Chapter 49 #4
I step forward and place a hand over Memnon’s heart, and I hold his glowing gaze in the darkness. “Let the scales be balanced once more. I revoke this magic evermore.”
My power, along with the last of the fire around us rush into Memnon then. The sorcerer chokes, his glowing eyes on me. A stark look of betrayal shines there. He chokes again, tilts back his head, and roars.
His magic seems to detonate. It explodes out of him, the sheer force of it knocking me to the ground.
It rushes past us, throwing supernaturals to the floor.
When I glance back up, Memnon’s power has cleared, as has the darkness. My soul mate’s eyes are no longer glowing. They’re no longer seeing the world at all, and our connection has gone deathly silent.
“Memnon!” My voice hits an unnatural pitch.
Goddess, what have I done?
His body falls to its knees, then slumps forward. I catch him, my legs folding beneath me under his weight.
My hand is back on his unnaturally still chest. Panic unlike anything I’ve ever known seizes me.
“You will not die on me,” I command, my voice breaking. Had I known this spell could kill him, I would’ve never uttered a word of it.
My magic rushes into Memnon then, through his nostrils and mouth. It buries itself in his skin, I sense it dripping down his throat and coiling around his still heart. All of me rests in this moment.
My power forces his heart to contract once, then twice.
Nothing.
No, he cannot be truly dead.
I won’t believe it. I will defy the Goddess Herself if need be, if only to bring him back.
My hand flexes and my resolve hardens. I’m going to bring him back.
Memnon has done this dozens of times to break forced bonds. He also made it clear that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
This time it will work. It must.
I focus on the earth once more. The Otherworld’s magic fills the soil to bursting.
I draw on that fullness now. I drag it up, up from the soil.
Dimly, I’m aware of the roots of the trees sharing what is pulled from the ground, from the towering cedars that loom all around us. I pull from their life source.
I force all my gathered power into a single word. “Revive,” I incant.
Magic rushes over of me and envelops Memnon’s lifeless form. His body jerks, and his back arches before relaxing once more.
I shove another burst of magic into his body. “Lisnuswatavak!” I incant louder, a tear dripping from my eye.
Revive.
Memnon’s back arches again as what must be an electrical current runs through him.
Come back to me, Memnon. I do not want to do this without you. Please don’t force me to.
I hear the slight intake of breath, and I see the subtle swell of his chest as it fills with air. I don’t move for a moment as I stare down at him, unsure whether I imagined it all or not. But then Memnon’s chest rises and falls again, and his eyelids flutter.
A sob rips its way out of my throat, and I splay my hand on the side of his face, searching his features. Languidly, Memnon’s arms come around me, and his eyes open, then sharpen on my face.
My beautiful, powerful queen, you saved me. He smiles then, and I am positive I have never seen anything as glorious as that smile.
I dip my head to kiss it, taste it, just for a moment.
Memnon holds me close as my lips brush his. And now I’m crying again.
Let me see you, he says softly across our connection.
I pull away, and Memnon’s eyes seem to devour each one of my features.
He pushes my hair back, wipes away my tears, and stares into my eyes. Across our bond I can feel a swell of emotion, one that makes my own heart clench.
“What did you do to me?” he asks wondrously. “I look at you, and I feel the whole universe running through my veins.”
The spell worked.
I laugh through my tears, which are freely falling. “I’m pretty sure that’s your conscience.”
He touches his chest ponderously, his brows coming together. “You restored it?”
“Turns out your sorcery was a curse like the one placed on me,” I say. “Now you’re just a boring, ordinary mage.”
Memnon arches one of his brows. “Boring?” he echoes, the corners of his lips curving up. “Ordinary? What insolence,” he says, his eyes dancing.
I smile at him and lean in close, dimly aware that the room is beginning to darken once more. “Fortunately for you, every part of me loves every part of you.”
“Thank the gods.”
I’m grinning at him like a damn fool when Nero snarls. I’ve only just turned to see what’s drawn his attention when a demon slams into me, lunging for my throat.
