But when she looked at Penna once more, a tiny scream fled her throat, and she fell to her knees, grasping at something in the air.
“What is it?” Nik asked, kneeling next to her.
“Her soul,” Coren cried, her fingers plucking some unseen item from the air and pushing it into the narrow chest before her. A sob erupted from Coren as she pressed and pressed.
“She needs blood,” Shuri said, shoving Nik away and grabbing the dagger from his belt. Before anyone could stop her, she had sliced her own human skin and Penna’s wrist wide open. “Shift!” she commanded Nik just before she shifted back into her Draken form, crowding the clearing with her immense size.
The stream of blood was harder to see on her black and deep purple scales, but Nik pulled a steady flow of it into the air, sending it straight into Penna’s cold veins.
Coren kept her palms on her sister’s chest.
Sy felt the intense magic swirl through the air. Coren’s SoulShifting, Shuri’s Draken blood, and even Nik’s simple SourceShifting. A sliver of hope awakened in his chest as he saw them bring a child back to life before his very eyes.
A child who had been dead long enough to grow cold was now coughing and sitting up, staring up at her big sister with ancient eyes. Coren’s sobs became interwoven with laughter, and even Nik was grinning like a crazy person as Shuri pulled back.
Sy knelt carefully next to them, so as not to disturb the sleeping boy in his arms. But then, a small hand pushed against his chest, and he looked down to see Kosh was waking, too.
He rolled from Sy’s arms and straight into Penna’s, the twins clinging together as though nothing could ever separate them again. And indeed, Sy acknowledged, if death couldn’t keep them apart, maybe nothing could.
LEAVING THE CLEARING was more difficult and slower than Coren had expected. She wished nothing more than to have Nik and Shuri and herself gather Sy and Penna and Kosh onto their backs and fly straight home.
But Shuri was so much weaker than Coren had believed possible after fighting Shadow, being in human form, and giving some of her blood to Penna. It seemed the giving of Draken blood to a human involved a lot more than a simple transfusion.
“I’m not really supposed to do that,” Shuri admitted. “Penna may have strange additions to her magic now.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it,” Coren said. She could handle anything now that Penna was alive.
“She already calls fire,” Kosh said, his voice sounding even older than Coren remembered. She hugged him close, ruffling his hair. She couldn’t stop touching both of them, couldn’t stop bending to press kisses to their foreheads or squeeze their little hands in hers.
“Fire?” Nik repeated, exchanging a surprised glance with Shuri at the news.
“I’ll show you when I’m not quite so tired,” Penna promised, and Nik rewarded her with a flower shifted from the fallen rose and petal-pink leaves on the forest floor. She smiled and tucked it behind her ear, and Coren hugged her too, just one more time.
They were walking for now, picking their way through the Listening Forest toward the beach. Each step and was painful, and every other thought brought a pang of loss with it. All of them were starving, but none wanted to take the minutes it would require to hunt. Coren prayed their journey would be easy - that they would meet no more Brujok or shadows. But their weapons were in hand, just in case.
Little by little, the trees thinned, and the scent of salt water threaded through the air. They approached the mouth of the Hungry River with care, Nik and Sy scouting ahead.
“Where do you think the armies are?” Coren asked, joining the rest of them on the beach. She thought she could see something moving ahead on the coast, and her traumatized brain kept imagining shadows everywhere.
“They had heavy losses,” Sy answered. “Dain and Noshaya set up medical tents and camp north of the Shedreck River. Not much past Rurok, really.”
“I think those may be your elites,” Nik said, and Shuri nodded her scaly head at him. She was staying in Draken form so her wings would heal faster, but she held them close to her body, and Coren could see several long rips in their leather. Thinking she should fly ahead and scout the figures on the beach, Coren shifted her own wings from her back, wincing as she stretched out the aches and bruises.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, stealing one last squeeze from each twin.
