by L. M. French
“You want to tell me why she’s wearing brands that match his?” Bay gestured towards Ace but the accusation in his tone was all for Sai.
“I did what I had to do. Just like I did then, and I saved us all.”
“You?” Ace’s voice was lethal. “Don’t you mean me? After all, it was my power you siphoned to exile us. Just like you’ve been siphoning Veda’s to keep yourself in power.”
Ace’s words hit me like stones.
Siphoning my power...
I lifted my right hand and saw the glow that had decorated it for such a short time was now blackened and the scorpion once again nested in its center.
Staggering away from Ace I held my hand aloft. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? It had nothing to do with me being a halfling.”
Ace chuckled darkly. “Ah the halflings. Would it surprise you to learn he's not helping them? He's chunking them into the abyss."
Bay was rigid. “The horde we captured had brands just like hers. You did that to them, didn’t you? To all of them.”
I eased back. "Sailas?"
He sighed as if I was most unreasonable. "Would you prefer I kill them?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot. He doesn't just exile them. He drains them first." Ace supplied helpfully.
The horde wolves. They’d all had brands of some kind on their bodies.
"They’re unstable-" Sai began.
Pike barked a laugh. "Right. And you get nothing out of it?"
I shook my head. "You’re stealing their power? Why? What could you possibly get out of this?"
Pikes eyes implored me to understand. "Don’t you get it, V? Nothing is forever. Not even him. It's why Ena never let him into her territory. Why Sestie clung to him. Whatever power sustains him is not infinite. And he found a way to top off his well,” he explained harshly, “through them and now you.”
"Why me? Why him?" I pointed at Ace.
“The war was destroying the Territories. Someone had to do something. So, I did what had to be done.”
Ace scoffed. “You used one atrocity as a reason to commit another. An excuse to grab for more power.”
Pike sneered at Sailas. “You’re nothing but a parasite.”
Sai’s face twisted as he well and utterly lost his shit. “I am King of the Four Territories! It was my grace that brought an end to the war! Nobody else’s! No one had the courage to do what I did!”
“To commit genocide? Isn’t that what started the war in the first place?” Emerick drawled from somewhere behind Bay.
“Genocide?” Sai scoffed. “It wasn’t genocide- I contained them behind a barrier where they could do no more damage to our people.”
“Our people?” Ozias stepped forward. “You claimed to destroy your own people to save the territories. Yet year after year breeds disappeared. The Horde, the Din, how many of us did you deem too dangerous to allow in your kingdom?”
Sai laughed maniacally. “All of them.”
His words broke the fine tether holding Ozias’ wrath in check and he burst forward shifting midair as he lunged for Sai. Jericho brutally intercepted him slashing and biting at the silver wolf.
Bay watched as the youngest of his clan tried to take Oz’s throat before returning his gaze to Sailas. Our false king. Our false god.
My dream with Ivory surfaced. I do not worship false gods. He’d hissed those words at me before tearing out my throat. I was Sailas’ conduit for power. It’s why he was unable to break free from the runes the Timorii had placed on his skin. They’d known what he’d done and how he’d done it.
Oz carved his back claws through Jericho's belly who twisted away violently to avoid be disemboweled.
Bay threw his head b-ack and howled, the sound cut through the cavern and every wolf froze in reaction to the alphas demand to stop and listen.
His eyes bored into Sailas as he spoke. “As alpha of the Daenali, I denounce you king. We are your wolves no longer. Any wolf who thinks to stand at your side will understand the meaning of exile.”
Sai’s face contorted with fury. From one blink to the next he was behind Bay, and the smell of charred skin bloomed around us as Bay's skin seem to ignite. His howl this time was furious and agonized.
Wolves and witches seemed to break free of the stupor they’d found themselves in when confronted with a monster instead of their benevolent king. Amerai cast and clan lunged trying to tear Sai away from Bay before he destroyed him.
Ace released me to leap across the battling wolves and tackle Sailas. They clashed in an explosion of power that rocked the ground beneath our feet, and I crashed into Pike taking us both to the ground.
He pushed me where I’d landed sprawled across his chest, and I grabbed his hand wincing as pain radiated up my arm. “My hand. You have to cut off my hand.”
Pikes jerked back. “What? No-”
Gods, he had sensibilities. Shoving my hand in his face I unloaded my admittedly fuzzy theory.
My hand, Ivory’s attempt to maim me. My seal. “Please Pike. I have to try.”
A boom shook the cavern as Ace and Pike were blown apart and fissures formed around us. Pained resignation settled in Pike’s eyes as he drug me closer. “Close your eyes and give me your hand.”
Swallowing as bile rushed up my throat, I squared my shoulders, squeezed my eyes shut and I lifted my hand between us. I felt his hand circle my wrist before pain cleaved through my palm. Skin ripped then tore and my eyes whipped open in time to see Pike tear a chunk out of my hand with his teeth. Blood sprayed and tendons curled back on themselves and that's how I ended up blowing chunks on the witch-wolf.
Spatting my flesh and bones onto the ground he backed up. “So?”
I never got to answer his question. Sai’s voice screamed with fury. We both spun to find Sai body aglow with waves of energy.
We raced towards Ace where he faced off with Sai. One look and I knew.
