Heartache (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Book 5)

by Annie Bellet

  If only my own damn friends were that pragmatic. Rushing into certain doom because they thought they could win was definitely a feat those loveable bastards all had in common, the twins were right about that.

  “How quickly can you get them away?”

  He rubbed his beard in a gesture that mimicked Ezee’s usual joking one, looking almost professorial himself.

  “Not quickly. I will have to use the earth to transport them away. We will not get very far, and I will need them clustered. Especially if they are unwilling.”

  “Oh, they’ll be unwilling,” I said.

  “Aye.” Yosemite gave me a sardonic look. I supposed I was being Captain Obvious again.

  “So you’ll have to wait and do it when they are distracted. That’ll be more dangerous.” I didn’t like it, but it was the best plan we had. “How far can you get them?”

  “A couple miles. I have a destination in mind. That will be almost equally dangerous. If I lose my grip on anyone, they could be lost and end up who knows where, if the earth spit them back out at all.”

  Great. So if this went wrong, my friends could call be lost in time and space. Awesomesauce.

  “I know it isn’t the best plan. But staying here and watching them die while I’m too distracted to save them is worse. Just… do what you can.” By which, I meant “save them all” but I decided to stop saying the obvious while I was ahead. He’d agreed to try and given me his oath. That was all I needed.

  Yosemite moved away from me and I took the hint, walking back into the grove. I sank down on the warm bed of flowers and lay back. Summoning my magic, I gently probed the node. Raw power sang beneath me, as vast and unknowable as the ocean.

  Yep, terrible plan. But it was the only one I had.

  I guessed I had taken the same damn feat at char gen. Go me.

  Alek found me laying there and sprawled beside me. Everyone else was still curled up, though Levi and Junebug were talking softly. The air had an expectant quality, though the day felt slow and lazy in the artificial warmth of the grove.

  “What are you planning?” Alek said to me in Russian. He clearly didn’t want anyone understanding our conversation.

  “To kill Samir,” I said, evading his question as best I could.

  “You are too calm,” he said. His ice-blue eyes caught my gaze and held it, assessing.

  “I could freak out more,” I offered. “But I’m tired and I think I should save my energy.”

  “Wolf is gone?” he asked after a moment of silence stretched between us.

  I closed my eyes at the pain those words roused in me and nodded.

  “Whatever she did, trying to stop Samir’s magic, it killed her.”

  “She is Undying. They cannot die. By definition.” Alek shook his head.

  “More by legend,” I said. “Before, all my life, I could sense her presence. Even when she wasn’t nearby or visible, I knew she was there. Like my shadow. Not always visible, but when conditions are right, it is always following. Now? Nothing. I feel like a ship whose anchor has been cut.”

  “You are not without harbor,” he said, his voice low and soothing.

  I crawled into his arms, burying my head into his chest. He’d forgive me when Yosemite took them away, I was sure of it.

  But only if I lived. I was equally sure that Alek would never forgive me for dying.

  “I’m going to try,” I murmured into his chest. “I’m going to win. No one else is going to die because of me.”

  “I know,” he said. “You will do what you must, kitten. No one will die because of you. Steve, Peggy, Max, they weren’t your fault.”

  “Close enough,” I muttered. “No one else. No one.” Those words were my litany, my new compass point in the storm.

  “We cannot take responsibility for the actions of others,” Alek said. “Only our own.”

  “What happened in New Orleans?” I asked him, wanting to change the subject before he coaxed me into spilling my plan and ruining the surprise.

  His body stiffened and he rubbed his nose in my hair, his arms tightening around me.

  “It is a long story,” he said after a moment. “The Justices have been dissolved. Our powers and feather of office stripped from us. The Council has gone silent, for the most part.”

  “For the most part?” I leaned back and looked up at him.

  His blue eyes were shadowed and staring into the middle distance.

  “I think one of the Council tried to kill me,” he said. “Carlos and…” he trailed off and pressed his lips together. “Carlos and I stopped them.”

  “Is Carlos okay?”