Soaring into the air, Coren felt hope returning to her with the morning sun. It was cold, closer to winter here in the clouds, but the golden rays still soothed her feathers. She beat slowly toward the figures, circling them.
There were indeed just over a dozen Riatan soldiers. Fewer than the twenty Dain had given her, but they had all suffered losses. She thought of Kashar and Star, and Jyesh, but the weight of Mara’s Kitsuun blades against her spine bolstered her against the sorrow. They were made of dark magic, but Coren hoped they held a few secrets to help them in the future.
They had beaten another enemy, and there was more light in the world. Not only was the Restless King dead, but now his missing Queen was decidedly never coming back to claim her crown. Even Jyesh was no longer a threat, though that was a hollow victory.
Coren dropped lower in the sky, noticing when the elites saw her. She waved, sweeping close enough so they could make out her form, and a few waved back.
As she banked left toward their camp, something else caught her eye out in the waters, where the Hungry River gobbled up the edges of the MagiSea.
A boat’s length from land, the navy-green water began to ripple and heave as though a skin had formed on its surface and something was trying to break through. Despite the morning sunlight, a dense fog still covered much of the cove where the river met the sea.
A twisting winter wind ruffled her feathers as it sped past, lifting the edges of the fog even as she swooped lower.
As the mist rose from the water, the MagiSea below shone in strange shades of onyx and ebony, and the skin began to lift itself from the water, cloaking the darkness beneath its surface and giving it shape.
Human shape, Coren realized with a shudder of horror.
She swerved and beat her way through the air toward the elites on the beach, but the forms in the water were moving faster than should be possible. The tide was splashing the beach higher than it should, sucking sand beneath the water as it rose.
“Run!” she screamed down to the soldiers, but her voice was whipped away by the growing wind. She scanned the beach to the south, where her friends and family should be. Shuri had backed them closer to the trees and was fending off a horde of inky shapes with her orange and red flames.
“No,” Coren moaned as she made the choice to change directions. She abandoned the soldiers to their fate as she bolted across the sky toward her family.
She was powerless to look away as the forms rose higher in the water. None of the incoming waves broke around them. Each crest surged through the center of the beings, showing how they had form but not substance.
Shadows.
This was exactly what Coren had feared but not given voice to. Shadow hadn’t retreated or graciously offered them more time. It was still playing the game.
There were moves to make, but Coren had no idea how or where.
Shouts and screams from behind her told her the soldiers were being slaughtered, but Coren couldn’t even spare a second to look back. She shoved aside her guilt, stubborn in her uncompromising vow that her siblings would make it home unharmed. She didn’t care what was sacrificed or who.
Ahead, Shuri was running out of flame, and though Nik had shifted to Draken form as well, his fire was weakening in the same way.
They were all spent, and she struggled to ignore the dull throb of despair.
Coren poured all her energy into speed as the first shadow-thing crunched its way onto the beach before Shuri. The Draken tried to stomp it, but her leg went right through, the same way the waves had. Instead, it slithered up her leg. She shrieked an
d splashed into the water as though to wash it off.
An enormous black and orange shape streaked past Coren in the sky, its velocity tumbling her head over heels in the air. She free-fell for a terrifying second before her Vespa instincts righted her, and she saw another Draken, even larger than Shuri, barreling toward the beach.
In the distance, two more hurtled toward her, and this time, she dropped far below their gusts.
Shuri’s people decimated the remaining shadow-things with their own flames, and Coren stumbled down onto the beach just as the last one was blown back into the boiling sea.
“They’ll come back,” Nik said, staring into the eyes of the largest Draken. He seemed to be listening to it, then he turned back to Coren and Sy. “Kinmare said they will stay and build a wall of magic along the Umbren coast. It won’t hold forever, but hopefully long enough to evacuate the southern witches and Weshen City.”
“Evacuate?” Coren echoed, feeling defeated. The Weshen prisoners had probably only just arrived.
