by Everly Frost
Archer murmurs beside me, “Can we kill these witches?”
“Not sanctioned.”
She curses. “We can’t let them get their hands on Tansy.”
I angle toward Tansy and whisper, “Get back inside the circle. Go to Slade.”
I meet Slade’s eyes across the way. He knows exactly what we need to do.
Tansy steps backward as our circle closes around her. She slips toward Slade’s position while the witches glide forward, all of them chanting in unison. At the same time, Slade darts inward and catches Tansy’s arm.
They disappear.
Slade’s absence is so complete that my heart wrenches. He has never stepped into a Realm of his creation without me. I didn’t realize how completely he would be gone. I can’t sense him at all. My heart squeezes, because it’s almost like death.
Serena screams and whirls, searching the space before she snarls at us. “Blurring will not save that little witch from our spells.”
I give her a smile. “She’s not blurred. She’s gone. Somewhere you can’t touch her.”
Serena’s eyes shoot wide as she catches on. “A Realm? That’s not possible. Only the Valkyrie Queen could create whole Realms. No assassin has ever accomplished it. Not even Josiah Baines.”
I don’t give her time to think too hard about it. “Well, then, it’s a mystery you’ll never solve.”
Now that Tansy is safe, talking time is over.
Vlad wastes no time striding forward, headed straight for Serena, but three other witches fill the space in front of her, their pale hands outstretched. From what we saw of their ability to conceal themselves in nature, I’m guessing their power will be connected to the forest around us. As will their weapons.
A storm of leaves and debris whirls up from the forest floor around us. Before it can obscure our view completely, I duck to allow Archer to shoot three perfect shots in rapid succession over my head with her tranquilizer gun, surprising the witches immediately in front of me since their focus was on me.
I grin as they drop to the forest floor, but my smile fades. The other nine won’t be so easy.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cain plows ahead of me through the ever-thickening storm of debris to barrel into the nearest witch, knocking her out with a blow to the head followed by a quick tranquilizer. The next witch leaps on him, her fingertips stretched for his face. The moment she touches him, he freezes, half crouched, pain shooting across his face, caught in some kind of trance.
Coming to his defense, Archer leaps, gun aimed, and shoots the witch in the back of the neck.
“Look out!” I barely have time to shout before the nearest tree branch swings into Archer, knocking her backward, but not before the witch that had captured Cain drops unconscious to the forest floor.
Seven witches are left now. They link hands and lift their arms, chanting in unison.
The ground trembles as the nearest trees uproot themselves, their bark and branches shifting and transforming again, this time into creatures that shouldn’t exist.
Disfigured giants with clubs for hands and upturned tree roots for hair tower over us, a configuration of magic, ten feet tall.
Cain lurches to his feet, his power streaming around him, arcing through the still-swirling leaves toward Archer.
She shouts, “Please tell me we can kill those.”
I grit my teeth. “They are conjured, not real. We can kill them.”
I’m not entirely sure how. There are four of them—I spin. But where is Vlad and Mother Serena?
Through the trees, I catch sight of a moving form and Serena’s burgundy robe. Electricity lights up the space around them as Vlad ducks and rolls away from the spell she cast at him. He retaliates with a dagger that she doesn’t deflect with her magic in time. It barely misses her face.
I narrow my eyes. For once it looks like Vlad intends to break the Code. “He’s trying to kill her…”
I don’t have time to think. A giant wooden club appears through the leaf storm, aimed squarely at my head. I duck, harness my power and run straight toward the giant’s torso, punching into it with all the force I can muster. It’s like slamming into a brick wall, but the giant wobbles and leans on his back foot to keep his balance. Hitting his chest, I use it as leverage, propelling myself back into the air and releasing my wings at the same time.
