“There’s no other way?” Laina asked.
Polina shook her head.
Selene said nothing, but Silas had the distinct impression she wasn’t disappointed. She’d be happy never to see Nickelova or her mountain again.
Silas loaded the heart into his leather backpack and strapped it onto his shoulders. Traveling by metal was a tricky business. He’d heard it compared to being forced through a straw one molecule at a time. But he had to take the risk.
“Remember, Silas,” Selene said, “the ancient texts say Nickelova must obey you as long as you possess the heart. But she can lie to you. She’ll try to manipulate you. Don’t fall for it. You must keep the heart from her at all costs.”
“I plan on it.”
“There’s always the chance she’s not there,” Laina said. “I know what I saw. Nickelova was in Carlton City.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Jason said.
Selene kissed Jason on the lips. “Don’t be long. I expect to see you tonight. We have a date.” She backed away toward Laina and Meredith.
Silas considered Meredith. The relationship was still new enough that he wasn’t sure what to expect. Would she kiss him good-bye? Shed tears in fear of his life? React angrily to him going without her?
Her jaw tightened, and her eyes narrowed on his face. “Silas, get back here in one piece, or I’ll kick your ass.” She pointed a finger at his chest.
“Duly noted,” he drawled. “What will you do to my ass if I do make it back in one piece?”
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see.” Meredith waggled her eyebrows at him.
After a moment of silence as Jason, Selene, and Laina exchanged glances awkwardly, Polina cleared her throat. “Shall we?”
Silas took Jason’s hand and then Polina’s. The corners of the witch’s mouth twitched. “This may hurt a little.” She scooped a handful of gold dust from the bag at her waist and sprinkled it over their heads.
Jason came apart first, dissolving into a swirl of glittery pieces. Silas followed, feeling his cells scatter to the wind, his arms and legs break apart. He was swept away until nothing made sense anymore. There was no up or down, awake or asleep… only the flow of liquid metal.
When he finally came together again, he inhaled long and deep. His cheek was pressed against cold stone, and his body felt rubbery, boneless. He blinked rapidly. Polina’s slippered feet came into focus.
“We’re here,” she said. “Thank the goddess. You two were heavier than I imagined.”
Silas had been wrong. Traveling by gold dust was not like being filtered through a straw. It was worse. Much, much worse.
“Here, drink this.” Polina brought a bottle to Silas’s lips. He drank greedily, sputtering when his initial thirst gave way enough for him to taste what he was swallowing. Whatever it was, it wasn’t water.
“What is that?” He stuck his tongue out, hoping the frigid cold would numb his taste buds.
“A potion of water lily root, orchid worm, and spirulina to speed recovery and combat altitude sickness.” She crossed the cave to Jason and brought the tonic to his lips.
Silas double-checked that his backpack was still on his shoulders, then pushed himself up on his hands and knees. He pulled his parka tighter around him. They were right inside the mouth of the cave, where blowing snow made the outdoors look like a winter wonderland.
“Come on,” Jason said, coughing. He regarded the bottle in Polina’s hand as if it were rat poison. He led them deeper into the cave, the cavern becoming darker and darker as they descended into the mountain until even Silas’s supernatural sight failed him.
“Allow me,” Polina said. The tip of her wand glowed to life.
“There’s a fireplace against that far wall,” Jason said. “If you hocus-pocus that thing, it will make it easier for us to see.”
Polina circled her wand and a large fire ignited in a Citizen Kane-sized alcove in the stone, bathing the cave in warm light. A carpet and sofa in the main chamber were covered in a thick layer of soot, although a frayed corner suggested it was once patterned red. Behind the furniture, there was a coffin-sized silver egg.
“She’s here,” Silas said. But Jason already knew as much. He was standing next to the metallic pod, running his fingers along its shell. The thing was eerily lustrous, like an alien artifact, with plate-sized overlapping scales that reflected the flickering light of the fire.
Jason knocked on the shell. It sounded solid. Something was in there. “She’s got to be inside.”
