Magnus

I was nearly at the bottom of the rocks when Amalia’s father broke free of the jinn restraining him. With a ferocious shout, he raced across the clearing and pounced onto the back of his brother. I’d been expecting him to go for Pride, but he drove Olgon onto the ground. Grabbing the back of Olgon’s head, he smashed it off the rocky earth.

Blood sprayed outward before he lifted Olgon’s head and battered it into the ground again. I closed in on them, my legs moving faster as I ran toward the horsemen.

“I think it might be time for us to go,” Lust’s words drifted to me. “Things are getting a little too… bright here for my liking.”

“I must agree,” Sloth murmured.

Pride rose taller on his mount, and his chin lifted arrogantly. “We are horsemen; we do not run.”

“No one is running; I plan to saunter on out of here, but we have no idea where Magnus is or what those Faulted are going to bring forth. Do not be so prideful it condemns you,” Lust murmured.

I circled to the backs of their horses, searching for a way to take the three of them down at once. I wanted them all dead, but I had to be careful. If I only got my hands on one, the other two would bolt or attack me.

“Death would never allow himself to be caught in such a place,” Lust continued.

There must be a rivalry between Death and Pride as Pride’s head snapped toward her. “Coward,” he sneered at her.

“Call me what you will, but I’ll be alive.” Lust turned dismissively away from him. “You,” she looked at Olgon and rolled her eyes as Eron twisted his head around. “You should probably help your lover,” Lust said to Pride.

Pride glanced at the brothers before shrugging. “I’ll find a new one. I was growing tired of him anyway.”

“He’s a powerful aid to our cause.”

It didn’t matter what Olgon was as Eron succeeded in decapitating him. He roared as he lifted Olgon’s head into the air and shook it.

Lust turned and pointed toward a male jinni. “Open a way out of here for us, now.”

The jinni started to wave his hand in front of his face. If he succeeded in opening a portal, then it wouldn’t matter if I could find a way to take the three horsemen down at once, as they would all flee. Racing toward him, I seized the jinni’s head and twisted it around before he could open a doorway out. Tearing his head from his shoulders, I spun and heaved it at Lust.

It spun rapidly through the air, and with a startled cry, she yanked her mount back to avoid its trajectory toward her chest. The horse pranced away until his ass bumped into Pride’s horse, who snorted and shifted to shove Lust’s mount away.

The urge to go to sleep hit me at the same time blood rushed into my groin, and I became semi-erect. And all the while, I resisted shouting the boast of my kill to all the Abyss. Momentarily overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions, it took me a minute to realize the horsemen were unleashing their abilities.

Drawing on my bond to Amalia, I resisted the horsemen’s effects as Lust spun toward the other jinn.

“All of you!” she commanded. “Open a portal for us to get out of here, now!”

I couldn’t kill all the jinn, and she knew it. Some of them edged further away from the horsemen, but more of them came forward.

“No!” Eron shouted. Lifting the headless body of his brother, he spun it and smashed it into three of the jinn closest to him. “No more helping them!”

I didn’t need Amalia’s empath ability to feel the madness oozing from her father. The severing of his bond to his Chosen had broken him.

The emotions Lust, Pride, and Sloth released amplified until I found my head bowing and my eyelids drooping. The jinn closest to the horsemen started to react to the horsemen. A couple of them sat, three of them started tearing the clothes from each other, and another stood haughtily by while fluffing her hair. Those farthest from the horsemen hadn’t been affected yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Caught up in their spell, the illusions I’d sent forth started to fade.

I have to fight this for… for… I struggled to recall what was happening, where I was, and then a flash of freckles and multi-hued eyes burst through my mind. Amalia! I have to fight for her!

Lifting my head, I focused on Amalia standing in front of the monolith. The jinn who had started toward her again were frozen halfway up the base of the monolith. Caim stood ready to take them on, but they didn’t look willing to go any closer to Absenthees.

More of the metallic color cracked and chipped away from the monolith. The vivid glow of the waking Absenthees suffused Amalia in a radiance nearly as dazzling as the sun. The symbols on the structure all burned a brilliant white, and as it grew brighter, I felt the effects of the horsemen weakening further.

