A Dome of Blood Read online

  “You know it’s complicated with these people, Dad. Besides, according to Amal, Ta’Zan is nearly impossible to kill.”

  “We know that. Well, we have an inkling,” he replied. “Theories, at best, about how he could’ve fortified his own position in this society and against us.”

  “I have something more concrete, actually. Amal recently told us about genetic materials he’s been injecting into himself since he created the Perfects. He also reverse-engineered a shock collar and modified it into a small implant in the back of his head. It can read people’s intentions on a twenty-yard radius, which is why it’s so difficult to even get close enough to kill him. The only weapon that will work on him is the pulverizer, but we need specific conditions to take him down,” I explained, going over what I’d already discussed with Amal.

  Amane had suspected that Ta’Zan would look for ways to make himself invincible like the Perfects, mainly because he didn’t like to be inferior to his own creations, at least where the ability to survive was concerned.

  “That explains a lot,” Harper replied, her voice shaking. “Ta’Zan is more complicated than we expected.”

  “But not invincible,” I said. “The original crew will surrender, because we’re the ones that Ta’Zan wants the most. If needed, and if we can’t convince him that they escaped or something, Draven and Serena’s group will come forward, too. It won’t matter much because we won’t be in there for too long. You see, Ta’Zan thinks Araquiel is dead. He thinks we killed him with a pulverizer weapon, like Abaddon, Oriphiel, Elyon, and the others. Araquiel will infiltrate the colosseum and blow it up.”

  “Whoa, whoa… Rose, what are you saying?” Dad replied, clearly taken aback. “What about the prisoners? Your mother?”

  I couldn’t help but smirk. “Dad, listen to me—and please don’t mention it to the others, yet, for security reasons. We’re looking to keep it on a need-to-know basis. You know the protocols. We don’t want to risk Ta’Zan or any of the Perfects getting wind of this.”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “Thanks. Now, Harper, we need the four Perfects down here. They’ll meet with Araquiel and help him. Amal, Amane, and Lumi are working on the explosive charges. They won’t tear the entire structure down, but they’ll be loud and flashy and devastating enough to draw all the Perfects in the archipelago to home base. We need them distracted up there, while the seven hundred and forty-two fae come to Strava.”

  “Amal set us up with all the codes for the shock collars,” Ben continued. “We won’t be subdued while we play the prisoner part. We’ll evacuate the dome prisoners before Araquiel activates the explosive charges. No matter what happens, we’ve got everybody covered. Don’t worry.”

  A few seconds went by in silence as our people processed the information.

  “So, surrender and infiltrate the colosseum. Evacuate everyone. Blow the place up to draw the Perfects in, while the fae come to Strava,” Harper said. “That’s it in a nutshell, right?”

  “Exactly,” I said. “We need another angle to get close enough to kill Ta’Zan. Amal will be in there, back by his side. If she gets an opportunity, she’ll take it. But once the fae land on Strava, the Hermessi will be activated. The forces of nature itself will stifle the Perfects, while we go in for the kill. It seems pretty straightforward, no matter what comes up.”

  “Are we prepared for worst-case scenarios, too?” My dad asked, his voice lower than usual.

  Ben and I looked at each other. We’d talked about it, yes, and it involved our collective sacrifice. “Whatever it takes to get the Hermessi activated on Strava,” I said. “We’re ready to give it everything, Dad. All of us.”

  “Good. So are we, though we’d rather not,” he replied. “Your mother and I still have an eternity ahead of us. We’d like to keep it.”

  I chuckled softly. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Caleb and I really don’t do well when we’re apart.”

  “Ben, is Araquiel trustworthy? Amal?” River interjected on the comms channel.

  “Yes. We all want the same thing, my love. And Ta’Zan is standing in the way. Araquiel will not rest until Ta’Zan is taken out. And neither will Amal. We’ve done our best to prepare for what’s coming next. For us, it’s important to stop Ta’Zan from killing Mom,” Ben said.

  “Okay, well, Nathaniel, Uriel, Angelica, and Deena are ready to join Araquiel over there,” Harper replied. “They’ll need about five to six hours to get there. When do you plan on surrendering?”

