by Jocelyn Fox
Ramel looked at Molly. His movements reminded Tess of Arcana, like a puppet with a particularly skilled master, an imitation of living movement. “Telling them will not save you. Or him.” A smirk twisted Ramel’s mouth.
“Then it might save them,” flared Molly hotly. “And you won’t get away with this.”
A chill slipped down Tess’s spine as she recognized Mab using Ramel’s voice.
“You thought you were so smart, little mutt,” said Mab to Molly. “And it was a very good try, but you forget that I have centuries more experience in playing this game than you.” Shadows flickered across Ramel’s face, creating a sketch of Mab’s features.
“And what game is that?” demanded Molly. “Screwing over your loyal subjects?”
“Loyal,” sneered Mab. “That is not exactly a word that I would use for either of you.”
“Oh, that’s right…why would I owe any loyalty to the person who wiped my memory when she unbound my Fae half?” Molly’s cat-like eyes glowed with rage.
“So self-centered,” murmured Mab with a deadly smile. “And yet I have control of your…lover.” She said the last word disdainfully.
“This isn’t going to end well,” said Calliea under her breath.
“He’s your eyes and ears,” spat Molly. “You’re not going to give that up.”
“No…but I am quite skilled in inflicting pain.” The shadow reflection of Mab’s face faded, and for a quick moment it was Ramel, the real Ramel, looking at Molly.
“I won’t stop fighting,” he said in a strained voice.
“Neither will I,” she replied, flying into his arms and kissing him fiercely.
Calliea winced at the display of affection but then leapt forward and pulled Molly away as Ramel went rigid.
What can I do? Tess asked the Caedbranr desperately as tremors began to travel through Ramel’s body.
“No,” Molly moaned in protest as a choked sound of pain escaped him. Calliea held her back with a none too gentle grip on her arm.
You could kill him, replied the Sword with a practical air.
That isn’t an option, snapped Tess angrily. She watched helplessly as blood trickled down Ramel’s chin. Wisps of dark smoke curled from the black breastplate.
Quick as a striking snake, Jess landed a perfect right hook to Ramel’s jaw. The Unseelie knight’s eyes rolled back and his body went limp. Jess grunted as he caught him, sliding him down to sit against the wall.
Or you could do that, commented the Sword with something like amusement in its voice.
If you’re not going to be helpful, you can just be quiet, Tess replied, reaching her limit of patience with the sentient weapon. He taught me to hold a sword before I was anything but a mortal girl dragged into Queen Mab’s Court as repayment of an honor debt. He was my first introduction to the Fae world when I was just a child.
“Well, this is all a bit dramatic for my taste,” commented Calliea as Molly knelt by Ramel’s side, smoothing his hair back from his forehead.
Tess sighed. “Any more dramatic than leading an expedition into the mortal world to rescue our lovers?”
“Technically we’re here to kill the bone sorcerer,” Calliea pointed out as she recoiled her whip and clipped it back to her belt. “So now the question on everyone’s minds…what do we do with him?” She motioned to the unconscious Ramel.
“The bond between Mab and Finnead was broken when Finnead drowned,” Tess said. “She had to let him go before she was dragged down with him.”
“That was probably a one in a million kind of chance,” said Jess. “She might have gotten smarter since then.”
“How? Place some sort of invincibility spell on her Three? We already know that isn’t the case, or else you wouldn’t have been able to lay him out like that.”
Jess rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking at the matte black armor encasing Ramel’s chest. “He hasn’t taken off that armor since we’ve come through the portal.”
Calliea frowned. “It’s barely been a full day.”
“But soaked through in a rainstorm and sleeping in it?” Jess shrugged. “It’s a little weird, is all I’m saying.”
“He’s been wearing the armor since right after he helped me regain my memories,” said Molly slowly. “I knew it had something to do with her control over him, but I could never figure out how. Mab got…angry…after Ramel helped me. He tried to help her sister, and when it didn’t work…” She swallowed. “I only saw him a few times between then and now. He had the armor on every time.”
