by Lizzy Ford
“She’s different than I thought she would be,” Aveline whispered. “Very strong, which I admire. But … she’s too much like him.” She lifted her chin towards Black Wolf. “Even if she does, I don’t think we can trust her.”
“I don’t think we can trust anyone. When Black Wolf is focused on the same purpose as we are, he is an unparalleled ally,” Tiana said. “We had better hope your mother shares our purpose.”
“She wants your father dead. Let’s hope that’s enough,” Aveline said with a small smile. “We’ve been hiding here for two days, waiting for you. She told me details about my father I didn’t know. He was a good man, and his last mission was to try to murder your father.”
“Your family shares a hobby,” Tiana said.
Aveline looked at her. “Did you tell a joke?”
Tiana smiled.
“You’re not the scared little girl I met months ago,” Aveline said with some pride. “When this is over, I’ll take you to the Freelands. I promise.”
Tiana’s smile faded. She would never see the Freelands. She had held onto the sliver of desperate hope until she stepped into the city and felt the thrumming energy of her father’s magic. If she lived through this, she risked becoming him, and destroying the lives of thousands of innocent people. Her best chance of not becoming mad was to die in the confrontation with her father, leaving Arthur to help the city recover and negotiate peace with the Natives.
When Aveline glanced her way again, Tiana forced a smile.
“I would like that,” she said. “But we will have to fetch Rocky and Jose first.”
“I am so sorry I dragged Jose into all this.” Aveline sighed, eyes on the two skinwalkers deep in discussion. “I don’t like the way she looks at you,” Aveline said.
Tiana glanced at her friend’s long lost mother. The female skinwalker was gazing at Tiana with the intensity Black Wolf had when they first met, as if she were mentally peeling off her skin.
“This isn’t how I thought she would be,” Aveline said, a note of sorrow in her voice. “I think we should leave.”
“Without them?”
“Now.” Aveline took her arm and started towards the door. “I’m going to get some real clothes,” she called to the others. “If we stay, she’ll try to kill you. Let’s get you somewhere safe, and then I’ll talk to her alone about helping us.”
They walked outside. Aveline went to the first horse and raided the saddlebags, tossing her cloak to change quickly.
“Mount up,” she told Tiana. “I need to tell you something about your brother.”
Tiana untied both the mules from the post and mounted hers. “What about him? Is he safe?”
“Not even close.” Aveline finished dressing and hauled herself on top of the mule with a frown. “What is that?”
Tiana saw her reach for the basket tied to Black Wolf’s horse and smiled. “You have a spirit wolf. Do you hear it?”
“I do.” Aveline lifted the remaining black pup and peered at it. It squeaked and squirmed in her hand. “Can it say anything other than my name?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe when they’re older,” Tiana replied. “But they can teleport.”
“You’re better at this magic stuff.” Aveline hesitated then handed her pup to Tiana. “I’ll tell you what your brother got himself into on the way.”
Tiana tucked Aveline’s pup into the satchel with her own and followed her, concerned.
Chapter Forty-Two
Later, when they were safe and hiding, Aveline told her everything.
Tiana thought long and hard about the news about Arthur that Aveline shared with her. The uncle she did not know existed, her father’s assassination attempt imprisonment of Arthur, the skinwalker enslaved in the attic …
How long she sat, she did not know. The day grew on while she battled herself silently. She understood the problem, and she understood the solution. But executing it? Diving Eagle had no problem amassing the courage he needed to perform his duties, but she did.
Aveline was quiet as well, playing with the pups on the floor of the tiny shed where they hid from the world. At long last, Tiana blinked out of her thoughts and shifted to the floor.
“I have to surrender,” she voiced.
Aveline froze and looked up. “To your father?”
Tiana nodded.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Aveline –”
“Either we’re in this together, or you aren’t going.”
Tiana hesitated. She was not surprised by Aveline’s insistence. She had a backup plan. “Then I think we should find my brother before we go,” she said.
“Easy. He’s in prison.”
“No, he is not. I sense him in the inner city. Is it possible my father moved him?”
Aveline shook her head. “He might have escaped somehow, maybe with the help of your uncle, assuming he’s on Arthur’s side.”
“Do you think it wise for us to find Arthur first?” Tiana asked. It was hard to manipulate someone, harder still to do it to Aveline. “I need him to know Diving Eagle’s plans. If my uncle has a small army willing to fight for home, maybe he and Diving Eagle can work together.”
“They can’t take on your father.”
“With me and the skinwalkers they can,” Tiana pointed out. She dared not reveal her real plan to Aveline. “If all of us are together in the same place and time, we can face my father.”
Aveline was watching her. “I don’t know what happened to you, but you’ve changed since we met,” she said slowly. “Why didn’t you accept Diving Eagle’s offer to go to the Freelands and escape all of this?”
“I could not leave knowing you and my brother are in danger. It would not be right. I would spend my life thinking about how I should have been brave, like you, and done the right thing,” Tiana answered honestly. “If I escape, you all must be safe, too.”
