by Kristie Cook
Then, out of nowhere, a fork appeared in the tunnel. Three prongs that hadn’t been here before. It had been a straight and narrow, boring tunnel all the way down.
I swore. “Any ideas? There’s a three-way fork.”
“Hmm . . . straight ahead is too easy. Right?” She obviously wasn’t sure about that.
An inexplicable but strong pull made me think left. “I think this way.”
“No, right. I’m sure of it.” And now she did sound more confident, so we went right. We jogged as best as we could for about twenty yards and slammed into an invisible wall. “Damn! Sorry!”
We scrambled to our feet and headed back, losing valuable distance between us and the shifters. When we reached the fork, I followed my gut this time, and Vanessa didn’t have much choice but to go with me. We hit two more forks, and both times I ignored Vanessa and followed instinct. The feeling went further than my gut, all the way into my heart and soul, as if they were pulling me toward freedom and safety.
The howls and barks of wolves followed us, coming closer and closer. I tried to run even faster, holding most of Vanessa’s weight so she wouldn’t stumble in her blindness, but her legs dragged behind us. I could physically carry her weight, but she was too tall for my short frame.
We rounded a new bend, and there it was—the light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. The bluish light of the ice cave. The floor underneath our feet confirmed it, becoming slick with ice. We were almost there, just as growls and snapping jaws sounded behind us.
We slipped and slid as we fought our way up the hill and into the icy cave, and all I could think was, Get outside. Just get outside, beyond the boundaries, then we can flash. Then we’ll be safe. And finally, the opening, brightly lit right in front of us. But it was farther than it first appeared. I pushed my foot into the ground, determined to make it out. My boot slipped. Vanessa and I went down. Crashed onto our faces. I lost contact with her as I skidded across the ice and slammed into a stalagmite.
My vision swam. My ears rang. But under the ringing, from what sounded like a far-off distance but I instinctively knew was way too close, came the sound of claws scratching on ice. I scrambled on the slick floor, pushing myself forward. I grabbed Vanessa’s hand as I passed her, yanking her struggling form with me.
“Come on!” I yelled. “We’re almost there.”
But after everything else, Vanessa now felt like a sack of bricks. I half-ran, half-scuttled us out of the cave, teeth snapping at our heels. We burst through the opening and out into the white light of afternoon sun. I blinked and squinted in the sudden brightness. Vanessa collapsed, too weak to go on. And out came the wolves. More than I realized had pursued us.
They launched themselves onto Vanessa, and she couldn’t fight back. I blasted them with electricity and swung my knife at them, but there were too many, and I was too weak. Vanessa whimpered and moaned under the mass of fur. With tears blinding my eyes and my sensibility, my hands grabbed onto a neck, and my fingers dug into the fur as I yanked a wolf off of the vampire—off of Vanessa, off of my comrade-in-arms—and threw it to the side. But that was only one, and it came back at me before it even hit the ground.
“Hang on, Vanessa,” I cried out, although, as the wolf’s mouth latched onto my shoulder, I had no idea how I could save her. How I could save either of us.
We had fought with everything we had, but we didn’t have enough. We were no match for Lucas and his minions. I had known all along. I had nearly given up with this knowledge. But I’d told Vanessa I would fight. And we’d been so. close. So close to the stone, to the sorceress’s soul, so close now to escape, to winning this battle if not the war, to beating the sperm donor at his own game.
But in the end, I couldn’t do any of it. Not alone when he had all these creatures at his beck and call. Hell, I couldn’t even keep my own protector loyal to me. Perhaps Lucas deserved to win . . .
The wolf hanging on me went suddenly still, and I jerked from the edge of unconsciousness just as its snout released my shoulder and it fell to the ground. The wolves on Vanessa, one-by-one, went down with a yelp, too. I spun around with another shot of adrenaline, hands out and ready to fight whatever Lucas had sent after us now.
