Chapter 10 Winter #3
Feeling our necromantic bloodline link snap back into place like that… the sheer relief and joy… I couldn’t even fully reconcile how incredible that truly felt.
Dad was actually alive.
I wiped my eyes and pushed out of the pool, intending to head to the bathroom.
If anyone walked in here right now and saw me like this, it would invite questions. Nobody could feel my blood link connection to my dad, but with me raw like this, anyone witnessing this from me was still dangerous for a myriad of reasons.
I’d just snatched a black robe off the back of the bathroom door and slipped it on, intending to lock myself inside and add some of my Wraith frost for good measure, when a shudder rolled through the room.
My plate I’d slid across the floor started rattling.
The centerpiece on the table.
Candleholders vibrated around the space.
I walked back into the main area, narrowing my eyes in concentration.
There.
The bastard was trying to mute it, but he’d been all over me in so many fucked-up ways that I could still feel it—a surge of his power.
Power pouring out of Sanctus, though. Coming from… above?
He’d left this realm?
When?
He was annoyingly over-informative with me when it came to his whereabouts at all times. In case I wanted to “have a conversation” with him, join him for this and that. Just more ways for him to try to get his claws deeper into me.
I rushed through the room, shoved open the door, then stepped out into the corridor—
And slammed right into Rex.
“What’s happening?” I asked, as the shuddering intensified, and the chandeliers in the hallway ceiling started rattling, the blue light flickering wildly.
“That damage control he told you he had to see to? The reason he siphoned a bit of your magic?”
A chill shot down my spine. “What about it?”
“He’s hitting the Dracoryn Realm.”
A strangled sound spilled from me.
No.
No!
Somehow I managed to push for details, “In what capacity?”
“He’s latching part of Sanctus onto the Dracoryn Realm to pull from its lifeforce so it can be sustained for longer until you’re ready to take over. Ruxnoth’s ability to hold it all alone is waning substantially.”
“He’s not just doing it for the lifeforce aspect, is he?”
I fucking knew he wasn’t.
“No,” Rex admitted on a whisper. “It’s also a test-run with just bringing a part of Sanctus up there. And he means to take the Dracoryn Realm as his in the process.”
It was to be the first major step of his conquering spree.
“What about my power he took? What’s he intending to do with it specifically?”
“He gave that power he siphoned from you to his most powerful necromancers down here. Well, Wesley is the most powerful, but he’s out of the trust circle right now.
It went to Tiberia and Matteo. They used it to give a concealment boost to the rest of the realm, so that those up there on the mortal plane and the realms there can’t discern it, meaning they can’t come at it, while he’s dealing with this other aspect.
All us necromancers down here are already at max power keeping it hidden while it’s in a steady, static state.
Him moving it right now requires more death magic to conceal it when it’s in flux. ”
“Fuck.”
I went to brush past him, intending to head to the Fuel Core to stop this insanity.
I could send a pulse through at the point of the latching-on and then it should be able to—
Rex stepped into my path and pressed his hand to my chest. “This isn’t the right moment to challenge him.”
“What?”
He grimaced. “I know your personal connection to this specific target he’s gunning for. And I get it, believe me. But you’re not at full power. So you do this, get on his bad side, any hope of seeing to this permanently is either shot or is gonna be majorly delayed.”
“You’re actually telling me to stand down, let him do this, take an entire realm?”
“I’m sorry, Winter.”
“Step aside.”
“I can’t just—” He jolted, eyes shooting wide. “They’re coming.”
I felt a rush of power a moment later.
He teleported out just before a burst of teleportation erupted right in front of me, gray magic sparking.
Except for Rex, all the rest of the necromantic magic down here was gray, the mark of corruption running through it.
Ruxnoth’s influence, basically, taking them to dark places.
Rex was an exception due to some complication involving his formerly ‘fractured mind’, the corruption had set in differently.
I narrowed my eyes as Tiberia and Matteo materialized, blocking my path.
They were a middle-aged couple, the only love match down here. The others were either solo acts, or they mixed it up casually. Tiberia was reserved and precise whenever she spoke, while Matteo was terse and ruthlessly pointed.
Both of them had long, turquoise hair. His was swept up in a loose bun, and hers was secured in a ponytail.
They were both wearing tangerine orange pantsuits, the shades really clashing with the hair situation.
And, yes, they dressed alike all the time.
I’d seen it for myself, but Rex had also made a comment about it to me.
I studied them. They’d already used my power to do Ruxnoth’s bidding. It was nowhere in them. Gone.
“Sire asked us to keep an eye on you while he’s seeing to a matter beyond our home,” Tiberia told me.
I wasn’t playing this game.
There wasn’t time.
And as the place shuddered more violently, lights flickering and some even snuffing out entirely, the immediate environment backed me up on that.
“No babysitting required,” I ground out. “Gotta go.”
“You can’t. Seems you know what he’s doing up there. Well, it’s not your problem. This is necessary,” Matteo said.
Tiberia gestured at the door behind me. “Go back inside your chamber. Stay until he gets back.”
“Again, I have to decline,” I rebutted, before brushing past them and starting down the corridor.
I’d only managed three slightly unsteady steps before my senses screamed at me.
Power was coiling behind me.
I stopped and called over my shoulder in warning, “You don’t want to do this.”
Tiberia scoffed. “You’re nowhere near full strength.”
There was a difference between not being at maximum power and being completely powerless. Especially for me.
“Stand down, baby necromancer,” Matteo ordered.
Instead, I took a step further down the corridor.
I felt their power surge.
As it flew my way, I snapped my palms up, my amber power flaming.
I spun and fired both streams, one cutting through both their blasts and decimating them, and the other slamming into them.
With them standing so close, I only needed a single hit.
And with the power behind it, it sent them flying down the other end of the corridor, crashing through the solid stone wall, and out into the open realm.
They landed in two unconscious heaps.
I shook my head to myself, snuffed my power out, then turned on my heel and headed for the Fuel Core.
There would be no conquering for that madman today.