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Mike smiled at me and smacked my right thigh. “You ready to go?”
I looked down and flexed my newly-reformed appendage, now half human and half wolf. Everything moved beautifully. “Yeah, I’m ready. Ethan?”
“Kick some ass,” he whispered. He was struggling, but putting on his best face. “And be careful.”
I saluted him. “Yes, boss man.” I turned toward the other nagas, now corralled inside a circle of our armed troops. “I killed Heath in my human form—killed him with a touch. What do you think I’ll do to you like this?” Not exactly true, but close enough. “It is in your best interest to surrender, gentlemen, or I’ll have no choice but to wipe the floor with you. I’m tired, and I’m pissed off to all hell and back. Your choice, but you choose now.”
“We are loyal to our King, Adhiraj!” One half-man naga shouted.
I stepped forward, and the humans parted. Two more steps and I grabbed him by his head with one clawed hand, tilted it, and ripped his throat out in one clench of my monstrous maw. I chewed slowly, despite the acidic taste of him, eyes all for his remaining kin, and dropped his body to the ground. The bits of him I couldn’t swallow, I spat onto the dirt floor, and wiped the blood from my chin. Something witty perched on my tongue, ready to launch, but a thunderclap rumbled through the cave and their faces paled.
A few mouthed ‘no’ as the air around us grew thick with electricity. From the dead body rose a column of power, glittering gold and green around a white epicenter. The pillar grew bigger and brighter as smaller bolts of electricity zigzagged through the air to meet it, causing everyone’s hair to stand on end.
Within seconds, the power tower—the best description I could come up with in my childlike wonder—was as tall as I was and half as thick.
It reached for me with an infinite number of electric tendrils, and swallowed me whole.
It felt glorious. Painful, being chocked full of ancient naga power, yes, but it breached that line until I reveled in the sheer magnitude of its gift. Magick didn’t care that I wasn’t naga. It only cared that I had earned it, could hold it. Energy, after all, couldn’t be destroyed, only transformed.
I howled, a euphoric release of sound from my maw. With eyes closed, my wicked laughter followed the howl. I could feel everything—every racing human heartbeat, every ounce of their magick and fear. There were six more sensitives in the troops we’d brought with us, who probably didn’t even know it.
The nagas rode cool menthol waves through my senses, and even with my eyes closed, I could see each of their lifelines that tied them to this place, to Simon, and now to me. The new magick whispered that it would be easy to sever them all, take what was mine. I was the victor in this war and deserved nothing less.
I shook my head and growled. That’s what tyrants did, and monsters like Simon. I was neither, despite appearances. If they were going to die by my hand, I would offer them one last chance to save themselves.
I came out of the transition down on my right knee, right hand in a fist on the ground, left forearm resting on my thigh. Raising my head and opening my eyes, I whispered to them through the connection: Surrender, and I will set you free. Resist, and I will devour you.
Okay, so not much of a choice. Hesitation filled their faces and cooled their lines. Were they trading one master for another? Would I keep my word? Would freedom mean death?
“If she says she will release you, she means it,” a cranky but familiar voice announced from behind me.
Seth.
The good doctor was rubbing his jaw and the crazy-purple bruise that had bloomed there. “Nice right hook, Zoë.”
You’re okay?
He waved me off. “You hit like a werewolf.”
One of the naga stepped forward, eyed me, thought better of it, and stepped back into the fabricated safety of his peers. “Rasmaru?”
“She is not Simon, and as long as you surrender and do nothing shady in her reach, she will leave you be. Right, Zoë?”
“Yes.” My voice sounded like the human me. “But if you try my patience, my mercy—”
“I’ll help her kill you,” Seth finished.
Hands went up in a clatter of dropped weapons. I reached down and called their lines to my hand.
If I do this.... I gave Seth a questioning look. If I do this, it doesn’t mean they die.
He shook his head. No, they just don’t get the power bonus from being tied to this place or Simon. Or you. Means they’re all going to have to go home and heal conventionally, but they’ll be fine.
I crushed them like they were al dente noodles, and it was done. “Ethan?”
He walked over. Any confusion he had was gone, or better hidden. He smiled and awkwardly patted me on the arm. “We’ve got it from here, Zoë. Go find him.”
I wrapped him up in a giant hug, lifting him off the ground. “Thanks, Ethan.” I put him down gently and looked at Seth. “Do you want to come along?”
“I don’t want to mess up your tête-à-tête.” He shook his head. “Nah, I’ll stay here and help your guys. You go have fun. If I were you, I’d get rid of that first.” He pointed at a thick band trailing into the darker part of the cave system. “Not yet, because it’ll lead you right to him, but I’m sure you’ll find an opportune time.”
