This was something dark. Something magic. Something that my most basic instincts rebelled against, urging me to run.
I glanced around, searching through the night shadows and crevices, trying to find what I sensed to be there. I reached out with my magic, trying to identify what it was.
I couldn’t see anything but couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t alone, or lose the clinging sense of dirty magic. I turned around and began strolling back the way I came, toward the grove and the partygoers. Hopefully, it wouldn’t know I sensed it. If there was something here, if I ran, it would chase. That was what monsters did after all, right? If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be very good monsters.
Had this thing followed me from Dorley, or was this a coincidence? I wished I still believed in those, but I didn’t. I was being stalked.
I had to get to the grove, where there would be backup. Not even a monster would want to mess with the amount of magic that was concentrated there right now, even if it were mostly drunken. If the grove was too far, I’d have to settle for Ryker’s place.
Just a few minutes ago I’d told myself I’d never go back there willingly. Now look at me. I was one smelly monster away from banging down his door.
If things went bad before I made it to either of those places, fighting was a tough option when I couldn’t see my opponent. Even if I could see it, I wasn’t optimistic. I could hold my own with someone my size, but who knew what would appear? Better off erecting a ward thicker and stronger than anything I’d ever made before. Something not even a monster could get through.
“Chiara.” The voice was a blend of squeal and rattle, coated in sugar, that couldn’t have come from a human. The name carried on the air, seeming to come from everywhere.
I should’ve run. Instead, I froze, feeling as unmoving as the ice filling my veins. I hadn’t heard that name in a decade. Whatever was here, it knew my given name. Whatever is was, it was here for me. It hadn’t happened upon me again by chance. Sometimes it sucked to be right.
“Show yourself.” I turned in a circle, trying to find the thing that had called me.
Nothing appeared, but the feeling of dirty magic was brushing up against me. A tickle over my skin.
“Who are you?” It didn’t answer, and the feeling of a feather brushing my skin turned to metal teeth grazing it. A pressure pushed on me from every direction.
I turned, belatedly deciding to run for it, and found my legs had gone weak. They collapsed underneath me, and I crashed to the ground.
I opened my mouth to scream but couldn’t hear my voice leave my body. I didn’t know if this thing was muting the sound or if I’d lost the ability to speak.
I tried to think past the pain, to build a ward. There was nothing left to do but build a ward around me and hope it held. Except I couldn’t seem to build anything.
Pressure built around me, churning and chafing everywhere it touched. Pushing and prodding. I locked everything I had inside, barricading my mind and body as best I could as it felt for a way in, a soft spot it could exploit. It wanted in, and I didn’t know why.
The force around me grew until it was pressing at me from every angle. I curled in a ball, trying to find some relief.
I’d been up against some bad things in my life, but this was the worst I’d ever felt. It wasn’t just the pressure and the chafing, as if I were being rubbed raw. I felt as if it were violating me everywhere it touched.
The stone. I wrapped my arms around my middle and felt for its outline in my pocket. I gripped it though the fabric, and a surge of magic shot from me, thrusting the foul thing away. The pressure broke, and I gasped, breathing in fresh air once again.
I got to my feet and ran. The closest thing to me was the tower, and I scrambled up the ladder as quick as my feet could move.
When I got to the top, I nearly plowed into Ruck. I turned and scanned the area to see if I could find what had attacked me and put a name to this new enemy.
“What’s wrong?” he asked from behind me.
I kept looking, searching for any kind of anomaly, a stray wind through the trees, a shadow in the field, a gust of foul air. Some sign that this thing hadn’t just appeared and disappeared with no trace.
Something grabbed my shoulder, and I whipped around to a stunned Ruck, who quickly jumped back.
“Why are you so freaked out? What happened?”
I turned back to scan the horizon. “Did you see anything weird?”
“Like what?”
I turned back to him, grabbing his arm. “I don’t know. Anything that isn’t normal?”
