by Kristie Cook
Sheree stared at us, her brows raised so high, her forehead crinkled. “Wow. Guess you did learn something. When your parents took you there, they said they’d only been there a few days, but when they came back, a month had passed here. That was part of the problem—it had appeared as though they fled, making them look guiltier. Your mom and dad did their best to keep the factions calm, but then the Loft was raided along with other Amadis strongholds around the world, and they knew they had to find help. So here we are.”
“Not for long,” came a deep voice with a Scottish accent, as the rusty metal door slid open with an ear-piercing screech. Uncle Aidan strode in. As if the space wasn’t already small, he filled it completely. His bright blue gaze first went to Sheree. “Are we packed?”
“Just about,” she said.
Aidan looked at us, crossing his thick arms over his barrel chest and shaking his head. “Don’t know if I’m glad to see you lasses or if I want to strangle ya.”
Then he opened his arms, and we each took a turn giving him a quick hug.
“You’ll notify Noah?” Sheree asked as she shouldered the backpack and handed Aidan the duffle bag.
“Aye. I will. Tell the girls where to meet.” He turned to us. “You lasses have weapons?” We all nodded. “Be vigilant.” With a quick kiss to her cheek and a wave to us, Aidan left out the door again.
“What’s going on?” I asked, sensing the tension as Sheree slid the door closed.
When she spoke, she dropped her voice to a near whisper. “We have to leave, but we can’t go together. You three need to get out of town A.S.A.P. Nobody can know you’re here or all hell will break loose. If Gertie hadn’t gotten that message to Aidan in time, who knows where you three would be right now. Shamara may have fled the town and hasn’t been seen here since, but for all intents and purposes, this town belongs to her. She’ll find out you’re here, and tonight is not the night we’ll be starting a war. Too many powerful beings want to use you or kill you, and too many others have already died to protect you.”
The mention of Shamara made the beast inside me stir, but the guilt Sheree had just laid down tempered the anger.
“Won’t they already know, though, since you helped us in the alley?” Brielle asked, her voice quiet and filled with concern.
“How do they even let you live here?” I asked. “Surely there’s still someone here from that night who know you’re part of Mom’s guard.”
“With a few memory adjustments by a warlock. We’ve been here right under everyone’s noses for about a year, spying. Until today, we hadn’t ever shifted in town, so nobody knew what kind of shifters we are. But a gargoyle and a tiger—there’s a warrant out for those two. And helping three young women with your descriptions? Dead giveaway. So yeah, they know, which is why we can’t go together.” Sheree shrugged. “It’s fine. I hate it here anyway. We’ll meet up with Noah, your parents will return, Jax will heal, and everything will be okay.”
She gave us a weak smile. She believed everything would be okay about as much as I did—not at all.
“But first you need to glamour yourselves,” she continued. “Make yourselves look like fae. The light and dark are harder to distinguish from each other and apparently there’s so much intermixing of their blood, as much as they try to deny it, that you won’t seem off. They won’t sense your true identities. And glamour Charleigh.”
“I can just cloak us,” Charleigh said. “You, too. Nobody has to see anything.”
Sheree shook her head. “Aidan’s already started a rumor about our departure. I need people to see me leaving. We’ll meet up in two days across the river.”
She told us where and the best way to slip out of town. Following her instructions, Brielle and I made us all look fae with pointy ears, upturned eyes, and colored hair—Brielle’s lilac, Charleigh’s silver, and mine teal—and then we waited twenty minutes after Sheree departed before leaving ourselves.
We followed a different route out of town than how we’d come in, and my gut tightened as I realized where exactly it would take us. We hadn’t made it to the far side of Market Square earlier—to the place where we’d been when all hell broke loose last time. As we approached it, the memory came clear as day, and now the emotions nearly swallowed me whole.
