Chapter 34

Rain was excitedwhen she got back. I wasn't sure what about. I would've asked her, if not for being hushed several times, and told to do as I was told.

That was fair, but I was curious. I didn't have time to ask her about it, though, since Rania immediately summoned a second boat. This one was bigger, and even had its own crew. And it appeared—literally—out of nowhere.

As we boarded, I took my time admiring it. Not to say that I held anyone up, but, in many ways, I was a typical man. If I saw a beautiful car or boat, I had to stop and appreciate it.

I owned my own one on Earth. Not a massive yacht, but a small one with a decent cabin below that I'd taken Ezra and Rain on a few times.

This one was far more immaculate than mine, but in vastly different ways.

Rather than a little sail, this one towered two stories off the ground. Instead of plastic and wood, or whatever the hell else my boat was made of, this one was Elvan ore from the pole on its sail all the way to the base in the water.

There were little details everywhere that reminded me it was made by the Fae, aside from the Elvan ore. These people seemed to incorporate art into everything they did, and I adored that about them. Even the grooves underfoot to give traction to the damp surface were beautiful. Instead of simple lines, they were shaped as vines and flowers. Every wall was covered with them, some carved into the surface while others jutted out of it. Even the railing looked like a vine, and the wheel looked like a wreath.

It was roughly thirty-foot by sixty-foot deck adorned with all the usuals. Anchor, sail, railing, and a mop to sweep all the water that splashed overboard out. There had to have been a small cabin below, but we were to stay on the deck. We were only using the boat to get close enough to the crystals so that we could cast the spell.

We stayed silent as we approached. Truthfully, I couldn't believe that it was that simple. No one had seen or heard us coming. We were taking them completely off-guard. All because of a few spells.

It got me thinking about what Caeda had said. That I had Elvan blood in me. I needed to ask the others about that. If I had Elvan blood, did that mean I could master spells? Could I, one day, after enough training, cast spells like Caeda and Rania had today? Could I be as strong as they were? Would I be able to help people?

Did I have any power that wasn't centered around death?

Because I wanted to do what they could do. I wasn't as quick a study as Ezra, and it didn't come so naturally to me like it did for Rain, but I wanted that. I wanted power that wasn't inherently corrupt.

I was prepared for what we were about to do, but that didn't make it any easier. It was for the best. Although the ability may have been inherently bad, that didn't mean that I was. But I wanted to be able to help people without killing others in the process.

Gradually, we drew closer to the island in the distance.

Caeda whispered something to the captain. He nodded and gave a hand signal to another worker. The crew member hurried to the anchor and began winding the crank. It was louder than any of our breaths, but I could still hear my heart thump over it.

"Join hands," Rania whispered.

Rain took my left, Ezra took my right, and we all formed our line. Laila, Jeremy, Connor, and Naomi took the center. Caeda and Rania took the edges. The rest of us were sprinkled somewhere throughout the line.

"Three… two…" Rania counted, "one."

The chant began.

The crashing waves, the winding of the anchor, even my thudding heart, silenced. Our voices, although there weren't all that many of us, were as loud as a concert at Madison Square Garden.

As we chanted louder and louder, my chest tightened.

Not because I was afraid of what we were about to do, but because I was afraid I didn't remember each word correctly.

At first, anyway.

Within moments, that anxiety faded.

A sensation of strength dropped on the top of my head and trickled to my feet. In some regard, it was like stepping outside on a sunny day. In another, it was like a cool autumn rain collapsing in a sudden downpour. It was both, and it was neither.

Such a complicated thing to describe, but magic often was.

Maybe this was what Rania had been trying to explain to Rain last night. This power was like nature, or perhaps the universe, itself.

It dropped inside of me, simultaneously washing over me, awakening every pore.

Not from one direction, but from all of them. It floated closer. The louder we chanted in unison, the closer I felt to them all, even Rania and Caeda at the ends.

This strength was all-encompassing, unifying and fulfilling all at once.

A line of green light started in the water before me. It had to have been fifty yards in the distance. With each word we spoke, practically screaming by now, it lifted higher. As it rose, that sense of power within me doubled and tripled in intensity.

