CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Shade floated above the ground, her body caught in a swirl of power. Waves of energy poured off her, expanding in ever-greater circles. They pushed Matteo backward, toward the edge of the plateau. Distantly, she heard him shout. Lazily, she gestured with a blade and parted the waves. It sent a thrill through her to see the power respond so readily.

Matteo slipped inside her burgeoning creation and approached her cautiously. His eyes shone as he stared at her. “You’re glorious!” he cried.

She couldn’t speak. Fire roared through her veins, not blood. Her body was air, her bones the branches of a tree. An ocean embraced her. It would be nothing to sacrifice herself to this magic, to be connected to it for eternity. This was her purpose.

Suddenly, Matteo looked beyond her, and his eyes narrowed. She felt a slight concern, but it was distant. Matteo drew his blades and threw her a look. “Don’t stop,” he said. “I’ll keep them back.”

Them? Shade turned on a pillar of energy. Dark shapes slunk at the edges of her fledgling Veil, snuffling about for openings. She spotted lupari – black-scaled wolf-like creatures with razor sharp claws and teeth – and other vile creatures. All out for blood. Her blood.

The beasts of the Wastes both feared and craved the bloodwizards of Malavita. She was alone and caught in the throes of magic. To the beasts, she must seem like easy pickings. Matteo’s circles of protection were holding them back, for now. He launched attacks at them, his pale green blades flashing. It worked. The dark forms scattered.

But even as he drove away beasts, more appeared to replace them. Urgency beat at her breast, pulsing in time to the growing waves. She turned again to the east, lifted one obsidian blade, and drove it deep into her belly. The razor-sharp obsidian parted skin and muscle with ease. It felt like a punch, and the shock made her gasp. And then–

Agony. It burned through to her spine, sending weakness down her legs. If power hadn’t been holding her, she would have collapsed. Her arms trembled, and her gasp turned into a sobbing scream. Blood poured from the wound, but she couldn’t draw the blade free, not yet. Not until…

A shriek rattled from her. Her vision dimmed and she reached for more power. The diamond hovering at the east swelled with light then burst like an overripe melon. Pieces of it landed on her skin and she absorbed its released strength gratefully. Bending over, she dug deeper into her flesh, searching with the tip of her sharp blade, sweating and panting. And then she felt it. A hardness against the tip of the obsidian.

Fighting nausea and a darkness at the edge of her vision, she levered at the object, tipping it closer to the surface of her body. When she felt it was close enough, she withdrew her blade. Blood washed over her hip in warm cascades. She held her blade between her teeth and reached in with her fingers. They closed around a smooth, cool object and she pulled it free.

Immediately, her abused flesh began to close, her tattoos working desperately to seal the wound. The blood clotted, ceased to flow, and the pain eased. The borrowed power from the shattered diamond rolled through her veins. She could breathe again, though tears blinded her. She lifted her prize. A new diamond. More perfect than any she’d ever seen, already cut and polished. Letting the power guide her, she released it and it stayed aloft, pulsing in time to her heart.

One…

Raiden climbed the cliff with preternatural ease. It had taken him longer to reach it than he’d expected. Fear and desperation chased him, driving him unerringly upwards. He had to stop her before she finished. All was lost otherwise. All those Veils, all those helpless people.

The amulet Jacobis had given him hung around his neck, tucked inside his uniform. It pulsed against his skin, emitting heat. Part of him wanted to tear it away and drop it to the earth far below, but something stayed his hand. He might need it on the hilltop; Jacobis said it would protect him.

The sun had broken the horizon by the time he reached the top of the cliff. Red light bathed a large plateau dotted with twisted scrub and small trees. He emerged in a tangled copse of stunted witch hazel and slowed his frantic pace. Caution made him crouch among the vegetation. The amulet burned even hotter and he clutched at it, hissing quietly. What was wrong with it? He took it by the chain, yanking the stone out of his uniform jacket. It glowed like a red-hot coal. He let it fall against his jacket.

A small voice deep inside urged him to toss it aside, but it was easy to ignore it. Especially with what he was witnessing on this high plateau.

Creatures growled and barked all around the edges of a vast, scintillating dome of energy. It gleamed red in the morning light, but blues and greens and bright white light splashed across its surface. Waves cascaded down it and rippled out from its edges. He felt those waves pass over his skin, tingling not unpleasantly. The amulet emanated an angry light in reaction to the waves of power. Raiden felt a matching anger rise within him. This could not be; this thing could not exist! It would ruin everything!

