Chapter 50
Fifty
Without slowing, Mina exclaimed, “Enti and company used us as a distraction! She always said it didn’t make sense to fight the ghouls.”
The mountain gave another lurch. Howls and dust followed them as the four closed in on the rift.
Still directing his sorcery back at the queen, Adham paused in front of the opening. “I’ll keep the ghouls pinned down. Out you go.” He pushed Mina.
“No, Adham, I’m not leaving without you!”
Kristoff shoved them both. “We need him to seal this once we’re through. Just fucking go.”
Lips thinned, Adham followed Mina. Would his control of the sand inside the hive waver?
Kristoff twisted his body to sidle out. Lothaire would be right behind him.
Free at last, Mina scented the night air. They’d emerged onto an expansive shelf of rock overlooking an evergreen forest dotted with snow.
Enti and the others had already disappeared, no doubt teleported away by the demons.
The stars and a waxing moon were out, luminous to Mina’s vision. Her distant dream of visiting a moonlit desert with Adham could come true?—
“Blyad’!” Lothaire yelled when the rift suddenly slammed shut. The rock had snared one of his legs, bringing him down to the ground. To Adham, he said, “Crush the stone holding me. Quickly.”
Kristoff said, “And risk opening this barrier to all those undead? Trace or use your mist.”
Lothaire looked as if he’d attempted to do both. “I can’t when I’ve already been trapped . . .” His words died down, his face like granite.
“What is it, Uncle?” Mina asked.
“On the other side, something seized my leg, clawing it. From the strength of that grip, I’d say the queen ghoul has broken free of the sorcerer’s sand and is merrily infecting me as a last fuck you .” He yelled back at her, “I have it on good authority that a nasty witch killed your mate recently!” Then he looked at Kristoff. “Take off my leg, and quickly. Or lose Furie forever.”
“I should let you rot from the inside out.” Yet he scouted the clearing for something to sever Lothaire’s leg. “Too bad you don’t have the plague too. Then you could drink the sorcerer and battle the ghoul contagion, as our Mina has apparently done.”
“The Sandman’s even older than I am! All his memories would trip me into full-blown madness for certain. Mina’s got that to look forward to.”
Nothing that right could be wrong. She shared a look with Adham. He’d been spot-on about their instincts; drinking his blood had saved her, just in a way they’d never imagined. “I remain optimistic about our future, Uncle.”
Finding a rock with a sharp edge, Kristoff returned to Lothaire. “This will hurt. You. But I will enjoy it.” He raised the rock. “On the count of three. One—” He smashed it down, driving it a foot into the ground, severing Lothaire’s leg.
“Ahhh! You brute!” Blood spurted from Lothaire’s new stump, painting the rift behind him. “Lesson number two thousand and thirty: Learn to count.” Then he yelled at the rock face, “Have the leg for a chew toy. Enjoy it!”
“Up you go.” Kristoff yanked him upright to stand on his remaining foot.
Leaning against him, Lothaire snatched off his belt. Once he’d fashioned a tourniquet to stem the flow of blood, he made a tamping gesture with dripping hands. “Everyone, please, stop with your concern. I’m fine. Please, enough. The contagion didn’t reach my heart or brain.”
Kristoff muttered, “Do you possess either?”
Lothaire ignored him, inspecting his new injury with dawning excitement. “I can’t wait to show this to Lizvetta and garner sympathy. The night is mine .”
Adham turned to Mina. “Are you sure you weren’t scratched?” He checked her neck, relieved to find smooth skin.
She smiled up at him. “I’m good.” She even sensed her mist was returning, like a blood fountain slowly refilling.
“Princess, I’m pleased you’re safe,” Kristoff said.
When she faced the Gravewalker, Adham tensed beside her, delighting Mina. “Thank you so much for breaching the realm to help me.”
Adham grudgingly added, “And thank you for digging me out. I couldn’t have reached her without your help.”
Kristoff inclined his head. “Be worthy of her, Sandman.”
Aww.
Adham nodded. Then his gaze flicked past her to the rift. “Give me a second.” He hastened over to place a hand on the bloody rock, sensing it. “I think the mountain has settled into its current position for a time, but we’ll need to post guards here to make sure Nightside’s monsters never emerge.” That egg cavern must be on everyone’s minds.
Paler from blood loss, Lothaire said, “I’ll dispatch a contingent of Dacians. Remain in place and guard it with your sorcery until reinforcements arrive.” He beckoned to Mina. “Come.”
“I’ll stay. Adham and I don’t separate.”
He arched his brows. “You and your brother with the unsuitable mates. First a demon, now a sorcerer. Unbearable.”
