Page 83 of Resurrection
Not anymore. Stick a fork in him, he was done.
He turned all the grief to rage, feeling it awaken inside, not unlike the revenant he’d recognized from Gabe’s eyes in the end. It was a bit like pouring out the cool calm lightness he’d been gifted since Gabe had been back, and taking in all the heat and darkness. Maybe this was what made Sam feel so powerful when he teetered on a red out. Acouldn’t give a fuckattitude that nestled deep in his soul. Burn it all down. Fuck the consequences.
If Seiran didn’t have a direction for the rage, it might have turned quickly to world destruction. But Gabe was in the ground. His kids were a dozen feet away. And this rage had a source.
Seiran recalled the last bits of what Gabe had been dreaming before the fire started. The warehouse with all the bodies, Steve and the golem. Something had been pulling on the golem. Casting a spell through it? That was not normally possible. Though a lot of things about that golem had been off. The souls, the struggle to control it, and even Page’s recounting of how he’d made it.
Seiran got to his feet and summoned Bryar, which was a tug on their eternal tie. The fae might have chosen Bryar as their sacrifice to gain an alliance, but Seiran trusted him more than any other fae. Not only because they shared a child made of magic, but because Bryar had been born from blood magic spells, and forever craved battle. There wasn’t really a better fae to have at his back if he was going to rage against the machine.
Today would be a good day to indulge. No more waiting, no more games, no more sitting on his thumbs and hoping everyone did the right thing.
“Sei?” Jamie said, reaching for him.
Seiran sidestepped him. “Get the kids to bed, please.” He let the Goddess rise again. She demanded control and to use his strength to destroy. But Seiran’s grip on the power was better. As though Gabe’s return, even as short as it was, had strengthened something in him. Could he stand another decade with Her constant demands without Gabe at his side? He prayed he wouldn’t have to, but first he had to deal with some witches.
Bryar appeared. Popping from a small glowing bug into the human-sized man. Not much about Bryar looked human in this form. He was too pretty, too perfect, and very ethereal. The misconception of elves, Seiran knew, had come from fae like Bryar. He was also dressed for war. Covered in armor that looked more like a beetle shell than anything human, hair pulled up, and a sword bigger than Seiran strapped to his back. He could have stepped out of an anime or video game and looked like he fit right in.
“We fight?” Bryar asked.
Seiran nodded. “You have to get me there first. But yes, we fight. We kill,” Seiran said. He needed to get to the warehouse. No long trips through the veil. “Can you sense Sam? I need to go to where he is right now.”
“Sei…” Jamie tried to protest. But Kelly was shuffling him and all the kids inside.
Sei felt another barrier ward go up. Water wrapping a cool hand around the property, and rain began to fall. Kelly was preparing for more fire. Good because if Seiran had been a fire witch instead of earth, the entire world would already be burning.
Bryar cocked his head to the side. “Fast travel through the veil makes you sick,” he said.
“Yeah, well I’m hoping to upchuck on some witches. And then dissect them with plants right after. Let’s go.” Seiran pointed at Jamie and the kids again, mouthing through the glass door, “Bed, all of you.” He took Bryar’s outstretched hand and was instantly pulled through all time and space.
With a pop and a disorientating roll, he landed in the warehouse, stumbling to keep his feet as he arrived to utter chaos. It was a battle of zombies, golems, and vampires, some still undead, others true dead. What the fuck?
He swallowed back bile and readied himself to jump into the fray, only he wasn’t sure who was on their side and who wasn’t.
“About time, Ronnie!” Sam snarled as he smashed a fist into a golem, sending it flying across the room. Not the golem they’d been watching, but one of many new golems.
At least a dozen of them, maybe more, though Forest sat in a chair in the corner and didn’t move other than to stare with creepy eyes outward. Steve was slumped in a chair across from Forest, burned, and seeming lifeless. Had the last of Gabe’s magic faded when he went to ground?
“We’re fighting the golems?” Bryar clarified. “Or is this a kill them all scenario? Please let it be the second.”
“Golems!” Sam said.
“That’s not as fun,” Bryar grumbled as he leapt across the room to hack the head off a golem. While the thing separated, and even looked like sticks and clay, it instantly reformed. “Well, that’s better. I love a challenge.” He whacked it again, hacking it apart and exclaiming with glee as it reformed. “You do throw the best parties, vampire.”
“Why are there still zombies?” Seiran asked as he called roots from the earth to smack the golems away.
“I sort of accidentally borrowed that power…” Sam said, not sounding sorry at all.
“Really? Cause the other shit isn’t enough? Fire, earth, water, wind, and now death magic? Are you going for god status?”
“Finally, you admit I’m a god,” Sam snarked leaping across the room to pull a golem off a vampire investigator.
“Really, Sammie?” Seiran let his earth powers flow free, the ground turning green and blooming around him. Branches and roots reaching upward like the tendrils of a giant sea monster to wrap around his prey. He reached for the golems and the zombies, trying to define what was still actually living, and what was just an animated being.
With enough wrapping them, the golems had to pause, though they still fought and struggled. Something, or someone was controlling them. At least these felt more like the spells Seiran was used to. Maybe he could unravel the magic binding them to their goal? Usually, golems continued to reform until completing their objective, which was what in this case? Total destruction to all of them?
Seiran reached the nearest golem and found it empty. No souls, just animated sticks. A very weak golem, though as always, the blood magic tying it to this world was strong. But there was also no visible name mark on them, which is normally how a golem was bound. What the fuck?
“Sam, why do these not have a name mark? Is that possible?”