“I know.” She smiled. “Your bravery is impressive and inspiring.”
“I’m glad you think so,” I said. “Because if we survive and get the wand, I’m hoping that since you’re friends with Proserpina, you could call in a favor for me.”
28
Torrence
Once Thomas and Sage had fully healed, we stopped the yacht near the island where the map said we’d find King Devin’s final requested object—the egg of the phoenix.
We passed around binoculars to check it out. Even Reed was up there on the top deck with us, wanting to get a look.
Flocks of sheep moseyed along the shore. Although there wasn’t much of a shore, because the majority of the island was flat grassy land with lots of trees. Tall, vertical hills stuck up out of various, seemingly random places. And walking along the land, tending to the sheep, were shepherds.
Ugly, one-eyed giants wearing nothing but brown kilts.
Cyclopes.
Thomas put the binoculars down. “The cyclopes are big and strong, but they’re dumb,” he said. “And their range of vision is terrible. With our speed and stealth, we can run from tree to tree, using their trunks to hide ourselves as we make our way to the center of the island.”
“And the cyclops guarding the egg is really the Polyphemus?” Sage asked. “The same one from The Odyssey?”
“According to the map, it’s in his lair,” Thomas said.
“Great.” I bounced on my heels and rubbed my palms together. “Let’s head on over and get that egg.”
There was no place to dock the speedboat where the cyclopes might not see it.
So, we strapped our swords to our backs and swam.
Like all sports, swimming came easily to me. I was able to keep up with Sage and Thomas, which was saying something, because wolf shifters were some of the best swimmers of any supernaturals.
Reed lagged slightly behind. I was amused every time I glanced over my shoulder and saw the annoyance splattered across his face as he pushed to keep up.
We swam up to where the beach curved around into a cove, out of sight from where the cyclopes were walking around on the grass checking on their sheep. A few sheep were hanging out around the area, but not many.
I pushed hard in the final strokes, and made it onto the beach first. The four sheep nearby glanced over at me, uninterested, and stayed where they were, lying on the sand.
Sage and Thomas walked onto the beach next.
The two sheep closest to them BAH-ed loudly, jumped up, and ran off.
Reed joined us on the beach and cast a sound barrier spell around us. “What was that?” he asked, glancing at the runaway sheep.
Thomas’s eyebrows knitted together. “I’m not sure,” he said. “But I have a hunch.” He turned to me and Reed. “The two of you—get closer to some of those sheep.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Just do it.”
I inched toward a group of three sheep lying on the sand.
Reed walked faster and reached them first.
They ignored him. They ignored me, too, even when I sat down next to them.
“Stay there.” Thomas walked toward us and motioned for Sage to follow. She did.
All three sheep perked up their ears, jumped to their feet, and ran off the beach. The one closest to me sprayed my face with sand as it hurried away.
I grimaced and wiped the sand out of my eyes.
Thomas stared at the jiggly, fluffy butts of the sheep as they turned around the cove. “Just like I thought,” he said. “They’re scared of me and Sage—not of the two of you.”
“I thought animals liked you,” I said.
“The lions did,” Sage said. “But they were spelled to like everyone. Sheep, on the other hand, are terrified of dogs.”
“It’s why shepherds use dogs to herd their sheep,” Thomas said.
Reed looked at the rings on their fingers. “So they’re scared of your wolves,” he said. “But how can they sense them? We’re wearing cloaking rings.”
Sage glanced at her ring. “Animals are instinctive, especially ones that are prey,” she said. “Our cloaking rings don’t block their instincts. They only block our scents.”
“Sounds like we need better cloaking rings,” I muttered.
“They’re all we’ve got, and we already used our invisibility potion,” Thomas said. “With the sheep acting like that, it’ll be impossible to get around the island without the cyclopes noticing us.”
“Unless we want to kill every cyclops in our way.” Sage smiled wickedly.
Thomas glared at her, apparently not finding it to be a laughing matter.
She winked, and he relaxed.
Reed stood straighter and focused on the two of them. “The two of you will be a hindrance here,” he said. “Torrence and I can handle this ourselves.”
Anger flared through me, and I pushed myself up to stand. “Are you actually inviting me to help you?” I scowled. “Because last time we ‘worked together,’ you locked me in a boundary dome.”
“Locking you inside a boundary dome here would just catch the cyclopes attention,” he said.
“Do you try to be infuriating?” I asked. “Or is it just your personality?”
“A little bit of both.” He smirked.
“Ugh.” I resisted the extremely strong urge to stomp my foot into the sand. I only stopped myself because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“The two of you—stop,” Thomas said. “How are we supposed to trust that you can work together when you’re constantly at each other’s throat?”
Sage chuckled and brought her hair over her shoulders. “We were always at each other’s throat back in the day,” she said. “But when it counted, we always pulled through.”
“That’s different,” he said. “I’m decades older than you. When we met, I was a far more experienced fighter.” He turned his attention back to us. “They’re both teens.”
“Teens with far more power than you,” Reed said.
I said nothing, since he wasn’t wrong. Mages were more powerful than both vampires and shifters. Most witches weren’t, because of their diluted magic, but I wasn’t “most witches.”
