Chapter 16 #3
I stared at him as I shoved up the sleeves of my hoodie to just above my biceps.
Then left it at that.
His eyes narrowed.
“You want to finally do this, or not?” I rubbed my hands together, feigning excitement.
“Personally, I can’t fucking wait. It’s gonna be a rush unlike any other.
” I looked over at him, the confusion plaguing his features.
Good. “Then we can finalize our partnership, raising Sanctus carefully without harming or conquering, or wasting resources, yes?”
“Yes. As per our agreement.”
He had an ace poker face. I had to give him that.
“And why I gifted you with all that lovely healing of those nasty veins hurting you, hmm? That was one of the conditions I laid down, right?”
“Yes, Winter, I recall it very well.”
“Good. Then we’re on the same page going into this.” I pressed my hand over my heart. “Now that’s cleared up, I’m fully at peace doing this. That was my last little doubt. Now erased by your reassurances.”
He smiled, then stepped into the core, his own streaming power washing over him as he passed through and settled in the center of it, awaiting me to join him.
I called my shadows and wrapped them around me.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, startling.
“What you wish of me,” I answered, as I passed into the core, grinding my teeth when I instantly felt his extreme power pushing painfully down all around me, like a fucking building bearing down on my shadows.
His eyes widened when my Wraith frost started spreading all over my skin, my clothes—like glacial armor.
He grabbed my arm, but hissed at the contact and immediately drew back.
“Shh,” I crooned. “You’re getting what you want. I’m just going about it in a way that’s comfortable for me.”
“Winter—”
“Calm yourself, almighty one. I’m right here about to take all this awful weight off you.”
“Fine,” he muttered.
“Good. Now stop with any further commentary on every fucking thing I do. I need to concentrate.”
He growled, but did as I asked.
Jeez, the pressure of his power all over was beyond intense.
At least it wasn’t actually touching me.
I’d had more than enough of that.
It hurt.
Not burning, not biting, but fucking crushing.
Crushing all over, and my hands, my whole body, was shaking trying to withstand it.
I grunted, then snapped my palms up and called my necromantic power, amber flames erupting.
I pushed harder, pouring more and more into it, and not feeling the strain at all, because of all that training I’d had with my dad, learning how to release it, how I had so much capacity, and how not to be afraid of that anymore—to embrace it. Embrace it all.
Within moments, the flames were shooting up in controlled streams three feet above, while my shadows followed, ensuring it didn’t touch Ruxnoth’s magic in the core.
At the same time, my frost covering my skin thickened.
It wasn’t cold to me. Instead it felt like the softest blankets gliding up and down my skin soothingly.
If only it hadn’t been for that awful pressure of this bastard’s power, it would’ve been one of the best things I’d ever felt—outside of being with my three loves, of course. I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t wait to feel that with them again, to be immersed in them.
A satisfied sound from Ruxnoth jolted me from that brief reprieve, then I heard gasps and awed chatter from the necromancers positioned around the room.
“Do it,” I told Ruxnoth. “I’ve got it. Do it now.”
“This could have been a great deal more gratifying if it hadn’t been for your obstinance.”
“Just do it… I can’t hold against the pressure of your fucking True Celestial power much longer.
And just so we’re clear, if you do something to punish me for not doing it your way to get your fucking dick hard, and you employ your warping ability, you’ll send any hope of me bonding with the Core to hell. ”
“Deathborn bitch,” Ansel hissed. “How dare you?”
“You wanna come here and do this in my stead?” I bit back.
Okay, I was losing my mental composure. Choking down all this bullshit, and being so close the end of it now… yeah, I was clearly at my wit’s end.
I looked out, finding Wesley there. Smiling kindly. Gently. Knowingly.
He’d endured similar violating weight down here, and he’d been punished brutally recently, too.
And he also… he’d become a friend. He didn’t see me just as a necromantic powerhouse like everyone else here—even my other allies.
He’d asked about my parents—not just Dad because people got a kick out of his Almighty Necromancer status—and talked with me about my loves in those moments I’d allowed myself to let go of my compartmentalization. He saw me as a person.
And right now I was seeing that reflected back at me.
A person.
A friend.
A student.
A son.
A lover to Evira, Vax, and Zayn.
A whole being… beyond all this.
All this fucking madness.
I gave a slight nod, then drew in a steadying breath.
