The Wild Rites Saga Omnibus 01 to 04

by Anna McIlwraith

  It was possible she’d take them all with her.

  It took less than a second to decide. With a whimper, she slammed every last one of her shields up. She ripped free of the merge and threw Fern out of her head, the metaphysical backlash hitting her like a whip, her brain screaming in agony and her heart screaming with loss — and then there was nothing but rushing air and darkness. Death hurtling towards her, though maybe not for the others, but in that moment all she could think was that she didn’t want to die but she was going to, alone, alone, alone —

  Blue-green light filled the sky, lightning arcing and sizzling, flashing down all around her. She smelled fire and rain, tasted blood and ozone on her tongue. Her last coherent thought was that Ivan must have blown the mountain. Then the light went supernova white and the ground rushed up to take her.

  36

  Emma hit something, but it sure as hell wasn’t the ground.

  One moment she was plummeting, white light and electricity arcing all around her, the ground like a vast and terrible weight falling towards her — that was how it felt, not like she was the one falling. She shut her eyes and made a pitiful sound that she assumed she’d soon be too dead to be ashamed of.

  Then, impact.

  There was no pain. There was a sound like an avalanche, rock and earth heaving. There was the thick scent of magic burning in Emma’s nose, a smell like ozone, and the dark taste of motor oil.

  There were arms around her.

  Emma opened her eyes.

  Telly gazed down at her.

  His eyes were still the palest, most turbulent blue Emma had ever known. His face was still lean and sun-browned and impossibly beautiful. His hair was longer, the wheat blond strands streaked darker, and he still looked a little like he’d stuck his finger in a light socket, but he was a god, the Walking God, walker between worlds, and he kinda was the light socket.

  He was also the world’s greatest asshole.

  And he’d just saved her life.

  Her life.

  On a gasp she reached for Fern’s mind, but before she could make contact, she felt something vile and insistent touch her mind, like the snout of some vast and hungry demon pushing aside the curtain of her natural mental shields and searching for something warm and delicious to devour. For a moment Emma was frozen, her entire body rigid, her mind rebelling — this couldn’t be happening now, except of course it was happening now, she’d thrown all her shields up, cut the merge, shut Fern out.

  Velleheshli ka hirdam, Alan said in her mind, his tone conversational, his touch like teeth in her brain. Tell me where you are.

  Telly’s eyes went wide. “Who the fuck is that in your head?”

  His voice grounded her. She thrust her shields aside and initiated the merge with Fern. If he was dead she didn’t know what —

  EMMA! He filled her, roared into her, completing the merge, and from far away she thought she heard his voice calling out as well, but she was going to scream or vomit or maybe both at the same time. She shoved against Telly’s bare chest, somehow still noticing the velvet heat of his skin even as she was bucking to get away.

  He let her slide to the ground. She retched; there was nothing in her stomach, but she couldn’t stop the dry heaves, and Telly smoothed her hair away from her face and held it back anyway. Gently, he let go as she gained her feet and stumbled away from him. She looked at him, and then couldn’t, so she looked around.

  They were in the middle of a massive crater. Dust billowed, and rocks skittered down the sides, still settling. Beyond its lip the cliffs rose, silvered by moonlight. “What the hell happened?”

  “I did.” Telly spread his hands as though that made sense. He was wearing jeans and small silver hoop earrings and nothing else. His eyes narrowed and one side of his generous mouth quirked up, but not in a smile, not like he was happy. “I’ve been trying to find you for three days. I came when I got a lock on you. You were blocking me somehow.” He cocked his head. “Same way you’re blocking me now.”

  “Fern and I are merged. It’s the only thing that keeps him out.” Emma’s voice made her throat hurt, and every time she opened her mouth, she felt like she might start screaming and not be able to stop — it was getting to be a familiar feeling. She had to get to the others. She started away from Telly, and without warning, he was suddenly in front of her.

  “Em.” He searched her face, his eyes full of otherworldly light, his face so beautiful and so clean and full of life and energy it was hard to look at, but she felt powerless to look away. “Keeps who out?”

  She couldn’t look away, but she couldn’t answer him either; the words stuck in her chest, curling over themselves, dying.