He braced a hand on one of the posts as he looked at my white-knuckled fingers digging into his arm. “No. Other than the partygoers, it’s been quiet.”
I lifted my head, sampling the air in every direction. Was it really gone or was it cloaking its smell somehow? I shoved my hand in my pocket, wrapping it around the stone, just in case.
Ruck stepped closer. “Bugs, what’s wrong with you?”
“You know that smell I told you about the night before you left Dorley? That smell belonged to something magical.” I stepped closer to him, the crushing feeling, the greasy magic, still so fresh in my mind. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to scrub it out of my senses.
“What was it?” he asked, his shoulder bumping mine.
I breathed deeply of the scent of his freshly laundered clothes and shampooed hair.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see it. I only felt it. It was like something trying to swallow me whole. This time, it spoke.”
“What did it say?” he asked, his gaze back to the horizon, searching for the threat.
“My name.”
He continued to scan the area with me for another few minutes. “Are you sure something was really there? Nothing can get in here without Ryker knowing it crossed his wards, not to mention I’ve been on my post all night, and so have the other guards. Your magic has been acting up lately.”
“I’m not crazy. There was something. I felt it.” I took my hands out of my pockets, keeping the stone gripped in my hand as I crossed my arms. “There’s a monster out there that is trying to get me.”
“Okay, I believe you,” he said. His eyes narrowed, dropping and then freezing on my arms, where I’d shoved the jacket sleeves up. “What’s wrong with your skin?”
“Nothing.” I looked down at the strip of visible flesh. It looked like I’d been scrubbed with tree bark for a good hour. It looked exactly like how it had felt when I’d been attacked.
Ruck grabbed my sleeve, yanking it further up my arm to reveal more bright red flesh. His eyes slammed back to my face. “If you were attacked, you gotta tell Ryker.”
This was the last thing I wanted to deal with right now. The run-to-Ryker speech. “No, I don’t. Why would I? I’m barely speaking to him. If I tell anyone, it’ll be Knife.”
“What if this has something to do with the people who died?”
“Six months ago? Not likely.” Ruck’s man crush was showing again. I was starting to think he’d do anything to get us out of Dorley and back here.
“Fine, maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with that, but what if he could help? What if this monster is dangerous? He knows more about magic than anyone I know.”
“You better take a sledgehammer to that pedestal you’ve got him on. He doesn’t deserve it. You want me to run to him for help, but I’m not doing it.” I stabbed my finger at him.
His hands went to his hips as his chin lowered until all I saw were eyes poking out from underneath bushy brows. “Bugs, you’re not running to him. You’re asking someone who cares about you if they know anything that would help, like you would do with me.”
“Cares about me? Are you kidding? The man basically gave me a going-away present tonight. Only thing missing was him telling me not to let the door hit me in the ass on the way out. I go to him now asking for help and that is the definition of running to him. You want to run to Ryker so bad, you do it, but
not until I leave.” My close call of having to beg Ryker for help had been averted. I wasn’t speaking to Ryker again, not tonight, not ever. My night had gone as badly as I could possibly handle. I was barely escaping with my sanity.
The second Ruck’s eyes switched from scanning the perimeter to the ground in the wrong direction, I knew what he was up to.
“Ruck? Don’t you do it.”
Ruck leaned over the platform. “Hey, Tommy, I got a problem,” Ruck yelled down.
I loved Ruck dearly, but if I could’ve tackled him to the ground right then, I would’ve.
I leaned over and spotted Tommy, walking over with a furrowed brow. His bag was slung over his shoulder, and he looked like he’d recently gotten off a shift at one of the northern towers.
“No, Ruck doesn’t need you. I’m sure you’re tired and want to get home.” I waved a hand, gesturing for him to head the other way.
Tommy stopped, looking back and forth between us. He scratched his head, looking from the ladder to the way he’d been headed.
“Tommy, get up here,” Ruck barked.
