Chapter 18 #3
I stepped as close to the illusion barrier as possible, still keeping out of sight, as I began to spin the circles on either palm, gathering my power, preparing it to be able to siphon suddenly from such a vast expanse, and several sources—all three dozen corrupted Dark Fae currently using it infused in their mind-meddling.
Ryker had been able to do something similar because of his special makeup, wherein he could nullify magical energy. There was a barrier employed there essentially that prevented that draw from impacting him directly—at least for a time.
I did not possess such a makeup.
“You dare to threaten us?” Lavra demanded.
“Threaten?” Velra answered, arching an eyebrow beautifully, in a way that conveyed so much.
“These are facts. And it really seems with how surprised and freaked you both are that your power hungry determination really blinded you to it. Big time.” She gave a faux grimace.
“I guess that means you aren’t prepared at all that I advised Thryne to inform Darethor, to strike an alliance with him.
With what you’ve done, that’s now become viable.
” She cocked her head to the side. “Funny, isn’t it?
How all this is going to come back on you and actually put them and Darethor on the same page after all this time?
Now it will no longer be a resistance movement.
It will be the way of running the Dark Fae Realm actually supported by the king himself. ”
“No!” Arvent yelled. “You understand nothing. There are complexities that—”
“Oh, you’re referring to Darethor being weakened?
Him essentially wasting away due to dangerous magic usage for too many years?
” Her eyes glinted. “Yeah, about that… he has more incentive to align with Thryne than I just mentioned. With my heretic-like abilities as you call them, I have the means to spare him.” She lifted a shoulder.
“You know, so long as he proves himself no longer a threat.”
Incredible work, my love.
I registered many of her parents’ minions reacting to that claim.
They appeared to be reconsidering their alliance.
Lavra screamed and started forward, intending to strike Velra again.
But with a flick of her hand, Velra’s shadows ripped the harpy off her feet and sent her careening into Arvent, which, in turn, tore him from the dragon.
The dragon still could not move, bound by Arvent’s mind-meddling.
As Lavra helped her husband to his feet, the two of them called their power in unison.
But Velra was already steps ahead, sweeping her frost at them, which had them both screaming as it spread up their fingers and forced their power to snuff out, while causing severe frostbite in the process to the point that they couldn’t even move their fingers.
As the Dark Fae minions reacted, Velra swept her shadows up and out all around her.
They passed over the victimized vampires and dragons, but tore into the hostiles, knocking some back, while tearing others off their feet.
And then it was time.
I stepped through the barrier, sparks emitting from the concentric circles spinning before me, and then the minions were crying out in protest as I began to siphon their borrowed Celestial magic, gold streams weaving their way toward me from each of them.
“Stop him!” Arvent roared.
Velra threw up a wall of her shadows in front of me, one I could still siphon through, because she was allowing me to be unaffected by her magic. But one that the minions were having to fight to break through.
She sent out pulses of her purple power, forcing many of them to duck and dive to avoid direct hits.
I saw her parents healing their hands, while Velra was distracted holding back their minions.
And then Arvent stepped forward and went to invoke the mind-meddling spell against me before I siphoned all the Celestial magic, gesturing for minions nearby to bolster him.
Lavra lunged at Velra.
But sudden rapid-fire surges of power pulled her mother up short.
In the next moment, a small army of fifty Dark Fae materialized right there on the peach-gold sands.
Fronting them was a fierce blond figure who I knew from Velra to be Graceyn, the current leader of Thryne. To her right was also a familiar face in Kelsana Torl, Velra’s friend from Wraeven Academy.
And then somebody else emerged through the crowd, that had both Velra and I reacting in surprise.
Jet-black hair tousled in harsh waves framed his youthful face that belied his true centuries of age.
He wore a fitted black shirt and leather jacket which combined both modernity and a distinct regal heir.
He stood broad-shouldered and muscular, albeit with faint brown markings marring his skin, evidence of the magical sickness afflicting him.
A twisted gold crown glinted vibrantly making itself known, especially with the multicolored gems adorning it.
King Darethor of the Dark Fae Realm.
Collective gasps ran out.
A third of the minions released dragons and vampires from their mind-meddling and dropped to their knees, bowing their heads.