I access my killing power, my fingertips tingling, and fly straight back at him. Now that my power flows through my body, I can sense much more around me. The giants are like glowing pillars of magic, Cain is a copper silhouette, Vlad is a silver one, and Archer…
She is a bright spark of energy as she launches herself at the nearest giant, leaps from his knee to his shoulder, launches herself at his throat, and slams her dagger into the side of his neck. She quickly rips it out, stretches upward, and thrusts it into his eye before she drops to the ground.
Damn, she’s beautiful with a knife. Any weapon actually.
Despite the damage, the giant continues to function, swinging his fist at her, clipping her shoulder before she can get out of the way.
“Archer!” Cain shouts, and launches himself at the giant, leaping onto its back, shooting bullets into it as he goes. The giant topples and Archer rolls out of its path just in time.
Despite the bullets and the knife wound, the beast is still alive.
I fly back at my target. He swats at me, crashing back into the nearby trees. I avoid his fists, aiming for his heart. My power sizzles through my fingertips as I brush them across his chest in a searing line. My power collides with the magic being used to power the giant, slicing neatly through it.
With a creak and a groan, the giant splits down the middle, its body returning to its original form and solidifying on the spot, now a misshapen tree cut down the middle.
I glare at the witches. It’s a cruel abuse of nature.
I have no choice but to go after the other three giants.
The one that Cain shot rises to its feet.
“Cain! Use your magic!” I shout. “Only magic works against them.”
Cain shouts an acknowledgement but Archer gives me a helpless look—she can’t help us—before she ducks and zigzags to avoid the giant fist that sweeps low to the ground, the giant behind it trying to scoop her up. Using her power is the most dangerous thing she could do.
It’s up to Cain and me.
He darts behind the recovering giant, a burst of copper light sparkling around him as he launches himself onto its back again, moving his own massive form with more grace than I expected, grabbing the creature around the neck and pressing his hand to its temple. Searing light splits the clearing and the creature drops to its knees, solidifying as it falls.
I fly at the final two, forcing them to give me their attention to lead them away from Archer. My power cuts through them in a single line from one to the next. Two misshapen trees creak and groan in the suddenly quiet clearing.
I drop to the ground in front of Archer. Even though we defeated the creatures, the witches remain.
And… boy… they aren’t happy right now.
Snarls on their lips, they chant in unison once more, but this time their focus is on me.
My skin crawls, the air around me thickens, and suddenly… I can’t breathe. My wings snap closed as I cough, and water spills from my lips.
Water… coming from inside my lungs…
They must be drawing it from the ravine. I try to release my wings again, but my body won’t respond. In fact, my arms and legs won’t move. I can’t… move.
Cruel sneers light the witches’ faces as they close in on me.
I try to draw a breath, coughing out more water, splashing water and blood onto the ground as I double over.
“Hunter!” Archer reaches my side, immediately ripping out her tranquilizer gun and firing it.
The witches are ready this time, using their power to deflect the darts. Cain’s gun follows as they disarm him with their magic. His weapon h
its the nearest tree and shatters.
Archer screams. “Let me kill them!” She runs toward the nearest one, hitting an invisible force and rebounding, held down by another force.
I double over, gasping and reaching for my inner power. I have to dispel this water. I have to get it out! I spit and cough but as fast as I spit, my lungs fill up again.
“Enough!” Tansy’s voice rages over me. She appears beside me, her arms outstretched. “The assassins can’t kill you, but I can. Stop or you will die.”
The women laugh. One of them speaks with a soft voice, “You are powerful, Tanzanina, but you will not save your friend. You will all die slowly and painfully—”
Quick and brutal, a tree branch spears through the woman’s torso. Shock pierces her expression before she flies back against another tree with a crack, and drops, lifeless, to the ground.
In an instant, all hell breaks loose and it’s… all Tansy.
She barely makes a sound as Cain’s fallen dagger thumps into the heart of another witch. At the same time, a metal shard from his broken gun slams another witch through the neck. The entire clearing swirls with deadly debris that flies over and past Cain, Archer, and me, spearing toward the witches. Most stand their ground but two try to run, their feet suddenly enslaved in vines, one falling on a sharp branch, another thrown backward against the tree she turned into a giant, her back broken.
