Amelia

There was so much anger and grief bubbling inside me, I was itching to avenge Acantha’s sacrifice, somehow. Knocking Medina’s lights out was literally within my reach, and I was pretty sure everyone else in my crew felt the same way.

Riza teleported us inside the emperor’s throne room. Given the time of the day, she’d likely known he’d be here. Emperor Tulla was, as expected, surprised to see us show up like this. His guards moved toward us, but he instantly waved them away.

“Stand back,” he said firmly, and rose from his gilded throne. He smiled. “You’re back. Good! How was it?”

“Oh, fantastic,” I said, my tone clipped and dripping with sarcasm. My gaze was fixed on Medina, who’d frozen on the spot, eyes round and filled with what I assumed was sheer horror. She hadn’t expected us to return, unlike the emperor, who frowned.

“What happened?” he asked, glancing around at our crew. “Where’s Acantha? Fallon?”

“Your Majesty, we got Eirexis,” Lumi said, unwilling to go into details. “And Medina here went to a lot of trouble to stop us.”

The emperor shot Medina the single coldest stare I’d ever seen in a living creature. “Please, don’t tell me it’s true.”

“You believe them?!” Medina gasped, feigning outrage. “Your Majesty, I would never—”

“Lessie heffis!” Lumi shouted, putting a hand out. A golden spark shot from her palm and smacked Medina right in the throat. The light expanded into a tight collar that glowed amber and cut off the prime minister’s breathing. This was the first time I’d heard the spell—it was likely something that Lumi had recently uncovered from the Word. The entity never stopped teaching its swamp witches.

Medina tried to take it off, but the solid light burned her fingers, making her squeal. Eva dashed forward and stung her with the truth serum she’d kept brewing. It acted fast, instantly relaxing her muscles. “You will tell the truth, now,” she hissed in Medina’s ear, her serpentine tongue slipping between her teeth.

“She is a cult member, Your Majesty,” Taeral said. “We were attacked by Shills and Hermessi and Cerixian acolytes as well. One of them mentioned Medina, who had the audacity to send us her regards, probably thinking we’d never survive this quest.”

The prime minister fell to her knees, choking, her lips turning blue. I had a feeling Lumi was perfectly okay with killing her, and, for the first time in this mission, I didn’t even think about intervening. No, there was no room for mercy here. Not after what Medina had done. Nethissis motioned for her to stop, and Medina was able to breathe again.

“Tell the Emperor what you did!” she told Medina again.

“It’s true,” she managed between gasps. “It’s… It’s true… I’ve been a cult member for months, now. Never revealed my markings. Kept my head down. I was a sleeper cell, activated before Brann started messing with the Ritual. I was ordered to get as close to you as possible, Your Grace. Luck pushed Figgen out of my way.”

“We lost a few people, unfortunately,” Raphael added, ignoring Medina’s confession.

“But we got Eirexis,” Taeral continued, patting the stone dragon bone handle tied to his belt.

“I was ordered to get you as far away from BemHur as possible,” Medina continued, stunned by her own inability to stop talking. The serum was an absolute treat, though we already knew what she was telling us. We just needed the Emperor to hear it himself. “I told Cerix’s Hermessi that you were going to Mollyn. You weren’t supposed to come back alive.”

“Well, you also got a new crew member,” the Widow Maker said, emerging from his subtle form and also ignoring Medina. The emperor was stunned, and the guards were speechless. They didn’t need to know who he was to understand exactly how fearsome he was. The leather gimp-suit and the galaxies in his eyes kind of did the trick.

“Medina. I chose you because I trusted you wouldn’t be foolish enough to go against the empire,” the emperor said, scowling at her, as she continued her struggle to breathe.

“Your Majesty… I… I did it for the empire…” she croaked, practically fighting the serum’s effect.

“Nonsense!” the emperor shouted, his voice thundering across the throne room. “I knew there was something off about you the moment Taeral and his crew mentioned your sudden amnesia regarding rosy fish sanctuaries. Yet I decided I’d need more evidence before accusing you. I should’ve known better than to cling to the hope that you might not be a traitor, after all.”

“Your… Majesty…”

“You helped the Hermessi! You helped the very entities looking forward to destroying us all,” the emperor replied. “Spare me the lies about doing anything for the empire. I’m not a fool, and I certainly wasn’t born yesterday!”