I nodded and sprinted into the darkness.
***
My night vision had improved greatly with the transfer of power. The cave formations let off an eerie glow, like their earth energy had developed luminescence. It made my run smooth, no unexpected boulders or debris. It didn’t even feel like running, but skating—long strides of fluid motion.
I followed his lifeline, the droplets of blood, and occasional scale. He was hurt, and I’d just cut out a large part of his resources, but only a fool would think that ensured victory. My anger had lost me the edge during our last encounter. Only by the grace of the gods, and no small part the offering from Mike, was I still standing.
Simon was headed for the kids. Logically, where else would he go? Also, I could smell diapers.
I stopped and reached out to scan what lay ahead—twelve humans, three nagas, and Simon. I didn’t like the proximity of one human heartbeat to the bastard, and as I rounded the corner, I cursed. Sonofabitch.
Simon sat on a stone throne, the arrogant bastard, in half-human form, and while two of the nagas—number three hovered near the cribs—worked to remove the bullets, he bounced Esther on his knee.
Not that she was enjoying it. My poor little niece was covered in dirt, eyes red from crying, one tiny hand by her mouth as she sucked on two fingers.
“So nice of you to finally join us.” Simon grinned.
“I hate you. You know that, right? I don’t hate anyone, but right now, Simon, I fuckin’ hate you.”
He curled two clawed fingers through Esther’s hair and tugged, popping her fingers out of her mouth in a cry. “The feeling is mutual.”
“You’re not getting out of here alive. Killing my niece in front of me isn’t going to make dying any less painful for you. Let her go.”
Simon pushed her off his lap, and it took every ounce of restraint not to cross the space between us to catch her—at least not physically. I extended one hand forward and caught her in a pillow of air.
“Pretty little tricks for a pretty little witch.” He stood up and brushed off the other nagas, then kicked Esther to the side of the throne.
I caught her again, but the impact must’ve hurt, because her cries turned to screams. She crawled behind the stone until all I could see was one dirty foot. “What the hell do you nagas have with kicking my family members? And a baby? What the fuck, Simon?”
He disregarded my question. “You healed well. Aatmaj said you were a magnificent beast, but his descriptions do you no justice.”
Did he not know? Didn’t he feel the change in me? I could feel him—every single bullet hole, every remaining bullet. Hell, I could almost count each scale removed from his body, the hot spots whispering to me.
“Not interested in intriguing you, Simon. Are you going to surrender?”
His lifeline was splotchy, like a straw he’d bitten down on in an attempt to drink faster. Surely, he felt the flow ebbing since I had disconnected the other nagas, but he was acting as if nothing had changed, as though we remained on even footing.
The advantage was mine.
Insanity, well... yeah, he clearly won that title.
“What are these children to you?” He gestured toward the cribs, where the nagas waited, fangs and claws out. “The one behind my chair, that I get. She belongs to you. She is blood. But these babies? They are nothing to you. You probably don’t even know their parents.”
“You know nothing, Simon.” I raised one hand toward the nagas. “No closer.” I reached down and scooped their lines off the floor. “Another step and I will end you where you stand. Am I clear?”
Bluffing? Sure, but maybe they were smarter. Maybe they felt the ebb of power when I disconnected their brethren. Maybe, just maybe, they’d think I killed the others off. A girl could hope.
Their eyes popped wide, and they stared between us. It took them a minute. Maybe they were psychically conversing, but then all three reverted to human form and backed away from the cribs.
I disconnected them and returned my attention to Simon.
“You are stronger than I thought, to see their lines,” he mused.
I was really tired of his amusement over my new ‘tricks’, so I leaned one giant foot where his line lay, not quite crushing it. “Duh.”
His amusement smoldered into anger. “You cannot defeat me. I am a thousand years old. I have crushed cities beneath me. I am Adhiraj, King of the Na—”
“No,” I interrupted, severing his line with one rake of my clawed foot. “You are nobody, and you are beneath me.”
Simon lunged at me, spinning scimitars from out of nowhere.
I just raised a hand. The world slowed around us, and confusion crossed his face. I gestured downward, and down he fell, slamming face-first into the earth.
He pushed himself back up and tried again.
I put him down again, scattering the scimitars from his hands.
He screamed from his position, pressed against the cold rock. “You cannot do this to me!”
“I can and I have.” I raised him up, my hands forming a diamond frame in front of me, until he floated a foot off the ground, arms out, eyes burning hate. “You shouldn’t have kicked her.”
I separated my hands and tore him in two.
