Six For Gold (Black Crow Chronicles Book 6)

by Jen Pretty

  The world tipped, and we were in the hotel room. Falcor's face was slightly pained as if shifting us had taken more out from him than he expected.

  "Why don't I call and tell Henry to take a car back. We're fine with Pete here."

  Pete was about to argue, but he looked at Falcor and pulled his phone out.

  "Thank you," Falcor said before crossing to the adjoining room and disappearing into the bathroom. I heard the shower start and turned to go do the same. Falcor's blood was crusting on my arm and knees where I had knelt in it on the carpet of the library.

  "I'll let the king know too," Pete said.

  "Shit," I whispered before continuing to the bathroom. "Tell him I'll call him later."

  Pete didn't reply, but I assumed he heard me. My phone was still in the room beside the bed, so even if Nick did call, I wouldn't have to answer until after I was clean and in dry clothes.

  I turned on the shower, undressed, and climbed in. It wasn't until then that I realized I didn't have any wraiths around me, not a single one. I had become almost used to having them around. Otherwise, I would have noticed soon, but then it was too late.

  The shower door slammed open, and a hot, sharp burn slammed into my chest. My mouth opened to scream, but I had no air. My chest couldn't expand. I collapsed, my back slamming into the tile wall and my head bouncing off the floor as I crumpled.

  My vision wavered almost immediately, but I watched as a woman’s hand reached down and pulled the blade out of my chest. It was my blade. I recognized the handle and wanted to reach out and snatch it from her grip. Instead, I was forced to watch as she pulled it free and then laid the hot wet blade across my neck and pulled. The tear was deep and compounded my inability to breathe to the point my mind threw into a panic, but it was useless. There was no air. I had no ability to breathe anymore. My mind spun in circles and screamed at me to call out, but there was no calling out anymore. There was nothing. The world faded to blackness slowly as the woman's grinning face got close to mine.

  "Farewell, Selena."

  I tried to find my magic, but even it was frozen in shock. I was helpless and broken.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ***

  My wings flapped, slowing my descent as I landed on the tiled floor beside her. The shower was still running, but it filtered down to the drain in a watery red colour. Her fingers gripped the step of the shower stall, her knuckles white as her mouth gaped.

  I had left her alone too long, and now she was damaged.

  I hopped closer until I could reach her fingers, but I dared not touch her. It wasn't time yet.

  Instead, I opened my beak and screamed at her.

  Her neck was gaping at me, but she couldn't turn her head to look my way. I hopped back across the tile floor, slipping through the solid wood door to find the vampire who was supposed to be guarding her, sitting on the bed staring at his phone. I screamed at him, and he finally noticed me—the idiot. I screamed at him too. My caws sharp and urgent.

  "Holy shit," he said. "They said you weren't around."

  I hopped back to the door and pecked it.

  "They also said you were weird. I ordered some room service. I'm sure she'll share it with you." He went back to his phone—the dumb ass.

  A door opened in the other room, and I spread my wings, flying past the idiot vampire, and found the warlock king coming out of the bathroom.

  His expression was almost humorous; if it hadn't been for a serious situation, I would have laughed. Instead, I slammed into his chest, snatching him right out of his body, then turned and flapped through the other room and back to the bathroom.

  I flapped a couple of times above Selena before returning to his body, which was slumped on the floor, the fool vampire leaning over him.

  I slipped past the stupid vampire and dropkicked him back into his body.

  He was up and running before the vampire had time to ask what was going on. He ran straight into the bathroom door, slamming it open.

  I shouldn't have had to go to such extreme measures to get them to notice their only job. They were her protectors, and she was their queen—the morons.

  ***

  "Selena!" Falcor's voice was a dream, I was sure. Was I already dead? "Oh, Jesus!"

  I tried to pull a breath in, but there was still none. I felt peace slip over me and slid my eyes shut.

  "No!" Falcor yelled. "Stay with me!"

