Chapter Fifty-seven

“You really are pussy-whipped, aren’t you?” William hissed into his opponent’s face when they hit the crackling shield and rolled across it, each of them grasping the other’s throat in tight, un-giving grips. “Following her orders like a good little dog.”

Ahriman’s eyes flashed, but he smiled. “Bait me all you want, Solan, what’s done is done.”

William raised a knee at just the right moment and managed a blow to the Nomad’s kidney. Ahriman released him, and William took the opening to shove a shoulder into his enemy’s chest. The impact was so hard, it took them both off the inner wall of the shield and flew them to the other side.

They hit the shield again, where they were surrounded by more lightning. The shield was attempting to give out beneath their weight and blows, but William could not afford to give it his attention right now. He and Ahriman rolled again across its surface and stopped facing each other once more. They were twenty feet off the ground, held there by opposing magics like two positive ends of a battery. William was Time. As a Nomad, Ahriman was the absence of it, never changing.

William smiled and shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

Ahriman sneered and slammed a fist into the side of William’s head before the Time King could duck out of the way. He felt the blow as he had all the others the pissed-off Traveler had dealt him – like a mini explosion that shook him to his core. But his new Time King body rapidly healed the wounds, and he was giving as good as he was getting, and he knew nothing Ahriman could do to him would kill him anyway.

The same was probably true for Ahriman. William couldn’t kill him. They were just passing the time.

Ahriman’s eyes lit up again, and the Nomad smiled knowingly before he let loose a chuckle of real amusement.

Now that scared William. He tried to hide his concern, but failed. “Why don’t you let me in on it?” he told his enemy, referring to whatever joke it was that had the man laughing. They struck one another a few more times, landing a few blows and blocking a few others, and the two of them slammed all over again into the sizzling magic of the ever-weakening dome.

William glanced at it this time in worry. Katrielle was the sole source of magic for that shield, and it was really taking a beating. He wondered what effect it was having on the Nomad.

Ahriman’s laughter was deep and guttural now. He was seriously enjoying something, and William didn’t like that one bit. “Spit it out already,” William hissed. “What the hell is so amusing?”

“It’s you,” the Nomad finally shared, shaking his head. “It’s all of this.”

Another punch flew, another strike, a back-hand, and another kick. The two men tumbled across the sky, slamming into the dome over and over again. More magic let loose in streams of green, red, and black, and the shield sizzled some more under the assault.

A crack finally appeared, a real and telling crack that split beneath their weight and spread from the ground one-fifth of the way up the dome’s circumference. William eyed it warily. But his distraction cost him, and Ahriman landed a sudden and catastrophic blow that sent William rushing toward the ground like a cannon ball.

The Time King hit the dirt and rolled, and this time he was stunned by the impact. From where he lay on his back, he watched the stars twinkle, fainter than usual due to the light of the full moon and the breaking dome overhead.

He heard footsteps and turned his head to find Ahriman stand over him, still grinning. “All this time, you and your friends have been fighting to keep that shield up.” The Nomad said. “And Katrielle?” He now laughed so hard, his shoulders shook. “She’s practically drained herself entirely trying to hold it together.”

His tone lowered into seriousness, but it was laced with real joy. “It’ll kill her eventually, Solan. Amunet is the one fighting her, and we both know my love is the only one who can do away with that damn woman once and for all.”

William didn’t move. His mind worked around the information. Ahriman was right about that. Nomads couldn’t kill one another. Not usually, anyway. But for some reason, Amunet was able to snuff out her sister. Theories abounded that it had to do with love and hate.

William was willing to bet it was just a sister thing.

“And the funny thing is, all this time we knew,” Ahriman continued. “We knew you would erect it. And while you’re here on the inside trying to keep it up, it’s actually just keeping you in.” He leaned over William and blocked the light of the moon, casting his face into pure darkness. “Out there, your world is crumbling to dust,” he said. “Every single realm of it.” In that terrible darkness above William, two fires burned in irises of loathing. “That was the plan all along.”

*****

“You’re lying,” Amunet accused softly.

But Helena saw the fear in her gaze. She recognized that fear; it was a mother’s fear. No mother wanted to hear that their child wished for death.

Reflexively, Helena placed her own hand to her stomach as if there were still a life growing there. She remembered now that there once had been.

She blinked and lowered her head. “No,” she said. “I’m not.” She dropped her hand and met Amunet’s gaze again. “Cain is gone because he chose to go. I only offered him the choice.”

Amunet’s eyes narrowed into a star burning glare. “You’re lying!” Her hand flew so hard and fast, Helena had no time to block the blow. Amunet’s vicious backhand snapped Helena’s head to the side and sent her flying.

