by L. M. French
“You were never worthy of his seal. Now you think to steal what rightfully mine!” He gripped my hair, just like his mother, and dragged me back against his chest.
Desperately my hands searched for purchase against his body. A connection so my light could leap from me to him and end the Reaver. Anticipating my intentions, he circled my wrist pulling first one then the other behind me.
It took effort to prevent the growing power from exploding free and I struggled. It would kill all the horde and hounds in the cavern but I didn’t think my power would be so discerning as to spare the clans and Amerai.
His reaver blade appeared in front of my face. “I learned a little something from the old bastards that entombed your master. Pointing the tip at my chest he began to carve into my skin. All the sudden the magic traveling my body was trapped like a cork shoved in a bottle.
“What-” I gasped.
He leaned his head against mine. “See, they had to have a way to bind him, being all omnipotent and shit. Turns out,” he tapped my chest with the flat of his blade, “they have a nifty set of runes to trap power.”
He slid my hair off my neck. “Even yours,” he breathed the words against my neck before he struck.
Agony drew a scream from my throat as he fed from me. He groaned and did some distinctly un-brotherly grinding against my back as swallowed greedily. The whole experience was horrific and my last thought as darkness slid across my eyes was, I was going to die while being dry humped by my psycho foster brother.
Between one moment in the next I went from floating into the darkness to lying limply against the wall. My eyelids were heavy, but I pried them open as I watched Ivory battle something dark.
Squinting my eyes, I watched the thing slash and rip at Ivory until blood flowed from multiple wounds across his body.
Suddenly sound returned and I heard Pike's voice taunting Ivory. “The only reason your still breathing is because you served a purpose. But you have officially outlived your usefulness.”
Pike beat the daylights out of Ivory while the shadow swirled around him, alternately protecting Pike, and carving up the Reaver.
Shadow!
Holy crap, it was Pike’s shadow that was fighting Ivory.
Ivory roared eyes red fangs hanging low as he began throwing incantations at Pike. But as a reaver he gave up most of his clout as a Timorii descendant and his magic lacked oomph so to speak.
Pike laughed in his face and simply stood there like he was observing something amusing. His shadow shot forward like an arrow spearing through Ivory’s mouth and out the back of his head. His skull exploded, bits of brain and bone sprayed me and the wall behind me as his body folding over on itself.
My mouth opened and closed while my brain tried to process what had happened.
Pike stepped over Ivory’s corpse and knelt in front of me.
Scooping something out of my hair he brushed off my shoulders. I swore an oath right then and there I wasn’t going to look.
Swallowing I found my voice, “What the hell, Pike.”
He huffed at me. “I was about to ask you the same thing, seal-bearer. What part of stealth was difficult for you?”
I cringed. “I was angry.”
He studied me. “We’re all angry, Veda. Emotion can’t guide you here. If you think with your heart, you’re going to find yourself a prisoner of your own making.”
I eyeballed him. “That advice seems oddly specific.”
He grabbed me under the arms and lifted me to my feet. “Time to do what we came to do. Let's go.”
Pike stepped to the side dragging me silently behind him. He pulled me immediately out of the main room and into a hallway holding a finger over his lips in the universal sign for “be quiet or else”. Our steps were mostly soundless until something thick squished against the sole of my boot.
Looking down I cringed at the severed ear mashed in the tread of my boot.
Tugging on my hand brought my head up where Pike was gesturing sternly for me to keep moving.
I yanked back waving manically at my boot where the ear refused to budge no matter how hard I shook my foot.
He mimed brushing it off with my hand and I cringed back because there was absolutely no way I was scraping an ear off with my bare hands. There had to be some line I wouldn’t cross.
And this was it.
I would not flick an ear unattached from a head. This was my limit.
He gave me a look that said really? and I shook my foot at him to prove it wasn’t going to remove itself.
Jerking me forward he reached down and ripped the offending ear away tossing it randomly to the side before pulling me behind him.
Ducking around the pillar ahead of us, we slid into some kind of antechamber, although that might be a generous term given the walls were damp and a pungent odor clinging in the air.
Deciding I could risk it I leaned into Pike where he still gripped my arm. “What are we doing? Shouldn’t we stay and help?”
Pike rolled his eyes leading me out the other side into a corridor of sorts. “You have a job to do. Bay and the others have it covered.”
He picked up the pace until we were in a light jog quickly rounding a corner when the walls suddenly opened. Staring straight at it I wasn’t sure what exactly I was seeing. I tilted my head. “Is it upside down.”
Pike drew me down out of the corridor into a strange barren courtyard. Suspended above it was a temple. An upside-down temple.
There was something off about it aside from the obvious.
Pike seemed to sense the barrage of questions floating on my tongue and answered. “Upside down and inside out. Completely inverted. “
Huh. Okay.
I didn’t see a handy set of stairs and as strange as my life had become, I hadn’t sprouted wings. “How do we get in there?”
Pike's grin was both rueful and devious. If it didn’t make me nervous, I’d totally smile back. He pivoted towards me, and I matched his movement until we were standing face to face, our chests almost touching. “You’re going to get us in.”