Raiden spotted a man inside the large dome. He was slashing at himself with pale green blades edged in pink and directing attacks at the amassing creatures. The beasts seemed intent on breaking into the energy field, slavering and snarling in blood lust. Raiden knew him. Matteo, one of Dante’s men. Where was Angelo? Quickly, he scanned the area, but saw only Matteo and–

Shade.

She was at the center of the dome of power. An agonized cry split the air, echoing across the hilltop. Raiden straightened. Had she been attacked? She screamed again, one hand twisting against her belly; she was nearly bent in two. Sudden fear broke through the anger building within him. It shocked him into stark clarity. He was here to save her, to protect her from herself. He raced forward, but the dome stopped him.

“Shade!” he cried, but the howls of the beasts drowned the word.

He spotted the hilt of a knife in her hand. Gods of his Fathers! Was she stabbing herself?

There was an explosion in the air before her, a burst of blue light and the next instant she pulled her knife away, took it in her teeth, and dug a gemstone from her belly with her own fingers. His mouth fell open and he staggered back a step. What was she doing? What horrible magic was this?

Wrong, terribly wrong! A thousand voices screamed in his mind. Raiden grabbed his head, feeling as if his skull would split. It is an abomination. She must be stopped! Stop her! Do as we command!

The shouts faded abruptly, but the urge to act pounded through his muscles. He drew his sword, his eyes pinned on Shade. A blue stone was floating to the ground at her feet, there to join a clear gem and a red one. They shone like miniature stars, and the sight of them filled him with terror. It wasn’t his terror, though; he knew it somewhere deep inside.

The quiet voice which had urged him to rip off the amulet whispered against a maelstrom of dark energy and was lost within it.

Distantly, Raiden watched her turn without moving her feet – was she floating above the ground? – and face north. Her hair flowed loose around her, torn from its braid. Her tattoos gleamed with color and light. More light shot from her eyes and the top of her head. She was a goddess come to earth.

And he had to destroy her.

NO! By all the gods, I won’t!

Desperately, Raiden fought the power controlling him, hoping against hope the dome of energy would be enough to stop him. He had no control. The amulet urged him to strike her down, and even as he hoped the dome would hold him back, he struck at it with his sword, drawing sparks from it. There had to be a way in, a weakening in the structure. Those beasts were working against it, as well; they would break into it soon enough, giving him a way inside.

If she called forth the last stone, she would only have to bind them with spirit and the Veil would be complete. He had to stop her before she reached that point. The perfect moment would be when her blade was deep in her gut, seeking the last stone.

No, no, I won’t do it! I can’t hurt her! Nothing in this world can make me!

We are not of this world, fool…

A wild howling to his left told him at least one of the beasts had found an opening. He raced toward the sound, a savage grin pulling at his lips. The beast turned on him before he could slip into the dome, growling. Raiden ran it through without pausing and leaped over its corpse.

It was quieter inside the dome, despite the power flowing from Shade in unceasing waves. The howls of the beasts grew dim. She was there at the center, floating like an angel above the earth, surrounded by light and energy. Her arms were outspread as she faced the north, faced him, and then, suddenly, she plunged a blade into her midsection. Her screams cut through him, and he sprinted toward her. To save her… to kill her…

The last stone. The power of earth encapsulated in an emerald. Her blade cut into her flesh yet again, drawing a hoarse scream from her raw throat. It didn’t get any easier, each time she brought forth a gem. Even knowing this was the last time didn’t ease her pain. The agony was endless, but she worked through it, seeking as she’d sought each stone, limbs shaking, vision dimming, nausea threatening to overwhelm her.

The last physical stone exploded as she called its power to her. A swirl of gemstone fragments whipped around her, the remnants of the stones her father had given her, though he had never known. Despite the complexity of her feelings toward Bishop Raphael, she sent him a prayer of thanks. Without him, she never would have made it out of those Brotherhood mines.

There. Now she recognized the feel of the stone immediately. She withdrew her blade, dropping it from numb fingers this time, one would be enough for the next step, and plunged her hand into her flesh. The stone was slippery, elusive. She looked up, seeking strength from the swirling energy of the broken cornerstones while her fingers sought the prize.

A lean shadow raced toward her across the plateau, a long, thin streak of silver in its hands. She froze, the sight so unexpected it distracted her from her pain and her task.

Raiden…?

A red-black stone lay against his chest, stealing all light. Terror rose in her, a primal fear which made the hairs on her neck stand on end.

And suddenly, she knew: death was coming for her.

Frantically, she dug out the last stone. She barely had time to register its perfection before she released it. She had no time. Only an instant before Raiden’s sword found her neck and took her head from her body.

