Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
RUNE
I can feel the tremble in Atlas’s energy as he holds himself back from jumping between us to shield me from my sister’s attack.
He’s already helped me in the best way he can though, and I’m more than capable of taking it from here.
I should be exhausted and drained from the hours I spent taking the illusion apart layer by layer, and I’m sure it will hit me later, but right now all I can feel is the pulse of adrenaline and magic in my veins.
I throw up a shield of blue light and Rhiannon bounces off of it with a frustrated grunt. I smirk as she stumbles back.
“Brute force? Is that really your best opening move?” I tsk and shake my head. “Let me show you how it’s done.”
I murmur an incantation under my breath and send a burst of energy at her, a nearly invisible tidal wave, save for the shimmer of my magic around the edges, only visible to anyone trained to see it.
She makes another noise like an angry alley cat as it hits her and throws her backward.
She lands on the ground but doesn’t stay down.
“Lessons from my big brother? How cute,” she scoffs, brushing herself off. Her lips move with a spell, and she conjures a glowing ball of electricity in her hand.
She lobs it at me, and I dodge, using the quick, jerky movement to hide the fact that I’m summoning an invisible lasso.
I duck out of the way of a second energy ball and cast the hidden rope out.
Unlike a normal rope, I don’t have to worry so much about aim or physics, this one is guided by my magic to easily snake around my sister’s torso.
With a dramatic flourish, I yank to tighten it, forcing her arms down to her sides.
“Energy balls are good,” I say conversationally, smirking as she struggles against the binding. “But where’s the drama? Where’s the style?”
“Mom was right, you’re too arrogant for your own good,” she hisses.
The mention of our mother has my cocky grin fading.
“She said I was arrogant when we were just kids?” I can’t decide whether I’m sad or pissed off that she would talk about her own child that way. I’m not surprised, but I wish I was.
“No.” A burst of magic explodes across her skin and pushes outwards, destroying my lasso in the process. Damn, she’s stronger than I thought.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?”
We prowl around each other, circling like vultures, studying each other for weak points or stumbles, each plotting our next move.
“She didn’t tell me that when we were kids. She didn’t even see me when we were kids.”
“Because she was a greedy, power-hungry bitch.” The words are like acid on my tongue, but they’re true. I wish I was lying.
“No,” she shrieks again. “Because of you.” She raises both hands and sends twin bolts of lightning straight at me from her palms.
I pull up another shield to block them, and they bounce off, lighting up the night as they scatter. Rhiannon isn’t done though. She pauses only for a second to catch her breath, then tries again.
“You were the golden child. Special Ignatius and his special powers,” she spits. “You ate it up, all their love and attention and praise, like a pig at the trough. You were too greedy to leave even a morsel of it for me.”
My shield trembles under the fresh onslaught, but with Atlas’s energy feeding me, I’m able to pour more magic into strengthening it. Let her tire herself out with useless attacks. Let her scream and rage about things she doesn’t understand.
“I didn’t want any of it,” I say calmly.
“Bullshit.” She pauses and switches tactics, producing a fireball to throw at me this time instead.
Just like the lightning though, it bounces off my shield and sizzles in the grass at my feet.
“You loved it. You loved all their fawning. You loved not having to go to school or do any chores. You didn’t care that I sat alone in my room every day or that I had no one to play with or even talk to.
And even after all that, after they gave you everything, you killed them anyway.
You’re evil, Ignatius. Gran told me, and I didn’t want to believe her, but you are. ”
“Gran told you?” I echo. First Mom, now Gran. “When?”
“Last year.” She stops throwing fireballs, her chest heaving with heavy breaths, sweat glistening on her skin from the exertion of using so much magic in such a short time. I keep my shield up just in case though.
“Last year?” I repeat. “What? How?”
Rhiannon scoffs. “Magic, brother.”
“You…” My stomach rolls with horror. “You used black magic to contact the dead?” Somehow, I managed to block out the part where my own little sister was dabbling in necromancy. But it’s even more disturbing to me to know that she’s actually been in contact with our family.
“I needed to. I had to know how to access the Delaport ancestral magic. I deserved the birthright you took from me when you killed them.”
“I saved you,” I growl. “I don’t know how they’ve twisted this story, but clearly, they’ve gotten inside your head and turned you against me.
They were horrible, Rhi. They made me do things…
” My breath catches. “They made me hurt people, they forced me to perform curses and ugly, horrible magic that filled me with a sense of rot. I killed them because it was the only way to stop them from hurting anyone else and to stop anyone else from hurting me.”
“Liar,” she shouts, and lunges at me again.
This time I drop my shield and I don’t try to dodge out of the way.
I let her come, and as soon as her hands wrap around my throat, I project my memories directly into her mind.
