by Rainy Kaye
With barely a sigh, I pulled away. His hands rested on my shoulders, and we stood a long moment, staring at each other. His thoughts were unreadable, and mine simply did not exist.
Then I remembered Fiona was being held up by a monster, swinging like a flag.
I turned to look, as the monster continued to stare ahead, unseeing, its long bony legs shifting and bobbing in the water ever-so-slightly.
Teeth chattering, I stepped around Randall and picked up one of the branches. Despite the stiffness in my back and arms, I hoisted the branch and then swung it toward the monster, catching him in one of his legs.
His head snapped in my direction.
I plucked up another branch, nearly dropping it, and then hurled it at him. Randall came up beside me and set to work catapulting rocks and branches at the monster. From several yards away, Sasmita and Ever launched their attack: Ever pitched rocks with one hand, refusing to sheath her kukri, and Sasmita sent little blue blasts of magic that swept like swirls of wind toward him.
The monster jerked its head back and forth between where Randall and I stood hurtling rocks and branches, and where Sasmita and Ever had rooted themselves along the shore. Its gills flapped harder, and it swung a long limb in our direction. I dropped to the ground, Randall beside me, as the bony appendage whooshed over our heads before retracting back into the water.
Sasmita dropped her jacket and ran a few feet down the edge of the shore. She unleashed another blast. The monster whirled on her, its cord-like lips pulling back in a sneer, revealing jagged teeth.
“That’s new,” I murmured, and then scrambled over to another rock and hefted it up. I tossed the rock in my hands once and then pitched it at him. It landed with a solid thud, knocking a limb to the side, but he didn’t glance at me as he floated through the lake, toward Sasmita.
Standing shoulder-width, she straightened upright and brought her hands in front of her. Blue light arced between her fingers and down her palms, like a plasma ball.
The monster swung one of his appendages at her. She reared back, but it knocked her in the side. She slid across the ground, the magic ball erupting harmlessly in the air. Another of the creature’s limbs flailed at her. She reached up and caught it with both hands, unleashing volts of magic. The limb quivered and yanked free of her grasp, jarring her from the ground and dropping her again. She scrambled to her feet as the monster swung its appendages in all directions, water splashing in waves onto the bank.
I jerked backwards, tottering on a loose rock as water flung at me. I raised my arm to shield my face, as if that mattered.
The monster continued thrashing its free limbs, swinging at us and hurling water. The edge of the lake ebbed in and out.
I leapt back from a swinging appendage. Fiona still hung like a bat from his one unmoving limb, and my mind raced for a plan.
As one of its arms swept toward Ever, she swung up her kukri and caught the bony appendage. The clink of the blade meeting the limb echoed through the trees.
The monster pulled backwards, face contorted in a silent hiss, and then it retreated away from the shore.
“That’s right. Keep going,” I said, barely audible. “Just drop Fiona and go back under the lake.”
Randall made a low uh sound just as I noticed the creature had begun to submerge into the water—still holding onto Fiona. Her loose hair slowly swung as the top of her head approached the surface of the lake.
With a growl, I charged forward, peeling off my jacket. I kicked off one shoe and then yanked off the other before wading into the water, leaning in until I could swim toward him. In the near distance, Ever swam from the side, heading toward the monster, kukri no longer in sight.
Around us, limbs stuck out of the lake like marsh plants, but they sank down.
Ever reached Fiona right before I did. Water splashed into my mouth, and I spit it out as I came up to her lowering form.
This close, I could see the monster was holding her by the ropes binding her legs. He no longer seemed to have any interest in us, as he made his slow but steady retreat.
“Let’s try to pull her free,” I said, panting and trying to ignore the cold sinking into my bones all over again.
Ever shook her head, letting out puffs of air as she treaded water. “Just be ready to catch.”
