Blood of Retribution by Bonnie Lamer Read Free Book Online Page A

back each syllable before I give voice to it.  “Masters of old, trapped inside your cage, pushed aside by those less sage, this fate bestowed in a cruel and blind age.  I call upon you to rise again, make the world as it should have been and save us from this sickening fen.  Walk among us and show no mercy to those who have left you thirsty.  Your power is restored to share your wrath with those who have kept you from your rightful path.”
     
    As the last syllable of the spell leaves my mouth, a scream is wrenched from the bottom of my soul.  I fall to my hands and knees, still screaming as pain shoots through every pore.  My magic is forcibly pulled through me, lighting the dark walls, setting free god knows what.  In a fog, my ears can barely pick up the sound of Kallen’s voice.  He is shouting, fright and anger and worry mix in his voice, but what pulls me from this fog is the love I hear.  Whatever else he is thinking, first and foremost, he wants to know that I am okay, that I am still with him.
     
    That is what gives me the strength to stand amongst the paper cyclone the dark section has become.  It gives me the strength to fight against the pull, to fight for control of my magic that is being absorbed into these pages and giving them life.  With every ounce of strength I have, I pull my magic back.  I rip it from the unseen hands that are grasping it, reveling in its glow.  I take it back and then I turn it around.  I push the books back to the shelves.  I push the scrolls and the parchment back to their places. 
     
    There’s too much of it, though.  I can’t find it all.  My heart sinks as I realize some of the darkness has already escaped.  Doing what I can to subdue the rest, I ignore the pain in my chest that has come with the realization that I have let loose darkness and despair into the realm. 
     
    I have become Pandora.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
    When every scrap of paper I can find has been returned to its rightful place, I stumble my way back to Kallen.  He is so far away.  I feel his magic as he tries over and over again to penetrate the wall keeping him out, but it’s no use.  He will not be able to enter the darkness no matter how much he tries.  The magic is too strong.
     
    The relief on his face when he sees me is palpable.  I try to rush to him, but I can hardly stand, let alone run.  I am utterly exhausted.  I have to inch my way to where he stands, using the outer wall of the archives to keep myself upright.  What I wouldn’t give right now for a soft place to lie down and close my eyes.
     
    After what feels like an eon, I am finally in front of my husband.  My dear, loving husband who doesn’t know what he should feel first: relief, anxiety, anger or love.  When I fall into his arms, I know that love has won.  Kallen scoops me up and holds me to him, murmuring words of love as I fall into a stupor, the weight of the last few minutes pushing me quickly into unconsciousness.  The last thing I hear before I am lost to the darkness is the scribe.  “She has set evil loose.  She is the plague we all knew she would be,” he rasps, absolute conviction coloring his voice.
     
    When my eyes open again, I am in an unfamiliar place.  The walls around me are a pale pink and the bed I am lying on is covered with a deep pink comforter with embroidered red roses.  The amount of gilded fixtures on the wall tells me that I am still at the palace.  Dagda has very tacky taste. 
     
    The hissing in the air tells me that my familiar has found me.  He is standing at the edge of the bed, his teeth bared and his hair standing straight at the ruff of his neck.  My eyes follow the path of his and there are two extremely angry Fairies wanting with every fiber of their being to incinerate the little beast.  Unfortunately for them, their magic can’t touch him.
     
    “Stop it,” I say to my familiar.  I put a muzzle on him to emphasize