Chapter 16 #2
Before I could get a word out, Rex’s eyes shot wide. “The veins you were healing of his? He was so desperate and also knowing he’s so close to getting what he’s wanted for two decades, he didn’t question it enough… you’re using that to get a hold on him?”
“It’s connected to that, yeah. But during the point when I’m vulnerable, I have to send out a pulse to Ambrose Wisteryn. I can’t then pull on the ‘hold’ I have on him, do that, and also take an attack from Tiberia and Matteo.”
My allies here with me had warned me that those two were planning to punish me tonight once I bonded with the Fuel Core. With my nature, they all knew it wouldn’t kill me or hurt Sanctus, so they considered it a free-for-all on me to hurt me. Badly, from the intel these guys had gathered for me.
“It’s gonna be Ansel now, too,” Felix confirmed, because that tank of a guy’s involvement in coming at me had been up in the air beforehand.
“He’s wanted a piece of you since you got down here.
” He screwed up his face. “In every way.” Aliya made a gagging sound, and he stroked her nape.
“I know, darling, it’s fucked. And, yeah, it’s some revenge against your dad, Win.
And now also in honor of his sugar daddy in Ruxnoth.
You taking control and influencing Ruxnoth has got Ansel all up in arms.”
“None of them will harm Winter,” Wesley asserted.
“As I discussed with him, we’ll coordinate our timing so that the moment Winter delivers that pulse to Ambrose, I will incapacitate all three of them.
The five of you will briefly fuse your power, breach Sanctus, and send a necromantic call to Sylas.
Winter was intending for Sylas to latch onto his father-son bloodline necromantic link between them, but said link has only just been restored, so it could be unsteady, unable to take pressure of this magnitude.
With Winter being strained by the Fuel Core, it also poses issues. ”
“We’ve got it in the bag,” Felix confirmed, and a collective confirmation rang out.
“He’s gonna get us out, right?” Aliya asked me. “Sylas, I mean? We’ll be death-tethered when this place starts going down—helpless and fallen literally on the freaking ground here—while our spirits are held hostage by him in the Veil. You’ll be compromised, so you won’t be able to help.”
“He’s gonna do a mass-teleportation.”
“You’re sure?” Rex pressed.
“I’m sure. He knows I won’t leave if you’re trapped down here.” I sighed. “And, yes, even those against us.”
“Cutie pie,” I heard Felix call me to Aliya and Philip, to which they chuckled.
“Certainly is,” Rex said.
“All right,” Wesley spoke, his voice cutting through it, before more chatter started up. “We are all aligned and prepared, well aware of our respective tasks. Anything else that you wish to voice?”
Everyone shook their heads, agreed that things had been covered.
“Excellent,” Wesley said, swinging his head toward the door. “Because the loyalists are leaving the Center of Sealed Knowledge now.”
Yeah, he’d tagged them, and I’d managed to keep that off their radar with a little illusionary magic I’d infused to his spell.
“They’ll be getting ready to be briefed by Ruxnoth. He’ll be done with his restorative session in ten minutes,” Rex informed us.
All on schedule.
“Scatter,” Felix said.
“Indeed,” Wesley agreed.
Smiles, nods, chin lifts and the like came my way. Then in several eruptions of teleportation, they all took off to where they needed to be.
I drew in a breath and sank onto the couch.
It wouldn’t be long now.
I was at full power.
On the ball physically and mentally.
I had allies in place who trusted in me.
I was well-versed in the mechanics of the Fuel Core and of all that I needed to do.
My loves and my family would be working with me through all of this.
And then it would all be over.
Not just Sanctus, though.
I hadn’t told anyone this—not my allies here, not my family, not my loves—but there was no fucking way I was gonna do this in two parts.
I wasn’t gonna let Ruxnoth go.
He wouldn’t survive the night.
Once everybody else was clear, I’d see to it myself.
He’d fall by my hand.
Here goes nothing.
“It’s fortunate that you took initiative where this bonding transference is concerned, actually even designating this night for it, much sooner than I’d thought would be acceptable to you,” Ruxnoth spoke as we walked along the corridor toward the Core Chamber where all the necromancers were already gathered inside as per his command.
“Fortunate?”
“Yes. I predicted you would attempt to draw it out, so I had an incentive planned to demonstrate that I would not stand for that.”
A chill rolled down my spine, but I managed to keep my voice steady as I asked, “What incentive?”
