by KC Kingmaker
Panting, the Glovemates stepped aside from the beast. They watched for a moment to make sure the monster wasn’t going to get back up.
The ghastly green hue spreading across its body stopped, which seemed to be a sign of the poison’s efficacy—that the monster was dead because its blood wasn’t pumping any longer.
“Holy shit,” I said in a hushed tone. “We did it. We killed one of them.”
“Poison worked like a charm,” Venn added, staring at his sword. “Better than I expected, actually. I’m gonna lather on some more of this shit real quick.”
Dax prowled around the corpse, his lean muscles rippling underneath his glossy-black fur coat.
“Fuck yes,” Sunny growled, sheathing his sword. “They can be killed.”
“Dawn said they were hard to kill, but not impossible,” I mentioned.
“Teamwork is the key,” Venn said.
He was right. We had worked like a well-oiled machine and snuffed the bastard out. Well, not completely well-oiled—it hadn’t gone exactly according to plan. But ugly or pretty, the end result was all that mattered.
Sunny’s amber orbs locked on my face, glinting with dark excitement. “Let’s get these motherfuckers.”
Chapter 41
Coralia
SUNNY STUDIED THE SHADOWMAP then glanced up at the building in front of us. We hid behind a mountain of debris, kneeling with our heads inching over the top of the gross pile.
After killing the Leatherwing, we had followed Dax to a backpack he’d dropped so he could shift. He gripped the backpack in his jaws and disappeared into an alley. When he emerged, he was fully clothed, in his human form.
We had continued on for a few blocks, unmolested, until we came to the spot on the map that was marked as our destination.
Sunny said, “That’s it,” with a thrust of his chin.
It looked like any other building in the city: rusted, decrepit, and a sagging foundation. It definitely didn’t look special, and there weren’t any Leatherwings skulking around the place on guard duty.
“It’s two stories,” Dax whispered. “Maybe three.”
Sunny grunted.
“How do we play this?” Venn asked.
“I say we stick together,” I blurted, my voice low. “Look what we did last time. It worked out.”
Sunny frowned. “Jace told us to use our bird formation—right, left, vanguard, rover.”
“Jace isn’t here. We are.”
“She’s right,” Venn said. “We should do whatever feels right in the moment. And I’m in agreement: I’m not looking forward to walking into that place without knowing if you guys have my six.”
“We have your six, Venn,” Sunny answered back. Despite whatever had been said before, it was clear Sunny did consider himself the leader of the party. None of us were going to argue with him, not when we were riding high after our victory over the Leatherwing.
We’d been talking strategy for close to ten minutes. “Every minute we waste is a minute we risk discovery,” I said.
Sunny sighed. “Fine. We’ll do it your way, princess.”
“Based on the map, there seems to be two entrances,” Dax said, running his finger over the surface of the parchment. “The one in front of us and a back entrance on the other side.”
Sunny narrowed his eyes. “I say we go through the front. They won’t be expecting that.”
“Do we even know if anything is in there? It’s too quiet out here . . . I don’t like it.” Venn shuddered, flexing his muscles under his black fae armor.
“Let’s grow a pair, guys,” I said, smirking as they all looked at me with varying degrees of amusement. “So to speak. Let’s do this.”
“Want to lead the way?” Sunny asked, the smirk still lingering at the corners of his lips.
I shrank. “Um . . . not really.”
“That’s what I thought.” He gave himself a satisfied nod and I rolled my eyes. After stuffing the shadowmap in Dax’s backpack, he said, “I’ll take the lead, I guess.”
“You don’t sound like your usual cocky self,” Venn noted.
“Well, I’m hoping not to get blasted right as I step through that door. What if there’s a trap?”
“We’ll be right behind you, Sunder.” Dax’s words seemed to inspire the vampire to rise from his kneeling position. We all followed suit, hands on the hilts of our swords.
