Chapter 53 Protection
PROTECTION
ZEKE
“Stop!” Cornaith’s voice cut through the noise in my head. “You foolish boy!”
Before I knew what I was doing, I cleared the distance to the slab, stopping short when the triplets blocked my path.
Ezra and Cyn flanked me, taking in the horrifying sight of Ash’s body draped over Rae on the slab.
Several rips in his dress shirt exposed bloody gashes where the council’s magic split his back instead of sinking into him like it had with Rae.
Seeing the severity of his wounds painted a worse picture of what they’d done inside Rae’s body.
The skin along my arms rippled, and I forced down the urge to shift. I couldn’t do anything right now for Rae or my brother.
Not from fear of Cornaith, but because I couldn’t undo what was done.
Ash groaned and pushed up on one arm to peer down at Rae. “I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Rae lifted her hand, trembling fingers brushing Ash’s beard. “Why?”
That single question made my heart ache.
Of course she wouldn’t believe we loved her after what we’d done.
We thought she had betrayed us.
It didn’t matter that we were never certain she’d manipulated us.
We still abandoned her.
“Because I love you.” Ash coughed, blood trickling over his lips and staining his beard as he struggled to speak. “It doesn’t matter if you’re my mate or not.”
Rae parted her lips, but nothing came. Her eyes watered.
I wondered what she would’ve said. Did she love Ash? I hoped so.
Cornaith’s upper lip pulled back in a snarl. “You would stand against your people to protect a human who tried to destroy the council?”
When Dad and Ardvaen stepped in to pull Ash from the slab, Rae lifted her shaking arms and wrapped them around his shoulders, clinging to him.
“Release him at once!” Cornaith roared.
Large wounds took time to heal; wounds from the council’s full force could take longer—if they healed at all. Ash needed a doctor.
Ash mumbled something and went limp, still shielding Rae.
She buried her face in his neck and held on.
I knew he wasn’t dead.
When we were teenagers, we’d formed a weaker version of the Phalinos Pact. The four of us made a blood pact, so we’d always sense each other. On missions, it let us feel one another’s condition… or death.
Cornaith turned to the guards flanking the council. “Stop her! She cannot touch the prince!”
My gaze darted between Cornaith and Ash.
The long chains allowed Rae to lift her arms enough to hold Ash, but not much more.
When the guards closed in on the slab, Cyn and Ezra stepped forward to stop them. Two guards seized them from behind. Another grabbed me before I could react.
Cyn’s eyes flashed black, and his hands shifted into claws. “Get the fuck off me!”
Lymsrana crossed to Cyn, cupped his cheeks, and murmured something I couldn’t hear. He yielded at once, claws retracting.
Ezra’s narrowed eyes fixed on Ash and Rae.
One guard clamped Rae’s arms tighter than the shackles already did. Another hauled Ash off her. She thrashed the instant his body lifted from hers.
The air shifted, and my skin prickled with the electricity stirring in the atmosphere.
My gaze snagged on Amra’s moving lips. I glanced at Ezra, but he was already watching his mother.
Cornaith turned. “What are you doing?” He didn’t yell. I suspected the lowered voice was to avoid the cameras’ attention. “Amra, stop at once.”
Her eyes opened. “I only hoped to help Ash until the guards can get him to the infirmary.”
Cornaith sniffed. “Ashryn will be fine. If he doesn’t make it, it’s his own fault.” He turned back to the slab where Rae struggled against the guards holding her.
I looked at Cyn. “Why aren’t they transforming?” If they shifted into their alternative forms, they’d restrain her easily.
“Because the souls will try to steal their power. Look,” Ezra said, angling his head right. “They came when Cyn partially shifted.”
I looked at the edge of the ring.
A dozen lost souls clustered at the barrier’s edge, watching Cyn. He’d already shifted back, but they still reacted to him.
Ash groaned in pain, and Rae kicked out, striking the guard holding him. He toppled across Rae’s midsection.
The audience on the platform shouted, protesting Rae’s violence and defiance.
My eyes widened in panic when Dad’s hands grasped the sides of her head. “Dad, no!”
“He’s going to destroy her mind,” Ezra rumbled, more beast than infernal.
I wrenched free from the guard and rushed Dad, pulling him into a bearhug. “Please don’t. Dad, please.”
“What is the meaning of this?” Dad looked down at me with a stunned expression.
“Zekarias, stop this at once,” Mom demanded, crossing over to where I continued to hold Dad tight. “Let him handle the human.”
“No.” I met Dad’s eyes, willing him to see what I hadn’t told anyone.
He couldn’t destroy the woman I loved.
The only woman I’d ever loved.
Holy shit, I loved her.
“Caendra. Take the boy,” Dad said, averting his gaze.
“Dad, please! She’s—”
My knees buckled, and Dad steadied me as a shockwave of power tore through the air, staggering everyone.
“What—” Mom turned to the slab where several guards already lay unconscious at its base.
Cornaith swept his robe aside and held Amra’s elbow as she righted herself. “What is the meaning of this?”