Thomas pressed his lips into a firm line. “Unfortunately, you’re correct that in this situation, Sage and I will be a hindrance,” he said. “Let’s go back to the yacht and devise another plan.”
“We’ve lost enough time,” I said, and I looked to Reed, standing strong. “We can do this if you don’t block me out so you can play hero.”
“I wasn’t playing hero,” he said. “I was doing what was best to get the job done.”
“According to you.” It was a good thing there was a sound barrier around us, because I was nearly shouting now. “Which is ironic, because if it wasn’t for me, you’d still be a pig on Circe’s island.”
His eyes flashed with anger. “Are you ever going to stop mentioning that?” he asked.
“Nope.” I couldn’t help but smile.
“How unfortunate, since we wouldn’t have even gotten to that island if not for me,” he said. “We would have been rotting away in Charybdis’s stomach.”
I glared at him.
He smirked back at me.
Thomas glanced back and forth between the two of us. “You’re not doing a good job showing your ability to work together,” he finally said.
“Maybe I should go alone,” I said, giving Reed a purposeful stare. “I can do this better with no one there to hold me back.”
“Absolutely not,” Reed said at the same time as Thomas said, “You’re not going alone.”
I frowned and looked at Sage.
“I’d like to see you try,” she said encouragingly. “But it would be best if you and Reed could figure out how to work together.”
“We can manage,” Reed said. “After all, Odysseus—one mortal man—blinded Polyphemus and escaped his lair. Torrence and I won’t have a problem.”
Thomas’s ex
pression was so stern that I could have sworn he was going to say no.
Luckily, Sage chimed in before he could. “If you’re not back at the yacht by sunset, we’re coming after you,” she said with that familiar wolfish glint to her eyes. “Even if it means ripping out the throats of every cyclops on this island.”
“You can do that?” I asked.
“Probably.” She shrugged. “But these cyclopes aren’t hurting anyone by staying here and tending to their sheep. So let’s try the non-violent way first.”
29
Torrence
Reed and I hurried from tree to tree, hiding behind their trunks to stay out of sight. The cyclopes were busy chatting with each other, bathing, or counting their sheep, so it didn’t take long to reach the central lair.
Polyphemus’s.
The blind cyclops tended to his sheep nearby. He was touching each one of them, and from the banal chatter we’d heard from the other cyclopes, he was deciding which one would be the best to eat. Slaughter day was two days away, and the cyclopes apparently got super competitive over whose sheep provided the tastiest meat.
The giant, cave-like entrance to his lair was about twenty feet away from where he stood. He was too close to it for us to run past him without him hearing us, so we’d have to wait for him to move.
But judging by how carefully he was examining each sheep, who knew how long that would take?
Reed cast a sound barrier spell around us. Then his eyes flashed black, he aimed his smoky magic at my feet, and then at his.
Tingly warmth rushed through my feet. “What did you do?” I asked.
“A stealth spell,” he said. “At least, that’s what I call it. He won’t hear our footsteps.” He motioned toward Polyphemus, just in case I didn’t know who “he” was.
“You couldn’t have done that before we started sneaking around the island?” I asked.
“I only use dark magic when it’s necessary,” he said. “We’re stealthy enough on our own to get past the others. But Polyphemus is close to his lair, and his other senses are probably heightened because of his blindness. It’s best not to risk it.”
“Glad to hear that keeping me from helping you fight the Nemean lion was necessary.” I rolled my eyes.
“I wasn’t keeping you from fighting,” he said. “I was keeping you safe.”
“I can keep myself safe.”
We were silent as we stared each other down.
“We don’t have time for this,” he finally said. “Let’s go.”
He took my hand and ran for the gaping entrance to Polyphemus’s lair, pulling me along with him. We passed so close to the cyclops that we ran through the top of his huge shadow. But as Reed promised, Polyphemus remained focused on his sheep, not hearing us at all.
It must be nice to be a mage and be able to use dark magic with no consequences.
I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until we made it inside the cave.
Inside the cave was a giant, cyclops-sized bed, and a huge space on the floor to hold all the sheep. Shelves climbed up along the walls. The shelves held what looked to be pieces of meat and other chunks of food. I thought I saw an eyeball in one of the jars, but I had no interest in getting a closer look.
Especially because high above, on the very top shelf, was a glowing orange egg. The egg was about the size of a football, and a golden bird claw pedestal held it up.
“The phoenix egg,” I said in amazement.
Reed also stared up at it, his eyes wide.
And he was still holding my hand.
I yanked my hand out of his. “We need to be gentle with the egg,” I said, pushing my sleeves up and analyzing the best way to climb the shelves. “Who knows how easily it might break.”
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Footsteps so loud that the ground vibrated. And then, a shadow as Polyphemus’s giant body filled the entrance. The jagged, raised scar where his eye should have been made him look far more monstrous than the other cyclopes.
He raised his huge club with giant metal spikes protruding from it and grunted.
Reed cursed, raised his hands, and shot a bright beam of yellow magic at the cyclops.
