by Emma Savant
She shrugged. “Just went for a ride,” she said, but she seemed agitated, almost jittery.
I took her in, then Sienna, and my stomach seemed to drop through my feet.
“Sienna?” Grandma said. Her voice was hard as steel and almost as cold.
Sienna sank into one of the empty seats. “Don’t be mad,” she said.
“What did you do?”
Grandma’s knuckles tightened on the back of the chair. Slowly, I edged back to the table and sat down again. The dagger in my boot dug into my ankle, and I shifted.
Sienna pursed her lips, and her eyes twinkled.
Whatever she had done, whatever consequences she was about to face—this was a game to her. It made me sick.
“Sienna, where were you?” I said. “Autumn?”
Sienna tossed me a dismissive glance, then raised an eyebrow at Grandma.
“Can we talk about this privately?” she said. “One Stiletto to another?”
Alec’s jaw twitched, and his gaze fixed on Sienna. She glanced at him, and he quickly looked away.
“This might not be a conversation for everyone’s ears,” Sienna added.
Grandma turned to face her head-on and gripped the chair with both hands.
“Everyone in this room seems equally curious as to where you’ve been tonight.” She turned to Autumn, who shrank back and shook her head.
Sienna sighed dramatically and took a bite of her cookie. Crumbs tumbled to the table.
“I was at the werewolf den,” she said. She gestured at our faces. “Obviously.”
Grandma shoved her chair aside and leaned over the table. I tensed and caved in on myself, even though her anger wasn’t directed at me.
“What did you do?”
Sienna leaned forward, too. “What you weren’t bold enough to do. I told you we needed to deal with the Wildwood problem. So I did.”
“What did you do?”
She let out an irritated sigh, and her voice climbed up in pitch. “I made some wolfsbane bombs and dropped them in the den. Seemed like the quickest way to handle our pest situation.”
The blood drained from Alec’s face, and my stomach lurched as though I’d been punched in the gut. The images in my mind were quick and brutal, of fire and smoke and human beings doubled over in agony.
I flew at her before I knew what I was doing. She caught my wrist without thinking and held it away from my body.
“Oh, calm down, Scarlett,” she said.
“You’re a monster.”
“No, sweetie, I hunt monsters,” she said. She let go of my hand and sank back into her chair.
I stood, body shaking with rage.
She glanced up at me, then tore what was left of her cookie in half and examined it. “But I guess you’ve always been a bit slow about that sort of thing.”
“Sienna,” Grandma said sharply.
Sienna ignored her and turned to me. “I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” she said. “This was all your idea. You told us where the wolves were. You let us know they had guns. This may as well have been your plan.”
“Was Blaze involved?” I said. My voice had to claw its way out of my throat.
Sienna rolled her eyes. “Didn’t seem interested. She’s very loyal to you, Grandma.”
“You’re not,” Grandma said. She nodded to me. “Scarlett, go get your mother.”
“Better yet, don’t,” Sienna said.
I moved toward the open doorway. Sienna threw up a hand, and the door slammed shut, just missing my hand.
“I said, don’t,” she said. She looked up at Grandma. “Come on, you’re not even a little relieved? You couldn’t take action as the Stiletto. Politics. I get it. But I could, and no one outside this room ever has to know.”
“That is not how the Crimson Daggers operate,” Grandma hissed.
I had never heard her voice so low or foreboding, and the back of my neck prickled.
I reached for the door again, but Sienna threw out her hand. The door stayed tightly shut, no matter how hard I tugged on the handle. I muttered an incantation and pushed a spell toward the door, but it wasn’t enough. I turned to Autumn, who stared mutely at me.
“What about you?” I said. “Did you help?”
“Autumn made the bombs,” Sienna said. “You know she’s always been better than any of us at potions and herb lore. Don’t look at her like that. She didn’t want to at first.”
“She’s the future Stiletto,” Autumn said in a very small voice.
“No, she’s not,” Grandma said.
Sienna turned down her lip in a pout. “I was worried you’d say that.” She put her hands down in her lap and slouched, in a mockery of dejection, and then raised her hand again and blew a puff of something white and powdery into Grandma’s face.
Grandma’s eyelids drifted closed, and her expression slackened. I leapt toward her just in time to catch her as she crumpled to the floor.
43
I felt for a pulse. It was there, thready under my fingers, but Grandma’s eyelids didn’t so much as flutter no matter how hard I shook her.
“Autumn, go get help!” I screamed.
Autumn shook her head and backed up. She looked between me and Sienna. I turned to Alec, but he was already crouched next to me.
“What do we do?” he muttered.
I lowered Grandma’s head gently down to the kitchen floor and stood to face Sienna. Alec reached up and put a hand on my arm.
“Careful,” he said in a low voice.
“Wake her up,” I said.
Sienna leaned back in her chair, a small smile at the corners of her mouth.
“I guess I should thank you,” she said. “I didn’t want to do that so soon, but it’s hard to be upset when it means I’ll become the Stiletto earlier than anyone dreamed.”
“What did you do?” I said.
I looked down at Grandma. Alec had ripped off what was left of his shirt and was gently tucking it under her head, but she was too far gone to notice things like comfort.
