“Shit. Ian, is he alive? Are you?” Tory’s voice buzzed like an electric fence. I couldn’t tell if it was my hearing, or if he was really that shaken. “How did he do that? That’s impossible. We can’t even do that.”
“He will live. But he is badly injured.” Ian almost sounded like he cared. “Perhaps the lady will allow us to take him inside.”
The lady in question didn’t respond. Maybe she’d fainted. More likely she was deciding who she wanted to shoot first. Before I could glean a clue about what was going on outside my little sensory-overloaded cocoon, a new voice cut through everything like a cold blade.
“How convenient of you all to gather in one place. Please take the human’s weapon, before she makes a foolish mistake. We don’t wish anyone to die at this moment.”
I really wanted to believe that was Calvin—but I knew damned well it wasn’t.
Chapter 30
“Deceiver,” Ian spat. “I knew we should not have believed you.”
“I have no more choice than you, rayan.”
The voice was more reluctant than the one that demanded Mercy’s surrender. So Calvin was here too. Terrific. Vaelyn must’ve found out about him and Mercy, and had probably threatened to take her out if he didn’t cooperate. I wondered what else she’d gotten out of her twin. Like maybe that fertility spell she wanted.
“Calvin.” Mercy’s whisper barely carried. “What the hell … ?”
“Keep her silent. She has no place in these negotiations.”
“Then let her go inside, Vaelyn. You don’t need her.”
“No. She stays, to keep you in your place.”
Christ. Listening to the two of them talk was beyond weird. If it wasn’t for Vaelyn’s abrasiveness, I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart—she almost sounded more male than Calvin.
Ian snarled something in djinn. It sounded extremely unpleasant.
A beat passed in silence, then Vaelyn laughed. “Really, Gahiji-an. Even if you had any power left, my children would bring you down before you could cast so much as a shadow. I am afraid you’re surrounded. Rayan.”
Damn it. Tory had said there were a lot of them. How many did she bring? And how many were kids? I strained to make my eyes work, but they refused to focus. The scions were probably invisible anyway, wherever they were.
“I will destroy you, snake.” Despite the fact that Ian didn’t have a shot in hell at carrying out his threat, he sounded completely assured. “Do what you wish to me, but I will end you.”
“Oh, we don’t want you anymore.” Vaelyn was practically purring. “We want him.”
Him? Why the fuck would she want Tory?
When no one reacted, Vaelyn continued. “That was quite the display, little mongoose.”
My gut tightened. And I didn’t think anything in me still had the capacity to function. She was talking about me.
“Taregan, no!”
A shotgun blast followed Ian’s warning. At the same time, Vaelyn spoke a single word. There was a second muffled explosion, peppered with metallic pops and splintering cracks. Tory cried out. I felt the thud when he hit the ground.
“We trust there will be no more interruptions,” Vaelyn said.
I had to see what was going on. And somehow, I had to get myself moving and talking fast. I almost borrowed Ian’s eyes—but he’d definitely react to the pain, and Vaelyn might be able to figure out why. It didn’t seem like a good idea to let her know about our link. So I concentrated on remembering all the stuff Calvin had told me about healing. I’d have to hope I could scrape together enough energy to even find the damned points.
Ian let out a controlled breath. “He is useless to you. If you must take someone—”
“Things have changed to your advantage, Gahiji-an. In fact, we no longer require your pretty wife—who lives still, as we’re certain our dear brother has informed you. You may have her back.”
Dirty, lying bitch. I could practically feel the kick in the guts from that one.
“Explain,” Ian croaked.
No! The involuntary attempt to shout emerged as a thick grunt. Opening my mouth would hurt too much. Was he really going to listen to her? I closed my eyes and tried to envision the spot at the base of my throat. Somebody had to talk some sense into him before he got me killed.
There. A faint yellow pulse flickered on and off like a heartbeat. I seized it and sent everything I had through the point. Please work.
