by D. D. Chance
“Weapon of choice against all higher-order monsters,” she confirmed. “We brush up against it, we get injured. But enough of it in the concentration of this wall keeps everything else out. I’m Rhiannon, by the way. I’m glad you’re still coherent.”
Something in her wry tone made me shiver, but I was too curious about the use of metals here. “You don’t use iron?”
“The kind of monsters that are harmed by iron don’t bother us much.” And with that, Rhiannon entered the gate, centering herself beneath the archway. Others of the group followed, still in their human form, until finally, it was only Grim and myself.
“I can walk alone,” I said, realizing that the two of us abreast would put him at risk of touching the offensive metal.
“No,” he said. As we moved through the passage together, I didn’t miss his hiss of pain as he brushed up against the archway—or Rhiannon’s muttered expletive. It sounded remarkably like idiot.
I liked her more and more.
On the other side of the wall was an empty courtyard surrounding a tall, elegant stone building, again fronted with a large arched opening. The sky opened above us, and I pivoted, noting an enormous mountain in the distance, the trees disappearing into shadows at its base. Without looking at me, Grim gestured ahead.
“Go where they tell you to,” he said. “You need rest, and time.”
I frowned, trying to quell my fear at him leaving me. “But what about the Hallowells? Didn’t you say they were coming? Are they following us?”
“They can’t find us here, no. You’ll be safe. It’ll take them some time to gear up to come after us.”
“Particularly with the surprises we left for them,” one of the other warriors said, this one a man. I tried to focus on him, but couldn’t quite manage it. My vision went a little blurry again, and I couldn’t understand why it took so much effort to remain upright. The woman who’d called Grim an idiot…Rhiannon, was it?…muttered something else and stepped toward me.
“I’ll take her,” she said. I wanted Grim to object, to insist he go in with me—but no. He seemed completely done with me, and I stuffed down my dismay at his rejection, hating how needy I felt. So the guy didn’t want to be with me—so what? I shouldn’t care. He’d kidnapped me and stood by while I maybe drank poisonous water and had clearly slotted me into some sort of diabolical personal plan without even asking. He sucked.
He glanced toward me, his manner still icy on the surface, but there was no denying the surge of heat that rushed through me as his gaze raked over me. I couldn’t help staring at his mouth—the lips parted, a hiss of his breath sounding too loud in my ears, as if my senses were on high alert and hardwired into Grim. The sound of his heavily beating heart pounded in my ears, the sudden knowing I had that his hands were clenched into fists made me flush, and a new wave of dizziness washed over me.
I stumbled against Rhiannon, and she caught me, easily, steering me away from the group without another word. She hustled me forward, holding me by the elbow to keep me from collapsing in a dead faint. Her grip was firm but not cruel, and I felt like I should thank her for that, but she probably wouldn’t appreciate me focusing on anything other than putting one foot in front of the other.
As we passed into the main building, I was struck by the streamlined austerity of it. The corridors were wide and held no furniture, with only the occasional painting on the walls, all of grand cities done in an almost whimsical manner. We didn’t slow down long enough for me to fix on any one image, and no one was in the hallways or in any of the rooms we passed, all of them accessible via wide archways, though without the gleaming bands of silver etched into the stone. If the enemy had managed to breach the defenses all the way to this group’s home base, I supposed, they needed room to maneuver.
The stairway was regal and curving, still wide, but definitely intended more for humans than animals, I decided—though the steps were slightly taller than I could easily navigate.
“How long have you all been here?” I asked. The sound of my own voice startled me as it reverberated off the stone walls.
Rhiannon slanted me a glance. “About a hundred and fifty of your years,” she said. “Time passes differently here, especially for the Akari.”
The name sounded arcane and foreign at once, and I didn’t ask her to clarify. So that’s what Grim’s heritage was. Akari. My heart gave a little flip as I pictured him again, tall and brutally powerful, watching me with feral intensity. And then I shut down those thoughts as Rhiannon chuckled, clearly way more attuned to my thoughts, or at least my emotions, than I wanted her to be.
