by Hickory Mack
She wasn’t.
“Fuck off,” she replied. Riven snickered while Callum frowned at her.
“I always thought you were a touch insane, but this is beyond even that,” he said. “You don’t have any other options.”
As he spoke, Elsie was testing her muscles one at a time, gauging what she’d be capable of and how soon, but it wasn’t looking good. Her body wasn’t recovering, and Riven was getting anxious to get them out of here. She had to keep them talking, give herself more time. Pissing them off was the surest way to do that.
“I do have other options. I can choose to die,” she said, wiping the blood from her lips before offering a smile.
“Do you really think he’d let you do it?” Callum asked, nodding at the cuff containing Frost.
“I don’t think he has much of a choice at the moment, does he?” She coughed again. “You guys have always been good at that, taking choices away from people while deluding yourselves into thinking that you’re doing the right thing.”
“She’s being melodramatic,” Marley said. “If she was really going to kill herself, she wouldn’t have taken the elixir.”
“Pain is a powerful motivator,” Elsie disagreed. “Did you test the curse on yourself as well, or just the creatures under your control? Wait, was it even you who did the testing? I’m starting to get the feeling that you’re just a wannabe, Mar. You forget that I’ve met Angus Cornick in person, and we both know you’re not on his level.”
It was a lot of words at once, and she lowered her head, taking long careful breaths. Marley’s eyes were hooded, but they couldn’t hide the anger pressing her lips together, the little lines at the edges of her mouth giving her away.
“Since you brought him up, we have something new to offer you, courtesy of Cornick,” Callum interjected before the healer could speak and make the situation worse. Elsie didn’t react. There was nothing that bastard could offer that she’d ever want. He’d given the orders to capture Saint and kill his entire family, all so he could give the hound demon to Elsie as a gift.
“He remembered how attached you were to the hound he gave you,” Callum said, and she nearly rolled her eyes. Marley made a disgusted noise. Apparently, she hadn’t been aware of what her comrade was going to say next. “Obviously, the wolf attached to you isn’t fit to be a reaper’s companion since there’s no way you’ll ever be able to control it properly. So, as a token of goodwill, he got you an actual hellhound.”
Elsie’s heart dropped. He’d done it again, taken a creature hostage with the intent of forcing it on her. A gift with a world of responsibility, hostility, and hatred attached. Nothing about this was done with Elsie in mind. Cornick was looking for another way to tie her to him through gratitude, and she refused to accept it.
“Saint is irreplaceable,” she bit out, stopping herself from launching into a rant. Her hands shook, and she clenched them into fists.
“Then don’t think of it as a replacement. Think of it as a new opportunity with a new pet demon. I haven’t seen it, but Cornick swears it’s one of the best-looking hellhounds he’s ever seen. I hear he even got her a pretty pink collar with you in mind. She’s strong and healthy, with a lot of magic. She’s a beauty.” Callum was practically gloating, though he’d clearly had nothing to do with its capture.
‘She’s a beauty.’ Those words reverberated around in Elsie’s head. For some reason it pissed her off even more that they’d taken a female this time. What if she had pups out there somewhere, needing their mother?
Riven shifted from one foot to the other uncomfortably. The mage had never said anything during her time on Elsie’s squad, but she’d been obviously upset by the hunters’ treatment of the demons they weren’t hunting. Those they kept for training, or experimentation, or the rare demon kept as a pet sent her into a dark, morose space in her head. Elsie had always suspected that it was a small part of why Riven had left sooner than expected.
“They aren’t yours to play with,” Elsie said.
“Oh, shut up, Chantraine,” Marley snapped. “We already know you’re a disgusting, demon loving, race traitor.”
She snorted, unable and unwilling to control her reaction. “Whose race am I betraying? There’s not a drop of human blood in my veins. I don’t have to love them to know what you’re doing is wrong. What you’re trying to force me to do is wrong. I’ve already told you, fuck off. I’m done taking orders from the Hunter Clans.”
“We were afraid you’d say that,” Callum sighed.
“I wasn’t,” Marley countered. “I knew it was the outcome, but you wanted to try reasoning with her anyway.”
“Because I’m not stupid enough to pick a fight with a reaper unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Callum retorted, and Elsie gave a low chuckle.
“It’s too late for that now. You picked a fight the moment you showed up in my home. This curse is the only thing keeping me from sending all three of you to a hell dimension,” she said. Riven looked at a space over her shoulder, acknowledging that she hadn’t been included in the head count.
Callum’s balls must have been huge because he grinned at her with an apparent lack of self-preservation. “I think we’re at the point where you won’t be sending anyone anywhere for a long while,” he said.
Elsie scowled at him, but he just looked over at Riven with a nod. “Would you open the door for us? We’ll get her out of here now.”
The mage moved to do as he asked as both he and Marley approached her. “You haven’t brought enough people with you to take me anywhere,” Elsie growled, and Marley laughed. The two assassins who’d come with them to her apartment joined them when the door was opened, serious expressions on their faces. Fuck.
