I stared into the dark sky ahead of us. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have at least one of them waiting for us along the way. Demons and their goblin piss surprise attacks. I hate them.”
Her eyes flickered. “Have you dealt with many demon attacks before?”
This was where things got sticky. I couldn’t tell her everything, not yet, maybe not ever.
Peta gave a slight shake of her head. This was one of those times I was glad Rylee and the other supernaturals couldn’t hear my familiar. Only my own kind could. “You can’t tell her,” Peta said. That’s what I was afraid of.
“I’ve dealt with them enough that I know to be careful and always assume the worst.”
Rylee laughed, but it was bitter and cynical. “Like that’s any different than the rest of my life.”
I wasn’t a touchy feely kind of person, but I could feel her spirit flagging, spiraling downward. Though I didn’t know her well, I knew it wasn’t like her to mope.
Reaching out, I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “Don’t think like that, Rylee. That is what Orion wants. He wants you to forget why you’re here, why you’re so important, and what it is you’re saving.”
A quick roll of her shoulders removed my hand. “Don’t try and soften this, Lark. I fucking well know what I’m going into.”
I grabbed her shoulder and half-spun her to face me. “Perhaps I know more than you think, you little fool. If you go into this battle with a hard heart, he will win. Do you understand me? If you go in believing the worst, he will win. If you go in having already given up, he will win.”
Her jaw flexed and her eyes narrowed, the three colors swirling faster as her temper rose. “Let go of me, Lark.”
“Not until I’m sure you understand.”
She shoved my hand off again. “Don’t fucking touch me, Elemental.”
“Then don’t be stupid and think you know everything. You don’t.” I leaned back, glaring at her as she glared right back at me.
Below us the dragon let out a low rumble.
I hate to interrupt, but I need to talk to Rylee.
I let out a breath. Cactus put a hand on either side of my hips. “She’ll come around, Lark. She has to.”
That was the thing. If Rylee couldn’t find it in her to still believe in the impossible, believe we could defeat Orion, we were done before we even stepped foot onto the battlefield.
She had to find that courage again. That strength had brought her this far. Worm shit, why of all times did this have to be the moment she started to doubt herself?
I had less than three days to help her find her heart strength.
Shit on a green stick, this was going to be tough.
CHAPTER 5
RYLEE
TAKE A BREATH, Rylee. She is trying to help you. Blaz’s voice flowed over me and with it a sense of calm. But I didn’t want to be calm. I wanted to be angry because the anger helped me block the fear swiftly wrapping around my heart. How the hell Lark had known, I could only guess.
Her connection to Spirit, Rylee; she can sense when you falter. Hell, even I felt it. Why now? What has brought you so low?
I scrubbed a hand over my face, then back around to my neck, rubbing at a bump that had risen there. The men who tackled me at Giselle’s place had smashed me good and bruises sprouted all over my back and shoulders. But the piercing stab in the back of my neck really freaked me out. If Blaz hadn’t knocked the men off, I would’ve had my head cut from my shoulders.
I didn’t want to speak out loud like normal with Blaz, not with Lark behind me. We might have been cousins, but that didn’t mean I was totally comfortable with how easily she read me.
Slowly I formulated my thoughts for Blaz. The enormous loss of supernaturals due to the pox circulating the world, the deaths of Milly and Frank, the way Liam had to bind himself to Faris so he wouldn’t leave me again. And above all those things, the fact that Tian Shan was compromised and my daughter was no longer safe.
My heart clenched. That was the crux of it. I couldn’t get past the fact she wasn’t safe, that she was somewhere in the world and Orion was looking for her. A full body shudder rippled through me. My sweet little girl, hunted by demons.
When Lark put her hand on my shoulder a second time, I didn’t shove it off. “Rylee. She is safe with your uncle. He’s a demon slayer; he can protect her better than anyone else right now.”
“Blaz, you bastard.” I hiccupped. He’d ratted me out to her; there was no other way she could have known my thoughts.
You need all of us, and we need you to be open. Let her help you.
“I can’t help her, dragon,” Lark said. “This is a pain I don’t know, and can only guess at. But it can drive you, Rylee, or it can drag you down. You know that. Why don’t you Track her?”
I swallowed hard. “Because Orion was tracing me when I Tracked. What if he could somehow walk the process backward and find her?”
Lark sucked in a sharp breath. “Clever girl. I’d bet that’s exactly what he’s set you up for. So let’s throw him off kilter. Track Jonathan. Bring the demons to us and let’s take them on my turf.” Her voice hardened as she spoke.
I glanced over my shoulder at her. “Your people will be right in the middle then.”
“Where they should have been all along,” she said. “It’s about time they woke up and realized they are a part of this world whether or not they want to be.”
Somewhat reluctantly, I sent out a thread, Tracking Jonathan. I knew his name, I remembered what he looked like when he was ten. Freaky little boy he was then, I assumed he’d be the same.
He had dirty blond hair, with a narrow face gaunt with malnourishment, and his eyes wandered in opposite directions. I got a solid ping from him, and in the distance I could feel the weight of eyes on me.
Red eyes flickering like firelight flashed in my mind and then gone. I shuddered and scrubbed at my arms.
