shaede assassin 05 - shadows at midnight

by amanda bonilla

  All eyes turned to Ty, the only sound a gentle breeze stirring the sage. The pungent odor wrinkled my nose and I longed for the clean scent of rain and the crisp brine of Puget Sound. Not even the heat of this desert could put me at ease. A terrible energy vibrated through me and I hoped that it wasn’t a foreboding of things to come.

  “We’re ready.” Liam’s voice grated in his throat. “For anything.”

  “That’s good,” Tyler replied. “Because this isn’t going to be a contest of brawn. Your swords, guns, daggers will only help you so much once we enter the labyrinth. The greatest threats down there are the ones you can’t see.”

  He took a seat on the rock next to me and tucked an arm behind my back. I wanted to lean into him. To feel the security of his big body supporting me. But I had to be strong. Be the killer that Raif said I was. The cold hearted, single-minded bitch that I used to be. Tender emotions could wait until Xander was safe. This was a job. And just like any job I’d ever done, my personal life had to take a back seat until it was done.

  “Magic?” Louella ventured. She caressed the hilt of the dagger sheathed at her side. Everyone was a little on edge and rightfully so.

  “Yes,” Ty said. “And that magic’s sole purpose is to worm its way into your head and fuck with your mind. Rakshasa are ghouls. They feed off of blood and living flesh. And when their prey is afraid, they gain more power and strength.”

  “So fear is the vitamin supplement of a Rakshasa diet?”

  Everyone chuckled at Julian’s question. Everyone but me. “You’ll think what’s happening is real.” My voice carried a hard edge that cut through the answering silence. “Your nightmares, greatest doubts, and worst mistakes of your past will be thrown back in your face. It’s hard to separate reality from the fantasy.”

  “They’re illusionists?” Asher’s tone grew somber and his brows drew down sharply over his amber eyes. He had secrets. There was a shadow on his soul just like mine. The labyrinth would be hardest on him. I had a feeling that he knew it as well.

  “Yes. And if you’re not careful, those illusions will swallow you whole.” Our eyes met and I shivered at the flicker of fear in his gaze. “We’ve got each other’s backs, though. And as long as you keep telling yourself it’s not real, you’ll keep a toe grounded in reality.”

  “Did it work for you?” There was no guile in his words, no cocky posturing. Ash was my friend and he deserved my honesty.

  “For the most part. But the sooner we’re out of there, the better.” I didn’t want to be down in that hell hole for any longer than absolutely necessary. Speed was just as important as stealth in this situation. “We’ve got to be quick. In and out.”

  “That’s what she said.”

  Julian’s crack lightened the mood and I had to admit that I appreciated the momentary levity. Ty looked at me and I returned his smile. We could do this. There was strength in our numbers.

  “All right,” Myles said. “So we know that we should be prepared for a not too gentle mind fuck once we find the Rakshasa. What should we expect on the way there?”

  Myles didn’t seem too interested in anything but business which was fine by me. It was dark enough down in the tunnels. I didn’t want to wait until after sundown to get started.

  “There are traps everywhere,” Tyler said. “Real Raiders of the Lost Ark shit. False floors, switchbacks, dead ends. Spikes that shoot down from the ceiling and out of the walls. One misstep and you can kiss your ass goodbye.”

  “How do we navigate it?” Liam asked. The swirling pattern of blue tattoos that covered his forearms distorted with the flex of his muscle.

  “Darian and I are sensitive to magic. So is Asher. We’ll be able to feel the traps before they engage. With any luck, we can navigate it without incident.”

  “Canaries going down into the coal mines, huh?” Ash asked with a smirk.

  “Sort of.”

  This was the first I’d heard of what Ty and Xander had encountered in the labyrinth. Honestly, with the animosity between them, I was surprised Ty had given Xander any warning at all.

  “How will we know we’re going in the right direction?” Louella continued to fiddle with the hilt of her dagger. “If it’s a labyrinth, we could be wandering for weeks and still not find the king.”

  “True.” It had taken Xander and Ty days to get to me and they’d had a formal invite. “But we have this.” I pulled Pamela’s pendulum from my pocket.