  “He’ll live,” Alek said grimly. “Barely survived, but he made the right choice when the time came. I do not know what will come of this. I do not think I understand the world anymore.”

  “Was it because of Eva?” I thought about the wolf Justice who had tried to become Alpha of Alphas, who had tried to destroy the Peace and broken all her vows as Justice.

  “I believe she was more of a symptom than the disease,” Alek said.

  I studied his face. I could only imagine how hurt he must feel about it all, how lost. Over half a year ago when I’d met him, he had been so sure of right and wrong, the perfect judge, jury, and executioner.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “How full of vim and vigor you were when we met.”

  “As opposed to the old man I am now?” he said, smiling a little.

  “More like how you waltzed into my shop and accused me of murder. And here we are, waiting for a guy to show up so I can murder the hell out of him.” I nipped his chin, wanting him to keep smiling. I wanted to remember him like this, big and strong and curled around me with eyes full of love. I wanted to take his belief in me and forge it into invincible armor.

  “Life is strange,” he said. “I never thought I would have a mate. I have always been a Justice, since I was barely more than a cub. It was who I am.”

  “It is who you are. Remember what you told me about balance? You have justice in your soul, Aleksei Kirov. You can’t help but do what you think is best for everyone around you. It’s annoying, but kind of endearing, too.”

  “Only kind of endearing?” He kissed me, pulling me into an embrace so tight that I had to protest lest I lose a rib.

  It almost worried me how affectionate he was being. How he clung to me like I was his anchor in a storm. It almost felt like he knew I was going to try and send him away. As though he knew what I was planning. I shoved all that aside. This was potentially our last day together. I couldn’t let doubt or fear stop me. I loved this man, every damn inch and frustrating flaw. Every perfect muscle and stubborn devoted molecule of him.

  He was right. He was my mate. He was mine, damnit, just as I belonged in a strange way to him. Maybe I’d always known it, since those first uncomfortable moments in my store where I was both attracted and appalled by him.

  He might never forgive me, but I would keep him safe. I was going to protect my own. No more running for me. No more letting people die because I flinched at doing the hard things I needed to do. No more weakness.

  “I love you,” I murmured to him. Then his lips came down over mine and we forgot we weren’t alone for a while. If anyone noticed us curled among the flowers, they were too smart to say a word.

  It was near dusk, the sun a bloody blur behind flat grey clouds, when the forest fell utterly silent. Winter wasn’t a loud season in the woods, but the branches still rustled, a few birds still flitted here and there. The woods had a living, breathing quality to them, a background noise to filled even my duller senses.

  Quiet could only mean one thing. Trouble. Something wicked this way comes, mind-Tess whispered to me.

  Yosemite rose to his feet and around my friends shifted form. Rose emerged from the hut as a fox and paced up to be with her daughter, red and grey next to each other.

  I admit, it felt somewhat comforting to have a twelve-foot tiger at my side. He was h
uge and solid and I loved Alek all the more in that moment as eerie silence descended upon our ragtag band of wannabe warriors.

  The last stand.

  I met Yosemite’s eyes as I let my magic flow into me. “What is it?”

  “Something is coming, but I can’t track it, or perhaps them? It feels like they are all around us.” The big druid turned slowly in a circle, his eyes hunting the shadows beyond the grove.

  “What about Freyda? Can you sense her?” I wanted to tell him to do it now, to get everyone out right damn now, but I couldn’t. Not yet. He couldn’t get them far enough that they would be out of the fight, not for certain. I knew my bullheaded friends would turn around and charge right back to try and help me. Even in this terrain, in winter, a few miles wouldn’t slow down a giant Siberian tiger, not for long.

  “I can’t sense the wolves. They are too far out.”

  The staccato burst of gunfire punctuated his statement and we all stiffened, turning toward the noise.

  Owl-Junebug lifted off from her perch on a lower branch of the oak.

  “Stop,” I called to her but she ignored me, soaring up into the gloom.

