by Sarah Tobias
It dented.
Metal screeched and tore underneath Asher, who thrashed against the fangs and talons. I contorted against the dark flame’s hold, scrabbling for control. I broke through her fire for an instant, my soul scraped with burns, but she caught me and sent me crashing back into my cage.
Asher’s mouth wrenched open as he wrapped his hands around the fae’s neck and clamped down. The fae screeched, its winged arms flailing as it was strangled.
But then, somehow, the fae slid out of Asher’s hold.
NO!
The fae opened its mouth wide, a yawning crater with ivory incisors, and tore into tattooed flesh.
I screamed. My eyelids flickered open and shut as my dark flame fought to refuse me. She smothered, garroting my conscience, jamming me into the coal-fire prison I had so often forced her.
You will not win this time, Emily. She whipped with flaming, spiked chains.
My vision dazzled, and I frantically tried to glimpse Asher, struggling on the black, shining surface of the ship. Blood pooled around his head.
Let me OUT! I used my fervor against hers as I went feral. I would regain my rightful place. I would. It was my damned body.
I won’t let him die. I WILL NOT LET HIM DIE.
He needs to bleed out slowly, she hissed in response. If you weren’t so blind, you’d understand.
I pummeled invisible fists against her walls and writhed under the pressure of her, yanking, charging, straining. Come on, I needed to fight.
Asher. Oh, Asher. Bleeding all the answers out of his head. His body cooling, his pulse slowing. I could hear it. The only time I’d touch him would be when I caressed his drained, lifeless cheek. I’d never feel his warm breath again.
Asher’s vivid eyes, gone. His careful smile, vanquished.
The thought sent me into a rage.
Not another one, I said to my dark flame. You can’t take someone else from my life and walk this earth like you own it. You don’t own me. You don’t dictate my life. You’re pestilence. Termites chewing through souls, hiding in blood, masking with fleshly pretense. I will sunder your dark spirits. I will destroy you. Get OUT of me!!!
I blasted through her, my ears popping at the change of pressure. Heaving forward, I clutched my stomach with rounded eyes.
Well. This was unexpected.
The dark flame bellowed at my success at taking over my body, but I shoved her aside. As my skin cooled, my anger turned to trepidation as soon as I balanced enough to move. I’d regained control, and I had to save him. I had to help Asher.
Bounding with inhuman speed, I catapulted into the fae, cracking against its chin and sending its head flying back with my elbow. The fae yowled, the feast at its feet forgotten.
The beast’s wings were large and gray, each spanning over ten feet long, but its body, while taut with musculature, was small. Its eyes almost completely covered its face and nestled close together, with nothing but a small wrinkle in the place of a nose, black blood coursing down its wounded, lipless mouth. Hundreds of sharp, small teeth rimmed its jaw, and bright yellow, pupil-less eyes rolled with hostile intent, its grayish head bald and gleaming in the starlight.
I tried to be brave and absorb that courage and allow it to drive me to kill. This was the first time I had to defeat a fae alone, as me. My dark flame would come in handy right about now, but I wasn’t dumb enough to let my pissed off twin come forward and annihilate everything and everyone.
I could distract the fae so it would forget about Asher and come crawling towards me.
How I’d do that? Wasn't sure of that yet.
I hoped Asher was still alive. The top of his head poked through from the fae’s wings, my breath gusting out with relief once I saw him thrash side-to-side with very active limbs.
The fae moved its left wing by an inch, and it was enough for Asher to peer over the talons and notice my presence.
“Damn it, Emily!” he roared.
I was suddenly unsure who I should be more afraid of: the gargoyle fae in front of me, or the furious human who writhed around and shot murder from his eyes on the ground.
The fae hurtled forward, its wings flat against its body and missiling toward me with such speed, I didn’t have time to blink. I feinted right, my hand flying out just as it reached me and I locked onto its leg.
It shrieked as it unfurled its wings and attempted to throw off my grip and volley into the air. I swallowed my rising panic as it brought me to the skies with it. I wrapped my other hand around its ankle to maintain my hold, the burn rising to my fingers.
The mere touch of the fae’s skin on mine sent my dark flame into a hysterical frenzy, her hunger so brutal my organs bled as she attempted to scratch to the surface. My face flushed with the effort I had to expend on keeping her back, and it prevented me from focusing on the deformed figure carrying us through the air.
“Emily!”
Asher’s voice reached my ears and a wave of nausea crashed through my stomach as I realized how high I was. The fae shrieked, unable to claw me off. Every time it tried, gravity took hold, and we fell. The fae needed its hands to fly, but it was also critical to stop the burn. We jerked up and down with the fae’s attempts at both. I clasped tighter, refusing to let go.
Until the beat of its wings stopped, the cool wind stilling around us. The fae curved its body into a ball, and I screamed with all the frustration and war I had boiling inside me as it dove, the wind peeling back my lips and the ship’s surface flying up before I crashed into it with such potent speed, my neck snapped as soon as we boomed into the structure. My limp fingers released its ankle, my body so promptly shattered, the impact didn't sting. But boy, would I be smarting later. And by some stroke of luck, I was conscious.
“Emily!”
