Chapter 39 LIGHT AND SHADOW #2
Darragh waited next to me until I nodded that I was ready to continue.
Our hands clasped together, and then Darragh’s magic began surging into me none too gently.
Even though I sensed that he was trying his best to make it less abrasive.
It was like a storm of arctic air that froze me from the inside out, making me feel so brittle on the inside that one solid knock could shatter me.
I hissed through my gritted teeth, watching impatiently as frosted leaves grew between our palms and enveloped both of our hands. I glanced up at him, but if Darragh reacted to the pain then I could not see it under his mask.
As soon as we were done, Darragh went to join Ciaran to help Nuala. And then Rian returned to kneeling on the other side of Sage who I could feel watching me.
Forging this bond will hurt more than with the others, my mate warned me mentally, and I closed my eyes to relish the feeling of him so clear in my mind.
I could feel that he wanted to reach out and offer me comfort, but his body ached too badly to move anymore.
There is a good reason Rian keeps his magic away from the rest of us.
I expected that, I assured him with an internal sigh as the Autumn Prince held out his bleeding hand to me.
Once I was able to work up the nerve, I threaded my fingers through his to press our palms together.
I ignored the way the air was vibrating, the light writhing erratically around us while the others continued to battle the elves.
And I stared determinedly into the empty eye sockets of Rian’s helmet.
His voice came out in a rough rasp that was enhanced by the magic of the Wild Hunt.
“I give you my blood, my magic. And I take yours in return so that our essences may be bound until death,” recited the Autumn Prince.
And then he pushed his essence into me with as much care as Darragh had tried to use.
Only there was no way to gentle the feeling of a merciless tidal wave of darkness laced with fire as it swept through me.
No way to ignore how his magic bit and scratched as it tried to consume me from the inside.
No way not to feel fear at the sensation of a pull when it stole a sip of me before Rian reasserted his complete control over it again.
Rian’s power was not merely a dangerous tool that was at his disposal. It was more like an entity unto itself.
And it was now rampaging through me.
I gave an involuntary cry of horror and almost pulled away from him, but Rian held onto me as if he’d already known I would try to jerk away.
I nearly bit off my own tongue as my teeth clenched against the whimpering that escaped without permission.
My arm trembled from the gnawing pain, and my body convulsed from the pressure of so much raw power as it threatened to overcome me.
I always knew he was powerful, I expected it, but there was no preparing for this. I’d only thought I understood.
“Ornella. Complete the rite,” Rian gritted out through his teeth at me. He was not straining from pain like me, but from the fortitude it was taking for him to hold back the worst of his power from ravaging me.
If he lost control, his magic would consume me…
This realization seemed to knock the words that I was supposed to be speaking right out of my head. My mind had devolved into a harried mess while I struggled just to survive the incursion of his magic.
Thankfully, Sage was there for me, growling through his pain as he sat upright and pulled me close to him so he could whisper the words into my ear.
“I… give you my blood… my magic. And I take yours in return… so our essences may be bound… until death.”
My voice was so strained that the words were almost unrecognizable, but luckily, the magic was understood.
It was all I could do to push some of my own essence through the torrent that was Rian’s power. But as soon as it was done, Light and Shadow detonated in my veins.
I was too exhausted and overcome to even think about controlling the outburst, but Rian was ready.
He directed it all upward in a spike of pure power that tore through the air above us in a swirl of light and dark.
I felt a circle snapping closed, all the links sinking into place one after the other, clink, clink, clink, clink, and my mind imploded.
It felt similar to how my body fragmented in the ley lines of the Tithriall, only when everything reformed again, there were new pieces interlocking with me.
The beam of light and dark cut off as soon as Rian released my hand, and the searing pain in my veins ebbed into the pulse of too much magic. It made my head feel like it could explode, my muscles felt like they swelled, and my skin was ready to split open.
You need to let some out, Sage told me. But I was not sure how to do that when the power near bursting inside me felt like it would destroy absolutely everything.
The world suddenly shuddered, and Nuala gave a cry that made me look up just in time to see another elf had arrived in a blast of light.
The shock wave blasted through my battered shield and sent the witch hurling backward.
Her temples were damp with sweat, so I guessed she was too exhausted and depleted to create her own shield like Ciaran and Darragh. Or perhaps she lacked the skill.
Rian tried his best to catch her before she hit the floor. But I heard the back of her head crack on the flagstones before she rolled across the ground like a rag doll.
Rian snarled in an absolute rage as he reached her side.
The second he touched her, I felt him drawing hard on my magic to heal her fractured skull and an assortment of other broken bones.
His breaths sawed in and out of him savagely even as he brushed his fingers through her damp hair with the utmost tenderness.
He wielded my power with practiced ease, and once she was put back together, he gathered Nuala into his arms.
“I’ll take her through the portal!” Amira offered from behind me, reminding me that she was still there. I had expected her to slip through the tree to Ahnnaòin and her second mate the moment we were all distracted, but she had stayed with me.
“Nuala remains with me,” Rian growled.
Rian, you need your full strength! Darragh chastised. His voice was strained as he and Ciaran worked together to form a new shield over the rest of us.
She remains with me, Rian reiterated stubbornly.
It took me a second to realize that I was hearing them in my head as clearly as if they were speaking aloud.
I will hold her, Sage spoke up.
Rian hesitated a moment longer in uncertainty, but he clearly trusted Sage, because he brought the unconscious witch over to us.
I moved out of the way so he could deposit Nuala next to Sage who shifted her into his arms in spite of his pain and exhaustion.
I probably would have taken issue with him holding another female like that at any other time.
