by Kim Faulks
No! You can’t take her. You can’t take my sister. My heart boomed, rocking my chest with every blow. I still remembered the panic, the terror. I’d kicked and screamed, clutching hold with all the strength my little arms had to offer.
Still, they dragged her away from me and as they walked the Echo pack took my mother as well. The killed my mother, a powerful witch and turned my sister into a weapon. The dark power swallowed me and under the hurt and the hate a little girl still lingered. “I’ve missed you, Rowen. I’ve missed you so much.”
The pain bloomed just as fresh as it’d been all those years ago. Please don’t make her go Daddy. Don’t take my sister away.
My father answered and his words had haunted me for the rest of my life. Do I save one, or save many Abrial, answer me that? Well… answer me. One, or many?
One.
All I ever wanted was for him to save one.
But which one?
I touched the heat of my cheek and my fingers came away wet, glistening with fresh tears.
After all these years would she recognize me? Would she care for me at all? It doesn’t matter. I love her, and that’s enough. I clenched my eyes shut. Hold on, Rowen. I’m finally coming to get you.
I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand and shoved myself from the ground. My knee screamed as I tested my weight. One step and the pain died to a throb. I forced myself to move, taking the steps slow until the ache burned away under desperation.
The trees gave way to long grass. I scanned the small rise and the thick woods
Voices filtered through the forest, cries followed. The scent of a cooking meat drifted, making my stomach howl. I wiped the sweat from my drying lips and scanned the trees, then edged closer.
The thick butt of the pine hid me well. I clung onto the bark and peered around the edges. Women and children crowded the corners of makeshift pens. My stomach sank as I scanned the row. Thirty, forty women now sat in the dirt and the filth, their arms outstretched, pleading with the men who passed by.
The sun glinted on the iron shackles at their feet. My hand slid from the bark as the foul stench hit me. Bile scalded my throat as my stomach rolled. I slapped my hand over my nose, straining to see their faces. Was she in there? Was my sister chained like a damn animal?
My gaze drifted to the cabin. I fingered the sheath at my waist. Was the real Alpha inside, would Sol honor the trade? Hope welled dark and dangerous. He had to, I had no other choice.
Me for her, that was the agreement.
Me, for her.
The snap of a twig cut through the air. I hit the tree and spun, searching the crowded woods. White blonde hair drew my gaze. Sol clung to the base of a pine, hovering in the shadows, right where he belonged. He watched me with interest, before he shoved off the tree and stalked toward me. His deformed arm smacked against his hip as he shuffled. I tried not to stare as he flanked me, losing sight as he moved behind the tree.
“I was wondering if you were really going to show up.”
I heard every step, every breath. He watched me like a hawk.
“You’re so pretty, as pretty as your sister.”
I closed my eyes, flinching as his fingers brushed the hair from the nape of my neck, exposing my throat. Cloth scraped on bark before his hot breath slipped across my skin, mixing with my sweat to drip down my neck. I followed the touch. Not his tongue. Not his tongue. My mind played tricks.
“She calls out your name in her sleep. Did you know that?”
Venom slipped into my words. “You bastard.”
“You’re more alike than you know.” My hair pulled taut under the brushing of his hand. “One fire. One night. I watched you kill that night. I made Rowen watch too. Did you feel her watching you, Abrial? Did you feel her in the shadows?”
I closed my eyes. He can’t hurt me. He can’t do any more than he’s already done.
“They said he couldn’t be killed you know? They lied, didn’t they? Sons of fucking bitches they lied. They said whoever landed the killing blow would be cursed. Tell me, are you cursed Abrial?”
My mouth felt numb with the words. I felt bitterly cold. “Yes, but it isn’t because I slit a man’s throat.”
“Tell me how?”
I spun to face him, meeting those piercing blue eyes. The mutant leader, they called him. But never to his face. “Because, I’m a woman.”
Those knowing eyes widened for a second before he nodded. “I guess that’s true. This is an alpha world we live in, is it not? And no matter how strong, or how resilient you are, women aren’t alphas.”