“All or nothing.”
Tiana nodded. She played with her pup, hoping her friend did not notice she was holding her breath and nervous. Aveline appeared thoughtful before she finally spoke again.
“Why don’t I go get your brother and bring him here? If your uncle set him up, he might be waiting for you to rescue him.”
“If you think it is best,” Tiana replied. “But I will be there when everyone faces my father.”
“I think you will have to be,” Aveline agreed. She picked up her pup. “Where is your brother?”
Tiana focused hard on the mental image of his presence. Aveline tilted her head and closed her eyes. She smiled.
“Got it. Kind of a useful ability, isn’t it?”
Tiana nodded. “Be careful.”
Aveline tucked her spirit pup in her pocket and left, closing the door securely behind her. Tiana waited a full five minutes, feeding her wolf again, before she tucked it away in her satchel. She stood and slipped out of the shed silently. She did not have to check her mind to know in which direction her father was; he was like a bur in her skull. His presence, and overwhelming energy, were unmistakable.
Tiana mounted her mule and walked silently into the foggy street. It was afternoon, and the sun appeared as a glowing disk in the sky. No one was out as she walked the streets of the inner city. Her journey took two hours through unfamiliar wards and roads. Her nerves began to fray when the pyramid came into sight ahead of her, its ominous shape piercing the fog. She crossed a bridge and passed a market and continued onward. Each step she took closer to her destiny left her a little less optimistic she would ever leave.
She hid the mule near the pyramid, in case she had a chance to escape.
Five minutes later, she stood at the base of the pyramid. Tiana took a deep breath and lowered the hood of her cloak. She had no way of knowing how she would be received by anyone.
I am here. She sent the message towards her former home without knowing if her father could or would receive it. Tiana waited a moment and then walked into the pyramid.
If anything, her appe
arance did not cause the raucous she expected but quite the opposite. The wealthy members of the outer city stopped in place to stare at her. She no longer cared if they saw her deformed eyes. She was there to save them all from the man in the uppermost reaches of the pyramid. What they thought of her did not concern her.
The Shield did not rush her. If anything, several of them fell into step behind her in what she recognized as a protective layer, the way they used to loosely surround Arthur.
Come home. The quiet command in her head was unmistakably her father’s.
Tiana missed a step and caught herself quickly. Over and over, she heard Black Wolf’s claim about her power knowing no limits, and Diving Eagle’s challenge not to be a coward. By the time she entered the elevator reserved for Hanover’s only, she trembled beneath the cloak. But she continued on, aware the lives of her friends were in her hands.
Tiana left the elevator and entered the apartment alone. Her guards remained outside the apartment door. She had never walked down this hallway alone except for the time she escaped. She took in the paintings lining the corridor of her predecessors, the Hanover men who had ruled Lost Vegas for four hundred and fifty years. At the end of the hall was her father’s portrait and beside it, room for one more.
Tiana’s eyes lingered on the empty space and she stopped.
It was right that no picture hung here. In fact, if she were as strong as every man who preceded her, no picture ever would, for the Hanover tyranny ended with her. She drew a deep breath and continued through the apartments. The opulence of the next rooms was lost on her; she could think only of confronting her father for the first time in her life.
Tiana reached the door to his private quarters and paused. It was cracked open. She pushed it the rest of the way open to reveal her father seated across the room from her, at a small table with two chairs. He sipped amber liquid from a rare glass tumbler.
Swallowing hard, Tiana closed the door and went to the table. She assumed her seat and clenched her hands in her lap, her heart hammering hard and fast.
Edwin Hanover lowered his tumbler and gazed at her. He appeared pleased, which unsettled her more.
“I came home,” she said quietly.
“You want to negotiate.”
It should not have surprised her that he already knew part of what was in her mind. Tiana nodded.
“Arthur, Aveline, the skinwalkers, the Diné. I want them all to be left alone and free to leave the city,” she said in a voice that quivered. “I will stay as your heir.”
Her father poured himself another drink. “This is not entirely about what I alone would do to them.”
“I … know my mind will be consumed by the same madness that consumes the minds of every Hanover leader. If they are outside the city, they will be safe from you and me.”
“If your brother had not freed the skinwalker, I would not be concerned about letting then all go,” her father said. “But he has, which threatens my grip on the city. I will agree to your terms, if you turn over one of the skinwalkers. I do not care which one.”
Tiana started to object. Her father stood.
“One skinwalker for the lives of everyone you care about,” he said. “Think about it.”
He walked out of his quarters.
Tiana watched him, feeling helpless to stop him or make him understand she had no intention of turning over anyone to him, even Black Wolf, who would probably be thrilled by the challenge.
When the door closed, Tiana sagged. Her insides were in knots, her mind racing and heart pounding hard enough it felt as if it might explode through her chest. Aveline, Arthur, the skinwalkers and Diving Eagle were outside of her father’s influence – for now. She had to keep his attention focused on her and away from them.
