by Rosie Scott
“That happened to you,” I surmised. “Even as a hunter.”
“It did.” Azazel hesitated to kick through some pine needles on the ground, checking beneath before moving on. “That's why I stayed in the back room as much as I could. Making potions.”
“Have the assassins been leaving you alone?” I asked him, glancing back toward the camp. We were now far from it.
“No. Many of them don't like hearing no, even still. But they usually shut up once I pull the Kai card.”
I chuckled softly. “The what?”
Azazel smiled over at me. “Once I tell them who I am, how I'm connected to you, they usually drop their pursuit.”
“I wonder why.”
“Maybe because they respect you. Maybe because you're a woman and they still have their biases. Or maybe they've heard about the crazy things you do to protect loved ones and fear something happening to them if they don't leave me alone.” Azazel reached over to poke my arm lovingly. “You protect me even when you're not trying.”
“I must be really good at it, then.”
Azazel smiled. “You are.” He abruptly quieted and slowed to a stop. I stayed beside him, waiting for him to collect another ingredient. When he didn't, I frowned.
“Are you okay?”
“I heard something.” Azazel pointed south. I followed his gaze. Nothing but rows and rows of pines and conifers laid out before us, shimmering green and red in the morning sunlight. Azazel made his palm flat and then swept his hand across our view of the south. Even though all was quiet, he was using alteration magic to check for signs of life.
He found none. Azazel's eyes were unblinking as he put his hand back down to his side. “Let's return to camp.”
“Are you sure? You found nothing.”
Azazel didn't reply. He continued to watch through the trees, grabbing his bow and starting to string it. My heart picked up its pace. I couldn't begin to imagine what he was seeing or hearing.
“Azazel—”
Shik!
I barely had time to think. Suddenly, I was staring at an arrow buried in the tree trunk right before me, still vibrating so quickly that the movement blurred in the air. I cursed under my breath, backing away in a rush. Whoever was shooting at us, I couldn't see them. Azazel had heard movement in the south, but the arrow was pointed west. I had no idea where to look or where to run. I stumbled backward as Azazel rushed to catch up.
SNAP!
My head was flushed with a wave of heat, and nausea overcame me. I hit the ground so fast the breath was knocked out of me, and with it came a string of vomit. Bunches of pine needles were moist beneath my palms, and my ears rang with the liquid pouring of blood. I knew I was injured, but so much was happening and my mind was attempting to overcome such intense physical pain that I was only left disoriented.
Azazel's voice was rushed and muted, but my vision was a blur. I felt his hands grab my arms, and he turned me over on my back. My best friend was crouched over my legs, repeating the same thing over and over again to me as he pressed down on both sides of a large metal animal trap. My right leg was broken within it, bright red blood leaking out of my armor like a river.
“Kai.” Azazel's voice echoed as I struggled to focus. “Pull.” He pressed down on the trap again to open its teeth, but his eyes widened like he heard something, and he started to jerk away.
Shik!
Azazel cursed, collapsing on the ground in a pool of my blood. A pearl white arrow was lodged in the armor just over his right shoulder blade. The arrow had been meant for his spine and would have paralyzed him if he hadn't dodged it. My fear for him must have been more important to my brain than the leg injury because my mind started to clear. I gave him a life shield and repeated the gesture for myself. Azazel struggled to pull himself off the ground, his black eyes moist with pain. He stood and grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me back through the forest debris.
My back hit the trunk of a pine tree seconds later. Azazel's heavy breaths rattled through the air, and one periwinkle hand appeared in front of my eyes before he snapped his fingers multiple times.
“I'm here. I'm here,” I rambled. “I'm okay.”
“Okay,” he breathed, grimacing as he felt a shot of pain from the arrow lodged in his shoulder. “I don't know what the hell we're dealing with.”
I swallowed another wave of nausea as Azazel leaned on the sides of the trap again. Metal teeth tugged themselves out of flesh and muscle, releasing even more blood. Azazel pulled the trap off my foot as I did my best to slip it out of the other side.