Within seconds, the remaining six are dead.
Tansy isn’t done. “Where is Mother Serena?”
Through the trees, Vlad’s form is a flicker of silver light.
Tansy takes off running in that direction.
With a quick glance at the others, I race after her, darting through the trees, jumping bodies and branches.
Tansy screams into the small clearing where Mother Serena holds Vlad pinned and kneeling on the ground, her fingers pressed to his temple. Dark mist surrounds Vlad’s face and his expression is vacant.
Mother Serena sneers at Tansy. “You can’t control your power, Tansy. You can’t defeat me—”
Tansy grits her teeth and says, “You really shouldn’t upset me.”
Tansy exhales and then she inhales a slow, deep, sucking breath, her fingertips spreading, her chest expanding with such force that I step away from her.
Mother Serena’s eyes grow wide. Her fingertips tremble. Her whole body shudders. A wail builds on her lips as she stares at her hands. The mist around Vlad’s face clears and his stormy eyes become clear.
Vlad’s big fist darts out and squeezes around Serena’s throat.
She hisses and strikes out, thumping him, pressing her fist into his chest, but her eyes pop wider when her hand hits his shoulder without impact.
Her gaze darting to Tansy, she gasps, “What did you do?”
Tansy is unsmiling, hard as granite. “I took your power. It’s mine now. You will never get it back.”
“Or your life.” Vlad is as cold as an ice serpent as his hand squeezes tighter.
Serena is deathly pale. Panic spreads across her face. She tries to free herself, her voice hissing beneath the pressure around her throat. “No… please…”
Vlad is unmoved. “The spell you cast over me worked out really well, Mother Serena. Your spell took away my emotions. Because of you, I have no feelings. I don’t feel fear. I don’t feel love. I see only truth and logic. And logic tells me you must die.”
“Alexei…” Her voice diminishes the tighter he squeezes. She tries one last time. “Vlad…”
He shakes his head at her. “I feel your neck in my hands, but I feel no pity… no remorse.”
Her neck snaps.
Despite how coldly he killed her, Vlad lays her down gently on the mossy earth, straightening her limbs, smoothing out her hair, and closing her eyes. When he’s done, he rises slowly, but he doesn’t look up. “Mother Serena’s name was written in my ledger six months ago. I was biding my time. I haven’t broken the Code.”
Vlad told me that we would work within the Code, that he wouldn’t break it. He has proven that time and again, but this time feels harder, a victory that cost too much.
He continues, “Out of respect for my father, I didn’t look for my mother while he was alive. After his passing, I sought Mother Serena’s help to find her. She not only refused… she took away my pain. She said it was a gift.”
He looks up, but his focus is on Tansy. “Because of the spell she cast, I see the world in black and white. I see strategy, logistics, moves, and countermoves. I don’t… feel… anything.”
Tansy told me that Vlad can’t love her. I thought she meant he wasn’t free to love her or that she doubted he loved her, but she meant that he literally can’t.
“That’s why Dean can’t sense your emotions,” I say.
Vlad nods. “I am not troubled by them.”
Vlad told me once that he sees the world with clarity, not clouded with feeling, but once again I narrow my gaze at him. It can’t be true. Dean said that Tansy had broken through to Vlad’s heart. I’ve seen the way he looks at her, the care with which he treats her…
Vlad’s suddenly hard gaze locks on me. “Logic,” he says, as if he read my mind.
He swings away from me, striding toward Tansy, stopping inches away from her. “My mother was a witch so it’s logical that I would be drawn to one. Logic also dictates that the woman I choose will be the most powerful, because what idiot isn’t drawn to power and beauty. But none of it is love. It can’t be…”
His furious gaze rakes across her. “Tanzanina Gray, you are nothing more to me than a chess piece and I don’t—”
Smack!
