“Now explain yourself. The wizards were supposed to disconnect you from the warlock.”
“They failed.”
“They know that?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“But you do?”
“Yes. I know he’s still attached to me. I’ve felt him take my powers a couple times.”
“And the others know?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No.”
“We have to tell Mikhail,” Periphetes said, turning to the door.
I grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
“You can’t tell him. Any of them. If they know, they’ll retreat. We have to finish this. Sedgrave has to die. I know what he’s planning. I can feel it,” I said, my words taking me by surprise, but they were true; it just took me verbalizing it to realize what I had known ever since Sedgrave had visited me in my visions—he was planning on enslaving all of humanity under the rule of the supernatural.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re telling Mikhail.”
“No!” I snapped, jerking his arm again.
“Ashley Hawn, I will drag you from this car if I have to! Don’t fight me.”
“We can’t. I’m telling you, this has to end!”
“Not if it means you die.”
“I’m not that important,” I snapped back.
“Yes, you are!” Periphetes turned back to glare at me. “Now, am I going to drag you out of this car?”
Not waiting for an answer, Periphetes grabbed my wrist and pulled the door handle. Without hesitating, much to my shame, I brought the hidden hammer around, slamming it into his beautiful face. Periphetes collapsed against the leather seat, his face smashed in. Faintly, I heard his heart beat, flutter, and stop.
Unbidden, tears streamed down my face as I turned away from my dead friend, dead at my own hands. What a monster I have become, my mind told me truthfully. It was good that I wouldn’t be alive much longer. Like Sedgrave, I too needed to be eliminated.
Yes, it is time to end this.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I climbed out of the car, absently ducked some flying object, and walked toward my own troops. Before I could muster the energy to find something wooden to drive into my own heart, a cry rang out across the battlefield.
“Now, Hemera, now!”
I looked up to find that it had been Sedgrave calling the summer queen to action. I glanced back to where I had last seen Hemera floating around aimlessly. All of the sudden the often-drowsy fae perked up and raced to Sedgrave’s fortress. The rest of the summer fae, even those on the perimeter, ran forward, attacking anyone near them. I whirled around realizing the wizards, who had been trying to lob fireballs into Sedgrave’s fortress, were now guarded by only a few werewolves.
Faunus ran by me, in her true form. I grabbed her arms, noticing that one of my hands glistened with Periphetes’ blood. I tried to ignore it. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart.
“Faunus, what’re you doin’?” I asked, slurring my words in my rush.
“Long live Sedgrave!” yelled Faunus as she grabbed my arm and pushed her powers into me.
I felt the zap-sting as her powers connected with me. Faunus was my extremely-distant relative and the result was her magic didn’t mix well with me. I cringed at the pain and she ran away, her little goat hooves clanking against the pavement.
I turned around, watching more summer fae abandon our cause. Drake pushed past me, a look of shame clouding his features. I grabbed his arm, noting that he was back in his customary suit.
“Drake, you too?”
“By the order of my queen…” the fae murmured.
“Isn’t there a time when loyalty is misplaced?”
His shoulders slumped.
“Yes, but if it can be bought, borrowed, or exchanged, then it is not loyalty.” He paused. “It wasn’t even supposed to come to this. You were never supposed to retrieve the artifacts in the first place. Our enchantments were supposed to keep them out of your hands. If you’d just left well enough alone…”
Drake shook my hands off and turned back to join his new side. I couldn’t stand it. Anger rushed into me, heating my face and causing my stomach to clench.
“No!” I snapped.
I jumped forward, bashing him across the back of his neck with my clenched fist. Drake dropped to one knee with the impact and slowly turned his head to glare up at me.
“No,” I said again, as though I could bop him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.
Before I knew what was happening, Drake had shifted into his true self. I had never seen his true fae form and suddenly I realized why. It wouldn’t have fit in his little antique shop. Dragons typically don’t fit into stores. Even Walmart would have had difficulty accommodating him.
