CHAPTER 20

 

 

 

Karsia came to with a howl, jolting up on cold stone with sweat beading her brow and her lungs pumping like a blacksmith’s bellows. She felt her body to make sure all the pieces were still there.

“How dare you!” she roared at the man sitting next to her. “How dare you take me under without my permission! You have no right!” She scrambled up and stared at him, with retribution bubbling beneath the surface. “I will slaughter you.”

Her fingertips slashed across the open air and left tracers of flame in their wake. Fire and sparks and seething white light that buzzed and groaned. Too bright to look at directly. Her eyes glowed with acrimonious triumph.

Morgan took his time rising, the limbs of his mortal form stiff and aching from the lack of movement. His right arm was numb. For a moment he felt a shiver of dread as though fingers had latched around his throat and were bearing down. In spite of the feeling, he grinned. “I won’t apologize. It gave us the time we needed.”

Karsia scoffed. “The time for what?”

“To get the components of the spell in order.”

Her head jerked around to where her sisters stood. Astix’s smirk stretched from ear to ear and she held her hands straight out in front of her, purple light emanating from her fingertips. A wall of limestone formed from nothing. Protection for the ancient book.

“What? No!”

“We’ve got you cornered,” Astix called out. “Aisanna, now!”

Aisanna clasped her hand, and the two sisters gathered together to join their magic. Impossible trees burst from the ground, stretching toward the cavern ceiling. Thick trunks of frankincense and myrrh erupted through the stone in a ring around Karsia. Knotted branches sprouted to life at right angles, with sharp spines protruding from each. The scent of lilacs filled the air from dozens of fragrant bushes pushing their way up through the cavern floor and bursting into unnatural bloom.

Karsia swatted at the branches, screaming when thorns tore at her skin and tangled in her hair. She gestured, and power swelled. A wave of searing heat disintegrated the plants seconds before new ones grew in their place.

“I refuse to bow to you!” she screeched. Wild magic sparked in an uncontrollable halo around her body.

But Astix and Aisanna weren’t done yet. Splinters of black onyx and bloodstone rose in the empty spaces between trees, each glowing from within. Strong vines covered tree and stone alike to form an impenetrable cage around Karsia as the sisters drew on their combined wealth of magic. Their heritage.

Karsia began to shake with rage, her magic trying desperately to break free of the enclosure. Cracks formed in the cavern walls and jagged stone shards began to fall. Astix slowed their progress, tossing them away before anyone was hurt.

Then suddenly Karsia stilled. Tried to move and found her body unresponsive, as if turned to stone. Frozen in place. “What is this?” She struggled to break free from invisible bonds and found it impossible. Her face twisted in an ugly snarl. “What the hell is this?”

That, Morgan thought with a flash of hope, was the real Karsia fighting back. “That’s my girl!”

“You better let go of me before I splinter your soul into a million pieces, little lady,” the monster snarled, eyes rolling back as if speaking to someone else inside the same body.

Way to go, Karsia! Hold on! “Hurry!” Morgan called to the sisters.

Together, with their voices raised as one, Astix and Aisanna wove their spell. “Bound within and in this hour. Ancient evil held with power. Set aside, seek to merge. Listen close. Yet to purge. Yield now, flesh and bone and breath. Dark to light, lest faced with death. Bound with air and earth and fire, water and spirit, never expire. Bound above and so below. Bound for love and not for woe. Threads of life that stole from night, magic bright shall give to light. Gods above, please hear this plea. As it is willed, so must it be.”

Karsia’s body howled wordlessly the moment they released the spell, a clap of thunder shaking the cavern and threatening to bury them under a mound of rubble. Electric sparks of silver and gold burst to life midair around her and shot arrow-straight toward her chest.

Despite the precautions, the stones and trees meant for binding evil, she fought back. Power crackled and shot in a circle to dissolve the magically produced cage before the spell could reach her.

She looked at the empty air holding the hint of electrically charged magic, then down at her palms. A laugh bubbled up and grew in volume until the cavern rang with the maniacal sound. “Is that the best you’ve got?” She asked the question rhetorically. A snap of her fingers broke whatever last shreds of energy were holding her. Shaking out her shoulders, she started toward them.

“Karsia, no!” Morgan begged.

She reached out and grabbed Morgan, squeezing hard until she felt the small bones of his wrist grind together. “Stay out of this. You’ve no business being here.”

“Please,” he whispered. Trying his best to sound calm. To soothe her. “Sweetheart, you need to let go. You’re hurting me.”

But she couldn’t let go. She’d given in to the darkness, and nothing Morgan said, nothing her sisters said or did—none of it mattered. The squirming mass inside of her was like a feral animal, needing someone to hurt.

A second flash of magic, and Morgan jettisoned backwards. She held him in the air, gripped in the clutches of an iron-strong spell. Then she slammed him against the cavern wall so hard his head bounced against the stone. Pain, intense and swirling blackly, coursed through him.

Karsia stalked toward her sisters. Her fingers snapped and their magic toppled. The protective limestone wall crumbled to dust. Tree trunks weakened and decayed, withered back into the stone floor. “You think you can take me on with a piddling little spell? You think you can test your mettle against the keeper of balance? I am the darkness of this world! Do you not know me? Do you not see me?”

Her amplified voice echoed eerily off the walls of the cave. Defeating their magic had been surprisingly easy. She heaved a sigh of relief and smiled as a swell of heat rose from the place in her chest where the gemstones, the last tenuous line of defense, fought to do their job and failed. Dark fury lent a cruelty to her features, a reddish glint in her eyes.

“This isn’t you!” Aisanna held out a hand toward Karsia, pleading. “Remember who you are. You’re good and kind, full of love and joy, young and vibrant with the whole world ahead of you. Don’t go down this path.” She advanced slowly, one step at a time. “Reconsider. Think about who you really are.”

