by Wendy Knight
Ignoring the pain, ignoring the screams of my souls, I threw myself over the frenzied bodies and landed on the other side. The demons followed me, of course they followed me, but I ran faster than they did, around the glass to her side. I hurtled Kali through the air, watching in satisfaction as it shot past the legs and impaled itself into her side. "Kali, stay," I murmured when it shimmered and started to return to me. I needed it to stay there and cause more damage.
She screamed, her legs flailing, but I danced out of the way, using Golly to slice through the demons nearest me. They fell under the onslaught. We were gaining the upper hand. Death's scythe leveled whole lines of demons at once, when he wasn't fighting the sea witch.
She jerked her hands up with a skull-shattering shriek, throwing more water at me. I gasped for air, fighting to stay on the sand as the waves tugged me out, toward the ocean, toward her lair. "You will not beat me," I growled under my breath as I fought my way back to her side.
"Hey you stupid monster!" My blood froze as a kitchen knife whizzed past my face, embedding itself into the witch's neck. "Leave her alone!"
Konstanz. Konstanz was here.
"Noooo," I moaned as she climbed over the rock into the interior.
"I told you," she yelled, as if it were possible to hear me over all the screaming, "I wouldn't abandon you again!" Somehow, despite how careful I was, we'd opened her eyes. And now she thought she could save me. My heart shattered in my chest—more painful than when Alec had broken it, more painful than anything, ever.
The demons saw her, their focus suddenly taken from me and my army, and they raced toward her, climbing the wall like possessed spiders. "Konstanz, run!" I screamed, leaving the sea witch to go after her pets. My army joined me, the ghosts leaping up the sides of rock to hover in the air—a nifty little trick that I couldn't do.
And Konstanz, my brave, sweet friend Konstanz, who had been by my side through so much, stood on the rock like a goddess and hurtled sharp kitchen utensils like a professional knife thrower.
Bryson appeared next to her, swinging his borrowed blades like he'd been born to it, bashing demon faces when they got too close. "We'll protect her, Navi!" Don yelled as he raced past me. "Kill the witch!"
Right, the witch. It took more will than I knew I possessed, but I spun and ran back across the beach. The sea witch was distracted by Death, throwing water and screaming and trying to lure him close enough that she could catch him, and she didn't see me coming.
Blood gushed from the wound in her neck, and from the wound in her side. I slid across the glass, using it to my advantage this time, skidding under her legs as I grabbed Kali and wrenched it free, causing as much damage as possible.
I felt the legs hit me, the suckers attach, the overwhelming pull of my soul. I could feel it breaking free from my body and I saw Konstanz fighting and Alec telling me he loved me and my mother training me and riding Garmr and all these memories.
But I wasn't done yet. She'd killed my grandmother and she could kill me too, but I was taking her down with me. Because if she lived, Konstanz, Alec, my dad—they were all in danger forever.
I couldn't let that happen.
I swung the blades sideways, hitting the legs that held my soul and twisted them apart, like separating a head of lettuce. She shrieked as a leg was wrenched away from her body. It writhed on the beach before withering away and the souls escaped. I closed my eyes and tugged my own soul back, feeling it settle as the first rays of the sun hit the top of the wall.
"Death! We're out of time!" I yelled. He nodded. Garmr roared forward, snapping and lunging, fangs bared. He caught a leg in his teeth and shook until it fell off. Gwendolyn followed and Death, now standing alone, hit the witch again and again with flames from his scythe.
I slid into the space left from the removed legs and attacked her body. I felt other legs hit me, break me, attach and fall off, tug at my soul, and give up, but I kept swinging and plunging, dancing out of the way when I could and taking the hits when I couldn't.
She started to move back. Back toward her water, trying to escape the dogs or trying to lure them into the waves—I wasn't sure which.
I stayed with her. She swung at me, trying to get me out of her weak spot. With every hit, I freed a soul. With every stab and every swing I freed more. She didn't have enough souls left to protect her from the sun, but she didn't seem to care. Her focus now was me—she wanted me dead. I was covered in her blood and in my blood, and I wasn't healing like I would have in the moonlight. I couldn't check on Konstanz or Bryson. I had to move as fast as she did, even knowing that once we reached the water, I had no way out.
