24. Chapter 24
Iturned back toward Fernwick and toward the cries that called to me. My Wielding was called free, taking death as it came and making it mine. Soldiers upon soldiers stumbled into my path, living and non, but all found the permanent way to die by my hand.
How many Raiders were there?
I heard the shrill clang of metal and walked into the opening that once had been the town square.
A Raider was locked in battle with a man who felt so intimately familiar.
His body moved with unadulterated grace and precision.
My magic stirred wildly in his presence, like it was beckoning a lover for attention.
I sensed the notion that it wanted to wrap itself up in the enthralling power’s arms like they had been separated far too long.
With a slice of the man’s sword, he relieved the dueling Raider of its head while another man I hadn’t seen in the corner shot the body with a flaming arrow that sent it ablaze.
The taller man’s back stiffened as he turned toward me, his silver eyes locking onto mine.
Through the smoke and flame, he stared at me with malice as the grip on his sword tightened.
In just a few long strides, he made his way across the square and towered over me. His clothes were covered in blood and sinew. He looked like Cisoi himself, garnering precious death in his hand.
“I didn’t think you had it in you to unleash me again. Where are your chains, girl?” the man said, his eyes aglow. Something in the back of my mind reminded me that the voice didn’t belong to this man. That there was something different. Wrong. But his power was bold and desirable.
“Now where would the fun be in that?”
“Oh, I can think of many, many fun things.”
I looked up as his free hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me in tightly. His lips crashed into mine with pleasure and pain. I grabbed the front of his tunic and closed my eyes, deepening our kiss.
His tongue skirted along mine, causing a groan to escape my mouth. His hold tightened even further, turning our kiss ferocious. A claiming. A deep ache formed between my thighs that begged to be filled. He pulled away, leaving me gasping for air as he continued to look into my eyes, studying me.
He titled his head, the movement like a predator just about to pounce on its prey. His body moved closer. “I underestimated you.”
“They all do,” I whispered against his touch.
My magic stirred again as my mind’s eye saw our magics collide and toy with one another.
Darkness meeting one another and wanting to reunite.
My tongue edged my swollen lips, wanting them to be claimed again.
It wasn’t hard to see this man’s lifesource now—so similar to the ones I had just gained control over, but it was oddly caged against something foreign or otherworldly.
A thought spurred and I smiled coyly. “Kiss me again.” I imagined my hand pulling the man toward me.
The silver eyes flared as his body tensed for only a moment before a malevolent grin overpowered his features.
He leaned in, his lips a hair’s breadth from mine.
“As you command it of me.” The voice was ancient and new.
Of time and space and everything in between.
I felt his power as his lips once again clashed against mine.
We fought for dominance in this kiss. My back hit something hard and I noticed I was pushed up against a wall, my wrists pinned together above me.
Smoke and fire and shadows danced around us, but I didn’t care as long as I was claimed here and now.
With little thought, I manipulated the shadows to pull the man closer, deepening our hold even more, and wrapped a leg around him, pulling his arousal to my center.
A noise caught us off guard, making the man pull back from our intertwined bodies and assess our destroyed surroundings.
He turned back at me, poised to consume me again, before his eyes grew wide. A murderous glare settled on my arm.
“Who hurt you?” Venom laced his voice and spurred something in my innermost being.
I looked over to catch his meaning and saw a deep gash on my arm that poured a steady stream of blood. When did I get hurt? “Make them pay.” I smiled as I demanded retribution. “Make them all pay.”
“With pleasure,” he rasped as he released his hold on me and turned toward a group of townspeople who braved observing the streets.
As if through another’s eyes, I watched the man engage in battle with a man who dared show his sword.
Confusion laced his face as he cried, “But I thought you were here to save us!” The silver-eyed man was quick with his feet and sword and disarmed the man in a matter of seconds before piercing his shoulder with the blade.
He didn’t have time to deliver the killing blow before he was met with another man with a sword, then by a woman who was brave enough to carry a weapon that was twice her size.
Slashes along their skin spilled blood into the streets.
I smiled as I watched the silver-eyed man make deep cut after deep cut, claiming the blood that I had lost.