“Remember your magic. Remember your training,” Dax said as we inched forward from the debris pile. He was pretty good at the pep talks, and I thought he’d make a great tutor in the future . . . if he actually showed up. “These monsters are savage but predictable. We are shadowblades. Unpredictability is in our nature.”
I smiled at that. None of us were shadowblades. We were freaking students, yet we were out here in the trenches on an assassination mission that seemed way too important to just be a usual, fly-by-night assignment.
It felt like we were moving toward a discovery of some kind—one Headmaster Cane and the higher-ups at Shadowblade Academy desperately wanted to uncover.
Our eyes darted left and right, across the street, everywhere someone might be hiding.
But hiding wasn’t the Leatherwings’ M.O. I had a feeling they would make themselves known soon enough. If they were inside the facility at all.
“Stick to me like glue,” Sunny continued. “If we’re swarmed, we focus on one at a time. That’s how we’ll win—as a team, like Venn said.”
I appreciated that we were all in agreement. We had our gameplan, now we just needed to execute.
We came to the door, which was a heavy iron affair with a bar over the middle.
“Take the back entrance?” I asked, my voice barely audible in my own ears due to the blood rushing through them.
“No,” Sunny whispered. He put his hands on the iron bar and flexed his muscles, baring his teeth. With some effort, he managed to lift the slab.
I found it interesting the place was barred from the outside rather than inside. “Wait.”
Sunny wasn’t going to wait. The bar was already lifted and it looked heavy as fuck.
“Why is it barred from the outside?” I asked. “That’s not a smart way to do things if you want to keep someone out, is it?”
Dax exhaled sharply. “Good point, Coralia.”
Venn said, “You bar something from the outside to keep something in.”
I gulped, the cold chill of fear racing across my spine.
Sunny ignored us, propped the bar up against the wall, and opened the door.
Inside was black. A corridor of some kind. From the outside, the building had looked huge width-wise, like a warehouse. Stout rather than stacked. So the hallway wasn’t completely unexpected, though it frightened me nonetheless.
The vampire took the lead, drawing his sword. Dax went second, I went third, and Venn took the rear.
We moved at a snail’s pace. I couldn’t see shit.
Ahead, murky light illuminated an opening. My stomach fluttered with anticipation and dread. Though I had nothing to base it on, I already didn’t like what we were going into. We were too blind.
The second room was stacked with large steel boxes—the kind of shipping containers you’d find on a cargo ship. They gave us some good shadows to work with and some nice places to hide.
I burrowed into a shadow to the left of Sunny. Dax moved to the right. Venn stayed directly behind the vampire, his envenomed blade drawn.
“I smell them,” Dax whispered.
The room opened up into an area that reminded me of a jail. We peeked out, not moving away from the hideaways created by the stacked shipping containers.
The room was two levels, with a large open section at the base, in front of us, and a platform overhead circling the whole area. Stairs on the far end of the room led up to the encircling balcony. The platform’s latticed steelwork could be seen through from below by looking up through the honeycomb pattern.
Dust rained down from above. The platfor
m was trembling from movement.
Ice lodged in my veins. Scanning left and right, I recognized that the room wasn’t like a prison . . . it was a prison. Or at least it used to be. That explains the iron bar on the outside of the door. I realized what had seemed off from the outside: the building’s lack of windows.
Sectioned cell blocks made up the corners—four quadrants on the lower level, and, I suspected, four on the upper level.
The rattle of the overhead platform continued.
“Sounds like they’re all upstairs,” Venn whispered.
Just as we were about to emerge from the safety of the shipping containers, a sniffling cry erupted from above. At the same time, on the opposite end of the room, I spied the cloven hooves of a Leatherwing wobbling down the staircase, making its way to the first level.
It was at least fifty feet away. Once it got to ground level, it would have clear line-of-sight on us.
“Fuck, it’s gonna see us,” I said. And what the hell was that cry I heard? I tried to ignore it, focusing on the task at hand.