I'd go down with her.
It didn't matter though. I was grateful I had told Alec I loved him. I was grateful I got to see my mom and dad one last time.
We hit the water. I felt her gathering it, ready to wash me into the doorway with her. She was giving up her chance at freedom to take my soul, and there was nothing I could do about it.
The waves washed over me. The doorway shimmered in the inky blackness below us, swirling like a whirlpool. She laughed as we were drawn toward it, lulling me into a trance even as it sent terror shooting down my spine.
Teeth chomped around my ankle, very hot teeth that burned my skin and shattered the bone. I screamed, water filling my lungs as I was dragged back, back toward the beach and the sun and life and away from her doorway.
She shrieked in fury, reaching for me, but she was too far away. Her claws swiped across my throat but not enough to reach my soul, and then she was gone and I was on the beach. The sun shone weakly through the clouds.
"Konstanz, don't look at him! You'll die!" I heard Bryson yell.
Death. Mortal. Right.
I crab-walked backward onto the sand, as far away from the water as I had the energy to get. Then I collapsed, feeling my blood ebb and flow away. "Death, please don't take her yet," I murmured, closing my eyes. "She was just trying to help."
"I think it's you we should be worried about." Death, in his insanity, sounded amused.
"No! You can't have her! I need her!" Konstanz was sobbing, apparently not caring at all that she was mortal and to look into the face of Death was not allowed.
"Konstanz, you can't—" I murmured.
"NO!" she bellowed. "I'm a vet. I can stitch her up. She'll be fine! Just—I won't look at you. Please let me help her!" Tears pooled in my eyes as she fought to keep me here. Like Death was not the ally he was.
"Bryson," I whispered because Elizabeth was not here and Konstanz couldn't hear me over all her shrieks. "Tell Alec I love him."
"Tell him yourself, Navi. You aren't leaving until you save my soul," Bryson said gently.
I smiled.
"Navi, you are one of my most powerful agents. You fought the sea witch and drove her back into the ocean. It is your choice—will you come with me now or will you stay to fight another battle?"
Konstanz fell to her knees next to me, whimpering. "If you say you'll go with him I will be so mad at you!"
"Navi!" Alec's voice, from a distance, but it seemed to heal my heart and my torn soul. Had I told Death I'd come with him? Was Alec's voice my afterlife? "Navi, please!"
"Alec! Joanna! She's hurt!" Konstanz could barely speak through her crying. Apparently, I was still alive. Unless Konstanz was my afterlife, too.
"Alec?" I whispered. Things hurt. Things I didn't even realize could hurt, hurt.
I could feel my ghosts around me. I didn't know how they were still here and not sent back to their cells. I felt Elizabeth's icy hand against my cheek, heard her whisper, "Please fight beside us."
And then Alec, pulling my bloody mess of a body into his lap. He cradled my head as I forced my eyes open. "Angel, please. Please fight this." He called me an angel, but he was the one with the sun haloed around his head now.
What I didn't understand, though, is how anyone thought there was a choice to make here at all. Who, when given the option to die or keep fightin
g, chose death?
"That's what I thought." Death again sounded amused. Like he'd known my answer all along. "Joanna. Nice to see you again."
"Wait," I croaked, trying to turn my head. "Garmr, come—" I groaned, but held my hand out. "Alec, don't touch—Garmr—" The big dog pushed his head against my hand and chuffed. "Thank you, dear friend." He'd saved me. He'd risked the ocean for me. For that, I could never thank him enough.
"Come Garmr. We'll see her soon. We have our weekly meeting tomorrow night, remember, Navi. Please don't be late." Death gave one last amused chuckle, and they were gone.
My mom took their place. "We hurried as quickly as we could. But I wasn't fast enough. I'm sorry, Navi."
"Mom. I fought the sea witch," I felt my lips split but I didn't care as a grin spread across my battered face. "And I won."
My dad, in the background somewhere, laughed.
"At least for today. I won for today. And I freed souls. But not Bryson's." I struggled to sit up so I could see him. "I didn't free yours. So I'm not done yet."
