Before the Storm

by Claire Ashgrove

  Ten feet away from me, that damned wolf’s hackles lifted. It lowered its head, curled its upper lip.

  Oh, God, no! He had no idea what he was walking into!

  I jerked forward, driven by sheer instinct. Marcus snatched at my arm, but missed. His fingers grazed my sleeve, and I remembered myself a heartbeat too late. I stumbled onto the path.

  “Halle!” Kale shouted, relief filling his voice

  Marcus bellowed behind me, “God damn it!”

  The wolf whipped sideways, staring straight at me.

  Uh-oh.

  As my brain kicked-in, processing the situation, the trail erupted around me. Kale charged forward. Marcus bolted from our hiding place. The wolf sank onto its haunches, and with a massive leap, hurtled into the air. Time moved in slow motion. I remained frozen in place, watching those deadly canine teeth sail toward my head.

  Then self-preservation kicked in.

  Words I scarcely recognized flew off my lips. I dropped to my knees, crouched as small as I could make myself, and lifted one hand. Yellow light flared from my palm, blending with a flash of blue from somewhere beside me. It sailed forward, then combusted with blinding ferocity. A resounding crack! reverberated through the forest.

  “Move!” Kale shouted.

  A strong arm caught me around the chest and hauled me sideways. Momentum carried us, rolling us sideways into the brush. It all happened so fast, I didn’t know who had me until we slammed into a thick tree trunk and stopped. Dark hair covered my face as I tried to spit out the dirt that worked its way into my mouth.

  Before I could shove at Marcus’ shoulders and demand he get off me, his weight disappeared. I blinked in time to see Kale wrap a fist in the back of his shirt and haul him to his feet. He shoved Marcus’s back against the tree.

  “What the hell are you doing? You could have gotten her killed!”

  Marcus shoved back, sending Kale stumbling a foot or two. “I could have gotten her killed? I found her in the woods, surrounded by Jadukara. Where the hell were you?”

  And where was the damned wolf? I inched upright and scoured my surroundings, momentarily ignoring the two men. My breath caught as I looked back at where I remembered standing. An enormous hedge tree, almost two feet in diameter, lay across the path. Beneath it, squashed into the depression in the dirt, protruded the creature’s shadowy hindquarters. Haunches and tail—I winced.

  “Is he a friend of yours? Was that your plan?” Kale shouted.

  I turned my attention back to the both of them and blinked at the sight of blood trickling down the side of Marcus’s mouth. Damn. I would have liked to have seen that punch.

  He wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist, then spit on the ground. “Fuck you, Norwood.”

  Well, clearly we were getting somewhere. I rolled my eyes. With a heavy sigh, I picked myself off the ground. “Could you two quit long enough to tell me who dropped the tree? Or do you need to pound on each other a little more first?”

  As if they’d forgotten my presence, they both turned astonished looks on me.

  Kale found his tongue first, evidently still primed for a fight. “What the hell were you thinking taking off like that? Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you? I found blood back there.” He thrust an arm down the path. “Then not a God damned thing!”

  Irritation niggled at the back of my skull. I narrowed my gaze but refused to let him goad me into a yelling match. They were doing enough shouting that if there were more Jadukara around, they’d have our location pinned down in no time.

  “If you’d been with her there wouldn’t have been blood,” Marcus mumbled.

  Kale whirled on him again, his fist cocked and ready. He took a threatening stride forward. Marcus widened his stance and squared his shoulders.

  “That’s enough!” Marching between them, I stuffed my hands on my hips. “What are you, fifteen? In case you’ve forgotten, there are things hunting me. Lower your damned voices.”

  The fact that I, the clueless one of the bunch, was forced into the role of reasonable leader dimly registered. Both men’s postures sagged. Kale dropped his fist and gave the leaves a furious kick. Marcus muttered something unintelligible, walked several paces away, and dropped down to sit at the base of the tree. He dabbed at his mouth with his fingertips again, then looked up at me through his frown.

  “God damned sucker punch,” he grumbled.

  I gave him my best, cool it glare then turned to diffuse Kale the only way I knew how. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

  “He couldn’t have been worried if he’d been with you.”

