by Rye Brewer
“No, not that many of us. Less than twenty. Malory is the one you have to be careful of.”
“I can get plenty of backup for us,” Scott said. “Just give me the word.”
I turned toward my brother. “You think you can round up enough?”
“If clan leader wants it. Consider it done.” He gave me a smile of support, and then was on his feet and gone in a flash. If anybody could convince an army to band together, it was Scott. He had the touch.
Meanwhile, the werewolf looked at me. “What do I do?”
“You go, unless there’s anything else you think I should know that might help.”
He shrugged. “Not really. The girl’s in the dungeon with her sister. The metal has some kind of magic spell on it, so you can’t just break it. I don’t even think I could.”
I thought about that. “Who has the key?”
“Malory.”
“You should go,” I said.
I didn’t have to tell him twice. He ran like someone had set fire to him. I wondered what he would do, but it didn’t matter to me. That was his problem. I had to think about what I would do, as it was.
I turned back to the cottage. So there was a dungeon. It was enchanted, as I had assumed, and so were the chains holding Anissa to the wall. I couldn’t stand the thought of her chained up like that.
Chapter 15
Anissa
It was the strangest feeling I’d ever known. Like she’d drained something out of me, and I’d felt it draining as she did. Was this what it was like for the ones we’d drank from? I’d felt myself getting weaker with every passing second.
Malory hadn’t fed long. It had been such a relief when she’d stopped, too.
I could breathe again.
And when she stepped back, I gasped.
As did Sara.
Where an old, withered woman had stood before us just minutes earlier stood a much younger woman. Not young, not like my sister or me, but middle-aged at most. The gray hair was a mix of black and gray instead, and while it had been frizzy, it was suddenly shiny and smooth. Much like her face, which had filled out, the wrinkles lessening. Her eyes were brighter, her lips fuller. Even her body wasn’t so thin anymore.
“You see,” she said with a smile, “all the good your blood has done for me.”
“Yes, I see.” Whose voice was that? The weak, fluttery voice? It couldn’t be mine, could it? I was stronger than that, always. And yet it was the best I could do.
Malory’s smile never faded. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t worry, you’ll both be provided for.” She left wearing the same sick, nasty smile as always.
I waited until she was gone to slump a little in my chains, which left me just enough room to sit on a cot.
“I’m so sorry,” Sara whispered.
It took a long time for me to answer her. I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I was too ashamed.
“Won’t you even speak to me?” she whispered. “Are you that mad at me?”
That shocked me into response. “Mad at you?” I asked, stunned. “Why would I be mad at you? You didn’t do anything wrong!”
“If I hadn’t sold my blood, I wouldn’t have been imprisoned and you wouldn’t have had to save me like this.” She went silent for a long time, the only sound was that of the slow drip… drip… drip of water from somewhere nearby. “And you wouldn’t have needed to do what you did for Marcus.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” I said, feeling dizzy and lightheaded.
“Well, I do. You know what was always worse than being chained up and being away from you?” I heard a tremble in her voice.
“What?”
“Knowing what you were doing. I knew the entire time.”
“You did? How?”
She shrugged. “How do you think? Marcus told me.”
My stomach turned. “He didn’t.”
“He wanted me to know. It was torture, and he loved knowing it got to me.”
“You never told me.”
“Because I knew how much worse it would make things for you if you knew I knew.”
“Oh, Sara, I’m sorry. I messed everything up.” The tears flowed—tears I could hardly spare, seeing as how I was half-drained. “If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have killed Jonah when I had the chance, and none of this would have happened. The werewolves would never have caught me again.”
She gasped. “No. You can’t kill him.”
A part of me was relieved that she felt that way. Okay, more than just a part of me. All of me.
“They caught you because you came to rescue me. It’s my fault. If it weren’t for me being so careless three years ago, I wouldn’t have gotten caught and I wouldn’t have been imprisoned and I wouldn’t have made you do something so awful for me.”
“And if I weren’t part fae—”
“Don’t,” she warned. “That’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything to make that so. And it’s not your fault people couldn’t accept us because of our mother. We didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“I know.” We were quiet for a long time. I understood why she was so weak when I dragged her through the tunnel and the woods. I couldn’t have run just then for anything. I wasn’t even sure I could walk.
“How much did she take?” Sara asked.
“Not enough to hurt, but enough to exhaust me.” I sighed, wanting to rub at the sore spot on my throat but determined to keep my hand away from it. I wanted to forget it was there.
“And she’ll do that every day…”
“Until she thinks she’s had enough, and then she’ll kill us both,” I finished. “At least we have a little time. I can put a plan together to get us out of here.”
“Oh, Anissa.”
“What do you suggest?” I asked. “That we sit here and wait to die? I’ve never been one to sit and wait, and I didn’t think you were, either.”
“I’m not,” she said. “I just don’t see a way out. Not when we can’t even get ourselves away from the wall.”
