Facets of Power, page 2
part #3 of The Dragon Portal Series
“Blossom, what did the goddess—” Sabine stated, faltering at the sight of Bane’s eyes shifting to silver and the sound of his low, throaty growl. Damn. She didn’t need him to lose control on top of everything else.
“Bane?” Sabine asked in a soft voice, continuing to focus on the demon and mentally willing Bane to get control of himself. Allowing her power to build, she placed her hand on his arm and studied him carefully for any sign he was preparing to attack. There were too many humans around, and many of them were already wary of the magical passengers aboard the ship.
Rika worried her bottom lip but remain silent, her eyes darting back and forth between Bane and Sabine. It spoke to Rika’s level of trust that she hadn’t run away from an angry demon and a power-infused Fae.
Blossom’s eyes widened, and her dust shifted to red. “He’s gonna try to eat me, Sabine!”
“Blossom, stop,” Sabine ordered, not tearing her gaze away from Bane. “He won’t eat you.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll pluck the bug’s wings off her body if she doesn’t start talking,” Bane said with a growl, gripping the railing tightly enough Sabine was surprised it remained intact. At least his eyes had shifted back to their normal amber color, a sign he was back in control. Sabine relaxed a fraction and released his arm.
Determined to stop this situation from escalating any further, Sabine said, “Enough. Both of you. We don’t have time for this.”
Without waiting for a response, she lifted her hand and sent a soft wave of reassuring magic over Blossom. Bane huffed with impatience, but Sabine ignored him. Until Blossom was able to focus on their questions and her dust was no longer tinged in red, they wouldn’t be able to get any information out of the pixie.
“He won’t hurt you, Blossom, but you need to stop provoking him. Now tell us what Lachlina said.”
Blossom hesitated only for a moment. “The goddess wants you to stop whoever’s doing bad magic. She says if you don’t, you’re not protecting the land like you agreed. We have to get to shore right away, or she’ll use your bonds with Malek and Bane to stop them herself. Sabine, you can’t let her hurt people again!”
Sabine froze, a sick feeling creeping in her stomach. After Lachlina had slaughtered dozens of human hunters using Sabine’s power, Sabine had managed to elicit an agreement with the renegade goddess not to use the bonds she’d forged with Bane and Malek. If Lachlina set her mind to it, she could use them to kill thousands. If Sabine had a chance to stop it from happening, she needed to do whatever was necessary. Lachlina didn’t make idle threats.
Sabine turned toward Rika and ordered, “Rika, run and join Esmelle and Levin in the hold. Tell Esme to put up her strongest warding to protect everyone down there. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe.”
Rika’s eyes widened, and she nodded. She turned on her heel and fled toward the ladder on the far side of the deck.
Blossom fluttered her wings against Sabine’s neck and said, “I can help too, Sabine! What should I do?”
The wind changed directions and brought with it a biting cold and an even stronger stench of corrupted magic. The green tinge in the sky was spreading rapidly outward, chasing away the memory of the pleasant day. They only had minutes until whatever was happening overcame the ship. No matter what, they needed to protect the humans on board from Lachlina’s threat and the impending storm. Malek, Bane, and Blossom should be safe enough, thanks to their shared bond with Sabine, but everyone else was in danger. Humans didn’t have the same resistance to foreign magic.
“Use our bond. Share my power with Esme to fuel the ward and then find me,” Sabine said, gesturing for Blossom to take flight. The pixie launched into the air, leaving a stream of glittering pixie dust as she chased after Rika.
Sabine ran across the deck to where Malek was standing. She could only see him in profile, but his expression was pensive as he stared up at the sky. He turned at her approach, and his eyes warmed when he spotted her. His gaze roamed over her features, his smile fading almost immediately.
Malek took a step toward her and asked, “Is it the storm?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, gesturing toward the approaching clouds. “It’s not natural, but it’s unlike any magic I’ve seen before. The goddess says it’s been corrupted. We have to somehow get to land and stop whoever’s doing this, or Lachlina is threatening to use our combined power to do it herself. I don’t know if we can keep your crew safe if she uses our bond, Malek. You have to get them down in the hold and away from us. Esme’s creating a ward to protect them.”
