by S. D. Grimm
Scarface stood with his axe held up to Quinn’s neck. “This game gets better every time.”
Not this time.
Ethan breathed deep. Revenge clawed at his heart. He wanted to give in. Let it banish the fear and fuel him with strength. Jayden’s words echoed in his head: If your talent stems from love, perhaps it’s not a weakness. Perhaps you just need to trust it more.
More than revenge.
Scout. Kinny. No more loss.
Listen to your heart, not your fears. Jayden had said to him. She was right. No more revenge. This was for love. He called on his speed. Zephyr was faster than Ethan. If he could get speed like that. . .
It fueled him.
Scarface brought the axe back to swing forward at Quinn.
Strength coursed through Ethan.
In one heartbeat he was at Scarface’s side. He pushed against the man’s arm and braced himself with all his strength. Scarface’s arm remained stationary, unable to swing. Ethan plunged his sword into Scarface’s side. Clean through his lung.
The man’s breathing hitched. He gasped. Fell backward. Blood. Black blood oozed out of him.
Ethan looked at his sword. At Scarface. The man’s eyes changed. His blood ran red.
“I’m sorry . . . about . . . the girl. Idla spelled us . . . turn the blood . . . red.”
Scarface slumped against the rock, his eyes open. No rise and fall of his chest. Ethan closed the man’s eyes. What in Soleden had he meant?
No time to wonder. He unlocked Quinn’s chains and scooped her into his arms. She was like a newborn lamb. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay?”
Her head nodded against his chest.
“Zephyr?”
Ethan’s hair seemed to stand on end. The air tasted off. Electric.
Zephyr swooped in. His wings beat with a fury over them. “Hold on to her.” He picked Ethan up.
Lightning cracked. Hit the ground. Even the sky seemed to jolt.
Zephyr slammed into the earth. Everything shook. Ethan lost his balance and curled his body around Quinn and rolled as they fell. Jagged stone bit into him. Fire sparked, crackled on a dead tree. It fell toward them. Ethan scrambled to his feet, picked up Quinn, and dove out of the way. Rock tore into his skin, but the tree missed him.
He opened his arms and looked at Quinn. “Are you okay?”
She tugged his shirt tight and curled into a ball in his arms. “F-fire.”
He tried to scan her body. “Where? You’re hurt?”
“No. I—I’m—” Tears streamed down her face.
He saw the burn scars on her arms. “Oh. You’re scared.”
She clutched his shirt tighter.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ll get you out of here.”
The ground ruptured, sending him sprawling. The volcano cracked. A sound like thunder vibrated up the gullet of the rock. Tremors plagued the earth. He tightened his grip on Quinn and ran. Rocks slid down the face of the volcano—racing past them, threatening to make them stumble—and another roar belched from the mouth of the volcano. Grit sprayed from the heavens, raining down in chunks and blinding him.
The ground shook.
He fell. His elbows hit the ground, and Quinn tumbled from his grip. Tiny rocks pelted him, each hit stinging his skin, too thick to see through. Ethan shielded his face.
On shaking legs, he stood. Black coated the air. “Quinn?”
“I’m here.”
He cocked his head, trying to tell where she was with his good ear. “Where?”
“I’m scared.”
Ash stung his lungs. Fire, like a pillar, streamed from the top of the volcano. Smoke billowed toward the sky. Lightning stretched out from the darkness above them. In the flash he caught sight of the girl’s small form. She lay on the ground covering her head.
“I see you. I’m coming.”
Chunks of burning rock rained down around them. The earth groaned. Everything trembled.
The ground split.
Lava sputtered up from the crack. Smoke descended. Ethan lost sight of everything but the red glow. His talent told him exactly where Quinn was, and he dove over her shaking body. “Zephyr, can you fly in this mess?”
“I can if I have to protect you.”
Heat flashed across Ethan’s chest. “Jayden’s in trouble.”
Quinn screamed.
A torrent of flame cascaded toward them.
