Finn twitched in her arms as another blade was removed and a butterfly bandage applied. At least the cuts weren’t bleeding much.
Her phone rang and buzzed in her pocket. She couldn’t look at it right now, but she knew it wouldn’t be good news.
The window panes rattled and the ropes hanging from the ceiling swayed. A blast outside sent another tremor through the floor and walls.
The last blade was barely out, the paramedic slapping on the last bandage, when Ella gestured for the other agent to help her.
“We need to get out there,” she said when the man frowned and opened his mouth to protest. “It’s a matter of life and death.”
He nodded.
She gently pushed Finn off her, held his clouded gaze. “Finn, we have to close the Gate. I’ll do my best to help you, but we need to hurry.”
***
The paramedic found Finn’s discarded shirt flung in a corner of the room. “He’ll freeze his balls off if he goes out half-naked. It’s a fucking blizzard.”
Ella helped him pull the shirt over Finn’s head and push his arms into the sleeves, then smoothed it down, mindful of the bandages.
Together they lifted him to his feet. Finn hung between them, barely conscious. One thing was clear: he had almost no control over his body and couldn’t step on his bad leg. The silver lining was that the sedative still in his system probably dulled the worst of the pain.
“This isn’t working,” grunted the paramedic.
Ella panted as she adjusted Finn’s heavy arm over her shoulders. “So what do you suggest?”
“Let me.” The young man whose name Ella didn’t even know turned and grabbed Finn around the waist. “Fireman’s carry.”
That made sense, Ella thought, as he slung Finn over his shoulder and straightened. Still, it was unnerving seeing Finn handled like a rag doll, his blond head hanging against the man’s back.
Dammit.
Nothing for it now. They made their slow way down the stairs and to the entrance hall. The paramedic was a slender, thin guy and by that time his legs were trembling. He put Finn down and Ella moved in to lend some support.
As the cold air blew through from the street, Finn seemed to regain some sense of alertness. Placing him between them, she and the paramedic staggered to the open door leading to the street.
Then they were out and Ella gasped. Jesus H. Christ.
She’d expected some sort of chaos — but not this.
Not this scene of war and the deafening noise.
Not the giant teardrop-shaped silver tower hovering in mid-air, firing missiles, so big its top was lost in the clouds.
The fire and smoke, the people running and screaming. The police cars, lights flashing, the sound of their sirens lost in the pandemonium.
And the dragons. Diving through the air, nearly transparent, as if made of glass, spitting fire.
Finn stumbled and grunted. The paramedic who had his other side was sinking to his knees.
Ella tightened her hold around Finn’s waist and he flinched. Warm blood coated her fingers. Shit.
They’d stepped out of a crime scene onto a battlefield from hell. Helicopters roared overhead, whipping the falling snow into eddies, their spotlights carving long cones of brilliance into the haze.
Another missile shot out of the silver tower and smashed into a building. For a moment it looked like nothing had happened — then the building’s wall folded into itself and it shattered like glass, chunks dropping on the street and cars.
Holy shit.
It was happening. The elves were invading. The huge Gate stood wide open, and another tower slowly crossing through the snow drifts, the size of a building, floating in the air.
Finn shuddered, his head lifting as if waking up from a dream. “Faen,” he breathed.
Yeah.
She heard her name being called nearby and saw Dave jog toward her.
“The Gate,” he shouted. “Close it.”
Mighty good idea. If only Finn had enough energy to even stand upright... “We’re trying.”
Dave reached them, a team following him, Kevlar vests, machine guns and all. Damn, she never thought she’d be so glad to see Dave’s face.
“What are you waiting for?” he snapped. “Do something.”
Okay, there went the warm fuzzy.
“Have you seen how he is?” Ella glanced at Finn’s profile, his drawn face, the confused gaze. “Give him a moment.”
Dave narrowed his eyes, then turned to his agents. “Someone bring him a cup of hot coffee. I don’t care how you get it. Now!”
Two agents took off running.
The earth shook, making them all stumble. The second tower had emerged fully, rings rotating on its surface, bright lights flashing.
Ella pulled Finn backward as debris showered on them. Icy gusts hit them, pushing them backward, until they fetched up against a wall.
The dragons swooped over the stationary cars and buses, fire bursting from their mouths. Metal melted, pooling in the street. Flames jumped. Black smoke rose, the thick columns immediately blown away by the wind.
An agent appeared by Finn’s side, pressing a plastic cup into his hand. When Finn didn’t take it, the agent — a young, frightened-looking guy — put it to Finn’s lips and helped him drink.
Finn made a choked noise and batted the cup away. Some color was returning to his cheeks. Another gust and his pale hair whipped his neck.
Then Dave got into his face. “You must close the Gate, son, or we’re done for. Do you understand?”
And for once Ella couldn’t deny he was right.
It was surreal — the gleaming towers, hovering over the buildings, glowing through the driving snow. The helicopters buzzing like dark flies around the huge machines, firing but not able to stop them. The chaos of people running for cover below.
Not a dream. Running on borrowed time.
Finn pursed his mouth in concentration and lifted his hand.
