Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,100

to one of the metal columns that kept the lifts in place.

More rock fell down onto where I’d been standing only moments ago, and the lift itself was ripped apart and sent plummeting down the shaft. I held on to the column, my air magic keeping me in place in the darkness, and looked up to see three faces above me looking down. I activated my fire magic, using night vision to look up at them. They were only forty feet above my head, and I made out their faces easily. Two of the three belonged to the Furies—Alecto and Megaera—and the third was a shadow elf, his face longer than Tarron’s, with a missing ear and horrific scarring over one side of his face, as if someone had held it to a white-hot plate and burned it away.

“You think he’s dead?” one of them asked.

“Probably,” another one said as I moved across the metal beam that connected the columns to the wall of the lift shaft. A light came down from above, and one of them called out my name as I sank into my shadow realm.

I immediately spotted the light I needed to move toward and headed in that direction as the wraith flittered around inside the darkness. I could feel its need—its need to eat and grow powerful.

“Will protect you,” it said in the darkness.

I exited the shadow realm behind the two Furies and the shadow elf, all three of whom were still looking over the edge of the tunnel.

I drove a blade of lightning into the back of Alecto and removed her head as she fell forward into the shaft.

The shadow elf turned toward me first, a hatchet in one hand and sword in the other. I hit him with a sphere of air that threw him a few dozen feet back, where he connected with a wall and slid down it, motionless. Shadows leaped out around him, dragging him under to be devoured by the wraith.

“You bastard,” Megaera screamed and leaped at me. I moved aside and blocked her attack, kicking out the back of her knee and dropping a ball of flame onto her. She rolled aside, almost falling over the edge of the tunnel, and got back to her feet as the ball of flame detonated and spread flames out toward her.

Megaera dived over the flames toward me, her clothes catching fire in the process, and cut me across the cheek with a silver dagger that caused me to gasp in pain.

“I’m going to have your eyes,” Megaera screamed and lunged again.

I stepped aside, created my battle-ax soul weapon, and drove it into her chest. She gasped and blinked at me as I removed the soul weapon, leaving no mark, and swung it up over my head to bury it in her skull.

She pitched forward onto the dirt, and I reached out with my necromancy, sensing for any traps that might have been laid for anyone trying such a thing but finding none, and I claimed her soul.

I immediately dropped to my knees as Megaera’s entire life flashed through my mind. Every cruel, awful, evil act relived as if it were me carrying it out. I didn’t like to take the souls of those who had carried out evil acts, as it did little but hurt my psyche, but I needed information, and I needed it a lot quicker than I could get it through any other means.

When the visions subsided and the death toll of Megaera’s life had ended, I saw the bodies left in the wake of the Furies. Erebus had died at their hand inside the citadel. Erebus, who had given part of his soul to be placed inside of me and bond with my magic—who had helped me, taught me, and been someone I’d called a friend. Erebus’s spirit had vanished once my true power had unlocked on Mount Hood what felt like a lifetime ago, but I’d always hoped I’d be able to find the man and say thank you. Now that wouldn’t be possible. For that, I wished I’d taken longer to end their lives.

I blinked and found myself on my hands and knees, sucking in air. I coughed and sputtered and spat a nasty taste out of my mouth. Necromancy was never the most fun thing to do when dealing with the recently dead, and the more powerful my victim, the worse it was for me.

Megaera and the other Furies had been involved in the torture