That got Tommy’s feet moving again with an urgency that looked like I’d have a hard time stopping.
I turned toward Ruck and stared. If I could zap him with my eyes, I would’ve. “When did you get like this? What happened to you? Did I steal too many of your biscuits? Not bring you enough snacks on the tower? Tell me, where did I go wrong that you prefer Ryker?”
Ruck gave me his full attention. “I know you’re mad at him for myriad reasons, but he knows more about this stuff than we do. If there’s something magical coming after you, he’s the man we need to talk to.”
“I can talk to Knife or Dez. He’s not the only option.” I wanted to shake Ruck until his teeth rattled.
“They’re not Ryker, and you know it.”
Tommy had barely hit the landing when Ruck’s head was disappearing downward. “Ruck, I swear to magic, you better not say a word.”
There wasn’t a peep in response. That bastard.
I hung over the edge of the platform. “If you’re my friend, you’ll keep your mouth shut.”
“A friend would get you help whether you wanted it or not,” he yelled up, not even pausing in his descent.
“That’s bullshit. A friend keeps secrets,” I screamed down, still on the platform like a big old chicken.
“Not with this,” he said, leaping off the last few rungs and heading toward Ryker’s place.
If he got Ryker, which he was on his way to do, staying on this platform wasn’t going to save me. It wasn’t like Ryker had a weird fear of heights or something.
I glanced at Tommy, who’d already made himself comfortable and was acting as if he’d been deaf to Ruck’s and my discussion. He certainly wouldn’t be any help against Ryker, and I didn’t want to get stuck up here with an audience.
I was doomed if I waited here. Trapped like a cat in a tree. I never should’ve told Ruck about the invisible monster. Only thing to do was get down as fast as I could and find Switch. I’d get out of here fast. I’d worry about the monster later. I had a Cursed King about to press down on me.
I scrambled down the ladder, slipping on a few rungs in my haste. Switch was probably going to be poking around the grove soon. Or I could hope, anyway. Otherwise, I wasn’t above hiding.
An arm wrapped around my waist before I hit the ground, but it wasn’t Ruck’s. It was Ryker’s.
“What the fuck? Get off me,” I said, trying to squirm out of his grasp, digging my fingers into his forearm.
“Hold on to her. She’ll take off, and this is something you need to hear.” I heard Ruck’s voice before I was swung around and saw him.
“I think I can manage,” Ryker replied.
I lifted one hand from where I’d been trying to pry Ryker’s fingers off to point at Ruck. “You’re in deep shit.”
“Had to do it,” he said, lifting his head proudly before walking ahead.
I refused to scream, because that might draw eyes. The houses all looked dark, but I knew this place. I’d lived here. They’d all scramble from their beds to peek through the curtains for a worthy show. It was bad enough I was being towed along. I wasn’t above scratching, though. One arm quickly relocated over my two, pinning them to my body.
Fine. I had other limbs. My heels connected with his shins. He wasn’t lugging me around like this and not paying a price.
Eleven
My feet didn’t hit the ground until I was standing in Ryker’s living room. Ruck was already inside as Ryker deposited me by my old spot in the corner of the couch, from back when I’d lived here and I’d considered him a quasi-friend, ally—some kind of check in the positive column.
Ryker stood in between me and the door.
“If I want to leave, you’re not stopping me.” I crossed my arms, not making a move to prove it. I wasn’t a total idiot. I knew how that scene would go down, and it wasn’t very flattering for me. Not like I could count on Ruck backing me up. He’d made this mess.
Ryker glanced down at the nail marks on his arms and then back to me with a raised eyebrow.
Dick. No matter what he thought, I could’ve done worse. I’d been trying to act with decorum. He’d know nothing about that.
“Can we argue later? We’ve got bigger problems,” Ruck said, stepping in between us.
Ryker glanced at him and then shifted his entire attention back to me, leveling a stare my way that could’ve given me frostbite. “Where are my stones?”
