by LJ Rivers
“You don’t have to do as they say.” I put a hand on his arm. “You’re a freaking manticore. If anything, the reeve should cringe in his boots when he sees you.”
“Gilroy Yeats is more than he appears, Ruby, daughter of Morgana.”
I nodded. “So am I.” Hesitating, I retracted my arm and rose to my feet. “I’m going to go now. Are you going to alert the Bakers?”
He shook his head. “I just want to go home.”
“Perhaps I’ll see you by the porth,” I said as he walked off, not sure if he heard me.
With renewed determination, I went to find my friends. I turned the corner on light feet and found the wolf just standing there. As I came closer, Jen patted her paw on something. A trapdoor, closed off with a chain and a padlock. If the animals had tried to smash through, it would have made too much noise.
“Good girl.” I gave her a pat on her neck, and she responded with the closest thing to a purr a wolf could give.
I reached for the padlock when a roar thundered from behind the house. Rhys! Angry voices followed, then the sound of bangs and clanks. I abandoned the trapdoor and sprinted for the corner. A gunshot split through the noise and deafened me for a moment.
The wolf bounded past me, and we rounded the corner to the back of the house.
Rhys stood tall on his hind feet, slobber stretching between his giant teeth. A stream of blood flowed down his left shoulder.
Opposite him, Emrys held a gun out. His finger rested on the trigger, and he fired again. I hurled a force field around the giant bear, and Emrys toppled over, clutching his thigh. I didn’t see it, but the bullet must have bounced back. I released the bear and looked around. In the middle of a growing bonfire stood a man, erected upon a wooden stake. His eyes bulged in terror as the flames licked higher and began feeding on his legs. Recognition struck me. His square head was bald, with only a slight shadow of hair. Stubble that had grown since he was taken from a camp in Snowdonia less than two weeks ago. I had found Leighton Ballard.
The Harvester screamed.
I bolted for him. Something heavy crashed into my side and sent me flying. Jen cushioned my fall, but we skidded further across the grass. A giant black panther sneered at us, then turned towards the biggest threat. The bear lunged, and the panther leapt to meet the onslaught. I glanced over to where Emrys had been, but he was gone. In his place was another, equally enormous, panther. Its yellow eyes caught mine. Blood still showered its hind leg, but it didn’t seem to take much notice. It growled and went for the bear.
I thumped backwards as Jen’s support vanished, then scrambled to my knees. The wolf bared her fangs and swooped down on the panther in front of the bear, her teeth aiming for its jugular. She sank her teeth in and shook the panther’s neck. It slammed a paw into her side and she yelped, losing her bite. The bear stomped back and forth, twisting and clawing at his enemies.
Leighton’s scream caught my attention again. I sprang to my feet and hurried over. The fire had reached his knees and was burning away his flesh. It grew rapidly, roaring like the animals at my back.
“Try to stay calm,” I said. Stupid thing to say, as his face, understandably, showed nothing but horror. I reached into the flames, my jacket catching fire, and felt along his feet to find whatever held him to the pole. Fire scorched in my veins. The Bakers had nailed him to the pole. I shrugged my jacket off and let the flames consume the rest of it, stood upright and shot my arms forward as if to grab the stake. Though I didn’t touch it, I felt the weight of it in my hands. With a gesture, I tore it from the ground, sending it and Ballard flying into a thicket of bushes.
There was no time to check on the animals, though their growls still competed with the crackling fire. Instead, I went over to Leighton.
“This might hurt. Sorry.”
He stared at me, his flesh boiling, emitting currents of black smoke. I gestured with my hand and pulled the nails on his feet free. His palms had been nailed down too, so I repeated the process. Leighton’s screams buried themselves in me, making my skin crawl. He rolled away from the stake, but his skin was still burning.