His threads flashed into existence, golden lines filling the world. She could hear them now — a soft, haunting melody, faltering notes, trembling like Finn’s hand. She could feel his shuddering breaths under her arm, feel the way his lungs expanded and constricted.
Her anger returned. So many people had hurt him and it wasn’t fair. Wasn’t right. He tried to do good and always ended up bleeding.
Her fury called her threads forth, the vertical crimson strands vibrating with tension and anger. Her own tune pulsed in her ears, in her mind — a deep thrumming beat, like a war march.
He needed her help. She caught his hand, laced her fingers with his cold ones, held on tight. Drew a deep breath.
She pushed her own power into his and he recoiled. Then he gripped her hand right back.
Tightening the weave of the world, meshing together his pain and her fury, until you couldn’t see the threads but instead the pattern, couldn’t hear the tunes but heard the song.
The song of pain and war.
And the pain was all so real. Spears of fire lanced through Ella’s skull. When she licked her lips, she tasted blood. The back of her eyeballs ached. Her heart was trying to break free of her chest.
The pattern was emerging clearer, the weave around the Gate forming, knitting fast, pressing down and in. Forcing the gaping hole in the fabric of the universe to close. Smaller and smaller the Gate shrank, like a vertical eye shutting.
Faintly she was aware of shouts and screams, of the ground shaking. Nothing mattered — nothing but the closing Gate and seeing the pattern emerging around them. Bleeding colors and snakes of light twining with inky spills of velvet darkness, swirling into a spiral.
Merging into a central shape.
A starburst.
***
The tally was two towers and maybe three dragons with their riders loose on the city. Could have been worse, Ella supposed. Could have been the whole of the elven army.
Their own forces still hadn’t arrived. Policemen, crouched
behind their cars, shot at the towers and dragons.
It was a lost cause. This was a job for the army, not individuals with handguns.
Where the hell was the air force? When would the army arrive on the scene? It felt like hours since she’d found Finn, but in fact it couldn’t be more than twenty minutes.
Ella had her arm around Finn once more. She couldn’t stop touching him, verifying every moment he was alive, he was there with her.
Finn didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he leaned heavily on her, his arm weighing on her shoulders.
Someone had draped a blanket over him and he clutched it closed over his bare chest. His shirt was soaked. Up his bicep, blood showed through the fabric.
All Ella wanted was to take him far from there, find him a bed and have a good look at the damage on his back and especially his leg that couldn’t carry any of his weight.
“This way,” Dave shouted over the thunder of exploding missiles and explosions. “Keep low.”
Easy to say. “Need a hand here,” she yelled back. “They really fucked up his leg.” Not to mention his back — or possibly his mind.
Dave doubled back and grabbed Finn around the waist, making him groan. “Come on.”
An armored van was parked in a narrow side street. Dave steered them that way. He knocked on the back door with his free hand and it opened. A woman hopped out and helped them lift Finn inside its dark interior.
They laid him down on a bench where he curled on his side and Dave unwrapped the bandage just below his knee.
Ella finally got a good look at the butcher job they’d done to remove the tracker: a deep gash, barely kept together with hasty stitches, black against the red flesh.
She swallowed hard. “Jesus.”
The woman prodded the edges of the cut, making Finn hiss. His lips turned white. “He needs to keep off this leg until a doctor checks it. The cut looks like it goes to the bone. There could be shards that need to be removed.”
Finn seemed to drift into sleep as she rewrapped his leg with fresh bandages. Ella rubbed her arms because what she wanted was to wrap herself around him, listen to his strong heartbeat and stroke his face, kiss his mouth. Softly, slowly. Gently. Take away some of the horror.
Nobody else made her feel this protective. Nobody else’s pain resonated so loudly inside her.
For the first time she feared she couldn’t live without him and it scared the hell out of her.
“What are the dragons doing?” Dave was on the phone, braced with one hand on the inside of the van. “Circling? Shoot them down, dammit, what are you waiting for? The storm is easing; you should be able to take better aim by now.” He hummed. “We need missiles. What’s taking them so long?
Ella found herself staring at Finn’s face, studying the bow of his mouth, the line of his jaw, the way his hand twitched from time to time where it rested on his hip. The scarred knuckles, etched now with blood.
Her throat clogged. You could never outrun who you were, could you? There would always be someone who knew and would try to use you hard and fast, not caring for the damage.
The low whisper brought her out of her trance. “Ella?” His voice was hoarse as if he’d been screaming.
And he had.
She swallowed back the unshed tears and pasted on a smile. “I’m here.” She crouched in front of him, placed her hands on the bench by his head. “Right here.”
A moment passed. Finn frowned. “Where?”
“Police van. You’re safe now.”
He gave a soft snort and closed his eyes. She shook her head. Yeah, who was she kidding? Where could he ever be safe?
Another long moment passed, and she thought he might have gone to sleep or passed out again.
Then he spoke. “Norma is dead.”
“I know.” Ella’s jaw tightened.
“I asked to see her. Her death’s on me.”
“No, Finn. You couldn’t foresee this happening.”
