by Ellie Margot
Riette landed with a thud, and she leaned back on her elbows before forcing herself up and wiping the dirt from off of her cheek with the back of her hand. She turned and stood, watching the insect struggle. It looked up at her with its good eye, colored yellow and squinting from the pain.
Riette walked closer to it, with chaos going on around her, and after a quick check to make sure Cassian and Mekhi were still upright, she knew she had to end the insect before it toyed with her again because it wasn’t smart enough to stay down.
“Say goodbye to the world.”
“Fuck you,” it spat. The green acid blood dripped from its wounds.
“That works too,” Riette said, and she pulled the strings inside of her. The tattoo burned as she forced the energy into her hands. She punched the throat of the beast, and the force of it, the magnitude, exploded his neck into a flurry of green goo and gray matter.
Riette saw the green acid spray, and some got onto her leg. She ripped part of the thing’s clothes and wiped at it, only getting one swipe before the acid transferred to the cloth and burned it away.
Riette turned and saw Cassian still struggling. They were fighting the old-fashioned way, and Cassian was strong, but the connection they’d had before had done something to him.
Quickly, Riette ran to the impaled veined woman. Kicking the body to its side, she pulled the sword from the body. The heavy sword shimmered before the magic went away, and it looked like metal again.
She swung it in her hands and raced to where Cassian struggled. Barely able to heft the thing, Riette lifted it into the air. Sam yelled behind her, but she didn’t listen to what the Mage said. Then, the sword fell to the earth with more force than Riette could have channeled, shimmering again before running down the back of the man in front of Cassian.
It narrowly missed Cassian’s hands in the travel but took the skin off the man’s back with it as it fell to the floor. He yelled, screaming as the red flesh of his back was exposed. The wound that took the length of his body sizzled as if he was burning, too, and he fell to his knees before slumping forward.
“Holy shit,” Riette said. She pulled the sword back, and Cassian stumbled away a few steps with his eyes not leaving what was left of the man in front of him.
Blood ran freely from the man’s wound, but he didn’t speak anymore or couldn’t. He had lost too much of what was vital to him. His innards had been compromised by the sword and the power that it held.
Cassian found Riette’s eyes over the carnage that lay between them. His eyes were wide, and Riette took a second to realize that her face was pulled into a smile.
She was scared of what she was becoming, but there was a part of her that surely wasn’t.
Cassian got close to Riette, and he touched her face. He didn’t have the same expression that he normally had when he looked at her, and that took the smile off her face.
She didn’t linger with him. She had to make sure Mekhi was secure. When her eyes found him, he had cuts on his arms, and his skin was bloody. He was still in a struggle with another goon, but Riette prayed all the blood she saw across his arms didn’t belong to him.
She ran from Cassian, but he was close behind her.
The man Mekhi was fighting with, the one who was more muscles than anything else, turned when he heard Riette. He did a quick check of the floor, and Riette saw the instant he recognized that only two of their side remained, outside of Sam.
The man swallowed and turned back to make contact, with Mekhi’s fist finding his face. He fell to the floor, and Mekhi bounced on the balls of his feet again. He, like Riette, looked energized, but his eyes kept flitting back to where Corin still sat, slumped and unmoving beyond the rise and fall of her chest.
“Are you okay?” Cassian asked Mekhi.
“Where’s Guy?”
All three turned to see him standing on the outskirts. He was still near Sam, and his arm was bloody.
“There,” Riette said, but no one noticed the muscled man getting back to his feet.
What was Guy doing? Who did he fight?
Cassian touched Riette’s arm. When Riette looked at him, Cassian shook his head again. They both knew something was up. Something was wrong with what they were seeing versus what they knew to be true.
“Ri—”
Mekhi’s voice was cut off by his windpipe constricting. The muscled man had him in a chokehold.
“Let him go,” Riette barked.
“And have no reason for you not to kill me too?” he asked. “Not a chance.”
Riette turned to Cassian. They could do this. They could handle him. She wasn’t going to lose her cousin. She couldn’t. She’d burn that whole place to the ground before she let that happen.
“It looks like we’re at an impasse,” said Sam.
“Coming out of your hidey hole?” Riette asked, her disdain coloring her words.
“I don’t fight battles my people can fight for me.”
“Sounds cowardly to me.”
“No, it sounds like I know the leader I am, and I save my fights for the ones only I can win.”
“So you must not fight at all,” Riette said. She knew she shouldn’t mess with Sam, not until she had a full plan to beat her, but she couldn’t take the smugness on her face. Even if it mirrored her own.
“What should I do, Samantha?” asked the muscled man. He gripped Mekhi tighter.
Mekhi pulled against the arm holding him, but the strength he’d used to keep the man off so long was now weakening. He couldn’t fight that fight anymore.
“Don’t let him go,” Sam said, not taking her eyes off of Riette.
“Wrong answer,” said Riette, and she shook her head once. The tattoo continued to burn on her shoulder.
The man who was taller than all of the rest still stood by Sam’s side. Riette had thought he would be the first one she’d have to fight, but it looked like his job was to keep Sam safe and to kill them second.
