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Crouched under my shield, I glared up at Drakat, my gut churning with a lethal combination of anger and despair as she laughed.
"Come now, let's end this. Why die in pain, soaking in your own blood, when I can end it for you quickly and cleanly?”
"You can't get Doirsain by bloodright."
"Of course I can. All I have to do is kill all your heirs." She cupped her chin and tapped one dagger-shaped nail against her lips. "I think I'll start with your sister. Lena, was it? And if the stone doesn't come to me, I'll move on to your aunts and uncles, then your cousins." She gave me a sly grin. "Eventually, I'll come to the end of your clever little loophole and close it. Then the stone will be mine."
"Leave my family alone." My voice came out weak and breathy. I was losing ground fast.
Drakat strolled over and tapped a claw against my shield. Silver shot through its surface, and the tip of her claw burned black as she snatched her hand away. She hadn’t touched me, but the disruption in the flow felt like fiery sparks racing over my skin, and I groaned.
"Give me the stone," she said. "And I'll leave them out of it. You have my word."
"Which is worth what, exactly?" A flicker of movement from the window behind Drakat caught my eye, but I couldn't take my attention from the demon. It was all I could do to maintain my shield. If I let myself be distracted, I was dead.
Turn, traitorous bitch, and meet your doom. Sasha rose up behind Drakat, his rapidly increasing bulk quickly bringing him to twice her size. Without giving her a chance to respond, Sasha bathed the room in fire.
Screaming, Drakat crouched, her own shield forming in the blink of an eye, twice as thick as mine. The flames shed off of it like water, melting the tray and the exam table, thrumming against my own shield and sending waves of agony arching through me.
"Sasha, stop!" I screamed as my muscles seized.
The flames shut off, stopping the pain. I collapsed to the ground, blood matting my hair as I lay gasping, desperate to stay conscious.
Sasha stalked forward, circling Drakat like a wolf circles prey. Stay where you are, Char. This won't take long. His purple gaze roved over me, darkening to black as he took in the damage. Come out, Drakat. Let's see who wins this time.
Dropping her shield, Drakat lunged, her skin darkening, hardening into green-edged black scales. Horns sprouted from her forehead and huge bat-like wings unfolded from the top of her spine. Claws out, she howled her rage as she tackled him.
Oh goddess, this was going to be bad.
Demon and wyvern rolled across the floor, gouging and biting at each other. Sasha grabbed Drakat's forearm in his teeth, breathing fire around it until smoke coiled up and Drakat shrieked in pain. She punched down, catching Sasha in the throat, forcing him to release her, and the pair stumbled apart.
Get her in the circle, I thought to him, but looking down, I realized that Sasha's fire had dried the blood. Would it still hold as an anchor? I didn’t think so. Especially not as weak as I was.
This wasn't like a circle to keep out negative energy, where will alone was enough. This had to be strong enough to hold a demon, and to do that, it needed a fixative — something for the ley line energy to hold on to. Salt would work. Fresh blood was stronger.
I had neither.
With a cry, Drakat raked Sasha's chest with her claws, leaving four bloody tracks through his scales. Sasha reeled back, his tail thrashing as he struggled to catch his balance.
Rising on his hind-legs, he lifted his wings and spit fire, aiming to catch Drakat square in the face, but she was faster, raising a barrier to protect herself. In the same instant, she dropped, sweeping her leg out to knock Sasha off his feet.
He flapped his wings once, lifting himself above her and dropping to land on her shield. Bright lavender sparks shot from every claw crisscrossing the ward, creating a light show, but not burning through.
Drakat shot to her feet, pushing the shield up, and screaming curses as she launched Sasha into the air. The wyvern flipped over, wings at full stretch, keeping him aloft.
The door burst open and Cole stood in the archway, the light from the hall surrounding him in a hazy glow.
Drakat turned her head to look at the newcomer, and grinned.
"No!" I screamed.
She didn't even look at me. Green fire gathered in her palms and she released it as Cole clapped a hand over his wrist. A blue cube materialized around the demon, enclosing her as I had once contained Simon Blackwell. Even as he created her prison, he moved toward me, his eyes never leaving the enemy.
Her fire rebounded off the barrier, and Drakat struggled to reabsorb the energy without searing her brain. Jagged black cracks spread across the cube from two impact points. Drakat was trapped, but not for long.
I dropped my shield, gasping in relief as I let go of the line. "It won't last," I said, my voice so low I could barely hear it.
Get her out of here. Sasha drifted between me and Drakat, wings slowly flapping. I will guard your back.
Cole slipped his arms under mine and pulled. Black rushed in, narrowing my vision as agony ricocheted through my body.
Drakat pounded on the barrier once, twice. The third time, it shattered, the sharp report of breaking glass echoing through the room.
