Breaking Free

by Layla Nash

  I shrugged, about to hazard my own guess, but stopped short when Deirdre started to glow. The oak tree, too, was bathed in a golden light that radiated from deep inside, spraying out in soft rays from every surface of the tree. I blinked, taking a step back. Well, shit.

  Deirdre faced all of us, kindly ignoring our gaping looks and disbelieving mutters, and folded her hands at her waist. She looked about twelve but had the presence of an ancient queen. I wondered if she’d ever spilled soup on her shirt, or tripped on her shoelaces, or had her heart broken by a wide-eyed boy in high school. She didn’t look like she’d even been to high school, much less had to deal with acne and awkwardness and worrying about tampons. She looked exactly how a hyena queen or a wolf alpha should have looked—unflappable, pristine, unbothered by mundane bullshit. Damn. I’d have paid money to see her lose her shit on someone else, just to know it was possible.

  A hint of a smile curled her lips up at the corners as she glanced at me, and my face went hot. Maybe witches could read minds. But Deirdre only inclined her head at all of us, her attention drifting to Nick. “So. It begins. I am there only to undo the binding that keeps Smith bound to that realm. The one who bound him there, who is also caught, will also be released. I cannot control what they do upon release, and I will not intervene once they have left the Betwixt.”

  “Where will they land?” I asked, when it became clear no one else would talk. How could they not have questions? How could they not want to know every little detail of what she was going to do? It was magic. “Will they be conscious? Will Smith still be sane? What about the djinn?”

  Those perfect eyebrows arched and she blinked startling green eyes. “They will be brought back here, through the locus in the tree. Beyond that, I do not know. I will get out of your way. Do as you will with them.”

  “So that’s it?” Nick stepped forward, lines gathering around his eyes as he watched her. “You bust the binding on them and then let us figure it out? With a djinn and one more wish?”

  She lifted her shoulders in a shrug that spoke volumes more than I’d ever seen. “It seems like that is your problem, not mine. Unless you wish to owe me a great deal more than you already do, Nikolai, perhaps it will remain your problem. And not mine.”

  Nick’s eyes flashed gold and he bristled, but the girl didn’t react. She waited. And—miracle of miracles—he got control of himself and backed down. His teeth still gleamed and looked too big for his mouth, making him lisp just a little as he gestured at the tree. “Fine. But be prepared to defend yourself, witch. There’s no telling what Ray will do when he is freed. He’s kept children captive and killed them to make designer shifter babies, and experimented on others to make super soldiers. I hate to see what he would do if he knew witch magic existed.”

  A shadow crossed her expression but she only turned back to the tree. “Your warning is noted.”

  I held my breath as I looked at Nick, and found his eyes already on me. My heart thumped against my chest, and not just because of the rising static in the air as the witch raised her arms. No, my heart raced because of him. At least we were there together. When I didn’t look away from him, Nick smiled. It even reached his eyes, softening his expression. It took away some of the ghosts that lurked around him, and I opened my mouth to say something. To tell him how I felt, that I’d been a fool, that he’d been an asshole but I almost didn’t mind.

  But something cracked, loud as a gunshot, and a black crevice opened in the tree trunk.

  The witch’s body flickered and wavered, a watermark of her real self, and I held my breath as more darkness gathered around the tree, around her, around the whole backyard.

  Ruby clicked a radio and murmured into it, “We’re starting.”

  Something garbled came back, and I held my breath, watching the tree and the constellation of sparks that swirled around the witch.

  Pressure built all around us, crushing against my chest, until I couldn’t breathe. It felt like gravity doubled and then tripled, trying to crush us into the ground as we strained away from it. I staggered, holding on to Eloise, and my ears popped until my head split and rang and I wondered if my brain broke.

  It had to end. It couldn’t go on forever.

  The witch made a strange noise, a grinding kind of cry that I’d never heard from a living being. Rafe shielded Meadow as waves pushed out of the black hole in the tree, rippling out, and nausea built in my guts with the eerie ripple in the world around us.