  Oh for the love…

  As Kale opened his mouth to presumably re-engage Marcus, I lost my cool and beat him to words. “Look, Marcus, not that it’s any of your business, but I didn’t give Kale the opportunity to come with me. I left on my own. Now knock it off.”

  With a grandiose gesture, he swept his arm toward Kale. “By all means, you two kiss and make up. Don’t mind me.” A smirk crossed his face as he looked to Kale. “While you’re at it, might as well tell her the real reason Gerard sent you to find her. Teaching magic is pretty convenient, isn’t it?”

  If I hadn’t swung my head around to gape at Kale, I would have missed the widening of his eyes before he managed to school his expression. That tiny glimpse of surprise, however, pitched the ground beneath my feet. My stomach dropped to my toes, and an overwhelming sense of dread balled in the space it had occupied. In a flash of cycling memories, I remembered the numerous times I’d suspected Kale wasn’t telling me everything, the way he never could quite answer why the camarilla wanted me, when he was so powerful.

  “Kale,” I asked, not wanting to hear the answer. “What’s he mean?”

  Kale shook his head a bit too quickly. “I’ve told you why, Halle.”

  “And you’ve left something out too, haven’t you?” I didn’t want to doubt him. I wanted to believe in him the way I always had. But every alarm I possessed screamed he was hiding something. Something I’d sensed all along and had deliberately ignored.

  Marcus chuckled behind me. “You’re not blocked, Halle. He knows it. I know it. Gerard knows it too. You’re dragonborn, and there’s not a goddamned Tolvenar who understands that power.”

  Kale closed his eyes with a pained grimace. And in that moment, I knew Marcus was right.

  Twenty-eight

  As much as I knew Marcus was telling the truth, I still didn’t want it to be real. My voice dropped to a whisper as I asked, “He’s right, isn’t he? You can’t teach me.”

  “Halle, he’s doing this on purpose.” Kale reached for my hand.

  I jerked away. “You can’t teach me, can you?” My voice rose with indignation.

  Kale shoved both hands through his hair, clenched them at the back, and let out a hard sigh. Looking up, he answered, “No.”

  Just like that, he shattered me. All I’d believed, all I’d felt—everything was founded on a lie. And he’d known it all along. To my utter humiliation, I couldn’t stop tears from welling in my eyes. Nor could I stop my voice from cracking as I cried, “You lied!”

  “Yes, but I can explain.” He reached for me again and managed to grasp my fingers. “I’ve told you about the Noita. He’s trying to manipulate you.”

  “Everything you said was a lie!” I snatched my arm free and wrapped both around my torso. No matter how I tried to will them to stop, tears slid down my cheeks. Hot with betrayal and full of scalding humiliation.

  Kale finally managed to grab on to me and hold. Taking me by the shoulders, he turned me to face him and lowered his gaze level with mine. “No. Not everything, Halle.”

  “That’s what Beth was talking about, wasn’t it? When she said the plan was different. That’s why Gerard didn’t argue with her about my failure with magic. She doesn’t know, but he does. That’s why Maude told me to stop thinking on specifics—she knows Tolvenar magic doesn’t work like mi
ne.” Words rushed out of me as things clicked in my mind. I couldn’t stop. One by one, all the weird oddities suddenly made sense.

  His grip tightened on my shoulders. “Maude also said you can trust me.”

  With a violent twist sideways, I dislodged his grip. “No one wants me to kill my uncle. It’s never fit—why bring someone they despise in and trust them with something so important.” I shook my head again, not wanting to accept the truths I was seeing. “I was brought there for another reason. What is it, Kale?”

  “Halle—”

  Low and quiet, Marcus’s voice cut in, “What’s your sister doing these days?”

  “My…sister?” I backed up a step and glanced between the two men in confusion. “What does Faye have to do with anything?”

  “He’s fishing,” Kale all but growled.

  I stared at Marcus, holding my breath.