“I’m sure Orion is watching,” I found myself whispering.
“Good. He’ll send one of his generals, I think.”
“Good?” I snorted. “Your idea of good is very different than mine. Don’t you think it would be better to go in, snag Jonathan, and head back to where the battle is going to happen?”
Lark snorted right back at me. “Wouldn’t you rather kill a couple of Orion’s generals first? Weed down his supporters and give us a chance to take him out?”
Damn, she had a very good point. I rubbed the back of my neck again, fighting the feelings of despair festering in me.
“Besides, the more attention we keep on us, the safer your daughter will be.”
A sudden thought hit me. “Lark, if I die, who will stop Orion? Marcella isn’t a Tracker like me.” That had been confirmed when she’d been born. My daughter would follow in her father’s steps as a Guardian.
“You aren’t going to like my answer, Rylee. How about we just focus on you taking Orion out?”
Blaz tipped his head so I could see one eye. An unanswered question and Rylee go together like oil and water. You might as well tell her, Elemental, or you will have no peace.
She let out a sigh. “Bear with me, this explanation will not be quick.”
I nodded and she went on. “Nature abhors imbalance, Rylee. If your sister had never been taken, your Tracker abilities would never have come on line. You would have been ‘human’ for all intents and purposes.
“Only when Orion opened the Veil and sent his demons through, would your Tracker abilities have come on line. But you would have had no one to train you. No one to help you, and you would be here, right now, likely without a single supernatural friend to stand with you against the demons.”
“Fucking hell,” I whispered, seeing my life in a different light. “All the shit that happened to me, all the people I met . . . if Berget hadn’t been taken, none of that would have happened.”
Marco swung closer and Berget stared at me with eyes that were not her own. The vampire Empress
spoke through her. “You’re welcome, Tracker.”
“You knew?” I choked out.
Berget’s head nodded. “Everything we did, we did knowing it would push you, that it would force your abilities to open.”
Holy fucking hell in a handbasket. My mind reeled as I looked back at the events of my life, seeing the hands of the two master vampires moving things around as if they were chess pieces. “So you were manipulating this from the beginning? This is all you?”
She tipped her head to the side and shrugged. “As much as I was able. I knew you would need a push to become a Tracker. What better way than to take the sister you loved so dearly?”
And there it was, the reason I’d become what I was; the reason I’d lost my sister and began the journey that brought me here. Marco swung farther out again, effectively ending the conversation.
Lark touched my arm, drawing my attention back to her. “Rylee, if you succeed in killing Orion, and sealing the Veil, Marcella will continue on the path she is set on now, to become a guardian like her father.”
Berget’s words and now Lark’s clamored for the front of my brain, but I already knew what was coming, yet I still had to ask. A chill worked its way down my spine. “And if I don’t kill him?”
There was a heavy pause in the air and I knew what she’d say, but I waited. Needed to hear the words out loud.
“Then her Tracking abilities will come on line and the task will be laid on her shoulders to defeat the demons and close the Veil.”
I spun fully around in my seat to face her. “She’s a baby, how can that even be?”
Lark’s eyes were sad. “Have you not read the full ceremony? There is no fighting for you, Rylee. Only sacrifice. Your blood is what seals the Veil. Nothing else.”
My jaw dropped, I fully admit I hadn’t taken into account how literal the prophecies could possibly be. “You mean you’d take her and sacrifice her?”
Lark’s eyes flashed. “If you’re dead, I will do what I must to make sure this world survives.”
“You’re a fucking bitch,” I snarled at her, my hands automatically going for my weapons. I couldn’t help it; she threatened my daughter.
“No, you’re the bitch if you don’t pull your shit together. Do you see now why it’s so important we do this right? We have one shot, Tracker. One shot to save everyone.”
I lowered my hands from where they’d gripped my swords, her words sinking in. I’d known all along what was required, accepted it, and moved toward it. I’d faced death so many times, it didn’t faze me anymore. Not when it came to my own life.
I’d always survived.
I’d always come out on top.
“You’re telling me I’m going to die. There’s no other way?” The words felt hollow in my mouth, like I wasn’t really saying them. My neck throbbed in time with my heartbeat.
Lark closed her eyes and bowed her head again. “That is what the prophecies say, Rylee. The ceremony is there in black and white. There is no way around this. I have been trying to find a way to kill Orion and save you.” She lifted her head, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. “I cannot see a way to do both.”
Our conversation was interrupted by Marco swinging close again, his wingtips brushing Blaz’s flank. “Sun is rising; we’ve got to bag these two.”
Liam stared at me; I knew it was him by how much silvery gold rimmed Faris’s blue eyes. No words passed between us, but I knew he could tell something was wrong by the way he frowned.
The two Harpies and Blaz dropped out of the sky at the next available clear spot, which turned out to be a large boxed store parking lot. As early as it was, there were a few cars scattered here and there. Easily missed by the winged creatures.
Unless said winged creature was feeling rather destructive. Blaz landed on top of a large burgundy pick-up truck with fancy rims and chrome accents. His claws wrapped around it and he crushed the truck cab like a tin can as he settled on it like a perch.
