They don’t get very far. The lightning bolts kill on first strike. The fire raining down from the heavens scorches the landscape and turns the bodies to ash. I soar on the Currents, drunk with power. No matter where the screechers are, no matter how they hide, my destructive force finds them. Portals open all over the sky, making The Haven temporarily bright with the other realm’s red sun. Portals open underground, where reserves of the screechers remain. They are all struck down, all killed, all eliminated.
And then it’s done. I am gasping with exertion, blood sweat running down my face. The hidden runes on my arms glow in the aftermath, but even they slowly start to ebb away.
Rebecca has fallen quiet, looking at me with large eyes full of accusation and betrayal.
“You…” she says. “How could you…”
“You promised my vampire’s lives,” I say simply. “This was the only way to guarantee it. For the murder of Riyu, I rightfully sentence you one century of imprisonment. You will serve your time at a later date. For now, you are more useful close to me.”
Pure hatred shows in her eyes.
“There are many things I need you to teach me.”
“You will keep me as a slave?” she spits.
I ignore the accusation. “Now that I am certain my vampires are safe, I will make good on my part of the promise.” Something tugs at the back of my head, and I realize that there is somebody outside, waiting at the entrance of the ward. “You will have unfettered access to Morgan. As long as you do not kill her, nor revive her, you may do what you wish.”
Rebecca seethes. “Do not kill her? You forbid me to kill her, after what she’s done to me?”
“You should be grateful I have spared your life,” I say. “The only reason I have is because you have knowledge that is important to me. I’m sorry, Rebecca,” I add, satiating in the feeling of absolute power, triumph, and victory. “You rebelled against the Queen.”
“I let you go!” she screams.
“Maybe now, you wish you hadn’t,” I say, surprising even myself by the words coming from my mouth.
I hadn’t intended to kill the screechers, not at all—not before the Currents were restored to me, and I saw the whole situation more clearly than I ever had before.
I hadn’t intended to do it, but now that it’s done, there is no doubt in my mind that it was the right course of action.
I look down at Rebecca, feeling nothing but contempt. I do not take insults to my person lightly.
“This is my Haven,” I proclaim. “Here, I make all the rules.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Phillip
On the outskirts of The Haven.
I give a start when an opening appears mid-air in front of us, and Eleira and the guards step out.
I don’t have a chance to react as she immediately binds me with ropes of Air. She walks to me, ignoring the rest of the party, even Raul, with fire in her eyes.
“Phillip,” she says flatly. “You are charged with treason against your Queen. Against me. The only suitable penalty for what you did is death.”
My mind races, thinking of what the hell she is talking about.
Could she have discovered Morgan?
“Oh, yes,” she whispers, her voice frighteningly dark. “I know how you kept your mother alive. Guards?” She nods to the circle surrounding her. “Take him to the cells.”
“Wait, wait!” I cry out, before they can seize me. “Don’t you want to know who I’ve brought?”
Eleira’s eyes move over to Raul and the three witches. They watch him with the same inscrutable gaze on their faces.
She acknowledges them with a respectful bow of the head. “Congratulations on joining our ranks.” She looks at Raul—I see a flicker of hesitation on her face—and then she says to him, very formally. “A job well done on converting them.”
“No,” Raul says, none of his old hesitation present in his voice. “I didn’t do it. Phillip did.”
Eleira’s face instantly bunches up. “What?”
“Phillip made the witches into vampires,” he says. “They are his fledglings, not mine.”
Eleira’s face twists in rage. I’ve never ever seen her display that emotion before.
She leaps toward him and very sharply asks, “How could you let that happen?”
Raul looks uncomfortable for a minute. I see absolutely none of the old lovey-dovey chemistry between them. Eleira looks at Raul as if he’s a table rag, and he looks at her only as his Queen.
Well, I think slyly. Maybe I can still make good on my plan to steal her away.
Once this meddling death sentence thing is taken care of.
“That’s a long story,” I interject. “Meant for happier times. Might I add that if you kill me, Raul dies also?”
“Did I say that you could speak?” Eleira screams. I’ve never seen her so out of control. But then she turns to Raul, and asks, “Is this true?”
He averts his eyes and nods. Eleira curses.
I step in. “Raul was mortally wounded. He was cut by an enchanted blade.”
“Once again,” Eleira mutters.
“The Forsaken Sisters saved him. But as we know, magic does not heal. They created some kind of link between me and Raul that sustains his life. The vampiric essence was not strong enough to help him on its own.
Eleira shakes her head. “You will explain it all to me,” she says, looking at the Forsaken Sisters, “Inside. Geordam—take Phillip and Raul to my apartments. Neither of them are to leave, or to speak to anyone else.”
Geordam nods gruffly and grabs my arm.
“Careful, vampire,” I warn him. “Don’t forget who I am.”
He grunts, unimpressed, and pushes me through the portal. The weaves of Air still constrict my upper body. At least my legs are free.
We emerge to the other side of the portal in the middle of the night, far away from either the village or the apartments or even the ruins of Mother’s old castle. In fact, I don’t even recognize quite where we are.
“This way,” Geordam says, shoving me through the trees. I glance over my shoulder at the portal. Raul comes through, trailed by the guards.
The portal closes without Eleira or the Forsaken Sisters coming through.
“If I had my magic,” I grumble, “I could undo these weaves around me in a second.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Geordam says.
“And what do you know?” I challenge.
“I know that male and female weaves of magic are different. I know that one cannot be sensed by the other.”
“They don’t have to be visible for me to sever them,” I say under my breath. “They are made of the same core material.”
“If you’re so sure of yourself, why don’t you do it?” Geordam asks. “None of the oaths Eleira bound you with preclude you from that.”
I decide to be upfront with him. “The witches I made into vampires and brought back—the witches Eleira holds in such high esteem, the ones who collectively are stronger than her—the ones who know ancient wisdom—they saved Raul by linking him to my Blood Magic. Don’t ask me how. All I know is that I cannot pick on the Elements, because they are all being transferred to Raul. And if you look in his eyes and see the miasma—you’ll know that he can do magic, too.”
“That’s a lie!” Raul snarls. He steps to my side. “I want nothing to do with your filthy, dirty, corrupt Blood Magic.”
“Too late, dear brother,” I say sweetly. “The Forsaken Sisters have awakened the latent power within you. Just as Mother did for me.”
“Lies,” Raul hisses. He is not taking the public revelation well.
“Give me a goddamn break,” I grunt, rolling my eyes. “Mother was the strongest witch we knew. Her sister was an even stronger one. Her mother, our grandmother, taught them both.”
“Mother never spoke of her past,” Raul says darkly, almost as a warning.
I bark a laugh. “Maybe not to you. But I know that magic runs strong in our blood. And you are a Soren, after all. You cannot deny your destiny. Nor can you reject it. You’ve already embraced who you are—I saw it happen on the plane.”
“You mistake me,” Raul says softly. But there is very little conviction in his words.
“You should know that you’ve been stripped of your post as Captain Commander,” Geordam says.
“Let me guess—Eleira named you my replacement?” Once more, I let out a crude laugh. “Congratulations on your new position. You now hold the most vaunted place in Eleira’s ring of beta orbiters.”
He sniffs and shoves me forward. I trip over my feet, stumble a bit, but catch myself before I fall.