by Emma Savant
“Sienna?” I mouthed.
He nodded, and mouthed back, “I think so?”
“Rowan?”
He shrugged.
It was close enough. There were three of us. We could take on three of them.
We couldn’t have anything that happened in this room draw attention to us. I didn’t know how heavily vampires slept, but I couldn’t risk waking them. I stepped to the edge of the door and filled my hands with magic, then stretched the invisible energy across the doorframe. I tacked the magic to the edges like a spider tacking her web, and then did my best to seal the cracks.
The spell would keep sound inside this room. I only hoped Sienna didn’t have another way to alert her army.
I checked in with Brendan and Alec. They each nodded and quietly shifted, their bodies giving way within seconds to sleek fur over rippling muscles. I had gotten so used to the sight that I had to resist the urge to reach up and scratch behind their ears.
They liked that when they were in wolf form, I knew, but I didn’t dare try it now. Not just because we were on the edge of making a dangerous situation worse, but because I knew they’d both read into it and think I was making some kind of choice between them.
And right now, I needed all our thoughts focusing on taking Sienna down.
I threw the door open and burst into the room, hands out in front of me and full of fire. Sienna was here, as Mom had said.
Flames shot from my fingertips toward her. Fire worked especially well against her new allies, and the vampire in the room with her flinched, even though he was nowhere near the flames. He was familiar; this was the same pale man I’d seen back in the Orbs stadium.
Sienna took a deep breath and screamed for help. The sound was loud and piercing and stopped at the door, which Brendan closed behind us with a kick of his powerful back paw.
“Get out!” she screeched. She raised her hands and pushed a stream of water at me. It froze as it arced through the air, and I ducked just in time for the pointed end of the icicle to soar over my head and implant itself deep into the wall.
Brendan growled and jumped toward her. She managed to throw a shield of magic between them, but I could see the energy it took for her to maintain the barrier under Brendan’s crushing werewolf weight.
Alec snapped his jaws at me and made a small yipping sound. He bounded across the room and crouched over a low red settee. Rowan was lying on it, asleep—or worse.
“Get her out of here,” I said.
He nudged her with his nose, and her arm flopped uselessly to one side. Her eyes stayed closed.
“Don’t touch her!” Sienna screamed.
She thrust outwards, and the energy shield separating her from Brendan glowed white and pushed him away. He tumbled across the room and collided with an antique chair, which shattered at the impact.
The vampire grabbed a lamp from a side table and brought it down on Brendan’s head. The stained-glass lampshade shattered. Brendan scrambled to his feet, and I caught only a rush of fur as he threw himself toward the vampire.
“Get out of here,” Sienna said. Her hair was beginning to look disheveled.
I threw a fireball at her. She blocked it with a wave of her hand and sent it flying to the wall, where it sizzled out and left an ugly black burn on the wallpaper.
“You stupid girl. You’re going to kill her if you’re not careful,” Sienna hissed. “She’s between life and death as it is. You’re making it worse.”
I couldn’t imagine Sienna caring. But I hesitated at her expression; whatever her reasons, this did matter to her. I threw up an energy shield to buy myself a few seconds to look closely at Rowan’s face.
Her skin was pale, everywhere but her lips. They were red and swollen. Dark hollows had formed beneath her eyes and cheekbones.
My blood turned to ice.
“You didn’t,” I whispered.
“It’s too late for her,” Sienna said. “And now it’s too late for you, too.”
She raised her hands, and it took everything I had to hold up my shield against her onslaught of curses. Fire and ice and a sickening green fog boiled around the edges of my shimmering barrier. The fog crept around the corners. I coughed but kept fighting it, and in a few moments, Sienna was spent.
She ducked behind a couch to give herself time to recharge, but I didn’t have a second to spare. Her vampire boyfriend had managed to get away from Brendan, and the blade glinted an instant before he brought it down. I dove out of the way and spun back to face him.
“Where did he get a sword?” I snapped at Brendan.
Brendan growled and pounced again, and I winced as the blade sliced through Brendan’s thick fur. A drop of blood fell to the floor, and the vampire smeared it with his foot as he stepped toward the giant werewolf body.
He wasn’t the only one with a blade. I reached into my shoe and pulled out my dagger. The handle fit perfectly into my hand, and when I raised the weapon to throw it, I knew the weapon and I understood each other.
The dagger sailed across the room and sank into the vampire’s back. He screamed and writhed.
It wouldn’t kill him for good. I needed a wooden stake for that, or a few more bits of steel to drive into his heart. But it would keep him down for several minutes—long enough to get Rowan out of here.
A vicious wind hit me with the full force of a storm. Sienna advanced toward me, swirling her hands through the air. The wind tore at my clothes and hair and filled my mouth. I choked and shoved my mouth into my shoulder, creating enough of a pocket that I could breathe. I hated wind magic; there was nothing I could do to fight it. I tried to throw the dense energy of earth into the swirling gale around us, but that only backfired and added weight to the storm as it tugged at my body.
