And it felt amazing.
“Brexley, stop!” Tad moved in front of Istvan and Simon, his arms up, his voice throwing out a spell. Before I could stop, my magic slammed into him. I watched it hit the old man, funneling only to him as if he had directed it to him, taking the brunt of my power, avoiding Simon and Istvan. The force flung him up in the air like a doll, pitching him back into the dirt. His body spread out on the ground, just as my mother had done twenty years before, twisting his body with black magic.
Like a slap, the trance I was in shattered into pieces, breaking over me with awareness and horror. What was I just about to do? Simon was an innocent child, and I hadn’t even thought past my hate for Istvan. Tad protected him.
“Tad?” I whispered his name, his form not moving.
Inching closer, air locked in my lungs. His eyes were open, but they did not blink. They stared vacantly at the sky.
“Oh. Gods. No. Tad!” I heard myself cry out, my body no longer able to hold me up, the nectar falling from my hands in a dull, charred lump. Crawling over the ground to him, I knew already. I felt it.
Emptiness.
“No!” Warwick bellowed behind me, and I twisted enough to see him, Istvan already escaping into the forest with Simon, Warwick disappearing after them.
I could no longer feel Warwick. The connection was scorched, leaving me empty. Cold. Floating in darkness without an anchor. Full of guilt, rage, devastation, and terror.
Staring down at Tad, his empty eyes gazed blankly up at the sky. Absent of life. Of the power which was woven in the earth, his life older than the trees next to us. He had lived thousands of years. My friend. My companion in Halálház.
Now he was gone.
Because of me.
He saved Simon’s life, protected him.
From me.
I killed him.
“Oh, gods...” I scrambled back on my feet with a sob, devastated at the truth of what I had done, what I was capable of.
Sounds drew my attention up. Only handfuls of people still stood, staring down in shock at the dead bodies scattered across the terrain. My attention fell on dozens and dozens. I recognized one of the dead near me. Jan, the grumpy coffee guy at Povstat. Dead. Without a mark on his body.
My hand slapped over my mouth as I stepped back in utter horror. My call to attack didn’t discriminate. I gave no order as to who. They killed on both sides. My magic didn’t decipher between guilty and innocent. There was a mix of HDF soldiers, Povstat soldiers, and inmates slain over the ground. Some were dead from gunshot wounds, but most were not.
I had killed them.
The hundred souls I had taken swirled around me, adding to my undead army. Terror gripped my throat like fingers, my eyes dropping back down again to the body at my feet, comprehending what I had truly done. My magic took a hundred innocent lives, and it was potent enough to murder one of the most powerful Druids in the world.
I had almost killed Simon.
The gut-wrenching shame burned a sob in the back of my throat, Andris’s warning murmuring in my head.
“Brex, it’s beyond dangerous. This tiny substance is the most powerful thing in the world. The damage it can do. Do you know what could happen if people found it? What if Istvan discovered it?”
It wasn’t Istvan he should have been afraid of.
It was me.
I was the monster.
I had no control and no idea how much more damage I could do. My heart and brain couldn’t come to terms with my crimes, with what I had done. What I was capable of...
I stared down at the lifeless nectar, empty of magic. But I knew it wouldn’t be long before the power came back. And I wanted it to. Like a drug, I had tasted the high... the power. I wanted more.
I didn’t trust myself to be anywhere near it.
Scanning the area, I saw some grieving over their loved ones or thinking of the young men whose parents back at HDF would learn their child was no longer alive.
My feet retreated a few steps, the panic and need to run jarring my bones. I was too dangerous. I no longer walked in the gray... I had fallen into the darkness.
The threat, the danger.
Little did I know the whole time...
I was the villain.
Chapter 27
Warwick
The squeal of tires came around the tower, heading for where Istvan ran into the forest with Simon. The moment they got into the car I had no chance of getting my nephew.
“No!” I bellowed, terror firing my rage, tearing my boots across the land.
A door slammed, tires squealed, and through the trees, I spotted an SUV speeding away. Tracker was behind the wheel, Istvan in the passenger seat, and shadowy outlines of Olena and Ivanenko in the backseat.
Panic heaved my muscles as my energy waned. The hum I always felt to Kovacs was gone. I could feel everything inside me scorched into cinders, the pain almost crippling, but I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t lose Simon.
“Simon!” I bellowed, pushing my legs harder, sweat beading down my face.
A sniffling sound stopped me in my tracks.
“Uncle Warwick?” Simon came out of the forest, blood still leaking into his shirt. His face crumpled as he ran to me.
Falling to my knees, I wrapped him up in my arms, relief heaving from my lungs, pulling his tiny frame into me.
He was safe. And I would never let anything hurt him again.
I gripped him so tight, not wanting to let him go.
“I want Mom.” He sniffled into my chest.
“Okay, big man.” I squeezed him tighter, sighing deeply. “Let’s go find her.”
I rose, lifting him up into my arms, his head falling on my shoulder.
Suddenly, pain wrenched across my chest, a grunt heaving through me, and I dropped us both back to the ground, my body curling over.
“Uncle Warwick?” Simon’s voice sounded scared as I clenched my teeth through the shredding pain.
I had felt our link burn out before; I knew how it felt when she used my energy.
This was different.
Hollow. Empty. As if all the color in my world was ripped from me.
I bellowed out a roar.
“Uncle Warwick!” Simon cried out. “What’s wrong?”
Sucking in, I pushed back the agony, standing up and taking his hand. The moment we hit the edge of the forest my gaze went to the spot I had left her.
Gone.
Panic rose in my throat, my hand clasping Simon’s tighter, pulling him with me as I jogged back to the spot.
“Kovacs?” I gritted out. More and more, I felt off, my gaze taking in the sea of dead bodies on the ground.
“Mom!” Simon yanked free of my grip, running across the terrain where my sister stood. Her shock morphed into tears as she scooped him up, hugging her son to her body in utter relief and love. Zander and Mykel stood nearby.
“Warwick!” Ash’s voice hit my ear, and he ran to me, Scorpion moving to me as well, but my attention didn’t make it past Tad’s body on the ground. The horrified shock. Tadhgan was dead.
She was able to kill the oldest and most powerful Druid alive.
Most of the carnage on the ground was from her too. I could taste her signature, smell her magic like I was tuned only to it.
“Fuck, princess, what did you do?” I muttered, reaching out for her, but feeling nothing. “Kovacs!” I screamed, echoing off the sky, bouncing through the trees as if it was chasing after her. The link was burnt out, an abyss that echoed forever. I couldn’t even feel a buzz between us, spearing alarm in my lungs, the darkness already yanking me down to my most basic instincts.
Kill. Avenge. Destroy.
“Where is she?” Scorpion’s voice peaked with dread, sensing it too, but not as I did. I knew it with every fiber of my being.
“Gone.” I stared out at the forest, the sun dipping below the horizon, knowing she was somewhere out there, every second getting farther and farther away.
“Better watch out, princess,” I muttered to myself. “I’m coming for you.”
If she thought she could run, could hide from me, she was mistaken.
I hunted and tracked down my prey.
I was the threat, the danger.
I was The Wolf...
Shadow Lands, is coming late Spring 2022!
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As a thank you to all who have loved my sidekicks who appear in the Darkness, Collector, Lightness, and Savage Lands Series, and have been begging for more of them! Here is Sprig, Cal, Simmons, Grimmel, Opie, and Bitzy together in a special Holiday scene just for you!
Leather Thongs and Honey—
A Christmas Tail