Runemaker, page 13
She had never given herself the runes Aidan had. She had never felt power like he.
Realization struck him—he wasn’t following the Dark Lady. She wasn’t his superior. They both channeled the same energies, read the same runes.
They were equals.
His lips quirked in a smile.
Maybe he didn’t need her to rule, after all.
And wasn’t that always the intention? Not to serve her like her mindless necromancers and minions, but to use her—get her to bring back his mother and show him the doorways between life and death. Teach him the runes that would grant him immortality. And then, when she had served her purpose, destroy her. He could only hope she couldn’t read his thoughts as well as she could his heart. She knew he wanted to burn the world down.
She didn’t know she was included in the funeral pyre.
He took a deep breath.
“So, then,” he said to her motionless body. “How do I bring you back?”
He knelt at the base of the pedestal and examined the runes, let his mind settle and the words sink.
There were runes for longevity, for preservation, but there were others, too. Darker runes. Runes for imprisonment, for destruction. They hissed through his mind, serpentine shadows, and as he let them swirl through his consciousness, he knew that Natasja had done more than just preserve the Dark Lady here for eternity, had done more than hidden her away.
This room—this pedestal—was a prison.
Natasja had ensured that no one would take the Dark Lady from here. At least, not alive.
The runes preserving her body also snared her to the pedestal. If someone so much as tried to move her an inch, the snare would snap, and the threads keeping her alive would unravel.
The only way to bring her back would be to undo the runes of this damned prison, to reignite the stilled spark of life within her. She wasn’t dead, not really. Just in stasis. The web of runes wove tight over her, and he knew that one small mistake would cost more than the Dark Lady’s life. It would cost him his only chance at bringing his mother back. He glanced over his shoulder at Natasja’s corpse; perhaps he should have kept her alive a bit longer. Perhaps she could have been useful.
Perhaps. But then, where would the fun be in that?
He smiled in spite of himself.
“Finally,” he muttered. “A challenge.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
TENN
Snow swirled around them, snow and a cold so biting Tenn immediately regretted their decision. Everywhere he looked he saw only snow. No houses, no settlements, not even trees. Just snow and windswept hills and a frozen gray sky.
“Where the hell are we?” Kianna asked. She burrowed deeper into her trench coat, which seemed hard to do with all the weapons strapped to her body. Even after attuning to Earth, it was clear she didn’t trust magic enough to be unarmed.
“I don’t... I don’t know,” Tenn admitted.
He’d tracked Tomás to here. And yet there was no one to be seen. He pressed his senses deep through Earth, tried to find some trace of where the Howl could be. Because he felt Tomás in front of them, not far at all, even though before them lay only snow. What if the runes had failed him? What if this was all some sort of trap?
“Tenn,” gasped Dreya.
She pointed. And there, through the swirling snow, he saw it. An archway of sparks. He couldn’t see anything beyond besides more snow and those sparks, at least not from this vantage point, and when he tried to push his awareness there with Earth, he found nothing but emptiness.
“That must be it,” he said. Tomás had to be in there. And Aidan.
A castle loomed through the opening, all stone and crystalline pink glass. Or no...was that ice?
“Look,” Devon grunted. He kicked the ground.
Runes were scratched into the frozen soil, glowing faintly. They sifted through Tenn’s mind in a haze, a language he barely understood—these were not the runes he was used to, but their meaning was clear. Runes for distraction and destruction, stronger than the ones he had used before, more diabolical than the Witches’. These would maim any who crossed over. Except someone had managed to divert the runes and create this arch.
Tenn knew precisely who that someone might be.
“He’s through there,” Tenn said. “Just make sure you only go through the arch. Those runes will kill you.”
But something else pulled him forward. A tug in his chest. A hook in his gut. Something about this place was off. A force that made Water churn uncomfortably. He wanted to run the other way—and that, more than anything, was how he knew this was precisely where they needed to be.
They walked.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
AIDAN
Sweat dripped from Aidan’s forehead as he worked. Fire twined around his fingertips, charring against stone, reworking the runes delicately, one at a time. Changing not only the words, but the phrases, the sentences. It felt like rewriting an epic poem in a language he only half understood.
So far, at least, he hadn’t cocked it up.
“What the hell are you doing?” Tomás asked.
Aidan was so focused he hadn’t heard the incubus come in, so entranced he didn’t even start at the voice. He kept working. He couldn’t lose focus. Not now.
“We have to go.”
A hand on his shoulder. Aidan glanced over. Tomás had changed out of his bloodied shirt, but he still wore very little—black silk button-down, clean slacks. Aidan was so consumed in his work, he barely registered the Kin’s attractiveness.
“I’m nearly done,” he said.
Tomás stared at the Dark Lady, at the flames flickering over her pedestal, caressing her pale skin.
“Our Mother...” he whispered. “What are you doing to her?”
“Saving her.”
Tomás said nothing. Then his eyes jerked up. His hand clenched tighter on Aidan’s shoulder.
“You must work faster, then,” he said. “Or leave her for another time. We are no longer safe here.”
