Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) (23 page)

“What are you doing?
He’ll kill you!” Kanti said.

Zunya sucked in a
breath and smiled. Kanti’s fear was giving him energy. And if he tapped into
Henry’s fear, he’d have a feast, Valerie knew.

“You don’t want me
to murder him. Fine. I’ll kill him in a fair fight. Now stand up,” Henry
ordered Zunya.

“I’ve been yearning
to take your life for years. If I had to listen to you whine one more time, I’d
have killed myself and saved Reaper the trouble,” Zunya said with a little
grin.

Zunya reached for
Henry’s arm, but Henry dodged his touch. Still, even Zunya’s presence was
sucking in all of the magic in the room. Zunya produced a little sunflower
blossom, an echo of Kanti’s magic.

“Useless, like the
princess who wields this power,” Zunya said.

Henry lashed out with
a wild swipe of his machete, and Zunya easily danced out of its path.

Kanti passed out on
the floor from the effect of Zunya sucking at her powers.

“Not her, me!” Henry
said, and his rage focused on him.

Sanguina moved to
enter the fray, but Henry pushed her back with his telekinesis, and she
stumbled awkwardly, her prosthetic leg twisting under her.

“Stay out of this,
for once!” Henry yelled at her. “I’ll slit my own throat if you get in the
middle of this fight, I swear it.”

Sanguina nodded, her
lips white, and stepped back.

Zunya didn’t pause
during Henry’s interaction with Sanguina, and instead, launched himself at
Henry, tackling him to the floor.

Valerie was blinded
by pain as Zunya made contact with Henry’s skin and ripped away his magic. But
Henry fought back with a strength that seemed inhuman. He managed to nick Zunya
with his machete, and Zunya screamed.

It was
the first time Valerie had heard him make a sound of pain, and it was a
terrible thing to hear.

Someone yanked open
the door of Ming’s room, and Valerie came back to her own reality.

Sanguina stood in
the doorway.

“How are you here?
Don’t leave Henry with Zunya!” Valerie said.

“Good, you know
what’s happening. Come with me,” Sanguina said.

She gripped
Valerie’s shoulder, and they returned to the Globe, inside Henry’s room.

“Kanti found me, and
together we searched for Henry. We found Reaper’s portal here, still open,”
Sanguina quickly explained.

Hovering at the end of
his bed was a rip in the air. Valerie tried to move toward it, but the force
that repelled her from Henry stopped her from getting any closer.

“I’m going to force
him to go to Earth with me. As soon as he’s gone, go through the portal. Once
you’re inside, he won’t be able to return until you’re gone,” Sanguina said.

Sanguina limped
through the portal, and Valerie tried to re-enter Henry’s mind, but he was
distracted now, and his mind wasn’t completely open to her. For an instant, she
saw Zunya’s face as Henry raised his machete, blazing with light, before
slamming it into his chest.

A sudden lessening
of the pressure forcing Valerie away from the portal let her know that Sanguina
had succeeded in getting Henry out of there. She stepped through the rip in the
air and was standing outside of the throne room.

Zunya was twitching
on the ground as cracks of light raced from the entry wound the machete had
made through his entire body. She put her hand to Zunya’s chest and let her
vivicus power flow through her.

“No! Don’t waste it
on him!” Henry’s voice was loud in her mind, and she allowed him to witness
through her what was happening.

Valerie’s magic
didn’t enter Zunya in time. There was no life to save, and her magic returned
to her like she’d called it home. But before his life flickered out, Valerie
saw the image of a girl who looked like Midnight—her daughter, Valerie
remembered. Midnight’s daughter had tried to save Zunya, and she’d come close
to drawing him away from the Fractus. With the image came a pang of regret, and
Valerie understood that he’d loved her. It had frightened him so much, he’d
killed her rather than let her change him. It was the one pulse of goodness in
him, the flicker that she could have used to save Zunya’s life if she’d been
there sooner.

Then Zunya shattered
like one of Reaper’s black weapons when she struck it with Pathos. His body was
no more than dust, except for his right hand. She shuddered. Why did it remain
while the rest of him was gone?

“He’s dead, but I
don’t feel better,” Henry’s voice in her mind was a distant echo, as if most of
his thoughts were elsewhere.

“Valerie,” Kanti’s
voice drew Valerie’s attention, and she saw her friend next to the throne, with
Tan cradled in her lap.

She’d forgotten
about Thai’s clone in the mayhem.

“Is he okay?”
Valerie asked, kneeling beside him.

Kanti shook her
head. Valerie reached for Tan’s wrist, searching for a pulse, but there wasn’t
one. She opened herself back up to her vivicus magic, even though she could see
it was too late.

Her magic hovered at
her fingertips, but there was nowhere to unleash it. Even a vivicus couldn’t
bring back the dead.

Valerie cried,
letting her tears fall on Tan’s still face. She’d never really tried to extract
him from the Fractus, even though she’d told Thai they would. Now it was too
late.

