by Laken Cane
Rune nodded and rode on alone, her stomach tossing and turning as though she’d swallowed a live animal.
She saw the berserker standing beside Lex, and she was able to breathe again. Part of her had believed that before she made it back, the witch would have added two more people to her dungeons.
And she’d gone anyway.
She squeezed her shotgun and wished for her claws.
“All set?” Strad asked, his eyes lighting with relief at the sight of her.
“Set for what?” Lex asked. But it wasn’t really her question. It was Karin’s.
“Yeah,” Rune told Strad.
He nodded.
She dismounted and just stared at the two of them for a long moment.
It would work.
It had to work.
“Lex,” Rune said, “didn’t Strad tell you where I went?”
“He said you went to get some information about the witch.”
“Yeah,” Rune lied. “And I got it. I learned some secrets and her vulnerabilities.”
Lex rubbed her hands together. “Ooh, juicy gossip. I love it.” She laughed, then frowned. “Shit,” she muttered.
Karin was getting stronger.
Hurry, Abby.
“Rune,” Lex said. “If she gains control of my demon, she’ll kill everyone in her path on her way to the witch.”
“You haven’t used your demon since you’ve been here, have you?” Rune asked, understanding the little Other’s fear.
Karin Love grew her power through other people. She had no magic, no demon, no monster. And even so, she’d managed to torment a hell of a lot of people over the years. Karin with Lex’s power might very nearly be the witch’s match—at least in evil. Would she wipe out anyone she saw on her way to the witch? Hell yes.
That and more.
“You have to help me.” Lex shook her head, hard. “Before it’s too late.”
“I will, baby.”
“Get me the witch,” Lex demanded, only it wasn’t Lex.
It was Karin.
Rune snarled and had her fingers wrapped around Lex’s neck before she remembered she couldn’t kill Karin. She could only hurt Lex.
Strad eased her away from the little Other.
“I’m sorry, Lex,” Rune whispered. “God.” She shoved her fingers through her hair.
Lex held her hand to her throat. “I don’t blame you. It’s easy to forget when she comes to the surface.” She met Rune’s tormented stare. “You have to get her out of me, Rune. This world is…” She shrugged.
“It’s giving her strength,” Strad said.
“Yeah.”
Rune closed her eyes for a long moment. “Berserker. Let’s take a walk.”
“What’s the plan?” Strad waited until they were out of earshot of Lex before he spoke, but still kept his voice quiet. “Lex told me it won’t be long before her mother overwhelms her.”
“I know.” She sighed. “I brought back a jar that an old lady put a spell on. Abby will try her best, but I don’t know how easy it will be to fool Karin.”
“She’s getting desperate.”
“Yeah. All we can do is try it and hope it works. Because if it doesn’t…”
“What?”
She didn’t want to tell him. Didn’t even want to say aloud the words that would mean she was exactly like Damascus, that she, too, was full of evil. That she could eat fucking souls.
“Don’t ask,” she said, finally. “I’ll do what I have to do.”
He studied her, devouring her face with his vivid blue gaze. “You always do. But I won’t let you do something that’s going to hurt you.”
“Berserker, you know you can’t stop me.”
He crossed his arms, frustration in every line of his hard body. “Damn you, Rune.”
She grinned. “Did you miss me?”
“Always.” His voice was hoarse and the truth was there in his hot blue eyes.
“My father loves you, Rune Alexander. Not your blood.”
She took a deep breath. “Let’s go back.”
Lex would be deprived the pleasure of killing the monster, but Rune was pretty sure that by then, she’d be happy just being rid of the bitch.
Someday, when they figured something else out, Lex would have her moment. Someday.
“But today is not that day,” Rune murmured.
“Rune—”
But she squared her shoulders and interrupted him. “No, Berserker. There’s work to be done. Let’s go take care of Karin Love and move on to the witch.”
She almost laughed, because those tasks seemed impossible.
Inconceivable.