“I’m safe anywhere,” Aidan replied. Fire sang in his veins. Whatever was going on, he could handle it. He had nothing to fear. Nothing.
“That is what the dead think.” He continued staring at the ceiling. Aidan continued his work.
“What is it?”
“Your friends have arrived.”
The words shouldn’t have struck a chord, but they did. Friends. Aidan didn’t have friends. Not really. Not anymore. He had enemies, and those who would become enemies—those he must snuff out before they could try to rise against him.
“They don’t scare me,” Aidan said, focusing on the next rune. He was close. So close.
“They should. Come, this can wait. We must get you somewhere safe.”
Tomás pulled at his shoulder. Aidan broke his concentration and turned on the Kin, sending a wash of flames between them.
Although it didn’t hurt Tomás in the slightest, it still made him step back.
“Why the hell would I go with you?” Aidan said. “Why should I even trust you, after everything you’ve done?”
Tomás shook his head.
“I would never abandon you, my king. We both seek to bring our Mother back. I vowed to her, and I have vowed to you, and I have kept my vows. It is clear that you are the only way to bring her back. I would give my life to ensure that happens.”
“Then why do you want me to run? Why not just kill Tenn and the others now and get it done with?” Fire sang in his veins, telling him he could do anything he wanted. Fire didn’t run. Fire consumed.
Tomás’s words were careful, considered.
“Because you may hold the power, my king, but you cannot take these four on your own. Not now. Not yet. We still may need them.”
Aidan imagined them, the twins and blondie and Tenn, parading into the main room as if they were the saviors. As if they were the ones who would go down in history. But they were wrong. Wrong.
He didn’t need them. He didn’t need anyone.
“You’re protecting them,” Aidan growled. His eyes flickered up as a rumble shook the earth, making the light in the room sway. “You don’t want them dead.”
Tomás’s jaw corded.
“He has a knowledge that is useful to her.” He looked to the Dark Lady. “I do not question. And if you were wise, neither would you.”
“How dare you? I’m—”
“A god, yes. And one of great power. But do not forget that the very forces that give you your might once gave her the very same. And now look at her. She was rash. She ignored those she should obey. And she nearly lost everything for it.” Tomás swallowed. “I know you think you are omnipotent, my king. And you will be. Soon. But there is still much that neither of us knows, and we must play our cards right to ensure we live to learn it. We must trust her. In her stasis, she has dwelled amongst the dead gods, the ones whose power flood through your veins. She knows more than we ever could. If she believes we need Tenn alive, we must follow.”
Tomás gingerly touched the crown of Aidan’s head, where the fifth Sphere, the elusive Sphere of Maya, rested.
“We wish to remake the world. And for that, we need a power the world has never seen. The Dark Lady believes she has found the way. We must listen.”
Anger burned heavy and hot in the back of Aidan’s chest. He wanted to refuse. Wanted to prove Tomás wrong.
But the Kin was right—this was just the beginning. Especially if Tomás thought the Dark Lady could access Maya.
Fire sang at the thought.
Maya could remake the world. Could burn apart the very fabric of creation.
If he could tap into that Sphere, he would truly be a god.
Tomás jerked away, looking toward the door, barely glancing at his sister. “We must go.”
“No,” Aidan said. He was a king. He was a god. He wouldn’t begin his reign by fleeing. “I have another idea.”
He smiled. Pressed a burning hand to Tomás’s face.
“Don’t worry. I won’t get hurt. And I won’t kill them. I promise.”
“But—”
He moved his hand to cover Tomás’s lips.
“That wasn’t a request, Tomás,” Aidan said. “That was a command. From your new master. From your king. And you don’t want to disobey me. You’ve already seen what happens to those who betray their masters.”
Tomás swallowed, but he didn’t move Aidan’s hand away. He stared deep in Aidan’s eyes. Aidan knew that look. Tomás was finally realizing the shift in power. Finally realizing the monster he had created. The king he must now serve.
Tomás nodded. Stepped back.
“As you command,” he said, bowing low. His eyes flickered once more to the Dark Lady. To Natasja’s corpse on the floor. “But I will not leave your side, my king.”
“Then follow my lead.”
I have a surprise for you, Tenn, Aidan thought, and went back to work.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
TENN
This had to be a trap. Had to be.
Tenn’s skin practically crawled off his bones as they made their way through the castle, first through the grand entryway, then through the crystalline maze of frozen bodies, following the tracking rune seared on Tomás’s heart.
Tomás didn’t move.
Nothing in this accursed castle of ice and frozen blood moved.
No guards. No necromancers. Not even a kraven.
Tenn knew Tomás could sense them. Anyone with a lick of power could sense them. All four were open to their Spheres, scanning and ready to defend or attack at the drop of a hat. He sensed Tomás’s rune down in the cellars, but try as he might, he couldn’t feel him with Earth. He strained his senses further. He felt the tunnels and stairways, a veritable beehive of chambers. But there was a void surrounding Tomás. Tenn couldn’t sense anything—not a room, and definitely not the people inside. It reminded him way too much of the Witches, of the runes that had made them invisible to the outside world. Invisible to anyone who didn’t know the right runes.