“Perhaps you can be reasoned with.” The rough edges vanished from Vaelyn’s tone, and she sounded almost feminine. “You’ve misjudged us, rayan. We desire only a place for ourselves in this world. A place to rebuild our scattered clan. Surely you can understand that.”
“Lies,” Ian said. “You claimed you would rule both realms.”
Vaelyn snorted. “Our brother’s goals,” she said. “Why should we care for a realm that cast us out? We have no designs on the places and politics of the djinn. In fact, we will give Nurien to your young Bahari friend here, to face the wrath of the Council as he should have two thousand years ago.”
She sounded as reasonable as the sunrise. But I doubted she meant a damned word of it. I managed to get the healing point to a strong, steady red glow, and my vision started to improve. All the better to see how screwed we were.
Ian hadn’t responded in too long. Just when I thought I’d have to smack some sense into him—as soon as I could move one of my arms—he came around by himself. “Do you truly think I am stupid?” Disgust layered his voice, and he spat on the ground at her feet. “You would not betray your own kin.”
“Kin! We despise that foppish, idiotic duohl-et. He is no more Morai than we are human.” Vaelyn practically snarled the words. “Powerful he may be here, but we are a thousand years and more beyond him. He is a parasite, a fool, and a disgrace. Once we have what we want, we will destroy the scions and send Nurien to his end. Here, or in our realm.”
Ian forced a strangled cough. No doubt he’d picked up on the same thing I did—she’d just announced her intention of killing the kids. I wondered, if they were really there, how many of them had heard. Or let themselves understand what she meant. “What, exactly, do you want?” he said.
“A child.” The words emerged on a longing sigh. “We … I desire a child of my own, and I have no wish to wait three more centuries. I took you, Gahiji-an, because you are fertile, though I knew you would never willingly breed with me. Now there is no need. Your scion is a better choice—he is powerful, and of this world. The child would belong as I can never hope to.”
Oh, hell no. Not this scion. Apparently she had forced Calvin to perform the fertility spell, but I wasn’t about to touch her long enough to find out.
“Ian, don’t …” Tory stirred and tried to get off the ground. I could finally see enough to put together what had happened. The shotgun had exploded in his hands and turned him into a shrapnel pincushion. “Don’t trust her.”
“I do not,” Ian snapped. “Not for a moment.”
Footsteps approached. Vaelyn stopped right beside me. “Do you have another choice, Gahiji-an? We’re offering everything you want. Take it.”
A wave of emotion hit me like a hurricane. Anguish and fury and desperation all at once. Ian, longing to believe he could have Akila back, painfully aware he had a better shot at destroying Vaelyn with a blade of grass.
I drew a harsh breath and slammed every bit of my consciousness against the healing point. New heat flared through my body, but this time it was pure magic. Charred skin smoothed and fleshed itself out. Frozen joints relaxed. Screaming pain calmed to mere agony.
Through it, I felt something strange. Small spots of pressure on the ground around me. I could sense where everyone was standing—and I felt the other scions. A dozen of them, positioned in a loose circle around the yard. Shit. She hadn’t been lying about that.
My tongue didn’t fill my whole mouth anymore. I forced it to move. “No.” I sounded like I’d swallowed a cheese grater, but
at least it was a discernible word. “Fuck you. Not happening.”
“Oh, yes. He’ll do very well,” Vaelyn said. “Be reasonable now, child. One simple act, and you and your kin will never hear from us again.”
“Bullshit.” I pushed up a few inches and fell. Swore, tried again. Finally I propped up on one elbow and rested there to heave in a little oxygen. “You …”
The thought that arrested me closed my throat and almost gave it away before I could try what might be the dumbest idea ever conceived. I had to get close enough to draw her blood. Sex guaranteed that I’d be really damned close.
“You want a kid,” I said slowly. “With me.”
“Yes. Nothing more than that.”
I hauled in and gained a knee. Every motion sent knives through my blood. I paused again, panting, and stared at the ground. “You’ll leave us alone? All of you?”
“You have our word.”