“Or to form a new plan,” Sy suggested, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Coren took a deep breath and gathered her brother and sister closer, curling her trembling wings around them. She was not going to let them out of her sight or touch for a very long time. Maybe never.
Nik laughed then, and Coren raised an eyebrow at him. “We’ve been offered an incredible honor. Kinmare is offering us a ride on his back, all the way back to StarsHelm.”
Shuri grinned, her huge pink tongue darting past her teeth to prod Nik’s back.
Coren gazed ahead at the beach where the elites had been. Shadow-things swarmed over the bodies, and she saw no other movement. Her stomach sloshed with guilt.
She’d finished her mission to rescue her siblings, but at what cost?
Did Dain still live? Noshaya? How many soldiers had they lost to the witches?
Sy rested a hand on her shoulder, and she leaned into him. “Whatever the cost, it had to be paid,” he said, guessing her thoughts well. “Mara and the Brujok had to be stopped. We know that better than ever now. The armies controlled most of the Brujok, and perhaps now, Sulit can truly begin to heal. It’s time to go back,” he added.
Coren sighed and nodded. Neither of them was ready to talk about the fact that they really hadn’t stopped Mara. Shadow seemed to have gotten everything it sought. But there was little to do now except move forward and prepare, just as Shadow had suggested. Coren fought against the unease of doing exactly as their enemy requested.
“Let’s go back, then.” she said.
Kinmare lowered his neck, accepting Coren and her two siblings. A beautiful water Draken invited Sy to ride, and Nik and Shuri followed behind, after Nik promised to find the rest of the armies and call them home.
The third Draken remained behind, spreading its magic along the coast as it created a barrier against the shadow-things.
Coren felt odd riding in the sky instead of flying, but there was no way she was going to let go of Penna and Kosh.
The day grew warmer and then chill again as the sun traveled the sky. When it sunk to the horizon behind them, Coren began to see the spires of StarsHelm palace ahead.
She leaned down to what she hoped were Kinmare’s ears and shouted, “I’m not sure they won’t shoot you out of the sky!”
His body rumbled with something that could be laughter, and he slowed, allowing the water Draken to come alongside. The Draken looked at each other, obviously speaking in their minds, and then both veered their course slightly south, heading closer to the forest between StarsHelm and EvenFall.
They reached land just as dusk was gathering behind them, and Coren glanced around with unease as she slid stiffly from Kinmare’s back onto the soft grass of a clearing. The woods were filled with shadows, like always, but that idea held much more fear now.
Kinmare tilted his head at her, as if to ask a question, but Coren heard no voice in her head like Nik claimed to. Sy climbed down from the other Draken. She looked at him, and he shrugged, unable to hear, either.
“He wants to know if this is near enough,” Penna said, yawning through the last two words as if speaking to Draken were natural enough. “And he says I can hear him because of the blood,” she added, leaning against Coren’s hip.
Coren smiled and shook her head. “Well, tell him thank you very much for the ride, and we can manage from here.”
Kosh rolled his eyes. “He understands you just fine, Coren.”
She laughed at his annoyance, and it felt amazing.
The two Draken spread their wings and moved to take off, but at the last second, Kinmare bent his head down to Penna and nuzzled her small body, making her giggle. She petted the glistening scales, and he huffed a warm breath around them, then jumped into the air.
All five of them waved until the Draken were mere specks in the sky.
Kosh huffed. “I’m the one who’s supposed to hear the creatures.”
Coren laughed again, just because she could, and grabbed the hands of each twin as they turned toward StarsHelm.
Chapter 36
THE CLOSER SY GOT TO the palace, the more Graeme’s brothers stirred and buzzed with excitement in his head.
While he had been feeding them kills in Sulit, they had been relatively quiet and satisfied. But he hadn’t killed anything with blood in more than a day, and he could feel them growing restless.
He would have to tell Coren, so she could explain things to the twins. And soon, because he had a feeling when they camped for the night, the brothers would appear.
