Compelled

by Shawntelle Madison

  She took a few breaths and the bleeding stopped. The process was that simple for us to move on. Pretty soon, we’d reach the cathedral, but I had something on my mind I needed to say.

  “Why did you bleed?” I asked.

  “That’s what happens when you let the exchange dictate where the power is drawn from,” she said with a sigh.

  So I was right. So that was why my nose bled as I tried to set the old magic spellcasters free. I’d pulled from myself and suffered the consequences.

  Scaling up the church wall wasn’t too bad. With a quick jump, we clawed past the first floor, beyond the bell towers on the second and third floors until we reached the very top. From up here, the wind beat against our faces and the night sky opened up to madness.

  “No...” Royse’s voice trailed off.

  To the south, from the shore where we’d landed, another sea demon had rolled onto land. The beast attacked those who had remained there to protect the rear: the acolytes and a handful of the old magic spellcasters. While on the other side of the island, a great flash of light lit up the line of trees to the north. A full mile was bathed in brilliant light.

  My mouth dropped open to see the frontline. A large cluster of wizards, most likely about twenty-five of them or so, formed a single line. Shoulder to shoulder they didn’t move as unimaginable creatures slammed into a great wall of light. The red-orange beam radiated warmth that extended hundreds of feet into the night sky. None of the humans who walked along the grounds reacted to it at all. It was rather unsettling to see a grotesque monster, the size of an office building, mashing its gaping teeth-filled mouth against the wall of light, slamming into it again and again. Birds with feathers lit as if on fire, swooped in again and again into the quivering wall.

  Both parties’ collective power was a sight to behold.

  “Good God, what happens if that wall falls?” I whispered.

  “I don’t want to find out.” She peered beyond the wall of wizards and saw what I saw, far more warlocks concentrating their power on taking out their enemies, standing in loose formations near the monastery on the bridge to the island.

  “Why aren’t they using hand-to-hand combat?” I asked.

  “The wizards will hold them back until that’s necessary. There’s far less bloodshed using that method.”

  I nodded, unease growing inside me. “How the hell are they holding up?”

  “Sheer will. But they can’t keep that up forever. Sooner or later they will run out of weapons.”

  “A source to draw from.”

  “Precisely. That’s why most wizards lose when in battle like this. Either they lose in face-to-face combat or groups like this one run out of power. We need to help them.”

  “How do we do that?”

  Royse turned and we watched the water demon go down with a final slash of Vasili’s blade of fire. Flashes of light pulsed around him as wizards materialized from the far shore. That must have been the final barrier, keeping the wizards from reaching the island via the lake.

  “Our army has arrived!” She turned to the frontlines. “Are you ready to show them how fierce the ladies can fight?” She took a piece of twine from a pocket on her leather belt. She wrapped it around her left wrist and then extended her left arm. While her left hand formed a fist, she used her right hand to pull the string away from her wrist. All the while, she spoke a spell. The string began to glow a golden hue and formed a beautiful bow of light.

  “Let’s see what you can do with your little twig, young wolf,” she said with a sly grin.

  I glanced at the goblin blade on my hand. The weapon had stuck with me until the very end. It still had the form of a wand. I pointed it toward the frontlines.

  “So what do I hit?” I felt like a damn fool for asking, but what the hell, might as well ask.

  “If it’s not defending the frontline, take it out. The wizards won’t harm the warlocks unless they have to do it, but we don’t have to follow such rules.”

  “What about the wall?”

  “The wall is to keep them out. Not us.”

  From the corner of my eye, I spotted Vasili, the other spellcasters, and a growing number of wizards, including Dr. Frank closing in from the rear. Like Royse advised, I tapped into what worked the best. Fire. While mumbling my spell, I prayed for success. A swirling arc of fire materialized in front of us and shot straight in the air.

  “Control it, Natalya,” Royse commanded as she shot arrow after arrow in quick succession. “Fire with control.”

