The golem advanced on me. It wasn’t fast, but its huge stride covered a lot of ground, and all I could do was watch it come. Despite Varvara’s spell suspending my body in shimmering amber light, suffocating weight dragged at my lungs—frigid heaviness that had nothing to do with the magic.
It couldn’t be true. Zak hadn’t betrayed us to Varvara. He hadn’t traded Ezra to the sorceress to get his grimoire back.
He couldn’t have double-crossed us …
But if he hadn’t, why had Varvara been waiting for us, a trap already set? If he hadn’t, why were her golems gone? If he hadn’t, why wasn’t he here?
I’m here to kill Varvara.
He’d shut down his farm because of her. He’d sent away all his wards—the only nonhostile company he had aside from fae, who treated him like a “feast.” Then she’d destroyed his only refuge. Slaughtered his horses. Murdered the last loyal companion he had left. Killed the dryad and stole his grimoire.
I didn’t come back to enact justice or some noble shit like that.
He’d returned to commit murder. He wouldn’t make a deal with his nemesis, no matter how badly he wanted his grimoire back. And even if he did need the grimoire, he still wouldn’t knowingly hand one of my best friends over to the enemy. He wouldn’t disclose our entire plan to her, putting my entire guild in terrible danger.
What were you expecting, Tori?
Tears burned in my eyes as the golem stomped closer. I’d thought I more or less understood Zak, but how much did I really know about him? Could I be sure that the druid who’d unleashed a violent spell in a building full of people would care about the safety of a guild that had once hunted him? Could I be sure that the rogue who’d dropped a pleading, terrified man off a building would value the life of my demon-mage friend?
I didn’t know anymore—what Zak was capable of, where he was now, whether Varvara was lying—and I would never find out.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I fought to get my arm down to my belt, but I could no longer move my limbs. The magic had thickened so much I could scarcely breathe. The golem took another lumbering step, its foot landing a yard from the spell’s edge. The impact of steel on concrete reverberated through the warehouse.
The golem raised a gargantuan arm, its steel limbs shining gold in the light of the spell. My heart seized as its fist arced downward, blades sweeping for my torso.
The amber light of the spell blinked out.
I dropped to the ground in a heap. The blades whipped past, inches above my head, the wind of their passing turning the tears on my cheeks to ice.
All around me, small plants pushed up through the floor, breaking the lines of Varvara’s spell. They’d destroyed the array just in time to save me—but where the hell had they come from?
“Tori!”
The squeaking voice, shaking with fear, had me on my feet in an instant. As I bolted away from the golem, I spotted a tiny figure hunkered in the shadows by the door where the sleeping goon had collapsed.
Less than three feet tall, thin branches sticking off his head, Twiggy had an oversized hand pressed to the floor, his spindly fingers glowing with faint green magic. His huge green eyes were wide and glassy, but pride lit his face despite his terror.
“Twiggy!” I shrieked.
“Watch out!” he gasped.
I flung myself down as the golem’s fist swung over my head a second time. Its reach was insane. Scrambling up, I sprinted to Twiggy and scooped him off the floor, resisting the urge to crush him to my chest and weep incoherently. I had no idea why he was here but I wasn’t complaining.
Ignoring the slumbering mythic on the floor, I whipped the building’s door open—and hesitated. I glanced back, my heart hammering as a cowardly voice in the back of my head howled at me to run run run.
The golem stomped after me, shaking the ground with each step. Ezra’s dropped swords were no more than shattered bits of steel, crushed under its foot. It could smash right through the flimsy overhead door, and once outside, it would find the battle between the smaller golems, the rogues, and my guildmates. This thing alone would obliterate the already slim odds that my friends would survive the night.
And I was the only one who had a chance in hell of stopping it. Only I carried an artifact that could suck the animation magic right out of it.
The golem stomped closer, bringing me in reach of its swing. Instead of jumping through the door to relative safety, I sprang sideways and ran along the wall. The floor shook as the golem turned to follow me. The warehouse was a dark, echoing cavern, the only light coming from the pinkish runes glowing all over the golem’s body.
