The combination of Ryker’s magic knockout and so many Guardians arriving had Temperance teleporting away. The Guardian members went after them, and Ryker turned to deal with the even more dire situation that had come out of all of that.
“Celestial beings are not gods here,” he told Ruxnoth.
“That is their mistake.”
“Release him.”
“I second that,” another familiar voice rumbled.
Really. Fucking. Dangerously.
He’d used all the chaos as a cover to come in here, and as Ruxnoth shifted his weight, moving to the side so he could see both powerful beings at the same time, I took in my dad now standing there, crimson magic live and raging.
“Sylas, careful,” Ryker warned.
“That’s quite the ask, Ry. An egomaniacal psychopath has his hands on my son, is causing him pain, has created this fucking mess right here, and he’s compromised everything for Winter. And yet,Ishould be the careful one?”
“Dad… don’t,” I croaked as Ruxnoth tightened his grip around my throat again. “I’ve got… this.”
“All right, of course. You’ve got it.” He looked over at Ryker. “And of course you’re right, I should becareful, calm the fuck down. Why not, right?”
What was… he snuffed his magic out and dropped his hands.
Ryker eyed him, but I thought I saw something exchanged between them, some look so slight it was barely perceptible, maybe a barely-there hand signal too.
Then Dad looked up at Ruxnoth. “So here you are in the flesh. Well, necromantically enhanced flesh. I can feel the protection radiating off you. Fuck, it’s intense. Lucky you.” He started pacing up and down. “So, your only ask is to use my son to power your leech-like metaphysical construct? Is that right?”
“Simplistically put,” Ruxnoth responded. “Hmm. Do you not live up to your revered status after all?” Ruxnoth reached out with his free hand and stroked my jaw. I saw Dad cringe, hating me being touched, especially like this, by him. Somehow, and I really didn’t know how, he didn’t react. “Do you know what I think, Almighty Necromancer?”
“What’s that?” Dad ground out.
“Your son eclipses you in all things. You have been rendered irrelevant. An ego as staggering as yours must burn painfully with struggling to reconcile that reality, no?”
“Yeah, a power-hungry motherfucker like you wouldn’t understand anything like this, so you missing such a key thing here is no surprise. Well, the other key thing being your grip on reality, of course.”
Ruxnoth’s eyes narrowed.
Dad’s narrowed back. “Our love for our son transcends everything.”
Wait…our?
Were they… had they—
In a burst of purple flame, Mom materialized right beside Dad. She thrust a wave of her Dark Fae magic at Evira, Grandpa, and The Shadowed, sweeping them away with teleportation. “She will be well,” I heard her say with a smile at me, of Evira.
And then it all happened so fast.
Dad gave a nod to Ryker.
In the next second, he burst beside Dad and clutched his shoulder.
Dad’s power flamed into being on his palms and he snatched Ruxnoth’s arm in two places, his power burning into him as he channeled Ryker, trying to break the necromantic protection on Ruxnoth.
Then a concealment spell that had been undetectable even from me and Ruxnoth dropped, and I gasped as Vax appeared.
He fired his citrine magic all around Ruxnoth’s boots, and then he was using his Basilisk vibrational resonance to bury Ruxnoth several inches into the earth.
Down, down, down.
