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“They’re adept in murdering witches,” Killian said with a calmness I didn’t share.
One wrong move and we would end up dead. Hecate may be weakened, but she’d taken precautionary measures. She’d brought in reinforcements, along with several lords she’d forced to accept her darkness. Rolling my shoulders past the chafing of the untried armor, I heard Killian chuckle.
“Normally, you’d wear a new set of armor to train in before wearing it to battle. Due to all leather, you should stretch it before wearing it,” he divulged, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Greer meant well. He’s not a fighter, though. He’d take a book—or a dick—any day over a sword.”
“He does like his books, and anyone willing to play willing victim.”
The scent of sweat and apprehension from the army behind our back, still coming through the portal clung heavily in the air. It was probably a good thing the mindless witches within were burning the expired batteries.
“Remember, once she’s seen you, you are to appear to ‘protect’ me aside from her intended hit, Basilius.” At my air quotes, he’d frowned. “She will strike through the middle, aiming for me. You shove me, I protect you.”
“How skilled are you at protecting people, Aria?”
“I don’t want to jinx it, Basilius, but one of the two numbers is zero. In my favor, of course.” His grunt was the only confirmation of acknowledgment to confirm he’d heard me at all. Turning to Brander, who’d forced Lore to stay behind in his stead, I called to him. “Brander, check on Siobhan in the back. Make sure the girls are almost finished. Hecate is right fucking there,” I whispered, watching as she moved forward, inching toward the front gates, then stood in the tunnel leading outside, directly in front of me. Her dark head tilted as if she were listening for something.
The bitch was walking straight toward us. A sadistic smile played on my lips, even as the air caught in my lungs, my pulse quickening as I watched her pause halfway down the tunnel, which led to the iron-wrought gates. My heartbeat was hammering in my ears, part excitement, part fear. She just needed to remain inside long enough for the girls to finish their part. They were close. I could feel them reaching, as the weavers beneath me braided each tendril of magic. Carefully, precisely, I slipped one after another to them through the shared bond.
Esmeralda pulled on her end, even as Soraya tugged on hers. Exhaling the dread, I counted to thirty inside my head and then forcefully ripped the larger, thicker veins of magic to me. Hecate’s head swung left and then right before the largest grid she’d crafted, the one that fed her the lion’s share of her magic, imploded beneath the ground, shaking through the entire citadel.
Her eyes rounded, feeling each vein collapse. I’d cut off the blood supply that threaded throughout the body. The moment she darted toward the tunnels, I unleashed hell on the citadel. The first, largest, ball of fire slammed down in the back, thundering through the air, deafeningly.
Inside my head, freeing the music to the air around me, In This Moment's cover of “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins hummed to life, hummed to life. Her head whipped toward me as I moved from the thick, whispers of the fog. Several fiery meteors slammed into the walls, damaging them. Then I brought the entire thing down with precisely-timed blasts of what remained of the meteors I’d constructed last night.
I waited until I could scent the grease burning on the arrowheads of the archers behind me before I lifted my arm. When I dropped it, a volley of arrows lit up the air around me. As they hit their marks, I heard the grunts of them tearing flesh to bone, igniting the corpses afire. Wiggling my fingers, I brought up the army, slowly strolling forward. Once I could see past the fog, I turned, watching a helmetless Basilius strolling exactly like his brother, toward me.
The moment he was beside me, I turned and continued to move toward Hecate. I felt her rage as she surged, sucking power to her for the attack.
“Slowly,” I whispered as I turned to Basilius. He paused beside me, grabbed my throat with his ungloved hand, brushing his lips against mine.
“I hope you’re as good as everyone thinks you are, Aria.”
“Me too,” I whispered and then turned as her blast came through the barrier. “Now.” Basilius shoved me to the ground, but my hands were already up, blocking the blast from hitting him. With a softer, less lethal hit, I sent him crashing to the ground before Hecate’s magic could make contact.
Replacing my shield as Hecate’s horrid laughter danced in my ears, I counted to thirty, allowing her a moment to think she’d hit him. Rising, I rushed to him, shaking him and putting on an award-winning performance.
“The king is down!” I shouted, turning toward the beautiful sight of the village aflame. From where I sat, I could see the witches scattering with the arrows peppering their bodies. “The king is dead!” I shouted, slowly bringing in more mist, allowing Basilius to crawl on his stomach to the line behind us. Bringing up one of the large corpses from my army, I continued screaming for help. It only took me imagining Knox not coming out of the catatonic state to sob heartrending cries. Men rushed forward to pull the lifeless corpse from me, leaving me sitting in the center of the misty field, pretending to be crying. Only, I was.
“It was nice of you to show up here. It saved me the trouble of hunting you down.” The smugness in her tone had my smile returning. “Like I said, if I can’t have him, then neither can you. Such a waste, he was such an amazing lover.”
“That he was, grandmother,” I agreed, slowly rising. “I warned you not to touch that which belongs to me, didn’t I?” I questioned, my tone holding real rage, and I sent a pulse of my power slamming into her mind. Every emotion she’d fed me slammed back into her, tenfold.
“So you did. But, you see, he was mine long before he was yours, little slut.” Her tone was breathy, which I wondered if she used when she wanted to conceal emotion. She’d used it in the library too, only through Luna’s lips. I could see her gaze flicking to the village, needing them to survive long enough for her to siphon enough of their power to fight back.
“Something wrong, Hecate?” I asked, my tone bored but level.
“What’s the matter, darling? You should be out celebrating your victory.”
“I was just thinking how you’re going to die screaming. It’s how you should go down after what you’ve done to this world. You destroyed mystical creatures. All because you feared having to work for what you needed.”
“I’m a goddess! I’ve worked for everything I have ever had. You think it was easy forcing this world to mold to what I wanted it to be?” she snarled.
“I think you’re a petty, pathetic, washed-up goddess who no one will remember once I am finished.”
Power erupted around her, which forced me to collect and gather the remaining threads fueling her magic. “Little Girl Gone,” by Chinchilla, filled the entire air, echoing throughout the space around us. I sang along with the first song, ensuring it pissed her off. The more pissed off she got, the more access I gained to the waves of power drifting to her. I had come to take it from her. Her jaw clenched, which allowed me to see the mind-boggling veins of ink-colored wispy lines that connected to her grids drifting throughout the land.
“I was all dressed up and thought why not come bash in your fucking head after I’ve ripped your heart out. I mean, do you even have a heart inside that sadistic, empty chest?”
“I think you’re suicidal or stupid. I’m not sure which yet, honestly. It has to be one or the other. You can’t beat me, Aria. I am eternal. This world holds pieces of me within it that you’ll never entirely eradicate,” she hissed vehemently.