Riette bit her lip. She pushed her hair from her face and put her hands back by her side, one slightly behind her back. The flames flicked to life, a soft ticking that hovered just inches above her skin. It was a blue light, barely visible.
“Move—” Sam started, but her words were stopped when the fireball left Riette’s hands.
Riette had turned, shooting the concentrated energy from her fingertips. It had jetted out to one location, the head of the man who still had his grip on Mekhi. One second, he was turned to listen to Sam, and in the next, there was a burned stub where his head once resided.
“Shit,” said Sam, but it was quiet, as was everything and everyone.
Mekhi fell to the floor with the body that still loosely held him. He shrugged off the corpse, and the blood covered his hair, his back, and his clothes. Wiping off what he could, he stood again, let out a deep breath, and moved to be near the others.
They stood in a line, with Riette at its center. Each breath was labored, but at least they were still breathing.
The man who guarded Sam said nothing, but Riette saw his hands gripped like fists by his side. He took a step, just one, and Riette let the flames roar to life in both hands.
She tilted her head, waiting. The wind Cassian summoned came back, soft but present.
The man lifted his own hand, and Riette knew something was about to begin.
Chapter 33
“No, Damien,” Sam said. Her hand grabbed his wrist from where she stood slightly behind him.
Damien looked back. There was a set to his jaw, and his eyes seemed to glow. A beat passed between the two of them. Words they never said out loud were being communicated, and Riette watched it occur.
Damien put his hand down. The swirling in his eyes stopped. His hands went back to his sides, and Sam slightly nodded her head before facing them. She glanced quickly at Guy, who stood on the side between the two groups.
There were a few other people still in the bar, some who had stayed to watch the carnage, too paralyzed by fear to m
ove or too blood hungry to miss fresh blood being spilt.
Guy looked at the floor before meeting Riette’s eyes from where he stood. Riette’s brows were pinched. She asked questions her lips couldn’t say, not with Sam watching, but Guy looked away, his hand finding the back of his neck.
He looked like he had been in a fight, too, but it wasn’t anything that Riette had seen. She turned away from him and kept an eye on the enemy in front of her.
Sam raised her hands and slowly clapped. The sound echoed in the space that could hold so much more than it was. Riette realized with a start that there were others of Sam’s group still sitting. They didn’t look upset, or moved at all, but Riette caught their eyes glancing toward the bodies that surrounded her, seemingly on all sides by this point. They were shook, whether or not they showed it.
The clapping stopped.
“That was...” Sam’s words boomed in the small space, but she didn’t finish. She shook her head, and a small smile curved her lips. “Were you always like this?”
Riette didn’t speak, and Sam continued.
“Is it because of who you are, or have you always been this special?”
Cassian touched Riette’s elbow. He shook his head once.
“We came for Corin, and we’re not leaving without her,” he said.
Mekhi cracked his knuckles. Riette saw that his jaw looked slightly out of alignment, and there was blood matting his dark red hair, slicking it to the back of his head and the sides.
Sam stuck her hand out, and Damien took it. She left the cover of the tables and the booth seating where she had been to enter the floor. The click of Sam’s tall, black, high-heel boots meeting the floor was all Riette could hear. She moved around the bodies of the people on her side like they were trash in the way but paused when her eyes found the veined woman.
When she looked up at Riette again, an expression Riette couldn’t put her finger on passed her face before she righted it. Sam’s blonde hair had been pulled back in a ponytail high above her head, but she took it down and shook her hair loose.
“Do you know what Elves are for?” Sam asked. She didn’t look anywhere but at Riette. No one else existed.
“We don’t exist for any purpose you could imagine,” said Riette. She steadied her voice, and it sounded as detached as she had wanted it to be.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Elves have a purpose. You have a purpose.” Sam paused, considering. “You’ve never met a Mage before.”
“I’ve met your type before,” Riette said.
“My type?” Sam asked, with a short laugh that followed.
“Women who think they’re everything and fight hard to have everyone believe it.”
“No, they’re playing pretend,” Sam said. “I am what they’re trying to be. There’s a difference.”
“There are people who think they’re the shit and people who know they are. The difference being that there the second doesn’t need to talk about it.”
Sam laughed again. She looked back at Damien. “I like her.”
Damien smirked.
“Too bad for you, I don’t give a fuck what you’d like.”
“Now, how is that a way to start our relationship?”
Riette stepped forward. Cassian tried to grab her, but she looked behind her and widened her eyes before turning back.
“We don’t have a relationship. We have a standoff. I want Corin. I don’t want to bullshit with you anymore. Enough blood has been spilled, and there’s been enough time wasted, don’t you think?”
“Elves are power sources. They could make Mages stronger. Hell, they make anything that needs juice stronger. I’ve had street Elves, ones with the trickle amount of patheticness they have as powers, not the real thing. You’re a drug in a pretty package, darling.” Sam took another step. “You’re a walking, talking, fucking pill that could make me stronger than I’ve ever been.”
“Fuck you,” said Riette as she shook her head. “We don’t exist for you.”
“You exist to make others stronger. Take it as a compliment. At least you have a purpose. At least you can be used and one can capitalize on that.”
