by S. D. Grimm
He’d killed her.
His mind raced. Almost as if something inside of it clicked unlocked. She was dead? She was dead! His entire body started shaking.
Kara fell to the ground, and Ethan’s cries of agony stopped.
“Ryan?” Ethan approached him and squeezed his shoulder, his voice hoarse from screaming, and his grip trembling as much as Ryan was. “You did it.”
“I can’t . . . I—”
“She’s gone. She can’t hurt you again.”
Ryan bent one knee and rested his elbow on it, burying his head in his hand. His sword clattered against the ground. He’d done it. His shoulders shook as a rush of relief poured into him like a dam breaking.
“Ryan?” Serena’s voice was closer. Both she and Jayden crowded around him. Kara must have set them free. He glanced up to see tears in their eyes. Jayden was the first to hug him close. Her arms wrapped around him as Serena pressed her hands against Ethan’s back, healing him.
Ethan.
He’d . . . Ryan’s memories flooded into him. The things he’d done. Fighting his own brother. “Ethan—”
“It wasn’t you.” Ethan stood and offered his hand. Ryan grabbed it, and Ethan pulled him up and into a tight embrace.
“I’m so sorry,” Ryan whispered.
“You’re forgiven. It’s over. Done. You hear me?”
Ryan nodded. And then someone grabbed his hand. He’d know her touch anywhere. He turned and wrapped Serena in his arms.
“Glad to have you back.” She looked up at him, eyes shimmering.
He breathed deep and squared his shoulders, clenching his jaw. “It’s good to be back.” Everything inside him felt stronger. Like he could take on the world now.
Ethan squeezed Ryan’s shoulder again. “You ready for this?”
He nodded once. “Ready for anything now, brother.” That last word choked him up a bit. “You came for me.”
“Always will.”
“Jayden?” Serena slipped her arms from Ryan and approached Jayden. She held her hand over her. “There’s poison in you.”
Her breaths shook. “I feel it. In my blood. It’s fighting for control.”
Serena grabbed Jayden’s hands. “I can act as the white alor and absorb the poison from Jayden.”
“You can’t do that. You still have to fight the Mistress,” Kara said.
Everyone turned to her. Ryan had nearly forgotten about her being there. “You!” He marched toward her.
She put up her hands in surrender and backed away from him. “Listen, you don’t understand my motives, I know. And I don’t really care. All I’m trying to do is save our lives.” She motioned to all the sleeping soldiers around the room. “I have made sure every spot of danger you have gotten yourselves into hasn’t ended badly for you.”
“Not badly?” He pointed to Jayden. To Serena. To Ethan.
Kara held up a glass vial. “I found this neat recipe in Serena’s counters book and thought I’d try it out.”
Serena gasped. “You made the white alor potion?”
Kara shrugged. “Thea knew you’d be too late to tap into the white alor trees before they started dying. I took the page from the potion book and made it down here. I made enough to heal the black blood soldiers. It won’t cure all of them, because some of them have been under the venom too long. But it should be enough to cure most of the Mistress’s army.” She looked at Ryan. “I’m sorry it won’t work on you, Charmer. But let me give some to Jayden. As we speak, the Mistress’s men are drinking their share.” Kara handed Jayden a vial of white liquid. “It will cause quite the uproar for her when she realizes she has to replace half of her army. It will give the Wielder enough time to escape her clutches.”
“She’s telling the truth, but I don’t know if you should trust her,” Serena said. “Kara helps only herself.”
“That hurts, Golden One.” Kara folded her arms. “Let’s just say I gave all the soldiers access to their drink of choice. The kegs were open. But it was a pity to waste all that alcohol. So they’re all having a wonderful time in the camp awaiting the Mistress to call them to order. And she’ll be here soon. We are under the base of the thrones. You’d better get out there if you want to defeat her.”
“Aren’t you just full of good news?” Ryan scoffed.
“What did you think I was doing when I told you I had my own plans? I helped Belladonna get you here. I made it so you could escape easily.”
“You call that easy?” Ryan motioned toward Belladonna’s severed head.
