48. Chapter 48
Chapter 48
‘Thank you for the potion,’ my father said.
‘Did you use it to heal Cesca?’ my mum asked, looking around for my father’s dog familiar.
Sorrow crossed his face. ‘Cesca is no longer with us,’ he admitted. ‘The problem with bonds is that you can’t have two at once.’
‘Shaun?’ My mother’s voice whipped out, full of dread. ‘What did you do?’
‘I found a dark spell that would let me bond with a magical creature, but it demanded a sacrifice.’
Mum looked at him with horror. ‘You killed your own familiar?’
‘She volunteered. She knew that it was best for us,’ he said evenly.
‘What did you bond with?’ I asked, but I already knew the answer.
‘The chimera, of course. Her name is Lycia. And she hasn’t been afflicted with the sickness like Cesca was.’
Pain suddenly wracked me – not mine but Bastion’s. His agony took my breath away and I dropped to my knees. ‘Bastion!’ I gasped.
‘Yes, I’m sorry about that,’ Shaun said, his voice genuinely full of regret. ‘But if you’re going to bond with the harkan, you can’t have another bond interfering with it. I’ve told Lycia to make it quick.’
I glared at him. ‘When you went to get Ria, you gave the chimera some more instructions?’
‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘My bond with Lycia isn’t as close as the one I had with Cesca – Lycia needs verbal commands. She was toying with him before. Now she’s trying to kill him.’
‘Tell her not to and I’ll willingly bond with your damned crystal,’ I promised. I was lying, but I hoped he didn’t know that.
‘I told you,’ he said, looking sympathetic, ‘you can’t have two bonds.’
So that was why he’d wanted Bastion here.
Shaun had already known that Bastion was my familiar; he’d watched Bastion sit on the runes of truth and lie to the council that he had killed Hilary and connected the dots faster than I had. From that moment, he’d known that Bastion had to die in order for me to bond with the harkan.
But it turned out my father didn’t know everything there was to know about bonds. You can have more than one at once; I already had two. ‘And that’s where you’re wrong,’ I said quietly. Then I shouted, ‘Now, Fehu!’
The raven plunged down from his hiding place at the top of the bookshelf, claws outstretched as he attacked Shaun.
Mum leapt up from her chair, her arm dripping with blood. She’d surreptitiously been using her own blood to paint ezro on the runes that were binding her and Oscar. Oscar reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, grew the flames and sent them careening towards my father.
As Shaun sent Fehu flying into a wall with a burst of black power, his eyes turned black and a vampyr phased out of the shadows to absorb the flames that were heading straight for him.
Mum ignored Shaun and ran towards me. She grabbed the athame at my ankle and held it level with her heart. ‘No!’ I screamed, batting her hand down just as she dragged the blade towards herself. Rather than striking her heart, the athame plunged into her stomach and she let out an agonised gasp.
‘Rune ruin, Amber!’ she bitched at me. ‘Now you’ve just made my death slower.’
‘I can heal you!’ I said desperately as I pulled off my tote bag, tore it open and pulled out the healing potions.
‘That’s not the point, Am,’ she said softly. ‘To destroy the harkan we need a willing sacrifice. I’m willing, Amber.’
‘Well, I’m not!’ I snapped.
Across the room, my father and Oscar were fighting. My father glanced across and took in the tableau of my mother and me, and suddenly a wave of black magic rolled out from him. It destroyed my healing potions instantly. ‘You bastard!’ I screamed at him.
‘It’s okay,’ Mum said weakly, grasping my right hand. It wasn’t. It absolutely wasn’t.
My mum was dying but I still had one last option to save her. The world could go to hell for all I cared.
I reached into the harkan’s box and seized the malevolent jewel in my left hand.