“We can’t see it now, but we will.” I had to have hope. I just had to. Otherwise, I’d sink into a pit of despair there was no getting out of. And if I despaired, I wouldn’t be able ever to get out. I might as well bite at my own wrists, as I’d already threatened to do. There would be no point in keeping myself alive solely to provide sustenance for Malory.
“I wonder how old she is,” Sara mused, sitting cross-legged on her cot.
“Ancient,” I guessed. “You know how witches are.”
“Yes, if she looked that old, she must be older than the woods themselves.”
“I guess so. And she knew all about me. How unnerving.”
“You’re special,” Sara said. “I’ve always thought so. I knew there had to be something about your father. You’re so much more special than me. There’s never been anything different about me. Not like you.”
“That’s not a bad thing. You’re not the one the witch is feeding on,” I reminded her.
“No, but you’re a leader. You’re brave. You have a special power.” She snorted. “Marcus could never read your thoughts, and it drove him crazy.”
“He told you that, too?”
“Oh, he told me a lot of things about the time you two spent together. You’re such a puzzle to him. He tried to get me to give him insight into you. Can you imagine?”
“I honestly can’t.” Even though we were in deep trouble which I couldn’t make heads or tails of, I had to smile at my sister. “I’ve missed being able to talk to you like this,” I admitted. “We only ever got to talk with a guard around.” Marcus would never have considered leaving us alone.
“I’ve missed it, too.”
We stretched out our arms and could clasp hands. It was comforting, feeling her hand in mine. We could find a way out together. Nothing could stop us.
“So what about that Jonah guy?” she asked.
“What about him?” I dropped her hand, on guard.
“You don’t have to act that way,” she teased. “I can tell you like him.”
“A lot of good that does,” I muttered. “I’ll never see him again.”
“I thought you were trying to be hopeful,” she reminded me, still gently teasing.
“I didn’t mean we’ll never get out,” I said. “But I’ll never see him when we do. He’s a Bourke. We’ve gone rogue. It can never be—we’ll never fit in anywhere, ever again.” I stretched out on the cot, arranging myself so the shackles didn’t get in the way.
“And that’s my fault.”
“We can’t keep going around in circles like this,” I said. “This is just the way things happened, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I only hate seeing you chained up again so soon after being free, is all.”
She chuckled. “I’m used to it.”
Chapter 16
Jonah
It only took about an hour for Scott to get back, though it might as well have been three days. Every minute seemed to drag by as I crouched in the brush, watching the cottage. There hadn’t been another guard out there since the one we’d captured. I wondered how long it would take for them to realize somebody was missing.
When Scott returned, it was like the sun shining through storm clouds. “I left all of them maybe a half-mile away,” he explained. “When I give the signal, they’ll come on the charge.”
“How many?”
“Fifty. And that was only because so many of them weren’t home when I went around the building. I might have brought twice as many, otherwise.”
“Fifty is better than I hoped for,” I admitted.
“They’re all just as ready for a fight as I am,” he said with a broad grin. “It’s been too long.”
“I’m glad somebody feels that way. I sure don’t.”
Then, Scott’s expression darkened. “What is it?” I asked. “Did you have trouble with any of them?”
He nodded, then looked at the ground. “Gage.”
I sighed. It would have felt so much better if he had been with us. Knowing how much he disapproved was upsetting, for sure. “What did he say?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly get the chance to talk to him,” he explained. “Don’t be mad.”
“What’s there to be mad about if you didn’t talk to him?”
He wouldn’t look at me, which didn’t bode well. “As it turns out, he has some allies of his own in the clan.”
“He what?” It probably wasn’t the best time for me to hear about this.
“I know. It was as much of a surprise to me, believe me. I had no idea.”
“You didn’t know?”
“No, of course not. I would have told you.”
It took the wind out of me, for sure. I leaned against a tree. My own brother. My twin. “Do you know how long it’s been going on?”
“I didn’t have time to find out, but it was like an open secret. Open to everybody but us.”
“Philippa?”
“She didn’t know, either. She stayed behind to find out what she could. She should know more by the time we get back.”
I nodded, doing my best to keep my temper under control. I could have uprooted the very tree I leaned against. I could have screamed loud enough to scare the birds from the trees. I could have torn any werewolf apart who dared get in my way.
My own twin has gone against me.
“I should have seen it coming. You know how weird he’s been lately. Always with something to say, always complaining about this or that. I should have seen it.”
“How could you have seen it?” he asked. “You trusted him. I did, too. Neither of us wanted to believe he would do something like this.”
“I still don’t want to believe it,” I said. “And what does this say about me as the clan leader? I don’t know what’s happening in my own immediate family. What else don’t I know about in the clan? It makes me look a little ridiculous.”
“I don’t think you need to think about it right now,” he said.
“He wouldn’t come?”
“No, he wouldn’t come. Now let’s think about what we’re going to do once we’re in there. Did you find out where Anissa is?”