He looked in the direction of the storm again, his jaw tightening in silent fury. He pressed his hand gently against her midsection and turned her back toward Bane. “Do not allow anything to happen to her.”
Without waiting for a response, Malek leaned over the railing to the deck below and shouted, “Lower the sails and get below deck. All of you! Now!”
As Malek continued issuing instructions, Bane grabbed Sabine’s arm and said, “If this goes bad, I’m locking you in your cabin. I don’t trust that storm, and I damned well don’t trust her.”
“You and me both,” Sabine agreed, pulling away from him and taking a step toward the railing. The crew was rushing around, hastening to obey Malek’s orders. She ignored them, her attention on the sky overhead. In between where the natural blue sky met the eerie greenish glowing cloud, there was a silver lining with flashes of gold. It was similar to the pulsing colors of the chalice on her skin.
“What do you see, little one?”
“Jagged edges,” she murmured, surprised by the cloud cover. They appeared almost sharp, cutting into the blue of the sky. She absently touched her wrist, feeling the chalice mark pulse slightly out of sync with the flashes of color in the sky.
She tilted her head and took a deep breath, trying to determine what her instincts were telling her. There was a hint of both Fae and merfolk magic in the air, but also something else too. It was lacking somehow, crude in its design and inelegant compared to her magic.
She shivered, her breath creating patchy fog in the air. The temperature was rapidly dropping. Bane wrapped his arm around her, his body heat warding against the worst of the chill. A light dusting of snow began to fall, and her eyes widened. It shouldn’t be possible. Summer was nearly upon them. Neither the dwarves nor the merfolk had such power. Other races had a bastardized version of the ability to manipulate the weather, but she hadn’t thought they could create winter. Only a Fae from one of the royal lines had the power to completely change the seasons, and such magic had a terrible cost.
Sabine held out her hand and caught a snowflake on her palm. It was cold to the touch, but it looked different somehow. Wrong. Her eyes narrowed as she studied it. “It’s snow and something else. What is that?”
“Ash?” Bane frowned, leaning closer to look at it. “No. It looks like a piece of a dwarven crystal, frozen over with magic.” He lifted his head to stare upward. “There must be millions of pieces. What the hell are they doing under that mountain?”
The crystals were falling heavier now. She turned and saw them coating the deck of the ship with what appeared to be an icy mixture of sleet and shattered crystals. Not even the freezing chill could ward against the stench of tainted magic. If anything, it had become stronger with the appearance of the falling crystals.
She turned to warn Malek, but most of the crew had already disappeared from the deck. Only a few were still rushing to secure their workstations before retreating to the hold. She took a step toward Malek but halted abruptly at a strangled cry from above. One of the men fell from the rigging, and his body hit the deck with a sickening thud.
Sabine gasped in horror as the man’s body spasmed. It was Eshon, one of Malek’s most skilled riggers. She’d seen him scamper up the ropes in the most vicious of storms without losing his footing. It had to be the tainted snowfall. Nothing else could have made him fall.
She started to go to him, but Bane hauled her against him. He wrapped his arms around her in a protective gesture. She was too startled to even think about protesting. Malek shouted something and ran over to check on his fallen sailor. From the twisted angles of Eshon’s jerking limbs, it didn’t look good.
Sabine managed a shaky breath and whispered, “Bane?”
“No, little one. His mind is mostly gone. His body will linger in pain an hour or two more, but no longer. With your permission, I will end it.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing there had been some shred of hope. “Release him.”
Bane’s arms tightened around her. He lifted his hand, curling his fingers into a fist. He yanked hard at an invisible line, and the man’s body went still. Sabine sensed the man’s ebbing life force surround Bane before the demon absorbed it. There was an undeniable beauty in the mercy Bane had shown Eshon, but few would ever see the demon as anything other than a killer.
