Chapter 12

Herbert's queen stood a few yards away from me. Her matted black hair hung in thick strands over her tattered silver gown that was smeared with mud and dark stains of dried blood.

“Are Stryker and Mason in on this too?” I asked Herbert and curled my earth witch magic around my fingers, readying it to strike both him and his queen. “Or did you trick them?”

Herbert laughed and it wasn't the old man voice he'd had, but a rich, deep timbre. “They are only here for their daughter, but they'll be too late.”

Daniella was their daughter? Madame President was a widow without kids. Damn, this was a soap opera. But at least Herbert had confirmed the girl was still alive.

“Thanks for that info.” I thrust my hands out and sent a strike to the center of his chest. The zenyar yellow bolt coiled mid-air, just before reaching him, and backtracked, slamming into me. I flew backward. The pain of the impact stole my breath. I curled in on myself, hugging my knees to my chest. Stupid blood vow.

“I couldn't let a powerful witchard with both sides of the gift attack without a reflection spell.” He crouched over me. “In ancient times, it was believed that witch zenyar was the power of the earth, but that wizard magic was the lightning and the wind and sky. That's why a wand or something has to be used, to channel the energy out. A reverse lightning rod, if you will.”

That had been one of my theories, but I wasn't gonna give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him. My chest still ached from the hit and each time I moved, pain radiated through me. “Go to hell!” I groaned.

“Now that's what the Norse called my queen, Hel, but her name is Zalfilia.”

I looked past him to the woman stalking toward us with a death-kill look in her eyes. It was the same one many criminals gave me just before they pulled a weapon. “Can't she speak for herself?”

“She will, once she drains you of your magic and blood.”

Nice. My guess was she wasn't at full strength and if there was a way to stop her and shove her back into the ground, I needed to do it soon. Why was she buried in the first place?

“And once my mother, the queen, drains all of you here, she will bring her kingdom throughout all the world. All will worship and obey her, or die, adding to her power.” Herbert bowed low as she passed him.

I bit back a cry, forcing myself to rise. Hunched, I stood, my arms tucked to my chest. I had to stop them somehow. Just needed a few more moments where I could breathe without shuddering from the pain in my chest. I took shallow inhales. “How did you know my power would work? There are a few other witchards around.” Sure, not all of them had full access to both sides of their heritage like me, but surely there were one or two that would have been sufficient. “I know a guy who'd do this all for money. Kade Rameses.” My ex-boyfriend—and a lying thief.

Herbert stepped between his approaching mother and me. Now that his old guy glamor was removed, I had to lift my gaze to meet his stare. “You don't get it, do you?”

“Enlighten me.” I should've punched him harder earlier when he'd made me kill Sarah.

“Specific magic was used to entrap us here. I found the loophole and stepped through.” He ran a hand over his face. “Wizards and witches sealed the barrier, but before they could, the queen had to be contained. A witch and wizard gave up their power, their flesh and blood, their lives, to lock her up.”

The hairs on my arms stood up and my throat constricted.

“There would be only one key to her imprisonment.” He stroked a finger down my cheek, and I slapped his hand away. “But that key had to be attuned to darkness and death, or it wouldn't work. It also had to have a blood bond with you to me.”

The blood vow. Herbert was forcing me to kill. My magic backlashing with the Terin. He'd twisted my magic! Who had imprisoned this hell incarnate? Then I knew, in the core of my being, the zenyar users who had done this and why he needed the blood bond with me to break the magic that had imprisoned her. The ancestry that ran through my veins. “My parents.”

“Exactly.” He grinned. “So it's only fitting that you, in a single day, have unraveled all their enchantments.”

I gritted my teeth and swung my fist as hard as I could, punching him in the face. He stumbled back, but didn't fall.

From behind him, the queen hissed.

“No, Zalfilia.” He brushed his fingers down his nose as though checking for breakage. “She must come willingly to you, or her sacrifice won't work.”

Interesting. “I'm not going to kill myself, so I guess you're out of luck. Maybe you can con someone else to lay down their life for your queen, but I never will.” My parents had died to keep this creature buried, and I wasn't about to screw it up any more than I already had. Pride filled me that my parents had done this to save mankind… to save and protect me. It made sense why they'd vanished that day. Why they'd waited until I was in school before they took off to do this. And this queen was more than bad news. She had to be, or my parents would never have given up their lives to keep Zalfilia trapped. Now I had undone their magical sacrifice.

“Everyone has a price.” Herbert whistled.

Leaves crunched in the distance and soon warriors with purplish-gray skin and black hair like Herbert came into view. Each held a prisoner. Mason, Stryker, two women, and three men. One of the women was bleeding from a cut down her arm. She wore brown leather that clung to her body. Despite her injury, her head was up. The other prisoners, besides Stryker and Mason, had their heads down. This woman was tall with ebony hair, dark bronze skin, and the same oval face and doe-eyes like Mason. It had to be Daniella who was the President and vampire's daughter.

“Surrender your zenyar and your life, and they'll be released,” Herbert said.

“No.” I clenched my fists. “Do you think I'm stupid? That I'd believe you would just let them go?”

He gave me a crooked smile and, if we'd met at a bar, I'd have let him buy me a drink. Visions of us together rolled through my mind and I shook my head. My hand reached toward him and I frowned, tugging it back and clenching it. Where the fuck did that come from? “Did you put an enchantment on me?”

“Choose who will die first, unless you are ready to bring our queen to full power.”

When I didn't answer, but raised my chin, he grabbed one of the men and pushed him forward to Zalfilia.

She snapped her arms around him. Her hair wrapped around the guy's body while her face twisted into a mix of euphoria and demon-like rapture. Within seconds, his screams echoed around us as his flesh melted.

“Another death because of you.” Herbert pointed at me. “How many more will you add to your tally?”

“And how many will die if I do what you want?”

Herbert inclined his head. “Your parents didn't raise a fool. But neither did mine.” He narrowed his eyes. “But if you don't sacrifice yourself in the next ten minutes, dark fae stationed around the barriers across the country will step through and slaughter whoever they find.”

Bile bubbled up my throat. “You're bluffing. The barrier is intact in most areas.”

“Was. Sarah's sacrifice and your corrupt wizard magic fixed that problem. The shields are down everywhere.”

“No,” I whispered. My unique magic breaking the barrier meant chaos and death for humans and supernaturals. Like I didn't have enough enemies, now the whole damn country would hunt me down.