Time Thief, page 32
How could I when I would never forgive him for doing the same to me? “I’m scared of what could happen to you.”
“Then you know how I feel about you.”
The conversation kept playing through my mind without end. I hadn’t thought I would be successful in bringing the three of us to this place, but Piercey had focused on me, trying to lend me his own power. I’d managed to teleport all three of us to the village.
The Prophet had been training and preparing and I knew Flare was with him, so it wasn’t ideal for only the three of us to fight. We really needed more allies, but I couldn’t afford to wait another moment. What if Flare knew that I’d returned? What if she knew the Collective wanted her out of this world?
There had been a time for waiting and that had passed.
“I’m ready,” I said, rising. “It’s time to end this.”
“The Prophet and Flare won’t be alone,” Piercey said. “The disciples will be ready for us this time.”
I nodded. “We’ll have to kill them all. Together.”
Nash held my stare, eyes determined. “Together.”
“I’m not wasting time being evasive when I believe Flare will already know we’re coming,” I said. “We move fast for Flare and the Prophet.”
“I’ll focus on clearing a path and covering the two of you.” Piercey nodded at me. “Max, give them all you have.”
“Thank you,” I said, my eyes on his. We had always made a good team. When this was over, I’d have to tell him about how we were identified by the gods as potential candidates. “You’ve always been there for me.”
He smiled. “I always will be.”
We sprinted down to the front gates. The guards shouted from the top of the wall, screaming their warnings as they aimed their bows at us. A wave of arrows rained down over us moments later. Piercey deflected them all without slowing down so the arrows splintered and rained down around us. I lifted my hands and threw the gate off its hinges with my power. It slammed onto the ground in a cloud of dirt.
Not slowing down to even look at the damage, we stormed into the Prophet’s village, cutting right for the temple at the center.
Guards and warriors rushed to the streets, fighting against our unseen shields with thrusts of swords, with flailing arrows that burst upon impact, with spears that shattered. Doorways and windows clogged with normal men and women screaming the alarm, throwing chairs, pots and pans, anything that could do damage.
But between Piercey and me we blocked every last assault. I pumped my palm and shoved everyone on the road away. People flew back against buildings, through windows, into people crowded together.
My power flowed freely through my avatar, even easier to draw upon than before I’d died. Maybe it was that I had changed. Maybe this new body was just better. All I knew was that at my peak of training before I died, it never felt this natural.
I narrowed my eyes as the darkness within the temple door came into view. The towering stone doors of the temple were always open, but today they would close once we were all inside. I’d trap the Prophet and Flare with us and ensure they never left.
We reached the stairs and Piercey raised his voice above the screams in the village. “I’ve got it! Save your energy, Max!”
I snapped off my power as I slid through the huge doorway with Nash at my heels.
Piercey held back all of the warriors on his own with a protective shield around the temple that buzzed with his power. “Hurry!” His body trembled as he stumbled back to the door. It had been easy when we did it together, but the work had just doubled for him.
My eyes adjusted to the dim light inside and my muscles coiled.
The Prophet stood at the altar in his black cloak. The five disciples who’d survived our last battle circled him with their heads bowed and their hands lifted at their sides. A dozen warriors guarded them. No Flare.
“Wait. Turn back,” Piercey yelled.
I twisted for him. He grunted as he reached for me with his power. The force tugged Nash and me a few feet toward him but his power was weak as he held off an entire village.
“They’re meditating on the Prophet,” Piercey said. “They gave him their power. Turn back now.”
Alarm tensed my muscles. We needed to draw them out of this temple and try to separate them. Nash and I lunged for Piercey when a creaking started and then turned to deafening scraping. The heavy stone doors of the temple slammed closed and sealed us inside. The flames of the lanterns lining the walls flickered.
Piercey was still outside.
“Great.” I drew my blade.
Nash turned, swords already raised.
In a flash, immense pressure clamped down on every fiber of my being—my limbs, my heart, the very blood flowing through my veins. Power erupted from my core as I fended it off from Nash and me. It took so much energy that it felt like I trudged through a river as I struggled toward the Prophet and unleashed my own power upon him. There was no longer any holding back. With a scream, the heat within me erupted and exploded out, all aimed right at the Prophet.
The incredible pressure on his body was immediately obvious as he knees buckled and his neck strained.
Still, panic rushed through me because Piercey hadn’t come through the doors yet. I needed him to guard Nash. I opened my mouth to tell him to stay back when he took off in a sprint for the dozen warriors standing guard over the Prophet and his demons. Piercey wasn’t here to block him. What was he thinking?
“Nash!” Energy rippled through me. I drew from deep within the well of my power and extended my hands like claws out toward the guards. Their heads shook. Eyes popped wide. One neck snapped. Another. Two more.
Without slowing down, Nash slashed one sword through a man’s chest and blocked a swing from a quick guard with the other.
Snap. Snap.
I took down two more in the same instant Nash’s twin blades wrenched a guard’s sword free. Sweat dripped into my eyes and tickled the nape of my neck. Nash cut through another guard’s neck like butter.
