The virus. It was lethal enough on its own. How much worse would it be if it was amplified via the same machine which linked the citadels together?
On the other hand, if I agreed to join him, I’d once again give him and Lex total domination over my life. I’d be knowingly letting them turn me into a weapon to use against anyone… including my allies.
My gaze fell on the machine, and the absence of glowing lights on its surface caught my attention. “Did Liv and the others drain the batteries out of that thing? Looks pretty dead to me.”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” he said. “When the life force of any living creature might be used as a battery, our source is limitless.”
Nausea flooded me. “Like those sprites… and humans, too.”
“Life energy,” he said softly. “The same source spirit mages use. We’re not so unalike.”
I recalled the sprites trapped in that cage and fought back the urge to vomit. “I don’t see anyone living in here aside from the two of us.”
Ryan and the others were supposed to be getting hold of a cantrip to turn the machine off, but it already looked dormant. The dim light of the transporter told me I wouldn’t be able to use it to hop through and find the others, either, but the viral cantrip inside it would activate the instant he turned it on.
Roth smiled. “I know what you’re thinking. I’d advise you not to challenge me. If your friends are on their way to help you, they’re within range of this lethal cantrip, too.”
“It’s no use to you without a battery.”
“I wouldn’t speak too soon,” he said. “I could make you turn it on yourself.”
He wasn’t even kidding. Adair could influence your actions and decisions. Lex could influence your body. Roth? His power was even more sinister, if possible. Not one I had the ability to resist. But turning my back on him now was out of the question.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow stir, and I readied myself. “Try it.”
At once, a wave of sadness hit me, pushing me to my knees. Tears blurred my vision, and the sight of Tay’s lifeless body nearby only poured fuel on my grief. Gasps shook my body as the impact of everything I’d lost hit me like a train, combined with the remorseless pain Roth’s power inflicted on me.
Roth’s talent brought him absolute control over my emotions, but I hadn’t counted on my own buried pain aiding him in bringing me down. I could hardly move, my body trembling all over. Dammit. I won’t be brought down by this.
I raised my tear-streaked face and saw a shadow detach itself from the wall and fall over Roth from behind. The dark form of a lich moved closer, and when he turned around, shock momentarily flickered through his features.
Bet you didn’t count on one of my allies already being here, did you?
I still had people left to protect. People counting on me. People like Harper.
The unbearable flood of sadness lifted enough for me to raise my hand and fire a blast of magic into him. Roth staggered, the flames eating away at his fancy clothes and scorching the skin off his bones. He let out a horrible laugh, the skin peeling back from his teeth and making him look even more grotesque than usual.
Then he slammed a palm into a button on the machine. At once, light spun across its surface. My heart gave a lurch when the cantrip in the slot on its side ignited, too.
“I lied,” he said softly. “There was already enough power left inside it to set off the virus.”
“You bastard,” I said.
“If anything, I did you a favour,” he responded. “As long as you remain in here, you’ll be unaffected. Even if you leave, the virus will never result in a permanent death for you. The others, however, won’t be so lucky.”
Roth gave a triumphant smile laced with pain, and then he hopped through the transporter and vanished.
Harper floated over to me, the illusion of her face flickering into view. “Shit. Did he set off the virus?”
“Yes… and he took the cure with him.” The horror of what he’d unleashed sank in as I stared at the spot where he’d vanished. Then my head snapped up when Zombie-Tay walked over to me again. Impossibly, she was still standing, though no alertness shone in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I guess we’ll all be joining you soon. I mean, I can stay in here forever while everyone else dies, but I’m not all that keen on the idea, to tell you the truth.”
Tay made no move to attack me. She wasn’t under anyone’s control, not anymore, but she wasn’t alive, either. She’d keep standing only until the remnants of Lex’s magic faded.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I know you tried to warn me. You tried…”
“What’s that in her hand?” said Harper.
I looked down, catching sight of a gleam in the palm of Tay’s right hand. I reached for it, and her arm jerked forward, pressing the cantrip into my palm. I looked at its marked surface, disbelief flickering through me. She’d had the cure with her all along. “Thanks, Tay.”
I knew she couldn’t hear me, not really, but she might just have saved us after all.
Harper moved in behind me. “Bria…”
The transporter lit up again, and several people appeared on the platform. Ryan and Trix, followed by Miles and several of the sprites we’d saved from the trap in the other citadel.
“There you are!” said Miles. “We’ve been flying all over the city looking for you.”
“Don’t move,” I warned. “Roth… he put the virus into the machine.”
“Doesn’t look like it’s switched on,” Ryan remarked.
