I woke with my cheek in the snow and an opaque, swirling blue dome all around me. Utterly drained, I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around at the small area, probably no bigger than thirty feet in diameter.
Gregor was lying on the ground not far from me, and there was a glowing black stone in the center. I got to my feet, laid a hand on it, and jerked back. It was it. This dome was acting as a field around it, containing it from the outside. But I was on the inside with it this time. How had I done that?
I moved over to Gregor, who was curled on his side. Everything he’d done had walked him into this position, and yet it was hard to see him right now, curled on his side, too weak to stand.
“You idiot. You chose them, and they didn’t even give a shit about you.”
I didn’t know if he’d taken a bad blow or what, but he wasn’t getting up. He wasn’t bleeding, but he looked like death on closer perusal.
I knelt down, putting a couple of fingers to his wrist to gauge how strong his pulse and magic were. Both were barely there.
“Gregor, what’s wrong with you?”
“I’ve got nothing left.” He turned onto his back, but it seemed to take everything he had, and there was still no sign of a visible wound. “They took all my magic. Every last drop.”
“During that… Whatever that chanting was?”
He nodded, but just slightly.
“Why am I okay, then? Why didn’t they take mine?”
“You’re too strong. They couldn’t.”
I should’ve hated the guy. On some level I still did, and yet it was hard to hate anyone enough to want to see them like this. After all, he’d believed in what he was doing, as I had. We just believed in something different. That shouldn’t have made us enemies, but it had.
“We’ll get you out of here. You can go to Rest.” I couldn’t jump puddles, but I’d go into hock to Hawk if need be. He’d have no reason not to help, since Gregor was effectively neutralized anyway.
He shook his head. “I won’t make it that long.”
I walked over to the opaque dome that enclosed us and laid my hands on it, trying to push through. It felt like pushing on the side of a mountain. I shoved harder, knowing it wouldn’t work.
I laid my hands on it again, this time feeling for its magical signature. There were too many to count. It was me, Belinda, Raydam, even it.
What kind of monstrosity had I made? I couldn’t get us out, not even to save Gregor’s life. I definitely wasn’t going to be able to save myself. I’d signed my own death warrant.
“Tippi,” Gregor called.
I went and knelt beside him again. “I’m working on it. I’ll come up with something.”
“Please, tell my father I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt him.”
“You’ll be…”
He shook his head, using the last of his strength to grab my hand. “I’m dead, Tippi. Just promise me you’ll tell him.”
“I will.” The image of Zark’s heart breaking as Gregor had left him at the bar was burned in my mind.
His hand went slack as his eyelids drooped. I settled down next to him, listening to the death rattle in his chest.
32
I’d tried every piece of magic I’d learned and more that I’d made up. Nothing worked. The only thing I could guess was that I’d hijacked the dome they’d been creating around me, and then somehow sucked it inside.
Too bad I didn’t have anyone to bounce my theory off. I wasn’t sure how many hours I’d been here, but Gregor’s body was cold. When I put my fingers to his wrist, there was no pulse. Worse, there wasn’t a tingle of magic either. Gregor was gone, and suddenly all I could think about were the laughs we’d had, like his death had swept clean his betrayal for the moment.
I grazed my hand over his, feeling utterly alone, only to be jerked to an awareness. There was a thundering sound on the other side of the dome prison. I jumped to my feet, heading toward the noise.
A clawed hand broke through the dome. I scrambled back to the other side. They were sending something in here to kill me. This was it. I’d need to fight my way past whatever monster was coming for me. Another claw broke through, before the head of a monster appeared, all teeth and horns, growling as it fought its way in.
I should attack it now, before it finished its entry, while it was still struggling. I didn’t have a weapon other than my magic, and it would have to be enough. I had to do it. Its waist was through. I had to attack before it freed its legs. I’d trained with Bautere for just this moment. If I didn’t use the skills now, there would never be another chance.
I leapt in the air, trying to angle myself so that I’d come down on top of its shoulders. I’d wrap my arms around its neck and choke it out.
I flew toward it, but the creature was too fast. It ducked, and I skimmed over it. I landed with a thump on the ground. I was dazed, but not from the fall. I looked down at my hand, the one that had grazed the creature, doubting what I’d felt.
I turned, staring at its fangs and roughened skin, and saw a familiar glimmer in the eyes.
“Hawk?”
It growled in response. Oh yeah, that was definitely Hawk. I got up, running over.
“What are you doing? You’ve got to get out of here. Go back the other way. You’ll get stuck.” I pushed on his shoulders, but there was no moving him where he didn’t want to go.
He continued to push his way in, finally dropping to the ground inside the dome in spite of me.
“Why did you do that? You idiot!”
The creature’s body was slowly morphing until the familiar form of Hawk was lying in the snow, completely naked. I definitely wasn’t dead yet, because I had a hard time not appreciating his form. He rolled to his back, not a shy bone in him.
I purposely kept my gaze on his chest and face.
Damn, it slipped lower. But whoa. He really didn’t have any reason to be shy.
Face. Stare at his face.
By the time my gaze did make it to his face, he’d raised a brow. I’d just gotten caught sneaking a peek.