I searched the area for anything I could use. The white wolf howled, standing on top of her prey. The black panther lay motionless beneath her. She held one paw up as if it hurt, and her white fur was drenched in crimson. Next to her, the bear had his huge paw on the other panther’s neck. The bear flung his arm out and tossed the panther into the wall with a sickening crunch. Its head lolled as it slumped to the ground. The bear swayed on his feet and landed on all fours, his breath steaming from his nose. Behind him was a blanket.
I went for it and rushed back to Leighton, throwing the blanket over him and patting him down. The last flames died, and I sat back, heaving for breath. The wolf limped to my side and lay down next to me. I placed my hand on her, careful not to put my weight on it.
“Please!” Leighton squeaked. “Help me.”
I glanced at him. “Was someone else here with you? Other prisoners,” I asked.
“Help me!”
“Answer my question.”
“Basement.”
I stood, dazed, and took a moment to steady my breathing. “Will you guys be all right for a bit?” I looked between the wolf and the bear and interpreted their silence as an affirmative. “Watch him for me, will you, Jen?”
She gave me a look that told me she would, and I went back to the trapdoor. A chain and a padlock kept the doors locked, but that had never stopped me in the past. I put my hand around the lock for a few moments, retracted it and watched the lock glow red hot, then fall from the chain. Not bothering to stay quiet, I slid the chain free and opened the doors.
I descended the stairs and entered the dark basement. The rough wall grated against my palm as I slid a hand over it, searching for a light switch. I found it, pushed the switch, but nothing happened. No matter, I had my own light. A kindling ball of fire rested in my palm within seconds as I moved forward.
The space was maybe only about eight feet deep and ten feet wide. Something crunched under my foot. Crouching, I found the item I had stepped on. Charlie’s glasses. My heart did a drum solo as I laid eyes on two figures by the far wall. Increasing the fireball further to aid my visual, I stepped closer.
Charlie glanced up at me, relief flooding her dark and puffy eyes. Her chocolate-brown hair was tousled and glued together with dried blood, sticking to the side of her face where a gash slashed down her cheekbone.
“Oh, Char!”
Next to her, Brendan’s head had hung limp, but jerked up when I spoke. Both of them were gagged and bound. One of Brendan’s eyes was swollen, bruises covered the right side of his face, and his nose was distorted. Broken. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of them. They were alive, but if I hadn’t found them when I did, they might not have been.
I kneeled next to them and put my hands on their cheeks, calling my healing to me. It came, willing and eager. My friends’ wounds closed slowly until they seemed well enough, and I stopped the flow of magic.
“I’ll need to save some for Jen and Rhys, and probably Leighton too,” I said apologetically.
Brendan tried to speak, but the sound was muffled by the rag in his mouth. I frowned and untied it, then moved on to Charlie’s. It took some time to free Brendan from the ropes around his wrists and feet, but once he was free, he helped me with Charlie’s.
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
Brendan put his arms around me, and I realised I hadn’t quite fixed his broken nose. I would have to attend to it later. “I knew you’d come.”
“Cutting it a bit short, though,” Charlie said, smiling.
“Sorry, I was sort of knocked out.” I said. “Oh, and I stepped on your glasses.”
“That’s OK. I have an extra pair at the Morganas’. I’m just so happy to see you. Well, it’s more like I hear and smell you, since, you know, I’m virtually blind right now. And to be frank, you smell kind of rank.”
I couldn’t h
elp but smile at the rhyme.
She flung her arms around the both of us, and I held them as tightly as I could, never wanting to let go. But I had to. Outside, Jen and Rhys were hurt. And so was Leighton Ballard.
“We need to go,” I said. “We made a bit of a mess out there. I don’t know what the townspeople will do when they find out.”
Brendan kissed my forehead. “Whatever happens, we’ll manage. Together.”
Charlie grabbed my arm as we stood by the stairs. “Ru, I think I figured it out,” she whispered.
“Huh?”
“I had some time to think down here. I think I know how to open the portal.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
I removed my hands from the giant bear’s chest. He rolled back on all fours and shook his body, as if to check if everything was in place. I had pushed a lot of healing energy into him, but I had to be sure he was all right. He had saved me when the manticore was about to end me. I still couldn’t believe such a beast existed, let alone that it hid inside a skinny teenager.