She spared him a look, then motioned to the vial Jayden held. “That’s the last of the black blood antidote. Don’t spill.”
Jayden tipped her head back and drank. Ryan watched as she squeezed her eyes shut and then shook her head. She opened her eyes and grinned. “It doesn’t taste that bad.”
Kara almost smiled. Then motioned to the door. “Out there you’ll find stairs leading up to ground.”
“You’re not coming?” Ethan asked.
“What’s your plan now?” Serena asked.
“That I can’t tell you. But rest assured, it’ll be enough to change the course of the future.” She handed Serena a folded-up handkerchief. “Take the keys and go up through the old staircase. The four thrones are cornerstones of this building. The Mistress will be here soon, and her army comes.” Kara walked over to Belladonna’s body and removed the bracer. She handed that to Ryan. “And give this to Wolf—I mean Connor. It’s time to put that witch where she belongs.” Kara pushed them through the door. “Talk to Wolf before Smoke gets here.”
Seemed Thea had thought of everything. Ryan turned as everyone started through the doors, and Kara tugged Ryan’s sleeve. He stopped as the others left. The haughtiness in her eyes disappeared. “The Mistress is bound to you. She chose you as her vessel.”
“I know.”
“You know that now more than half of your heart is compromised?”
He sighed, but he could feel it. His heart worked hard to push the darkness back. “I do.”
“You two share a heart. If she dies, you die.” Her eyes grew soft. “Serena won’t want that to happen.”
Ryan glanced up the stairs where his friends had gone. Then he faced Kara. “You want to kill me now? I won’t stop you.”
“I wouldn’t do that. She’d just bond to a new vessel. Smoke has to die first. Are you ready for that?”
“I’m ready to save the world. Whatever it takes.”
“Why save what’s already lost?”
He smiled. “Hasn’t Serena taught you anything? There’s always hope. And hope is worth saving.”
“My sister was right to have fallen for you.” She touched his shoulder briefly.
“Thea?” Ryan thought back to their last meeting. Then he looked at Kara. “What else did she tell you?”
Kara shrugged, but she glanced away from him. “You will all hate me after what I’ve had to do. I know that.” Her gaze pierced him. “But believe me when I say . . . I–I . . .” She stared at him as if telling him might make her more vulnerable than she was prepared to be. “Just go.”
“Kara.” He touched her arm, and she didn’t pull away. Just stared at his hand for a heartbeat before she looked into his eyes. “I’ll make sure they don’t hate you, as long as you can prove to me that you’re on our side.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell the others?”
He shook his head.
She breathed deep. “I only save those I’d consider worthy comrades.”
He crossed his arms, studying her. “Are you saying we’re your friends?”
Her smile turned into a challenging grin. “I’m saying if you breathe a word of that to the others, I’ll hunt you down myself.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
She stopped him with a hand on his arm. “If you tell Serena that you’ll die—”
“I won’t.”
“She’s a unicorn. She’ll know if you lie.”
�
�I’m a dragon. I’ll find a way.”
Chapter 62
Smoke on the Horizon
Jayden pushed open the cellar door, and a sickly reddish light filtered in. That and the scent of a decaying forest. She peered up to see faces and weapons pointed at her, and relief filtered into her as they put their weapons down. The Feravolk had come.
Westwind bounded up to her and pressed his cold nose into Jayden’s palm. She touched his head. “You’re still here?”
He nodded and chuffed.
“I can’t hear you.” Tears filled her eyes.
Rebekah approached Jayden and touched her cheek. “I can’t hear him, either. But he knew you’d be here. Your three-oath bond keeps him with us. That and I think he stays because he loves you.”
Jayden looked down at him. “You are a true friend.”
He flipped her hand over his head with his cool nose. She touched him. Scratched behind his ears. “I am honored to fight with you by my side, too.”
Rebekah hugged Serena close. And Serena motioned to something behind Jayden. “Look.”
Jayden faced the foundation of the ruins in front of her. Surely this couldn’t be it? But then she saw four strange overgrown pillars. Moss and vines clung to them, distorting their shape, but they were indeed pillars. She touched one.