“I was checking for injuries, you egomaniac,” I said.
“Sure you were,” he said, amusement oozing out.
“Why did you do that, anyway? Are you insane?”
“I couldn’t break you out. Nothing else worked but forcing my way in,” he said, still a bit winded from the effort. “The force is stronger going outward. This dome has a weird gravitational pull of some sort.”
“Then why? Now you’re stuck. You’ll die with me. There’s no way out of this.” I wanted to leap on top of his still-reclined form and pound on his chest for the stupidity.
“You’ll get us out,” he said with utter confidence.
“I couldn’t save myself or him,” I said, pointing to Gregor’s dead body.
Hawk looked to the body and then back at me. “I’m not worried.”
Of all the egomaniacal head trips. Of course Hawk would think I could move mountains for him alone. There were no bounds to his arrogance, even now.
“That’s why you came in here? You figured that I wouldn’t be able to save myself, but I’d save you? We’ve been at each other’s throats since I got back, and yet you think I’ll find the will to get you out?”
“Yes,” he said, as if it were a simple matter of fact.
“That’s insane. You tried to get me railroaded out of Xest. I couldn’t get a job or a place to live. You filled my position in a day.”
He laughed softly. “I knew something was bothering you that day when you wouldn’t tell me. I didn’t replace you. I hired someone to do a job.”
“My job. She took my place.” She even followed his every move the way I had, but he’d never get the satisfaction of hearing that from me. Not ever, not even on my deathbed, which I might be standing upon right now.
I spun, walked over to the wall, and pounded on it with both of my hands, wishing I could get out of here so I could get away from him.
�
�I wasn’t replacing you. I didn’t like seeing the empty chair where you used to sit. So I hired Bibbi. I wanted to fire her an hour after I did.”
I was a horrible person, because that warmed my heart completely. I turned. “You did? Why? She’s a hard worker.”
“It wasn’t her work. It was her. She wasn’t the person who was supposed to be sitting there.”
He had missed me. It didn’t make any of the things he’d done any better, but at least he’d paid a price of some sort. He’d wanted me back, and fast.
I took a few steps back toward him. “If you didn’t want me gone, why’d you force me out?”
He sat up a little straighter, definitely struggling more than I’d ever seen him. “Maybe I didn’t want you to end up right where you are now. And perhaps part of me was worried I’d end up right where I am as well.”
“Why aren’t you getting up? Why do you look like you’ve been here longer than I have?” I asked, not liking the wrenching feeling I was getting in my gut. Hawk was a man of action. He didn’t sit in times like these. He’d be up and moving around, trying to figure out a solution.
“There’s another slight problem on top of not having an easy exit.”
“Which is?”
He nodded toward the stone in the center as if he already knew exactly what it was. “I can feel it locked in here. There’s something about it that’s toxic to me on some level. It wasn’t as bad before, but in this enclosed space with it, I’m not going to make it very long.”
“Did you know that? Did you know it was in here?”
“I had my suspicions,” he said, still on the ground.
“And you came?” I asked, staring at him, trying to understand such a selfless act. He could’ve left this dome here with me inside and been done, problem solved.
“I had to. I couldn’t leave you to die.” He stared back at me as if I should’ve known that.
I felt a tingle build within me. This time I recognized the feeling. I’d felt something similar right before I kicked a dragon’s ass. All I had to do was look at Hawk, sitting there, looking drained, and it built from a tingle to a swell that washed over my body.
Hawk watched, nodding his encouragement, knowing exactly what was going to happen. If it had just been me, I would’ve died here. But I couldn’t let him die with me.
The magic was building all around me, and I knew if I let it rise even a tiny bit more, it was going to blow the cage I’d put it into as well. I was about to go supernova, and it would be out again, worse and angrier than ever, without a wall to contain it.
“Hawk…” His name came out slightly breathless, as most of my energy was being sucked up into the storm within.
His gaze was on me as I looked over at the cube and back to him. I could feel the magic churning all around and was barely containing it.
“Do it,” Hawk said, with zero hesitation.
Did he understand? “It’s going to—”
“Do. It.”
I let it go, and the dome shattered all around us, blowing outward like a million shards of glass. I stood untouched, the center of the storm as Hawk rolled to his side, shielding his face.
I’d barely gotten my bearings, looking up at the sky again, when I heard a rattling noise behind me.
“Get down,” Hawk yelled, right before he crashed into me, dragging me to the snow and landing on top of me. Another bomb exploded; a blast of burning air followed. A whoosh of malevolence spread out with it and leveled all the trees for a mile. A wave of dread came next as a howl filled the air and sent a shiver through me.
Hawk and I both scrambled to stand. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it swell above us like a tornado of malevolence. Hawk wrapped his hand around mine, trying to tug me behind him.
“Not this time,” I said, as I stepped in front of him instead.
He gave me a short nod, but didn’t let go of my hand. He wouldn’t fight me on taking the lead, but I wasn’t fighting alone.
