She dropped to the floor, her whole body convulsing as Caligo stalked towards her, his hand outstretched in her direction as he subjected her to his Dolor magic. An intense nausea grew as she realised the pain focused onto her scars—the same scars that Xander had given her all those years ago.
“Do you feel that, Adriana?” Caligo asked from across the room.
She tried to block him out, but it was too late, he had already found her weakness.Xander.
“Can you feel his teeth tearing through your skin? Can you feel your bones breaking all over again? Can you feel his hands around your throat?”
Adriana clawed at her neck, desperate to remove the sensations Caligo was forcing her to experience, to remove the reminder of Xander’s hands choking her. She wanted to fight back, she tried to force him out, but the pain was too much. The reminder of everything she had been through, was too much. She was utterly helpless as Caligo tortured her with her past, her mind automatically bringing forth memories of that terrible night, and pulling her under.
Xander
Xander pried Adriana’s hands from her throat and held them to his lips, kissing the scars on her wrists. “Come back to me,” he whispered. “Adriana, please, come back to me. You are not there,weare not there.”
As Xander connected his mind with hers, he realised she couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of her screams as she felt wave after wave of the same pain she had felt in those last few moments before she died. And then she felt a cold hand wrap itself around her heart, around her soul, and pull. Caligo was draining her.
Xander heard Cassandra let out a scream as she caught sight of Adriana. Bursts of fire and bolts of electricity left her hands and shot through the air, aiming straight for Caligo’s head. But he threw up a wall of darkness that absorbed everything she unleashed.
His shadows began to crawl across the floor, slowly stretching towards the Court leaders. Deion pushed everyone behind him and searched for an escape, but the darkness had created thick barriers of shadows to block off every exit as Rook’s remaining Liberators slowly advanced on them. They were trapped, and without Adriana, they were done for.
Adriana’s body turned limp in Xander’s arms, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as the shadows surrounding Caligo grew larger, thicker. He almost had her, she was almost gone, and he was taking her magic to fuel his own. He was so close to taking the last Luciferus, and Xander was so close to losing the love of his life all over again.
As he heard Caligo’s laugh echo through the room, Xander laid Adriana’s body gently on the floor before stepping towards the wall of shadows. It was not of this world, nor had it been summoned by him, but Xander knew darkness far better than anyone, no matter where it came from. He had carried it with him all his life, only he hadn’t realised until he had beenreborn. Whether it was disguised as the loss he suffered as a child, the self-hatred he’d always suffered, or the burden of his responsibilities, he had always possessed a darkness within him. And as like called to like, the shadows surrounding Caligo began to swirl in a tornado of dark power, obeying to Xander’s will.
Caligo’s red eyes dulled to their usual black, his Succuba power faltering as he tried to call out to the shadows. “Stop this, stop this right now! You will obey me! I am your master.”
“You should treat them with more respect,” Xander said, as he stepped through the whirlwind, his eyes black as a starless night sky as dark wisps twirled around his fingers. “And you should know by now, the shadows do not appreciate being used as a hiding place.”
Caligo let out a roar of anger, his hands reaching out to grab at the shadows in an attempt to regain control, but it was pointless. They did not answer to him, the darkness did not answer to anyone the way it did to Xander.
Clenching his fists, Xander brought the raging storm towards him, letting the shadows wrap around his body to cloak him in raw power, a dark crown forming over his head. As the shadow tornado disappeared, Xander caught sight of Rook running out of the room as he pushed his remaining Liberators towards the Courts. Xander hoped he wouldn’t make it far, but he was too preoccupied with destroying the cherished pet of the witch that had ruined him over and over, that had utterly destroyed him on the night of Winter Solstice in 1884.
Caligo let out a growl of frustration as he called upon his own darkness in the Intermundum to bring him back home. Before he could summon his safe passage, Xander’s fist collided with his jaw. Caligo staggered as his head flew to the side from the blow, Xander’s strength powered by the dark fragments of shadows that clung to him.
“You may be a master of the Intermundum’s darkness, Caligo. But don’t forget for one second thatIam the first Daemon of this world, the first Nocte Lamia.Iam the Lord of the Shadows.”
Xander’s shoulders hunched as he drew the shadows even closer to him, and then he threw his arms forward. Caligo flew backwards, his own darkness transporting him back to the Intermundum before his body could hit the floor.
Xander stood staring at the empty spot where Caligo should have been, his shadows disappearing in the air like smoke as he breathed heavily. It wasn't enough that Xander had weakened him, it wasn’t enough that he’d sent him running back to his creator. Xander wanted to kill him, he wanted to watch Caligo die, he wanted to savour every drop of his rotten blood.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and Xander turned to find Deion staring at him, covered in splatters of blood. “We need to go,” he said. “Rook called his army of Liberators before he fled. I fear they’ll be here soon.”
Nicolai stepped forward, his hands conjuring a portal to the familiar grounds of Duran Manor. “Alright, let’s go everyone! I always hated London anyway.”
“Addie!” Cassandra screamed. “Adriana, can you hear me? What’s wrong with her? She won’t move, she won’t even blink.”
Xander turned to see Adriana still lying on the floor where he had left her. He ran over and knelt next to Cassandra, pulling Adriana’s body towards him so her head was in his lap. She should have snapped out of Caligo’s hold as soon as he’d dropped his grip on her power, but as he held her in his arms, the panic that wracked through him pained him without mercy.
“She’s not asleep,” Edward said quietly. “But she’s not awake either.”
Xander stilled as he registered the familiar glaze in Adriana’s wide unseeing eyes. “It’s Lilith,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?” Cassandra asked, her hands grabbing one of Adriana’s and squeezing. “What’s going on? What’s happening to my sister?”
Without warning, a thunderous explosion from outside shattered the windows and shook the building. Gunfire echoed from the streets outside as the radios attached to the dead Liberators around the room alerted them to the attack. Hundreds of Liberators had begun to storm the building, heading straight for them. And this time they were armed to the teeth.
Xander nodded at Deion, “Go, all of you—get out now.”
Nicolai widened his portal gate, the entrance to Duran Manor becoming clearer. Niamh stepped through with Ade and Dylan, as Kadeem bent down to retrieve Katie’s body and stepped forward. Xander noticed Norman slowly make his way out of his hiding place behind the pyre.
