Morgana shoved away from Eleanor, leaving her gasping as blood trickled from the cut beneath her breastbone. The woman turned to face her son, power lashing along the Blade as she pointed it at him. "Don't you dare defy me, especially not after that debacle last night, where you almost cost me this!" Morgana held up the relic. "Now get out of here. I've had enough of you for the day!"
His cold gray gaze flickered toward Eleanor, then back to his mother. "No," he said again, slowly, as if making up his mind. "I cannot let you do this. I will not."
As if to emphasize the words, Sebastian straightened, his fingers curled faintly at his sides with flickers of lightning-coated power dancing over them. Just a hint of a threat, but one made dangerous by the weight of power that could be felt within him.
It felt like everyone in the room held their breath.
Eleanor didn't hope to escape this, but in saving her, was he risking himself?
Morgana seemed shocked. "What do you mean, 'you cannot let me do this'? Who are you to tell me what I may or may not do?"
"Unfortunately, I'm the only one with the power to stop you. That's who I am, Mother."
"Power?" Morgana took a step toward him, and Eleanor could feel Morgana gathering her own sorcery. "Have I taught you nothing? Power is not strength, not when one is inept in wielding it with finesse." She lashed out, the ring on her finger sparking as some type of sorcery was channeled through it. "Just a taste, my dear."
Sebastian winced and went down on his hands and knees. His hair lifted, almost as if with static, and when he looked up, the expression on his face was murderous. "I will not let you do this."
"This is a sudden change in demeanor. I thought we had discussed what would happen if you ever went up against me again. What has brought about this change?" And then Morgana's eyes widened. "Ah. Of course. How did I miss that? Oh, Miss Sinclair, well played."
"Leave Miss Sinclair out of this." Sebastian straightened.
"I should have seen that coming." Morgana tsked under her breath. "I thought it odd that you knocked her over in the garden. You've always had a weakness for those pathetic, innocent little creatures. Your poor blind wife... Of course she'd appeal. I just didn't think you'd already formed an attachment."
"Leave... her out of this." Sebastian's power crackled around him.
The attack was instant.
Sparks flared into being around his body, forming thin golden lines between them that suddenly tightened, and sank through his clothes, into his flesh. Sebastian screamed, his fingers curling into whitened claws. He raged against the invisible net, fine white pressure lines forming all over his skin.
"Stop fighting it!" Eleanor screamed, recognizing the effects of a Bathingway hex. "It intensifies if you fight it!"
A flash of gray eyes, and then Sebastian forced himself to relax. The pain would remain, but at least now he had a chance. Looking up, he flung everything he had at his mother.
Morgana staggered back, a deft flick of her hands deflecting the pure wave of force away from her. Eleanor's back slammed against the wall, her ears ringing as her head hit the stone. For a moment, she blinked, and it felt like time had slipped away from her. Then she found herself on her hands and knees amongst the rubble that was all that remained of the wall, with Henri and Philippe sprawled beside her. Blood trickled from both men's ears, the force crushing their brains instantly. The only reason she was still alive was because Morgana's wards stood directly between them.
Eleanor barely had time to grasp what had happened before horror filled her. There was a terrible silence in her head, almost a ringing, as if she'd been standing inside a bell when Sebastian's power had struck it.
Expression. And not just on the base level of the spectrum, but a wash of power so intense that she knew nothing would be able to stand in its way. Not even Drake. The type of power could bring London to its knees, if channeled correctly.
"Sebastian," she gasped, or thought she did. It didn't sound right. Don't. Please don't! Her mouth wasn't working properly, one side of her face felt like it was drooping, and her head was throbbing now. Throbbing like her brains wanted to spill out of her ears. Gods. What was happening to her?
"Aisle stop oo." Sebastian's voice sounded so far away. So distant. So strange. "No matter whar-muss do."
Eleanor tasted blood.
Energy welled into a crescendo. It spiraled around the room, drawn from every living thing within the nearby vicinity. It radiated toward him in ripples that worked in reverse, flooding him with power. No one human should be able to do this. No one man could contain all of that power.
Eleanor realized what he was going to do. "Stop!" she screamed, or tried to. Somehow her chains were broken, the iron links seared away halfway down and dripping slag onto the floor. Her left hand wouldn't work. Numbness tingled through it, and she fell onto her face as the left side of her body gave way. It was like watching her own actions from outside her body.
Sebastian. Drake. Had to... stop this.
And then someone grabbed her by the hair and plunged the Blade into Eleanor's back in a hiss of burning pain that lit all her nerves on fire.
And all she could do was scream.
Chapter Thirty
Power exploded through the walls of the house, flattening the rose bushes someone had lovingly tended.
