Crowned (Beholder #4)(60)

Kade stepped forward. “Didn’t you hear our cries of joy? We’ll protect our king and his mate until the end.”

Amelia stood at Kade’s side, her face streaked with tears. She called to me across the meadow. “Kade told me what happened. I didn’t know what I was doing, Elea.” Her bronze robes were torn at the neckline. “We’ll fight for you now. I swear!”

Rowan shook his head. “Stay where you are, all of you. Elea and I will end this. No bloodshed.”

The Lady grinned. “I knew you didn’t want a fight. You’re summoning hybrid power for another reason..”

“They’re trying to heal the gateways for us,” said the Sire. “But that’s not how we want it done. You’d be too dangerous afterwards. Hybrid power always corrupts.”

In other words, they fear having a couple around who was stronger than they were. More hybrid energy built up in every corner of my being. My parents would have to learn to live with disappointment. Soon, there would be a stronger pair of mages in this world.

“Please, just sacrifice yourself willingly.” The Lady raised her arm, and the Sword of Theodora flew into her palm. “Allow me to ease your passing. I’ll deliver the blow myself, that’s a great honor for you.”

“We’re not going to heal the gateways,” I said.

“Good.” The Sire’s face turned into a mask of calm once more. “Go to your mother now.”

“We’re going to blow them apart, just like we did to the Skullock Passage.”

“What?” The Sire’s normally calm face twitched with rage. “You can’t mean that. This empire is ours.”

“Your empire is over,” I said. “Welcome to the end of the Meadow of Many gateways.”

Viktor waved to me from the spot with his army. “So you’re gifting me this realm? Thank you.”

I knew what my brother meant. By closing the gateways, I’d lock my parents here, right where he could kill them. After that, Viktor would rule this world.

But I didn’t have time right now to worry about Viktor and his scheming. My parents had rallied together. Standing side by side, they called out the same word in unison.

“Attack!”

The armies of black knights and leather clad warriors raced toward us. The ground rumbled with their footfalls. One again, the skies darkened with airborne fighters. I turned to Rowan. An eerie sense of calm washed over me. My body felt so crammed with power, it seemed ready to burst.

“Are you ready, my mate?” I asked.

Rowan nodded. “Let’s send these armies back to the Eternal Lands.”

We didn’t need to speak an incantation. Our intention was enough for the hybrid magick. All of a sudden, purple cords wound down our arms. The ropes gleamed with magick and power, and they wanted to be set loose. Like the pull of a magnet, the ethereal ropes summoned us to stop pressing our palms together and instead face out toward the oncoming army.

We weren’t so much casting a spell as having a conversation with magick.

Rowan and I both turned to face the oncoming forces.

The cords of light and power burst forth from our arms, multiplying as they shot out across the open meadow. From the corner of my eye, I saw Petra screaming at my Necromancers, urging them to join the battle. None of my people moved into the fray.

My people? Since when did I think of them as this?

The answer appeared in a flash. The Necromancers became mine once they decided to fight for me. I would never back down from an ally. After all, I was casting this hybrid spell to keep faith with a pair of tricksters. I could do no less than for my fellow mages.

The magickal ropes tied themselves around every warrior. Cords wound around waists of fighters. More entangled about the legs of horses. Thousands shot into the sky, tying up the wings of flying creatures. Others bound the hands and feet of the Sire and Lady.

Meanwhile, the palace mages had cast spells to contain the Changed Ones. Kade was standing around idle; he’d ordered the Caster mages to help. Now, all the Changed ones were restrained in a great Orb of Holding. It essentially looked like a great glass container that kept them all in place.

Good work, Kade.

Without words, the hybrid magick told me that it had everyone from the Eternal Lands in its grasp. I turned to Rowan. “Do you sense it?” I didn’t need to day that it was the fact that the magick was ready to send everyone back. Rowan could hopefully sense it as well as I did.

Rowan nodded. “It’s time they went home.”

After that, the magick knew exactly what Rowan and I wanted. Instantly, the violet cords snapped loose from our arms. After that, the free ends sped into different gateways, lighting them up with violet brightness. Moving in sync, the magickal ropes yanked the warriors through the arches. As each fighter passed on, the gateways flared with purple light.

My heart soared. The hybrid magick was working. Soon, the only people left on the meadow would be the Caster and Necromancer armies. The Changed Ones were still secure inside the Orb of Holding. Petra kept screaming at my people, but they weren’t heeding her, despite the fact that her arm blazed with Necromancer power, ready to cast a spell. That didn’t bode well.

I focused on my hybrid magick. “Go after Petra.” The cords of power didn’t respond.

Rowan added his voice into the mix. “Get rid of that Mother Superior.”