Only five guards left. Nash reared his blade back when it looked like he slammed against an invisible wall and then his body flew back through the air. I tried to soften his fall but he still bounced when he hit the stone floor.
The disciples moaned low, bodies trembling with exertion; some collapsed on their knees. The Prophet’s eyes bulged. His face burned deep red. So much power. A cry ripped from my chest as I struggled to break through their power and crush the Prophet.
It felt as if I had to shred my muscles just to walk toward Nash. Pain burned within my body and danced along my skin. Nash leaned against a knee, his determined stare on the Prophet. Blood trickled from his nose. My stomach tightened at that look on Nash’s face. The brazenness. The fearlessness. His ferocity wild and almost inhuman.
It could get him killed.
No. I couldn’t give in to despair or worry. Nash was fighting with everything he had. More than he had. All for me and Elsie. My nails pierced my skin as I dug them into my palms, turning my mind to the eclipse, when my life had rushed from me through my wounds, and I wanted nothing more than to stay with Nash. I had to find more within myself.
Everything inside of me stilled.
I looked at the circle around the Prophet and imagined that I could see the threads connecting them all. The threads of energy pulsating from the disciples to the Prophet. Trembling, I focused on that, my insides feeling as though they were melting.
Pop.
A disciple’s wrist snapped. He fell back from the circle, panting as he stared at his wrist.
A woman screamed as she convulsed. All the veins in her body bulged against her skin, as if trying to escape. She was fighting so hard to stay connected, but I saw the fractures in the circle.
Nash took the distraction to move on the last guards. I ran with him, my legs finally flooded with energy now that I didn’t need to use so much strength to hold off the Prophet.
We struck at the same time, my blade catching against a guard’s and forcing his own against the soft of his neck, deeper and deeper, until it embedded in his flesh. I grabbed his sword and slid it all the way through, killing him. Nash blocked hits from two guards.
I focused on him to protect him, but two demons pivoted away from the Prophet to me. They blasted me with their unseen power.
I faltered. The Prophet’s strength crushed my throat and the muscles in my body, immobilizing me.
Beside me, the tip of a sword sliced through the edge of Nash’s bicep and flung his blood across my face. He was frozen in place, chest not even moving with breath. The guard raised her sword to strike him again.
No! I caught hold of the attack against us that had immobilized us. Broke free. Shoved my palm at the fool who’d dared to hurt Nash and threw her back with a force so hard her skull cracked the stone floor.
Her vacant eyes stared up while a pool of blood spread out from her head.
A strangled cough spasmed Nash’s body. I’d overextended myself, giving the Prophet a chance to choke us once more.
Despite not being able to breathe, Nash blocked a hit on each side of his body. A third man stabbed for his back. A shot of heat burned from my chest, up my shoulders, and down my arm as I focused on the sword. It snapped in half before reaching Nash’s spine.
With a cry, I regained control of the Prophet’s power again and loosened the pressure on Nash’s throat.
The effort left me helpless to stop two demons who rushed for me with swords extended. I screamed through gritted teeth. Blood dripped from my nose. I stopped one blade right against my throat. The other in front of my right eye.
I was doing too many things at once.
So was Nash. Blood pumped from his wound as he thrust his sword with his injured arm and pierced a guard’s chest. This couldn’t go on.
I planted my feet on the ground and tried to dig even deeper than the power I’d felt during the eclipses. There was more I hadn’t tapped into. There had to be.
Pressure swelled in my chest.
“Go!” the Prophet roared.
The three disciples sprang from his side. The Prophet’s pressure weakened considerably, but it only gave me a few moments of reprieve before I faced an all-new danger. Nash was still fending off the remaining guards while the disciples were all headed for me.
One of the women raised her spear, eyes on me, nostrils flaring. Beside her, a man reached his hands out, armored forearms catching the light of the lanterns. Gloves stretched over his hands, ending in sharpened daggers on each finger that looked like claws. His eyes shifted between me and Nash.
The third disciple knelt down and then the strength on the blades at my throat and eye intensified with her power. She was pushing them with her mind.
It all happened so fast, in just the time it took for the woman with the spear to steady herself.
Nash spun toward the disciples and jabbed his blade for the throat of the woman with the spear just as she released.
“Nash!”
As I snapped the spear in half, I thrust a wave of energy at the clawed demon behind Nash, but his daggers shot right through. The thin blades stabbed into Nash’s shoulders, right above his collarbone.
Blood burst into the air.
Nash stabbed his right blade behind his back. I drove it with my mind so it swiftly carved through the clawed disciple’s gut.
They both screamed as the claws tightened against Nash and the demon’s bowels pulsed against his open wound. Nash grabbed the wrists on each of his shoulders and yanked the daggers out.
The sword nicked my throat, vying for attention that needed to be on Nash alone. I caught the blade before it could slice through me.
“Nash,” I whispered. Scarlet splotches spread across the ten holes torn into Nash’s shirt. Rivulets of blood fell from his fingertips and splashed against the ground as he stumbled toward the last two soldiers. He grunted and growled with every step toward them. It was my fault for letting this happen to him.