  He had scooped me up and dropped me wet and bloody on the bed. That was going to be difficult to clean up, I thought. I wanted to laugh at the thought. Who the fuck cared about the sheets? I was dying.

  I caught a glimpse of the silky black of Crow’s feathers a second before he slapped into my chest and ripped me out of my body. Finally, I was free, and I could breathe.

  "Fuck!" Pete said. "What's he doing?"

  "Saving her life," Falcor said as he grabbed something from his luggage. I realized it was a bag of salt or white sand, maybe.

  Crow had us perched on the back of a chair, so I had front row seats as Falcor set up a circle just like the one he used to see his uncle. The same one he used to contain his uncle when I claimed him as my own. I knew he was going to use some dark magic to save me, and I started to panic that he was going to overdo it and kill himself anyway.

  I had just saved his damn life, I didn't want him to throw it away again so soon, but I was no longer part of the discussion. Even if I could control Crow, he couldn't speak. I could do nothing but sit and watch as they moved me into the circle. I was grateful that they covered me in a sheet, but it hardly mattered anymore. They had both seen me naked and chopped up.

  My body was lifeless as it always was when my soul or whatever was travelling in Crow. I wondered if I'd be stuck as his passenger forever if whatever Falcor was planning didn't work. The sheet covering me had some bloodstains on it, but the bed had a lot more, and I knew the shower would be coloured with my lifeblood.

  Wraiths began to appear around the circle. Their arms reached out toward my lifeless form as if I could help them still. I couldn't help them even if I were in my body. Though I had spilled a lot of blood, I wondered if that would even count. I hadn't offered it. It had been taken.

  More and more wraiths filled the room until they were everywhere, like a ghostly army of the dead.

  Falcor began muttering under his breath, his arms spread as if he was inviting the dead to gather closer.

  They did because, of course, they did.

  His murmuring picked up. My face was uncovered, but it was as white as paper, my wet hair like tentacles surrounding my head. Sadness swept in. I wanted to feel bad for the person lying there, but I knew she was no more deserving of mercy than anyone else. She had made mistakes. She had done the wrong thing many times. Her hands had caused pain and suffering.

  I wanted to cry for her. For myself. But I was trapped inside Crow, and his eyes wouldn't accept my emotion. I watched as Falcor's magic took a new look. It was golden sparks surrounding me and golden strings slipping from his outstretched hands to my body. I was wrapped in his magic, caught like a fly in a spider web. Helpless and still.

  My connection to my body was severed by Crow, but I wanted to feel the tingle of it. That connection to someone who was mine was powerful and deep. But I imagined it was like Falcor and I were now connected so deeply, we couldn't have been separated.

  My lifeless body arched as if it wanted to snap to his like magnets. Instead, Falcor closed his eyes and chanted out loud. The words didn't make sense at first. They were a thick dialect with a strong accent, but slowly as he spoke them, my mind translated them.

  "Bring her back," he called out into the silent room. "Let go of her."

  Crow finally leapt from the chair and circled the room twice.

  Falcor's power was surging out from us like we were the center of the universe and were going to suck the entire world into the black hole we had created.

  Finally, Crow gave into the pull and slammed into my cold chest, d
epositing me back where I belonged.

  I felt the rightness at the same time as I felt the stillness. My heart didn't beat in my chest, and my lungs didn't expand as they usually did to welcome me home.

  Instead, I lay in stone silence for a long moment. It was so long, it almost gave panic the time to rise. But then it was as if I was reborn. A stabbing pain laced down my body, and I was crying out through my healed throat, the sound ripping from my whole chest as my heart kicked for the first time.

  I sat up straight like a jackknife as the first cough wracked my body. My arms were numb and heavy at my sides, but Falcor was there. His hand slid across my tongue as he grabbed Crow's feather and pulled it from my throat, then his arms were around me as I heaved. Tears snuck out of my eyes, and more coughs shook me. Falcor kept me grounded as I got my bearings, and life returned to my body.

  Finally, I managed to reach up and wrap my arms around Falcor. His strong body was thinner than it had been the last time I’d been this close to him—his guilt eating away at him from the inside out.

