The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension (20 page)

A few sorcerers tried to use the same long range magic that they would have if they were far away, flamethrowers, explosions, mini earthquakes that made the ground crumble beneath them, but without the distance to avoid the recoil and debris the attacks inevitably caused more accidental damage to their allies than it did to MaLeila, Devdan, or Dominik.

And then suddenly the chaos around them, which had begun to lessen as they took down their opponents, was no more. The battlefield was silent.

“Well fuck,” Devdan said panting as he leaned against a column that had fallen in the midst of the fight. “I’m almost insulted. I didn’t even have to really use my magic to take all of them down.”

“We know you always could have done that,” MaLeila said. “The point was to prove that to the rest of the world, remember?”

“You think they need help on the other side?” Dominik asked dusting debris off his shirt.

“I doubt it,” MaLeila said. If she, Devdan, and Dominik had easily destroyed their opponents, MaLeila was sure Nika and Marcel hadn’t broken a sweat on their side. She started to suggest they begin checking for survivors and moving bodies. MaLeila wasn’t heartless. Most of these people, except maybe the sorcerers that had been among them, had been following orders and got sent against the wrong group of people. But before she could suggest it, her body froze in sudden, inexplicable panic at something on the edge of her magic senses. She hardly had time to duck behind a large chunk of upended concrete before an explosion rocked the area.

She opened her eyes, ignoring the ringing in her ears and searched for Devdan. He had managed to jump behind the column, missing the brunt of the explosion. After finding Devdan, she looked for Dominik and not finding him in the immediate vicinity, she stood up, vision obscured by the black smoke that was now mixing with the white fog as she looked for Dominik.

“Dominik!” she called out. “Dominik!”

When he didn’t answer, MaLeila growled and said, “Fuck discretion,” before raising her staff in the air and causing the wind rotate in the air, collecting the smoke and fog together before making the wind push it up into the sky. Her vision cleared and she immediately found Dominik lying under a slab of concrete.

“Dominik!” she yelled as she dropped Tsubame’s staff and ran to where he was. She ignored the body parts, the blood, the smell of burning flesh, and was vaguely aware of the drone flying over them.

“Dominik,” MaLeila said when she was kneeling next to him, careful not to touch him unnecessarily in case it would disturb any injuries he may have had, at least not until she was sure he couldn’t hear her.

He didn’t answer her and when he didn’t answer when she called him again, she put her hands on his shoulders and shook him. First gently and then harder. And when that didn’t work she felt for a pulse. It wasn’t there.

“There are drones out here girl,” Devdan said grabbing her arm. “We don’t have the smoke to cover us anymore. They know we’re not dead and they’ll probably send another missile.”

“But we can’t leave Dominik,” MaLeila said, resisting Devdan as she reached for Dominik’s body.

“He’s dead,” Devdan said. MaLeila was certain it was harsher than he intended because he wasn’t that heartless, but adrenaline was flowing through both their veins. “And you blew away the smoke. They can see us. They’re going to shoot another missile at us and unless you plan on exposing the magical world, we can’t stop it.”

They shouldn’t stop it. But just because they shouldn’t didn’t mean MaLeila couldn’t.  Nor did it mean she wouldn’t. With tears welling in her eyes and rage boiling in her aching heart, she jumped to her feet and spun on her heels, eyes locking on the missile headed toward them just as it was locked on them. She could have redirected it from the distance. She could have caused it to prematurely explode in midair so that it could be written off as a malfunction. But she wanted the world to see, wanted the world to know what she had done, wanted them to be hard pressed to explain to people that this was anything other than what they had seen.

“MaLeila,” Devdan growled, but he didn’t try to stop her, didn’t try to warn her against doing what he certainly knew she was about to do.

Just as the missile was about to hit, MaLeila tapped back into her ethereal sight to see both the material and immaterial world at the same time, manipulated the magic in the air to grab onto and slow down the missile’s projection, and then froze the missile in midair hardly ten feet from her face.