“I don’t see any thrones,” Ethan said.
“Or a castle, which I kind of expected.” Ryan laughed as he joined them.
Jayden pulled vines away from one of the pillars and uncovered a stone, weathered and worn, but clearly the shape of a pegasus. Below the creature’s head, on its neck, was a circle engraved into the stone.
A circle. “I think my key will fit in here.”
The others crowded around her, and Serena touched the divot in the stone pegasus’s chest. “I believe you’re right.”
Serena and the others rushed to the three remaining corners and uncovered worn pillars with stone busts representing the animals to which they had bonded. Each bust contained a hollowed-out circle perfect for the wooden tokens.
“Are we ready?” Serena asked as she pulled the handkerchief from her pocket.
Ryan shifted his weight and stared up at the sky. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Do you feel something?” Jayden asked him.
He nodded. “Smoke.” His words, barely audible, sent a shiver though her core. Ryan’s eyes bored into her. “We have to kill the dragon first. Or else we won’t be able to kill the Mistress.”
Serena gripped his shirt and faced him. “You—”
“I know. As soon as Smoke dies, I’m the only thing keeping her alive.”
Jayden’s heart clutched. “We’ll make sure you have the Creator’s power, Ryan. Connor said that could save you, right?”
“Yes.” He looked at Serena. “If you don’t kill the Mistress, she’ll always have a hold on me. Always a link to get back. I refuse to be that link. As soon as she dies, I’ll be free of her. Forever.”
Serena nodded, eyes wide. “You can’t be that link anymore. We’ll kill her. You’ll be free.”
He touched her arm. “Thank you.”
“Serena?” A small voice punctured the air, and Serena turned. Hundreds of women wearing Feravolk cloaks over white dresses melted into view as they moved through the trees, closer. One young woman with long brown hair stepped to the front of them.
Serena placed her hand over her heart. “Rochelle?”
Rochelle raced up to Serena and hugged her as the Healers, most dressed in Feravolk cloaks, followed, melting into view. They joined the Feravolk. “I brought as many as I could find.”
“You’re all Healers?” Rebekah stared.
“Our powers are waning,” Rochelle said. “The Mistress’s darkness taints everything. All of us have already watched our unicorns fade away, but we’ve come to fight alongside our people. Just as you sent Tessa to tell us.” Rochelle shook her head and seemed to stare into a memory. “It’s time. The Forest of Legends is the beginning of all. Life springs from it. Grows from it. Flows in it. The Creator’s own heart beats in rhythm with it. If the Mistress wanted to kill all of creation she would merely have to stop the heart from beating. The prophecies are coming to pass. Through blazing fire and torrent of rain the Forest shall fall and rise again.”
“Rise again. That’s good news, right?” Jayden asked.
“It really depends on who it’s rising under, I’d say,” Ryan said.
“It’s time to unlock the power.” Serena unrolled the handkerchief. Four wooden circles sprinkled into her palm and she gasped. “These”—she held up the tokens—“aren’t the keys.” She buckled over, eyes wide. “She betrayed us again!”
“Kara?” Jayden peered into Serena’s hand, willing this to be a mistake.
“They’re circles of wood.” Ryan plucked one from her hand and threw it into the woods. “Now what?”
Jayden’s heart crumbled.
Ethan grabbed the rest from Serena’s hand and hurled the tokens into the forest. “Where is that no-good assassin! I’ll kill her myself!”
Jayden stared at Ethan and her chest ached. “Are we too late?” she whispered. Her knees were water.
“No,” Serena faced her, fists clenched. “Kara has them. She has to. Or, maybe they’re on Belladonna’s body. We’ll get them.”
Jayden breathed in, hoping she could hold on to her dwindling talents long enough to kill the Mistress of Shadows the way she’d killed Idla and Franco.
With lightning. She clutched her dagger tight.
Cliffdiver approached, and Jayden looked at Ethan. “He’s talking to you?”
He nodded, eyes wide. “The Mistress has Connor and Quinn.”
