by Wendy Knight
"Okay. Let's get to it then," Hunter said, sending Shane a disgusted look as he pushed away from the table. He followed Will into the office where they huddled over the computer. Charity joined them a few minutes later.
"Ari, they will help us. You'll see," Shane said, reaching across the table and taking her hand.
Ari stared down at their joined fingers for a long moment before she looked up to meet his gaze. "I hope so, Shane. I do."
They heard the front door open and Dani came around the corner. She had been fighting the flu and, from the looks of it, still didn’t feel well. “Hey Ari. Is Will around?” she asked. She tried to smile but only succeeded in looking more miserable than before.
“Office. Sending encrypted emails.” Ari sighed, motioning her toward the office.
Dani gave a little nod and wandered toward the door. She raised her hand to knock, but stopped before her knuckles touched the wood. “You know… I probably shouldn’t bother him. Will you just tell him I stopped by?” she asked, turning back to Ari.
“Sure. But he’ll be done soon if you want to stick around. We’ve got pancakes.” Ari said as Shane helpfully pushed the plate full of still-steaming pancakes toward her. Dani just shook her head, paling. Ari wondered if she was going to be sick all over the kitchen. That would be… unpleasant. Dani just gave them a quick wave and fled the house.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ari’s eyes flew open as Charity’s wail jarred her out of sleep. The moon was just a sliver and barely visible through the bedroom window. Morning was on its way. Ari lay silently, watching Charity try to catch her breath. “Are you okay?” she asked finally.
“I… had a dream…” Charity trailed off. She rolled over and looked at Ari, her eyes glowing in the dark room. “You aren’t as healed as you’d like us to believe, are you?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Your breathing. It’s ragged.”
Ari changed the subject. “What was your dream about?”
Charity squeezed her eyes shut, but Ari could see them glowing brighter than before. “I can’t remember. Something feels wrong, though.”
Ari could tell the second the vision hit. Charity fell backward like she had been smacked in the head with a bat, knocking her back against her pillows.
“A girl… one I’ve seen around the colony…”Ari struggled out of her covers and went to kneel by Charity on the floor. “I’ve noticed her because Will watched her with a light in his eyes that I can only wish Hunter would see me with.” Even caught in a vision, a blush colored her fair cheeks. Ari could barely see it in the moonlight.
Ari sucked in a breath. Dani.
Charity gripped Ari’s hands, her mouth moving, words tumbling out. “The girl is in the woods, outside the wards. She’s running, and crying, she’s crying so hard, choking on sobs. Spells fly past her head. They smash into the trees.
’Help me! Please help me!’ she screams. And then she trips.”
"Charity! What's going on?" Ari yelled, shaking her. With a strangled cry, Charity’s eyes flew open.
The room flooded with light as Will and Hunter fought their way through the door, Shane on their heels. "What's going on?" Hunter asked.
"If you'd shut up, she could tell us!" Ari snapped, turning back to Charity.
"Breathe, Char. It's okay." Shane knelt next to Ari and took Charity's hands. Ari watched blue warmth flicker out of Shane's hands, soothing his cousin.
Taking a deep breath, Charity told them what she had seen. “Will, I think it’s Dani.”
Will sucked in a sharp, pained breath.
"Who is Dani?" Shane asked.
"Will's sort-of girlfriend, the girl who stopped by today," Ari explained as she turned toward her brother." She's out there somewhere. We've got to go after her."
"It's too dangerous, Ari." He closed his eyes, as if the words tortured him. "I'll go. I'll get some of the other colonists to help me. You'll stay—" Ari glared at him and leaped toward the door, racing down the hallway as his words died behind her. She was in pajama pants and a tank top, no shoes, but she was hurtling down the stairs before they even got to the hall.
Will followed her with Shane and Hunter on his heels, all of them yelling at Ari. She glanced over her shoulder, just catching sight of Charity, just coming down the outside stairs, tugging on her shoes. Shane caught up to her, skidding to a halt as she reached the wards and sprinted right through them. Through the wards, she could barely hear him as he said, “It’s incredible, watching her do that.”
