Chapter 22

Elex

Ihad to hope Hel would forgive me for acting without him. I'd waited in the hallway for what felt like forever. I'd used my Air magic to funnel the noises from the barracks to me, and when I heard Betts' retort to Maalik I had to move.

My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest as I headed toward the barracks.

I thought of all the Mageia in that room - Luke, Betts, Tik, Deliah, and so many others. I had convinced them to join this rebellion. If they died, it would be on me.

I paused just out of sight of the entry. I could hear sniffles, some weeping, and the sound of skin smacking skin. I recognized that sound and my eyes narrowed. Someone was taking a beating.

Here went nothing.

I walked around the corner as if I didn't have a care in the world, tossing my backpack to the floor, the scrape of the material as it slid across the stone abnormally loud.

"Hey, Luke! Wait ‘til you hear what I saw—" a sharp gasp came from someone in the back of the barracks.

I heard Luke's startled "Run, Kat!"

I took in the tableau in front of me, and it wasn't exactly what I had expected.

Luke was on his face in one corner, the knee of an Elusian in his back. Most of the Mageia were huddled toward the back of the barracks, some doubled over as they were obviously under the effects of the Elusian Suppression. Tik was huddled protectively over Betts, who appeared unconscious. Goddess, let her only be unconscious!

I couldn't see how many were hurt, but I saw bloodied faces everywhere. They had certainly put up a fight, but they couldn't fight the Suppression.

Toward the front of the room stood Maalik, his knuckles bloody as he beat the soldier in front of him while two others held the man by the arms. A familiar crop of silvered dark hair sat above a face that was barely recognizable. Shit. Allard.

"You look like you need some alone time, brother. Should I come back later…?" I asked, eying Maalik, cocking an eyebrow at him.

He looked up at me in disbelief, only just seeming to realize that I was there.

"Kataramenos," he said, spittle flying from a split lip.

Suddenly I felt the power of his Suppression brought full force upon me. I stumbled and fell to my knees, a few of the Mageia crying out as they felt the ambient Suppression field spread.

I knelt where I fell, head down, fingers steepled on the ground like a runner to keep me from pitching forward. My hair fell forward across my face as the familiar waves of pain and nausea began to flow through me.

"The prodigal returns," Maalik drawled, stepping away from Allard. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him gesture for the guards to drop the veteran. I kept my head down, allowing my hair to fall forward and cover my face.

I felt the Suppression field intensify, and I fell to the floor.

"I knew you'd show up eventually, Kat," he said, roughly grabbing the back of my head and jerking me up. "You're like a bad penny. But you're just in time for all the fun!"

He cackled as he gestured to the guard with their knee in Luke's back. The guard stepped off him then forced him up. Luke stumbled to his feet, then started to run forward, only for the guard to kick him viciously in the back of the knee, sending him sprawling forward.

"Luke!" I cried out. I couldn't help it; I stretched forward toward my brother, using my Air powers to cushion his fall.

He looked up at me, his face a mass of bruises, a nasty cut over his left eye. I realized with a start it was the same place he had been scarred from our Calling in the House of Eros. He looked confused for a moment as he realized there was an Air shield supporting him. Without losing his gaze, I nodded at him and winked.

"Adelfos," I whispered, catching his eye. "No retreat."

"No surrender," he responded, surprise etched on his face as I focused to free him from the Suppression.

I turned my gaze to the piece of shit who was Maalik.

"Maalik, do you remember…" I began, breathing deeply as more Elusians began focusing their Suppression powers on me.

"Do you remember what I promised you in the House of Eros?" I asked as I pulled first one leg under me, then another. I struggled to my feet, their power like a physical weight weighing my body down, but I stood like a weightlifter, each movement coordinated to support the power pounding down on me.

I held my hands out to my sides and summoned my new powers. Both my palms were glowing, rings of Earth, Air, Fre, and Water flashing around them.

All the Elusians seemed to be focusing their powers on me now, but instead of continuing to weigh me down, they seemed to flow over me and through me.

"I promised you that if you touched him, I would rip you limb from limb," I said.

Aurelius acted finally, pulling his pistol and aiming. Not at me, like I had expected. He aimed at Betts.

"Surrender, Kataramenos, or I shoot the girl," he said.

Before either of us could act, I heard a loud roaring sound and saw a white blur descend from the ventilation duct in the ceiling, and suddenly Aurelius was looking down at the bloody stump where his hand had been, the pistol clattering to the floor.

A giant white snow tiger stood in the middle of the barracks, it's white hide crisscrossed with black stripes. It shook its head and roared, Aurelius' hand flying from his mouth as he turned his eyes on me. His silver eyes.

"Maybe I should be calling you kitten," I whispered. Hel roared at me, then turned back to the guards, bounding forward, slashing with claws that were every bit of six inches long. I heard the brief ululation of another guard, then the sound of bones crunching all the way over here.

