Chapter 752: Max's Task
I hung onto Quaid as we spun into the veil, ready to smack Max for the lack of warning, only to have him stop, his power holding me in place.
Syd, he sent. My task is at hand. And I beg you, forgive me.
The veil tore open before I could ask him what the hell he was talking about. Max's magic shoved me through, his physical form following after.
I hit the ground hard, going down on one knee, bracing myself with both hands, breathless as Shaylee's Sidhe power connected with the earth magic of the Gate cavern. What the hell were we doing back here?
Quaid touched down beside me, a breath of air blowing past his lips from the rough landing. I started to stand, reaching for his hand to pull him up beside me.
Felt the groan of the cavern's power. The ache of its agony.
Turned in slow motion to see Ameline. Standing over Liam.
With blood on her hands.
And the shimmering form of Cian standing beside my fallen husband.
I choked, unable to act for the long, aching moment it took for Ameline to bend in a swift motion and plunge her hand into Liam's chest.
The source of the blood.
Oh.
My.
A part of my brain exploded, maji power moving forward toward her in a super nova flare of death so violent it was likely the entire cavern would collapse.
Didn't care.
Didn't.
Care.
Couldn't.
Breathe-
My power met a wall. Fate's wall, the same damned one, holding me back, keeping me from-
From Liam. From saving my husband.
My power sighed into nonexistence while Ameline laughed.
Fate.
No.
Please.
I'm sorry for your loss, Fate's voice echoed in my head. But it is necessary.
"My traitor of a Sidhe soul ran like the coward she is when the veils closed," Ameline snarled, drowning out Fate with her spiteful hate. "I need a new one." She stood, hands dripping crimson, blood magic, creation magic, coming to her call as she turned to Cian, the part of him Liam carried-
had carried
-fighting the sheath of red power imprisoning him.
She tried this before. Failed. The souls inside her almost killed her. Why did she think she would succeed this time?
More fury, red hot, blazing with demon fire, with as much hate as she focused on me.
"I'm going to eat your heart when I tear it out of your chest." Again I lashed at her.
Again my power fizzled out, lost, unused, falling against the wall as though it had never been.
Nonononononono.
NO.
Ameline stepped toward Cian, one of her hands going to her robe, pulling out a gun. Blood dripped from the tip as the thick stuff ran down her skin, the length of the barrel, gathering into a thick drop to fall in slow motion. The crimson splatter landing in the middle of Liam's forehead.
"I'll kill him," she said.
Giving me hope she'd wish she hadn't.
Alive. He was alive?
Liam was still alive.
"We should be working together," she spit her words at me like sharp edged weapons, "joined together. The planes would be ours. Even Fate wouldn't be able to stop us."
Quaid tried, too, struck with his Enforcer magic, only to have the ball of blue light sizzle and fall into helpless sparks feet from Ameline.
"Is that what he told you? Your Fate?" I felt Quaid move away from me, Ameline ignoring his attempt to attack her as if he wasn't there. My eyes flickering to follow, saw him kneel next to the dark, furred shape of Galleytrot.
Silent on the stone floor.
For the second time. And because of her.
My gaze snapped back to the muzzle of the gun, to Liam's pale face. Surely, Fate would let me deflect the bullet if she pulled the trigger? I reached for the weapon, felt my power retract yet again. The wall intact. Blocking me from Ameline.
From Liam.
Please, I screamed into the silence of my mind, toward Fate. I'll do anything. Just save him.
"We'll do a better job, don't you think?" Ameline's laugh came out high-pitched, false and weak. "Than those foolish sorcerers. Than those who think they control things." The hand holding the gun shook, quivered as she plunged her free one into the red mist surrounding Cian. I heard him cry out through my connection to the Sidhe cavern, but I couldn't worry about him. Not while Liam lay bleeding.
He might not be dead yet, but he would be if I couldn't get to him. Stop the blood flowing from the hole in his chest.
So.
Much.
Blood.
Choke.
"I'll rule all of it one day," Ameline said. "But it would be easier if you were beside me." I almost didn't recognize what I was seeing in her, feeling from her. My focus on Liam was so intent I nearly missed it. But when I looked up at the crackle of need in her voice, my heart froze into a shard of ice.
Was that need in her eyes, longing? What was she looking for from me?
Sick and twisted, did she want me to love her?
Rejection formed a sphere of bile in my gut, coming out in my voice as I spoke. "I will never, ever stand with you," I said. "You are alone, Ameline. And you always will be."
