37. Everett
Everett
Vera launched through the sand, flames dancing off her wings. “What the Fates is she doing?” Starke yelled behind me.
I whirled to face him. “Get back. Get the others off this beach, now.”
He bristled. “I don’t take orders from—”
“Do you know who that is?” I roared, stepping until I was inches from his face. “You have no magic here, Starke. You’re out of your depth. By all means, run out there and get yourself killed. See if I care.” I stabbed a finger behind me toward Vera. “But I have a feeling she will. So get. Back.”
Starke’s features reddened in anger, but he did as I asked. He and Odessa headed for the outskirts of the beach, where a few trees separated them from the ensuing battle.
“One of us should stay and protect them,” I said to Kieran and Tessa. “Make sure nobody gets past the line. Isn’t that what Nox would say?”
With a glance back at Odessa, Kieran nodded. “I’ll stay. You two, be careful.”
Tessa twirled her twin daggers around her fingers. “Let’s have some fun.”
Mortep’s followers surged forward, blades flashing in the light of Vera’s wings. Several of them converged on her, while the others ran at Tessa and me. Mortep stood where the water met the sand, arms extended with his black cloak fluttering in the wind, like some sort of twisted puppet master.
Tessa launched a dagger at one of the oncoming men.
It embedded itself into his shoulder, but he barely flinched.
He ran at her with the blade sticking out of him, hands reaching for her throat.
She swiftly sidestepped him and slammed her fist into his jaw.
His head reared back like a door coming off its hinge.
And then with a crack, it snapped back into place. Hollow, milky eyes stared at us. He raised his sword and struck at Tessa with more fervor than before, but his motions were jilted and unbalanced, as if he wasn’t in control.
I squinted back at Mortep to see his lips moving silently, blood trickling down his chin. Blood magic. A form of Alchemy prohibited in the Veridian Empire because of how uncontrollable and lethal it could be, if gone unchecked. I would bet anything he was controlling these men with it.
One of them threw a knife at me. It flipped blade over handle, and my instincts from training with the Ashen Order kicked in. I moved to the side, caught the blade midair, and flung it back at my attacker. It caught the top of his thigh.
Two more swung their daggers at me, and I barely had time to duck. My injured arm was screaming—I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d pulled the stitches again. But I ignored the pain and reached inside my chest for my well of Illusionist magic.
The world fractured. Where there had been one of me and Tessa, there were now five, each charging in a different direction.
It was enough to make Mortep’s men hesitate.
Three of them veered toward the wrong targets, slamming into each other as my illusions dissolved beneath their weapons.
With the momentary reprieve, I turned my attention to Vera.
She summoned her blade of lightning in one hand and shadow sword in the other—her signature weapons forged not of steel, but of her own magic.
My steps faltered. I was in awe of her graceful movements, the way flames licked off her arms as she raised her sword and brought it down in a golden arc, knocking two men flat on their backs.
She battled four of Mortep’s puppets in a swath of shadows and lightning, delivering careful jabs to incapacitate but not kill.
She could slaughter them in a heartbeat if she wanted to.
With a mere breath. But after being forced to murder in cold blood while being under Mortep and Scarven’s thumb, I knew she despised the idea of taking innocent lives.
She was a master of beauty and intoxicating rage, but her fury answered only to her.
Yet even as her warning shots met their marks, her opponents barely reacted.
Blood poured from their wounds as they charged again and again.
Vera vanished from sight, striding and reappearing behind the line of attackers.
Shadows exploded from her hands. Two men screamed as they were sucked into the black pit, then spat out across the beach.
A line of phoenix fire formed between her and the others, cutting them off from Mortep.
Tessa and I worked our way through the remaining men around us, her with her jaguar claws and twin daggers, and me with a single good arm. I smashed the pommel of my sword into one of them, and Tessa shifted her hands into claws, swiping one man across the face.
Vera advanced on Mortep. “Did you miss me, little bird?” Mortep warbled in his soft, calculated voice.
I felt the wrath radiating from her. She threw out a hand, sending bolts of lightning straight at his chest, but his bloody fingers were already raised to his lips with another spell. Her lightning struck an invisible barrier around him and ricocheted to the ground, scorching the sand.
“I forgot how magnificent you were,” he murmured. “I can see it all, you know. Through them. They have been my eyes and ears as I tracked you down.”
Mortep lifted a hand and pulled. Five of his followers marched through the phoenix fire, flames catching on their clothes as blood dripped down their noses and eyes.
Three of them hurled themselves at Vera, while two lunged for me.
I tried to bat them away with the end of my sword, sending illusion after illusion to distract them.
“Coward!” Vera cried at Mortep, her three opponents now unconscious at her feet.
“You’ve never been able to face me yourself, have you?
” She thrust a ball of shadows at him, which dissipated at his invisible shield.
“Always hiding behind your tests”—another wave of fire—“and potions”—a slash of lightning—“and puppets.”
Her wings extended at her side. Abandoning her magic, she shot forward and wrapped a hand around his throat, raising them both into the air. Mortep’s legs dangled, but his smile only widened. “So—predictable,” he choked out. “Leading me straight—here.”
The sand suddenly lurched at my feet. I thought it was the earth shaking as it had done in the cave, but then my foot sank. Then my ankle. My calf.
Quicksand.
“Move!” I shouted, reaching for Vera as the sand shuddered. “The sand—”
It was too late. The beach liquefied, swallowing several of Mortep’s men whole.
Their faces were hauntingly blank as they were dragged under, weapons disappearing beneath the churning waves of sand.
Tessa sank just as quickly. She struggled to keep her head above ground, but little by little, it consumed us both.
I fought as hard as I could. My injured arm screamed as I clawed the slick surface. The ground slipped even farther, and I was left with nothing solid to stand on, nothing to grab on to.
Sand closed around my knees, then my waist. Panic burned in my throat. “Vera!” I shouted, watching her and Mortep hover above the ground, him still locked in her chokehold.
I tried to wiggle my way out of the earth’s clutches, but that only made the sand pour in faster. I freed my good arm and waved it in the air, sending sand down my throat. Vera’s neck pivoted in slow motion, her gaze briefly dropping to mine.
I saw it then. The unleashed rage, the vengeance, the devastating hatred. Everything she had wanted for seven years lay in the palm of her hand.
And then, there was me.
As the sand dragged me under, I wasn’t sure which one she would choose.