A strange noise emitted from Sunny, like teeth grinding together. I furrowed my brow. To my right, stretching and crackling sounds. I glanced over to find Dax shifting, his fae clothes in a pile on the ground.
Before I could open my mouth to ask what they were doing, Sunny surged ahead. He moved at lightning speed, trying to reach the staircase before the Leatherwing made it to the bottom.
We were all in.
Dax flew past Sunny, his powerful hindlegs carrying him even faster than the vampire’s unnatural speed.
Ready to wail a battle cry, I started forward. Venn’s hand came down on my shoulder and stopped me short. He made a vague motion with his hands, signaling through the air, and then he crept out from the hole. Rather than charge ahead, we slunk into the shadows made by the platform overhead, trying to hide ourselves while also making our way toward the stairs.
Surprise showed on the Leatherwing’s face as it reached the bottom of the stairs, only to find a vampire and panther shifter charging right at it.
Together, Sunny sliced with his sword and Dax launched himself through the air. They both connected at the same time.
A mangled roar bellowed from the Leatherwing’s lungs. Pandemonium broke loose.
The swishing sound of wings pumped overhead. I craned my neck to see a Leatherwing plummeting off the balcony fifteen feet in the air. It landed with knees bent and a loud thud . . .
. . . directly in front of me and Venn, but facing the other way toward Dax and Sunny.
The Leatherwing stomped on the floor and took off toward our allies.
Venn slunk out from the shadows before it could get too far. He sprinted after it and the beast began to swing around at hearing his footsteps—
Venn’s blade sank into its stomach. The green spores of mildew started to spread through its body.
The Leatherwing’s hand went up and raked down at Venn. He dodged to the left but took a slice in the arm and groaned.
“Venn!” I screamed, and then my hands were swirling through the air. I wasn’t sure what I was casting, but I knew it would be big. The sight of Venn staggering aside broke something loose inside me.
I guess I still really care for the lying butthead after all.
Tendrils of black spurted from my fingertips, twisting through the sky like strands of DNA. The physical shadows weren’t manipulated from my surroundings, but rather manifested from inside myself.
I’d never done something like that, and the sight made my eyes bulge.
When the spidery tendrils hit the Leatherwing, they sponged into its body and caused the demon to convulse like it was having a seizure. Moments later, the strands burst free from its shoulders, arms, legs, and dick.
The creature staggered to one knee, struggling to stay upright. The green hue of its skin was turning a ghastly blue, its hide beginning to sizzle and smell horrible.
Still, the Leatherwing fought on, my shadow spell disappearing. It burst forward on its feet, charging right at me.
I gasped, backpedaling, totally not expecting the motherfucker to a) still be alive, and b) still be able to fight.
Yellow spittle spewed from its cracked lips. Its red eyes had sunken into orange, bloodshot slits. I prepared myself for another spell but knew I’d never have the chance to pull it off. My timing was off.
Instead, I reached for my sword, but that too wasn’t looking good because the monster was only a few feet away.
Claws reached out for me.
A bestial roar—
My eyes screwed shut.
I yelped as gooey warmth showered me.
When my eyes tore open, the Leatherwing had no head. The gross plop of it landing gave me a shudder. I looked down and found the wide-eyed, decapitated head at my feet, staring up at me. Dark blood dripped from my hair and body, from its spurting gore.
Venn stood behind it, sword angled in a vicious slash that had somehow dismembered the monster’s head from its neck. The body was the last thing to fall, its momentum carrying it to my feet.
Though Venn struck a mighty pose, and he’d just saved me life, I saw over his shoulder that Sunny and Dax were still struggling with their opponent.
We hadn’t gone with the gameplan. We had separated, but it was only because Sunny was arrogant, cocksure, and had to be the hero, charging ahead like a madman.
I stepped around the headless Leatherwing and rushed past Venn, spinning him around with a shoulder bump. We took off after the demon in the distance. I noticed Venn wasn’t moving as fast. Limping.
Just as we reached the Leatherwing, Dax latched onto its meaty neck with his fangs. The thing swung around crazily, the panther swaying in the air, unwilling to let go as it clamped down.