  “Closer to the deadline. We want Ta’Zan to stew a little,” I said. “Amal and Douma both confirmed that the more riled up he is, the less focused and more prone to making mistakes he is. We want to play him with every card we’ve got. We want him to think that we might sacrifice Mom after all. It’ll throw him for a loop, it’ll irritate him, and he’ll take forever to recover from it. His psyche is fragile, apparently, despite his composure.”

  “We’ll leave him without genetic materials,” Ben added. “We’ll snatch the four Draenir he’s got in there, too. By the time we get out of the colosseum, Ta’Zan will have nothing. Araquiel, Amal, and Amane will see to that.”

  “Oh, you’re talking about the genetic samples he’s already collected!” Arwen cut in.

  Kailani lit up like the sun at the sound of her mother’s voice. They’d talked several times since the comms went back up, but the distance was still making its presence felt, especially since Kailani had been dealing with her Word apprenticeship. She needed a mother now more than ever. Lumi handled the technical part, but Kailani was more than just a budding swamp witch.

  “Yeah. We worked out a general map of the colosseum,” Kailani explained. “We know where the labs and the storage halls are. Araquiel will make sure to load them all up with explosives, and Amal will compromise whatever batches are already being processed.”

  “Good. We don’t want that bastard to create a single Perfect on top of what he’s already done,” Arwen grumbled. “What about the pulverizer weapons? You got your devil-vipers, didn’t you?”

  “We did, yes!” I answered. “We’ve got enough venom to produce all the ammo we need. Raphael and Araquiel will provide the rest of the ingredients over the next couple of hours. Lumi and Douma will help them. We’ve got the weaponry under control.”

  Harper cleared her throat. “We’ll put the fae on a shuttle and have them wait outside Strava’s atmosphere. Once one of you confirms that the Perfects are too busy to engage the shuttle, they’ll go in and land somewhere in the winter-summer cluster.”

  “That sounds reasonable,” I said, nodding slowly, then looked at my team.

  There was a mixture of hope and fear drawn on their faces. I, out of all people, understood exactly why they felt this way. This was it. This was our greatest challenge yet—the biggest performance of all time. Our last attempt at dismantling Ta’Zan’s growing empire before it was too late.

  “Rose, Ben… I need you all to be extremely careful,” Dad said. “Be ready for anything, and make sure you come back to your mother and me alive and in one piece. Okay?”

  Tears came up to my eyes, and Ben gave me a soft smile.

  “Dad, we’ll be together again,” I replied gently.

  “Or we’ll all die. The future’s bright, dammit!” Varga retorted, then let out a nervous chuckle.

  It wasn’t in his nature to succumb to any form of despair, but we had to be realistic, too. The chances were fifty-fifty, at this point. Either we succeeded, or we died trying. There was no middle path, and we were all okay with that. We weren’t happy, nor eager to embrace death, but we looked at all the possible options.

  After all, the fate of the entire universe hung in the balance, not just the lives of our families, our friends, and our allies. Failure couldn’t be an option, and, if needed, sacrifice was an acceptable outcome, as long as Ta’Zan was destroyed.

  Elonora

  We had some time to spare while Amal, Amane, Raphael, Araquiel, Douma, and Lumi prepared
our weapons against Ta’Zan. Ingredients for the pulverizer pellets needed to be gathered from around the mountain, and the explosive charges had to be put together, along with the wiring and the remote control for their detonation.

  In the meantime, we didn’t have any bags to pack or weapons to take with us. We were going to surrender, and we were going to leave everything behind, with the exception of our earpieces—those were going to be well hidden. The Perfects were bound to search us for weapons and any spell paraphernalia that could be used against them, but not such small, nearly undetectable communication devices.

  So, with nothing much left to do prior to departure, I settled in one of the cave chambers to gather my thoughts. Nevis didn’t leave me alone, though. He sat next to me on the floor, and we said nothing for a while, enjoying the darkness, the inner-mountain chills, and the silence.

