Finn nudged my side and I knew he wanted me to ride him. In two swifts movements I tore the costume wings from my back and leapt onto his saddle.
Kade, Violet, and I were all battle trained, and we knew on instinct to split up. Violet branched off to the right. After a moment’s hesitation and a lingering look, Kade branched off to the left. I could tell he didn’t want to leave me to battle the fae alone, but I was a queen. We did not cower on the sidelines. If I died tonight, I would die protecting my people. I would die with a happy heart.
Use the mecca, Ari. You’re more powerful than any on this hill. Prove it.
Finn was right. I was linked to the most powerful energy grid of magic ever in existence. There was a lot more energy on our side of the veil, and I would utilize it tonight. I might not be the expert Kade was, but I was trained in calling the energy and using it as a weapon. The only thing I was having trouble with was cutting the magic off so it didn’t suffocate me, but there was no time during combat to worry about that. As Finn galloped into the fighting crowd, I took a deep steadying breath and felt for that live wire deep inside of me, that electric pulse that was always a distinct current within my body. The mecca was always within me, just waiting for me to shape it, use it.
Some of the fae had noticed me. One of them came at me, but I easily cut him down with my sword, having the height and speed advantage of riding Finn. Despite the distance between me and my friends, I could make out Kade to my left fighting hard, using mecca and sword. There was a pile of fae at his feet. We were lucky the Tuatha attacking us now were far less powerful than the dark fae who’d tried to kill us all at Kade’s Staten Island home. It felt like they were around the power level of those who hit the night of the queen’s death. Which gave us a chance.
A flash of white to my right was Violet. She was blasting fae and taking them to their knees. Forcing myself to focus, I channeled the energy from my center and drew it in one fast motion to the surface of my being. I’d never pulled so much, so fast, and it brought with it a hot, sharp pain.
When my body felt like it was literally going to be torn into two, I screamed and thrust my hands out, directing it at the brutal mob before me. The mecca was clever; it knew who I considered friend and foe. It bypassed my people and followed the sickening floral scent.
I let the mecca flow from me as I lifted the sword and started cutting down fae, one after another, never stopping, not even to wipe the blood from my face. They had attacked us, hurt my people, and I would destroy them all even if it killed me. A few of them managed to land blows on me, but Finn was always right there with teeth and claws, tearing through them. Together we were a formidable weapon. Add in the mecca and it was even more. My blasts of mecca were bringing many of the fae to their knees, blood trickling from their eyes and noses and ears. This gave the shifters the opening they needed to pick themselves up and strike. Bear and wolf worked together, shifters united against a common enemy. For this moment, we were no longer divided.
I swung my sword in figure eights. My head was beginning to ache and my body starting to sway, but I kept pushing energy. Purple coated the hilltop, turning the fight in our favor.
“Ari, no more!” I heard Kade bellow. I registered his words, but not fully. I was almost too far gone to realize what I had done. There was no way to stop it. I was in a car going a hundred miles an hour down a hill and my brakes were cut. The momentum was too great. There was no way to save myself.
A spark of clarity hit me. Finn had paused and I could sense him trying to speak with me, but his words weren’t getting through.
Finn!
I shouted in my head, but the mecca was a purple haze that couldn’t be penetrated. It had become this huge living thing, moving on its own now, using me as a channel. I tried to stuff that live wire back down but nothing happened. The entire hill was coated in a purple mist and now I could see just at the top, just ten yards from me, near the stage, a portal had opened. Two fae magic users were using energy to hold it open, one on either side, as the remaining unharmed fae were escaping.
My legs began to violently jerk as I struggled to stay on Finn. I had gone too far this time. I might have saved my people, but the mecca was going to rip me in two. Then, as if this moment couldn’t get any worse, Violet’s scream cut through the dark night, forcing chills up my arms. I could only watch in horror as the two fae who had opened the portal wrapped some type of glowing magical bands around my best friend’s arms and legs and shoved her through the portal just as the hole closed.
It all happened so fast I couldn’t be sure it was true. A cavern of sorrow opened inside my chest. Kade reached me then; his huge hands came up to either side of my face, tearing my gaze from where my best friend had just been.
I looked into his eyes, those deep molten copper eyes, and the pain threatening to destroy my body eased the slightest bit. I tried to gasp for small breaths; I wasn’t sure if the mecca or the loss of Violet had robbed me of oxygen. I couldn’t think straight. Kade’s eyes suddenly flared with spikes of purple and my legs stopped shaking, but his forehead broke out in sweat.
“No!” I tried to rip my face away from his. I couldn’t lose them both. No one could control this amount of mecca, not even Kade. It was everywhere in an inexhaustible supply. But his hands clamped down harder and I watched in horror as his amber eyes went purple. Both of us were buffeted by a huge gust of wind, and I realized Nix was there. Her ten foot wingspan stole the moonlight from around us, and the next moment happened so fast I had no time to process it. Nix flew at Kade’s face, landing on his head, and something snapped so hard I was thrown backward, and everything went dark.
Chapter Eleven
Fire can reduce the strongest tree to ash.
Consciousness returned and I floated in a sea of calm for a few beats, but as awareness filtered in, so did the memories. Violet! I forced my eyes open, trying to lift my head from the soft linen pillow beneath it. A sharp stab of pain rocked through my body, settling into my brain. It was like a migraine on steroids, and I wasn’t sure I could sit up without throwing up.
I finally got my eyes open, and was in a half sitting position. “Violet!” I called out as I tried to take in my surroundings through the pounding pain. I was in my room at the Island mansion.
Movement from the couch off to the side caught my eye. Calista crossed to stand at my bedside. Her face was haggard and streaked with blood. Her eyes were red-ringed and puffy.
“Violet’s gone. A lot of them are gone.” Calista’s voice was broken, a hollow shell.
Pushing through my pain, I attempted to leap from the bed. Calista caught me as I stumbled, but I made it to my feet.