"Ari!" Will yelled. She spun toward him, held up three fingers, counting down. At one, she and Will flew into a flurry of saldepements, opening a portal. "You are in so much trouble!" Will bellowed as he dove through. The rest of them followed.
"We're already out here, Will. Charity, come with me. We'll use your vision to find her. Will, you go that way around the colony and see if anyone has seen anything. Get help if you find anyone awake.” Ari motioned to Shane and Hunter. “You two go that way and we'll go all the way around the colony if we have to."
"Are you crazy? You aren't going out there alone!" Shane yelled.
"Shane, I'm a better fighter than all of you combined. You know that. This girl means a lot to my brother and I'm not going to stand here and argue with you. Besides, I won’t be alone. I’ll have Charity with me." With a glance at Charity, Ari raced away. Charity didn't even glance back as she followed her, running as hard as she could to keep up.
****
"Charity, yell if something looks familiar," Ari called over her shoulder, and then she slid to a stop, jerking her arm out to catch Charity as she hurled by.
"Carules magic." She pointed. Moving quietly, Ari pulled Charity along behind her, her hand hot on Charity’s wrist, heading toward a clearing ahead of them. Their breath hung frozen in the air and snow crunched under their feet.
Dani stood in the middle of the clearing, sobbing with her hands over her face, barely visible in the twilight.
"Dani? Are you okay?" Ari called from the shelter of the trees.
Dani jerked, put out her hands. "Ari!" she cried. Ari hesitated, searching the surrounding forest.
"Something isn't right," Charity murmured.
"What do you see?" Ari asked, risking a glance at her before turning her attention back to the clearing.
"Nothing. But it feels wrong."
"Ari! They're — they’re gone. But I'm scared!" Dani called.
Ari frowned. "Come to me. We'll get you back where it's safe."
"I can't. I'm hurt." She gestured to her foot, which was twisted at an odd angle.
"Good grief." Ari took an uncertain step out of the trees. "Where'd the Carules go?" Ari asked.
"They weren't after me. They thought I was someone else. When they got close… they just took off." Dani was sobbing harder now and Ari could see her shaking even from her hiding spot at the edge of the trees.
"Stay here and hide in the trees. If anything happens, run back the way we came and tell Will to get you back inside the colony." Ari glanced down at Charity as she bit her lip. Charity nodded, her eyebrows drawn together with worry. With a nod to herself, Ari sprinted out into the clearing.
But it wasn't fast enough. Carules swarmed through a portal that bloomed to life at Dani's back. By Dani's hand.
Ari skidded to a stop, sliding in the snow. "You're the traitor?" she screeched in shock.
"I'm so sorry Ari! I didn't have a choice—" Dani cried.
Ari's hands were already shooting out spells, sparks flying from her fingertips. Several Carules went down at once; a few more tried to dive out of the way but got hit with her next spell. Charity had never seen anything like it. Ari was just too fast, dodging and ducking and weaving and whirling away from anything they tried to throw at her while her hands flew through spells of her own.
"Edren Prodigy. Arianna, is it? Maybe you can stop killing all my warriors for a second so we can talk. I have something here that will interest
you." The voice wafted across the clearing. All the spells assaulting her stopped, and everyone ran for cover. Wards went up all around her.
Ari pushed her curls away from her sweaty forehead. "Come closer so I can kill you, and I won't have to kill the rest of your warriors," she said, her voice flat and hard.
Slowly, a man stepped out of the trees, dragging an unconscious form behind him. Ari stifled a scream behind her fist as she realized it was Charity. Outside the shimmering lines of the wards, she could see Shane and Hunter, desperately throwing spells against the walls. And she could feel her brother without even seeing him, trying just as recklessly to find a way through from behind her. But it wasn’t possible.
She squared her shoulders, glaring at the man dragging her best friend across the grass like she was nothing.
