Chapter 22
Petra woke to a sensation like ice water flooding through her veins. The mating bond flared hot and urgent, Seth’s alarm bleeding through before she was even fully conscious.
“They’re here,” Seth said, already rolling out of bed and reaching for his clothes. “The mages. They’re at the gate.”
“What?” Petra scrambled upright, her heart hammering. “But Judy said we had at least another day.”
“Foresight isn’t an exact science.” Seth tossed her jeans and a shirt from the chair. “Get dressed. Fast. We need to get to the great hall.”
Petra’s hands shook as she pulled on her clothes, fumbling with buttons and zippers.
Through the window, she could hear shouting.
Male voices were barking orders, and there was the sound of running feet.
Then a flash of grisly red light illuminated the entire bedroom, followed by a concussive boom that rattled the windows.
“What was that?” she asked, her voice coming out higher than normal.
“Magic.” Seth’s expression was grim as he checked his weapons. “Big magic. Come on.”
He grabbed her hand and they ran for the door.
The castle hallways were mostly empty though they did see some of the new staff members hurrying to secure rooms. Anna was clutching her planner like a shield as she ran down the hall.
Wilhelm appeared from a side corridor, his usually implacable expression tight with concern.
“The perimeter team is down,” he reported to Seth. “All of them. Some kind of area-effect spell caught them all at once.”
“Pax and Ari?” Seth demanded.
“They were also outside and caught up in it. They are unconscious but alive. Klaus is moving them to the safe room now.” Wilhelm’s jaw clenched. “Whatever hit them was powerful. They went down like they’d been struck by lightning. It appears everyone outside the castle was affected.”
Seth swore viciously. Petra felt his fury and worry through their bond, and felt him fighting to keep control. “We’re headed for the great hall,” he said. “Wilhelm, get everyone else to the safe room and seal it. Don’t open it for anyone except me or Petra.”
“Understood.” Wilhelm melted back into the corridor, already issuing quiet orders.
Seth pulled Petra down the main staircase. They could hear voices now, coming from the entrance hall. Arrogant, unhurried voices rang against the ancient stone and spoke with the certainty of people who knew they couldn’t be stopped.
“Pathetic defenses. Frankly, I expected better.”
“Perhaps she doesn’t understand what she’s inherited, Master Salazar.”
“Then we’ll educate her. Before we kill her.”
Petra’s blood ran cold. Seth’s grip on her hand tightened, and she felt a wave of protective fury through the bond so intense it nearly staggered her.
They burst into the great hall to find Judy already there, surrounded by glowing circles of protection she’d drawn on the floor in chalk and salt. Her face was pale but determined, her hands moving in complex patterns as she wove additional shields into place.
“Inside the circle,” Judy commanded without looking up. “Now.”
Petra scrambled to obey, crossing the threshold just as the great hall’s double doors exploded inward.
Three figures strode through the wreckage.
The one in the center commanded immediate attention.
He was a tall man with silver hair and sharp, aristocratic features that would have been handsome if not for the cold cruelty in his pale eyes.
He wore all black that seemed to drink in the light, and on his right hand, a blood-red ruby ring pulsed with sickly power.
“So you’re Salazar,” Judy said, her voice steady despite the tension radiating from her. “We’ve been expecting you.”
Salazar’s gaze dismissed Judy without a word of acknowledgement and shifted to Petra. She felt the weight of his regard like a physical thing. It felt ancient, malevolent, and utterly without mercy.
“Ah. The mousy librarian who inherited more than she can possibly handle, I presume. How unfortunate for you, my dear,” he said in a pseudo-fatherly tone. Petra was both disgusted by his display and scared out of her mind.
The woman to Salazar’s left wore plain red robes with a matching veil that concealed her features.
She stood perfectly still, but Petra could sense malevolent power radiating from her in waves.
To Salazar’s right, a young man who looked to be of Asian descent fairly crackled with barely restrained energy.
His eyes gleamed with excitement and something that looked like hunger.
“You have precisely one opportunity to surrender this castle peacefully,” Salazar said, his tone conversational.
“Return our workshop to us, restore our access to the ley lines, and we might allow you to live. Refuse…” the ruby ring flared brighter, “…and I’ll demonstrate why I’ve survived for centuries while more powerful mages turned to dust.”
“Centuries of murdering innocent people and corrupting natural magic,” Judy shot back. “Real impressive resume you’ve got there, bud.”
“The weak exist to fuel the strong. It’s a simple truth you bleeding hearts refuse to accept.
” Salazar raised his hand, and the ruby ring blazed with crimson light.
“I built the network that operates from this nexus. I first corrupted these ley lines when this castle was nothing but a medieval fortress. Later, I recruited Abdul’s father and taught him how to serve our cause.
This place is mine by right of conquest and decades of investment. ”
“It’s mine by right of inheritance,” Petra heard herself say, her voice trembling but clear. “And I’m not giving it to you.”
Salazar’s eyes narrowed. “Bold words from a woman with barely a spark of power. Tell me, librarian, do you even understand what you’re protecting?
This nexus is one of eight major power nodes we control across Europe.
The ley lines that converge here fuel operations in six countries.
Artifacts created in my workshop have killed mages and shifters, destroyed covens, and broken wards that had stood for millennia.
You think you can just…what? Shut it all down because you inherited a deed? ”
“Yes,” Petra said simply.
The young man to Salazar’s right laughed, the sound harsh and mocking. “Master, let me kill her. I’ll make her suffer. I promise.”
