I launch my body over a metal bench and crash into the priest’s back. He tumbles forward and his mental hold on Bax wavers. Bax drops to a seat, gasping for air.
“Can you stop the Grimmal?” I shout to Bax, while the priest is righting himself.
Bax shakes his head. “The beast is protected by Bale’s power. It must be slain to be destroyed.”
Damnit.
“Go, then. Get them out of here.”
Bax gets to his feet and gives me a hard nod before he turns to his father. “I hope to see you again, old man. But not again in this world.” Then he punches the priest. He looks at me and gives me a crooked smile. “I’ll wait for you, but if you’re not there in time—”
“Don’t wait,” I say. “Get them out now.”
His eyes say he doesn’t believe me, but he nods. This is our pact. His family and mine escaping the Otherworld is the agreement.
“May your goddesses be with you, protector,” Bax says, then hurries down the risers toward the Cage.
The dark priest palms the bench and uses his power to propel himself to his feet. He faces me, and I take a hesitant step back. I say a prayer under my breath to Alyah, calling forth the mercury in my blood. I look down at my arm. The inky swirls illuminate, glowing like the sliver of moonlight encircling the eclipse. Alyah touched the mercury inside me for this purpose. I have to trust that this is my purpose.
Alyah, I’m yours.
The priest raises his hand and pushes an unseen blow at me. I block his strike with my arm, and the air ripples around me with blue, electrified tendrils that snap the air. His eyes widen in alarm. I can imagine what he sees: what my father saw when he took in the silver swirling around my eyes, along my flesh. Fear ignites the priest’s black irises, and I cry out and force him backward.
Feeling the power of the goddess surge though me, I reach down and clutch the priest’s head. Just as I did my father—only I don’t know what will happen this time. The darkness within him burns against my palms, but I keep my hands secured to him. His eyes ignite fire red.
A white light blooms beneath my hands. It starts dim, illuminating into a bright beam that fills my vision. I look away, and a throaty cry echoes through my mind as Bale fights to keep her hold on the dark priest. Alyah’s power rockets through me, and I’m thrown on my back.
The priest convulses, his body jerking with tremors. His mouth leaks a dark substance that smells of tar and something so vile that I gag and have to cover my nose. He gasps for fresh air, and his eyes close. He lies still.
I look down at my cuff, panic thundering through me as I wait for the third moonstone light. But a sudden calm washes over me, an awareness—a knowledge I can’t understand. But it tells me that the dark priest isn’t dead.
Alyah is healing him.
She’s healing the madness deep within the priest. I wipe the sweat seeping into my eyes with my arm and then check his vitals. He’s alive. I shakily get to my feet and look down at the unconscious priest. His skin is tinged with a cream hue, and the angles of his face aren’t as sharp.
Alyah, what have you done?
This is your power, Kaliope. The voice is powerful and sure and angelic, and it fills my being. I tremble and drop to my knees as it bathes me in an ethereal channel.
My goddess.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I gather my senses. The goddess spoke to me.
Pushing the exhilaration away, I reach over and shake the priest. He has to call off the Grimmal. But he’s completely blacked out. Panicked, I look to the Cage. The remaining contenders have the monster cornered. Bax, Lilly, and Kia are gone. Relief floods me until I spot Caben.
I curse. Of course he didn’t leave with the others. Defiant, stubborn man.
But there’s still time. The Otherworlders in the risers are aw
akening from Bale’s control, and if we can send the Grimmal back into the earth, we can end this.
I take off down the risers and bound out of the chamber.
The Grimmal raises one of its hairy legs and stabs Metal Mouth through his chest with its black talon, pinning him to the ground. Kaide hacks at the leg, severing it, and the Grimmal cries out, a shrieking blast that pieces my eardrums. Caben uses the moment to run beneath the beast.
No—
I pick up a discarded battle ax next to Dash’s fallen body. A putrid, murky-green blood drips from its end. I wipe it against the ground, using the mercury to wash the blade before raising it above my head, and charge into the fray.