by A. K. Koonce
A sigh exhales from Kain, and he leans past me, his hand slipping between the bars. His fingers grip the end of the blanket, but when he tugs, it doesn’t move. It bunches stiffly beneath his hand, and he pulls harder, and even as it starts to move, the blanket holds the solid shape of the bodies. A slick sort of tearing sound comes unnaturally from the blanket and the figures beneath it.
“Stop. You’re hurting them.” The woman races over and shoves Kain’s hand out of her cell. “Don’t disturb the dead, boy.”
Don’t disturb the dead.
A sick, twisting sensation wraps around my stomach.
“They’re dead?” I whisper, the air knocking from my lungs so fast it’s hard to even speak.
She starts to nod, and it then seems impossible for her to stop the sporadic gesture.
“When…” My voice is so breathless it’s impossible to hear. “When did they die?” I ask a bit louder.
“Just before you got here. Maybe a day before. First Milly and then Sal.”
One day. They died down here, rotting and forgotten because no one came for them. Society turned their back on them, and their only friend had to sit back and watch them die. And wait and wonder when she would be next.
The light in my hand flickers distractedly. I turn on my heels, needing to look away from her for a single second, and I force myself to take a deep breath. It shakes into my lungs, and when I exhale, it shakes out even harder. Kain pushes his hand down the length of my spine, slowly rubbing circles along my back until the emotions pressing into my chest dissolve enough for me catch my breath.
“What’s your name?” I look at the woman, memorizing every wrinkle on her worn face. She’s strong. Resilient. Heartbreakingly so.
“Patricia.”
“Last name? What’s your full name?” Someone will remember the eldest remaining mage who’s suffered far more than anyone ever should.
Even if none of us make it out of this alive.
“Patricia Angela Maria Lincella Roswell.”
Okay. That’s a bit more than I anticipated. I should probably write all that down.
“Patricia, I’m gathering all the mages in the world to stop Ellise. If we do that, if we show that not all mages are like her, I think things will be different. I think”—I fucking hope—“it’ll change our lives. If we’re willing to try.”
“How many is that? How did you get so many mages here without her knowing?”
“Well…” I clear my throat, and it’s suddenly hard for me to look at the woman I was so adamant at memorizing just seconds ago. “Counting me and you, it’s fiffffeah.”
Her head tilts, and she comes a little closer with total confusion pulling at her brow. “How many? You trailed off there at the end.”
“Fiffffeah…” I mumble again.
“Fuck, Arlow. It’s five. There are only five mages left in the world aside from Ellise,” Kain says so harshly I flinch from his brutal honesty. “And one isn’t even here yet.”
“Five?” She backs away from me as if she might take her place cowering in her favorite corner again.
“Yes. That’s a good little number. It’s far more than three.” I fold my arms defensively.
“It’s far less than we need!” The woman’s voice grates when she yells, as if she hasn’t spoken more than a whisper in years.
She shakes her head back and forth, her eyes searching the darkness while her hands tremble so much she has to hold them tightly in front of her.
“Don’t come back down here again. Don’t…don’t seek me out, and if you care at all about the last remaining mages in the world, you’ll tell them all to run. Hide. Anything, but do not bring them here just so you can all die together.”
Those ominous words slice into me so deep I feel them heavy and painful in my heart. I stare at her, and she stares adamantly right back at me. She might be afraid but she seems to want me to understand this with absolute clarity.
“Come on, Arlow.” Kain’s fingertips lightly skim along the center of my palm, his body brushing against mine, but I can’t look away from her.
She’s wrong. We need her but we don’t need her cruel words.
Are we better off without her?
“Are you wondering if I’m exaggerating?” She arches a white eyebrow at me. “I wasn’t young and naïve when mage magic was outlawed. I was old then and I’m old now. But I saw it for exactly what it was. Ellise nearly destroyed Minden. She killed hundreds of mortal men and several demons. Demons who are far stronger than you and I. What’s most shocking, was her plan was to kill the father of her child, and she would have killed her son, too, if that was the price.” Patricia’s chin tips up, and she seems stronger right now, just talking about something she’s clearly so certain of. “It isn’t that she’s more powerful than the average mage. It’s that she’s more driven. There’s no cost too high for what she wants. People like us, we have limits. If it comes down to it, I know you’ll save that man at your side rather than end all of this. That one life is more important to you. Love is a weakness in this case. And Ellise loves no one.”
I swallow hard but I can’t find any words to contradict the old mage.
She thinks Kain is weakness and she didn’t even mention the countless other people in my life who I’d fuck all our plans up just to save them.
I hate how much this woman is right.
I didn’t even realize how completely loved I am by so many. I didn’t consider it at all until I started thinking of that love as a weakness. Because of Kain, Rime, Chaos, Sinister, my parents, even Agatha, I’m weak.
“You’re wrong,” I whisper, my voice shaking just slightly. “The people who love me are the only reason I’m as strong as I am. You think I’m weak? You should have seen me before.” A strange laugh bubbles from my lips, but it’s a confused sound that’s tinged with the pressure of anxiety and fear and anger that’s storming through my chest.
