Page 11 of Fated In Forever
“What’s taking so long?” Eldric’s question to his sister carried on the wind. I couldn’t hear Fiona’s answer, but from the expression on Eldric’s face…there was a problem. Still, magic from her hands surrounded the power flowing freely up into the sky, magic crackling wildly as she tried to contain the leak long enough to seal it off.
“Where do you want me?” Nash asked, his weathered face grim, scars gleaming through his cropped gray hair. “We’ll provide backup,” he nodded to the fifteen remaining guards, all of them grim faced and exhausted. The commander’s guns were loaded with silver nitrate bullets, gleaming in the unnatural light pouring from the ley line, and those deadly missiles would tear through vampire flesh, then rupture, like little bombs.
But he didn’t have many left.
“Stay with Fiona. Guard her back. We’re going after that one,” I jerked my head at Romulus, circling the fighting trio of Elders, looking for an opening to help his Master. “With luck, we take him out today.”
“Then I’ll keep eyes on both youandLady Fiona.” Nash checked his weapon. “Stay sharp. He won’t fight fair. I know the type.”
“You’re right about that.” I agreed, shadows slipping from my fingers, a chill creeping up my arms. “But neither do we.”
Dravin rolled across the floor of the ruined Keep, blood streaming from his side, a triumphant Ravok gloating until Wolf struck him from the side and took them both crashing down into a pile of debris.
Ravok, the fucking architect of this potential apocalypse.
The Elder should be in his iron box, but no, through a series of mistakes that had to be cosmic in proportion, he was free, wreaking havoc. After last night, heshouldbe weakened, barely able to stand. Instead, dark energy crackled around him like living shadow, while overhead, that rift grew larger.
“My revenge will be absolute,” Ravok's voice boomed across the ruins like he was the villain in a terribly written human movie, each word causing the stones beneath us to tremble. “If this world cannot be mine, then everything will burn.”
Now that last part, I could believe.
The rift split open with a deafening roar and for a moment, everyone present caught a glimpse of what lay beyond—an endless, hungry void, waiting to devour everything, including us.
Not the shadowy hell of the portal, but something worse.
A nothingness yearning to be filled, a vacuum that would drain this entire world dry.
“Don’t let him do this,” Fiona screamed, magic spilling from her hands as Nash guarded her back. “Stop him before he tears it completely open.”
“He's got to be drawing power from somewhere else,” Riordan observed, his narrowed gaze focused on Ravok, dodging another attack from Dravin. “He has to be. There is no way he’s still this strong without feeding from his thralls.”
“Is he drawing from the ley line?” I focused on his magic, those crackling shadows taking on a life of their own. “Or something else?” I said, almost to myself as I picked up that constant hum vibrating up through the rubber soles of my boots.
Fiona was having no luck containing the rupture, every time her wards appeared to hold, a trickle of iridescent magic seeped out, then her containment field would collapse. I heard her cursing from here, along with Eldric’s unhelpful pointers on what she was doing wrong.
In fact, there was so much magic clogging the air—and I’d been so engrossed in Dravin’s feral fighting style—I hadn’t noticed that Romulus was gone.
Not until Riordan threw up his arm, sending a plume of fire spinning out in front of us, and just in time. Romulus’s magic struck us full force, sent us both stumbling back a step.
“Fucker.” Nash yelled. “Told you I knew the type. Keep your heads up.”
“You should have run when you had the chance.” Romulus emerged from the shadows like a nightmare given form. “Now we’ll kill you and take the girl anyway. My only regret is, you won’t live to see the Master turn her into an obedient little toy who does his bidding.”
My entire world turned red—red for killing, red for Romulus’s blood coating my hands.
This fucking bastard. How dare he utter my mate’s name? How dare he fucking taint her goodness with his poisonous tongue? He was dead. So fucking dead, he was nothing but a walking corpse. All I had to do was suck the rest of the life out of him.
I threw my head back and laughed. “Apparently, you’ve never met Evangeline, if you think Ravok could turn her intoanything,much less an obedient toy.” We circled one another, and the shadows spilling from his hands were perfect copies of mine.
Fine. Romulus might have stolen my magic, but he’d never wield this deathly power like I did. Those shadowswould never answer to him, not the way they answered to me. I was vibrating with unholy rage and the need to kill, and if he uttered one more fucking word, I’d rip his tongue out.
This fucker totally has to die today.
Painfully, Rohr added.
“As for you, dickhead, I’m not sure if you realize this, butyou lost. Evie escaped, so did Malachi. Your little magical death room is buried beneath a literal mountain of stone—which was allyourdoing, by the way—and now the world’s about to end. I’m not sure how you can look at today as a win.”
“Escaped? We let them go.” Romulus snorted. “The Master can call his pet back, any time he wants.”