Drake was a beast of gigantic proportions with dark red scales. Spikes adorned his face, wrapping around it much like a lion’s mane, offset by two horns at the top. As Drake morphed into his dragon form, his rump shifted a few cars as it grew, making more space. Drake opened his mouth just enough to show the dagger-like teeth. Steam billowed from his nostrils as Drake flapped open his enormous wings. A tail as long as three mini-vans whipped out, nearly taking Mikhail and Thomas off their feet.
The dragon flapped its mighty wings once, immediately lifting its bulk a few feet off the ground. Drake made a flying leap up to the roof of the restaurant. Through the restaurant’s many windows I could see the people inside responding to an earthquake. Despite the earthquake, they didn’t seem inclined to leave. Evidently the fae were still having some effect on the humans while we did battle.
“Well done, Ashley, as always,” said Mikhail, sounding half aggravated, half amused.
Our little army regrouped on the other side of the parking lot, under the eve of my favorite cabinet shop.
“What now?” I asked, feeling rather hopeless.
Though I knew I could have simply staked myself to end Sedgrave, I didn’t know how our enemies would respond. Just killing Sedgrave might not be enough now.
“Shut up,” snapped Mikhail, fully angry now. “All right, we have a dragon to deal with, as well as the other fae. Hemera will put up a big fight, though her powers don’t lean toward any one specialty. What about the others?”
“Faunus is just shy of useless in a fight,” offered Nik.
“Half their powers are going to be used to keeping us hidden. They know better than to let the glamor drop entirely,” said Josh.
“We also have the Valkyries,” said Emma.
I noticed the wolves, wizards, and other vampires were pushing into our huddle. Sadly, I quickly noticed a few of the wolves were wounded or missing entirely. I wanted to send them away, to keep them safe, but we needed every warrior right now.
“I think our biggest threat will be Sedgrave’s spells and the dragon. Ashley, no more feeding from fae. You’ve made him way more powerful than he was an hour ago.”
“My bad.”
“Helen, can you guys concentrate on the dragon? We need something to protect us from his flames.”
“We can protect a few of you, but not all.”
“Okay. Thomas, Nik, and I will deal with the dragon. Emma, you and Ashley take on Hemera. Josh, offer support where it’s needed. The rest of you, take out the Valkyries first if you can. The longer we have some fae around the longer we stay hidden. Wolves,” Mikhail sighed, looking around at their diminished number. “I am not belittling your courage or your skill, but I need you to stay back with the wizards. They’re our only long-distance fighters. We need them safe. All right, everyone know the plan?”
I might have basked in Mikhail’s leadership skills for a moment. He had no hesitation as he barked orders for one group and then another. I felt a new surge of confidence as I turned with Emma and began searching for Hemera.
We found her on the left side of Sedgrave’s semi-circle-shaped fortress of cars. She was perched on the hood of a Honda Civic, its trunk smashed by the weight of a Ford
pickup truck. While the others zig-zagged their way to the battlefield, Emma and I snuck between two rows of cars so far untouched by the battle. I knew that wouldn’t last long.
“What’s the plan?” I asked, knowing I had no business forming plans after the mess I had made with the winter fae.
“You distract. I’ll kill. Remember, no feeding.”
I rolled my eyes, but switched to nodding when I noticed her glower. Evidently everyone was angry at me for feeding on the fae… and pissing off the winter court.
I won’t have to deal with their wrath for long, I told myself. Just get the number of enemies down then I’ll stake myself.
With Emma hot on my heels, I raced to the car wall, noticing most of our vampires were charging at the same time. The dragon noticed our charge and blasted us with a bout of flames. Most of us managed to duck behind a car, or a portion of a car. I felt the metal beside me begin to heat up and covered my head as I heard a loud pop. The car shifted with the popping of one of its tires.
When Drake shifted his aim, Emma and I bolted. We charged the last bit of distance, allowing other warriors to take the heat for a bit, and scrambled up the car-made wall. A Valkyrie spotted us and jumped down to a Buick Century positioned just above our heads. The Valkyrie brought her sword down, cutting a shallow nick on my shoulder. It wasn’t bad, but I winced all the same.
