Chapter 13 #2
She reached the door and tried the handle. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. She waved a hand over the mechanism and heard the click before she yanked it open.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she drawled. Then stepped outside, back to the fight.
As Killian had said, Lazarus waited in the middle of the street.
He faced her, hands hanging casually by his side, as if he possessed all the patience in the world.
Even more ravens carved through the night, soaring into any open door or window they could find.
Lazarus’s smile seemed to widen at every new scream that rippled down the block.
Footsteps sounded behind Elyse. She didn’t have to look to know Killian had come up beside her. “You need the Blade of Hanael,” he urged. “Don’t be stupid.”
Elyse leveled him with a stare that would make kings tremble. “Go back to the shop,” she snarled.
Killian shook his head. “Absolutely not.” He flexed his fingers at his side as he bent his knees, his gaze narrowed on Lazarus.
“Then don’t get in my way,” Elyse growled, and she took off.
She cut through the darkness, summoning wind at her back to elongate her stride.
Her feet shoved hard against the cobblestone as her hands flung spell after spell at Lazarus—each a death blow.
None of them hit, instead dissolving into the night like a fading breeze. Lazarus only smiled at each failure.
Killian matched her stride for stride as he blasted off his own spells. He chose stunning spells, though—the imbecile. He was too afraid of hurting civilians. That fear was his weakness.
But Elyse had no fear. She poured her hatred, even her pride, into every spell and hurled her magic like a tidal wave. Each movement had the muscles in her back screaming as the glass wrenched through her skin. She tried her best to ignore it, but she could feel her magic depleting every second.
Lazarus finally countered, sending a death hex hurtling toward them. Killian erected a shield, covering both him and Elyse. The hex catapulted into the shield and evaporated into nothingness.
Killian dropped the shield before Elyse could scream at him to do so. The hard air had barely disappeared before she blasted off a death hex of her own. Lazarus was faster. He thrust his hands forward and a wall of fire sailed toward them.
Elyse flicked her fingers and levitated into the air, rising above the flames. Killian rolled aside as the fire roared past him. Elyse didn’t wait for him to catch up as she shot one, two, three death hexes at Lazarus.
They were only ten yards apart now. His chin high, he stared down his long nose at her.
“It is not too late.” His voice rolled through the street, sending a shiver through Elyse. It was darkness incarnate. “We could rule this world together.” He waved his hand and appeared right in front of her, his broad chest at eye level.
“I’d rather die,” Elyse snarled. She fired off a hex, but Lazarus laughed and shielded himself.
She attacked over and over, every muscle aching as her magic waned.
Killian joined her, firing off his own spells, but it was useless.
Lazarus was like a phantom, taunting them as he disappeared and reappeared, their spells never landing.
Elyse ground her teeth and tried harder and harder, again and again.
She was tired and bleeding and hopelessly outmatched, but she wouldn’t quit. One way or another, it ended tonight.
“Enough!” Lazarus commanded. He waved his hand and sent a ripple of air over the pavement. It knocked Elyse off her feet, her knees and palms stinging on impact. She braced herself on her hands and tried to push herself up, but Lazarus hissed, “Stay down.”
Elyse refused to submit, pushing harder against the pavement, but she couldn’t move. It felt as if a weight had been set on her back. Like her hands were somehow glued in place, her knees stitched into the stones beneath.
“So you can still obey me,” Lazarus taunted.
Elyse lifted her head toward him, sending as much heat into her stare as she could muster. “Fuck you,” she spat as she tried again to wrench her hands free.
Next to her, Killian struggled as well. He was still shirtless, his back drenched in sweat and dirt.
Lazarus clucked his tongue. “You could have any man in the kingdom—in the continent—yet you choose him?” He looked at Killian with pure disdain.
To his credit, Killian didn’t flinch. “This disgraced lieutenant? A weakling who can barely perform a stunning spell?” He shook his head. “Love is a strange thing.”
Elyse’s lip curled into a snarl. “You confuse love with alliance. A common enemy is the only thing between us.”
Lazarus laughed, a deep rumble that seemed to shake the entire street. “No daughter of mine should be associated with filth like him.”
The words struck hard, as they always did. “I am not your daughter,” she spat.
Lazarus leaned forward. The hideous smile across his face turned pitying as he said, “Your silver hair.” He pointed at her hair, now limp with sweat.
Then he lifted his hand to his own silver eye, or rather, Ymaritis’s.
“You and your brother had more in common than your powers. Too bad you never learned to wield as strongly as him.”
Elyse writhed. Every ounce of her body lashed against the invisible restraints, but to no avail. Her insides were burning, as if she could feel Lazarus’s magic inside her.
“You lie,” she barked at him, her anger boiling into denial. Ymaritis was not her brother, and Lazarus was not her father.
Lazarus stood straight again, relishing the chaos that blazed inside Elyse. “After tonight, I’ll be laying low for a while,” he said. “I’ll need to prepare for the grand show.” He gave Killian one last ridiculing look. “I think your soldier here will truly appreciate it.”
Lazarus took a step back and clapped his hands together. As soon as his palms met, a shockwave burst from his hands and rippled down the block. The entire street trembled, quaking beneath Elyse.
“Have fun,” Lazarus called before he disappeared completely.
As soon as he vanished, Elyse and Killian were free to move again. But even in Lazarus’s absence, the earth continued to shake. The birds had disappeared, but the screams remained, along with the groaning of buildings and the sound of stones scraping together.
“Shit,” Killian mumbled as he rose to his feet. Elyse did the same, hissing at the wound in her back. She planted her feet wide against the shaking street.
Then the street caved in on itself.
It happened fast. One second the stones were there, then they were tumbling down.
A hole erupted from the ground, taking more of the street with it every second.
Elyse scrambled away from it, trying and failing not to trip over the shifting stones.
Killian grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up and away from the horrific hole that now took up half the street’s width.
“Manny and Sera are down by the inn,” Killian shouted over the chaos, pointing across the ever-widening gap. He took another step back to stay clear of the edge. “We need to get to them and take as many people as we can away from here.”
Elyse looked to where he was pointing, to Manny and Sera waving frantically at civilians. Throngs of people were fleeing their homes and shops, the very buildings they had just sought fortress in.
Elyse took another step backward as the street began to slant downward, caving in toward the hole. It felt as if they were being sucked in. The buildings along the block began to tip inward.
“Elyse,” Killian pleaded, but she didn’t bother to reply.
She grabbed Killian by the wrist and whirled them away.