Page 32 of The King

With a mock salute to the mentally telegraphed image of her father, Ettie turned just in time to see Greer finish her Shift and for Pandora to shake off enough of Lugh’s Mysticism to bellow, “I will gut you where you stand, Bridgette Featherstone. This is not over! I will finish my father’s work!”

With a quick look over her shoulder, she saw O'Baoill fighting what was left of the containment and knew it wouldn't be long before the Basilisk Yowie was free to terrorize all in her path. Racing out of the Isolation room, Ettie pushed up on her toes and spun toward the hole in the wall. Throwing her arms open wide, she shouted the only Spell she could remember from her time studying with Calysta, the Grand Priestess of all Earthen Witches.

“Doilleir!”

In the blink of an eye, the wall looked unblemished, and as long as the Enchantment held, the soldiers, orderlies, and most importantly, Pandora O'Baoill would be kept inside, thinking they were locked in with no way out. Turning to the right, she ran down the hall, propelled by an unseen force she simply could no longer ignore.

“It’s the Wild Magic!” Eden yelled.

Working hard to keep up, Ettie followed the Wild Magic and watched as it took a sharp right. In the bright white, fluorescent lights of the new hallway, a figure emerged from the effervescence of the Enchantment. From the back, the figure was seven feet tall, had broad shoulders and a nice butt – not as lovely as her Mate's backside, but nice all the same, and a tattoo of a stunning green Dragon covering everything from the nape of his neck to the small of his back.

“Damn, did you know the Wild Magic belonged to a Dragon?”She gasped to Eden, not loving that she had to run to keep up with the Mystical representation of the Winged Warrior who obviously wanted her attention.

“I’m a little busy here,”the Empress Eagle with whom she shared her soul grumbled."It's a little hard to keep up the illusion of a locked room when the monstrosity, Pandora O'Baoill, is beating at the door. Not to mention, we are mid-Shift, and I am trying to add a little pep to your step."

“Well, excuse me,”Ettie shot back.“I’m the one running and it sucks.”

“It’s good for you,”Eden snapped. Then added, “And as I said, I didn’t know who or what the Wild Magic belonged to, but I knew it was pissed and wanted revenge.”

In hot pursuit of the Wild Magic, her bare feet slapping on the tile, Ettie made a right turn, then an immediate left, and ended up staring at the most gruesome sight she'd ever seen. Blinking rapidly, she completely closed her eyes, counted to five, then opened them again.

"Well, shit, that didn't work," she growled. "There really is a dude hangin' from the ceiling."

And so he was. Suspended at least twelve feet in the air, his arms and legs pulled tight so that his body looked like a crude, ghastly X, hung the physical representation of the Wild Magic she’d been following.

Flesh ripped and torn from countless beatings with silver-tipped whips and implements of torture of all design, the wounds were red, angry, and weeping. Bruises raging from the deep purply black of newly formed contusions to the yellowy brownish green of those that were healing, they told the story of weeks, maybe months of abuse.

But it was his eyes – or more to the point, eye – that quite literally broke her heart. Ettie didn't know how she knew, but she did, that this Guardsman, one of the Universe's Wings Warriors, had been one of Pandora's first victims. He had been the test subject for her foray into madness, the one she used to perfect her process – to get ready to take Ettie apart piece by piece.

However, she was sure O'Baoill hadn't been the one to take his eye. No, that had been… It had been… Son of a bitch, it had been Pandora’s father and his cohorts, a Coven of Dark Wizards.

“What the fu…?”

Her words were lost as another blast of Lugh's Magic filled the entire facility. In a fraction of a second, the silver chains eating away at the Dragon's arms and ankles, the ones holding him hostage, snapped.

Falling to the ground, the Guardsman landed with a grace and ease that shouldn't have been possible based on how badly hurt he was. Rising from the kneel he’d used to absorb the impact of his descent, she felt the fingers of his Enchantment reaching forward and instantly knew not only was he missing an eye, but the Dragon was utterly blind.

Racing for his arm to help, Ettie pulled back her hand as he swatted it away and snarled,“Gun an còrr!”

Holding her hands up in surrender, Ettie got as far as, "Yeah, I know. I understand, and I agree. No more. That's what Lugh said. I got…"

That was as far as she got before the Dragon was gone. Simply gone, he’d sprinted so quickly that not even she could track his movement.

Racing into the hall to find the Guardsman and get him to safety, the Demi-Goddess was met not only with an empty corridor but also the moans and groans that turned into howls and growls as Shifters all over the facility were waking up.

“Thanks, Dad,” she grumbled. “A heads up might’ve been nice.”

Pushing her way into Pandora’s mind, she plucked the floor plan from the miasma of evil and took off for the emergency stairs. Hitting the push bar on the heavy metal door, she didn’t stop before flying across the threshold and jumping onto the steps.

Taking them two at a time, she climbed the four floors to the top in no time. Out the door and down the hall, she made it to the room she'd started off just in time to see at least twenty Paranormal Beings ripping the breathing tubes from their throats and expressing their rage and fury at being held against their will in thunderous roars and booming bellows. After a split-second of petrifying fear, the twenty or so nurses and carers scurried and scrambled in every direction.

The pungent stench of abject terror filled the air as yet another grating concert of rubber-soled squeaks and squishes attacked Ettie's ears. Shifters sprung from their beds. The pop and crackle of their returning Magic forced the hair all over Ettie's body to stand on end with such ferocity it actually hurt.

Not transforming, simply trying to piece together where they were and what had happened, all eyes fell on the Demi-Goddess. Opening her mouth to calmly instruct the Shifters out of the building, she never got to utter a word as a blaring alarm shook the very ground she stood upon, and a whole new platoon of paramilitary troopers appeared from above.

Rappelling down thick, black cords with their automatic weapons aimed at all the Shifters, Ettie gave a single wave of her hand and shouted, “STOP!”

Hanging like marionettes, the soldiers were just as frozen as the ones she’d left in Isolation. Throwing a calming Mystical net over all the Paranormals, she pushed the floorplan into their minds and gently suggested they head towards the exits.

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