Alec watched me, dark blue eyes so intense I could barely breathe. Or that might have been the broken ribs. "I love you, Navi. Whatever you choose, I will be by your side."
"I love you, too, Alec." Such strength in those few words. So much that I needed to tell him, to explain, to forgive. But that would have to come later.
With herculean effort, I turned away to glare at the ocean. "No. I'm not done. Next time she comes I'll be better prepared. I'll gather more forces. She won't escape back into the ocean again."
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Alec
"Are you sure you're okay to fight again tonight? You were pretty much dead this morning." Bryson floated backward in front of Navi as she stalked toward the door.
She pointed at the window, where the full moon gleamed across the glass. "I'm fine. The sea witch lost a lot of her forces, but that isn't going to stop her. They'll come tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day… and they'll hunt Alec and Konstanz. Unless I stop them."
In front of my eyes, her long, lethal swords shimmered to life against her back. "What can we do to help?" Konstanz asked, slowly waving her hand through Bryson's ghostly arm.
"Will you stop that?" He pulled his arm away, scowling. "It's weird."
"I'm a vet. I'm curious!"
"Stay here. Inside. If any of the demons get past my army, my mom will be able to hold them off until I get back here."
She glanced at me, a flush staining her pretty face. We hadn't had a chance to talk yet, since she'd been comatose for most of the day. Until the moon had risen, and her wounds had healed before my eyes, and she'd popped up like a watered flower. Ten minutes later, we were all trying to get her to go back to bed.
But my Angel, she wouldn't do it.
I crossed the room, aware of her parents both watching curiously, and Elizabeth swinging her sword through the air in impatient boredom. Bryson had weapons, too—apparently he thought he was a warrior now. I turned my back on all of them, tugging Navi against my chest. "You're going to start training me tomorrow, right?" I smiled down at her, my blood roaring in my ears as her big eyes landed on my mouth and stayed there.
"What?" she asked, leaning into me, until I could feel every curve of her, molding against me. I chuckled, although it took everything I had not to drag her back to her bedroom right then and show her how much I needed her. But we couldn't do that, and if I tried, her dad would probably skin me alive.
So instead, I tipped her chin up until her eyes found mine. "Training. Tomorrow?"
She nodded, her lips quirking just a bit. "Yes. Training. Tomorrow."
Unable to control myself any longer, I lowered my head, trying to devour her. She gasped against my mouth as her hands clenched and unclenched against my chest. She rose on her tiptoes and bit my bottom lip, not hard but enough that I wouldn't be able to think straight for the next year, at least. Then she dragged herself away from me, raising an eyebrow. "Get some rest tonight."
I shook my head, running a shaking hand through my hair. The girl made my knees weak. "I'll wait up. If you think I'm ever sleeping without you again, you're crazy, Angel."
She grinned, her entire face lighting up. Once more, she kissed me—light and brief—and then whirled away and was gone, disappearing into the darkness like her ghosts. Bryson and Elizabeth went after her.
"Well. This has been interesting. I'm gonna go pick out my outfit for training tomorrow. I might need to buy some new shoes…" Konstanz disappeared down the hall and I wondered how on earth she could be concerned with shoes when there were demons trying to fight their way through a ghostly army to eat us alive.
Blair smacked me on the shoulder as he walked by. "Welcome to the family, kid. Break her heart again, and you'll wish the demons had got you."
I tried to swallow the terror sized lump in my throat. "No sir. I'm not going to break her heart. Not ever again."
About the Author
Wendy Knight was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call…). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big: her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S.
You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heels for whatever the occasion may be. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing.
Also by Wendy Knight
Fate on Fire Series
Feudlings
Feudlings in Flames
Feudlings in Sight
Feudlings in Smoke
Spark of a Feudling
Riders of Paradesos Series
Warrior Beautiful
Warrior Everlasting
Gates of Atlantis Series
Banshee at the Gate
Stand-Alone
Shattered Assassin
Star-Crossed Hurricane
(also available in Trouble Enough: A Collection)
Rocker Boy
Coming Soon
Warrior Innocent
With These Wings