He was close enough now she could see his dark eyes. They held agony, fear, and despair. He raised his sword in a graceful arc. Fight it, she willed him, never taking her eyes from his.

Her eyes were locked with Raiden’s, so she never saw Matteo leap between them and lunge at the Imperial. Not until Raiden’s sword cleaved into his shoulder, through his chest, and buried itself in his heart.

Eyes wide with shock, Raiden staggered backward, and yanked his sword from Matteo’s limp body. The younger man hung a moment as if suspended by strings. Then the strings snapped, and he fell, blood spraying, to land on his face on the hard, red earth.

Finally, Shade found words. One word.

“NOOOO!”

It tore from her throat, shredding her.

The power surrounding her trembled, pulsed wildly, and failed for an instant before she regained control.

Grief as terrible as any Blackstorm roared up from her soul, bursting out of her in another wave of energy. Energy which strengthened the dome of power surrounding them. Pure Spirit, the Hidden Face, the fifth and final power needed to complete the Veil.

The Veil stabilized above her, a shimmering dome of power strong enough to repel the Unseen’s blight and anything born of it. Free of the calling, Shade dropped to the earth, the light fading from around her, leaving her bereft and shaking. Her heart thundered in her ears and she could barely see for the tears blinding her. She could feel the Veil. It pulsed rhythmically, filling a part of her soul she hadn’t known was empty. For a breath, she felt joy.

In the next–

Rage and grief gripped her. Teeth clenched and tears streaking her face, she lunged at Raiden, her blade slicing toward his neck. White-faced, stricken, he didn’t move, merely lifted his chin to make her strike easier. Her blade flashed near the vein pulsing beneath his fragile skin but did not hit flesh. Instead she sliced through the golden chain encircling his neck. The chain slithered free and the amulet fell to the ground between them. Shrieking, Shade stomped it into the earth. It shattered beneath her heel.

Raiden staggered as if she’d struck him. She grabbed his jacket, shaking him hard. Tears nearly blinded her, but she saw the confusion then the growing horror in his eyes. His face crumpled and his legs collapsed beneath him. “Faces turn from you, you bastard!” Shade cried, dragging at his jacket. “You have to fight! You have to help me!”

In that moment of stunned anguish when Raiden struck down Matteo, she had let the Veil waver. Only a moment, a flash of weakness, but it had been enough. All the beasts desperate for her blood had swarmed inside it.

She got him to his feet just in time. Slavering creatures bounded on them, eager for blood. Shade spun, and stood over Matteo’s body, a single blade left to her. Driven by despair, she drew blood from her chest and side and upper thigh, calling magic indiscriminately. All she could do was lash out and kill. Kill until there was nothing left to kill. She struck down creature after creature, dimly aware of Raiden fighting beside her, at her back, reminding her painfully of her companions doing the same not so long ago.

Angelo…

Matteo…

A scream ripped from her, full of more pain and wretchedness than any she’d uttered earlier. The pain she’d suffered all day to create her Veil was nothing compared to what she felt now. The Unseen had managed to hurt her even as she’d struck a blow against them. Now she knew her enemy, by the Faces, she knew them all too well.

The sun was high above them when the last of the creatures fell to her magic and Raiden’s sword. It was Raiden who fell to his knees first, weeping inconsolably over Matteo’s cooling body. He flung himself face first on the hard earth. “Forgive me!” he cried. “I couldn’t stop myself. I had no control–”

“Get up.” Her grief-ravaged voice stopped his weeping. He grew still, and then slowly climbed to his feet, leaving his sword on the ground beside Matteo. Swaying slightly, he kept his eyes down, unable to look at her. Awaiting her judgement. She wanted to hate him, to blame him, but she could do neither. It wasn’t his fault Matteo was dead. The fault was hers. She’d left Raiden to the Brotherhood.

“It’s not your fault,” she said hoarsely. “It’s not–”

Her throat closed on further speech. Exhaustion made her list like a holed ship. Raiden grabbed her before she could fall, and pulled her against him, holding her tight. She didn’t fight his embrace; instead, she leaned into him and let her tears fall silently on his shoulder.

“How did this happen? How, by all the Faces, did you fail me, my son?”

Raiden stiffened, and before Shade could even register what was happening, he’d shoved her behind him. “You,” he growled, shielding her from the newcomer as if she were a helpless maiden. “You lying bastard!”

