Of Silver and Beasts (37 page)

I wrap her in another hug, and whisper in her ear, “Keep your league from killing and lighting their cuffs. It will end soon.”
I pray
.

“Metal Mouth,” she says, finding my eyes. “He’s being controlled.”

I remember Bax’s order to Tobias. “Pull out the wiring on his head gear.”

We’re wrenched apart as the guards begin to position us into our designated spots. They stack weapons in the center of the ring. Nine weapons. Each one chosen specifically for each contender. Except now that the dark priest has changed the number of final contenders, there’s eleven forming a circle around the inside perimeter of the Cage.

My eyes fly to the dark priest as he latches the barred gate to his privileged chamber.

The announcer waddles to the center of the Cage, his boots splashing the mercury, and raises his leather-clad arms to the Otherworlders in the stadium. “The final battle is upon us!” Stomping clamps down like the thunder rumbling through the realm. He quickly glances at the contenders, checks that we’re in place, and then shouts, “For the freedom ring!”

The gaunt announcer just escapes the Cage when the hunter’s horn sounds.

Kaide and Caben advance on Carnage. I spin and watch Lilly run toward Whip as Lena takes up my side. “Nothing happens to her.” I glare at Lena. “You touch Lilly, and I’ll end you.”

A crooked smile splits her face, but she nods. “Just make sure we leave, protector. Then I won’t have to.”

Lilly grabs Whip’s hand and leads her to where Metal Mouth is advancing on Kai. The crowd “boos” seeing an alliance refusing to fight already formed. Lena and I barrel toward Primal, and the fights happening with Primal and Carnage soon captures the audience’s bloodlust.

As Lena lands hard blows on the contender, I look back at Bax. He nods once, and slips his satchel under the table. Then he works the controls on the side of his chamber door. The doors to the ring leaders’ chambers open. I look to the risers. The shock is apparent on the dark priest’s smug face.

“No ring leaders in the Cage!” he shouts. He raises his hand to shut the doors, but Bax lifts his own hand to counter the powerful command. The doors stay open, and contenders take up their weapons and move in, forcing the ring leaders into the Cage.

I can see the red flickering in Bax’s irises as he fights his father’s control. My mind is suddenly back in my dank apartment, my father’s head between my palms—and I know the battle Bax is waging in his mind. But like me, he has to stop his father in order to save his family. For once, the guilt over what I did doesn’t consume me.

I’m back in the fight. I kick Primal’s legs out from under him after Lena nails his throat with a lethal chop. She goes for the kill shot but Primal sends his foot into her stomach. She drops to the ground as he bounds up. I jump onto his back.

A groan rumbles from his chest, and he tries to buck me off. I say a quick prayer for forgiveness as the mercury fires through my veins. I latch on to his face and twist. His neck breaks with an audible
crunch
.

Lena dusts herself off. “There’s my girl.”

I toss her a seething glare, then search the Cage for Carnage. Kaide and Caben have him backed near the electrified bars. I release a relieved breath. Taking a fast glance around, I spot the priest’s chamber. Bax has opened the gate and is now trading forceful blows with his father as he works his way up the risers.

The guards are locked in place, frozen. A thin coat of ice covers their armor.

What the goddess has Bax done?

I thank the goddesses for whatever power they’ve bestowed on him, and quickly glance at the contenders fighting Krewl and Collar to the mercury-covered ground. They’ve made their stand. Only Carnage and Metal Mouth are fighting for the freedom ring. Carnage will soon be defeated, and Metal Mouth—I know Lilly will save him.

The crowd has stopped cheering. The stadium is motionless as the Otherworlders’ vacant eyes stare at the Cage. The silence fills me, and the darkness seeps into my head. Once the priest falls, I pray their minds will be released from Bale’s control.

And that Bale’s voice will be permanently severed from mine.

Before I take off toward the priest’s chamber, I catch Caben’s sword coming down on Carnage from the corner of my eye. “Caben! Don’t kill—”

The words die on my tongue as Caben slices Carnage’s neck. Crimson runs down the blade, drips onto Caben’s forearm. His chest heaves, and he drives his sword into the earth near the slain body. A sickness wells in my stomach. I choke it back.

Caben wipes the blood from his face and turns toward me. He’s shaking, and I reach out across the Cage as if I can touch him. Two glowing blue moonstones light his cuff. I have to end this now.

He clears the rest of the blood and sweat from his brow and starts in my direction, but I hold my hand up. He halts.

I grab a discarded sword and stake the ground. Reaching into my tunic, I pull out his ring. His eyes widen, hurt and confusion crossing his face, as I set it atop the pommel of the sword.

My lips form the words that I never thought I’d say to a man:
I love you
.

Then I race toward the dark priest’s chamber.

Bax flails in the air, his eyes flickering with the lightning and black lights as he struggles to overpower his father.

Lifting his free hand, the dark priest presses his pale palm flat and chants under his breath. The ground rumbles. The black dirt sinks into a corner of the Cage as the earth slides away and the ground yawns open.

A piercing shriek cracks the silence.

From the opening, a black talon spikes the ground, and a beast enters the Cage.

The Grimmal.

Its wiry legs bend at odd angles as it pulls its scaly body free of the void. It stomps the ground, kicking beads of silver up into the air with sharp claws, as its body slithers against the wet earth.

