Heartache (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Book 5)

by Annie Bellet

  “We can’t stay here,” Levi said.

  “Splitting the party hasn’t been working out well for us,” Ezee added. He stood shoulder to shoulder with his twin. Though they looked different, Ezee with his clean-cut, professorial appearance and Levi with his tattoos, piercings, and Mohawk, their expressions were identically stubborn.

  “Rose has to sleep or she won’t heal. She’s practically in a coma.” I couldn’t let them come to the quarry with me. Nobody else was allowed to get hurt, damnit. This was my fight.

  “I’ll take her to my grove,” Yosemite said. “Nothing can approach without me knowing. We should be safe there.”

  “Thank you,” Ezee said. He glanced at Junebug and then to Levi, his meaning clear.

  Junebug sighed. “Going to try to leave me out of this fight, too, aren’t you?” she said to her husband.

  Levi crossed to her and slid his arms around her waist. He pressed his lips to her ear and spoke so quietly I couldn’t pick up the words. Her expression grew grim, but she finally nodded.

  “I’ll help you with Rose,” she said to Yosemite.

  “You should all go with Rose,” I said, knowing that even though it was futile to argue, I had to at least try. My stubborn-ass friends were going to get themselves hurt or killed. “This is a sorcerer fight.”

  “That he’s brought shifters into,” Alek said. “That alone would make it my fight. Shifters working for a sorcerer? Against their own?”

  “How is the Council even putting up with this? Where are the Justices?” Levi asked. His eyes flicked to the chain around Alek’s neck.

  Alek bent his head and took a deep, slow breath. Then he pulled the chain out of his collar and yanked it off. The empty links fell to the barn floor.

  “There are no more Justices,” he said, his voice seeming to echo around the wooden walls.

  “What happened in New Orleans?” I asked, breaking the stunned silence that had descended.

  “There is no time to explain. I am not even sure what is happening. The world is changing, but we have more immediate trouble.”

  “Yeah, like saving my brother,” Harper said. She clenched her fists at her sides and turned. “No more arguing. We’re going with you, Jade, so suck it up and lets move.”

  I had nothing to say to that. They were going to go get Max with or without me, and I was their only chance of killing Samir. I couldn’t fight him and my friends. I had to pick my battles. So I followed Levi out to his SUV with a heavy heart. The upside was that I was too exhausted and angry to be afraid. Only rage simmered in my veins, rage and power.

  The last time I’d been out to the abandoned quarry, I’d killed a man and eaten his heart. Time for an encore.

  Samir waited in the quarry. We drove as far as we could in the snow with the SUV, then Levi and I left the car and rode tandem on one of the stolen snowmobiles. The whole drive I talked with mind-Tess, both of us picking over as much about Samir as we could remember.

  He loved objects, was very good at crafting them. This much was becoming painfully obvious. The stones, the wires, who knew what else? I couldn’t rely on him using something like that, but I could at least try to be aware of anything he was holding or had around him. Samir had been careful with Tess as well as with me to never reveal a lot about his power. Just enough, mostly showy things, to get us interested, to prove he was like us. From there he’d played the lover and teacher, his habits and demeanor insultingly similar, as though Tess and I were interchangeable parts in his life. Toys to him.

  At least Tess had known. She had played him as he played her. I had no excuse. I’d been starry-eyed, thrilled to finally find someone like me, someone who understood and wasn’t afraid of my magic. My shifter family had cast me out. My human family had tried to help me, teaching me to use role-playing games to help focus and control my powers, but even they hadn’t really got it. They didn’t know what it felt like to have magic flowing through your blood in all its hot, elemental glory. To know that if you could just put enough into it, focus your will enough, you could change the whole freaking world and make the stars dance at your fingertips.

  Samir had understood, and he had played the perfect boyfriend and mentor. Too perfect.

  Tess tried to console me with the knowledge that I must have been suspicious on some level, or I never would have sought out his journals, never would have gone questing for the things he didn’t tell me. I was not mollified with that thought. I should have been more suspicious. Done more. Fought him sooner instead of running and running. What had he called me? A mouse. Yeah, I’d been a fucking mouse.