A priest with flaming red hair stood not far from them. Frowning, he glanced at what she had wrought, looking displeased. Shade recognized him – the priest who’d chased them from Dante’s villa. A ruby hung on his chest. A twin to the one Raiden had worn. Even from a distance, she could feel its dark energy. The energy of the Unseen, the same as she’d felt in the Bastion. Eyes narrowed, she stayed behind Raiden, her hand tightening on the hilt of her lone blade.

“You’ve ruined everything, you fool,” the priest said, his eyes on Raiden alone. “You let the witch succeed in her folly, and now all of Malavita will suffer.”

“You’re wrong!” Raiden slashed the air with his hand. “I don’t believe your lies any longer, Jacobis. Look around you! Shade’s Veil is strong, stronger and brighter than anything I’ve seen in this shattered land.”

The brother turned a disdainful gaze on Shade, though it felt as if he looked right through her. “She’s blinded you with her charms and dragged you into sin.” His nostrils flared and his lip curled. “I can smell the stink of lust on you. I should never have entrusted my amulet to such a weak-souled messenger. Now, I have no choice but to destroy you both, and declare this Veil an abomination. The Brotherhood will deal with it in time. Dismantling a Veil is far easier than raising one.”

“If you could destroy me, brother,” Shade said, “you would have by now.”

Brother Jacobis smiled and shook his head. “Silly woman, I have never tried to destroy you. My brethren might have, but not I. Your obsidian blades do not frighten me; you play with forces you barely understand. In spite of all this.” And he waved a dismissive hand to encompass her fledgling Veil. “You are weak, damaged. A mistake I will correct for the good of my land.”

A mistake? Shade’s breath grew hoarse in her lungs. She tried to stoke rage at his words, but her limbs trembled. She had no strength. Grief had wrung her dry, and she was empty of magic. And the Veil. She had raised it, yes, but it hadn’t kept the beasts away. She had wavered at the peak of her calling. The connection she’d felt to it suddenly became a dissonance. Even with the Veil a reality around them, nevertheless, she asked herself: had she failed?

As if clouds had blotted out the sun, darkness settled over them. Shadows. The sun shone above the Veil, but the Veil itself swirled with a strange blackness. Shade felt a stab of pain in her belly and groaned. She recognized this power; her Veil was blighted. Was he right? Was her Veil an abomination? She had sacrificed Angelo for this, and Matteo had given his life to protect her when she should have been strong enough to protect them both.

“Stop, don’t give into it.” Raiden shook her, dragging her back from the brink of despair. He stared into her eyes. “It’s his amulet,” he whispered. “Can’t you see how it pulses? He’s trying to trick you. Don’t let him. We can fight him. Together.”

“No, we can’t fight him.” The tears slid down her cheeks, and she felt her spirit slipping toward despair once more. She was too weak to fight and it had all been for nothing. She had failed. The priest would kill her, kill Raiden. Matteo would have died in vain. Angelo’s sacrifice would come to naught. The Bastion would fall. The Unseen would break free from their prison, but by then the Veils would be corrupted, twisted beasts would hold dominion over men. All would be lost. Forever…

“We can’t fight them!” Shade cried, the vision of the future crystallizing into unavoidable certainty. Desperate sobs wrung from her. “I can’t fight them!”

“You don’t have to.”

A river of light split the earth in front of them. It drove back the shadows. Brother Jacobis cursed and fell back, shielding his face from the brilliance. Through her tears, Shade watched men emerge from the effulgence. They faced the priest and stood like a shield before her. She knew them. Knew them all. Her friends…

“Dante,” she whispered, shocked. Was she dreaming this?

He turned toward her, his eyes gleaming in the strange light he seemed to have brought with him. Cyril and the boys stood alongside him, and Korin Illario of all people. Now she knew it wasn’t a dream. If she was going to dream a miracle, he wouldn’t be part of it.

Dante drew his sapphire blades. “We can fight for you.”

Manoli and Petra flashed her matching grins, and Cyril gave her a two-fingered salute. “Stay behind the Imperial, little swallow. We’ll deal with this scum.”

“Cyril,” she said numbly. How were they here?

“You caught Shade in a moment of vulnerability, priest,” Dante said. “But you forgot she has powerful friends. Leave now and return to your master. Tell Arturious he failed to stop the inevitable. We have raised our Veil, and the Brotherhood can’t do a thing about it.”

Dante’s words rang across the plateau, but Jacobis merely sneered, entirely unimpressed.

“Do you think that pompous clown is my master?” He drew his long, ruby blade, unconcerned at being surrounded and outnumbered. “I serve a higher power. The Four Faces and the Hidden guide me in all I do.”