Chapter 72
Island in the Swamp
Logan sank his blade into another man. His arms burned with
fatigue. His lungs ached. And lacerations covered every limb. Serena and Morgan fought near him, valiantly, but they were clearly tired, too.
Those in the black blood army seemed unable to tire. Perhaps the unnatural substance that pulsed through their blood kept them from weariness.
“Logan, I think it’s time to surrender.” Westwind’s thoughts even sounded breathless.
Logan looked at his blood-covered friend.
Dash even bore more black on the front of him than white. Black from unnatural blood.
“Westwind, we can’t—”
“Logan! We’re coming. Hang on!” Aurora’s voice broke through distant and quiet, but no less urgent. “Gavin says Glider can see you. You’re losing.”
“Aurora, the few of you who would come could not dent this army.”
“Logan, I bring Beck and Reuben with the fighters from Moon Over Water. Melanie and Gavin found Island in the Swamp—the Feravolk camp in Meese. We come thousands strong to fight with you. Humans and animals.”
A strange feeling lifted his heart. Hope. For so long he had refused to acknowledge its tiny rays of light, but now her words shone like the sun in this dark moment. A surrender would buy them time.
“Morgan. Call a surrender.”
Her glance was incredulous.
“Trust me.”
“Surrender! We surrender!”
One by one, the Dissenters dropped to their knees as the army accepted their surrender. Logan knelt beside Morgan. He placed his hands behind his head. A young man—a Child by the look of him—walked to the center of the group of soldiers where Logan knelt on the blackened, sandy soil.
“You surrender?”
Logan nodded. “Take us to Franco.”
“We will take the Deliverer.”
“I go with her. I pledged my life unto death. I will go with her.” He reached out to Aurora. “Where are you, friend?”
“Right here.”
A volley of arrows rained out from the tree line. Hundreds of black blood soldiers fell.
“Retreat!” Logan called to the bruised and wounded fighters. He looked at Serena. “We’ll need you to tend to the wounded.”
“I have strength.”
Morgan gripped Serena’s arm. “We have a few Healers, too. You won’t be alone.”
Dissenters raced for the trees. The Royal Army began to fall on the shore. Logan made sure Serena and Morgan made it into the safety of the trees. Westwind limped next to him. “We might defeat them now.”
Logan glanced at the island. “If Jayden and Ethan can stop the ritual. We have to figure out how to get over there and help them.”
The ground shook. Lightning cracked across the sky. And the volcano rumbled.
Chapter 73
Burning Heart
The firegoat streaked up into the dark clouds like a backward lightning strike. Jayden kept the beast in her sights. Though the thought of going after this beast terrified her, this was what she had been born for—keeping the Mistress imprisoned—and Jayden wasn’t about to let Franco set that monster free.
Stormcloud sped toward the firegoat. “The goats hate water. If only this storm would cry. We need rain. Can you make it rain?”
“No. I only know when it will.”
“Are you sure? The sky shares your emotions, does it not?”
“Sometimes it seems that way.” Wind whipped Jayden’s hair as Stormcloud flew higher. Her win
gs, midnight blue and black rolling together in an angry gust, beat hard and fast. Had the storm changed? Could she connect to it?
Whether or not she could, storms were her heart. They beat and pulsed through her. She wasn’t afraid to get wet. Thunder pealed. Jayden patted Stormcloud’s neck. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“We are bonded. If it is your purpose, it is also mine.”
“He’s headed for the volcano. We have to cut him off.”
Stormcloud chased the streak of orange light in the sky. “It craves the taste of pegasus. I might be able to lure it after me again, but we have to get there in time.”
Stormcloud climbed higher, and two black-hole eyes locked onto her. The firegoat veered off course. “It’s working.”
Franco’s shouts were audible now. Jayden felt a surge of pleasure. Lightning pulsed through the sky as if she’d called it. Then Stormcloud dove around the other side of the volcano. “Okay. It wants me. Now what’s the plan?”
“To keep Franco from getting that stone into the volcano.”
“Good. We have to stop him from lighting the volcano on fire and waking it. Rain would be nice about now.” Stormcloud zoomed higher into the clouds.
