by Noree Cosper
"Where are we going?" I asked as we headed down a long hallway.
"There is a safe room for Colin and Rhydian to hide in, just in case something like this happens," Eryn said.
"And if the palace gets taken? We’ll be trapped here."
Eryn gritted her teeth and doubled her pace. We rounded the corner and almost ran into the other two triplets who were escorting Mai, Lili, and a group of younger witches. I backpedaled a couple of steps and plowed into Colin’s chest. His arms wrapped around me.
“Careful,” he said.
I pulled away and straightened up. That pounding of my heart was from the impending attack. Right, that was it.
“Is this all you could find?” Eryn scanned over the three serving girls from my breakfast with Colin as they huddled with two other girls and three boys.
“The others are with their parents, I think,” Leri said.
Parents? Upon a closer look, the witches aside from Mai, Lili, and the triplets weren’t older than sixteen or seventeen. My heart felt as if was sinking into my stomach. There were whole families here. And I’d brought Nimue to their doorstep.
“Is everyone going to this safe room?” I asked. “This place must be huge.”
“My dad never does anything small,” Colin said.
The wall to my right exploded inward with a blast of frigid air. Chunks of crystal and wood rained down on us. I gasped and covered my head with my arms. Morphy flew up and released a gout of fire on the falling debris. The flames turned the wood to ash. Colin raised his hand and sang under his breath. The crystals morphed into ice and shattered into a thousand tiny shards.
I raised my head as three men stepped through the newly made hole in the wall. They wore gray armor with dark goggles and thick scarves wrapped around the bottoms their faces. Caps of the same gray as their armor covered their heads. Behind them, a score of men and women waited.
My pulse pounded in my ears. Dreamless. Nimue’s army of witches, loyal only to her, had come.
Eryn pulled out a small knife from a sheath on her belt and leapt forward at the first Dreamless. She swung the knife, aiming for his unprotected eyes. The Dreamless flicked his wrist. A force flew from him and slammed into her. She was lifted off her feet, flew over our heads, and crashed into the wall.
Icy fingers danced along my spine. I knew that hand flick and I knew that power. The Dreamless pulled the scarf down as he glanced in my direction and my stomach dropped. Dylan.
He smirked at me.
Mai hurried to Eryn’s side. Leri pushed Colin behind her and pulled a gun from the holster on her leg. He waved her off and hummed again, sweeping his hand down. The ice crystals in the air swirled and formed a thick wall in front of the hole.
The two Dreamless who remained on this side with Dylan pulled out stun guns and aimed them at the young witches. Lili drew a wooden disk from her pockets hand held it up in front of her, chanting under her breath. A luminescent shield formed in front of her and the witches. The Dreamless’s guns fired darts attached to wires that were accompanied by a soft whoosh of air. The darts bounce off the shield and fell to the ground.
Leri charged forward and planted a hard kick to the knees of one of the Dreamless as they were trying to reload. Gwen pulled out a pistol from her belt and aimed it at the left Dreamless. The pop of gunfire exploded in the hall. The bullet hit the Dreamless in the shoulder and he jerked, taking a step back. I skirted along the wall trying to sandwich the Dreamless between me and the rest of the witches. Dylan frowned at the group before his gaze landed on me.
"I think we need a little privacy," Dylan said.
Dylan touched the ice in the wall. With a crackling sound, the ice shifted and stretched to the opposite wall, blocking me, Morphy, and Dylan from the rest of the group. I was trapped with the man I thought would love me forever.
“Dylan,” I closed my mouth not knowing what to say after. Did he even remember me?
He tilted his head, his cocky grin a mere ghost of his old one. Like he was playing a role that didn’t fit anymore.
“Why did you run away?” His voice held a flat tone. “We were supposed to be in this together. It’s all right though. The Mistress forgives you. Come back with me and you won’t be harmed.”
“Nimue drained and enslaved you.” I said. “Don’t you remember how we were before? Sure, things weren’t great, but we were happy.”
