We will be. He promised.
And then we disconnected.
“Where?” Kiran grunted softly. He could always tell when I was talking to Avalon.
“They’re at the tunnels,” I whispered. “Almost gone.”
“Care to share?” Terletov shot us a sly smile.
“Not particularly,” I smiled back.
“I’ll hedge a guess that you’re discussing your brother’s whereabouts? Or the humans? Or any of your little group of friends that seem to have disappeared. We’ve closed off every possible point of exit. Whether you want to whisper about it or not, we will find them. It’s only a matter of time.”
I looked down at my feet because I didn’t want him to see that I knew he couldn’t.
Terletov didn’t push the matter anymore and soon enough the door to the War Room was pushed open and we were led inside.
This particular room hadn’t been changed much since Lucan’s death. We hoped to never have to use it and so for a long time it was ignored as some kind of shrine to the Kingdom we never wanted to become again. But recently Kiran, Avalon and their trusted advisors had reclaimed this room in our war against Terletov.
Now, the man himself took control of the room as if it was created specifically for him. I wondered if it was- or at least men like him.
I’d always hated this place. Too much of Lucan remained in the rustic décor and ancient artifacts. Too much had been plotted here, planned here… accomplished here. Too much evil.
We were building a new Kingdom with a peaceful future. We didn’t belong here except when necessity demanded.
Like now.
Titus knelt in the center of the room with his hands tied behind his back and his mouth gagged. His nose had bled at some point, although it wasn’t currently bleeding and his clothes were disheveled and torn. He’d been beaten but his quick Magic had worked to heal his body before he could be too badly broken.
“He won’t change for us,” Terletov gestured at Titus with a flourish of his effeminate hand. “We’ve been asking politely, but he won’t oblige.
Kiran held Titus’s determined gaze and they had some kind of silent conversation. Kiran gave him encouragement, a promise for vengeance and related the plan I wasn’t even apprised of, all in that one look. Titus didn’t acknowledge Kiran in any other way besides a flash of intelligence in his eyes. He understood. He would be ready.
“Alexi,” Terletov addressed a weak, exhausted looking man sitting behind a large desk. “Have you had the pleasure of meeting our King and Queen before?”
Alexi, Terletov’s brother, who we had not met yet, even though he’d been a prisoner here for a few days, just shook his tired head. He didn’t meet his brother’s eyes, he didn’t even look our way. He stared up at a huge buck’s head that had been mounted on the wall next to the desk and clutched his hands together.
“Ah, my dear brother,” Terletov smiled affectionately but there was something cold and dark in his expression that gave me the chills. More of the chills… he was a very unsettling person to be around. He turned those empty eyes on me next and his aura of evil seemed to expand around him. “Now, Eden, before I strip your friend of his Magic and use it on someone more… deserving, how about we settle this little thing between us.” All playfulness disappeared and he hit me with the full force of his anger. “Tell me how to get my Magic back.”
“Gladly.” I took a defiant step forward. Kiran followed. “You syphon it from my cold, lifeless corpse.”
Chapter Seven
“I will do exactly that, then,” Terletov hissed back.
“You will not touch my wife,” Kiran told him with enough simplicity that his words rang out unnerving with their own warning.
“You’re wife has something valuable of mine.” Terletov took a step closer to us at the same time Kiran moved in front of me. “If she would kindly give it back, I would not have need to touch her.”
Terletov’s voice thickened with his Russian accent the angrier he became. His forehead slickened with sweat that ran down his temples. His thin mustache twitched over his upper lip and his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides.
He was furious with me.
But I would die with this secret.
He said he worked with Lucan, but the old King knew this secret and must not have found it prudent to confide in Terletov.
That was possibly the only good thing Lucan had ever done.
Terletov narrowed his beady eyes and threw out another threat, “If you do not give it back, then I will be forced to hurt someone.” His gaze flickered to Titus.
“Torturing him will be for nothing.” I stepped around Kiran and leveled Terletov with an honest glare. “No matter what you do to Titus, or Kiran or me, I cannot give you your Magic back. You’re asking for something that is impossible.”
“So you say.” His face lit up into a sadistic grin and my spine crawled with chills from the depraved evil that left his body in aggressive waves. “But my experiments are never for nothing. I quite enjoy them.”
“You’re a sick mother-”
Alexi cut off my fowl curse with a fact I hadn’t realized he knew. “She’s pregnant,” he confessed quietly.
“What was that, Brother?” Terletov’s expression changed to shocked disbelief but his body relaxed into confidence now that he understood he could hold something over us.
“The Queen is pregnant,” Alexi answered. Kiran stepped closer to me, placing a strong, protective arm around my waist.
“Pregnant?” Terletov gasped.
I hugged my arms around my swollen stomach, hidden behind my blousy top.
“With twins,” Alexi confirmed.
“How could you possibly know that?” Kiran demanded.
Terletov watched us, smiling wider than I had ever seen him.
“Your mother, in fact,” the tired man explained.
“My mother told you Eden was pregnant with twins?” Kiran didn’t believe him and neither did I. Analisa had exiled herself to South America, but stayed just like that- in exile.