Weakness. What was the firegoat’s—an image of Idla lighting up from the inside out filled Jayden’s mind, and she shuddered. “We have to strike the firegoat with lightning. That will render its wings useless. It will turn it to glass like a lightning strike on a beach.”
“That is a good plan.” Stormcloud seemed to smile. “Do you feel that?”
A tingle shot over Jayden’s skin, and her heart nearly leapt. “Lightning.”
It cracked and hit the island. A tree burst into flame too close to the volcano. Ethan was down there. If the volcano woke—she’d have to make sure it didn’t.
Jayden looked at her daggers. “Stormcloud, if you get me close enough to the lightning, I can absorb it and—and I can throw it.”
“So can I.” Stormcloud tossed her head. “I know where it will strike. Hold on.”
Where was the goat? She’d lost it. Her heart stilled like a frightened rabbit.
A streak of fire punctured a dark cloud and headed toward them. “Look out!”
The goat passed close to them. Franco’s fiery eyes met hers and he held a knife. Jayden covered her head. Soft feathers encompassed her. The firegoat slammed its horn into Stormcloud.
Stormcloud’s fear shot through Jayden’s heart. “My wing.”
Jayden’s stomach started to plummet as Stormcloud fell. Fast.
The firegoat flew right toward them. “Stormcloud, can you get me closer?”
“Jayden, if—”
“If you’re not carrying me, can you fly?”
“Yes, but not for long.”
The firegoat made another pass. Jayden could make it if she jumped. It was now or never. Her legs pushed her forward and she grabbed burning fur. Hung on. Dug her dagger into the beast and pulled herself up. It screeched. Fur singed her arms, licked against her clothes, but she climbed higher. Closer to the double saddle.
Free of Jayden’s weight, Stormcloud used her wings to carry herself up, but she was faltering.
Franco sneered. “You are not immune to the burning fur. It’s going to be so easy to torture you.”
She pulled herself onto the saddle and stood.
Franco dipped the heart onto the monster’s fur and flames spouted from it. Below, the volcano had awakened. If he dropped the heart in, it would be consumed and crack open the Mistress’s prison. No way she’d let that happen.
She thrust her dagger into Franco’s side.
He cried out. But the shriek morphed into a laugh. He pushed her with one wickedly strong hand. She lunged and struggled to grasp the heart in his other, outstretched hand. She could almost reach it. He pushed harder and she lost her footing.
Her stomach lurched as she fell. She gripped the saddle in one hand and punctured it with her weapon. Franco kicked her arm. She swung her legs up and kneed his calf.
He fell on his knees, his face right next to hers. He sneered. “You lost.”
The heart still burned. Didn’t the fire hurt him? Perhaps not since he was bonded to a firegoat. Her fingers slipped, but her legs were on the saddle now. One hand gripped the saddle and she pulled herself up. Ripped her dagger free of the leather. Stabbed Franco in the neck.
Blood ran down her fingers. Ran everywhere.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled the blade out. Then he slammed her back against the saddle and turned her wrist toward her, trying to stab her with her own weapon. The closer he leaned, the closer he brought the burning heart.
She pulled her blood-slicked arm free and stabbed again.
Laughing, he gripped her neck. Squeezed.
She kicked and the fiery heart bobbled. She tried to breathe. Clawed at his face. His crazed eyes terrified her. She couldn’t . . . breathe.
“You lost, princess.”
The heart was closer. All she had to do was hold on to her dagger, but her fingers were opening.
Something Ethan said rushed into her mind. Could she calm Franco? As terror throbbed through her, she calmed herself, willed the calming waves to lap over Franco.
His laughter stilled and he stared at her with his eyebrows pinched together.
Calm down.
Air trickled into her lungs. His crushing hold was lessening. She breathed. Gripped her dagger tight and pulled it free of Franco’s flesh. “Stormcloud?”
“Yes?”
“Can you lure us closer to the lightning?”
“I won’t be able to catch you.”