  And now more people were getting hurt, were getting killed because of me.

  Wolf materialized by my side as I strode over the snow toward the flat plateau at the base of the quarry. The boulders blocking off the entrance carried a thick frosting of snow and the whole landscape looked glaringly white in the afternoon sun, the snow freezing into ice on top and glittering like a million diamonds. At the edge of my vision, I made out a tall dark shape standing over another dark shape. Samir and Max.

  Alek, the twins, and Harper had reluctantly agreed to take the flank and let me do the approach. We paused at the boulders and I looked over at the huge white tiger to my left. He sniffed at the air, his giant head swinging from side to side as he curled his lip back, tasting as well as smelling.

  “Shifters?” I whispered.

  Tiger-Alek shook his head. The wind was low, but present, coming toward us from down the quarry. Any of the mercenaries helping Samir would have had to be behind us to conceal themselves from his powerful senses. It appeared that Samir was alone with Max.

  Somehow that worried me even more.

  Wolf and I walked side by side, my right hand on her back, buried in her warm fur, my left clutching my D20 talisman. I let my magic flow into and around me, formless for the moment, awaiting my will. I wanted to be ready to attack or to shield, and had to hope that between Wolf and all the training I’d been doing, it would be enough. If I could draw Samir away from Max, the others might be able to get him. They’d promised to make his safety a priority, and I knew that Harper at least would keep that promise. The twins, too. Alek I was worried about, but he had a stubborn sense of duty, so I had to hope he’d see to their safety and trust me to fight my own battle.

  The snow was melted away in a small area around Samir, the brown and grey ground barren. Max was prone and bent backward over a flat stone, held by magic that stung my senses even from thirty feet away. I recognized the dark bonds holding him. Samir had definitely eaten Clyde’s heart and taken his powers.

  My evil ex rested his hand lightly on Max’s chest. Max was still breathing, his body twitching in the bonds, his breath escaping in gasps that puffed like smoke in the cold air.

  “Let him go,” I said, slowing my advance. “You already have the heart.” I kept my eyes on Samir but tried to pick out details with my peripheral vision. Nothing moved in the quarry.

  “You did a terrible job of hiding it. Leaving it in my own bag. It was far too easy.” Samir lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug and pressed down on Max’s chest. Max screamed, and I heard fox-Harper snarl behind me.

  I waved her back and took another step toward Samir. Something glinted at his throat. A necklace of some kind, with a smoky crystal spinning slowly on a silver chain. That worried me, too, but it gave me ideas. I was going to get rid of that necklace first, if I could separate him from it. Magic was clearly in use here, his sickly sweet power radiating from his body, centered on the spinning stone.

  Tess hadn’t known I could see the magic of other sorcerer’s, so perhaps Samir didn’t, either. A small advantage, but I needed every single one I could get.

  “Let him go,” I repeated. “You want a heart? Come take mine.”

  Tiger-Alek roared behind me and I twisted and yelled at him to stay back. He crouched ten feet off, snarling more quietly.

  “Your heart is already as good as mine,” Samir said with an
exaggerated sigh. “You are starting to bore me, Jade Crow. I thought you’d put up a better fight than this.”

  “To be fair,” I muttered, “that makes two of us.”

  Samir laughed. I wondered that I had ever found him attractive. His face was handsome, but he was beautiful the way that a scorpion could be beautiful. When he dropped the pretense of being a feeling, non-evil person, he was as alien to me as an insect. But worse, because a scorpion would sting out of its nature. Samir did it for fun.

  “You ever thought about taking up a real hobby?” I asked, moving forward another couple steps. I could make out Max’s face now, his brown eyes open, his cheeks hollow and his mouth open. “Underwater basket-weaving in the Marianas Trench? Spelunking inside a volcano?”

  “I enjoy many hobbies.” Samir pressed down on Max’s chest and the black bonds binding him constricted. Max screamed, his voice nearly gone, more of an echo of a scream than the real thing, as though his throat was raw and his vocal cords worn away.