Callum didn’t hesitate. He and the red-cloaked mage shoved her flat onto her back, though they were careful not to touch her skin. She tucked up a knee and kicked out, attempting to get a foot between someone’s legs, but Marley wrestled her into position while one of the assassins tied her ankles together.
Elsie called her staff, expecting it to slam into her attacker’s jaws, but nothing happened. Her magic wasn’t responding. Unbelievable. She was as good as useless, and all she could think of was how ridiculous it felt to be overpowered by people so much weaker than she was. Elsie laughed in Callum’s face then let her head thud against the floor. She stopped fighting entirely, knowing there was no point.
“Frost, come to me,” she whispered.
“Who the hell is Frost?” Callum demanded, looking back at Riven, who shrugged in response. A look of boredom had settled over her face, making it more than clear that she didn’t consider herself a part of their drama.
The cuff became warm as Frost tried to break free, but the damned mage on top of her spoke quickly, reestablishing the spell keeping him contained. Then Elsie remembered that even without the wolf, she wasn’t alone. It might be going too far, and she might be asking too much, but she had someone else on her side. She could make it up to her later, however the spirit wanted her to. This was one debt she wouldn’t mind repaying.
Callum shifted his knee to her chest while the assassin wrapped her wrists in the same rope he’d tied her ankles with. The extra compression on her already struggling lungs was too much, but she managed to force enough air into her lungs to call out, “Wren, I need you!”
It was like the air itself had decided to silence the world around them. For three full seconds, there wasn’t a single sound, and then everything around them was chaos. Riven was thrown forward, a look of shock on her face. She landed on top of the hunters’ mage, and they both rolled to the side.
Back in her human form, there was a look of cold fury on the spirit’s pale face. Her brilliant blue eyes were icy in their stare. The assassins whirled around to face her, each raising their weapon of choice, but they’d chosen to go on the offense instead of defending themselves. Callum stood quickly, yanking Elsie back toward him, having time enough to notice that the assassins had never had a chance.
Watching with growing horror, Callum dragged Elsie to the furthest wall. She heard the sound of tearing fabric and saw Wren snapping the wrist of one of the assassins before Callum pulled her outside.
“Get up!” he demanded, forcing her to her feet.
“My ankles are tied together, you fucking idiot. Do you really think I’m going to make this easy for you?” She laughed, the sound dry and humorless. “I can’t make my body work just because you want it to.”
“That thing in there is going to kill us!” he growled, slashing the rope around her ankles to free her movement. Wrapping a hand around her arm, he pulled her along with a force she wouldn’t have guessed he was capable of. One of those they’d left behind let out such a piteous wail that Elsie’s eyes widened. Wren didn’t need to kill the hunters; they just needed to get out of here.
She drove the palm of her hand upward, catching Callum in the throat, but even though she’d put all her strength behind the strike, it wasn’t enough to shake him off. He readjusted his grip and sped up, crashing over a fence behind him. Her captor cursed and grabbed Elsie by the hair, pulling her back up. She coughed, and Wren emerged from the hole Callum had created.
The spirit’s eyes were glowing, and her features had taken on a feral, half-mad look. Opening her mouth to let out a hiss, Elsie noticed a row of sharp fangs had replaced her rounded teeth. A long cat’s tail sprang out from behind her, and instead of pointed elf or doe ears, she had the rounded ears of a large cat.
Wren stalked them as Callum continued to walk backward, keeping Elsie between them. She heard his breath quicken as he pulled her closer so her back was against his chest.
“It didn’t have to turn out this way, Chantraine. Their deaths are on your hands,” he accused her. “All you had to do was come with us like we asked. You never had to deal with the wolf; you never had to deal with the curse. All you had to do was say yes. Do you think this is what we wanted to be doing? We’re just following orders! Nobody needed to get hurt, you selfish fucking bitch.”
“Nobody needs to get hurt except for the demons Grant and Cornick want me to catch for them, you mean,” she corrected, her eyes on Wren. Her beautifully seductive spirit who traced after them in a half-hunched position, ready to pounce.
“Who the fuck cares about them? They’re disgusting killers, and besides that, there are millions of them! Why do you care so much if we take a few to study now and then?” he questioned, his voice shaking.
“Is it scarcity that makes you protect the humans? There aren’t millions of them, so they aren’t as expendable?” Elsie tossed back. “Isn’t part of your job to help them rebuild their population?”
“Don’t twist my words.”
Wren continued narrowing the space between them and Callum jerked to a stop. Gripping Elsie’s hair, he shoved the blade of his knife into her rib cage. She gasped, her body going limp, but Callum wouldn’t let her fall. He held her up, his eyes boring into Wren’s while Elsie seethed in his arms. She fucking hated being so weak.
“She belongs to me,” the spirit declared. She was leaking power at such an alarming rate it created a current of magic, lifting and twisting her hair around her in witchy billows of white.
“No, she belongs to us. Everything she is she owes to the Clan,” Callum growled, “ but that doesn’t mean I won’t sacrifice her to save myself. This was just a warning. I didn’t hit anything important in there, but if you come one step closer, I can easily change that.”
“Why would you harm her if you want her so much?” Wren demanded.
“If you let me go, she’ll let you live,” Elsie bargained, but Wren shook her head, her face filled with wrath.