“I remember everything,” he said. “But the mistress has shown me a better way. Living through her love.”
The reverence at which he spoke of Nimue ripped into my heart. I swallowed the lump in my throat and balled my fists.
“She is using you,” I said. “You’re just a tool to her.”
"It's no use. He belongs to Nimue now." Morphy fluttered up and prepared to dive-bomb Dylan.
With a shaking hand, I drew out my knife from my boot sheath. I could do this. He was in this state of perpetual wakefulness and ensorcelled by Nimue. The actual Dylan wouldn’t want to be enslaved. I inhaled lunged forward, aiming to drive the knife into his chest. At the same time, Morphy dived at Dylan.
Dylan flicked his hand. The knife jerked from my grip and flew into Morphy. The blade pierced between his shoulder and wing, pinning him to the ice wall. He gave a screech before going limp.
My chest tightened and I turned a baleful glare at Dylan. “You’ll pay for that.”
“That was your fault. Come peacefully and no one else will get hurt,” Dylan said.
“Except for me when you deliver me to Nimue.”
“The mistress will be pleased. She might even reward me by allowing me to bask in her beauty.”
“Ugh.”
Bile rose up in the back of my throat at the pink that rose in his cheeks and the way his eyes took a faraway glassy look. I glanced away. Behind the wall of ice, two figures lay on the ground while Colin and his witches appeared to be growing smaller. They must have taken out the two Dreamless and were heading to the safe room. I was truly alone.
“It’s time to sleep now,” Dylan said.
He lifted up the scarf over his mouth and let out a large breath. Tiny glittering particles swirled in the air towards me. It had to be sleep dust. One whiff of it and I’d be out for at least a day. Not going to happen. I pressed my nose to the crook of my arm and dropped into a roll along the floor. I stopped in a half crouch behind him. My fist shot forward to slam into the back of his knee. He sidestepped into a half spin to face me. His booted foot slammed into my knee. A crack echoed through the air and a jolt shot through my leg, followed by tingling. My breath came out in a high-pitched whine as I fell to the ground.
“We’ll have to heal that later,” Dylan said, reaching for me.
I shifted from his grasp. “I’m not coming with you.” I dragged myself along the floor until my back was against the ice wall. “I’ll die here first.”
He shook his head. “We can’t have that. That would disappoint the mistress.”
The ice wall shimmered and Colin stepped out, next to me. He hummed something and the air rippled around Dylan. A wave of heat radiated from the air. Dylan gave a strangled cry before he rebounded against the walls down the corridor like a bouncing ball and through a door at the end.
“I guess I’m not the only one who likes slamming people through doors,” I sucked in a breath through my teeth, trying to fight through the pain in my leg. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting to safety?”
Colin waved his hand. “And leave you to all the glory?”
My breath wheezed into a laugh. “Oh yeah, this is glorious. Your bodyguards are going to hate me even more.”
“Let’s not give them a reason to bust the wall down.”
“Get Morphy first. I think I need a few seconds.”
The dragon moaned but barely stirred as Colin pulled the knife from his shoulder. I took him from Colin and tucked him in the crook of my arm. Dark red blood leaked from his wound.
A curse echoed from down the hall. I looked u
p. Dylan leaned against the threshold of the door, glaring at us. His cap had fallen off and blood streamed from his brown hair down his forehead.
“How in Bedlam is he even standing?” Colin asked.
“He’s Dreamless.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “They don’t sleep and they can’t be knocked unconscious.”
“I guess we’ll have to kill him.”
“No.” My heart lurched.
Colin’s brow furrowed at me.
“We’re wasting time,” I said in a rush. “Can you do your move through the ice thing again?”
His eyes narrowed at my flimsy excuse. “Wasn’t really passing through. I actually created a mirror image of myself on this side and switched places with it. I think I can do it for both of us.”