I was a fucking mess of repressed emotions before three arrogant shifters had come into my life.
They’d brought my best friend back to me. They’d brought me back to my family.
They did so much for me, and I don’t think they even know.
“I’m not backing down. The mages who are here, they’re not going anywhere. Within the next twenty-four hours, we’re going to change the history of our kind. We’re going to save so many lives.” I press my palm to the cold metal lock of her cell and force magic through the gears until the door clanks with a harsh sound and opens just slightly. “Maybe you should take your own advice. Run as far away from this kingdom as your legs will carry you. But if you’re feeling like you’re tired of running, join us.” I hold her stare for several seconds, not seeing much of anything in the woman’s tired gaze.
I turn away from her, forcing myself to just let her go and make up her own mind.
Part of me hopes she’ll call out to me when I reach the stairs. I hope she’ll have a sudden awakening from my awe-inspiring little performance here tonight. My muted steps allow for even the quietest whisper to be heard should she change her mind. I make it all the way to the top of the stairs and pause there at the door. I wait with strained attention for the eldest mage to say she’ll help us.
The breath in my lungs is painful as I hold it in.
Kain’s heavy palm presses to my lower back, and still I stare into the dimness of the dungeon, peering out into nothing.
And realizing that’s exactly what I’ll get from her.
Absolutely nothing.
Fifteen
Armies and Apologies
Thunder shakes through the old walls of the castle for hours on end. Rain doesn’t pelt down to the frost-kissed ground, but it sounds like a storm is brewing. It’s a strange thing to glance out the bedroom window at early morning dawn but not see the cast of warm sunlight here. The days and hours seem off. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’ve been locked away in this place with so few windows for so long I’m confused about when the sun should
rise and when it should set.
“Within the next few hours, we should strike. That’s the best time.” Kain glances from me to Rime, but only Rime nods to him.
“Agatha isn’t here yet. She’s coming.” I need Agatha.
She’s the strongest mage I know.
My mother and her friend hover on the outskirts of our circle just behind Sin. The men keep peering back at the two of them, but Seara returns their questioning looks with an icy glare. She’s here. She’s willing to help. But she is clearly not here to make friends.
And that’s okay.
“We’ll have to do it without her.” Sin lifts his hands apologetically to me. His crimson attention is kind and gentle despite how strung tight his shoulders are right now. “Ellise wakes early. We have an hour window if we go right now. Catching her in her sleep is the easiest way.”
Killing her in her sleep. What a blissfully unaware way to go.
Seems…terrible and perfect all at the same time.
It’s a little cowardly on our part, but I’m honestly prepared to shove her right off a cliff if that’s the option we have.
“You called us here for a bedtime routine?” Seara’s cutting emerald eyes slice right into me.
Rime’s arms fold, and he turns to the woman fully but never says a word.
“Yeah. Looks like it.” I hold her gaze and wish the people I asked for help were a bit more fucking supportive during this plotted murder.
Is that too much to ask?
Her blonde locks skim along her face as she shakes her head at me. “Fine. Let’s get on with the coward’s mission.”
Ouch. Sounds worse when you say it out loud.
“Okay.” Chaos glances from one person to the next, a small smile pressed to his lips in what seems to be his attempt at easing the atmosphere. “What’s the plan, Sin?”
Sinister straightens, and everyone looks to him at once.
It’s abundantly clear to me that my sweet demon friend has done more research than I even realized.
“Her room’s up the stairs, on the highest level—”
“Of course it is. Tallest tower and all that, right?” Rime arches a pale, unamused brow, but Sin just continues.
“It’s down the hall, the last door on the right, and it’ll be locked. We can—”
The thunder booms again. This time, the warped window rattles. The frost on the glass splinters so delicately but so loudly. The lines slice, dividing up toward the frame at an alarming pace. It splinters. It races so quickly with a cracking sound that goes much deeper than the thin layer of ice.
The glass shatters, spraying into the room and chilling my skin with the cold kiss of the winter winds.
“That’s not a storm.” Kain’s shoulders stiffen, his wide green eyes sweeping across the vacant white skyline.
Chaos’ big palm grips my wrist, and then he’s blocking my body with his own.
My bedroom door swings open. The wood slams into the brick wall, shaking violently. Almost as violent as the woman trembling with rage in the center of the frame.
I gasp with a smile the moment I see her. She’s frail but fierce. Aging but agile. This little old woman is the fucking storm.
“I brought friends,” Agatha says, a big smile creasing her already lined face.
I rush to her and stop dead in my tracks when I see the men behind her. The leader of the shifter village stands at his second-in-command’s side. Agatha’s strong friend’s graying hair is tied back, and the seriousness of gaze looks ready for anything in this moment. Both of the men fill the doorframe with rigid postures and locked jaws. The dozens of shifters behind them all hold that exact same stature.
“Prince Linden tells me another mage killed my daughter.”
Lord Carlin says something that should bring me relief, but the blatant aggression in his features doesn’t ease my mind. He lost his daughter, thanks to Ellise. It seems him and his army of dragon shifters are ready to right that wrong.