The ice spread throughout my chest. “I’ve killed for you. I’ve lied for you. I’ve left my pack for you and I’ve handed myself over, to you. Now, it’s time for you to hold up your end of the bargain and take me to my sister.”
His smile widened. “The pleasure’s all mine. But I don’t think it’ll be the same for you.”
He slipped from the tree and for a second I thought he’d fall. I wanted him to fall, to be on the ground with me standing over him. I pictured this as I fell in step. I pictured that smug smile wavering right before I showed him just how brutal this woman could be.
He hobbled toward the pens, leading me right through the middle. The stink of mud and piss reached down to grip my belly with an iron fist. I kept my breaths shallow, staring at the women as I stumbled past.
Haunted eyes glared at me. One woman looked me in the eye, then spat at her feet as I passed. Her chains rattled as she hobbled for the railing. I searched her face, praying I didn’t see my own. “What are you looking at? You think you’re better than me?”
I shook my head. “No.”
I scanned the way ahead as we left the main camp behind and headed for a small rise. Soldiers watched me from the barn. Not one wolf said a word as I passed. I felt their gaze like pin-pricks at the back of my head. Where was he taking me?
I expected him to stumble at boulders that skirted the clearing, but he scurried over one mound at a time, using that mutated arm to balance. Was she chained here, forced to live separate from the others? I pictured her shackles. I pictured a pen and as I followed the second-in command over the rocks to a worn track, a thought hit me like a blow I never saw coming… was he taking me to her grave?
A blur of brown amongst the green had me faltering. I stumbled faster, passing trees that blocked my view. The bright splash of color drew my gaze. Flowers filled a small bed outside the tiny cabin, red, white and yellow. I searched the dirt for a cross or a stone and found none. A shadow moved across the window. I caught the sound of steps inside.
“Where is she?” I forced the words through the desert in my throat.
He never answered, only stepped to the side as I passed. I gripped the strap of my pack and slid one arm out. The weight took over. My bag hit the ground at my feet and for a second I forgot to breathe. My heart hammered as the floorboard creaked and the figure stepped from the doorway.
Night.
This woman was nothing but night.
Black hair glistened in the sun as she stepped toward me. Her dark eyes held me. I saw no love. I saw no relief. The ground seemed to shift under my feet. I gravitated toward her, pulled by unseen hands.
The thud of her boots mingled with the boom of my heart. I dropped my gaze, searching her black pants and black shirt, searching for scars, for chains, and I stopped on her hand.
The spark caught my eye, something glinted that wasn’t black. My mind refused to understand, refused to accept—repelling like the slick of oil on a sodden road.
“Abrial, I’d like you to meet your sister, Rowen, my wife.”
Marcus
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
I scoured the grounds, searching every woman and stopped at Odessa.
“I can’t help her. I can’t see her. It’s too dark where she is. I saw her kiss the dragon. But now there’s nothing but shadows and screams.”
I shook my head, unable to understand. “She left
of her own free will? No one took her, no one hurt her?”
“No.”
So this was why she wanted me to take in her pack. Dump and run. I nodded and felt the sting. “I see.”
This wolf… Odessa fisted the hair at her temples, then slammed her hands against her head. “I can’t get through. I can’t stop fighting it to help her.”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
Her head snapped up. A storm brewed in her gaze turning aqua into tempest blue. “No. You don’t understand. I see everything. I feel everything. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.” She turned her head, her words slipped into a whisper that sent chills along my skin. “It’s a bad. It’s a real bad place, even for a mighty red dragon.”
The thud of my heart slowed. The beat before hungered for the next, but this time there was no ache in between… there was only Abrial.
The memory ravaged my heart with talons. Green eyes, seductive eyes peeked around the corner as she watched me from the doorway of my closet. Her smile seductive and intoxicating. Kiss me, she whispered and held out her arms, love me. I think you’re the most beautiful being I’ve ever seen.