“Bax!” I shout. I sprint toward the middle of the risers, my feet taking two bleachers at a time. Before I reach the chamber, I glance behind me once, just long enough to see the contenders gathering against the Grimmal.

The mutated monster fills a quarter of the Cage, its black hairy legs built like a devil spider, its face a silver snake’s. Scaled flesh curves around its massive, narrow head. It flicks a forked tongue at Whip, and she swipes her sword and nicks the beast, but it’s not enough to harm it.

Lilly and Kai take up the back, their weapons coming down and lashing at the serpent tail as it sweeps the ground.

Goddesses, save them
.

Then my eyes are back on the power match happening in the priest’s chamber not feet before me. I try to process what the Grimmal might mean—I didn’t factor the monster into our plan. I’m running out of time.

The Grimmal is drawing blood. It’s feeding the ground and Bale, mixing with the conduit. I don’t know if ending the priest will count as a win. I can’t think past my goal. If the Goddesses are truly with me, then Bale will not be summoned once I stop the dark priest.

But Caben . . . damn his pride! Why did he do this? I pray that if he makes the killing blow to the Grimmal, it won’t summon Bale. That the monster will not count. But my heart tells me it doesn’t matter what type of death . . . Bale just needs death—a sacrifice. Caben’s two lights flash before my eyes as I come up behind the dark priest.

“Protector,” Bax chokes out.

I launch my body over a metal bench and crash into the priest’s back. He tumbles forward and his mental hold on Bax wavers. Bax drops to a seat, gasping for air.

“Can you stop the Grimmal?” I shout to Bax, while the priest is righting himself.

Bax shakes his head. “The beast is protected by Bale’s power. It must be slain to be destroyed.”

Damnit.

“Go, then. Get them out of here.”

Bax gets to his feet and gives me a hard nod before he turns to his father. “I hope to see you again, old man. But not again in this world.” Then he punches the priest. He looks at me and gives me a crooked smile. “I’ll wait for you, but if you’re not there in time—”

“Don’t wait,” I say. “Get them out now.”

His eyes say he doesn’t believe me, but he nods. This is our pact. His family and mine escaping the Otherworld is the agreement.

“May your goddesses be with you, protector,” Bax says, then hurries down the risers toward the Cage.

The dark priest palms the bench and uses his power to propel himself to his feet. He faces me, and I take a hesitant step back. I say a prayer under my breath to Alyah, calling forth the mercury in my blood. I look down at my arm. The inky swirls illuminate, glowing like the sliver of moonlight encircling the eclipse. Alyah touched the mercury inside me for this purpose. I have to trust that this
is
my purpose.

Alyah, I’m yours
.

The priest raises his hand and pushes an unseen blow at me. I block his strike with my arm, and the air ripples around me with blue, electrified tendrils that snap the air. His eyes widen in alarm. I can imagine what he sees: what my father saw when he took in the silver swirling around my eyes, along my flesh. Fear ignites the priest’s black irises, and I cry out and force him backward.

Feeling the power of the goddess surge though me, I reach down and clutch the priest’s head. Just as I did my father—only I don’t know what will happen this time. The darkness within him burns against my palms, but I keep my hands secured to him. His eyes ignite fire red.

A white light blooms beneath my hands. It starts dim, illuminating into a bright beam that fills my vision. I look away, and a throaty cry echoes through my mind as Bale fights to keep her hold on the dark priest. Alyah’s power rockets through me, and I’m thrown on my back.

The priest convulses, his body jerking with tremors. His mouth leaks a dark substance that smells of tar and something so vile that I gag and have to cover my nose. He gasps for fresh air, and his eyes close. He lies still.

I look down at my cuff, panic thundering through me as I wait for the third moonstone light. But a sudden calm washes over me, an awareness—a knowledge I can’t understand. But it tells me that the dark priest isn’t dead.

Alyah is healing him.

She’s healing the madness deep within the priest. I wipe the sweat seeping into my eyes with my arm and then check his vitals. He’s alive. I shakily get to my feet and look down at the unconscious priest. His skin is tinged with a cream hue, and the angles of his face aren’t as sharp.

Alyah, what have you done?

This is your power, Kaliope
. The voice is powerful and sure and angelic, and it fills my being. I tremble and drop to my knees as it bathes me in an ethereal channel.

My goddess.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I gather my senses.
The goddess spoke to me.

Pushing the exhilaration away, I reach over and shake the priest. He has to call off the Grimmal. But he’s completely blacked out. Panicked, I look to the Cage. The remaining contenders have the monster cornered. Bax, Lilly, and Kia are gone. Relief floods me until I spot Caben.

I curse. Of course he didn’t leave with the others. Defiant, stubborn man.

But there’s still time. The Otherworlders in the risers are awakening from Bale’s control, and if we can send the Grimmal back into the earth, we can end this.

I take off down the risers and bound out of the chamber.

The Grimmal raises one of its hairy legs and stabs Metal Mouth through his chest with its black talon, pinning him to the ground. Kaide hacks at the leg, severing it, and the Grimmal cries out, a shrieking blast that pieces my eardrums. Caben uses the moment to run beneath the beast.