  “Let. Him. Go.” I was nearly to the open ground now. “Why are you so afraid to fight me?”

  “Afraid to fight you?” Samir laughed again, but his golden eyes turned sharper and the stone at his neck started to spin more rapidly. “You think this is only about you?”

  I stepped onto the open ground, finding my footing in the slick mud and pulled my magic in around me. I could blast him backward, maybe. If I hit hard enough and caught him by surprise. I just needed to move him away from Max and my friends would have a chance to get to safety.

  “You aren’t hurting him because of me? Really?”

  “Oh, that’s definitely a side benefit. You should see your face right now. You’re a mess. So desperate, so tired, so sad.” Samir smiled, baring his teeth. “It’s nearly time to end this. The mortals are getting restless. Their time is ending, too. Like ants in a flood, they don’t see it yet. Magic is rising, Jade. You could have ruled with me.”

  “Okay, now you are talking the crazy talk.” One more step, then I’d throw the spell. Rip that necklace off, crush the stone. Whatever it was couldn’t be good.

  “Soon I’ll take care of you. But you’ve still got a little fight left. Here? Now? This particular little show isn’t about you.”

  He leapt backward, springing away and into the snow behind Max. The stone stayed, hanging in the air, spinning and spinning like a crystal dreidel.

  “It has never been you I’m afraid of,” Samir added. He flung his hands out and the crystal exploded.

  His retreat left me, Max, and wolf alone inside the circle of bare ground.

  Circle. Fuck.

  I threw myself at Max, pulling my magic into a shield as molten power smothered us like a tidal wave. I knew within an instant that my shield wouldn’t hold as the air left my lungs and my body remembered the light weight of the dire bear with sudden fondness compared to this crushing pain. Wolf threw herself onto me, her fur expanding into darkness, flowing over both of us like a blanket of night.

  The pressure lifted and I could breathe. I clung to Max, to my own power, and rode out the wave as it slammed us down a final time.

  The darkness enclosing me grew thin and cold. Light shone through in pinpricks then in beams until Wolf’s magic turned to golden sunlight. And just like sunlight, it faded, shining with warmth and power for a golden moment, and then gone like the sun dipping behind the horizon.

  “Wolf,” I screamed. I cast out my hands, reaching for her. I pushed my mind out, too, hunting for the feel of her nearby. I always knew when she was here, a shadow, a presence. She was as much a part of me as my skin.

  It was like fishing without a lure. My lines floated in the water, drifting, cut, useless.

  Wolf was gone.

  Max gasped and groaned beneath me. The rock was pulverized and we lay in a jumbled pile of gravel and mud. I dragged up the vestiges of my magic and climbed to my feet, looking for Samir.

  Samir was gone as well. In the distance, I heard a snowmobile start up. Harper sprang into the circle and turned human, grabbing Max, checking him over, babbling words that hardly made sense as she told him to lie still, that he’d be okay.

  “He ran,” Levi said, stumbling to my side as he shifted from wolverine to human in a blink. “Alek tried to give chase but got thrown aside.” He pointed to Alek’s body.

  I sprinted through the snow, barely conscious, hardly able to breathe.

  Alek had shifted to human and he lay on his back, gasping. Alive. Relief flooded through me, taking the adrenaline with it. I collapsed to my knees and wrapped my arms around him.

  Wolf was gone. Dead? I didn’t know. I shoved aside the crushing fear and clung to my lover. He was alive. Max was alive.

  Samir was right. I still had fight left in me. The end game was coming, I felt it. He’d attracted a lot of notice with his stunts here. While he seemed to not care, he’d always been circumspect, as most of us supernaturals were, about rousing human interest and ire. He couldn’t keep doing what he was doing without attracting more notice.

  I had a feeling the next time he came for me, it would end things. One way or another.

  “Jade,” Harper screamed, bringing me back to the present. “Help me, something is wrong with Max!”

  I stumbled to my feet, looking down at Alek.

  “Wind knocked out,” he said. “Go, I’m fine.”

  Max lay where I’d left him, groaning, his face contorted in agony. I reached for my magic and saw the dark bindings still around him. It was like the unicorn all over again, only this time, I had no help from the very essence of the forest.