Within seconds, that line of light rushed out of the water, climbing over the snow-capped mountains without so much as a splash.

It reached the top in a violent flash of green. The path it had traveled stayed in place, a translucent shield of verdant.

"Now, Warren and Ramona," Jeremy said. "Now!"

I shut my eyes and dropped out of my body.

While Rain and the others laid the stones, Jeremy had made us survey the island for souls. We didn't leave our bodies; we only felt the power they radiated.

Just to know where to travel when the shield was placed.

In that dark, astral realm, I flew over the water. At my sides were Ramona, Jeremy, and Luci. And we moved like lightning.

Little boats of blue and black and red and gold, soaring over the island and siphoning everything below. Somewhere between those mountains, life glowed. Every light I saw, I captured. I didn't even have to drop down to them. I stayed where I was, high above the shield, and I grabbed them.

With no hands and no tangible strength, I grasped hold of their souls as if pulling in a deep breath. Each time I absorbed one into myself, I shot it into the sky above.

I stopped counting when I reached ten.

I didn't acknowledge the color of their souls. I didn't stop to think what they were doing a moment before. I didn't acknowledge if their energy was masculine, feminine, or somewhere in between.

I just took them.

I took their souls and shot them into the abyss.

I killed.

I killed, and I killed, and I killed.

And it was different.

It was different than every time I had killed before. Then, I knew their stories. Then, I had picked their brains apart. Then, I looked them in the eyes as I took their life.

Now, it was just a job.

Perhaps that was the problem I had faced when we were attacked in the night.

I always said that it wasn't personal. I detached from the job. But that was a lie.

Every time I killed a rapist, I saw the man who had raped me in their eyes. I saw myself killing him.

This was a game, but my skin had always been in another.

I had never detached. When I worked for the Chambers, I did it because I felt justified in it.

It wasn't that I didn't feel justified in this. I knew who these people were, but I needed to spend more time here before I could do this again. I needed to hear the stories of the people from this land. I needed to know what these monsters had done to them so that I didn't feel so hollow next time.

It was never that I needed to detach. To do this, I needed to feel. I needed to feel the pain of the victims, harness their rage, and unleash it on their enemies.

That had been the problem since I arrived here. When I worked for the Chambers, I always said it was only a job, but I was wrong. It was personal. That was why almost every person I killed for them was a rapist. So I could cathartically release the pain of my own trauma upon them.

I needed that connection here. Next time I did this, I needed to feel the pain these fuckers had inflicted. I needed to understand it. I needed to sit with their victims, feel their suffering, combine it with my own power, and drop it like a bomb on their enemies. I needed these bastards to be my enemy as much as they were the Fae's.

Now, I understood what Jeremy meant. I had always pulled from my own pain to defeat an enemy. I just needed to feel their victims' pain to do so.

The cage! Rania screamed in our minds.

I opened my eyes.

The glowing dome of green flickered.

Hold it, Rain! Laila's voice.

They've got that, Jeremy said in my mind. This is our job. They can handle theirs. We keep handling ours.

I'm holding it!Rain's voice was like fire.

The merrows,Caeda's voice sounded in the telepathic group chat. They'reattacking the merrows.

"Graham," Laila said.

Still soaring over the island in my astral reality, with eyes opened so I could see what was happening on the boat, I kept grabbing souls and shoving them toward the abyss.

Stripping off her cloak with one hand, Laila yanked Graham from the line. "The others stay. But me and you, we're going down there."

"There're five stones," he said. "We can't protect them all."

"Two more volunteers," Iliantha said, stripping off her cloak as well.

"I can help, ma'am," one of the crew members said. "I have power over air and fire."

"I can—" Ezra began.

"Rain needs your power," Laila said. "Keep chanting." He did, and she turned to the crew. "Is anyone else willing?"

"Let me," Amara said. "Please, do gràs. Let me."

With a short nod, Laila grabbed each of their hands. They disappeared.

Head in the fucking game, Warren, Jeremy said in my mind.