The only thing to do was to deal with the source of the problem. I pushed into the gale and took one slow, staggering step after another toward her.
Triumph lit in her eyes. She had me. All she had to do was throw a little fire into the tornado, and I would become ash and embers being blown away by a breeze.
I looked around for help, for an idea, for anything—and then Alec stepped into the storm. His massive body was heavier than mine, and he wrapped his tail around me and shielded me.
“Toward her,” I shouted over the sound of the wind rattling the furniture in the room and whipping his fur into my face in a thousand tiny lashes. “Back her into the wall.”
He inched forward, keeping me shielded and protected by the bulk of his body, and the wind died down further when Brendan came up behind us and blocked the magic from that direction, too. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I felt their strength and warmth around me. I balled up my fists and heat rushed into my palms.
Then Alec leaped away, and the wind died down the instant he used his giant paws to pin Sienna against the wallpaper. He leaned forward as she struggled, his teeth bare and dripping with saliva. He snapped his jaws at her.
Rage burned in her eyes. There was no fear there, just fury.
I could match that.
I ran to the vampire, who was now unconscious on the floor with my weapon still sticking out of his back. I yanked the dagger free. Blood dripped down the blade and disappeared into the thick crimson rug.
In an instant, I was back across the room with the blade to her throat.
“This is over,” I said.
My voice trembled, but my hand was steady.
I’d never killed anyone before. Not a person. But now I felt ready—ready to do what needed to be done to protect my family.
I took a deep breath.
“I didn’t want it to come to this.”
She needed to know that, before she died. This—this moment, and everything that was about to follow—hadn’t been inevitable. She had been given a dozen chances to go down a different path. And over and over, she had hurt the people I loved.
Where we were now—this was her choice.
She spat at me. It landed on my cheek, and A
lec growled at her as the wetness ran slowly down my skin.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I really am.”
I tightened my fist around the hilt of the dagger. She glared at me, then, slowly, closed her eyes.
A weak voice broke through the silence.
“Don’t,” he said. “Let her go or your girl dies.”
I glanced over my shoulder. The vampire, the one I’d thought would be out cold until long after we’d left this eerie place, had dragged himself to the sofa where Rowan still lay with her face like death.
The vampire was kneeling, but he’d managed to drag his sword over and now had the blade resting lightly on Rowan’s throat.
“Let my queen go,” he said, putting one hand delicately on the other side of the blade. “Now.”
31
Sienna’s eyes were wide, the light in them sharp and panicky. Alec held her against the wall, and Brendan—Brendan had been standing aside during the whole thing.
“Goddamn it, Brendan,” I said. “Why weren’t you watching him?”
Brendan stared at me, and although he couldn’t speak in his wolf form, it was clear he was kicking himself as hard as I wanted to kick him.
I kept my dagger next to Sienna’s throat.
“You won’t do it,” I said. “You don’t have the strength.”
“I have enough for this,” the vampire said.
Brendan shifted, his massive shoulders twitching slightly, and the vampire looked sharply at him.
“By the time one of your dogs gets over here, she’ll be dead.”
I bit the inside of my cheek and clenched the handle of my dagger a little tighter.
I had Sienna. I had her, and I could end this right now and never, ever have to fear for my family’s safety from her ever again.
But I wasn’t willing to pay with Rowan’s life.
Today was a day of life. We had rescued Mom and Grandma and all the coven children, and they were breathing and healthy and, I hoped, well beyond the reach of Sienna’s vampires. Even now, the joy of that thrummed inside me beneath my rage and fear.
I wouldn’t destroy it.
“What are your terms?”
“Don’t you dare,” Sienna growled, and we both ignored her.
“You release her,” the vampire said. “Then you get your pet back.”
“You back away from Rowan first.”
“You invaded my home,” the vampire said. “I don’t trust you.”
“You imprisoned my elderly grandmother,” I snapped. “You don’t get to talk about trust.”
Brendan’s fur rustled softly as he shifted back to his human form.
“Give them both to me,” he said. “I’ll make the trade.”
The vampire sneered. “I’ve heard too much about you,” he said. “You must be the Wildwood alpha.”
“Then you’ve heard I’m an honorable man,” Brendan said.
Sienna scoffed, and we ignored her.
“You’ll release Rowan to me. I’ll carry her out of this place, and these two will follow me.” He nodded at Alec and me. “Scarlett will bind you and Sienna with a charm that will keep you still and silent for a few minutes, just long enough for us to get off your property, but we won’t harm you. And then we’ll be out of your hair, and you will never bother a member of the Crimson Daggers coven or the Wildwood pack ever again.”
“Luke doesn’t have the authority to make that deal,” Sienna said. “And you’re a double-crossing back-stabber.” She strained a little, but Alec hadn’t wavered. Sienna glared at me. “If you’re going to kill me, get on with it. That’s the only deal you’ll get today.”
I considered her, then the vampire, Luke. He looked steadily back at me, and after a long moment, I nodded.
He lifted the sword and dropped it to the floor, where it landed on the carpet with a soft thump. He almost collapsed a moment later; keeping the weapon against Rowan’s throat had taken all his energy.
