Chapter 36
NICO
The next morning, at the ass crack of dawn, I was back at the fortress, flanked by a subdued Severin and an overly-optimistic Emilia, looking pleased I’d decided to give this clusterfuck a second go.
I hated to rain on her parade, but I expected her enthusiasm was misplaced.
“I’ll reinforce the warding after you pass through,” Emilia eyed the high walls, where new mortar gleamed between the big stones, many of them now cracked. “Help contain your magic until you can get those shadows under control.”
“The shadows aren’t my only problem.”
A healthy distance away, Ember, Dante, and Gabriel stood watching. Dark circles under their eyes, their bodies dragging, since none of us had gotten any sleep. Honestly, I would have preferred a death joke over the raw fear on their pale faces.
I would have preferred they be on a different continent.
Dante and Gabriel had specific orders for today. At the first sign of this going sideways, they were to whisk Emberline out of here.
As far away and as fast as they could.
“No, they aren’t.” She studied my face. “The Emissary doesn’t particularly like this realm.
He finds it too bright and strange smelling.
” Her red dress fluttered in the wind, her outfit totally unsuited for today’s disaster since I doubted she could run in those heels.
“You’ll have to drag him into the light and convince him to stay. ”
“He’s literally the Emissary of Death. This is where all the souls are. Like… an all-you-can-eat buffet. Doesn’t he get that?”
“This is where the living are, with their chaotic thoughts and their too-loud fears clogging the air around us. You can’t hear the noise the living make, Nico. But he can. And all those voices are too much for a creature accustomed to the quiet of the dead.”
So all that screaming inside my head before, the way the sound had ripped through my brain and rendered me helpless. Had that been the Emissary… hearing this world?
“So, what do you suggest? Earplugs? Calming music?”
“No, but a little extra help never hurt. If your pride can stand it, that is.” She lifted her hand, and a tall male appeared with auburn hair, hazel eyes, and a superior grin that made me despise him on sight. “This is Lucien. He is a Warden. Do you know what that is?”
“Temperance magic. You can suppress another vampire’s powers.” My instincts prickled with warning. Oh, I didn’t like where this was going.
“That I can. So… should I call you Nico… or the Emissary?” Okay, so the bastard really was an arrogant little prick.
“No thanks.” I turned back to Emilia. “This was a mistake from the get-go. I’ll find another way.”
“Nobody likes a quitter,” Lucien taunted softly. “Look, I get it, I’m an acquired taste, but when my lady asks for a favor, she gets it.” The bastard lifted Emilia’s hand and kissed her knuckles. I waited for her to turn him into a toad. Strike him dead.
Something.
But all she did was look at him adoringly.
What in the actual fuck?
Even Severin just sighed, like he was used to this asshole’s bullshit.
“Lucien will suppress any excess power, giving you time to adjust to the changes in your body.” Sev sounded as if he was teaching one of his boring-as-fuck classes on strategy.
“Last time, everything happened too fast for you to get your bearings. His specialty is easing the pain of magical corruption, but in this case, I think his skills are applicable.”
“This will definitely kill him,” I said bluntly. “Did you tell him that when you asked your… favor?”
“I explained everything. He’s still game.” Emilia’s smile was all teeth. “The question is, are you?”
I took a deep breath and looked at my friends. Weighed the odds of our survival against my father and Giovanni. Yes, I was sure.
“I’m in. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Remember, you have your father’s strength, Nico.” Her voice was gentle, with a soft cadence I’d never heard from her before. “But more importantly, you have his patience. Trust yourself, harness your magic, and you can control your form in this realm. You just have to…”
“Do not ever compare me to my father again,” I grit out, fisting my hands at the swell of anger I couldn’t contain. “When this is over and I’ve leveled this island to bedrock, remember—you were the ones who wanted this. I wanted to walk away.”
This time I didn’t bother stripping off my clothes. What did it matter anyway when I was going to be dead in a minute?
I walked straight through the wards; the cold carved me apart like a blade before my foot hit the ground on the other side of the containment field. When it did land, the air around me echoed, like the gong of a bell without the sound, a sudden pressure compressing my chest.
Darkness found me first.
Seeping beneath my skin like frozen ink, it settled into my bones before the agony.
Every joint twisted, every vertebra ground against the next, forcing me taller until the world shrank beneath my feet. My muscles pulled tight over a bony frame and jutting ribs, skin darkening to the shade of a thundercloud at night.
I bit back a scream as talons erupted from the ends of my fingers, as I disappeared beneath the Emissary, buried under ancient flesh as though he was scoopfuls of grave dirt, piled on a casket.
My entire being was shredding apart, disappearing completely… and then…
I took a breath that didn’t taste like razor blades.
Some of the pressure eased off, my vision clearing.
My thoughts were… my own.
I could breathe, big, gulping lungfuls of air that tasted like life itself.
Something—or someone—was helping me control my magic, siphoning away enough power to keep the darkness from consuming me.
I lifted my arms, shadows rolling off me in slow, living waves, hungry, waiting for my command. Every mortal heartbeat around me became a deafening chime, every breath tasted of awed fear. I was no longer flesh and blood.
I was eight feet of darkness and ruin.
The screaming inside my head was so loud, I could barely think, but I was still on my feet.
