The Relentless Warrior

by Rachel Higginson

  “I’ll be fine,” I swore. “But I’ll be better when we’re together again.”

  “Jericho, I…”

  “I know, Liv,” I finished for her when she didn’t seem able to find the right words. “I feel it too. And as soon as we’re together again, we’re going to put a name to it.”

  “I’m scared,” she whispered on a broken voice. Whether it was our combined Magic or the tone of her voice, maybe the tears falling from the corners of her eyes, I knew that she wasn’t talking about Terletov in that moment.

  “Then let go, Liv. Let go and feel everything that’s between us. I promise, that I will be there for you. And there will be nothing to be afraid of after that.”

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Trust me,” I urged her.

  She shook her head, unable to form words.

  Alright, well, we would work on that later.

  “I’ll find you as soon as I’m back at the Citadel, alright?” This time she nodded. “Now go see your sister. She needs you.”

  As she got into the car and left with Talbott and Titus I felt my soul leave with her. That girl owned me now, body, mind, Magic and spirit.

  She was afraid of the future.

  I had to prove to her how much our present mattered, how our future would one day melt into our present and that I would never go anywhere without her.

  But first I had to go deal with my parents.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Olivia

  Back to where it all began.

  Or… almost.

  It was bizarre to me that when the small plane touched down, I felt like I was back home. And I really did feel as though this was the place that marked the beginning of my journey.

  I watched the flurry of Immortals circle around the dying girl and a miracle take place. This wasn’t my world. I didn’t belong here.

  And yet, I was starting to wonder if that was still true.

  Eden had been phenomenal the moment the door opened. Talbott hadn’t tried to move Lilly, who looked sickly pale and as fragile as an egg shell. Her wispy purple Magic had filled the plane cabin the entire journey. It took us ten full hours to get from the burning warehouse that Jericho set on fire before we left to hide all the dead Immortal bodies, to the tarmac behind the Citadel.

  Who knew that this was even here?

  I didn’t.

  And I was very certain we were going to crash the damn plane into the side of a mountain since there didn’t seem to be a runway anywhere. But Titus found it easily enough and set the plane down smoothly.

  And then the cabin had flooded with Immortals trying to bring Lilly back to life.

  Eden stood over Lilly and bright blue smoke started to pour out of her and fill the cabin. Amelia sidled up to me and was generous enough to give me a play by play. She explained Eden’s smoke and that it came from India. She also explained that Lilly and Eden were best friends and that Eden had been as distraught as Talbott since Terletov attacked one of their clubs last fall. My heart broken even more for the unconscious Shifter when Amelia explained that this was not the first, or even the second time Lilly had been abducted and held prisoner.

  I would never feel like I got the short end of the stick after hearing Lilly’s tragic story.

  I prepared myself to choke on the cloying smoke, but the sensation never came. The thickness of it was cool against my skin and oddly soothing. The blue smoke settled over Lilly and seemed to breathe life directly back into her. Her skin started to brighten again and the thin stream of Magic that had been slipping out of her index finger stopped at once.

  Suddenly she sat up with a huge, gasping breath. Our group collectively felt the palpable relief that Lilly would be alright, but then she immediately fell back down unconscious and we all let out a disappointed sigh. Talbott had crushed her against his chest and buried his face in her hair. Huge racking sobs had overcome him and he shook violently as he held her against him.

  I felt tears fall from my own eyes at the heartbreaking sight. I didn’t even know either of them, but the moment was so deeply touching, I couldn’t stop the emotions as they overwhelmed me. And I was not the only one. While the other men weren’t reduced to tears, they were still affected by their distraught friend. They all generously comforted Talbott and laid gentle hands on his unconscious fiancée. Amelia sobbed into Avalon’s shirt and Eden collapsed in tears on the floor by Talbott’s feet.

  Kiran gathered her close and whispered sweet reassurances in her ear.

  The whole scene shattered me. And made me ache for Jericho in a way I could hardly comprehend.

