Storm Secrets, page 27
part #4 of Scarlet Jones Series
Four soldiers dropped to the ground like something had sucked the life out of them.
“What the…” Wilder said, but he didn’t get to finish.
Elisa ran forward. The gunshots began.
The darkness of the night enveloped me.
***
No.
That one word echoed in my head as I blinked and blinked and saw nothing. The sky was dark, the moon hiding behind grey clouds, and the yard to the side of the ECU research facility was empty.
Wilder, Stacey and Wick, who’d been right beside me. Elisa who’d been running for me. The soldiers who’d surrounded us.
They were all gone and I was alone.
Then came the applause.
“Bravo, Scarlet,” Arius said, coming toward me, seemingly shaped out of the darkness surrounding the facility fences. He was clapping his hands furiously, his eyes sparkling with pure joy. “Bravo!”
“No!” I shouted, terrified.
I dropped the sword and began to pinch myself on the arms. Hard. Really hard. Wake up, wake up, wake up!
“Oh, yes. I do apologize for not coming to you sooner. I heard your calls and your pleading.” And by the look on his face, he’d loved it. “But I was held up by more important things. Anyway, that’s all behind us now. You got me what I wanted. Now you get what you wanted,” he said, stopping just two feet away from me. I stepped back.
“Fuck you, asshole. I’m not giving you shit,” I spit, leaving my poor arms alone. Pinching wasn’t going to work.
But my magic would.
It pulsed under my skin, inside my veins, ready to be released. I held nothing back. Arius was strong. He was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and I was pretty sure he’d be a good fighter, too. I needed all of me if I was going to be a worthy opponent, and I intended to be the worthiest he’d ever had.
A bit surprised but more amused, Arius tsk-ed me. “Scarlet, what do you think you’re doing?”
“I know what it is. Adams told me. You can’t have it,” I said in a rush.
That’s when the dragon around my hand began to burn my skin again, just like it had in the office.
It was the best chance I had, that dragon. It could cut through anything, couldn’t it? It was the ultimate weapon, and the long sword, light as the wind, was going to be the reason I survived tonight. So instead of calling my magic to my hands, I directed it to the dragon wrapped around my wrist.
“Congratulations on the education. Now, be a good witch and hand it over.”
Arius reached out his hand for me. I took another step back. The dragon hissed, inviting his eyes to it. I held my breath and pushed all of my energy to it, no longer bothering to beg it to come to life like I’d always done. I simply fueled it. I allowed it to take all of me, just like I did with demons. No barriers. No boundaries. All of me belonged to it.
The dragon sensed it. It responded with a searing pain up my arm, and then rewarded me with light. I felt it like it was a part of me but separate. I felt its joy. It was pleased. Pleased that I’d given myself up to it finally. If I’d known that this was what it took, I’d have done it a long time ago.
“Come and get it,” I said to Arius, unable to smile because it hurt. That werewolf must have done more damage to my face than I’d imagined. But it was okay. My sword of lightning shone brightly between Arius and me. Just the sight of it was a threat. Arius looked at it like a hungry man, drawn to its brightness like a moth to flame, and I wondered, when I cut him with it, would he turn to charcoal like the demons did?
I couldn’t wait to find out.
“Scarlet, I don’t like to do this kind of thing. Don’t make me,” he said when he was able to tear his eyes from the sword. Now they looked blue instead of green, but what I saw in them scared me. There was no hint of fear anywhere on his face. Only greed. Greed and annoyance.
“I don’t like to do this, either. You should have told me what it was. I would have never agreed to it if you did.”
“So the lives of your friends are worth nothing to you?”
This guy.
“Of course they are! They’re worth everything. It’s what I’m doing this for. You can’t have the key, Arius. Nobody can.”
Then, he smiled. “And what exactly do you plan to do with it?”
“Use it.”
“Yes, but how?”
How? I had no clue. “I’ll figure it out.”
“You want to figure out how to close a portal to another realm, all by yourself, little witch?”
A portal?
Holy cow, a portal. But I thought the key was going to show me how to make sure they didn’t come back…duh, Scarlet. Of course. I had the key to close the portal to the demon realm. The key to making all our troubles go away—literally. I raised my sword higher and called up my shield. My magic responded faster than ever before, knowing the danger I was in. My shield wrapped around my body like a physical thing.
“Things so big were never meant for little people,” Arius said. “But it does amuse me that you try.”
“Rot in hell,” I spit and swung my sword, aiming for his face. The face was always a good bet.
Only, before I’d even made it anywhere close to his skin, I…stopped. I just stopped.
Air no longer spun around me. My tornado was gone. Magic no longer existed in my body.