I screamed, pleading with myself to find more strength, but the blade at my throat only dug deeper against my skin. I couldn’t help Nash. Couldn’t even speak his name again. The effort to hold off the Prophet and his disciples hollowed out my core.
One guard broke into a run for Nash, but Nash only stopped in his tracks, watching. Watching until I thought for sure the enemy’s blade would pierce his heart.
Nash fell back to dodge a strike at the last moment and impaled the man in his exposed side.
“Fuck this.” The last man twisted and sprinted for the stone doors.
His neck snapped and his body slammed against the ground.
My heart jolted. I hadn’t done that.
The Prophet looked at the remaining disciples. “You’ll be next if you defy me!”
The Prophet wasted his energy on making an example of the guard. I shouldn’t waste mine. This strategy wasn’t working. I was wearing down too fast, and I’d already gotten Nash hurt. I needed something else, something better.
Instead of using so much energy on defending against the power that tried to crush our bodies and our windpipes, I let up on the effort to protect myself, and instead strengthened my own body. With the power pumping through my muscles, I ripped away the weapons aimed at my eye and throat and turned them on the two closest to me.
I couldn’t draw in any breath. Had to do this quickly.
The woman closest to me drew a shorter sword just in time to block my first attack. Nash and I had trained together when I wasn’t working with Piercey. My sword skills were better than they’d ever been. Twisting, I powered a two-handed slash for the disciple’s shoulder and broke the sword she raised to guard, carving deep through muscle and tendon down to bone.
Two more disciples were running for me, but I had to finish this. With a roar, I pulled the blade free of the resistance of her body and skewered her through the chest. Black blood burst from the wound and soaked her shirt as she fell to her knees.
My lungs burned from the lack of air. I raised an energy shield to cover Nash and me as I focused on my airway to draw in a deep breath. A blade sparked against my shield while a fiery blast from another disciple ricocheted off.
Nash, under the cover of the shield, rushed toward me, his arms and chest covered in blood from the claws. I didn’t have time to tell him to stay back. He should have known that he was too weak to fight any longer and would be in the way.
Only he reached his hand forward, slipping it through my barrier. I hadn’t even thought about letting him in. It happened naturally.
He slid behind me. “Your bow and quiver.”
Two more hard attacks slammed into my shield and forced me back a step. Quickly, I pulled them off and passed them to Nash. I dropped my sword to draw his twin blades from his sides. It felt surreal to swap weapons, but it was too dangerous for Nash to get close enough to these disciples to fight with his swords and this approach provided me more versatility.
From within my shield, he nocked an arrow, roaring through the obvious pain of using the bow, and fired at one of the disciples. The arrow broke before reaching her, but I knew how hard it would be to fend off attacks once I started to overwhelm them.
Time for another offensive.
I charged forward and abandoned my shield with Nash still inside as I lunged for a disciple. The blades danced as she blocked, evaded, struggled to keep her guard from breaking.
The Prophet, perhaps no longer content to hide behind his disciples like a coward and only attack my airway, sauntered closer to the battle. He raised up the spear he had used to kill me.
Vengeance flowed through my veins.
A glowing orb mushroomed from the tip of his spear, sparking like electricity. Had he been learning new tricks as well?
I feigned a strike and then teleported directly behind the Prophet. The twin blades pierced his sides but then stopped like they’d run into a concrete wall.
He spun and shot the orb at me, but I’d traveled again. This time, right next to a disciple. The orb of power burst against an empty stone wall, splintering it.
Meanwhile, I looked into the wide eyes of a disciple as I forced a sword between her teeth and out the back of her head.
The Prophet’s attack that threatened to strangle my airway had weakened. I could see the fear in his eyes from here as he raised his spear again.
“You truly are a vile demon!” he shouted.
I gasped in a deep breath, exhausted from the battle, but hungry for the victory.
Arrows suddenly flew from the shield I still used to protect Nash. The remaining disciple warded them off, but it had stolen her attention and had given me time to summon my strength for a hard wave of energy to knock against her. It flattened her on her back.
I tried to teleport again, but my energy was dwindling and I remained in place. If I dropped Nash’s shield, I could, but I didn’t want to risk it.
The Prophet walked closer to me, the fear now looking wild and dangerous. His guards and disciples all lay scattered upon the floor of his temple in pools of their own blood.
The death did not faze me in that moment, though I knew that part would come later.
For now, I stared into the black eyes of the man who had stolen my life from me. I’d lived through it over and over.
I tightened my hold on the sword grip.
“There is nothing more pathetic than a man who kills only for the sake of power. You’re weak.” I raised my chin. “That’s why you’ll die today.”
“You’re losing energy.” His stare cut to Nash and darkened with rage. “And you, traitor, serve only to hold her back. Leave your shield and face me like a man.”
Nash only smirked, obviously not so easily ruffled. But the paleness of his face worried me. His arms shook as he struggled to draw back the bowstring and fire an arrow right at the Prophet. It shattered midair, but Nash did not show any sign of discouragement.
“Kill him, Max.” Nash gasped as he nocked another arrow, voice as tense as the bowstring. “His blood is yours.”
The arrow flew and I rushed forward just as fast, propelled by the power within me.