It was a perfect moment to kill Sienna and rescue Rowan, but Brendan had given his word, and I would hold to that. I lowered the blade. Sienna tried to leap for me, and Alec shoved her back harder.
I lifted my hands. The spell to bind her took less than a minute, but I knew it would hold. I visualized cobwebs trapping her against the wall and made each psychic cord extra strong. The enchantment would keep her still for more than the few minutes it would take for us to get out of this house.
The hatred in her eyes as I worked was so intense I felt like I could reach out and cut myself on it.
“You’re not going to honor that agreement to leave me and mine alone,” I said softly, with my face up close to hers. “I know that. So you do what you have to do, and so will I.”
She opened her mouth to retort, and I cut her off with a final few strands of the spell. Her mouth clamped shut, and though I could see her throat working, words were no longer an option.
“See you when I see you,” I said, and then Brendan had scooped Rowan up, and Alec was nudging the door open with his nose. I crouched over Luke and performed the same spell on him, and then I followed my wolves out of the room, out of the creepy, sleeping house, and into the morning sun.
32
I had been home all of fifteen minutes before Clancy banned me from the infirmary on account of my “hovering.” I had to admit my wandering between Mom and Grandma’s beds like I was stuck on a loop had to be distracting, but what else was I supposed to do? Sienna’s victims were alive, all of them, and I couldn’t bear the thought of being anywhere else.
Since I couldn’t pace inside the room, I paced outside it, while Brendan and Alec watched me from where they sat on the floor with their backs against the wall opposite the door. In between their differently shaped but identically colored hazel eyes and the way they both sat with their elbows slung over their drawn-up knees, the family resemblance was strong.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the carpet,” Brendan observed.
I ignored him.
“Where are the moms?” Alec said.
I glanced down. “Grandma thought it was best not to tell anyone they’re home until Clancy’s checked everyone out. Can’t risk that many Daggers descending on the infirmary at once. Anyway, she needs to check them for curses and poison and sleeper agent enchantments and all that stuff.”
“Sleeper agent enchantments a big problem for you lot?” Brendan asked.
“Just the once, but Saffron’s been overly cautious about it ever since.”
I only knew the story—the mind-control incident had happened before my time—but we’d heard the warnings enough to take precautions, if only to avoid a lecture from Saffron.
Finally, after I thought I was about to lose my mind with impatience, the door cracked open.
“The Stiletto will see you now,” Clancy said.
Her voice was cool and collected and designed exactly to aggravate me. I was at the door and through it before she could get the last word all the way out.
Mom waved me over and pushed a wheeled stool my way. She was sitting up now and looked a lot happier for it. She’d never handled being in the infirmary well and usually spent more time proclaiming how great she felt than actually trying to heal. I dropped my full weight onto the seat and wheeled my way back over to Mom’s bedside.
Grandma was lying in her own bed, twiddling her fingers and making a show of being a good patient. Clancy had stuck a variety of crystals and woven cords on the table next to the hospital bed, and both Mom and Grandma were hooked up to IVs.
“We’re just dehydrated,” Mom said when she noticed me eyeing the bag of liquid. “Sienna’s crew weren’t good at providing refreshment outside our regular feeding schedule.”
“Makes it sound like you were animals,” I said.
“To vamps, we might be.” She glanced at me, then at Clancy, who was on the other side of the room attending to one of the children, and tried to get off the bed. She was quickly pushed back by the force of the restraining spell.
“You should probably just stay there until she lets you loose.”
“I’m not ill,” Mom said.
Grandma waved a hand at her. “None of us are ill, and none of us are getting out of here until we have her say-so. You may as well sit back and enjoy the painkillers.”
“Painkillers?” I said.
Mom snorted. “Your grandma thinks she’s hilarious. I’ve taken exactly one ibuprofen, and it’s done nothing to help the headache I’m getting from lying in this bed.”
“I thought I was bad at being in here,” I said. “Anyway, you deserve it.” I shot a sharp look at Grandma. “Both of you.”
I had expected argument or outrage or confusion, some kind of “how dare you” or “what on earth are you talking about, Scarlett?” But Grandma just shrugged. Her short white hair was a mess, and her face was dry from lack of her usual regime of moisturizers and potions. I knew it must be driving her crazy to be in the infirmary instead of a warm shower, but she seemed as calm as I’d ever seen her.
“You shouldn’t have run off in a heat like you did,” I said.
The thought of me lecturing anyone on the dangers of acting rashly would have been hilarious if I wasn’t still spiraling inwardly at the shock of finding them alive and well.
Grandma held out a hand, and I pushed my wheeled seat over and took it.
“The same might be said for you,” she said. “I notice you didn’t exactly storm Sienna’s castle with a whole army.”
“We needed to be light on our feet,” I said. “And the one Dagger I did bring with me—have you seen her? Clancy said she’s stable, but…”
I trailed off, then nodded toward the curtain that separated Rowan from the rest of us.
Grandma and Mom exchanged glances.
