Crucible and the Crown (Misfits of Magic Book 3)

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

As Micah made his way down the hill toward the path that led into the creepy forest, he scanned the area for danger. He knew it was there, concealed in the shadows.

Watching.

Waiting.

It simply chose to remain hidden for the moment.

While the forest of rainbow trees would have been considered beautiful in a different situation, they were definitely pretty creepy considering each and every bit of it had been made by the Goddess of Illusions. Her magical signature tainted everything from the sky down to the tiny pebbles beneath his boots.

Knowing that made him want to lay waste to everything. To burn the fucking forest down to the ground until it was nothing but ashes.

But he needed to find Jackie first.

It would have been easier if he could simply teleport directly to her or spread his wings and search from the skies, but he knew he had to take his time and be patient. It was the only way to draw out the enemy so he could meet it face to face.

When their brief connection had been abruptly cut off, Micah had gone into a rage. He’d wanted to rush out and destroy every fucking thing in his path, but fortunately, his friends had talked some sense into him before he’d had a chance. They didn’t want to give their advantage away before the time was right.

After talking it over with Kellen and Lia, they thought it was best for Micah to pretend that he thought Jackie was still in the middle of the Crucible. As her mate, he would naturally seek her out to help her pass whatever trials she was supposed to do. So, it would make sense why he’d left the safety of the mountain retreat to go find her.

It had taken precious minutes back in the cavern to figure out how to mask his new powers, but Micah had finally managed it. So, when he’d broken through the protection wards and out of the mountain, he seemed like the same dark angel-mage hybrid who had initially entered it.

When Micah entered the forest, he fought the urge to reach out to his mate again. Jackie had been too weak to hold the connection between them, and he didn’t want to risk hurting her by trying to force it. He would be able to find her when it was time. He had no doubt about that, but he didn’t want to chance the goddess sensing it yet. If that happened, she might hurt Jackie again before he could get to her.

As he took the path deeper into the forest, he was completely surrounded by trees heavy with rainbow blossoms. The wind started picking up, swirling around him like it was analyzing him and testing his resolve.

Every few minutes, he called out her name, allowing the desperate need he felt for her to be heard in his frantic voice. When she finally stumbled onto the path, he almost sobbed with relief. The armor she wore had protected most of her body from whatever ordeal she had faced, leaving her looking only slightly bruised and battered. Her hair was a mess and there were streaks of dirt on her cheek, but besides that, he saw no other injuries.

“Micah!”

“Jackie…” he breathed out.

“I’m right here, mate,” she said, hurrying toward him in a limping run. “I’m so glad you found me! I was so scared when our connection was cut off, and I couldn’t reach you again. I was so worried about you. Where were you? I couldn’t reach you.”

He closed his eyes, and his entire body shuddered as she wrapped her arms around him. Not in pleasure or relief. No, what he was feeling wasn’t as simple as that.

Because it wasn’t her.

It wasn’t his Jackie.

He’d known it the moment she’d touched him. Had sensed it, even though she looked exactly like the real Jackie. She had the same white-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. He’d admired and touched every inch of his mate’s beautiful body, so he knew that was an exact replica as well. At least in form, not in reality.

The being doing her best to wrap herself around him wasn’t his mate. He knew it down to his very core.

She felt wrong.

She moved wrong.

Even her scent was off.

However, the most telling evidence was the way everything inside of him wanted to shove her away for daring to touch him when he belonged to another. Her touch left him feeling dirty, and he wanted to scrub his skin clean of any trace of her.

Illusions.

She was the Goddess of Illusions. A supernatural predicated on fabrications and deceit. She was certainly good at the physical part of it, but the emotional and psychological aspects were a big fat failure. Forcing himself to stroke a hand down her hair, he fought back the urge to strangle the life right out of her.

“What happened to you, princess? Why can’t I feel you through our bond?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered against his chest. “Everything happened so fast. I was attacked. At first, I thought it was all part of the Crucible, but then I realized that there was something else going on here. I think my cousins might have sabotaged the trials so we would fail.”

Ah, so that was her story.

As far as excuses went, that was fairly believable.

