by Zoe Chant
The voice hissed through his mind, vast and alien and amused. Cold, scaled coils curled round his soul, crushing and silencing his griffin.
Your mate. He couldn’t stop the whispering foreign presence from slithering through his memories. It chuckled as it picked over them like a vulture tearing choice bits from a carcass. See her come, so brave, so blind. Shall I welcome her?
Another’s will curved his lips. Not of his own volition, his arms lifted, spreading wide.
He barely managed to wrench himself aside before Edith flung herself into the trap. He took two jerky steps away before the thing grabbed control back from him, forcing him to stop.
“Rory, what is it?” To his relief, Edith hesitated. Her gaze searched his face, skipping past his eyes.
Hissing laughter filled his ears. She can’t look into your eyes, can she? She can’t see me here. How delicious.
“What’s wrong?” She took a step closer, reaching out to him. “Please, talk to me. I don’t know what’s happened, but I can feel how much you’re hurting. Don’t shut me out.”
How much she loves you, the voice taunted him, as he fought with every ounce of his will to keep his distance from her. How much you’re hurting her, refusing her touch. How exquisite her pain will be, when I close your hands around her soft, fragile neck.
“No,” he gritted out. He jerked his hand away from Edith again. “No!”
You wish me keep her alive? the voice asked, dripping malice. Then stop resisting me. Submit to my will, and she will walk free.
“Why are you acting like this?” Edith glanced past him, scanning the sky. He couldn’t waste effort trying to look up himself, but he could tell from the way that her eyes widened that the storm-creature must be getting close. “Rory, you have to release the others. You aren’t in any condition to fight that thing alone. You have to let them help.”
The creature within him surged forward, swelling with eagerness and rage. Yes, yesssss. Tell your shifter pack to attack the guardian. Tell them to kill it. Now!
He bit his tongue to stop it from using his voice. Blood ran down his chin. He had no idea why the alien thing wanted to attack its ally, but—
You thought it was my ally? It laughed harder than ever, shaking the foundations of his mind. Oh, foolish, foolish prey. No. Always, the guardians have hunted my kind. But at last, at last, we shall be free. You and your shifter pack will kill the last guardian. No longer will we have to hide under the ground, weak and starving. We shall emerge. And we shall feed.
Its cold glee turned his bones to ice. With the monster coiling through his soul, he could see glimpses of its memories. His mind shuddered away.
He couldn’t let it have its way. He fought harder than ever, reaching for his griffin.
You animal cannot help you, the creature hissed in his mind. You may be able to keep your power from me, but you cannot stop me from using your body as I please. If you do not do as I wish, I will kill your mate. Slowly. If you want to save her, do as I say. Kill the guardian. Now!
He couldn’t let the creature hurt his mate. She was his mate. But he wasn’t strong enough to resist. He couldn’t find his griffin in the utter blackness coiling through his soul.
But in the crushing darkness, one flicker of light remained.
“Rory, I’m your mate.” Though Edith’s expression was confused and hurt, her love shone in his heart. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
Her strength beat through his soul. Stronger than the darkness. Stronger than anything.
He couldn’t save her.
But she could save him.
With the last of his own strength, he gripped her hand.
Edith, he sent down the mate bond, praying that she could hear him. Help me.
Chapter 35
The instant his fingers brushed her, she knew.
Edith snapped her head up, meeting Rory’s eyes. The impact pierced through her—not warm like sunlight, but cold.
“You’re not Rory,” she breathed, staring into that foreign gaze.
White-hot fury filled her. She tightened her grip on his hand, fingers digging in. His eyes widened, the parasitic presence behind them recoiling.
“Get out!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, right into his face. “Get out of my mate!”
The crimson tinge in his eyes flickered. The mate bond roared between them, fierce as a wildfire. Warmth flooded through her, his warmth.
Rory doubled over, gagging, though he didn’t let go of her. She clung to him as he hacked and fought, his whole body jerking in great wrenching spasms.