A hiss escaped from my lips. Sliced open and left bare, every nerve stung. She’d left, walked away just like that. Could I blame her? Did I do something wrong?
The sound of laughter yanked me from her memory. I lifted my head. Her pack smiled and laughed, happy to be safe. I’d opened my home for her. I’d opened my soul and let her in, for her to just turn around and walk away.
“You’re right. I don’t understand.”
This woman held me in her gaze. No, not wolf, not woman…. She blinked and something else took her place. A darkness, fierce and determined. The glimpse was gone before I could understand. For one tiny moment I swam in those blue eyes, and for that second I felt insignificant.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered. “I’m not strong enough. I can’t see through the shadows. I’m scared, Marcus. I’m so scared, for her and for you. She didn’t want any of this. She said she had a nice time with you, even with the crash. She told me to tell you she was sorry.”
I swallowed the razors in my throat. They cut the whole way down. Do I just give up? Do I let her go?
“Your shaman, maybe she can do what I can’t.”
I clenched my fist until my arms trembled. My dragon rose, stealing my voice as he snarled. “Why? She doesn’t want to be here, she clearly doesn’t….” want me.
“Do you really think that? Does Abrial strike you as selfish? Do you see her abandoning her people, or abandoning you for no good reason?”
My torment froze. “No.”
“Then run dragon. Run to your shaman and let’s hope you’re not too late.”
An unseen breeze toppled me hard enough to break the spell. One stumble and I was racing for the front door.
Bastian glanced up as I burst through the door. A bag slipped from his laden arms to crash to the floor. “Is everything okay Marcus?”
The echo of my boots was the only answer I could give. The open doorway to the study waved me in. I slammed my hand against the doorframe. The hard bounce slowed my momentum. “Shaman. Witch!”
I searched the corners of the room. Why is she not here? “I need you!”
The room was empty. There was no musty scent of old, no whispered words of the ancients—there was no soul. “Where the hell are you?”
Where would she be? Where does the witch sleep?
The crowded bookshelves gave me no answers. I left the cabinets and the desk to linger in the doorway.
“Have you had another vision?”
The sun blinded me through the glass. I raised my hand, shielding my eyes and found Byron against the wall. His inquisitive eyes missed nothing and gave little away. “No, no more visions.”
He watched the pack, then turned to me. His dark eyes narrowed, bunching thick brows. “You’re upset. What’s wrong?”
“I need the witch. Do you know where she lives?”
“Lives? I don’t think the woman lives anywhere. But I know she goes to the Ash tree to pray.”
The Ash tree.
“Be careful, Marcus. It’s not just your life you’re changing here.”
Family. Love. They were at war. I dropped my gaze to his thin frame and his bloodless lips. The right path, and the wrong one waited, so why did I see only one? “I will.”
“Until the fire burns out.”
I nodded and turned. “Until the fire burns out.”
Those words were empty on my lips. Didn’t they see? We had no fire. We had no flame. Our embers were dying, turning from orange to black. Still the smoke lingered, but that was all we had left—that was all we clung to.
But not anymore.
A splash of yellow beckoned through the door.
I wanted to make a new deal as well—one the deformed piece of shit who hunted her wouldn’t like much at all. The metal handle throbbed under my hand. Even through the glass I felt the tree pulse with life, calling me forward to where the giant Ash waited.
The thick knotted roots burrowed dirt and strangled stone, making mountains from the ground. My shoes resounded on the stone path. Wild bushes laden with thorns hedged this part of the garden, separating it from the main part of the house.
I rounded the mammoth trunk, finding rivers etched in the wood, valleys gouged in the dirt and a world cradled amongst the branches overhead.
“I heard your call, bull. But I have questions of my own. So go away.”
I flinched at the guttural sound, finding the dark hollow. Swollen lips in the trunk, gave way to a crevice wide enough for a witch to slip through. This Ash was more than leaves and wood—it was night and day—it was our connection to our creators. My fingers tingled as I brushed the trunk, it was both man and woman. But for me this tree was none of those things—this tree was Mother.