“Can you heal it?” Azazel whispered quickly.
“Yeah. Of course,” I reassured him. “Let me heal you.”
“Worry about you,” Azazel retorted, lifting a palm behind the thick tree trunk and looking for signs of life. After moving it even further up, red energy hovered above his blue skin. “It's in the trees,” he murmured quietly.
I twisted my leg back into alignment, and my eyes fluttered closed as I fought to stay conscious from the new trauma that bolted up the limb.
“Kai. Kai.” Azazel's hand smacked the side of my face rapidly, urgently. “Dull senses. Give it to yourself.”
I blinked and forced my eyes to widen, trying to keep myself awake. “Yeah,” I mumbled, the word tumbling over the edge of incoherency.
Muta te sensa. I directed the energy to my head. Much of the pain and confusion dulled, allowing me to finally focus. My hands surrounded the broken leg, and life energy warmed the wound. Azazel took the time to finish stringing his bow. He stayed safe behind our protective trunk, but the life shield was so bright and bubbled around him that it would have been visible from the other side. We were temporarily safe, but our pursuer still knew where we were.
“The arrow,” I murmured, nodding toward the ammo sticking out of Azazel's back. “It's from Celendar.”
“Celendar?” Azazel pulled one of his own arrows out of his quiver. “How do you know?”
“The shaft is pearly white wood. Those trees only grow in Celendar.” I attempted to regulate my breathing as I finished healing my leg. “Silas's arrows looked just like it.”
“There isn't an army of Celds out there,” Azazel whispered. “It's just one person.”
“Whoever it is, they're hunting us,” I murmured. “The arrow that flew before my face was meant to miss. The shock of it forced me back into the trap.” I tugged my armor back down over the healed wound.
“Are Celds lovers of illusion magic?” Azazel asked. “Because I can't see them. They must be invisible.”
“No. The Celds normally despise illusion. They're predisposed to earth and life, and to a lesser extent, water and air.”
Shik! Shik! Shik!
“Shit!” Azazel's life shield flickered with weakness as multiple white arrows collided with the magic. I scrambled to get up and pull him with me around the tree trunk, using it as cover. Our pursuer was not only fast, but they were also able to move around without always being heard. On top of that, the archer was immensely strong and accurate, weakening magical shields in a fraction of the time most archers required.
Azazel's nostrils flared as he nocked an arrow and readied his bow. He leaned out from behind the tree, his black eyes rapidly scanning the area before he released the ammo.
The distant echo of an arrowhead hitting wood met my ears. Seconds later, Azazel's shield disappeared as another white arrow zipped into its magic, bouncing off and rolling over pine needles.
“You didn't hit them?” I asked, tugging him back behind the tree.
“No,” he replied, grimacing as I pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and started to heal the wound. “But standing out in the open convinced her to try to shoot me, so I saw her, and now I know she's using some sort of illusion magic I've never seen before.”
“One thing at a time,” I murmured, watching his wound close through the break in armor. “She?”
“It's a woman. I saw her shape,” Azazel said. “She's n
ot invisible. She's...I don't know. Camouflaged, somehow. Using magic that mimics her surroundings.”
“Invisibility does the same thing,” I replied.
“Invisibility works like a reflection,” Azazel argued lightly. “This spell didn't reflect light or anything. She's right below the sunlight, but the only reason I knew she was there was that she dodged and the background of the forest seemed to move.”
“I have no idea what kind of magic that is,” I rambled, frustrated. I built a new life shield for Azazel, but he held a hand out to stop me.
“No. Those are attracting attention to us.”
“They're protecting us.”
“Kai. Trust me.” Azazel's eyes were swirling with resolution. “If she wants you, she has to get through me. She's a hunter, but so am I. Let me handle this.”
