by Nicole Hall
“They thought they could bind me. Keep me on a leash. They thought Lexi was strong, and I was the weak sister.” Her head lifted, and Tamra stared at them through the curtain of her hair. “Aren’t they surprised now.”
Luc shoved Samantha back a step, into the corner behind them. He wanted a safe distance between them when Tamra attacked. And she would. She’d been playing before, but now a predator had entered her eyes.
“What have you done, Tamra?” If he could get her to talk, perhaps he could delay her long enough to find a way out of the damn doorless room.
She laughed again. “Trying to stall me?” Her form rippled for a second, like heat waves over hot asphalt.
Luc narrowed his eyes. “You took their power.”
Tamra shuddered out a breath and the ripples stopped. “I took all of them. Every last bit. They never knew I had their precious artifact right here all along.” She held up her hand, and a thick golden ring glinted dully around her thumb. “Power calls to power. Like to like. They created the bond to control me, and I used it to suck them dry.”
Her gaze moved past him to Samantha, and she smiled. “Kill her.”
Cold dread splashed over him, but he didn’t move. Her order fell harmlessly between them. Luc grinned at her confusion. “Having trouble controlling your abilities with so many of them swimming through you?”
She growled and tried to stand, but another wave of undulations forced her back down to her knees.
They’d gotten incredibly lucky. Without her talent in mind control, Tamra couldn’t use him against Samantha.
He spoke over his shoulder, uncaring that Tamra would hear him. “Drop the hiding spell. It’s time you used that dagger.”
SAMANTHA
Fear threatened to freeze her, but Samantha pushed past it. Her visions—the chaos, whatever—wouldn’t have given her so many weapons only to have her fail in the end. She loved Luc, and she would not let fate take him from her.
Samantha let go of the shield she’d been holding since that first night and took a deep breath to resettle her magic inside her. Nothing around them felt different, but she knew if Tamra cared, the woman would be able to feel the full extent of Luc and Samantha’s combined power.
Tamra hunched over on her knees, but her magic nearly blinded Samantha when she looked closely. Even seen with mundane vision, the woman seemed to fade in and out, like her body couldn’t decide which parts were real.
Luc squeezed her hand then pulled his free to dig through his satchel. Her eyebrows winged up when he pulled a large, curved sword out of his pack. He threw the bag onto the ground past Samantha, then unsheathed an actual scimitar, holding the stiff scabbard in his left hand like another weapon.
“What the hell, Luc? You don’t have anything magical in your pack that can help?”
He kept his eyes on Tamra with the sword held loosely by his side, but he’d adopted an air of coiled tension. An abbreviated grace that hinted at his readiness to move in a flash. “The dagger, love.”
Samantha huffed and pulled the dagger free from its sheath. A shuddering, stretching magic spread up her arm and into her shoulder. She’d forgotten the semi-sentient status of the artifact. When she looked down, a series of runes materialized down the blade with a sunset glow.
As the dagger brightened, Tamra gasped. When Samantha glanced up, an urge to bury the dagger in the other woman thrust itself into her mind. Not okay. She’d defend herself—and Luc—if it became necessary, but she wasn’t going to straight up murder anyone, not even Tamra. The impulse faded, but it left a tight line of tension in her head similar to when she tried to fight off her visions.
Luc shifted, but Tamra’s attention stayed focused on the dagger. This would be the absolute worst time for a vision, but strangely, the pressure felt different than usual. The same kind of magic, the same push against her mind, but with a tinge of frustration that didn’t come from her.
Without warning, Tamra lunged forward. Samantha hadn’t noticed her fingers extending into deadly claws, but Luc must have. Before she could do more than open her mouth to warn him, he’d slid to the side, blocked Tamra’s first swipe with the scabbard, and brought the scimitar around in a slash aimed at her unprotected belly. She jumped back before he could make contact, and Luc returned to his position a few feet in front of Samantha.
Her heart pounded in her ears at the quick combat, but she understood why Luc had chosen the sword out of all his assets. Tamra couldn’t get close enough to do damage, and it wouldn’t drain his power like a shield would.