  "Thank you," I whispered, my voice harsh.

  "Always," he replied.

  We sat like that for several more minutes until the door to the hotel room opened, and I saw Henry enter past Falcor's shoulder. Falcor pushed back from me to see who had come in. Henry was frozen where he stopped. It was obvious that he was trying to make sense of the situation.

  "Why do I smell so much blood?" he finally asked.

  "The witch is here," I replied. "And she almost succeeded in killing me."

  "Fuck," he said, still looking shook.

  "Exactly," I replied.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Once I got myself into clean clothes, we were on the move. "We need somewhere she has never been," Falcor said, referring to the witch who was holding a huge hate-on for me. Falcor dropped his voice as if he worried the witch could still hear us, "There are a bunch of cottages in Northern Ontario I could probably get us to. If I make a quick stop in Manitoba. I'm willing to bet she's never been there, and at least then she wouldn't be able to find us while we figure this out."

  Henry and Pete each had one of the dusty books we had gotten from Francis in their hands, they were reading, but we had dozens of books.

  "That sounds like the best plan," I said. Crow had vanished by the time I thought to look around for him. He had come, helped save my life, then flew away again. I wished, not for the first time, that he would talk to me. I knew he could speak to others somehow, but apart from some small glimpses of his thoughts while he was carrying me around like so much luggage, I had never had a message from him.

  Falcor nodded. "I'll have to take you one at a time."

  "Selena goes first," Pete said.

  "And what if someone is there waiting for her?" Pete asked.

  "There is nothing we can do to protect her from someone who can shift in, slit her throat, then vanish again in a second."

  "He's right," Falcor said. "I don't want to leave Selena alone either, but it will just be a few minutes, and then we will be back again."

  "I'm sure I'll be fine, you guys," I said, but none of them really looked convinced. "God, I'm the Black Crow. I can take care of myself."

  They slowly began gathering their things. I grabbed my suitcase and crossed the room to grab my cell phone. When I checked it, I had a dozen texts and phone calls.

  "Oh shit," I whispered.

  "What is it?" Falcor asked, coming to stand beside me.

  "Colvin," I said, holding up the phone to show him all the notifications.

  He grinned. "We should go. You can call him back from there."

  I nodded and tucked my phone in my pocket. I had a moment to glance around at the dozens of wraiths that filled the room. I wouldn't miss their presence and hoped they didn't follow us. Maybe once I had my knife back, I could come back here and see what they all wanted.

  Falcor's hand landed on my arm, and the room slipped away. It was startling how quickly I had gotten used to shifting again. This time nothing tipped or spun; I just blinked and found myself in an ice-cold bathroom. It looked like it was attached to a gas station and smelled about the same.

  "Eww," I had time to say before we were gone again.

  The next time I opened my eyes, I was in an honest-to-god rustic log cabin. There were no rooms, just a loft above the living room that I presumed was a bedroom, of sorts, and it was ice cold. Colder than the bathroom we had paused in.

  "Holy crap," I whispered. I thought Calgary was cold. This was excruciating even indoors.

  "There is some firewood out the back door. Do you know how to start a fire?"

  "Of course, I do," I said. I had no idea how to start a fire, but I would learn quickly if that was the only way to end the frozen-over hell we were in.

  "Okay, I'll be right back."

  Falcor blinked away, and I was finally completely alone. The silence was complete except for the sound of my own breath freezing in white puffs in front of my face. I dropped to my knees to root through my suitcase and get a few more layers on. Putting my coat and hat and scarf on before we left would have been smart. I would probably never get used to being in a place where the air tried to kill me. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to either.

  I wanted to go home. Or maybe down to LA and sit on the beach. The beach in a hurricane was better than the cold.

  Once I was fully clothed, I pushed open the back door that was slightly blocked by snow and grabbed some chunks of wood from the small lean-to that was built into the side of the cabin. The wood was dry but cold as hell. My fingers burned as I set the log on the metal rack in the fireplace, then stuffed a bunch of paper from the stack beside the fireplace underneath. Seemed good enough, so I grabbed the matches on the mantle and lit one, bringing it to the paper.

