by Wendy Knight
He fell silent, and Aella nudged him, spreading her arms wide. "But look at us now. We're practically back to our former glory."
"Has the Master ever been killed without a replacement? In all these centuries, no one has defeated him?"
Iros shook his head. "Ariston is probably the weakest Master in history. It's like a game to him, not a bid to take over the world. But he's also the most deadly, because he's found a way to make his demons stronger, harder to kill. He's constantly evolving, using our strengths against us."
"He's the weakest because he doesn't want this war, either," Scout murmured.
Iros said through gritted teeth, "Scout, we've talked about this."
Scout nodded and changed the subject. "Tell me how you came to be Havik's rider. Was he always so massive?"
Havik landed behind them, tucking his wings close, and wandered over. His sheer size was overwhelming, but without the spiked armor and flaming red eyes, he was beautiful.
Iros chuckled and shook his head. "No, actually. Havik was the runt."
Tate's arms gave out, and he fell backward. "What?"
"No way." Liam shook his head. "Not possible."
Iros laughed outright. "He was! No one wanted to ride Havik. Everyone wanted Ashra or Torz. Ashra was the fastest thing anyone could remember seeing, and Torz was so powerful. Havik didn't even get a chance to show what he was capable of."
"Not at first," Aella said. "Iros was the only one of us who hadn't bonded with a unicorn. He was teased mercilessly."
"Mostly by you, if I remember correctly."
"I'm sure you don't." She grinned. "Anyway, one night, there was a horrid battle. Havik was there in the ranks, fighting riderless. He saw Iros and his unicorn go down, and he went after them, cutting through the demons in his path. They say he grew twice his size that night. He caught Iros before he hit the ground, and the bond was almost instantaneous." Aella shook her head and then reached up to pat Havik's chest. "The things we saw him do that night. The strength he was capable of. It was something I'd never seen before and never seen since."
"After that, Havik didn't stop growing. He was so big by the end of that summer that the elders suspected we were feeding him magic." Iros laughed.
Scout leaned her head against Trey's shoulder. "Kind of like you," she said.
"Quiet, you. I was not a runt."
Tate and Liam both crowed. "Yes, you were! It wasn't until a couple years ago you started growing."
"And yet, I was always bigger than you."
"We're about to hit a growth spurt. Just wait."
Laughing, Scout rose to her feet and pulled Trey up with her. "It has been a long day. We should all get some rest. Who knows what tomorrow holds?"
17
Thankfully, Scout's parents were already asleep when she got home. Lil Bit climbed into bed and was snoring before Scout finished brushing her teeth. She smiled, pulling the blanket over her little sister and tucking it around her chin. Then she leaned down and brushed a kiss across Lil Bit's temple. "Love you, baby sister."
Lil Bit murmured, a smile tilting her lips.
Scout was so exhausted, she collapsed on her own pillows and was out.
Ariston was waiting for her.
"You've recovered, I see."
Scout sighed. "Yeah. Thanks for not attacking us right away. It must have been hard on you to wait so long."
Ariston smiled. "Devastating."
Scout scowled.
"Well, I've got a new proposition for you, should you care to consider it."
Oh dear. Unease swirled through Scout's stomach. "What is it, Ariston?"
"Dance for me."
The intimacy in his words sent chills down her spine—not exactly cold chills, but not warm, either. She hugged her arms around herself, hoping he couldn't see it. "Lil Bit? Ashra? Get me out of here."
When she didn't answer, Ariston continued. "I assumed you wouldn't do it out of the kindness of your heart, so I have something for you, in return."
Scout swallowed. She didn't know what he was about to say, but she was fairly positive it was something she wouldn't be able to say no to it. "Lil Bit? Ashra?"
"For every dance, I will release ten souls back to their bodies."
Scout's eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, but Ariston held up a hand. "And I will promise to protect said souls from my Taraxippus so they will not be taken again."
"You'll protect them?"
Ariston nodded.
"Why? What about your army?"
Ariston shrugged, moving several steps closer. He stopped just out of reach, but she could clearly see the pain in his face, and the depths of his soulless, black eyes were tortured. "You are a drug to me, Scout."