He was right. I would deal with Gage later. I struggled to remember what the werewolf had told me—it wasn’t easy when I couldn’t stop thinking about my brother.
“It’s a dungeon. They’re chained up in the same cell. The iron is enchanted, so I don’t know how we would break it, though Malory might have a key.” Assuming the werewolf didn’t lie.
“All right. You think we’re ready?”
I took a deep breath. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Chapter 17
Anissa
If I were capable of sleeping, I would have sworn it was a dream.
I heard what sounded like thunder coming from just above my head.
Followed by shouting.
Then by crashing.
“What is that?” Sara trembled, and she wasn’t alone.
I took her hand, and we stood as close as we could to each other as all hell broke loose above us.
“It sounds like the entire building is coming down!”
We both flinched, pressing ourselves to the wall when a massive crash brought dust down on our heads.
“What do you think it could be?” I asked, looking at my sister.
We were both wild-eyed with fear.
“Is it her magic?” she asked, and we cringed again as another crash brought down yet more dust and debris.
I’d seen a herd of wild elephants once at a circus and was convinced something similar was happening. Somebody had set a herd of elephants loose in Malory’s cottage, or castle, or whatever she intended it to be.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Why would bring down their home with magic?”
“You don’t think somebody came for us, do you?” We had to shout over the sound of crashing and banging just to be heard.
“What? No! Impossible!” Nobody knew where we were.
“I thought nothing was impossible!”
“Could you please stop throwing that in my face all the time?”
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the noise stopped. Somehow, I was more frightened by the silence than by the noise.
“What do you think happened now?” Sara whispered.
“Somebody won.”
“Won what?”
“Whatever we just heard up there. Somebody won.” I didn’t dare hope it was Jonah. There was no way, just as I said to Sara. No way anybody knew we were there.
He’d already been long gone by the time the werewolves caught up with us. Probably back at his penthouse in his fancy apartment building.
“Maybe her werewolves beat her,” she whispered. “Or another being.”
“But do we want to meet the creature that could beat her?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. There was no telling how much evil it would take to overpower her.
We waited with bated breath to see what would happen next. Every silent second was agony. Would they come for us? Or would we rot there forever, wailing and pleading for blood, long since forgotten? I wasn’t sure which scenario terrified me more.
Then, I heard it. So did Sara, judging from the way her head snapped up. We both stared at the door, trembling. They were coming. Footsteps.
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
“Me, too,” I admitted. Why lie? I was near panic. And I couldn’t do anything about it thanks to my enchanted shackles.
“Anissa?”
My heart leaped to life when I heard his voice. It couldn’t be! How was it possible?
“Jonah? In here! We’re here!”
“Jonah?” Sara asked, eyes wide. “How?”
I didn’t know, but it was him. And then I saw him. Sapphire eyes with a gold perimeter. I recognized his eyes peering at us through the little window in the door, and I could almost taste sweet relief in my mouth. Only the thought of my sister besi
de me kept me from collapsing. I had to stay strong for her.
“Just wait a minute. We’ll get you out of there.” His voice was the most comforting sound I’d ever heard.
Then came a rattling, after that, the door swung open.
Jonah hurried through, catching me as I nearly fell on weak, shaky legs. “You’re all right now. You’re safe.”
I closed my eyes, unable to believe it. He came. He actually came for me. I let myself rest against him for just a moment before opening my eyes again and taking in the rest of the scene.
Jonah’s brother, the one with the quick smile, unlocked Sara’s shackles. I couldn’t help noticing the way he stared at her, like she bowled him over. Not surprising, given her beauty. She smiled gratefully, rubbing her wrists.
“Here.” Scott tossed the keys to Jonah, who used them on my shackles.
“Keys? How did you get them?”
“They were hers.” Jonah didn’t look at me as he unlocked me. “We took them from her.”
“Malory?” I chill ran through me. What must they have gone through to get them? No wonder it had sounded like the building was falling around our heads.
Once I was free, Jonah took me by the arm. “Come on. We have to get you out of here. I don’t think we’ll run into any more opposition, but you never know. The sooner we’re gone, the better.”
“I don’t understand any of this. How will we get away?”
“Like I said, we took care of it.” He looked at his brother, who took Sara’s arm as Jonah had taken mine.
“One second.” I slipped out his hold and toward the shelf, retrieving my blades and slipping them into their sheaths. I couldn’t leave these behind. Just couldn’t.
“Ready,” I said. Though what I was really ready for was to lay down and rest.
He took my arm, then gave me a reassuring smile as they led us out of the dungeon and up a flight of stairs.
“Don’t look around,” he warned, but there was no way to keep my eyes from shifting back and forth.
Blood.
I smelled it, thick and still fairly warm, heavy in the air. The bodies of werewolves right and left, broken, still bleeding or already dead. So many. Crumpled against walls, on floors. Horrible.