“Don’t give Grim too much of a pass,” she advised drily. “He could have killed you with that stunt at the river. And he played things too close with the Hallowells, trying to keep them off balance while putting you at risk. He is just shy of an outcast even among us. You would do well to be wary of him.”
“But he’s part of your…clan here, isn’t he?” I didn’t know exactly what to call the Akari, but I was pretty sure that herd had to be the wrong word.
Apparently, the woman’s attunement to me wasn’t so sharp that she picked up on my awkwardness with the language. “Oh, he’s part of us, yes. But he definitely doesn’t follow all the orders of the council of elders. He never has. Without him, though, we wouldn’t know the ultimate plan of those who would seek to rule us—and who haven’t earned, nor will ever earn, the right.”
Her chilling words cut off the conversation, and a few minutes later, she stopped in front of an archway. “Your room,” she said, gesturing me forward. The doorway immediately yielded to a corridor to the right, which curved around for a dozen or so steps before it opened into a wide room.
“I guess you guys aren’t big on doors,” I murmured, mainly to hide my surprise at the room I saw before me. It was stunning, with a low bed in one corner piled high with thick, blocky cushions, heavy sheets and covers. Ten-foot mirrors framed in gold hung on three of the walls, while a fireplace was cut into the far wall, deep enough that no sparks would stray beyond the opening into the room.
Rhiannon snorted, noticing my appreciation.
“Even creatures yearn for their comforts,” she said. “But no. You’ll find no doors in the keep, at least not in the areas intended to be shared by the Akari. Try to make it to the bed before you collapse. When you wake, there will be water and food that’s safe to drink and eat.”
“When I wake,” I said. “You mean if I wake?”
She didn’t answer that, but gestured to a small case on the bed—my pack. How had they managed to retrieve that?
“You’ll want to change into something formal, if you have it,” Rhiannon continued. “The Akari ruling council will be here by nightfall.”
“But where…how?” I stuttered, still fixated on my pack. It was the one Commander Frost had thrown into the limo, expecting me to possibly spend the night at the Hallowells. How had they gotten it all the way to the Akari keep? And speaking of my previous hosts… “Aren’t the Hallowells on their way?”
“I told you, time works differently here. Even with the Hallowells’ adaptive tools, that has remained one of our advantages. Their tools will cut down on the time we would ordinarily have to prepare, but not so much that we need to rush this particular process. Sleep. And for the record, I do hope you wake up.”
With that, Rhiannon left the room. I stumbled over to the bed and sat down heavily, realizing it was much lower to the ground than I’d realized.
“Me too,” I said, though there was no one else there to hear me anymore. I reached for my pack and unzipped it. The first thing I saw was a bright splash of material, and I jerked back in surprise. Of all the clothes I had in my bedroom at Fowlers Hall, somebody had thought I needed a hot-pink party dress for my trip to the Hallowells? Seriously? I pulled it out and shook the fabric free, surprised to see that it had held up well to both the car ride and the Akari jaunt through the forest. I’d gotten the garment from a fellow student onl
y a few days ago, but I’d never expected to wear it—and definitely not to a meeting with a bunch of giant snow leopards.
I chuckled grimly as another wave of dizziness swept through me, and dropped the dress to my lap. Well, if I managed to survive until this evening, I probably deserved to wear Merry’s party dress. She thought it had magical flirtation powers, but I somehow suspected the Akari would be immune. Still, it was the closest thing to formal wear that I had. If the Akari didn’t like it, they could screw themselves with sprinkles on it.
I frowned, trying to make sense of my own thoughts. Sprinkles? I shook my head woozily. Why was I thinking of sprinkles?
Laying the dress aside, I half collapsed on to the nearest pillow and slept.
