Bloodrose

by Andrea Cremer

  I pawed the ground anxiously as we waited. With our separate mission in play, we were among the last of the teams to move out. I lifted my muzzle, testing the air for any signs of danger. Or allies.

  Where were the Nightshade and Bane packs?

  As much as this was a quasi-surprise attack, the Keepers would be anticipating our arrival. Anika and all the Searchers knew that. Our enemies were waiting for us, but where?

  Would my father be running with Emile’s wolves, ready to turn on his adversary when the right moment came? Were they on their way here now?

  “It’s time.” Adne closed the portal, sheathed her skeans, and pulled out that wicked steel whip she’d used in the practice match with Shay while we were in Denver.

  “You should stay here.” Connor frowned. “I don’t like risking you.”

  Adne laughed. “Sorry, Connor. All the Weavers are in this fight. Including me. Anika’s orders, remember?”

  He shook his head but trudged down the slope with Adne grinning as she kept pace with him.

  Ren, Mason, Bryn, and I formed a protective ring around Shay and the two Searchers. I took point, while Bryn and Mason trotted beside them. Ren stayed at our rear. As we entered the garden, I snarled at the marble incubi and succubi that were arranged like sentinels all around us.

  “Don’t worry, Calla,” Shay said. “We’re keeping an eye on them.”

  “Yes, we are,” Connor said. “And if they break open those shells, we’ll know that Bosque is already here.”

  I sniffed the air, still bristling.

  Is that supposed to reassure us somehow? Mason barked at him, baring his teeth at Connor.

  We’d made it a few yards into the estate grounds when the first shouts rose from the teams ahead of us.

  “Looks like we’ve got incoming,” Connor said.

  Shay drew his swords, squinting into the distance.

  I waited to hear the ringing of steel and snarls of wolves, assuming that our allies would encounter Guardian resistance as they closed in on Rowan Estate. But the Searchers’ shouts weren’t battle cries. They were confused yells, filled with fear.

  “What’s happening?” Adne and Connor were standing back-to-back as they scanned the gardens around us.

  I snarled, wanting to run into whatever conflict was taking place ahead. But our directive was to keep out of the fray.

  “Look!” Shay pointed the tip of one sword at the tall hedges that lined the garden’s paths. The hedges were moving. Not moving, growing.

  Connor swore, bolting forward as the thick knotted branches swarmed over the path, breaking through the paved walkways and twisting in wild patterns around us. The hedge climbed before our eyes, rising at an impossible speed.

  “Connor!” Adne shouted as a new hedge burst up between us, blocking our way to him.

  I heard him yell but couldn’t see through the wall of branches that separated us.

  Adne was running along the hedge, shouting Connor’s name. A yelp sounded behind me. I wheeled around to see Mason being thrown backward as new branches, fast and hard as whiplashes, slammed into his body. Bryn barked, leaping after him, snapping at the attacking vines. I howled in frustration as Bryn, Mason, Ren, and Shay disappeared from sight.

  I turned back around, racing after Adne, who was still running and shouting. She changed direction as a new hedge appeared, blocking her path forward. I threw myself into the air, crashing into her. She struggled as I pinned her down.

  I was still snarling when I shifted forms. “Stop it! Adne, stop!”

  She was breathing hard, but she pulled her fists back so she was no longer beating at my chest and shoulders. “We have to find him!”

  “It’s not just him.” I stood up, pulling her to her feet. “We lost the others too.”

  “What?” Her eyes widened as she wheeled around to see the labyrinth that had exploded from the earth to surround us.

  “We’re cut off.” I pressed my hands against the hedge and thorns pierced my skin.

  A howl broke through the night.

  Adne looked at me, her eyebrow raised. “Friends?”

  “No,” I said quietly.

  Another howl sounded, and another. The wolves’ cries rose one by one, filling the air with their battle song. I turned in a slow circle, listening, tracking their calls.

  “We’re surrounded.”

  Adne swore under her breath. “They’re separating us. Keeping the teams apart.”