  She pressed her lips together and stepped around him, and started running up the side of the crater. Telly kept pace beside her until they crested the lip of the crater, when he saw the others, several yards away. Then he swept her up and they arrived at Fern’s side in a rush of displaced air.

  Fern was upright and in one piece, but his right arm stuck out from his shoulder at a strange angle and hung limp, and there were bodies on the ground. Emma’s heart thundered as she counted the rest off; Ivan crouched naked but breathing, Leah standing several yards away with her blond hair in disarray, Fatima and Shadi — oh thank God Shadi — kneeling over someone huge that could only be Red.

  “He’s alive,” Fern said quietly as he saw her face, felt her terror through the merge. “But he’s in bad shape. He’s too injured to change.” Then, through the bond: Horne didn’t make it.

  Emma dug her nails into her palms, a sob lodging in her chest, twisting like a knife. She felt Fern’s attention shift to Telly, but the strength had gone out of her legs, and she went to her knees. She was cold, so fucking cold.

  Ivan crouched beside her, a small black plastic device in his hands. “Devotchka , I’m sorry. If I’m going to do this, it must be soon. We have to get clear of the mountain in case the blast causes a rockfall.”

  “Okay.” She made her hands work, shoved hair off her face, looking around. “Where’s Summer?”

  “Gone,” Fern said. “She said she was going to try to keep Ifrah and the twins busy. Try being the operative word, since she can’t actually lift a hand against them, but it seemed like she had some ideas. We’re still running out of time.”

  “Story of our lives,” Emma said, sounding the way she felt — a million years old. “How are we going to —”

  Telly took a step towards them. “I can carry Red Sun.” His gaze was on Emma, a thousand questions in his eyes, but he asked none of them. She stood, suppressing the ridiculous urge to forbid him to touch Red, and nodded.

  They ran as best they could — the bottom of the gorge was rock-strewn and Emma kept stumbling — and when they were a few dozen yards out and had gained a high ridge for security, Ivan tripped the detonator switch.

  There was a sound like the world’s biggest bag of microwave popcorn going off.

  Then a sound like a stampede.

  Then the high cave entrance where Fern had made his leap with all their lives in his hands belched smoke and rubble and orange fire, and the cliff face began to crumble away as more muffled explosions sounded deeper within the mountain.

  Emma half expected Leah to give a low, impressed whistle, but the jaguar guard stood expressionless with Horne cradled in her arms. Her face was marred with dirt and blood, and her brown eyes were unreadable in the dark. Emma wanted to go to her. She wanted to touch Horne’s face and tell him she was sorry; she wanted to unravel time and go back and kill Keti all over again, and then go back even farther and save Horne. But she couldn’t do any of those things.

  Fern bent his head to hers, kissed her temple, and kept his lips there as he spoke through the merge. Give her some time. He was nowhere near as old as Red, not powerful enough to survive his wounds. Shadi tried to save them both, and Red might be dead if not for him, but he says Horne bled out before they even hit the ground. He’ll explain.

&
nbsp; “Okay.” Emma put her hand on Fern’s bare, blood-streaked chest. “You can call your change?”

  He covered her hand with his left. “Yeah.” He didn’t ask if she was okay — they were bound, and merged, and Telly was standing nearby with Red Sun at his feet, taking everything in with a face that was losing all semblance of humanity. She was not okay. With a squeeze of Emma’s hand, Fern moved away.

  As white light flashed Emma went to her knees beside Red. Fatima was there, hands on Red’s chest; her lips moved, and there was a faint shadow over her like a shroud. Red Sun looked like he’d been run over by a truck. His face was bruised and bloodied, one whole side of it scraped raw, and his t-shirt and jeans were torn and dirtied all over. He lay as though dead; his breath was so shallow Emma couldn’t detect the rise and fall of his ribs, but she knew shapechangers could slow their pulse automatically when severely injured. It was still terrifying to see him like that. Worst of all though was the wound across his throat — it wasn’t bleeding freely, but it wasn’t healing. It gaped, red and pink and awful.

