Soulceress (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 2) (35 page)

He reached out for her hand. Within seconds of contact, he was sucked through space until he stood on the dark night beach of Aurora’s island home. Ana split off immediately, but Warren pulled Esha close until her face was inches from his.

“You mean a hell of a lot to me.” Worry roughened his voice. “If it comes down to my soul or your life, take your life, damn it.”

“Fuck you, Warren. I’m not leaving you behind.” She kissed him hard and fast and then spun to join Ana. The Chairman trotted after her.

They made their way quickly up to the patio, ghosts in the dark night. A raging party spilled out of house, the music manic and tension hanging over the crowd that danced and drank as if they were under a spell. Even the night breeze that drifted across the palms vibrated with an otherworldly energy.

“Aurora’s trying to make it normal,” Esha whispered.

“But her shell’s cracking,” Ana said, then skirted around the side of the crowd.

They followed, scanning the writhing bodies for Aurora. A great booming noise shook the ground and a bright light flashed from the left side of the house. The light faded to reveal a smoking black crater and a shriek of rage rent the night.
 

Ana had started firing.
 

And Aurora had figured out they’d arrived.

Warren and Esha took up posts behind Ana as she raced around the front of the house, firing her arrows into the walls and tearing apart the reality of Aurora’s world. Aurora’s shrieks of rage competed with the booms of Ana’s arrows and drew Warren’s eye to the window. Within, Aurora shot blasts of light from her hands at the holes that Ana had created, no doubt trying to repair them.

Her black gaze met his through the window. The rage in her eyes flared as she waved a hand at him and Esha. He threw himself in front of Esha to protect her from the blow, but none came.

What the hell had—

A wave of bodies poured from the doors and crashed through the windows, heading straight for them. Fuck.
This
was what Aurora had sent. She’d turned the partiers to monsters, shells of their former selves propelled by her will. Their skin had become pasty white, and their eyes great gaping holes of black.
 

He drew his sword as Esha threw a huge blast of earth at the advancing figures. The great wave that she’d drawn from the earth bowled over a dozen. The Chairman fought at her side, a blur of fur and fangs that bowled over monsters and tore at their throats. He was still no larger than a housecat, but he was fierce as a lion and nearly as strong. Warren clashed with others, swiping his blade against necks and bellies until blood ran red in the grass.
 

Bile rose in his throat at the sight. It reminded him of that night so long ago when he’d slain his kin and why he’d vowed never to take another life, but he tightened his grip and continued to hack at them. There was no other way. If he didn’t cut them down, Esha and Ana would be swallowed by the mob. They surged toward them in waves, too fast and too strong to be natural, and soon his skin ran with blood from their teeth and nails. He’d lost sight of Esha, and fear tightened his skin. She could take care of herself, but it didn’t mean it didn’t scare the hell out of him when she was up against a mob.
 

“I’m close!” Ana screamed. The light of her arrows brightened the night, the booms a cacophony like thunder. “The walls of her world are falling!”

Warren fought his way toward Esha, who stood at Ana’s back deflecting the monsters that clawed to reach her. His chest loosened when he saw her safe and sending another blast of earth that buried a wave of Aurora’s creatures.
 

Together, they fought their way toward the side of the house, protecting Ana from the crush of bodies. They rounded the corner, and an explosion from the side of the house rent the night. When the dust settled, Aurora stood framed in a gaping hole in the wall, her arms stretched out at the ground beneath their feet.
 

The earth shook, then rose up, a mountain carrying him and Esha toward the sky. The Chairman yowled from below, where he’d been left on solid ground. Ana slid on nimble feet down the far side toward the patio, shooting arrows as she went. He jumped away as the ground split between them.

Esha fought a small horde of the ghostly pale former revelers, unaware of the three approaching from behind. Warren leapt across the chasm in the dirt, reaching them in time to take the head off one and fell the other two with swipes across the abdomen.

“The dagger, Warren!” Esha screamed. “I’ll aetherwalk.”

He nodded, and knowing that she’d get to safety away from the rising earth, he turned to Aurora and flung the dagger at her chest. She disappeared and it flew through. When it thudded into the wall behind her, Warren was sucked through space to join it.

He arrived with his fist gripping the hilt and pulled it free. From within the house, the damage was illuminated. It was a mess. The walls wavered like the apparition they were, great holes to the real world blasted into them. His gaze raced around the destroyed living room, hunting Aurora.

Nowhere to be seen. He sprinted out onto the back patio, just in time to see Aurora shoot a jet of the pool water at Esha. Thousands of gallons bowled her over, and he roared, charging Aurora.
 

A crash of thunder and a flash of light, and the world went black. He stumbled, then righted himself as the light of the true moon illuminated the scene before him. Aurora’s world had melted, leaving behind a destroyed mansion and a dried-out pool. Esha was rising from the giant puddle on the beach, and Ana was running to her, no doubt to ensure that Esha benefited from the power of her soul rather than Aurora. Both soulceresses would need a power boost after what had just gone down.

Aurora stood on the destroyed patio and shrieked, her hands clutched in her hair. Her wild black eyes flickered over the mansion. The monstrous revelers had disappeared. Her familiar sat at her heels, hissing at her as if it knew something was terribly wrong. She whirled on Warren. “You destroyed it!”