  It wasn’t just that I was surrounded by strangers and couples in love that made me wish I had my own significant other for the first time in my entire life. But it was that these were uncertain times and I cared enough about Jericho to want him near me, at all times. I wanted to know that he was alright. I wanted to feel his skin against mine promising me that he wasn’t hurt, that he wasn’t lost… proving to me that we had each other and that was all we needed to survive.

  It was weird.

  I was equally worried about my parents and Ry, but I didn’t feel this overwhelming need to stand over them and watch them breathe just to make sure their lungs were moving properly. I was worried and had been worried about O for months now, but I didn’t have this same urge to sit by her side for the rest of her life just making sure she didn’t fall back into her coma.

  Nothing had even happened to Jericho and yet I wanted nothing more than to call him this moment and just double check that he was okay.

  And then I wanted to demand he get his ass over here and never leave me again.

  What was happening to me?

  Oh, hell.

  I was falling in love.

  I was falling in love with him.

  “You alright?” Ophelia asked me from the middle of her bed. She wasn’t feeling up to moving

  around yet, but she had wanted to sit up.

  “Yeah, of course,” I told her. “It’s just so great to see you up and moving again. I can’t tell you… I didn’t know if I’d ever get to see you like this again.” My voice broke with the reality of what could have happened to her, from the hard truth that I almost lost my sister. I hurried to the bed and sat down next to her, pulling her into the hundredth hug.

  “Alright, I get it,” she laughed and tried to push me off her but she was just so weak. “Tell me what I missed,” she demanded when I finally pulled back.

  I stayed next to her, crisscrossing my legs so that I mirrored her with my knees pressing into hers. She looked so much better with the feeding tube removed and the IV out. God, she looked like my sister again, and not some helpless victim in a hospital bed.

  “Umm… I’m not even sure where to begin.” I played with the army pattern on my green cargos. It had been a while since I changed or showered, but I was more than reluctant to leave O, so I festered in my filth for her sake. “You’ve been out for a couple months. I stayed here most of the time. Literally right here,” I pointed at the edge of the bed I used to sit, sleep and think at. “But when you started to improve, I started to come down with these symptoms of my own.”

  “Oh, no, you didn’t slip into a coma too, did you?” she reached for my hands, clenching them tightly in hers.

  I shook my head, letting my short hair whip me in the face. “No, not a coma. But I’m like… whatever that horrible guy did to us, he changed me. I’m like them now. I have all their powers and stuff.” I looked up to meet her terrified expression. She looked utterly horrified at the realization I was like them now, like the monsters that hurt us.

  And I could understand her fear because I had those same feelings not that long ago.

  But I would be patient with her, like Jericho was with me. Well, er, for the most part like how he was with me. And I would prove to her in a gentle, understanding way that she wasn’t all bad, that she could be the same person she always has been just… upgraded.
/>   Because even now I could feel the faintest hint of Magic in her blood and in the forty-five minutes we were alone, I’d already felt it start to intensify.

  Terletov changed her too.

  At least I had my sister for all this time that stretched out before me.

  “It’s not all bad, O,” I promised softly. “Those guys that took us, hell yes, they were bad. The worst of the worst. But we’re not bad. And these people that saved us aren’t bad. There’s a lot I have to tell you about who I am now… but it’s kind of exhausting and I don’t really understand it all myself yet.”

  She nodded slowly, trying to reconcile the only memories of Immortals she had, which were from the lab we were held prisoner in against the promises I was making to her now. I wanted to tell her that she better start accepting these people as soon as possible since she was going to soon become one of them, but I couldn’t bring myself to be so callous. She was just awake. A shock like that could do some serious damage to her delicate brain.

  “Mom and dad are going to call a little bit later,” I told her. “I was just home with them and explained everything. They’re understandably very worried about us. It will help if they hear your voice.”