Before I could reply, she pulled the kukri from its sheath below the surface and swung as Fiona lowered to the water. The end of the kukri caught the ropes binding her legs. They fell apart and Fiona plummeted toward me. I reached out and grabbed her as she hit the water, and then pushed backwards, propelling myself away from the monster.
With one elbow hooked under Fiona’s arm, I swam for the shore, but with each stroke I seemed to sink farther. Summoning up the last of my energy, I urged myself forward.
Splashing around me spurred my heart into overdrive.
Perhaps the monster had decided to fight for its dinner.
Randall and Sasmita appeared in the water, coming toward me. Ever swam up behind me and around to the opposite side of Fiona. She threaded her arm under Fiona’s as Randall and Sasmita met us. Together, the four of us worked to half float, half pull Fiona across the lake as the monster continued to descend into the water. The top of his head disappeared just as we found our footing on the edge of the lake and yanked Fiona ashore.
I flopped down in a heap next to her, panting. Everyone dropped around me.
Tears sprung up in my eyes, and I was grateful for the icy water trickling down my face so no one would notice how close I was to crying.
Everything hurt.
Everyone kept nearly dying.
And we hadn’t even confronted the mage yet.
I hated how in over our heads we were, literally and figuratively, and that there was no one else to help us.
My companions were sopping wet, struggling to catch their breath, beaten and worn—and yet they were still here.
We hadn’t been abandoned, not really. We were the ones who had RSVPed to the battle. We were the people with the bravery, the fortitude, the attitude to continue to fight despite the hopelessness of the situation.
We kept growing in number. Lisa and Larry had helped us in New Orleans, and Sasmita had left behind everything and joined us. Even Elodie and Olivier had shown up when needed.
Here, we had Ever and her siblings.
In the next town, we would make more allies. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to stick around for the war, but they were putting their all into winning each battle.
I couldn’t ask for more, not really.
As if reading my thoughts, Randall reached over and took my hand in his. The touch was painful but warm and inviting, and I didn’t pull away.
Sasmita coughed into her mask and then straightened.
“Good work, team.” Her smile carried in her voice. “Let’s get out of here before we all catch pneumonia.”
We exchanged small nods and pushed to our feet. I gathered my waterlogged shoes and forced them back onto my numb feet, but I left the jacket on the ground. It was more water than fabric at this point.
Once my shoes were back on, we worked together to heft up Fiona. We carried her by her limbs, unceremoniously, to the van.
“I guess we put her on the ground for a minute?” Sasmita said, struggling to hold Fiona’s leg.
“It’ll be fine,” I said, voice hoarse, and we lowered her limp form to the snow and mud.
Ever sprung the rest of the distance to the van and shoved open the door. Stepping up with one foot, she leaned forward and lugged her backpack closer. As she pawed around inside her bag, I surveyed the lake.
The monster had vanished, but the trees near the lake remained submerged. He had only retreated to the bottom, but he was still there, waiting.
Ever had said the water had risen recently, indicating the monster had not been in the lake forever, unlike Louvel, the Devourer, who had apparently lived in the bog long before the dark mages and witches had been freed from their portra
its.
So, where were these new monsters coming from?
A crinkling sound caught my attention, and I turned as Ever, sopping wet and shivering, pulled the tarp from her bag and shook it out across the ground. She held up one end and, using the kukri, sliced the tarp in half.
“For the seats,” she said, sheathing her weapon.
I hurried over to help, joining Randall and Sasmita, and we laid one half of the tarp across the back seat, and the other across the two front bucket seats, draping the center console.
It wasn’t perfect, but it would keep the water from soaking the seats until we had somewhere to dry off.
Ever dug around in her bag again and produced several thermal tops and bottoms, and then looked up at Randall with a grimace.
“I don’t think these will fit you,” she said, glancing down at her bag. “I should have brought Jax’s bag…”
Her expression dropped.
“It’s fine,” I said in a rush, closing the distance between us. The last thing she needed was to deal with her brother’s death right now. The time to mourn would come, but we still weren’t there. “Randall, can you just…I don’t know…like, take it all off?”
