Page 69 of A Lost Light

Turning, I vomited into a smoking bramble bush.

Help, the letter had said. But it sure as fuck looked like we were far too late to be any sort of help. I didn't have time to wonder what had happened here, as Dyre grabbed my arm with a growl and threw a hasty shield around us to save us from the killing spell someone had just hurled at us.

“Andy!” Bella's voice carried to me over the noise around me as Aahil set fire to the witch who had just hurled that spell at us. I watched as my sister—sweaty, dirty, and with blood trickling from a split lip—rushed toward us while she hurled high-level defensive spells right and left.

“We've got the survivors in one of the remaining cabins, under a shit-ton of wards,” she panted. “But we’re trapped. They've got us surrounded and we can't create portals out. Only in. They must have some sort of fucking artifact blocking our attempts.”

I stared at her as her words sank in. As chaos continued to rain around us, resistance people fighting with what I slowly realized were an entire force of witches arranged in a loose, distant ring around the clearing that had once housed this little village. Was she saying we couldn't getout of here? Fear battled with rage at that little trinket of knowledge. But now wasn't the time to bitch-slap my only living relative for calling us into a situation with no escape. I could do that later. If we survived.

“Explain,” I demanded. “Quickly.”

She nodded once, curt and to the point. “I'm strong. Some of the rebels are good. But we're outclassed magically. We need you to blast us a way out of here. Don't care how. Just help me find a way to nullify those bastards so I can get these people out. Low powered types of non-witch species. Cult wants them all enslaved or dead. No time for conscience here, little sister. Do whatever you have to do.”

As succinct summaries went, that one was a doozy. Goddess damn it! This was exactly the sort of thing I had been trying toavoid. And yet, I couldn't exactly stand here and let the cult kill everyone just for funsies.

“Fucking fuck.” I muttered.

Bella nodded again and darted off to help her people push back an advancing line of witches who had emerged from the woods. Somewhere amid all the noise, the high, keening sound of a crying baby reached my ears. Rage overcame whatever other emotions I might have felt. “Ideas?” I bit out, glancing around at the group of powerful creatures around me.

“Burn everything to the ground?” Aahil shot back, his hands dripping jinn flames that extinguished when they hit the ground. For now.

“I can give us numbers with animation,” Dyre said calmly, still holding the magical shield around us. “Sunshine can drain anyone who gets close to us, but he's not sure he can be as selective as you'd want. He'd probably take out some rebels as well.”

Elijah made a strange motion with his hand and a shining sword made of pure angelic energy appeared in his hand. That was new. He must be getting far more comfortable with his magic. “We could simply fight our way through. Create a gap in their noose so the others can get through.” He met my eyes, his own gaze flaring with power. “Less casualties that way.” Zhong nodded in agreement, his massive wings flaring and skin hardening to create a stone-like protective layer.

River snorted. “Only if you're counting enemy casualties. I guarantee the assholes will try to pick off easy prey rather than defend their own. We'd make a hole in their defenses but lose refugees in the process.”

I rubbed my head. “River's right. We need to incapacitate them all and take out whatever is blocking exit portals in the process. Then the refugees won't have to make a run for it. They can portal out right from their cabin.”

Zhong laid a big hand on my lower back, probably because he understood how much I hated what we were about to do. I squared my shoulders and shoved down my emotions. “Fine. If anyone chooses to fight rather than escape, they need to be either unconscious or dead.”

Grim faces met my gaze, but no one objected. “Aahil, fire circle. Hasumi and Ambrose, do a lap and make them want to turn tail and run. Dyre… fucking go for it, I guess. But only if you're absolutely sure the corpse is from the enemy side.”

I ran a hand over my face. “I'll do what spellwork I can from behind the fire. The rest can stay with me and physically fight off any lucky idiot who manages to make it through all ofthat. Sound like a plan?”

Aahil nodded. “I'll make a circle and push it outward. Anything in the way will either move or burn. Someone needs to tell the other morons to get out of my way.”

Hasumi shared a glance with Ambrose. “I'll communicate with Bella and the rebels, then join you to influence the cult.”

And with that, we were off. Aahil didn't waste any time raising a circle of flames around us. The heat immediately made me sweat, but the fire didn't harm anyone in our group. “I'll leave you some toys when I see them,” he told Dyre with a feral grin. Then the jinn half-dematerialized to float just high enough to see over his flames. Hasumi and Ambrose disappeared, off to do their part.

“Hold the protections,” Dyre told me evenly. “That way I won't have to split my concentration.” And, with an ease that only the lifebonded could manage, he smoothly passed me control of the shield that protected us.

I felt the pull settle over me, like a workhorse donning a harness. But the effort wasn't a strain. It was a weight I could carry. And honestly, I was happy to do this. To take over protection duty, rather than crafting spells to maim and kill.Dyre's black and violet eyes met mine, and I knew he sensed my relief. That he had assigned this task to me precisely because he wanted to spare my soft, squishy little heart. I nodded, unable to form words.

At some signal from Hasumi, Aahil started expanding the circle of flames, pushing it outward, burning everything it touched to ash in an instant. Occasionally, he left a hole in the wall, pulled the flames there down for a moment to avoid burning a corpse in its path. Dyre smoothly chanted something under his breath and the corpses rose, falling into formation with us, their shuffling gait just able to keep up with our slow pace. On the rare occasion when a daring cult member decided to try to leap through the gap in the flames when Aahil pulled them down to admit a corpse, Zhong, Niamh, River, or Elijah were waiting there to put an end to that idea with fists, blades, or claws.

When Aahil's wall of flames came down, the enemy would be surprised to see our ranks had grown in number… and that their downed comrades were now fighting alongside us. I tried not to look too closely at the corpses and their obvious wounds.

We were really doing this.

The rebels had fallen back to surround a cabin at the center of the village as we simultaneously burned away and cleaned up the enemy in one fell swoop. It made the battle until now seem pointless. We could have ended this conflict immediately, if we'd been here at the start. It was almost too easy.

Which should have been my first clue that things were about to go to shit.

As we advanced forward with our ever-widening circle of flames, Ambrose and Hasumi used their influence over emotions to drive away those of the cultists who would have stupidly stayed to fight. It seemed like forever, like ages passed as I held up the shield around us while Aahil's flames clearedthe way and Dyre's necromancy created an ever-growing force of undead, but it was probably only a few minutes.

Eventually, Hasumi reappeared by my side, taking up a place between myself and River, who had been helping to defend the opening in Aahil's flames to my right so Dyre could create yet another puppet. Bella and Junaid appeared on my other side, but they were hardly needed. It was frighteningly easy how we overcame the cult. And how we only grew stronger along the way, Dyre and Sunshine amassing a small army of animated corpses to fight at our side, if it ever actually came to that. I was beginning to think that Bella was right. My newfound family and I could probably end this war before it ever really got started, if I was willing to step into the spotlight, drag my loved ones along with me, and conquer the cultists and anyone else who stood in our way with the same sort of righteous self-importance that the bad guys displayed.

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