  I nodded. “They were waiting for us.”

  She strode along the labyrinth walls, turning corners, finding dead ends. “What do you want to bet that the Keepers’ side has a map that solves this maze?”

  “That does seem likely.” I looked up at the hedge. It was too high to jump.

  “We’re sitting ducks in here,” Adne said. “The wolves will hunt us, take each group one by one, and none of us will see them coming.”

  “We have to find a way out,” I said. “Keep going.”

  The howls were close now. Hundreds of wolves were running. I could smell them, hear their paws crunching in the snow as they descended on the garden from all sides. The other Searcher teams were still panicked, shouting as they tried to escape the maze. Men and women were calling out for one another, trying to find their allies.

  Then the screams began.

  Adne closed her eyes. “It’s started.”

  TWENTY-TWO

  THE SOUNDS OF BATTLE filled my ears and I wished I could shut them out. The buzz of crossbow bolts whizzed in the air; growls and snarls rose toward the sky. If I were in the midst of the fight, it wouldn’t have bothered me. But this unseen war—violence and death that might be lurking around any corner—sent fear scurrying up and down my spine. We hadn’t run into any wolves yet, but it was only a matter of time. Adne and I could fight off three or four, but I had a feeling we wouldn’t be facing anywhere near that few.

  And there were other sounds too, building my anxiety. Screams of a pain beyond the kind any Guardian could cause.

  “There’s a wraith in the maze,” I whispered. “Maybe more than one.”

  Having hit another dead end, Adne and I crouched low, desperate to come up with a plan. The maze wasn’t only cutting us off, it constantly changed shape. Hedges sprang up only to sink back into the earth. Thorny branches shot out in the middle of the path, tripping us as we’d run.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  I nodded, wishing I wasn’t. “We have to find Shay.”

  I shifted into wolf form, prepared to attack any enemy Guardians we encountered, and we started to run again. I hoped we were heading in the direction of where we’d first been separated.

  “Look!” Adne turned toward a new opening in the labyrinth. “Let’s go.”

  I caught the scent just before we turned the corner. Grabbing Adne’s shirt as I shifted forms, I screamed, “Stop!”

  I was dragging her backward when it came into view. The wraith slithered from behind the curved hedges, moving slowly toward us.

  “Come on.” Adne gripped my hand and we bolted back in the direction we’d come from.

  The maze had shifted again, presenting yet another path.

  “Damn it,” I said as we pulled up in front of a dead end.

  I turned around only to see the opening in the hedge through which we’d just passed closing up.

  “Well, at least the wraith is on the other side,” Adne said. The words had only left her lips when the wraith emerged through the hedge, its form oozing from between the branches like tar.

  “Oh, no fair!” Adne shouted.

  The wraith was closing in. There wasn’t anywhere to go.

  “Shay!” I screamed, not knowing what else to do. “Shay! Help us!”

  We backed against the wall; my eyes were locked on the swirling shadows of the wraith’s body. Its scent filled my nostrils, making me want to retch. Memories of the pain it could cause sent shuddering tremors through my limbs.

  “Adne, you have to
get out of here. Weave a door!”

  “A door to where? Do you want to run back to the Academy? If I weave into the battlefield, I could put us right on top of a wraith! There’s no out that way.” Her voice shook. “I don’t know what to do. Unless . . .”

  “Unless what?”

  She’d turned around, facing the hedge behind us.

  “Shay!” I screamed again.

  “Calla!” His voice was right behind. “Where are you?”

  I whirled around, ignoring the pain as thorns tore my skin when I pressed my hands against the hedge. “I’m here! With Adne!”

  “I can’t get to you,” he shouted. He was right on the other side of the maze wall. “Bryn, Mason, Ren! Get over here! They’re behind this hedge.”

  I could smell his scent, just out of reach.

  “Calla!” Ren shouted. “Are you okay?”

  “There’s a wraith.” My voice was raw. “We’re trapped.”