Asher ran over. I wanted to raise my hand to tell him I was okay, but I couldn’t. I lay prone and vulnerable, a tasty treat for the fae that resumed circling and screeching above.
The fae smacked me into the ship's bow, but it wasn’t done yet. It swooped down, digging its barbed feet into my side and rising with me in its grip. I sagged against its claws, ripped and bloodied.
Asher yelled.
It took me over the ship’s railings, Asher standing there, his face drained of all color as the fae let me go.
Air lifted my broken limbs, the wind rushing into my ears. I let out one final gasp when my spine ricocheted against the sharp seam of the ship and I splashed into the freezing water below.
As blood flowed around my paralyzed limbs, my eyes stayed wide. I watched as the glittering surface of the river shattered when the fae broke through, cannoning for me with its gaping jaws. Its eyes cast two yellow beams as I sank, my body a lifeless target as the fae swam deeper, closer, and took us both into the frozen, black depths.
Chapter 29
“You are such an idiot-filled moron!”
Gwyn’s voice pierced my ears. I felt hands pumping against my chest, over and over. Hard.
Gasping, sputtering, I smacked the pressure away. Cracking my eyes open took effort, but I did just that, and Gwyn’s angry face hovered over me as I lay, broken and wet, on the pier below the ship.
The ship…
Asher was up there.
“N … no … save … him,” I said through shards of teeth. “Save…”
Gwyn’s damp cheek pressed against the side of my face, her soaking black curls covering my eyes and obscuring my view as she covered me from the soaring fae. I tried to wriggle away, but my body only twitched at my commands.
“I am saving him,” she said into my ear. “By keeping you alive.”
Through her wet curls, there was another flash in the sky, lilac-coated lightning flooding the ship. With Gwyn in my way, I couldn’t see anything else, and I gurgled with frustration.
“Keep still,” she hissed.
Groaning as my muscles fused together, I could only do as she asked. Asher had to be okay. He wasn’t dying on the ship above me, his life drainin
g out of him while I lay helpless and trapped by his sister.
The pained screech of the fae sounded, and my ears perked up at the noise. Thrashing and grunts of pain followed as a battle ensued, the smell of licorice wafting into my nose.
Tentatively, I moved my arms and legs, the pain ebbing as I healed. My jaw fit back into place, and I no longer had to wheeze in oxygen through my swollen nose. I wasted no time, struggling to get Gwyn off me, but she was firm, stubborn weight.
“What did you think I meant by stay still?” She anchored her arms on either side, locking me into place. “You’ll get us all killed.”
The dark flame staggered against my walls, a weak flicker, yet it taunted me into letting it loose to devour Gwyn whole.
I stamped it down. I would not kill a human. Not even a Gwyn-human.
The fae squealed, this time resembling a trapped animal rather than a circling predator. Curious, I tried to blow Gwyn’s hair out of my face, but to no avail.
In an instant, the squealing stopped. The ship eclipsed into silence.
“What happened?” I whispered into Gwyn’s ear. “Where’s Asher?”
Gwyn rolled off me and I gulped the cool night air, closing my eyes as the temperature settled on my newly healed but still soaked skin. The sound of hammering feet on metal had my eyes snapping open, and I crooked my head. But as soon as I did, I immediately wished I hadn’t.
Asher tore through the ship’s staircase towards me with a look of such fury that I cringed, sitting up but making no unnecessary moves.
“I told you, Emily,” he yelled as he crested off the ship and came onto the pier, blood dripping over his cheeks and down his neck, pouring in dark streams across his glistening face, coating his hair. “I warned you to stay away!”
“You were in trouble!” I yelled back, annoyed that I sounded so weak. I coughed, gurgling up murky water and bloody phlegm before I continued, “That thing was killing you!”
He came closer, and it was difficult to comprehend that he bled that heavily, that he’d been hurt so badly. Asher stopped mere inches from where I sat, so close that wet droplets from his hair hit my face. I flinched, raising a hand to wipe my cheeks. When I pulled my hand back, his blood was almost transparent, the color watery and diluted.
Was he … wet?
My focus shot back up to his face.
“It was not winning against me,” he said, the whites of his eyes wide with rage. “You almost killed me. You’re the one who got in the way and almost killed yourself in the process!”
“I wasn’t going to watch you die!” I said, horrified that tears blurred my vision, confused at the implications of his appearance.
Both Gwyn and Asher saved me?
“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same for me,” I said. “Don’t lie and say you’d have stood back and watched until all the blood had leaked out of me, until that … that thing devoured me. You didn’t let it happen,” I added before he could cut me off, “Just like I didn’t.”
Asher clenched his fists. “You do not understand what you’re walking into. You don't have a clue, and yet you stumble after us anyway with no regard for your life. No regard for our lives.”
I recoiled and nearly fell back into the river. “I considered your life, Asher. I ran over here thinking about nothing but your life, and that I was watching brain matter dangle out of your skull! I saw fangs sink into your neck and rip you apart!”
