Chapter 72
Chapter Seventy-Two
Kade
Disconnect bristled at Kade’s fingertips.
The sword of ancients hummed under his touch, but its power didn’t caress his own.
Perhaps it was the fact he didn’t wish to kill with it but disarm. His stomach backflipped as he bashed the hilt straight into a witch’s temple. The Guard crumpled to the dock. Not dead, but unconscious.
He drove his fist into the gut of another, knocking them back.
To his left, a witch twisted her hands and drew up her power.
Before she thrust it in his direction, Kade threw out his arm, sending a wall of his own power and casting her off the docks.
She landed with a splash in the tempestuous waves.
Disarm, not harm.
Kade refused to kill witches today. Not when they were technically on the same side. Damn the Nūa papers and city gossip. He refused to let his actions feed into their narrative.
“What’s the plan?” Eldrick fell flush to Kade’s back, axe at the ready.
“We get on the ship and avoid bloodshed,” he growled.
“Got it,” Eldrick breathed.
The brothers sprang apart, fighting their own opponents. Kade grasped the shoulder of the Guard he fought and threw him across the docks. A second Guard landed in the waves.
Anguish barreled down the mating bond, and Kade whirled.
His mouth turned dry. His own heart ached.
Mirella lay dying in Blair’s arms.
And there was despair and loss and pain brimming in Emmet’s eyes as he crawled to his fated.
The sight rocked through Kade, reaching his inner wolf. He searched and searched and searched for his mate—
“Ev,” Kade hissed.
She fought Circe, and he didn’t recognize her nor the type of rage gleaming in her eyes. Sure, he’d fought side by side with her angry, but this version of her was different.
Fiercer. Wilder. Darker.
Silver flames twisted with wisps of red, and for the first time since he’d met Evelyn Carson, he didn’t know who she was.
Or what.
Get to her, his instinct roared.
Kade hedged through the fray, but two Guards, one wielding a metal staff and another wearing Burns coven green, intercepted his path.
Kade cursed.
The Burns witch tightened his fist, and magic rumbled underneath Kade’s boots. The dock trembled, and everyone shouted as the planks loosened. It threw Kade off balance, but his werewolf hearing detected Evelyn’s cries of frustration off in the distance.
He conjured a sphere of blue power and threw it ahead. The Guard on the left used her staff to deflect it. Boldness bled into their expression, and they charged forward, driving him back.
Farther from Evelyn.
She drove her own staff into the docks and lit the dragon bone aflame. Silver and red climbed and hissed and—
Between blocks and jabs, Kade caught the flames eating away at the material.
Burning it.
Kade reared back as the Guard’s staff came inches from his face. Ahead, Evelyn’s longtime weapon crumbled in her hand. In her moment of disbelief, Circe backhanded her across the face. His mate fell to the docks, clutching her mouth.
Kade’s inner wolf rose to the surface, and his resolve snapped.
He couldn’t think straight at the sight of Evelyn’s blood, and his new ancient power wouldn’t let him stand by and do nothing.
He swiped his blade across the Burns Guard’s belly.
Blue glowed down the blade, alighting the bloodstain.
The witch stared, wide-eyed, and fell with a deafening thud to the docks.
Dead.
No, no, no.
He hadn’t meant to, Kade told himself. It wasn’t his intent. He blinked, tightening his grip on the hilt of his sword, yet the metal burned, as if refusing to mold to his hand. Moons, he wasn’t darkness, right? No, he was gods damn poor circumstance.
He searched for Evelyn again. An orange mass of fur shot through the chaos and landed on Circe’s face. The Elder screamed, and the feral cries of a tiny beast echoed against the ships. Flesh tore, and the Elder’s pathetic pleas only egged her assailant on.
Maxie attacked Circe as Evelyn stood on unsteady legs.
Kade called her name, but it was no use. The winds swallowed it, and even down their bond, something blocked his plea.
The Guard wielding the staff screamed as she advanced, tears welling in her eyes as her dead comrade lay a few feet away.
