Sin Garu bellowed, looking stunned.
I couldn’t believe the battle would end so easily.
It didn’t. Immediately, a dozen wraiths appeared, spitting and clawing as they surrounded their master, intercepting the Djinn’s attack. Jonas’ dark energy destroyed two of them, sucking what little bit of life they had left from the wraiths protecting Sin Garu’s direct front.
I shook free from my shock and let loose my power, flooding Sin Garu with waves of destructive, pure telekinetic energy and flooding waters. My brothers immediately joined me.
Cadmus opened the ground beneath the nearest wraiths, shaking the foundation of the apartment floor apart. Cement, brick, and wood cracked and shifted as dark brown earth and creeping vines and roots burrowed out of the ground below.
The wraiths screeched for help, but their kin were otherwise occupied fighting him and Aerolus. And one furious Djinn.
Aerolus knocked several wraiths from me with funnels of wind. “Marcus, behind you,” he yelled as more wraiths appeared out of nowhere to surround us.
Conscious of Tessa lying unconscious only a few feet away, and my brothers now outnumbered more than four to one, I gave the barest of glances to the threat behind me before surrounding all the wraiths I could see in individual films of water. But it wasn’t enough, and several broke free.
Thoughts of Tessa and our love filled me with hope. The loss of my father gave me the strength to persevere, and the presence of my brothers forced me to accept my abilities and push them to the limit. That curious sense of breathing power, surrounded by waves of energy, returned.
“Cadmus, Aerolus, stand back,” I yelled before opening the floodgates.
Calling on Tanselm’s vast stores of the life-giving water, I pulled the liquid from my homeworld, another plane, altogether. I suddenly felt at one with my element, strong and surprisingly at peace.
From my eyes and mouth, Tanselm streamed its vengeance. Like a living tap, I provided the conduit of justice my world needed to restore balance.
“Holy shit,” I dimly heard Cadmus murmur. Aerolus called my name, but I was aware only of Tessa and the sorcerer who threatened all she could be, all Tanselm could be.
Time vanished as I washed Sin Garu’s wraiths into the Next, where they would be judged accordingly.
They disappeared, leaving only their master protected in a bubble of dark energy, with my water still fighting to penetrate his shields.
“Very impressive, water bringer,” the sorcerer said and flung out a hand in retaliation.
I struggled to breathe, suddenly drowning in my own element. Terrible winds and quakes, flip sides of Storm Lord power, struck at me. Which made little sense. It was as if my power had turned on me.
“Deal with that, if you can,” Sin Garu snarled before dissolving into fits of coughing, and I saw my water working its way inside his bubble of protection.
My waters fought to purify his evil.
A loud clap made my ears ring. Something grabbed me from behind and knocked the breath out of me, slamming me up into the ceiling. Held there, I fought to turn myself around using every ounce of power I possessed.
“Mother of Shadow,” Jonas whispered below me, staring at something beyond imagining.
“Let’s see you defeat a Nocumat,” Sin Garu said through strangled breath, his laughter threaded with madness.
A red puddle of liquid gelled on the floor below me. At first a drop, it grew steadily until it was at least a dozen feet in diameter.
“You do not defeat a Nocumat,” Aerolus said in a low voice.
The puddle rose, a large shape morphing out of the sluggish substance. Hands appeared within it, growing from the puddle. In bloody outreach, they pointed in my direction.
“Nor do you control one.” Aerolus turned to Sin Garu. “Have you forgotten all you once learned from the Great Hall?”
Sin Garu’s smile shriveled, and I narrowed my eyes on the body growing below me. The body had taken my shape and face, though its dripping red flesh made it look like a wax mold of me that stood too close to flame.
“It makes you think you can control it, but you can’t,” Aerolus whispered, moving closer to me. “Only at the end of everything can it be contained.”
“End of what?” Tessa slurred and stumbled to her feet behind the couch.
“Tessa, no,” I shouted, fear for her enabling me to break through Sin Garu’s hold.