6
I startled awake what felt like hours later, so disoriented that it took me several seconds to process where I was. Someone had come in and lit a fire, and the flames crackled cheerfully, deep in the recess of the wall. I hadn’t noticed before, but there were no windows in this room, the feeling of claustrophobia only slightly minimized by the mirrors, which reflected the cheerful fire and added to the brightness in the room. I lifted my brows, glancing toward the ceiling, and sure enough, there were no light fixtures evident. So maybe the mirrors weren’t just decorative, but served to keep the rooms bright? Maybe.
Then again, these rooms were made for people who potentially had cat vision. I was pretty sure that cat vision trumped feeble human eyeballs, especially at night.
Either way, I was grateful for the additional light, and I pulled the covers higher, surprised to realize I’d kicked off my flats and crawled underneath the sheets at some point. I didn’t even know what time it was. It could have been nightfall, it could have been the next morning, or a bare twenty minutes could have passed for all I knew, no matter how groggy I was. But something had woken me up. I glanced around the room. What had it been?
A new thought captured my attention, and I sat up straighter.
I was awake. I was alive.
I hadn’t really given much thought to the possibility of dying at the hands of poisoned water, but I was still pretty happy to be sitting upright. I was also fairly sure this wasn’t a dream.
I would know that, wouldn’t I? There would be some sort of difference between death and the dream state? Chances were good there was a class on that at Wellington Academy. I definitely would be taking it.
The room remained quiet save for the faint crackling of the fire, and something else caught my eye. A small table set up near the fireplace, with a carafe of what I dearly hoped was unpoisoned water, and a covered plate.
Biting my lip against the images of organic cat food my mind insisted on serving up, I swung my knees around and planted my feet on the floor. The firelight made every scratch and ridge on the stone floor visible, and I noticed there were quite a few. Long and jagged, the marks of claws that meant serious business even when they weren’t being used for battle.
I hesitated, blinking down at the marks, and dropped my hand to my side, where a thick ridge of scar tissue met my questing touch. Had I been attacked by the Akari when I was a little girl? Had I been attacked by Grim?
I still couldn’t wrap my head around how old Grim might possibly be, but Elaine Hallowell had been clear. He’d been sent after my mom when I was a little kid, and had reported her unable to be found. But that didn’t explain the scars that I bore, and the device that only he had realized was buried inside me.
I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
I stood, grateful I was no longer quite as woozy, and made my way over to the small table. I could smell the food before I reached it. Cooked meat of some sort. Lifting the lid revealed a pile of strange-looking additional items, which I assumed were cooked fruits or vegetables, and all of it smelled delicious. Suddenly ravenous, I devoured half the plate before I came up for air. I grabbed the carafe and sloshed the water into the waiting cup, which was not reminiscent of a water bowl, I insisted to myself, for all that it had no handle and required both my hands to lift.
I drank deeply, praying once again that the water wasn’t tainted, then exhaled, sitting back on my heels. I’d scarfed the food like a prisoner unsure of when she was going to get her next meal, but now that the initial wave of anxiety had passed, I felt more centered, more—
A distant cry sounded from across the room. I whirled, my hands going out, reaching instinctively for my iron blade, which was still not tethered to my foot. My gaze shot to the pack, but of course, it wouldn’t be there either. It had been attached to my ankle when I’d been kidnapped. I doubted the Hallowells had been so conscientious as to return it to my pack.
Another cry, still faint, erupted from the wall to my left. From beyond the wall? Had to be. But it didn’t sound like an animal, not that the Akari were roaming the halls of their fortress in animal form. It sounded almost familiar.
Frowning, I stood and paused only long enough to take another slug of water to quench my still-desperate thirst, then focused on where I thought I’d heard the sound. The room simply wasn’t that big, and in only a few steps, I stood in front of the mirror that hung on the wall. In it, I could see the reflection of my bed, the fireplace off to the side, and the shadowed entryway to my room.
Unexpectedly, it occurred to me that I could leave this room at any time, since there were no doors. Had the Akari established a guard to watch over me? I glanced over that way when a faint echo of the first cry drew my attention back. It was definitely coming from the other side of the wall, but…there was something about the mirror itself that struck me as off.