  Wolverine-Levi whined low in his throat, clearly no more happy about her decision to go take a look than I had been. The thick hair on his back stood up and his huge claws dug into the earth as he watched her fly away.

  “Back up,” I said to my friends. “Closer to the tree. It can guard our backs.”

  Alek swung his head toward me, his tiger eyes suspicious. I wondered if he still had the power to detect lies. I wasn’t outright lying, as impure as my motives were. The great oak would guard our backs. It was also help group everyone together so that when Samir showed and the fighting started for us, Yosemite could get them out.

  Except Junebug, who spiraled above us, scouting. I hoped she had enough sense to stay out of fight if she was beyond Yosemite’s reach. She wasn’t much of a fighter in her animal shape, built more for silent speed and grace than brawn.

  Something huge moved just beyond the grove, a white shadow in the dark brambles.

  Junebug screamed a warning, banking to the south. Another crack of gunfire snapped through the air and she swung sideways, then plummeted into the trees below.

  A giant white bear smashed into the brambles, bursting through and into the grove as wolverine-Levi screamed challenge and ran in the direction his wife had fallen.

  I couldn’t let him get far. Things were happening too quickly.

  “Iollan,” I yelled. “Oath!”

  I sent a bolt of pure force into the face of the giant bear, forcing it to slow its charge as it twisted aside. Its teeth were as long as my arm, its mouth opened wide enough to swallow half my torso and not even have to burp. This beast made the bear I’d defeated before look like a child’s toy, cuddly and small.

  Yosemite was chanting, green light spilling from the ancient oak tree. Tendrils of it started to wrap around my friends, pulling them backward.

  Tiger-Alek snarled and broke free of the druid’s grasp.

  “No,” I cried out, sending more magic into the bear. Its hide started to smolder as raw fire burned into it. I wasn’t pulling punches. The finale of this wouldn’t depend just on my own power, so I wasn’t holding reserves. I had to keep my friends clear of this thing long enough for Yosemite to get them out.

  Tiger-Alek hesitated as a glowing ball flew into the clearing, landing nearly at my feet. The sickly sweet smell of Samir’s magic flowed over me in a wave.

  I grabbed at the glowing stone, trying to fling it away with magic.

  Too late. Alek threw himself at me, carrying me beyond the stone.

  It burst like a grenade, molten bits of pain lancing through my legs. Tiger-Alek screamed above me, roaring. His blood showered me as molten stone ripped straight through his chest, but he rolled before he crushed my body beneath his.

  I struggled to my feet, saying his name over and over. To my right, Ezee and Levi had engaged the bear, using their superior speed to avoid his deadly strikes. The two foxes defended the druid, who was on his side, unmoving. Blood gushed from beneath his hands where they pressed into his throat.

  No more green light. No more chanting. I watched as Yosemite’s eyes shut, his face a mask of pain.

  “Samir,” I screamed. It was all falling apart. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.

  Beside me, Alek groaned and shifted to his human form. Even in this form, he was covered in blood.

  “Alek,” I said. “Get back, get back.”

  He tried to rise but fell, his legs refusing to allow him to stand. I grabbed at his arms, trying to pull him up, to get him to the hut. I had to protect him. His blue eyes widened and he tried to shove me aside, his mouth forming a warning cry.

  Force slammed into my back, knocking me over Alek’s body. I rolled and regained my feet, twisting to face Samir.

  My evil ex strode into the grove like he owned the place. Not a hair on his head was out of order, his coat looked like it had been dry-cleaned that morning, and smile chilled my blood. Behind him, four wolves crashed out of the woods, springing at Rose and Harper where they guarded Yosemite’s fallen body.

  “Stop,” I said, my voice weak in my ears. “This isn’t about them. Fight me. Fight me.”

  In the corner of my vision, I watched in horror as Ezee failed his saving throw and the bear’s jaws snapped on his flank. Wolverine-Levi leapt to the bear’s back, clawing huge chunks of flesh, but the bear shook his twin like a wet rat and threw the coyote’s much smaller body into the brambles where he hit with a sickening smack and lay still.