“Not anymore.” Connor’s voice made Jayden turn. He carried Quinn toward them.
Serena rushed to his side. “How did you get free?”
“Long story involving the Mistress’s army running off and my becoming a mouse, and then a gryphon. But can you help Quinn?”
“What’s wrong?” Serena reached for her.
“I’m dying.” Quinn’s voice was raspy and weak.
Serena gasped. “This isn’t something I can heal.”
Connor’s voice cracked.. “If we defeat the Mistress, we can save her.”
“We don’t have the keys!” Jayden touched Quinn’s face. She felt unusually cold.
Ryan handed Connor the bracer. “I think you’ll need this.”
Connor stared at it until Rebekah took the bracer from him, fastened it on his good arm, and touched the side of his face.
Jayden felt the love blossom in Rebekah’s heart. It melted into hers.
“Thank you.” Connor mouthed the words to his mother, then he looked up at all those gathered around him. “You—you all know that half of those who fight will die as soon as I use my power?”
Everyone nodded. Rebekah touched his shoulder. “We will all die if you don’t.”
He breathed a shaky breath. “Cliffdiver will take Serena and Ryan to kill Smoke.”
“You’re still bonded?” Jayden asked.
“He’s been bonded to three Wielders before me. His bond is old. But I’m not sure how much longer it will last.” He looked into Jayden’s eyes. “As soon as Smoke is dead, strike the Mistress with everything you have left. Ethan, Quinn, and I will open the door. You send her through with your wind. Got it? The rest of the Feravolk will keep as many of the remaining Black Blood Army from us as they can.”
“Remaining?” Serena asked.
Connor faced her. “Half of them ran off. It was as if her hold on them vanished, but some remained. Enough to be a problem.”
“Kara said that would be a possibility,” Ryan said.
“And the keys?” Rebekah asked.
Connor touched her arm. “Will you help us find them?”
“I will.”
“Check downstairs first.” Serena motioned toward the way they’d exited. Rebekah hurried down the steps.
Jayden touched
Connor and risked pulsing the feeling of calm strength into him. His eyebrows rose, and he placed his hand over hers against his shoulder and squeezed. “The Creator’s blessing on all of you.” He looked up at the sky.
The red moon on the horizon climbed higher into the sky. A massive, black dragon rose up in front of the sun.
“Smoke.” Ryan’s whisper chilled Jayden to the bone.
Smoke’s laugh scraped through the sky.
“Look,” Jayden whispered, echoing the feeling in her soul. Dark and tall, slender and cold, a cloud coasted toward them from the horizon, skimming over the ground.
Ethan clenched his jaw. “A storm. Yours?”
A shiver raced through her. Creator help her. The pain of loss speared her soul and her knees weakened. She pressed her hand against her tightening throat and shook her head. “I can’t feel the storm.”
Ethan glanced at her, and his eyes filled with so much emotion. But her sense of his feelings was gone. Everything Jayden had come to embrace and rely on . . . just gone. Not a hole. At least that would be something. It was just an absence of so much that she’d shared with Ethan. “My talents are gone.”
The base of the cloud opened like a black drape, and the Mistress stepped out from the dark abyss. Her eyes had turned black, like a starless night, and her skin, which had once been a pale yellow, was white. She was death come to claim them.
What remained of the Black Blood Army, trailed after her, and hope bloomed in Jayden. The Feravolk gathered here could take them. Maybe they could beat her.
“How does it feel to be in my prison?” the Mistress’s voice boomed as if it echoed itself. “You chosen ones, Feravolk. The Creator’s most prized guardians. And where are you now? Powerless. Soleden is mine. You have nothing. This army of yours doesn’t compare to what I’ve brought here. You destroyed many of my Black Blood Army, but I have creatures whose blood runs blacker than even those you’ve seen. The power is mine now. To create. To destroy. To kill. And to bring to life.” She held her hand out toward the funnel cloud behind her. “Behold! My army!”
Deformed and distorted creatures with colors not before seen in this world poured out of the cloud like a torrent of debris scattering in the wind.