Maximum Witch: That Old Black Magic, Book 3 (25 page)

“Willa!” Max’s worried shout rang out, and she rolled onto her back just as Reva pounced on her. From the corner of her eye, she saw Max and Boone rushing to her aid. Before they even cleared the doorway, they were tackled by the thugs. Claws sank into her shoulder, bringing her focus back to the duchess. With a growl, she punched the woman in the nose. Reva’s head snapped back, blood trickling from her nostrils. Taking advantage of Reva’s momentary shock, Willa decked her again, this time nailing her in the chin. She struggled to roll away from the duchess, but the nails biting into her shoulder dug in deeper, pinning Willa in place. Fingers twisted in her hair, cruelly enough to make her tear ducts sting. Her eyes sizzling with hate, Reva wrenched Willa’s head to the side, smashing her left cheek into the turf.

“You have no idea how much delight I got out of killing your precious Aurele. I only wish you could have witnessed it firsthand.”

Bitter tears leaked from Willa’s eyes, soaking the grass.
Aurele
. If it was the last thing she ever did, she would annihilate Reva for ripping one more loved one from Willa’s life.

Reva’s sickeningly sweet breath beat against Willa’s cheek. “It’s a pity she didn’t get to hear the final notes of my lovely sonnet. It was so ear-splittingly good.”

The duchess’s tinkling laugh filled Willa with greasy nausea. Until she absorbed what the woman had just said. “Y-you killed her with your horrible screeching?”

“How rude of you to describe it so.”

She ignored Reva’s outrage, her mind spinning. Max had said sharks were immune to the siren call…

Did that mean Aurele was still alive? Had she utilized the old possum trick and only played at being dead?

“There are those who would say my song is nearly as beautiful as my face,” Reva continued, apparently still pissed about the slight against her
singing
. “Maybe I should give you a small taste of my talent.” Leaning low, she pressed her lips against Willa’s ear and began to hum softly, slowly building in pitch and volume.

The ringing started in Willa’s head, and she winced.

“I see you’re starting to appreciate my melody.” Reva’s tone brought to mind an asp poised to strike. “I think you’ll particularly enjoy the big ending.” Picking up directly where she’d left off on her
song
, the duchess began increasing the output of her nails-on-chalkboard soprano, until Willa was writhing and twitching. The sound of shattering glass announced Reva had reached the window-breaking stage of her performance.

Despite her agony, Willa didn’t fail to notice that her eardrums didn’t yet feel like they were ready to melt. Back at the stationhouse, when the Taurus’s windshield had erupted, she’d thought herself seconds away from sure death. Although she was in misery now, it was nothing compared to the state she’d been in then.

Max had suggested that when her nymph returned, she might be immune to the siren call too. Could he be right? Had she at least developed a slight tolerance?

Reva belted out a round of ear-blasting trills, building up to her promised finale. The scream the duchess blared made Willa’s eardrums ring, but they didn’t rupture. Her head ached so unbearably she teetered at the edge of unconsciousness. The blackness swept closer. Reva’s shrieks grew fainter. A nail raked along her ear, scratched across her cheek.

“Give my regards to your precious Aurele when you meet up again in the afterlife.”

She detected the duchess’s mocking laugh right before passing out.

Max deflected the blows from two of Reva’s henchmen while pounding his fist into the head of the third. Behind him, he could hear Boone engaged in a similar situation. He knew Boone could take care of himself. What terrified him at the moment was the utter stillness of Willa’s body as Reva Bellemuir’s siren call trickled to a close. If that bitch had killed Willa, there would be no ocean deep enough for Reva to escape his wrath.

A punch landed in Max’s gut, doubling him over. Through his blurry vision, he noticed the duchess walking away from Willa. Reva yanked the trident from the ground and began strolling toward the dunes in the distance. The evil bitch was basking in her perceived triumph.

Growling, he rammed his head into the belly of the goon closest to him. The asshole staggered, giving Max the opportunity to kick him square in the balls. His eyes rolling backward, Max’s opponent slumped onto the grass. One of the man’s comrades extended a pair of lethally tipped talons. Max stared at the potential weapons. Okay, so these bastards packed some interesting heat. He noticed the dude dressed in the butler’s uniform approaching from the sidelines. Up until now, the guy hadn’t jumped in the fray. Max had no idea why. Maybe the fucker just liked to watch him getting roughed up.

