Page 17

CHAPTER 17

FIONA

T he shifter hit my side like a freight train. Pain wracked every fiber of my being. One moment, I was walking beside Bas in the western tunnel. The next, I was on my knees, gasping while Bas shredded the beast. Using the wall, I got to my feet. My wound blazed with purple fire that spread through my veins like liquid nitrogen. Someone had shoved a live wire directly into my magical core and cranked the voltage to maximum.

"The final phase," I managed through gritted teeth as Bas steadied me. His hands were warm against my cold skin. "It's starting. Whatever Marcus has planned, he's not waiting for midnight. I think he’s managed to get what he needs from Violet and me already."

I sensed Marcus channeling massive amounts of energy, and that was the only thing that made any sense. He was forcing power through Aislinn like water through a filter. The other vessels in the network were screaming as their remaining essence was forcibly extracted. Each cry carried notes of agony that made my stomach turn.

"Fi?" Bas's voice seemed to come from far away as another wave of backlash hit. The world spun sickeningly as corrupted magic surged through the complex. Bas’s love and Fae magic wrapped around me protectively. It allowed me to think straighter.

"I can feel it," I gasped as I clutched his arm. My senses were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of power being channeled. "He's forcing everything through her. I can feel him using her ability to bridge different types of magic to stabilize the chaos. It almost feels like he's using me as a transformer."

"Stay with me," Bas murmured. His magic probed the edges of my wound. "Don't let it pull you under."

"Wasn't planning on it," I managed. However, the effort of speaking made black spots dance across my vision. "I’m too stubborn. Plus, I’ve got you, Violet, Aislinn, and the kids. There’s nothing that could pull me away from you guys."

The ground shook violently as ley lines reacted to the ritual. Ancient power surged through paths that hadn't been active in centuries. It made the very foundations of Hambledon tremble. Through my wound, I felt the corrupted magic flood the network. It was like watching poison spread through veins. Each pulse carried more darkness into places it was never meant to exist.

"The wine cellars are going tits up," Bas reported as another quake rocked the tunnels. Bits of ancient stone pelted us like the world's worst confetti shower. The wound in my side throbbed, making me nauseous. Pain radiated outward, feeling like someone had replaced my blood with molten glass.

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, this whole thing's spreading faster than gossip at a town council meeting."

Through the crystal at my neck, I heard Violet's voice crackling with static. "Shit is going down now. We’re out of time. We need to regroup and get Aislinn. Now."

"He’s a conductor leading Hell's orchestra," I managed before another wave of pain hit. "We're in the west tunnel, near a hideously expensive Bordeaux section. Cellar organization down here went out the window long ago. Who stores their reds next to corrupted magical artifacts? Absolute savages."

"The resonance patterns in these tunnels," Thanos began through the crystal, "are oscillating between magical frequencies that shouldn't be able to exist together. He's forcing quantum superposition on a metaphysical level. The corruption's creating impossible harmonies. And the wine barrels are acting as amplifiers. The vintage years are mathematically significant dates. The bastard's turned this whole cellar into a tuning fork for chaos."

Bas's arm tightened around me as more stone rained down. The air tasted like copper and decay. There was also something older that made my magical core want to curl up and hide under a blanket with a nice cup of tea. The reaction was instinctual to protect my power from being stolen.

"Fi and Bas are closest to her," Argies's voice crackled through the crystal. It was tight with barely contained fury. "I can smell her essence from here. They're less than fifty meters from the ritual chamber. The corruption's trying to mask it, but dragon senses don't lie.”

"Stay where you are, Fi," Violet cut in. "We'll come to you. No one goes in alone. This daisy chain of evil ends now, but we do it together."

"We’re already moving their way," Gadross added. The sound of his copper artifacts whirred in the background. "My readings suggest the barriers are becoming critically unstable near their position. Whatever Marcus is doing, it's reaching a peak."

We jerked around when we saw movement ahead. We were poised to fight back. But instead of more twisted shifters, Argies burst around the corner. His form flickered between human and dragon as his control slipped. The temperature spiked about twenty degrees just from his presence. Dragon magic leaked off him in waves of heat that made the corruption in the walls recoil.