  “Right.” Her eyes were big and she seemed even more shaken. I could empathize with those feelings, too. I practically stroked out from nerves when I told them the truth. I decided now was not the time to also inform her that Terletov had a hit out on our little brother and mom and dad were under constant Titan Guard protection.

  “What else?” O asked. “What else did you do while I was under?”

  “I, uh,” I laughed at myself, unable to stop myself from spilling my latest revelation even while hating myself for making such a stupid deal out of it. “I think I fell in love.”

  She froze, clearly expecting me to admit something else. Or maybe, expecting me to admit anything else.

  “You did what?” Her voice was as dry as a desert and her eyes challenged me as if I were calling her an idiot.

  I smiled with just a hint of self-deprecation. “I think I fell in love.”

  “Are you sure?” She gasped. “I mean, no offense, Livie, but I honestly didn’t even think it was possible for that to happen. I swear, I thought you were like… asexual.”

  “Shut up, Ophelia Jane!” I crossed my arms and pouted. Yes, I pouted. My stupid nineteen year old sister thought I was asexual. Rude. “I’m not asexual. I’m sexual. I’m very sexual.”

  She snorted a laugh, sounding so much like her old self that my anger melted and I had the strongest urge to hug her again. “Sure, sis. You’re super sexual.”

  A knock at the door made us dissolve into giggles at the thought of someone overhearing this conversation. We hadn’t even gotten to the good stuff yet but it was probably for the best we were interrupted. O looked exhausted and while I was hesitant to let her close her eyes again, I knew that she probably needed to sleep.

  The human doctor poked her head into the room and smiled genuinely at us sharing the bed. Her eyes were almost just as tired as O’s, but her expression was soft.

  “I’m just making the rounds,” she told us. That’s probably why she looked so worn out- with Lilly back and O waking up, plus Eden was still very much pregnant, this had been an eventful day around the Castle.

  “Come in,” O invited her kindly. O had been awake now for almost twenty-four hours. She said that Sylvia had spent a lot of time with her so far. And probably Sylvia felt like a safe person to Ophelia. She was human and she was very sweet.

  “I just want to check your vitals,” Sylvia waved her stethoscope in the air and in her white lab coat pocket, an older style blood pressure cuff, or whatever those were called, stuck out. In her other pocket I could see tongue depressors and a digital thermometer.

  “I’m feeling good, Doc,” O announced. She stretched out and scooted back so Sylvia could work around me.

  “That’s great to hear,” Sylvia smiled down at my little sister and then pulled out the thermometer. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to know exactly what’s normal around here. But so far, you’re exactly as I think you should be. That’s nice for you, but it’s really nice for me.” We laughed at that and she went on, “It’s not like anyone gets sick around here, but this pregnancy has me about ready to pull my hair out.”

  “How did you get here?” I asked before really putting together a nice sentence in my head. “Um, I mean, what brought you here?”

  “I knew what you meant,” she dismissed my awkwardness with a wave of her hand. “I’ve spent most of my adult life running in Immortal circles. I once dated one of them. But I didn’t really understand how deep the rabbit hole went until my boyfriend at the time asked me to raise his granddaughter. It was kind of a shock. Mostly because I knew he was older than me, but I had no idea that he was a grandfather. I won’t even tell you how old he really was, I’ll just say that it actually made me pass out. I fainted when he told me his real age, no joke.” She held up her hand like she was swearing an oath and I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was adorable in that bubbly, tell-it-to-you-straight kind of way. “Anyway, I agreed to take the baby and I’ve been involved ever since.”

  “Eden?” I asked, remembering Jericho’s story.

  “Yep,” she confirmed. “I didn’t permanently move here though until Eden found out she was pregnant. And then Kiran asked me to help see the pregnancy through. I couldn’t say no. That’s technically my grandchild.”

  Grandchildren, I thought. But I knew they were still trying to keep that a secret.

  The happy moment ended abruptly when Sylvia flew forward from the force of an explosion outside. The windows rattled sharply before exploding inward. We all screamed with high-pitched, deafening shrieks of pure, raw fear.