“So Mirceo and Caspion are together?”
“Mirspion? Yes, you could say that.” With that, he and Kristoff disappeared.
Her brother must have finally won over the reluctant demon, and the two of them were mated. Her smile widened.
Adham returned to Mina. “I still can’t believe you beat the unbeatable.” He took her in his arms, seeming stunned that she was within them once more.
“I did with the help of your blood.”
“All that matters is you came back to me.” He brushed his knuckles along her cheek.
“I always will,” she promised him. “And now we’re free.”
“You were right. Escape existed.”
“And you were right when you said it hadn’t. Only that quake opened the rift.” Their window of success had been minuscule.
“I’m ready to start our lives . . .” His words faltered, his eyes darting. He released her and stepped back to scan the shelf of rock.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Are you sure you weren’t scratched?”
He gripped his temples. “I’m sure. But something isn’t right?—”
“Mina!” Mirceo had appeared not thirty feet from her, with Caspion by his side. Both had their swords raised, and Caspion’s amber horns were straightened with hostility.
“What are you doing with this filth, sister?” Mirceo demanded.
“Brother, drop the sword and talk to us. Didn’t Lothaire tell you what happened?”
“Lothaire? He’s been missing for months. Balery directed us here.” Mirceo and Caspion stalked closer. “Get away from the sorcerer.”
“Put the sword down, Mirceo. I mean it. I will never forgive you if you hurt him.”
There was no risk of that. Eyes aglow, Adham raised his burning palms with a yell and lashed out with sorcery.
Time seemed to slow, events happening too fast to process.
A shockwave exploded beneath their feet; the cliff surface morphed into a mass of sand. Adham molded a swell of it into a razor-sharp whip and launched it at Mirceo. “I’ll kill you!”
Caspion tackled her brother—too late? Blood spurted from Mirceo’s severed neck, his head tilting at an unnatural angle from his limp body.
“What are you doing?” Mina screamed in horror, vaulting for Adham to protect her brother. She’d felt that strike as if the sorcerer had done it to her.
Wild-eyed, Adham blocked her attack and shoved her into the hungry sand.
Mina scrambled to her feet, but the ground sucked them all down, trapping them in place.
With a roar, Caspion used his demon might to power himself loose from the sand’s grip and break Mirceo out. Freed from the quicksand, he traced her brother away. Only a demon desperate to protect his mate could have broken this hold.
And now Mina was left with a sorcerer she barely recognized. She’d learned to read him so well, yet nothing in his expression made sense—as if he’d been taken over by a malevolent stranger.
As she grappled against quicksand and shock, she cried, “Have you lost your mind?” The warm sand that had caressed her cheek and saved her life might have killed her brother. “What is happening?”
He didn’t answer, just kept his hands raised to direct his power. The welcome embrace of Adham’s sorcery had turned dark.
She struggled to free herself, but the sand was sucking her down . . . to her knees . . . to her waist . . . “Stop this! Why are you doing this to me?”
He gazed on with murderous intent as the sand reached her chest.
“Are you going to drown me? Me? ” The male she loved was about to kill her. When sand circled her throat, she gasped for air and screamed, “Adham, no!”
“You’re going to take me to Dacia,” he finally grated. “Or I’ll put you under again and again.” Just before she sank beneath the surface, his sand lifted her up into a tornado cage of spinning grains. “I’ll torture you until you do.”
Trapped within his sorcery, she couldn’t even trace. Her mist ability hadn’t renewed yet. Over the buzz of the tornado, she cried, “How could you do this? How? ”
“I will find him and kill him. I won’t stop until he’s dead.”
Suddenly a claw-tipped hand breached the scouring sands of her cage. Caspion? A roar sounded as the sand abraded his skin away, leaving ragged meat and bone up to the elbow. What was once a hand still managed to clamp around her arm. Somehow Caspion locked onto her—to trace her away.
As they disappeared, the sorcerer lunged for her, bellowing, “Kosmina!”
Caspion teleported her into Dacia’s court. Eyes black with emotion, he released her and traced to his mate who lay on the stone floor. Her brother was unconscious, his head hanging on by a tatter of flesh. Would it be enough to regenerate? Lothaire had recovered from a similar injury, but he was ancient and strong! Mirceo was barely older than Mina.
Caspion knelt beside Mirceo with a bellow of anguish, his own pain forgotten.
Lothaire traced into the court then, half-dressed and balancing on one leg. “What the hell happened?” He looked from Mirceo to Caspion to Mina.
Her lips moved but devastation rendered her speechless.
“Ah.” Understanding shone in the depths of Lothaire’s eyes. “Beware the Sorceri.”