Greta and the Lost Army (Mylena Chronicles Book 3)

by Chloe Jacobs

  “All is fair,” he murmured, pulling her closer.

  “In love and war?” she finished, her gaze fixed on his mouth.

  “Yes, that’s it exactly,” he said, looking impressed with her. She didn’t bother to mention that she hadn’t exactly come up with that all by herself.

  “I have come to appreciate this truth. Love should have no rules, just as it has no boundaries. It molds itself to be what it needs to be for every single person.” He kissed the burning scratch on her cheek, so she did the same to the one on his arm. Then he kissed her nose, so she kissed his chin. “I look forward to the day when I free the people of Mylena from their prejudices so that perhaps they will be able to learn these same truths that you have taught me.”

  He kissed her on the lips. Long and deep, as if he wanted to impart his own truths onto her. She tried hard not to think about the fact that it might be for the last time.

  When the sun had almost set, they rejoined Wyatt and Siona, who’d both put on their winter coats. Isaac looked at the jacket Wyatt held out to him with distaste, and finally Wyatt shrugged and tossed it onto a rock. Greta didn’t take hers, either. “I won’t be able to fight in that,” she said.

  “But once the battle is over, you’ll need something to keep you warm.”

  “Once the battle is over, she’ll have the whole of the goblin kingdom to rely on for support and shelter,” Isaac interrupted confidently.

  Greta smiled at both of them. “We have to get through the battle first. If we try to plan more than one step ahead right now, we’re not going to make it.”

  After that, nobody could do anything but watch the sky anxiously.

  Her pulse increased incrementally with every minute that it got closer to eight forty-five; the time that the website had said the planetary alignment was supposed to begin.

  Fear made her palms itch. Fear because there was no longer any doubt in her mind. This was going to happen.

  She’d asked everyone to put a lot of faith in her hunch that Agramon would use a Lamia on the Mylena side—assuming he still needed them to open portals—to come and find her as soon as he could.

  What she hadn’t told them was why she knew he was coming for her.

  Then again, they might have guessed. Isaac had been there in Agramon’s fortress, after all. He knew the key to setting that spell in motion had been human blood, and he knew that the master key to keeping it in motion was her. He’d witnessed first-hand what happened when she’d stepped into the center of that circle and Agramon had taken her arm.

  The demon might be able to open doors to earth by using the Lamia, and he might have siphoned some freaky, psychotic powers by merging with the faerie queen. But she was betting that he still couldn’t pass through. Agramon needed her to do that.

  She’d felt this truth in the depths of her soul as Agramon tried to merge with her. He’d wanted control of her gift—a gift she’d never been able to use for her own benefit.

  Maybe if he’d asked politely she would have just agreed to help him out of Mylena…if he’d done the same for her. Once upon a time she’d been a different person. Guarded, solitary, and self-serving.

  But now there were all these people she wanted to protect. Isaac, Siona, Wyatt, the boys, her parents, and the innocent victims of Mylena. People who relied on her whether they knew it or not, whether they wanted to or not.

  She looked up, and her gaze locked onto a point in the sky.

  There. A bright white star. Venus.

  And there. A duller yellowish one. Jupiter. And she couldn’t quite find the smaller Mercury yet, but she didn’t have to see it to know it was almost lined up with the other two. The planetary alignment was almost complete. She felt it more than she saw it, and she could feel something else, too. The darkness closing in on her like stifling smoke, looking for a way to claw back inside.

  She looked at Isaac sharply. “It’s started. He’s there. He’s waiting.”

  He planted a quick, hard kiss on her lips and then nodded to Siona and Wyatt. “We are ready.”

  Ready. What kind of meaningless word was that? No one could ever be ready for the really important, life-changing challenges, but at least she’d fulfilled some of her promises. The boys were safe, and she’d said her good-byes. Her family knew how much she valued and cared for them. What more could a person do to prepare for something like war?

  The feeling inside her was growing steadily, like a stoked fire that was already hot enough to burn. She removed her hand from Isaac’s just in case it could burn him.