  I threw a fireball into Samir’s smirking face. No warning, no gesture, just raw fire fueled by pain, hate, and rage.

  The fire cleaved around him, washing off his shields like Moses parting the bloody ocean.

  Laughing madly, Samir threw another glowing stone at Harper and her mother. I lashed out with my power and knocked it away where it exploded in a blast of heat against the ancient oak. Wood chips flew like shrapnel and a wolf screamed in pain as it was caught in the deflected blast. Harper went for the wounded wolf, but its bigger companion hit her from the side, taking advantage of her single-minded focus. She howled in agony as its jaws closed down on her shoulder, ripping into her flesh.

  There were too many things to fight. We were losing and my distraction wasn’t helping. Inside my mind, Tess was screaming at me to go after Samir. Focus on him. If we could beat him, then we could worry about the others.

  The plan. It was all I had.

  Samir came at me, gossamer wire spreading with a golden glow between his fingers.

  “Fuck no,” I said, pushing more power into a shield around me. I had to close the distance. My legs felt like they’d gone through a meat grinder and my shoes were filling with blood, but I swallowed the agony and charged Samir.

  Alek beat me to him, shifting in mid-leap as he went for the sorcerer.

  The golden threads tore into Alek’s head and chest as he carried them both to the ground. A wave of magic blew Alek aside as though he were a leaf on a vent and his tiger-body twisted and rolled, leaving Samir kneeling with a snarl on his face.

  I reached for the node beneath me as I ran forward. Forcing myself not to look at Alek, not to think about what might be happening to my lover, I opened my body to the raw power of the ley lines.

  It felt like I was trying to swallow the ocean. Power filled me, stretching my metaphysical skin until I felt like a magic sausage. A magic pressure cooker ready to explode.

  I hit him full force before he’d gained his feet, slamming my body into his, locking us together with my arms as I fought a war with the node, trying to channel all the power toward one purpose. Total and utter annihilation of Samir.

  We tumbled to the ground and he tried to fight me off, but I clung with every ounce of strength left in me.

  Something inside broke open, like a joint popping into place. Pain faded away. My mind cleared. All at once the rag
ing ocean of power became a spear in my hand, bent and shaped to my will, ready for use.

  I opened my eyes.

  We had rolled and turned, so that I could see most of the grove beyond Samir’s shoulder. Harper was down in a bleeding heap, her mother standing over her, also bleeding from too many cuts and bites to count. Yosemite lay still, his hands no longer stemming the blood flowing from the wound in his throat. Even as time seemed to slow and hang around me, I watched as the bear smashed Levi to the ground, fur and flesh flying.

  Then I saw Alek. He was back in human form, blood gushing from a gaping wound in his chest. Deep cuts oozed and smoked in his face. He stretched a hand toward me, trying to rise.

  Samir and I were pressed body to body, heart to heart. I heard his heartbeat, felt his magic battering me. I let go of him and space opened between us as we both struggled to our knees. He was still in arms reach. His heart in arms reach.

  And I hesitated.

  This was my future. I had the node at my fingertips, ready to smash through Samir’s chest. To drag his heart from his body and end him forever. Mind-Tess screamed inside me to act, to do it.

  And then what? Watch Alek die? My friends had fallen. I had failed every single one of them. Again.

  What kind of life would I lead? Was this my fate, to watch everyone I loved die over and over. To fail to protect anything at all? I would triumph, perhaps. Be safe, perhaps. But the price. Oh the price.

  It was too high.

  My hesitation cost me.

  Samir struck, his hand growing glowing claws as he plunged it into my chest, smashing apart the remnants of my shields, and pulled my still-beating heart from my body.

  Just as it had when I’d fought and killed Tess, time slowed down even more. The world went silent other than the roaring of my own heartbeat in my ears. I clung to the node magic even as Samir laughed. Clung to the magic and formed a desperate plan that was so idiotic even Tess stopped yelling inside my mind, shocked to silence.

  “Stupid girl,” he said, raising my heart to his lips.

  I moved my lips, trying to speak, and he hesitated.