Jen hobbled up to the bear, brushing against him. I wondered what David Attenborough would have said if he saw a grizzly and a wolf fight alongside each other.
“Here, sweetie,” I said and held my palms against her warm fur.
I ordered my magic to go to work again and almost cried with joy when it obeyed. My batteries would soon be drained, but I decided to risk it. Besides, ever since Auberon smashed my ring, freeing all my powers, my “charging time” had dropped considerably.
The wolf let out a small yelp as the bones in her leg snapped back in place with a series of audible cracks.
I leaned in and buried my face in her fur. “Thank you, Jen. I love you.”
“We all do,” said Charlie.
She stood next to Brendan, who was helping the injured Harvester stand somewhat upright.
“I dragged the Panthers down in the basement and made a sort of knot with the remains of the chain. Someone had melted the padlock.” He winked at me. “I don’t know how the townspeople will react to the smoking bonfire, but something tells me they’re used to most of what those Shifters were up to.”
“So, it could be days before anyone notices the Baker boys are gone?”
He shrugged. “Or hours. I think we just have to get out of here, and hope for the best.”
The bear stomped his feet and gave a low growl, before running back the way we had come.
Charlie bobbed her head from side to side. “I’m not fluent in Grizzly—I know, shocking, right?—but I think he went to get the car.”
“How’s he doing?” I nodded at Ballard, who was disturbingly quiet, considering his injuries.
Brendan shook his head. “Not good. I mean, he’ll live, but his legs are wasted.”
As if I didn’t know. I put two fingers under Ballard’s chin and tipped it upwards. “I have a deep hatred for Harvesters, Mr Ballard. But somewhere inside me is also a commitment to help. I can heal you now, relieve you of your pain. You have something to offer me in return?”
He met my gaze, his wavering eyes still reflecting fear and agony. “Please,” he croaked. “I’ll do anything.”
“You know what I want from you.”
“S—stop hunting Mags?”
“That’s it. We have a deal?”
“Y—yes.”
I put my hand on his chest, hoping the brief talk had bought me enough charging time to deliver my part of the deal.
Leighton gasped, as so many others had done before him when my healing powers entered their bodies. He stared at me, the pain and fear in his eyes replaced by astonishment. Dropping his gaze to his feet, he gawked as the skin and sinew grew back in place. Where the nails had been hammered through his ankles and wrists, the holes shrank and closed up.
Brendan let go of him, and although his legs were in perfect shape, Leighton dropped to the ground, falling to his knees in front of me.
“Thank you!” He sobbed. “Thank you, Princess.”
What? “Get up, Ballard. Where did you hear about the princess thing?”
He got back on his feet, his head bowed. “The boy told me.”
“Which boy? One of the panther Shifters?”
Leighton shook his head. “The one with the long, blond hair. Alun, I think. He said he saw you at some feast. That you’re the princess of Ava—”
“Well, I’m not. I am, however, fully capable of tracking you down and punishing you if you break our deal. You know I’m telling the truth about that, right?”
“Yes. I won’t, honestly. I haven’t done that for a long time, anyway.”
The Land Rover announced its return. How that engine was still able to push the heap of steel was close to a miracle. We ran to the front of the house, where Rhys made a U-turn and stopped beside us.
He rolled down the window, his smiling human face looking out at us. “Best jump on the back, a couple of you.”
“I’ll get my clothes and meet you by the fork in the road,” Jen said and took off.
Charlie got inside with Rhys, while Brendan and I climbed aboard the loading platform on the back. Brendan held his arm out to Leighton, who hesitated for a second or two before grabbing hold. I tapped the roof of the cabin, and Rhys set the car in motion.
As promised, Jen met us where the roads joined. She climbed up and sat next to me.
I touched one of the buttons on her top. “If the manufacturer of those quick-change outfits of yours ever needs an endorsement, I’ll happily go on record and tell them how brilliantly they work.”