"I can smell her," he growled. Flames flickering between his teeth. His eyes had gone fully reptilian and were glowing with inner fire. "She's close. The corruption is using her. It's twisting her essence into something that isn’t her. What if we’re too late?"

"We aren’t. She is fighting to stay alive until we rescue her. No matter what, she will still be in there. We will get her back," I promised as I grabbed his hand and tried to keep him grounded. I understood why he was about to lose his shit. I wasn’t far behind him. If Bas were being held, I was pretty sure the tunnels would be filled with my lime-green flames. Argies nodded in agreement and began pacing a short circuit in the narrow passage.

Right as I thought Argies was going to barrel forward, Violet and Thanos appeared from another tunnel. She had her blue witch fire coating her arms. It cast light across the stone while Thanos’s demigod power crackled like contained lightning. He must be as worried as we were. His power rarely sparked like that. It was telling that the corruption writhing through the walls didn't back down at all. The combination was overwhelming.

"The barriers between magical disciplines are breaking down," Thanos reported grimly. His face was tight with concern as he scanned the tunnels. "Whatever Marcus is attempting, it's affecting the fundamental structure of magic already."

"Right then," I straightened despite my body's protests, forcing a grim smile. "Time to show this pretentious git why messing about with fundamental forces isn't as clever as Oxford made it sound. Can I just say that his timing is rubbish? We had plans to try that new Thai place tonight. Nothing ruins dinner reservations quite like a magic-hungry horror show."

The shadows around us moved in that unnatural way we’d become accustomed to down there. They peeled away from the walls and condensed into creatures that made pus demons look tame. They were former shifters, who now looked like someone had liquidized a Hot Topic store and taught it to kill.

"Isn’t this just lovely," I muttered as we formed a defensive circle. "Thank you for this. This day wasn't already complicated enough. Hey, do you think they've got a loyalty program for apocalypses? You know, buy five end-of-the-world scenarios, get one free."

"That’s a sale we can’t afford to indulge in," Bas replied. The Fae runes along his blade cast an ethereal glow across his aristocratic features, reminding me absurdly of those nights when Dad would hold a flashlight under his chin during ghost stories. The memory felt oddly fitting, given our current situation involved actual horrors rather than imagined ones. "They're trying to drain our power before we reach the main chamber. See how they're moving? It's coordinated."

He was right. The shadow-hybrids weren't attacking randomly. They flowed like dark water and were trying to separate us while herding us deeper into the complex. We stuck together like glue and watched as their forms shifted constantly. One moment they were humanoid. The next they were bestial. Sometimes they even existed in multiple states at once. Someone had taken their physiology and put it through a blender.

"Well spotted," Thanos commented as his power lit up the tunnel. "They're part of the network and tied to you two. I think that each one we destroy will feed more into whatever Marcus is building. We shouldn’t kill them."

"Brilliant," Violet muttered as her witch fire blazed brighter. "Any other wonderful news you'd like to share? Perhaps there's a hungry hellhound waiting around the corner?"

Through my wound, I could feel the corruption opening something. It had to be the barriers they kept talking about. Shit! To make it worse, each pulse sent fresh agony through my veins. It also let me sense how the network was changing, so I had to shove the discomfort aside. We needed to know what was happening before he unleashed the performance from hell.

"Marcus," I gasped as another wave hit, “is using each surge to break down the barriers between worlds. He’s opening the way for the First Ones. They’re going to come through any second."

"If they do, we've lost," Argies growled. His voice was rougher as his dragon tried to emerge. "We won't be able to put the genie back in the bottle if that happens."

Before any of us could respond, the shifters surged forward like a dark tide. Dozens of them peeled away from the darkness. Their forms rippled and writhed. They were caught between human and beast in ways that defied natural law. One moment, they had too many limbs. The next, their bodies seemed to fold through dimensions that shouldn't exist. The sight made me nauseous.

"Well," Violet managed as we formed a defensive circle, "I suppose asking them to queue up properly would be too British of me?"

The battle that followed was pure chaos. I’m not talking about the fun kind you get at family Christmas when someone mentions politics, either. These things jumped at us. Their constant morphing forms made it impossible to pin them down. Traditional attacks simply passed through them. It forced us to get creative.