My eyebrows winged up as he rocked back on his heels seeming incredibly pleased with himself.
“And how the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“Make a door.”
I choked. On thin air. That’s how preposterous his suggestion was. “Make a door?”
“Mmm-hmmm. “He hummed.
“Gee is that all.” My voice was high. Hysteria was imminent. This was his plan?
Bending his knees, he grabbed me by the shoulders. “Time to nut up, seal-bearer. You want to save the day? Gotta tighten that sphincter and go full tilt boogie.”
My glare should have leveled him but noise from the caverns we’d passed broke my concentration before he died from spontaneous combustion.
“Now or never.” He quipped.
My head tipped back, and I took in the unusual structure hanging above me.
Okay, I could do this. Just manifest a whole door out of thin air. It was fine, everything was fine.
Snarling echoed from the corridors we’d spilled out of and the sound of claws scraping the walls soon followed.
“Sooner rather than later, seal-bearer. We’re about to have company.”
Pike gave me his back as they closed in on us. Sweat, blood and other things streaked his skin. Claws marks slashed across the back of his neck and the skin was split across his knuckles.
Outwardly he seemed calm almost bored, but his urgency beat at me, and my heart raced. Raising my eyes back to the temple, our destination- our salvation if I could get us there.
I reached inside, not for the fire I used to choke the snake eater but for the old faithful, my internal compass that told me a door was nearby. Only this time I told it a door was near.
Air moved around me as I reached my right hand for the door-that-would-be and my left gripped Pike’s shirt. Warm breath hit the back of my neck and teeth grazed my skin and I threw myself into the space that was
no longer empty but swirling with light. And I took Pike with me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Veda
I grunted when we hit the floor rolling over one another until we crashed into something that shattered but ultimately halted our momentum. Coughing to regain my breath, I shoved at Pike’s side where he’d landed on top of me. Thankfully, he moved more or less quickly shaking off remnants of whatever we destroyed from his shoulders.
Looking around he grinned. “That was close.”
I rolled my eyes. Fucking wolves. “Are we in the right place?”
He nodded dragging me to my feet. “Yup, made it one, Grey. Good job.”
That was it. God job. Like I manifested doors every day and this was not the momentous occasion it was. He took off to our right as if he knew exactly where he was going and I scrambled after him.
“Have you been in here before?”
He glanced over his shoulder before his eyes shifted away. “Once. The tombs on the lower level are full we have to climb.”
The hallway spilled open to a rough staircase that looked like it had been carved with a spoon. When I said open, I meant open. I’d just placed one booted foot on the step when rocks exploded near my head. Pike reached down and jerked me straight off my feet before planting me on the stairs in front of him.
“Looks like they found us. Better kick it in the ass,” he said with a shove.
Kick it in the ass we did. Running the stairs as fast as we could I went left when he said left and right when he said right. Sometimes I just followed when he’d jerk me by my arm at the last minute. Winded and slightly nauseas from the spiraling race I slid to a stop when his arm dropped in front of me.
I turned to see him surveying the hall we’d entered. Greenery grew and flowed through the craggy structure making dark corners darker and providing cover for and ambush. His thoughts seemed to run along the same lines when he said, “Be careful. They may have planned for this.”
Easing quietly ahead I investigated each room we passed. Sounds from the ongoing battle were faint but still echoed up to us while we searched for Sai’s body.
We’d just passed a darkened room when that invisible thread, the one that had always connected me to my king vibrated. Stopping abruptly, I grabbed Pike's arm. He looked from me to the room I nodded toward.
Pike slid along the wall before breathing deep through his nose. He was scenting the room. Turning back toward me he shook his head.
Swallowing I stepped forward and held up my hand and just like that, my own ball of sunshine.
Nodding to me Pike stepped to my side as we slowly entered the chamber. Three steps brought us down to a sunken floor where a single shrouded form lay. Moving to him I had an awkward moment where I tried to figure out what to do with the orb I’d conjured before it floated gently up above us illuminating the space.
Pike knelt on one side of the shroud and I mirrored his movements. He reached down and slashed through the shroud revealing Sai’s face, chest, and the runes scrawled across them.
I reached for Sai’s hand when Pikes snapped out to grab my wrist. “Veda-”
The floor beneath us shook and we both froze. Pike's head cocked as if he were listening to something I couldn’t hear. Had to be one of the clans.
His hand tensed on mine, and I practically vibrated with nerves. “Pike we don’t have-”
His eyes flashed to mine. “Don’t give him anything.”
What? “I don’t understand.”
He pulled me until I was stretched across Sai’s body, and we were nose to nose. “Don’t. Give. Him. Anything.”
Without another word he dropped my hand and raced out of the chamber leaving me alone with my little orb of light and my kings stone cold corpse.
Awesome.
Tremors moved through the temple shaking my body almost like it was telling me to hurry the fuck up. Inhaling deep to steady my nerves I reached out for Sai’s hand. The moment my palm slid into his electricity shot up my arm. My back bowed and my legs shot, knees locked and I felt my body hit the floor. My vision wavered and I felt rather than saw the body next to me move.
Letting my head fall to the side, the blob in front of me slowly cleared until Sailas’ yellow eyes stared back into mine. Slowly he grinned.
