Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
If Poppy’s lessons made any lasting impact on me, I knew exactly how to get to the Imperium inside the in-between place that only my magic could access.
She’d torn open holes in the universe, then taught me.
If the artifact stripped magic-wielding people of their powers, then it could strip Kendrick of, if not his wolf, then at least the black magic keeping him young.
But…could it steal his shifter powers too?
If it did work…
I’d be strong enough in my own powers to best him and run. I could even knock him out and buy time to find Melia.
Would the Imperium break the magic-damping enchantments of the manor, too? Would it erase any spells in this place?
Kendrick punched me again and the jewelry box went flying. It hit the mantel of the fireplace with a clatter. I went down and he loomed over me.
“Say it again,” he snarled. “Say again how you’d rather commit suicide than open your legs for me, you dumb fucking bitch.”
Head swimming, I glanced up in time to mark the angle of Kendrick’s arm, his fist drawn again and ready to let fly. My face still throbbed from his first hit.
A throat cleared, an unseen savior—the priest’s arrival interrupted the abuse. Kendrick straightened and smoothed the lapels of his jacket. He tugged the cuffs into place with the agonized displeasure of some dictator.
“Let’s get this over with.”
I struggled to rise. My hip ached where I’d fallen.
The priest stared between us, his outline blurred, the top of his bald head adding to the egg-imagery of his skull.
“I want to make this quick. Go through your bullshit and make sure you get to the kiss the fucking bride fast. Got it?” Kendrick warned.
For someone who claimed it was important to make this a Catholic ceremony, Kendrick didn’t have a lot of respect for the process. The priest shared a similar sentiment, based on the way his eyes narrowed to slits, but neither of us said anything.
I forced myself upright with only a slight hitch in my right leg. My mind whirred like a battering ram against a wall of brain fog.
Could I reach the Imperium in the human realm? Did the magical hideaway space between realms work the same here?
I limped over to join Kendrick at the fireplace and said nothing as the priest began the ceremony. My thoughts wrenched sideways when Kendrick grabbed my hand and squeezed hard enough to pop my knuckles from their sockets.
We had no wedding party beyond sullen servants and no congregation to rise to their feet for the opening hymns. No hymns at all, in fact.
The priest without a name led us through the sign of the cross and the opening prayer.
“Amen,” we said in unison. At the final word, the flames leaped and crackled up the chimney, scouring bricks with soot.
My eyes watered. What if this didn’t work?
Maybe I shouldn’t even try, because if it failed, then Kendrick would have a powerful magic artifact in his possession, and through him, it might end up down the pipeline to Dorian Jade.
I had to play this right.
I worked my jaw sideways and the bone cracked, Kendrick’s flicker of smile vile. He’d heard it. He knew better than I did the way the area swelled. He knew where to hit to make it hurt and despite the rage, he’d punched me in the face as a lesson.
“And now a reading from the Old Testament,” the priest intoned.
Kendrick snarled, “Skip it.”
The priest’s fingers fluttered over the pages of his Bible and he sprinted ahead, stuttering over his words until he landed on a reading from the New Testament. He breezed through it like a man possessed. And afterward, the Rite of Marriage.
At the conclusion of the reading, the priest intoned, “The Word of the Lord,” and there was no assembly to respond, only Kendrick who answered, “Thanks be to God.”
There was no God here.
This has to work.
A slick sweat broke out under my arms and no doubt stained the already ruined dress, spatters of wine and grease forming patterns down the front.
Magic pulsed beneath my skin, itching to be released, and only the constant pressure of Kendrick’s thumb on my tendons kept me from fracturing into pieces.
Nearly there.
I’d blow my cover if I jumped too soon.
“Dearly beloved, you have come together into the house of the, er, into a house of the Lord, so that in the presence of the Church’s minister and the community your intention to enter into marriage may be strengthened by the Lord with a sacred seal…
” The priest refused to look up from the sanctuary of his worn Bible.
A house of the Lord? We were in the house of the damned.
“…and your love be enriched with his blessing so that you may have strength to be faithful to each other forever and assume all the responsibilities of married life. And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions.”
My intentions? My mind, so focused on waiting for the right moment, missed the opportunity to speak first.
Kendrick gave a harsh tug and I landed against his chest. “My intentions are to be with my mate for eternity and to have a fruitful union.” He flashed his teeth. “A very fruitful union.”
A sideways glare ensured the priest skipped over me.
More pages fluttered. “Kendrick and Octavia, have you come here to enter into marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?”
“We have,” Kendrick answered for us both.
I was going to throw up. Another few seconds—
“Kendrick Grimaldi, do you take Octavia Alderidge to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
Kendrick’s lips rounded around the words I do, pursing in the way a woman with much less to lose would have found attractive. Devilish.
Now.
I thrust my magic through time and space. They’d damped the house, but I wasn’t trying to get out. I was trying to go in.
The pocket of emptiness would respond only to me, only to the magic I’d used to open it, keyed to my blood. I knew the instant I made contact because the energy around us changed.
I seized the Augundae Imperium from its hiding spot and tugged it free.
It popped into the air between us, as solid as the day I’d first seen it. The rip in reality folded over itself.
Pulling my hand from Kendrick’s, I gripped the sphere and funneled into it every ounce of intention left. Magic pulsed and the gold hummed with an inner vitality of its own. Runes awoke on the surface and an inviting glow spread across the room.
And all of this happened in the span of a second.
Angling my chin to Kendrick, I offered him a smirk of my own. Kendrick Grimaldi, your power is mine. May the Goddess have mercy on your black soul.
