Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (34 page)

If Veyak was a source, it couldn’t be draining the other deities at all. Which meant they were losing power because of the doorway, because that power was being drawn here, along with all other magic on Vey-Xanetha.

“Power chained to a living creature,” I said slowly. “
Which
creature?” Stupid question. But that seemed to contradict everything I knew about magic.

“That is not for me to say, human.” The Vox bared its teeth in a grin.

“Why
this
world? Why risk destroying yourselves?” I was sure the destruction would continue through the doorway if it carried on, especially with Cethrax’s magic levels being amplified by Veyak.

“This one is the only high source we could reach. It is true there are many worlds with worthy sources, but most have burned out or are closed off even to us. Enzar. Thairon.”

Those two words hit me like a double punch. The first, Enzar, I knew to be closed-off aside from the refugee tunnels… while Thairon was temporarily locked off from the Alliance, and had been so for five years. Since my father had left to negotiate with their council following a series of wars and attacks on the Alliance. And the deaths of several Ambassadors, including my mother.

I hadn’t known there was a source on that world. I couldn’t have, of course. But the idea of Cethrax taking an interest in that place…
and
Enzar?

“Why did they need you to guard the door?” I asked, keeping my expression as blank as I could under the circumstances. “Why Cethrax?” It had no sources, which was why those dreyverns had stolen bloodrock. They’d worked for the Campbells, then the Conners…

A chill went down my spine. Was someone else involved? This
master?

“I am their shield,” said the monster.

I swore under my breath. The Vox’s skin was resilient to magic, which meant if Vey-Xanetha did destroy itself, the giant was chained in the way of the open door so the residual magic would hit the Vox. Even if Cethrax’s king was destroyed in the process, Cethrax itself would be spared.

“The master promised to leave your world alone,” I said. “Right?”

The giant bowed its massive head, and my heart sank. So it was true. Something could bend the will of the kings of one of the most dangerous worlds in the Multiverse.

How
long had this been going on for? Far longer than Mathran had said, surely. But if the Alliance hadn’t known, how had something like this stayed hidden?

“Let me go back,” I said. “I can stop Veyak.” I was less sure by the second, but the giant didn’t need to know. Besides, if Veyak really was a living source, perhaps Ada and I could stop it. Perhaps…

The doorway above lit up with white light, and a body fell through, tumbling head over heels. A redheaded woman—in guard uniform.

“Ada!” I shouted, and ignoring all caution, pulled on magic, willing it to slow her down. But the Vox’s hand had already moved to catch her, sending her tumbling into me.

“Kay,” she gasped, then saw the drop and screamed. “Holy
shit!”

“Hang on, Ada,” I said.

“Did you think I’d let go?” She grabbed my arm with one hand, her nails digging in. “Oh… my… God. Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“Apparently, Cethrax is in control of this doorway. But they’re acting on other orders.”

“God.” Ada stared at the giant’s face as it examined her. Terrified gasping noises escaped, but I was kind of impressed she didn’t flip out and scream again.

“It’s all right,” I said. “I’ll get us out of here.”

“Seriously?” Her voice rose in pitch. “You’d better have something good to say, Kay Walker. I’m gonna scream in five seconds.”

“Look,” I said, pointing down at the chains. “It’s trapped, same as us. Its master has it here as a shield to absorb the backlash once Veyak destroys Vey-Xanetha, but there’s some kind of source they’re charging…” I trailed off, while Ada breathed quickly, her eyes wide.

How to get out of this one? Whoever the Vox’s master was, they were powerful. But as long as that doorway remained open, the Balance was at risk. Back in Vey-Xanetha, Veyak still rampaged, and the power flowed into Cethrax–no wonder the magic level was higher than it should be.

“It’s talking to you,” said Ada, half-hysterically. “Tell me I’m not going crazy here.”

“We’ll set you free if you let us go back through the door,” I said to the Vox. Negotiating with one of Cethrax’s leaders? Definitely not a job for newer Ambassadors. Or anyone with a lick of sense. Even the council didn’t set foot in the place without signing a half-dozen agreements that nobody would murder one another in negotiations. It didn’t always end well.

“You cannot break the chains,” said the Vox.

“What are they?” I asked. “Adamantine? I think we can.” I turned to Ada, who gaped at me in shock. “Sorry about this,” I said. “We’ll get out. Can you break the chains?”

“If I could I’d have easily escaped the cuffs when you arrested me,” she said. “Oh. My. God.” She gripped my arm convulsively.

“Tell me about it.” I didn’t dare use the world-key, and that wouldn’t solve this. The Vox’s imprisonment should have provoked a war across this district of Cethrax, which made me all the more certain this was a seriously powerful magic-wielder at work. But the problem at hand lay overhead. Veyak.

“All right,” said Ada. Her hand locked onto mine. “If you can amplify anything…” She stopped, trembling, her gaze darting to the giant’s stone face.

“I can,” I said, “and you can do this.”

“Nobody can break the chains,” the Vox said.

“Veyak can,” I said, and squeezed Ada’s hand. Magic exploded in the air, glancing off the Vox’s skin. I grabbed hold of the magic and pushed the level higher.
The Vox shook its head, but I ignored it.
Veyak.
The energy came through the doorway, from Vey-Xanetha.

I could amplify that, too.

I reached with my other hand, to the doorway I couldn’t quite reach, and pulled.

White lightning sparked and Veyak’s voice echoed in my ears, enraged–but it couldn’t stop me here. Not on this side of the doorway. The world turned white, Ada’s hand gripping mine the only solid thing in existence. The white blaze obscured my vision.

Crack.

“Holy hell,” Ada whispered in my ear.