Sunny stabbed it once, twice, three times in the torso.
I came up with my sword drawn. Sunny stepped aside, panting and wiping blood from his lips. I saw an opening and took it, squeezing in beside him.
My arm yanked back and with a fierce yell I stabbed into the beast.
It squealed, no longer able to swing Dax freely.
Venn sidled up and put an end to it, stabbing the thing through the spine.
I doubled over after it dropped. My head rushed, dizziness invading me. My Glovemates panted and heaved. Blood spattered across all of them—the black blood of the monsters, for the most part.
Scraping sounds overhead caught my attention. I craned my neck, whipping around—
To see a startled pale face staring down at me from the upstairs platform, on the other side of the room. Unblinking. Black hair framed a face I knew like my own.
My throat constricted. “Myria!”
I reached a hand out and stumbled forward.
A Leatherwing appeared next to her, emerging around a corner I hadn’t seen. Then another one, their four wings taking up all the space and swallowing my visual of Myria.
A gasp escaped my lips. “No!”
One of the Leatherwings snatched her arm and yanked her down the platform.
The other one opened a portal with a gesture from its clawed hands.
“NO!”
The monsters pushed my sister through the portal, and it quickly closed after them.
My feet dragged me to a stop. Dread coursed through me. With my brain short-circuiting, I wheeled around and pushed past my mates toward the staircase, to see if I could get closer to the portal and maybe locate it to follow them.
“Wait, Coralia!” Venn yelled.
Something heavy landed on the grated floor behind us—where I’d just been—as if it had jumped off the balcony. I stopped halfway up the stairs and looked over my shoulder.
My mates joined me in facing the new arrival.
“What . . . the fuck,” Sunny sputtered.
Dax stepped forward. “Q-Quentin?”
My eyes became saucers. Wait . . . WHAT?!
Chapter 42
Coralia
I SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN surpr
ised. But I was.
The shaggy, shoulder-length hair. The chiseled face and fit body. I shook my head to make sure it was real, blinking a few times. “Dreamwatcher?!”
My Glovemates looked at me like I was crazy.
The man from my dreams, who I had visited twice, was Quentin Argyle. The fifth Knuckle in Hudson’s Glove.
How did I not make the connection? How did I not realize earlier they were one and the same? And how did Quentin find me in the Spectral Realm—or did he even know I had teamed up with his old pals in Hudson’s Glove?
There were too many unanswered questions.
I smiled at Dreamwatcher, but my smile quickly wavered. It turned flat and vanished completely.
Because this man before me . . . did not look like the Dreamwatcher I knew. Something was off.
His pallor was pasty, rather than the robust tan hue from before. His skin tight and unhealthy. There was a vacant look in his eyes as he stared at us through black orbs. And something else . . .
When he took a step toward us, startling us with his Frankensteinian gait, I noticed it more clearly.
“He has no shadow,” I gasped aloud.
He raised his hands and dark swirls of energy formed in his palms. He directed the glowing hands at us.
“That’s not Quentin!” Dax shouted. He was naked, shifted into his human form after the rigorous fight with the Leatherwing, but I was too transfixed on Quentin to take a look at what I was missing.
Whips of energy shot out from Quentin’s palms.
We all scattered, jumping every which way as the whips cracked against the ground, billowing dust around us.
Getting to our feet, we each took a side and circled the man with our Oblyx swords out.
I glanced around nervously at my mates, wondering what to do. They all looked as hesitant as I did.
Quentin wheeled in a circle, noticed he was surrounded, and charged at the nearest man: Sunny.
Sunny backpedaled, fending the zombie-like man off, and it was painful to watch. Neither Dax nor Venn charged in to help.
Because Sunny didn’t need the help.
The slow, lumbering creature could not contend with the lightning speed of Sunny Conway. If he had attacked us with his Leatherwing cohorts, we would have been pressed. But not like this.