Page 26 of Risen (Love and Revenge #6)

Sadavir threw off the cultist he’d been busy pumping full of paralytic venom and coiled his snake lower half around Ruya, baring his fangs at The Mother in a protective display that would make most people piss themselves.

But the cult leader was flanked by her followers, and they all held corrupted magic in their hands.

Robin deftly stepped between Ruya and her tormentor once more, her dragon eyes glowing and her hands tipped in dragon talons.

Ripples of flame flared here and there over her body, outlining her in dragon fire.

“I warned you once,” she hissed, her husky voice full of death. “To keep your fucking hands off my mate, hag.”

The Mother scoffed. “As if I’m afraid of a lowly animal, when I wield the power of the goddess.

” She raised her hands, causing the sickly green energy there to dance along her fingertips.

“You served your purpose by getting rid of the emperor’s guard, trapping him in his little hole, and weakening his protections, so we can finish the job.

But you and your disgusting court of creatures won’t be stepping up to take his place. ”

Ah, so that’s what this was about. She planned to take his place.

I didn’t know if the attack on The Fox was related, or if that was just another attempt to take Ruya back, retaliation for stealing from the cult—or perhaps a bid to grab themselves a powerful healer before they went up against the emperor.

But the reason The Mother was here now, why the cult hadn’t bothered trying to find us while we were hiding with the naga…

was because she was waiting for us to weaken the syndicate so she could swoop in at the last minute and take the emperor’s place.

Which meant she knew we had been planning this attack. Someone had leaked information. Again.

Robin didn’t bother speaking. She simply inhaled, long and deep.

When she exhaled, fire erupted from her lips, burning through half a dozen cultists at once.

They screamed and writhed, trying to use their magic to put out the flames—but dragon fire is notoriously fast burning and hard to extinguish.

Ruya sang a counter-hymn to their screams, her rich alto voice rising to an eerie pitch as she compulsively sang the names of the cultists who rapidly turned to ash.

As if the violent display had been a signal, everyone burst into motion again. Josh snarled, fangs bared, yanking a cultist close then sinking his fangs into the man’s neck. Sadavir crushed another, his coils snapping bones.

And still they came, flowing through the mirrors and every reflective surface, like they were portals—some sort of demon magic, I was sure of it.

Cicely started smashing mirrors with the butt of his gun, and Martina followed suit.

But the glittering shards still littered the floor, and cultists somehow materialized through them, as well as every shiny, gilded surface around us.

Their chanting wormed under my skin, clawing at my spine and draping over me like a heavy blanket.

“Net!” Sanka shouted. “They’re casting a fucking net.

” And our sorcerer already had his hands full with the spells he was currently juggling.

If he focused on the cult he’d have to drop his hold on the emperor’s portal and the asshole would get away. Again.

My bubak writhed, begging to be set free.

It was too dangerous. In this tight space, I was a threat to everyone here, not just the enemy…

I clenched my fists and tried to push it back, but it wasn’t enough.

The cult’s voices rose higher, pressing against my ribs from the inside.

I couldn’t transform here. I couldn’t. Some of my court knew what I was.

But… some of them didn’t understand the true horror.

For some reason, I froze. I just… couldn’t reveal the monster.

Shuddering, I looked up, met Ruya’s wide, blind eyes as she pressed herself into a corner behind Sadavir.

I knew she couldn’t see me, but… for one startling moment it seemed as if she was looking right into my soul.

Then Sadavir moved, and I met his eyes instead, as he punched a cultist in the face.

Not afraid of you, his citrine gaze seemed to say, before he lunged to the side and sank his venomous fangs into a cultist who had tried to sneak around him and make a grab for Ruya.

A burst of ice magic froze three cultists solid and turned the top of the stairs into a slippery death trap.

Martina had gone half feral again, and she fought to keep Cicely safe behind her, even as he calmly picked off cultists with his handgun whenever he could get in a shot in the close quarters.

My eyes lit on my family one last time, committing their faces and auras to my memory, promising myself I could do this.

I could be who I was and still come back to them.