“That’s enough.” Butler dude’s voice was cultured, keeping in line with the whole Jeeve’s vibe, but underneath it was a strange sibilant quality. “The fucking shark is mine.”

The two who’d been going at it with Max backed off, and his new opponent faced him, the man’s black irises glinting animosity. “You stole the girl from me. Did you think I’d let that slide?”

Max stared at him, trying to make sense of the accusation. Without warning, a roar bellowed from the man and he launched himself at Max, knocking him into the exterior wall of the groundskeeping building. The force of the attack stunned Max. The guy might dress like Mr. Belvedere, but he carried the weight of a damn sumo wrestler.

“How do you like it, shark, getting rammed to a pulp? Maybe I should bite
your
fucking arm off.”

Out of the blue, an image of a severed tentacle floating to the ocean floor slammed into Max’s consciousness. Turning his head, he gazed into black eyes that were slowly shifting to red.

The leviathan.

Fury raged through Max as he recalled the part this creature had played in bringing about these events. His fury became forged with determination when he thought about the leviathan bite that had tattooed Willa’s back.

“You’ve saved me the trouble of tracking you down so I can kill you.” Max loaded his words with deadly intent. “That’s mighty generous of you.” Swinging out his leg, he kicked the creature off him. His fist crunched into the cartilage of the leviathan’s nose. The beast retaliated by extending its talons and stabbing Max, coming dangerously close to puncturing his kidney. Ignoring the sharp burst of pain radiating through him, Max delivered an upper clip to the son of a bitch’s chin, forcing the leviathan back a step. His next punch caved in the beast’s cheekbone. After that, he went about dislocating the fucker’s jaw.

A monstrous shriek wailing between its bloodied teeth, the leviathan jumped on top of Max, sinking its incisors into his shoulder. He felt the cold, sticky drip of its venom seeping past his skin. Doubling his fists, he pummeled the creature in the head, but it wouldn’t relinquish its hold. The venom making him woozy, he staggered before banging them both into the wall. Still the motherfucker wouldn’t give up. If anything, it dug into him deeper.

The way Max saw it, the son of a bitch just threw down the gauntlet. You didn’t go around biting a shark without expecting a little reciprocation. Clamping his teeth into the leviathan’s ear, he gave a vicious tug, severing it. The leviathan released him, its scream anguished. And pissed. One handful of talons swiped for Max’s face, but he grabbed the creature’s wrist before it could make contact. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky with the second hand. He grunted as five blade-sharp talons sank into his side. They twisted, the agony wicked. He struggled to breathe and block out the pain.

“I’m going to kill you now, shark. And then I’m going to finish off the girl. I only wish you could be around to see it.”

Willa
. He risked a quick look in her direction. Sure enough, she was lifting onto her elbows, looking dazed.

“I don’t know which of you I’m going to enjoy killing more.” The leviathan’s expression smug, it dug into him harder. “You. Most definitely.”

Despite his best efforts to rein it in, Max’s pained groan leaked free. His knees threatening to buckle, he grasped the leviathan, seeking purchase. Something bulky and cylindrical rolled in the butler’s jacket, and Max dug his fingers in, jabbing the objects toward the leviathan’s chest. A strange gurgle escaped the creature’s throat, and its talons unexpectedly retracted. It scrabbled with its coat, the beast’s awkward flailing knocking Max backward. Convulsing wildly, the leviathan slid to the floor.

The creature offered Max one final sinister sneer. “Fucking shark.” And with that parting shot, the leviathan’s irises took on the glassy stare of the dead. The butler’s coat fell open, revealing an empty syringe sticking from the leviathan’s starched white vest.

Max stood there for a sec, stunned by the strange turn of events. But then he recalled the two who’d been beating on him earlier—he assumed they were leviathans as well—and he snapped from his stupor and pivoted, raising his fists. His former opponents looked from him to the dead leviathan on the ground, their eyes growing huge. Shouting to the comrades still duking it out with Boone, they took off into the night. A moment later the last three leviathans darted past Max, shooting him wary looks.

His face wearing the same befuddlement Max felt, Boone stepped outside. Glad as he was to see his best friend hadn’t received any worse battle scars than him, Max was more preoccupied with getting to Willa. He raced to her side and helped her up. She gaped at his wounds, all ounce of color leaching from her skin. “You’re hurt.”

