Chapter Forty
Amunet paced toward her. “Right now, your new Dragon King and his Queen are….” Amunet closed her eyes for a moment, as if sensing something in the universe. Lilith knew that was exactly what she was doing. “Just finishing up, so to speak,” Amunet laughed. “I suppose Arach is out of luck there,” she sighed, shrugging. “But you and I both know that doesn’t matter. Not really. Not now.” She paused for emphasis. “Don’t we?”
Lilith fought off the dizziness and slid her body upward along the wall behind her, using it for balance. She was pretty sure her human form had a concussion. It was too bad she hadn’t been born as a healer. Not that healers were ever able to heal themselves. But it would appear she’d been born without self-healing power of any kind.
Nice one, Fate.
But if she died in this form, she would be reborn into another, and at this point in her career as Nomad, she could at least more or less choose which species. Her affinity for human forms was wearing thin. Growing old had been a test all its own. But now she was feeling nauseated too. She would go for a Tuath fae next. They never got concussions.
“What are you blabbering about, Amunet?” she asked softly, wanting to keep the other Nomad talking long enough for Lilith to regain her bearings and collect her power.
Amunet shook her head and stopped in front of Lilith. “Don’t be coy with me, Kat. You can feel him too, I know it… after all, he’s your pureblood nephew.”
Katrielle stilled. She met her sister’s gaze, and her insides went cold. Her nausea abated to be replaced with ice-like fear. There was only one being in the multiverse Amunet had ever referred to in that manner. Her first born son.
Amunet smiled. “Ah… there we are. There’s the respect this deserves from one like you.” She put her hands on her hips and pretended to look around at the destruction. “I had planned to pave the way for his arrival with a few cleansings, but you’ve complicated matters.”
Lilith’s Nomadic powers swelled in response to her fear, and without a word, she was hurling a blast of hard, white light at her sister’s solid form. It struck the other woman like a kick to the chest, and Amunet tumbled end-over-end down the long aisle of the theatre.
Lilith pushed against the wall behind her and came to her booted feet, absolute terror giving her strength. She moved down the aisle, focusing on her sister with renewed interest. When Amunet stopped rolling, and Lilith stood over her, the once ancient witch knelt and grasped her big sister by the throat.
Amunet only smiled and pretended to enjoy it. Lilith squeezed. “Where is he?”
Amunet laughed, though the sound was choked by Lilith’s grip on her neck. Lilith eased up a little, realizing that fear was making her mean. It was a visceral reaction, and the very kind that was one of the reasons the Entity was so strong.
“You’ll know soon enough,” Amunet said, her voice dry.
Outside, there was another blast, this one tremendous. Everything attached to the walls came loose and crashed to the floor. The splits in the foundations beneath them widened violently, causing deep chasms to appear in the once beautiful building. Smoke rose up through those chasms, and the ceiling above their heads began to cave in.
An aftershock of dark, desperate fear rolled over Lilith, and she knew at once what had happened. The Entity had been killed.
She looked back down at her sister, but Amunet’s face was without expression. It was utterly and completely serene.
It was her eyes that were filled with hate. Lilith had just enough time to register this absolute loathing before Amunet shoved her right hand into Lilith’s sternum with ridiculous force, and there was a sound around them both like the clap of thunder. Cruel magic coursed like broken glass through Lilith’s body, ripping a scream from her throat.
She fell back, stumbling from her sister to land on her side a few feet away. Distantly, she was aware of Amunet pushing herself to her hands and knees. “You don’t pull your punches, do you, little sister?” the dark haired woman with darker eyes said as she crawled toward her. The evening gown she wore was smudged and torn now, a remnant of a differently planned night that tore further as she grabbed her sister’s body, rolled her onto her back, and then straddled her.
Lilith blinked blurrily up at her. Pain moved like waves composed of millions of glass shards through her. They scraped her on the inside over and over again, and she was unable to even take a breath. All she knew was the agony of the pure hatred Amunet was composed of.
“Well, neither do I.” said Amunet. “So I’m going to give it to you straight, kid.”
She was right, thought Lilith numbly. She’s a fast learner with the colloquialisms.
“Ahriman is going to be reborn. Arach is going to be reborn. I am going to be reborn.” She smiled when confusion joined the pain in Lilith’s features. “That’s right. You may not be able to kill me, but I’m sure as hell not going to wait around for you to put me to sleep, either.” She glanced over her shoulder, and Lilith felt a tiny bit of Amunet’s power leak out through the doors and debris to reach something beyond.
A human. She was calling out to a human.
But more pain wracked through Lilith, and she felt an organ rupture. She was dying now. How could that be, when it was a Nomad who had hurt her? But she knew the answer. Nothing could truly kill what she was made of – but pure, unfiltered hatred.
The pain bubbled up in her throat, laced with her own blood, and she screamed a wet scream of agony.
Amunet turned and leaned in to whisper across Lilith’s blood-stained lips. “And my firstborn son is already reborn. You know it in your heart.”
Lilith coughed, unable to pull clean air into her torn lungs. Amunet helpfully grasped her by the chin and turned her head to the side, allowing her to vomit out the blood she had inhaled. When Lilith stopped hacking, Amunet spoke.
“Ah, you’re here. Good. Take that spike there and when I tell you, you will drive it all the way through my body from behind. Make sure to get the heart.”
Lilith could barely see now, but her vision was clear enough to make out the human male, tall and strong, that Amunet had willed into the theatre at her bidding. The man bent over, picked up a fallen beam of roofing from the floor, and stepped up behind Amunet, waiting.
“Now then, where were we?” Amunet pretended to think. “Oh yes. I was telling you exactly how things were going to go down. Because I hate loose ends. And unlike some people, I don’t keep secrets, especially from my family.” She gently brushed her knuckles across Lilith’s cheek and shook her head. “Pity. This form really does suit you….”
She dropped her hand and said, “William’s contract with Time is broken. The thirteenth queen has been created once more. When my son finds her, he will take her, and she will make him complete. And when he is complete, Death will reign.”
Lilith wanted to scream, but she couldn’t now. Blood was filling her lungs so completely, there was nothing left. This was the worst agony any form of hers had ever had to endure. Most of her deaths had been quick. Some had been while she slept. Others had been due to magic. But this… this was how hatred killed, when it was pissed off enough.
“You can’t stop it. And neither can William. Not this time. Though it will be fun to watch him try. From what Ahriman tells me, he’s tried so many times. I can imagine that each time was a most beautiful angst-filled scene of guilt and loss.” She laughed softly. “He’s such a pretty boy, I seriously look forward to it.”
She pushed off of Lilith and came to her feet. Then she said, in a steady voice, calm and strong, “Do it now.”
The man behind her lunged forward, shoving the sharpened beam through Amunet’s body with ruthless, nearly inhuman strength. The wood erupted from her midsection, thick and wrong. Blood flooded the floor.
Lilith watched the light go out from Amunet’s once sparkling eyes. The man released the beam, and Amunet fell.