5. Vex
5
VEX
The room explodes into chaos as Matilda unleashes her power. Rainbow lightning arcs across the walls, but it’s the purple that dominates, cutting through the smoke-like entities as if they were solid. They screech and reform, their shapes becoming more blurred with each hit.
“Behind you!” I shout, throwing up a shield as one of them tries to possess her. The entity crashes against my barrier, its form rippling with fury.
“You dare interfere?” it hisses.
“Watch me,” I growl, channelling more power into the shield. These things might be ancient, but I’ve got years of experience protecting what’s mine and the power to back it up.
More of them pour through the windows, drawn by the fight. The temperature drops so low my breath freezes in the air.
Luc’s wings sweep through several entities, dispersing them temporarily. “There’s too many!”
For every one Matilda destroys, two more take its place. The air is thick with them now, their voices a cacophony of ancient tongues that make my skull ache.
Matilda’s eyes are glowing purple, her skin sparking with energy. The Praxian force inside her is responding to the threat. At least that’s a good thing. It would be problematic at best if it chose the other side.
“Duck!” I shout to Luc and Draven as they battle with these creatures. Matilda is about to blow, and we are going to get caught up in the shitshow.
The three of us stop mid-fight to dive down the side of the bed, furthest away from our girl. We land in a heap as the blast radiates outward, a wave of pure chaos that shreds through everything in its path. The entities scatter like smoke in a windstorm, but the walls of MistHallow groan under the strain. Ancient wards flare and fail. The very fabric of reality seems to buckle.
Through the shattered windows, I see the sky turning an impossible shade of violet. More entities are gathering, but they’re not attacking. They’re waiting.
I peek over the side of the bed to see Matilda breathing deeply, but alive and seemingly stable.
Blackthorn rushes into the room seconds later as me and the guys get to our feet and brush off the debris.
“The wards are failing. All of them. These things are fragmenting reality wherever they touch it,” Blackthorn says, getting right down to it.
“Yeah, they are not as fun as they look,” I remark .
“What in the seven hells are they?” Blackthorn demands.
“Apparently, according to them, when the Praxian force hit, these entities were born from that impact. Chaos incarnate.”
“And let me guess, they want the full force back.”
“You could say that,” Matilda pipes up. “At least for once they don’t want me.”
“No, just what’s inside you,” I growl, striding over to her and throwing a spell at the window to seal it as much as possible against these arseholes.
“They want to take my power to break the curse completely,” Matilda says. “To free what’s left down there.”
Another tremor rocks MistHallow. Even more cracks appear in the walls, leaking that same violet light.
“How long?” I ask, already knowing I won’t like the answer.
Blackthorn looks at the spreading cracks, his expression grim. “Hours. Maybe less. The curse is weakening faster than we anticipated, and these entities are accelerating the process. If they manage to break it completely...”
“Everything goes to shit,” Matilda finishes, purple lightning still crackling around her fingers. “And they’re not going to stop coming.”
“We need to get to the source,” I say, watching more cracks spread across the ceiling. “If these things are trying to break the curse from up here, they have to have a way without the sacrifice. Like calling like? Maybe?”
“Or the babies calling the mothership,” Matilda mutters.
I snort in amusement, despite the gravity of this situation. Luc and Draven look totally lost, but we don’t have time for earthly pop culture lessons.
“Then we need to stabilise it from below,” Blackthorn says.
“What about the students?” I ask. “Have you evacuated?”
“No, there was no time. Contained in the vaults downstairs.”
“Is that the best place for them, with Anu and Ellie close by, not to mention the Praxian underneath MistHallow?”
“We had little choice. These creatures are dangerous.”
Matilda nods. “It’s okay. We’ve got this. But rather than stabilising the curse, we need to break it. That was the plan before, it remains the plan now.”
“You want to give those entities exactly what they are after?” Blackthorn asks.
“Oh, the mothership doesn’t want them,” she replies smugly. “Setting it free will probably annihilate them all.”
“And possibly us,” Luc mutters.
Another entity slips through the seal, larger than the others. Its form is more defined, almost crystalline in structure. When it speaks, the air vibrates. “You cannot stop what was meant to be. The force will be freed.”
“Oh, I know it will,” Matilda snarls. “And you will wish you’d never left the hellhole you came out of.”
The entity launches itself at Matilda. I throw up another shield, but this one’s different. It passes through my magick like it isn’t there. Matilda’s power flares in response, and for a moment, I see two forces of chaos collide.
The resulting explosion takes out the entire wall.
“Fuck!” Luc shouts as we’re all thrown backward. Through the new hole in MistHallow, I can see more entities gathering, their forms merging into something massive and terrible.
“Okay, that’s not good,” Draven mutters.
“I suggest we take this into the chambers,” Blackthorn says. “Break this curse and see what happens next.”
“We need Ellie,” I say.
Blackthorn nods. “I’ll get her. I’ll meet you in the library.”
With a quick nod, we run. I hear that deep resonance again, but this time, I understand what it is. It’s not the entities calling to each other.
It’s the Praxian force, stirring beneath the earth.
In record time, we burst into the library just as another entity materialises through the floor.
“The force recognises its own,” it grates. “Why do you resist the inevitable?”
“Because fuck you, that’s why,” Matilda snaps, blasting it with a concentrated beam of power that shatters its smoky form. The fragments whisper away in the wind.
The library doors burst open again as Blackthorn returns with Ellie. The vile creature is laughing maniacally, probably glad to finally be serving her purpose. I’ll be glad to see the back of her once we sacrifice her to the curse.
“The vaults are holding for now,” Blackthorn says, “but not for long. We need to move.”
Another tremor rocks the building. Through the windows, I can see the violet storm of entities growing denser, their forms merging and separating in a terrible dance.
“The chambers,” Matilda says, already moving toward the hidden entrance to the underground, etched into the stone floor.
The curse has held the Praxian force in check for centuries. Breaking it could either save us all or doom us completely.
But looking at Matilda’s determined face, feeling the controlled power radiating from her, I know we don’t have a choice. These entities won’t stop coming, and the force below won’t stay contained forever.
Better to face it on our terms than theirs.
As we gather in the circle, I feel my power coiling. Something about these chambers calls to it, making it race beneath my skin like a living thing.
Matilda’s hand hovers over the ancient mechanism. Purple sparks dance between her fingers, responding to whatever waits below. My dark magick rises in answer, black lightning sparking around my hands like serpents, drawn to the force in Matilda.
Our powers have always sought each other out since the day I met her, but now it is something deeper, more profound, almost cosmic. I crouch next to her and place my hand on her lower back. Electricity flies off her skin, burning me, but I don’t feel the pain, only the pleasure that she brings me.
The entities swarm closer, but I’m not afraid. I’ve wielded powers that would break lesser warlocks, commanded forces that most can’t comprehend. I’m ready to shake this tree and see what the fuck drops out of it.
“Everyone ready?” Matilda asks, her hand on the trigger.
I meet her eyes and nod. Dark power coils around us like a shield, ready to protect what’s mine.
She pushes the button. The floor drops away beneath us, and we plummet into darkness, leaving the screeching entities behind, seemingly unable to follow. As we fall, I feel the ancient power below, calling to us.
Time to see what the underground chambers have in store for us this time.
Whatever it is, I know we are ready for it.