanted to communicate, I couldn’t. There was absolutely no way to be heard. Absolutely no way to reach her. No salvation I could see in this fucked up situation.

And just when I thought all hope was lost and I had given up ever reaching Liberty, the whirlwind that surrounded us stilled, leaving us suspended in the air for a few beats of time before everything began to move slowly. My arms stretched out; my movement slowed as I moved toward Liberty only a few feet away. Our fingers touched, and another snail-like action brought our hands together. Instantly, relief flooded me.

My head turned to the side, the movement like I was stuck underwater. The pressure still surrounded us, our bodies still floated, but the speed at which the wind whipped and moved us was unfelt. My eyes fell to Rolland, his eyes closed and his hand out. Time. He had slowed down time. But for how long? How long could the keeper of time manipulate it before we all came crashing back to reality?

I didn’t want to find out. I pulled Liberty through the sludge of air, aiming for the tree branch just outside of the funnel. If we could reach that, we could pull ourselves out, and I could only hope that the others would see our movement and get the same idea.

It took longer to get to the branch than anticipated. The funnel hard to push through, its forces fighting against mine as I struggled to the branch, but we made it. I reached it, my fingers brushing against the rough bark, and I grabbed hold, pulling with all my might until not only was my body flush up against the wood, but so was Liberty. Her arms wrapped tightly around the branch before she began to pull her way toward the trunk.

We had just pulled our bodies out of the funnel, the shift in pressure causing a painful pop in my ears, when the whirlwind began again, twisting and turning at such rapid speed that it was hard to track what was passing and how many times. We were hanging in midair from a branch, the force trying to suck us back in. We needed to think. We needed to come up with a solution because going back in there and becoming separated again was not an option I was willing to accept.

“I need to stop it!” Liberty screamed, and I think her words were more for herself than for me.

“Is it something that we can stop?” I screamed back.

“I don’t know!”

For the life of me, I couldn’t think of a single thing that would counteract the force of a fucking tornado. Any natural disaster that we throw at it would only amplify the destruction and increase our chances of dying in this mess. It wasn’t as simple as just putting the tornado into a box and dealing with it later. But – I paused in my thoughts, my fingers nearly digging into Liberty.

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