Page 19 of Fates of Monsters

“Siren magic,” Louie warns, thunder cracking overhead as heavy rain continues to pour. I don’t see any sirens in his army, and that would have taken much magic. I bet it’s all he has from them. I pull out my swords, gripping them tightly. My swords have never failed me, and they will not on this day. “This is going to end here. I will not let you near her.”

He smiles at me, like nothing matters to him. His eyes are black, empty. There is a dullness to his skin that wasn’t there before. He is changing and not in a good way. Maybe his body won’t last all that long, not with the magic used to change him and morph him into this monster. “She will die at my hand, and I’ll make you watch.”

I grit my teeth, knowing he is taunting me so I make a mistake, but, it isn’t going to happen. The other Rift Kings and Queens stand silently behind him, and the old god has disappeared. I never even got to see what he looks like. Louie lifts his hand to use that awful magic of his crown, but I latch my shadows around him, pulling him down, refusing to let him use it. Two of the Rift Kings slam their magic straight at me, only to find their magic does not work on me. My own version of the crown, wrapped around my wrists, absorbs all the magic they shoot at me. Calliophe made sure that I had magic here and I was defended, or she never would have left me alone. In defense, I swing my sword, beheading one of them. I slam my sword to the hilt through the other’s heart. Both of them fall, their crowns rocketing across the ground. The Rift Queens run into the crowds. Louie looks up, his eyes wide in shock. “What have you done? HOW?” he roars at me.

I only smile at him, leaning down. I grab him around the neck and throw him back into the mud. “My mate is smarter than you.” He hasn’t used his magic to destroy everything yet, and I think he won’t, not with how sick he is looking. He wouldn’t have bothered to bring them here if he was just going to use his power. Louie is dying from that crown; he isn’t meant to wear it or harness the power.

Louie screams and slams his power into me, hard enough to send me flying straight up into the air. I catch myself on a current of air, spinning around to find Louie coming straight after me through the air, using grey shadows like wings themselves. He slams straight into my chest, and we both fly fast in a current, grabbing at each other. He claws at my face as we are both thrown straight into a water-logged mountain, crashing down around each other. He picks himself up, lightning flashing through the arched windows that make up this domed space. It’s an old temple, built in the tip of the mountain. “My army will destroy yours. Flood your city and kill everyone. Even if I don’t survive you, the old god will. He has a plan, something you can’t stop.”

“You talk too much, Louie. Perhaps losing your head will fix that,” I counter. He uses his grey shadows to make swords and meets me in the center of the room. He’s quick, fast, moving with a deadly speed thanks to the magic he is drawing around him. But I’ve had years of training, and I make sure he doesn’t get close. The fight seems to last longer than it should before I finally get a cut into his shoulder, and he screams.

Louie steps back, black blood pouring from the cut. That should slow him down. “Let’s see how long you can hold up against the full power of the crown.” His skin pales further as he throws his grey magic at me, and I counter it with a slam of my own. The grey and black magic mix in the middle, pushing and pulling, almost equal.

I feel it instantly. Calliophe, our bond… it’s dimmed somehow. She is in trouble. The last thing I sense is her pure panic, like it’s mine. I look over my shoulder at the castle in the distance as every window smashes and water floods out. Louie takes full advantage of my distraction, and his power hits me hard, ripping through my skin to my bones. I scream her name.

ChapterThirteen

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heartbeat echoes in my ears, over and over, along with a ringing noise that blocks everything out. EMERSON! I scream in my mind for him, search for him, but our bond is dull. I can just about see and feel it, but it’s clear that communicating with Emerson isn’t going to happen.

Cries echo around me as I blink my eyes open, my clothes soaked and my hair stuck to my face. My clothes are torn in places, and I’m bleeding into the surrounding water. It’s not just my blood I smell either. No, wait, it’s the little girl crying as she clings to me. Emily has a death grip on my neck, her small nails sharp and her orange curls in my eyes. With a groan, I sit myself up, leaning back on a wall. We’ve somehow landed in a room, right in the corner, where there’s nothing but water up to my waist and a floating bookshelf by the door, along with cushions and books. The fae lights are blinking on and off, making it hard to see, and some of them are underwater. I can’t sense anything, and the world is spinning. “Hey, you’re okay. I’ve got you.”

I know I’m bruised, and possibly my rib is broken, but the blood in the water isn’t mostly from me. The girl is bleeding from her tiny arm. I rip the end of her green dress and wrap the fabric around her arm to stop it as she continues to cry, but at least she doesn’t fight me. Her cries are going to lead the witches right to us. I stand up just as I hear a splash and movement in the water outside. Instinctively, I slide the girl onto my hip and reach for Emerson again.

I try with everything I have, shouting in my head for him, but something’s very wrong. He isn’t dead, I can feel that. I live on that, knowing I can still get to him. We should never have separated, because this is a distraction, a way to keep me from the battle. Louie has outsmarted us with the witches, but this is the last time. I hope everyone is okay. That water came out so fast, and I don’t remember much. I’m surprised the girl is still in my arms. Lorenzo. He has always been like a brother to me, and he has been in trouble for days. We should never have sent him to them. If they have killed him… no, I can’t think like that. I won’t think like that. Still, my mind sneaks itself back to the sword’s warning that someone I love is going to die in this war. Someone I’d try anything to save. It can’t be him. It can’t.