"A drug?" she said stupidly.
"It isn't just the peace you bring, although that would be enough. It's the way you move. The way you infuriate me. The way your eyes dance with mischief. It seems I cannot have enough of you."
"Lil Bit! Ashra! Help me!"
"Ariston—"
"I don't expect you to return my affections. I'm not so stupid. If I asked you to come back with me, I know you would refuse. So I ask for this." His voice lowered, and he stepped closer. "One dance, Scout. One dance for ten souls."
Scout couldn't blink. Her heart pounded so quickly in her chest she could hear it thunder in her ears. "Here? Now?"
Ariston shook his head gently. "No, Scout. It doesn't help me here. Tomorrow. After the world goes to sleep. Come to me and I will protect you."
"Yeah, because that worked so well last time."
Ashra crashed down between them, breaking the blue ground of Aptavaras with her sharp hooves. "Back up, Ariston."
"Scout, wake up. Wake up, Scout." Lil Bit shook her shoulder, but Scout couldn't break from Ariston's gaze.
"Come to me, Scout, and I will protect you."
"Scout, Wake. Up. Right. Now!" Lil Bit bellowed as Ashra spread her great, flaming wings, blocking Ariston from Scout's view. Free from his hypnotic gaze, she grabbed Ashra's mane and swung up on her back. As they flew toward the light and Lil Bit's yelling, Scout peered over her shoulder.
Ariston stood, watching.
"I wait."
"Scout? Scout, what's going on? Lil Bit, what are you doing?"
"She needs help, Mom. She needs to wake up! Scout!"
"I'm awake. I'm awake." Scout struggled to sit up, impeded by the fact that Lil Bit was sitting on her chest.
Her sister promptly burst into tears. "I couldn't wake you up."
Scout wrapped her arms tight around Lil Bit. "But you did. You did just in time. It's okay, Lil Bit. It's okay."
"He's getting too strong."
Scout rested her chin on Lil Bit's head. "He's getting stronger, yes. But so are you, Lil. And there will never be a day when he is stronger than you are. Do you know why?"
"Why?" Lil Bit pouted.
"Because you have love. All he has is hate."
Lil Bit shook her head. "No. He has love, too."
"He has a selfish love driven by pain. You have the most unselfish love I've ever heard of, Lil. And I've read a lot. I've heard a lot of things." She smiled as Lil Bit peeked up at her through dark lashes. "You are the only person in the world who can call Eirene, Lil. Before you, she was just a myth."
Lil Bit scrubbed at her eyes, and the smallest of smiles played around her lips. "I can call her."
Scout gave her one last, crushing hug, murmuring against her hair. "You saved me, Lil Bit. Without you and without Ashra, I would be lost."
"Are we going to take his deal?"
Scout jumped at Ashra's voice in her head. Under her parents watchful gaze, she wasn't free to speak aloud, but by the tense set of Lil Bit's shoulders, she knew her sister had heard also. "I don't know."
"We should tell Havik. Iros will understand. Iros would want the safe return of souls."
Scout wasn't sure about that, but having Havik and Iros on their side would be far better than trying to hide and d
eceive them. Havik's kind, brown eyes flashed across Scout's memory. She would do almost anything to keep the pain of betrayal from his eyes again. She nodded. "I'll talk to them in the morning."
"What if we could combine the power of four unicorns—have them work together to throw the mist over the soul stealers and hold it. It will be huge enough to capture many of the demons, and our second team will go in and kill as many as they can before the first team can no longer hold it anymore. We'll have a third team whose sole purpose is to protect the four holding the mist. Once that's done, those four retreat and we call in another first team to take their place." Trey moved pawns across the board, pretending he knew what he was doing.
Scout slowly stepped through the door. Aella immediately smiled. Iros regarded her warily. "Can I talk to you?" Scout asked.
She was exhausted. It was after eleven, and from her rumpled appearance and sleep-filled eyes, it was clear she'd just gotten up. Her mom had told Trey she and Lil Bit had had a rough night, but her mom had no idea why.