  Marcus glanced toward the canopy of leaves, his expression thoughtful. “You’re too strong for the rite. Gerard let it go too far with Kale. But now he’s got it figured out. Use you to get to her, and send her in. Let it go just far enough, and you have the perfect spy. Meanwhile, you learn enough about magic to be somewhat useful, though never to your full potential because that might backfire if you’re not strong enough.” His cold hard gaze dropped to Kale. “Sound about right?”

  Kale’s face blanched.

  “Kale?” My voice trembled. “Is that…true? Gerard wants Faye as bait?”

  His pale features filled with crimson fury. “You son of a bitch!” Releasing my shoulders, he stalked to Marcus and wrapped a fist in his collar. One yank brought Marcus to his feet.

  He didn’t struggle. His dark gaze remained locked on Kale, defiant and full of accusation. “Son of the Noita, thank you. Take your fucking hands off me.”

  “So you can fill her full of more hate? You and your self-righteous savior act. Why don’t you tell her the whole truth—that you’ll do anything to get in the Yaksini mines! That you’d turn your best fucking friend over to them, if it would get you inside!”

  Why Marcus couldn’t go in on his own, or even why he wanted in, didn’t even register. I was too numb, too devastated over the discovery both men had used me for their own purposes. And I’d been too blind to see it.

  I turned away, tuned them out, and made my way to the fallen tree and the Jadukara’s lifeless body. Sitting heavily, I let the truth sink into me, distantly aware of the shouting voices a mere five feet away. This was what Rafini meant when he said everyone had a purpose for a windwalker, but it was the windwalker’s responsibility to know that purpose first. At the time I’d read the odd statement, it seemed like he’d mixed up his words. That maybe he’d been distracted.

  Now, I understood the meaning.

  Worse, I realized how ignorant I really was. Not in the sense of book smarts or street smarts, but when it came to this reality, this magical world, I was nothing more than a helpless babe. Everyone around me could sense energies, sense magical strengths, recognize auras. I’d only briefly experienced that ability once, a little bit ago when Kale arrived. Even then, I wasn’t fully aware.

  They were miles ahead of me, light years. They’d grown up with this. Kale was over one hundred years old. God only knew about Marcus. I’d spent virtually my whole life living in an abandoned warehouse. The biggest concern I’d faced, other than Faye’s safety, was finding a regular meal each night. How was I ever supposed to become as capable as Rafini?

  I closed my eyes, blinking back fresh tears. My mother’s face surfaced in my memory, kind and full of loving encouragement. You can do anything you put your mind to, Halle. So many times she’d said those words when I became frustrated over little things. I’d believed them for so long. Yet now, they seemed hopeless. My mind wanted to succeed. I didn’t know how.

  And the person I’d trusted to give me that knowledge had been playing me from the moment we met.

  Through blurry vision, I glanced down at the Jadukara’s protruding limbs near my feet. Blood matted ebony fur, seeped into the dirt beneath the roughened bark. Pinned to death because he hadn’t seen what was coming.

  I turned to glance down the length of the trunk, back to the jagged stump that rose from the side of the path. The splintered ends were marred in soot and ash. It burned.

  Not for long—only where it had been severed in half. No fire could produce that specific, targeted damage. But one thing could. One thing that had come to my rescue unexpectedly.

  Lightning.

  Drawn to those charred remains, I rose to investigate further. When I brushed my fingertips over an ashen splinter, it crumbled at my touch. A fissure of energy crackled up my arm. Power that felt natural and right…almost as if I’d come home from a very long trip.

  My energy.

  I don’t quite know how I recognized it. But it wasn’t the same feeling that I’d experienced when I sensed Kale on the path. Nor was it identical to what enveloped me when Marcus used his powers.

  As if to reinforce my assumption, faint yellow light pulsed between my fingertips. I closed my hand into a loose fist, and like a sponge, my skin soaked it up.

  Trust what is spoken to you in words you cannot hear.

  Rafini’s journaled directives surfaced in my mind. I resolved not to question my understanding. The power belonged to me. I felled the tree. Not Kale. Not Marcus. Me.

