Destiny Realised: Destiny Series: Book Three Read online

  “Take it down, now,” Wyatt shouted.

  I heard Dom whisper an incantation beside me. It wasn’t like him to resort to magic during a fight. He would in exceptional circumstances, but it drained him too quickly. A shot of magic burst out of him and slammed into the demon before it reached the door. Ice quickly formed along the skin of its back, where the magic hit. It was enough to slow it down as the demon stumbled with the impact.

  I was only two steps behind it, and it was all the opening I needed. I launched myself at the demon’s back, and it crumbled to the ground below me. The magic must be seriously sapping its strength. We rolled twice, and I pushed the demon off me before we could come to a stop. Regardless of how much strength it had lost, I didn’t want to end up beneath it and an easy target.

  I rolled to my feet as the demon skidded along the floor before it slammed into the wall. It tried to stand, but as it pulled itself up on its hands, Wyatt was already there, sword in hand. He shoved the blade through the demon’s chest, and it screeched out its frustration at us. The drooling mass of fangs in its mouth became stained with its blood, as it coughed and growled at us. Wyatt wrenched his sword free and brought it down a final time, hacking into the demon’s neck. It wasn’t quite enough to separate its head from its body, but it still sagged dead beneath him.

  We all froze as we looked down at the dead demon. There was a part of me that always expected them to jump back up and gut me. But it was definitely down. Dom turned to look at the doors to Kyle’s suite and cocked his head to the side in consideration.

  “Time to see what was so important,” he mumbled and reached for the door.

  “Wait!” I said, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back. “I’ll open the door; you stay behind me. We might need your magic,” I told him, striding forward and taking hold of the door handles.

  Wyatt came up on my right and shoved me a step to the side. We took a handle each. This way, we could potentially seek some cover, without me being a sitting duck just standing in the middle. He held up three fingers and counted us down. When he dropped the last finger, we both shouldered the doors open, and all three of us burst inside. Then we stopped dead in our tracks as we took in the sight in front of us. I felt my brain splutter in shock as I took in the vision.

  The sitting room's furniture had been shoved aside and in the middle of the room just sat two chairs facing away from each other. Della and Professor Pax were both slumped back in chairs, and their arms were just hanging down towards the ground. Blood ran down, dripping from their fingertips onto the floor. From how they slumped back in their seats, I could see both of their throats were slit. Pax was definitely dead, but Della’s head slowly turned to us, and a serene smile slipped across her mouth. She struggled to breathe, and her life was draining out of her, but she still managed one eerie laugh when she saw us. A spell wheel had been drawn between the two chairs using the spilt blood collecting on the ground. A portal was starting to open in the middle, and Octavia knelt on the floor whispering an incantation over it.

  “Death magic,” Dom whispered.

  We were all so shocked none of us moved. I wasn’t sure what to do. Octavia. It made no sense. Why would she do this?

  “You can’t stop us,” she told us. Her voice was flat and emotionless. She stopped chanting and looked up at us from where she knelt. “We’re only doing what must be done.”

  “The Academy …” Dom spluttered. “Please Octavia, tell me that wasn’t you.”

  “It was easy,” she shrugged. “You didn’t even see the sacrifices in the carnage of the other bodies.” She gave us a soft smile, and my stomach rolled. This wasn’t the woman I’d come to know, who I’d worked beside for years.

  “Why?” Wyatt breathed.

  She looked over at him and cocked her head to the side. It was almost like she was listening to another conversation as her eyes became unfocused, and she seemed to zone out for a minute.

  “Octavia, why?” Dom shouted at her.

  “The realm is out of balance. It must be restored,” she said with a shrug. “The Fae upset the balance after the last war. We have suffered. We have suffered so much. The balance must be restored. She told us, she promised. If we worshipped her, she would show us the way. We spent years on our knees, offering up our bodies and our souls as a sacrifice. No one else joined us. No one knew of our suffering. But finally, finally, after all of those years, she answered our prayers. She showed us the way.” Her eyes were glazed as she preached at us. She’d clearly lost her mind.