“I really am no
better than Reaper,” Henry’s words in her mind were the last contact she had
with her brother before he shut himself off from her completely.

Unbidden, the
prophecy that her mother had received from an Oracle in Ephesus came to her
mind. One of the Pillars of Light would fall into darkness, and only if that
person could be rebuilt would the Balance be restored. But as she held Tan’s
broken body, she wondered if her brother could ever be brought back from the
hell he’d created within himself.

Kanti left to find
Henry on Earth, and Valerie searched the Black Castle to see if any Fractus
remained from Reaper’s original force, but all she found were bones. Whether
they were soldiers of the Fist, or prisoners Reaper had executed, she’d never
know. But the castle was abandoned.

She knew that she
was delaying the inevitable. Chisisi and Skye would be awaiting her direction,
and Thai needed to know what had happened to his brother.

Valerie looked over
the throne room one last time and turned when she heard footsteps. Sanguina
walked over to Zunya’s remains and paused.

“Artificial,”
Sanguina said, nudging Zunya’s hand, which was the only part of him that hadn’t
disintegrated, with her toe. “Reaper took his real hand as punishment. Later,
he gave Zunya a fake hand and animated it with his magic, but Zunya always
rubbed it, and I’m sure Reaper made it hurt as a reminder never to betray him.”

“Are you sorry he’s
dead?” Valerie asked. She couldn’t summon up any regret in her own heart for
the man who’d made her life hell from the time she was a child.

Sanguina’s face
twisted. “He turned me into a vampyre. My only regret is that he didn’t die by
my hand.”

“And that his death
didn’t give Henry any peace,” Valerie said.

“Kanti is with your
brother now, but he is a shell. Even she cannot penetrate the fog of his pain,”
Sanguina said.

“I don’t think
anyone can,” Valerie said.

“I know something
about being lost in your guilt, tortured by decisions made that cannot be undone,”
Sanguina said. “And I know that it is possible to find your way back to
yourself.”

Valerie couldn’t
speak, not wanting to let her emotions escape the tight rein she had on them.
But she gripped Sanguina in a brief, tight hug.

“You
have my forgiveness, and my friendship,” she said.

Chisisi was in a
safe house in India when Valerie found him at last, but he wasn’t alone.
Crammed into the tiny space were at least twenty people, many of them shouting.

“You will be heard,
but only if everyone stops talking at once,” Chisisi said, and the crowd
quieted slightly.

“Why should we show
the Fractus mercy when they give us none?” Elisabeth asked, and the murmuring
that followed her words sounded like agreement.

“Because we’re
trying to create a better world than the one the Fractus are forcing upon us,”
Valerie replied.

All of the heads in
the room swiveled to look at her, and now the quiet in the room was complete.

“I know what it is
to have the Fractus attack you and kill the people you love. My father was killed
by Reaper, as was one of my closest friends only a few months ago. I have the
ability to kill my enemies on the battlefield, and even though sometimes I’m so
overwhelmed by rage that I could choke, I choose to stay my hand. I do it to
make the world a little better, so that one less child loses a parent, or
sister loses a brother, or husband loses a wife. And so far, I don’t regret
that decision.”

“Are you asking us
to be martyrs?” Elisabeth asked.

“No! I know that
some Fractus will die when we fight them, and though we grieve, we have to move
on,” Valerie said. “But when we can, let’s capture them. It will mean that both
Earth and the Globe will heal faster when all of this is over.”

“I’ve seen too much
death in my line of work.” Dr. Freeman’s deep voice calmed Valerie’s heart,
like it always had when he’d taken care of her at the hospital. “I, for one,
will follow Valerie’s lead in this.”

“As will I,” Chisisi
said, his voice quiet but powerful.

Valerie was reminded
that even with her advisers dead or sick or absent, there were always friends
who understood her ideals and would stand with her to defend them.

The debate
continued, but much of the anger in the room had dissipated. When people
drifted away, she made her way to Chisisi’s side.

“Did the Fractus
retreat? Is that why people have gathered here instead of fighting?” Valerie
asked.

“They didn’t so much
retreat… More like they vanished,” Dr. Freeman said.

“My contacts all say
that battles were raging, people were falling on both sides, but then the fighting
ceased. It was as if the Fractus had received a signal to stop attacking,”
Chisisi said.

“Somehow, I doubt
this is good news,” Valerie said.

“Indeed. My guess is
that Reaper has located the flame,” Chisisi said. “He was drawing away our
forces from the Atacama Desert so that he could search without interference.”

“But the charm that
binds magic on Earth is still in place, right?” Dr. Freeman asked.

“It must be. I’m as
weak as a kitten from all the fighting I’ve done today, but if I was on the
Globe, I’d be fine,” Valerie affirmed.

“Everyone on the
planet will know when the spell is broken,” Chisisi said. “It is very
powerful.”

“We have to get to
Reaper before he figures out how to put out the flame,” Valerie said.