For a moment, I felt a false sense of joy as I was lost in the memory, but it immediately drained away. Anger replaced it as Dani’s screams from that night echoed in my ears and the vision of her papa lying unnaturally still as blood poured from his eyes and ears flashed across my mind. Then the anger was pushed aside by the overwhelming need to kill that fucking demon-bitch Shamara. She’d destroyed everything. Sure, my mother played a part in it all, but it came down to Shamara. Because of her, I’d lost Dani forever.
I kept my head lowered, watching the ground as we walked down the road where Dani used to live. I couldn’t block the echoes of her screams, though, and I knew the moment I passed Papa Miguel’s door. I didn’t look that way, though, but something had me looking to my left and up. To the roof of the four-story brick building left over from the Before time, as though I expected to see something there, though I knew not what. And of course, there was nothing.
At first, as we neared the gate to leave this godforsaken town that I hoped to never have to return to again, I thought the flood of memories was responsible for the stench of brimstone and sulfur. But when I glanced to my right, I realized the odor was very real. Just inside the town’s walls gathered a group of demons, not even in human suits, but in their natural form—seven or so feet tall with mottled, oily skin, leathery bat-like wings, horned heads, and hooved feet. As though they were one, they all turned to glare at us. Could they see through our glamour? Could anyone else see them? Surely not. Sheree said norms took Shamara’s side. They couldn’t possibly believe she was on the right side if they could see her demons like this. If they knew the truth.
My fists clenched at my sides as I talked my beast down from the overwhelming urge to slaughter them all. Like Sheree said, this was not the night to start a war.
Just before we passed through the gate, a smaller figure in the middle of their group shifted and turned our way. And I let out a string of profanity while Brielle grabbed my arm and yanked me out of town.
“That was Dani,” I hissed. “We have to help her.”
Chapter 5
Brielle refused to release my arm no matter how hard I tried to break free, and unfortunately, our strengths were matched. Charleigh threatened to use her magic to bind me if I didn’t settle down. It was just like that night, when Uncle Owen had bound me after I’d head-butted Aunt Vanessa. Once again, I felt like we were betraying Dani, leaving her with those who would eventually devour her soul.
“We have to go back and get her,” I insisted as they dragged me away from the town’s gates and into the surrounding forest.
“We have to get as far away from there as possible,” Brielle said, her grip on me tightening as her pace quickened, pulling me along.
“She’s in this mess because of us,” I reminded my sister. “I left her last time when she needed me most. I owe it to her!”
“Elliana, you heard Aunt Sheree,” she said.
“I’m not sure I believe everything Aunt Sheree told us,” I muttered. “Or, at least, she didn’t tell us everything. Like how Dani is being held captive by Shamara!”
“We don’t know that’s the case,” Charleigh said. “Or that Sheree or Aidan knew about it. Maybe they just brought her in.” She paused, then added, “Sheree did seem off, though.”
“Exactly,” I said.
Brielle sighed. “I noticed it, too.”
We’d already traveled a mile out of town, weaving our way through the woods that bordered the wide river. After another fifteen minutes or so, I eventually slowed my pace, forcing Brielle to slow, too.
“Elli,” she warned.
“Just listen to me for a minute.”
Before I could go on, a stick snapped nearby,
and we all fell silent and still, listening and sensing. Something was out there. Had it been following us? The three of us exchanged a look, then I spun in the direction of the sound. A looming, dark figure strode toward us on four legs. Some kind of beast. I called on the fire within me, and a flame arose in my outstretched palm, illuminating the area better. A large, black wolf bared its long, sharp teeth as it growled, crouching lower to the ground with red eyes glaring at us. Daemoni. Shit. Did it know we were us? Or did it see three fae? Fae were powerful and drew on the elements, so I hadn’t given us away with the fire. But were fae strong enough to defeat a Daemoni shifter? Maybe three would be, and we weren’t fae anyway. They used to call us the Triple Threat for a reason. We could easily take this beast on. The wolf stalked closer, and I threw a ball of flames at it. The werewolf yelped and fell back, but then sprang at us.