Seven Hells.
I roll with the creature, trying to keep it at arm’s length. Clearly while I’ve been focused on Memnon, the battle resumed.
Memnon’s hand threads through the demon’s curly, brown hair and drags it back. Swifter than I can follow, he brings his dagger to the demon’s throat and slices, once, twice, three times, until he’s hacked through its neck entirely.
Black blood sprays from the creature’s headless torso as Memnon kicks it aside and tosses its head in the other direction.
I glance from the demon’s wriggling body to Memnon in the waning light.
“Alright, so maybe I didn’t fully lift the curse,” I say.
“Does this mean I’m not boring and ordinary after all?” he asks, and again, those eyes of his still dancing.
He reaches down and pulls me up to my feet.
“I suppose you’re a little exciting,” I say, grinning back at him like a lovesick fool.
The groans around us have me dragging my gaze to the rest of the room. We’re in what appears to be the main hallway of the castle, the walls nearly overtaken with foliage. The great chandelier and the sconces above us are lit, and yet they don’t seem to drive back the rapidly growing shadows.
I look for the Bargainer among them, but all I see are fallen supernaturals or those still locked in battle, and none of them appear to be the fairy in question.
Speaking of fairies—
“What happened to Eislyn?” I ask. She must clearly still be alive if her legion of soldiers are still fighting for her.
My husband shakes his head. “Before I had a chance to get close to her, my power overtook me.”
Shit. My eyes scan the darkened room again just as the shadows consume the light completely. For a single moment, there is total darkness. I hear a couple anguished screams, then—
BOOM!
A shock wave rips through the room, and wet, unmentionable things splatter against me.
Once it passes, the darkness lifts. Only Memnon, myself, Nero, and fae remain standing. Everyone else is nothing more than singe marks and blood spatter.
Perched high above on a small, nearly hidden balcony is the Bargainer.
He meets my gaze and lifts his eyebrows, as if to say, Aren’t you amused? But there’s a seriousness beneath his expression.
The Bargainer steps off the balcony, falling to the ground below with inhuman grace.
“That, my friends, is how you end a battle,” the fairy says, sauntering over to us.
As if to undermine his point, a smattering of screams drift in from outside the walls of the palace.
“Well, part of a battle,” the Bargainer amends. His gaze shifts in the direction of the screams, and I see that hard glint again at the back of his eyes.
When his attention returns to us, he says, “The psycho princess you’re after got away before your magic could reach her. But from what I understand, she’s currently headed to the conservatory—in case you still wanted to stop her.”
His eyes drift to me. “I see you didn’t stay out of the fight for long.”
I open my mouth to defend myself, but the fairy has already turned his attention to Memnon. The Bargainer leans forward and drops his voice. “By the way, congratulations on your conscience,” he says to Memnon. “I’m glad I didn’t have to kill you off.”
“I’m glad I didn’t kill you either, fairy,” Memnon says, and the two have a moment.
This might be the weirdest part of the night so far, and that includes witches launching holy water bombs at demons.
“Which way is the conservatory?” I ask, interrupting whatever is going on between the two men.
The Bargainer nods down the hall.
I swallow. I guess it’s time to hunt down Eislyn.
Memnon places a hand on the fairy’s shoulder and nods.
Again, weird.
Heaven forbid these two actually begin to like each other.
Memnon drops his arm and turns to me. “You ready, Empress?”
Asked as though we hadn’t all decided I was supposed to sit this fight out.
You’re a Sarmatian queen, he says. It was foolish of me to think you’d stay away from battle in the first place.
I nearly crack a smile, and I give him a subtle nod. “I’m ready.”
However, I linger for a moment longer, my eyes trained on the Bargainer as he begins to rise back into the air. “What are you going to do?” I ask him.
The fairy hovers above us, the shadows gathering around him.
“What I do best: I’m going to head outside and make every last enemy who still lingers wish they were in hell.”