The artifact knew exactly what to do. And it was hungry.
“No!” Kendrick’s eyes widened.
Power pulsed between us and trapped him and the priest in its net. One had nothing to give, and the other everything. Another pulse and Kendrick went down to his knees, an unseen force draining him. The sphere warmed in my hands to the point of burning but I held on.
Whatever he had to give, I took.
The power flowed through me in an overwhelming rush, but next to lightning and wind, this was nothing.
A piercing howl cut through the storm in my head, and with a wretched groan, Kendrick’s Alpha peeled free of him. It was sucked into the Imperium and through my contact, into me.
Kendrick gripped his hair and dragged claws across his scalp, leaving grooves in the wake. Hair fell out in clumps, and when Kendrick looked up to me again, he’d aged a hundred years. Harsh crags cut across what used to be supple skin and a pall dulled his eyes.
“What have you done?” he croaked.
“I’ve taken your wolf,” I told him.
I took everything. Including the mate bond.
Invisible cords snapped. I hadn’t realized how closely I’d been bound until the pressure eased and the bond shattered. Kendrick was no longer a shifter. Hysterical laughter bubbled up from deep inside him.
“You goddamn bitch!” He lurched for me, enraged, his hands at my throat.
I leaped back to avoid the attack. A quick thought shoved the Imperium back into the space between realms, the portal opened and shut in an instant, and I reached for my wolf.
She rose, exuberant, and we shifted together, the dress tearing off me as my form swelled and lengthened.
I could take him now.
The poor priest screeched and bolted toward the exit, along with the rest of the servants. I’d never heard a sound like that come from a grown man.
I threw myself at Kendrick, expecting him to go down, already tasting his blood on my tongue and the ripe richness of victory. And he did go down. He fell to the side…
But he took me with him.
He hooked his hands together behind me, accepting the blow rather than standing against it, using my momentum to take us to the ground. He flipped me onto my spine hard enough to push the air from my lungs.
I clawed at his stomach but he widened his stance.
I aimed another kick to his lower abdomen but this time my claws connected with his thighs. Kendrick laughed darkly and stood. He fucking stood up, despite the tears in his skin, and held his arms out to the side to present a bigger target.
I scrambled off my back but he grabbed my shoulder and wrenched it out of socket. Hobbling upright and angling around, I snapped at his face.
He feinted to the left and landed a one–two strike to the side of my snout in the exact place he’d punched me in my human form.
I shook it off, but he flung himself onto my back, the surprise of this weight adding to the efficacy of his hit. Kendrick ground his elbow down into the shoulder he’d dislocated and I howled.
Without his wolf, he was still powerful. Kendrick had clearly trained in street fighting, and he fought dirty.
I countered and reversed on him by shifting at the last moment. My skull shrank, a human head on a wolf body, my transfiguration techniques taking him by surprise.
Kendrick blinked and his next punch went to the floor instead of my temple. I pulled free before he regained his composure and jumped backward. He launched another jab to my face, then stepped out and pulled down on my injured shoulder, coming in with his opposite fist.
I thickened my skin and his shot only glanced off me. But then he lifted his knee and ground it between my ribs. Pain spread and I yipped.
Fight back. Win.
There were no other options.
We clashed together repeatedly, rebounding off each other, fur and fang and skin and knuckles. He knew how to fend off wolves or he wouldn’t have stayed the alpha of his pack for so long.
My wolf form gave me a measure of protection, but the addition of Kendrick’s Alpha, given to me through the artifact, still wasn’t enough to get me an easy win.
The extra power wasn’t trifling, but it wasn’t enough to crack through Dorian’s enchantments around this place. Especially not with Kendrick hammering blows at whatever part of my body was closest.
I needed the rest of my powers.
He grabbed me by the scruff and hauled me toward the fireplace.
I thickened my rear leg, reaching for my halfling warrior form. The change bubbled through me and I found purchase with claws digging into stone. I halted the movement but Kendrick was ready for me. He kneed my chest as my teeth latched around his forearm.
I yanked, tearing through sinew. Instead of pulling free, Kendrick pushed his weight into me and we crashed through a dining room window.
We landed side by side on the patio, the night air thick with dew. A bed of glass dug into my fur and Kendrick yelped in surprise.
Energy crackled and popped, but the magical barrier that had kept me from using my powers shattered when we fell through the window and landed outside the house. About time!
I quickly shifted back to human form and reached into the well for my Fae and witch powers. A ball of light and electricity erupted in the gloom.
“You are screwed now, buddy.” I didn’t need to keep Kendrick alive anymore. This time, I aimed to kill.
A flash of movement came from the side and I whipped around. Dozens of wolves raced across the lawn toward us.
Now! Do it now! I turned back to send the magic outward. Too late.
Kendrick struck.
The small distraction of the arriving wolves had given him time to grab a weapon. The shard of glass buried itself in my chest until the tip pierced my heart.
For two seconds, it beat around the glass shard before slowing, the pain excruciating but distant. Somehow I logically knew that this time, death was permanent.
It was inescapable. Somewhere not far off, a wolf howled.
“Goodbye, Tavi.” Kendrick twisted the glass.
My heart gave another low pump, an attempt to keep working around the deadly weapon to keep me standing, but it was no use.
I sagged forward, unable to catch myself. My body was already growing cold and lifeless. Kendrick hovered over me, a self-satisfied smirk on his aged face, until everything disappeared into the blackest shadow.
He did it.
Then death came like I’d always been prepared to meet it.