  I heard Mason’s whining and his paws scratching at the dirt, trying to get to us. Bryn’s nose poked beneath the branches, but she yelped when a thorny vine lashed her muzzle like a whip.

  “I’m going to try to cut through the hedge,” he yelled. “Stand back.”

  “No, wait!” Adne cried.

  “What do you mean, wait?” I glanced over my shoulder at the wraith.

  Adne ignored me. She’d dropped her whip and held her skeans in her hands. With a sudden cry she plunged the slender spikes into the earth.

  I shoved my hands over my ears as a horrible sound pierced the air all around me. The shriek was full of pain and outrage. And it was coming from the hedge.

  “That’s right, bitch,” Adne hissed. “Get off this earth and go back to hell where you belong.”

  The branches of the hedge were shaking. Its leaves began to wither, shriveling up and crumbling. The shuddering of the limbs became more violent. Thorn-covered branches splintered into brittle pieces. The living walls of the hedge spilled down in a wave of dried bits and ash that had been leaves. The maze vanished, leaving only shallow piles of debris marking its pattern on the white snow. Shay stood in front of me, swords still raised high. “What the—”

  Adne groaned and slumped onto her side.

  I began to turn toward her, but Shay shouted, “Calla, get down now!”

  He leapt over me as I shifted, flattening my body against the snow. I rolled along the ground, scrambling to my feet. As I pivoted, I saw the wraith bearing down on Adne and Shay hurtling through the air toward the creature.

  I barked in alarm, starting after him, but Ren jumped in front of me, snarling.

  No.

  Get out of my way. I bared my fangs at him.

  But the growl died in my throat.

  Shay flung himself at the wraith. The Elemental Cross spun in his hands at blinding speed. The blades sliced into the dark mass of the creature’s body faster than whirling helicopter blades.

  The wraith screamed.

  I’d never heard a wraith scream before. I’d never heard them emit any sort of sound. But there was no doubt that it was shrieking in agony.

  The wraith’s inky tendrils crackled as if full of electricity. It screamed again and then its body spewed upward, like black steam exploding from a geyser, and it was gone.

  Shay landed on the other side of where the wraith had been. He wheeled around, blades ready to strike again. When he realized the wraith was gone, he straightened and threw me a sheepish smile.

  I barked at him, wagging my tail.

  “Adne!” Connor was running toward us through the snow and the remnants of the maze.

  Adne pulled herself into a crouch, leaning back on the heels of her hands. “I’ll be okay . . . I think.”

  Connor helped her to her feet and grinned at Shay. “Nice work. I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “Do what?” Shay frowned. “You knew I could kill wraiths. Because of these.” He held up the swords.

  “Not the wraith,” Connor said. “Though that was good too. I meant the maze. If you hadn’t gotten rid of it, this party would have been over before it started.”

  Connor turned, gesturing in the direction of the manor. “The teams will be able to regroup their attacks now.”

  “I didn’t do anything to the maze,” Shay said. “The hedges fell apart and the next thing I knew, I was looking at Calla. Then I saw the wraith going for Adne.”

  Connor stared at him, his brow furrowing. Adne brushed snow from her clothes, avoiding eye contact with any of us. I shifted forms, watching her closely.

  “She did it.” I pointed at her. “She . . . killed the labyrinth.” I didn’t have any other word to describe what Adne had done. Somehow she had attacked the Keepers’ living hedge as it trapped us. And she’d defeated it.

  Connor gripped Adne’s arms, fixing a hard gaze on her. “How? How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I knew it wasn’t natural—that it didn’t belong. So I asked her for a favor.”

  “Asked who?” Shay paced around our huddled groups, scanning our surroundings for signs of danger. From what I could tell, the Banes’ attack had been concentrated on the teams ahead of us.

  Even in the moonlight I could see Adne blush. “The earth.”

  “You can call in a favor from the earth?” Connor asked. “That’s on your resume?”

  She smiled. “That’s what all Weavers do. I just took it a step further.”