My tongue felt too big for my mouth, and I had to swallow several times before I could speak. “You’re okay?”
His upper body rose, levitating until her was on his feet. I watched from my heap on the floor as he tore the rest of the shroud free. Looking around while the temple continued to shudder, he reached down and lifted me up to my feet.
My head swam, pain radiating throughout my body as my bones felt like they’d shattered. Cringing where agony radiated from my palm, I glanced down to see in the seal on my palm a scorpion was devouring my beautiful stars.
My eyes lifted to his filled with horror. “What’s happening?”
And wasn’t I getting sick and tired of asking that question?
He smiled gently. At least I would have thought it was gently just a few short days ago. But his eyes held satisfaction and that sent unease skittering through me.
Before I could question what I saw he lifted his hand to my shoulder. Just like that we no longer stood in the temple but beneath it.
In the middle of the gods damn melee.
A wolf, horde not clan, lunged for my throat but was yanked back. I staggered when Bay roared ripping the wolfs head from its shoulders. His muscles bulged and his veins stood out in stark contrast.
Blood soaked every inch of his body dripping from his shirt and imprinted on the ground where he moved. He started towards me when everything and everyone just stopped.
Wolves, clan, and horde were locked in battle. Amerai frozen mid-cast. I looked back over my shoulder where Sai stood.
“Why did you freeze the Daenali? The Amerai? We came to save you?”
Sai wasn’t looking at me though.
“He didn’t. I did.” A voice said.
I spun away from Sai when Ace stepped around Bay’s shoulder but it was the man at his side that held me poleaxed.
Pike stood to his right just a step behind Ace. Ace who knew Pike was there and didn’t even flinch because he knew he was there.
Because they were friends. Or at least allies.
I couldn’t look away from Pike’s green eyes. Eyes I’d known for years. Eyes I’d trusted. Betrayal was sour in my stomach.
I switched my gaze to Ace since looking at Pike made me physically ill. “What? No knife wielding friends?”
A surreptitious glance around didn’t reveal Myra’s form lurking nearby.
Ace’s eyes bored into me his jaw rigid. “I am not your enemy, ceela mrae.”
Ceela mrae. I didn’t understand the words. But the feeling they invoke tickled the back of my brain.
It was distracting enough that I didn’t see Jericho move. Move and point a gun at Pike.
“You fucking traitor.” He pulled the trigger.
The gun shot was deafening with the complete lack of movement around us and I lurched forward. “Nooo!”
Suddenly my neck was collared in a tight grip, my air choked off as I struggled to get to Pike.
It didn’t make sense, his betrayal, and I didn’t want him dead before I figured out why he’d done it. I fought against the grip on my neck but was lifted onto my toes.
By some miracle Pike kept his feet, only staggering back as his shadow ripped from his body and tackled Jericho to the floor. Jericho who was still attacking, still moving despite everyone’s frozen state.
Ace’s eyes bored into Sais as he stormed forward. “You think you can keep this up forever? You’re already spent, Sailas. Let her go.”
The grip around my neck tightened and Sai’s voice filled my ear.
“He’d be right if it wasn’t for you. I needed you to free me,” he squeezed tighter, “I needed you to fuel me. Now, I can rid myself of him once and for all.”
Heat seared my neck and I screamed soundlessly. The burning seemed endless until he shoved me away violently. I catapulted forward only to be gripped tightly against a hard body. Tears streamed from my eyes, and I gasped from the blistering pain around my throat. I felt hollow like I’d been metaphysically field dressed.
Ace’s eyes stared into mine and were filled with sorrow. Standing tall he held me to him. “We’re free and we’re staying that way. Even with what you just stole you don’t have the juice to force us back.” He slid back a step.
Finally lifting my head from where it hung limply, I stared into the face of my king.
My father figure.
My savior, or so I thought.
His eyes were mad with glee. Raising a hand, he snapped his fingers, and the world came to life around us.
Bodies clashed around us as fighting resumed, none the wiser for the interruption that had seen them frozen in time.
Bay startled, his head whipping around when he realized immediately I was no longer in front of him. Instead I was cradled in the arms of a being he did not know nor trust. His eyes narrowed focusing below my chin and I could only imagine what my neck looked like.
“Bay,” I rasped.
Jericho slashed furiously at the shadow that held him away from us. “They’re fucking traitors!”
I could tell them moment Sai’s presence registered among our people and their combatants slowing movement as aggression turned to careful observation.
Sai’s eyes glowed and I could feel the power spilling off him where Ace held me tightly. It caused the hair on my arms to stand on end and I knew the moment everyone else felt it too.
The horde wolves pulled back like water receding, edging back and slipping from the chamber choosing to flee the power drunk king. The clan and Amerai were left to surrounded us.
I shook my head at Bay and lifted my hand to my neck. “Sai,” I scratched out, indicating my neck.
Confusion broke through the fury in his eyes as he turned from us to our wayward king. Pike's shadow retreated from Jericho who moved to stand sentry at Sai’s side.
The clan wolves shifted restlessly, waiting for some indication from the Daenali alpha. Were we friend or foe?