Robin appeared before me, ripping a cultist nearly in half with her claws and darting into my space just as a spell hit her and made her grunt in pain and start bleeding from her eyes.

“Bubak,” she said, her low voice as calm as if she were taking a leisurely stroll through the garden.

“Stop stalling and help us. Let it out.”

Her words, and her bright gold eyes staring directly into my soul, shook me out of the weird freeze I had been stuck in.

It felt like I was moving in slow motion, possessed by someone else as I reached out, gripped the back of her neck, and yanked her close, pressing my lips to hers in a hard kiss before I could even think about what I was doing.

My alpha tensed, but didn’t pull away, and the sliver of fear my aura pulled from her only seemed to fuel her dragon, making her aura flare in response.

She bit my lip, her fangs drawing blood.

Then she pulled back with a growl. “Don’t hold back, bubak.”

Releasing her, I closed my eyes and let go of my tight hold on the human mask I wore.

The shadows tore free of me, a black tide spilling out of my center and across the floor. The lights guttered out. The cult’s chanting faltered.

I rose with the darkness as I shed my human-shaped disguise, growing physically taller, while my aura spread out in an infinite way that I knew would drive most mortals insane.

Skeletal limbs unfolded beneath my tattered cloak, and I knew my eyes were burning like coals in the dark.

My magic was terror, raw and uncut, and too massive to fully comprehend, and I poured it into the cultists, drinking in their fear.

Their voices broke. Some screamed. Some dropped to their knees in the impenetrable blackness where only I could see, clawing at their faces.

The strongest tried to hold the chant, but with no light, there were no reflective surfaces for them to summon more of their ilk.

I pushed harder, peeling their courage from their bones like skin from an overripe fruit.

The naga soldiers faltered, staring into the void-like darkness that surrounded them.

Even the griffins shrieked, feathers puffed in alarm, though I was trying to focus my magic on the cult.

My own court held steady, but I could feel their focus on me—Yukio’s coldness grew sharper, Martina shifted to her chupacabra form and paced along the wall, Cicely’s calming aura trembled, Robin’s fire hovered between fury and awe, but even the alpha dragon felt a shiver of fear—I could taste it in the air like the faintest hint of a savory treat.

The cult didn’t stand a chance against my true form.

They broke ranks, scrambling, tripping over one another in their desperation to flee.

Some felt for the few unbroken mirrors, clawing at the surfaces in the dark, trying to crawl back inside.

But the living shadows that poured from me swallowed them whole.

One still stood, somehow protected from my power—maybe by whatever dark magic they were using.

The Mother had her hood thrown back, eyes wild, mouth forming words I didn’t understand.

Somehow in the chaos and distraction she had managed to grab hold of Ruya while I fed.

She raised her blade to my omega’s throat.

But I didn’t get the chance to react, to flay her mind the way I so desperately wanted to.

Queen Cat shrieked. The sound cut sharper than my magic.

Rats poured up the stairs and from the cracks in the floor, dozens, hundreds, their teeth bright, their eyes lit with her fury.

They swarmed The Mother as she released Ruya and tried to back away, biting, clawing, dragging her down until her last-ditch attempt at spellcasting cut off in a wet gurgle.

Perhaps the cult leader had been right to fear Ruya’s ability to speak with animals all those years. I bared my teeth in a skeletal grin at the deliciously dark justice.

Odin swooped low, as unimpeded by my darkness as the rest of the animals seemed to be.

His wings beat furiously, knocking a cultist into the waiting claws of a griffin.

Vlad shrieked overhead, and his presence added to the nightmares of another cultist who was currently lost to a phobia of flying rodents.

The place was filled with screams—cultists, animals, the whispering hiss of shadows, echoes of things not meant to be heard. And under it all, the steady thrum of my power, dragging terror from every corner, whipping it to a glorious crescendo, then devouring it with glee.

Finally, the last cultist fell, leaving a ringing silence in the blackness. The darkness covered the stairwell and landing, not a separate thing, but a part of me—this was who I was. A being literally made of terror and darkness.