Chapter Twenty-Five
Byron
Igasped, deeply and sharply. My body jerked and my limbs spasmed as life flowed back into my limbs.
I wasn’t dead.
How wasn’t I dead?
Holy fuck, my chest hurt.
I looked down.
Ah, fuck. I shouldn’t have looked down.
There was a massive blood stain seeping through the material, and it was sticky against my skin. There was way too much blood here. This wound should have been fatal, but it wasn’t but fuck it hurt to breathe.
I hauled myself up to a sitting position, my eyes scanning the chaos for Wilder. Where was he?
Manic laughter assaulted my eardrums, and I looked to my left where the King had Wilder pinned in his grasp.
“No!” I yelled, staggering to my feet. The world span as I righted myself, but I pushed through it. I had to get there, had to save him.
Hold on, Wilder, I’m coming.
Then I felt it. The tether. It was missing.
Pain ripped through my chest as I stumbled and clawed my way over to him. No. I refused to believe he was dead. He couldn’t be. There was no me without him.
Wilder’s purple lightning filled the air. Static electricity pulled at the hairs on my arms as I got closer. As much as I hated it, that had to be a good sign. If there was magic to be siphoned, it meant he wasn’t dead. He was just caught between the worlds.
I pulled my gun from my holster and fired it at the King. I didn’t even know what type of bullets were in there, but it didn’t matter. I just wanted to grab his attention.
He finally looked at me when one of the bullets hit those damn glasses, breaking them and finally showing me his eyes.
His impossibly green eyes. They reflected the light like a cat, burning with rage and damnation, with hatred and madness and I instantly knew that whatever his plans were, they were bigger than just Wilder.
My Shadow Witch was one single cog in whatever machine he was building.
The King dropped Wilder carelessly into the dirt. I watched him for the longest minute, just waiting for his chest to rise. When it did, I could have cried with the relief.
“Are you just too stubborn to die?” the King hissed as he stepped closer to me.
“Clearly.” Although, I did feel like death warmed up right now. I glanced at Wilder, willing him to get up. “Where’s Lawler?”
The King shrugged. “Probably hiding somewhere like the pathetic little shit that he is.”
“Is that any way to talk about your friends?”
He spat on the ground. “We are not friends. He was a useful tool but now he’s served his purpose.”
Wow, this guy was dramatic. He took another step forward, and I shot him in the knee.
He tsked at me and shook his head. “That won’t stop me.”
“Nope, but it sure is making me feel a little better.” I shot him again, this time in his other knee then twice in the stomach. Each bullet landed with a very satisfying squelch.
I went to shoot him again when I felt it.
The tether.
It burst into my chest, stronger than I’d ever felt before and I gasped at the sheer power of it. I stumbled back a pace, overwhelmed with everything that I could sense coming through it.
I dropped to my knee, unable to comprehend everything at once. My head was too full, my body too warm. I clutched at my chest, hoping to ease it all, but all I grasped was the sticky material of my shirt.
The world burst into a myriad of colours and I could see beyond the veil. The world that coexisted with ours but could never be seen. Spirits stopped and stared at me, and the sky was purple above me and full of stars that glowed brighter than our own.
Pain seared my wrists as an intricate purple band circled each of them. They pulsed with power, and I huffed a laugh as I realised what they were.
Brands.
My Shadow Witch had branded me as his own.
“Demon, your time on this plane is through. I name thee Belial and I banish thee.”
Wilder. That was Wilder’s voice. I looked up and saw the most breathtaking thing I’d ever seen in my life.
He stood there like a god, the air sparking with his purple lightning as he advanced on the demon.
His hair tumbled wildly in the wind and his eyes shone brighter than I’d ever seen them.
His power felt raw and untameable, but he controlled it with ease.
I could see everything he saw while he was connected to me.
I saw the spark of life nestled in the demon’s chest and watched in awe as Wilder reached out and extinguished it.
The King disappeared in a thick plume of hellfire, but I had the distinct feeling that it wouldn’t be the last time we saw of him.
His power surged, and I struggled to stay on my knees. My vision faltered, but I ignored the pain. I wanted to watch Wilder become the powerful witch I always knew him to be.
“Oh, Wilder,” Lawler crooned as he dragged Astrid out of his hiding place behind the tree line. She had a black hood over her head, and her hands were tied in front of her but at least she was walking on her own. That was a good sign.
“Unhand her,” Wilder commanded, his voice steady and sure.