“Huh?” Ruck’s head jerked to Ryker.
“You mean the one you gave me? Here, take it back. I didn’t ask for it anyway.” I lobbed it at his head. I didn’t really want to give it back. It was the only thing that had saved me a little while ago, but there was no price too steep to get away from him.
He caught the stone and held it up. “This is the one I gave you. Now you can tell me what you did with the ones you took.”
“I didn’t take anything. If I wanted the stones, I would’ve taken them, but I didn’t. If you lost them, that’s on you, you…” Dick? Asshole? Dick wasn’t vile enough for him. Both were so overused. I needed something horrible. Fucking dick? That was almost as lame. Why was my brain short-circuiting on me when I needed it most? It was taking me so long to come up with a fitting insult that I was losing the moment.
“They disappear on the night you get back. As soon as I gave you one, it weakened the ward around them, and before I have a chance to redo it, they’re gone. I’m supposed to believe it’s a coincidence?” He stepped closer. “Where did you put them?”
I moved forward as well, shoving Ruck out of the way. Ryker’s magic was churning. I could feel it in the room and inside me where we had that strange connection. I didn’t want Ruck anywhere near it.
“I told you. I. Didn’t. Take. Them. If I wanted them, I wouldn’t need a weakened ward, and you know it. I risked my life to get them. I trusted you to keep them safe. It’s not my fault if you lost them.”
“You’re saying that you, the only person who could’ve gotten to them, didn’t?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. I didn’t steal what was already half mine.”
“But they disappear the night you get here?” He edged forward, crowding me back a step.
Did he really think he could scare me? I shoved at his chest with both hands. I dropped them fast as I felt the sizzle of our magic connecting. “Yes. You are. Because I didn’t take them. If I wanted them, I would’ve demanded them. You said that stone was equal to half of them. We’re even.”
I stepped around him, walking to the door. He beat me there. I would’ve shoved him out of the way, but then I’d have to touch him again. That sizzle between us had been more than enough for the night.
“You think you can steal from me and walk away?” His palm was flat on the door.
“You’re going to have to get out of my way or kill me, because we’re done here.”
It was a bluff. I
didn’t think he’d kill me, not if he wanted more stones in the future. Me killing him was still on the table if he didn’t get his hand off that door.
“This isn’t finished,” he said, but then finally moved away from the door.
I was swinging it open when Ryker’s attention shifted to Ruck. “What were you calling me for? What was the problem you had?”
Shit. I turned, staring at Ruck. Now do you get it? He can’t be trusted. I gripped the door handle, my knuckles white and my palm sweating. One more straw on this camel’s back and I’d never get out of here tonight.
Ruck’s eyes met mine and then dropped for a second, before he looked at Ryker with a confidence he wasn’t feeling. “Nothing. I wanted to give you a heads-up that I was cutting out early. Tommy is on the tower now. You need to find someone to relieve him, because I’m going back to Dorley tonight with Bugs.”
Ruck’s voice dropped a little at the end. Dammit. Now Ryker was making my boy feel bad? It was horrible enough when he’d crushed me. Now he was breaking Ruck’s man crush too, stepping on it and squashing it like a bug. We never should’ve come back here. Ryker was toxic. This whole place was wrong. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten all sappy about leaving again.
I stepped back into the room and grabbed Ruck’s hand. We’d walk out of this place together. I turned to leave as Knife was walking in the door.
“What happened? Tommy said something was wrong?”
His eyes darted about the room, taking in the tension radiating off each of us. Then he stood right beside me, making his alliance as clear as day, even though he didn’t know what was wrong yet.
I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from smiling.
When we got back to Dorley, I was going to cut Knife a little more slack. I was way too hard on the guy.
“My stones are missing,” Ryker said.
“So?”
“It’s a little coincidental that the only person who could break through my ward happens to be here the night they disappear.”
“Did she say she took them?”
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 6