Malek lifted his head to meet Bane’s eyes and gave him a curt nod. It wasn’t exactly gratitude, but there was respectful understanding despite their differences. Underneath, it was impossible to miss the regret on Malek’s features. He took his duties as captain seriously, and the loss of any of his crew hit him hard.
She swallowed, watching as Malek and Gardine, one of Malek’s other crewmen, lifted Eshon’s body and carried it to the side of the ship. Eshon would be given to the sea in the time-honored tradition of most sailors, but it wasn’t an easy thing to witness. Bane continued to hold her tightly against him, his body trembling slightly. It always took Bane a few minutes to regain control of his instincts whenever he claimed a life in such a manner. Sabine relaxed against him, telling him without words she would stay with him to keep him centered.
Falling snow and shattered crystals continued to coat the ship in a heavy blanket. Malek surrendered Eshon’s body to the waves and then turned to face her. Through their metaphysical connection, she could sense his pain and sense of loss. She held his eyes, and he headed directly for her as though drawn by some invisible force.
Taken aback by the fierce hunger in his predatory gaze, Sabine asked, “Malek?”
“Mine,” he snarled and yanked her away from Bane.
She stiffened, shocked by his declaration. “I am not yo—”
Malek thrust his hand in her hair, lowered his head, and kissed her as though she were the air he needed to survive. She gasped, and he swept in, claiming her with his mouth and surrounding her with his heated draconic magic. The chill was swept away, and despite her intentions, her body softened against his. Some part of her knew this behavior wasn’t normal, but she wasn’t quite sure how to extricate herself without harming him. Dragons were possessive, but Malek had always respected her boundaries before.
Bane hissed and then launched himself at Malek, shoving Sabine aside and into the railing. A sharp pain lanced through her side at the impact, and she winced.
The dragon shapeshifter and demon rolled across the deck, lashing out at one another with dizzying speed and ferocity. They moved in a blur, far too fast to ever be confused with being human. Gardine froze in shock at the display, but Sabine couldn’t pay the crewman any attention. The two fighting idiots were going to kill each other while the storm was nearly upon them.
“Enough!” she shouted, infusing her voice with enough power to send a shockwave through the air. Bane and Malek slid along the deck from the force of her power but continued fighting. They swiped at each other, their fists pummeling with purpose as their magic built in a frenzied display. Something wasn’t right. Bane always responded to her magic, but he had brushed it off as though it were of no consequence. Such a thing had never happened before.
She stared at her hands and released her glamour. If she needed to engage her full power to stop them without killing them, she couldn’t afford to be shackled by the restraints of her illusion magic. But without Bane or Malek to shield her, her family would know her location as soon as she performed major magic. She had no illusions about her inability to outrun the Wild Hunt a third time.
Malek’s skin began to glow, a sign he was about to shift into dragon form. Her eyes widened. She had to stop him before his weight capsized the ship and killed them all. They were officially out of options. She’d have to take the chance they could make it to Razadon before the Wild Hunt made their appearance.
She grabbed Gardine’s arm and yelled, “Get to the hold and under the warding. Now!”
Her voice broke through his shock, and he turned in that direction. Green lightning flashed in the sky, striking the sea near the ship. Gardine staggered and fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Like Eshon, he began twitching violently. She stared in horror at his fallen body and then up at the storm.
Blossom came barreling out of the hold, flinging glittering red pixie dust in every direction. She screamed, “It’s the storm, Sabine! It’s claimed Malek and Bane! The goddess says to use your bond to break the magic over them.”
Sabine didn’t respond, having already come to that realization. May the gods protect all of them.
She withdrew her knife and sliced it across her palm, the pain sharp and biting. Her blood dripped upon the deck, and she used the power from her sacrifice to fuel her magic. The wind whipped around her wildly, stealing her breath from the icy chill.
