Chapter 17 He’s Not Triumphant
He’s not triumphant
ZARA
The air smolders like the acrid decay of a decomposing bonfire, its rank thick stench clinging to me as it makes my skin crawl.
The pulses of magic grow stronger, setting my teeth on edge as they’re meant to.
The clearing reeks of death and sulfur, and the night darkens around us as the thunder beats a deadly rhythm.
Kade stands a few paces away, coiled with a barely contained fury. It isn’t directed at me and we’ll be dealing with whatever the fuck it was he thought he was about to get away with as soon as we’re through with this.
“Who are they?” I demand, hauling my trousers back up.
He doesn’t look at me, his jaw clenched tight. “Not friends, that’s for sure.”
A part of me thrills at the unease flickering in his eyes. Whatever’s coming, it’s enough to rattle him. I should be scared. I probably am, somewhere under the seething rage that’s taken root in me since the moment I realized Kade was about to brand me like a goddamn piece of meat.
“No clever quip?” I bite out, stepping closer. “No lecture on how powerless I am compared to you?”
His head snaps toward me, the coldness in his gaze a warning, but I’m far past caring.
Kade can stare at me like he wants to kill me all he wants, but we both know he can’t hurt me anymore than the blood weave will let him.
He sure as fuck can’t kill me, although the ebon chain appears to be happy to let him mark me.
“They’re not here for you,” he says through gritted teeth. “You’re collateral they’ll take on top of whatever payment they think they’re receiving.”
I’m about to snarl a response when more oppressive magic curls through the clearing, swallowing my words as its darkness spreads like thick tar.
It presses against me, each pulse heavier than the last, and the part of me that knows when to shut up and listen tells me we don’t have time for this argument.
“I thought you governed with your brothers?”
“Gods, you witches are ignorant,” Kade sighs, his tone laced with frustration. “Warlocks have always fought each other, always vied for power. My brothers and I have held it for centuries and we’re not inclined to give it up. That doesn’t mean someone won’t try to take it.”
A slow hand clap rings out and my eyes snap to the warped trees to my left, watching a bleak silhouette emerge from between their trunks. He’s neither as tall nor as broad as Kade, but his precise features are difficult to make out as the cape he wears conceals him.
It’s standard warlock dress code for an ominous and intimidating entrance, and I’ve seen it so many times it no longer bothers me. His tactics won’t work on me and he’ll have to do a damn sight better if he wants me to do anything other than dismiss his arrival as a cheap trick.
“Aiden,” Kade snarls.
The warlock nods and pulls down his hood, revealing what he’s kept hidden.
I wish he hadn’t, and his features are more grotesque than I could have imagined.
He isn’t a natural beauty and his scars and crooked nose only make him more hideous, while the tattoos drawn on his face don’t improve his complexion.
He looks like the monster he wants to be and there’s little doubt in my mind he’s even more evil than Kade.
“Who’s the witch, Kade?” the warlock snarls. “She’s pretty if sluts are your type.”
Kade steps closer and his magic spits around me. “Zara, meet Aiden. He’s a mean bastard I should have put out of his misery years ago.”
I smile. It’s fake. “Delighted.”
“She’s entertaining, Kade,” Aiden says, stepping closer. “Is her cunt as delightful as her mouth?”
I sigh. “And I didn’t think it’d be possible to find someone more disgusting than you.”
Kade smirks, and Aiden stares at me with a look of unbridled hatred.
His fingers flex and curl, threatening all sorts of violence, and I wonder if he actually has the balls to take the pair of us on.
He wants us to believe he’s a threat, but experience tells me bullies are all bluff and no follow through—and this warlock doesn’t seem strong enough to take down Kade.
“You’re going to let that whore speak to me like that?” Aiden snarls.
Kade nods. “I see no reason to correct her when she’s right. Now, where are those other fuckers, Aiden? Those little weasels that scurry around after you.”
My eyes flick around, scouring the darkness for more warlocks. Aiden’s confidence comes from knowing he has us outnumbered, and he thinks one warlock and a witch aren’t a match for whatever he’s brought with him.
We might not be, not when our magic isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders.
Kade’s comes easier but he hasn’t figured out how to use it to full effect now it’s merged with mine.
I’ve demonstrated some control, but I’m not sure how far I can push it, and I might have to figure that out on the fly.
I’d rather not, but I might be left with no choice but to throw caution to the wind and be damned or dead.
“Are they all here, Aiden?” Kade continues. “They’d better be. I can’t be assed hunting those little fuckers down after I’m done with you.”
Aiden tips his head back and laughs, its menacing sound rolling like a funeral bell around us.
The sound deepens as he claps his hands together, mocking Kade with a sureness that worries me.
He doesn’t think this is a fair fight and I’m beginning to agree with him, increasingly sure this is going to get fucking brutal, fucking fast.
“I’m not fucking stupid, Kade. Did you think I’d turn up unprepared if I was unsure I could take you and that fucking whore of yours?
” His features turn more despicable as his nose twists into something even more hideous.
“We’re done with you and your brothers, and your fucking smug superiority.
You’re the weak link and when you’re gone, me and mine will be taking over and then there’ll be a few fucking changes around here.
Starting with her and who owns her goddamn pussy.
” His eyes wander over me and Kade lets out a growl, the sound more feral than human.
“And the rest of her kind. We need more warlocks, and these bitches need to learn their fucking place.”
“Charming company you keep,” I hiss under my breath.
“Not for much longer,” Kade snarls, reaching for his magic.
The clearing erupts.
Magic slams into us like a hurricane, splintering the ground beneath my feet and throwing me backward.
I barely manage to roll as another surge of power tears through the space I’d just occupied, the air thick with sulfur and acrid smoke.
