Chapter 747: Normal
So this was what it felt like to be normal. I'd thought I known, back when I lost my demon, my witch magic still trapped behind the spell of protection Gram placed over her own power, holding me down and dull.
And yet, I had no idea even then I had magic, that Gram's watched over me, lived inside me, gave me more feeling and awareness than I believed.
Until I sat there, my enemy panting with her head in my lap, empty and ordinary.
Mortal.
Ameline forced herself up, bared her teeth at me in a fierce snarl, tears on her cheeks, blue eyes full of rage and hate and horrible terror.
"You bitch," she said, voice softer than air despite her expression. "You've destroyed us all."
I looked up at the gashes in the veils, saw the flow of power had stopped. Demonicon was still there, not destroyed, the other planes looking dull. Or maybe that was just my normal eyesight.
"Wouldn't do to destroy the very places we wish to rule." Belaisle stood over us, smiling his smirk of victory as he tilted his head and nudged Ameline with the toe of one polished shoe. "The power we've taken will do. For now."
Wind whipped a sudden gale, icy. So cold I hugged myself, thin t-shirt doing nothing to keep me warm. The sudden feeling of temperature again made me shiver, another reminder I'd lost everything as my silent mind sought out the voices of those who shared my head.
Came up empty.
The once gray sky looked darker to me, clouds forming in a place only grayness once lived. I felt someone hit me from behind, turned, looked up to see Mia, ice blue eyes wild, hunched next to me.
She poked me again, harder this time, painfully, sure to leave a bruise. Black makeup tracked down her pale cheeks, her deep red lipstick smeared as she wiped her running nose with the back of her hand. "How does it feel," she hissed, "to be nothing?"
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't have one for her.
Mia lunged for Belaisle, hugging his leg even as Rupe rushed forward to lift her free of the disgusted sorcerer.
"Please," she begged, snot running down her face, her nails clawing at her white cheeks. "You promised you'd give me some." She reached for him with black-painted nails ragged and bloody, sobbing, shattered. "Please, you said you would."
He ignored her as Rupe tossed the scrawny Dumont witch to the ground next to the silently waiting Zornovs. Now that the transfer was done, they stood, quiet and as lost as I was, trapped in thrall to the Brotherhood. Quaid seemed free of Belaisle, but from the way his hands shook as he looked at them, his power was gone, too.
"Fool," Alison hissed at Mia, drawing my attention back, the former echo's fangs lengthening. "He only used you to get to Syd in the first place."
Mia's sobbing stopped, eyes huge and staring at the ghostly Alison.
"No," she whispered. Turned to look at me. And made me watch as the girl she was finally died behind her eyes.
My own soul crumbled at the death of hers. And I know I would have fallen into my own endless despair, if it wasn't for the sky.
For the flare of power overhead drawing my eyes up, up to the peak of the stronghold tower.
Where two swirling masses of magic came together. Giant, shining with iridescence, my maji magic. Ameline's. Whirling like two tornadoes at the peak, dancing together in harmony over the heart spike of the stronghold.
"And now," Belaisle said, "I have the power to remake the Universe as it was meant to be." He winked at me. "In my image." He drew a great breath, let it out in a gust of happiness, clapping his hands together. "Well now," he said. "Where to begin?"
Demetrius's blue eyes crawled with black before he chuckled.
"Why," he said, "with me. Naturally."
And threw a giant ball of emptiness right at the leader of the Brotherhood.
I pulled Ameline toward me, out of the line of fire and, despite our animosity, the two of us huddled together, both held in place by the battle going on in front of us.
Rupe tried to interfere, his sorcery swelling to slice at Demetrius, but instead of landing the blow, it recoiled, as though thrown back in his face. The tall, former friend of mine fell away with a cry, landing hard on his ass, his own magic engulfing and smothering him.
Even normal, I felt the Brotherhood physically sway, the gathered sorcerers still pinning the drach to the ground watching, waiting for their master to defeat Demetrius.
Didn't happen. To my amazement, though the first blow he threw was dispelled by Belaisle, Demetrius answered the now furious Brotherhood leader's counterattack with one of his own.
While Belaisle seemed to hunker down to fight, his missed attempts shaking the very plane itself as he brought his power to bear, Demetrius's movements were a dance as he battered his opponent with balls of soul-sucking blackness, leaping out of the way in time to snare the other's power and use it for his own. A small relief woke inside me as I understood no matter how much Belaisle had access to, he was still a sorcerer. A thief who could only use other's power as a source, not add it to his own.
A tiny comfort. But I'd take it.
The longer their fight went on, the more furious Belaisle became until he roared in rage, lifting one arm, a massive hammer of darkness rising above him.
Ready to crush Demetrius Strong.
The air between the dueling sorcerers shimmered before Belaisle could strike and two young maji appeared, eyes white, faces serene. Light Fate nodded to me before turning her head toward Demetrius. "Mine is damaged," she said, "but his heart is whole."
"True," her brother said, empty eyes fixed on Belaisle, "but mine has access to more power."
So Belaisle lied to me, didn't he? About having his own Fate.
The fact they stood there seemed to infuriate the Brotherhood leader. "You don't rule me!" His voice carried, echoing back from the walls of the stronghold. "I am my own Fate!"
I almost laughed, was too tired, drained. But I did inside my head, just a little.
"I will hunt you both," he snarled, madness in his eyes as his face purpled in rage, "and I will kill you after making you suffer and suffer and suffer."
Demetrius giggled, both hands over his mouth, eyes sparkling with mirth. "You're too weak," he said. "Even with all the power of the planes at your disposal. You'll never be strong enough to fight Fate, Liander. Never."
At least he sounded lucid. Maybe he could do some good after all.
Belaisle's eyes lit up as Demetrius finished, the madness in him surging as he laughed at the sky.
"Perfect," he said. And reached out with both hands toward the stronghold.
Belaisle hadn't been using all the magic he had access to.
That was about to change.
His body began to change, grow, expanding as his shoulders shot upward into the gathering storm overhead. His laughter now rumbled like the thunder, sparks falling from his fingers in flares like lightening.
"I am Fate," he boomed, looming over us, black doom painting his eyes the color of his power.
Demetrius's smile didn't waver as he bent beside me and held out his hand.
"I need your crystal," he said with perfect clarity. "If you don't mind."
I gaped at him. Looked down at it in my hand even as Belaisle's giant foot shifted next to me, rising to crush us all like bugs.
My hand lurched forward, dropped the silent stone into Demetrius's hand. He liberated Ameline's from hers without asking. Stood swiftly, turned and bowed to the Fates who seemed unconcerned Belaisle's massive foot was about to come down on them.
Looked up with his bright blue eyes.
And grew.
Belaisle staggered as Demetrius rose to meet him, the ground-cracking vibration of his foot touching down bouncing me from the barren dirt before dropping me again. The whole plane rumbled with the pressure of Belaisle's step, though, amazingly, no one was crushed, his focus not with us anymore.
But on the beaming cherub who faced him down, two massive crystals in his hands.
"Thanks for coming by," Demetrius said. "But the party's over."
The two silent stones suddenly blazed, the blue with light, the black with fire, and drew in power in a rush so powerful the air around me boomed from the sonic shift.
***