Approaching slowly, Polina raised her wand, her eyes wide with distrust of the foreign object.
Silas slid the backpack from his shoulders. Once he’d freed the heart from its purple velvet bag, the egg vibrated, emitting a low hum.
“Did you see that?” Jason held his hands over the egg, grinning excitedly. I’d say she knows we’re here.”
“Are you suggesting the dragon fae has been inside this thing all this time?” Polina paced the periphery inspecting the scales.
“As far as we know,” Jason said.
She touched the egg, her face straining against some invisible force. “It looks like metal, but it isn’t. I’m a metal witch; I have no power over this. It’s biological, not elemental.”
“Selene told me Nickelova might react to the proximity of the heart,” Jason said. “Try it, Silas.”
Cupping the large throbbing ruby in both hands, Silas passed it over the cocoon, stopping where he’d expect Nickelova’s chest to be. Loud and clear, he said, “Come out, Nickelova. I have something for you.”
The egg vibrated again, and the giant plates began to shift. With a sound like grinding gears, the scales slid and stacked one on top of the other like some giant puzzle box. As the hard, metallic shell folded away, a leathery snakeskin was exposed. It writhed as if the serpent within had swallowed a giant rat.
Silas squeezed the heart. “Come on, you bitch, come and get it.”
The snakeskin split down the middle, the sound of tearing leather making Silas feel queasy. A puff of foul-smelling steam rose from the broken flesh. “Ugh!” Silas covered his nose and mouth with the back of his arm. The skin shriveled and rolled, the cocoon opening like some gigantic fleshy baked potato.
Polina crept forward, wand pointed menacingly toward the opening. The steam was too thick to see inside. Jason waved his hands in a ridiculous effort to fan the haze away, while Silas squinted his eyes in the hopes of confirming a visual of Nickelova. The heart tightly within his grip, he leaned over the opening.
A pale round sphere broke through the fog. No, not a sphere, a head. The bald head of a corpse, with shriveled skin and receding lips. Skeletal arms splayed over the sides of the cocoon, one bony hand reaching for Silas and the heart.
“Miiine,” the thing rasped, its dried tongue protruding between its teeth.
“Is that Nickelova?” Jason stepped back in repulsion.
Polina grimaced. “She is mortal. Suspending herself may have prolonged her life, but without food or water, she has fed on herself these months. She will die here if we don’t get her help.”
“Heeaaart.” The skeletal fingers clawed at Silas.
“Sorry. No.” Silas lifted the heart out of her reach.
“The fae hospital will never take her, not after what she’s done,” Jason said.
“Then we bring her to St. John’s. Grateful will help us,” Silas said.
“I must warn you, I’m not at all sure she’ll survive the journey,” Polina said.
“Take her separately. Then come back for the two of us,” Silas said.
Polina scowled. “Me? Take her alone? Sure, send the witch along with the dragon woman. Make the witch do it. She won’t mind. It’s not as if the dragon is a killer or anything. Oh wait, she is, and the past lover of the man who almost murdered my husband and my familiar—”
“Polina!” Silas raised his voice to stop her rambling. “She won’t hurt you. She’s… decimated. Besides, she ca
n’t do magic as long as I have this.” He held up the heart. “And she’s not strong enough to do anything else.”
Nickelova’s distended eyes locked on the heart cradled in Silas’s hand.
“Fine,” Polina said bitterly. “Help me lift her out of this thing.” Because Silas had the heart, Jason took the lead, lifting Nickelova from the silver scales. Even from a distance, Silas could see she was too light. She looked like a mummy, barely more than a skeleton. Nothing like the woman Silas had known. Nickelova’s body once contained a dragon. Now, it seemed barely capable of containing her life.
Polina wrapped an arm around Nickelova’s chest and glanced between the two brothers. “Don’t get comfortable. I don’t plan on staying with this one any longer than I have to.” She released a handful of gold dust over their heads. The two came apart and melded into the mountain.