  The air started to shimmer in front of her. It was like looking through the waves in a pond—no, like seeing through the smoke of a campfire.

  “There.” She pointed. The portal was opening. She’d been right, but it wasn’t satisfaction she felt. It was dread. Stone cold dread.

  As the shimmering outlined the edges of the growing portal, the center became clear, showing them a glimpse of what lay on the other side.

  For just a second, she saw only darkness, and her chest contracted, but then a figure blocked the doorway and the face looking back at them—at her—was bloated and scarred, nothing like the beautiful Queen Minetta who had tried to kill her and Siona after they’d released her from her living tomb.

  In order to get Agramon out of Greta’s body, they’d had to find another vessel for him to inhabit. Greta winced. Apparently, even a faerie queen with powerful magick hadn’t been strong enough to hold out against him. She was wasting away, falling apart as Agramon devoured her from the inside out.

  A choked gurgling sound came from Siona.

  “She’s not your mother anymore. You have to focus,” Greta reminded her in a low voice of warning. It had to be hard, but they couldn’t afford to falter. There was too much on the line.

  The portal was still increasing. The wider it got, the more nervous she got.

  Isaac started to growl. She spared him a quick glance and then doubled back for a closer look. She took his arm and forced him to face her. He was sweating, and his jaw clenched tightly.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Siona gasped and fell to her knees. Greta spun about. Her friend held her head as if it hurt, rocking dangerously toward the portal opening. Wyatt grabbed Siona and held her by the shoulders. Beside Greta, Isaac’s claws had extended, and his eyes glowed.

  “It must be the portal,” Wyatt said, looking at her. His gaze was wide and wild. “Now that it’s opening, their connection to Mylena’s magick is reasserting itself.”

  As much as she hated it, she had to agree. The shiny, optimistic spark inside her that had gotten comfortable with this world extinguished. It had been too much to hope that Isaac wouldn’t have to worry about the possibility of going Lost again. “The magick is rushing back in all at once,” she guessed, nervously splitting her attention between that scary, warped grin staring her down through the portal, and Isaac’s grim snarl beside her.

  “Hold it together. Hold it together,” she murmured on repeat as her mind raced to outline their options.

  Siona got back to her feet, although her forehead was still creased like she was suffering from the worst migraine in history. “They’re waiting for us. As soon as we pass through…”

  She didn’t have to finish the sentence. All of them knew what was going to happen.

  “That settles it. You guys can’t go.” Wyatt hadn’t removed his arm from Siona’s shoulders, as if maybe he would hold her back, keep her in this world where she’d be safe…where she’d be with him. “Let the planetary alignment run its course, and the portal will simply close again. Agramon won’t be able to get through, and you’ll find another way to go back some other time.”

  If only it were as simple as that, but this was their one chance. She knew it. She felt it. There wouldn’t be another night. Mylena didn’t have any more nights.

  “Siona, your magick is back. Do you feel like you can control it?” she asked tightly. “When we go all the way through,
could you muffle whatever sorcery Agramon will have planned long enough to buy us time to strike at him?”

  Siona paused just for a moment. All three of their lives depended on getting through to the other side safely, and the only way to do that would be to avoid Agramon on the way in, or immediately seize the battlefield advantage if they couldn’t. “The onslaught has abated, but combined with my mother’s power, Agramon’s ability is immense. I couldn’t possibly—”

  “You did it before,” she reminded her.

  Her voice quaked with a thin laugh. “If you’ll recall, that didn’t exactly go as planned.”

  “You may not have intended to send us all to the human world when you stepped between your mother and me, but you meant to save us from certain death, and you’re going to do it again.”

  Or so she hoped. The demon’s voice was in her head, daring her to come to him.

  “Whatever you’re going to do, do it,” Isaac said on a growl. “Hurry.”

  She didn’t ask if he could handle it. He was the goblin king. He would do whatever was necessary. And that only made her more determined to get them through the portal…alive.