Holy shit.
I was… impossibly alive.
Lifting my hands in front of my face, my fingers were nearly a foot long, ending in sharp black nails, my palms cut through with a myriad of silvery scars, each of them meaning….
Something I couldn’t quite remember.
Oaths, maybe.
All around me, ribbons of black slashed, violent and wild… every bit of the chaos contained within Emilia’s fragile, shimmering field.
The walls of the fortress were still intact, the island—so far—still solidly beneath my feet. The air hung thick with the loamy smell of freshly turned earth, of raw magic that shouldn’t be here, of darkness from another realm. Unbreathable for a mortal.
Charged with electricity and ozone.
The wards crawled with bolts of energy, flashes of fire, and they strained beneath the assault, bringing me back to reality. Even with Emilia constantly reinforcing the shield, if I didn’t get my shit together, I was going to destroy this island and everything on it.
You have your father’s strength.
“Yeah, well, fuck that asshole,” I muttered, the words echoing all around me more like a gale of wind than a voice.
I held my hands out in front of me, palms up, like I used to as a boy, blowing out a calming breath and letting my shoulders relax.
Calling my shadows was second nature, but these shadows… these were not of this earth.
They slashed with an anger I couldn’t comprehend… or I knew all too well.
Like they wanted to rend this world to pieces.
You have his patience. I closed my eyes, trying to block out Emilia’s voice, the words I did not want to be true.
There was nothing left of my father inside me.
I’d nearly killed myself, scraping every hateful piece of him out.
The only thing left was the slope of our cheeks and our noses, and mine had been broken too many times to be recognizable.
But… I closed my eyes and curled my fingers, claws scraping skin.
Settle.
Listen to my voice.
Calm yourselves.
The darkness only grew wilder, whipping around me in a frenzy. Pain slashed across my forehead, warmth trickling down my face. My tongue flicked out. Blood.
There is nothing to fear. Yes, this world is loud, but that is only the sound of lives that will be yours, soon enough. Do not begrudge them their joy and their sorrow while they can yet feel.
I didn’t know where these words came from, but the ribbons slowed, undulating through the air as if they were listening.
There are pockets of quiet in this realm. Many of them. If you like, I will find them for you. I opened my eyes, and all around me the weaving ribbons were barely swaying, like wheat sheaves in the breeze. As if they were waiting for me.
But first, I ask a favor. There are demons here that do not belong. I have to hunt them. Kill them. But I need your help.
The shadows sucked into my body in a long, frozen slide that felt like death itself taking me over, flooding this form with power and the chill of the grave. Silence filled my head at the same time, a deep, blissful quiet that made the entire world go still.
So that’s what it’s like.
This is quite nice.
Without the shadows ripping the world apart, I took my first good look around.
Chunks of grass and rock were torn up and tossed around, dark gouges carved into the fortress walls, which, unlike last time, were still standing. But Emilia’s wards… were completely gone.
My knees almost went out from beneath me as I realized nothing stood between me and Emberline.
Nothing except for Emilia.
Who was crouched on the ground next to Lucien, blood staining his face, pouring from his ears. One of his feet twitched, so he was, at least, alive.
Severin bent over them both, his hand curled over Emilia’s shoulders, not concerned about the fallen ward or the eight-foot monster standing a few meters away. Totally focused on them, he checked Lucien’s pulse, nodded, then kissed the top of the High Priestess’ head.
I froze, watching them together. That casual familiarity.
The way she reached up and touched his cheek.
Like lovers would.
Severin murmured something to Emilia and straightened, his attention never leaving me, that shocked expression growing on his face as he took me in from head to taloned toes. “I knew you could fucking do it. I knew you could.”
Warmth suffused my chest at those words, at the pride shining in his eyes.
Severin grinned up at me. “And since you didn’t level the fortress this time, I have to go.”
“What could possibly be more important than this?” The voice—not mine—that gonged out of my mouth echoed with power, reminding me of Dante’s, whenever he turned into his fire demon.
“A mandatory emergency council meeting, remember? Bright and fucking early.” Severin winked, pointing to dawn breaking over the fortress walls. “I expect a riveting day full of accounting reports and Blackwood’s self-important aggrandizing, after which I plan to drink myself into oblivion.”
Emberline ran up, followed by Gabriel and Dante, and that was awe, not fear, on her face, delight, not horror. “Gods. What are we supposed to do with you? You’re even bigger than Dante.”
“What are you even talking about?” Dante muttered, puffing out his chest and straightening to his full height as he looked me over.
He was still a foot shorter.
Emilia chuckled, helping Lucien sit up. “I’ll walk Nico through transforming back into his mortal form, which should only take an hour.” Her eyes sparkled. “Or two, depending on how stubborn this Emissary is.”
Lucien rubbed his face, smearing blood everywhere, not looking quite so cocky now. “I feel like I got hit by a truck. You weren’t fucking kidding.”
“I never kid about such things,” I said, my voice echoing back to me as though I stood at the end of a long tunnel.
“Gods, you’re ugly. Looks like you tried to outrun Death and fell on your face.” Gabriel chuckled, reaching up to give me a fist bump, and I decided maybe my old friend wasn’t such an asshole after all.