“No.” Shade pulled away from Raiden. Strength had returned to her limbs with her friends’ arrival. Her despair lifted, even when her eyes fell on Matteo’s still form. Rage filled her, growing from her gut like a thorn bush. The red priest had killed him, not Raiden Mad. “You serve evil,” she spat. “Your masters are the Unseen. You are a pawn, nothing more.”

Rage distorted Jacobis’ face. He lifted his blade, his robes billowing. The fabric was slashed for easy access to his skin below, but he made no move to draw blood. Instead, the amulet on his chest began to gleam. Shade stiffened. Jacobis’ magic was not born of his blood.

“I serve all the Faces of God!” he screamed at her. The amulet began to pulse with a black light. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. “You are an abomination, a whore, and a blight upon the land!”

The dark power grew, the shadows strengthened.

“Strike him down!” cried Korin. “Don’t let his power build!”

Dante stepped in front of Shade and unleashed his magic against the mad priest. Cyril and the cousins added their power, striking him simultaneously. Fire and earth, wind and water ripped at him, but Jacobis stood in the maelstrom, unaffected. Laughter rumbled from him. He seemed to grow under the attacks, absorbing the power as it struck him. The amulet created a dark aura around him, and it drew energy from Dante and the others. Manoli cried out a second before Petra screamed. They both dropped to the ground as if felled by unseen weapons.

Struck down, as Matteo had been struck down…

The thorny rage tangled around her heart, piercing deep. Shade grasped the bone handle of her obsidian blade and watched Cyril fall, as well. Dante went to his knees, leaving only Korin still standing. The river of light had faded beneath them, and the old man looked frail. Yet he raised his hands anyway. Blue fire sprang from him, streaking toward the priest.

Shade gasped. Sicani magic!

Hope rose in her. Would it be enough?

The priest’s laughter turned wild. Korin’s attack struck the aura around him and dissipated like fog before sunlight. Korin swayed, his eyes wide in disbelief. Jacobis raised his hand disdainfully and gestured as if flicking a fly away. Korin was lifted and tossed aside.

A shout tore from Dante and he called more magic. His attack sent Jacobis back a few steps, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. Face ecstatic, Jacobis strode toward them, hands raised.

Beside her, Raiden moved. He stooped to grab his sword and leaped across the ground toward the priest. Shade knew it would be useless; she’d already seen that priest best Raiden in a fight. And now he was filled with dark power. She stumbled to where the Quattro Canto lay contentedly in its setting of light, and retrieved the blade she’d dropped. There was only one power which might stop him now.

It was already rising within her, the Wild Power. Emotion drove it, rage and despair. And now desperation. She remembered this power, the danger of it and its vast potential. The obsidian, born from the deepest fires of the earth itself, held within it a dangerous flaw. A wildness that could change the world or destroy it. An elemental power stronger than any other. Beyond earth, fire, wind, water, and spirit. A Sixth Face.

As Raiden fought fruitlessly to strike down Jacobis, Shade called upon the Wild Power, letting it fill her until she thought she might burst. The world trembled beneath her. She felt a thousand possibilities stretch in all directions. She had only to choose the one she wanted, and the world would realign itself to suit her.

The ruby priest laughed contemptuously, his arms spread wide, dark energy bursting from the amulet he wore. Raiden was on the ground, struggling to rise. Shade felt the Unseen’s blighted power descend upon her, unafraid. She knew the path she desired. She would set things right. Or the world would die with her…

The world trembled, shifted. Shade unleashed the Wild Power. Time flowed backward, turned sideways…

…she was floating on a pillar of energy, her feet no longer touching the ground. Raiden was rushing toward her, a dark amulet hanging around his neck. He was Death. His sword flashed in a wide, silver arc. Unstoppable.

Shade watched as Matteo stepped in front of her, shielding her, aware of every moment, every movement. Raiden’s sword streaked toward him–

Set it right…

And it was not Matteo before her with his dark hair and gleaming tattoos, but a man in black robes. A man with red hair smoothed against his scalp in a severe braid.

Jacobis. The Unseen’s avatar.

Raiden’s sword cleaved into him, through him. Through the amulet. Blackness exploded from it, and the amulet Raiden wore shattered. His eyes grew wide, met hers – and the world vanished into black silence.

Shade felt herself falling, the Wild Power gone. Falling, falling. Terror pounded through her veins. She would shatter against the earth–

Someone caught her. A smile gleamed in the darkness. Sunlight through the clouds. Her heart lurched as green eyes ringed with blue met hers, and light flooded the world.

“Shade,” Matteo whispered. “I have you.”