“I will continue my
search in the desert. My contacts had several leads they were following,”
Chisisi said.

“Good,”
Valerie agreed. “But I’m going to try another angle. I’m going to go directly
to Reaper.”

After leaving
Chisisi and Dr. Freeman and briefly contacting Skye, Valerie returned home. It
was dark out, and she saw Cyrus sitting on her stoop, a slight glow coming off
of him as it always did. As she came closer, she saw that he was sitting next
to Thai.

Cyrus handed him a curved,
double-bladed knife that glowed brightly with his magic embedded in it.

“No weapon is more
powerful than this one, except Pathos,” Cyrus said. “It’s from the People of
the Woods, and I’ve woven as much light as I can into it. It will shatter any
black weapon you meet.”

“Thank you,” Thai
said. “But—”

“I didn’t make this
for you because I want us to be friends, okay? It’s for Valerie. She’s lost
enough people that she loves, and I don’t want to see her lose anyone else. Now
you can protect yourself when she’d not around.”

They both saw her
then, and Cyrus stood. Valerie was glad it was dark so that he couldn’t see her
expression. He brushed past her, but as he did, he squeezed her hand once, and
Valerie let a little hope flutter into her heart that maybe they’d be friends
again someday. She couldn’t bear to believe the alternative.

“Thank God you’re
back,” Thai said as the gate shut after Cyrus. “I’ve had the strangest feeling
that something was wrong, missing somehow, and I thought maybe you’d been hurt.”

Thai folded her in a
hug, and she breathed in his smell, relishing it before she had to deliver her
bombshell.

“Something awful did
happen today,” Valerie said. She could barely look him in the eye as she
gathered the courage to tell him of his loss. “Tan died today.”

The rest of her
account of what happened came out in a rush, while Thai stared at her, stunned.
He sat back down on her front stoop, his head in his hands. He raked his
fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry I
couldn’t save him,” Valerie said, resting her head on his shoulder. “Not just
today. I should have tried harder to rescue him, to drag him back to us so we
could make him see reason. He wasn’t bad, not at his core.”

“Maybe not just from
Venu’s poison. It changed him, but it was after he murdered Venu… Another piece
of the good part of him died. Still, I loved him. You don’t stop loving a
brother, ever.”

Thai let her hold
him, and they stared up at all the stars from her stoop.

“Maybe it’s wrong,
but I can’t stop thinking that I’m glad that my bad feeling today wasn’t that I
lost you,” Thai said, his voice low in her ear.

Valerie knew that
she should tell him that she would be seeking out Reaper soon, and that they
could never truly be together, even if they won the war, but it wasn’t the time.
Instead, she said what was in her heart.

“I love
you.”

The next morning,
Valerie got ready with extra care, making sure to tie her hair back in a long
braid so it wouldn’t get in her way, and carefully strapping Pathos tightly to
her side. But she wasn’t afraid of what the day would bring. Before, Reaper had
always sought her out, and a part of her was always tense, waiting for their
next encounter. This time, it would be on her terms.

Before beginning her
search, Valerie headed to The Horseshoe to check in with Skye. She found the
centaur in his office in the Relations Guild. He was neighing lightly, and
Valerie realized he was asleep. But when she crossed the threshold, he awakened
with a snort.

“A bit early for
your morning call, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Sorry for waking
you,” she said. “But I have an idea, and I don’t think we can wait. We’re
almost sure that Reaper has the flame. We can wait for him to figure out how to
put it out, and then incite war on both worlds, or we can beat him to it.”

Skye flicked his
tail as he considered her words. “An act of aggression. Not your usual style.”

“Humans will be
slaughtered if the Fractus can unleash their full magic on Earth. We have to
cripple them now, and I think we should wage that battle on the Globe to keep
innocent people from getting caught in the crossfire.”

“If we attack now,
it will be bloody,” Skye said. “And we will lose. The Fractus outnumber us,
especially with so many of our soldiers on Earth.”

“The Fractus are
spread all over the Globe. What if we attacked only where we could maximize the
damage we cause?”

“Of course.
Plymouth,” Skye said.

Valerie pulled out
the map Willa had given her of Plymouth and traced her finger over the river
that she had found with Cyrus. Her gut told her that Reaper would want to be
close to his new source of power, exploring how he could exploit it to his own
ends.

“If I’m right, these
caves will have the greatest concentration of Carne. Let me sneak in and signal
you if it turns out I’m right. Then you can burst in with a hundred of our best
soldiers, and we’ll destroy it all.”

“I agree with your
logic, but how will we enter Plymouth?” Skye asked.

Valerie grinned.
“That’s where a little help from Willa comes in.”

“Should we call on the
Knights in the Fractus to turn to our side for this battle?” Skye asked, pawing
at the ground.

Valerie
hesitated. “Not yet. If this plan fails, those Knights will be our last chance
to stop Reaper if he attacks Earth.”