“You did it for yourself, Medina,” Lumi said, her extended hand clenching into a fist as she tightened her magic grip on the prime minister’s throat. “I bet Brendel promised you something. Probably the same thing she promised every other cult member… that you’d survive the ritual. That you’d be chosen to… I don’t know, repopulate these new worlds.”

“Yes,” Medina managed. “She did. She promised me a place in the future world.”

The Widow Maker laughed lightly. “Oh, honey… You’re all going to die if Brendel completes the ritual. Not a single one of you will be spared.”

Medina stilled. It looked strange, as she no longer fought the glowing noose or the truth serum. Her eyes lit up orange, and flames erupted from her skin, covering her from head to toe.

“There you are,” she said, her voice chillingly different. It wasn’t Medina speaking anymore. It was Brendel. She’d found us already. I’d hoped for a couple more minutes, at least, knowing that Kabbah was keeping her busy.

“We need to go,” Taeral muttered.

Medina-Brendel grinned as she pulled Lumi’s spell from her throat like it was nothing. The light ring snapped and vanished in a puff of smoke, and Medina-Brendel took a deep breath. “Did you really think you’d get to just walk off with Eirexis? My, my, aren’t you foolish.”

I sensed movement behind us. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Nethissis drawing the spell for interplanetary travel. Brendel couldn’t see what she was doing because of us, as we’d positioned ourselves in a tight double line.

The guards seemed to realize that Nethissis was trying to do something to help us, so they rushed around and flanked us on both sides, pointing their weapons at Brendel. The emperor cautiously moved back, putting some distance between him and the Fire Hermessi. We only needed a few minutes.

“Now’s the time to make yourself useful,” Raphael said to the Widow Maker.

“Why?” came his sharp reply.

“Seriously?” I groaned.

Medina-Brendel glowered at the Reaper. “Nothing you do will stop me.”

“Oh, dear, you’re as deluded as you were four million years ago,” the Widow Maker replied, sounding quite amused.

“I’ve been successful so far,” Medina-Brendel shot back, pointing an angry, fiery finger at him. “I will keep at it until the ritual is complete! I’ve proven myself, over and over! And Death… well, she can just sit back and watch,” she said, and shifted her focus to Taeral. “Now, hand Eirexis over, and I will let you walk out of here alive, Taeral. I’ve looked into you. I have to say, I appreciate your spunk. But you’re fighting against impossible odds. It’s time for you to give up and go spend what time you have left with your loved ones.”

Taeral scoffed. “You’ve looked into me? I guess you didn’t look deep enough, since you clearly think I’d actually hand over Eirexis. That’s not going to happen. Not after what we’ve just been through.”

“Okay. Then suffer the consequences,” Medina-Brendel said, bursting into her full fire figure.

The flames spread out from her feet, rushing across the floor in all directions, looking to consume everyone and everything in their path. The emperor was dragged out of the room by several guards, while Lumi, Riza, and Eva threw all the magic they had at the fire, building an energy barrier around us.

“How much longer?” Taeral asked, his eyes on Medina-Brendel.

“A couple more minutes,” Nethissis replied from behind.

The Widow Maker stepped forward and tapped the energy shield that Lumi, Riza, and Eva had built. Incandescent white tendrils spread out through it, strengthening its resistance to the devastating flames. He used his spare hand to push the remaining Cerixian guards as far away from us as possible. Flicking his wrist, he released a pulse that threw them backward. They scrambled back to their feet and left the throne room as the fire covered the entire floor—yet it was unable to get past the energy barrier.

The Reaper’s intervention was definitely welcome.

A loud bang made us all look back. The throne room’s double doors exploded into thousands of splinters. The smoke cleared quickly, revealing Fallon in the frame. His figure burned green, as he was still possessed by Kabbah.

“Hey, sister! Why’d you run off like that?” he asked, mocking Brendel. “I wasn’t done yet!”

“Stand back!” Brendel warned him. I had a feeling Medina was completely gone. Unlike Kabbah, Brendel had completely engulfed her body in orange fire. I could still see Fallon, and I knew Kabbah wouldn’t destroy him in the process. He’d said it himself. The vampire-fae hybrid was too precious to hurt.

Nethissis completed the interplanetary spell chant, and the light bubble grew around us. We moved closer together, still vulnerable to Brendel’s attacks. The Widow Maker walked toward Brendel, joined by Fallon-Kabbah.