My arms trembled with rage and, without my bidding them, flames sprung to my fingertips and danced around my hands.
Sienna held up her own hands and dusted off the remainder of the white powder. “I’ve been saving that,” she said. “Nice to not have to carry it around all the time.”
“What is it?”
“Sandman dust. Little bit of rue.”
Witchbane. The telltale blistering rash was beginning to bloom on Grandma’s pale face.
How could she? How could anyone? Even the wolves hadn’t actually harmed Grandma, not like this.
“I was hoping I could transition into power a little more smoothly while the werewolves had her,” Sienna said. “Then you ruined that by telling Ruby where the den was and breaking my arm, so I had to go for the next best thing.”
She shook her hands and made a face at the red rash crawling up her wrists.
“Better wash this off.”
She moved toward the kitchen sink. The moment her back was turned, I dashed around the table and leapt toward her as I threw the flames in my hands. She growled, the noise more impatient than truly angry, and pushed me away with her hand on my face. The flames sizzled to nothing against her shoulder. The witchbane burned my skin, and I recoiled from its musty smell.
“Scarlett, enough,” she said. “You’re not getting out of here, and neither is your friend, so you may as well stop fighting it.”
“You arranged for Grandma to get kidnapped.”
“I never,” she said, feigning shock. She shrugged. “I might have sent an anonymous note to the alpha letting him know when she’d be easy to nab, but you can hardly blame me for what he chose to do with that information.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I’m competent,” she said. “And you’ve got a choice. You and your friend here can either run away and never make contact with the Daggers again, or I can take you back to the wolves’ den, where your body will conven
iently be found next to the leftovers of a few wolfsbane bombs. I know which one I’d pick.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” I said.
“No, I’ve gained my rightful place,” she said. “Or I will, once I get your self-righteous mother out of the way.” She shot a contemptuous look downwards. “Trust me, we’ll all be happier.”
I locked eyes with Alec. He was still crouched on the floor next to Grandma. He nodded slightly at me, then his attention darted away, as if he was too frightened to do anything.
I knew better. As soon as Sienna turned back to the kitchen sink to watch the powder off her hands, he slowly crawled toward her. His muscles rippled as the structure beneath his skin began to change.
In an instant, he was behind her and as tall on all fours as she was standing. Autumn screamed and pulled her dagger from its sheath at her waist. She held the weapon out toward him, but I had my dagger on her in an instant.
“Put it away,” I said.
The dagger trembled in her hand, giving me just enough of an opening to dart around her and get my arm around her neck.
“Drop it,” I said.
Her weapon clattered to the floor. I kicked it to the far corner of the room.
Sienna backed against the countertop so hard it dug into her waist. Her eyes widened, but not with fear.
“How fun,” she breathed. “Scarlett’s been sleeping with a werewolf. You know what they say, if you lie down with dogs—”
Alec lunged for her. His jaw just missed her throat as she dropped to the floor and rolled under him. She jumped to her feet and spun around, laughing.
He turned on her and growled. His werewolf form was as wiry as his human one, and his eyes glinted with a predatory instinct that made me go cold.
“Let me go,” Autumn whispered, softly enough that only I could hear. “Let me get out of here.”
“Door’s locked,” I said grimly. “Best thing you can do is hold still and stay out of the way.”
She nodded, and I released her. I pulled my dagger from my boot, then crept along the edge of the room and picked up Autumn’s. I held them both out toward Sienna and Alec snarled at her.
He leapt, but she dove out of the way at the last moment and whirled on him. Something was clenched in her hand. I opened my mouth to warn Alec, but she was already blowing the crushed herbs into his face.
His breath caught in his throat, making a horrible grinding sound. He crouched to the floor and coughed loudly enough to make me wince, then made a choking sound that turned my stomach.
His body spasmed, and his fur began melting back to flesh. He crouched next to Grandma as his body shifted back to human form.
“Had some wolfsbane left over,” Sienna said. She kicked him out of the way, the tip of her boot digging into the bare skin that covered his ribs, and he winced and tumbled to the kitchen floor, still coughing.
I turned Autumn’s dagger over in my hand, feeling for the subtleties of its weight and balance. I could throw it and maybe hit Sienna, but I had to be careful. A centimeter off or a moment too slow, and she’d be the one with two daggers instead of me.
She took a step toward me, and I moved back so the table was between us. She lifted a hand, and the table skidded across the floor. It slammed into my body and pinned me against the counter. I shoved it back away and climbed over its surface, then jumped off the table and crept toward her, dagger raised.
She threw both hands up, and I stopped as if I’d run into a wall.
Where had she learned all these spells? I’d had no idea her magic was so advanced. I didn’t have anything to use on her besides my dagger and my fists, and she was better than me with those, too.
She hissed at me to be quiet, and I froze.
I heard it, too. Outside the door, off somewhere else in the house, a door opened. Footsteps crept along the floor above us, and voices joined them a moment later.
We’d woken at least a few Daggers with our fighting.
I opened my mouth and screamed, but the sound was choked back before it had fully formed. I clutched at my throat while the scream threatened to suffocate me.
“Hush, Scarlett,” Sienna said.