  My heart fluttered simply from his presence. I’d fallen for Nevis, and I worried that, should everything go sideways, I’d never get to experience what his love would feel like. His shoulder gently pressed against mine, and a familiar warmth spread through my body, all the way to my fingertips.

  “We’ve got quite the challenge ahead of us,” he said slowly.

  “Mm-hm. We’re screwed, more or less,” I replied, then exhaled sharply.

  “I’m not ready to give up. Are you?” Nevis asked.

  I looked at him, thrilled to find his icy blue eyes fixed on me. I located the source of the liquid sunshine flowing through my veins—it was Nevis’s love for me, burning bright and golden all around him. The drum beating in his chest echoed in mine. We had a similar effect on each other, and that made me smile. Or maybe I was grinning. I wasn’t sure. Nothing was absolute when Nevis was around, except his impact on me. That, I felt clearly.

  “I’m not giving up. I just know we won’t come out of this with our feathers intact. We’ll get them ruffled, and then some,” I said. “Not to mention the possibility of dying. We’re all aware of it.”

  He gave me a soft smile. “This isn’t my first dance with death, Elonora. The Dhaxanians have had their challenges over the years. Mind you, Shaytan and the Exiled Maras were merely one of many. A blip in our ancient timeline. A hiccup. I’ve stared at my end before, and I have no intention of giving up on what I’ve found now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Love, Elonora. I’ve found love. And there’s nothing more powerful than love to make me tell death to bite me,” he replied, then tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. His mere touch was enough to send my senses flying.

  “So, we’ll tell death to bite us both, then,” I said.

  A split second later, he’d moved in front of me, his hands cupping my face. He pulled me close and kissed me deeply, and the universe vanished for a moment. I was weightless. His arms slowly snaked around my waist, his embrace tightening.

  His lips were soft, and he tasted of cool nights and honey. His tongue explored my mouth as he took me all in. We’d spent so much time running or fighting or sneaking around that, whenever we got together, stars practically exploded between us.

  Nevis was as cold as they came, and yet, as soon as his lips met mine, we were both overcome with a combustible heat. We kissed and hugged for what felt like days, and I couldn’t get enough of him. His firm grip reminded me that beneath the royally bejeweled tunic and the blue blood, Nevis was full of fire and passion—and I was the sole recipient of it all.

  “Love, you say?” I murmured, brushing my lips against his.

  My stomach tightened as he kissed the tip of my nose and whispered, “I love you, Elonora. I didn’t think you’d need any clarifications.”

  I giggled, and his hand found the back of my neck and squeezed gently. Suddenly, years of tension came unraveled, and my muscles instantly relaxed. I traced an invisible contour of his face, marveling at the sharp line of his jaw and the softness of his skin—a most enticing contrast.

  “No, but I do like hearing it once in a while,” I replied. “Besides, it’s a two-way street here, so it would be rude of me not to tell you my own truth.”

  His lips stretched into a lazy smile, his hot breath tickling my cheeks. He had me pinned against the hard stone wall. This was the only type of rock-and-a-hard-place situation I wanted to be in.

  “By all means, please do, Elonora. I’m on the edge of my seat, here.”

  “I love you, Nevis. Prince of Dhaxanians. All-around frosty badass. And I certainly didn’t see it coming, back at the Shade party,” I replied, my voice wavering. His gaze darkened, his arms tightening around me and nearly cutting off my air supply.

  “You didn’t?” he asked, the shadow of a smile fluttering across his face. “Funny. I was already thinking about what my people would think of you. Dhaxanians never date outside their species.”

  “I think you need to take me out on a date, first,” I said.

  He kissed my left cheek, then the right, with slow and deliberate movements. My heart was bouncing around like a tennis ball, and my feelings for him grew stronger with every second that went by. This was it, our little moment of peace, before we went out and faced our nemesis, the very end of days.

  “Where would you like to go, then?” he asked, most seriously.

  “Anywhere that doesn’t have Perfects trying to fry my ass,” I replied.

  He laughed lightly, and it sounded so sweet, it made my ribcage hum. He kissed me again, this time with more fire than before. I welcomed him into my very soul, wrapping my arms around his neck and losing myself in this single most precious snippet of time.