MaLeila fought what certainly would have looked like a deranged smile, imagining the shocked look on the council’s faces as they no doubt surveyed the situation, the shocked look the world would have when they saw her standing in front of a stopped missile, holding it in midair as though the air were her mittens. But MaLeila wasn’t done yet. While still holding the missile in place, she created a small loop, only visible to those who could use the ethereal sight to see the thin red jagged seams where she forced space and distance together in a way that was normally unnatural. Then she let go of the missile, allowing it to pass through the loop and vanish from visible sight. It reappeared in the sky behind the drone and collided with it.

They felt the vibration ripple through the atmosphere even from the distance.

20

The atmosphere was tense in the lobby where everyone had gathered after the battle, not because any of them were nervous about being attacked again because as soon as everything was clear, MaLeila re-established the loop around the partially ruined hotel herself. They weren’t even necessarily tense because of the said sorceress’ open display earlier and the ramifications that would no doubt follow. They were tense because of the said sorceress herself. After removing Dominik’s body from the field, they took him upstairs to Tsubame, who wasn’t a doctor but was the most powerful sorceress in the hotel. After carefully inspecting the body, she confirmed what they already knew.

Dominik was dead.

She could bring him back.

“I can only do it in certain specific circumstances. There are rules and laws of the universe that even a god can’t break,” Tsubame clarified right before she brought Dominik back. “But as long as I can get to the body—mostly in tact mind you—within 24 hours of the death and the rigor mortis hasn’t set in and the body hasn’t transitioned to the decomposing stage, I can do it. I don’t broadcast this power though. Death is part of life. You can’t have one without the other. I’m only doing this for Ms. Samara’s sake.”

Dominik still had to heal from his injuries and he wouldn’t be awake for a while, days, months—it could even be years depending on his injuries, Tsubame had warned though she doubted it—but he wasn’t dead anymore. For some reason, that hadn’t quelled MaLeila like everyone thought it would. She didn’t break down in relief. Instead, she simply went downstairs to the lobby where some of the African magic family leaders had gathered for the evening with a large feast to celebrate their victory for the day. She grabbed a glass of wine and sat off to a corner by herself, face set in a scowl, eyebrows furrowed, her usually light aura pulsing darkly, the energy from it extending to the room and making everyone nervous.

“Why don’t you go tell Miss Samara to lighten up? She’s ruining the evening.”

Devdan didn’t look at Tsubame as she came to stand beside him without her glamour, but no one seemed to notice that MaLeila had a doppelganger. Maybe because her presence right now was so powerful in the room or maybe Devdan could simply see through the glamour because he knew there was one and what Tsubame really looked like.

“Knowing the two of us, I’ll make it worse,” Devdan said bluntly. “We always seem to bring out the worst in each other.”

“Well you haven’t seemed to have done that this weekend. If anything, you’ve brought out the best in each other. So it won’t hurt to try. Now go over there. This is a feast and it’s hard to eat when she’s making everyone in the room nervous by flaring her aura out like that,” Tsubame said. When Devdan didn’t seem inclined to follow her suggestion, she nodded her head in MaLeila’s direction and said, “Go ahead.”

Devdan got the feeling that Tsubame wasn’t used to people not following her suggestions and orders. And though he hardly feared that the woman would do anything to him if he didn’t, she was right. MaLeila was making everyone nervous.

He went to where she was sitting on a couch by herself. There was plenty of room for others to sit, but everyone else was giving her wide breadth. Devdan didn’t feel the need to give her such space. He sat right next to her, their shoulders brushing against each other’s, and leaned back in the couch, waiting for her to acknowledge him.

“What?” she finally asked, taking a large gulp of the wine, her voice shallow and devoid of any emotion.

“You’re projecting your aura and scaring the shit out of everyone. Want to tone it down?”

“Not particularly,” MaLeila replied, but still withdrew her powerful aura anyway. It still continued to radiate, though not as strongly as before.