I managed to lift my head and meet Vaelyn’s eyes. “All right,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
If the shock was any thicker, I could’ve used it to fix the Berlin Wall.
Tory glared, and Ian’s jaw hung somewhere around his knees. Even Calvin stared openmouthed at me, as if I’d just spit on a stack of Bibles. Mercy was the only one unaffected. She sat on the ground next to Zephyr, her gaze fixed on a point in the distance. I suspected she’d stopped trying to participate in reality for a while. Couldn’t blame her for that.
“Interesting.” Vaelyn subjected me to a long stare. “We expected greater resistance.”
“It’s like you said. What choice do we have?” I kept my features neutral and worked to keep up the healing process. It was going a lot slower than I’d hoped. “I do want something from you first, though.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“A snare spell.” I tried to gesture, to indicate the whole area, but my arms were on a union coffee break. “I don’t want anyone to be able to surprise anyone else.” I would’ve asked for disarmament too, but she’d probably insist on the same from us. And I couldn’t let her see what I had in my pockets.
She nodded. “A reasonable request. We will grant it.” She backed away a few steps and raised a hand. “Sukkayati,” she said, and waved the extended arm in a slow circle. At the border of the clearing, the scions popped into view one by one as she gestured. I recognized Kit, and Billy.
And Lynus. Who still looked like he’d hit thirty-something overnight, and held a speargun pointed directly at Ian’s head.
“Now, then.” Vaelyn smiled, but there was no warmth or welcome in it. “What shall we do to ensure your cooperation?”
I probably should’ve known she wouldn’t make this easy. “You have my word, just like I have yours,” I said. “I don’t know what else I can give you.” The heat from the power I was using to heal kept rising. Sweat drenched me, soaked my clothes and plastered my hair to my skull. But I could almost move. I stayed on my knees and looked as weak as possible.
“Are you crazy, Donatti?” Tory struggled to his feet, but didn’t come any closer. “She’ll kill you! She’s not going to turn anyone over to us. We’re outpowered and outnumbered. You’re just going to—”
“Hold your tongue, boy. Let the thief make his own decision.” There was something lethal in Ian’s tone, an edge that demanded obedience. He knew what I was going to try. I’d thank him later for playing along, if there was a later.
Tory shut up. But his expression said he’d slit Ian’s throat if he could. And mine.
Vaelyn paced a few steps, stopped, and sent me a speculative look. “There is little you can do,” she said. “Still, we can’t have you attempting anything … noble. A paralysis spell won’t do. We will need some parts of you working, won’t we?”
“Ergh.” A mental shudder worked through me. “Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound like I was about to puke. “Guess we will.”
“And we can’t kill the prince or the Bahari brat—until we find their tethers. However.” She looked at Mercy, and a smile oozed across her face. “The woman is another matter.”
Calvin beat me to the protest. Only he did it in djinn, explosively, with a lot of nasty words that didn’t have English equivalents.
“You have nothing to fear, Khalyn, so long as the mongoose performs as he’s told.” She made a beckoning gesture, and two of the older scions broke from the circle and headed toward us. “And this will ensure you remain on our side, won’t it?”
“Vaelyn, I swear …”
The two scions reached Mercy. She blinked up at them and said, “What? Ain’t you never seen a beauty mark before?”
“Look here, Luke. It’s the coon lady,” one of them said. “Even uglier up close, ain’t she?”
The other one, Luke, grunted. Each of them grabbed an arm and hauled her to her feet.
Mercy smiled sweetly at the one who’d spoken. “Got somethin’ on your face there, sunshine.”
His brow furrowed. “What?”
“My fist.”
In the space of a breath, she jerked out of Luke’s grip and clocked the guy a teeth-rattling blow to the chin. His head snapped to the side, his eyes rolled to white, but he didn’t fall. So Mercy kicked him square in the junk. He crumpled like a wet towel.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed—deep from the gut, an action that hurt every inch of my battered body. Damn, did she ever remind me of Jazz. I clutched my ribs and bent almost double, gasping, aware that I had to stop before I caused more damage.