  Sylvia covered our backs with her outstretched arms, some maternal instinct that forced her into protector mode. Her bright blonde hair hung down in my face and blocked my vision from the rest of the room as the Castle around us continued to shake and tremble.

  When the explosive sounds finally died down and the castle settled back down we lifted our heads slowly until our wide, terrified eyes reflected each other.

  “What the hell was that?” O whispered.

  Sylvia and I had no answers so we said nothing.

  Sounds filled the eerie silence the explosion left behind. Sounds form everywhere and too many to be distinguishable. Men’s voices, marching feet, weapons firing, doors crashing open, furniture splintering apart… there was noise everywhere from every direction and the emptiness in the air that had seemed to inflate after everything blew to bits, was suddenly filled with angry, purposeful noise that just did not make sense to me.

  “We’re being invaded,” Sylvia whispered, clearly understanding this better than us.

  O looked down at her nurse’s scrubs and blanched. That was my sister for you. We were being invaded by who knew what, although I had a pretty good guess, and she was worried about what she was wearing.

  “I’m not even wearing a bra,” she whispered frantically at me.

  I would have laughed if I hadn’t been paralyzed by panic.

  “Go put one on,” Sylvia whispered at her, yanking her from the bed. Ophelia stumbled to the side, but caught herself. “Oh, sorry,” the doctor apologized weakly. “We just have to hurry.”

  Spurred into motion because I knew she was right, I jumped from the bed and ran to the closet. I pulled out some necessary clothes for O… undergarments, socks, shoes. And then I helped stuff her into them. We left her maroon pants on, but changed her uniformish top for a gray long-sleeve t-shirt. I grabbed a hoodie, just in case we were forced outside and O’s Magic couldn’t activate to keep her warm.

  Activate… was that the right word?

  Didn’t matter.

  I tossed her an elastic hair tie and she quickly wrapped up her longer blonde hair into a knot on the top of her head. Our hair color matched exactly, but I kept my chin length and she had wisely let he
rs grow to her shoulders.

  I would do anything for a ponytail in this moment.

  “Come on,” Sylvia whispered harshly at us. She was already standing by the door with a gun in her hands and another stretched out to me. “Do you know how to use this?”

  I nodded. “Where did you get it?”

  She kicked at a table sitting near the door. “There are some of these in every room if you know where to look.”

  “What’s the plan?” I checked the chamber for ammo and then clicked off the safety like Sebastian taught me.

  “Who are you?” Ophelia gaped at me.

  I ignored her and said, “Babe, if your blood starts to tingle, or, boil, you should probably just go with it.”

  “Go with it?” she squeaked with new terror in her eyes.

  “Trust me, I swear you’ll be fine. You just have to… embrace the change.” I patted her shoulder and turned back to Sylvia.

  “We have to get to Lilly,” Sylvia decided quickly. “Talbott will be there, I’m sure of it. Maybe some others, but I have to make sure she’s all right. Her condition was volatile in the best of circumstances today. This is not good for her.”

  “Lead the way.” I put my hand on the door and counted down under my breath from three.

  I opened the door with as little sound as I could manage and then Sylvia stuck her head out into the hallway. It was clear so we stepped out of the room and into the dim, archaic stone hallway.

  Sylvia glanced at me with pleading eyes and said, “Please remember that I’m human.” I went to assure her and she held up a hand. “Believe me, it’s easy to forget. Just remember I cannot get shot. I can hardly operate on myself and the more likely scenario is that I will die.”

  I snapped my mouth shut at such a categorical response. “Alright,” I finally told her.

  “Please remember that I’m human, too,” O squeaked.

  Neither Sylvia nor I looked at her. This wasn’t exactly the place to have a call-to-your-new-destiny speech.

  We moved stealthily down the hallway. I compartmentalized my fear and anxiety and imagined myself in a spy movie. Probably not the best tactic, but it helped me stay focused for now.