My nostrils flared as we stared at one another. I found nothing more than love and determination in his gaze, and that's what finally got me to relent. “I hate it when you're stubborn,” I murmured in defeat.
“Get down and be quiet,” Azazel pleaded, ignoring my words of frustration.
I did as he asked, getting low to the forest floor and dispelling my own shield. Azazel slowly crouched behind the trunk beside me, preparing another arrow.
Silenci. I gave the illusion spell to both of us, muffling the sound of our movements. I cast invisibility next, but Azazel shook his head when I leaned over to give it to him.
Perhaps he was just cautious. If Azazel were invisible, it would be hard for me to find him if he were hit. I trusted his judgment and left him without it.
Enhaun visua. Azazel had the best eyes of anyone I'd ever met, but I enhanced his vision anyway. It was the first time I'd ever given him the spell, and I figured it worked since he seemed surprised at its effect.
Azazel already had his bow prepared, but he grabbed a second arrow, sticking it between his teeth for easier grabbing. While he was still behind the trunk, he pointed his bow past me to the right and released an arrow.
The ammo mimicked the sound of someone hurrying through brush as it skidded through pine needles. Far beyond the other side of our cover, I heard the muted noise of our pursuer dropping to the forest floor from the height of a tree branch as if she thought we were fleeing.
Azazel had the second arrow nocked in his bow before I could blink, and he tilted out from the trunk. I watched his black eyes immediately snap to movement before he released the arrow. It whizzed through the air and hit wood. A second later, a woman's voice yelped softly. I turned to look around my cover. Lodged in the bark of a tree some yards away was Azazel's arrow, surrounded by frizzed chestnut hair. Just below, the tree and forest floor seemed to wave like a mirage as the woman moved. The illusion darted to the side, and the long hair that had gotten caught up in the arrow was ripped out of our pursuer's head and left behind, hanging from the tree like a trophy. The mirage moved through the forest until I could no longer track it. Azazel fired another arrow, but it flew past, getting lost in the shadows of the conifers.
Whatever magic the woman was using messed with our sight, but Azazel was still skilled enough to shoot through her hair as she ran. He'd asked me to trust him, and I did, but his prowess never ceased to amaze me.
Azazel lifted up a hand to seek life. A blob of red energy hovered over his palm in the shape of a woman, but it appeared to be moving vertically. Given that our pursuer had started this fight while in the trees, I assumed she was in the midst of climbing.
Azazel darted out from behind our tree, rushing into the open and skidding to a stop, pine needles scattering over the ground as his boots disturbed them. He pulled up his bow, waiting a few seconds until releasing the arrow.
Shik!
I heard two curses from two separate voices. Azazel jumped into a roll to take cover behind a fallen trunk, most of its branches broken off or worn down from the natural elements. A white arrow stuck out of the armor above his heart. He hunkered down as he readied another arrow. He was now too far for me to heal him.
Shik! Shik! Two white arrows hit Azazel's cover so hard that splinters exploded outward. It was as if our pursuer was angry at meeting good competition because she had to have known her arrows couldn't reach him through the tree. Azazel stayed low, waiting quietly with an arrow prepared, his superior ears listening for movement.
It felt like hours as we waited. I watched Azazel from my distance, my heart pounding in my ears so hard that I wouldn't have been able to hear the assassin even if the noise was relatively loud.
Shik!
Wood splinters blew by my left cheek a millisecond before a white arrow flipped haphazardly over my shoulder, interrupted in flight by the edge of the tree behind me. I scooted farther to the right defensively. Angry at the assassin's attempt, Azazel finally lifted up, aiming quickly and shooting three arrows in quick succession. I heard one hit our pursuer, and though my friend jerked to the right, a white arrow shot through the air just where his eye had been, the arrowhead slicing through the flesh of his left temple as it passed. Blood dripped slowly from the cut and over perfect blue skin. Azazel barely grimaced. Though he trembled from both pain and adrenaline, he stayed standing to shoot one more arrow. The black ammo zipped through the air. There was a sound of it hitting flesh, followed quickly by a clatter as the assassin's bow hit the forest floor.