“Maybe I could get a sponsorship? I could use it, with these prices.”
Five minutes later we rolled into town, the Wogans’ house coming up as the first building. Now that I knew what an isolated life they led, it seemed the distance between theirs and the next house had doubled.
I leaned out over the edge of the platform, tapping the roof of the cabin again. “I think we should make a pit stop, Rhys. You OK with that?”
“Whatever you say.” He slowed the car and turned into the parking space next to his house. “Might be a good idea to go inside. Lots of prying eyes out now.”
“I agree. Char? Your sat-phone is under the seat. I don’t know how to use it, but figured you might want to make a call.”
She reached down and found the plastic case with the phone and followed the rest of us inside. We sat by the kitchen table while Rhys went to the stairs, his shredded shirt and trousers dangling on his hairy body. “I don’t shift so much nowadays, so I forgot to take off my clothes. I’ll be back down in a minute.”
“Before you go,” Charlie said. She was standing by the door. “Do you think you could take this bloke,” she nodded at Ballard, “to the police in Pwllheli? I’ll have my boss coordinate with them, so they can take his witness statement.”
“No problem,” the bear Shifter said and left.
Charlie tapped the keys on her sat-phone. “I need a clear line of sight to get a signal.” She leaned out. “There. Hope it’s enough.” The keys beeped as she tapped them again. Charlie held the phone to her ear. “Commander Travers? This is Hargraves. I … yes, I know, sir. Listen, I don’t have much time, and you just have to hear me out, OK? Good. I’m in Perllanafal, and this is fudging purgatory. I can’t go into all the details, but all the townspeople are Pure Mags. No humans. They sacrifice humans several times a year. Sir … I know, but listen.”
She made a face at me, frustrated. “Travers, for the love of Santa Maria, will you shut up?” That seemed to do the trick, as Charlie grinned and gave us a thumb up.
“I’m a witness myself, as I have just escaped captivity from two Shifters that were about to burn me and another human alive. They had already thrown Leighton Ballard on the barbecue … yes, the man who was kidnapped, and they wanted to sacrifice him to their Magical god.”
Goddess, I thought, not especially thrilled to associate the heinous acts with my grandmother, Nimue.
“I also have native Mags who h
ave witnessed the ritual sacrifices of several human prisoners. Harvesters, criminals, and such. You have to assemble whatever forces you can … no, sir. Yes, sir. I know that. Listen, Travers. I may be a civilian, but you have to trust me.”
She shook her head at me, rolling her eyes. I motioned with my hand for her to keep talking.
“Commander! There are eight or nine hundred batshit crazy Mags here, who happily kill humans on a regular basis. Think Salem’s Lot on steroids. Fire me if you must, but get your arse over here. And bring a fudging army, you hear me?”
She listened for a few moments, then rang off. She leaned against the doorframe, heaving for air. “Why are men so dense!” she moaned.
“Is he coming?” I asked.
She nodded. “With an army.”
Rhys drove us back to my grandparents’ farm. Lili sat in her wheelchair on the patio, her head slumped to the side and Bailey in her lap. The cat opened half an eye as the Land Rover rolled up on the gravel. The door to the kitchen opened, and Mari stood there, looking more worried than ever.
“I think it’s best I get her home when I return from Pwllheli,” Rhys said in a low voice.
“Are you sure you’ll be safe there? What if someone saw your car coming from the Bakers’ house?” Both Jen and I had looked for any witnesses on our way back, but there was no way to be sure.
Not yet.
"You might be right. We stay here now and then. Mostly Mari, but Llew and Lili won’t mind, I guess. Now, you lot best get going. I want to be done with this trip sooner rather than later.”
We got out, all except the Harvester, who was hiding under a blanket on the floor, next to Rhys’ feet. Charlie had rightly suggested that it might be difficult to explain his presence to my grandfather.
A familiar meow issued from behind the stable, and Kit rounded the corner. He saw me and raced forwards, leaping at me. I caught him mid jump and swaddled him in my arms.