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

The woman under the hood was not a human.

It was Nimeyah.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Deandra snarled, moving to Carrick’s side. She leaned forward to look past him at Finley. “I thought you said the sacrifice was human.”

Finley didn’t look at Deandra, her gaze riveted on the Light Fae queen who merely stared straight ahead as if this was no bother to her at all. Carrick knew that she was indeed under some type of spell as she would have used her tremendous magic to get out of this mess.

“I thought it was supposed to be a human,” Finley muttered, the astonishment clear in her tone.

“Twelve like,” Carrick said, repeating what they knew of the ritual. “That was twelve original Dark Fae Fallen.”

“And one unlike,” Finley growled, understanding that did not mean her or a human at all. “An original Light Fae Fallen.”

Finley finally tore her gaze away from the ritual circle to look at Deandra. “I just assumed… and then when Blain was held hostage and we were told that he was a sacrifice, that was just more proof it was a human who was needed as the unlike.”

Deandra shook her head, irritation clear in her expression as her attention turned back to her mother. “A ruse to keep us occupied. We were making plans, recruiting forces, and rescuing your human friend from sacrifice, and she and Pyke were in Faere kidnapping my mother.”

“Damn it,” Finley growled. She bet Echo was sent to them to provide the information regarding Blain, distracting them from ever considering Nimeyah would be in immediate danger.

“Don’t bother chastising yourself,” Deandra returned, everyone’s eyes still pinned on the ritual clearing. “Nimeyah refused to help. She refused to believe Kymaris would come after her. She didn’t take the power of the Blood Stone seriously. This is on her.”

No one replied, but Carrick could feel Finley’s guilt. He would talk to her later to help ease it, but for now, things were moving fast and decisions had to be made.

Everyone watched as Kymaris moved out of the north side of the ritual circle and approached Amell. When she stopped before him, she was no more than thirty-five yards away from where Carrick and his forces stood in the dark watching.

They exchanged no words, but within Kymaris’ hand appeared an ancient-looking scroll. She handed it to Amell before silently turning away from him. Surprisingly, she didn’t enter the circle again but moved counterclockwise around it, heading back to the south side of the field.

“We should go in now,” Rebsha said, coming to stand beside Deandra. The worry for his queen was evident in his tone.

“Yes, we should,” Carrick agreed as Kymaris came to a stop at the opposite end of the field. She turned slowly around to face them again. Just as he was getting ready to issue the command, the alarm on his watch went off.

The tinny beeping caught everyone’s attention as they knew what it signaled.

The midnight hour.

Amell unfurled the scroll, calling out words in an unknown language, and the ground started to shake violently. Everyone spread their legs a little further out to maintain balance, and they watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as Kymaris began to rise into the air. A circular portion of the ground about ten feet in diameter pushed up from the earth, rising upward in a pedestal formed of dirt and stone. She went up and up, at least twenty feet in the air, and smiled smugly at the pawns in her ritual down below.

It had started.

The stone at her chest flared to life, firing to a bright red glow. Kymaris stretched her hands outward and Amell started chanting, rhythmic words that even Carrick in all his millennia didn’t understand.

Most everyone was transfixed on the stone at Kymaris’ chest so no one quite saw that it was the circle of twelve that was changing. The fae who had been standing placidly with their heads bowed and hands clasped over their stomachs suddenly straightened and then went stiff as boards. Some of the fae hoods even fell back, revealing their faces, which were etched in pain.

Something in the air popped, and an arc of blue electricity started at the fae directly below Kymaris and went counterclockwise around the circle. It seemingly went through the body of each fae and into the one beside it until they were all connected. If the fae felt it, they gave nothing away, still standing stiff as boards, eyes bulging and mouths opened as if they wanted to cry out.

The blue arc completed the circle, and Carrick heard Finley gasp as it shot from the last fae into the middle of the circle.

Straight into Nimeyah, who was tied to the pole.

She had already been standing straight and proud, but she did issue a scream when the blue light hit her. It was cut off quickly, though, as if she became paralyzed from the power surging into her.