I froze. Shouldn’t he be in awe of my amazing Chthonic powers?
“Sabina?” Rhea called. Her voice was muted because of the veil of fog, but I heard her.
“No!” Tristan yelled. “You cannot help her. She has to do this on her own.”
I frowned at him. What was I missing? Surely he didn’t expect me to just stand there and let the undead feast on my brain.
Another Revenant began a shambling attack. This dude wore a dusty black gown with a white collar.
“Oh, come on!” I yelled. “A f**king priest? Really?”
I might not be a mortal and I might not worship the same god as the sons of Adam, but even I knew killing a man of the cloth was bad juju. I paused, looking around the circle as something Nyx said the other night flashed into my head. She’d said these grounds had once been owned by the church and served as a hospital for the aged and infirm. So basically, I was fighting a zombie horde of priests, nuns, and f**king invalids.
I gritted my teeth and shot a death glare at my father. Luckily for him, I had enough control over my powers now that my anger didn’t manifest as an actual death ray; otherwise he’d be toast. “You want me to kill a bunch of devout do-gooders?”
Tristan cocked a brow. “Who asked you to kill them?”
There it was. Everything clicked. Somehow I had to figure out how to take control of them and send them back to eternal slumbers without rekilling them… or becoming an all-you-can-eat brain buffet.
I took the gun and fired several rounds into the ground at the feet of the zombie priest and a few others who looked like they were about to make a move. The noise and the muzzle’s flash had them cowering back into formation.
Good, I needed time to think.
I knew a couple of things about Revenants. You had to cut off their heads to stop them. They were afraid of fire. And, if you were the one lucky enough to summon them, you could command them at your will.
That last part meant that Tristan was currently controlling everything these guys did. I frowned and sucked on my teeth as I considered my options. I sent out an experimental stream of Chthonic magic—not a zap, but a gentler tendril of energy. Maybe if I could interrupt Tristan’s power over the Revenants, I could wrest control from him.
The feelers spread out through the graveyard. It wove over headstones and around statues. Sunk low into the earth, combing the soil for the roots of his control. I closed my eyes to focus on the feedback. Earthworms wriggled against the energy as it crawled past them. I smelled rich, fallow soil fertilized with the remains of so many bodies. My power crawled under the feet of the Revenants, seeking the magical source. And there, finally, throbbing under Tristan’s feet was a ball of bright light buried deep in the earth.
The instant my powers touched the sphere of energy, a painful zap zinged back through the ground and hit me like a bolt of lightning. Stars danced in my vision. My teeth rattled in my head. I groaned and shook myself. Time to try again.
On the periphery of my consciousness, I felt Tristan staring at me. Could feel his hold on his powers and his surprise that I’d figured out the trick.
This time, I was braced for the counterattack. I absorbed the pain and used it to fuel my spell. The tendrils of my dark energy curled around Tristan’s spell and hung on tight. Now I could feel Tristan’s emotions as he struggled to maintain hold on his own powers.
The Revenants started moaning again, this time in confusion. I dug down deep, calling on all my reserves to destroy Tristan’s hold on the Revenants. My left shoulder throbbed. I ignored it. I already knew I was in trouble without the physical warning.
The spell wouldn’t budge. I put everything I had into it, but Tristan’s power was too strong.
Blood.
The single word echoed through my head like a whisper. I paused. Was that the key? I knew from past experience that blood amplified a spell. But could it also help overcome another Chthonic’s magic?
I shrugged. What the hell? It certainly couldn’t hurt at this point.
Without further hesitation, I bit into my wrist and held my trembling hand over the earth. The instant my blood hit the soil, the ground shifted and roiled. It forged a deep furrow under the dirt as it sought the target. The effect was like throwing water on a grease fire. My power flared up, engulfing Tristan’s spell in flames. The earth under my father buckled and he fell to the ground in a lump.
The instant the spell was broken, my eyes flew open. I watched Tristan fall. The instant he hit the dirt, the fog surrounding the graveyard disappeared. Adam, Rhea, and Nyx all stood on the other side of the wall, looking pale and worried. “Tristan!” Nyx called, moving toward the gate.
“No,” he called. “I’m… I’m okay.”
“Sabina?” Adam shouted.
“I’m fine! Stay back.” He looked unconvinced, but I didn’t have time to explain. I also didn’t have time for a victory dance. Because the zombies were suddenly on the move. Toward me. With their arms outstretched and their jaws gaping and hungry.
Despite the magical fireworks they’d just witnessed, they stared at me with dead eyes. I swallowed hard against the pressure rising in my throat. When I raised them, my hands trembled from the excess of power. “Go back to your graves. Your work here is done.”
A couple of the Revenants blinked, but none of them stopped. Frowning, I tried again, raising my voice. “I said, go back to your graves. Now!”
Again, nothing. They moved closer. The fetid stench of their coffin cologne made me gag.
“Sabina,” Tristan called. He still lay on the ground. A grimace of pain contorted his face and his hand cupped his right ankle. For a moment, guilt cramped my stomach. Had I been too rough with my spell?
I shrugged off the guilt. He deserved it for the shit he’d pulled.
“What?” I called, my eyes on the zombies. Four feet now.
“You forgot to take control of them.”
“Oh shit,” I squeaked. In a flash, I whipped my powers back up and used them to surround the horde. I tried to recall the invocation I’d used the last time I’d summoned Revenants in the graveyard in New Orleans. “Sprits of the Loa, Hekate, Great Mother Lilith, I summon and invoke thee to send these restless spirits back to their graves!”
The air popped. Thoughts that were not my own flooded my brain—memories combined with outraged cries and pitiful whimpers. My head throbbed and I grabbed my temples to buffer against the cacophony. Bile rose in my throat. I breathed through my nose as I struggled to grab the tangled threads of control. I opened my eyes and froze.