Charleigh blasted a spell, but the wolf dove down, avoiding it and hitting the ground in a low crouch. A purplish-silver bolt of electricity jagged through the air as Brielle shocked the beast, and the stench of burning fur filled the air. She held both palms out, one paralyzing the creature while the other continued to shock it. The sound of running footsteps came from all directions, and I swore under my breath. We should have known the wolf wasn’t alone. They tended to travel in packs. While we might have been able to take them all on, depending on how many there were, we could also reveal our true identities.
I didn’t wait for Brielle to flip through the options of drawing weapons and fighting or making a run for it. Taking the matter into my own hands—literally—I grew a larger fireball between my palms and shoved it at the wolf, surrounding it in a wall of flames, then yelled, “Run!”
We took off in a sprint as the other footsteps closed in on us, steering clear of an encampment to the west, dodging around the trees, and hurdling fallen logs until we found a large boulder. As we darted behind it and fell to our knees, Charleigh threw a cloak over us. Though the spell would muffle us, too, we remained silent as we squatted behind the rock, listening and waiting.
A moment later, a blur fell from the sky, landing on four legs and startling us all.
“Sasha,” Charleigh breathed.
“It’s okay, girl.” Brielle reached out to try to soothe her, knowing she’d give us away, but the lykora seemed to disagree. The little white dog grew to the size of a wolf, her black tiger stripes and wings on full display. She flew off before we could stop her.
“That was a fucking Daemoni wolf pack,” Charleigh hissed. “If they see Sasha, they’ll know who we are.”
“We should keep moving,” Brielle whispered.
Several wolfish yelps sounded in succession, and a moment later, Sasha strode toward us, her muzzle stained red. The three of us blew out a collective breath of relief. Seeing through Charleigh’s cloak, she rejoined us, shrinking back into her toy-dog form, the blood disappearing.
“Good girl,” I praised as I stroked her soft fur. As Amadis and Earth’s Angels, we weren’t supposed to kill unless there was no hope for the other’s soul or it was a matter of life or death for us. I didn’t know about those werewolves’ souls, and I didn’t know if it was really a situation of our lives or theirs, because the Daemoni had other plans for us. But I didn’t care. They were dead. My sister and cousin were safe.
“Let’s get out of here,” Brielle said.
“No, wait.” I grabbed her arm with a tight grip as she’d done with me earlier. “We need to go back to the Edge.”
“Are you crazy?” she snapped. “We could have been caught just now. It’s even more dangerous there.”
“That wolf didn’t recognize us. If it had, it wouldn’t have attacked. It would have waited for its pack to surround us and take us in. You know the Daemoni wouldn’t kill us. Not right away.”
“So?”
“So they won’t recognize us in Misery’s Edge, either. Especially if we go in cloaked. We can listen and see if we can find out anything about our parents.”
“Aunt Sheree said they’re in Faery,” Brielle argued.
“As far as she knows,” I hissed. “But nobody’s heard from them in three years, Brie. Three years! Do you really think Mom would let that much time go by without checking in on her people and this world? On us? That Aunt Blossom would make Uncle Jax wait that long?”
“No way,” Charleigh whispered. “She’d go crazy wondering if he was still alive.”
“Exactly.” I nodded. “And they would know a lot of time has passed in this realm. They’re not stupid. So either they’re being held against their will, or they did come back and the demons have them. Or … worse.” I choked out the last word. “Until the end, Brielle. That’s our promise to each other and Mom and Dad. It is not yet the end. We can’t turn our backs on them!”
Brielle gnawed on her lip, blinking rapidly. I thought my words might have hit their mark. Our parents used to always tell us they’d love us until the end of always and forever—and they’d fight for us just as long. It had become our family motto, so to speak. My words definitely hit their mark with Charleigh. She looked away, her shoulders curling inward. Maybe I should have felt guilty for making them worry or for manipulating them, but I didn’t. We could had potentially worse issues to deal with.
“Let’s go back and do our own spying,” I continued. “We can be cloaked, unlike Aunt Sheree and Uncle Aidan, and get closer to the enemy.”