  “At what cost?” Dom screamed. “So many Octavia. So many have died already. How many are you willing to sacrifice just so your magic will be stronger?”

  “She promised,” she said with a frown on her face. “Our goddess will provide. She showed us the way.”

  Wyatt couldn’t take any more, and he sprang forward without saying a word. The anger on his face echoed in his scream of rage. Octavia didn’t move; she didn’t even look surprised. As he ran her through with his sword, she just looked down at her chest at the sword impaling her to the hilt.

  “You’ll never stop us,” she quietly, told us before her eyes slid closed and she slumped over.

  Frannie scampered into the room, taking us all by surprise. She was dripping in demon blood with her two knives clutched in her hands. She gave a happy little giggle and skipped over to the portal, peering down inside. Suddenly, she swiped a knife forward and cut off one of Octavia’s ears. She grabbed it off the floor and shoved it in her mouth. Chewing carefully and raising an eyebrow in thought, she almost looked like she was trying to savour the flavour.

  My stomach rolled, and Wyatt groaned out in disgust. Frannie spat the chewed ear and her blood-tinged saliva into her hand. When she looked down at her hand, she just cackled in glee. Wyatt lost his breakfast over in the corner, while she dropped to her knees and started sketching runes into the spell wheel. Dom and I watched her carefully. She was chattering away to herself, discussing her rune work with herself, laughing and shaking her head. After a few minutes of altering the spell wheel, the portal flickered and then shrank closed.

  Dom was watching her in shock. Clearly, whatever she’d done was difficult. He leaned over in interest, checking out her spell work. Magic wasn’t something I was familiar with, and it all went a bit over my head. Wyatt slowly walked back over to us, clutching his stomach and groaning. When Frannie looked up and saw his face, she just laughed and offered him the chewed ear with a smile.

  “Erm, no thanks. I’m good,” Wyatt mumbled, before taking a few worried steps away from her.

  Wyatt pulled his sword free from Octavia and then walked over to the window, which overlooked the back of the house. “The demons have gone,” he said. “Someone should check the front.”

  He didn’t return to us, and I got the impression he didn’t want to be around Frannie. She was harmless, really. We had far worse things to worry about than her.

  Dom nodded and walked out of the room. He came back a short while later and confirmed the demons seemed to have left. The pack guards were running the perimeter to check they weren’t lingering nearby.

  We all just stood there looking between each other. I didn’t know what we were supposed to do next. How were we supposed to come back from this?

  “What is all of this?” I asked Dom, peering down at the wheel.

  “Portal,” Frannie said, sidling up to me and leaning her head onto my shoulder. I tried not to think about how close she was to my ear.

  “So, all of this, was just to open another portal? But where to?” I asked, confused.

  “Aria,” Frannie frowned down at the spell wheel and scuffed one foot against the first line of runes. “Needed strong magic.”

  Dom knelt and started to consider the spell wheel in front of him. “All of this time. How could I have not seen this? Not seen there was something wrong with her?”

  “I was there too,” I told him. “She seemed completely fine, normal even,” I assured
him. Dom was going to take this hard. He was going to start placing the blame on himself now, for not stopping this earlier.

  “Aria must have them worried,” Wyatt said. He was still standing at the window, staring out.

  He was right. Perhaps there was hope. If they were willing to do all of this, just to try and stop Aria. It had to mean something. It had to mean we should have hope.

  Chapter 2

  Aria

  “Help them!” I roared, pointing down to my mates, on the ground in front of the legion of kneeling Valkyrie.

  Kyle was pale and panting through the pain, but he had a soppy grin on his face. I wasn’t sure if it was from the blood loss, or just because we’d made it through the portal. As he was swaying about a bit, I decided it was more likely from the blood loss.

  One of the Valkyrie stood and approached me. She waved two others over to tend to Kyle’s injuries.