  “We’ll go wherever you want to go, Elonora. The world will be out there, still waiting for us,” Nevis said, breathing heavily against my lips.

  Desire thrummed through me. I’d practically forgotten where we were, or what we were going to do. It didn’t matter, as long as I could always just reach out and touch him, as long as I could feel his lips on mine.

  “Honestly, I’ll be perfectly happy if we spend an entire month locked away in your bedroom on Mount Athelathan,” I replied. “I like the cold, and, well, I can’t get enough of you. It’ll be a total win-win.”

  “You don’t have to ask me twice,” Nevis whispered, then lifted me off the ground so I would straddle him. He kissed me a third time, hungrily.

  “I could stay like this forever,” I murmured, then gently bit his lower lip.

  He stilled and pulled his head back so he could look at me, his brow furrowed. “This isn’t our last night together, Elonora. We’re going to get out of here and do everything we’ve been thinking about doing since we first kissed.”

  My cheeks were on fire. I didn’t think it was possible for me to fall deeper in love with him, but Nevis was clearly aiming to break any barrier in this relationship.

  “We’ll go to Mount Athelathan, and we’ll lock ourselves in my suite. I will love you until the sun comes up, then I will love you some more as it goes back down. We’ll be together, and we’ll explore new worlds and fight a million Ta’Zans along the way, if needed, until every single living creature in this universe gets a shot at love and freedom. Am I making myself clear?”

  I found myself nodding slowly, overwhelmed by the intensity of my own emotions. I was seconds away from crying, when he locked his thumb and index finger on my chin and lifted my head so we could look into each other’s eyes.

  “Sounds like a plan,” I managed, my eyes stinging.

  “Elonora, I’m serious,” Nevis said. “If we look at this as our last night together, we’re letting him win. We’re putting ourselves in a mindset that leaves room for failure. And you are one of the greatest warriors I’ve had the honor to join in battle. That, to me, is enough to move mountains, tear down entire worlds, and beat the snot out of a gray-haired megalomaniac.”

  I laughed, surprised by his choice of words and the smooth compliment. I’d thought Varga was the one who had a way with words, but Nevis could sure drop the royal jargon to get down and dirty like the rest of u
s.

  “You’re absolutely right.” I sighed. “We’ll kick some Perfect ass. We’ll fire up the Hermessi. We’ll pulverize Ta’Zan, and we’ll get our people back. And then, you’ll take me to Neraka, and we’ll do all the stuff we’ve both been thinking about since—”

  “The Shade party,” he cut in, completing my sentence.

  My eyes nearly popped out of their orbits. “You weren’t kidding, huh?” I mumbled. “You’ve had the hots for me since the party?”

  He nodded. “You don’t know how beautiful you are, if you thought I was indifferent to your charms.”

  “You called me inadequate, too young and inexperienced to be worthy of your attention.”

  It was Nevis’s turn to blush, as he pressed his lips into a thin line.

  “I was lying,” he replied dryly. “I would’ve thought you’d figured it out by now.”

  “I was too busy drooling over you,” I grumbled.

  There was something endearing in the way he looked at me, a kind of softness I’d never seen in a man’s eyes before. He made me feel like I was the single most important element in the universe—more precious than all the serium on Strava, more beautiful than the Nevertide sunset, more loved than The Shade itself.

  Somehow, in the midst of all this chaos, Nevis and I had fallen for each other. The spark had been at the party, it seemed, but the real love came gradually, one day at a time, as we fought for survival through the jungles of Strava.

  Nevis was right. This wasn’t our last night together.

  I kissed him, this time, resting my hands on his shoulders—the feel of his toned muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt making my insides tingle.

  “This is only the beginning,” I whispered in his ear, then nibbled on his earlobe.

  A grunt escaped from his throat, and he gripped my waist and captured my mouth in yet another kiss. This time, he conquered me, bringing down all my defenses. I was helpless now. All his.

  Forever.

  Nevis paused, gently squeezing my thighs.

  “All spicy jokes aside, Elonora, I will want you to meet with my people. Whatever this is between us, I don’t think it will die out,” he said.