"I'm Charles, head Council member. We haven't been introduced but I feel like I know you already. I've heard so much about you." His voice was high and false.
Ari ground her teeth together, letting the sparks fly from her fingertips, turning into flames. The grass around her feet ignited, but Charles didn't seem to notice. "Here's the thing, before you attempt to kill me, you should realize that there is a portal right here. You send a spell at me, and I'll just step right through. The only thing for your spell to hit… will be your little friend here."
The sparks at Ari's fingertips died. "What do you want?" she asked, although she already knew.
"Give yourself up and I'll leave the little failure of a Seer here for our failure of a Prodigy to take home. No harm done."
"What good will that do you? You can't kill me," Ari pointed out.
"No. But I'll figure something out. So what's it going to be, Edren?" he asked, jerking on Charity's arm. Charity moaned. She was coming around.
"Ari…" She groaned. Charles raised a cruel eyebrow.
"They trusted you," Ari said, her eyes moving to Shane and Hunter, still trying to get through the wards.
"Well, the thing is, if I left it up to them, we would have lost this war. And I can't let that happen." He jerked Charity again and Ari heard a sickening crack as Charity's arm gave way. Charity shrieked in pain.
"Okay." Ari held up her hands. "Let her go and I'll go with you." She could feel Will's scream echoing through her head, through her heart. Shane was frozen on the other side of the wards, as if he could hear her too. Hunter was shaking his head frantically, but there was nothing any of them could do. She had led Charity right into this trap, telling them how tough she was, how she was a better fighter than any of them.
She was surrounded by Carules warriors prodding her toward the portal. Ari resisted the urge to shove them away, watching Charity's crumpled form at Charles' feet.
"Let her go." Ari’s voice was frightening. The warriors around her flinched away, but Charles only raised his chin.
"Of course. As soon as you are on the other side of the portal and unable to kill me." He waved his hand toward the shimmering doorway, falsely chivalrous.
Ari glanced down at Charity as she walked past, but there was nothing she could do. One wrong move, and they would kill the only real friend Ari had ever had. She raised her eyes to glare at Charles. "I may be a killer, but using your own people as leverage? You're the monster. Not me."
She had one foot through the portal when she heard Charles' voice again. "Oh, I've changed my mind. I think I'll keep this little thing with me. Just to make sure you behave in your new home. I wouldn't want you hurting any more of my warriors."
"What?” Ari screeched, whirling as the saldepement spell died and the portal shimmered shut. She had a spell in her hands, ready to throw. And then she heard Charity's scream, filled with pain and fear. The spell died in Ari's hands.
****
The wards died as soon as Charles dragged Charity, kicking and screaming, through another portal that shimmered to life as soon as Ari disappeared. Shane and Hunter raced in from one side as Will came running from the other, but the doorway closed before any of them could get there.
"How did this happen?" Shane exclaimed. Will stared into the space his sister had just disappeared through, willing the portal to open.
"Will.” Dani was still sobbing, limping toward them. In the fury of the attack, she had been left, forgotten.
Will spun on her, his face full of such fury, even Hunter stepped back to give him space. "You did this!" he bellowed. He stalked toward her, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her.
"I didn't have a choice! They have my family, Will!" she cried. Shane and Hunter both leaped forward, jerking Will away from her. Released, she crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, burying her head in her arm, sobs shaking her shoulders.
"What do you mean they have your family?" Shane asked, trying to keep his voice calm as he crouched next to her, although he wanted to grab her and shake her like Will had. She was the reason he had just watched the girl he loved and his cousin, the two most important women in the world to him, disappear.
Dani lifted her head. Her face was a disaster of puffy bruises and crisscrossing scratches and welts. Burns, too. "My family was still loyal to the Council, even when I left. But a few months ago, the Council took them into custody and told me if I kept them informed… if I heard anything, they wouldn't hurt them. So I mentioned that Will was… was trying to find out who you were."
