A Lost Light (The Bestiary #4)

42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Andy

W e stepped out of the unsteady portal and into chaos.

Bis had insisted on coming with us, and he was furious when I told him no. But now I was glad that he was safe back home in his nest, far away from this carnage. I only hoped I’d make it back to him and he wouldn’t end up stuck in an uninhabited pocket world when we all got our asses killed. Because this was no simple little “defend the councilor” spat.

Smoke billowed from what looked like it had once been an idyllic encampment of simple, storybook cabins set against a backdrop of towering trees. This was fae land. I could feel it in my bones. The fact that anyone had dared to cause such destruction here in fae territory was shocking.

But apparently, the cult had gotten bold. They had overcome the fae protections. Trees older than my entire family lineage were singed, blackened and burned, splintered from magical blasts. People screamed and cried. I stumbled over something and looked down at a severed arm.

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 get out 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 to avoid. 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 of that . 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 cleared the 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.

It was tempting. We could end this all. Be heroes. And finally stop hiding from the people who were hunting us from all sides.

But in that moment, I could see how my birth family had become so corrupt. It would have been so easy for them, witches with unusually strong magic and inventive minds, to dominate everyone around them, to bend the will of others when things didn't go their way. To maybe think that they were even in the right while they did it. While they committed atrocities… for the greater good of witch kind, of course.

I was sure my ancestors had thought they were doing what was right too. Didn't every villain see themselves as the hero of their own story? I could so easily see myself slipping into that darkness. Into taking what I wanted, molding the world and our society to fit my preferences, and damn anyone who stood in my way.

I took a steadying breath. I was not my family. I was more than just another evil Lovell. The things I did today—the people who were, even now, dying because of my actions… it was for the greater good. To protect innocent creatures who couldn't defend themselves. Who were being persecuted and killed simply for daring to exist. This was right. I was sure of it.

Then why did my chest ache with every corpse that rose to march at our side?

I shouldn't have let my attention wander. When he was teaching me magic, that was always Dyre's first warning. Keep your focus. Don't get distracted, even for an instant. Be aware of your surroundings at all times… and never underestimate how underhanded your attackers might be.

I should have listened to his advice instead of letting myself worry about whether I was a good witch or a bad witch. Maybe things would have turned out differently then. Or maybe not. Maybe everything I did really was cursed, every effort to do good tainted by the karmic effects of the Lovells who came before me.

Whatever the reason, I looked up from my musing slowly, only becoming aware of the three witches standing before our wall of flames far too late. They seemed immune to Ambrose's boogeyman tricks. He appeared out of the air behind them to shout a warning to us, but it took a moment to understand his words. It was like everything moved in slow motion.

Not three witches, I realized then. Two witches and a woman who had all the tall, lean beauty of a fae, but the rounded ears and meek demeanor of a human. A hybrid who probably had no real magic to defend herself with. Her long brown hair blew across her face, hiding her wide, terrified blue eyes as I watched through the flickering wall of flames.

One of the witches, a short, curvy woman, held some sort of glowing amulet in her hand—probably what was protecting them from Ambrose's power. The other witch, a broad, gray-haired man, had a death grip on the fae hybrid’s slender arm. What in the world were they doing, attempting to bargain with a hostage? Surely the stupid cultists could see that they'd be burned to ash if they continued to just stand there.

Then everything sped up, happening too fast for my shocked brain to keep up. Dyre was right. I shouldn't have underestimated the depths my enemy was willing to sink to. I was still thinking like someone with a heart.

The necromancer himself was distracted by the magic he was working to raise the most recent corpse soldier, otherwise he probably would have caught on much quicker than I did. Aahil shouted his name, clearly seeing what was about to happen and knowing I couldn't hold the shield around us without help. “Dyre!” he yelled, his smooth voice cracking like a whip as his wall of flames rose higher in an attempt to protect us. “Blood curse!”

My heart stopped as something I couldn’t quite see happened beyond the flames. The girl crumpled to the ground, and a massive ball of magic came hurtling toward us. Even then, I wasn't really worried. My shield had held against everything else the cult had thrown at us. Why should this be any different? But Dyre's concentration tore from the corpse he was working on, his violet eyes flashing black as he lurched toward me. Too late. The spell hit the shield.

And the shield shattered like glass.

The impact was soul-numbing as the powerful magic I had been channeling burst around me, the force of it searing through my nerves and making me fall to my knees in pain. Dyre thrust out a hand to try to re-establish the shield, but his attention was split, his dark gaze flicking to me in concern for just a second too long, our bond flooded by the pain of the magical backlash from the shield breaking. The cult's second spell made it past Aahil's flames and hurtled right toward us. I clenched my eyes closed as I braced for the pain.