My jaw dropped. I blinked, sure that what I saw must have been my imagination. But no. Tristan still stood there. Not halfway around the world, but only twenty yards away. Big and strong and beautiful.
And the enemy.
Chapter 28
I didn’t have the stone. Kali had control, which meant we were dead if I couldn’t break through to him. Unless . . . if Bree had acted soon enough to sever the connection . . . But Tristan still might have gone rogue. Regardless of how or why he was here, without the stone in my possession, my love for him meant nothing, and his for me would be a thing of the past. He’d kill Vanessa and me in a heartbeat.
So I just stood there, not sure what to do.
Tristan’s arms moved out to the side. Opened wide. “Ma lykita.”
The full strength of his love—what I hadn’t felt in so long, possibly since the day my pendant disappeared—burst from him and washed over me. It hadn’t been freedom and safety pulling me through the tunnel this way. It had been Tristan’s love, even without the stone. I blew out the air I’d been holding in my lungs forever.
“Tristan!” I ran into his open arms, and he swept me up, held me tightly against him. “You’re okay?”
“I’m perfect now that you’re in my arms,” he murmured against my ear.
“But how?”
“I felt it as soon as you had possession of the stone.”
I pulled back. “But I don’t. I failed, Tristan. I didn’t get it back.”
He cocked his head as he peered at me. “But I feel it. So strong now.”
He let go of me with one arm and lifted his hand to my chest. With one finger he poked, and though he didn’t actually touch me, I felt the pressure. His finger tapped a pattern, and I gasped. My necklace appeared from nowhere, hanging from my neck, and I hadn’t even known it.
“Scarecrow,” he whispered with a smile.
I started to shake my head. Couldn’t be. But if not, who? How? When?
“But I saw you . . .” I closed my eyes against the vision trying to replay in my mind once again. “Kali controlled you. You . . . you destroyed the safe house . . . you—”
“Not me, my love. She showed you what she wanted you to see.”
I swore under my breath. Would I ever learn to see through their projections? I’d almost given up on everything because of their deceit.
“I’ll kill her,” I said, meaning it with every fiber in my being.
“Not now. We need to get out of here.”
No, not this moment. But soon.
Right now, I really just wanted to revel in the realization that my dream of being truly safe and in my husband’s arms actually came true. But we didn’t have the luxury of time for that either.
“Vanessa needs you first,” I said.
Tristan released me and strode over to the limp body of the vampire. Her wounds were closing slowly, her body too weak from the sun and the shifters’ saliva to heal itself as fast as normal. My throat tightened, and I had to look away as Tristan ran his mouth over the deeper gashes, helping them to heal faster. Too bad for her that she was practically unconscious, too out of it to enjoy this.
“Don’t worry. It’s not at all like I’d imagined it,” Vanessa whispered in my mind. “He’s too much like a brother now.”
And that’s when it truly hit me: I have a sister.
“So,” I said while I stared out the little window as the buildings on the ground below shrank away into miniatures.
Vanessa fidgeted with her seat belt. “Yeah.”
With her in his arms, Tristan had led me for several flashes to a private airstrip where the Amadis jet waited for us. With the tightened security we’d already experienced, Mom had had to make special arrangements on both ends of our flight so we cou
ld avoid anyone considering us too closely. She’d also sent a couple of mages to the military installation to alter the norms’ memories of what Vanessa and I looked like before we ended up on the Most Wanted lists.
Until now, Vanessa and I had been able to avoid the elephant in the room, but I’d finally broken the awkward silence.
“How long have you known?” I asked, finally looking at her. From the seat next to me, Tristan took my hand in his.
She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve suspected for a long time, since I was young, really. Lucas always denied it, said we had common ancestors to explain our similar features. When we’d come to live with him when we were eleven, he acted a little like a father figure, but we were to call him Lucas. Never father. God forbid anyone suspect anything.” She looked out the window, blinking several times. Her eyesight had slowly returned, and her brain still seemed to be adjusting. Her voice became distant. “At first, I tried to love him like the father we’d never had, but that only made him hate me more. He’d push me away and ignore me whenever possible. But Victor . . . he loved, loves Victor. My brother could do no wrong. Lucas had amazing plans for Victor and Seth. But never for Vanessa. Not after it became obvious the first time we met that Seth wanted nothing to do with me. The prophecy wasn’t about me, so I was nothing but an embarrassment.”