She trembled, icy eyes losing their desperation a moment, turning to grief so profound I wondered what I'd done. Until her face returned to its monstrous rage and hate and her finger closed on the trigger.
"Then I will make it my life's mission," she hissed, "that you will be, too."
In that moment, I felt Fate's wall fall, knew this was part of my destiny, that I had a choice to make, saw Ameline's finger tighten even as Cian crumpled under her touch.
Go after Ameline. Or save my husband.
No brainer. Had to be Liam.
But the moment my magic struck the gun, more power blocked me.
Gaping in disbelief, I looked up and into Max's eyes as he stepped between me and my dying husband.
"Forgive me," he said.
What? No. Nofreakingwaynoabsolutelynot.
This. Was. Not. Happening.
I'd felt panic. Terror. Fury so vast I was sure it would consume me. But never had I felt such a need to act as I did in that moment. My power roared, gale-force winds behind it, slamming into Max's chest.
He swayed, face flinching.
But he held.
Again. Again I hit him, low, high, throwing every single ounce of power I had at him.
Max bent like a willow tree.
But he held.
Giant, painful sobs tore a hole in my chest, bigger than me, than the power I bore, bigger than the veil and the planes and all the magic in the Universe. I threw my body at him, feet impacting his stomach, his knees, hands pounding against his chest.
Max wept.
But he held.
While Ameline laughed.
I lifted my eyes from the immobile drach, watched, heart dying, as Ameline jerked Cian's power into her, devoured him. Her ice blue eyes flared green, mouth twisted in a terrible smile.
Blackness pooled at her feet, reached for my husband. Swallowed him slowly in a coating of hungry slime. No gunshot, not while Ameline ate Liam's soul along with his Sidhe's.
Desperation overwhelmed me, pushed me forward to hang from Max as he held me back, one arm reaching past him, for Liam.
As Ameline flickered into vampire shadow and vanished.
Gone. Taking the shattered pieces of my love with her.
I staggered back from the drach, looked up into his eyes. Saw his sorrow running deep, as ancient as he was.
"You asked Ameline's fate," he said. "She has now completed it."
"You killed him," I said, swaying where I stood. I felt Quaid's hands on me, pulled free. "Don't touch me." Shaking fingers rose, brushed at the tears on my face in absent strokes.
Please.
No.
Take me instead.
Max's big body moved aside, clearing the path for me. The press of his power keeping me from Liam had fallen, probably when Ameline left. Because Fate was a bitch.
How to bear such betrayal? My feet shuffled over the stone floor as the Sidhe cavern wept, its power rippling in answer to Liam's loss. The black pool was gone, his life stolen, as she'd taken Gram.
As she'd tried to take everyone I loved.
Da-dum.
What? My body stilled in an instant, entire being listening, the soft sound echoing in my chest.
Da. Dum.
A... heartbeat?
Liam.
Wild hope as powerful as any stray magicks threw me forward, on my hands and knees, pulling his head into my lap, while my egos dove inside him, searching.
Da. Dum.
His heart. Still beat.
Still.
Oh, Liam.
I reached for him, for the soul I loved, begged and screamed in the darkness, gave up everything to find him as I had to try to save him, the full weight of my maji power rushing forward into the black.
A tiny spark of life answered. So small and frail and fragile I cocooned it in my magic, cradling it to me even as I felt his chest lift under my hands, blood running once again from the ragged wound in his chest.
It won't stop, my vampire sent, as though through gritted teeth.
Flame sizzled, amber fire scorching the edges of the wound as Liam moaned.
And more blood flowed, endless, over my hands, over his thin white t-shirt, onto the stones, soaking through the knees of my jeans. I sucked in the blood power, tried to seal the hole Ameline left behind.
I'm only making things worse. My demon backed off, panting. She's done something to him.
Yes. Of course. The sorcery. Gram felt like this, Galleytrot, last time she attacked him. As though a vital part was being drawn away, devoured.
By her sorcery.
My own blossomed beneath me, maji power breaking apart at last. I let my own emptiness touch Liam, felt for her touch. Found it.
Crushed the connection.
His body sighed beneath my hands, her evil laughter echoing in my head.
I gasped through my sobbing as hazel eyes flickered open.
And his lips parted.
"Beautiful," he said in his last breath.
And died.
I felt him go, clung to him with everything I had, but it wasn't enough, would never be enough.
His spirit rose, blew me a kiss and vanished in a flash of light.
Leaving me to huddle over the empty shell he left behind.
***
