Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

CHAOS MAGE Chapter 36: The Resurrection

"No." Seiren's voice cracked. "No – no!"

White magic coursed down her arm. The bone snapped back with a spine-tingling crunch and the pain dulled, but pins and needles remained in her left arm. Desperation pooled like a vortex of bile and acid, swirling deep in the pits of her stomach and coursing up through her core. Seiren seized it and sent it surging through her right arm. A ball of light formed in the palm of her hand and she blasted it at Hanna.

With a lazy wave, Hanna deflected it. The flash magic ricocheted off the back of her hand and shot through the air, throwing off festive sparks before crashing into the domed ceiling, throwing cracks across the surface. Seiren screamed, readying another blast of flash magic.

"I wouldn't waste all that precious celestial magic," Hanna said. Her voice was hollow, echoing as if they were all in a tiny, dark underground tunnel. The words made Seiren shiver, each bite of the syllable crunching like frost beneath her feet and the lilt coursed like an arctic draught over her exposed flesh. "You cannot harm me."

"What have you done?" Kristen gasped. "You promised – you never said—"

"I stay true to my word. Well..." Hanna shrugged and waved her hand. A streak of light shot from her feet straight for the bound Kristen. It snaked up her body, shredding the binding from Seiren's red-violet rune as if it were made out of paper. The light pressed against Kristen's flesh, seeping into her body. She gasped. Seiren didn't need to see to know Hanna had restored Kristen's magic.

"Holy hell..." Rowan whispered from behind Seiren.

"Now I am true to my word. It was not easy, speaking from that abominable confine." Hanna's lips curled. As the seconds past, she appeared less and less like Madeleine. The callous look made Madeleine's features seem alien altogether. "Lucky the centuries have not eroded my persuasion. I suppose I could not say the same for loyalty."

She gave Eleia's daemon a pointed look. Eleia watched with eyes as round as a full moon, her face drained of blood. She clutched the royal daemon's horns as it hovered above the ground, its long whiskers and tail undulating in the air.

"Apollinon, you have sworn loyalty to the bastard Feures's offspring? After all he had done – stolen my blood, stolen my power?"

I yield to a worthy summoner. The rumbling reply echoed clearly through Seiren's skull despite the daemon not opening its mouth. Hanna's curled smile became disdainful.

"You yield to the weak. How disgraceful."

Apollinon raised its head, mouth agape and snarling. Eleia clutched its horns, her brows furrowed in concentration. The lengthy, scarlet daemon dived, teeth bared. Air whistled over their descent. Hanna raised her hand. As if yanked by an invisible rope, Apollinon came to an abrupt halt in mid-air, almost throwing Eleia off its back. Its eyes stared down at Hanna, the pupils in golden slits and saliva dribbling out of its deadly jaws. Fear.

"Do not forget who created you, Apollinon," Hanna bit out. She held him there for several more seconds to prove her point before dropping him. Both Eleia and Apollinon crashed to the floor, stunned. Seiren's breath caught in her throat. So much power.

"You promised—" Fautos's voice strained. He climbed to a sitting position, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. "You promised me power! All this – all this was me! My doing! You should be worshipping me!"

Hanna's eyes snapped to him and narrowed. Before any of them could react, she'd raised her hand and clenched it into a fist. With a bloodcurdling scream, Fautos twisted on the ground, eyes rolling and mouth frothing. The crunching of bones bounced off the walls, making Seiren's guts writhe. He continued to screech, limbs snapping back at impossible angles, fractured bones jutting out and straining against the flesh that barely held the limb together. Then he stilled, gurgling, eyes staring glassily ahead.