In other words, by all appearances, they were well and truly fucked.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rage stood by the circle of twelve men, absorbing the residual pulses of energy that flowed from them to Belpheg. He did his best to appear uncaring and nonchalant, when inside he was freaking out just a little bit.
He’d never seen anything like this before. The apparent ease with which Belpheg pulled electricity from the sky, and through the twelve men surrounding him, was remarkable. Though the backs of his twelve bowed from the current of power flowing through them, Belpheg stood calm and upright.
For not the first time, it occurred to Rage that Belpheg probably had power like this pumping through him on a regular basis. No wonder his body had been falling apart at the seams.
Not so any longer, it seemed. The dark fae appeared renewed and reenergized.
Fuck. He’d gotten here too late, hadn’t had any time to approach Maddox before Belpheg had started the spell.
One quick glance across the field told him the other group thought he’d betrayed them. The bitter, angry looks from the men who were his half brothers would probably have broken a saner individual. Combined with the dangerous aura of power pulsing off the dark fae, he had to fight his instinct to turn and slink out of sight. That would be the easy thing to do
Yet for once, he wanted to do something not because it was easy, but because it was right.
A particularly powerful blast of lightning wound through the sky before striking Belpheg’s outstretched arms. He shook from it, and his hands clenched before pulsing open to take in more power from his fingertips.
The scrolls fell from his hand, fluttering to the ground and coming to a stop by the feet of one of the twelve. Caught up in the power he absorbed, Belpheg didn’t even appear to notice.
He’s got a real hard-on for those damn scrolls.
Always stroking them. Never letting them out of his sight. He’d even brought them to the freaking battleground.
Almost as if they held some power of their own…
“Huh.”
He might be completely off base here, but at this point, anything was worth a shot.
As casually as he could, Rage sauntered over to the man closest to the scrolls. He tried to move in closer, but every time he got within a foot of the circle, a mind-numbing bolt of electricity shocked his system and tore a curse from his lips.
Maybe if he stuck his foot out…
Well, then maybe he’d be able to slide the scrolls toward him while remaining out of harm’s way.
…
Belpheg locked his gaze on the confused faces of the Council members. A bubbly burst of laughter wound through him. There were over a dozen of them, and within a matter of minutes, their bodies would solidify, making them all too easy to wipe out of existence. For now they remained unsubstantial, however. The hordes of advancing zombies passed right through them, seeking more corporeal sustenance. But the horrid creatures no longer concerned him…not with the power rising up within him.
“Welcome,” he said, using his resurging strength to magnify his voice across the entire field. He wouldn’t want to leave out the line of strangers who had just materialized from the forest. Even though the elf in their midst wove his moon magic to protect them, the Detainors and their measly backup were sadly out of their league here. Soon they would realize just how very much.
“You’re all just in time for the show.”
One of the Council members—a gorgon who appeared ageless and beautiful, but whose hair of long, silvery snakes spoke to her centuries of life experience—started to speak, but her voice was lost in the din created by the advancing zombies. And much as Belpheg tried to pull energy out of them and direct it into Mammon, it wasn’t working as well as he’d hoped.
It appeared the corpses were no longer of any use to him.
He flicked his hand, and the first line of zombies dismantled on a wave of power and electricity, dropping harmlessly to the ground.
Yes. Felt so fucking good to be back in fighting shape.
He had but a moment to relish the look of fear on the Detainors’ faces as they realized the true extent of his power, before he magnified the voices of the Council members, allowing them to be heard.
The gorgon who’d dared speak paused when her amplified voice cut through the field. After taking a moment to compose herself, she began again.
“What’s the meaning of all this? What have you done?”
When the urge to laugh overtook him, he gave into it once again. “As if you don’t know. As if you haven’t all been preparing for this eventuality for the past several months.”
“But we don’t know,” the gorgon responded. “Who are you, and what have we done to you to make you respond in this manner?”