Exiled - 01 (34 page)

“Enough!” he screamed, a fire in his eyes I’d never seen before.

I hit the floor and rolled to my feet, preparing for another hit, but it didn’t come.

“Hold him,” he commanded as he picked up the chalice.

He returned to Rayna’s wounds that now dripped instead of flowing freely. He put the chalice back against each wound, squeezing at her flesh to force her blood out.

I tried to move, but the Brothers had hung a wall of magic in front of me. I was stuck behind an invisible barrier as my father forced Rayna’s blood from her wounds. He tilted the chalice back and brought it to his lips.

Blood dripped from his chin and I screamed involuntarily. Seeing my father’s success and Rayna’s body cold, pale, and drained filled me with a pain I couldn’t describe. I pounded against the barrier with my fists, and when that was unsuccessful, I ripped the flames from inside me, but the wall absorbed my magic. It was no use.

The Brothers stared at me with expressionless faces. I wanted to burn the pale flesh from their skin and watch them cough up the water I’d flood their bodies with. Anger swirled inside me as images of their deaths filled my mind.

In a blur, the Brothers were lifted into the air and soared up into the darkness. They crashed to the ground and I looked at my hands. Had I done that?

Relief washed through me as the giant dark form of Marcus emerged from one corridor. He walked towards Riley, looking battle-ready.

“Ah, my dear brother,” Riley said, stepping to the side to block Rayna’s body. He wiped the blood from his lips and smiled, his perfect white teeth stained red.

“You stay where you are,” Marcus said, extending an arm.

Riley tried to move and couldn’t, but a strange smile crossed his face. “Your powers are no match for mine, brother. They weren’t before, and they certainly aren’t now.” Riley waved his hand and a wall of flame shot up in front of him. The magic holding him collapsed as the flame vanished and Riley stepped forward. “This is but the first step in the journey, my brother, a taste of what Ithreal has to offer. Imagine what I’ll be capable of when I have the full potential of his power inside me.” Riley’s voice was a darker version of the one I knew so well.

“Riley, you must stop this! You are delusional if you believe that you can control the power of a god,” Marcus said.

“I have no delusions. Join me, brother. Stand by my side like you once did, and you too will reap the rewards of this power.”

“I took an oath to protect the innocent and I plan to keep it.”

“I took that same oath, but you have been protecting the enemy while I’ve made progress. With the power of Ithreal inside me, I will be able to control demons. Don’t you see? What I’m doing will protect all of us.”

“It’s not that simple,” Marcus said.

“Oh but it is, brother, you will see. She was but a small sacrifice for a better world,” Riley said, stepping aside to reveal Rayna’s body.

Marcus’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face, but I think that was for the best. His power surged and the barrier in front of me wavered. I could feel cracks in the magic.

Marcus raised his hands and Riley’s body lifted off the ground for a moment. An angry scream escaped Marcus and a sinister smile warped Riley’s lips. My father closed his eyes and started chanting again.

Despite Marcus’s effort, Riley’s body remained still, and I felt Marcus’s magic break as a new power emerged. The Dark Brothers moved to either side of Marcus, but his magic claimed them. The warlocks were lifted off the ground again and sent crashing against the cave wall. The impact forced the barrier in front of me to crack again before collapsing.

A dark blue glow surrounded Riley as he chanted, arms extended. As I neared him, the blue light turned red, and then green, swirling around him in a whirlwind. Each time the color changed, I felt a new wave of magic pulsate through the cave.

The ground shook beneath my feet and bits of rock fell from the ceiling. It started to crack and Riley jerked and began spinning in the air. He screamed as he spun higher into the darkness. His body had disappeared into the shadows when a blast of multicolored light forced me to turn away.

When it faded, I could see my father’s body gliding down from the darkness, a set of black shadowed wings extended behind him. He landed with ease, the wings vanishing like smoke. He knelt and whispered a few soft words before looking up at me.

His pale blue eyes were gone, filled with black, and power emanated from his body. An alien smile crossed his lips. “Come to me, my son,” he said.

His magic wrapped around me and jerked me forward. I stopped only a few feet away from him and gripped my dagger so tightly I thought my knuckles might burst. Anger, sadness and fear all rushed through my veins.

Riley’s smile didn’t fade as I neared, and he opened his arms as though he might accept me into a fatherly embrace. I moved with a speed I’d never reached before and drove the dagger into his chest. He made no effort to stop me, and the blade slid into his flesh with ease. Riley watched the blade with the smile still on his lips, and when I’d pushed it in as far as I could, I twisted the blade. Red blood streaked with black leaked from the hole in his chest and laughter bubbled from his lips.

He grabbed my wrist and twisted until I dropped the dagger. His hands moved too quickly for my eyes to follow and before I could move, he’d grabbed the falling blade and pushed it into my stomach.

A gasp escaped my lips. He drove the blade in to the hilt and pulled it up from my stomach to my ribs. He released the blade and laughed, watching the fear in my eyes. His laughter stopped abruptly and he shoved me backwards.

I cried out in pain and felt my ribs strain as I hit the ground and slid across the stone floor. The back of my shirt tore and shards of rocks gave me friction burns, which paled in comparison to the agony in my belly.

Two perfect handprints were burned into the front of my shirt, revealing matching red and black blisters that seeped fluid as my body struggled to repair itself. The knife was still deep in my stomach and I couldn’t help but hyperventilate in panic when I saw the wound.