"That night when Ari was attacked at school, that was because of you, wasn't it?" Will asked, staring out at the darkness as he paced the empty clearing like a caged leopard. The Council had what they wanted. All their warriors were gone now.
"Yes. I didn't think she would get hurt. She's s-so s-strong." Dani choked on sobs. "I made sure you couldn't leave. T-t-to keep you safe." She looked up at him, her cheeks wet with tears, but Will narrowed his eyes, glaring at the trees.
"Will, they have her family. What else could she have done?" Hunter asked, his voice quiet and defeated.
Will's shoulders slumped, and his head dropped to his chest. "And now they have mine."
"They were going to murder my little brother, Will. If I didn't lure Ari out tonight, they were going to kill him. He's only ten, Will!"
Shane stood up. "It’s okay, Dani. They won’t hurt them now.” Turning to Hunter and Will, he said, “We have to go after them. I've got a lot of contacts. We can start making calls." He cracked his knuckles, anxious to do something.
Will nodded. "I'll put out feelers too. But they have our Prodigy. If she's not dead by now…" No one wanted to finish that thought, but they all knew what he meant. They were torturing her. Ari was strong, but could she endure that?
"Or I could tell you where she is," Dani whispered from the ground. They all jerked toward her, like puppets.
"You know where they are?" Shane asked, hope and disbelief warring on his face.
"No. I know where Ari is. The other girl, I didn't know about her. I didn't know they were going after anyone but Ari."
"Well, wouldn't they keep them in the same place?" Hunter asked. His eyes were as hollow as his voice.
"No. They're using Charity to keep Ari docile. If they kept her in the same place—” Shane started.
"Ari would attack and try to free her. If Ari doesn't know where Charity is, then she has to behave," Hunter finished.
"Where is Ari?" Shane asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Hunter's face was white and he was shaking. Shane had never seen him afraid of anything before, but he was overcome with terror now. And that only made things more hopeless. If it was bad enough that the stoic Hunter, Guard to the Carules Prodigy, was giving up hope, then…
"Shane, stop it. We're going after them. We'll get them both back," Will said, reading his face. "Dani, come back to the compound. We'll get the Healers to help you, and you will tell me where they’re keeping her."
****
Less than twenty minutes later, Dani was on Will’s couch, surrounded by healers they had woken up in a hurry. Will, Hunter, and Shane were in Will’s office, watching as
Will’s fingers flew over the keyboard.
"Will, this is a Carules compound. Just you setting foot there is suicide," Hunter pointed out, jabbing his finger at the computer screen. Will had somehow found the blueprints for the building where Ari was being kept, and they were poring over them, trying to make plans.
Will glanced around the corner. Dani lay asleep on his couch, still surrounded by the Healers who were also acting as guards.
"Will can stay here and coordinate—”
"No. That is my sister, Shane. Yeah, you might have been in love with her for a couple of weeks, but she is my whole life. You're out of your mind if you think I'm staying here where I'm safe," Will snapped.
He met Shane's eyes; their gazes clashed and held before Shane nodded. "Okay. Okay, we'll all go together.”
“We want to make sure they call the Council,” Hunter said thoughtfully. Shane and Will both looked at him like he had lost his mind. “No, I’m serious. We tell Charles if he hurts her… it won’t go well for him. It could protect Charity,” Hunter explained.
“That’s insane,” Shane said, but after a second he nodded. “But… yeah, it might work.”
Will also nodded in agreement. “It might work better than us sneaking in and killing everyone. Once they found out everyone was dead, they’d take their vengeance out on Charity”
"So we go in and what?" Hunter asked, his eyes scanning the blueprints again.
"We go in there and do whatever it takes to get her out." Shane’s voice was cold and hard.
"First we have to get there.” Will sighed. “Do you have any friends in the area?" He pushed back from his computer, facing Shane.
Hunter and Shane exchanged a look. “Yes,” Hunter said, pulling out his cell phone. A few seconds later, he gave them both a quick nod as he said, “Hey, Mom, it’s Hunter. Can you do me a favor?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