“You know what this means?” Jason crossed his arms over his chest, and blew out a deep breath.
“Huh?”
“Whoever attacked Laina wasn’t Nickelova. Which means, our sister was duped, and someone else is helping Alex. Someone who’s not even on our radar.”
By the time Silas arrived in Carlton City with Polina, the others had transported Nickelova to the hospital. Grateful had her in isolation, hooked up to so many wires and tubes Silas wouldn’t have recognized her if he hadn’t known who she was.
“It doesn’t even look like her,” he said.
“It’s her.” Grateful hooked her finger inside the cuff of one of her rubber gloves and stripped both from her hands. “I’m disappointed Bojingles Fae Hospital wouldn’t take her. The woman doesn’t have a heartbeat. You have no idea the steps I had to take to keep her identity a secret.”
“Can I interrogate her?”
“You can try, but keep in mind, she’s fragile. I’ve got magic and medicine propping her up. I’m not at all sure she’ll live through this.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “She could still die? You’ve got her pumped full of everything under the sun, and we still might lose her?”
“She put her mortal body in a magically induced coma meant for a supernatural creature. With no food or water, her body has fed on itself and the remains of magic in the dragon scale these last months. My guess is, she wouldn’t have lasted long if you hadn’t woken her up. It’s touch and go.”
“I have questions, and she’s the only one with the answers.”
Grateful sighed. “She’s refusing to eat.”
“What? Why?”
“Says she’d rather be dead than help you.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic.”
“But she’s conscious and alive now. I’d make the most of it.” Grateful patted his shoulder supportively. “Who knows how long she’ll be with us.” With a nod, she padded down the hall to her next patient.
Adjusting his backpack, Silas stepped into the sterile scent and incessant beeping of Nickelova’s room. Only in Holocaust movies had he seen a body as emaciated as hers. Death pressed up against her like a lover. A full tray of hospital food sat untouched on her bedside table—beef stew, Jell-O, a dinner roll, the works. It smelled appetizing enough. A bag of phosphorescent fluids dripped into an IV in her arm.
“I made the same mistake with Alex,” she said, unprompted. “It’s why he wasn’t healing, despite the fire lily juice and the magic of my presence. I never fed him. Your humanlike constitution makes you vulnerable to hunger. Now I’m vulnerable too.”
“Where is Alex?”
She snorted softly. “I have no idea.”
“You must be able to sense when he uses your amulet.”
“I could if he was using it. He’s not. I haven’t felt the ripple of the amulet’s use in some time. Of course, I’m weaker without my heart. If you gave it back to me, I might be able to help you.”
“Find him first, and then we’ll talk about your heart.”
“I have no magic without it. I had one dragon scale, and I used all of its magic to preserve myself. I am useless to you now.” She turned her head away.
“I highly doubt that.” He strode to the end of the bed. “My sister was stabbed by someone who looked exactly like you. How is that possible? Do you have a twin?”
“No.” Her gaze darted in his direction. “Perhaps it was Alex with a camouflage charm.”
“There was a protective enchantment against him around the property.”
She adjusted in the bed as if she were in pain. “You’re fucked. You are so fucked,” she said through a forced smile.
“Why?”
“Because if someone else is helping Alex and using my identity to do so, your sister is only the beginning. Let me guess, there have been other incidences, other strange occurrences. Unexplained phenomena?”
“Maybe.” Silas pictured the Vampire stabbing himself in the chest.
“This isn’t about Alex anymore.” She paused, breaking into a fit of coughing. “This is bigger. Much bigger.” She closed her eyes and sank into her pillow.
“Don’t fall asleep. Tell me. Tell me what you know, or I swear to the goddess, I’ll crush your heart with my bare hands.”
This made her entire body vibrate with laughter. “You’re going to kill me, Detective? As if I’m afraid to die. As if I didn’t imagine my death a thousand times in that tomb I made in my mountain. You idiot. I welcome death. Death is far preferable to what’s coming.”
“And that is?”
“War. The underworld is rising. Panaal has been suppressed for far too long.”