  “That’s not yours,” Ash said. His gaze landed on my bare neck and he raised a silent brow in question.

  “Later,” I said for him alone. No one else needed to know what Padma had stolen from me. “I got this pendulum from a witch. It’s been programmed—sort of—to find Xander. Like a magical bloodhound.”

  Myles pursed his lips. “Handy. Though I’ve never found witchcraft to be very trustworthy.”

  That made two of us. “This will work.” I’d seen it in action last night. Padma had enchanted the crystal, linking its essence to Xander’s with the use of his recently worn shirt. It would glow when we were close to him. Not a bad trick in my opinion.

  “So, we’ve got booby traps, mind games, and illusions. Is there anything in that maze that we can fight with bare strength and steel?” Like me, Asher was more comfortable fighting an enemy he could sink his blade into.

  “Unfortunately,” Tyler said. “Yes, there is.”

  The group exchanged nervous glances. Everyone but Ash. Despite Ty’s ominous tone, he wasn’t even a little worried. I swear, his soul and mine were twins. Mental and emotional foes laid us low. We’d take the nastiest of big baddies any day over a brutal self-examination.

  “Good,” Asher said. “I’ll need something to take my frustrations out on.”

  “Don’t get too excited,” Tyler said. “The tunnels are guarded by goblins.”

  “Wait.” Julian laughed. “Goblin Valley is populated with actual goblins?”

  “How do you think it got its name?” Tyler asked.

  Julian conspicuously pushed himself away from the squat rock formation he’d been leaning on and Liam put his hand up to his mouth and coughed, “Pussy.”

  Julian shot him a dirty look but didn’t bother to rebut. “What are we talking here? On a scale of one to ten, how bad are they?”

  Ty shrugged. “At least a thirty.”

  “Fuck.”

  “How do we kill them?” Ash didn’t give a shit about how dangerous they were. He was the Lyhtan slayer after all.

  “They’re necks are thick and sinewy,” Ty replied. “It’s almost impossible to sever the spine. A straight shot to the heart will put them down, but their skin is super tough and leathery.”

  “Got it.” Ash took stock of the group and his hand came to rest on his dagger hilt. His gaze dipped to my own daggers sheathed at my thighs before his eyes met mine. “Okay, boss. Just say when.”

  All eyes turned to me then, including Ty’s. I’d come to think of him as the top dog in this rescue mission. It was my idea to come back, though. My obsessive need to get Xander out of that hell hole and bring him home. This was my operation.

  “Let’s get moving.” I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat and breathed through the anxiety that threatened to choke the air from my lungs. “No one gets left behind. Everyone goes home.”

  “Booyah,” Asher said, totally deadpan.

  “Hell, yeah!” Julian said with a little more gusto. “Let’s do this.”

  I turned toward Ty, knowing that he sensed every crippling emotion that circulated through me. “I’ve got you, Darian,” he said, low. “I’ve always got you.”

  Tyler never disappoints.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  We found the entrance to the tunnels in a vast stretch of land occupied with hundreds of the squat rock formations. After Tyler’s affirmation that the valley was in fact guarded by actual goblins, we placed each step with care, as though one of the rocks would spring to life if we got too close. For all I knew, o
ne might.

  I paused at the edge of the cave, my breath constricting with the encroaching darkness. Sunlight tingled on my skin, urging me to leave my corporeal form behind and hide in the protection of my virtual invisibility. Once I stepped fully into the cave, however, I knew that my magic would become null. I’d no longer be afforded the protection of my ethereal self. God, I did not want to go back down into that place.

  “No man left behind, right Darian?”

  Asher’s voice at my back was strong and full of reassurance. I wouldn’t be alone this time. Xander was alone right now. He needed us to get him out of there. “Yup.” My own voice quavered on the word.

  “You know there’s no one I’d rather stir shit up with than you.”

  “Back at ya,” I said.

  “Okay, then. Let’s stir some shit up.”