  “I know,” I blurted. “I’m not done yet.” The fireball continued to head skyward, then shot down like a bat out of hell and rained down flames on the warlock frontline. Bursts of red-orange heat swept across the horizon, slamming into the warlocks who concentrated on breaking the wizards’ frontline. Many fell off the bridge while others deflected the blow with a sweep of their arms.

  The wall of light grew brighter as more wizards joined their brothers. The light intensified until it frothed and bubbled with power. So bright even Royse and I had to shield our eyes. The wall became a tsunami, surging forward and sucking in everything in its path: the warlocks on the bridge and the monstrous demons, who began to head back.

  At my side, Royse shouted, “Time to leave this post for some fun.”

  She couldn’t be serious. She wanted us to go to the frontlines.

  “But I was enjoying the view…”

  “Do you want to live forever, Natalya?” For some reason, a particular movie came to mind with that line, but I shrugged it off. This was real life and real people died down there.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  With a wink, Royse said, “We always do.”

  As the wave of light receded, not as many warlocks remained in the aftermath. The men left standing turned in the direction of the line of wizards and roared. As the warlocks ran for the frontline, wizards pulled out glowing white staffs and wands. The time for the final fight had come. But the warlocks didn’t come unaided. Cyclops and trolls lumbered forward with clubs and maces. Dragons carried warlocks on their backs. Even worse, a handful of darklings sought out targets. The crimson glow from their eyes was easy to make out. A shock of red next to a cluster of darklings caught my eye. Cato.

  We brought up the rear behind the old magic spellcasters, the acolytes, and Dr. Frank’s wizards.

  My heart pounded faster with each step. Through the monastery. Past the trees toward the bridge.

  As my legs propelled me toward the fray, my fear subsided, only to be replaced with a growing craving in my stomach. A hunger to hunt. To tear apart anyone who tried to come for me. This cause was bigger than Thorn now. I was doing it for me, too.

  Flashes of white and purple exploded across the bridge as combat began. It was so painfully bright. At my side, Royse fired at warlocks and ran at the same time.

  Under the command of a warlock, a cyclops swung at Gostislav. The nimble werewolf leapt out of the way, then spun with blinding speed holding a serrated blade. The weapon sliced through the cyclops with ease. The creature groaned and fell hard with a thud.

  Not far from us, Vasili ran into the first darkling. Royse’s cousin appeared all too eager, the hints of his wolf touched his features. His bright purple eyes gleamed and he bared his teeth before he jumped onto the darkling and plunged his flaming sword into the darkling’s tentacle covered back.

  A fog of scents blanketed the land. Ozone and cinnamon, the aftermath of spellcasting, blended together with blood and sweat. The stench was so strong I tasted it on my tongue.

  Light erupted to my left. I’d been distracted too long. A warlock dived off a darkling and aimed his marbled staff toward a monstrous furry creature that made me stop dead in my sprint. It was that thing from my nightmares. That towering creature with a gaping mouth filled with jagged teeth that Grandma Lasovskaya had transformed into to save my life when the Long Island Pack’s flunkies cornered us. It had to be Tamara; my grandma was back home safe. The hair was
different, a dark brown compared to my grandma’s white hair.

  The darkling tackled Tamara, wrapping its tentacles around her body. Her massive clawed hands snatched its snapping mouth to keep it from biting her. They wrestled across the ground, running into a tree with a shudder.

  “Tamara…” I whispered. The wand tingled in my hand. How the hell could I help? They were too close together.

  Two of the darkling’s tentacles wrapped around her right arm. Snaking faster about the limb. With a vicious yank, it ripped her arm off at the shoulder. Blood sprayed the trees above.

  “No!” I screamed. I glanced about, then up at the tree next to them. The ancient words Tamara taught me came fast. The wand responded in kind, channeling my fury into action.

  Burn, baby, burn.

  A limb exploded and fell across the darkling’s back. The creature hissed. The distraction was just enough for Tamara to open her mouth wide and rip out the darkling’s throat.

  With a roar, Tamara tossed the carcass off and stormed away from me, right toward Cato, who had just taken down a wizard.