“I’d understand your mood if Dominik were dead. But Tsubame brought him back, so you’re going to have to explain your mood to me.”

“I thought of all people, you wouldn’t need me to explain my mood right now.”

“I don’t need you to,” Devdan said starting to get up. “Just thought you could use someone to talk to, but if that’s how you want to act, I don’t feel like fighting with you about it.”

MaLeila reached out and grabbed his arm before he could fully get up and pulled him back onto the couch.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant I thought you would get it without me having to explain it.”

“I can’t read your mind,” Devdan said, refraining from adding that he couldn’t read her mind despite how emotionally in tune they tended to be with each other; despite the fact that he could feel her despair, her fear, her rage, her hate mixing into a dark dangerous swirl of an emotion that had no word to describe it, as if the emotions were his own.

“I suppose not.”

She was silent after that, but she wasn’t trying to push him away either, so Devdan sat next to her until she was ready to talk and idly wondered if this was how she felt when he went into one of his brooding moods in the past. Helpless to do anything except sit there until he opened up, but wanting to be there regardless just in case he changed his mind, whether he wanted her to be there or not.

After almost twenty minutes of sitting in silence, MaLeila said, “Do you remember how it felt for you when you were a slave and you saw a friend or another slave get whipped within an inch of his or her life? Not dead, but just almost.”

It was the first time that MaLeila had ever asked him so bluntly about his time as a slave. Normally she implied it, eluded to it, but never outright said it. Probably because she feared that it would make him retreat from her. And in the past it had. He wasn’t going to retreat this time, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t thrown by the question. Not only because it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, but also that he wasn’t sure what it had to do with what they were talking about before.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

MaLeila smiled and teased, “You’re so impatient. I’m trying to get there. Just answer the question. Do you remember or not?”

He did. The helplessness. Not being able to do anything to stop it or else face death himself. The relief that the friend, family really because back then the slave community was all they had, would be okay but still carrying the rage, the fear, the worry, the hate that this could happen again and that next time someone might die. How they could be killed and no one would be held responsible for the death except to get a slap on the hand about losing an investment or good property. How his mother and later Bastet shared those emotions over and over again when he couldn’t keep his mouth shut or decided to be rebellious and would end up lying with a raw, bleeding, stripped like meat back on the brink of death. And it was as he reflected on this, that he understood the connection MaLeila was trying to get him to make and why she assumed she wouldn’t have to explain it to him.

MaLeila didn’t have a lot of friends or even close family. And she had always been that way according to Bastet, having the keen ability to attract to herself and be interested in befriending only those who would value their relationship as much as she would. And in return, she’d take those people into her heart and fiercely protect and guard them from any threat, even those she wasn’t certain she could win against. He’d always secretly admired that about her and if he were honest with himself it was one of the reason that even knowing that their binding may have forced them together, he’d always been willing to protect and guard her because she always put herself in danger trying to do the same for everyone else. She’d grown a little jaded and cynical over the years, but that part of her hadn’t changed. So he understood why she was shaken by seeing someone she cared for attacked, knowing who was responsible and that they could get away with it without reprimand while she was made to look like the antagonist. In that sense, Devdan mused silently, they were very much alike. He was just much more aggressive and ruthless than she tended to be on a normal occasion.

“You get it now?” MaLeila asked when he didn’t reply.

“Yes,” Devdan replied simply and then asked, “So what are you going to do about it? Soon enough we’ll be practically running Algeria, especially when Farah comes through with her contacts.”

“Algeria was your victory, Devdan. And so is the rest of Africa now that you’ve rallied the other magic families together and shown them you can win. I’m going after a bigger prize.”