“Patience, Kenzo.” Salazar’s smile widened. “Though I appreciate your enthusiasm. Perhaps after we break the wards, you may have her. Though I don’t think a measly librarian will give you much sport.”
Seth moved, positioning himself between Petra and the mages, and she felt murder radiating through the bond. His voice, when he spoke, was pure lethal promise. “You’ll have to go through me first.”
“A jackal.” Salazar looked mildly interested. “How quaint. Tell me, shifter, did you really think your kind could stand against me? I’ve killed more of your people than you have years of life. The team outside barely slowed me down.”
“They’re alive,” Seth said. “Which means you haven’t won yet.”
“A temporary state I can easily remedy.” Salazar gestured negligently, and the veiled woman stepped forward. “Nira, if you would demonstrate why it’s pointless to resist?”
The female mage, who was apparently named Nira, raised both hands, and the air in the great hall turned thick and oppressive. Petra felt something pressing against Judy’s wards, testing them, looking for weaknesses. The chalk circles on the floor began to glow, fighting back against the intrusion.
“Your shields are adequate,” Salazar observed, sounding almost bored. “But they won’t hold against sustained assault. You’re buying time, nothing more.”
“Time’s all I need,” Judy said through gritted teeth, sweat beading on her forehead as she fought to maintain the wards.
“Time for what? Reinforcements?” Salazar laughed.
“Your shifter friends are unconscious. The staff are cowering in whatever hole they’ve hidden themselves in.
And even if you had an army, it wouldn’t matter.
This ring…” he held up his hand, the ruby catching the light and seeming to pulse with its own dark heartbeat, “…contains the accumulated power of every dark mage who’s ever worn it, reaching back to the dawn of time.
Centuries of knowledge. Millennia of strength.
Do you really think you can stand against that? ”
Petra stared at the ring, feeling sick. She could sense the wrongness of it even without much magical training. She could almost feel the weight of all those stolen lives, all that corrupted power concentrated in one terrible artifact.
“That’s blood magic,” Judy said, her voice shaking with rage. “How many did you sacrifice to create that abomination?”
“Sacrifice?” Salazar examined the ring almost lovingly.
“Such a loaded term. I prefer to think of it as harvesting. Every mage who wore this ring before me contributed their power willingly when they died. Their knowledge, their strength, their very essence was all preserved and passed down. It’s quite beautiful, really. Immortality of a sort.”
“It’s an obscenity,” Petra said, finding her voice again. “You’re wearing the souls of the dead as a piece of jewelry.”
“Souls are energy, librarian. Nothing more, nothing less. And I’ve learned to use that energy very, very well.” Salazar’s expression hardened. “Now. Shall we discuss terms, or shall I simply take what’s mine?”
“It’s not yours,” Petra repeated. “It never was. You’re a parasite who’s been feeding off this land for centuries, and that ends now.”
Kenzo laughed again. “Master, please. Let me show her what happens to those who refuse you.”
Salazar considered this, then smiled. “Very well. Nira, assist him. Break the wards. I want the librarian and her pet jackal kneeling before me.”
The veiled woman and the young man stepped forward in unison, power crackling around them. Judy’s jaw set in determination as she braced herself.
“Hold on,” she said quietly to Seth and Petra. “This is going to get rough.”
The attack came like a battering ram of pure force, slamming into the wards with enough power to make the floor shake. Petra grabbed onto Seth as Judy’s protective circles blazed brilliant white, fighting back against the onslaught.
The battle for the castle had truly begun.
The assault on Judy’s wards intensified, wave after wave of dark magic crashing against the glowing circles. The air itself seemed to scream with the force of it. Petra could feel the strain radiating from Judy. She could see the mage’s hands trembling as she fought to hold the defenses.
“She can’t hold much longer,” Seth said quietly, his body coiled and ready despite knowing there was little he could do against magical attacks of this caliber.
Petra’s mind raced. Judy had spent hours yesterday teaching her defensive shields, grounding techniques, and how to sense magical threats. But there had been one other lesson that Judy had made her practice over and over until Petra could recite the words in her sleep.
“This castle is yours by blood and by right,” Judy had said, her expression deadly serious.
“Every generation that’s lived here, every owner who loved this land—their power is still here, woven into the stone and earth.
The ley lines remember them. And because you’re the rightful heir, you can call on that power.
You can wake the castle’s ancient defenses and turn them against anyone who threatens you. ”
“How?” Petra had asked.
“There’s old magic set in the stones of this castle. It is older than the corruption. It’s in the foundations and the bedrock itself. All you have to do is speak the words and mean them. The castle will do the rest.”
Judy had taught her the invocation in Latin, making her repeat it until every syllable was perfect. At the time, it had seemed almost academic. Like it might be useful knowledge for some future crisis. But now that crisis was here.
Another massive impact struck the wards, and this time cracks appeared in the glowing circles. Judy cried out, blood trickling from her nose as she poured more power into maintaining the barriers.
“Master, the wards are failing,” Kenzo called out, his voice gleeful. “Another minute and we’ll have them.”
“Excellent work,” Salazar replied, watching with the detached interest of someone observing an experiment. “Nira, focus your attack on the eastern quadrant. That’s where her defenses are weakest.”
The veiled woman shifted her position, redirecting her magical assault. The wards flickered dangerously.
“Petra,” Judy gasped, her face pale and strained. “If you’re going to do it, do it now. I can’t hold them much longer.”