Still, he knew it for the lie that it was.

“Micah, we have to get out of here,” she said, pulling back to look at him. “I think there is a chance we can teleport back to the palace if we make it to the top of that rise over there. It felt different than the other areas I’ve been to.”

Deciding he couldn’t take any more of this farce, he grabbed her by the neck and squeezed. “Where is the real Jackie?”

“Micah, you’re hurting me!” She clawed at his fingers around her throat. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong with you? It’s me, mate.”

“Don’t call me that,” he growled. “You aren’t my mate. Now, where the fuck is Jackie?”

“You’re acting crazy, Micah! Did something happen to you? We have to get out of here. This place is obviously affecting you and—”

“Enough!” He summoned a knife to his hand. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

Staring at her fake face, he plunged the blade into her side and twisted.

He’d thought it would be difficult for him to look at a replica of Jackie and hurt her, but it wasn’t. His actions were fueled by all the hate and rage he felt for the goddess. She had stolen his mate’s face. Had hurt her and was holding her hostage somewhere, but that wasn’t all. She had been part of the group that had cursed the reapers, and in doing so had led to Merlin’s death.

And she deserved to pay for all of it with pain and blood.

He’d known that a single wound wouldn’t be enough to take her out, but he hadn’t been prepared to feel an echo of the stab wound in his own side. It wasn’t the same as the real thing, but he definitely felt it. That could have been a consequence of attacking the goddess in the realm she controlled, or it could have been some other kind of spell.

The goddess’ mouth opened in a horrible screech, and she flung herself away from him. He started after her, but vines sprung up from the ground, wrapping around his arms and legs to hold him in place. Those vines had sharp thorns that made it impossible to just tear them away.

He blinked in surprise at the disturbing way her face morphed and changed until she became someone else. Disgust flooded him when he got a look at her real face. Her hair had turned a shocking orange color, and her glowing amber eyes stared back at him with hate and disbelief.

“The Goddess of Illusions, I presume,” he said dryly.

“How did you know?”

“There is nothing and no one that could ever take Jackie’s place. Not in my heart, in my mind, or in my soul. Even wearing her face, you could never be a fraction of who she is to me.”

“You say that now, but—”

“You live in a fantasy world. Nothing is real to here, and neither are the masks you wear.”

Her lips curled into a vicious smile. “You can’t kill me. We are joined. Jackie and I are connected, and if you end me, you end her.”

Fuck.

Micah placed his hand on his side where he’d felt the echo of pain. Now he understood that it hadn’t been him feeling the injury. At least, not directly. It had been Jackie. That meant he couldn’t attack the goddess, or he would be hurting his own mate in the process.

He needed another plan…fast.

Cursing, he summoned his sword to his hand and sliced at the vines holding him. He was almost released when the ground beneath his feet opened into a huge chasm. As he fell, he tried to teleport back to safety, but the vines still attached to him stopped him. The thorns on the vines stabbed into his skin like tiny hooks, and he belatedly realized they were injecting him with some sort of magical paralytic.

Calling upon his own magic, he forced the drug out of his system and destroyed the vines. Releasing his wings, he flew out of the hole and hovered a few feet in the air above where the goddess stood.

“I was going to keep you alive to play with for a few years. I was even willing to let you rule the kingdom beside me, but now, I’ve changed my mind. You are far too troublesome.”

He smirked at her. “Funny. I always planned on killing you.”

“Then you will also lose your mate.”

In response to that, he rained down a series of fireballs at her. Then, he defended himself when she began flinging trees and rocks at him. She used the terrain against him, caging him in so he couldn’t go far. As he evaded her strikes, he reached out to Jackie through their bond and forced the connection.

He immediately felt her pain but couldn’t let it distract him.

“Jackie! Don’t respond. I know that you are somehow linked to this goddess bitch, so just listen. I am going to send magic to you through our bond. It’s very strong, so the transfer might hurt. I’m sorry about that, but I need you to use it to break whatever hold she has on you. Don’t answer since she might hear. Just do it. Break your connection to her so I can kill her.”

She didn’t answer, but she didn’t need to.