Unlike the time I smacked him round the head, Vlad responds to Tansy’s fist with a sharp movement out of her path, as if it hurt way more than any fist ever did before.
He gulps out the rest of what he was going to say, speaking to the ground while he rubs his jaw. “I don’t want to treat you that way.”
Some of her anger fades… but not all. “Stay out of my path, Alexei Mason.”
She spins and stalks away from him, heading back toward the cliff. Now that the witches are out of the way, our next problem is getting to the bridge.
With a brief comforting press of his hand on my shoulder, Slade says, “We’ll go with her.”
Cain and Archer follow, but I storm up to Vlad. I have to restrain myself before I slap the assassin’s mask off his face. “That was the biggest lie I’ve ever heard from your lips.”
“It was more truth than I’ve ever spoken, Hunter.”
I shake my head. “You feel something for Tansy. I’ve seen it.”
He doesn’t reply. His expression, his gray eyes, are like storm clouds tightly controlled that will never break. “It’s better for her this way.”
“How? By breaking her heart?”
“She deserves more.”
“She wants you!”
When he stares back at me, his expression unyielding, I fist his shirt and drop my forehead to his chest. “I might not come back from this, Vlad. I need you to be there for her.”
“I will be.”
I tip my head back and search his eyes. “How?”
“As her friend.” He clears his throat. “Without emotion, I am a much better protector than I would be with it.”
As he gently disentangles my fist and walks away from me, I shake off the fairy tale I had naively clung to.
Cain was right.
Nobody gets a happy ending.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When I reach the cliff, Tansy is calm and in control. She and Archer are deep in conversation, pointing to the bridge, while Slade and Cain pick up the dropped weapons and take stock of what is broken.
Archer voices my thoughts when she says, “It can’t be as easy as flying over there. Or at least… I think it would be dangerous for us to try without testing it carefully.”
I nod. “There are bound to be security mechanisms.”
I scan the horizon. Most of our daylight
is used up. The sun is sinking and will hit the horizon in less than an hour. After that it will become bitterly cold and I don’t want to try anything in the dark.
Archer touches my arm, drawing my attention back to her, her blue eyes bright. Outside of Saber Lane, she has resumed wearing her contact lenses. “It’s weird, but I want to be here. I don’t remember this place, not exactly, but it feels familiar.”
“If your mother spent her life guarding this place, then she would have lived around here.”
Archer inclines her head across the ravine. “On the other side maybe. There could be a cabin over there that we can’t see.”
“It’s possible. She had wings so she could have easily flown over. Let me go and see.”
I spread my wings, careful not to bump into Tansy or Archer, and rise off the ground, aiming for the cliff’s edge. I glimpse the ravine below and then…
Thump.
I hit an invisible wall. My wings fly forward, splatting against the unexpected surface. I try to gain purchase, but slide down the shield, landing in an ungainly heap on the cliff.
“Are you okay?”
I squint up at Archer, rubbing my head since I banged into the shield head-first. “Ouch.” Rubbing my neck, I say, “It’s shielded.”
She hides her smile as she reaches forward—Yeah, that wasn’t the most graceful thing I’ve ever done—testing the air with her hands, leaning as far as she can out from the edge without endangering herself. She presses up against a solid boundary. “For me, too.”
Tansy peers at the place where Archer presses her hand. “Just because it’s shielded here doesn’t mean it’s shielded everywhere. We should follow the cliff’s edge and see if there are any openings along the way.” She grimaces at the trees blocking our path. “As best as we can, that is.”
Slade hands me my backpack before he slides his onto his back. “That sounds like the only plan we have for now.” He checks my scalp and presses a kiss to my smarting head. “No damage.”
Cain also hands Archer her backpack but Tansy snatches hers up before Vlad can do anything with it. The tension between them isn’t any worse than it was before, but it grates on me. Mostly because I can’t do anything about it. I can’t make people’s choices for them.