Something was hiding within that void. Something much, much worse than Tomás.
Nothing good could be hidden in a place like this.
“Do you feel anything?” he asked the others.
No one answered. No one felt a thing.
Kianna stood at his side, a sword in one hand and pistol in the other, Earth a twining green in her gut. Only a few hours in, she had gotten a handle on her power far better than Tenn had when he first attuned. He would have been jealous if not for the necessity of their circumstance, if not for the knowledge that to her, magic was just a weapon, and if there was one thing she had a handle on in this world, it was weaponry.
The twins stalked behind him, flames from Devon’s agitation flickering around them. They cast shards of light over the ice, which almost looked beautiful, if not for the nightmares illuminated inside. Dreya pulled through Air, a constant whirlwind that billowed all of their clothes and sent goose bumps over his skin.
They all knew the weight of this situation. All knew they needed to be on the highest alert.
Even if they didn’t know what exactly they were walking into, it didn’t take insight to know they were nearing the end of their story. Caius’s words still rang in Tenn’s ear. The Dark Lady had been part of the Church. The Dark Lady was still alive. She was at the center of this. All of this. And as Water churned in his gut, sucking him forward like a whirlpool, he knew in the darkest shadows of his bones she was here, too.
He hated to guess what that might mean Aidan was doing here.
He wanted so badly to sit Aidan down and talk to him, reason with him. He was destroying the Kin, and Tenn had to believe that was a good thing. But something wasn’t right. Whatever Aidan was doing here wasn’t good. Couldn’t be good.
He had to help him.
You can’t be trusted around broken things. Jarrett’s words rippled through his mind. But no. He wasn’t here to be a martyr. He was here to stop Aidan from doing something he would regret. There had to be reason in Aidan’s mind. Had to.
Tenn glanced over to Kianna. If nothing else, she should be able to change Aidan’s heart. Right?
Something about the set of her jaw told him she was just as uncertain as he was.
Then, halfway down the darkened steps leading into nothingness, Dreya gasped.
“Tenn, there is a body,” she whispered. Her eyebrows furrowed. “Part of one, at least.”
Tenn stalled. Memories of stumbling upon half a Witch’s torso replayed in his mind.
“Part?”
“I sense legs. But the rest...the rest I cannot sense.”
Tenn pushed harder through Earth. Dimly, he could make out what she was saying. Legs on the ground. And the rest fell within the void he could not sense.
“Maybe it’s someone sleeping?” Kianna suggested.
They all knew that wasn’t the case.
Dreya took a deep breath. The air around them flickered, the faintest shield.
“Let us go,” Dreya said. “Carefully. We do not know what we will face.”
Tenn nodded. He didn’t need a reminder.
They walked toward the unknown, and he wondered if he should have prepared them better. Scrawled runes of hiding into their flesh or something. But, just like with Leanna, he didn’t think it would do much in the face of the Kin. Or Aidan.
He hated that the thought of facing Aidan filled him with more dread than facing the Kin ever had. Or could.
At the bottom of the stairs, his fears were realized.
A woman’s body lay half in the doorframe. Her dress was beautifully intricate, her skin pale as snow. He knew in that one glance she was of the Kin—no one in this world was so beautiful, so untouchable. She was also undoubtedly dead.
“Don’t be rude,” came Aidan’s voice from within. “It isn’t polite to stare.”
From their vantage, the door half-closed, they couldn’t see who or what was inside. All Tenn could see was stone. Kianna growled and made to step forward, but Tenn yanked her back. Her pistol was at his forehead in a heartbeat.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Let me.”
“Like hell.” She shook off his hand and lowered the pistol. With a quick kick, the door slammed open, and she strode inside with weapons raised.
Tenn was close behind.
It took a moment to realize what was happening. Aidan on the other side of a stone dais. Tomás at Aidan’s side. And a woman on the stone before them. A woman in purple, with pale blonde hair. As beautiful as the Kin at his feet, but more so.
It clicked.
He remembered her from TV. He remembered her face.
The Dark Lady.
They had found the Dark Lady.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
AIDAN
Aidan didn’t think much could surprise him anymore. Not with all the power running through his veins, not with the body of the Dark Lady splayed out before him. He was wrong.
When Kianna burst into the room, shock pulsed through him.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked. “How are you here?”
They were in Russia. A thousand miles from where he’d left her. Even if she’d somehow taken a plane, there was no way she could be here. Unless...
He looked. Really looked.
And there, curled in the pit of her gut, glowing green behind the black of her trench, was the Sphere of Earth.
“You let them attune you?” he spat as the others—the Hunters he expected—crowded in behind her. Well, he’d expected all of them, except blondie wasn’t with them. Maybe they’d had a lovers’ quarrel?
“Aye,” Kianna said. He didn’t fail to note that her gun was pointed straight at his chest, the sword at Tomás. “And I blame you for all of it.”