She could feel the surge of his soul as he tried to force out the thing inside him. She added her will to his. The alien presence cowered, backing away from their pure, bright love.
Thick, oily smoke poured out of Rory’s mouth. It continued to stream out of him for far longer than his lungs could possibly have contained. The dark coils twisted and lashed on the ground, wriggling away.
“Rory!” Blaise screamed from the distance.
The other shifters were trapped by Rory’s previous command. They must have been fighting against it, trying to move as slowly as possible, but he’d told them to go away. They were almost out of sight already.
The smoke thinned at last, trailing off. Rory collapsed to his knees. She held his shoulders, supporting him as he gasped for breath.
The darkness that had spewed out of him thrashed like a wounded snake. It drew itself up, coiling and congealing. Smoke hardened into thick, plated scales. Long, demonic horns branched outward, sharpening to wicked points. Two red, slitted eyes opened.
She froze, caught in the malice of that inhuman gaze as it fixed on her. At her side, Rory managed to suck in air at last. He lifted his head.
“Help!” he roared.
The monstrous serpent lunged—and recoiled, shrieking, as brilliant light burst in front of them like an exploding star. Edith flung up a hand to shield her own eyes, momentarily blinded.
She blinked, tears streaking her face. The white unicorn stood in front of them, hooves braced and head lowered. His horn blazed like bottled lightning, holding the towering serpent at bay.
Rory’s arms closed around her protectively. “Don’t let it bite you!” he shouted. “It can take over your body!”
Wystan danced aside as the horned serpent struck at him. It hissed, sweeping its tail round. Busy trying to avoid its head, the unicorn couldn’t react in time.
“No!” Edith cried, as the serpent’s tail knocked him over.
The serpent reared back in triumph, jaws opening wide—but before it could bite the fallen unicorn, a flame-bright bolt struck from the sky. Callum’s hooves knocked the serpent’s head aside. It snapped at him, but the pegasus was already wheeling away. Fast as a falcon, he looped and dove around the snake, making it spin and twist in defense.
Rory pulled her back further as Fenrir joined the fight, fangs bared and eyes seething with hellfire. “I have to help them. Can you hang on?”
She clutched at him, both of them ducking as the serpent’s tail lashed over their heads. “Hang onto what?”
To her astonishment, he grinned at her. He seized her in a brief, crushing kiss.
“Me,” he said, and shifted.
Now she understood. She scrambled onto his back. She barely had time to grab onto his feathers before he was airborne. The world spun dizzyingly around her head as he dove at the serpent.
His outstretched claws raked through the monster’s scales. Its hisses turned into a shriek of pain. Edith clung tight with her knees as Rory barrel-rolled away, avoiding its counterattack.
Massive fangs clashed shut inches from her head, but she wasn’t afraid. She was with her mate.
As long as they were together, nothing could stop them.
The serpent jerked and flinched. Whenever it turned to face one of the shifters, another would dart in, taking advantage of its distraction. But they were all so small, compared to the horned monstrosity. Even Rory�
��s fierce talons were just inflicting flesh wounds. How could they hope to kill it?
Then Joe arrived.
Shining blue-black scales crashed against the monster’s duller coils. The horned serpent screeched as the sea dragon wrapped around it.
Joe’s webbed, taloned feet grappled with his foe, pinning it down under his greater weight. His massive jaws closed over the back of the serpent’s neck with a very final-sounding crunch.
With a last thrashing spasm, the monster went still.
The sea dragon released the creature, backing away. Joe shimmered, shrinking back into human form. He suddenly seemed very small.
“Bleugh.” Joe spat out black ichor, swiping the back of his hand across his mouth. “Definitely could have used some chili.”
Chapter 36
Edith slid off his back, though she kept one hand on his furred shoulder. “Is it dead?”
*I think so,* he sent back telepathically, since he couldn’t speak out loud in griffin form. *But it could be a trick. Stay back for a moment.*
He cautiously approached the fallen serpent, careful to keep his own body between it and his mate. He stared into the glassy crimson eyes, watching for any sign of life.