“I have my own powers,” said Riette. “We all do.”
“No, you have something else. I saw you. I watched you. The things I could do—”
“You would die trying.”
“But what a way to go,” Sam said, and her voice went soft as her eyes went big. She looked up at the ceiling and laughed a short laugh again. “What I would do with you, Riette of Vitan.” Sam snapped her fingers. “Guy.”
Guy looked up at her. He had been watching both of them. Riette had seen his attention volleying back and forth.
“Has our friend been honest with you?” Sam asked.
Riette and the others looked to Guy.
“What have you done?” asked Mekhi. He looked at Guy and then returned his eyes to Corin. “What else?”
“I never wanted your girlfriend, your sister. She’s a fire-wielder, a normal one. Since Guy brought her to me, I have been anticipating this moment. Playing around with her has been intoxicating, but you? Your amplified powers would amplify me. The amount of power she could provide wouldn’t last a week before I used her up—”
Mekhi yelled something that was more feeling than words before charging at Sam, but thankfully, Cassian grabbed him before he could make it close enough to do anything he was thinking. Mekhi’s arms twisted behind his back.
Damien had made a grunt of his own at Mekhi’s threat. Riette knew they were together in some way. What Damien was, however, was something she didn’t know.
“I don’t need her,” Sam said. “I never did. She was practice for the real thing.”
“Then why do all of this?” Riette asked.
“For you,” Sam said, and her voice was small. “All of it was for you.”
Riette turned to Guy. “You knew?”
Guy swallowed. “No—”
“He didn’t know my plans, but to not be able to guess them was willful ignorance on his part. He knew I needed a fire-power, and now that all of you are here, I’m just considering it my fucking birthday.”
“You gave her to this fucking monster?” asked Mekhi.
“You knew she was traded. You knew she was gone.”
“For what?” asked Cassian. “What was worth my sister’s life?”
Sam smiled. “This isn’t the time.” She turned back to Riette. “We have a score to settle.”
“What have you done with her?” asked Riette.
“Nothing. She talked too much. It bothered Damien. I used some of her powers and then put her under. She’s fine.”
“She doesn’t look fine,” said Mekhi.
“Ask around. If I wanted to use her up, you wouldn’t have recognized her when I was finished. Nothing short of a miracle would have put her back together.” Sam took one step forward, staring at each of them before landing back on Riette. She tsked. “I took care of her. For you. I didn’t mess with her.”
“You used her power,” said Mekhi.
“What power? Most Elves aren’t worth the matter they’re made of. Not after… I told myself I wouldn’t do this.” She looked at Riette and took a breath. “Most of you aren’t worth shit, but you’re something special, Riette.”
“Don’t talk to me like you know me,” said Riette.
“I do. I’ve seen you work. I’ve seen what you can do now, and it’s more than Corin even said.”
“Corin would never tell you anything,” Cassian said.
Sam just smiled, looking down and then back up at them. “Think about it. You and me, in power.”
“So you can destroy me and do what?”
“I wouldn’t destroy you,” said Sam. She didn’t smile. She didn’t even look like she was breathing. “It would be me and you.”
Riette turned toward Cassian and Mekhi. Cassian had released Mekhi, but he was tense, his shoulders hunched and his eyes still red.
Riette tur
ned back. “Give me a minute.”
Sam looked at Damien and then back at them. “One.”
Chapter 34
“Riette, your eyes,” said Cassian. He swore under his breath and clenched his jaw.
Riette felt the energy ticking inside of her, clicking and popping with a sickness only the sea had brought out of her. She was leaning toward the edges of her control. She was not a weapon but the one who wielded them. Riette was not a tool. She was a storm all her own.
Mekhi spoke. “We could take them.”
Riette shook her head. “Whatever power Damien has isn’t something we’d want to face. Not right now.”
“You could blow his shit up,” said Mekhi, his words fast.
“How I feel right now, I could blow up the fucking world, but that doesn’t serve us. That wouldn’t bring Corin home.”
“She better be fucking okay,” said Mekhi. “I swear—”
“She is,” Cassian said. “Sam has no reason to lie.” He looked back at Riette. “Not when she wants Riette like she does.”
Riette nodded. “Then we pretend like she has me.”
All of their voices were quiet. A quick glance showed Riette that Guy still stood alone, staring at the floor as if it could swallow him whole. The others were still by Sam, not moving. Watching them. Watching Riette.
Sam was speaking quietly to Damien. They didn’t notice anything but each other.
“That’s suicide,” said Cassian. “We didn’t come this far—”
“Exactly. She needs me. She said it herself.” Riette took a breath. “She never wanted Corin. Corin was bait. She did this all to get me here. Now, I’m here. She’s not going to hurt me.”
“She sent her fucking minions after us,” Cassian said. “They tried to kill all of us.”
“He’s right,” Mekhi said. “She’s fucked in the head. She wanted us all dead.”
“No, she wanted me to put on a show, and I did. I fell for her shit, but it’s not going to happen again. She needs me to go with her. If I act like I am, she’ll fall for it. She wants me too much.”
“I can’t lose you,” said Cassian. “I won’t.”