Their vampire victims collapsed in the shaded areas, clutching their heads and whimpering, dealing with the aftermath of what they’d endured, the fact that the mind-meddling wear down took time to reconcile.
The handful of dragons who were now free shifted back to their human forms and sank onto the sand weakly, curled up into themselves.
All this damage… it was beyond sickening.
As I continued siphoning, holding my magic steady despite what I was witnessing, Darethor took clear note of Velra’s wall of shadows protecting both my process and defending against personal attack from her parents and those minions who had not knelt at the arrival of their king.
He stepped forward, his voice booming through the area, as he glared at them each in turn. “Warped subjects, kneel to your King. Beg for my forgiveness.”
Another handful over by the Cove lowered themselves to their knees, shaking and fighting pained utterings as I continued siphoning, pulling harder as I felt it nearing its end—just moments now until all the misused Celestial power was collected.
The golden streams weaving toward me sped up, coming faster, more determinedly, and it had me taking a couple of staggering steps back as I fought to absorb the weight of it.
“I was able to gain us access to Celestial power!” Lavra shouted at Darethor desperately.
“And now you stand here allowing him to take it from us!” She gestured angrily at Velra just a few feet from her and Arvent, shielded by shadows.
“And you witness this hybrid filth using magic against our own and simply allow it?”
“Hmm… hybrid filth,” Darethor mused, seemingly calm, yet his palms had sparked with his power, a deep blue tinged with black, and now glowed more vibrantly with every passing moment. “You speak such foul words against your own daughter.”
“She is not our daughter!” Arvent bellowed.
“Certainly not! Don’t let her actions reflect upon us,” Lavra spoke.
“Oh, I won’t.”
They frowned out at him, their minions calling their power in preparation from a snap of Lavra’s fingers. She and Arvent readied themselves also, magic flaming before Thryne, very careful not to actually aim at the king himself.
Darethor took note, but didn’t address it directly, moving closer to Lavra and Arvent, as his gaze flicked to me, studiously assessing the state of my siphoning.
Then he looked upon Velra’s despicable parents. “You beseeched me to banish one of our own, one who now stands here defending not just these creatures, but the good of our people and the kingdom?”
“She’s not one of us!” Lavra hissed.
“Because her blood is no longer pure Dark Fae?”
“Of course.”
Darethor looked at Velra, his lips lifting, before he glared at Lavra and Arvent. “That matters not.”
I jolted, a grunt escaping me as the last of the Celestial power was absorbed into my being.
It garnered the attention of Velra and Darethor.
“It is done,” I rumbled, eyeing Lavra and Ardent.
“No!” Lavra screamed. “This is not happening! We’ve come too far!”
They could not strike me through Velra’s shadow wall shielding me.
So they turned their attention to her.
Darethor slid in front of Velra, just as their streams hit.
And caught them.
In either palm.
His eyes flamed a wild blue.
There was definite struggle there, sweat glistening on his skin, his body trembling a little. But he held steady in spite of it.
He lifted his chin at Graceyn. “If you will, enlightened one.”
Graceyn’s lips quirked at his wording.
And then she commanded Thryne to contain the remaining loyalists foolishly still supporting the warped ideology of Lavra and Arvent Tenebris.
“Unleash chaos!” Lavra called out.
In the next moment, those still with them ramped up their mind-meddling, taking control of the dragons and vampires in even crueler ways—sending vampires out into the sun but not tugging them back into the shade at the last moment this time, which forced Thryne to use their efforts to shield them and protect, rather than to subdue the hostiles.
They also forced draconic beings to turn back into their dragon forms, wherein the minions then whipped and cut into their dragon hide with their magic.
And a handful of others fired upon Thryne itself, forcing it into a protective and defensive position.
A dangerous rumble sounded from Darethor, a moment before his blue magic flared exponentially.
And then he thrust his palms out, his power and that which he’d caught of Lavra’s and Arvent’s detonating over them and sending them careening fifty feet across the sand.
I saw him move to finish it, but he then noted a set of the minions coming at me, intending to go through Velra, all to force me to return the Celestial magic.
I collapsed to my knees, unable to remain upright a moment longer.