The Elusians stupidly continued to focus their powers on me.

"Mageia!" I yelled, my voice rising above the sounds of fear and shouts from the Alexandrians. "The Elusians can't Suppress your powers, not while I'm here," I said, a dark smile growing on my face.

"Time to clean house."

Maalik, being the coward he was, ran, but I was never far behind.

I'll give him one thing. He was fast, but I had been spending weeks in these tunnels. I didn't know them as well as Hel, but I had a better idea than Maalik where we were headed.

He slammed through a door to an area of the tunnels I hadn't visited before, but Hel had told us about it. Water roared around us, and I realized this must be the aquifer that Hel had mentioned. The water splashed and rumbled, tumbling from an opening in the rock far overhead and pouring down into a cavern below. The whole room shook with the roar, the metal catwalk vibrating with the noise.

Maalik ran until he ran out of room. He stood at the edge of the metal catwalk that circled the cavern, desperately looking for an escape, but there was none. Not for him.

He turned back to me as I created an Air bubble around us to muffle the noise of the water.

"What— What are you?" he said, stumbling backward, his left hand grasping the walkway. I raised my right hand, rings of Air and Fire rotating crazily around it.

"I think it should be obvious, by now, Maalik," I whispered, my voice reverberating with a strange power, echoing even in the roar of the cavern. "I'm Mageian."

"Kat— Elex, no, you- you can't!" he whimpered as he realized his Suppression power wasn't working on me, so he switched tactics.

"We-We're brothers! We could rule together! Cyrius is an old man; he's losing his will in this war. We could kill him and take the throne. Think of what we could do, together, as brothers!"

"You've never been my brother, Maalik," I said.

His simpering, pleading act faded as he gazed into my implacable gaze.

"Fine. Fuck you, Kataramenos," he spat angrily. "You were always weak. Sniveling over your brother, your mother, those fucking slaves! I am the Prince!" He said, pounding his chest with his fist, his fingers brushing across the medals that flailed impotently. "I was meant to rule!"

Behind me I heard Luke and Hel pound into the room.

I almost didn't see it, and even after seeing it, I didn't react quickly enough. The blade he had hidden amongst the medals at his chest flew from his fingers straight for my heart…Only to clang loudly as it impaled itself in a piece of stone that had flowed out from the wall to protect me.

The stone and metal flowed together, forming an even larger blade and flew back to embed itself in Maalik's stomach. He looked down at his gut in disbelief as blood began pouring over his fingers. He glared over my shoulder at Luke.

"Heh. So we are the same. I always thought as much," he snarled at my brother. "You're a killer, too. You won't win, though. I'll choose my own death."

He moved backward and stepped off the platform, intending to plunge to the gaping chasm below. Expecting to fall off into space, all he did was stumble as he tripped on the invisible surface of Air I'd created under him. There was no way he was escaping this time.

With barely a gesture, a fiery whip of power flashed around his right arm. A whip of ice wrapped around his left. Metal flowed from the railing and wrapped around his legs. He hung suspended in the air, spread eagled.

"I made a promise in the House of Eros, Maalik," I said, smiling grimly. "And I always keep my promises."

I gestured and the bindings of power pulled taut. He screamed, then. I watched as first his right arm was pulled from its socket, then ripped off in a bloody shower. When his left pulled free, I felt his hot blood splatter on my face.

I stepped forward as the metal bands around his thighs ripped one leg off, and then the other. I didn't let him die yet, though. I used my new-found powers to cauterize the wounds so he didn't bleed out. This close, the smell of his burning flesh was nauseating.

I knew my chest was heaving as I stood in front of him. His head lolled. His screams had changed from those of a man in agony to the high pitch squealing of an animal.

I heard Luke and Hel walk up behind me cautiously.

"Elex?" I heard Luke speak, but it was almost like he was miles away. I felt him grip my shoulder. "Adelfos, let him die."

I shook my head angrily, remembering all the suffering Maalik had caused, for us and others.

"He hasn't paid enough," I snarled, shaking my head. The taste of salt on my lips gave me pause. I didn't realize I had been crying.

"It will never be enough," Hel said, his hand coming to rest on my other shoulder. "He can never suffer enough for what he has done. But you are not like him, to torture for the sake of pain. Let him end. Let justice be done."

I remembered the man I had seen in Hel's gaze, the one I so desperately wanted to be. A single sob broke from me, and I nodded sharply. I grabbed the knife Luke had made from metal and stone and yanked it free from Maalik's guts. Blood gushed forth. I swung the knife with a burst of power and cut through his neck. I grabbed his head before it could go tumbling off into the water.

I could be sick later. Right now, I had other things to attend to. I turned my back on the bloody, twitching remnants of Maalik's body and left the cavern.