  Cato laughed when he saw her coming. “Come for me, you old bitch!” I expected fire, ice, or any other form of magic, but when he aimed to fire, a golden arrow pierced his shoulder from behind.

  A hundred paces away, I caught Royse, and, in a flash, she was on the next target. With another opportunity in place, Tamara swooped in for the kill. She only had one arm, but that hand had enough strength to wrench his staff away and hold him down. The cursing warlock wasn’t totally unarmed though. A hand snaked out with a wicked blade. He stabbed it into her side again and again.

  There was no way in hell I was gonna let this guy go without getting a taste of the action.

  I jumped in, not caring what came at my back. His upper body was exposed, and that was just enough room for me to step in before Tamara had to let him go.

  I swung my arms high with the wand pointed downward. I could have burned him. Froze the sneer on his face, but swinging the wand into his chest was all the more satisfying after he’d attacked my friends.

  The wand cut into him as smooth as any blade. When he snarled, I gave the wand a hard twist to the right. “That’s for burning down a perfectly good house,” I growled.

  Cato twitched and then with eyes still open he died. Tamara rolled off him. When I reached for her, her wide mouth opened, and she hissed at me.

  The pain was there in her eyes, swimming through her so deep. I was better off leaving her to limp off the battlefield to a quiet corner.

  When I looked up, not as much fighting was taking place. More fighters on our side stood than those on the opposing side.

  Holy shit, we’d won.

  Long hours in the night passed and I spent most of them walking along the bridge to Stolobny Island to check on prisoners and help the wounded wizards. Those who appeared hurt needed to be guided to one of the wizards who arrived for healing. With so many people roaming the monastery, it took a while to sort everything out.

  I found Dr. Frank and told him Tamara was hurt, but we never found her. Her scent disappeared at the water’s edge. Hopefully, she made it out of here alive.

  Elric, the man who had betrayed the trapped werewolf spellcasters, also was never found, much to Vasili’s disgust. Gostislav reported seeing him escape to the north with a few of the warlocks who went deeper into the forests. My heart hurt for the old magic spellcasters who wanted revenge.

  By the time the light of day arrived, not a single supernatural creature dwelled on the island.

  I was beyond eager to ask the wizards for answers on how to save Thorn, but Royse convinced me to rest for a few hours.

  Chapter 25

  I woke up a few hours after I collapsed into a bed at the lake house. The sounds of snoring came from every corner. On the other side of the queen-sized bed, Royse had claimed a spot. While I had curled in comfortably on my side, she had spread out with limbs extended in all directions. I couldn’t help smiling as I took her palm off the side of my face. She stirred a bit and turned on her right side.

  What I didn’t expect to see when I got up was someone blocking the doorway. I almost gasped, but then had to keep myself from laughing out loud. Vasili had taken a spot on the cold wooden floor, his head on one of the pillows he must have stolen from the bed.

  Royse’s cousin was no doubt protecting our purity by keeping the upstarts out of the room.

  So how the hell could I get out? I checked the window. It opened with a loud yawn, but Royse and Vasili didn’t move. Man, they were out. Even the cool breeze in the room didn’t stop Royse from snoring her heart out. After putting on my shoes, I climbed out and leapt to the ground.

  I wanted my backpack. So, I went back inside to find quite the sight: a cluster of werewolves sleeping on the floor in the middle of the sitting room. The couches had been pushed to the wall along with any end tables and the space had turned into a communal sleeping area. My backpack had been used as a pillow, too.

  With a few gentle yanks, I managed to get Gostislav to give it up. With a sigh, I left the lake house and made my way down the road toward town.

  Before I’d fallen into a tired stupor, Royse had told me to go to a small restaurant at mid-day in Ostahkov. A place called Minas.

  The walk into town was nice. Ostahkov felt like a small lake town you’d find in Minnesota or Wisconsin. I strolled along the never-ending road through town and welcomed the time alone to gather my thoughts after such a crazy night. A crisp, yet pleasant breeze from the lake flowed through my hair. Eventually, I reached a small mom-and-pop restaurant with a light blue sign labeled Minas.

