I almost didn’t see it, and even after seeing it, I didn’t react quickly enough. The blade he had hidden amongst the medals at his chest flew from his fingers straight for my heart…Only to clang loudly as it impaled itself in a piece of stone that had flowed out from the wall to protect me.
The stone and metal flowed together, forming an even larger blade and flew back to embed itself in Maalik’s stomach. He looked down at his gut in disbelief as blood began pouring over his fingers. He glared over my shoulder at Luke.
“Heh. So we are the same. I always thought as much,” he snarled at my brother. “You’re a killer, too. You won’t win, though. I’ll choose my own death.”
He moved backward and stepped off the platform, intending to plunge to the gaping chasm below. Expecting to fall off into space, all he did was stumble as he tripped on the invisible surface of Air I’d created under him. There was no way he was escaping this time.
With barely a gesture, a fiery whip of power flashed around his right arm. A whip of ice wrapped around his left. Metal flowed from the railing and wrapped around his legs. He hung suspended in the air, spread eagled.
“I made a promise in the House of Eros, Maalik,” I said, smiling grimly. “And I always keep my promises.”
I gestured and the bindings of power pulled taut. He screamed, then. I watched as first his right arm was pulled from its socket, then ripped off in a bloody shower. When his left pulled free, I felt his hot blood splatter on my face.
I stepped forward as the metal bands around his thighs ripped one leg off, and then the other. I didn’t let him die yet, though. I used my new-found powers to cauterize the wounds so he didn’t bleed out. This close, the smell of his burning flesh was nauseating.
I knew my chest was heaving as I stood in front of him. His head lolled. His screams had changed from those of a man in agony to the high pitch squealing of an animal.
I heard Luke and Hel walk up behind me cautiously.
“Elex?” I heard Luke speak, but it was almost like he was miles away. I felt him grip my shoulder. “Adelfos, let him die.”
I shook my head angrily, remembering all the suffering Maalik had caused, for us and others.
“He hasn’t paid enough,” I snarled, shaking my head. The taste of salt on my lips gave me pause. I didn’t realize I had been crying.
“It will never be enough,” Hel said, his hand coming to rest on my other shoulder. “He can never suffer enough for what he has done. But you arenotlike him, to torture for the sake of pain. Let him end. Let justice be done.”
I remembered the man I had seen in Hel’s gaze, the one I so desperately wanted to be. A single sob broke from me, and I nodded sharply. I grabbed the knife Luke had made from metal and stone and yanked it free from Maalik’s guts. Blood gushed forth. I swung the knife with a burst of power and cut through his neck. I grabbed his head before it could go tumbling off into the water.
I could be sick later. Right now, I had other things to attend to. I turned my back on the bloody, twitching remnants of Maalik’s body and left the cavern.
Chapter 23
Helios
The sea spray on my face was as familiar to me as my mother’s voice had been. I’d spent much of my childhood on the sea, learning her moods, learning to understand when she was calm and safe to traverse, and when only fools would dare to tread.
Today was a good day.
I had almost sixty Mageia on board theChrysalis,and we were headed for home.
“Looks beautiful, doesn’t it?” Betts asked, coming up from behind me.
I nodded. The sea was a beautiful blue green, the sky brilliant blue with only a few hints of fluffy clouds in the distance.
“We’re making good time, thanks to the Air Mageia,” she said, gesturing to a couple of Mageia on the deck. “We should be in port by morning.”
I smiled at her but was sobered by how close I had been to losing her.
Betts had been injured badly by the Alexandrian guards. As a Dual Mageia she had some resistance to their Suppression powers, and she had put up a helluva fight by all accounts, but Maalik’s blow had caused bleeding in her brain. It had taken mealmost an hour to repair the damage with my new Soma powers, and it had left me shaking and weak.
Fortunately, just as my shape shifting powers had developed, so had my healing abilities. I was able to heal her and the others of their wounds. It wasn’t until later we got the whole story.
Apparently, I hadn’t been as devious at disposing of the medallions as I had thought. The Alexandrians monitored the underground waterways until they were able to triangulate our position. Water only flows one way, so all they had to do was track the point at which each medallion began showing up in the underground river, and it was like an arrow pointing right to where we were hiding.
I felt like an idiot when Allard told us. I should have realized it would happen eventually. It hadn’t made sense for the Elusians to pour hundreds of Mageia into the same arena, but I hadn’t stopped to try and figure out why they were doing it. Then again, a lot of what the Elusians did made no sense to me.
Allard had seemed almost sick at the things Maalik had done.