  Fatima looked up at Emma. Her eyes were black and wet with stars, and didn’t belong to her. “We can keep him stable, but cannot call his change.” Her word choice confirmed Em’s suspicions — the warrior priestess was channeling her Goddess, Nephthys.

  “Thank you,” Emma said, looking into those fathomless eyes and hoping the goddess heard her too. Then she met Shadi’s eyes. “Tell me.”

  Shadi sat by Red’s shoulder looking composed, his long braid still intact, only his eyes giving away his exhaustion. There was anger there too, and fear. “Ivan and I split off when we got the chance, to investigate the monastery tunnels, perhaps find what the Brotherhood were hiding. We were returning when we were ambushed by maidens. We fought them off; when we got to the main cavern, Horne and Red Sun were under attack, but the twins did something — mind control, I assume. Horne and Red stopped fighting back. When Ivan and I arrived, it was too many for them to handle. They slit first Horne’s throat, and then Red Sun’s, and then they threw them over the edge.” Shadi’s jaw worked. “I followed them.”

  “You followed them?”

  He dipped his head. “I was once a prince of the magi, my lady. I can levitate.” The words were proud, but his tone was broken with regret. “People — bodies — are quite difficult to levitate when they are not your own. Horne and Red Sun had already hit the rocks on the way down by the time I caught them,” he continued, gesturing with a jerk of his chin towards the jagged cliff face. “I got them to the bottom of the gorge.” His voice dropped to a thread of sound. “In truth, I think Horne was gone before they threw him, the damage was so deep. I do not know if anything I did helped Red Sun, but I tried to staunch the bleeding.”

  Emma reached out and touched his hand. “Shadi, it’s all right. Go and rest.”

  He looked down at her hand with dull surprise. “I failed you.”

  She shook her head. “How do you think Red’s going to feel about Horne’s death when he comes to? Will you argue over who failed the most?”

  “I swore to you —”

  “I know.” She held his gaze. “You kept your oath. Rest now.”

  Finally he nodded and unfolded to his feet, graceful as ever. He let out a breath through his nose and shook himself before moving away. Emma wondered if he knew just how much of Sefu was still there. Then she shook herself much the same way and turned to Fatima. “You can probably leave this to me, but stay close. Just in case.”

  Fatima blinked and shrugged away the presence of the goddess of death and night like shucking a cloak, then stood and took a step back. Red didn’t stir. Emma forced herself not to look at his slashed throat, because if she did, she’d never be able to focus. The same went for looking at Telly, who was standing over her, watching her — she could feel his stark interest like a blade against the back of her neck, and the air was thick with the ozone-scent of Telly’s banked emotions, like static electricity before a storm.

  He’d come back. Why now? Why not when —

  But she couldn’t think about that. She took a deep breath. In, out.

  In. And with the out-breath, Emma let her power unfurl, and called the change.

  It had never been so effortless; one moment she reached for his beast, the next Red Sun disappeared in a flash of pure light, and when it faded the giant bear lay before her on his side, eyes closed and sides moving with the sure tide of his breath. The light had burned away the blood and dirt as well as his clothes. He was still unconscious, but his beast moved in Emma’s mind, bumping up against her via the pledge bond and the telepathic link they shared, a lazy grumble warming Emma when she’d thought nothing could.

  She sagged with relief, letting her fingers sink into the plush fur at Red’s chest.

  “I didn’t think I was gone that long,” Telly said. “But you’re far more powerful than when I left.”

  Emma clenched her fists in Red Sun’s pelt and looked at Telly over her shoulder. “How long did you think you were gone?”

  He tilted his head, his stance softening. “Em.”

  She hadn’t really expected an answer — Telly didn’t do answers. “You weren’t supposed to come back at all, were you?” He gave no sign of her words hitting home, but that in itself was enough. She couldn’t bring herself to ask if he was going to leave again.

  Telly came closer and crouched down beside Emma, not looking at her. “No,” he said softly, but which question he was answering — the one she’d asked or the one she wouldn’t — Emma didn’t know.

  He reached out and brushed the pads of his fingers through Red’s fur, the barest touch. “What went down here, Em?”