“You just want to save Dani,” Brielle said.
“I do, but that’s not the only reason. What if they have our parents, too? Or they at least know where they are?”
My twin seemed to be considering the idea more. I glanced at Charleigh, and she gave me a slight nod. She was in. We just had to convince Brielle.
“It’s too dangerous,” she finally said. “We’ll meet up with everyone in two days and find out more. Noah might have other information, and he can send a whole team in to extract Dani.”
I suppressed a growl. “She could be dead by then. Or become some demon’s meat suit.”
“How do you know she’s not already?” Brielle leveled me with her weirdly violet gaze, glamoured from her normal dark brown.
A lump formed in my throat. If she expected that to dissuade me, she was dead wrong. If anything, it only made the need to go back stronger. I had to at least know if that was still my Dani or if she was already long gone.
“Why don’t we find a place to camp for the night?” Charleigh suggested. “We can discuss it more and decide. It’s probably not safe to do anything at night anyway, when those who want us most will be out in bigger numbers.”
We stared at my sister for a long moment before she finally let out a harsh breath and nodded in agreement.
“There was a camp about a quarter mile back, right on the river,” I said.
“We should probably stay away from anyone,” Brielle said.
“We’re glamoured. And who knows what we might learn?”
“I agree,” Charleigh said. “Even if it’s nothing about our parents, this world has changed a lot while we were gone. We need to know as much as possible, so we don’t come across as complete morons and give ourselves away.”
So we headed back toward the camp. It was more like a tent city, a permanent settlement, it appeared, where travelers came and went as needed. With no factories to produce materials for proper rebuilding of the infrastructure and housing, many people still lived a vagabond type life, scrounging for goods to repurpose and use or to trade so they could live another day or week or month. The contrast of this world to the shiny once again was pronounced. The people in that other world have no idea just how good they have it.
Expecting to return to the Loft, we didn’t pack anything like a tent or bedroll. Just the clothes on our backs and in our backpacks. We stopped on the edge of the camp, claiming a spot and discussing what we could possibly trade for food and something to sleep in—or at least on. Sasha sniffed around the area, drifting away.
“Well, aren’t you the
cutest thing?” The female voice sounded vaguely familiar, and I glanced over my shoulder to see a young woman about our age squatting in front of Sasha and petting the white dog. Her hair was in braids and dreadlocks, and I recognized her from the market earlier. “I think I saw you in the forest before. Did you find your humans?”
I shot to my feet and spun to face her. I still couldn’t get a read on what she was. She appeared to be human, but something told me she wasn’t. I would have smelled wolf on her if she was one of the shifters, but I didn’t. She was either a mage, who could easily pass for human, or a glamoured fae. At the stall this afternoon, she’d spoken like a mage, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“Oh, hey,” she said, offering me a smile. She gripped her bow in one hand, and a quiver of arrows hung on her back. Two dead rabbits swung on a rope from her belt on one hip and a knife on the other. “Cute dog.”
She didn’t seem to recognize us from earlier, which meant she couldn’t see through our glamour.
“Are you camping here?” she asked when I didn’t reply. She peered over my shoulder where Charleigh and Brie sat on the ground.
“I don’t think that’s any of your concern,” I said, still trying to get a feel on her.
She shrugged. “I was here last night and made this my spot.” My hackles rose, my own weapons feeling quite noticeable all of a sudden, but she hurried on. “I was going to say there’s plenty of room for all of us, and strength in numbers and all that.”
“If you can trust the people who make up those numbers,” I muttered.
“Let’s start with names. I’m Skylar.” She lifted the two rabbits hanging on her hip. “And I have dinner.”
Ugh. It was a far cry from cheeseburgers and fries, but we were all starving. We’d brought a few treats from the shiny world, but it wasn’t like we could pull them out in front of other people. We’d have no way to answer the questions that would surely bombard us. Claiming to have found a hidden stash somewhere while scavenging wouldn’t have made sense. The food would have been inedible, hard as rocks.