The last time he heard MaLeila talking like this, she deliberately asked for a meeting with the Magic Council a couple of years back and dropped in front of them out of a portal the dead body of an elusive sorcerer with a dangerous fetish of molesting and then performing a dark ritual to drain the life force of eleven-year-old children with so little affinity for magic that they couldn’t even be qualified to be a witch or wizard, but enough affinity that they were more attune to it than average; the children who were afraid of monsters in the closet because there probably was a spirit or something passing through at one time. She’d threatened to kill the entire council herself if they allowed a dangerous sorceress like that to come find her again while endangering others in the process, left, and never answered one of their summons again. Eventually they stopped trying to summon her and after that, the deranged magic users attacking came almost to a complete halt with only a few mediocre attacks here and there.

“You think that’s what this is about? Getting some African magic families together to help me take a random African country?” Devdan asked. “I’m after a bigger prize too. Algeria, albeit unexpected and unplanned, was just the beginning.”

MaLeila sent him a questioning glance, eyebrows raised, but Devdan didn’t answer her curiosity. Rather than try to pry it from him, she laughed mirthlessly and said, “That’s right. I almost forgot we’re still technically enemies now, just with a temporary alliance. Can’t give away your plans to me. I just might thwart them.”

Enemies was a strong word. More like they were just on different sides battling the same mutual enemy, but Devdan didn’t bother making the distinction to MaLeila.

They sat in silence after that, MaLeila’s aura still dark and somber but no longer pulsing and creating a tense atmosphere. The tension easing from everyone was obvious as the room began to get louder and livelier. MaLeila eventually got up and left, being sure to run her hand across and pat his right thigh and squeeze his hand in a gesture Devdan wasn’t sure how to interpret before she left. Devdan continued to sit in the same spot for a few moments longer, wanting to get up and go to his room and sleep for a while, but feeling too exhausted and comfortable to move.

Eventually, Adina silently sat next to him. Then she said, “You and MaLeila’s bond is confusing.”

“Our bond? What bond?” Devdan asked with his eyes closed, not having the mental energy to try to explore Adina’s constant observations of the relationships between people today; let alone an analysis of the strange one he had with MaLeila.

“Your soul bond.”

“What soul bond?”

“You mean you didn’t know about it?” Adina asked, confusion apparent in her tone.

Devdan sat up, seeing that Adina wasn’t going to take the hint and leave him alone. While some of the innocent behavior she had used to try to seduce him when they first met was an act, Devdan had come to learn that some of it was part of her personality. For someone so in tune with people’s emotions, she could be blissfully ignorant of some of the finer meanings behind them.

“Know about what? What bond are you talking about? Everyone is linked together in some way.”

“That’s true and you can see the silver threads that bond them together even though seeing them doesn’t give you their meaning. But there’s one bond distinct from all the others, the red string of fate, the soul bond. The non-magical humans call it soul mates even though they lack the true comprehension of its meaning,” Adina explained.

Devdan rolled his eyes. “Me and MaLeila? Soul mates? You obviously don’t know our history. Besides, there are a lot of things I believe in, but soul mates isn’t one of them.”

“It’s not just romantic though it usually starts out that way once both parties are of age. It’s like the connection you and I manufactured through a ritual, but you and MaLeila have it naturally. At this early stage of the bond, I’m surprised you two have so much physical control and restraint when around each other. It might have to do with the fact that the bond is damaged,” Adina suggested in a whisper, looking in Devdan’s direction, but certainly not looking at him.

“If it is,” Devdan began dryly, “It’s no wonder. The shit we put each other through.”

“That wouldn’t have damaged the bond. Even those with the red string connecting their hearts have quarrels and arguments. It’s natural. The bond you two have though looks like it was purposefully damaged. Like someone tried to severe it or destroy it. Whoever it was must have been powerful to be able to do something to deform the bond so much. It’ll eventually mend itself though.”

Devdan furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. “Could another bond destroy it?”

Adina didn’t answer. She was staring off like she was prone to do when she was examining something with her powers. Devdan, though, snapped his fingers in front of her face, exhaustion leaving him as her words helped in finding the answer to a question he’d been pondering for months now but put aside as a lost cause.

“What?” Adina asked.

“Could another bond destroy it?” he asked slowly.