  She felt Ivan moving up behind her, though no sound betrayed him. “Perhaps before we answer that, it would be good to know who you are,” Ivan said, his casual tone at odds with the growl that trickled out beneath the words.

  “Who am I?” Telly laughed, the sound cutting into Emma. “And who are you?”

  “He is Ivan of the Ruskiy wawkalaki.” Emma let go of Red’s fur and raised a hand for Ivan to help her up. He took it, lifting her to her feet. “Ivan, this is Telly.”

  Telly’s eyes went wide at the coldness in her voice. “Em…”

  Ivan changed position subtly, not dismissing Telly but making it clear enough his focus was on Emma. “We have to move out soon. If Red is not awake in five minutes, we’ll march, try to make it on foot as far as possible until he’s conscious. We lost all the supplies, of course, but we’ll manage.”

  Emma didn’t know how they would manage, but had no doubt Ivan could figure it out. He was dirt-streaked and bloodied and his cheeks were hollow, his lean face almost gaunt with how much energy he’d expended in the fight against the Brotherhood, but his gray eyes were calm. Even when he glanced at Telly.

  “Ivan.” She cleared her throat; her voice still sounded like someone had tried to polish her larynx with sandpaper. “Why did you set those charges?”

  He met her eyes and held them. “There was something in the caves up there in the monastery. It didn’t smell right.”

  “Ivan understates things,” Shadi said, moving up beside Emma. “We came across a sealed chamber; I think the only reason we stumbled upon it was because I am magi, and am not susceptible to simpler tricks and illusions. It was not meant to be found.” His eyes shifted to Telly, suspicious, and then back to Emma. “We do not know what it was, only that it reeked of dark magic and its presence felt like…” Shadi shook his head in frustration, nostrils flaring.

  “Like an affront to nature,” Ivan said quietly.

  White light flared and a moment later, Fern walked out of the darkness, pale and naked but unmarked. “Anyone else thinking of this failsafe the Brotherhood kept talking about?”

  Emma frowned up at him. “A magical device or something?” She looked at Shadi. “Does that sound right?”

  Standing up, Telly laughed. It wasn’t his good laugh. “You have been having an interesting ti
me without me, Em.”

  Ivan, Fern, and Shadi turned their heads in slow unison to look at Telly.

  Before one of them lost their shit, Emma stepped forward.

  “Telly,” she said.

  He took half a step toward her. “Yeah?”

  She smiled broadly, flashing her fangs. “Go fuck yourself.”

  37

  Telly’s face emptied.

  Through the merge Fern did the mental equivalent of an eyebrow raise. You were afraid of us antagonizing him?

  Yeah, she sent. I wanted to do it myself.

  Telly’s expression was still bleeding away into something arctic and terrifying, his eyes elongating, turning white with the force of whatever he was feeling, but he managed to frown. “Emma…” His voice was the same, except that it echoed. He brought a hand up, as though to reach for her, to touch her.

  She twisted away. “Don’t you have anything more to say to me than my fucking name?”

  He blinked, light trailing from his eyes. “Me? Do I have anything more to say? What about you?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You have teeth, Em. Fangs.” He cocked his head. “Your hair. Your power. ” As Emma’s breath ratcheted up a notch, so did his. “Just what the hell have you —”

  “I’d stop there, if I were you,” Fern said. The cool, indifferent darkness of his beast rolled out over the words until Emma’s skin crawled, and she could see by the looks on everyone else’s faces he was having the same effect on them. Even Telly.

  “Or what?” Telly punctuated the question with a click of his teeth, the air around him starting to hum with power.

  Fern’s eyes were black from lid to lid and round as pennies. “Or you’ll say something you can’t take back.”

  Telly opened his mouth to say something anyway, but he didn’t get the chance. White light flashed. Red Sun roared Emma’s name.

  She whirled in time for Red to crash into her and cage her with his huge arms, and she did the only thing that made sense and wrapped her arms around his waist. His heart pounded against her cheek and his breath was like a freight train. He made a sound in his throat halfway between a laugh and a scream, and moved his hands to her shoulders and almost shook her, and she felt the moment when he saw Telly for the first time.