  The stars in the black velvet sky blinked brightly, three of them lining up perfectly. It was now or never.

  Greta’s blood seemed to slow in her veins, mucky and thick like sludge. “Everybody grab a hand,” she said to Siona and Isaac before turning to Wyatt with a bittersweet smile. The idea of saying good-bye to him for a second time was just too difficult, so she didn’t. “Thank you for coming back to help. We couldn’t have made it here without you.”

  Siona had turned to focus on the portal. Maybe saying good-bye to Wyatt again was hard for her to manage, too.

  “You can do this,” Greta said. She had no doubt of Siona’s determination, but her heart might just remain in the human world.

  They squeezed each other’s hands. Greta was on one end of Siona with her sword in her other hand. Isaac was on the other side of Siona, with what she hoped was a firm hold over his chomping, snarling inner beast.

  Through the portal opening, she gazed into the faerie queen’s leering but gleeful face as they stepped forward. It wasn’t really Queen Minetta staring back at her, but the demon that had almost owned her soul.

  Almost, she reminded herself. He almost got you, but he didn’t.

  Almost was still too close for comfort as the oxygen was sucked out of the atmosphere and the space between her and Agramon got smaller. She didn’t dare take her eyes off him, getting ready for the fight of her life.

  Her sword tip breached the portal and a shock traveled up the blade, sending a sharp metallic zap all the way up her arm that pierced her heart.

  Isaac kept them all moving forward, taking another step. Then another.

  Agramon reached for her, his eagerness evident in the gleam in his eyes and the claws curling toward her. She clenched her weapon tighter but matched Isaac’s steps.

  She glanced over at Siona, who had closed her eyes. Her mouth pulled into a thin line and her forehead creased with concentration. “I don’t know what will happen when we cross over,” she murmured in a low voice. “If I can’t—”

  “We’ll be ready,” Greta reassured her. “Just do your thing, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  One more step. She could feel the cold, and she could see the pink glow of the two moons bouncing off the snow. With Agramon/Minetta standing right in front of her, she could almost smell the demon’s rank breath, like something moldy and dead rotting away in a damp basement.

  She held her breath and stepped all the way into the portal.

  For a second, everything disappeared. Mylena and Agramon and the human world, too. It was like walking into a dark, empty cave with an eerie echo ringing in her ears. She realized it was the sound of someone yelling, and then she remembered that she was still grasping Siona’s hand. Isaac snarled, but it sounded very far away.

  The only clear thing was Agramon’s reaching hand. So eager for her. If it touched her in this empty nothing place, she would lose it. She would scream and scream, and no amount of training could prevent it.

  “Can you do it, Siona? Can you push them back?” She started to panic when she couldn’t hear her own voice. It was gobbled up by the nothingness the moment the sound passed her lips.

  She wouldn’t go back, didn’t even know if she could anymore, but she didn’t want it to end like this, either—walking right into the demon’s embrace, exactly like he’d planned, and having to watch her friends get slaughtered. Because that’s exactly the way it would go. Agramon would keep her alive—if only until he had what he wanted—and make her watch while he killed Isaac and Siona.

  Greta still felt Siona’s hand even though she couldn’t see anything. Afraid of being separated, she tightened her grip. She didn’t want to be left here in this limbo by herself.

  Suddenly the portal shook, rumbling and echoing in her head like an explosion beneath the surface of the ocean. And then she was falling, tumbling through what felt like time and space as Agramon’s roar of fury and rage chased after her.

  After forever, the air cleared. It was crisp and cold in her lungs, helping to relieve the dizziness and nausea. Her knees quickly grew wet through the fabric of her jeans, and that was how she knew she wasn’t standing anymore.

  We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

  Then where…?

  Mylena.

  It had worked. With a gasp, she surged to her feet and swung out her sword, blinking rapidly as the world all too slowly came into focus.