When I reached the corner, I gulped back my panic and set Twiggy on the ground. “Thanks, bud. You saved my butt. Now I need to stop this thing.”
“Stop it?” He straightened to his full, unimpressive height. “We will stop it!”
“No, you—”
“I saved you! I can help!”
The faery wasn’t exactly a powerhouse, but my list of allies was so damn thin I could see through it.
I pulled the Queen of Spades card from its pouch, then unbuckled my belt and tossed it into the corner. Nothing else in it was of any use against a golem. This would all come down to me, Twiggy, and the Carapace of Valdurna—except this time, I didn’t have an agile demon to get me on top of the golem’s head. I’d have to find out how far the Carapace’s power could stretch.
“Okay, Twiggy.” I plucked the folded fabric from my pocket. “You distract it while I use my secret weapon.”
Face lighting up, Twiggy charged straight for the approaching steel monstrosity. Eyes bugging with fear for the reckless twig-head, I dashed away at an angle so I could loop around the golem, Carapace in one hand and Queen in the other.
Twiggy closed half the distance, set his green feet, and threw his hands up. His body shimmered as he cast illusion magic over himself. Darkness rippled upward and solidified into a ten-foot-tall King Kong. Rearing back, he drummed his fists on his chest and loosed a surprisingly convincing roar.
I ran wide, then cut toward the golem’s heels as I shook out the Carapace one-handed.
The golem took a thundering step toward King Kong Faery, then swung its huge fist. Its whole torso rotated in a way no human’s could, and its bladed fist slashed toward me.
The angle of the swing—even if I dove for the floor, it wouldn’t save me. I was mincemeat.
“Ori repercutio!” I screamed desperately.
The air rippled and the golem’s steel fist bounced off nothing. As its arm was flung away, the momentum forced the mega-golem’s whole torso to rotate 180 degrees, metal grinding loudly. It wobbled, off balance.
Holy crap. The golem was more magic than steel, so the Queen had deflected its blow. Damn, I loved this card.
Stuffing it in my back pocket to recharge, I pulled the Carapace open and prayed that the fae artifact’s proximity wouldn’t wipe the magic out of my card. As the sparkling, rippling fabric unfurled, I flipped it over the golem’s lower leg—the only part I could reach.
The glowing runes under the fabric dimmed and faded. The runes just above the artifact faded too. The effect spread, the runes dying out one by one—but not fast enough.
“Tori!”
At Twiggy’s shrieked cry, I dove for the floor and another deadly strike missed me by inches. The Carapace fluttered off its leg and the golem lifted its foot. A terrifying shadow fell over me. I rolled away, too slow to escape that crushing steel boot.
A cracking sound, followed by the creak of metal.
Thin, tough vines had erupted from the floor and wound around the golem’s foot, holding it back. The steel beast pulled its leg forward and the vines snapped, but the few seconds allowed me to leap up and sprint away. Its foot stomped down, shattering bits of floor under it.
Twiggy, back to his twiggy self, darted in and snatched the Carapace. As I ran across the width of the warehouse, the golem stamping along in my wake, Twiggy rushed to
join me with the cloak streaming after him like an amethyst banner.
He thrust the fabric at me. “Take it, take it!”
I pulled it from his hands, cringing as my fingers went numb from its power. I got why he didn’t like it.
Breathing hard and aching from too many ungraceful dives to the floor, I watched the golem come, slow but unstoppable. The Carapace’s magic wasn’t fast enough to immobilize it, not from the feet upward. I needed to get the artifact on its head or torso.
My gaze slid to the catwalk that encircled the warehouse’s perimeter. I gulped, taking stock of my options. Even assuming the Carapace’s nearness wasn’t hindering my artifact’s magic, the Queen hadn’t had time to recharge yet. I couldn’t count on the reflector spell.
“Round two, Twiggy. Can you slow it down with vines again?”
“One more time only.” He shivered where he stood. “I do not have much magic.”
“What you don’t have in magic you make up for by being the bravest fae I’ve ever met.” As bashful delight lit his face, I measured the distance of the golem and the speed of its approach. “I’m going up on the catwalk, and the golem will come after me. When it’s close enough to hit me, stop it with the vines.”