Alexi shook his head and released a weary sigh. After several silent moments of confusion, he lifted his heavy head and met Kiran’s skeptical gaze. “Not me exactly. She confided in someone she thought was a friend.”
“And who would that be?” Kiran still didn’t believe his mother was capable of betraying us, whether consciously or not.
“Katja,” I whispered. “Katja Bentley.”
“Jericho’s mum?” Kiran gasped.
“He was in the Throne Room…”
“His dad, then,” Kiran concluded.
Terletov released a sickening sound that I thought might have been a laugh. “Oh, right! You don’t know yet! How fun. Well, then you should. You should know. Your general’s parents have been working for me for years. They are quite unhappy with how things are being run lately.” Terletov watched us digest this disturbing news. It wasn’t just that Jericho had been deceived, or that we were… it was his mother, too! Kiran had gotten the call that she was taken with Jericho’s mother, but I hadn’t stopped to think about them since our own circumstances fell apart. Now to know that she wasn’t just kidnapped but betrayed as well, was truly devastating. Terletov continued, “They waited for so long to restore a qualified King. They are quite impatient for the Kingdom to fall back into capable hands. Into my hands.”
“That will never happen.” And I believed my own words. I would never give my crown over to him. I would never allow him to ruin my people and their Magic again.
“But it already has!” he squealed in delight and gestured around the room.
“The Kingdom has never been exclusively run from the Citadel,” Kiran reminded him. “We could as easily rule from London, or Morocco or any other place on this planet. And why would this Kingdom ever listen to a dying man that can’t even secure his own Magic? They will never follow you.” Kiran held me closer to his chest and squeezed my hip in his hand. “Never.”
&
nbsp; And just like that Terletov’s rage was back in full force.
“The time has come, my Queen, for you to give me my Magic back.” His words were clipped and accented, his eyes dark orbs of evil intent. He reached into the back of his pants and pulled out a gun- the kind with the Magical bullets that could harm even Kiran and me. He checked the chamber, grew a satisfied smirk and then pointed the gun directly at my stomach.
Not cool.
Kiran stepped in front of me, but Terletov only laughed.
“Don’t you see that we have you outnumbered?” He gestured around the room and raised his eyebrows. “I will do what needs to be done in order to reclaim my Magic. Your heirs mean nothing to me except a means to an end.” His finger slid back on the hammer and the gun clicked to ready.
Kiran’s Magic built quickly under his skin and I felt his intent as if it were my own.
But I also recognized an opportunity.
“Alright!” I exclaimed. “You can have you’re Magic back.” Kiran tensed next to me until I thought he’d become a statue. Sending calming vibes through our bond, I threw out, “You’ve made your point. I will give you your Magic back.” The emphasis was for Kiran and Titus’s benefit.
They better be ready because this was about to escalate.
Terletov wanted his Magic back, well fine, I’d give it to him.
“There now,” he grinned at me. “All you needed was the right incentive.”
I stayed quiet and built the Magic beneath my own skin until it was a whipping cyclone of vicious hatred and desperation. He should never have threatened my babies.
“I’m going to need to hold your hands,” I told him. He didn’t look convinced. “It’s the only way for the Magic to transfer. We have to be touching.” Now I was just making stuff up, but he didn’t need to know that.
At least not yet.
“Watch them carefully,” he directed his men. They all stepped forward at his command and lifted weapons to point at us, or more specifically, my stomach.
Slowly he reached out both hands and I mimicked his movement. I didn’t really want to touch him, he was pure evil and the last thing I wanted to do was taint my skin. But I wanted maximum damage done to this sick bastard, and I knew that could be accomplished by touching him.
I wrapped my fingers around his outstretched hands and didn’t even bother to hide my shudder of revulsion. His Magical current was stolen and foreign in his body. It felt wrong beneath his skin, completely misplaced. I shivered again at the wrongness of it.
Playing out my lie, I let my own Magic buzz into his skin gently. “Concentrate,” I instructed. “You have to open your mind to accepting this. You have to want the Magic to transfer.” I was pulling this crap from thin air, but the buzzing seemed to convince him that I was telling the truth.
“Keep your guns pointed at her belly,” he demanded but then closed his eyes as if that would help.
Idiot.
My Magic built steadily between us as I pushed a little more into him. He was feeling something but it was not his own prodigal energy returning to him. It was just me, getting ready to blow him up.
I tested his Magic, to see if I could steal it quickly enough, but it wouldn’t budge. I realized that whatever he’d done to Liv, he’d used the same process on himself. Trying to extract his now bonded Magic actually hurt, like I’d grabbed an electric fence or stuck a fork in an electrical outlet. So I backed off. I didn’t want him to notice what I was doing.
I thought about his sickness and how that contrasted with his immovable Magic. If he didn’t reclaim his original energy from me, he could live forever like this- miserable and ill. It was a small consolation for everything he’d done to me.
I tightened my grip on his hands so he couldn’t pull away easily and let the Magic release faster. His eyebrows dipped as if he wasn’t quite sure this was right. I pushed more Magic into him and he opened his mouth as if to give an instruction that I had no doubt I would not like.