“But I should have.” Finn’s eyes opened, silver-grey and bright. His throat worked. “I opened a Gate.”
“It’s closed now.”
His hands clenched into fists where they lay. “Dragons crossed. And storm engines. They’re killing people. My fault. I need—”
“Not your fault. They made you do it. You had no choice.”
She jerked back as he pushed up to a sitting position. “What are you doing?”
He swung his legs off the bench and swayed where he sat. “Have to stop it.”
Christ, he looked like hell, face ashen, bloody tears on his cheeks. His hair was dipped in his own blood and crimson streaked his neck and chest.
“No,” she whispered before she could check herself. Then she rushed on, “The army will be here any minute. Let them handle this.”
“I’ll handle this.” The stubborn glint she knew was back in his gaze. “They don’t know what I know.” He winced as he straightened his bandaged leg.
“And what is it you know?” Dave ground out, his eyebrows drawing together. “Tell us what to do.”
Finn blinked at him, as if surprised to see him. Maybe he was. “The snowstorm will soon be over, and they’ll lose cover. Have to stop them now.”
“Sounds like it’s better to wait, then, until they lose advantage.”
“They won’t lose advantage,” Finn bit out the words. “They have hurricane machines. Have to stop them before they use them.”
Ella’s blood chilled in her veins. “How can you stop them?” She entertained for a moment the notion of asking Finn to open another huge Gate and shove everyone back out — but why would they comply? Wouldn’t there be more towers and weapons waiting at the other end, ready to cross over?
And above all, how could Finn open another Gate without killing himself with the strain?
Then she felt that other presence in her mind — a sparkle and a distortion, double vision — one second looking at Finn’s haggard face, the next a bird’s eye view of the city with its lit up buildings and the brilliant snakes of its streets and avenues below.
Finn’s dragon. She was on her way.
It was only now Ella recalled that had been Finn’s back-up plan all along.
Chapter Nine
Mirror
“Stop,” Dave barked as Finn struggled to his feet. “You have to stay off that leg. Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
Ella shook her head, trying to get rid of the images superimposing themselves on top of her surroundings. “Let me help you, Finn.”
He waited for her to insert her shoulder under his arm and take on some of his weight. He was in no condition to walk without help this time and he obviously knew it.
“Ella, what’s going on?” Dave moved to block their way. “You should stay in the van.”
“He’s calling the dragon.”
Dave sighed. “She’s chained and in a bunker. I think Finn’s still confused.”
“Back off, duergr.” Finn sneered. “I told you before, you don’t know much about dragons.”
“And how do you think you’ll fix this with just one dragon? Can you even ride her with your leg busted like this? Do you even know what you’re doing?”
Crap. Ella took in Finn’s grim expression and wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. “Dave...”
“Dragon fire is lethal to the living metal,” Finn finally said.
“It’s still just one dragon.”
“Get out of my way.”
But Dave didn’t budge, blocking their path out of the van, and Finn matched him glare for glare. The upholstery would catch fire any second now.
Then the double images returned, hitting Ella so hard she gasped. Finn jerked, turning toward the street, and that pretty much broke the glare fight.
The dragon was swooping down at them from the sky. Wordlessly, Dave moved in Finn’s other side and together they got him off the van.
The dragon landed on the street, smashing a car with her claws and breaking windows with he
r wings. Her mouth was wide open, belching smoke. Her talons screeched on the asphalt as she took a few running steps, coming to a halt right in front of them.
Ella’s knees shook like every time she found herself dwarfed by the dragon, feeling like a snack waiting to happen.
It was then it finally really sank in.
Finn was going to ride the dragon and fight. Fear tightened her chest, cut her breath. “Finn...”
And then there was no time to even find the words, because Dave was giving him a leg up and Finn gave a strangled cry as he grabbed the dragon’s horns and hung on for an endless moment.
Oh god, this was a huge mistake, it would cost Finn his life, it was a crazy idea anyway and—
Finn swung his leg over and straddled the dragon’s neck. He hunched forward, breathing hard.
What the hell was he going to do? How?
“Let me come with you,” Ella called out, suddenly so scared for him she couldn’t bear it. “Finn, please.”
He shook his head and straightened. He tucked his hair behind a pointed ear and looked down at her. “Wait for me.”
The softly spoken words nailed her to the spot, and she didn’t move when the dragon turned around, knocking into the buildings, and started to run down the street. She watched as those snow-white, feathery wings spread and the dragon leaped into the air, Finn astride, burning like white fire.
It was later, as she watched the dragon soar across the clouds, that Ella realized he hadn’t even taken a gun.
***
“Relax. He’s doing fine.” Dave was checking his gun as another explosion rocked them. Fragments of concrete rained on the street.
Ella retreated into the van where she proceeded to pace in the cramped space. “He’s trying to get himself killed, more like. Don’t you care, after all you’ve done to keep him alive?”
“You’re one to talk. It’s not like you tried to stop him, is it?” Dave huffed. “He says he has to stop them before they use the hurricane machines. The army won’t be here for a while yet, so if he can do it...”
Boreal and John Grey Season 2 Page 42
