“Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do,” she said, the pressure of her terrible voice sending Gaius to his knees.
He bowed his head, his chin still aching and his flesh beginning to singe. “Forgive me, but wouldn’t it be better to send your minions to battle her?” he suggested softly. “Eventually, she’ll be overwhelmed to the point you can defeat her.”
The ground split open beside them, the stench of sulfur filling the air. “Are you implying I can’t defeat her?”
He wisely kept his head lowered. “She did trap you here.”
“Now I am the Gemini,” she raged, seeming to forget the transformation hadn’t been completed. “I am unstoppable.”
“Let your servants sacrifice themselves,” he continued to provoke, pressing at her weakest point. Her arrogance. “After the goddess is destroyed and you’ve taken over the world, you can write the histories to speak of your glorious defeat of the Phoenix.” He glanced up to witness the veins of crimson that crawled beneath the pale skin of the Dark Lord. As if her blood flowed with fire. “Who will care if it’s the truth or not?”
“I will know.”
With a sharp motion, the Dark Lord lifted her hand and pointed it toward a spot just over Gaius’s head. An earthquake shook the ground beneath him, widening the split until Gaius was forced to scramble backward.
“What are you doing?”
The Dark Lord continued to allow her power to build until Gaius was certain he would be crushed by the sheer force.
“When the goddess is destroyed it will be by my hand.”
“You’re going through?”
“No.” Reaching down, the Dark Lord grabbed Gaius by the hair, holding on tight enough to warn she wasn’t letting go. “We’re going through, Gaius.”
The heat of a thousand suns seemed to rush through him as he was jerked forward, shifting from one dimension to the next.
“Merde.”
At the rift
The cramped room in the basement of the abandoned warehouse had been made considerably larger by the simple process of knocking out walls and digging out the surrounding dirt so the warriors could position themselves for the upcoming battle.
And the battle was coming.
That was the one certain thing in a very uncertain world.
Despite the efforts of the Sylvermysts, as well as the exquisite Nefri, who had added her powers, the rift was widening with every passing minute, filling the air with the electric heaviness of a brewing thunderstorm.
Something was coming.
Something bad.
Standing on the fringes of the gathered crowd, Cassie ignored Caine’s low grumbling to study the human female who was the chalice for the Goddess of Light.
She wasn’t certain what she’d expected. Maybe a statuesque Amazon with a flaming sword riding on a chariot.
Instead, Abby Barlow was a slender female with rich, honey curls that framed her gamine face. Only the shocking blue eyes revealed she was anything other than mortal.
Dante, her vampire mate, on the other hand, was exactly what she’d expected.
Wearing black biker boots, faded denims, and a black leather jacket, he had a pale, aristocratic face and silver eyes that contrasted sharply with the shoulder-length black hair. With his loop earrings and massive sword, he looked like a pirate just waiting for an excuse to pillage.
The couple was standing closest to the Sylvermysts as they held the rift shut, with Styx and Salvatore standing beside them. Viper and the Ravens were stoically hovering at the sides.
The rest of the room was consumed by an odd combination of vampires, Weres, curs, fairies, imps, and a female Shallot that Viper watched with a blatant possession.
She had to be his mate.
Nothing else could explain that particular expression of exasperated concern.
The same expression was currently on Caine’s face as he battled between the urge to toss Cassie over his shoulder and take her away from the danger and the certain knowledge she would simply return the second his back was turned.
“You’re sure that’s the Phoenix?” she asked, hoping for a distraction.
He narrowed his gaze, not fooled for a minute. “So they say.”
“She doesn’t look like a powerful goddess.”
He lifted a brow, reaching to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. “I could point out that you don’t look like a prophet who holds the future of the world in your beautiful head.”
“This empty head, you mean,” she muttered, that cold ball of dread still lodged in the pit of her stomach. When she’d discovered that Styx was planning to bring the Phoenix to the rift to provoke the Dark Lord into the world, she’d insisted on coming along. Somehow she’d hoped being near the action would jiggle loose whatever was blocking her visions. So far, however, her efforts had been a big bust. “Let’s hope that Abby’s power hasn’t gone on vacation when she needs it most.”
Caine reached to wrap his arms around her as the ground trembled and the air filled with a choking heat. “You shouldn’t be here,” he growled in her ear.
“Hiding won’t protect me,” she reminded him, allowing him to keep her tucked tightly against him although her gaze remained on the rift. “Besides, if I have a vision we’ll need to share it with the others. I can’t do that locked in the cellars.”
A growl rumbled in his chest. “It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“No,” she softly agreed. “You don’t have to like it.”
The quakes intensified, buckling the ground beneath their feet and sending a shower of dust from the ceiling.
Whatever was coming was getting closer.
The demons around them tensed, and then as one they unsheathed, loaded, cocked, and aimed their various weapons as the air became too thick to breathe.
There was a moment, as if time was standing still.
Cassie pressed closer to Caine, taking comfort in his warm scent before she gently pulled out of his arms. The violence shimmering in the air would be calling to his wolf. She didn’t want him hesitating to take his more powerful form because of her.
There were more tremors and then a collective cry as the Sylvermysts abruptly collapsed in unconscious heaps. There was the sound of cursing from a tall, dark-haired vampire who grabbed the wilting Nefri in his arms and carried her to the back of the room, as well as a cry from Jaelyn as she rushed forward to kneel next to her Sylvermyst prince.
In the midst of the chaos, Abby stood without flinching as a soft glow began to pulse around her.