bedeviled & beyond 07 - beset & bewildered (22 page)

Astra, no!

Stand back, halfling or you’ll force me to pull my sword.

I smiled at the sound of Slayer and Dialle bickering. It felt like home. Then something seared my chest, sending energy directly into my heart, and my smile melted under the resulting agony. I sat bolt upright, with a scream on my lips. “Frunk me straight to hell and back!”

Astra was grinning. “Welcome back. Come on, we need to finish what you started.”

She grabbed my hand and, rubbing my sore chest, I let her pull me to my feet. “Okay, but if you ever do that again I’m going to kill you myself.”

“Noted,” Astra said, still grinning. “Now let’s go extinguish this bitch.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Die Bitch!

When all my friends come out to play,

Things tend to get a bit hairy.

Astra and the guys had shifted me outside the cemetery walls. As we hurried back toward the scene of the battle, I looked up at the silvery glow that filled the sky above it. “What’s going on?”

Dialle pulled an iron gate open and ushered us through. “Angels.”

I frowned. “Angels?”

Astra nodded. “After Morta grabbed you I called Myra. She had to pull some serious strings but the Big Guy finally agreed to let them help.”

I didn’t understand. “Why would she have to pull strings?”

“They’re not supposed to take sides against Morta,” Slayer said. “It’s part of the contract between Heaven and Hell from two centuries ago. The devil is allowed his environs as long as he doesn’t overstep. If he oversteps, the angels are allowed to intervene.”

“But they don’t think Morta threatening the entire earth dimension is overstepping?” I couldn’t believe it.

“They can’t act on intentions, Darma,” Astra told me. “She hasn’t done anything so far except try to make you work for her. And since we went to her in the first place...” Astra shrugged.

Slayer finished the thought. “At best it’s a gray area. They’re expecting us to clean up our own mess.”

We ran toward the fighting in the distance. Morta stood in the center of the chaos, flinging energy toward a holding circle of angels in the sky. The angels were simply blocking her magic and keeping her inside their circle with light magic.

Around Morta, however, a real battle was going on. Caninra and her pack were there, fighting some type of long-horned demon I hadn’t seen before. The things walked on four hooves and had tails like swords, which they used with deadly accuracy. Several of Caninra’s Hellhounds were down and bleeding.

A strident cry had me jerking my gaze skyward to find the death dragons from Morta’s environs encircling Gerch and his soldiers on the backs of red and black dragons. There were a few Royals up there too, fighting valiantly against Hell’s minions. Unfortunately the soldiers for the side of good seemed to have taken more than their share of hits. That battle didn’t seem to be going any better for the good guys than the one on the ground.

Guilt flooded me as I watched my friends suffer and die because of me. “I can’t believe the angels aren’t helping,” I murmured crankily.

“It’s up to us,” Astra said in her usual dismissive way.

“I tried to beat her, Astra. I gave her everything I had and she didn’t die. I don’t know how you think we’re going to beat her.”

“We got here just before you went down,” my sister said. “You almost had her. If you hadn’t run out of energy you would have won.”

“Okay. So?” I glared at her, feeling grumpy with my failure.

“So...” She swung her arm, indicating the thousands of spirits which had risen again as we entered the cemetery...as if our presence had drawn them to us. “There’s enough energy in this cemetery to take her out. We just need a bigger vessel.”

I frowned toward the hovering dead, some of whom had lifted their hands toward me as if asking a question. I could already feel their energy dancing on the air around us, stinging my skin and sending the small hairs on my arms to attention. “And where are we going to get that?”

Astra indicated Dialle and Slayer. “It’s us. All four of us. We’re going to share the energy so we can hold more of it.”

I scrubbed a shaky hand over my face. The idea of consuming that arctic energy again made me nauseous. “Is that even possible?”

Eyeing me carefully, Slayer responded for her. “Theoretically.” He didn’t look convinced. “I told you she’s not up to this, Astra.”

“And I told you we don’t have a choice. She’s arguably the most gifted with necromancy, followed by me and, through our mark, Dialle.”

Slayer gave my sister a hostile smile. “And I’m just a warm body?”