There was something protecting Lawler’s life force. I could see Astrid’s as bright as day. A bright pink spark churning behind her solar plexus. Is that what a soul looked like? It was like a little ball of light flickering and dancing behind her ribs.
Lawler’s chest appeared empty. I wasn’t an expert in this, but I figured that meant he had some kind of ward around his life force.
He must have assumed this could have been a possibility, that Wilder would ascend into his power and defeat the King.
I almost admired the amount of planning he’d come up with.
I dragged myself to my feet, ignoring the pain in my chest and stalked closer to Lawler and Astrid. Any semblance of humanity was stripped away with every step that I took.
“Don’t come any closer,” Lawler shouted, his voice thready and desperate.
My face emptied of any kind of emotion and his eyes faltered as he took in my expression, as if he saw the monster beneath the thin veneer of my ghostly smile. “Let Astrid go.”
“Or what?” he spat, his head bobbing over Astrid’s shoulder as he used her as a shield.
I pulled my knife out of the sheath on my belt. “I’ll have some fun removing your body parts.”
“Let me go, and I’ll give you your potions witch back,” he said.
“You’re in no position to beg,” Wilder said savagely as he penned in his father from the other side of the open space.
The park was littered with dead demons and thick black blood.
Damyr and his men were fighting the last few demons who’d been left behind by Belial and now there was only Lawler to deal with.
He definitely wasn’t in a position to be making any bargains.
“Now, Son, you don’t have to be doing this.” Lawler’s face was pinched with a little bit of fear.
Wilder drew on the tether again as his magic curled into a large ball of bright purple electricity.
It hovered above his hand, and he held it there like he was toying with it.
“No, I do, Father. You see, you need to feel at least a modicum of the shit that you put me through. It’s your turn to suffer, you sick fuck. ”
Lawler scoffed. “I’d do it all over again, if I could. You know why?”
“Enlighten me,” Wilder said, his head cocked to one side in curiosity.
“Because I enjoyed it. It was so easy to siphon you. You were weak. Pathetic. Fucking worthless until I realised your value. Your power gave me money and status and that was all you were good for,” Lawler said, his face twisted in a sick grin.
“And do you know what? I’d do it all over again if I could. ”
I couldn’t bear to listen to any more his sick bullshit, not when I could feel the anger, shame and unfiltered rage drifting through the tether from Wilder. I pulled my gun, aimed, and shot Lawler in the shoulder.
He yelled as his body jerked backwards.
Wilder looked at me. “Get Astrid!”
Lawler turned on his heel and started to run.
He didn’t get far.
Wilder wrapped his magic around Lawler’s neck like a lasso. It cracked like thunder as it seared his skin and Lawler screamed in agony.
Jesus, the sound shot a bolt of lust straight to my balls.
Watching Wilder like this, was the hottest goddamn aphrodisiac.
I grabbed Astrid and pulled the hood from her head. “Can you walk?”
She nodded as I pulled the gag from her mouth. “Yeah. Thank you.”
I pointed to the guys behind me and pushed her in that direction. “Head over there. You’ll find the Morozovs. They’ll take care of you.”
“Byron, wait,” she called after me, but I was already stumbling my way over to Wilder. I didn’t want him to do this on his own. I wasn’t sure if he could face killing his father, or what it would do to him if he did.
When I got closer to Wilder, his father was on his knees, his head thrown up to the sky. Wilder had tightened the lasso to the point where Lawler couldn’t breathe.
“I should kill you and then bring you back to life, again and again just to see how you like it,” Wilder roared.
He let go of the lasso and, while Lawler was sputtering and catching his breath, he punched him in the face. Once, twice, three times.
My knee buckled, and I fell forwards into the grass, pain radiating through my chest. I crawled forward, pulling myself towards Wilder.
Lawler fell onto his back, clutching his nose.
Wilder launched a lightning bolt at him and advanced on him whilst he was down. “How does it feel? To be weak and helpless?”
Lawler laughed, the sound wild and manic. “Fuck you, boy.”
Wilder sat on top of his father, ignoring the manic laughter and grabbed Lawler’s greying hair on one hand, yanking his head up from the ground and slamming backwards. “No. Fuck you, Father.”
Then he swung his hand high in the air, his fingers glowing with magic, before he punched his hand straight into Lawler’s chest. Bones crunched and snapped and Lawler’s gasp of surprise would be forever branded in my memory.