"Sasha, back up," Cole yelled, his hand covering Solcruth again. A wall sprang up from floor to ceiling, bisecting the room. It was transparent sapphire blue like the box, but thicker. The first one hadn't been strong enough, but Cole wouldn't make the same mistake twice, and I knew without being told he'd specified that demon strength would not be enough to breach this one. He, Sasha, and I were on one side, with Drakat on the other.
Looking at the wall, my heart sank. The room's only door was on Drakat's side.
Quiet fell, sudden and startling, as we stared through the blue at each other.
A scream and a crash from below pulled Drakat to the doorway. "That sounded a great deal like Ryleigh O'Connor." Blood dribbled down her chest where Sasha had taken a bite out of her shoulder, but her grin was maliciously victorious. "I hope you'll excuse me, but I need to greet my other guests."
She blurred into motion, her speed making it look like she vanished.
"Take the wall down, Cole. She'll kill them. We have to get down there."
"I can't. Solcruth makes things. He doesn't unmake them."
"Then ask him to make a door or something." I was trying to yell, but there wasn't enough strength left in me for volume. "We have to help them."
Covering the stone with his hand, Cole concentrated, and a door formed in the blue wall. I would have laughed if I'd had the energy. It was a solid wood door like you might find in any suburban home.
"Stay here." He pushed a slender wand-like rod into my hand and ran toward the sounds of fighting.
"Dammit, Cole!" I pushed against the floor, my hands slipping on the rough stone and sending a shard of agony through my left palm. I looked down and discovered I was still bleeding. Damn. How much blood does a witch's body have?
Right now, yours doesn't have enough. Listen to Cole. Stay here. Sasha leaned down and dropped the amethyst into my lap before disappearing through the door after Cole.
"Like hell I will." Slowly, carefully, I channeled ley line power through Doirsain. Relief flooded through me when it didn't hurt — though it buzzed and pulsed against my aura in a way I'd never experienced before. I picked up the stone and tucked it into my bra.
Pulling in more power, I used the magick to lift me to my feet and push my damaged body into a halting walk.
That did hurt, and I accidentally squeezed both hands tight against the pain, or tried to. My left hand refused to obey, and white-hot bolts of agony shot up my arm and into my shoulder. The rod flexed, extending from both sides of my right fist into a six-foot javelin. I stared at it, blinking.
I thought I lost this. How did Cole get it?
Shaking the thought away, I shifted the javelin to use as a walking staff. I limped through both doors and into the stairwell. Cries and bellows of rage drifted up from below. A feline scream of anger shocked through me, and I hesitated on the fourth step.
"How many creatures does Drakat have in here?" I wondered aloud as I continued down the spiral stairs, clinging to the rail for balance, my only strength coming to me through Doirsain's amplification. I rested the butt of the javelin on the step, using it as a makeshift crutch, and continued down.
Reaching the bottom, I stumbled into the hall. A shadow danced down the wall at the far end, followed quickly by an imp crashing into the stone. At least now I knew for sure where the fight was. I lurched into motion, moving as fast as Doirsain's power running through me would allow, the spear tapping on the tiles like a metronome.
Leave her alone!
Sasha's broadcast thought was as good as a shout, followed by a crunch and a thud as something hit the wall hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.
"Sasha!" Cole's hoarse shout raised the fine hair on the back of my neck and I broke into a shambling run, leaning on the spear to steady myself. Pain coursed through me, the dark ring around the edge of my vision seeping wider with every step.
I turned the corner and staggered to a halt. Sasha lay crumpled in a corner. Brulg was leading a pack of three imps, holding their own against a leopard, a raven and a merlin. As I watched, the raven flew into the kitchen, returning seconds later with a butcher knife it his talons. He dropped it on one of the imps, cawing in triumph as it sliced cleanly through the creature’s arm. Blood sprayed as the imp ran, howling, out of sight into the front of the building.
The falcon swooped down, harrying another of the imps while evading his clumsy attempts to smack her out of the air. The little monster tripped over his own feet, falling into Brulg's legs, and she kicked him away.
It was all the distraction the leopard needed. She pounced, gripping the big imp's throat and riding her to the floor.
An imp leaped into the air, smacking the raven to the ground as the leopard whipped around, her blood-chilling scream curdling the air. Teeth and claws ready, she leaped to meet the imp who was about to stomp on Nate.
Cole stood between Drakat and Ryleigh, a glowing round shield in one hand and what might have been a gun from a science fiction movie in the other. He squeezed off a round and silver light flared from the barrel.
With demonic speed, Drakat turned sideways, but she wasn't quite fast enough, and the missile grazed a bloody track along her ribs. Drakat swung back, lashing out to smash Cole's shield into his body, flinging him into the air. He crashed into the wall with a sickening thud, sliding bonelessly to the floor.