I stood, feeling the anger of it all around, raging like a storm that wanted to tear down everything I was—and it couldn’t. It wasn’t capable. There was something about me that it couldn’t attack, just like before. Just like with the grouslies it had sent. Whatever it was, whatever I was, it couldn’t kill me. But it would kill Hawk to hurt me. If it wanted Hawk, it was going to have to come through me. I took another step toward where I felt it, letting the rage build in me.
The strange sound exploded in the air, something in between a howl of agony and an F5 tornado ready to drop upon us, before the sound and the wind was gone in an instant.
We were out, but so was it.
My shoulders slumped as I shoved my hand through my hair, twigs and leaves getting raked out as I did. I turned, looking at Hawk.
He nodded. We were both okay. We’d made it.
I looked around, surveying the damage to see Raydam, Belinda, and their small group lying dead in the snow not far from us.
“Did you kill them?” I tried not to sound too happy or relieved, even if I were both. Part of me still believed you shouldn’t wish anyone dead, but them being gone made my life a lot easier. When it came down to it, it was probably always going to be me or them in the end anyway.
“No,” he said. “I think you did.”
Me? My hands shook. It was disarming enough to see bodies lying lifeless. Knowing you’d been the one to make them like that? Whole other level.
“How?” I asked, walking toward them.
“When they involved you in whatever they were trying to accomplish, they opened themselves up to you. You had the stronger magic and will.”
The dome. I used the magic they’d been putting out to build it, and, I guess, a little more magic than they’d planned on giving.
“Come on. We should get out of here,” he said, his look mirroring the exhaustion I felt. We were both too weak right now to fend off another attack. It was time to go lick our wounds.
33
“There are forty-eight by my count,” Zab said, standing beside me the morning of my immigration meeting.
Zark, Gilli, and some of her employees from the Sweet Shop were here. Musso had even brought his wife, the one I’d never met, and they were currently on the other side of the group talking to Bibbi. All Zab’s friends from the Watering Hole had shown up. All the regulars from Zark’s had come, including Zark himself.
“Forty-nine will be here, but I’m still short one. Maybe they won’t notice?”
I’d slept almost a complete day, wasting any chance to scrounge up another person to stand up for me. After everything I’d gone through, to get kicked out for one person?
Zab glanced around again. “While you were sleeping, I told Hawk. You weren’t waking up, and it had to be done. He said he’s coming. Had been planning on it.” He took a step away from me. “Don’t hurt me.”
“The only thing I want to do is hug you right now,” I said, refusing to get emotional and start crying like a big ninny.
I’d have the references for immigration. Hopefully they wouldn’t blame me for wrecking a huge chunk of the Unsettled Lands. If I did get the heat for what was happening, no amount of witnesses was going to help.
“Who are you missing, then?” Zab asked.
“Don’t worry. He’ll be here.”
The crowd went quiet as Bautere stepped through the trees. He stopped ten feet shy of the crowds, located me, and gave a nod.
“That’s your forty-nine?” Zab asked. “What did you have to barter to get him to come?”
I smiled. “Nothing. He offered.”
Oscar whistled as he walked over. “I have to say, Tippi, you do keep things interesting.”
“I do my best,” I said. Where was Hawk, though? This was it. Maybe this was his plan to get rid of me. It was going to be just like before. I’d start trusting him, think I’d been all wrong about him, and then he’d pull the rug out from under me.
“You looking for Hawk? He’ll show,” Oscar said. “Now
stop scanning the horizon. You don’t want the hags to see you getting crazy when they arrive. Need to portray confidence.”
Easier said than done, but I straightened my shoulders and tried to put a good face on it.
Oscar squinted, staring at my head. “When did that start?”
“Not sure,” I said, tucking some hair behind my ear. The streaks had grown substantially since the dome. There would be no missing them now.
As I continued to scan the perimeter, my eyes kept getting drawn back to Zark. There wasn’t going to be a good time for this conversation, so I was better off getting it done.
“Give me a second. I’ve got to go talk to Zark.” I walked away from Zab and Oscar.
Zark parted with his company, as if he had a sense I needed a private moment with him.
I tucked my hands in my pockets as I stood in front of him. “Thanks for coming after everything that’s happened.”
“I said I would,” he responded in a gruffer-than-normal tone.
“I’m sorry about your boy. I’m guessing you already know what happened?” I asked. Word spread fast in Xest, and I’d slept an entire day away.
He nodded. I’d never seen Zark too choked up for words, but he was struggling to talk. “Hawk came by and explained what went down.”
“I was there at the end,” I said, hoping this part wouldn’t be a surprise. When he didn’t say anything, I continued, “Gregor wanted you to know he was sorry for hurting you. I wanted you to know he tried to save me in the end. He turned on them at the last moment. That’s how he ended up trapped in the dome with me.”
Zark’s chin lifted. “He did?” Zark dragged in a shuddering breath.
“He died a hero.” It was a fat lie, but at least he’d be able to hold his head up with his buddies. It was all I could give him.
With a whoosh of air, the hags’ building appeared and all conversations fell silent.
“I’ve got to go,” I said.
“Thank you.”
I gave Zark a wave, hurrying over to where Lead Hag was already stepping outside of the building. Zab was waving me over, telling me to hurry up.
The Nowhere Witch (Tales of Xest Book 2) Page 20