  “No one has ever done that, Adne,” Connor said slowly. “No one.”

  “I know,” she murmured.

  Their eyes met and something important, but unspoken, passed between them. I couldn’t be sure what it was.

  With the wall of tangled branches gone, I could see the storm of battle that raged ahead of us. Wolves crashed into the Searchers with the force of a tidal wave. Sharp teeth tore into human flesh, cutting off screams of pain as quickly as they began. The unending wails that rose horribly into the sky told me wolves weren’t the only enemy waiting in the darkness. Wraiths slid through the shadows, engulfing Searchers at will.

  My eyes scanned the edge of the garden. It didn’t take long to find them. A line of twenty Keepers—our masters and some of their children, whom I recognized from school—had taken up positions at the edge of the dry reflecting pool. All were elegantly dressed, as if they were about to be seated for a formal dinner, not observe a battle. But they stood overlooking the carnage, like generals directing their infantry. With casual grace, the Keepers’ arms began to twist in the air, their fingers dancing in intricate movement.

  Screeches filled the air and the sky above us came alive with dark, writhing shapes. Succubi and incubi appeared, summoned by their masters, to enter the fray. Searchers cried out warnings and crossbow bolts shot past the Nether creatures’ javelins. Some of the winged attackers dropped to the earth. Others dove at the Searchers, snatching them from the field of battle, rising to impossible heights to drop the human fighters to their deaths. A few Searchers, snagged in incubi talons, managed to get in a fatal blow with a dagger or sword as they were borne into the sky, taking the Keepers’ minions along with them into death’s veil.

  I watched bodies fall and writhe beneath fur and claws, leathery wings and talons, or simply disappear into the darkness of a wraith’s smoke-like body. Wolves went down too, bright blood scattering across the pristine snow, pooling beneath the still bodies of Bane Guardians. But the number of Searchers lying on the ground, unmoving, was quickly outnumbering that of wolves. The Banes were stalking, circling the strike teams. They moved in unison, their pack instincts guiding the hunt, allowing them to coordinate their attacks in ways the Searchers could never hope for.

  I watched the wolves take down warrior after warrior. If I’d watched this no more than a month earlier, I would have howled with pride. This was how Guardians waged war. It’s why we always won. Why the Searchers were losing now.

  The heavy weight of growing despair settled beneath my ribs. We couldn�
�t win. Even if we got inside, if Shay somehow defeated Bosque, the battle outside was lost. How many Searchers would die today?

  Connor cleared his throat, his gaze, like mine, locked on the brutal scene ahead of us. “We need to keep moving. The fighting seems to be concentrated to the east. That’s good; we’ll head for the north side of the garden and to the house from there.”

  He didn’t mention that it looked like our side was losing. Badly.

  “There are other wraiths,” Shay said. “I should go after them.”

  Connor shook his head. “Not part of the plan. We need you inside.”

  “I’m the only one who can kill them,” Shay growled.

  “We knew that there would be wraiths in this battle,” Connor said. “There always are. But you can’t be caught up at the front. We don’t have time.”

  Shay stiffened but turned to the north. “Let’s go, then.”

  I shifted back into wolf form, sticking close to Shay’s side as we skirted the edge of the battle. Adrenaline had my pulse racing. I could smell the Banes and taste blood on the air.

  A low growl rumbled in my chest.

  I know. Ren’s voice entered my mind. I want to be in that fight too.

  Wish granted. Mason came to a halt, bristling.

  We’d reached the northern edge of the garden, and part of the battle had spilled out in front of us. Wolves and Searchers danced around each other in a blur of deadly movements. Steel flashed as blades caught the moonlight. The wolves’ muscles rippled beneath their fur as they slammed into the Searchers’ bodies. Shouts and snarls blended into a terrible roar as they fought. And they were blocking our path to the house.

  Backup plan? Bryn asked.

  I’ll tell you if I come up with one. I braced myself. If we were going down, it wouldn’t be without a fight.

  “Damn it,” Connor said. “So much for containment.”