  But there was no army of gnomes, no faeries, and no Agramon. Just a vast expanse of stars across a Mylean night sky. Freezing air nipped the tip of her nose and frosted her eyelashes, and two more small steps in front of her…a deadly drop down a jagged rock face.

  She swore and stumbled back clumsily. No matter how many times she found herself looking down the side of a cliff, she couldn’t get used to the heights thing. “What happened? Where are we?”

  Nobody answered. She spun around. “Isaac? Siona?”

  The sound of crunching snow reached her, and she turned toward it with a relieved sigh. “Thank the Great Mother. I was starting to—”

  A figure hurtled toward her from the shadows, and it wasn’t Isaac or Siona. But it was a goblin. Or, it had been before it went Lost. It was on her so quickly, she was certain they were both going right over the edge of the cliff.

  She twisted at the last second, and the goblin went over without her. It grabbed hold of an outcropping and stopped itself from crashing all the way to the bottom, but she lost her footing on the slick ice coating the ground and tipped over, too. Her sword clattered to the rock as she fell. It started to slide toward the edge.

  In a crazy stretch that might leave her a couple of inches taller if she actually got off this mountain, she lunged mid-fall, extending as far as she could to reach her sword, but she wrenched her knee and landed with one foot hanging over into dark nothingness. The snarling Lost goblin, still barely hanging on, snapped its jaws an inch from her nose, more interested in chomping her than saving its own damned life.

  As much as she hated having to give up on her weapon, risking all to keep it wouldn’t do her any good if she ended up breaking every bone in her body at the bottom of this mountain. Her heart sank as the sword that Luke had gotten custom made for her tumbled off the edge of the cliff.

  She winced as she heard it clang, bouncing off the side of the rock on the way down.

  Gritting her teeth, she hooked her arm around the thin, bare trunk of a gnarly little tree and hoped like hell it wouldn’t pull right out of the loose ground. The Lost creature took a swipe at her, and she swung out of the way, scrambling to hold on. She kicked out her legs and braced them against the goblin’s shoulder to hold it back.

  The muscles in her arms burned with effort, and the cold froze her fingertips until she couldn’t feel them gripping the mountain anymore. She w
asn’t going to be able to hang on like this for much longer.

  The goblin reached for her yet again, claws ripping into her arm. She screamed and kicked. Its grip slipped. It snarled and scratched until it found another handhold. She stared at it, a creature so maddened by the wildness that had claimed its soul, it couldn’t think its way around it. Isaac had been like that…but she’d saved him.

  “We’re both going to die here. Is that really what you want?” she yelled in its face. Damned if it didn’t stop and cock its head like it was actually listening. “Don’t you have a family to get back to? Well I do, and if you would just quit trying to eat me and work with me, then maybe we could both get off this damned cliff and—”

  “Who are you talking to, danem, and what are you doing down there?”

  She looked up to see a familiar face peering over the edge of the cliff. “Siona!” Her heart leaped. “Don’t just stand there, do something.”

  Her friend raised a brow. “I could leave the two of you alone. You seem to be in the middle of something.”

  “You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” Her fingers slipped, and she adjusted her grip. “Help me up. Hurry, before I splat on the ground below.”

  The goblin hunter knelt and grasped her arm near the elbow. Greta let out a sigh of relief as Siona assumed her weight with ease and started to tug her up. Greta dug her toes into the rock and braced her free hand in the snow at the top of the cliff. She threw her leg over, collapsing on the ground with a groan.

  Siona stepped back up to the edge of the precipice and drew a dagger from her waist. Greta grabbed her ankle. “Stop.”

  “You want to just leave him hanging out there like that?” Siona said.

  The Lost creature snarled up at them, clawing at the granite and snow to reach them.

  “If we pull him up, we’ll have to kill him,” she said between breaths. “But if we leave him where he is, he’s got a chance of pulling himself up on his own after we’re gone.”

  What neither of them said out loud was that if the Lost creature managed to make it off of that cliff alive, he would probably find someone else to hurt somewhere else down the line. If they didn’t take care of it now, would that be Greta’s fault, then?