Whatever else had happened, it seemed his curse lived on, and he would be tied to the palace until it was somehow broken.
“Coren,” he said, and she turned to him, still grasping her siblings’ hands as they trudged along, half-asleep on their feet. “We need to find a place to rest for the night, and I might... have to go ahead.”
She raised an eyebrow at him in question. He mouthed the word brothers at her, and she startled, understanding spreading over her face. “Already?”
He just nodded. He still hadn’t told her of Jyesh’s solution because he was ashamed. He hoped by the time he returned to the palace, Resh would have found a new one.
Thoughts of needing to satisfy them with blood for the indeterminate future both sickened and angered him, but he smothered the emotion.
He’d chosen this to get rid of Graeme, and it was still worth it.
They chose a sloping hillside, and Sy and Coren shifted away enough earth to make a sort of burrow. She and the children climbed inside, and Sy helped her close it up the way they’d once hidden from Shadow in a cave barely bigger than their own bodies.
“I’ll be nearby,” he promised and closed the last hole.
Shifting into his Grizzlin form, he patroled the area in restless laps. None of the shadows moved the wrong way, though, and he even found a bustling stream with a few fish. He bit them out of the water, missing more than he caught, and wrapped them in a handful of leaves, shifting the packet closed against insects.
Circling in the grass, he lay down to wait for sleep to claim him.
Sometime in the night, he woke in a very human sweat, the brothers’ golden glow all around.
“Return to the palace,” one of the faces hissed as his spine flared with pain.
“Tell me more about Shadow,” he ground out. “Is it your master?” He’d been wondering ever since the battle with Mara. Surely, the magic was related. But the faces simmered with wordless laughter, and the pricking of a blade dotted across his back. He arched away from the sensation, only to have it switch to his front. Sighing, he bore the pain, crying out when needed, until the brothers were sated and began to drift away.
“Why did Shadow tell me my family is next?” he whispered as the glow flickered nearly to nothing. He didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one.
But he was filled with dread at what he might find when he did make it to StarsHelm. Had Resh done something in their absen
ce? He’d been so angry when Coren had first asked him not to go to Sulit.
Betrayed when Sy had asked the same.
He’d thought Resh seemed over it when they finally left, but his brother was a master of masks. Shadow had said family, though, so it had to be either Resh or himself.
Either way, it was torturing his mind as much as the curse tortured his body.
Sy groaned, shaking off the stiffness of the night and jogging back to Coren. He filleted the fish before he opened their hideaway and greeted the sleepy children. Coren looked like she had barely closed her eyes.
“We’ll have to eat the fish raw,” he apologized. None of their supplies had survived Sulit.
“No, we won’t, silly,” Penna said, giggling. A flame appeared between her fingers, and she tossed it about like a street vendor with a trick. The ability made Sy nervous. He’d never heard of a shifter who could control fire.
She lowered her fingers to the fish and seared it perfectly.
“Handy,” Coren said. She was smiling, but Sy saw a tightness there that betrayed her fears. “I wonder how far out the armies are. Do you think Nik and Shuri will meet us at the palace, too?”
Sy shrugged. He had none of these answers, and he was growing more and more anxious every minute. “Let’s get going,” he encouraged, his thoughts on Resh and Shadow’s ominous warning.
LORENYA SAT ALONE ON the beach of Weshen Isle, bundled against the near-winter chill. Her fingers ran absently over the smooth curves of the statue Nik had left, and she thought of him, as she often did.
She’d gotten his message days and days ago.
The one meant for him, anyway. The one from Sy, promising hundreds of Wesh and Weshen men and women, returning to Weshen City.
The message had made her cry for two reasons.
Their people were returning, renewing, rebuilding. Even now, Matron Behrenna and a dozen or so of the women were in the city, helping the Wesh settle in.
Many of the women planned to move there permanently, and Lorenya was happy that Weshen City would flourish once more.
Dream of Darkness and Dominion Page 37