Kade blocked her weapon with his blade just in time. Metal and wood shook with exertion as they pushed against the other.
A growl rumbled through Kade’s chest. “We don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Let us continue our journey, and no more blood will be spilled.”
He pushed one last time and released a hint of his power, hitting the Guard straight in the belly. She tumbled into two more Guards, disarming Eldrick and Tovi’s opponents.
They all rose, huddling into formation. Their dark uniforms sucked the little color from the docks.
“Despite what you’ve been told,” he said, “we’re all on the same side. I promise you, Circe is leading you astray.”
Wide-eyed, stunned, breathless, the Guards shared a silent conversation.
One nodded, and the others followed. Their shoulders slacked, and the tension across the docks dropped.
Eldrick, with Tovi at his side, lowered his axe.
The Carsons too, spent, lowered their hands, magic dissipating from the air.
For a moment, relief crept through Kade.
“All such pathetic fools,” Circe roared.
Metal pierced through flesh, and a broken cry unleashed from Evelyn. Pain like nothing before shot down their bond. Kade almost crumpled to his knees.
“MAXIE!” Evelyn screamed.
Behind him, Circe had stabbed Evelyn’s familiar through the belly, the hilt of a letter opener pressing into her fur. Maxie whimpered, and before Kade reached them, Circe withdrew her blade and thrust Maxie into a cluster of netting and fish traps.
“No!” Evelyn cried, dashing after Maxie.
Kade moved to join her, but Circe intercepted his path. Dozens of cuts across her face seeped with blood with one eye swelled shut from a bruise.
“Kill them!” Circe roared to the Guards. “The Goddess’s flame is mine, and I’ll not be leaving these docks without what was promised to me!”
Ah. It didn’t confirm the witch was Riven’s contact, but Kade had wondered why Circe wanted Evelyn’s bloodstone. Circe’s obsession with her flame when Evelyn was a child made all the more sense, too. But how did she plan on getting it now that Evelyn had her magic back?
A female Guard stepped forward, shaking her head. “Elder Circe, Kade and Evelyn are a part of the prophecy—”
Power rippled down the dock, and the Guard flew yards away. The rest stumbled back, eyes wide with horror.
“If you won’t listen to my orders, allow me to make you listen.” She snapped her fingers.
Licorice drenched the docks in its sweet anise scent. The Guards stiffened. Even witches who’d hid amongst the merchant stalls and harbor supplies emerged. Their shoulders snapped back, and lips fell in a thin line like they stood to attention. Their eyes shifted to an eerie all-black color.
Dozens under some sort of trance charged.
“Stop!” Eldrick tried to reason with them, but they attacked with killing blows.
“She’s controlling their minds,” Tovi said, mindful of her blade as she deflected advance after advance.
Kade braced as a Guard thrust barrels towards him. He flicked his wrist, sending out his power, and they disintegrated into blue shimmering dust around him.
“We can’t kill them,” he shouted over the fray.
“Kade is right,” Ruth yelled. “It’s what Circe wants.”
Yet, the Guards continued, black eyes void of emotion.
Circe.
Kade grabbed a Guard by the breastplate and chucked him across the docks. He set his focus on the cruel Elder.
Circe smirked. “I wonder what she’ll become if I take you from her.”
Kade charged, and power collided with magic. Anger mixed with salt. Winds weaved with Kade’s blue power, and he dug his heels into the wooden planks. He positioned his sword ahead of him, like an extension to his taut being.
He swiped down and spun, attempting to deliver a death blow to this wretched witch once and for all. His sword came down and hit an invisible wall.
Circe had thrown up her arm, a shield of her magic blocking him.
Kade reached for more of his power and pressed down. Circe stumbled slightly. She gritted her teeth, rage flashing in her eyes. She threw out her other hand, bony fingers flexing at unnatural angles, and her words speared through his mind.
One of you will fall to darkness. Don’t you see?
But Evelyn was good. A protector who cared.
Kade faltered. His sword suddenly grew too heavy, the weight of it all too much.