She landed with a thud that shook through her numbly, and laid there for a moment just trying to process the attack. Motes of red floated in her vision, but the pain slowly receded. One of the benefits of being Time Queen.

When she did finally open her eyes it took a moment for her to even realize what she’d landed on. Green flames shimmered beneath her body, and a perfect gloss-coated paint job supported her head.

“Angel,” she whispered.

The car seemed to grin at her again. Slowly, she pushed herself up, wondering if she’d damaged it. It was the only car left in the field and the only one that hadn’t yet been destroyed.

But a fist in her hair yanked back her head with hateful ferocity, and this time Helena was afforded the time to rely on her training. She reached up and held onto the hand in her hair, then turned and slid off the car, taking her attacker with her.

Amunet was knocked off balance and stumbled forward. Helena still held the woman’s hand in her hair. She bent Amunet’s pinky finger up and away from the rest of her hand, forcing her to let go. This again caused her to lose balance, this time in the opposite direction.

Helena then used this leverage and a firm hold on that same hand to land a Tae Kwon Do front kick squarely to her opponent’s jaw.

Amunet’s head snapped back, and her legs gave out. Helena released her hand to let her fall just as a voice sounded in her head.

Find the gun!

It was a different voice this time, but she knew it all the same. It was Evangeline, the Dragon Queen.

Helena looked up into the field, searching for the sender of the message. She was easy to find, wrapped in the natural black armor of her dragon scales and swinging a sword that looked very much like it was just another extension of her. She wondered why the woman hadn’t just turned into a dragon, then remembered Katrielle and the shield overhead.

She looked up in time to see a crack in the glass-like dome spread further up and disappear overhead. It was troublesome.

Get the gun, Helena! And get ready! Eva cried out a second time.

Helena looked back down, and this time Eva managed to stop in her struggles long enough to meet her gaze. A silent understanding passed between them. Helena immediately turned and began searching for the weapon that had flown from her grasp when Amunet backhanded her.

But that was when she noticed Amunet was no longer in the grass beside her.

Oh shi-

The kick to her spine was gut-wrenching and animalistic. She heard something crack, felt a disastrous pain unlike any she’d ever experienced, and once again went sailing. This time, she hit a tree a good ten feet up its trunk and slid agonizingly down the length of its rough bark. Rivulets of skin were ripped from her hip, collar bone, and cheek, but she was far more concerned with her back.

It was broken somehow. She knew that. The pain was indescribable and she’d heard it snap.

You will heal, said Time, sounding in her head as if it had known she desperately needed reassurance just then.

Helena gritted her teeth and tried not to cry. She knew damn well it would heal, but she didn’t have the luxury for an injury of this magnitude to slow her down. Distantly, she wondered where William was. People always wanted their loved ones close when they were suffering.

And a part of her sort of resented Time just then. For not making the healing go faster.

I cannot, explained Time gently. You now share my power with the King.

Crap. That explains it, she thought as she clenched her teeth and tried not to break them with the pressure. That explained everything, actually. The Time King had been all-powerful before his contract with Time. But then Time had taken that power and used it to prevent Helena from being reborn. Fate was too strong to be denied for long, and eventually Helena was reborn anyway. So Time scrambled to once again make things right.

And long story short, here they were, King and Queen. There were two of them to share the power William had touted before he’d made his contract with Time. The magic had all been fairly returned to be used by the sovereignty. It was just that there was more sovereignty around to use it.

God this sucks! she mentally screamed as she finished sliding down the tree, dropped to the ground, and fell painfully to her side. Agony ripped an angst-filled sound from between her teeth, no matter how hard she tried to hold it back. She blinked through the haze of building blurriness. Blades of grass cut through her vision where she lay – but as luck would have it, between those blades of grass was the gleaming of a black metal object.

It was right there. Her gun was literally within reach. What were the chances?

Helena tried to move her legs despite the pain, and managed the slightest nudge. That made sense. If she’d been completely broken, she wouldn’t have felt the pain; her nerve would have been entirely severed. So she still had use of her legs, and she was healing by the second. But at this rate, even if she grabbed the gun, she wouldn’t be able to stand and face her opponent in time.

Again, she wondered where William was. The man who shared half her power. Her becoming Queen was the reason neither of them could completely stop Time any longer. But his parting words returned to her.

Remember things have changed. In battle, try everything you can think of. You never know what might work.

Helena realized that although she couldn’t freeze Amunet in place, there were things William had proven he could do that Helena had never even tried before.

Like blink from one place to another, she thought.

Time nodded approvingly. That’s my girl.