I realized my voice had risen to high-pitched yelling and was breaking embarrassingly between words, but I didn’t care. I stood up, trembling but facing him down. “For the past few weeks, all I’ve been considering are other people’s lives! You don’t know anything about me or what I’ve been going through—what I’ve gone through! So don’t you stand there and think that you can yell at me for keeping your stupid head attached to your shoulders.”
My heart would burst out of my chest if we kept this up, our heaving breaths the only sound in the night.
“All right, enough with this. Enough.”
Gwyn stepped between us and shielded her brother. “You screwed up royally, Emily, even if you refuse to see it. We told you what would happen if you knew about us. We warned you.”
Her arms lifted, and I raised my own in defense.
“I’m not here to fight you,” I said to her, my voice shaking. “I’m not your enemy.”
Gwyn’s form shone under the moonlight, droplets of water beading and shimmering on her skin. It took effort to staunch the dark flame from screaming through and sucking Gwyn's eyes out through a straw.
“How much did she see?” Asher asked behind Gwyn, his voice softer.
Gwyn cocked her head, acknowledging his question but choosing to remain silent.
“Gwyn, how much did she see?” he repeated.
Sighing, Gwyn relaxed her shoulders but didn’t take her eyes off me as she replied, “Nothing. I covered her after you transf—she saw nothing.”
Asher hesitated before saying more, the muscle under his eye twitching ever so slightly. “Then let her go.”
“What?” Gwyn spun to face her brother. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“You heard what I said.” Asher walked from behind Gwyn and stood in front of me, blocking me from her. “Let her go.”
“She’ll get you killed, Asher.”
Gwyn glowered behind him, but he didn’t give in. Eventually, Gwyn loosened her stance. She glared at me, enough to also wish for a straw, before whirling on her heel, her footsteps loud and distinct as she headed off the pier without another word.
I deflated at her departure, taking quenching, silent breaths under Asher’s gaze. I almost choked when I met the steely silver.
“Don’t do this again,” he said.
I nodded, refusing to grovel—unwilling to let him see just how much I was teetering.
Asher said nothing else. He turned away and walked in the opposite direction, his body stiff with anger.
I let him leave. My heart was heavy with sorrow as he melted into the shadow of the ship, but I didn’t regret my actions.
Amid my dangerous world, where I battled monsters both inside myself and out and risked death with each passing minute, I deeply, unequivocally cared for him. I wanted nothing to happen to Asher Benedict, and I would keep protecting him, no matter how ferocious he became. My ribs tightened like straps to my chest as his form receded, and not once did he glance back.
“I had to save you, Asher,” I said to his retreating form.
He paused, and I realized it was possible he heard my words. The old Emily might have been humiliated; she might have flushed with embarrassment over the fact he’d overheard her crush confession. But the new Emily, the one who hardened, her soul turned into shards of steel, didn’t blanch. She raised her chin in defiance instead.
“I couldn’t let you die, either,” I could have sworn I heard, his words carrying through the night.
Once he was out of sight, I slumped, my heart fluttering against the walls of my chest like a small, wounded bird.
“Asher,” I said, my hands laid flat on the ground, cuticles bloodied, skin scratched, spirit wearied. “Why, with everything I’m going through, did I have to set my heart on you?”
Chapter 30
The next few days became a living nightmare.
The hunger was back, vehement and raw, and I wrestled with the excruciating emptiness. I couldn’t concentrate at work and made frequent trips to the bathroom to wipe off the cold sweat and quell the relentless shaking. Macy was concerned, and it was difficult to pretend to be fine. Luckily, she bought the excuse that my golden eyes on the night of the masquerade was a trick of the light against my mask. At least, she said she did, probably because the alternative was too out-of-this-world to contemplate. Literally.
The effort I spent maintaining a continual guise of normalcy was an even higher drain. Something had to give before it got out of control.
If only Gwyn weren’t so watchful of me.
Gwyn’s careful study didn’t end once my shift was over at Cream, though she took every advantage of the fact that I stood in one spot for most of the day. Every morning she’d sit at a corner table. She had textbooks in front of her, but she never read them. Just nursed her coffee for hours, lifting it to her lips now and then, staring over the rim.
I’d finish work at Cream only to find her at Butterfield, chatting with Ettie over meatloaf and mashed potatoes, always glancing sideways, catching me in her sights.
The attention sent a constant tingle down my body, every time Gwyn looked away and then back again.
I had a connection with her, milder than Asher, but it was definitely there. The question was, did she have the same connection with me?
This was a classic case of stalking, harassment, or just plain bullying, and maybe if I were a typical nineteen-year-old living solo in the big city, I’d do something about it. But what could I do? Call the police and say “Hey, a girl who fights the supernatural won’t let me out of her sight, and I think it’s because she thinks I’m a fae. And, oh wait—I might actually be one. Either that or I’m being initiated as the Hunter from the Tryne.”
I’d have to figure out another game plan.
Despite seeing Gwyn everywhere, I rarely glimpsed Asher. He was never at Cream or Butterfield. When I spotted him, it was for brief periods where he’d either be picking up Gwyn or accepting takeout from her when she exited Butterfield. The latter sightings of Asher hurt the most.
If Asher wasn’t attempting to enter the restaurant, it meant he didn’t want to come in. He didn’t want to see me.