My sight cleared. The stone giant stared at me, its pit-like eyes even wider. I moved to peer over the edge of its hand.

“Did we–?”

“Yeah,” she said.

The Vox shifted again, kicking aside the remains of the chains. We’d actually done it–broken whatever its master had used to chain it. Metal pieces scattered on the swampland below, amongst the boulder-like forms of the smaller vox-kind.

There’ll be hell to pay for this.

“I told you,” I said to the Vox. “Let us go back. We’ll close the doorway. You won’t have to stay here anymore.”

“It is too late for that, magic-wielder,” said the Vox.

For a moment, I thought it’d go back on its word and swallow us whole. But the giant stood, causing a small quake under our feet, and lifted us up. Ada clung to my side as the Vox placed us through the doorway to Vey-Xanetha.

Mist swirled around us, revealing a sea of dead bodies. The summoners lay scattered on the ground. None of them moved.

We
had
to close that doorway. Now.

The deity’s presence pushed against me, the whispers coming back

“Go to hell,” I said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

ADA

I staggered on the ground, hanging onto Kay as the giant’s hand put both of us down. My head spun, my entire body trembling with the adrenaline and the rush of magic in the atmosphere. If not for Kay’s presence at my side, I’d have dismissed the whole thing as a whacked-out hallucination. From the deity, maybe. But the doorway remained, shimmering behind us. And around us… blood stained the cracked earth.

“Hell.” I stared around at the carnage. Most of the summoners were dead. Which meant Veyak was even stronger. Just ahead, Raj and Iriel fought against the kimaros with magic.
It’s still alive?
But then, it was part of Veyak. Maybe it couldn’t be killed. And it had driven the other Ambassadors right up close to the doorway.

No way.
I ran towards them, firing a bolt of magic at the kimaros’s back. I was certain it was the main manifestation of Veyak. If I could take it down—

The white lightning broke apart before it could hit. Crap. Looked like the creature was too strong for normal magic to affect it. Living backlash kept growing, kept gathering power. Power I felt in my own blood, under my skin. Those whispers. The beast’s anger had grown as we’d defied it, and now it was furious enough to topple worlds.

I looked back at Kay, and my blood turned to ice. He stood vacantly staring into space. Smoke curled around him, red and sparking. Like the summoners.

The god had possessed him.

“No!” I shouted, torn in two. The kimaros renewed its attack on the others, and Raj collapsed in a heap on the ground. Iriel staggered to the side, barely able to stay on her feet. Magic sparked around her hand, but disappeared almost instantly.

“Veyak!”
I shouted. “Stop! We’re not your enemies.”

The kimaros sent a shower of sparks into the air and spun to face me in a haze of swirling smoke.

“Let him go,” I said. “You don’t have to do this…”

The beast leaped at me, purple-red magic flaring around it.

I struck back with magic of my own, the hairs lifting on my arms, but again—my attack dissipated, absorbed into the beast.
How
could I possibly win?

Kay. I ran to him, grabbed his hand. “Please snap out of it.”

I reached for the magic below the surface, the rage of Veyak. The charge built higher, making my teeth rattle in my head. Kay shifted forwards, and the gleam went out of his eyes. He shook his head. “Ada…”

“I’m not gonna let go of you until that deity’s gone,” I said, fiercely.

A bolt of lightning descended, and the world exploded in white.

Kay called my name again. I shook my head, my ears ringing. Somehow, my hand was still clenched around his.

The kimaros appeared again in a cloud of smoke, swirling around our interlinked hands. I gasped and let go, and Kay swore, striking the beast with magic. The lightning rebounded, multiplying in two, three. I reached to the sky and the bolts sparked from my hands.

Holding onto the strands of lightning like ropes, I faced down the malevolent, snarling cloud. Veyak. It was like a king-sized kimaros, more force than monster, with the wicked hand of magic as the deadliest weapon. We had seconds before it obliterated one of us. It had hit us with third level magic once already, and if we hadn’t been touching…

No.
I felt Kay’s amplifier supporting me, driving the monster back. But still not enough.

The sources were right there, the three spheres lying unprotected by the bodies of the fallen summoners. When the Vox had put us back down, it had knocked them out from under the doorway. If only there was a way to touch them without causing more damage.

Lightning burst overhead, and this time, there was no avoiding it. The ground shook, and I yelled, knocked off my feet again. Kay stood still, a shadow behind him. Veyak was back. I swore and jumped to my feet, bracing myself as the ground buckled again. Not an earthquake, not natural. Nor the deity.

Not
that
deity.

A hand grabbed my ankle. Mathran. I recoiled away from his grasping fingers–I’d thought he was dead.

“I am sorry,” he whispered. “I have done such wrong–please, take what I have left. You… can absorb magic, can you not?”

I nodded. The amount of blood pouring from the wound in his chest told me he’d be dead in a minute. Magic took over, surging through my body, and to the earth. Aktha’s power. I could absorb it directly from Mathran, because he was a source himself.

I sent another wave of magic downwards, at the red-scorched ground. I dug my heels in, but couldn’t keep from staggering sideways. The earth trembled again and a crack appeared on the surface, a few metres away. I moved my hand and the crack spread, deepening, cutting into the dry soil. A wild force rose inside me and I trembled along with the world under my feet. I had to get control over this—had to aim the magic where it counted.

I splayed my hand and sent a bolt of energy at the ground, right beside the spheres. They trembled on the edge of the new crater I’d created, then toppled over, one at a time. I let the power surge widen and the chasm deepened, pulling the spheres along with it.

I let go. The two sides of the earth slammed into one another, and the spheres were swallowed up entirely.

And the fog-shrouded doorway winked out of existence, the kimaros dissipating, leaving the bare red ground of the canyon, and the clearing sky.