I sucked in air and crawled, trying to get away from Riley and at the same time keep myself calm. I didn’t want to go into shock. I was too scared to pull the knife out, and I was losing blood at a rapid rate. I struggled to my knees and ripped power from within me and threw it at Riley.

The silver and blue flames shot from my hand and engulfed him. My fire wrapped around his body, but he didn’t make a sound. I put all my focus into the heat, picturing his flesh melting off his body.

Riley stepped through the flames, wrapped in the black shadowy wings that hovered inches from his body, shielding him. He waved them away and I saw the same spine-chilling smile still glued to his face. “So you’ve received your element, son. Congratulations. But do you know how to use it?”

Dark red flame swirled around him then flowed towards me. My own blue flames mixed with his, but my magic succumbed to his and I started to feel the scorching heat. I curled in a ball, waiting for the wave of flame to scald my skin, but it never came.

The heat disappeared and a cool mist of water showered me. I uncurled myself to see my mother standing above me, a wall of smoke billowing between her and my father.

My mother’s warm hazel eyes held a new fierceness and the black that filled my father’s eyes vanished at the sight of her. Now they were the gentle blue I’d known when I was young.

“Tessa…” he said.

His flames vanished and my mother pulled her magic back. She stared at my father with an intensity I’d never seen in her eyes: pure rage.

“You will not harm my son,” she said.

“He has my element, Tessa. He is our son.”

“He hasn’t been our son for years.” My mother spat the words at him. “And what have you done?” she said in a panicked voice when she saw my wounds. She leaned down and put her hand against my stomach, and soon her small pale hand was covered in my blood. Her magic flowed into me stronger than ever, and the skin almost instantly closed in around the blade.

“Are you okay Chase?” she asked.

My skin still smoked as it knitted itself closed over Riley’s handprints and I nodded. “I’ll be…fine.”

“This is going to hurt, honey.” She wrapped her hands around the hilt of the blade and pulled it out before I could respond. I pressed my lips together to muffle my scream and waited for the blood to pour from the wound, but it never came. All I felt was cool, moving water, and in seconds the wound was gone.

 
“I was simply defending myself,” Riley said.

“You are a horrible man, Riley Williams. You don’t deserve to be called a hunter,” Mom said.

“How dare you say such things!” Riley’s voice grew darker and deeper with each word.

“I say them because they’re true. You disowned your own son and family. You cast us away like we were nothing and here you are, trying to invoke Ithreal, the creator of the creatures you’ve sworn to kill? You think you can harness this power, but having had only a taste of it you’ve tried to kill your own son! You’re an insult to the Circle, and a disgrace to the gods!”

Rumbling echoed through the cave and chunks of rock fell around us. Marcus and the Dark Brothers were doing battle behind us. The Brothers each had a sword and circled Marcus, who had so far been successful in deflecting their attacks.

“Tessa, Tessa, Tessa,” Riley said. His pupils again grew larger until nothing but darkness filled them. “I disowned you because you disobeyed me. You challenged my ideals, therefore challenging what was best for the Circle. I’ve done what needed to be done and made the necessary sacrifices. If you and Chase join me, we can be a family again.”

“You stopped being a father and a husband long before we were exiled.”

Riley sighed. “I’d hoped we could get past this, Tessa. As I told Chase, this is all for the greater good. But if you are not with me, then you are against me.”

“We are against you,” Tessa replied.

“I love you Tessa, with all my heart. You and Chase will always be special to me, but I cannot stop doing what I know will better our kind.”

“You don’t have to stop. I will stop you.”

My mother’s magic exploded and a tidal wave made of fury engulfed my father. Water streamed from his nose and poured from his mouth. He fell to his knees, choking and drowning.

I felt just an ounce of sadness watching his face and eyes, black as they were, fill with panic and fear. He clawed at the stone floor and my mother didn’t pause her torrent of power. He choked on wave after wave and his dark eyes shot to me. The look he gave me made my stomach clench and any sorrow I felt vanished.

A column of power came down from the darkness above us and surrounded him. I could almost see his magic moving under his skin before it exploded from his body.

“Go help Marcus,” my mother said.

I started to argue, but the look on her face stopped me. I jumped to my feet and ran towards the Brothers, who were closing in on Marcus.

I leapt at Drake from behind and brought my dagger down into his shoulder, letting it sink deep. I pulled the blade down, cutting through skin and muscle from his shoulder to the middle of his back. He screamed and turned, and I lost my grip on the knife. The warlock pushed me back without a touch, then was on top of me, his hands squeezing the air from my throat. His solid black eyes poured hatred into me, while my blade was still stuck in his back.

I could feel my airway being crushed while his death magic filled me. Pain in my chest came to rest around my heart while he pulled at all my organs and my body grew weak. I clawed at his hands, but his power was too strong. I reached as far as I could around him and my fingers groped at the handle of the blade.

Unconsciousness tugged at me, but I gave one final effort and managed to grip the dagger and pull it downwards. The magic around me collapsed as he screamed and fell backwards, dislodging my blade. He writhed in pain and I took a few breaths as my body found its rhythm again. I picked up the knife, raised it above my head and smashed it through his chest, then lifted and brought it down again into his stomach. I was bringing it up a third time when Marcus’s voice called to me.

“Chase!” I looked up to see that he had Darius on his knees and was pressing a blade against his throat. “You need to get Rayna and get out before this place falls apart,” he said. I looked down at the demon who gasped for breath beneath me. “Now!” Marcus demanded.