Drakat laughed as she turned to Ryleigh. "Give it to me, and I will give you a quick death."
I pulled the javelin back as I'd seen someone do in the movies once. "Goddess, guide my blade," I whispered. Calling a thread of power through Doirsain, I threw the spear with the last of my fading strength, my momentum carrying me to the floor as I released the weapon.
Drakat's scream of agony scraped against my torn body, threatening to explode my eardrums. I looked, and disappointment flooded over me. My aim was off. Instead of striking her through the chest, the javelin was sticking out of her shoulder.
I watched in horror as she pushed the spear the rest of the way through, letting it clatter to the floor, brackish with her blood.
"I will take care of you later," she hissed at me. “First, I will show this witch the price of rebellion.” Focusing on Ryleigh, she took one halting step, and then another. Ryleigh filled her hands with ley line energy, the dancing flames coalescing in her palms until she threw it at Drakat.
The demon flicked each volley aside as if they were playing dodge ball.
And she was winning.
In two steps, she had Ryleigh pinned to the wall, her hands around the witch's neck. "Give it to me, now," she yelled.
The snake slithered out of Ryleigh's pocket, growing as it came until it was half again Drakat's lean height. "She cannot give you what she does not own," Boros said, his words a hiss on the sudden silence. "But I can."
Faster than sight, the ouroboros struck, biting down on Drakat's arm with grim intent. For a second, nothing happened.
Drakat laughed, the sound changing to a horrified gurgle as she aged. Her skin sagged into wrinkled folds as her knees bent, their youthful strength sapped by her suddenly advanced years.
The demon raked at Boros' snout, desperate to pry him loose, but he didn't seem to notice. He grew to three times her height, lifting her off the floor by her arm, taking away any leverage she might have had.
And still she aged, her face going pale and sinking in on itself. Drakat’s efforts to free herself slowed, her wizened hands pushing ineffectually against Boros’s grip. Pitiful cries faded to a mumbling groan as her teeth fell out one by one. Her hair thinned, falling out in clumps until she was bald.
She moaned, and her head lolled to the side. "I am immortal. You cannot age me to death as you would a human."
"Not immortal." It wasn't Boros speaking. His mouth was still clamped around Drakat's arm. The voice was medium tone, androgynous, and I recognized it as Caraigama's. "No being but the divine is immortal. You are a member of a very long-lived species, but you age and die like all the rest, only slower."
"I was there when we fought against our captivity," Drakat panted, her words slurring. "The Morningstar knows my name. I was at his side before the great migration. I am older and more powerful than you know. You will pay for this indignity when I defeat you."
"I knew you before the fall, and I know you now, Drakatana Eternia Voracine,” Caraigama replied. “You were a child then, and you have gained no wisdom in all this time. You shall die today, as you should have then. It is just."
"Who are you?" Drakat gasped, twisting painfully to look up at Boros. His black eyes held no expression, and she recoiled, scrabbling at his snout with her free hand.
He didn't respond, and she shook, her body shriveling, the flesh melting away until the outline of her bones showed and the skin flaked, falling away around her still living eyes.
Her fingers and toes crumbled; the bone sloughing away in tiny grains, like sand piling on the floor. The malevolent glow of her eyes fastened on me as she disintegrated, holding my gaze until, at last, her light flickered and went out.
When there was too little left to hold on to, Boros shook his head, letting the last bits of her and her tattered clothing fall to the ground.
Darkness crowded my vision and my heart slowed, its steady beat faltering. I drew in a ragged breath, concentrating hard to push it back out and make room for another. Weariness flooded me from my core outward as Doirsain loosened her hold.
“Help her, Boros,” Ryleigh pleaded.
Through a haze, I watched Boros turn his attention to me, tilting his serpent's head to the side as if listening. "Why?" he asked.
“Because I ask it, and it is right.” Ryleigh said. “She came here to save me, risked everything just because my mother asked her to. She shouldn’t have to pay for her faithfulness with her life.
Boros studied her silently, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. “You are different than any being we have ever known. Perhaps if...”
He wouldn’t help. Not if it meant being bound again. I accepted this and the coming darkness. All I wanted at that moment was to rest, and if sleep lasted forever, I didn’t care.
“I was wrong. There is one, at least, who is true, and she stands before us. We are bound, and I am content.” Caraigama’s voice echoed in the stone room, refracting like light from the walls. “Do as the bearer asks.”
"Very well." Boros slithered toward me, his mouth gaping. Someone screamed, but I was so cold. I couldn't move.
His mouth closed around me. His fangs slid into my chest and the light went out.