Randall grinned behind his mask, and I rolled my eyes.
“I’ll get you a leaf,” I said, splaying my fingers.
He laughed as he trudged back to Fiona and, bending down, scooped her up. With one hand over the top of her head, he worked her into the backseat and, stretching across the seat, propped her against the door. She slumped over.
Sighing, he retracted from the van and then pulled his shirt up over his head as he made his way around to the opposite side of the vehicle, to the driver side. I forced my mind away from the flittering, vaguely dirty thoughts and pulled off my gloves. My fingers were purple and red and swollen. Careful to avoid the others around me as they stripped down too, I peeled out of my clothes and tugged on one of the dry thermal outfits from Ever.
It wasn’t enough to shield out the winter cold completely, but it was better than drenched clothes that were slowly freezing us to death.
“Is it safe to look?” Randall called from out of view.
“All decent,” I said as the three of us gathered our belongings.
The driver side door opened and Randall ducked behind the steering wheel, wearing only his boxers. He started the van and cranked on the heat before turning, arm over the back of the passenger seat, and squinted.
“You ready to roll?” he said, and then nodded toward the heater. “We have warmth, at least.”
That was the best we could hope for at the moment. We scrambled inside, shoving our bags and wet clothes to the floorboard. I sat in the passenger seat and Sasmita and Ever took the back with Fiona, and we closed the doors, capturing in the heat.
As Randall backed the van onto the dirt road and headed toward town, I let out a heavy breath, melting against the seat.
My hair was still wet and icy cold, and I tried to keep it up off my back with one hand as I reveled in the warmth of mostly dry clothes and the heat filling the car.
A thought snapped into place.
“Fiona. We need to get her out of her wet clothes too.” I groaned, turning in my seat. “Ever, do you have anything we can change her into?”
Ever shook her head, jaw clamped. “I guess we could—”
“Uh, guys,” Sasmita interjected as she patted Fiona’s arm up to her shoulder. “She’s dry.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That can’t be right. We saw them throw her into the lake.”
“And we swam back with her in tow,” Ever added, leaning over Sasmita to press her hand to Fiona’s thigh. She waited, and then pressed the sleeve of her jacket. “Bone dry.”
Now that they mentioned it, her hair was ruffled, but not stringy and wet. Her clothes didn’t cling to her, and her skin didn’t glisten with water. Somehow, between the time Randall had propped her up in her seat in the van and now, all the water she should have been logged with had evaporated.
Perhaps she had been sitting in line of the heating vent in the van.
That didn’t make sense, but it was all I had.
With a huff, irritated at the endless baffling turn of events, I faced forward in my seat. “This is just…”
I didn’t have the energy to finish the thought. It just was. All of this.
“So, Ever,” Randall said, as he inched the van down the dirt road dotted with patches of ice and snow. “Any suggestions on where we can sleep for a few hours, let our clothes dry, and then make a plan?”
Ever hesitated.
“I need to get back to my sisters...” She sucked in a breath and said, more loudly, “There’s a ranger lookout station off road a few miles from here, if you think the van can make it.”
I glanced at Randall, and a different kind of heat flushed my body. It seemed strange that despite everything we had been through in the last week or so, the closeness we had shared through circumstance alone, it would have still been inappropriate for me to touch him in any way. Not that I should expect anything more—he was Randall, after all—but that didn’t make the feelings any less confusing.
Those could be dealt with another time, too.
“Do you think it’s worth a shot?” I asked him. “The ranger station.”
“We don’t have many options,” he said, and then lifted his gaze to the rearview mirror. “Lead the way.”
“Just turn right up here and keep going. It will stand out once we’re near,” Ever said in between suppressing a yawn.