When the last of the metallic color fell away, four bolts of light burst out the top of Absenthees and struck the smaller, rotating pieces of stone. Fissures zigzagged across the surfaces of those smaller structures as Absenthees started to emit life once more, instead of absorbing it as the jinn forced it to do for thousands upon thousands of years.

“We have to go,” Lust said, unable to keep the hint of panic from her voice.

While I’d been focused on Amalia, and fighting against the horsemen’s powers, a jinni succeeded in opening a portal next to Lust. She turned, and without looking back, disappeared into it.

Shaking off the last of their effects on me, I ran toward Pride when he started to follow her, but Amalia’s father got to him first. Grasping Pride’s leg, Eron yanked the horseman from his steed.

Pride hit the ground with a small grunt, but it was the only sound he made before he turned and lunged at Eron. Enclosing his hands around Eron’s throat, he rose again as he drove Eron to his knees. Pride squeezed until Eron’s face turned a florid red.

Arriving at their side, I drew back my fist and hammered it into Pride’s face. His cheek caved beneath the blow and knocked his hold on Eron free. When my punch connected with the horseman’s cheek, the last of my illusions faded away, including the one cloaking me.

“Pride goeth before the fall, bitch,” I snarled at him.

Pride fell to the ground as his mount charged me. I tried to leap out of the way, but I wasn’t in time to avoid the horse’s head from bashing into my side and flinging me back a few feet. Mouth wide open, the horse grabbed Eron’s arm when he threw it up to protect himself. The beast lifted Eron off the ground and flung him into the air.

Eron’s breath exploded from him when he hit the rocks a few feet away, but he was already regaining his feet when Pride whistled, and his mount spun toward him. The beast’s hooves clattered off the stone as it galloped at full speed toward its master.

Pride seized his mount’s mane when it raced by him and swung himself onto its back in one fluid motion. Sloth’s mount followed at a much faster speed than I would have believed possible for the rider and his rotund beast.

They raced for the portal as Eron launched at Pride again. Eron caught Pride as I ran at Sloth and, leaping into the air, hooked my arms around his thick neck and yanked him to the side.

My momentum carried us over the side of the horse and toward the ground. When we hit the earth, my grip on Sloth was knocked free. I bounced across the terrain before crashing into the base of Absenthees. As I rolled, I realized the rocks forming the ground of the crater were losing their dark coloring and becoming the same multi-hued stones that surrounded the pool and been hidden behind the waterfall.

Sloth landed a few feet away from me, and I watched as he stumbled to his feet before staggering forward.

I expected the jinn to rush forward to help him, but some of them were either fleeing through the open portal or creating their own to escape through. The ones not fleeing the Abyss were staring at the monolith or Eron and Pride as if they were trying to decide what to do.

Shoving myself to my feet, I ran for Sloth as his horse galloped toward him. I poured on the speed, determined to beat his mount to him. Lowering my head, I ran my horns straight through Sloth’s neck.

Sloth jerked, choked, and then gasped when the tip of my horn burst out the other side of his throat. His hands clawed at the horn as I lifted Sloth off his feet before tossing him to the ground. Slamming my foot onto his back, I pinned him down and yanked my horn free.

His mount snorted, and smoke billowed from its nostrils as it closed in on me. It was only three feet away from me when I lifted Sloth and spun him toward his steed. The horse’s hooves tore up chunks of pale pink and orange rock as it tried to stop itself from crashing into its master, but it was too late.

Waiting until the horse was nearly on top of us, I released Sloth and dove to the side. Rolling across the ground, I bounded to my feet in time to see the steed trampling its master. Sloth’s thigh bone burst free of his skin, his other leg twisted awkwardly, and one of his arms flopped to the side as blood spilled from his mouth.

I ran toward the broken horseman as his mount turned back to charge me again. Falling at Sloth’s side, I sank my fingers into the wound I’d left in his throat as his horse’s nearing hoofbeats thundered in my ears. Its breath heated my cheek as I tore Sloth’s head free.

Three inches away from me, Sloth’s horse burst into a cloud of brown dust that coated my clothing and filled my mouth as it showered me. Blinking away the dust coating my lashes, I lifted my head in time to watch Pride toss aside Eron’s decapitated body. The horseman dropped Eron’s head on the ground before his horse strolled through the portal.

Amalia, I thought sadly, a second before a swelling light filled the Abyss.