Page 24 of Gift from the Nexus

With a single impatient growl, he rips his throat out and slings his limp body into the forming crowd of Mastery soldiers. More of them pile in through the stairway in the corner of the room, now fully aware of the commotion going on down here, but it’s a useless feat for them. The eighteen of us are far outnumbered, but we surprised them with our arrival, and we have something far more important to fight for.

We’ll fight for her until our dying breaths.

Caspian commands his shadows out, and with a crazed, bloodthirsty laugh begins ripping people apart left and right. Neither he nor Draken make anything about their kills clean or merciful. They’re both in their element, seeking the revenge and retribution they want. Without Willow here, there isn’t much to calm the murderous tendencies of these two.

Corentin isn’t nearly as messy with his kills but just as ruthless. Walking around calm and controlled, like he owns this place, he simply blinds his prey, bringing them down to their knees in front of him as he lords over them. With a small flick of his wrist, he has their lungs exploding, then he gracefully steps over their bodies and moves on to the next.

I command the rock to liquefy, causing at least five of the scum to fall into my sticky abyss before I seal it back up, hardening it and burying them alive. Any mental blocks I sense, I tear down, and if their hearts don’t fall out, I plunge a vine straight through it.

In minutes, we all stand in the center of a massacre, untouched, unharmed, but just as vengeful and desperate. I feel it pouring off all of us. Yeah, we may have just rid the realm of forty pieces of shit, but we didn’t find what we wanted to.

“Where is she?” Draken snarls, breathing heavy enough that smoke blows through his nostrils.

“She was here, but they moved her. We’re getting closer, Draken. Any more bodies, Ry? Hostages or anyone?” I ask.

“No, that was all that was here.”

Nodding, I head back out the door and take a deep, clean breath. I guess I had gotten used to the smell, but now standing in the fresh air, the inside of the structure reeks of charred flesh and blood. The evidence of that follows us out here in the breeze, making my nose twitch and my teeth clench.

What we just did was vile, pure animalistic, but we’re about to do it again, and I don’t feel a shred of guilt over it. Pulling my communicator out, I dial Lyker. I didn’t expect our stop to start and finish this fast, so I’m giving him a heads-up that we’re heading his way.

“Tillman.”

“I assume since you answered, you haven’t infiltrated yet.”

“No. We’re looking for the best way to go about this. This structure is swarmed. There’re at least fifty soldiers outside, a ward, and no telling what’s going on inside. Give me an hour and we’ll be ready to move in.”

“We’ll be there in a minute,” I declare, then end the call.

Turning back to the structure and everyone else, I relay the message and they all nod, ready to go, no questions asked. Surrounding me readying for transport, I can’t take my eyes off the smoke slowly wafting through the open door, curling around the volcanic walls, then being carried away by the wind.

Something about how it’s still standing strong enrages me, like it’s mocking me. The power we transfer when we use our elements to build or make things is an extension of us. Our creations become self-sufficient, almost sentient over time. Like the mansion, it runs seamlessly on its own now from the years, centuries of power put into it, directing it, fortifying it.

And this structure here is the same. It’s bathed in innocent blood. Disgusting, inhumane things have been carried out in its walls. Not just what we’ve done, but definitely what the Mastery has done. Beatings, rapes, torture, things that are hard to talk about, things that never should’ve happened, bleed out and into its foundation.

It has to come down.

Stretching my arm out, I command the rock to crumble. Become nothing more than the ash that falls from the sky after Pyra releases one of her glorious eruptions. Some of the black particles fly through the air while the others I return to the earth.

Everyone feels the finality in the atmosphere as soon as the last of the ash disappears. There’s a pulsing weight to it, a conclusion. The Mastery’s end is coming. One structure at a time.

Holding my arm out, no words need to be said. My Nexus latches on and with a nod to Ry and the palace team, we transport to the coordinates I gave to Lyker.

“Well, I thought with how quickly you called, your location was clear, but I can see that wasn’t the case,” Lyker remarks with an arched brow, taking in the gory sight of all of us as we approach him and his group.

“It’s clear now,” Caspian retorts darkly, his eyes scanning the surrounding woods. “How far from the structure are we?”

“Quarter mile. I’ve got two of my guys in their shifted forms running the perimeter and another standing watch at the tree line.”

“Ry, take your Nexus and get a body count. Oakly, see if you sense anything,” I order and they all head off through the thickening trees.

“What was your structure like?” Lyker asks.

“Large volcanic rock, single-entry structure. Forty bodies, no wards or hostages. But Oakly could sense that she’d been there,” I reply, clipped.

“So we’re on her trail,” he says hopefully, and as much as I believe that too, I don’t have the composure right now to express my hope.

Staring across the number of people we have with us, I have no doubt we’ll be outnumbered here as well with what he reported, but with the emotions still rolling viciously off my Nexus, off everyone honestly, it’s not going to matter.

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