  Ruby leaned in, trying to get closer to the tree, but Nick hauled her back with a shouted warning.

  For the first time, I thought maybe the witch wouldn’t succeed. I’d always thought we could die after Smith and the djinn were freed, or that Ray’s last wish would end us in blood and fire, but it never occurred to me that the witch would kill us. My throat closed as my eyes narrowed to block out the wind stirred up by the waves and the suddenly shaking tree. Leaves cascaded down around us and the witch made that strangled sound again, bringing her hands down from where they’d been over her head. Like she was signaling the start of a race or something.

  The hysterical laughter that bubbled up in my chest would have no doubt discomfited Eloise, but she used the sunglasses to shield her eyes and turned enough to shout at me, “Should I end it?”

  “No,” I shouted back, though a wind whipped out of the tree and tore the word from my mouth. I linked my arm through hers and started to pray it ended soon.

  It had to end.

  Even the moon had disappeared into the spreading darkness of the oak tree’s insides, and pressure built in my ears until I wanted to scream and my ears refused to pop and I couldn’t see and—and—

  Rusty metal grated on rusty metal and then something roared through the backyard like a train, clobbering all of us and sending us spinning.

  The witch collapsed and the black hole of the tree sealed itself into nothing and nothing else moved.

  Rafe fell to his knees in the grass from the sudden disappearance of the wind, and everyone else staggered to try and keep their balance. I looked around, wild with worry. “Where’s Smith? Where’s the djinn? Where’s Ray?”

  “I can’t smell anything,” Ruby said, her voice rough and hoarse. “I can’t…What the fuck was that?”

  The witch remained motionless next to the tree, though I thought I saw her back move as she breathed.

  Nick strode through the yard, searching, and even pulled himself onto a low-hanging branch of the oak tree to check the upper limbs for any hidden passengers. Nothing. He dropped back to the ground and stood over the witch. “What the hell, Deirdre? Where are they? What happened?”

  She groaned and held her head. But she said nothing, explained nothing. Nothing. My nerves clanged and I stormed up to the tree so I could punch the trunk. “Where is he?”

  “He comes,” Deirdre whispered. Her fingers dug into the dirt as she tried to pull herself away from the tree. The color drained from her face and she looked suddenly like a scared teenager, trying desperately to get away. I caught her arms and hauled her away from there, dropping her in a heap behind a retaining wall near the house, and she caught my ankle before I could get away. Her green eyes were huge in her pale, heart-shaped face. “He comes. He is... angry.”

  “Who?” I crouched next to her, glancing over at Nick as he continued to prowl around the tree. “Who is angry? Ray? The djinn?”

  Her only answer was another groan, then her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

  I shoved to my feet and faced the tree. “Someone is coming out. She doesn’t know who. Get ready.”

  So we were all watching the tree as the trunk split. The crack widened and a shriek like fighting cats ripped free as well. It echoed around in my head until I couldn’t remember any other sound. I clapped my hands over my ears to block as much as I could, but it didn’t help. The sound was inside my head. I screamed back, terrified and in pain and desperate. Desperate.

  We needed Smith. We needed him
back, sane and whole.

  The oak tree split completely and each side fell apart, smashing into the yards of the adjacent townhouses, destroying half the block in a thunderous crash. Smoke filled the air, and far away, a wolf howled.

  A dark figure climbed out of the tree, still roaring, and I braced for the worst. It looked mostly human, the figure, but for the horns growing out of its head and the eerie green cast to its skin and the animal skins and pelts and leather that clung to it. Moss and leaves and branches seemed to grow out of the figure, and eyes glinted silver and slit-pupiled in a face that was all feral. Inhuman. Enraged and insane.

  Even Meadow sucked in a terrified breath, whimpering, and my heart stilled in my chest as the figure’s eyes landed on me. I didn’t know if it was Smith or something that had been Smith and wasn’t anymore, or if maybe the Betwixt had changed Ray into something even more terrifying.

