The Rise of Fortune and Fury (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 5)

Deandra, who is a good twenty feet away, gasps at my temerity, and I know I’ve offended good and well if she’s shocked.

It actually empowers me because I know that I’m critical to the prophecy, which means there isn’t a damn thing Rune can do to punish me right now.

“In fact,” I continue, on too much of a roll right now. Pent-up anger, frustration, and fear make my tongue loose. “Rune is a coward. He’s an embarrassment to the council.”

“How dare you—” Rune sputters.

“How dare I?” I snarl back. Carrick’s hand reaches out to take mine but not to stop me. Instead, he squeezes softly in support. “How dare you continually punish Carrick for a mistake that was made and paid for a hundred times over? Is your ego really so thin that you can’t move past it? So you lost your chance to be with your love, and I respect the pain you must have felt, but Carrick has felt it over and over and over again. And it’s still not enough for you. I’m starting to think you’re not the almighty god of Life and therefore Death, but rather someone who is overcompensating for some type of inadequacy—one I can hazard a guess about what it is.”

Rune’s eyes turn blood red, and his lips peel back in rage. I’m guessing the insult to the size of his dick might have gone a bit far. The other four gods are alarmed, and they actually move slightly in my direction as if to protect me.

Not fast enough, though, as Carrick is already there, putting himself in front of me.

“You’re going to regret that,” Rune hisses at me. With a wave of his arms, he disappears.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Finley,” Veda chastises softly.

“I kind of liked it,” Circe says with an impish smile.

“It was disrespectful,” Cato says with no hint of admonishment. Merely a statement. “But I understand your need.”

Onyx doesn’t comment on my rash words but rather asks Carrick. “Are you ready for the battle?”

As the god of War, she would be most interested in that.

“We are,” Carrick replies, and Onyx gives a sage nod in return.

And with no further fanfare—well wishes or chastisement—there’s a flash of white light as the gods disappear.

“Whoa, that was intense,” Deandra exclaims, and I look over. She grins and flashes me a thumbs-up sign. “Mad respect, human.”

“Thanks,” I mutter as Carrick turns to face me.

His expression is grim, but there’s no anger for what I did. He doesn’t say what I already know.

I’ve angered Rune enough that if I survive the prophecy, I’m probably going to die soon after.

Even knowing that, I don’t regret a single thing I said.

CHAPTER 26

Carrick

The hours of waiting were excruciating, and while Carrick had not truly envisioned Kymaris coming to the ritual spot any earlier than necessary, it didn’t make the wait any less tense.

The clearing where the ritual would take place was a large field approximately the size of a football field. It was surrounded by thick forest and rough terrain with Fish Lake to the northeast and Lake Wenatchee to the south.

Because it was a new moon dawning, there was no ambient light in the sky. Not that it mattered as it was overcast and not even the stars shone through the clouds. Carrick’s eyes had long grown accustomed to the dark and while he couldn’t see clearly, his demi-god powers let him envision enough of the ritual field that he could spot their enemies coming.

He knew Kymaris would arrive by bending distance, but he wasn’t sure how her forces would get there. They might hike in. If so, they would most likely be from the south side of the clearing as there were decent trails leading in from Lake Wenatchee. For the time being, Carrick had positioned their forces to the west, north, and east of the ritual site, and had them stay back several hundred yards to avoid detection.

Of course, all of their precautions to stay hidden could be moot, as Carrick knew that Kymaris might just as easily use her newly acquired Blood Stone powers to flash her forces into place.

This meant that when it was about ten minutes until the midnight hour and there had been no sign of Kymaris or her minions from the scouts scattered throughout the forest, Carrick ordered everyone to move in close and be ready to battle at a moment’s notice.

“She’s going to bend distance in,” Finley surmised. “Along with her daemons and fae.”

“It would appear so,” Carrick agreed as they advanced.

He halted everyone twenty-five yards inside the tree line on the north side of the ritual clearing. Using his own powerful magic, he amplified the power of the dark night and thick forest, casting a cloaking spell so that all of their army were covered. Anyone within the ritual field wouldn’t be able to see the enemy watching them from the woods.