Chapter 42 #2
“Are you insane? That’s the fucking empress, mate. If we drag her into the palace tied up at our mercy, they ain’t gonna believe we’re the good guys,” Drake said.
“We must. Didn’t you see what she was?” I hissed.
“A monster,” Kyra whispered.
“Yeah, but she’s still the empress. I ain’t looking to get hung for treason, I’ve got a throne to win,” Drake said, pushing a hand into his dark hair.
“Untie me and I’ll do it then,” I said, and he shrugged, heading over to Magdor and aiming his sword at her as he kicked her leg, checking she was still out cold. Then he knelt down, rummaging in her robes and producing an iron key.
He returned to me, sliding it into the shackles binding me, freeing my legs and my right arm.
“Kyra, can you heal me?” Drake murmured to her, nodding to the bloody bite mark on his arm.
“Of course,” she said brightly and the magic fluttered out from her and into his wounds, healing them up as if they had never been there.
“Hurry up,” I pressed.
Magdor sprang to her feet with a shriek of fury and my heart jolted as her eyes locked onto Kyra, the witch rushing towards her with greed and desire filling her expression.
“ Fuck .” Drake abandoned me, launching into an attack and swinging his sword out to intercept her.
I tried to get up, but I was yanked backwards as my left wrist remained tethered to the table and I cursed in frustration.
Magdor moved with unnatural speed, darting past the length of Drake’s sword and lunging for Kyra, but her hands slid through The Blessing’s skin as if she was made of smoke.
Drake collided with the witch, locking an arm around her throat and holding his other wrist with his hand, jerking tight enough to cut off her air supply. In the act, he dropped the key and it tinkled across the ground, anxiety pouring through me as it bounced away from me.
“I’ve got it, sullen man.” Kyra ran for it, snatching up the key and racing towards me again with determination in her golden eyes.
That dark presence seemed to throb and pound around us again, and as Drake fought to hold the bitch in his grasp, I could have sworn I caught sight of a red glow seeming to burn through the back of his tunic.
“Drake – watch out!” I yelled, though I didn’t know exactly what I was warning him of.
Magdor reared back suddenly, forcing Drake off of her and slashing her nails towards his face. He planted a kick to her chest before her strike made contact and spat air through his teeth.
“Not the fucking face!”
Kyra jammed the key in the lock of my manacle, twisting it. I yanked my arm free at last, running forward to help Drake as I fought to shake off the effects of the iron. As Magdor rushed at him once more, I caught a handful of her hair and dragged her backwards.
“We have to subdue her!” I called to Drake as a howling roar seemed to fill the space around us, and that dark presence intensified like it was trying to come to the aid of its twisted mistress. “We must expose what she is.”
Drake began to say something, but she slammed her hands into his chest and sent him crashing backwards, his head cracking against the rough wall as a curse fell from his lips.
Magdor shrieked like a wraith, seeming to find some new well of strength as that heavy power built in the room, turning in my arms and throwing me away from her.
I stumbled, catching hold of her arm and taking her with me.
My legs hit the cauldron with a resounding dong and I forgot my morals, forgot fighting with honour and punched her straight in her warped face, making her head snap back violently before I grabbed a handful of her raven hair and rammed her whole head into the liquid.
Drake cursed as he pushed away from the wall, blood staining his neck from a wound hidden in his hair as I fought to keep Magdor submerged in the concoction, and he scrambled forward to help.
Kyra screamed from somewhere behind me, my attention snapping to her as she clutched her ears and sank to her knees, power spilling from her in a flood of golden glitter as the dark presence which Magdor had summoned seemed to writhe and pulse around her.
“Kyra!” Drake bellowed, turning as if he was going to go to her.
Magdor reared backwards like a demon, coated in the purple potion which stained her hair and her contorted face.
She threw a punch to my stomach which knocked the wind out of me, and I hit the ground hard on my arse.
Drake seized Magdor’s arms, trying to hold her in place as she fought like a banshee and the darkness in the cavern thickened, making my ears hum with a potent power.
Kyra screamed louder as I scrambled to my hands and knees, and her eyes suddenly snapped open, the gold which was normally contained to her pupils filling them entirely as a defiant cry spilled from her lips, and she threw her head back.