“Not at all. I sense some ability in you to hold death magic. Hopefully by dividing it between the four of us, we’ll reduce the strain on any one of us.” The unspoken reality was that Slayer was barely equipped under the most limited circumstances. What we were about to do would put him in danger. Panic flared at the thought. But before I could address that terrifying concept, something almost as horrifying came to my attention. I heard a shout and looked up, my blood running cold at what I saw. Torre was riding a big black dragon in the battle above us. As I watched, a death dragon swung its razor sharp tail spike at the black and scored a hit, sending Torre’s ride plummeting toward the ground on a pain-filled roar. With a scream of alarm, I took a step in their direction, not knowing what I could do.

Fortunately the black righted itself just before it crashed into the ground and, flapping its enormous wings with a power that reverberated on the air, managed to pull out of the death spiral and return to the battle.

I pulled air into lungs that had cramped from lack of oxygen. I’d seen more than enough. “People are dying because of me. We need to get this done.”

“Right,” Astra grabbed my hand and Dialle’s. I took Slayer’s hand as Astra turned to me. “Start slowly. It won’t take Morta long to notice what we’re doing. As soon as she sees us we’ll need to work fast. Draw as much power as you can and let it ease into Slayer and me. I’ll do the same. I’m hoping the energy’s natural tendency to even out will allow us to share it equally. If not, we’ll need to pull it back and take her alone...just you and me.”

I glanced toward Slayer, worried for him. “Maybe we should just...” He stopped me with a kiss that lingered longer than it should have in the circumstances. But the heat coiling through me at the touch of his lips went further in giving me the will to do what needed to be done than anything my sister had said. When he broke the kiss he gave me a soft smile. “We’re in this together, Princess. Don’t hold back.”

“But...”

He placed a warm finger on my lips. “I can do this.”

Astra gave me side eye. “We will be talking about what I just witnessed later. After we save the world again.”

I sighed, nodding. Then I closed my eyes and reached for the latent energy that was waiting all around us. I was expecting it to ease forward, slowly filling my core, instead it rose up in a rush and slammed into us.

I gasped and Astra stiffened as the death magic surged into her. After the initial assault I accepted it easily, my cells having memory of the arctic energy from earlier in the night. My sister didn’t fare quite as well. She went rigid, her limbs twitching violently as it slammed through her and her eyes rolled back in her head.

Dialle screamed her name, his black gaze swirling with the golds and vibrant greens of alarm. He reached over and tried to tug my hand from Astra’s. “Let go! You’re killing her.”

I panicked, realizing if he succeeded, everything I was holding back from Astra would crash into her, overwhelming her system and maybe even killing her.

He was wild-eyed, determined, but I couldn’t let him separate us. “No, Dialle! It’ll make it worse. We need to pull as much as we can away from her.”

But he was too upset, he wasn’t listening. He had Astra in his arms and, I was convinced that if she didn’t have a death grip on his hand he would have already let it go in a misguided effort to soothe her.

I turned to Slayer. His handsome face was tense, his eyes wide and his muscular form trembling under the power surging through him, but he was holding it together. He looked at me. “What do you need me to do?”

Tears slid down my cheeks. “We need to pull some of the energy from her until her system can adjust.”

He nodded and, without hesitating, reached over and placed a hand on Astra’s shoulder. Black energy, rimmed in blue shot out of Astra and spun on the air, then was sucked into Slayer and me like through a straw.

Slayer cried out, his eyes going closed, and his grip on my hand was crushing. But somehow he held on and Astra seemed to be accommodating the new level more easily.

I looked at Dialle. “Pull some of it away until she gets acclimated.” I had to scream to be heard above the din of battle but he finally nodded and did as I asked. Finally, Astra stopped twitching and seemed to relax.

The earth erupted before us, throwing us backward. I barely kept hold of Astra’s hand and Slayer managed to keep his grip on me. Unfortunately, Dialle was thrown several feet away and lay motionless.

I looked at Astra. Her eyes were open. They were filled with swirling blue light and unless I was mistaken, she’d grown a couple of feet. Looking down at myself, I saw that I’d done the same. Slayer’s grip on my hand had lessoned and I glanced his way, happy to see him holding the energy without much effort.