  Which meant I wasn’t so helpless after all. I had it in me to succeed. And while I was no longer naive enough to believe either one of the men arguing off the path gave a damn beyond their own goals, nor was I naive enough to believe I could rescue my mother alone. Kale had his reasons—whatever they really were—for not wanting me to die. Marcus evidently needed me to fulfill his own means. Both would follow me to the Yaksini mines.

  And if they could use me, then I could equally use them.

  Twenty-nine

  When I struck off down the path alone, the arguing ceased as I anticipated it would. Both Kale and Marcus hustled to catch up, Marcus going so far as to try and stop me with a hand on my shoulder. I didn’t bother to speak to either one of them. Instead, I shrugged away, increased my stride, and continued on ahead.

  From that point on, neither man approached me. And they said nothing between themselves.

  The long hike through the forest gave me time to think, to sort through my emotions and line everything up in logical order. Only, I did more thinking about Marcus and his motivations than I did Kale. Kale only made me hurt.

  It made sense that Marcus needed something from me. The camarilla knew he wanted something. That he happened to be there, ready to save me from the Jadukara attack could be no lucky coincidence. He’d been following me. How else could he have stumbled onto the scene at precisely the moment I needed someone? I’d even known to suspect his evasiveness, enough to hedge my answers.

  I also quickly discounted what he said, precisely, as a lie. He could spit out more about me than I could, and no one just snatched those things out of thin air. It was the same approach I’d used with him—tell enough truth to be plausible. The two of us had been playing the same game since we met.

  Unlike Kale and I, who had been on opposite fields the entire time. Kale had lied. Deliberately.

  Which was why, when the sunlight dwindled and Kale tried to fall into step at my side, I dropped back even with Marcus. Kale defined betrayal, where Marcus felt safer. Easier. Definitely somewhat predictable—anything he said held some self-serving purpose. Simple enough. I could count on the same from most of the people I knew.

  Marcus slid a glance my way. “We should stop for the night in the clearing up ahead. It was protected against Yaksini magic centuries ago.” He paused a beat then added, “By the Tolvenar.”

  I shrugged. “You know the territory.”

  He remained silent a long while as we followed Kale along the bramble-covered path. In fact, we made camp without speaking another word. The men established themselves nea
r a small fire Kale built, and I chose a more secluded section a few feet away, though still well within sight. I gnawed on my rice cakes while they ate more of Marcus’s meat. The smell had my mouth watering for another bite of that tough hide, but I was intent on not asking them for anything unless I absolutely needed assistance. I had food. It might not be flavorful, but it was certainly edible.

  Despite the fact I tried to pretend Kale didn’t exist, I found myself watching his broad shoulders as he sat facing the fire. A part of me I despised wanted to drag him away and demand answers, to scream at him for breaking my heart. That same part of my soul hoped he’d say something I could forgive. Anything that could excuse the truth so I could curl up in his arms and forget today had happened.

  He must have felt my stare, because he glanced over his shoulder. His sad eyes met mine, and I swiveled away, effectively preventing myself from looking again. I couldn’t let the possibility he might be upset get to me. He’d fucked up. In an unforgivable way.

  I leaned back on my hands and stared up at the sky. Tomorrow we’d reach the Yaksini borders. It was time to start figuring out how I’d knocked over that tree. If I could just remember the words…

  A shadow fell over me. I looked up into Marcus’s contemplative frown. Before I could shoo him off, he sat beside me and thrust a plate of meat into my lap. “Kale’s right. I can’t get in the Yaksini mines without someone to distract them.”

  I stared at the food. If this was confession time, I really wasn’t interested. But I had to admit, I respected his honesty. At least he wasn’t trying to hide behind some elaborate ruse. Picking at a bite, I waited for whatever he intended to offer next.

  “They’ve warded it against me. But I can blend my presence into someone else’s and slip past the wards. You asked what I wanted. I should have told you then.”

  “Yeah. Maybe so.”

  Marcus picked up a small rock and pitched it into the shrubbery. He stared at where it hit for several long seconds. Then continued in a lower voice. “He’s also right about my fishing. I didn’t know Gerard’s plan. But it made sense, based on what I did know of you. I took a lucky guess.”