The same moment they turned to walk back, Lex yelled in surprised shock and pulled her weapons.
“The witch,” Rune screamed.
Strad roared and yanked free his spear.
Together, they sprinted toward Lex.
“Get away from her,” Rune screamed, and threw her blade as Abby, in her guise as the witch, grabbed Lex.
Lex wasn’t just up against the fake witch—she was also battling her mother, who, thinking Damascus had arrived, fought even harder to come to the surface of Lex’s consciousness.
Rune’s blade stuck in the back side of Abby’s arm, but the woman ignored it.
“Come closer and she’s dead,” Abby said, her voice dark, tight, and totally believable.
It was at that second that Rune realized that she’d taken too big a risk. She didn’t know Wicked Abby.
And she’d nearly forgotten Abby’s power.
Lex hung in Abby’s grip, her eyes dull, her lips parted.
Abby watched Rune and Strad as she held Lex with one hand and pulled Rune’s blade free with the other.
She licked the blood from it, grinning.
“There’s really nothing better than my own blood,” she said, and then leaned close to Lex’s lax face. “Tell me, little one, do you want to feel pleasure, or do you want to feel pain? Hmmm? Maybe you’d like a little of both.”
Lex’s body stiffened and she moaned, her voice oily and slick with pleasure.
But in the very next second she shrieked in agony.
“Fuck you,” Rune screamed, and ignoring Abby’s threat and her own lack of weapons, ran straight for them.
“Rune,” Strad yelled. “She’ll kill her.”
Abby jerked Lex to her with only seconds to spare before Rune, minus her monster, reached the two.
And before Rune could attack the woman, Strad grabbed Rune and wrapped his arms around her, his hold too strong for her to break.
Rune howled.
“Rune,” he hissed. “Look.”
Abby had let go of Lex, who had fallen to the ground and watched Abby battle Karin Love to keep her—or so Lex would have thought—from possessing her body.
And finally, as Rune’s heart beat so hard it hurt, Abby’s body relaxed. She shook her hair from her face and grinned.
Her smile stretched across her face, tight and mad. “I got the bitch.”
Lex screamed.
“Lex—” Rune started.
But Lex was beyond hearing. Her mother stood right in front of her, grinning, and she believed Karin had managed to take over the witch.
Lex wanted to kill Karin Love. She needed to.
She’d buried her blades in Abby’s chest before either Rune or the berserker could stop her. She yanked them free and stabbed Abby again, and again, before Strad could force her away.
“Shit.” Rune dropped to her knees beside Abby. “Abby…”
“The jar,” Abby gasped. “Hurry. My pocket.”
Rune ripped free the small jar and pulled out the cork stopper.
Abby parted her lips, blood dripping from the corners. “Now,” she whispered.
Rune pressed the opening of the jar to her mouth. “Shit, Abby.”
She was surprised to find tears in her eyes.
Yeah, Abby was going to die anyway, but shit.
Fuck.
&
nbsp; She was tired of pain, of death, of heartbreak.
And finally, as Rune’s heart beat so hard it hurt, Abby expelled a breath that was tortuous, loud, and continuous, a sound like a tornado filled with wind, screams, and death.
Filled with the soul of Karin Love.
When it was over, Abby was dead and Karin Love…
Karin Love was a fucking brain in a jar.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Rune became slowly aware that Lex and Strad knelt at her side.
The three of them stared down at Abby. Her chest was a raw, bleeding mess, but her slack, beautiful face was serene.
Abby had found her peace.
The jar was cold in Rune’s hands and she stared at it for a long moment before she realized she still held it. She’d somehow stoppered it, but couldn’t remember doing it.
“I’m so sorry,” Lex said. “I…I’m so sorry.”
Rune lifted the jar. “Your mother.”
Inside the jar was a mass of fog, twisting and turning and changing colors. Green, black, white, red.
Karin’s soul.
Lex covered her face and burst into tears. “Mom,” she cried. “My mom.”