“Karsia, please.” Tears shone in Astix’s eyes. “Please. I know you’re still in there somewhere—”

Karsia laughed. Her fingertips glowed and she tried to plunge them into her chest, searching for the gemstones that had failed to protect her heart. “Don’t you get it? I want this! I’ve always wanted this. It’s my destiny. Do you really believe I care what you think?” She scoffed at them. “This world is dying. I am forever.”

Morgan quickly dispatched his true form, uncaring whether the others finally saw him for his true self. Wings surged from between his shoulder blades. Great horns rose with ebony spikes. He ignored the shocked gasps from Aisanna and Astix and focused on the woman in front of him. Heavy footsteps shook the walls of the cave as he approached her.

She crouched warily, keeping her eyes on him. Her pupils shifted, darkened, became reptilian.

“Enough of this.” Morgan scowled as they faced off, and he stretched his wings to their full length. The tips of his feathers grazed the walls and blotted out the light from the moon through the hole at the top of the cavern. “If you won’t listen to your sisters, then listen to me.”

“Listen to you? Why would I? I see you now. Morpheus.” Karsia spat the word. “God of sweet dreams. You think you can stop me?”

He stood motionless, hearing a whisper in his ear like the brush of an insect, an insidious and insistent buzz.

She’s mine.

“I’m going to try,” he said, tuning the rest out.

“Send me your brother Phobetor and then we will talk.”

“I refuse to let you cavort with the creator of nightmares.”

The skin on her face darkened, which in normal circumstances may have been a play of the light. The rest of them knew better. “I’d say he and I make a good team, but I work alone. There is only one keeper. You’re looking at her.” Karsia shuddered from the ferocious pleasure of her gift, the acceptance of what she could be.

Oh, yes. That was it. That was what she’d been waiting for her whole life.

How could she think being a good little witch was worth giving up raw command? She could reach out mentally to every dark deed and evil thought in the surrounding states. They were there, untapped wells ready for her. One small word and a tsunami of pain would wash over the world and turn it to ashes.

She floated like a ghost around the perimeter of the cave, her form growing less substantial by the second. “Do you know how long I’ve stood in the shadow of the rest of you? Poor little Karsia, there’s nothing special about her. Can’t find a job. She mooches off of everyone else. Now there is nothing standing in my way.”

“I beg to differ,” Morgan stated dryly. His wings ached from holding them in a flared upright position after many centuries of disuse. “There are three someones standing in your way right now.”

Astix and Aisanna both nodded.

“I would laugh if I didn’t find this pathetic.” Karsia dusted off her jacket and lowered her lids. Unconcerned.

“I’ll send you so deep into sleep you will never wake up again. Don’t force my hand, Karsia.” Morgan postured, but they all knew it was an empty threat. “Come back to me.”

He could see it was too late. The scrap of humanity left inside of her had disappeared, replaced with a yawning chasm of emptiness.

She snarled. “I am The One Who Walks in Darkness. And you don’t scare me, half-breed.”

The ground at her feet turned black. She raised her arms overhead and willed pain on them, willed them to understand the depths of what they stood before. The stone walls of the cavern vibrated and moaned under the pressure, the sound like the wailing of banshees.

“Reconsider,” Astix yelled above the noise, jolted out of her stupor and calling on her magic. Her chest felt ready to explode. The sensation was so real she clutched at her chest and expected to see physical evidence. “Stop before it’s too late!”

Karsia rebutted. “It’s already too late.”

“I’m not talking to you, you evil seed. I’m talking to my sister who is still inside there somewhere.”

Slowly Karsia’s face changed, color on her cheeks deepening to a rosy glow. Her eyes faded from black to blue and darted around crazily.

“Astix?” a small voice asked. “Aisanna?”

“We’re here. Be strong!”

“I’m scared. It’s dark in here, and I’m tired of fighting.”

“You have to hold on. We’re here to help you. Hold on!” Aisanna demanded. Then to Astix: “Let’s try the spell again.”

They both hurried back to the book and began the chant anew. Their voices raised in unison to be heard, though only one of the four paid no attention to the words.

And only Morgan saw the steely glint return to Karsia’s black eyes when she turned to him. And winked.

“Ladies, get down!” he shouted.

“I’m going to send you to the depths of the abyss, where you can watch on in eternal agony as I tear this world to shreds,” she promised, her hate and rage spreading until it was all she knew. All she had ever known. Violence became her bedfellow, with an appetite so voracious it enveloped everything in its path.

Black lightning crackled from the ceiling, called to life by her distorted magic. Mist churned around her feet and took her into its fold to lick greedily at what remained of her human vessel.

Darkness merged with the twisted creature it possessed until no barrier remained between the two.

Morgan rushed forward to stop her. He barreled into a shield of air which burst into flames at the contact. Instead of being deterred he used his horns as a battering ram, slamming repeatedly into the invisible barrier with all his might.

“I won’t let you do this! Karsia, stop!”

Deep grooves wore into the stone cavern floor from the dark vortex surrounding her. He watched in horror as she plunged her fingers into her own chest and took hold of the makeshift heart, ripping it from inside of her. The emerald and amber duo gleamed wetly for a brief moment, then faded. She held it aloft as it darkened, sifting away like sand on a beach. Her human features dulled and faded like smoke.

Goodbye.

Her last word was felt instead of heard, brought to life not by vocal cords but echoing inside his mind.

Morgan dropped to the ground and listened to the screech of his horns against the barrier. He’d been too late.

Blinding light suddenly filled the cavern, chasing away shadows. Another voice now. Different. Kind but firm.

That’s enough.