  I tore into the twisting magic, but it was like trying to rip apart smoke with my bare hands. They dissipated and reformed, coming back like a hydra for every link that I burned.

  “No,” I muttered. “Don’t you die on me, Max. Not today.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. Blood sprayed in pink foam from his lips. “Love you, Harper.”

  The bonds dug deeper, binding and smothering. I felt Max’s life like a tiny candle, flickering beneath all that darkness. I tried to fan it with my magic, to recreate the power I’d used to save the unicorn.

  There wasn’t enough strength left in me, or maybe without the unicorn’s own power, it would never have worked.

  I failed. Max’s heart stopped. One moment he was breathing beneath my hands, alive to my magic. The next, the bonds constricted and the lights went out.

  Harper’s wail was joined by Ezee and Levi, preternatural, haunting, and utterly broken. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks and I opened my mouth and joined my song of grief to theirs.

  Harper carried Max’s body to the car. She wouldn’t let anyone else touch him. I rode behind Alek on a snowmobile, not wanting to face my friend. Not wanting to sit enclosed with grief and the dead body of another person I had failed to save.

  Tears froze to my cheeks and despite Alek’s bulk and warmth, I was chilled to the bone and all cried out by the time we reached the smoldering remains of the Henhouse. Yosemite met us there. He looked at our faces and spoke not a single word. Our expressions told the story enough.

  It was slow going through the trees to his grove, and the sun started to sink in the sky. We had to abandon the snowmobiles partway into the wood as the terrain grew too rough and the brush too thick. I didn’t see the grove until Yosemite parted a thick wall of brambles with the wave of one of his massive hands.

  A huge ancient oak, its branches a perfect canopy and still leafy green despite the winter, shrouded a clearing. Beneath the oak, the ground was open and uncovered, no trace of snow. Tiny purple flowers bloomed as though it were summer and the air was warm. Under the tree was a small hut formed of earth and branches.

  Beneath my feet I felt a heavy throb, as though the land itself here had a heartbeat. I bent and laid my fingers against the grass, pressing my magic down into the earth. A node, the confluence of magical ley lines that traced the whole of the planet. True wild magic. I’d touched ley lines before, tho
ugh never tapped one. It was too dangerous. The magic within couldn’t be contained for long and violently resisted attempts to channel it. I’d never felt a node this strong, not even the one that Barnes had tried to tap with his ritual last summer. It didn’t surprise me that the druid had his grove here. This place was infused to the molecules with magic.

  For the first time in days, I almost felt safe.

  The hut was bigger on the inside than it looked. Rose was awake and Harper went to her, collapsing in her mother’s lap. I hovered in the door, but stayed outside, turning away as soon as I registered that everyone within was whole and sound. I couldn’t take more grief, not right now.

  Instead I found a place in the flowers and knelt. I reached for Wolf again, but the void was still there. She was gone.

  Alek sat behind me and pulled me back against him. We rocked there in each other’s arms for a long time as the sun sank out of sight into the trees. There was nothing to say. I had lost another fight against Samir, had lost my guardian. She was one of the Undying. Undying my ass. Wolf had given herself to save me. Her death was another notch on the stick of my failures.

  The best I could hope for was that the kind of magic Samir had thrown at us to kill her had taxed him as much as it would have taxed me. I remembered the crushing wave of power and didn’t think I could have done anything so strong. Hopefully he was exhausted.

  Finally, in Alek’s arms, warm for the first time that day, I fell into exhausted and fitful sleep.

  We buried Max at dawn. Yosemite opened a grave in the earth and we threw flowers picked from the grove in before the earth swallowed Max forever.

  No one said any words. Rose and Harper stood holding hands, fat, silent tears slowly dripping down their cheeks. Ezee and Levi and Junebug held hands as well. A united front, brought closer in grief and pain.

  It didn’t seem right, leaving Max in an unmarked grave. I looked around and settled on the biggest rock I could see.

  “Alek,” I whispered. “Can you move that?” I pointed at the stone, which was about twice the size of my head.