He tried to lift me up as gently as possible. Still, agony pulsed through my knee and it continued to throb as he cradled me against his chest. Dylan raised his hand at us. Colin turned toward the ice wall and stared at it. A shifting rainbow danced before my eyes. When I could see again, we stood in front of the witches. Gwen and Mai had one arm each under Eryn’s shoulders, while Lili watched over the younger ones who huddled together at the end of the hall. Leri stood in front looking ready to tear into us.
“What were you thinking?” Her nostrils flared with each word.
“That we don’t leave someone behind,” Colin said.
“She’s not even one of us,” Leri said.
“So? I gave her my protection. I’m not just going to abandon her when things get dicey.”
I cast a glance at the blurry figure through the ice wall. “Can we get moving? Maybe complain about this later?”
“Fine.” Leri’s lips curled in a sneer. “Though the safe room is through the ice wall. We’re going to have to find another way. Give her to me.”
Colin’s arms tightened on me. “No. You lead the way in case we run into others.”
“At least this way, he won’t be in front,” Mai said.
Leri muttered, spun away, and marched to the front of the group. She led us down the left hall at a jogging pace. We turned several corridors, gathering more witches as we passed. Echoes of shouts and the clang of metal reverberated around us as well as the occasional boom of gunfire. Nimue’s army had found other points of entry.
“This isn’t right,” Colin muttered. “Dad should have banished them by now.”
“He can do that?” I asked in a voice shaky with pain.
“He controls the land here,” he said.
“How did they get in, in the first place?” I asked.
“Witches are welcome,” he said. “There are no spells in place to keep them out.”
“And it’s taboo for Fae to attack one another,” Mai said.
I swallowed. “Right I guess it would be a waste of their magic.”
With her lips pressed in a thin line, Leri continued down the hall. The sound of fighting grew louder as we drew closer to an open set of double doors that led to the foyer. Leri waved us around the corner of the cross section we were at. I lifted my head over Colin’s shoulder as we hid. Through the doors, Dreamless fought against Fae in an all-out melee.
“What now?” I asked.
“We’re not going through there,” she said. “We’ll have to take the passage out.”
“There was a passage this whole time?” My eyebrow twitched. “Why didn’t we go for that first?”
“Because it shouldn’t have gotten this bad,” Colin said.
“If something has happened to Rhydian, we need to leave.” Lili’s mouth formed a grim line.
“We need to find him,” Colin said. “He could be hurt or unconscious somewhere.”
“Colin, you have a group full of witches who don’t fight well. The ones who can are wounded. As skilled as Leri is, we can’t make it through that.” Mai nodded her head in the direction of the foyer. “You are in charge right now and you need to look after your people.”
“Wait. I want to try something.” Colin looked to me. “I’m going to have to put you down for a moment.”
“If it gets us out of this mess, do what you need to,” I said.
He kneeled and set me on the floor. His breath came out in a low whoosh as he pressed his hand against the wall and closed his eyes. He hummed a tune that the air seemed to pick up. It vibrated through floor and walls until it rang out everywhere in a low pitch. The Palace rumbled. A pressure built up and released, causing my ears to pop. I rubbed my ears and glanced around the corner as silence replaced the cacophony of music and battle.
A few Fae moved to the door looking confused at the sudden disappearance of their opponents. They stared down at us, panting and gripping their sword and guns up as if expecting the disappearance to be a trick.
I blinked back at Colin. “What did you do?”
Pallor washed over him and he wore a grim expression. “I banished them from my domain. If I can do it, something really bad has happened to Dad.”
9
Twenty minutes passed as the able-bodied gathered the wounded in the great ballroom. Of the hundred witches that Colin had told me lived in the palace, only fifteen remained, and most were wounded. Of the fifteen Fae, only three remained, besides Colin. They laid us out on pallets made of blankets and pillows they had retrieved from around the palace. Mai scurried about, tending to the witches and Fae with the help of the teenagers that had been with her. Colin stood in the corner across the room with Leri and Gwen, speaking to the only unhurt Fae, a male in black armor with his blond hair tied back.
As no one was paying attention to me, I huddled on my own makeshift pallet in the back of the room with my broken knee propped up with pillows. I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the throbbing through my leg as I laid Morphy on his back in my lap. He wiggled and squirmed, moaning as he clutched his wound.