But perhaps the fact that she was mated to Rian helped me feel less ornery about it.
Sage’s head jerked toward me.
She is mated to him? he verified, and I grimaced at the reminder that my mind was not fully my own anymore.
Come on, little doe, show us what you can do now with all our power, Ciaran urged me.
I rolled my eyes immediately at the sound of him.
Ugh. I am not convinced that this is going to be worth it if I have to hear your voice in my head now, I lamented with feigned disgust.
I meant to project my thoughts at Ciaran, but I could already tell they had been broadcast to everyone. It was going to take some practice before I was able to use this new link with any kind of finesse. Which meant my life was probably about to get wildly embarrassing…
Get up and make yourself useful, Ciaran snarked back. His annoyance and impatience tingled down my spine as if his emotions were bleeding seamlessly into mine.
Damn. This was going to be a nightmare.
As it were, I was practically coming apart at the seams with far too much magic coursing through me and was in desperate need of an outlet. So I forced myself to get up, feeling Sage watching me as I followed Rian to stand next to Darragh and Ciaran.
They had managed to reestablish a shield with the use of the Light magic they used through me, and the Sylvan were pacing in front of it.
The creatures were completely enraged, pristine robes whipping around them without exposing even an inch of what was beneath.
I was almost convinced they were made of nothing but stardust.
I was desperate to unleash all the magic that the others had poured into me in order to forge our bonds. Rian had cautioned me to be strategic with how I expelled so much raw power. But my magic had always worked best for me when I allowed it to be guided by instinct.
Which was why I wedged between Ciaran and Darragh to the front. They instantly knew my intentions thanks to the bond and dropped the shield in front of me to erect it anew behind me just before I detonated.
My power had always been uniquely versatile just like the natural world that it mimicked.
It was tenacious and stubborn; it found a way even when it seemed impossible.
It was patient and gentle at times, and it was indomitable and merciless at others.
I trusted it when three spiralling beams exploded out of me to slam into each Sylvan.
The monsters were confident in their ability to absorb what had looked like Light magic and hadn’t bothered to block themselves. But what they had not expected was what Ciaran and Darragh had been holding back because neither of them wanted to risk wielding Rian’s power…
I was not afraid. I had already used my healing magic to seamlessly combine Light and Shadow before.
A wail of shock and horror erupted out of the elves as they were speared unexpectedly by the shards of Rian’s magic hidden in the Light. I saw blooms of even brighter white spreading across their chests almost like blood.
“I told you that I would fracture you,” I reminded them while they all stared down at their chests in what I could only imagine was complete shock. Then they raised their heads slowly, and the ground shuddered violently.
“Abomination,” hissed one of them with such vicious disgust that it permeated the air with a burning scent.
“Yeah, yeah,” I hissed dismissively as I felt the others experimenting with the way I had melded all the magics. Rian was as nervous to handle Light as the others were to touch his magic. But with access to my power and mind, they were all able to copy what I had just done.
The elves geared up for retaliation, but Rian, Ciaran, and Darragh lined up next to me and unleashed their own beams of melded magic. Even Sage was contributing his depleted energy as much as he could so each of us were pouring our unbridled fury into the assault.
And as one, we unleashed the wrath of the Wild Hunt upon the Sylvan.
The elves were able to block the initial onslaught that slammed into their shields, but the cores of shadow began to pierce through. Their shields shattered into shards of fractured light, and the elves were sent skidding backward across the flagstones with stardust swirling around them.
I could see the moment when they realized the tables had turned against them.
Rian had been able to withstand them for a time with his shadows, and I had been able to chase them away with an unexpected use of Sage’s Light.
With those powers now combined in a way that I knew the Sylvan must loathe, and then magnified in four riders, we had a chance to inflict some real pain.
And the lines of light bleeding through their robes like cracks spreading across their bodies was proof we were hurting them.
But it was taking far too much energy to keep up such a merciless barrage.
Just as I realized this, I heard a ringing sound that was similar to the vibrating tone of the portal doors opening.
The sound grew louder until it was a shrill whistle that overpowered all other sounds.
I fought the urge to cover my ears even before I realized there was blood caking the fur inside them and dripping out of my helmet.
“Stop!” shrieked someone from behind me suddenly, and I barely cut off the flow of magic before Amira had grabbed my arm and wrenched me around to face her. That ringing sound was cut off suddenly.
“What are you doing?” I snarled, although I hesitated when I noticed the metallic tang of blood in my mouth. Every breath was being dragged in raggedly and seemed to sting like I was sucking in tiny shards of glass.
“You don’t know what the consequences might be for hurting them!” she shouted at me. Then she turned her imploring eyes up to Rian who had also halted his assault and was breathing hard with brittle control.
There was a logical part of me that knew she was right.
The elves had slumped to the ground before us with light fracturing under their robes.
There was no way to know what would become of them if we continued to pummel them with Rian’s magic.
Would they turn into Mavaari? Would that unbalance something vital somewhere?
“I know that you are hurt and angry, and I am sorry!” Amira insisted, her voice shaking with her raw emotions. “But this could have consequences for everyone. You may avenge Sage only to doom him all over again with this!”
My temper flared in response to the suggestion that my actions could hurt my mate, but Ciaran grabbed my arm.
She is right. It is time to go, he agreed with her.
Summer, Sage whispered more urgently, his voice like a sweet caress in my mind. His soothing aura calmed me until I could finally start to let go of the ball of hatred that was clenching so tightly in my chest.
But they hurt you, I objected reluctantly.
And you have hurt them back. More than anyone could have ever expected. Now take me home, he pleaded.
That was a request I simply could not ignore.