Samantha winced as a new wave of demand from the dagger pushed against her mind. It really wanted her to shed blood. At this rate, she’d be useless in any fight. Her visions had already told her she needed the dagger, but what was she supposed to do with it?
Standing behind Luc fighting against the blood-thirsty dagger while he defended them both seemed like a waste of an artifact. She could throw up a shield, and as amusing as it would be to watch Tamra bounce off of it the first time, without help, they’d eventually tire.
What they really needed was for Keris to come rushing to their rescue. Not likely considering she’d been the one to turn Samantha over to the elders in the first place. The betrayal stung. After all the ambiguous comments she’d provided to ‘help’, maybe she could have included a few that hinted at her status as a potential traitor.
Chaos is coming. Keris’ warning before the redcaps attacked floated through her mind. She’d assumed Keris had been warning her about the attack, but Janet’s advice echoed it too well. Embrace the chaos. Janet, at least, had been slightly more specific. The strange woman equated chaos with the flow of magic that allowed glimpses into the future. Oracle magic like hers.
Movement across the room brought Samantha out of her thoughts. Tamra had focused and brought her form into a more solid shape. The claws extended farther and she’d added fangs, which she showed off by running her tongue over their sharp tips.
Tamra sneered in their direction. “You can’t protect her forever.”
Samantha couldn’t see Luc’s face, but the stubborn determination that suddenly filled the bond gave her a good idea of his attitude. “Maybe not forever, but long enough for her to protect herself.”
And she knew. He’d stand between her and Tamra even if it cost him his life—and he expected it to. But he also expected Samantha to use what she’d been given to save herself.
Samantha stopped blocking the magic, and embraced it instead, letting the vision come. The room around her faded to a hazy fog crisscrossed by shining cords of magic in a rainbow of colors. She frowned. This didn’t feel like a vision. Normally, she operated as little more than an observer, but when she wanted to step forward in the fog, she actually moved.
For the first time, she had control.
The gleam of the magic cords called to her, and she noticed a thick, braided line extending taut from her middle. Like knowledge that came to her in dreams, she understood the significance of the link. Her bond with Luc. These were all bonds.
Samantha reached out to touch a warm, golden-brown strand and felt Keris at one end of it. The other end led to a tainted shadow that she assumed had been the council. Had the connection transferred to Tamra?
The dagger pressed against her mind again, nearly moving her arm without her consent. It wanted her to slice the glowing cord, to rend the connection from the chaos. Samantha didn’t want to trust her future to a weapon that had definitely lusted for Tamra’s blood not minutes before, but the dagger’s magic felt so familiar, like a mirror of hers.
Luc called to her from far away, and in the fog, the strand connecting them vibrated with a swirling mix of blues and oranges. She laid her hand on it—the one without the dagger—and sent him reassurance that she wasn’t currently dying. He sent her impatience back.
Enough stalling.
Samantha released her bond and swung the dagger to cleanly slice through the one holding Keris. The magic fizzled and di
ssipated, the goddess’ oath to the elders broken at last. Hopefully, it wouldn’t negatively affect Keris, but frankly, protecting her wasn’t high on Samantha’s priority list anymore.
She moved from strand to strand, testing them with a touch, and all but the one connected to her terminated in the tainted shadow. The bonds lit up the grey haze surrounding her, but Samantha frowned as she looked around. There should have been more. What about all the bonds that didn’t connect to her or the elders?
The dagger prodded at her to cut them all, but Samantha didn’t like the edge of zealous hunger that accompanied the demand. She grasped the closest bond at random and yanked it toward her.
To her surprise, the shadow of a person stumbled into the fog, featureless and creepy. The whole scenario was beginning to feel like a really messed up horror movie. Behind the shadow, a fractured kaleidoscope of lighter figures stretched into the distance, all connected by more pieces of shadow—sometimes only a thin strip and sometimes half the form.