Strad stood and lifted Lex with him, and held her in the circle of his arms until she finally sniffed against his chest, drained.
“It’s a harsh world,” Rune murmured, still kneeling. Her energy was gone.
Lex leaned over and put her hands on either side of Rune’s face. She said nothing, because there was nothing to say. But Karin Love no longer peered from her eyes.
Rune nodded. “It’s done. You’re free of the bitch.”
“Not really,” Lex whispered, and took the small, horrifying jar from Rune’s hands.
Rune stood, unsteady.
“Thank you,” Lex said, her voice stronger.
“It was all Wicked Abby,” Rune said. “She even fooled me, and I knew she was coming.”
“She was convincing,” Strad said.
“Why was she called Wicked?” Lex asked, turning the jar around and around in her hands.
“She was the witch’s favorite torturer,” Rune said. “She’s the one who destroyed Cree.”
Lex frowned. “You cried for her.”
“Yeah.” But she didn’t try to explain. She didn’t know how to.
“I’m sorry,” Lex said.
“Don’t be. You have control of Karin Love. That’s pretty fucking awesome.”
“You okay?” Strad asked her.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” She looked around at all of them. “Damascus is waiting for us.”
“Why doesn’t she just meet you head on and fight you?” Lex asked. “It doesn’t make sense. Why is she running?”
“Because she’s scared,” Strad said. “Doesn’t matter what she says. She’s afraid of death.” He gestured at Rune. “Rune is death.”
No one said anything, but Rune felt a surge of something close to excitement.
“I am death,” she whispered.
She wouldn’t fail.
She would take death to Damascus.
There was nothing else to do.
“Where are you going?” Strad asked, when she began to walk away.
“I’m going to fight the witch, take back my monster, and find Z. Maybe not in that order, but that’s what I’m going to do.”
She stopped beside the horse and untied his reins, then slapped him on the rump. He took off, disappearing in seconds.
“Why’d you do that?” Lex asked.
“I’m not leaving you two behind. We’ll get there soon enough on foot.”
“We need our crew,” Lex stated. Then, abruptly, she once more burst into tears. “Don’t mind me,” she said, once she’d gotten herself under control. “I can see, we found Rune, and I’m free of Karin Love. I’ll be emotional for a while.”
They began the walk that would take them to the biggest battle of any of their lives.
The berserker flanked the two women, his spear in his hand. He watched for threats that would come—none of them doubted they would come.
They walked in silence for five minutes.
“What if the jar gets broken?” Lex said, suddenly. “I can’t think about anything else. If she gets free…”
“The jar won’t break, Lex. The crone who had it wouldn’t have given us a delicate vessel to hold such an asshole of a monster.”
Lex nodded. “I’ll have to find a safe place for it. It could get stolen. Anything could happen.”
“Bury it,” Rune suggested.
“I was thinking more along the lines of encasing it in a block of cement and locking it in a vault.”
“You know what you’ll do,” Strad said.
“Yeah,” Lex said. Her voice was soft but there was no mistaking the resolution beneath the softness. “I’ll go home and put her someplace where I can take her out and look at her every day.”
“Brain in a jar,” Rune murmured.
Lex shuddered. “Yes. I can’t imagine anything worse. Or more fitting.”
“The witch is waiting for her doctors to figure out a way to control me forever,” Rune said. “If she manages to put me in a jar—”
“We won’t give up until you’re free,” Strad interrupted.
“Yeah,” Lex agreed. “Don’t ever worry about that.”
“Where the fuck is she?” Rune yelled, and barely refrained from her habit of punching her thigh.
“She’s waiting for you, Princess. And I can take you to her.”
And as they swirled around, blades in hand, Snow stepped from the dark edge of the woods.
Rune put her hands on her hips. “Where have you been?”
Snow smiled and walked toward them, her unbound white hair flowing like a veil around her.
“Strad, Lex,” Rune said. “This is Snow.”