“It’s a possibility,” allowed Tess. Could she cut away the enchanted armor just as she’d cut away the cursed dagger that had controlled Luca? She filed the thought for later contemplation. “I don’t want him to know our plans,” she said finally. “Mab knows that we know, so the element of surprise is gone. But we can’t afford to leave someone here to guard him, and honestly, I don’t know what he’s capable of now that Mab is in control.” Even as she pronounced her words calmly, more questions surged through her mind. Would Mab retaliate against anyone in the Fae world if they foiled her plans in the mortal world? What was more important to her, the Lethe Stone or killing the Bearer, if what Molly said was true?
“We can blindfold him,” suggested Calliea.
“That might work as a temporary solution when we make camp, but I want him in the fight against the bone sorcerer,” Tess replied.
“It’s not guaranteed that he’ll fight on our side,” said Calliea.
“Mab usually loosens her hold when he’s fighting, I think,” said Molly. “She doesn’t know as much about it as he does. She doesn’t want to lose him as her eyes and ears, like you said. And she wants the Lethe Stone.”
Tess closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed her forehead. A bone sorcerer, the Exiled, the Unseelie Queen possessing Ramel…it seemed there was no end to the complications.
“Tess, you’ll want to see this,” said Niall.
“We’re watching him,” said Jess, widening his stance as he stood over Ramel. Calliea nodded.
When Tess turned to the map on the table, she found the three Glasidhe studying it intently, their auras dimmed as they stepped carefully around Niall’s scrying glass.
“We thought it best not to interfere,” said Haze, looking up at Tess.
“That was a most impressive explosion,” said Farin approvingly as she peered down into the scrying glass.
“Explosion?” Tess repeated in alarm.
“Yes,” said Niall. “A…truck.” He remembered the word after a quick moment of thought.
Tess leaned over the table next to Niall. His scrying compass looked like it was crafted from carved white bone. She looked down through the lens and the blurred figures resolved, the picture widening in her mind’s eye until she could see far more than just the initial field of view offered by the scrying glass. Admiration for Niall’s skill surfaced in the back of her mind.
Sparring figures dominated the foreground of the chaotic scene, the backdrop a crackling fire spilling black smoke into the sky. Tess quickly picked out Duke and Merrick, her heart leaping into her throat as she scanned the rest of the scene. She froze as she saw Luca. The joy that surged through her at the sight of the ulfdrengr was so intense that it was painful. She couldn’t breathe as she watched him try to capture a quicksilver figure blurring around him with the speed of its movements. Something would have to be moving supernaturally fast to make Luca look so slow, she thought, turning her attention back to Merrick and Duke. A lanky red-haired girl crouched over Merrick’s prone figure, her face pale as she clutched a dagger in one hand. An exotically beautiful woman stood beside Duke as he regained his feet, pointing a pistol at their opponent. Her lips moved but Tess couldn’t hear her – no sound accompanied the scrying glass’s picture.
Niall turned one of the small knobs on the side of the scrying glass, and Tess experienced a moment of vertigo as she rose above the scene. The Seelie Vaelanseld moved the picture at a slow enough
speed that she didn’t feel sick, but nonetheless the scrying glass swooped over the trees, following a small river until it settled on a little glade a moment later. Despite the early morning light illuminating the trees, the glade remained cloaked in darkness. Strange shadows writhed like mist over the ground. At the edge of the glade, a girl was tied to one of the trees. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen, and she looked as though she had been terrified for so long that she was exhausted. Anger roiled in Tess’s chest. Something moved through the glade. The scrying glass kept sliding away from it, and Tess couldn’t see the figure properly. She only got a sense of a predatory darkness. The girl’s eyes widened and she whimpered against the gag in her mouth, twisting against the ropes binding her to the tree.
Niall’s fingers found the knobs at the side of the scrying glass again, and Tess stumbled back from the table. She blinked and shook her arm, settling the blaze of her war markings into a manageable glow. “We need to go. Now.”
“It’s too late for the girl,” said Niall, almost gently.
“It’s not too late until she’s dead,” retorted Tess.
“That glade is about fifteen miles away as the crow flies,” said Niall. “Even if we found a ride, we would be too late.”
