Part 16 (1/2)

A hand on my arm pulled my attention back to the Circe. Arethusa had me and was leaning over, peering at the symbols on my arm, which had begun to glow brightly. I jerked against her. ”Get off me.”

Rage clouded my thinking. I wanted to kill her, right then and there. I was pretty sure I would, but Sachath lurked in the back of my mind. While I might be able to kill one, the other two would have me at their mercy if Death came and knocked me out.

”We must learn more of this power, sisters,” she said. ”If not through the tablet, then through the human.”

”Not going to happen,” I ground out, pulling back, but she was stronger than she looked.

I tried to push my power back down, but Calliadne reached over the altar and grabbed my other arm. ”Yes, let's see what happens.”

”Stop it!” I managed to pull free and slugged Arethusa in the jaw. ”You don't know what you're doing!” Their hands dug deeply into my arms. Power continued to fill me, fueled by my panic. Ephyra stepped in the center of her sisters and smirked. They were going to make me use it. I didn't see any way out of it, but I knew one thing: I sure as h.e.l.l would take someone down with me. Collateral damage-they should've thought of that before they pushed me.

Ephyra placed one hand on Arethusa's shoulder and her other on Calliadne's, making a link between the four of us. Heat surged through both of my arms. I screamed, gasping as their power slid into me.

I squeezed my eyelids closed and gave myself up to the divine. It was so eager that it lashed out immediately. I heard myself scream again but was lost in the pain of their power being pushed back from my body.

My eyes popped open as a strange sort of calm took over. My hand curled around Arethusa's arm and I directed everything I had into that hand, into doing exactly what she had done to me, but a thousandfold. From my shoulder to my fingertip, my arm burned cold and hot and deadly.

”You wanted my power?” Light breached my fingertips. ”Here. I hope you choke on it.”

And then it arced out of me with the force of a rocket, burning electric as it went into Arethusa, and shoving me backward. I hit the ground and saw stars, but quickly scrambled to my feet to defend myself.

A high-pitched keening erupted in the chamber, rebounding off the walls, and making me cover my ears. After several seconds, the volume dropped enough to allow me to raise my head.

Holy s.h.i.+t.

A bluish white light-what came from me-ate its way slowly through Arethusa's chest. Direct hit. Her sisters were pulling at her, chanting, using their power to try and save her, and screaming.

G.o.d, the screaming.

Hank faced the wall, had a fistful of chain, and was trying to pull it free of the stone, using one foot braced on the wall for better leverage.

I have to help him. Before Sachath gets here. Before I'm completely screwed.

I made for Hank, but Ephyra's head snapped up. The light in her eyes was maniacal. I got two steps before she threw out her hand and shouted one word.

Stop.

Instantly I was rooted to the floor, held there by her word. I pushed against it, knowing my power was greater than hers, knowing I had to figure out how to f.u.c.king gather it again and use it. Through the adrenaline haze and the sound of my own wild pulse pounding through my ears like a ritual drum, images and language scattered across my brain. Ancient things. Words that echoed in my head.

My skin tingled with power, and I latched on to that sensation. Growing it, fanning the embers left over from before. I wasn't as empty as I thought.

I gave everything I had to push through the force of Ephyra's word. A scream built from somewhere deep inside of me, burgeoning, growing, trembling along with the rest of me as I gave all my strength and power. The sound burst from me and I fell forward onto my hands and knees, gasping.

Oh s.h.i.+t. I'd done it.

Startled, I glanced up and met the shocked eyes of the two Circe. Arethusa was gone, burned up. Dead. And I had just broken through Ephyra's power word.

The siren with the whip gaped from the Circe to me, unable to move or process what he was seeing.

And then the entire chamber shook. Small rocks came loose from the cave ceiling high above, pinging the floor and splas.h.i.+ng into the pools. A whine like an inbound missile filled the s.p.a.ce and the sonic boom rocked me onto my a.s.s just as the wall around Hank's chain cracked and shattered with his strength.

Too late. Death has come, I thought, scrambling to my feet just as shadows crept quickly into the cave like a coming storm, gathering me up.

He was free.

b.i.t.c.hes would pay.

One already had. Arethusa was dead. And the two who were about to die faced him along with the whip master who had moved behind them. Only it was too late; he was already there, s.n.a.t.c.hing Calliadne by the throat, spinning her in his arms so that her back was against him, bracing his elbow on her shoulder, and grabbing her head, twisting her neck until he heard the sickening, satisfying crunch of her spine snapping in two.

A second, two at the most. And it was done.

With a gathering of strength and a growl, he wrenched her head from her body. Blood, warm and thick, ran over his hands and forearms as the rest of her slid down to a pile at his feet-the only thing now lying between him and his next target.

Ephyra's face had drained of all color. He lifted the head of her sister, holding it out to her, making her see what he was capable of, what he was good at.

And then he started laughing. It was too easy. And he'd wanted them to suffer as he had suffered.

He tossed the head aside, staring at the last remaining Circe, his bloodl.u.s.t nowhere near fulfilled-he was just getting warmed up.

”Run,” he told her, letting her see the intention in his eyes, the gleam of antic.i.p.ation that he felt all the way to his toes.

Her eyes flashed fire. The whip master grabbed her arm. She s.n.a.t.c.hed the tablet and they fled.

The hunt was on.

Calm settled over him. He walked toward the pa.s.sageway where Ephyra had disappeared, stopping for a moment to look over his shoulder at the gray shadows swirling above, holding Charlie immobile in their grip. Then he continued walking.

Nothing mattered now but the kill.

Nothing.

Pressure squeezed my neck, but I wouldn't exactly describe it as a hand. All around me darkness floated. Directly in front of me, it began to condense, slowly forming a dark, featureless face with ghostly eyes.

That had never happened before.

I tried to swallow but couldn't. I could barely move enough to look down, far below me, to the altar. Hank stood there, paused at the pa.s.sageway, staring over his shoulder. Staring at me.

And then he turned and walked away.

He just walked away.

Sachath spoke then, and I nearly wet my gown, the voice reverberating through me so heavy and powerful that everything went a little squirrely. It sounded like a hundred voices all speaking at once. It made the Circe look like amateurs, and I was glad I couldn't understand the words.