He bobbed his head, and I raced away. The stairs onto the catwalk beckoned. Ignoring the monster’s footfalls vibrating the floor, I sped up the steps and onto the platform.
The golem, oblivious to Twiggy, stomped after me, and I stared into its helmet-like face, the two eye sockets black and empty. The catwalk was level with its shoulders, which put my head higher than its hollow helmet. It plodded closer and closer, and I braced a hand on the railing.
“Now, Twiggy!” I bellowed.
Vines burst out of the concrete and spun around the golem’s ankles. Its stride stuttered—and I vaulted over the railing, a move I’d practiced more than any combat skill so I could hop my bar without making a fool of myself.
Soaring over the railing, I landed on the golem’s steel shoulder. Its body lurched as it tore free from the vines, and its bladed fists whipped up to impale me.
I jammed the Carapace into its empty eye socket and leaped off the back of its shoulder. Unforgiving concrete rushed up, and I tried to remember the fall-break techniques Aaron and Kai had taught me but my mind was blank and I was going to shatter my leg bones and oh god—
Wind burst around me, and a sinuous silver tail looped around my torso. I thumped gently to the floor, with Hoshi clinging to my middle, her paws clutching my jacket.
“Hoshi!” I gasped, hugging her as I sprinted away. “You’re back!”
“Tori, look!” Twiggy cried.
I spun around.
The golem stood unmoving, half the Carapace hanging from its helmet like a stream of purple tears. The runes on its head had vanished, and the Carapace’s magic swept downward, dousing the runes all across its torso. Five seconds later, the last runes blinked out, and the only source of light came from the radiant cloak and Hoshi’s faintly luminescent body.
With a groan of steel, the unanimated golem tipped over backward. I slapped my hands over my ears just before it hit the ground, and the thundering crash was so loud I felt the boom in my chest.
The echo rebounded off the walls, then finally, it was silent.
Uncoiling her tail from my waist, Hoshi touched her nose to my cheek. A vision filled my mind: Zak, geared for battle as I’d last seen him, leaning against a pillar in a dark space with the look of a man waiting for something.
Emotion twisted in my chest, painful and confusing. Was he waiting for Varvara? If she’d told the truth about him trading Ezra for his grimoire, she’d be meeting with him to complete the exchange.
What was Zak playing at? Did he have a plan? And if he did, why the hell had he left me in the dark!
“Goddamn you, Zak,” I snarled as I pulled the Carapace out of the golem’s helmet, folded the enchanted fabric into a square, and shoved it in my front pocket.
Twiggy trotted out of the darkness, carrying my combat belt. I reclaimed it and buckled the leather around my hips. If Varvara was meeting with Zak before taking Ezra to her yacht, we still had time to stop her.
“You did great, Twiggy.” I exhaled roughly. “I have one more job for you, then you need to hide because you used up all your magic.”
He tilted his face up attentively.
“Find Aaron or Kai—they should be just north of this building—and tell them … tell them we couldn’t find the golems, and Varvara has Ezra. I’m going after her. Got that?”
He nodded.
“And …” I swallowed hard. “Tell them Zak might’ve double-crossed us.”
His huge eyes widened. “The Crystal Druid betrayed you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I will tell them. I’ll go right now!” He scurried away, but at the warehouse door, he looked over his shoulder. Puffing his chest, he said in the deepest, growliest voice he could produce, “I’ll be back.”
He vanished out the door, and I blinked. Blinked again. “Oh.”
Action movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fearless musclemen saving the day. Twiggy had picked up new “human” behaviors from his latest film binge. That’s why he’d followed me on my dangerous, adrenaline-fueled mission—and thank god he had, or I’d be dead.
“It’s you and me now, Hoshi,” I whispered. “Let’s find Zak—and hopefully Ezra.”
She swirled around me in a quick, encouraging circle, then undulated toward the door. I ran after her, muscles trembling and joints aching, but there was no time to stop and whine about it.
I burst outside—and a cacophony of booms, bangs, clangs, shouts, and screams assaulted my ears.