  Ty cast a glance back and I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. He led the way down into the labyrinth with Liam behind him. Julian, Myles, and Louella fanned out in a V behind them and Asher and I brought up the rear. As we walked, the descent seemed immediate and severe. As though one second we were at ground level and the next, hundreds of feet below the earth. It was an illusion, of course. Meant to disorient us. Tame in comparison to what we could expect as we ventured deeper into the maze. Darkness swallowed every ounce of light, so dark that I swore I could taste it on the back of my tongue. As my preternatural eyesight adjusted, my boots shuffled along the uneven ground. My skin grew tight as magic locked me in my corporeal form.

  “Do you feel that?” Asher asked beside me.

  “The shadows won’t be of any use to us here,” I remarked.

  “No.” Ash gave a rueful laugh. “Do me a favor, Darian? If any of that bitch’s illusions get the better of me, put your fist into my face.”

  I snorted. “I’ll do that. Look, Ash—”

  “Don’t, Darian.” He kept his gaze straight ahead as he navigated the narrow path. “Preparing me for what might happen will just make it worse. I’ll build it up in my head and when it hits me, it’ll be worse because of it. I can manage. I’m not too bad with illusions myself.”

  True. I hadn’t thought about Asher’s particular brand of magic. If he didn’t want you to see him, all he had to do was implant the thought in your mind that he wasn’t there. Viola! Invisible. Of course, his abilities would be null in this place. He wasn’t going to make anyone think anything. His mind was strong, though. Perhaps he’d withstand Padma’s mind games better than the rest of us.

  “Darian, hit the deck!”

  I dropped to the ground without giving Ty’s command a single thought. Ash dove beside me, sending up a cloud of dust as a wicked serrated blade swung out from the wall to my left. Tyler hadn’t been kidding when he said Padma had rigged these tunnels with some serious Indiana Jones shit. Like running the gauntlet in some crazy fucking video game. My heart beat wildly in my chest and a burst of adrenaline coursed through my veins causing my limbs to quake. God damn it. I needed to pay better attention. If Ty hadn’t said something, Ash and I would be dead right now.

  “You felt it,” I said to Asher on a gust of breath. I’d thought that tightening of my skin was a result of my body’s inability to join the shadows. But in reality, what I’d felt was a precursor to magic. One of that bitch’s booby traps about to be tripped.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t recognize what it was.” We were still lying on our bellies, staring at each other with wide eyes as we breathed through the rush of adrenaline. “I’ll know better next time.”

  “Me too,” I agreed. We needed to keep our guards up or fall victim to Padma’s sadistic tricks.

  “You okay?” Ty rushed over and helped me to stand. Through the darkness I could barely make out the concern etched into his handsome face. God, the shit I got him into… How was he still willing to stick it out with me? “Are you hurt?”

  “Just my pride,” I complained as I reached out a hand to Asher. I pulled him up and he dusted himself off. “I wasn’t paying attention. Won’t happen again.”

  “Don’t scare me like that,” Ty said. The rest of the group looked on, splotches of shadow against the dark red walls of the tunnel. “I’m half tempted to send you back up to wait for me.”

  “No way.” This was my mission. My risk. If anyone should be waiting safely outside, it was Tyler. I looked up at the blade that was buried in the opposite wall, as long as my body and razor sharp. “I’ll be more careful. Let’s keep moving.”

  Tyler gave me one last searching look. He wasn’t any more comfortable with our situation as I was. We needed to find Xander and get the hell out of here.

  “Anybody got a flashlight?” Rather than echo off the surrounding stone walls, Louella’s voice barely carried at all. “My eyesight’s stellar in the dark but this is like…super dark.”

  She was right. None of us should have had any trouble seeing in the dark but this was something different. An impenetrable cloak of midnight.

  “I’ve got one.” A bright swath of LED light cut through the darkness as Julian brought the flashlight up to his face like a kid about to tell a scary story at summer camp. Louella snickered and gravel scratched beneath her boots as she fell back to where Julian waited.

  “My hero,” she said with a playful nudge to his ribs.

  “It’s going to get darker,” Tyler said. He made his way back to the lead of our little formation and took off down the tunnel. “I’m not even sure a flashlight will work once we hit the center of the labyrinth. Everybody stay on your toes. Got it?”

