Chapter 39
“Liam,” Nocta murmured, voice laced with pain as he looked down at the other man’s crumpled form. “I’m so sorry, my old friend.”
Liam coughed, struggling to rise, his eyes meeting Nocta’s.
“I tried to hold him in Everdark, but he’s too strong.”
Old friend . . .
It took me a second to put it together. Liam hadn’t just been helping us. He’d been working for Nocta the whole time. His friend who’d helped him with the pendants and his secret path in and out of Heathermoor? I’d have laid the Grym Dunaras itself on the line betting that it had been Nocta.
If I’d learned that any sooner, I would’ve been furious, but now, I was a ball of confusion. It was a betrayal . . . and yet Nocta had been looking out for me all along, too. My father had sent Liam to help us. To help keep me safe.
A flash of movement pulled my attention back to the dark portal at the center of the Weave. From behind Tarquinius stepped another figure, small and familiar. My heart stopped cold.
Opie.
She instantly moved to Tarquinius’s side, her eyes blazing with fury as she met my gaze.
“Opie?” I called, fighting against Typhon, who still held strong. “Let me go to my sister!”
“I’m not your sister!” She stood there, glaring at me like I was the enemy. “You abandoned me like everyone else. You told me you knew I’d get my magic one day, but that was a lie. You never believed in me at all. Tarquinius is the only one who saw what I could be.”
“Opie,” Liam pleaded. “Don’t let him fool you. This man is a monster. A murderer. He killed the entire House of Ph–”
“That’s enough from you!” Tarquinius stepped forward, eyes glittering as he raised a hand toward Liam.
“No!” Nocta lunged forward, firing off a blast of Fae magic.
Liam’s body shimmered with an ethereal light and then disappeared into thin air.
It was a stunning display of Fae magic, but it cost my father dearly.
I could see it already. The sudden paleness of his face.
The dullness of his eyes. “You’ve hurt enough of the people I care about. No more.”
“And what? You think Spiriting him away will save him forever? I’ll track him down eventually,” Tarquinius laughed, a harsh and mocking sound.
“Always giving up bits of yourself to protect broken things, aren’t you, Nocta?
First your precious Nine, using all your energy to try and fix them . . . make them whole again.”
The words rained down on me like shards of glass, each one another tiny cut. These Franken-critters weren’t monsters. They were the original Neverthorn Nine. And my father had cobbled them together not to create monsters to do his bidding, but to try and save them . . . to bring back his friends.
No. That couldn’t be right. I’d seen it with my own two eyes when we’d gone to the fairy circle in the woods. I’d watched the memory, almost like a movie, as a young Nicodemus Oliphant sucked the very souls of his friends into a metal contraption.
The tears. In the memory that had bled its way into the very stone of that magical place, I’d also thought I’d seen tears in Nico’s eyes as he’d done the deed.
I stared in stunned silence, dimly aware of Phyllis’s broken sobs behind me as Tarquinius continued, sneering at Nocta.
“Now you’re using the last bit of what you have left on some pathetic excuse for a Dwimmer.
You were always so easy to manipulate. If someone showed you the least bit of kindness, you’d do anything for them.
That weakness is what cost you your house all those years ago.
That weakness is what will cost you this war tonight. Remember that.”
Before Nocta could reply, Malena jerked upright and let out a screech, straining against her restraints. I turned just in time to see her jabbing one of the Neverthorn Nine with the tip of her finger as they moved in.
And, apparently, that was enough for her.
Her Quirk surged, her body beginning to shift almost instantly.
Her restraints creaked, then broke as she became a mirror image replica of the massive, wolf-headed beast beside her.
She leapt to her feet before anyone could grab her, flashing a wicked grin as she set her sights on Nocta.
Tarquinius sighed. “Don’t disappoint me again, Malena. Nocta’s barely hanging on . . . a shell of his former self. The fact that you let him catch you at all is an embarrassment to me. Finish this, won’t you?”
Malena snarled and lunged forward, enhancing her speed with magic as she hurtled toward Nocta. And Tarquinius was right behind her, supporting her assault with well-placed spells of his own, keeping us off balance, but curiously keeping Excalibur sheathed at his hip . . .
At first, we were able to keep them at bay with the force of our numbers.
Nocta, the Neverthorn Nine, and Typhon worked seamlessly, pressing Malena back while House Phoenix played the distance game, sending a constant barrage of attacks at Tarquinius, drawing his attention, forcing him to shield from us.
“I might be weak, but the travel through the Weave has cost him too,” Nocta said just loud enough for my ears. “We just need to wear them down and get close enough to get the sword.”
For the first time since we’d gotten to this dreadful place, I felt a surge of hope. We outnumbered them ten to one. Surely, they couldn’t expect to beat all of us, right? Even with Excalibur, the odds were just too much in our favor . . .
Or, at least, that’s what I thought before Tarquinius actually used it.
A blinding wave of golden light filled the room as he unsheathed the sword, raising it into the air. Magic flowed from it like water, so concentrated that I could sense the suffocating pressure of it from across the room.
Energy blasted from its tip, refracting into a half dozen beams of power .
. . one of them heading straight at my chest. I hurled up a shield at the last possible moment, wincing as the spell crashed into it, rocking me to my core.
I would’ve lost my footing if the rest of the House of Phoenix hadn’t been standing right behind me, holding me up.