The monster blocked the magic with his club, and the weapon absorbed the magic. Just like King Devin’s jacket woven with Ariadne’s silk had done. But Reed’s magic was holding the cyclops back from moving toward us, which gave me an in to attack.
I reached for my sword and ran at Polyphemus’s legs, poised for a perfect swing to rip through his Achilles tendon.
My sword clanged against his skin, like metal on metal. I swung again, aiming lower down, but the same thing happened.
He kicked me—hard—and I fell back onto the ground. Then he reached down, and I swung the sword at his hand. His skin there was like metal, too, although my sword managed to hold him off.
I rolled away and hurried to stand beside Reed before the cyclops could try picking me up again.
I examined my sword. It was a holy weapon. Why wasn’t it working?
Polyphemus pointed his thumb at his chest. “Guardian of the egg,” he said. “Indestructible.”
Reed took my hand, and my magic surged inside of me. “Time to do this my way,” he said.
“What’s your way?” I asked.
He stared ahead at the cyclops, a deadly glint in his eyes. “Just link up with my magic, think about your fear for Selena and how much you want that egg, and push your magic at the cyclops’s chest,” he said.
I nodded and imagined my palm opening. My body was an energy conductor as Reed’s warm magic flooded through me, and I pushed my purple magic out of my free hand toward the cyclops without having to say a word.
Mage magic.
Strong, thrilling power that bent to my will.
My magic sang as I pulled it out from places I didn’t know it existed. It wasn’t just in my core and my palms. It was everywhere. And using it felt so perfectly right.
I want magic like this.
I should have magic like this.
I pushed harder, thrilling at the power of it all.
The cyclops’s face twisted in pain, he dropped his club to his feet, and he pressed his hands against his temples. His guttural roar shook the cave. “Stop,” he growled. “STOP!”
And risk not getting the egg?
No chance.
I won’t fail Selena.
More magic. More power.
The cave darkened, like someone had dimmed the lights, and tendrils of black smoke leaked out of my palm. It floated inside the beam of my purple magic and inched toward the cyclops’s chest.
Smoke crawled inside Reed’s magic, too, and he squeezed my hand tighter.
That smoke was the source of this incredible power. With it, I could do anything. I could get whatever I wanted. I could get the egg.
But first, I needed the cyclops out of my way.
Give up, I thought, smiling as he crouched over in pain. That egg is mine.
Wind churned around me, igniting every nerve in my body.
“Focus on what you’re feeling,” Reed said. “Release it.”
I gathered the magic until it filled me. Then I screamed, and pushed it out.
The smoke poured out of my palm and pierced the cyclops’s chest at the same time as Reed’s.
The cyclops’s head arched back, he screamed, and fell to the side. His head hit the cave wall with a sickening crack, and his body flopped to the ground with a loud thud.
I pushed out more dark, smoky magic.
Stay there. Don’t get up. Don’t stop us.
Reed yanked his hand out of mine.
With my other hand free, I held it up and shot my magic out of it, too. More black smoke surged out of me. More power.
“Torrence,” Reed said. “TORRENCE!”
I ignored him and walked toward the cyclops.
Warm arms wrapped around my waist from behind and pulled me close. “Torrence,” Reed murmured in my ear, my name sounding like
silk as he spoke it. “He’s dead. You need to stop.”
I lowered my hands, and the cave brightened, like taking off a pair of sunglasses. “What?” I asked, and the purple mixed with smoke dimmed and disappeared. “How…?” I pulled myself out of Reed’s arms and turned to face him, searching his eyes for an answer.
“We needed the cyclops out of the way,” he said simply. “So we got him out of the way.”
“But he can’t be dead.” I nearly tripped over the word. “Magic doesn’t kill.”
“That magic does.”
Suspicion weighed heavy on my chest. “What type of magic was that?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.
I just needed him to say it out loud.
“Dark magic.”
My bones hollowed at the confirmation of what I already knew was true. “But there’s no spell to kill.” I shook my head, unable to make sense of it. “Magic is life. It can’t take a life. It’s not possible.”
“It’s not possible for witches to use magic to kill,” he said. “Mages can. At least, the most powerful ones.”
“But I’m not a mage.”
“No, you’re not.” He tilted his head, studying me. “So why can you use mage magic?”
Was this a trick question?
“Because you were boosting my magic with yours,” I said slowly. “Like you did back on the yacht.”
“On the yacht, you were channeling my magic to boost yours,” he corrected me. “A witch had me test this with her back on Avalon—”
“Which one?” Jealousy erupted inside of me at the thought of Reed connecting with someone else like that.
“Your aunt Bella.”
I stepped back. “No way,” I said. “The two of you weren’t…”
His forehead creased in confusion. “We weren’t what?”
“Together?” The word caught in my throat. But there was no taking it back now.
“No!” He sounded as shocked by the idea as I felt. “Why would you even think that?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It’s just so…”
Intense? Intimate? Personal?
“Never mind,” I said, since no way was I saying any of that out loud. Especially because whatever I felt for Reed clearly wasn’t returned. “What happened during your test?” I asked, trying to get us back on subject.
The Faerie Wand (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 4) Page 12