While he was still crouching in readiness, Fenrir trotted past him. Before Rory could call him back, the hellhound sniffed the forked tongue lolling out of the serpent’s slack mouth.
Then he cocked a leg, and peed on it.
Edith choked. “Fenrir!”
The hellhound sat back on his haunches. *Is dead.*
“Good,” Callum said. He was staring straight up. “Now what do we do about that?”
Rory followed his gaze. In the excitement of the fight with the…whatever it had been, he’d almost forgotten about the other creature.
Dark storm clouds churned above their heads, completely hiding the sun. The only light was the dull, hellish glow from the approaching wildfire. Burning embers swirled through the smoky darkness, carried by the rising wind.
“It’s all right,” Rory said, feeling the tension from the rest of the squad. “When the horned serpent was possessing me, I could sense something of its thoughts too. It went after me because it wanted to use our combined strength to kill that thing.”
“But weren’t they were working together?” Blaise asked.
“No.” He smiled at his mate. “You were right, Edith. When you came across the hare, the serpent was using its body to try to escape from the blaze. That,” he pointed up at the gathering storm, “was hunting it. The serpent called it the guardian. The last guardian, in fact. That’s why it turned up in Antler. It was going after the serpent again.”
“The bear,” Edith said, her eyes widening. “The serpent was in the bear.”
“Right. That’s what it does. It jumps from body to body. I think it ate minds, somehow. Every time it jumped into a stronger body, it got stronger too.”
“Well, after Fenrir’s demonstration, I think we can be pretty sure it’s not jumping anywhere else.” Joe was still in a tense crouch, clearly ready to shift at the slightest threat. “So what’s our sparky friend doing here now?”
“Come to see that its enemy is really dead, I guess.” Rory tipped his head back, deliberately keeping his body language loose and unthreatening as he searched the dense clouds. “Everyone just stay calm. It’s not here to hurt us. It’s on our side.”
Lightning stabbed down.
“Has anyone told it that?” Blaise yelled as thunder shook the ground.
He’d shifted on reflex, covering both Edith and himself with his wings. The lightning hadn’t struck that close, but white-hot afterimages of the jagged bolt still danced across his eyes. A towering pine some fifty feet away had become a smoking stump. Burning debris pattered down, setting light to the undergrowth.
Pinpoints of pain lanced through his feathers. He shook the smoldering splinters free, wincing. To his relief, Joe had shifted too. His armored coils protected the rest of the squad.
*Stop!* he roared at the unseen creature, with the full force of the alpha voice.
Electricity arced ominously through the black, boiling clouds. He hadn’t really expected it to work—his power relied on natural dominance, and his opponent was even more powerful than himself.
But not more powerful than all of them.
He reached out mentally to his squad. *Everyone, lend me your strength. If Wystan’s right and it is a shifter, we should be able to communicate telepathically. Let’s see if we can get through to it.*
One by one, their minds linked with his. Wystan, gleaming and constant as the North Star. Joe, like sunlight on the surface of the sea, bright dazzle over dangerous depths. Callum, dark and silent, close to his back as his own shadow. Fenrir, all wordless emotion and fierce, snarling loyalty. Blaise’s frozen fire.
Lastly, he reached for Edith. Their souls closed together like interlinked hands, completing the circle. Her bright courage steadied him. Together, they united the disparate strengths of the squad into a single powerful voice, focused on the threatening storm.
*WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMIES.* They spoke together as one mind, one will. *BUT IF YOU DO NOT STOP, WE WILL STOP YOU.*
The clouds recoiled from the force of their shout. Through the shredding veils, a vast shape loomed over them, wings blocking out the sky. For a moment, a pair of blank white eyes stared down at them like twin moons, cold and remote.
The great wings swept round. Rory dug his claws into the ground, nearly bowled over by the thunderclap of displaced air as the creature flapped away. Flames leaped up in its wake, fanned by its wing beats. He sheltered Edith again from a surge of storm-tossed debris.