Trey knew.
Ariston was after her again, plying her with something she wouldn't be able to refuse. And that's why she was here.
"Come in Scout. Ask away." Iros waved his hand, motioning her closer.
Scout sank onto the mat next to Trey and hid her trembling fingers in her lap. "Ariston has a request."
Iros's face immediately darkened as his brows lowered dangerously. "You're talking to him again?"
"I don't have a choice, Iros. He comes into my dreams at night, as he does for you. Can you chase him away any better than I can? Because I would love to know how," Scout snapped.
Scout never snapped.
Iros sat back, eyebrows raised. "No. I suppose I can't. What does he want, now?"
Trey glanced at Aella, who seemed to be holding her breath, as he was. She remained silent, but her sharp eyes watched Iros and Scout without blinking.
"He wants me to dance for him. In return, he will release ten souls back to their bodies and has promised to protect them from his soul stealers."
Trey's eyes widened. He and Aella, like puppets, both jerked toward Iros, anxious to see what his response would be.
He laughed.
While the rest of them just blinked in confusion, Iros threw his head back and laughed. He pounded the table with his fist, disrupting Trey's battle plans, and laughed again.
And then he stopped, as quickly as he'd started.
"You can't be serious. You come to me with this?"
Scout's chin fell to her chest in defeat. "It poses no risk to anyone but me—"
"And Ashra, I'm assuming, since you can't very well walk to Aptavaras."
"Well yes, but he promised—"
"Oh, of course he promised." Iros clapped his hands together. "And the Master of demons always keeps his promise! How stupid of me to forget that."
"He's kept his promises to me, Iros," Scout said quietly.
"Yes, and he will, until it suits him better not to. Go if you want." Iros stood up abruptly, glaring down at her. His accent was thicker when he was angry, and harder to understand. "But don't risk the life of our fastest and one of our most deadly unicorns for your passing fancy, Scout." He stalked from the room, smashing his hand against the door jamb as he left. The whole hut shook, and dirt rained down on their heads.
Scout closed her eyes for several seconds, and at first, Trey thought she was fighting tears. It took him several minutes before he realized she was talking to Ashra.
When her eyes fluttered open, she looked first to Trey, and then to Aella. "I don't know what to do."
Aella leaned forward, resting her hand on Scout's arm. "His anger is born of fear, Scout. Fear of losing Ashra, and fear of losing you. He feels your loyalty lies more and more with Ariston."
Scout sighed, running a hand through her tangled hair. "My loyalty lies with those souls who need me. Iros is our commander, and I will do my best to be what he wants me to be, but I can save them, Aella. I can't just leave them for Ariston to shred and make new souls for his demons. I don't know what to do."
Aella sucked in a slow breath. "We will find another way to save them."
Scout glanced at Trey, and in that single look, he knew. There was no other way, and Scout would do whatever she had to, to save those souls.
He nodded, and Aella probably thought he was nodding in agreement with her. But Scout read his gaze and understood. He was going with her.
He stood, offering his hand. "I have a brilliant new strategy. One of the sorcerers, Shane, has been offering advice. Ari says he's an amazing strategist. We came up with this." He smoothed out the maps on the table. "I think we should run through it a few times during training today."
Scout smiled. It was an exhausted, sad smile, although she tried to hide that. "Tell me all about it."
So he did. He told her all the details as they walked toward the valley. Their warriors were gathered below. Lil Bit watched them silently from the back of her Irwarro, nearly lost in the sweeping black wings and smoky, wafting mane. "Does she know?" he asked, keeping his voice low, interrupting himself mid-sentence.
"Yes. She had to wake me. He scares her because it's getting so hard for her to get me out of the dreams."
"It took both of us this time." Ashra landed next to them.
Scout nodded.
"How long can this go on? How long can we sneak away and save souls?" Trey asked.
"We?" Scout and Ashra asked together. She turned on him. "There is no we. It's enough that I'm asking Ashra for help, Trey. Someone has to stay here in case—in case we don't come back."