Power crashed from her so violently that I was knocked to the ground again, my fingers biting into the rough rocks as I fought to pull myself upright, the entire cavern filling with glittering golden light.
I squinted at her as the oppressive presence of whatever Magdor had been summoning retreated, and for the briefest of moments I could have sworn I saw the outline of golden wings glowing against Kyra’s back as she spread her arms wide and continued to scream.
The force of her power slammed into me, sending me rolling away and knocking Magdor and Drake from their feet too. The dark presence howled violently as it was forced away from the cavern, the heaviness in the air dissipating as the golden glow faded too.
Kyra fell forward, the visage of ethereal wings disappearing as she collapsed onto her hands and knees, panting heavily.
“Herdat, return to me!” Magdor cried desperately, scrambling across the rocky ground like she meant to follow the thing wherever it had gone.
Drake shoved himself upright, yanking Magdor up too with a fistful of her hair as she wailed wildly, still crying out the name of a lost god.
But surely that couldn’t be what it was?
Herdat was the god of death and ruin; she was the most feared of all gods, and she had left this world a long time ago, along with all the rest. There was no way she could be back, summoned by the will of one Fae.
Drake swore as he fought to tug Magdor along with him and they staggered backwards, moving closer and closer to the raging river while his face set in a brutal, determined mask.
Magdor forgot her grief and whirled on him, screaming as she collided with him. She moved like a wild animal, slashing at his skin with the sharpened points of her fingernails and finally striking his face, carving four long scratches into his skin which split and spilled blood instantly.
“Bitch!” he roared in anger. “Kyra, I wish for a metal fist!”
“Done,” Kyra replied, raising her head to watch the fight through a spill of inky hair as she remained panting on the cavern floor.
I gained my feet, running towards Drake and Magdor on the edge of the water. Drake's right fist shone silver as he slammed it into Magdor's face, and the crunch of breaking bone filled the cave.
“No!” I bellowed as I tried to grab the witch's arm, but she fell back with a shriek of fury.
She hit the water with a scream, blood pooling around her before she was dragged beneath the turbulent water.
I moved to leap into the river to fish her out, desperate for the world to see what she was, but Drake caught my arm, yanking me back.
“Are you crazy? You'll be swept downstream with her.” He pointed and I spotted swathes of her robes floating on the surface, careering along the current at a fierce pace before being sucked into the tunnels which delved further beneath the ground and out of sight.
My lips parted, panic threatened to set in, but my training got in the way of it. I had to keep my fucking head and figure out what to do from here.
Drake clapped his metal hand to my shoulder, his eyes dark. “She's gone, mate. Nothing we can do to change that now.”
“She floated away, should we have stopped her floating away?” Kyra asked as she appeared beside us, still panting, and looking exhausted.
I realised too late that Drake probably could have commanded something into existence to stop this from happening.
I sighed, rubbing my fingers into my eyes. The heat of blood washed down my neck and I lifted a hand to the neat cut Drake had made against my flesh to carve the beetle out of me.
“Thank you,” I said earnestly as I gazed at Drake. “You saved my damn life.”
He smirked and his eyes filled with warmth for a second, despite the bleeding wounds that coated his skin and the adrenaline and fear which was only just starting to fade from the air surrounding us. “Well don't expect me to make a habit of it, Cass.”
“I wouldn't dream of it.” We stared at each other, assessing, weighing, acknowledging. And I wondered how this lowborn thief had somehow wormed his way under my skin – kind of like that beetle.
I wasn't sure I'd ever had a real friend outside of my horse before, but it was starting to seem like he was one. Despite all the evidence he’d tried to present me with to prove he was a heartless cutthroat who would only ever use the people around him for his own gain, he had come when I needed him.
And there was no selfish reason I could think of for that, which meant it had to be as simple as it seemed. He actually gave a shit about it me.
My attention shifted to Kyra, and she smiled up at me so brightly that she practically glowed again.
“I’m glad you aren’t dead, sullen man,” she breathed, and I could see real relief in her eyes at those words, making my gut twist with the realisation that she had cared about my fate too.
“For a moment there, I could have sworn I saw…” I trailed off as I ran my gaze down her, the memory of those ethereal wings pushing at me as I tried to wrap my head around the idea of it.
“What?” she asked, and Drake cocked his head at me in question too.