“I will not.”
“Wren—”
“Reaper, I have already told you. You are mine. I will not allow these lesser creatures to take you from me,” Wren explained, as though Callum were nobody of any consequence. Under any other circumstances, she probably would have melted at Wren’s possessive claim of ownership. Right now, all she wanted was to get out of this alive. One of the spirit’s ears flicked back toward the community house, and a cruel smile parted her lips.
“Frost should be able to come out and play now,” she said, the reason behind her smile made clear. The red-cloaked mage who’d contained the wolf was dead. Elsie’s cuff glowed hot, and the smoke that came from it as Frost pushed his way out was the thickest she’d ever seen it.
Callum stumbled backward, taking her with him and jarring the knife in her side. It didn’t matter how far he moved back. The smoke was opaque, so they couldn’t see anything. Elsie felt a tug on her wrist, then the metallic sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath.
There was a thud and a spray of hot liquid. Callum screamed and fell back, releasing her hair. Elsie scrambled forward, slipping on what she assumed was blood, but before she hit the ground a strong, soft arm caught her. Wren pulled her against her body and jumped straight up. They were several feet above the smoke for a few seconds before landing outside of it.
Frost had turned half the village into a kill zone. Screams reverberated from within, but Elsie had no stern words for him. This wasn’t the red planet. These weren’t the sky people. The hunters may have been following orders, but they’d made the choice to make it personal.
Wren gathered her close then reached down and smoothly pulled the knife out of her ribs. Elsie pressed her hand over the hole, trying but failing to keep the blood inside of her body. Without hesitation, the spirit lifted her into her arms and ‘slid’ from one place to the next. One second, they were in the middle of the village, and the next, they were several miles away.
Setting Elsie onto some moss, Wren tore away at her clothes, pulling the robes over her head and lifting her shirt so she could see the extent of the damage.
“Lie still,” she said softly. “I’m going to take care of you.”
“I trust you,” Elsie whispered, and she meant it.
Wren pulled fists full of moss out of the ground, separating the plant from the root. Elsie’s hand touched something hard next to her, and she glanced over to see a snow white sword with an equally snowy sheath embellished with silver designs. It warmed at her touch, and she looked to the spirit with a puzzled expression.
“How did you use my staff?” she asked, well aware that it didn’t respond to those it didn’t recognize as its owner. Wren just kept working instead of answering her. After a few seconds, she looked Elsie in the eye.
“This may hurt at first, but I’ll make it better, I promise,” she said. Elsie’s fingers curled around the sword as she closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and nodded. Wren used the moss to clean out the wound, pulling out any impurities and bacteria. Moss was a natural producer of iodine, and it would sterilize the puncture. After it was clear, the spirit used more moss to stanch the bleeding.
“You frightened me,” Wren whispered, looking at her hands applying the pressure rather than at Elsie.
“I’m sorry, Wren. I didn’t mean to,” Elsie replied, just as quietly. All the fight had gone out of her. She just didn’t have the energy to be indignant or defend herself. She looked up at the trees, watching them ripple in the wind as clouds drifted lazily by.
“I got something for you,” the spirit said. She produced the vial Marley had been holding. The one nearly three times bigger than what they’d given her. Elsie gave the white-haired spirit a lopsided smile. She’d bought them a little more time.
“I don’t know what to do anymore,” she admitted. “There wasn’t a plan beyond getting to Riven and asking for help. I’m not familiar with any other mages. I guess I put all my eggs in one basket, as the saying goes.”
“Mages were never the answer,” Wren said stubbornly.
“What is the answer?” Elsie asked, twirling the vial between her fingers. “Once this runs out, it’s over. I’ll have no choice but to go back to them.”
“I won’t allow it to happen without a solution in place.”
A silence stretched between them. The sentiment was sweet, but Elsie really didn’t see what the spirit thought she was going to be able to do for her. Neither of them had any idea of how to deal with the curse.
“If I had to go, would you stay with me?” she asked, realizing that she was afraid of the answer. She’d already become so damned attached to the spirit, but she had no reasonable explanation for why. Wren reached out and took her hand, twining their fingers together. She didn’t say a word, and that hurt even more than if she’d said no. “It’s okay. There’s no need for it to be a problem between us. I understand.”
“You understand what?” the spirit asked, slowly turning her head to look Elsie in the eye.
“If you don’t want—”
“You understand nothing,” Wren said, looking away.
“Then help me so I do.”
The spirit inched her way up and dropped a tender kiss on Elsie’s lips. It was comforting rather than sexy, born of a need for connection. Wren held her still, taking her time to impress just how deeply she cared. When she pulled her lips away, it was to press their foreheads together, her eyes closed as she breathed Elsie’s air.
“I have needed you for a long time, Elspeth Chantraine.”
“We just met a few days ago,” Elsie breathed, trying to lighten the mood a bit, though she’d caught hints of the same emotions in her own chest over that time. She didn’t even ask where the spirit had heard her full name. It must have been something she’d overheard from one of the hunters.
“You’re mine,” Wren growled. Elsie smiled patiently, tilting her chin to steal another light kiss.