“By blood and magic, I command the elements to attend me,” she shouted to the heavens. The silver markings etched on her skin glowed with a strange light, syncing with the flashes of lightning in the sky. Whatever had fueled this strange storm had originally been the magic of the Fae but was twisted somehow, almost beyond recognition.
The snowfall became even heavier, shifting to a mixture of icy rain as her power warred against the foreign magic. The temperature was still dropping, making it difficult to take a full breath. Ice formed along the railings, but even the deepening chill didn’t stop Malek and Bane from their battle. Blossom had zipped over to hover near them, shouting at them to stop. They ignored the tiny pixie and crashed against the center mast. Nearby crates toppled over, spilling their contents across the deck.
Raw magic, dark and sensual, swirled around her as she tapped into the power at her command. She lifted her head and closed her eyes, reaching outward with her awareness. The thin bonds connecting her to Malek and Bane visualized in her mind’s eye, but they had frozen and turned brittle from the magical cold. Even her connection with Blossom had been affected. The corrupted magic threatened to fracture her link to her allies, separating her from those she trusted.
No. This could not and would not be. These bonds were hers to command, and she refused to allow them to fracture unless she willed it.
Sabine opened her eyes and thrust out her hands, unleashing a tremendous blast of magic. It ripped through their bonds, shattering the ice clinging to them and infusing them with heat and power. The force ricocheted through Malek, Bane, and even Blossom. Malek and Bane were thrust apart and slid across the deck to the front of the ship. Blossom squeaked and landed facedown on a nearby crate, her wings twitching.
Sabine rushed to the pixie and scooped her up, checking for any damage to her sensitive and fragile wings. “Blossom? Are you all right?”
Blossom rolled over with a silly grin on her face and flung out her hand. “Wheee! That was even better than drinking from the magic spring. Let’s do that again, Sabine!”
Sabine let out a relieved breath and slipped the pixie into her pocket. It would take her a little while to recover, but at least Blossom hadn’t been hurt. Picking her way carefully across the frozen deck, she approached Bane and Malek. They were both regaining their bearings, but the effects from their battle was evident. Malek’s shirt had been sliced to ribbons from Bane’s claws, and Bane’s dark blood dripped down the side of his face. Malek had a particularly colorful bruise forming on his jaw, but he appeared mostly unharmed.
Bane climbed to his feet. He leaned heavily against the icy railing for a moment and then staggered toward her. He wrapped his arms around her and siphoned off some of her power with his touch. His body relaxed as he stabilized himself. “Did I hurt you when I pushed you away from me, little one?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, the pain in her side a minor annoyance compared to his injuries.
Sabine lifted her hand and wiped away some of the blood dripping down the side of his face, using her touch to send another wave of magic over him. For anyone else, his blood was poison, but she was immune to its effects. His injury knit itself together, one of the benefits from Bane’s particular type of power. It was difficult to kill a demon, and his ties to Sabine gave his already remarkable power a significant boost.
Bane slid his hand under her shirt and pressed against her injured side where she’d hit the railing.
She grabbed his wrist and shook her head. “Healing me isn’t necessary. Conserve your power until we’re safe.”
Bane frowned but didn’t argue, a sign he was still out of sorts.
Malek ran his hand over his hair and then shook his head as though trying to clear it. “What in the name of the underworld was that? I didn’t… shit, Sabine. I’m sorry. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Sabine turned toward Malek, who was leaning against the railing. She scanned him up and down, but he appeared less impacted than Bane. The conflicted expression on his face worried her. She closed the distance between them, unwilling to let him think she was upset with him.
“No, you didn’t hurt me,” she said softly, looking up at him. “The corrupted magic was affecting our bond. I had to flood you with power to clear it. Are you all right?”
Malek didn’t answer right away. His gaze fell on Gardine’s body, and a flash of regret crossed his face.
Her heart went out to him. “Malek? Talk to me.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “The rage. It wasn’t normal. I almost shifted. I could have killed everyone on board if you hadn’t stopped me. Dammit. What the hell is going on? I haven’t lost control like that since I was a child.”