Thankfully, the shadow didn’t move. Samantha wasn’t sure what she’d do with a faceless, multi-bodied threat coming at her. She blinked. Multi-bodied. Like Janet?
A horrible suspicion formed. The elders had consumed Lexi for power, who else had they taken? The bonds told her. Janet’s people. The envoy to the dryads. Keris’ mate. All of them trapped here as magic batteries for the elders.
Samantha sliced upward with more force than was probably necessary, breaking the connection between the shadow and the council. The dagger sung in righteous glory as she brought the blade through the rest of the threads.
As the strands disappeared, more shadow figures emerged. The scene sparked a memory of her last vision. The velvety white light and the shadows surrounding her. The one that she’d assumed had been another hallmark of Luc’s death, but she now realized hadn’t shown her the end.
When only her bond to Luc remained, Samantha let her hold on the oracle magic grow lax. She didn’t release it completely, but allowed it to float away from her consciousness. The dagger warmed in her hand until it became almost too hot to touch, and all at once, the fog disappeared.
Samantha opened her eyes, and in slow motion, her vision became reality.
She returned in the middle of a flurry of movement, with the dagger firmly gripped in her hand. Luc—without his sword—came to a sliding stop in a kneeling position on the floor, but he’d moved far enough out of the way to give Tamra a clear shot.
From her perch on the table, she leapt at Samantha. In a blur of motion, Luc threw himself between them, wrapping his arms around her and turning them so those deadly claws raked across his side and back.
Luc’s muscles tensed as the blow knocked them both into the wall. Samantha stumbled under his weight as he collapsed onto her. Over his shoulder, Tamra grinned when he slumped instead of turning to defend himself.
The dagger didn’t need to push blood-thirsty rage at Samantha this time. Fury bubbled up from Luc’s sacrifice and a lifetime of helpless frustration, centering on Tamra’s monstrous frame. She jumped at them again, but this time, Samantha was prepared.
She braced herself and thrust the dagger forward at the last second. Tamra’s momentum carried her right into the sharp tip. The blade slid smoothly into her abdomen, and Samantha shuddered at the euphoria that brushed her mind. Tentacles of magic spread through Tamra and consumed what power remained after her ties to the creatures in the chaos had been severed.
Tamra’s body jerked, her eyes rolled back in her head, and the arm that had aimed to rip out Samantha’s throat dropped to the ground with the rest of her. Samantha let the dagger go with Tamra, so she could use both hands to lower Luc to the ground.
Like in her vision, blood coated her hand and terror exploded across her mind. She knelt next to him and tried to staunch the bleeding from the deep slices across his side.
“Luc!” Samantha shouted his name. His chest rose and fell erratically, but he winced when she pushed harder on the wound. Panic threatened to choke her, but she couldn’t afford to break down. “You said you wouldn’t leave me.”
His lips moved, and she had to lean close to hear him. “Said I wouldn’t walk away. Not my choice, love.”
“Heal yourself. I can’t do it for you, Luc. You need to heal yourself. Take my magic, use all of it if you need to.” Samantha cupped his cheek and kissed him, desperate for him to take their magic and heal himself, but their bond weakened. Her tears flowed freely, falling with a spatter over his chest.
His head fell to the side, and she barely heard his words. “Too late.”
16
SAMANTHA
“No! No, Luc!” She tried to call the magic, to use it to knit him back together, but it only floundered aimlessly. In desperation, she pushed everything she had into the bond, willing it to hold fast a little longer.
Samantha reached for Keris with her mind and shouted as loud as she could. Help him!
Almost instantaneously, Keris appeared, rubbing her temples. She pushed Samantha aside and placed her hand over Luc’s wounds. “Contact Dru. We’ll need her help for this.”
“What? How…what?” Samantha sputtered.
The former goddess raised her eyes, and Samantha caught her breath at the power there. “Call. Dru. I can’t save him by myself, but Oren’s mate will have enough power to help, even without any healing skill.”
Samantha shook her head. “I can’t call her. The only person I can talk to telepathically is you.”
