Chapter 1 #2
“You have learned a great deal in the time that I’ve been gone,” Morien commented.
“Does that time include you abandoning our family? Or are we just talking about the years you spent as death’s little bitch? You know, until you had to rely on that twisted fucker, Corvin Morvain, to rescue you?”
“You are rewriting history. Your mother cast me out.”
“You left her no choice. You chose power over her, Raina, and me. Just had to try to rule the world, huh? And it worked out gloriously. Falling spectacularly. Becoming dependent on a madman to spare you. And, fuck, the state of you… let’s not neglect mentioning that—you’re consumed by black magic.
Barely more than Animated Fleshwork. What a degrading position to be in for a necromancer, wouldn’t you say, Father? ”
Morien’s lips twisted. “Look at you daring to stand there and challenge me, to dismantle me with your biting accusations.” He took a step forward, making Sylas tense at the ready.
“How do you think this was made possible? I made you in my image. I ensured it was so, choreographed it, you might say.” His eyes gleamed.
“Everything you are, all that esteemed power, the significant moves you’ve made, the dangerous paths you’ve ventured down… all because of me.” He smirked. “Son.”
Holy. Shit.
“Haughty claims and a fuckload of misappropriation. My, my, how desperate you are.” He took a step closer to Morien. “How deeply you fear me, Father.”
“The haughty claims belong to you. Careful of that arrogance. You forget yourself, Sylas. I hold the key to you becoming whole again. This power you somehow wield once again is merely temporary. I possess the portion of your necromantic core you require to be restored permanently.” He smiled.
“And it will be the key to everything for me. You will be.”
“You intend to become me, yeah, I’m well aware.
It’s a whole other level of fucked up. The psychological ramifications are demented beyond belief.
And sad. So very sad that you need to become me in order to feel worthy.
You can’t be great on your own, so you steal from your son—my power, my very life. ”
“What can I say? You were nothing but a means to an end.”
“That only became the case when you realized I was stronger than you, when you had my true potential read as a boy. You couldn’t handle it.”
Morien’s gray power sparked. “You didn’t deserve it!” he suddenly roared. “That belonged to me! You took my position, took what I was supposed to be!”
I started forward.
My dad’s warning—well, his command—to stay out of it was crumbling with every moment that passed.
I wanted to tear into that piece of shit and his backup, rip Ketheron away from their mind-meddling influence, rip Velra, Cassius, my dad, and everyone away, and destroy the whole nightmare that they had basically brought to our door.
I couldn’t continue to stay out of it.
Besides, with Sylas here now, any necromantic shit that Morien and his bitches tried to pull could be overcome.
The warning my dad had given me was basically moot in light of that.
“You enter the battlefield under these specific circumstances, and you need to be prepared to kill.”
I jolted at my his voice carrying to me on the wind again, a barely-there whisper, yet one that held a fuckload of weight to it.
I looked to see him eyeing me across the distance.
He gestured discreetly behind him, and I saw that all the hybrids had been moved a couple hundred feet away out of the firing line.
Vorzyr was conjuring a portal now, using that to move them through to a Guardian sanctuary and all that.
Nyx was ushering them through, while also looking out at Kai still suspended by Undead Domination.
It was clear he was barely holding it together all the while Kai was in danger.
And there was also Ryker, one of Ariana’s dads.
Him being in the line of fire was no small thing to them either.
Nyx’s gaze flicked from Kai to Ketheron, and pain played on his face.
The two of them had a friendship and Nyx had been in Ketheron’s mind once through his dreamwalking, helping him.
So he knew his damage and mental anguish well and seeing him enduring this now was obviously hard for him to stomach.
No fucking kidding.
My dad was telling me that the wait was over anyway.
To hang on just a little while longer.
I whispered back, “I’ll bodycheck Ketheron, pull him away from them.”
“You do that and you’ll be assaulted with the mind-meddling magic intended for him. Celestial-enhanced mind-meddling. It could very well fracture your mind, Lazriel.”
“I can’t just stand by and—”
“You will snatch Velra from the battlefield. She is suffering from an attack. She cannot keep that psychological assault at bay much longer.”
Shit. I looked over at her, zeroing in close with my supernatural vision.
She was sweating. One palm had her purple power sparking on it and her shadows swirling, but unsteadily. Her other fist was clenched, but I could see the trembling even as she fought to hide it. And she kept blinking all too quickly as well. Her pulse was unstable and way too rapid.
“Anxiety attack?”
“In essence.”
“She almost died a third time… the trauma of that must have… when, Dad? When do you want me to make my move?”
“The moment you see me shift my weight. Ready yourself. Seconds.”
“You stand there posturing,” Morien went on to Sylas, his composure now cracked after Sylas’ dressing down and calling the fucker out.
“Posturing, huh?”
“Of course. You can’t kill me. I have the core, along with Corvin’s magic to counteract the infection he created in you. And I am the only one who knows the location. Without that, you won’t survive.”
“Oh, Father, you haven’t yet learned? Even after all this time, not to mention, all the vile acts you’ve committed?” Sylas cocked his head to the side, that dangerous look sparking in his eyes. “There are far worse things than death.”
His right palm flamed and then two spinning silver orbs materialized, hovering there.
The same orbs he’d used when we’d been attacked at his house. Specus Relics.
With his magic back, he didn’t need to utter commands, and I saw he had full control of them, a mere twirl of his finger moving them.
He thrust them toward the Dark Fae keeping Cassius, Kai, and Ryker trapped in Undead Domination.
Morien reacted with a roar and thrust his hand at them, making all three of them jolt violently.
Then he moved to twist his wrist.
