blind and every nerve ending screamed as ice replaced blood and tissue. I tried to move and couldn’t. I couldn’t even speak, and my mind felt dangerously sluggish.
She did not just flash-freeze us! my other half thought.
She’d been quiet for a while, but now she was back, and her incredulous rage felt like a tiny fire within.
Bitch sure did, I thought hazily. Gonna stand for that?
No we are not, she replied, and detonated with power.
Morana didn’t know it, but she had made a critical error. Ice was made of water, and water was my—our—specialty.
Ice smashed within and without. Agony dropped me to my knees, but I was moving again, and after blinks that felt like someone held a blowtorch to my eyes, I could see again. Piles of ice shards were now at my feet, glittering much like Morana’s stunning wings had.
Ian and Ashael appeared before my next blink. Ian’s aura was so charged with power that being near him hurt, and Ashael’s shadows billowed like dark thunderclouds behind him.
“Are you hurt?” Ian asked, grabbing me.
Yes. All over, and his aura stabbing the air like thousands of tiny knives wasn’t helping.
“No.” My voice was raspy. Vocal cords must still be in the process of healing. “Morana?”
Ian and Ashael blocked most of my view. Still, the supernatural cuffs sliding back into my skin seemed to indicate that she was now gone.
“Vanished.” Ian’s tone turned savage. “Don’t know where to. Ashael felt the ice blast the instant before it hit, and teleported us away.”
“Smart,” I murmured.
“Wrong because it left you helpless,” Ian countered, with a furious glance at Ashael.
“Clearly not,” Ashael responded, with a meaningful glance at the melting ice around me. “Besides, you and I becoming popsicles like those two would not have helped Veritas, either.”
Those two? I turned around, and then almost slipped on the wet floor as I staggered toward Marie, who was frozen solid inside a thick pillar of ice.
Ian caught me, holding me against him. “Take a moment first. You’ll be stronger for it.”
I sagged against him, letting my body catch up to my mind. Being a vampire, it didn’t take long. Still, I didn’t move away. Even the stabbing force of Ian’s aura wasn’t enough to make me want to leave him as I focused my power on Marie first, decimating the ice within her and around her.
She came to with a gasp that immediately turned into an impressive curse in Creole. Then, Marie sliced her finger on a hidden razor in her ring. At once, more Remnants tore into the room with the force of a tornado. They skipped over Ian and Ashael to rush through the house, obviously seeking out Morana.
“She iced us and left,” I said.
Marie flung her hands out. Even more Remnants appeared before vanishing in a rush through walls and doors.
“They’ll search the city in case she didn’t get far,” Marie said in a crisp voice. “If she’s here, they’ll find her.” Then, she turned to Ian and Ashael. “Which one of you freed us?”
“Neither,” Ian said, kissing the top of my head.
Marie gave me a raking look, and then pointed at Jacques. “If you would?”
“Of course,” I said, and ripped away the ice that both trapped Jacques on the outside and froze him within.
Her gaze narrowed as she watched. Seeing it, I realized her reason for asking me had been twofold: to get her butler free and to see my abilities in action. Now she knew that I could decimate a Jacques-sized ice block and unfreeze a person with my mind alone. Maybe I should’ve waved my arms around and made up a fake magic chant first.
“My queen!” Jacques said, rushing to Marie as soon as his limbs worked again.
She let him kiss her hand, and then said, “Gather my lieutenants and bring them here, Jacques. We are at war.”
He left. Marie and I faced each other across her living room. Morana hadn’t stopped at turning us into ice sculptures. She’d also iced the entire house and exterior gardens, too.
“Thank you,” I said very quietly to Marie.
The look she gave me was harder than the ice that now blanketed every centimeter of her home.
“My decision to war with Morana and her allies has nothing to do with you. If I refuse to trust vampires with my people’s liberty, I certainly won’t trust an egotistical god who intends to murder millions simply because they’re an inconvenience.”
Not a friendly alliance, but the ghoul race would now fight against Morana, Phanes, and Ruaumoko.