Tess swore softly. Haze tilted his head and turned to Forin and Farin, conferencing with them in a low voice.
“Killing the bone sorcerer will ensure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Calliea.
“That doesn’t help her, though,” said Tess.
“Sometimes you can’t save everyone,” said Jess softly.
“What good is this power if I can’t use it?” she replied in frustration. First Ramel possessed by Mab, now this girl about to be gutted by the bone sorcerer mere miles away.
“Lady Bearer,” piped Haze, sweeping his trademark bow. “With your permission, we will mount a rescue mission.”
Tess blinked and stared at the diminutive Fae. “The three of you want to rescue that girl?”
“We can fly very fast,” said Haze seriously.
“We can distract him,” said Farin, baring her pointed little teeth.
“Free the girl from her bonds and guide her through the forest,” finished Forin.
“It would be easier if the bone sorcerer were distracted already. If he left her there while he pursued someone else.” Tess thought quickly.
“You’d best act fast,” said Niall, watching again through the scrying glass.
“What would appeal to him more than that girl?” Tess paced a few steps in the cramped trailer.
“He draws power from his victims. So…a more powerful victim,” said Calliea. She looked at Tess’s glowing war markings meaningfully.
“Well, I’m being a little slow today,” muttered Tess. She motioned to the Glasidhe. “Start heading toward the glade.” Farin let out a shrill war cry and even Haze grinned fiercely. Tess rolled up her sleeves as she opened the door of the trailer and stepped out into the cool morning air. Kianryk stood and stretched from his makeshift den just beneath the trailer. The trio of Glasidhe rocketed past her. “Keep watching the bone sorcerer,” she called to Niall over her shoulder. She held up her sword arm and examined her war markings. “Let’s see if I can send up a flare that he won’t be able to resist.”
Chapter 25
“So what now?” Ross kept her gun pointed at the sharp-toothed Fae woman. Her mind had suddenly stopped struggling to accept the reality of this other world. This magic, this existence that ran parallel to her own, had remained safely out of her sight…until now. Ross stared at the Exiled woman and knew that if the fight had gone the other way, she and her companion would probably be drinking Merrick’s blood right now.
“You are lovely,” said the woman appraisingly, tilting her head. “Like a South Sea dancing girl.”
“Shut up,” growled Ross. Mayhem echoed her growl.
“And with such a well-trained little wolf. But you are not ulfdrengr,” the woman continued. She clasped her gloved hands together thoughtfully, her long sleeves falling down over her wrists.
“Hands up!” commanded Ross, finger tightening on the trigger. As her voice rang out, the woman tossed something into the grass and a blinding flash of light seared white across Ross’s sight. She stumbled and went down to one knee, cursing. A strange mist lingered in the wake of the flare, and as Ross blinked the spots from her eyes she heard Vivian cry out. She turned toward the sound and only her quick reflexes allowed her to brace herself as Vivian crashed into her.
“Stupid girl,” said the Exiled woman derisively, pulling Vivian’s dagger from her leg. Merrick lay before her, gasping, a dark chain laid across his throat. The woman tilted her head, looking at her own blood on the dagger. “Brave girl,” she amended, as though arguing with herself. She shook her head and growled. “Focus.”
Merrick writhed on the ground, seemingly held immobile by the chain on his throat. Ross scrambled to her feet; she glanced at Vivian, who blinked at her dazedly, blood running down her face from a cut on her forehead.
“What are you waiting for?” Vivian said hoarsely, motioning to Merrick. “He needs help more than I do!”
Ross turned back to Merrick and the woman, cursing from between gritted teeth when she saw that the woman straddled him now, stroking his throat with one gloved hand. The woman was too close to Merrick for her to take a shot. Ross exchanged a quick glance with Duke and he nodded. She looked down at Mayhem, the dog met her eyes, and she released the Malinois with a firm word and gesture toward the woman.