“Your sister,” Lex said, fascinated. “Remember when you had white hair, Rune?”
“Really?” Snow asked.
Lex stuck out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Snow.” But when Snow clasped her hand, Lex lost her smile. “I can’t feel a damn thing,” she muttered. “I don’t like it.”
Snow gazed up at Strad but didn’t make the usual remarks about his size. “Hello,” she said. “So you’re the berserker.”
Rune frowned. “I never told you about Strad.”
“You called for him in your sleep,” Snow said.
Rune’s cheeks burned. She glared at Snow and knew without looking that the berserker would be grinning.
“You don’t have to say everything that comes to your mind, Snow,” she said.
“I’m sorry.” But the sparkle in her eyes didn’t dim.
“For a sister, you’re a pain in the ass.”
“I’m nearly certain sisters are supposed to be pains in the ass.”
“Maybe you could be a little less sisterly, then.”
“Come,” Snow said, smiling. “Let’s find Mother.”
“Why didn’t you tell Rune you could take her to Damascus to begin with?” Lex asked.
“It’s risky,” Snow said. “Risky for all of us.”
“Tell me,” Rune ordered.
“I can…search for her. But when I do, I must open myself—lower my walls, you might say. She’ll see me as well and will send attackers to delay us.” She looked at Rune. “You love your companions. They’ll be the first to die. That’s all she can do until her doctors—who are terrified and desperate but very, very powerful—find the one thing she wants. One reason she hasn’t already destroyed you is because she can’t. But she can kill everything you love.”
Lex took a step away. “Even if you find her, what’s to say she won’t run to another hiding place before we get to her?”
Snow nodded. “Exactly.”
“Not worth it,” the berserker said.
Rune agreed. “We’ll find her on our own.”
“You’ll find her when she’s ready for you to find her,” Snow said, her voice grim. “They will create
what she needs. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Then we’ll have to find her before that happens.” But Rune wasn’t feeling quite as confident.
“There’s another reason she hasn’t already destroyed you. She doesn’t want to. Do you understand? She wants to possess you. She wants to absorb you, to combine with you. She wants your power—all of it.”
“She has my monster.” Rune stumbled over her words, just a little, but her fear was huge.
“Your monster is nothing to her. Your monster is just a hint of the real power inside you. My mother wants the power of Skyll. The power,” she said, spreading her arms, “of an entire world. You should be flattered.” And there it was. The bitterness. The jealousy.
Likely Snow wasn’t even aware of it, but Rune heard it.
“If—when—she has her way, it’ll be like…like a sponge absorbing water. You’ll be the water. There will be no more Rune Alexander. No more princess. She will still be her, but she will also be you. That’s what she wants.”
Rune began to shake. “Shit,” she muttered.
“Can she do that?” Lex asked, when Rune didn’t. “Can she really ever do such a thing?”
“Oh God yes,” Snow said. “She can do anything she wants to do. She just has to figure out how. And that’s what her doctors are for.”
“Rune,” Strad said. “Let me take you home. Let’s leave this fucking place and go home.”
“You have to know she can’t,” Snow said. “She knows she can’t. Killing the witch, defeating the evil, that’s her destiny. It’s not possible for her to leave. She can’t leave, and she can’t die. She has to kill Damascus.”
Rune stopped walking to look at her, her heart fluttering. “What do you mean?”
Snow hesitated. “This world—Mother Skyll, if you will—won’t release you until you’ve fulfilled your destiny. If you don’t kill the witch, the path will not open for you.”
She wanted to be angry. She wanted to rage and cry and slash Snow from throat to belly. But she only walked on, silent.
Because Snow was right. She had known it, really.
Deep down, she’d been aware she couldn’t leave Skyll. Had known it when she couldn’t hear the echoes. In her deepest despair, when she’d been a prisoner of the crawlers, she’d have tucked her tail between her legs and she would have gone the fuck home.