  An older woman greeted me at the door. “Are you Natalya?”

  I nodded. “Something smells good.”

  The inside of the restaurant was well-cleaned with bright counters and personalized decorations.

  “You have friends here.” She led me to a private dining area full of people off the main dining room.

  A single free seat must have been left for me. I immediately recognized Dr. Frank among the folks waiting. Most of them must’ve been wizards.

  Tamara was here, too. She’d survived.

  “You made it, Natalya,” Dr. Frank said with a smile. “Are you hungry?”

  No one had a plate in front of them. Only hot drinks. “I’m starving, but you know what I want. And I want that more than food right now.”

  Dr. Frank was the only man smiling at the table. Tamara had a slight smile, while Zoya, at her side, grinned brightly. Luda wasn’t here though.

  “I know what you want, Natalya,” one man from the end of the table declared. “But we don’t know if we should give it to you.” He had a stern expression that didn’t match his dark suit and short white hair. He had the kind of face I’d call handsome if he weren’t frowning.

  “Dr. Frank said your elders would consider it. Do you wizards have no honor? What about saving a life?” I asked him.

  “There are always consequences to what we do, Natalya,” Dr. Frank said softly. “To undo what others have done.”

  I fought the urge to stab my fingernails into my palms. “If I had to take down all of you at this table to find the answers, I would. I’ve fought a darkling, I’ve carried spellcasters in my body across hundreds of miles to help your cause, and I killed Cato. This is the final step, and whatever excuses you have frankly don’t mean shit to me.” On any other day, I would’ve kept my manners and refrained from swearing, but screw it. I’d been pushed into a corner, and I was damn tired.

  “Gustav convinced us otherwise,” the man said stiffly while looking in Dr. Frank’s direction. “He said you’ve had a lot of personal growth on this journey. That you’ve done everything in your power, and, like any heroine, should receive a reward for your sacrifice.”

  My chest tightened and tears welled in my eyes. I wanted to look at my doctor, but I couldn’t.

  “How about we get to the secret then,” the man in white began, a look of reluctan
ce on his face.

  “Wait! Shouldn’t this be private?” I glanced at Tamara.

  “We have other arrangements with her. She already knows the secret and has taken actions to help those in need in her family.”

  Tamara smiled, briefly touching the strawberry mark on her face wistfully. Had that mark been a curse of some kind? I still wondered about that. She appeared the same, though, yet at her side Zoya beamed. The young woman stole a glance at the man beside her. A man with black hair and brown eyes. They had similar facial features… The scent was different, yet the undertones the same.

  My mouth dropped open wide when he blinked at me. “Luda?”

  The man chuckled and I immediately recognized the grin. “Yes, Natalya, it’s me.”

  “But how?”

  “A few years ago, I was cursed,” he replied. “All this time our grandmother has been working diligently to lift it.”

  My mouth bobbed up and down like a fool. So that was why Tamara wanted to learn how to remove curses. Maybe it was even the reason she wanted to tap into the magic of a captured fairy. “So why didn’t you tell me you were a dude? Why didn’t you tell Tyler?” Awkward.

  “We were forbidden to talk about it or Lukas would’ve died,” Zoya said. “Those were the terms of Cato’s curse.”

  “All that time…” I managed. “He was behind it all.”

  “It’s all right now,” he said. It was rather hard to look at him now. I missed the sweet woman I thought of as a sister.

  The wizard who must’ve been their leader, rose from the end of the table. He walked up to me and leaned down. “Are you ready, Natalya?”

  “I’ve been ready for so long.” My heartbeat quickened as his breath fanned my neck and his sweet cinnamon-like scent filled the space around us.

  He whispered into my ear and I burned every word into my mind. I tattooed and stamped it so that I’d never forget. When he finished, he rose with a smile and then every wizard vanished into light except Dr. Frank.

  “Where did they go?” I asked.