But how did she do that? She wracked her mind and went to the door, intent on distracting him, no matter what it took. Wrenching the door open, she said the only thing she could think of.
“Why did you spare me?”
He stopped. Without turning, he answered. “Which time?”
“The first, when I was a child. You burned someone else’s body in my place. I would not have survived if not for Arthur. If you meant to imprison and forget me, why spare me?”
For a moment, she did not think he would respond. “Someone convinced me it was better to have two potential heirs than one.”
“Is the family legacy the only reason?”
“Legacy. Power. What else is there?” He faced her.
She felt the urge to wilt but did not, instead taking a moment to collect herself before she spoke again. “I guess I want to know … were you ever like Arthur and me? Did you ever love anyone?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Love. It is a weakness, one you cannot afford if you are to lead the city.”
“But you had to have cared for someone at some point. Your parents, your wives, us.”
“If I did, I cannot remember it.”
Speechless, Tiana watched him walk away. This time, she did not try to stop him. If Marshall Cruise were right, and her father was once normal and capable of caring for another, then that part of him had been swallowed his madness.
A small piece of hope within her felt as if it shriveled and died. She had fantasized many possible scenarios of the fate she could not fully face. In one of these fantasies, she had seen herself successfully appealing to the side of her father that loved his children or at the very least, had at one point been capable of caring for someone else and convincing him to go with her to the Freelands.
If he cared for no one, he was no more human than the skinwalker. Of all the things she was capable of, turning her father into a caring human was not among them.
Was she destined to become like him? How long had it taken for him to lose himself? How much magic had he used? Did he know it was happening? Did he care? Would she be aware when she crossed the threshold to become the threat the others believed she could be?
Amid the questions she could never answer, and the confusion crippling her, was one fact she would never doubt. She had one chance to end this, before she became like her father.
Tiana went to the door leading to the tiny, wooden room where she had spent her life. She lifted a hand and removed the door through telekinesis then stepped into it. With the same small effort, she yanked the boards from the window and stood before it, gazing out into the early evening. At one point, several weeks ago, she had been able to glimpse the distant forest from her window.
But now, her visibility stretched to the nearest street and no further. Smoke and ash obscured everything. She closed her eyes to locate her friends and Arthur. Aveline was hidden, and she believed her friend had been earnest in her attempt to find Arthur, who was in the inner city. Black Wolf was not hiding from her this time, and she was not surprised to feel him near the pyramid. She marked his location mentally and checked in on Diving Eagle, who remained outside Lost Vegas. Her father was present in the pyramid, for now.
I intend to keep it that way, she thought.
Tiana opened her eyes. She had entered Lost Vegas suspecting she would never leave again and mourned the loss of the forest, grasslands, and open skies already. It was only fitting she ended up where it all began, in the tiny room her father had put her in and hoped to forget her.
Without knowing for certain if her plan would work, she visualized a shield over the pyramid and encapsulating the location of Black Wolf, who she was also determined would not leave the city again after all the lives he had taken. She used the same method to contain Black Wolf.
A burst of energy left her, and she sagged, drained. It felt as if she had stayed up most the night and rose early, before she was ready, for several days in a row. Drained and fatigued, she leaned against the window, yearning already to return to the peaceful forest.
Her pup squeaked from within the pouch. Tiana smiled and sank down beneath the window, back against the wall. She withdrew the pup and one of the bottles it had thought to bring with i
t. The tiny creature lifted its wobbly head to gaze at her.
“I hope we both survive this, but if I do not, you will have to choose another person to guide,” she whispered. “Or maybe go with Aveline.”
Aveline. The tiny voice in her mind repeated.
Tiana laughed and rested her head against the wall. “Yes, Aveline. She will protect you until you are big enough to protect her.”
The pup returned to repeating Tiana’s name over and over telepathically. Tiana smiled. The voice in her head did not quiet again until the wolf subsided into sleep once more.
“Now we wait,” Tiana said and glanced towards the gray fog visible through the window above her. With her father trapped in her bubble, she hoped to give her brother time to escape the city. In the meantime, she needed rest to prepare for the confrontation with her father.
Quick footsteps echoed down the hall. Tiana placed the pup carefully in her satchel and prepared to face her father’s anger. With her energy gone, she could only hope he was not too angry and that she possessed the strength to contain him, and not to die, before she was recovered enough to kill him.
It was a terrible plan, but it was all she could think of to do.
Chapter Forty-Three
Arthur felt the shift in the world around him without understanding what it was. The energy coursing through him, a low, constant hum, ceased suddenly. He sat up, alarmed by the strange silence replacing it.
His uncle, wearing his own face, straightened from his position bent over a table, conspiring with other members of his inner circle.
As if the city itself experienced the sudden release of magic, the smoke and ash choking the streets floated upward, towards the sky. Within minutes, the streets were clear again.
Arthur watched the transformation from the window of the building in which his uncle had taken him. Only one person could alter the energy his father had thrown upon the city.