  But I strode forward to face him, because I was Lacey fucking Szdoka, queen of hyenas and badass chick.

  Savannah would have been proud.

  Chapter Forty

  Nick

  Nick had seen a lot of shit in his life. He’d faced down death more times than he cared to count, he’d seen the light and life leave the eyes of friends and enemies alike, and he’d watched a torrential rain and mudslide wipe an entire valley of villages and people out of existence as if they’d never been there. He’d seen volcanoes erupt practically too close to survive, his shoes melting from the heat, and he’d been chased by apex predators on land and in the sea.

  But nothing scared him more than what walked out of that broken oak tree.

  He was mostly sure it was Smith, or something that had once been Smith. Instead of anything recognizable as clothes, he wore leaves and skins and nature. None of his own skin showed through, and Nick started to suspect maybe the man had become more tree or animal than human—if he’d ever been part human. The massive horns that rose out of his head should have belonged on a stag, and moss tangled around those as well. He was a beast out of the ancient forests in the old country, from the old gods and a time when men still sacrificed the king to make the crops grow.

  Nick sucked in a breath and braced for the horrible price he’d have to pay for bringing something like that out of the Betwixt and into the real world.

  The beast threw its head back and roared, shaking more leaves from the tree, and Nick caught Carter’s eye as the lion circled around to the other side of the tree. Nick’s wolf side knew they’d be torn to pieces for trying to harm the beast. He knew it. But maybe they could herd him off to the side or something until they figured out what to do with him. If that thing was Smith, there was no telling what Ray had turned into.

  Meadow stepped forward, her head tilted to the side, and her soft voice cut through the ear-shattering roar. “Uncle. You are home.”

  The roar continued and the beast lurched forward a step, lowering his head as he swung it back and forth, scenting the air and dislodging some of the silvered moss from his antlers.

  Rafe caught Meadow’s shoulders and started to drag her away, out of the beast’s path, but she said something angrily to him and turned her attention back to the beast. Her words came out stronger and tinged with a silver glow not unlike what clung to the ErlKing. “Uncle. Stop. You are home. We freed you. Now we need your help.”

  The beast hesitated, turning its unseeing mercury eyes on her, and Rafe growled loudly enough that Nick’s wolf answered and Ruby leapt forward to her brother’s side.

  “Wait,” Lacey said. “Just…wait.”

  The antlers lowered and shook again, and the beast took another step, its mouth opening to reveal yellowed, pointy teeth. Meadow didn’t flinch. “We need your help. You must help us protect the city.”

  More noise. Nick had no idea what she was doing or why, but the silver beams shooting off her seemed to help. He looked at Lacey, his chest aching. “Any sign of the djinn?”

  She shook her head, straightening from her defensive crouch to edge closer to where Meadow tamed the beast. “No. What the hell happened? What—“

  Nick lunged forward as something enormous and gray streaked out of the tree, larger than a man but in half-wolf form, and slammed into Lacey’s back. She flew headfirst into a decorative fountain and went still, and Nick’s wolf tore free. He lunged at the second beast, the half-man half-wolf form, as it staggered toward the antlered beast, and red-coated his vision. Lacey. Lacey wasn’t moving.

  What had once been Ray batted him away with an arm, sending Nick flying, but he got up and threw himself at Ray’s back, clinging like a burr. Eloise cursed and waved her arms at him, holding her sunglasses as her crazy eyes glowed and sparked. “Get off of there, I can’t freeze him if you don’t—“

  Nick snarled, all words gone, and hoped she waited long enough to make them into statues for Ray to use his last wish and free the djinn. Nick didn’t want Lacey in debt to the dude for the rest of her life. That kind of bargain weighed on the soul.

  Carter in lion form sprang from the split trunk of the tree, a thousand or so pounds of muscle slamming into the half-wolf and sending him staggering. Benedict roared and charged, distracting the wolf-beast. Nick fell into a tangle of branches, groaning as something sharp poked his side, and regained his feet just as the antlered beast turned to face the half-wolf. The eyes glowed silver and dangerous, and more of the black clouds of magic gathered around his legs, billowing up until it covered everything.