Mayhem sprang forward, covering the distance to the woman in two long bounds. The woman hissed and threw herself flat onto Merrick; Mayhem’s jaws caught only the fabric of the woman’s cloak, but the dog held fast as she twisted. It was enough to jerk the woman off of Merrick, enough for Ross to leap over Merrick and tackle the woman. It felt like she had tried to tackle a statue of solid marble. She jammed her forearm into the woman’s throat, and it seemed to stun her slightly, but then they rolled and Ross found herself fighting from her back, the woman’s gloved hands closing about her throat. She delivered a blow to the woman’s temple with the butt of her gun that would have knocked out a full grown man, but the woman grinned manically and licked her pointed teeth. Choking as her air supply was cut off, Ross freed her legs and delivered a vicious two-footed kick to the woman’s midriff. It would have been enough force to do internal damage to a human, but it only succeeded in making the woman release her hold on Ross’s throat momentarily.
Mayhem’s jaws closed on the woman’s arm. Ross’s kick hadn’t injured her, but even the strange Fae wasn’t immune to the crushing power of the black dog’s grip. She screeched and tried to fling Mayhem away, lifting the dog bodily, but the working dog snarled through her jaws and kept her grip on the woman. Ross lunged forward and tackled the woman’s legs. She fell heavily and Ross saw her gloved hand moving toward her wrist again, the same gesture that had preceded the flash of light that had started this whole mess. Mayhem jerked the woman’s arm, keeping her other wrist out of reach, and Ross seized the woman’s free hand, pinning the arm under her knee before the Fae could break her hold with her unnatural strength. The woman howled, a sound so keening and loud that it hurt Ross’s ears, but she snugged the Glock under the woman’s chin and said firmly, “Stop fighting.”
The woman went limp, laying panting under Ross, her azure eyes blazing and her teeth bared. Growls still spilled from Mayhem’s closed jaws. Ross gave a low command, and the dog released her hold. “Don’t get any ideas,” Ross said to the woman, pressing the gun harder into the underside of her chin. “I’m pretty sure that no matter what kind of magic you have, you won’t survive a point blank shot to the skull.”
An incongruously high-pitched giggle escaped the woman. “Nearly four centuries I’ve survived this blasted world, and I’m executed by a little mortal whelp.” She licked her teeth and grinned. “At least you’re pretty.”
“Stop talking,” Ross said. S
he glimpsed movement out of her peripheral vision but didn’t let it distract her from the woman lying beneath her.
“Bet you’ve been itching to fight like that for a while,” Duke said with a grin from beside her. He pointed his Beretta at the woman’s head. “I got security. See what she’s got up her sleeves.”
Ross kept her Glock under the woman’s chin but used her free hand to pull up one of the woman’s long green sleeves. Several dull metal chains looped about her wrist, mixed with a few silver bracelets and a dirty length of twine that had several small glass orbs tied to it. Different colors swirled within the orbs like smoke.
“Don’t touch it,” rasped Merrick. Vivian held the chain that had been across his throat between two fingers, as though she’d caught a snake. “They’re spells.”
“More than you could probably manage at this point, my boy,” said the woman, eyeing Merrick hungrily as he lurched over to them, kneeling in the grass by the woman’s arm.
Luca calmly deposited the second Exiled onto the grass, and Ross glanced between the ulfdrengr and the unconscious Exiled questioningly. Luca shrugged. “He wouldn’t stop struggling. So he got the flat of my axe.”
“Effective,” allowed Ross.
Merrick carefully cut the twine holding the spell orbs around the Exiled woman’s wrist. Ross and Duke still held both their weapons on her and Mayhem settled watchfully onto her belly in the grass, panting in satisfaction. Dark blood gleamed wetly against the dog’s muzzle.
Merrick cut another bracelet of spell orbs from the woman’s other wrist, carefully avoiding the chains of dull metal. He took two daggers from her boots, and then he paused, glancing at the woman’s torso.
“Oh, such a proper gentleman,” purred the woman, squirming suggestively beneath Ross and grinning. “Doesn’t want to search the enemy below the neckline, eh?” She giggled again.
Ross sighed. “The pointy toothed bitch does have a point.” The woman made an affronted sound. “Can’t be squeamish when it comes to searches. Got her?”