stood and kicked Kane’s limp body. He smirked, and everything in me froze. The very air hung in chilly silence.
“Your turn to bleed,” he said, waggling his knife.
“No.” One of the most assertive things I ever said, because in that moment I understood I had a few choices.
I could do nothing. Simply let Darryl slice my throat and use me to open some mystical door to another dimension.
Die without a fight?
I’d rather smite these assholes using my magic. I didn’t figure I needed to kill them all, just their demon-possessed leaders. That was probably the most sensible course since the portal would remain closed.
On the other hand, the peeved minions would probably kill me. Possibly my kids, too. And for what?
To prevent the Orgh’kks from getting their hands on some magic? Why should I care?
It was as if my grandmother suddenly stood beside me and every single story she’d ever told me merged into one. I finally understood and said slowly, “The Maed’doulain’a were the ones who took away your magic. Locked it away.” They used their innate Earth magic to protect against the invaders.
“Meddling bastards,” was the sneered reply.
“Only because you harmed my world.” I could suddenly see it, see how the original seventeen fled a dying world by coming into mine, bringing their magic and violence.
“They had no right to hide the source of our power.”
A secret my family guarded for centuries until I failed.
And now, because of my inability to see before now, I’d die.
Unless…
“What if I cooperated?” I said, eyeing the illuminated sigil. “You don’t have to kill me to open a gateway to that other world.”
“But killing you is the fun part. I can’t wait to taste your blood.”
I’d had just about enough of psycho Darryl. My words like icy daggers, I said, “You want magic. I’ll give you magic.” Unlike the eleven, I didn’t need blood or the shape on the ground.
I spoke in words I didn’t understand but that thundered.
The world disappeared in a blaze of white light. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes. Behind the lids I could see the outline of two doors. One a tiny ragged tear barely patched together. I was more interested in the full portal covered in sigils. Warnings. So many cautions that I ignored.
It called to me. Begged me to open it. I threw cold, arctic power at it, trying to slice open that spot between the worlds. The magic hit the door and dispersed against it with a discordant squeal that made the world scream. I strained the very bounds of strength trying to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
I heard a voice shouting, “She’s trying to open the full gate.”
“No, she can’t.”
“Don’t let her.”
“We can only contain a small piece.”
Small piece of what? I wondered.
“She’ll destroy us all.”
Would I? Why should I care when they were all willing to sacrifice me?
I eyed the portal and realized there was a lock in the center of it.
Guess who was the key?
32
The millisecond I stuffed my spirit into that lock, I realized I might have erred.
For one, there was a reason they’d carved a tiny door. Something waited on the other side, and when the portal opened, it blew past me in a fury.
I could only watch as the magical storm I’d unleashed shot off in different directions, seemingly random until I realized some of the glowing people got brighter.
As if a beacon, the furious spirit went after the brightest of the Orgh’kks, buffeting them, scouring the glow from their flesh and drawing yelps. It was hard to feel anything but sympathy; after all, the Orgh’kks chose to wear the mud containing the decaying remains of an angry spirit.
It was amazing how much I understood too late.
The Orgh’kks never had magic of their own. They’d stolen it by creating a small portal to another other dimension. Somehow, they trapped a piece, the equivalent of a human limb, from a being of power, a portion of it, anyhow. Used it to give them magic.
The original seventeen fled their world, and, when Earth’s magic eluded them, sought a new source of power. They found it and caused trouble, enough that my ancestors slammed the door shut to their magic, cutting off the source. The part they’d stolen, became inert and was hidden in the lake by my ancestors, waiting for the day when the portal opened again and it could be reunited with the rest of itself.
What the Orgh’kks didn’t count on? The being noticed