“I know. It’s okay.”
She’d felt emotion travel over a bond before, she realized, as Stormcloud’s sadness flooded her. What she felt from Ethan was truly a bond. Somehow she was bonded to him. It was different, as Miranda had said, but a bond nonetheless. And he might not be able to hear her, but right now, right before her only chance to stop Franco, she thought about Ethan. Thought him a final farewell. Because when Stormcloud tossed her the lightning, Jayden would use it to destroy the goat. And she would die, too.
I love you, Ethan. I always will.
The heavens opened and rain poured out.
The firegoat shrieked as the water sizzled on its fur. With unsteady wings, it drew nearer to the volcano mouth. The heart stopped burning. Franco lost his smirk. He put the heart inside his shirt and choked her with two hands, still pinning her arms down with his legs.
How was he so heavy?
A tingle washed over Jayden’s skin. Stormcloud rose from the other side of the volcano just as the firegoat crested the top.
The sky crackled.
Franco released her and grabbed the heart from inside the fold of his shirt. Dipped it in the weak flame of the firegoat.
She sucked in life-giving air.
Stormcloud flicked her tail as light darted across the sky, and it changed its course. Raced straight for Jayden. She just needed this one moment.
She caught the lightning with the tip of her dagger and looked into Franco’s wide eyes. “This is how I killed your mother.”
She slammed her dagger into the goat. It screeched as a bolt of lightning pulsed through it. Pulsed through Franco. Through her.
The heart fell from his hand. It smacked against the volcano’s rocky edge and bounced off the side.
“You failed.” She fell from the firegoat, but Stormcloud would not catch her. The pegasus was falling, too.
Franco and the goat fell down, down, down.
She’d done it. Completed her mission. The lightning may have spared her, but the fall wouldn’t. Looked like Deliverers didn’t survive after all. Thea was right. But Jayden didn’t regret it. Not one moment.
Her body fell onto something, and she didn’t even feel that much pain. It was soft. Like feathers and fur. Like . . .
A gryphon?
Jayden sat up. Zephyr looked over at her, but the fear in his eyes was wild.
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The goat landed like a meteor falling from the heavens and shattered on contact.
“Stormcloud?”
“I’m here.” The pegasus’ voice was weak. “It’s your friend. He’s trapped on the burning island with the girl. I—I can’t get to him.”
Ethan.
“Zephyr, can you get me down there?”
Chapter 74
A New Family
The ground rumbled again. There was no way this island was going to make it. And Ethan couldn’t get to the water. Lava bubbled up everywhere. “Where are you, Zephyr?”
“Jump . . . now!”
Ethan clutched Quinn tight to his chest and jumped into the thick, dark smoke. Claws grabbed his arms and he hung on to Quinn. Wing beats started to overpower the sound of sizzles and exploding rock, and he opened his eyes.
Finally out of the smoke, Ethan breathed easier. Cold wind hit his face.
“Fly lower, Zephyr. The lightning is striking northwest.” That was Jayden’s voice. Her beautiful voice.
Zephyr dipped, doing as told.
“There. Stormcloud says that’s the Feravolk camp.”
Serena leaned over another man and healed his wounds so that they were no longer fatal. That was all she could do.
“You need to rest.” Dash nuzzled her shoulder with his nose. Some of his strength warmed her.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I don’t want you to faint.”
Logan found her. Blood stained his clothes, a few cuts marred his face, but she’d healed his deep wounds despite his denial that he needed it. “How are you?”
“Weak.” She couldn’t lie.
He touched her arm and she let him. “Rest, then. Those who are deeply wounded have been cared for, thanks to you. The rest are on the pyre.”
“Logan.” A man, Logan’s age perhaps, came up behind them. He had hair the color of wet sand and gray eyes, very much like someone she’d met before, and he stared at her.
“What’s wrong, Gavin?” A woman stepped around him. Her gaze caught Serena and she stopped, too.
Serena stood slowly.
“Serena,” Logan said.
Her heart stuttered. “Is this . . . my mother?”