A shadow moved inside her womb. Bones rattled, shaking loose the pent up breath as the shaman crawled out of the tree’s belly.
“Abrial’s gone. I can’t find her. I’m worried.”
“So, you come to me for a love spell?” She snapped.
I clenched my jaw. “No, not a love spell.”
Her gaze flayed my skin and exposed the deepest vein. “Then what? You want me to journey to the Underworld? You want me to lie with beasts just so you can find your wolf?”
Something fluttered in my belly. This wasn’t the reaction I expected. Where was the witch who cared for Abrial hours ago? Where was the woman who cared for me?
I opened my mouth, true words were hard to speak, but not this word. “Yes.”
“This is not an idle conjure, Dragon. This path is far beyond the realms even I’ve ventured. There will be a sacrifice. There will be blood… and there will be torment. Are you ready for that? Think before you answer!”
It’s a real bad place, even for a mighty red dragon, Odessa had whispered.
An unseen fist gripped my heart, squeezing every beat. “If I do this will she be found? Will she be safe?”
Her lips twisted into a crooked smile. A knowing sparkled deep in those ancient eyes as she ambled toward me one hand hidden behind her back. “Yes.”
“Then, whatever happens will be worth it.”
Her smiled widened. “Well, we shall see, won’t we dragon? We shall see.”
She dragged her arm from behind her body and I stared at the skull in her hand. Her thin gnarled fingers barely touched, wrapped around the butt of a massive bull’s horn. My pulse sped at the sight. My fingers itched to touch, was this meant to be an omen, was this meant to be me?
Unseen hands shoved me. I stumbled, wrenching my gaze over my shoulder and found nothing but the wind. The old woman’s chuckle sprouted a seed of doubt.
“It seems your journey’s already begun. Take the bones, dragon. You’ll need them where you’re going.”
Her arms shook as she heaved the skull. The tips of my finger stung as I gripped the horn. The shock raced through my
hand and into my arm. I gripped the horn with one hand as I trailed the smooth ivory bone of the sunken cheek. The bull inhaled, snorting air into my ears. Fire swelled to lick the insides of my belly. These bones whispered, filling me with secrets and promises. I ran my finger along the sharp edge of its snout, then followed the crevice to the corner of his eye.
Open the gate and let me enter….
I strained to hear the words, staring into those hollow pits as the old crone’s words echoed through. “What are you doing dragon? She’s waiting for you.”
I wrenched my head up as a voice called me. “Who?”
The old woman’s hand never shook as she reached for my face. “Your mother, dragon. Inanna.”
I will break down these doors.
I will wait for no man.
No metal, or stone will stop me and neither will you.
Let me in. Do you hear me? Let. Me. In.
The thunder of my heart became her fists, my chest, her barren drum. Thud, thud, thud. The sunken orbs swallowed me in and the world seemed to slip from my grasp.
That’s it. Let me in, dragon.
In the vision, stars glinted in the distance.
Come closer, the night whispered. You’ve no use of the light anymore.
I closed my eyes and left this world behind. The vision wavered, yanking me from the old woman and the tree to a vision of night.
The silver rays of a swollen moon hugged the lonely figure. His bare scalp caught the light and shone as he lowered his head. Hunched shoulders warned that he was ready to fight. Even from a distance I knew the wrath of Zadoc.
A shadow crept forward. A warning growl slipped through. Russet fur glistened like blood as the wolf circled, cresting the hill before the beast stilled.
Her head turned. Silver eyes blinked, then seized me. Musk, earth, then something sweet lingered. Abrial.
I clawed the air, propelling myself forward as the wolf and Zadoc moved as one. Momentum left me to falter at the bottom of the hill as a dark figure crested the rise. Smoke drifted from a blade as the tip gouged the earth, swirling around the hooded man.
My brother moved, hand up, striding toward the hooded figure. His command shattered the silence. Stop. No further. There was no response, not even a slow in the warrior’s steps as he descended the mountain, heading for me.