I let her feel the echoes of the beatings I took when I refused to comply.
I let her see through my eyes as our family sold my magic to the highest bidder time and again, no matter what they wanted with it.
I let her feel the rage and despair that filled me when I realized that there was only one way to escape.
My sister yowls and falls back.
“No,” she murmurs. “That can’t be true.”
I drop to my knees and reach out for her hand, pulling it back and placing her palm against my face.
I show her the years I’ve spent too afraid to let anyone else close to me and the nights I’ve woken up in a cold sweat from nightmares— from memories— of what I suffered.
Rhiannon lets out a sob and tugs her hand away.
“You left me,” she says in a small voice, sounding more like a little girl now than the powerful grown woman in front of me.
“I’m sorry.” I look her in the eye so she can see the sincerity in my words. “I’m sorry. I genuinely thought you would be better off. I was only a teenager, and all I could think about was getting away, getting somewhere safe where no one could use me or hurt me again.”
A tear rolls down her cheek, and I can feel the shift in energy around us. All the rage softens into sorrow, and I pull her into my arms to hug her.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper again, and I finally let my own tears flow too. Fuck, I wish there weren’t a dozen supernaturals standing around watching me weep with my sister, but I guess it’s still better than having to kill her.
“I’m sorry too,” she says. “This was…” She pulls back and looks around, wiping her nose with her sleeve. “A bit extra.”
“You think?” I laugh. “Next time you want to work through our family shit, just DM me on socials, okay?”
She gives a watery laugh and nods.
“Deal.”
“Oh, and, sis, lay off the necromancy. It’s gross.”
She scrunches her nose. “Noted.”
ATLAS
The tension eases out of my chest once it’s obvious that the battle is over. Rune stands up, wiping the tears off of his face with the back of his hand, then he offers a hand to help his sister up too. They both dust themselves off and make their way over to where we’re all standing and watching.
“That was a little anticlimactic,” Mac says.
“Yeah, what a shame it didn’t end in bloodshed,” I reply sarcastically.
“I mean, I’m glad no one died, but a little bloodshed would have been exciting.” He shrugs and his mate chuckles, giving him a kiss on the head.
“I can bite you if you want.” Cas flashes his fangs with a smirk.
Mac shudders. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Like Drax would let you get your fangs anywhere near his mate,” Roman points out with a chuckle.
Drax grunts in agreement.
“Speaking of mates.” Cassius eyes my glowing tattoos with another grin. “Seems like captivity wasn’t all that bad, huh, At?”
“It had its upsides.” I grin.
“It looks like this is under control. We should probably get back to our perch,” one of the gargoyles says.
“Wait, I never even asked your names.” It feels wrong to just let them go after they came all the way here to help us.
“Azam,” the tallest says.
“Jonu,” says another, covered in a thick coat of moss.
“Vikas,” says the third one.
“Thank you all for your help.”
Rune reaches us and drops his sister’s hand.
“Yes, thank you,” he says.
“Sorry for the trouble,” Rhiannon murmurs, glancing around at everyone with a contrite, apologetic look in her eyes.
“Before they go, can you help them?” I ask Rune. “They were cursed by the Ninth Ward witches and they can’t shift anymore. They’ve been stuck in their stone forms for too long.”
“Shit, yeah, it’s the least I can do.” He steps close to Azam and lays his hands on the towering gargoyle’s chest. It only takes a few seconds for his magic to start to glow through the smallest cracks and fissures in the stone.
With a shudder and a sigh, Azam’s stone form melts away, and he’s left standing before us as a massive, and naked, muscular man.
He groans and stretches. “Fuck, that feels good.” He reaches down for his dick and lets out another happy sound. “Hell yeah, I finally have a dick again. Halle-fucking-lujah.”
Rune laughs and gets to work on Jonu, then Vikas in turn.
“Being mated to you is fucking amazing. I don’t need any time to recharge my magic, and I am so fucking powerful.”
“Among other perks?” Roman waggles his eyebrows.
The gargoyles thank him again, then disappear into the night. I don’t know if they’re heading back to their perches or going somewhere far away from the witches who cursed them. Hopefully the latter. But my bigger concern right now is where Rune is planning to go.
“Soooo… we can get out of here, right?” I ask, glancing at Rhiannon.
“Yes. Sorry again.”
“Call it sibling rivalry,” Rune says. “But, yes, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Where to?” I don’t want to come off as needy, but I probably need to check in with Auri and the last thing I want is to be apart from my mate right now.
He wraps his arms around my neck and leans the full weight of his body against me.
“Take me to your home for now, gargoyle. We’ll sort out the future later. Right now, I just need a fucking shower.”
I chuckle and wrap my arms around him, pulling him into a kiss as we slip into the void.