Page 27 of Risen (Love and Revenge #6)

I tried to return to human form, but the shadows still wrapped around my body, slick and hungry, and I was loathe to give up the expansiveness of my being.

My breath was a ragged, echoing death rattle.

My court was frozen around me, beneath me, within me, lost to the massive emptiness that was me.

I could feel the currents of the aether flowing through me, connecting me to the universe, to the ever-expanding darkness of time and space.

The human mask I had worn before was nothing more than a husk, a shell drawn over this vastness in some ridiculous attempt to contain it. I couldn’t make myself small again. I wouldn’t.

Robin’s voice cut through the dark, the husky sound tinged with her own nightmares, but steady. Confident in my ability to control myself. “Enough, Dusek.”

It took effort to pull the shadow back. More than it should have. It wanted to stay, to feast. I tried to force it down, inch by inch, until it coiled small again, tucked under my ribs where it belonged. But the vast monster inside me wouldn’t be contained.

Then something caught my attention. A flicker in the darkness, like a silvery fish darting through rippling water, there and gone again in a flash, so fast you wondered if you had really even seen it at all.

I crouched, my skeletal knees nearly reaching to my ears, a long, bony hand brushing aside the edge of my frayed cloak, which was really the fabric of darkness and terror.

There. Ruya. She was so small I could cup her in the palm of my hand, if I wanted to.

Her sightless eyes seemed to shimmer in the dark, lit from within by her own power. Her chin was lifted, shoulders back, tendrils of her long silver hair coming loose from its tail to glimmer around her neck and shoulders with an ethereal inner light.

“Dusek,” she said with a soft smile, reaching a hand up into the darkness as if she could see me there, looking down at her from above. A pulse of power radiated from her—omega, witch, tinged with the death-magic of her banshee blood. “Come back to me now.”

I was no alpha, to be commanded by the whims of a silly little omega, a mortal. And yet... her words, and her aura, snagged on something inside me. The part of me she and the others had so lovingly nurtured for so long now. The part that believed that maybe I was more than just a monster...

The lights flickered back on as I exhaled, folding myself into the human-shaped form that contained my power.

I shrank down until I was standing before Ruya, my hand outstretched toward her cheek.

I started to pull back, but a warm hand on my shoulder had me freezing up in surprise.

Sadavir, giving me a silent squeeze of encouragement before he moved away.

Ruya took my outstretched hand and twined her fingers with mine as I looked around me and took in the carnage.

The floor was slick with blood and broken glass.

The mirrors were cracked, their surfaces blessedly dark and free of cultists.

The naga stood tense, blades still ready. The griffins panted, wings drooping.

Robin jerked the hem of her shirt straight and ran a hand over her hair, pushing back a few escaped strands of red-gold. “If you are quite done, bubak,” she said with a haughty little huff. “I’d like to get my magic back now.”

Sanka snorted a laugh. “After that onslaught, these wards are paper thin.” He turned back to the wards, channeling a burst of magic that brought the shimmering protection down in a wash of sick energy.

Robin pushed past him and threw the doors open as we all prepared to face the emperor and his stolen magic. I could sense that he wasn’t alone, now that the ward was down. A few more guards lingered in the ballroom beyond the doors, and I was pretty sure at least one of them was a strong sorcerer.

Everyone fell into position, joining Robin as they prepared to surge forward.

But Ruya paused, lifting my hand and pressing a kiss to my knuckles.

Her voice was gentle but urgent, as if she couldn’t bear to let me go before she said what she needed to say.

Her words arrowed straight through my heart, as if she knew exactly what I might be thinking.

“You saved us all. There’s nothing monstrous about that. ”

I glanced one last time at the cult’s remains, at the rats dragging pieces into the dark, scented the fear still clinging to the walls like mildew. “I terrified you,” I said, my voice heavy with apology.

“And I’m perfectly fine.” She didn’t flinch. “Both can be true.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the fighting had started again. My alpha needed me to help her see this done and the missing part of her magic—of her soul —restored. I squeezed Ruya’s hand one last time, then drew her behind me as I flowed forward. “Stay in the hallway.”

I was prepared for her to argue, but a masculine scream interrupted her protests.

The sound came from behind us, rather than from the battle in the ballroom.

My head snapped toward the sound as Sadavir froze, tilting his head, letting Martina and Yukio surge past him.

He couldn’t hear, but I thought maybe he could feel the anguish that scream carried.

“Where is Josh?” Ruya demanded, her sudden fear palpable to my heightened senses.

“And Cicely,” Sanka snapped out as he dodged a burst of magic from inside the ballroom and blindly hurled his own ball of angry red magic back at the caster. “They were right here.”

I had felt them, seen them in the chaos and darkness as I decimated the cult, but somewhere along the way I had lost track of them.

A powerful wash of magic rushed through the space, and somewhere ahead in the ballroom, Robin roared in fury tinged with outraged pain.

“Acacia,” I bit out, turning my back on the ballroom, turning to shadows as I flowed down the nearest short section of stairs and around the corner, Ruya trailing behind me as she clung to the railing to keep from falling.

If the fucking vampire was going to betray us, now was probably a good time.