The splashing is getting closer and the girl’s cries louder. Witches. I don’t know a lot about their powers. I know they’re similar, not to the elemental gods, but they use blood to power themselves. I need to find the others. A witch steps into the doorframe, grinning as her eyes fall on me. I don’t smile back. I unleash my powers within seconds. The water around her turns to ice, locking her in place as she lifts her hand. I can’t breathe. I can feel my power being drained away, sucked from my soul, and I scream in pain. The girl screams too, and I realize with horror that the witch is hurting her too. The sword on my back burns my skin, shocking me, and I straighten myself as I lift my hand. The ice spreads up her body, smothering her hand and all the way up to her neck.

Her smile fades away.

“Don’t look,” I whisper to the girl, and she thankfully turns away.

“Stop! Please!” the witch screams as my ice crushes her body, and I close my hand, watching as she is smashed together with my magic and blood sprays everywhere. Ice chunks fill the water as I carry the girl out of the room and look down the corridors before stepping out. The throne room is near here, from what I can make out. I have to hope the others make the same plan I have. The fae lights keep flickering on and off, making it difficult to see my way.

“You okay?” I ask Emily, her little sobs breaking my heart. She is too young to have gone through all of this. First her city was destroyed, and now this? I have to keep her safe and get to Emerson.

“Paxton.” Her single reply is all I need. She wants Paxton, and we are going to find him. My fae healing is kicking in, and I don’t feel as dizzy or sore as I head down the corridor, pushing through the thick water that is full of random things and broken glass. The castle cracks and groans with the weight of the water, and every window is smashed from it, water pouring out of them. Some doors are open but others aren’t, and I can’t get them to open with the weight of the water. The girl has stopped crying now, just little sobs, and I stroke her back. I won’t lie to her and tell her it’s all going to be okay.

A scream echoes through the air. Paxton. My heart lurches as I run forward, coming around the corner and into the entrance of the throne room. A witch is dragging Lorenzo across the floor, towards Paxton, who is hiding behind the throne. He keeps screaming, blocking the sound of my movement. Lorenzo is in a bad state, but he looks alive. He’s alive, even smothered in blood and cuts, even as pale as he looks. The witch dragging him drops him in the center of the throne room and turns back to me.

She grins, and at least twelve witches step out of the shadows of the throne room, and instantly I can taste their magic in the air. This was a trap. I step back, but a dagger is pressed swiftly against my throat. I never even heard the witch move behind me. “Move, and I’ll cut your throat, Wyern Queen.” I recognize the voice as Marzena, the Witch Queen. I grit my teeth but I don’t move, not yet. There are thirteen of them against me, and there are two kids here I need to protect. “The sword is mine. I’m taking it to him along with the earth demigod and the air demigoddess. This castle is full of prizes, but he never asked me to bring you back alive. Your head on that sword will work.”

A hooded witch drags Posy out and throws her unconscious body next to Lorenzo. Another one grabs Paxton and pulls him, kicking and screaming, into the middle of the room. The ground begins to shake, but the Witch Queen tuts. “Use your powers, kid, and I’ll kill the girl.”

Paxton goes still, a cry filling his scream. “No, please. Please!”

The witch kicks him, so he falls next to Posy. Paxton curls up next to her, never taking his eyes off Emily in my arms. I need to make a plan, make my next move. I’m just not sure what the plan should be. “Why would you do this? You had an alliance with us, and Louie will not honor whatever agreement you have with him. He is evil. The god he serves wants to destroy this world and remake it. He won’t let you be part of that.”

“My people have been promised a place in the new world.” Her confident statement makes me shake. She is delusional and I should have known better than to trust a witch, with everything they have done to Emerson’s people in the past. I hoped that Lorenzo being half witch would make them side with the Wyerns, but they clearly have chosen a different breed of monster. “Now kneel.”

“I will not kneel for you in my own throne room,” I bite back. She pushes the dagger closer against the skin of my neck, cutting me. “The sirens made a similar deal with Louie, and now look at them. You will suffer the same fate as they did unless you change your mind. Lorenzo is not dead. We can make a new—”

She shakes my shoulder. “I told you to kneel.”

“The queen of the Wyerns, protector of the fae and defender of the mortals, does not bow in her own throne room. She will outlive us all and remake this world into one of peace. Now remove your weapon from her throat.” Emerson’s father’s voice is like smoke, wrapping around us all, and I can’t tell where he is. A witch screams from my right, and her body slams onto the floor. “Your mother would be disappointed in you, Marzena. So would your father.”

“FIND HIM!” Marzena screams near my ear. Two more witches fall dead, and this time they don’t even get to scream. I see the gleam of a sword in the shadows as he moves through the throne room, witches dropping like flies to his skilled attacks. The witches’ magic isn’t stopping him. My heart pounds when I see him for the first time, as he attacks the witch standing over Paxton, Lorenzo, and Posy. Her head rolls across the floor between us, and there is silence. “There are dozens more on the way, old king.”

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