“I’ll be fine.” Emotion choking him, he brushed his shaking fingertips over every inch of her face. “I thought you were dead. It was the most horrible moment of my life.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that. Believe me, I know what it’s like.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him tenderly, her eyes glistening. “Fortunately, it turns out you were right about the nymph immunity to sirens. Guess sharks aren’t the only ones that are blessed with that benefit.” She gasped. “That reminds me. I’m pretty sure Aurele is around here somewhere.”

“We’ll have to look for her later, sweetheart. Reva took the trident. We’ve got to stop her before she reaches the Altar of Atlantis.”

Apparently Willa needed no further reminder of the direness of the situation because she dashed toward the dunes. He and Boone set off after her. They reached the Atlantic’s frothing tide and dove into the waves. Max stretched his hand toward Willa, intending to steer her in the proper direction of the portal to Atlantis. She surprised him by beelining straight for it, obviously requiring no guidance from him. Looked like her memories were back intact.

Minutes later they arrived at the narrow, rippling membrane of the portal, and its welcoming light illuminated the watery depths with a golden glow. He fell back, allowing Willa and Boone to pass through ahead of him. Once they’d cleared the entrance, he started in after them. A thunderous rumble shook through the passage. He stopped, the sensors along the nape of his neck screaming a warning. Lunging forward, he opened his mouth in a shout. Boone glanced back just as an avalanche of water propelled Max backward like a cork shot from a bottle.

The last thing Max saw before the tidal wave took him was the portal closing.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Even though she’d faced her fears and conquered them, being shot through a portal like she was on a terrifying rollercoaster ride from hell still wasn’t on Willa’s list of things to try again anytime soon.

Shrieking, she tumbled, over and over, gravity and water slip-sliding her everywhere. Up ahead, she noticed a golden glow very similar to the one back at the entrance to the portal. An instant later she was crashing through it, a cascade of water splashing her flat onto her back. Winded, she gasped like a fish out of water, trying to catch her breath. The analogy was a fitting one. Overhead, the sky rippled. She blinked as she realized she was looking at the bottom of the ocean.

She’d reached Atlantis.

She pushed to her feet and stirred her hands through the air. It consisted of water, though a different density and composition than that existing on Earth. Here you could easily maneuver as if you were walking on air. What’s more, you didn’t need to be Atlantean to be able to breathe in it. There were other humans besides her father who had lived in Atlantis. The mermaids were fond of bringing their rescued shipwrecked sailors home for a little mattress mamboing. Then there was the whole Bermuda Triangle thing. Yep, a lot of those folks ended up here.

She glanced around, making out the decaying ruins surrounding her. All these years later the sight of them still filled her with sadness, knowing the majesty of what they’d once been. She remembered then her mother’s true dream. It hadn’t been about ruling Atlantis, but to see her homeland restored. Unfortunately, the problem of existing under water, even that as delicate as Atlantis’s, meant eventual structural corrosion. The materials used to construct the university and the palace were much more durable, but also exceptionally expensive. Maybe one day she’d be able to find a way to make her mother’s dream come true—the only true legacy that’d ever mattered to Estelle Jameson.

But first she had to find that bitch Reva and stop her.

Uncertain when Max and Boone would arrive through the portal, she decided to take off on her own. Max would probably be furious about that, but time was ticking. Setting off at a run, she raced through the labyrinth of ruins, her gaze locked on the towering spires of the palace in the distance. Thick, spongy moss absorbing the shock of her sprinting feet, she arrived at the woods bordering the palace. As with the water, this forest was nothing like anything found on Earth. The lacy, bracken-like foliage of the Atlantean trees shimmered with a brilliant phosphorescence that provided the entire realm with a light source. Taking advantage of the tree’s luminescence, she barreled along the flagstone walkway leading to the palace. Her lungs burning from exertion, she sprinted up the seemingly endless flight of steps until she reached the palace’s intricately carved doors.

Trembling, she reached for the handle—a smaller representation of Poseidon’s trident. It’d been more than twenty-two years since she’d stepped past this threshold. Would the horror of what she’d witnessed behind these walls bring her to her knees? She needed to be strong. Needed to see this through. For the family and friends she’d lost. For the ones that she could still save.