  The paper lit instantly and blasted me with heat. It felt so good, I kept my hands close to the flames, prepared to risk catching on fire if it meant I could get the heat in my body.

  But after a few moments, the paper burned up, and all I had was a slightly smoky log. There was no flame.

  "You need some kindling," a voice said from behind me.

  "Holy fuck!" I shouted as I leapt to my feet, and my magic nearly slipped out.

  The woman grinned, and I realized that she wasn't alive. She was a wraith, but only slightly see-through around the edges. She was wearing a heavy snowsuit and thick boots. Her hair was completely covered under a toque and hood, but her eyes twinkled with youth. She couldn't have been much older than I was.

  "How are you able to talk to me?" I asked.

  She shrugged. "I've never had anyone able to hear me," she replied. "My name is Alaya."

  I glanced around, realizing that no other wraiths had found me yet. One good wraith was better than a dozen shitty ghosty ones. I'd take it.

  "Kindling," she repeated and pointed at the fireplace.

  I shook my head. "Kindling, right." I crossed back to the back door and peeked out. In the corner of the woodshed was a pile of branches that had been broken down into short pieces. I grabbed a bunch and returned to the house.

  The wraith was still standing in the middle of the room. I held up the hand full of sticks, and she grinned and nodded.

  "Now what?" I asked.

  "Now you put them in a small cone shape and add a bit of paper around them."

  I did as she said, adjusting when she thought the wood was too tight together. Then I sparked another match, and the paper burned slow, catching the sticks on fire, which burned long enough to start the log on fire too.

  I looked back with a grin, ready to celebrate my success with the wraith, but she was gone.

  A moment later, Falcor showed up with Henry. "Hey, good fire," Henry said.

  "Thanks, I had some help."

  Henry looked around.

  "A wraith was here. One that could talk!"

  "Are they here still?" he asked, looking around the room.

  "No. I'm hoping you'll be able to see her to
o if she comes back," I replied, turning back to the fire.

  "I'm fine with not seeing them," he said, looking around the room again.

  Falcor cleared his throat. "I'm going back for Petey."

  "Petey?" I asked

  Falcor just grinned and then vanished.

  "What was that about?" I asked Henry.

  He chuckled. "Your warlock had some words to say to Pete."

  "About what?"

  Henry shoved his suitcase over to the wall and crouched beside me to poke at the fire. "About how he didn't guard you back at the hotel."

  I scoffed, falling onto my ass to let Henry have better access to the fire. "It wasn't like I would have had Pete in the shower with me."

  "He should have heard you fall."

  I considered it. To a vampire, it would have been pretty loud when I cracked my head on the tiles. It rang through my head loud enough. Would Henry or Falcor have come barging in if they had heard it? I wasn't sure. It didn't matter anyway. Crow got Falcor's attention, and he saved me. I let it go. It wasn't Pete's fault. Hopefully, Falcor wouldn't make it awkward.

  A moment later, Falcor and Pete arrived, but Falcor dropped Pete so fast, the vampire stumbled before catching himself. It wasn't easy to make a vampire stumble. Their reflexes were fast, and they were so sure-footed. It was a willful act on Falcor's part, and Pete's expression said as much. I watched and waited, hoping it wouldn't escalate, but Falcor shifted himself and his luggage to the loft.

  "There is enough room for you and me up here, Selena," he said, looking down at me over the railing.

  I rose to my feet and crossed the room to climb the ladder that led to the loft. I didn't bother trying to drag my luggage up there. There was no bathroom up there anyway. Which reminded me that I hadn't seen a bathroom. I stopped halfway up the ladder. "Falcor, where is the bathroom?"

  He didn't reply right away.

  I continued up the ladder. At the top, I stared at him. He had a slight grin on his face that told me everything I needed to know. "This cabin was built by a vampire."