  “My name is Geta,” she told me bowing her head. “It is an honour to meet you, Phoenix General. My guard will take your friend to the infirmary for treatment.”

  “He is my mate,” I gritted out to her. My magic was still riding me hard. The flames on my swords had died down, but my wings were still ablaze.

  “Then he shall be treated with the honour such a position deserves,” she said bowing her head to me again. She looked behind her cautiously before quietly asking me. “Are you feeling the blood lust, my General?”

  “My magic feels out of control. It has been growing steadily, but since stepping through the portal … I don’t think I can rein it back in,” I told her honestly. Now was not the time to be coy.

  My breathing was increasing, and I was starting to panic. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pull it back this time. I took a step back from Geta, my magic was screaming at me to fight, and I didn’t want to hurt her. When I looked behind her, I saw my mates being led away presumably to the infirmary. That just made my rage spiral higher. How dare they take my mates from me! I gritted my teeth and shook my head. This was crazy; they were only helping Kyle.

  “I’ve seen this before, to a lesser degree. You need to fight to wear your magic down. To wear off the lust,” she said, looking behind her and waving another Valkyrie over. “Arta, disburse everyone but have your battalion stay behind. The General wishes to see a demonstration of their skills.”

  The Valkyrie called Arta went back over to the crowd of gathered Valkyrie and sent most of them on their way. I could see some of them were reluctant to leave. A large group remained though. I looked around distressed. My magic wanted blood; I couldn’t pull it back into me. The fire that usually burned through me blazed across my wings. At least it didn’t hurt anymore. I gripped my swords tighter, so much so I was almost losing the feeling in my fingers.

  “General, do not worry. It is not uncommon for a Valkyrie to experience blood lust when they have a surge in their magic,” Geta explained.

  “How do you normally deal with it?” I asked, trying to breathe through the rage.

  “Fight,” Geta grinned at me. “Arta,” she shouted to the group behind me. “Bring forward your battalion.”

  The group of Valkyrie who had remained moved across to us. My magic flared at the challenge. These were not idle minded fighters; these were trained warriors. They spent their entire lives preparing for battle. The magic rolled across my skin, welcoming these fighters to us. The flames on my wings surged brighter, and I could see the other Valkyrie were mesmerised by the sight.

  “General, we have one hundred Valkyrie in a battalion. Arta trains our finest warriors,” she indicated the group in front of her with a sweep of her hand. They all stood taller under her praise. My magic flared, and half of them dropped down to one knee again, confusing me.

  “Your magic welcomes them,” Geta explained quietly to me.

  Geta seemed older than some of the other Valkyrie here. She had long flowing blonde hair which was left loose around her shoulders. She wore brown leather trousers and a cropped leather vest which looked similar in design to a sports bar. A sword was sheathed at her back, but she had no other visible weapons. She was clearly in some position of power.

  Geta turned to the warriors in front of us. “Twenty of you will face the Phoenix General to demonstrate your skills.”

  The warriors still kneeling on the ground looked confused and a little alarmed at this thought. Hopefully, because they were worried about me hurting them and not the other way around. My magic just surged again, rejoicing at the challenge.

  Geta led me away from the group and to a nearby sandy area, which looked like a training ring. When we stood alone in the centre, she quietly told me. “Try not to injure them too badly. They will view this as a training exercise. Wear out your blood lust. If any of them get hurt, I will pull them out and replace them with a new fighter. When you move out of the blood lust, you should be able to extinguish the fire of your wings. I will call off the training exercise at that point,” she explained to me.

  As Geta walked out of the ring and left me alone on the sand, it occurred to me if she was in a position of power, she could just be arranging this to take me out and protect her position. She did seem to genuinely want to help though. I couldn’t go to the infirmary in this condition. My magic was raging. I wouldn’t risk my mates by going to them when I felt this out of control. I wanted the violence so much I almost felt like I could already smell the blood on the air.