Tiberia and Matteo moved forward, about to shoot their mouths off, but Ruxnoth held up a hand. “Silence!”
“But, Sire—”
“I adore you also, but Winter is not in his right mind under this extremely taxing undertaking. Accommodate that. If it persists afterward, I will allow you to see to him.”
I glared out at him.
But somehow my voice came out steady and non-confrontational, as I said, “Do it now. Okay? Now. My power is primed.”
“You’ll need to hit it in a fraction of a second.”
“Well aware. We’ve been over it.”
He shifted his weight, then upturned his own palms.
Instead of magic erupting in a burst, his hands glowed with his midnight-blue power.
Because he wasn’t looking to fire or stream, but to absorb instead.
I braced myself.
Here we go.
He thrust his hands above his head, and the Core responded, a rush of the midnight-blue tearing toward him, then pulling away from the sides too, disrupting the integrity of the cylindrical form.
In moments, it was swirling around him, while he battled to direct it back into himself through his palms. He roared, as so much of it all at once tried to take control of him, rather than the other way around.
The urge to make sure it took him was intense. I was so close to it, my own power at the ready. But it would fuck up everything. And if I failed… urgh, I couldn’t even imagine.
So, instead, I waited and just watched as he got control of what basically became a swirling vortex of his own magic, and forced it into two streams traveling into either palm.
He slumped to his knees halfway through and it was honestly a little satisfying.
Obviously that was kind of undermined by the fact that he’d done this to me. I never would have taken delight in anybody’s suffering before. But he’d somehow made himself an exception to that—a disrupter to who I really was.
“It’s… time,” he croaked.
I watched the last vestiges of his magic pull from the Fuel Core until all that remained was a translucent shimmering cylinder stretching all the way up to the ceiling and feeding the realm through veins that were now currently empty.
I thrust my hands upward, my power erupting with epic force, a violent rush that filled up the cylinder, then shot into the ceiling and flooded outward, filling those veins, all in a matter of seconds.
With a flick of my shadows, I knocked Ruxnoth out of the Fuel Core.
As soon as he was gone, I pulled my shadows and frost back, and then I was immersed in the center of my own streaming power radiating soothingly all around me.
I didn’t like the sensation of the nasty pull on me, though, that was coming from it feeding Sanctus. It was like an unsettling ache, kind of raw and making my insides twist.
“It is done,” Ruxnoth rumbled, straightening with an eerie glint in his eyes as he took me in. “Mmm… so freeing. The weight that’s left me… the relief is immense.” He turned his hands over, studying, gazing in awe. “Such power all mine once again.”
He signaled the necromancers then.
And in the next moment, they all started chanting.
Well, except six of them.
Transmortalis. Transmortalis. Transmortalis.
It echoed hauntingly around the room.
Ruxnoth smirked at me. “It is deeply apt for this situation. You see, there is something I neglected to mention. I am the creator of this almighty realm. As such, no one can bond with it in the same way that I can. Not with the same freedom I am afforded. So you will remain here trapped within this construct, your own power eternally bound to it and unable to ever break free. You will be paralyzed with no ability to act, to affect anything around you.” His nasty smile widened.
“Least of all me and my designs for the supernatural world.” He scoffed.
“Raising Sanctus without conquering and bringing those fools up there to their knees? I think not.” He roared in a sudden burst of fury, “I am a god! You do not command me! That which makes you so powerful, your own nature, will now torment you for eternity! There is no other god! Only I will reign!”
I sank to my knees.
Ruxnoth let out a groan of gratification at the sight. “Say it. Say the words to me and I will allow you a single concession, a single mercy. Tell me you’re my deathborn darling.” He gestured dramatically around the room. “Say it with pleasure for all of them to hear.”
I brought my palms together, guiding some of the power surrounding me between them, forming a controlled sphere.
This was gonna hurt like hell.
I looked up at him and smirked.
He frowned. “Why are you—say it! Beg!”
My eyes bored into his. “I’m the one who will unmake you, motherfucker.”
In the next second, blocking out all the stunned reactions—including his—I thrust the sphere up into the Fuel Core stream, my shadows and frost bursting forth and wrapping around it.
The moment it all collided—all facets of my power—it created a violent pulse that shot through the ceiling, passing through cleanly with no damage.
There you go, Ambrose.
I dropped my hands, as it burned like a bitch through my whole body.