Blackhearted Betrayal by Kasey Mackenzie Read Free Book Online Page B

like I could take on the world with both hands tied behind my back and one eye closed, injured knee and all. My eyes widened as realization kicked in. For the first time in months, my knee felt—completely normal, without the slightest hint of pain or even discomfort.
Who needs Jack Daniel’s when they have ambrosia? Enough of this stuff, and I really
could
take on the world!
     
    Then I remembered what was to come and managed to sober my thoughts, if not my emotions. Because, amped up on ambrosia, I might well be able to take on all comers, but one truth was inescapable. This sense of indestructibility was extremely temporary. Eventually, reality would set in once more, including the incessant knee pain.
     
    As if she could hear my irreverent thoughts, the Megaera judged me sufficiently recovered to continue. She guided us to the far side of the table. A pentagram had been engraved into the marble floor just past the table, in front of a dais much like the one in the chancel where we’d first encountered the Megaera. The noticeable difference was the enormous mirror framed in silver gilt that was suspended from the wall, towering over both dais and pentagram. My flesh prickled with goose bumps as I recognized it as a summoning circle.
     
    Circle
was a magical rather than literal term and referred to the sphere of arcane energy that would surroundboth pentagram and mirror once the summoning began. I’d seen summoning circles before—hell, I’d summoned spirits from the hereafter myself—but never one involving a mirror, much less one so large and overflowing with magical energy. The reason for that was simple—it required a phenomenal amount of power for a living being to travel from one mirror, through the arcane maelstrom separating the various realms, and out of another mirror without frying to a flaming-hot crisp.
     
    The Megaera positioned Mom at the southwestern point of the five-sided star and me at the southeastern. She moved to the northern point, keeping her back to us so she could face the mirror. Her hands shot into the air, and magical energy roared up all around us. Sapphire blue Fury’s magic swirled from her hands to mingle with a thousand sparks of silver I was learning to identify as divine in nature. The Megaera then chanted in some language even more ancient—and powerful—than the Latin most spellcasters used. My focus narrowed to the mirror on the wall as it rippled with myriad colors and shuddered as if something was trying to break through it—and then something
did
. Or, rather, some
one
. Three of them, to be precise, each as overwhelming and awe-inspiring as the next.
     
    Flash.
     
    A woman with night-dark skin and crescent-shaped eyes rimmed in silver strode onto the dais, toga snapping in the magical breeze whipping inside the circle. Somehow it seemed appropriate that her raven black hair had been braided into a multitude of knots much like the Megaera’s. Unlike the Fury’s hairstyle, however, hers was adorned with glittering emeralds, rubies, and sapphires rather than beads. A belt of woven crescentmoons—each bearing a precious gem at its center—encircled her shapely hips. My eyes widened when I saw a shimmering, multihued python tattoo wrapping from each of her shoulders to fingertips. The colors and size were different, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of my own Amphisbaena in ink form. She clutched a shimmery silver sword in one hand, an emblem that leaped out at me immediately. While I didn’t recognize the goddess by name, I knew what she represented in her current guise: The Rebuker.
     
    Flash.
     
    A man who was more light-skinned than the woman but just as obviously an African Deity sauntered to the opposite side of the dais. His eyes were scarlet bolts of lightning, rimmed in immortal silver, and his black hair sprang from his head in tight curls that seemed to crackle with barely restrained energy. Like the goddess, he bore twin tattoos on his arms running