I stepped closer to it, then peered more intently. It was as if I were looking through a two-way mirror, but instead of a small observation room on the other side of the wall, there was a dark shadowy space, filled with tables and shelves. And the cries I’d heard were coming not from a person trying to get my attention, but somebody kneeling on the floor, fixated on a sparking, whirling something. The sparks were faint but discernible. Every time they flared, I could see the person hovering over them jerk up but not fully away, as if he was idiot enough to brave the fire in order to figure out what was—
“Liam,” I blurted, the word little more than a gasp. The figure on the other side of the mirror, who had to be Liam, spun around and fell on his ass. He got up quickly, pivoting in a full circle as if he’d heard a ghost.
“Liam,” I said again, and he froze for a second, fixing on what I assumed was this mirror.
“Nina?” he said, coming right up to where I was standing and poking his hands toward me. I stepped back reflexively. I could see his hands cut off at his elbows, but no corresponding hands came through on my side. He screwed up his face in concentration.
“Nina, are you on the other side? I can’t get through.” He stepped bodily toward me, the vision so alarming that I jerked back another step. But once again, Liam didn’t come through on my side of the mirror. He stepped back and moved something around, clearly perplexed, and I blinked. He was shifting a standing mirror, I realized. I remembered that mirror. It had been in the basement of Bellamy Chapel with the glass broken out.
Liam arrived at the solution as quickly as I did.
“It needs glass,” he said. “Son of a bitch. It just needs glass! Nina, are you there? Are you okay?”
“What happened?” I asked. There was no way I was going to try to explain things from my side of the mirror, but I needed to understand what was going on at Wellington Academy.
Liam leaned in so close to the mirror, I couldn’t see his face anymore. I jerked back reflexively as he started speaking. “Are you there? I think you’re there. You have to be there. Do you know what we know? You probably don’t. I can’t see you, Nina. I can’t see you. But I know you’re there. I can feel you.”
He lifted his hands, and my heart leapt as I saw the sparks of electricity dance over his fingertips. He waggled them for me and grinned. “You’re so close. I’m too jacked up for it to be anything else. We�
��re bonded, babe—and don’t you forget it. We’re going to get you out.”
I nodded quickly, but for a moment, I couldn’t speak. The emotion rolling off Liam was every bit as strong as Tyler’s had been—but different. Where Tyler had been reassuring, happy, confident…Liam’s was sharper, more intense. I could feel his energy reach out to me through the mirror, lighting me up with unexpected heat. Liam knew I was in trouble—and he’d stop at nothing to find me.
He’ll find me. No matter where I was or how trapped, he’d get me out. And there was no denying the emotion pouring off him—worry, reassurance…and yes, even love. It flowed through the mirror and rolled over me, as comforting as a warm hug, soothing my rattled nerves. As I watched, Liam smiled with deep and knowing confidence, his expression open, his bright hazel eyes scanning the mirror in front of him, his entire body electric with focus.
He’ll find me.
As I reveled in the relief that thought gave me, Liam continued. “You’re so there,” he murmured. “You’re so close. But this is what we know, okay? The limo containing you, Grim, and Elaine Hallowell disappeared on the way to New York. Like, flat-out flew off the map. The Hallowells claimed they had nothing to do with it, and a full-on search is underway, but the driver of the limo and his wingman were found bound and gagged on the side of the road, drugged out of their minds. Magic-enhanced crap. They’re not remembering shit. Frost is on a rampage to find you, says there’s been some disturbances in upstate New York that have a magical residue to them, and he believes that’s where you were taken.”
“He’s right,” I blurted, but Liam only screwed up his face, his gaze darting back and forth, up and down, trying to figure out the mystery of the mirror.
“I can’t hear you, babe, but I know you’re there—and we’ve got you. We’re coming for you, no matter what. You’re ours, got it? You’re ours.”
“Liam.” I jerked forward again, focusing on him with all my might, willing our electrical connection to spark to even greater life. I flattened my hand on the mirror and pushed that energy out.