Terror flooded my chest. When Varvara had said her animated golems were waiting for my “guild friends,” I’d hoped she was wrong—that Zak had pulled the wool over her eyes and she only believed her golem army was ready to fight.
But even as I followed Hoshi, sprinting back the way Ezra and I had come, the dissonant roar of battle continued. At the train tracks that ran behind the warehouse, the sylph swung right—and somewhere on the other side of a long line of freight cars, a fireball erupted. Orange flames spewed into the sky, belching black smoke, and masculine shouts rang out in a nonstop clamor.
I burst into a mad sprint. Hoshi whirled, confused, as I jumped the first set of tracks. Grabbing a freight car, I hauled myself onto the back, then scaled the metal ladder attached to the butt end. I had to know. I had to see.
Scrambling onto the roof on my hands and knees, I squinted across the scene. A street. A parking lot. Then the building where the rogues had hidden during the day.
Now all three were a war zone.
Smoke billowed, fire burning everywhere. Shadowy figures darted in chaotic patterns, some wielding weapons, others glowing magic. I couldn’t tell who was who, guildeds and rogues impossible to tell apart, but the canine golems were easy to spot as they stomped among the combatants, belching fire or acid and snapping their crushing jaws.
Varvara’s golems were attacking my guildmates—along with no small number of rogues. All our strategizing to ensure our teams wouldn’t face both the rogue and golem forces had failed, and now over half my guild was fighting for their lives.
Choking on dread, I slid back down the ladder and forced myself away from the train. Ezra needed me. I had to find him.
I rejoined Hoshi and she led me into the maze. As we approached the facility with the giant reservoirs, I wondered if we would follow my and Ezra’s route in reverse, but she sped past the fence. I ran along another set of train tracks to a different fence—a taller one with much meaner barbed wire at the top.
As I started to climb, Hoshi grasped the collar of my jacket. With a tug from her, I flew up and over the fence. I dropped onto the grass, stumbled down the embankment, and trotted into a parking lot. Water sloshed loudly, city lights reflecting off its black surface. We’d reached the marina.
Passing a never-ending s
torage building, we cut through the narrow gap between buildings and came out in a boat … lot. Like a parking lot, but for boats. Lots of boats. I sprinted down a row and squeezed between two speedboats.
With a warning flick of her tail, Hoshi ducked behind a retaining wall. I followed suit, then cautiously peeked above it.
Yet another parking lot. Behind it was a low, wide building with several overhead doors, one open, and a dozen covered boats lined up in front. A repair business? That was my best guess.
Hoshi bumped me with her nose, and a vision appeared in my head—zooming across the parking lot, rushing between two covered boats, sweeping through the overhead door. A dark interior, interrupted by concrete pillars. Most of the bays were open, while yachts and equipment waited in the far bays for work to resume Monday morning. In the center, leaning against a pillar, Zak waited.
That’s what Hoshi had seen before coming to get me. This was the place.
I was about to stand up but caught the faintest glimpse of movement—a dark figure shifting his weight. Two big, bulky men stood on either side of the open overhead door. I couldn’t be sure from this distance, but they looked like Varvara’s goons.
Varvara was in there. She had to be.
I could do this. Find Ezra, get him away from her, and run like hell. That was my plan. First, I had to get past the henchmen, and there was no way to approach without being seen.
I dug into my pouch. My brass knuckles went on one hand. I looped the strings of my fall spell and interrogation spell crystals around my other wrist, then unholstered my paintball gun. Lastly, I tugged the elastic hair tie from the end of my braid, slid it over my hand, and tucked my Queen of Spades under it, snug against my inner wrist.
“Hoshi,” I whispered, “can you make me invisible long enough to get close?”
Her tail flicked nervously back and forth. She blinked her huge eyes and rustled her insect-like wings, then booped me with her nose. I interpreted that as, “I’ll try.”
I set my feet and Hoshi curled her tail around me, small paws holding my shoulders.
“Now,” I breathed.
Cool magic rushed over me and the world faded to a phantom landscape of white and gray. The boats were dark, semi-transparent shapes, and Varvara’s goons were even more transparent shadows.
Druid Vices and a Vodka: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Six Page 25