He trusted her.

If it was possible, she would get it done.

Counting on that, he fought with renewed fervor as he sent magic to Jackie using their bond. Using his sword, his wings, and his magic, he drove the goddess back. It took skill and a lot of concentration to avoid the crumbling ground beneath his feet and the various objects and spells she threw at him.

Everything within her domain was useful to her, and he couldn’t trust any of it. Besides that, she wasn’t a very skilled fighter. She had relied on using tricks and deception for so long that it was obvious she had forgotten what it felt like to do real battle.

Wanting to buy Jackie a little more time to figure out how to break the connection, he flapped his wings lazily and rose up in the air. “Since you’re so big on surprises, I thought I’d give you one. I have my own secret to reveal.”

“What are you talking about?” she hissed.

Micah removed the glamour he had placed on himself, finally showing the goddess his full dark god glory. As he did, he sent more magic to Jackie through their bond. He wasn’t sure the first transfer had been enough.

“No!” the goddess cried in disbelief. “You are a reaper now? Since when? How is that possible?”

“Long story.” He flashed a grin at her. “Let’s just say someone who hates your fucking guts gave me enough magic to end you.”

“You can’t kill me!” she screamed. “If you do, you’ll kill your own mate.”

“No, he won’t,” Jackie declared as she suddenly teleported into the forest.

Micah glanced over at her, his gaze feasting on her where she stood several feet away. There was a large hole in the center of her armor and burn marks on her skin. She was pale and waxen looking as if something terrible had happened to her, and her arm was wrapped around her middle as if she were holding herself together by sheer willpower alone.

But she was alive, and that was all that mattered.

“Our connection is broken,” Jackie wheezed out.

“No, it’s not,” the goddess denied. “If you hurt me, you will hurt her!”

Micah heard the desperation in her voice, but he still glanced over at his mate again.

“She’s lying,” Jackie confirmed. “Kill her for me, mate.”

“With pleasure,” he snarled.

He didn’t waste time flying over to her. Instead, he teleported directly in front of the goddess and wrapped his hand around her neck, lifting her off her feet. When she tried to escape his hold, he blocked her efforts and squeezed harder.

Suddenly, her face morphed and changed again, and Micah was blinking down at the face of Jackie’s mother.

“Jackie! Help me. Please! I’m your mother. Don’t let him hurt me.”

“You’re not my mother,” Jackie denied coldly.

Wanting it over quickly, Micah used his magic to destroy the goddess so her body literally exploded into a million tiny pieces. Thankfully, none of the bits had gotten on him, but he realized he probably should have used a different method to spare his mate some trauma.

“Holy shit, I just exploded your mom,” Micah said weakly as he stared down at the mess at his feet.

“She wasn’t my mother.”

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Micah teleported to her and grabbed her arms to forcibly turn her around. “Don’t look! I mean, she was seriously psycho and needed to die, but not in a way that is going to cause you all kinds of trauma and nightmares. I’m sorry about that.”

Her lips curved into a small smile. “I’m not. Actually, I’m fine. I feel…relieved. And she deserved that and so much more for putting me and my real mom in magical coffins to drain us dry.”

“She—what?” he growled. “What the fuck did she do to you?”

“She put me and my real mom in glass coffins so our magic could act as batteries for this realm, and she could wear our faces and become us.”

Micah turned and flung out his hand, using devil fire to burn the remains of the goddess until there was nothing left. “There. Like in the horror movies, now there is no chance she can come back.”

“What the…when did you get devil fire?” she asked as she stared at the black flames.

“When I became a reaper.”

“Okay, now my head hurts,” she said with a weak laugh. “I want to hear about that. I want to hear about everything I missed, but I think it might have to wait until I wake up again.”

“What do you—Jackie!”

Micah caught her as she closed her eyes and passed out. Wrapping his arms around her, he simply held her close and breathed her in.

By the gods, he’d missed her.

He wasn’t sure what had happened to her, but there had obviously been a great deal he’d missed while their connection had been blocked. First, he would heal her. Then, he would get the answers he needed.

After that, they would deal with whatever happened next…together.