A searing wave of crimson crashes into us like a wrecking ball and the ground trembles beneath me, knocking the breath from my lungs as I try to stand.
Kade’s already on his feet, already retaliating.
His shadows surge forward in a deadly tide of magic, but Aiden deflects them with an almost casual flick of his wrist. His laughter mocks us harder as more warlocks materialize at the edge of the clearing, their dark forms solidifying as their power crackles in the air like a violent storm.
Lightning crashes to the ground and Kade roars, his magic bursting outward in a shockwave that rips into the nearest attackers, sending two of them flying.
Their bodies hit the ground with sickening cracks, unmoving, but more step forward to take their place, their eyes gleaming with murderous intent.
I scramble to my feet, summoning my own magic as I dodge a jagged spear of energy hurled in my direction.
My power answers my call, green and gold light spiraling around my hands as I lash out.
My anger burns hot and I catch a warlock in the chest, the force of my attack sending him sprawling, but another grabs me from behind before I can react.
His hand clamps around my throat, cutting off my air as he drags me backward.
My vision swims and I slam my elbow into him, twisting and channeling a burst of magic into his chest. He screams and I strike again, hitting him with more power and watching with grim satisfaction as he crumples to the ground and his guts spill out into a pool of blood beneath him.
The fight is brutal and unrelenting.
Kade is a force of destruction, his magic ripping apart the warlocks with merciless precision.
His shadows writhe and strike like living beasts, wrapping around throats and snapping necks, or slicing through flesh with lethal efficiency.
But the warlocks are relentless, their attacks coordinated and brutal, driving him back step by step.
Aiden stands at the center of it all, his laughter cutting through the screams of the dying. “Is this all you’ve got, Kade? Pathetic. Your brothers aren’t here to save you, and it looks like you’re finally outmatched.”
Kade lunges again, a black blade of magic forming in his hand, but Aiden blocks it as a wicked grin spreads over his ugly face, their power clashing in a shower of sparks that light up the clearing.
“Fucking die, witch!” another warlock snarls, grabbing me by the arm and twisting it painfully.
I snarl back, my magic surging in a blinding burst that severs his grip and sends him staggering.
I drive my knee into his stomach, then slam my elbow into his face, feeling the satisfying crunch of bone as his nose shatters.
He collapses, and I step over his body, my chest heaving as I scan what’s become a battlefield.
There are too many.
Kade holds his own, but barely.
The warlocks are closing in, their attacks coming faster and harder.
I see the strain in Kade’s movements, the way his magic falters under the onslaught.
He’s fighting with everything he can muster, and it isn’t going to be enough.
Not for either of us, and the ebon chain twists inside me, burning hotter than molten iron as it wraps around my heart and demands I act.
It’s almost the end, and I can’t allow it.
I snap. My insides break and a barrier I’ve always known existed and was too afraid to face collapses, shattering because it has no choice. A thread within me has been pulled too tight and the darkness that’s always lingered at the edges of my being surges forward, swallowing me whole.
I could fight against it.
I probably should try at least.
But I surrender to it and I let consume me, sinking into its deep, dark waters. I’m drowning in an ocean, pulled down to the very bottom by a force I cannot name. It’s bleak and cold, impossible to escape, and I close my eyes, letting this consume me.
The world fades away. The sounds of battle disperse into a distant hum.
The power swells inside me, ancient and boundless, a storm of destruction unlike any I’ve known.
It’s a force so fucking angry that words cannot describe its fury and it will not be caged.
It won’t be contained. It can only be released and it demands I unleash it.
And I do.
The clearing erupts as green and gold and burning auburn light explodes, my magic surging in a wave that annihilates everything in its path.
Warlocks scream and throw magic at me, frantically trying to defend themselves, but it’s no use.
It’s pointless. Their end is inevitable and they’re caught in a blast more powerful than a collapsing star, more vicious than a mother protecting their child.
Their bodies disintegrate into ash and dust before they truly comprehend what’s happening, and my magic keeps surging forward.
Aiden tries to run but gets no further than the edge of the clearing, and my power shreds him like the insignificant, inconvenient shit he is. I smirk as the light wraps around him like a vise and a choked cry emerges from his crushed lungs before he passes, certain he’s died an agonizing death.
But I’m not done, and I won’t be for a while.
The power keeps pouring out of me, wild and uncontrollable, tearing through the clearing and beyond.
The trees are obliterated, reduced to charred stumps, and the ground cracks and heaves as the force of my magic tears it apart.
Branches fly, the world disintegrates, and up becomes down as the rules of physics abandon all reason and chaos rules supreme.
Kade screams at me, and I push on, obliterating anything and everything except the warlock I’m tethered to by a bond I don’t want.
I’m vengeance and its fury. I’m wrath and it’s ultimatum.
I’m insatiable and it’s only when exhaustion hits that I pull back, letting my magic return to wherever it came from.
There’s nothing left.
The clearing is a smoking wasteland, the air thick with the smell of burned wood and flesh. The only sound is the faint crackle of dying flames and the only light is the spark in Kade’s eyes.
I collapse to my knees, trembling with exhaustion. My hands are stained with blood, and I don’t know if it’s mine or theirs. I gasp and my chest heaves as I struggle to breathe, and my body crumples to the floor as my muscles can’t hold my core upright anymore.
I stare up at Kade, and he’s staring back at me.
He’s not triumphant.
He’s not even angry.
He’s horrified.
“What the fuck are you, Zara?” he whispers, his voice barely audible over the ringing in my ears.
I don’t have an answer.
All I know is that something inside me has shifted, irrevocably, and the way Kade recoils tells me he recognizes it too.
He isn’t looking at me like a witch anymore—he’s looking at me like I’m a curse, a blight, a monster.
He’s staring at me like I’m his undoing, and he’ll do whatever it takes to be rid of me.