  Nick dragged himself over to where Lacey lay, blood trickling from a cut on her forehead, as Ruby shouted hoarse instructions into the radio and helped her brother support Meadow, who looked like she’d passed right out. He suddenly wished the leprechaun or the sorcerer was there to witness the fight, or at least someone with a rifle.

  The antlered beast raised an arm and more of the black clouds unfurled to surround the half-wolf, and the wolf howled in agony. Lightning rent the cloudy sky in a spiderweb of impossibility, and Nick went to his knees as a clap of thunder rolled through the air and knocked everyone sideways. He snarled and held his ground, protecting Lacey. She would be fine. She had to be fine.

  Everything would be fine.

  The half-wolf went to its knees as well and snarled, and green glitter filled the air on blue waves. The fabric of the world rent itself again and a figure with blue-tinged olive skin and dark hair floated into view. The djinn pressed his palms together near his chest and inclined his head, saying in an old desert language that Nick only half-knew, “Your wish is granted.”

  Nick sucked in a breath and waited to disappear or die or end up in the same place they’d been. He wrapped his arms around Lacey and hoped he could spare her some of the misery, if it came to that.

  Chapter Forty-one

  Lacey

  I sort of remembered seeing a horrified expression on Nick’s face, then everything went black and cold. I blinked and tried to push myself upright from where I was sprawled in the dirt and mulch, but a heavy weight settled on my back and pinned me down. Arms wrapped around me, and I could smell a hint of Nick’s cologne when I turned my aching head.

  Something roared and screeched around us, and black magic warred with blue-green magic and silver clouds of chaos. I groaned more and pushed up, rolling him off me so I could see what the fuck was going on. The antlered man had disappeared and left only Smith’s graying, aged human body behind, sprawled in a broken, bloody mess on the ground. A huge half-wolf, half-man form loomed over him, growling in victory as he prepared to kill him.

  Meadow had passed out and Rafe guarded her, while Ruby shouted in a radio and threw rocks from the garden at the beast and her mate stood ready to protect her. I shook my head, thinking I’d hallucinated some of that, and yet the pain intensified and nothing changed. I tried to focus as a rushing noise filled my ears and even though people were shouting, I couldn’t make out any words through the ringing. I moved my jaw, trying to figure out whether I’d broken anything, and I dragged myself up. I had to help Sm
ith. Had to.

  Eloise screamed in fury and a chunk of rock fell off the wolf-beast’s arm, and I looked back at my best friend as she beamed her crazy magic at him and seemed only to take pebble-sized bites out of him. She shrieked and searched for another weapon, though Benedict kept her from getting any closer as his lion shape limped and dragged along the manicured beds of flowers. Eloise looked near me but not directly at me, and once more tried to dodge around Benedict.

  “He’s protected against magic. I can’t kill him. He used a wish for something—something about magic. You’ve got to get him, Lacey. Someone has to fucking kill him!”

  “Done,” I managed to croak, and dug deep for energy and willpower and then—the hyena responded.

  We slid into the body that was stronger, that could fight. The wolf-beast outweighed us by at least double our size, maybe three times. He was too focused on Smith and batting away the rocks and other shit Ruby threw at him. Rafe charged, trying to scare him off, but the beast-man swung his head in Meadow’s direction and both of the O’Sheas went to her instead. Carter roared enough to shake the ground and darted forward, tail lashing the air as his teeth closed around the wolf-beast’s ankle.

  It distracted the wolf-beast enough. I launched at him, and sank my claws into his shoulders. I held tight as I bit his neck and the back of his head, my jaw almost strong enough to crush his skull. My claws tore free as he shook himself, blood splattering the garden and my fur and even Meadow. I snarled and tried to regain my grip, but the claw slid and then he moved again and the ground rushed up to meet me. Shit. Shit.

  Nick wobbled as he stood, still human, and charged the wolf-beast with an impressive roar of his own.