“Panaal?”
“The horned god of the underworld.” She gave him a smug look. “You don’t even know who he is.”
“The devil. You’re blaming this on the devil?”
“Panaal is not the devil. He’s the balance, the equal and opposite of Hecate. The goddess has abused her position for far too long, intervened on behalf of the witches, fae, and shifters who do her bidding. But demons, dragons, and vampires are gathering in numbers, coming together to advance the cause of their forgotten cultures and traditions. They will avenge their ancestors. They will take back this world for their progeny.”
“This again? When are you going to drop this idea that you can unite the supernatural communities under common rulership? It can’t be done.”
“Look at me, wolf. Do I look like I’m in any condition to unite supernaturals? Oh, no. You should wish it were still my goal to do so. Our friend Alex has found an advocate in Panaal and the forces he is engaging are far more powerful than I ever was.”
“But still focused on the subjugation of humans?”
She jutted her chin toward him. “The suppression of supernatural power is a trend whose heyday is over. Panaal knows this and is ready to turn the tides.”
“And Alex is his tool for making it happen?”
The corners of her mouth curled in smug satisfaction.
“But how? I can’t imagine Hecate would be keen on this idea.”
She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes.
“Now is not the time to clam up.” He reached into his backpack and squeezed the heart inside. Every machine in the room went haywire as Nickelova’s body bucked off the bed, her eyes rolling back in her head. He released the heart, and she flopped onto the sheets, fragile limbs splayed like a fallen bird.
Although her eyes were closed, she laughed softly. “Go ahead and kill me. Get it over with.”
Staring at her, lying there like a heap of skin and bones, he was tempted to do as she asked. She’d hurt his pack, almost killed his family, and helped Alex, his mortal enemy. It would feel good to watch her die. But she was useless to him dead.
There was more she was keeping from him. A key piece of information. Namely how Alex planned to raise the underworld, why he brainwashed a vampire into committing suicide, and most importantly, why he was waiting to attack. Alex must have healed by now. He obviously had help and power. So why hadn’t the other shoe dropped?
Silas examined the dragon heart
in his hands. The ancient tomes Selene had found on the subject of using it were hazy and lacking. But his gut told him that Nickelova had more to fear than death from the thing in his hands. For her to beg for death, it must be more powerful than she was letting on.
“Sit up, Nickelova.” The sharp command emanated from deep within him, deeper than his lungs or his voice.
There was a moment of hesitation, and then her body shook violently. She jackknifed off the mattress. “Fuck you,” she said through her teeth.
Silas squinted at her. “Interesting. You were hoping to die. Hoping I wouldn’t figure this out. It’s not pain you respond to; it’s intent. It takes more than a simple request. You have to know what you want before you ask. I’m an alpha werewolf. I have loads of experience with intent. Every alpha command requires it. Now, pick up your fork and eat everything on that tray.”
Her hand slapped the bedside table as if she was a marionette and someone else was pulling her strings. She awkwardly fisted her fork and brought a trembling bite to her lips. Sheer horror flitted through her expression, her throat swallowing as if the motion was involuntary.
Silas grinned. “You will take care of yourself, Nickelova. You will remain safe and eat and drink your fill. And you will grow healthier. You’re no good to me dead.”
“You bastard,” she said between bites. A piece of meat tumbled from her lips onto her lap.
“Careful. You wouldn’t want to have to eat that off the floor.” He backed toward the door. “I’ll see you in a few days. I bet by then you’ll be feeling much better.” He slipped into the corridor, her screams of anguish following him.
Chapter 16
Any serious endeavor at investigation started with an effective crime map. Fortunately for Silas, Meredith had set up a corkboard along half his office wall and covered it with every contact Silas, Jason, or Laina had had with Alex or one of his cronies. The apartment building in the vampire district, the crime scene outside of Carlton City, Copper Herald Health & Wellness, and ZeroHour.
Vengeance: A Knight World Novel (Fireborn Wolves Book 3) Page 11