  I had a feeling that last bit was meant for me. I don’t know what it was about hanging out with Asher that turned me into a Chatty Kathy. Under any other circumstances, I’d be the one barking at everyone to be quiet and keep their heads in the game.

  Julian’s flashlight offered a little help in navigating the tunnels but like Ty said, the deeper we went into the maze the more impenetrable the darkness became. The twenty linear feet of light the flashlight had given us when we started now only offered a couple of yards of visibility.

  “Stop.” Tyler held up his hand and our group came to a standstill. My skin prickled and I met Asher’s gaze, his own brow arched curiously. He felt it too. “Back up!” Tyler shifted into reverse, his shuffling steps pushing all of us into retreat. “Go, go!”

  A sound like ocean waves crashing over the rocks echoed in front of us, growing louder with each passing second. I narrowed my eyes and sucked in a breath. Jesus fucking Christ. A wall of water rushed down the tunnel toward us, much too fast for any of us to outrun.

  “Take cover!” I don’t know why I said it. I mean, where in the hell were we going to find shelter? We were in a tunnel for fuck’s sake. One way in. One way out. Once the water crested over us, we’d drown.

  As the churning water reached us, I braced for impact, ducking down as I tucked my head under my arms. I sucked in a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut. Anticipation shivered down my spine…nothing. I shot upright and opened my eyes. The water was gone.

  “What the fuck was that?” Liam spun full circle, his eyes wide.

  “An illusion.” Hatred thickened my tone. “They’ll all be as real as that.” Goddamn Padma and her games.

  “I thought we were screwed.” Myles let out a shuddering breath. “How are we going to be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what isn’t?”

  “I can tell.” Heads swiveled toward Tyler in unison.

  “How?” I’d suspected that my ring had played a part in helping me keep a tenuous grip on my sanity while in Padma’s custody. But even with that little boost, I’d fallen under her spell. Jinn magic was a mystery. I doubted I’d ever understand the intricacies of it.

  “It takes me a second to recognize it, obviously. Sort of a delayed reaction. I’ll try to give everyone a heads up as best I can.” Ty sidestepped my question with ease. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Asher gave me a wary look but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t ha
ve to. He was as suspicious of Ty’s magic as I was. I didn’t doubt that what he could do was limited down here. He never would have left me here for a minute longer than he had to if he could’ve just popped in and taken me. But I knew that he wasn’t powerless. Not like we were.

  We walked for almost a mile without anything jumping out to scare or kill us. Silence fell over the group, too tuned in to our surroundings to focus on anything else. Julian’s flashlight offered only a few feet of light now. The darkness swallowed everything until all that remained was an endless void. A black hole waiting to swallow us.

  “Ripple of energy at my right,” Asher said.

  A tingle traveled the length of my right arm as though it had fallen asleep. Ash was more sensitive to magical energy than I was. Damn it, I couldn’t afford for my focus to slip even an inch. “Everyone, tight against the left wall. Now!”

  Wicked metal spikes shot out from the wall at our right just as we dodged out of the way. Back flat against the wall, I had to suck in to keep from being pierced. A grunt to my left drew my attention but with one of the spikes poised half an inch from my eyeball, I couldn’t turn my head to see what had happened. The only way we were getting past this obstacle was to sidestep past the spikes. And from the sound of it, one of the members of our group wasn’t doing so hot.

  “I’m pinned.” Liam grunted in pain.

  “How bad is it?” Julian.

  “A couple of inches. Maybe three. Right side of my chest. Fuck.”

  “Who can get through?” Asher and I couldn’t get past Liam if he was pinned against the wall, but hopefully the others were in front of him.

  “I can,” Louella said. “Myles and Julian are ahead of me with Tyler.”

  Ash was practically vibrating beside me. Being stuck and helpless wouldn’t do anything to keep him level. Truth be told, it wasn’t doing much for me, either.

  “How long are we stuck like this?” Hell, did Ty even know? “If we can’t get out, you have to go on without us.” Getting Xander out of here was the priority.