Azazel wasted no time in vaulting over the log before him and running through the forest beyond. I took that to mean it was safe, so I hurried to follow him. My best friend skidded to a stop beside a large pine, reaching down and grabbing a beautifully crafted pearl white bow from the ground. He turned and threw the weapon as hard as he could, getting it out of the area.
His black bow was then loaded and pointed at the ground. Only when the pine needles themselves seemed to bleed did I realize Azazel stood over my attempted assassin.
“Show yourself!” Azazel yelled, the bowstring tight as he prepared to release another arrow.
“Who the fuck are you?” The female voice shouted back, full of anger and rage and defeat.
Azazel released the arrow, and the woman grunted. A fresh spray of blood splatted over the pine needles. “Show yourself,” Azazel repeated.
The woman laughed with exasperation. She sounded young but strong. Angry, but proud.
“Who are you, and why are you after me?” I asked, directing my voice to that which I couldn't see.
“I'm after you for the same reason we're all after you,” she retorted.
“I have illusion magic,” I told her. “I will use it on you to force you to answer my questions. Keep some of your pride and do it of your own free will.”
“My pride? My pride? I have no pride any longer! I am a goddess who was sent after a goddess and was bested by a fucking mortal!” I heard her spit, and saw the foam of saliva mix with a spray of her blood.
“Kacela,” I said, putting two and two together. “The goddess of the hunt.”
“How do you know who I am? Nanya said you knew nothing of the gods.”
“Come now, Kacela,” I scolded as if disappointed. “That was over ten years ago. Do you truly think I've gotten this far while remaining in ignorance?”
Kacela finally dispelled her magic. She appeared just as Celdic as her bow, with fair skin and a long mane of chestnut hair. She would have been beautiful if it weren't for the scowl on her face. A chunk of her hair was missing from the back of her scalp where it had been torn out by Azazel's arrow. Four black arrows were peppered in her body. One above her heart matching the injury she'd given Azazel, the second below her left breast, another just above her left collarbone, and the last was stuck all the way through her left hand, which hung limply at her side. I figured that injury to have been the one to disarm her.
Kacela's golden eyes were full of regret as she said, “I should have killed Nanya while you were still in the womb. You are a curse. To all of us. Do you know how old I am? Here I am, on my last day, bested by a half-breed.” She laughed dryly.
“You were bested by a mortal,” I corrected her, using her own words. Azazel still said nothing as he held his bow at the ready, an arrow pointed at Kacela's golden eyes. “Honestly, Kacela, I don't give a damn how old you are. You were lured by Sirius's gold to kill me. That's all I really care to know about you.”
“I was initially lured by the gold, yes,” the goddess seethed, “but then I was motivated by vengeance. You killed my sister.”
I thought of Nirit, the Celdic goddess we'd fought in the Silvi rainforest years ago. “Ah. Well, I sympathize with your motivations, then, but I'll have you know I didn't kill Nirit. She, too, was bested by a mortal, though she managed to take a few good men with her. You couldn't even accomplish that.”
Kacela spat at my boots. “That's where you're wrong,” she rambled, before a cruel chuckle. “I've accomplished more than you think. I didn't even want to kill you. Not until I gave you a message. Why do you think I've been following this army without killing you for weeks? Why do you think I trapped you? I could have just split your brain, but I didn't!”
“Well, you should have,” I retorted. “What's your message?”
“I've already gotten my revenge for Nirit's death,” Kacela informed me, speaking with such purpose that it was like she'd rehearsed telling me this. “I am one of the few gods left alive who knew where Nanya was hiding. Your mother died like a bitch.”
“And Whispermere?” I asked.
Kacela frowned. “Why are you bringing up Whispermere? I killed your mother, Kai!”
“When you killed Nanya, what was left of Whispermere? It's a simple question, Kacela.”