She raised her hand to throw some kind of magic at him and instinct had him hurling the dagger at a tree to her left just to get out of its way. He appeared, hand on the hilt, as a bolt of lightning incinerated the spot where he’d been standing.

Shite, that was close.
 

“From behind!” Ana’s scream dragged his gaze to the left in time for him to see some kind of sea monsters crawling from the waves on the beach, weeds and barnacles clinging to their misshapen forms. Celtic
fomori
, famed for razor teeth and vicious appetites. Christ, had she called them all the way from the Celtic Sea?
 

Focus on Aurora.
He jerked his attention to her as she was hurled to the ground by a great rush of wind thrown by Esha. She leapt to her feet a second later, her black eyes crazed and her hair whipping unnaturally about her head. She thrust out her arm, and an enormous wave rose from the sea behind Esha. In less than a second, Aurora’s eyes flashed from black to gold. Shock and regret streaked across her face. She waved her arm again and the wave crashed down too soon, spraying Esha but not drowning her.

Aurora was flashing in and out of sanity. And she didn’t want to kill Esha. No sooner had the realization struck him than Aurora spun from Esha and caught sight of him. Her eyes blackened again, and she threw a blast of fire at him that was too big to escape.
 

He threw the knife, knowing it was futile, as Esha sent a jet of water from the sea. Steam rose up at the collision of fire and water and the tail end of the flames seared his flesh as he was transported to the knife, his hand grasping the hilt where it stuck out of a palm tree. He yanked it out with a burned and blackened hand, knowing that if he hadn’t been under the influence of the pain-relieving potion from the witches, he probably wouldn’t have gotten it out of the tree.

Esha threw another gust of wind at Aurora, hoping to give Warren enough time to reach her. Gods, she needed Ana’s help with Aurora, but the sea monsters kept coming. Their growling and the clicking of fangs was an eerie accompaniment to Aurora’s screams and the blasts of power that rent the night.
 

Warren halted and flung the dagger, avoiding Aurora’s strike of lightning. He popped in and out of existence as he made his way closer to Aurora, who could dodge his knife like a pro, while Esha tried to hold Aurora off. Water to stop her fire, wind to knock her down. If only she could throw a killing blow, this would all be over, but she didn’t want to kill her only family, no matter how crazed she was now.
 

But gods, she was running out of power. She’d been siphoning it off Ana, who was now likely as weak as herself. Thankfully Ana had her skills as an archer to fall back on. Esha had nothing without her power except a mean right hook, and that wouldn’t be of much use against Aurora.

But Aurora was slowing too. No longer bolstered by her magical world, she didn’t have infinite power. She’d burn through it and have to wait for the souls to regenerate.

Please, gods, let her run out before me.
 

“Warren!” Esha screamed when he appeared near some fallen
fomori
who had just started to rise.
 

He was quick with the dagger and one was on the ground seconds later. Aurora shot a bolt of fire at him while he was killing the second, but Esha deflected most of it with another jet of seawater. Thank gods his healing was so fast, and he didn’t feel pain, else he’d never have made it this far. Aurora was obsessed with taking him down, even though she couldn’t kill him. Rage had clouded her mind.

Aurora stood with her back to a copse of palms and shot another stream of fire at Warren. He’d already taken aim and heaved the dagger. It sailed past her and into the tree at her back. He disappeared as the fire hit the spot where he’d been standing and reappeared behind Aurora before she had a chance to register the maneuver. He yanked the dagger from the tree, spun, and plunged it into her back.

Her shriek rent the night air, an unholy howl that was joined by the wailing of the souls that flew free from her body. They streaked into the sky, shadows rising toward freedom and their former owners. Warren’s soul flew straight back into him and he fell to his knees.
 

“Ana! Chairman!” Esha screamed. “Home! Now!”

The
fomori
had begun to slink back into the ocean, Aurora’s spell broken. Ana sprinted to Aurora and Warren. Esha met her there, desperate to get the hell off this miserable island.
 

Esha wrapped her arms around Warren, who’d just surged to his feet, while Ana did the same with a collapsed Aurora. The Chairman pressed himself against Esha’s legs.

“Wait! Her familiar!” They couldn’t aetherwalk without Aurora’s companion. Just then, a sleek black blur streaked from the trees near the beach and curled up against Aurora’s prone form. No doubt the cat had fled when Aurora had lost her mind. “Let’s go!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Esha appeared in the foyer of the house with her arms wrapped around Warren. Ana arrived next to her, collapsed on the floor with Aurora’s crumpled body in her arms.

“You’re good?” she asked Warren.

“Aye.” He was blackened and burned, but he was whole.
 

Relief rushed through her, and she spun to kneel at Aurora’s side. She looked like hell, her golden skin sallow and her eyes closed.
 

“Aurora!” Esha shook her gently. “Come on, wake up. You have to be okay.” The wound in her back seeped blood, but not enough to be fatal. Right? Even without the souls, her sister shouldn’t die from something as small as that. “Come on!” She shook her again.

“Hey, chill out!” Ana said. “Give her a second.”

Esha drew in a shuddery breath and realized that fear was making her a bit crazy. She was appearing in the foyer of this house holding broken bodies far too often. “Let’s get her up to the bedroom.”
 

She wrapped her arms around her sister and aetherwalked them to her bedroom. By the time she got her sister up onto the bed, Aurora was stirring. A second later, she popped upright and shoved Esha away.