"Oh," he cried. "It hurts."
"Stop moving around," I said. "I need to sew up so it doesn't bleed anymore."
Morphy pressed his forepaw against his forehead and I had to stifle laugh. "I failed you. I was supposed to protect you and I failed."
"You didn't fail. It’s not your job to protect me. Besides, you helped stop the wall from falling on us, didn’t you?"
“Still, you had to face Dylan alone.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I wasn’t completely alone.”
“Hurmph.” He let out a sigh and settled down a bit.
Dylan had been a shock. It hadn’t been long since Nimue had awoken him. To see him eager to hurt me for her…I bit my lip and blinked back the tears. I needed to focus on something else, like tending to Morphy.
I glanced around. Everyone else was focused on the other witches so no one was paying attention to me. I leaned close to Morphy as if to inspect him and pressed my fingers to the amulet under my shirt.
I sang under my breath. “Hush little dragon, don’t say a word. With that knife, you were deterred. By the end of this lullaby I sing, your wound will finish healing.”
Morphy stretched his wing experimentally. "Much better. You make a great nurse."
"Only because of the rhyming magic," I murmured. "I’d rather bandage you for now, though, so nobody asks any questions."
He nodded, though I wasn’t sure if he really understood. No other witch could cause effects merely by speaking a rhyme. Witch magic relied more on ritual, gestures, and incantations in languages originating from Earth. Fae magic was different. From what I understood, all Fae had some ability to manipulate the land. Aside from that, each had a special magic that they could perform that was related to the emotion they fed off of in witches Dreams. Nimue’s magic revolved around love and adoration while Rhydian’s probably had to do with sex. Witches weren’t limited, but their magic took time and precision. I’d never mastered the precision.
With a sigh, I took a bandage from a medical kit I’d managed to snag and wrapped it around his wing and side. He rolled over from his back and climbed down onto the pallet. His gaze fell on
my leg.
"The bedside service here is ridiculous,” he said. "No one has even bothered to come and look at your knee."
It was true. Besides tossing me a pile of pillows, they had barely looked in my direction. “If they had done that, you’d still be hurt.”
“Hrmph.” He ruffled his wings and wiggled in the blankets until he was more situated. “We’re leaving once you get fixed, right?”
I sighed. “Will it do much good? Where am I supposed to go? Will the witches at the Respite even believe what Nimue is doing? Or the Fae in the Cities? They didn’t here, and look what happened.”
“There’s Bedlam. Nimue has no influence there.”
“Doesn’t the Prince of Darkness rule there? And isn’t he the brother of the Prince of Dreams in Arcadia?”
“That doesn’t mean they get along.”
I bit my lip. It was a better plan than nothing at all. Maybe someone would listen to me there.
“There are three Fae known as the Crones in Bedlam. They are seers. I’m sure they could at least provide information on who would help.” Morphy said. “And they might be able to tell you how to break Nimue’s enchantments.”
An airy feeling rose in my chest and I sat up straighter. These Crones could be my answer to getting this mark removed. Maybe they would even know how to save Dylan. I’d barely hoped it was possible. No witch had ever been able to recover from a comatose state and Nimue’s magic had gone beyond that.
Colin turned my direction and our gazes locked. The usual teal of his eyes had turned a deeper shade of blue. He wore a grim expression on his face. With a nod to the male Fae, he headed my direction. Leri and Gwen trailed behind. He came to a stop and towered over me.
He glanced at my knee and frowned. “Mai hasn’t taken care of you?”
“No.” Morphy let out a small puff of steam. “We’ve been ignored.”
“There were a lot of witches hurt.” Leri glared at me. “She’ll get to you when she can.”
Clearly, Leri blamed me for the attack. She wasn’t completely wrong. If I hadn’t been here, Nimue wouldn’t have come. Gwen gave me a sympathetic smile. She walked to one of the nearby tables and poured a glass of water.
