Kastori Restorations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 4) Read Free

prison cell, ready for death. This is the battle we face now. This is why we’re treating this as the last battle. But we don’t compromise on our ethics just because the enemy has none.”
    “We do if it defeats the enemy,” Cyrus said. “You want to play by ethics? You go ahead. And when Typhos does what he said he’ll do…”
    Just saying it enraged Cyrus further. He swore under his breath before continuing.
    “Thank your ethics then. I’d rather live burning the world to defeat Typhos than dying with my self-respect intact.”
    Celeste looked profoundly hurt, but Cyrus didn’t care.
    “We’ll… we need to talk about this, but we will handle it later,” Celeste said. “Let’s reconvene on the peak of Mount Ardor. We need to decide our next steps immediately.”
    Cyrus agreed, and the three came together, locking hands. Celeste teleported them all moments later, bringing the three to the steps of Mount Ardor’s highest point.

 
     
     
     
    3
    A lone tent, barely large enough to comfortably fit about a half-dozen people, stood near the damaged remains of a highly technologically advanced human outpost. Inside, Typhos lay on his back, still recovering from a surprisingly powerful gunshot wound near his chest and a sharp sword slice to his face. Around him, wearied and exhausted white-robed Kastori worked to heal him of the stubborn wounds, some literally dying to save their Lord.
    “How much longer until you are finished?” he growled at one of his Kastori, Gregus.
    I have no time for this. The Orthrans are healed. I am not. If they come here and I have to fight in a weakened state…
    I wish taking this planet didn’t require me being full strength.
    “My Lord, it is impossible to say, the damage—”
    Enraged, Typhos stood up and shoved Gregus out of the tent. The pain still seared on his face and chest, even with the protective mask and robes on, but all of his anger pushed him past that. He stood over Gregus and lifted him off the ground.
    “Don’t tell your Lord anything is impossible,” he sneered. “I conquered Anatolus. I conquered Monda. I created Calypsius.”
    All things which I no longer have.
    You’re lucky I need you right now, Gregus. On Monda, I would’ve snapped your neck for relief.
    “And I will kill the ones who forced me into hiding here.”
    Cyrus. The human.
    Celeste.
    He flashed back to the moment when he had pierced her chest. He just had to pull the sword back and stab her again, or find her heart and end it right there. Instead, he took a beat too long to gloat and suffered his own injuries as a result.
    Even though, so sure you were dead. Now you’re the new reminder of all the terrible things I’ve experienced.
    Unless I made sure you had a chance to survive. Could it be…
    No. Celeste, you were lucky. Very lucky.
    “I… agree… My Lord,” Gregus said, bringing Typhos back to the present.
    Typhos grunted at Gregus and dropped him into the sand. He looked at the short, once-fat Kastori with disdain.
    “We’ve been here several days, and you still have not healed me properly,” Typhos said in disgust. “I should have known better than to rely on mere Kastori like this.”
    “My Lord, I’m sorry, I—”
    “Save it,” Typhos snapped. “All of you must continue to work. Anyone caught eating on my watch will suffer.”
    They do not need sustenance like I need healing. If they die, they die for a greater cause. Besides, their deaths are not the ones I crave the most.
    As Typhos whirled around, his hand on his chest, massaging the gunshot wound, he thought about how he might fight the traitorous Kastori and the annoying siblings. He had no black or red magic Kastori left. Even one man, a god in his own eyes, could not defeat an entire legion of Kastori. His earlier trials on Anatolus in his younger days had shown such a thing was not possible.
    But then the thought came to Typhos, and he couldn’t stop smiling at what he saw.
    Instead of an army of Kastori,