I looked from the council to the triplets, then to Cyn and Ezra. Everyone else lay unconscious, murky fog curling over them.
Rae held Ash close, awake despite the power. The guards, audience, and production staff lay incapacitated around us.
“I don’t know where it came from,” Ardvaen said, sweeping his gaze over the clearing. “I can’t sense the source.”
“Remove Ashryn and let us finish this before anything else happens. This spectacle is already a disaster.” Cornaith strode toward the slab.
Dad released me and started for Rae.
Another shockwave hit, taking me to my knees. This time, I saw the air distort around the slab.
It came from Rae.
Cyn met my eyes, shook his head, and bent to whisper to Ezra.
We both knew drawing attention to the source of the shockwave would damn her instantly.
The heavy air hummed against my skin, and all I could do was stare.
“Hurry up!” Cornaith barked, no longer putting on airs for the cameras still recording from their tripods.
When Dad and Ardvaen grabbed Ash, Rae clutched him tighter, refusing to let go.
“I’m done with these games, girl.” Cornaith lifted his hand, blue frost magic swirling around his fingertips.
No. No, no, no.
Ezra and Cyn moved at once, rushing the slab as I pushed to my feet and followed. Before we could reach Rae, another shockwave—more powerful than the others—erupted, hurling everyone near the slab back and dropping the rest.
Rae’s neck bowed, straining until a shriek split the air as the binding on her vocal cords snapped.
Spirits crowded the barrier, moaning and wailing, answering Rae’s distressed cry.
Lymsrana helped Amra to her feet, eyes wide as she looked at the spirits. “The barrier is weakening!”
Cornaith flared power across the clearing, shoring up the barrier and muffling the spirits’ wails.
“We must get them out of here,” Ardvaen said, motioning to the guards who staggered to their feet, finally regaining consciousness. “Take the princes to Elyrdin. It’s no longer safe here.”
“No!” I shoved a guard away as he tried to grab my arm. “I’m not leaving her!”
Cornaith’s eyes narrowed on me, but I didn’t care. Not now.
“I’m not leaving, Dad.” Cyn crossed over to my side.
“This is not up for debate, boys.” Cornaith looked at Ezra and the guards. “Take them and go.”
Ezra’s jaw ticked. His gaze fell to the slab where Rae didn’t move, eyes shut as she panted heavily. He looked at Cornaith again.
“Will you defy me too, Son?”
Ezra approached, and I couldn’t tell whether to pull us away or stand with us. I didn’t have time to ask. The next moments blurred into chaos I didn’t understand.
Dad reached for Rae’s head again, but this time her eyes snapped open. He staggered back. “Cornaith!”
Ezra stopped, and we watched Rae’s shackles crack and crumble like chalk, sifting into the mist.
Rae sat up, drawing Ash to her chest.
Then I saw it.
Black veins spread across her face like a spiderweb from obsidian eyes. Bloody tears ran down her cheeks, dripping from her chin onto Ash’s face.
I grabbed Cyn’s arm, needing an anchor. “What’s happening to her?”
“I don’t know, but we can’t get closer. Do you feel it?”
I froze. He was right. If I moved too far forward, the pressure in the air became unbearable. Getting closer would trigger another shockwave.
Ezra crossed to us. “We need to get her out of here if we can.”
I looked at him with wide eyes. “So you believe it now?”
“It doesn’t matter what I believe. This is too much,” he said, eyes locked on Rae.
The skin around Cyn’s eyes tightened. “Look at her eyes.”
“Just like yours,” I breathed, unable to hide my awe.
“Why is she crying blood?” He looked at Ezra. “What are those lines? It looks like the Void shadows that marks your body.”
Before Ezra could answer, the pressure around the slab collapsed, releasing the council from the weight pinning them in place.
“Now!” Cornaith motioned for the guards, no longer risking the council members. “Grab her before she kills him!”
As soon as the guards got within a couple of feet of the slab, another shockwave surged—this time with a bright violet flare.
Brilliant purple and deep black swirled around the pillar, snaking over the stone and wrapping around Rae and Ash in an intricate dance that mesmerized me.
Sparkling amethyst glittered in the air, raining down on them as Rae’s bloody tears continued to fall.
She didn’t speak. Didn’t make a sound.
She didn’t seem afraid of the magic. She didn’t seem aware of anything other than Ash in her arms.
I knew the magic cast on her would’ve wrecked her insides like it did Ash’s skin, but she didn’t look hurt.
The council stepped back as the magic expanded, a sphere swelling around the pillar. Its surface pulsated with violet light before folding inward and collapsing with another shockwave that reverberated down to my bones.
The shell burst apart, and a rain of fragmented glitter and gemstones fell, absorbed by the cyan mist swirling across the cracked ground as if the land itself fed on the remnants.
Ash’s eyes opened as the mist settled. He groaned and sat upright, not a wound in sight.
How had he healed?
He looked at Rae, eyes widening. “What happened?” His fingers brushed across the black lines on her face, smearing bloody tears.
She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. The black streaks receded toward her eyes like poison draining away. When she opened them again, her stormy gray was back, clear and normal.