So I let it all go.
I took from Kiran’s Magic, I pulled from the air around me, from the ions in the atmosphere, from the particles and atoms, from every living, breathing, elemental thing until my Magic was a firestorm of danger. I forced the entire wild force into him at once. There was a sucking sound as if the Magic was forced through a funnel and then Terletov’s eyes grew impossibly wide. He looked at me accusatorily for just a moment until the pressure sent him flying into the ceiling above.
His body lit up as if I’d actually implanted a bomb inside him. He hit the high rock ceiling with enough force to break through the stone and send debris and gravel raining down on us. He let out a terrifying scream of pain and fear before crashing back to the ground unconscious and limp. He landed on a pile of rubble made from his own body, blood trickling from his pale lips and arms and legs bent at unnatural angles.
His men stared at him with a mixture of shock and awe, but Kiran and I had the element of surprise on our side this time. We turned to each other, back-to-back, and went to work on the room.
We didn’t have fancy weapons like they did, but we didn’t need them.
Our Magic was strong enough that any weapon thrown at us could be disabled easily.
The room flashed with our navy blue energy field as we disabled gun after gun and man after man. They fell at our feet like dominoes lined up to be knocked over. We took Magic after Magic, adding it to our bountiful collection.
An over-achiever noticed our success and took initiative by shooting Titus in the neck with his gun. The little bastard was my very next victim. At the same time I released my smoke to heal Titus, I took the electricity from that same Guard like I was stealing candy from a baby.
Titus blinked awake from the ground and grunted a slew of creative curse words.
Kiran picked up a discarded sword from one of the men we’d felled and sliced through Titus’s wrist restraints, then his ankle shackles. Titus stood up and nodded in gratitude before ripping off his gag.
In less than five minutes, the odds were stacking more generously in our favor.
“You won’t make it out of here.” Alexi stood from behind the desk and barked out his warning. “There are more men here than you could imagine. We are taking your Kingdom and we are going to destroy it, bit by bit until there is nothing left for you to rule, until there is nothing left but ash and dust.”
Titus ran to the door and looked out into the hall. He immediately slammed it closed and flipped the lock. He gave us an “Oh, shit!” look and shook his head. “Not that way,” he said.
Kiran and I looked at the long windows that let in moonlight from either side of the desk at the exact same time.
“You can try,” Kiran told Alexi as we fought our way toward him. “But this Kingdom isn’t built on solid things to destroy. It’s not centered around buildings you can burn or cities you can raze. This Kingdom is made from a people that defy reason by surviving against all odds and have hope when there should be none. You fight against a Kingdom that is built in the hearts of these people and lives forever in their eternal minds. The Magic is free. My people have claimed their birthright. And the battle you fight is a losing one. You cannot take it from us because it belongs to them. And you cannot destroy something that you will never control.”
I loved that man.
So very much.
Alexi looked a little lost for words, so he raised his weapon instead. The room around us was blowing to pieces in our battle. We ducked Magic blasts, bullets and swipes of multiple swords. The men outside the room banged against the brass door, but no one seemed able to budge the lock. I wondered how Titus had sealed it so permanently.
Probably it had something to do with his brutish-bear strength.
“We will take it all!” Alexi screamed in an inhuman shriek. “We will burn it all!”
Kiran looked at me and nodded toward the windows. “Like the top of Kingsley? The dance?”
I smiled at the memory. How long ago? It felt
like lifetimes ago when he followed me to the roof of the Kingsley gym during the Fall Equinox dance.
“This time, I’ll break your fall,” he winked at me.
“Deal.”
And then I followed Kiran as he jumped out the window. Glass crashed around us and would have sliced through our skin if we didn’t have Magic to protect us. Titus flew through the other window and shifted in midair so he could land without hurting himself.
Just like Kiran said he would, he Time-Slowed our fall and twisted to catch me. I floated gracefully into the curve of the strong refuge of his body and threw my arms around his neck. I buried my face in his chest and gave into the momentum that carried us down.
We hit the ground, two stories below, with a painful thud; but with Magic, we quickly shook it off and jumped to our feet. My blue smoke floated around us before I even conjured its healing power.
Kiran grabbed my hand and pulled me after him.
We were on the side of the Castle with the underground garage and so that’s where we took off to.
There weren’t that many of Terletov’s men in our way as most of them had been occupied inside the Castle. We disabled the ones we could and ducked out of the way of the one’s we couldn’t. Titus stayed in bear form until we were in the garage and picking out a suitable getaway car.
Kiran wisely chose an H2 and we piled in with Titus now prudently in human-form.
Kiran took off, not bothering to drive carefully or expertly. Mostly, he drove through things. Through the garage exit. Through the pileup of Immortals that gathered to stop our getaway. Through the narrow streets of the village. He almost drove through the Immortal Fountain, but I think old Magic bumped the steering wheel to the left and we narrowly missed the gigantic structure made from thousands of years-old stone. And finally through the gates of the Citadel that had been blown wide apart from Terletov’s initial attack.
I could feel the residual Magic in the useless gates that hung at awkward and wide angles. He had used some kind of explosive that had been made with Magic.