Randall eased the van off the road. Low tree branches and a few surviving shrubs scraped the side of the vehicle as he headed deeper into the woods. I watched in the side mirror as the dirt road disappeared from view as we descended an easy slope and frowned. I doubted I would have any hope of finding my way back to civilization from here before freezing to death, but Ever probably could.
The van began to climb again, the tires spinning to find traction on ice before jerking forward. Randall navigated in slow curves, but he couldn’t avoid all the slush and snow.
Lights in the near distance, to the side, caught my attention, and I perked up in my seat. To our right, far below, a car inched along, snow chains around the tires like webbing.
That was what we needed—tire chains.
“There’s people down there,” Ever whispered from the backseat. “Those aren’t rangers.”
“Yeah…” I squinted as I tried to get a better look at the occupants in the vehicle, but I couldn’t make out much except the roof from this angle.
The car halted partially under an alcove of rocks and snow. Two people stepped out, glowing magic tentacles squirming from their hips, illuminating the space around them.
“Fuck.” I slid down in my seat, turning to Randall, and waved him on. “We gotta get out of here before they see us.”
Randall clenched the steering wheel. “If I put any more on the gas, we’ll probably spin out.”
“Then take the long route,” I said, barely opening my jaw, digging the fingers of one hand into my seat.
Scowling, he eased the van to the left, putting slow but steady distance between us and the people below.
I shifted upright enough to peer back out the window but they were out of view. “What do you think they’re up to?”
“Nothing good,” Randall said. “Obviously.”
“Obviously,” I agreed with a flutter of my eyelashes, but my mind reeled.
These people were here for the dark mage. That much I knew from Joseph, even though I still didn’t understand their intentions. Perhaps they were preparing to set a trap for the dark mage, which would give us a clue on how to go about snaring him before they did—which was, of course, the entire reason we had come to this stupid town to begin with.
“What are you thinking, Saf?” Randall asked.
Up ahead, a ranger station came into view. In the darkness, I made out the shadow of a set of stairs built up against the rocks, woven so t
ightly it seemed to be part of the integral structure of the mountain.
“You already know,” I said, but I hated the idea. “We have to follow them.”
Randall glanced in the rearview mirror, brow creased. “Fiona isn’t up for a hike, it seems.”
“We’ll get her situated inside the station and then trail them.” I hesitated. “We have no lead on how to capture the dark mage, and we can’t afford to lose our only opportunity so far to learn anything useful about him, like how to get his ass back in the portrait.”
“We don’t even have the portrait,” Randall murmured as he eased the van to a halt outside the tower. He turned to me. “Let’s do it. Let’s get Fiona settled in and then go spy on these bastards.”
“We can get her inside,” Ever said. “You don’t know how long they’ll be out here.”
I started to comment to Randall, but found my attention pulled to his boxers. I snapped back up to meet his eyes.
“Care to put on pants, sir?” I said.
“You’re basically in pajamas,” he said, but he leaned forward to the floorboard under my feet and pulled up his wrinkled, damp clothes from the pile before stepping out of the van and pulling them on.
“It’s probably better if I go with you instead,” Sasmita said from the backseat as she tugged on her shoes. “I can at least use magic against them, if it comes down to it.”
Randall ducked down through the door.
“Not happening.” He stood upright and pounded his palm on the van a few times. “Let’s get rollin’.”
I turned to look at Sasmita. “It doesn’t make much difference, I guess. These guys are more powerful than you and I combined. We just have to be stealthy. Otherwise, any of us would be screwed.”
A smirk played on Ever’s lips. “Except Paisley.”
I tipped my head and then nodded. “That reminds me…I have questions. So many questions.”
“She’s a fast learner,” Ever said, shoving open the door.
Cold wind whipped through the interior, snuffing out the warmth. I found my shoes under the bottom of the pile at my feet and forced them on before stepping out into the snow. Randall opened the side door, and Fiona all but tumbled into his arms. She was breathing, but still hadn’t given any indication of coming to.