Violet's witch fire proved especially effective. It burned away their corrupted essence. Thanos wielded his blade with lethal precision. Each strike severed the shifters' connection to their power source before they could reform. Bas's Fae-forged sword sang through the air as well. He caught them at the moment they became corporeal and cut them down. Between Thanos's calculated strikes and Bas's fluid grace, they carved paths through the masses while Argies's dragon fire turned the air into a weapon. He superheated it until the shifters began to boil.

Marcus had done this on purpose. For each one we destroyed, the ritual grew stronger. Through my connection to the corruption network, I could feel how each ‘death’ fed more power into whatever Marcus was doing. It was like trying to empty a pool with a spoon while someone else was actively filling it with a fire hose.

Through spreading cracks in the walls, I glimpsed things that would give Lovecraft nightmares. The First Ones were beings of pure, unformed magic that existed before anyone had thought to write an instruction manual. Some looked like geometry having an existential crisis, while others appeared in colors that hurt my brain to process.

"Keep pushing forward," Gadross called out. His artifacts pulsed with copper light that momentarily stabilized everything around us. "Remove their connection before we cut them down. That will mean every shifter we take down weakens his hold on this section of the network!" Violet and I nodded and focused on that while keeping a stream of our witch fire flowing.

"Did you see that?" I asked as I drew strength from Bas's steady presence. His sword work had created a pattern that somehow made my nicotisa power resonate more strongly. " The corruption's retreating where we’ve worked our combined magic."

"It's working," Thanos confirmed as his blade found another shifter's weak point. "Your purity is growing too. Look at the walls where Violet's fire meets Argies's heat. The stone is returning to normal. We're bloody well winning."

Argies let out a sound between a laugh and a roar as his flames caught three shifters at once. Their forms dissolved into ash. "Then let's give them something to really fear. Violet! On your left!"

Violet spun, and her fire joined mine in a spiral that burned away a whole section of corrupted shadows. "Now that's what I call teamwork! Fi, can you redirect their energy like you did upstairs?"

"Already on it," I grinned. I was finding my second wind as I caught the shifters' power and turned it back on their companions. The pain was still there, but now it had a purpose. "These gits want to play with corruption? Let's show them what happens when it meets focused magic."

The shifters fell back as we pressed forward. Our combined attacks created a cleansing wave that pushed the corruption before us. Through my wound, I could sense Aislinn's presence growing stronger. We were carving a path straight to her.

"She's fighting too," Argies called out, hope mixing with the fury in his voice. "I can feel her pushing back against whatever's holding her. She knows we're coming!"

The tunnel opened into a massive chamber that made my stomach turn. Marcus stood in a ritual circle. He looked chuffed with himself as Dark magic writhed around him like angry licorice. But it was what he'd done to Aislinn that made bile rise in my throat. She hung suspended in a massive crystal structure. Purple energy coursed through her veins like toxic lightning, each pulse stripping away more of her essence. Through my wound, I could feel how the network was using her. I could also feel Violet and myself. Marcus was taking our natural ability to bridge magical types and perverting it into something horrible.

"Welcome," Marcus called. His smug grin made me want to throat-punch him. "You're just in time to witness the remaking of magic itself. The return to true power, before artificial constraints were imposed."

"Oh, do shut up," I snapped as I gathered what power I could despite feeling like death warmed over. "I've had enough of your awful villain rubbish to last several lifetimes. I have to say that the evil lair aesthetic is a bit on the nose, innit?"

Argies's control finally shattered. His dragon form erupted fully. His wings spread to fill half the chamber as flames poured from his maw. The temperature spiked so high it felt like standing in a blast furnace. The corruption in the walls actually began to steam.

"Release her," he snarled in a voice that shook the very stones.

Marcus just smiled. The expression made shadows writhe beneath his skin. "Release her? Why would I do that when she's finally fulfilling her true purpose? She and her friends are opening the way."

Cracks appeared above us. Argies backed away from them when the First Ones pushed against an invisible membrane. Their presence made my magical core vibrate like a phone set to silent. These weren't your garden-variety monsters. They were what magic looked like before anyone had thought to give it rules.