The fight raged on, fierce and draining despite our numbers advantage. Nocta moved well for a time, his attacks powerful enough to shake the room, but it didn’t take long for him to start flagging. Sweat streamed down his face, and each new spell seemed to take more effort than the last.
Tarquinius’s mouth twisted with annoyance each time he was blocked, and he clearly had no intention of winning this by outlasting us.
He stepped back, raising Excalibur in one hand while he drew up a quick rune with the other.
Opie jerked upright, eyes widening as a massive bubble shield snapped into place around her.
My breath caught as she jolted sideways, flying right to Tarquinius’ side, still encased in magic.
“Enough!” Tarquinius’s voice rang out, freezing us in place. He raised Excalibur higher, the blade glowing fiercely against Opie’s pale skin. “I’ve grown weary of this nonsense. Hand over what you have of the Grym Dunaras, or the girl dies. Give me what I want, you can have her back.”
My heart lurched as I met Opie’s eyes, seeing how afraid she was. She opened her mouth to speak, but her voice was completely inaudible through the thick shield.
What happens if he closes that in on her?
I didn’t dare think of it.
Tarquinius’s icy voice cut through the room again. “Choose now, Harlow. Her life is in your hands.”
“Don’t hurt her! You know that there is no question.” I could barely get the words out through my panic. “Gary, give me the sack. Now.”
Gary fumbled to pull it free, eyes wide. “Harlow, you know he’s lying. He’s going to –”
“Now,” I snapped.
I reached for it, not daring to take my eyes off Opie. Gary was right. No way Tarquinius was letting us leave here alive, Opie included. But I’d give him whatever he asked for to keep her alive long enough to come up with a plan.
“No!” Nocta boomed as he stepped forward. The room began to tremble and shake, loose debris raining down from the ceiling. “You won’t take another child’s life in your quest for power, Tarquinius! It ends here.”
Power crackled between them, the two forces crashing together in the middle of the room with enough energy to throw me back a step. I shielded my eyes against the glare as Tarquinius froze in place, Excalibur’s glow flickering as Nocta’s spell locked him down.
Malena seized her chance, breaking away from Nocta’s minions and lunging at him. Typhon was there before she could reach him, batting her back with a stun rune. She hit the ground hard, fury twisting her features as she scrambled back to her feet.
“Don’t even think about it,” Typhon growled, hands blazing.
Around me, chaos erupted. The rest of House Phoenix sprang back into action, spells flying from all directions, all aimed at Tarquinius.
Zeed, Marina, and Caterina threw everything they had.
But it still wasn’t enough. Tarquinius’s shielding Quirk boosted by the power of Excalibur was too much to handle.
I clenched my fists, heart sinking as each spell fizzled. The fight, the last week, the fear and adrenaline, it was all too much to keep going like this. I wasn’t the only one feeling it.
We were hitting a wall, and Tarquinius knew it.
The clash between Nocta and Tarquinius intensified further, magic roaring between them like a storm. Both men stood frozen in place, locked in a silent battle of mental will.
“You can’t hold this,” Tarquinius growled through gritted teeth. “You’re nothing compared to what you once were.”
“Still more than enough for you,” Nocta growled, even as his knees began to buckle.
I wanted to believe him. But then Tarquinius’ fingers began to move. It was almost imperceptible at first, but before long, he’d nearly formed a full-on rune. Nocta was strong, but Excalibur took Tarquinius a step beyond.
“It’s time!” one of Nocta’s wretched creatures called.
The original Neverthorn Nine moved as one, lumbering forward to lay their twisted, patchwork hands on Nocta’s shoulders. Their power began flowing into him, their energy pooling together to bolster his faltering strength.
“No!” Nocta’s face was filled with panic as he pushed back at them with his own magic. “You can’t. It’ll drain you completely!”
One of the creatures interrupted him. “We’re giving back what you gave to us, Nico. For you. For your daughter. For us. Take it so that we can finally rest . . . our time here is done, old friend.”
Tears began dripping from Nocta’s eyes, but he stopped struggling, his eyes flashing with renewed strength as his friends began to fall away, literally a piece at a time.
They gave their lives for him. Not because he was controlling them, but because they loved him.
“This is where you die, Tarquinius,” Nocta snarled.
Excalibur’s golden light flickered like a lightbulb on the verge of dying out.
Come on, come on, I pleaded, slamming attack after attack into a still-untouchable Tarquinius.
But that glimmer of hope didn’t last as the light began to stabilize. Even the combined might of Nocta and the entire Neverthorn Nine wasn’t enough. The room shuddered around us, and I shifted my focus to the shield around Opie.
If I could just get her out, maybe I’d have enough strength to Spirit her away . . .
Before I could make my move, Phyllis shouldered past me, hands balled up into fists at her side.
“Phyllis!” I called, fear roiling in my gut as she drew even closer to Nocta.
I surged forward to grab her shoulder, but she jerked away and all I could do was watch as she charged into the beam of energy that’d been flowing from Tarquinius into Nocta.
A spasm rolled through her body, and she opened her mouth in a silent scream. The full brunt of Tarquinius’s attack was on her.
“No!” Nocta’s cry echoed through the room.
My heart lurched, a sickening dread flooding through me as I watched her crumple, her body absorbing the attack that’d been meant for Nocta.
“Phyllis!”