Keris sighed and magicked away Luc’s shirt to reveal the full extent of the damage. “Use the dagger.”
After a second of hesitation, Samantha retrieved the dagger from Tamra’s body and called the chaos again. The fog appeared around her, but this time she focused on her friend. It took two tries to clear her mind enough to make a connection, but the faint surprise from Dru told her it had worked.
Come to me in Aecantha. We need your help.
Dru didn’t respond. Instead, the fog disappeared as the dagger was yanked from her grasp. An angry dryad in yoga pants and a tank top stood in front of her holding the weapon with two fingers.
Samantha blinked as the world reoriented itself, and Dru tossed the dagger onto the ground before kneeling next to Keris and Luc. “What do you need me to do?”
“Place your hands over mine and feed me magic, a little at a time, until I say otherwise. Samantha, I need you by Luc’s head. Keep your bond strong.”
Keris’ order snapped her out of her stupor, and she hurried over to sit next to him. The magic in the bond flowed sluggishly, so she focused on holding it steady while the goddess and the dryad queen saved the man she loved.
Samantha didn’t know how much time passed while the three of them sat around Luc in the silence, but eventually, Keris sighed and sat back, pulling her hands out from under Dru’s. Dru, for her part, collapsed onto her butt and closed her eyes.
“The healing is done.” Keris stood and wiped her hands on her red dress, but the blood disappeared instead of smearing the fabric. “He’ll be fine. Sore and tired when he wakes up, but we repaired all the damage. He should rouse soon.”
Relief made her weak, and as Samantha released her grip on the bond, the flow of magic between them returned to normal. She couldn’t get a sense of his emotions, but being unconscious and mostly dead probably caused that.
On the heels of gratitude came anger. Samantha looked up at Keris, whose wide-legged stance seemed braced for accusation.
“Why the hell did you wait until now to show up?”
Surprise flickered across Keris’ face. She’d probably expected to be castigated for doing the elders’ dirty work. Samantha understood her predicament. The controlling bonds used by the elders hadn’t given her a choice, but Keris had never been one to admit defeat. Why hadn’t she come back when the bonds had broken? More importantly, did it matter? Fate got what it wanted.
Samantha sighed and shook her head. “I thought I needed your help, but it wouldn’t have
changed the outcome.”
Keris’ tense shoulders relaxed, and she gestured at the body Samantha was doing her best to ignore. “Tamra created a ward that locked me out. That girl was always too cunning for her own good. You had to reach out for me to get past it.”
Dru popped her eyes open. “Just so we’re clear. This is not what I had in mind when I suggested you stalk Luc to protect him.”
Samantha brushed an errant lock of hair away from his forehead and winced. “What do I say to him when he wakes up? I wasn’t fast enough to save him.”
Keris shook her head. “It wasn’t your place to save him. It was his place to protect you.”
“We should have protected each other.” Samantha’s eyes filled with tears again, to her great annoyance.
“Oh, stop it.” Dru waited until Samantha stopped sniffling. “Do you love him?”
Samantha’s lower lip trembled with the force of holding back her tears. “Yes, but—”
“No buts. Buts are bullshit.”
“How are you a queen?”
Dru shrugged. “Sheer dumb luck and horrendous genetics. Look, love is all that matters. If you have that, you can overcome anything else. Even near-death experiences.”
Samantha pulled Dru over to give her a tight hug. “Thank you.”
She pulled back and grinned. “Anytime. It’s awesome being able to use my powers for good. Plus, this is kind of my fault. I’m the one who sent Tamra back here.” She turned to glare at the heap across the room. “Of course, I didn’t realize I was giving her exactly what she wanted at the time. I thought the elders would punish her.”
Keris dropped a hand on Dru’s shoulder. “No one knew. The elders, without the knowledge of Atraxa, trapped the envoy in the chaos to siphon their power. But thanks to Samantha, we have our missing people back, including my mate.”
Samantha frowned. “What about the others? The original inhabitants of this realm?”
