Page 176 of Amethyst and Iron
“There were other things he wanted to share with you,” Lazriel said. “But a lot of shit hit the fan in the last couple of days that put him in survival mode. All of us actually.”
“Very well,” Kai grunted.
I cocked an eyebrow. Just like that?
A burst of vibrant green light cut through everything, and Ryker Morgan materialized in the next moment right beside Kai.
He took in the evidence of the massacre, his eyes shooting wide. “You didn’t say it was necromancy that took them out,” he spoke to Kai.
“I rushed in here too and then with the arrival of certain someones, I didn’t have a chance to give you any further updates.”
Ryker turned for a moment and I heard a choked sound from him as the sight obviously impacted him too. “Fuck,” he rasped.
It took him a little while longer before he turned back to face us, then swept an assessing gaze over us.
We all tensed, Cassius, Lazriel and I exchanging a look as Ryker’s gaze shot to Ketheron being out in the open like this, outside the parameters that were allowed.
Then tension grew as Ryker stepped up to him.
Ketheron stared at him warily.
And then Ryker gave a nod. “You’ll need to defer to my command.”
“I… excuse me?” Ketheron responded.
“I need your help. There are six hundred and fifty hybrid beings inside the facility over there. They all need to be evacuated. It’s no longer safe here.”
“And you wantmeto evacuate them?”
“I’ll provide you the coordinates and you’ll perform mass teleportations to a couple of our clandestine sanctuary zones. But beyond that, I need your assistance with something else my team is working on, because the safety the sanctuaries will provide is only temporary. More needs to be done.”
Ketheron looked out at us, absolutely flabbergasted.
“Well?” Ryker said, pulling his attention back. “What do you say?”
“Yes. Of course. I can assist.”
“Through following my lead?”
“I can do that, Ryker.”
Ryker smiled. “Good.” He looked at Kai. “I need you with Ariana. Assist with the evacuation of Facility 2. I’ll take Vorzyr with me to see to Facility 1. Guardian Members are deployed across the supernatural world gathering thousands of other hybrids, especially those who’ve stepped into prominence lately—they will be chief targets ofPuritas,just like these facilities.” He eyed Cassius. “Can you assist with Facility 1’s evacuation alongside Vorzyr?”
“You need Celestial power,” Cassius realized aloud.
That was definitely the pattern with everything Ryker had just said. Kai, although not technically of Celestial power, had power that rivaled that. And he also had access to ancient magic that could basically replicate Celestial power temporarily as well.
“The only thing strong enough to cloak those at risk is Celestial power.”
“They can certainly be cloaked, but that is the extent of it, should this sort of necromantic power be used again,” Cassius warned.
“What does that mean?” Lazriel asked.
Kai told him, “Risen Reckoning cannot be blocked by any magic outside of necromancy itself.”
“Death touched beings could survive it, right?” I asked.
Kai’s lips quirked. “I like the way you’re thinking. They could survive it for a very brief window of time. A vampire could withstand being touched by it, but if faced with a concentrated blast, annihilation is near certain. Except for maybe an Ancient.”