  Twenty Valkyrie stepping onto the sand and the rest just stood on one side settling in, getting ready to fight. They held a variety of swords and long daggers. One of them even held a spear at her side. They all had some variation of fighting leathers. I was so drunk on the magic raging through my system I felt giddy at what I knew was going to come. I knew I needed to hold back and make sure I didn’t severely injure any of them, but in the back of my mind, I already knew once it started, there would be no holding back until the blood lust had burned out of my system.

  I took a leery glance at Geta, and she just nodded grimly at me. She knew what she was talking about. It troubled me that she’d so readily offered up these Valkyrie to satisfy my blood lust though. My magic started to pulse. My rage and need for blood began to clash with a developing protective feeling for these women who stood in front of me. In the end, though, the rage won out. It had been building for so long; it was so out of control, there would be no reining it back in now. A part of me didn’t even want to try.

  There was no signal to start, no warning. There was just a battle cry screamed out of the first three Valkyrie who charged towards me. It seemed they had decided to only charge me a few at a time. They would soon learn this was a mistake.

  I didn’t need to pull my swords from my back. I still held them tightly in my hands from when I’d fought the demons earlier.

  All three of the Valkyrie advancing on me held a sword each. Only one of them had dual blades as I did. I couldn’t decide if they were excited to show off their skills, or if they thought I was going to go down easy.

  We met in a clash of metal and the barring of teeth. They weren’t holding back, and I loved them for it. My magic rolled inside me. I felt my wings flare brighter. I’d never used them in a fight before, but now the flames licked my back, they were the perfect tool to keep the attacking Valkyrie away from my blind spot. I swept one wing at a Valkyrie trying to creep behind me. She screamed and fell back as I wing-slapped her across one side of her body. I didn’t take the time to see if she was alright, but I briefly caught one of her friends pulling her away to the side before the Valkyrie with the spear came to play.

  The spear was a weapon I’d not defended against before. In the end, it was easy. I caught one of the others as I entered a spin and slingshot her at the spear holding Valkyrie. She pulled her spear away to save running her comrade through, and it was easy then to disarm her and knock her out of the fight with a vicious slice of my blade across her abdomen.

  I was lost in the blood lust. I sliced, and I hacked, and
I didn’t hold back in any way. A small voice in the back of my mind was warning me not to hurt these people too badly. I couldn’t hear it, or rather I ignored it, as I relished in the joy of watching their blood coat the ground.

  Fighting was like a dance that sang to my magic and filled my heart. I didn’t even register the faces of the different fighters as I knocked them down. I was starting to enjoy myself. It was far better when they rushed me together rather than trying to take me one at a time. It felt like more of a challenge, and my magic was like a kid in a candy store as it sorted through its favourite treats.

  There were a few Valkyrie who held their ground but only for a short time. They all inevitably fell. It was when two identical Valkyrie ran into the fray and seemed to move as one, I felt like I was about to finally get the fight I needed. They both kept out of the reach of my swords, they darted in like hummingbirds, striking together or in quick succession. Staying separated, they were making me work to deflect the blows coming from either side. It was the perfect opportunity to try incorporating my wings into my usual fighting style, and I already knew the perfect way to do it. They seemed to move at random, but they still seemed to know what the other was about to do. It was impossible to predict. It didn’t matter though. I didn’t care which of them was going to fall first.

  The one on my left darted in first, and I turned fully to engage her, giving the perception of losing sight of the other fighter. She took it like I knew she would. She immediately darted into my side with her sword raised. I feinted a blow to the first, and she slashed her sword hard to clash with mine, but I quickly pulled it away before it made contact. As she followed through on her swing, I ducked under her sword and dropped low, swivelling on the spot I pulled my wings in tight. As the first fighter’s sword sailed past me, I sprang up. With a wing on either side of her body, I beat my wings harshly. She was fully enveloped in my flames, and she dropped to the floor, screaming.