One burning branch fell on the dead serpent’s tail. The corpse went up as though soaked in oil, spewing out thick plumes of acrid smoke.
Rory grabbed Edith, throwing her onto his back. *Wystan, with me—Callum, take Joe and Blaise! Fenrir, go, go!*
Fenrir phased out just as flame swept through where he’d been standing. Rory launched himself into the air, snatching Wystan up in his talons. Callum followed, wing beats labored as he struggled to gain height with his greater burden.
Fire engulfed the forest. He cupped his wings to catch the rising heat, soaring safely out of reach of the licking flames. Trees lit up like matches, the fire leaping from branch to branch in the blink of an eye.
Edith tugged on his feathers. “Rory. Look.”
She wasn’t staring down at the spreading devastation. From her posture, he could tell that her attention was fixed on something behind them. He banked, circling.
Trailing tattered veils of cloud, a vast shape soared away from the raging wildfire. It had a condor’s broad wings and a heavy, hooked beak. Odd, angular patterns marked the storm-grey feathers like tribal tattoos, seething with electric white light.
“I know what it is,” Edith whispered. Her voice shook with awe. “It’s a Thunderbird.”
Chapter 37
“I don’t care if it’s the motherloving Easter Bunny!” Rory had never seen Buck so furious. “You go after that monster and kill it! Right now!”
“Chief, it’s long gone.” Rory kept his own voice calm. “There was no way Callum and I could keep up with it while carrying everyone else.”
Buck’s fists were clenched so hard, Rory could see them shaking at his side. “Then you should have ditched the others. You took it on by yourself before.”
Rory shook his head. “If I try to fight it without support, I’ll just get myself killed. It’s stronger than me. I’m pretty sure it was holding back the previous times I’ve faced it. On some level, it didn’t really want to hurt me.”
“Well it damn well wants to hurt other people,” Buck snarled. “It’s killed people.”
“I know,” Rory said grimly. “And I promise we’ll work out a way to stop it. But right now, we have to stop this fire, before it claims any lives. It’s going to take all of us to get it under control.”
For a moment, Rory thought Buck migh
t actually hit him. He braced himself, lifting his chin and meeting the chief’s eyes steadily.
With a muttered curse, Buck lowered his fist, turning away. He clapped his hands together, attracting the attention of the rest of the crew.
“Listen up, boys and girls!” Buck jumped up into a fallen trunk, where they could all see him. “Situation’s changed up top, and our lives are about to get a whole lot more interesting.”
Tanner frowned, looking around at the crew as they gathered around Buck. “Where’s Seth?”
“Didn’t make it,” Buck said curtly. “And if we’re all not going to go the same way, we’re going to have to move fast. So pay attention.”
Every eye fixed on him…except for Edith’s. She appeared to be totally focused on the pebble between her palms.
Buck scowled at her. “Am I boring you, Edith?”
“No, chief.” Edith didn’t raise her head. “I can either pay attention, or I can look at you and get distracted by every twitch of your face. I’m autistic.”
Buck hesitated fractionally. Then he grunted.
“Fair enough,” he said. “Okay, crew. Here’s what we’re going to do…”
* * *
“We have reached a new low,” Blaise announced out of the darkness. “This is awful.”
“I didn’t think anything could be worse than the brisket.” Joe’s voice drifted mournfully from further down the line. “I was mistaken. I just put peanut butter all over my so-called chicken noodles. I thought it was going to be hot sauce.”
“Did it improve the flavor?” Wystan asked hopefully, from somewhere over to Edith’s right.
“Not even slightly. Fenrir, what have you got over there?”
*Frog.* Muffled crunching sounds emanated from the hellhound’s direction. *Not sharing.*
Rory was a solid warmth against her side. His shoulder brushed against hers as he heaved a sigh.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Don’t tell me you’d actually prefer a raw frog.”