"Yeah. Lil Bit. I'm going, and you know Torz won't stay behind either. So you tell your little friend if he wants you to come, we come, too. It's a package deal."
Scout smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Even the four of us wouldn't survive if he went back on his promise. We wouldn't be able to fight the demons off."
"We've done it before, but exhausted and frightened. It will be no different should we have to do it again."
Trey nodded.
Sighing, Scout tipped her head back, staring at the heavens. "Fine. I will talk with Ariston."
18
"I'll hear you. I'll get you out this time, Scout." Lil Bit's lip quivered, but she raised her chin bravely. Scout hugged her tight.
"I know you will."
"It's lucky that you're so sleep deprived or falling asleep with all of us watching could be really awkward."
Scout grimaced and glanced at Ashra. "Yeah. Awkward."
"Maybe if we all tried to sleep…" Trey trailed off because Scout didn't believe him, and they all knew it. No one would dare sleep because if they did, how would they wake Scout if Ariston refused to let her go?
She lay back and closed her eyes, but they wouldn't stay shut. Swearing under her breath, she flipped over on her stomach and cushioned her arms with her head.
And heard crunching.
Opening just one eye, she glared at Ashra. They were in her den, in the middle of nowhere, with Trey and Torz and Lil Bit, and nothing else for miles. "You have to eat now?"
"I might as well."
"Maybe Lil Bit could call Eirene?" Trey asked, watching Ashra tear grass from the ground.
"Eirene can't come near Ashra. She holds her anger like a weapon," Lil Bit said quietly, but not so quiet that Ashra couldn't hear her.
"I hold it as a shield, not a weapon. One day, I will kill Ariston, and then I will let go of the anger, and Eirene can come visit whenever she would like."
"You think killing him will make things better?" Lil Bit asked, tipping her head to the side, dark-brown eyes wide.
"Yes."
Scout sighed and closed her eyes again. "Ariston, I need to talk to you."
She didn't think it would work. But suddenly she was falling—the way one does when one falls suddenly to sleep, but she didn't start awake this time. No, she fell and fell, through the darkness of Aptavaras, and landed in a painful heap
at Ariston's feet.
He stepped away from her like she might burn him, and it took Scout the whole climb to her feet before she realized he was jumping back because he didn't want to take her soul. He was protecting her.
"Are you hurt?" There was real concern in his eyes.
"Funny that you ask, and then send your soul stealers to kill me." Scout crossed her arms over her chest, trying to protect her heart from his piercing eyes.
"The only one who asks you to fight them is Iros. Not I."
"I'm not going to hide at home and watch everyone else run off to battle."
Iros smiled, sad and broken. "No, I would not expect that of you." He abruptly changed the subject. "Tell me about home, Scout."
Scout blinked. She took in the castle behind him, the blue skies, the screams of those trapped in his cage, and the never-ending shadows of the soul stealers. None of that helped make his sentence clearer. "What?"
"Not here, not Paradesos. Tell me of your home. Tell me where, were things different, I would go to fight for you. Where I would go to win your heart against Iros and Trey."
Scout stared at him for several long seconds, dumbfounded and at a loss for words.
Ariston raised an eyebrow, the vulnerability in his face gone.
"Columbia Falls, Montana."
The coolness in Ariston's face dropped and his eyes widened as Scout went on, "It's the tippy top of Montana. Small and quiet and nearly as beautiful as Paradesos. I was in high school before you took my sister. I was a dancer, and I wanted to be a scientist. I'd already applied to all the colleges I could and was waiting for a response. I was in pain all the time, and felt like the world had abandoned me—everyone but Lil Bit."
He watched her with black eyes that still somehow seemed to read her very soul. Clearing her throat, she continued, "This war was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was healed, physically and emotionally. Loose ends were tied, my parents believed in me, I met Ashra and Torz, Havik and Iros and Aella. I got Trey back. I saw what my sister is truly capable of. If it weren't for you, Ariston, I would still be lost." She nodded slowly at his confusion. "I'm not saying what you do is right. I'm saying that there is a silver lining to your madness. And in thanks to that, I will agree to dance for you—on one condition."