Every second that ticks by is filled with tension as the alpha shifter of Valencia stares down on me.
I’m innocent. He just admitted it long after he imprisoned me in their village. Everything that happened there feels so long ago.
“I’d like to formally apologize and offer to help,” Carlin says sternly.
“You owe her a bit more than that, but we accept.” Sinister pushes dismissively past the dozens of shifters and grips my hand at the last minute, guiding me through the crowd until we’re in the hall.
The empty hall.
The walls shiver with the noise of the world outside, but the inside…is silent.
“What’s happening outside, Aggie?”
“I told you I brought friends.” She lifts her chin at that, and the large man at her side smirks down at her, his palm slipping to the small of her back. “I brought…a lot of friends.”
My brow lowers, and she smiles more.
“Linden’s army was ready. He wanted to wait and plan and plot and waste so much time after Ellise’s attack.” She rolls her eyes at that. “I told him that’s what she’d expect. She’d never expect retaliation within twenty-four hours.”
Her words settle into my mind as another booming sound shakes a brick right out of the wall. It clatters to the floor and lets in even more of that growing sound of viciousness from outside.
Oh no.
We saved Minden from a war.
And brought it here to Attika.
Sixteen
Crimson Snow
Binding sunlight crawls across the horizon. It beams against the snow, intensifying the wafting gray smoke and slashing colors of crimson that now cover the white landscape. Men and horses, blades and armor dot the ground for miles and miles. Enormous winged dragons shadow over us, swooping down with fiery exhales and snarling teeth. Flashes of magic blaze so bright it’s all I can see through the smoke.
I can’t tell if it’s mage magic. Or demon.
Dragons from the quiet village of Valencia, mages from the coast of Warf, and an army of demons and mortal men from Minden battle the astounding numbers that make up the queen’s guard. A single moment of numbness passes over me as I stare out at the fight I brought the people I love the most into. Panic slices through my chest, and it stings even more with each frost-bitten breath I take.
The brooding man who obviously loves Agatha so much storms right into the screaming battle, and the way the old woman follows in his footsteps shows how completely fearless she is in this moment. Agatha walks away from the castle doors, down the snowy, dipping valley, right into the heart of the slashing swords without even flinching.
I’m stunned, still taking it all in.
A warm hand slips into mine. It’s the calmest touch within the storm of a war that I’m looking down on. My mother doesn’t glance my way as she holds my hand in hers. She squeezes hard, and her shoulder presses to mine before she speaks so quietly I barely hear her.
“Our time of hiding is over.” And then she lifts her chin, releases my hand, and lets the smoke drift across her slender body as she disappears into the mass of the battle.
Chaos is already striding after her. I think he knows how important she is to me. I think Chaos knows more about me than I do sometimes. The sunlight reflects the beautiful colors that shine along his forearms as dark scales crawl across his bronze skin little by little. He looks back at me with hardened eyes, determined, fierce.
Destructive.
I keep my attention locked on his alluring eyes until he’s completely gone. I stiffen my spine and hate how easily the smoke steals him away.
A roar growls through the clattering calls of war. Screams of pain and screams of anger mix together among the shaking sounds of magic and clashing metal. Thousands of crimson eyes shine out within the fog and debris.
“I’ll stay with the mages.” Kain looks to Rime and then Sin, and a moment of confusion drifts into me until I remember what he went through.
He can’t shift anymore.
He can’t use the one weapon he’s had his entire life. I suddenly want to shield Kain the way he seems to want to shield me during all of this.
Rime and Sin glance from the alpha to me, and they both have such similar looks in their eyes right now it’s startling. Rime’s cold attention isn’t vacant or angry. He seems completely worried, terrified about what might happen if he walks away from me.
And he shares that identical look of fear with Sinister.
Sin pulls me to him in an instant, his body pressing to mine just as his lips skim along my jaw in a quick kiss of reassurance. “I’ll find Ellise. I’ll send you a signal. I’ll find her, and we’ll meet there.”
He says all of that, but all I really hear him say is…he’s leaving. Going out into all of that annihilation.
Alone.
I dig my fingers into his wrist, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He steps away from me. Then he’s running. And he doesn’t stop.
He doesn’t glance back.
He’s gone.
Rime is slower to leave my side. He looks like he’s seconds away from trading in his own horns and never shifting again if it means he can keep me safe at his side. His steps are leisurely, and that calm, careless confidence he’s always had is right there on the surface when he comes to me. His fingers tangle with mine, and he holds my gaze like I’m the only thing he sees among this chaotic nightmare. A cold kiss presses to my lips, and he takes his time, slipping his tongue along mine for the smallest moment of just us. I don’t know how he does that. I don’t know how he takes away every single thing and makes me focus on only him for the briefest, consuming moment.
He pulls back but doesn’t allow any space between his lips and mine. “Chin up, my Tamer. You’re ready for this.” There’s a strength in the words he says, but the look in his eyes is more empowering.
He nods to me and doesn’t stop until I give a little subtle nod right back.