Astra’s hair rose from her head, the dark red curls riding a magic induced wind as if it were dancing. I realized with a start that mine was doing the same.

Another burst of energy exploded near us and I focused my attention on its cause.

Morta had found us. She was floating across the cemetery, several inches above the ground. As she moved, bodies and broken bits of wood and rock flew away from her feet and anything living that got in her way was flung through the air with a single swipe of her arm. Blue flame shot from her gaze and energy roiled around her like a tornado.

She was coming for us. And she was pissed.

I glanced at Dialle, wondering if we could do it without him. “Is he okay?”

Astra’s gaze swung slowly my way. “Yes.” The single word boiled from her lips, a force too large to have come from such a petite form, and echoed through the cemetery.

I blinked, realizing for the first time probably in my entire life how very scary my baby sister was. She was a force to be reckoned with, a magical creature of enormous power. The fact that she hid her capability behind a self-deprecating disposition didn’t take anything away from that. When she needed to throw down to save the world. She did it without hesitating. 

I nodded and, giving Slayer’s hand a squeeze, turned my attention back to the evil necromancer. Using my power to focus in on her movements, I watched her long, skeletal body tense as it readied to send out another burst of deadly power.

I opened my mouth and yelled, “Now!” Just like Astra’s voice, mine emerged as a boom that rocked the walls surrounding the graveyard. As if ignited by the explosive charge of my voice, Slayer and Astra and I released the energy we’d stored in a wash, watching it flash toward the necromancer like a tsunami, tearing up everything in its path as it went.

Morta stopped in her tracks, the flames in her gaze extinguished as her mouth went round and her eyes widened. At the last possible moment she threw up her hands and created a protective wall between her and our magic. The wall held for several moments, but under the continued force of our combined energy it started to melt away, thinning visibly.

Unfortunately, our energy started to soften too. I gritted my teeth and held on, praying we’d have enough to finish the job.

Then suddenly there was a jolt to our system. Like an air bubble working its way through a straw, something punched each of us just once, through the gut, and then smoothed out. Our wall of killing magic rippled once and then thickened, gaining power. I looked over to see that Dialle had rejoined us.

Morta’s barrier melted completely away and she was left magically naked before us. We threw everything we had at her. There were shouts and pain-filled screams as a fiery, scouring magic bubble exploded outward from our foursome, blowing everything in its path to pieces. The earth blasted into the sky in thick geysers of dirt and bone and any last shred of recognizable gravesites were obliterated.

Morta shrank away from our runaway energy and, with a final, terrified cry, lifted her arms and melted away.

It took a moment for us to realize she was gone. It took several more, long seconds to figure out how to pull the magic back. But as soon as we’d extinguished the terrifying force we’d wrought, all four of us fell to the ground, beyond exhausted.

Silence throbbed through the cemetery for a long moment, and then a cheer went up. I struggled to sit up and looked around. The place looked like the site of a laser war. Nothing was left intact. I blinked at the devastation, fearing suddenly that we’d blown our friends up along with Morta’s ugly playthings.

But another shout had me looking outward, where several hounds were sprawled across the top of the thick stone fence surrounding the graveyard. I smiled when I recognized Caninra.

Astra groaned, rubbing her head with the palm of her hand, which I noticed was covered in burns. A quick look at my own hands showed similar burns. She grimaced. “Well, shit. That’s gonna hurt later.”

Dialle kissed her shoulder through a large tear in her sweater. “I’ll make it better, my love.”

She giggled like a schoolgirl and I managed a full breath for the first time in days. Then I remembered. “Slayer!” I turned so quickly dizziness swamped me. I nearly fell over, but I saw him, a distance away and unmoving. I shoved to my feet and screamed his name running. I threw myself down beside him, my hands running over his chest and face, looking for any sign of life. Tears flowed down my cheeks and my world stopped spinning as I struggled to find breath or a pulse. His handsome face was covered in dirt, one cheek swollen with a large purple mark at its center, as if he’d hit a grave marker as he fell. “Oh my god, no, Slayer!”