Then, the pain came. My eyes were stuck open, and I couldn’t blink. I couldn’t breathe, but I could see Arius. He had his hand outstretched, and he moved two fingers. Just two fingers, and the pain consumed me, ate me like a little monster, unable to get enough until I was done for. My throat tightened with a scream, but no sound came out of me. Only tears streaked down my cheeks. It had occurred to me once, not too long ago, that he could do anything a god could with a move of his fingers. In my head, though, I hadn't imagined it literally. Not like this.
“My, my, Scarlet. You’re in bad shape. Three bruised ribs, eleven cuts, and is that a broken nose?”
Arius leaned closer to me, as if I wasn’t terrified enough. He stared at my face for a second.
“I’ll have to fix that,” he said with a sigh. “There’s nothing I hate more than ugliness.”
He moved his index finger again. Just moved it. He didn’t speak or whisper or move his lips. He didn’t chant. A movement of his finger and a new wave of pain made my eyes roll in their sockets. Bone cracked. My nose felt like it fell on the ground.
“There. You’ll remain beautiful for another day.”
He moved around me and stopped right behind me. Then, he unzipped my backpack and began to search.
I was lost, felt completely naked without my magic. The sword of lightning was by my side, but it was worth nothing. Nothing at all against Arius. My God, he hadn’t even chanted and magic had rushed through me, doing his bidding like it wanted nothing more than to please him. How could I not have seen this before? How could I not have seen his power before asking him for favors?
How was I going to protect the key now?
I wasn’t.
My eyes stung because I couldn’t blink them. Arius was in front of me again, the sphere with the diamond-shaped piece of wood in the middle of it. He looked down at it with a smile on his face, and it wasn’t even a proud smile, like getting that thing from me was easy.
But it was. I could do nothing but stare, unblinking. Every cell in my body cried for relief. Every thought in my head focused to get my body to move, to breathe, to blink—do anything to break his hold on me. It was all useless.
“I thought you wouldn’t figure it out, you know. But you did and I’m proud of you for it,” he said, putting the sphere away behind his body. When his hand moved to the front again, the sphere was no longer in it. “There’ll come a time when your mind will bring me great things. Until then, I’m afraid, I can’t stay to enjoy the show.”
A scream tore from my throat, and this one came out. Pain cut my body in half, leaving me in pieces on the ground. The sky darkened in front of my eyes. My name was being called, but it took me a second to realize it. To distance it from the sound of pain going through the length of me.
A hand grabbed me and pulled me up. I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen, though the sky had been all I could see. Now, I saw a set of eyes, wide and blue, looking down at my body, both furious and confused.
“What the hell are you doing?” A slap. It was Elisa.
“They’re coming!” someone else called, and everything came back to me. I knew where I was again. I knew who I was again.
My magic burned in my chest like it had never left me. Elisa pulled me to my feet. I was afraid I’d fall again, but I didn’t. My legs held me. Taking in deep breaths, I searched the yard for Arius. I searched the darkness that would never be the same for me again, but there was no one there.
Well, there were thirty soldiers coming for the five of us, but no Arius.
“Let me do the chanting, and you focus on running,” Elisa said, her back against mine.
Focus, I begged my own mind. It was time to focus on the fight. I had a sword with me now, a sword made of lightning, which by some miracle was still in my hand. Dying was out of the question now. Arius had the key. He’d taken it from my hands, and I was going to do the same. I was going to get that key back and use it, even if I’d have to sell my soul to do it.
“Who the hell are you again?” said Wilder, as ready as the rest of us to jump into action.
“Call me your savior,” said Elisa, making my heart jump.
The soldiers charged at us. Their bullets didn’t reach us, but they didn’t try to shoot for long. At least they couldn’t paralyze me completely with a movement of their fingers like Arius had. My body remembered it all too well.
I was only beginning to find out who he really was and what he could do. How he could come and go as he pleased, take the key from me, the key that could set the entire world free of demons, and leave me in the middle of a fight like he knew I was going to survive it. He knew I was going to come out of this alive.
He said he was proud of me for figuring out that The Order had created the demons themselves. As much as I hated this, I was going to have no choice but to prove him right and make him proud again.
_____________
Thank you for reading Storm Power! Book 5 comes out next month! You can check them all out here:
Scarlet Jones Series
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Also by D.N. Hoxa
———————————
Winter Wayne Series (Complete)
Bone Witch
Bone Coven
Bone Magic
Bone Spell
Bone Prison
Bone Fairy
Starlight Saga (Complete)
Assassin
Villain
Sinner
Savior
Morta Fox Trilogy (Complete)
Heartbeat
Reclaimed
Unchanged
Demonic Mage
Nova Unchained
D.N. Hoxa, Storm Secrets