Her attention traversed the kitchen wildly, her eyes twitching. Her focus darted from me to Alec to Grandma to Autumn and back to me again. Her posture was alert, her head tilted as she listened.
She pointed her dagger at Autumn, then me. “Autumn, get your weapon back.” When Autumn didn’t respond, she snapped, “Autumn, now. I’ll hold her.”
Autumn approached, and I tried to pull my arm away, but I was frozen. It was clear from the concentration on Sienna’s face that none of this was second nature to her yet. She was working to hold me still, but the point was that she could hold me still no matter how much I pushed and fought to channel energy to regain control of my own limbs.
Once Autumn was safely away from me, my body jerked back to life. The suppressed energy of my attempted movement sent my arm lurching painfully downward.
“You,” Sienna said, sneering down at Alec, who was still curled into a ball. His breathing was raspy and his skin clammy. “Help Scarlett move Nelly upstairs. Quickly.”
“I’m not doing that,” I said.
“You will or I’ll slit her throat.”
She stared at me, unblinking, and my stomach clenched. I stepped slowly forward and crouched down beside Alec.
“You okay?” I said.
He swallowed hard, but his face was set and resolute. “I will be,” he said and coughed again.
“Help me move Grandma,” I said.
“And good Goddess, put your shirt back on,” Sienna said.
We’d move Grandma. And then we’d figure out what to do. We had to.
44
Carefully, slowly, we moved up the narrow stairs that went from the kitchen to the upstairs hallway. This staircase was cramped and dark, originally used only by servants and these days by no one at all. The musty smell of old carpet and dusty corners filled my nostrils.
Sienna’s face was drawn tight, and her eyes darted around in the dim early morning light from the staircase’s only window, as she checked above and below us for signs of movement. I silently prayed that one of the Daggers would appear and save us, but no one approached.
The voices of at least two women floated up toward us. We went around a bend in the staircase, and a second later, the door leading from the kitchen opened. Sienna jerked her dagger at us, and we all froze. The door closed again, and the voices resumed in the kitchen. Sienna let out a breath and gestured at us to keep going.
“Where are we headed?” Autumn said in a small voice.
“Grandma’s bedroom,” Sienna said. “Going to make it look like a wolf attack. When we get there, I want you to tear up the curtains and break stuff; make it look convincing.”
Autumn didn’t say anything. She was following behind us, her dagger pointed toward Alec and me. Grandma didn’t weigh much, but it was awkward trying to climb such narrow stairs while supporting her head and neck. I could have carried her on my own, but it seemed better to give Alec something to do—something that would make him seem useful to Sienna instead of like excess in need of disposal. He cradled Grandma’s ankles as gently as he could, and the hem of her dressing gown dragged on the steps.
Sienna opened the door at the top of the stairs and looked both ways before waving at us to continue. We stepped out into the hallway. This was the second floor, Grandma’s domain. We walked slowly past a bathroom and a linen closet filled with sewing notions and fabric scraps, then past the small crystal- and herb-filled craft room where she did most of her spellwork for the coven.
We were just moving past the entrance to her Carnelian workshop when voices reached us from down the hall and around a corner.
“She’s not here,” someone said. We stopped, and I recognized Rose’s voice as she continued. “She probably went to Carnelian already.”
“It’s four in the morning,” Poppy said, her fam
iliar musical tones carrying a little better than Rose’s.
“I doubt she could sleep the night before this show,” Rose said.
“Must have been slamming doors on her way out,” Poppy said. “Well, that was a whole lot of nothing. I’m going back to bed.”
One set of footsteps moved away. The other pair shifted, making a floorboard creak, and then she went back into what I assumed was Grandma’s room.
Sienna swore under her breath. The footsteps continued, and then it sounded as if they were coming toward us. Sienna looked around frantically, then opened the door to Grandma’s dark studio and pushed us inside.
It was easy enough to hide Grandma in the shadows behind a shelf of fabric. I crouched against a wall, cradling Grandma’s head to my chest, and Alec bent her knees up to keep her feet from sticking out the other end.
I wished he’d have left them out, but it was too late to say anything. Sienna and Autumn were hiding under a sewing table and watching us with sharp eyes. Autumn looked terrified, but Sienna met my eyes and drew a slow finger across her neck.
She couldn’t reach Grandma to stab her from there, not if a Dagger came in to intervene. But I didn’t know what other powders and spells she had up her sleeve, and I wasn’t going to risk Grandma’s life to find out. She was only sleeping now. Sleeping meant she still might wake up.
The door to the studio opened. The lights flicked on, and Sienna shrank into the shadow under the table. There was a pause, and then the lights switched back off and the door closed.
The footsteps receded down the hall, and I realized this was my last chance. It didn’t matter if Sienna managed to get Grandma to her room or not—she was going to kill her either way, or leave her in an enchanted sleep that was the same as death in every way that mattered.
I wasn’t protecting Grandma by going along with this plan. I was standing aside.
And standing aside was not what a Dagger did.
Sienna was still focused on listening for any more of our sisters. I took a deep breath and set Grandma gently down on the floor.
“Protect her,” I whispered to Alec.