Burning Up

NINE
“We’ve got to get to Marin before he kills her,” Amaris said grimly.
Raniero longed to tell her to stay behind, but her magic was greater than his, and he knew he’d need her if he was to have any hope at all of stopping the wizard. So he nodded silently and turned to lead the way as they went in search of Korban.
They found him bathed in the pulsing crimson glow of the Blood Orb. His eyes were wide and glittering with exhilaration in his pale face as he held Marin pinned against his chest. The child hung limp in his arms, the side of her face marked with a purpling handprint where he’d obviously struck her.
“You bastard!” Amaris snarled.
Korban smirked at them and kept right on chanting, the words coming in a fast singsong now.
Amaris exchanged a grim glance with Raniero, realizing he was coming to the end of the spell. Once that happened, all he had to do was break Marin’s neck, and the Great Barrier would fall.
“We’ve got to get her away from him,” Amaris whispered.
“Aye, but how?” Raniero hefted his sword and eyed Korban, who promptly lifted the child higher to shield himself. “F*cking coward.”
Amaris’s eyes widened with desperate inspiration. “Marin!” Her voice rang clear over Korban’s chanting. “Remember our game!”
The child’s despairing gaze met hers, but there was no understanding in them.
She tried again. “Remember that game you love to play? The one where I look for you?”
Marin’s big brown eyes went huge. Then, thank the Red God, her little face screwed up with effort.
And she vanished.
Korban’s chanting broke off in a startled yelp, and his hands jerked as if losing their hold. He flailed as if trying to recapture the child who’d just magicked herself invisible and squirmed from his grip.
“Hit the ground, Marin!” Amaris screamed.
The child instantly appeared, her body drawn into a ball as she lay on the stone floor. The wizard started to swoop down and grab her up again.
Raniero ran forward, swinging his sword in a furious upward blow. It cleaved through Korban’s neck in one clean stroke, and the wizard’s head went flying.
But even as his body fell, the Blood Orb flashed a horrifying crimson. A trail of red light started draining from the wizard’s headless body into the globe, which began to pulse brighter.
Raniero froze in horror. “Red God’s Balls! Korban’s death has completed the spell!”
Her heart turning into a solid block of ice, Amaris realized he was right. Though the death of an innocent would have provided more power, any death at all would fuel the spell. In moments, it would activate and rip the barrier apart. And once it fell, the Varil would invade.
Unless . . .
“We’ve got to redirect the spell.”
“It’s too complicated—there’s no time!”
“I can do it!” She stared hard at the pattern of swirling energies, reading them, finding the spot where the spell could be warped, turned to a new purpose. Throwing out both hands, she began to chant, sending her magic swirling toward the chink in the spell.
It was like trying to redirect floodwaters with her bare hands. The spell roared along the channel Korban had constructed, ignoring her efforts to turn it in a new direction. Amaris gritted her teeth and kept trying. She was damned if they’d fall to the Varil after suffering so much, fighting so hard.
But even as she strained to turn the magic, she knew she simply didn’t have enough power.
Until strong fingers wrapped around her shoulders, and a new stream of magic joined that rolling down her arms.
Raniero’s.
The vampire joined his will to hers, reinforcing her magic, working to warp the spell into the new shape she willed for it. And slowly, reluctantly, the spell twisted, took on the form she demanded.
The mystical energies pouring through the Great Barrier began adding to its strength instead of weakening it.
Somewhere in the distance, Amaris thought she heard reptilian voices howl in rage. Perhaps it was her imagination.
But it made her grin anyway.
Even as she smiled, the Blood Orb hit the stones of the battlements and shattered.
Silence fell.
It was so quiet, Amaris could hear her own panting along with Raniero’s deeper breaths. She felt dizzy, exhausted with blood loss and effort.
“Ama’is!” Her sister flung her small warm body against Amaris’s thighs, almost bowling her over. “Ama’is, you saved me!”
She dropped to her wobbling knees and wrapped shaking arms around the little girl. “I had help.” Amaris met Raniero’s eyes, and let her own gratitude show. “I had a lot of help.”
He leaned down and kissed her over the child’s head, quick and hard. She smiled at him as he drew away, knowing a promise when she tasted one.

They limped into the great hall, where the guards and castle folk slept together on thin pallets. At the ring of Raniero’s boots on the stone, Korban’s warriors jolted awake and rose with a mass growl—only to fall silent in staring astonishment at the sight of their lord’s head, swinging by its bloody hair from Raniero’s right hand.
The left held Blue Stripe’s decapitated skull by one long ear. Amaris carried Cari’f’s head as her own gory trophy, a chilling grin of triumph pasted on her face.
Together, the lovers strolled to the dais through the stunned crowd, Marin walking solemnly behind them. Amaris’s heart was knotted in her throat, but she knew that the castle had to be reclaimed for the king.
Besides, she was frankly too tired to run from these bastards anyway.
Raniero dumped his burden on the dais, then flung himself into the lord’s chair. Amaris dropped the head she carried next to the other two, then moved to stand behind his chair, secretly bracing herself against it as the room spun around her. Despite the healing spell, she’d lost far too much blood. Marin leaned against his knee and gave the crowd a little smirk that warmed Amaris’s heart. Despite everything she’d been through, the child’s spirit was intact.
Raniero’s deep voice rang across the stillness of the great hall. “I have a message from your king.”
He gestured a spell, and a huge image appeared in the air over the hall. Ferran’s face stared out from it, rage in his golden eyes, a muscle flexing in his handsome cheek. He wore full armor, and he spoke from horseback. “I ride to Tzira Castle with my forces. When I arrive, I shall investigate your lord’s crimes. I expect you to give Lord Investigator Raniero your full obedience in the meantime.” He paused and swept his gaze over the crowd, which visibly cowered. “Lord Raniero pointed out that many of you were simply following the orders of your lord. He urges me to mercy. We shall see if he is of the same opinion when I arrive.”
The image winked out. Raniero contemplated the pale faces staring at him. “I trust,” he said at last, “you will give me your full obedience?”
Heads nodded rapidly all the length of the room.
Leaning against the back of his throne, Amaris smiled in tired satisfaction.