“Necessary?” I asked as I slid off his back and landed in the lopsided bed of the truck.
Sharpening my claws on the metal. He gave me a wink and I managed a smile. I knew what he was doing. A distraction might have worked for anything else, but not this.
Not a death sentence.
Eve hopped on the tarmac. “I don’t like this, it feels so unnatural under my talons.”
Alex and Pam still sat astride her back, talking and laughing with her, and I had a brief moment of seeing the future.
Of Alex working with Pamela, and Eve carting them around the country as they . . . did what? There was no way for them to Track children. Pamela turned as if sensing my eyes on her. Her hair blew out around her and I saw her as she would be. A powerful witch with the heart of a lion. She would go after children; she would find a way.
My chest constricted, and I felt like I was saying goodbye. Lark’s words hammered home in a way that no other person’s could. Every other time someone threatened me, they’d been my enemy trying to kill me.
Lark was my friend, and she was trying to save me.
And even she knew it was impossible. Liam came behind me and I turned into him before he touched me, burying my face against his chest.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m scared, Liam.” The words slipped out of me and I couldn’t take them back. He wrapped his arms tightly around me.
“It’s okay to be scared. This isn’t the first time.”
“Not like this.” I breathed him in, not caring that he and Faris were stuck together. He kissed the top of my head.
“No matter what, we will be okay. You have to believe that.”
I wanted to, damn I wanted to more than I could express. To be that girl again who could go in blind to a situation, swinging her swords, and still come out on top. This time, that wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t stop the doubt any more than I could stop Alex from being a goofball.
Eve let out a raucous squawk. “Rylee, something is coming our way.”
Of course there was.
I stepped back from Liam and looked in the direction Eve stared. On the horizon, backlit by the slowly rising sun, a cloud formation swirled toward us. Black and gray storm clouds wove in and out of each other, like a wave of water crashing toward us in the sky.
I took another step toward it. “Lark, tell me that belongs to an elemental you know.”
She shifted her stance, and her hand went to the spear hanging at her side. “Wish I could. Looks like Orion is not wasting any time trying to finish us off.”
“Us? You said I had to be the one to die.”
Liam sucked in a sharp breath and I cursed myself.
My eyes stayed on Lark. She flicked an eyebrow high. “You think you’re the only key to finishing the demons? It’ll take both of us, Rylee. If I die, you can’t kill Orion any more than I could without you.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Yes, that,” she said, pulling her spear from her side and sliding the two pieces together. “Of the four horseman, I believe this is Pestilence. Tied to the wind that helps him spread the diseases he carries.”
Faris gave a grunt. “Has he not already done that? The whole world has been down with the pox for months.”
Lark glared at him. “Only two of us here have true immunity to the diseases Pestilence can spread. Rylee and the dragon. Which means when this demon gets here, he will down the rest of us as fast as possible, leaving her on her own to face him.”
“How can you possibly know that?” I asked, even as I weighed her words and saw the validity in them.
“Because it’s what I’d do. Wipe out the support, and then kill the main objective.” Her eyes were hard, and I realized we would learn why she was called “The Destroyer.”
Maybe a little unethical of me, but I was kinda excited to see what she could do.
CHAPTER 6
RYLEE
LARK SET US in formation in a matter of seconds. Pamela and Alex on Eve at the rear; Lark, Peta,
and Cactus on Marco frontline. Blaz and I would circle behind the demon and hit him from the back.
Faris/Liam and Berget were sent into the store to get out of the quickly rising sun.
As I figured, that went over like a ton of shitty bricks.
“I’m not leaving you,” Faris snarled, a growl trickling past his lips. Berget smacked him hard, her hand leaving a sharp imprint of her fingers on his cheek, and I had to fight not to smile. I loved her even more when she put him in his place.
“Listen, dumbass. The sun is rising. You have to let her do this on her own. You have to trust that she can survive this,” she snapped.
Faris glared at my sister. “It’s a demon of the apocalypse she’s facing. This is as bad as it gets.”
Berget shook her head. “No, it’s not. Orion is as bad as it gets. When she faces Orion you do whatever you can then. But not now. Right now we need to survive to help her with the battle.”
She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the building sharing the parking lot. I watched them go, wondering if I’d see them again.
I didn’t even hug them goodbye or tell Berget that I loved her.
Stop fucking moaning and groaning. This is your life, fucking well deal with it. Blaz’s words were a perfect echo of Jack’s; so much so, I actually looked around with my second sight to see if Jack’s spirit floated close by.
I sucked in a sharp breath and ran for Blaz. “Thanks, I needed that ass kicking.”
Yeah, the soft words weren’t doing shit. You’ve got others for that garbage.
My lips twitched as I buckled myself into his harness. He launched into the air, his wings sending litter skittering across the parking lot. I took a deep breath and tried to send the fear away. Blaz’s words helped, but I still couldn’t shake the dread that clung to my heart—not completely.
Marco waited, his big eyes seeming larger in the early morning light. He clacked his beak a few times as he tread air.
Lark looked at me. “We’re drawing his attention. Get your ass in gear and swing behind him. We don’t have a lot of time, so don’t dawdle.”
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