He was gonna snap their necks! He was gonna murder them, infusing his power with the Dark Fae, black magic, and Celestial magic that his acolytes were already using to hold them there trapped, which would no doubt allow him to even murder the likes of three beings so insanely powerful with just a single neck snap.
Before I could even draw in my next breath, Sylas slammed his free left hand forward, a red leash materializing and wrapping rapidly around Morien’s throat, which Sylas then yanked on and drove the bastard roughly down to his knees.
As Morien spluttered and tried to fight, Sylas took the momentary distraction of him pulling at the leash restricting his airflow, and finished the job with the Specus Relics, driving them straight into the Dark Fae.
They exploded in a violent ball of red light, ripping the dozens of them off their feet, knocking several out in the process.
Their power cut out, and relief flooded me as Cassius, Kai, and Ryker, touched down, finally free.
I saw Sylas gesture at my dad, and in the next moment, he shifted his weight.
That was my cue.
I ripped toward Velra, thankful that most of my injuries had now healed, so I wasn’t slowed down.
It was a good fucking thing I wasn’t, because just as I snagged her and burst her back to where I’d been hanging back at my dad’s strategic command, I watched him burst forward toward the Dark Fae remaining who were tormenting Ketheron.
Velra gasped and clutched at me and I held her to me, stabilizing her from the vampire speed discombobulation, which was impacting her more than it normally would because she was in the throes of a severe attack.
“Lazriel,” she breathed, trembling in my arms.
“I’ve got you. It’s all okay,” I breathed into her hair as I held her back to my chest and enclosed her in my arms.
“You’re all right,” she uttered.
Shit. Of course that was what she cared about—that those she loved were safe and well, even over her own wellbeing. She was something else.
“I thought—” she started, clearly struggling to believe it.
But her words caught in her throat and we both choked as we saw my dad whipping around the Dark Fae unleashing their power on Ketheron, a second before he thrust his hands through the backs of two of them and punched out their hearts in one hell of a gory display.
He swept his hand at others, tearing their heads from their bodies.
And then it was back to the heart-ripping, until all of them were sprawled out in bloodied pieces, dead on the grass.
He went to Ketheron and helped him to stabilize.
My attention was taken as Morien managed to get off a blast against Sylas.
He held his ground, but with a noticeable grunt, meaning Morien had hurt him.
But he couldn’t defend himself because he had his right hand aimed at the remaining Dark Fae who’d been holding the others.
As several other blasts assaulted him and his hands shook from the strain of taking it, while still holding Morien down with that leash, he staggered, but his power still grew on his right palm.
It circled around the Dark Fae, forming a shimmering dome.
But it wasn’t a shield. That was made clear as the few who were still conscious started screaming and collapsing back onto the ground as they’d been trying to get back to their feet.
“Sylas!” Kai called out, apparently figuring out what he was doing.
“It’s the only way!” Sylas yelled back to him. “They’re infected with black magic, wielding Celestial power, and my father has made them capable of channeling his necromantic magic. They’re lethal to all of you. I have to! I fucking have to!”
And then just as Ryker and Kai moved to intervene, Sylas twisted his right hand.
Necks snapped, one after the other, in a brutal display, as he murdered dozens, just like that.
A massacre.
“Oh my God,” Velra uttered.
I cursed and tightened my hold on her.
Sylas turned his full attention and power back to Morien then, and as another blast came his way, he caught it in his hand, then tossed it back at the bastard, making him scream as it slammed into his gut.
Morien let out a creepy laugh, spluttering as Sylas tightened the noose around his throat. “Yet another time you’ve killed because of me,” he croaked.
“What?”
“You feel it? That buzzing through your veins tinged with pain? That’s not you recalibrating to your power after being bound. You would have only felt it as I assaulted you. That strange, acrid tang?”
“You infected me with black magic.”
Morien’s lips twisted. “Yes. Now you’ll have a taste for it. Well, more than just a taste with those murders factored in. Especially as a necromancer… taking lives… the black magic will latch onto that intensely.”
“You want my power, why would you risk corrupting it?”
“It won’t be corrupted once I take control of it. I’ve already prepared. But trying to bear that… hmm… I’d wager you’ll come begging me to end it, to take away the awful weight of it.”
Sylas tugged on the leash, making Morien growl.
And then his power flamed.
A warning sparked in my brain.
In seconds all my senses were screaming at me.
Incoming.
An all-too-familiar incoming.
I saw my dad spin around, registering it too.
In the next breath, a rush of movement ripped across the area.
It all happened so fucking fast.
Morien snapped the leash.
The blur briefly came into view and I shuddered as I took in the sight of Victor Halrow.
He winked out at my dad.
He licked his lips at me and a snarl sounded from my dad.
And then Victor snatched up Morien and sped him away through the forest.
“Go!” I heard Kai bellowing, and I watched as Vorzyr leapt into the air, shifting into a glorious black and red dragon as he went, heading out after Victor and Morien.
I was expecting my dad to go as well, to track the fucker.
But instead he caught my eye, regret all over him.
He had to leave.
Again.
Not just being the Commander of The Shadowed this time, but also because he’d just committed murder in front of Ryker.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, I then saw him grasp Sylas’ arm.
The two of them exchanged a nod, an understanding.
“No!” I blurted out. “Don’t! Sylas, we can fix this!”
He’d had to do that. He’d had to take them out like that.
He wasn’t the villain here.
He wasn’t even a fucking criminal.
He’d just saved them all!
“Stop!” Velra yelled too.
Cassius remained silent. He had his arm supporting Ketheron now and the two of them looked out at the scene. Fuck, he thought it was necessary, that Sylas needed to go.
Ryker’s power flamed, intending to stop them.
Kai shook his head in dismay.
And I held tighter to Velra.
In the next breath, my dad sped away with Sylas.
Gone.