Then, I did something either brilliant or monumentally stupid. Probably both. Instead of fighting the corruption network, I embraced it. My wound became a handy connection point. The pain was immediate and overwhelming. Someone had replaced my blood with acid. Despite that, I began altering the signature.

"What are you doing?" Marcus demanded as he sensed my presence in his system.

"Having a proper laugh," I managed through gritted teeth. "Want to see a neat trick?"

I did something I rarely ever dared and reached for my nicotisa power. Next, I did something absolutely mental. Instead of trying to purify the corruption, I let it flow through me and twisted it back on itself. The effect was immediate and catastrophic. A bit like pouring Coca-Cola into a Pepsi machine.

The crystal structure encasing our trapped sister shattered like a mirror hit by lightning. It sent shards of corrupted magic in all directions. Argies moved faster than I'd ever seen him. His massive dragon form surged through the chaos. He caught Aislinn as she fell and cradled her against his scaled chest. His wings wrapped around them both.

Dragon fire erupted from him in waves of cleansing heat. He was burning away the Dark magic that had sunk its claws into her. The flames would have been destructive to anyone else. Not only was Aislinn bonded to Argies, she had also given birth to a dragon. It allowed the flames to only target the darkness while leaving Aislinn untouched.

"No!" Marcus howled, but there was something off about his fury. His response sounded calculated, and it made my instincts scream in warning. "The ritual-"

"Is buggered," Violet cut him off while I continued channeling power through my wound despite feeling like I'd been put through a magical wood chipper. "Time to pack it in, mate," she informed him with a snarl.

Marcus just smiled at her. It was a horrible expression. "Are you sure about that?"

The chamber groaned as Marcus vanished through one of the reality gaps, the First Ones reaching for him as he passed. The corrupted power was building throughout the complex, each pulse making my wound burn hotter.

"The barriers are still weakening," Gadross announced. His copper artifact was spinning wildly. "Marcus already has what he needs from the three of you. He can use that to continue the ritual elsewhere."

"Gods, this day just keeps getting better," I sighed as more stone rained down around us. The wound in my side felt like it was trying to tear itself open from the inside. "Next time, I vote we skip the wine tasting and go straight to stopping the apocalypse. It'd save time, wouldn't it?"

Bas grabbed my arm as my legs threatened to give out. The backlash from corrupting Marcus's network was hitting me hard. "Time to go. This whole place is about to collapse."

"Right then," Violet said as she moved toward what looked like a safer passage. "Let's postpone the end of the world for another day. Thanos, clear us a path. Fi, can you walk?"

"Define 'walk'," I managed through gritted teeth. "If you mean 'stumble about like a fresher after last orders', then yes. Anything more coordinated is going to be a bit dodgy."

The chamber was coming apart around us, reality trying to stitch itself back together even as the lingering corruption ate away at the foundations. Through the shrinking gaps, I could still feel the First Ones watching and waiting. Their presence made the very air vibrate with their unique frequencies.

Argies held an unconscious but breathing Aislinn in his arms. The relief on his face was painful to see. "She's alive," he reported. His voice was rough with emotion. "The corruption's gone, but..."

"But Marcus got what he wanted anyway," Gadross finished grimly as another quake shook the tunnels. His artifacts were still spinning and trying to track something we couldn't see.

"The network was mapping our abilities to bridge magical disciplines while we made our way through," I explained as we navigated the crumbling passages. "He had what he needed from Aislinn long ago. The tunnels continued until he got what he needed from us."

"Your essences became a key," Thanos said as we rounded another corner. "One that could unlock the barriers between magical types permanently."

"I don't suppose anyone knows where he might have gone?" I asked, wanting to look ahead. No reason to worry about what had already happened. "Or should we just follow the trail of reality-breaking horror and hope for the best?"

"We'll find him," Violet promised, her phoenix fire lighting the way ahead. "We always do. Though next time, let's try to stop him before he gets his hands on the metaphysical equivalent of a skeleton key."

Purple light flared ahead of us as another section of tunnel collapsed. The corruption was spreading faster now, eating through stone and magic alike. Somewhere in the complex above, Marcus was gathering power for something much worse than what we'd already seen. The First Ones were still waiting. And this time, they'd be ready for us.