Vaelyn launched a spell in a guttural voice. That sobered me. For a few seconds I couldn’t breathe, until I saw it was only a lockdown. Luke grabbed the motionless Mercy and hooked his arms through hers to wrench them behind her. “Really, Luke,” Vaelyn said with a sneer. “Can you not handle one ordinary female? Shall I have one of the others help?”
“Got her,” Luke grunted.
“See that it stays that way.” She returned her attention to me. “Now then, thief. The arrangements are quite simple. Once we have finished, we will release all of you. But if you should attempt anything foolish, the woman will be injured. She will not die immediately. It will give you the opportunity to rectify any mistakes, and possibly save her.”
“Sounds great,” I muttered. At least the laughing fit had accomplished something. With my arms folded, I could get at the inside zipper of my jacket without drawing attention. I hoped. I worked it open slowly, concealing the movement with a couple of weak coughs and twitches. “So, should we get a room, or what?”
“No.” She licked her lips. “Remove your clothing.”
I froze, stared at her. “Come again?”
“You heard me.” She flashed a predatory expression. “We will do this here, with witnesses. You will be far less likely to change your mind this way.”
I swallowed hard. This wasn’t in the plan. “Um. Can you say performance anxiety? Because I seriously doubt I’m gonna be able to get it up with all these assholes watching.”
“We have ways to ensure your … preparedness.”
“Terrific. You planning to cast a Viagra spell on me?”
“A what?”
“Forget it.” I managed to slide a hand in my pocket, and gripped the handle of the twins’ tether. “Look, I’m not exactly in the best shape here—”
“Undress. Now.”
Her tone said I’d run out of stalling time. I was as healed as I was going to get, and if I didn’t try this now, I’d never have the chance. “Okay,” I said. “I’m doing it. Give me a second.” I reached my free hand back like I was going for a shoe. My throat felt like I’d eaten a sandbox, and my spine crawled with tics and shivers. If I fucked this up, and Mercy died, I didn’t think I’d be able to live with myself. Of course, Calvin would probably kill me, so I wouldn’t have to.
I drew a deep breath. Make it fast, Donatti. The first waves of heat seeped into me as I tapped the earth, sought out Mercy, and undid the lockdown spell on her. She’d have to be able to get away or this wouldn’t
work. I heard her give a little gasp. And now I really had to move.
I twisted around and threw a lockdown at Luke. He went rigid, and Mercy slipped away from him. One step down. One giant, impossible leap to go.
Vaelyn’s mouth opened in silent surprise. The second of hesitation was enough. I lunged at her and brought her down, clamped a hand over her mouth. She glared at me, and I could practically read her mind. You are a dead man.
Maybe. But I’d damn well bring as many of these assholes down with me as I could.
I produced the tether and plunged the blade into her throat with a grimace. Might as well make sure she couldn’t cast any spells for a few minutes—at least the ones that required words. Blood gurgled and spurted, splashing me and staining her robes. I figured that was plenty of hers. I pulled the dagger out, ready to add my blood to the mix and hopefully seal her inside forever.
Something wasn’t right. My gut lurched when I realized what it was. There were no glowing symbols on the knife. Not even a little glint of moonlight. No blood tell.
This wasn’t Vaelyn’s tether.
Chapter 31
Something told me the only chance we had for surviving the next few minutes was to keep Mercy safe. And I had no time for secret plans. “Tory, get her in the house and protect her,” I shouted. “Right fucking now! And don’t let her back out, under any circumstances.”
I couldn’t tell whether he went for it or not, because right after I got the words out, the rest of our little party finally realized what I’d done.
The knife didn’t glow, but Vaelyn did. I stabbed at the light a few times, hoping to force her into expending more power. I didn’t get too many in before she finished transforming and wiggled free. Before I could give chase, the first gunshots cracked from the perimeter—and something rammed into me hard. It felt like I’d been smacked with an eighteen-wheeler, and then had a tank dropped on me. I landed facedown in the dirt and tried to figure out where I’d gotten hit.
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