My gaze dropped from her face to the floor. I toed the carpet, feeling unnecessarily guilty. None of this was my fault—my mother hadn’t even been born yet, let alone me—but I could now understand why she’d hated me so much. The Daemoni had believed the prophecy was about Vanessa, and when the faerie stone in Tristan’s heart didn’t respond, Lucas had no use for her anymore. And she must have been determined to prove them all wrong, her heart set on making something happen between Tristan and her. Then I came along, and there was nothing to prove anymore.
“So why did he have you turned?” I finally asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
Her mouth puckered. “I never really knew why he turned me. He says to save my life—our version of the Ang’dora nearly killed me, just like it does most of Jordan’s descendants. He had me turned so I wouldn’t die. But why? He hates me. He said it would make me stronger, the monster he wanted me to be. And I guess it did. I was so full of hatred—for him, for Victor, for the world. He’d given me anything I wanted to shut me up, but had taken away any chance for real happiness.”
“So you turned Victor in revenge?”
“Yeah. I was newly reborn, starving, and mad. Mad as hell. And darling Victor was right there. I’d wanted to kill him and make Lucas live with that the rest of his existence. But Lucas forced me to finish the process. He would rather have Victor as a vampire than not have him at all, even if it took away any chance for Victor to lead with Seth.” She looked at me with a tilted head. “Did you know we vamps aren’t leadership material? At least, not of other species. They say we’re too impulsive.”
“Go figure,” I replied, and she snorted.
“So, anyway, Lucas has hated me ever since I turned Victor. No matter how much of a monster I became for him, I was never good—or bad—enough.”
I shook my head, not knowing what to say.
Tristan stroked his chin, then spoke up for the first time since takeoff. “I always thought Lucas told me just about everything, but I knew nothing about this.”
Vanessa chuckled without humor. “Lucas has more secrets than anyone could ever guess. Victor never knew about the supposed prophecy until Alexis was born. The fool actually thought you two were brothers for the longest time, and Lucas let him believe it! Oh, there’s worse, I’m sure. He’s the best deceiver there is besides Satan himself.” She looked at me. “So, yeah, our father’s a dick.”
“I don’t have a father,” I said. “And neither do you. He’s just a sperm donor. Nothing more.”
Vanessa nodded, and she looked out the window again. Her voice came out quietly with her next words. “But we do have a brother.”
Of course. I had gained both a half-sister and a half-brother. They were twins, so no doubt about it.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and spoke just as quietly. “Is there any hope for him?”
Vanessa didn’t answer at first. Her eyes glistened as she finally looked at me. “I don’t know, Alexis.” She shook her head. “I really don’t know.”
“He’s not rogue,” Tristan said. “There’s hope.”
I didn’t know if he said it for Vanessa or for me or because he truly believed it, but I was thankful he did. I squeezed his hand.
“So how did you get to us so fast?” I asked him. “It took us more than twenty-four hours to get there.”
His mouth quirked in a small smile. “I had a little help from Bree.”
“She couldn’t help us get home a little faster than this?” I asked. “I miss my son.”
“You have to be faerie to cross the veil.”
“You went through the Otherworld?” I asked with disbelief. “But you’re not—Oh. Yeah. You are.”
Vanessa snorted as she still stared out the window. “That explains a lot,” she muttered. “Big, bad warrior is a faerie.”
Tristan growled at her teasing tone. I placed my hand on his thigh.
“Be nice. She saved my butt, and she’s a friend now,” I said, and then I smiled. “No, she’s more than that. She’s family.”