“I told you previously that my decision not to harm anyone else you love was an act of supreme benevolence and mercy on my part. However, that doesn’t mean it was something I’d forever outlawed.
To incentivize you, I would have damaged another of your parents.
I intended to make Cassius my target and inflict untold agony upon him.
Now, as much as I would have relished witnessing his turmoil, him being at my mercy, perhaps even begging me as he writhed beneath my boot, it would have required great effort—now unnecessary effort with you finally prepared very nicely for me. ”
My eyes narrowed.
Fucking fiercely.
Rip his head off. Rip his fucking head off.
I clenched my fists inside my hoodie pockets.
I couldn’t lose it now.
Not when I was so close.
Not when we all were—my allies here, my loved ones. Everyone was counting on me to see this through according to plan. All the many moving, intricate parts, needed to go off properly and without a hitch.
I wasn’t gonna let this megalomaniacal monster ruin that and throw me off course.
So, when he looked out at me again, my expression was normal, and I even smiled. “Good thing it didn’t need to come to that.”
“Too true,” he said, reaching out and stroking my cheek.
The no-touching thing with him hadn’t held long as I’d unfortunately predicted.
“I relish it much more and far deeper when you are aligned with me. It is deeply gratifying. A god standing beside another in this manner. We are kindred, Winter.”
The fucking fuck we were.
“Right. Because of our abomination statuses.”
“Our greatness and uniqueness that others misread and fear. It is nothing but ignorance, the inability to comprehend all that we are, my deathborn darling.”
Shut up! Shut the fuck up!
Shut. Up!
“Their loss, hmm?”
His eyes shone at me. “Precisely.”
I batted his hand away, off my cheek. Off his frown of dejection, I told him, “I need to concentrate for what’s coming. Don’t want to mess this up.”
As if I would.
“Impossible,” Ruxnoth stated. “You will not fail me.” He gave me a twisted smile that was deeply loaded. “I simply won’t allow it, Transmortalis.”
So we were back to him calling me that.
The beyond death of it all that he’d creepily hissed at me, and in my head, when he’d first made himself known to me.
For most others, it would be taken as a full-circle moment.
With him, though, it was an indication of something much more.
A warning.
Well, good luck with that.
We reached the open arched stone door of the Core Chamber, and he beckoned me inside with him.
I steeled myself as we walked in, all twenty necromancers in midnight-blue hooded robes positioned rigidly against the dark stone walls.
Thick gray smoke, a magical fog of corrupted necromantic power, floated above the rough floor, almost to knee height.
It was only Rex’s coral that added a little bit of color in amongst the rest. None of it impacted me.
I couldn’t even feel it, as in its current function it was both just ambience and a safeguard always linked to Ruxnoth’s power.
At the center of the square room was a low, two-tiered platform.
A six-foot-wide column of midnight-blue magic roared straight up from it and bled into the rest of the realm above. A constant low hum resonated through the area, reverberating off the walls.
Looking straight on at it was near-blinding, the power so potent.
And as we drew closer with Ruxnoth leading the way and looking out expectantly at the necromancers, where they then knelt to him in a really creepy way, I felt the rumble of that potency prickle at my skin—yeah, through the fabric of my hoodie.
“You won’t be needing that,” Ruxnoth spoke as he stepped onto the first tier of the platform, then gestured for me to approach with him directly opposite. He was eyeing my zipped up hoodie.
“What?”
“Strip. No shirts. Down to your waist. This will be easier with as much physical contact as possible. It’s a full transference, Winter.”
I ground my jaw.
As his attention was briefly taken with slipping off his ornate coat, I caught Felix’s eye and he looked disgusted for me, trying to force a reassuring smile.
He was two down from Wesley who mouthed something to me.
Delay.
Yeah, I could definitely do that.
I’d been doing very well with that in other aspects when it came to Ruxnoth.
Besides, the way this was gonna go down—on my terms—no physical contact would actually be needed.
It would just be exhilarating for him if it happened that way. He’d get to briefly feel the full force of my power against his. For a power whore that was the ultimate rush.
Ruxnoth thrust his coat out behind him and Ansel rushed forward, all that bulk and muscle barely contained beneath his robe, his white buzz cut standing out against the dark blue.
He gave Ruxnoth heart-eyes and took his coat reverently, and as he slipped back into formation at the wall, he flashed me a death stare.
Death stare. To me. That was beyond ironic.
“Winter, see to it,” Ruxnoth ordered, pulling up short on stepping into the actual stream of power when he saw I was still fully clothed.
Hmm.