Sai’s hold on me didn’t matter. He’d siphoned enough power and he was going to do to us what I’d done in that field.
He would destroy us all then tell the territories a tale about traitors and a hero king that had saved them. Then he’d find more halflings to drain.
He’d win.
Ace’s anger was tinged with futility, but he stood his ground. Sai tossed his head back and energy expanded out of him. I pushed for more speed, running so fast my feet barely felt the ground.
Tapping the last of the power in my well, I reached out and told it to open. I made it between them just as the world went white and I was blown back. Pain turned to weightlessness, and I was carried away on swirling lights.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Ozias
The caverns that made up the Shadows had crumbled around us. Panic and terror laced the air in the aftermath of the explosion.
The last thing I’d seen as I’d levered Jericho’s body from mine was Veda, arms wide-open, throw herself between Ace and Sailas before everything detonated.
Emerick had dug one-handed while his arm hung from his body until he’d unearthed Bay who was unrecognizable from Sai’s attack.
I’d stayed behind as the clans worked to get him back through the Interstice where the witches could work their magic.
Veruca had stayed with me to the last moment as we’d searched for Veda to no avail.
She was gone. Her body was gone and dead or alive we weren’t going to find it in that cavern. As the temple cleaved from its perch above us, we’d fled. It wasn’t until we’d made it back to the Interstice, we’d truly known the depth of our losses.
Veda was gone, yes, but so was Pike and Jericho. Both left behind so much turmoil no one knew who to grieve or how much.
Pike had some connection with Ace and had kept us in the dark. He’d fought at our backs and then abandoned us only to return at the side of a serious unknown entity in the middle of a fucking fight for our lives.
We were a little bitter.
And then there was Jericho. The last to be welcomed to the Cru
x clan but not the least of us buy any means. And he’d turned his back on us and the Daenali. He’d lost sight of his loyalties and stood against us for a king who was not worthy of the title or the oath.
Jericho followed blindly like a whelp puppy and tried to get my throat under his teeth while he was at it.
Sai was very much alive, the Amerai had witnessed his escape, narrow though it was, before the whole damn place had reverberated from the shock of his attack.
The witches and the clans had sent scouts to his compound, but he’d gone to ground. There was no way to know what level of power he maintained or how much he was able to replenish himself.
That led me here, to Aurora’s Pass. Ena had genuinely believed Sai was hooked on humanity. Her shock at his deception was palpable as was her fear he’d come for her now that Veda was gone.
He’d need another powerful source if he wanted to keep the territories under his thumb and she was right to be wary. I’d left her with a renewed determination to protect her home and herself. East and West would be busy for a while.
Now I sat holding a everphial of blood but not the one that had been with me for centuries. No, this one belonged to a prickly halfling with more guts than common sense.
I should stay, help Emerick hold the Daenali together while Bay recovered. Broody bastard had finally managed to shift back to his wolf and spent most of his time running on pack lands. Sai’s betrayal and Veda’s disappearance had taken their toll on the Daenali commander.
I should stay, shut down the whispers that wondered if I was more Horde than Daenali. Since the return of my people and my reluctance to remain on pack lands, the rumors had grown.
But none of that was why I sat here staring at this gods forsaken everphial. Fear wormed through me whenever I thought about using it.
What if there wasn’t anything to find? What if I drank it and felt... nothing? The need to find her rode me endlessly, overshadowed my every thought but what if she was truly gone?
Warm, dry wind blew across the craggy peak I was perched on airing my woes over the Pass. I couldn’t keep this up indefinitely, I’d go fucking mad and we had enough of that to deal with thanks to Sai.
I will find you.
I’d given her those words before we’d entered the Interstice three months ago. I had to know one way or the other. Either she was dead... or she was waiting.
My thumb flicked the stopper on the everphial and it skipped and hopped before finally plunging into a ravine. I stared at the ruby liquid until it glowed in the sunlight. My eyes closed and my lips wrapped around the everphial. Then I tipped it back.
My throat worked over the concoction before the last vestiges slid down my throat. Nothing. I felt nothing.
The everphial left the blood as warm and rich as it had been when it left her veins. I just about choked on it as disappointment turned to grief.
Flinging the everphial away I pushed to my feet and froze as my internal compass, the mystical one, pointed to another true north. Turning slowly, I felt the tug stronger.
I couldn't help the howl that burst from my lips. She was out there. And I would find her.
Note From the Author
This book was born from insomnia and stress. The year that-shall-not-be-named really took me for a ride and my need to do something -anything- manifested itself into this- and it gave me an outlet for my helplessness.
So, I respectfully request, if you liked it, loved it, or it just didn’t suck- leave a review with the retailer of your choice.
Don't miss out!
Click the button below and you can sign up to receive emails whenever L.M. French publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.
https://books2read.com/r/B-A-YLGP-JGWPB
Connecting independent readers to independent writers.
About the Author
L.M. French is a baby indie author of urban fantasy residing in the Lone Star State with the love of her life, eight-year-old Jack. While she dreams up misadventures with uncooperative participants, he keeps her inspired with his own stories villains and anti-heroes. Where they live, imagination is a superpower. Connect with them via Facebook, email, or carrier pidgeon.
Just kidding.
Birds are mean.
Read more at L.M. French’s site.