“What is he doing?” a woman screamed at me. Her golden eyes were so familiar. An innate reaction wanted me to coil away from her, even if her eyes pleaded against some worry. “Phe. Make him stop!” The golden-haired woman shook my shoulders as she fearfully looked onto the battle at hand.
The shadows around me rose, sharpening into points, and aimed their attention at the woman, ready to strike at my command. “No,” I said as I smiled.
“But they’re innocents!” Her eyes grew frantic as she studied my face. I could taste her despair as I watched her lifesource pulse in a blinding glow. I wanted her lifesource, but something stopped me. “OPHELIA IMILY ENDROMEON! STOP THIS!” she shouted in my face and shook me hard by my shoulders.
I felt the agony before I saw the light come from her hands.
A scream pierced my chest as air was ripped out of my lungs.
Blinding light flared from her that caused my eyes to sting and drove back my shadows into nothing.
Every nerve within my body was dropped into an inferno.
Time slowed. Icy claws I hadn’t realized were holding my mind suddenly released with a piercing hiss and cry that forced me to cover my ears with my hands, to no avail.
The gray haze cleared from my vision. Burning buildings threatened to fall next to us.
Smoke overpowered my senses, choking me.
Flames devoured wooden beams and thatched roofs.
It was by Ednos’s grace, the giant of earth, that most of the buildings in the square were made of stone, or everything would have been demolished in seconds.
Another wave of screams echoed across the town.
Flashbacks of the fires Vovias had started in the town near the Rising Rock raced through my mind.
Without hesitation, I threw my Wielding into the air, sending water and air through Fernwick to snuff out every fire and ember, leaving nothing but smoke in its wake.
Suddenly I was so, so very tired.
“What happened?” I coughed, looking around to see townspeople lying on the ground in deep red puddles of blood.
“Why is he attacking them? Make him stop!” I heard Ora scream and looked in the direction she pointed—my heart dropped. Peiro was locked in battle with a boy who didn’t look much older than fifteen as he stepped over an older woman lying still.
“No!” I croaked through the smoke as I watched Peiro knock the boy to the ground.
He raised his sword above his head, ready to strike a deathly blow.
“NO!” I shouted at him and outstretched my hand, pulling just enough illicitus to the surface.
The temperature within my skin suddenly heightened as I felt sweat bead on my forehead.
Burnout was near, but I needed to stop this.
My eyes widened as I witnessed shadowy tendrils leave my fingers to cross the square and wrap firmly around Peiro’s wrists… and I pulled.
The force caused him to stumble, his sword missing the boy by inches.
Peiro’s head snapped up, his eyes meeting mine.
My stomach dropped upon seeing how silver they were—he was no longer in control…
and I was the one who had driven him to this state.
Nausea threatened me as I recollected how I’d lost myself in wanting to help by Wielding my power, but my power had Wielded me.
I was once again a fool thinking I could control the illicitus.
Something behind Peiro’s eyes was filled with rage as a dawning took over.
His body thrashed against my binding shadows again and again, like a wild animal caught in a snare.
As the smoke cleared, I found silver eyes staring angrily at me, though he stood there frozen.
“He’s mine!” the voice I knew wasn’t his roared at me.
“No,” I sobbed. I’d done this to him. Memories flooded me, each scene adding another wave of tears to my guilt.
By using the illicitus, I’d pushed Peiro past the point of control.
My heart threatened to crumble within my chest as I heard the command I had given him: kill them all.
I had caused him to attack these people, even the innocents.
I raced across the space, leaping over the still bodies that littered the stones.
A burning beam from a building crashed down into my path, stopping me momentarily, but I refused to take my eyes off Peiro as his body continued to fight against the shadows.
My legs felt heavy and my feet became numb the more I held him in place with my power.
I was almost there. The ire in his stare should have scared me but I was so desperate to release its hold on him. Stumbling, I watched his body shake and fight against the magical bond. Exhaustion was settling in and my vision turned blurry.
“You cannot have him,” it spewed between his teeth.
Ever so slowly, I raised my hands to his face, my arms shaking as my fingertips grazed the gruff of his beard. “L-leave him.” I stuttered my command, feeling the weakened dregs of my magic leave my fingers and pour into him, driving the thing back.
I crashed forward onto my knees, exhaustion taking over.