Darkness no longer lived in the crevices of his mind, but a weed of doubt festered in his soul instead.
Circe’s words were like fresh water, reviving it.
He worried, now more than ever, if he was worthy of the power he’d accepted in the Otherworld and if he’d fail Evelyn.
Like he was now.
A phantom hand gripped Kade’s throat, closing off his airway. He dropped the sword of ancients, and it clattered across the docks. White dotted his vision, and he clawed at his invisible assailant.
This isn’t real, he tried to convince himself, but Circe’s hold tightened.
Unleash your power. Show them who you really are.
No, Kade bellowed inside his head. Losing and hurting, perhaps . . . but he was not darkness—
Circe’s hold vanished.
Kade buckled to his knees, snapping his attention ahead. Circe stared, her wide eyes void of anything. Her body, completely slack, swayed. Steam rose from a hole in her chest—where her heart should’ve been.
The dead witch fell forward, revealing her killer standing behind her. Circe’s still pumping organ was clenched in Evelyn’s hand—no . . . her talons. Evelyn’s nails had elongated to sharpened tips, black as ink. Like . . . like a vampyr.
Yet, no spidery veins ringed her eyes or fangs jutted over her bottom lip. Instead, her eyes brimmed crimson, matching the wisps dancing in her silver flame as it disintegrated the heart she’d ripped from the Elder’s body.
“What . . .” Tovi’s brows pinched, her mouth falling open in utter shock.
Kade balked, too. He thought he hadn’t recognized Evelyn before. This wasn’t simply a rage-filled version anymore but an entirely different witch.
Evelyn smirked, eying Circe’s body with triumph. Blood dripped from her hand, down her forearm, soaking her leathers.
Moons, she had saved him, but viciousness gleamed in her eyes, not protectiveness. His knees rooted to the dock as his mind reeled with possibilities and questions, leaving him off-balance, as if he floated endlessly in the Sapphire Sea’s waves.
What had his mate become?
Someone grabbed his arm in a fierce and unbending grip, snapping him from his harrowing thoughts.
“Uzoma?” he whispered.
The ancient witch didn’t pay him any mind, her sights set on Evelyn past her spectacles. “It’s far worse than I thought.”
“What’s happening to her—”
“She made a choice and is suffering the consequences.” She snapped her attention back to him. “We must get you all to Callum.”
Except Guards, bewildered with Circe’s mind control gone, blocked their path to the Oilliphéist. Uzoma dragged Kade to his feet and released him.
She conjured a crooked and worn staff similar to Blair’s and jabbed it into the wooden planks.
Winds from the east and west traveled from the plains and sea, twirling at her command.
Wisps of air circled, spiraling until the docks shimmered from existence, and a new place—ale-soaked floors, fresh baked bread, and cheery song—manifested on the other side.
Kade almost—almost—allowed himself to feel relief.
“Go!” Uzoma shouted to the others.
Eldrick grasped Tovi’s hand, and they darted through her danu. Lorkan, holding Blair tightly in his arms, hurried after them. The Gray Fenris, Bétar, Yen, and Linx, rushed forward next, weapons still in hand.
Evelyn stormed towards the danu last. She clutched Maxie to her chest, and Kade spied the familiar’s chest rising and falling ever so slowly. Evelyn didn’t acknowledge Uzoma, nor peer in Kade’s direction, a vacant look bleeding through her eyes, their natural gray once again.
His heart dropped like a stone to his gut, and despite it all, his hands itched to reach for her—she’d been there for him all these weeks, reassuring him, and Kade knew Evelyn’s soul like breathing. No, that hadn’t been her earlier, but Evelyn was still in the there. He believed it to his bones.
“Listen to me, Kade Drengr.” Uzoma’s stare pinned him in place. He had one foot in Callum, another in Nūa. “The next days ahead are a test. Now more than ever, both of your destinies hang in the balance. Remember, fate is in your hands, and your hands only. Go.”
Kade grabbed his sword, strapped it to his back, and marched into the Runaway Radish Inn, hoping to leave the dead and doubt behind.