Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
KHARON
I slip through the shattered window behind him. I move quickly out of the way as Layden’s eyes widen in what looks like terror, and he starts firing runes at our Father. He’s immediately knocked several steps backward when Father lifts his hands to return his own rune fire.
In shadow, I move around the room behind Layden. It would be easy for me to lay hands on him and take him away, locked in rune battle as he is with our Father. But now that I am close to my little brother who I already betrayed once. . .
I look at my other brothers, chained to chairs not far away.
They yank and jerk at their chains so that their muscles bulge.
Though the chairs and chains rattle, they do not burst apart.
The furniture must have some additional magic because the wood would be nothing to my brother’s strength.
That’s when I note that around each of the chairs are additional, smaller circles.
“Finish it,” my father calls, which makes Layden swing around, looking behind him. He looks right past me. But seeing him so close, I know I cannot do what my Father demands. I’ve spent two centuries grieving the last time I did not stand up for Layden.
So instead, I run towards Abaddon. I smudge the circle around his chair with my foot, and immediately, he bursts free of his bonds. I rush to do the same for Remus, who has begun cackling in delight at the chaos.
“You fool!” my father screams.
Together, as brothers, we all advance on my father. Remus on one side of Layden, Abaddon—after quickly flying Hannah to the other end of the room for safety—at the other. I stay in shadow, for not even my father can see me in this form. I scamper around the back of him.
I watch the surprise in Layden’s eyes as he looks to each side to find his brothers there.
Father stays facing my brothers, firing rune after rune.
Abaddon lifts off the floor. Like me, he is weak in rune-magic, only able to call enough to provide a basic shield.
But that does not stop him from flying toward our father with two hell-metal chains as our brothers continue exchanging rune fire.
Father lands a hit that Remus isn’t able to block, and he’s blasted off his feet into the wall, making a crater in the stone from the impact.
Abaddon attacks from above, hurling the chains around Father’s neck so they wrap around several times, dragging him down to the ground. On his back, Father lifts a hand and hits Abaddon directly in the chest with a bright blast of white-blue runes. Abaddon explodes backward.
I grab the chains still wrapped around my father’s neck with several arms and run towards the large circle Layden created.
Father gasps and grabs the chains strangling him as I drag him across the floor.
He reaches a hand out, blasting runes outwards.
He can’t see me, but I’m large, and eventually, a blast hits me in the leg, flinging me forward and knocking me out of shadow as I tumble end over end, landing face-first right outside the circle.
Layden is there, standing in front of me and absorbing the next concentrated blast my father sends my way with a bright shield.
“You disappointing cunt!” Father screams as he climbs back to his feet, throwing off the chains. “Never could do a goddamned thing right, you fucking thing! You’ll pay for this. I’ll make you rue the day I ever pulled you misformed disappointments from the fucking forge! All of you!” he screams.
This is right when Abaddon and Romulus come flying at him from behind like a rocket, each catching an arm, lifting him, and dropping him into the center of the circle Layden created.
Layden is ready, both hands extended as he begins to speak words I don’t understand.
The fire from the candles shoots to the ceiling as my father looks around in confusion, standing and trying to shoot runes at us.
But they fall short once they reach the ring of the circle.
And then he lifts off the ground. He’s shouting, but we can’t hear it.
The noise of a rushing wind has filled the space.
A tornado rushes around within the circle, tearing at our father’s clothing and hair.
He whips around, holding out his arms and raising more runes. They’re torn from his fingertips the moment he raises them, made impotent.
The wind whips so fast, a bright white light erupting, and I have to shield my eyes, the roar growing even louder. Like a train going past, only mere feet away.
And then, silence.
I drop my hands and look in astonishment to find the center of the circle empty. There’s a slight black scorch mark, but that is all that remains.
“Is he—” Romulus asks.
“Gone,” Layden answers. “Sent home to the Great Hall.”
Romulus’s head spins on its axis, and Remus’s cackle fills the room. He laughs and laughs and laughs.
“Hannah,” Abaddon whispers, then lifts off his feet and flies out of the room, no doubt to check on his wife and daughter.
I look to the brother I thought I’d lost, pull him into my many arms, and say, “Welcome home, baby brother.”
He’s stiff in my arms for long moments before finally relaxing. “I still do not forgive you.”
I chuckle at that and pull back. “As long as you are alive, I welcome a long, long life of your bitterness.”