Vanessa turned away from the window and stared at me for a long time. Then she gave me a look that was so foreign on the face I’d hated for so long. She almost looked happy.
I let out a sad sigh myself. “I’ve gained a sister and a brother, but I seem to have lost the closest thing I ever had to a real brother. Owen’s . . . gone.”
Vanessa frowned again. “He’s not gone. Not for good. We’re going to rescue him, right?”
“I don’t think the traitor wants to be rescued.”
“Whoa,” Tristan said, “back up. What’s up with Scarecrow?”
“He abandoned me and went off with Kali to be her little minion.”
Vanessa shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think he’s trying to get her to trust him. He needs to figure out her weakness before anything can be done about her.”
I fingered my pendant, wanting to believe her, but I just didn’t know. “Are you sure about that?”
“Sounds more like Owen than your version,” Tristan said, which was true.
“Did he tell me that straight out?” Vanessa said. “No. But that’s what I want to believe. That’s what I have to believe.”
“Well, I want to believe it, too, but that’s not how I saw things,” I said. “He’s supposed to be my protector, and he left me in the worst situation possible. Unprotected.”
“You weren’t unprotected,” Vanessa muttered. “I’d promised Owen I’d take care of you if he needed me to. I tried my best. But I’m no warlock.”
“No, you’re not. You’re not trained to be a protector.” Tristan put his arm across my shoulder and squeezed. “He shouldn’t have left. He’s dug a pretty deep hole for himself.”
Vanessa blew out a breath of exasperation. “So you’re not going to rescue him? You’re going to abandon him now?”
“I’m just saying that Alexis may be right. Owen hasn’t been himself. Maybe he’s chosen what he wants.”
Vanessa opened her mouth, and I braced for the list of profanities she’d spew out. But she was trying to learn control over her emotions, so she shut her mouth and scowled, diverting her attention to the clouds out the window. Tristan took my hand, stood, and led me over to the couch, giving Vanessa her space.
“I lost my dagger, too,” I lamented as we sat in the corner of the L-shaped couch. I hated not having my best weapon, but I knew now that I didn’t need to rely on it. Perhaps Vanessa was right about love being my strongest power. Cassandra had always said I had the power within me.
“Yes, you do,” her voice whispered in my mind.
My back straightened, and Tristan gave me a strange
look, but I ignored him. Cassandra?
“Always here.”
But how? I don’t have the dagger.
“The dagger does not connect us. Our shared power does.”
Then where were you before? How could you let me go through all of that alone?
“You were not alone. I was there, but I only guide when you need me. You didn’t need me, Alexis. With Vanessa’s help, you succeeded on your own. And now you know your true power.”
Her presence receded again, and I sagged against the back of the couch, lost in thought. Tristan always said my biggest advantage was my telepathy, and my dagger may have been my best weapon. But what made me really powerful was something the enemy feared more than anything because they didn’t understand it, and they’d never be able to steal, block, or beat it out of me.
Vanessa had been right. My power was not dark, but light. Like Cassandra, my true power was love.
“You’ve lost a lot, but you have me,” Tristan said as he pulled me onto his lap, totally unaware I’d just had a major epiphany. He nuzzled my neck. “Feels good to be whole again. You and me.”
“Yes, it does,” I said, encircling my arms around his neck. “Let’s hope forever this time. I’m sick of them taking control of your life.”
“You and me both, my love.” He kissed my jawline.
“And we have Dorian,” I said, my excitement to see him growing the closer we came to home.
Tristan lifted my pendant and rubbed his thumb over the stone. “And maybe now we can have a daughter.”
“I can’t wait to start working on it,” I said as his mouth finally made its way to mine and delivered the kiss I’d been waiting for.
My family was growing. And soon, it would be even bigger. In fact, with our daughter, it would finally be complete. At least, until we had to deal with Dorian and the Daemoni. But I wasn’t going to think about that right now. It was a long way off. Right now, I was going to wholeheartedly focus on this amazing man giving me the most amazing kiss.