From a distance I heard Sedgrave shout, “Not her!”
Damn that man, he’s gonna give my secret away, I thought as I reached up and caught the Valkyrie’s next blow on my forearm, her sword cutting me to the bone.
“Get Hemera,” I called to Emma through the pain.
I cried out with the pain of the attack, hamming it up a bit, while my uninjured arm reached up and grabbed the Valkyrie by the neck. With a hard jerk of my vampire-strengthened hand, I snapped her neck. I wailed again as I freed my arm from her sword. I took the sword and chucked her body over the wall, into Sedgrave’s protective enclosure.
I glanced down at my arm, happy to see I still had a little power in me. The wound was healing quickly enough. I scrambled up to the roof of the Buick, the sword still in hand. Though we had planned on me distracting Hemera, I noticed that Emma was taking that role on nicely.
I had never been told what Hemera’s powers were exactly, but, like before, all she had to do was look at Emma to make her fall to the hood of the car in pain. I planted my feet on the window gap of the Buick and slashed at Hemera’s feet. I caught one of her ankles and took her off her feet, freeing Emma from whatever mental attack she had going on.
I’m not sure if it was my recent, deep wound, or the sweet, summer smell of Hemera’s blood, but I completely lost my hold on sanity. Or at least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
I dropped the sword, grabbed Hemera’s bleeding leg, and bit down on the wound, drinking the blood before it could fall wastefully onto the Honda’s roof.
“No, Ashley,” I heard Emma yell, sounding as though she was coming from the other side of the building.
She is far away, my mind told me, you don’t need to listen to her.
I drank deeply, reveling in the strange warmth that spread down my throat and across my chest. Though I never felt cold as a vampire, I hadn’t realized just what it meant to be warm either. Her blood made me feel alive again, in the true sense of the word, almost as though my heart might start beating.
Before I could finish draining her blood, Emma climbed down to where I had dropped the Valkyrie’s sword, scrambled up again, and chopped the summer queen’s head off, quickly draining the body of the last precious blood.
I released the leg and glared up at Emma. How dare she?
Sudden realization hit. I glanced down at the mangled leg and licked my lips. “Shit!” I exclaimed as I understood the magnitude of my actions. “My bad, my bad!” I yelled loud enough for everyone to hear.
Before I could do anything else, I felt the heat of Drake’s fire begin to bear down on us.
“Into the car,” Emma ordered.
I didn’t question her, but dropped my feet through the shattered window, sliding carefully past the broken glass. Emma mimicked my move, landing in the front passenger seat. We both ducked into the foot wells just as the flames hit the battered Buick. The windows on the inside of the wall shattered with the heat. I reached up instinctively to protect my head as glass tinkled down over me.
A second later the heat abated, and I scrambled out of the red-hot car, burning my hands and knees on the way. I tumbled down, into Sedgrave’s fortress. Emma wasn’t far behind me.
Two Valkyrie’s approached us and I charged at them, throwing caution to the wind. I was done being careful. I was done making sure the enemy fell before I took Sedgrave with me. My friends were powerful; they could kill the stragglers once I’d dealt with Sedgrave.
As I ran, I glanced up at Drake, still perched on the roof of the restaurant. Strangely enough, a tiny thunderhead had appeared over the dragon and was currently raining cats and dogs. Not literally. In this strange new world, I feel I need to clarify.
Water rushed down over the dragon’s head, weakening the heat and distance of the flame that erupted from his mouth. Before I had taken more than a few steps, the water had run down the restaurant, filled the building’s gutters and creating little rivers within Sedgrave’s fort. I tried to spot the wizards through the different car windows, but I couldn’t see them. It seemed safe to assume the deluge came from one of their spells.
The result of their water works was the shift of the dragon’s focus. Drake turned his head to where the wizards stood under the eve of the cabinet show room. He gave a mighty bellow of protest before shooting a bolt of fire at them. From where I stood I couldn’t see what happened, though I did notice that the building’s roof, and the car sitting on it, lit on fire.
Mikhail, Nik, and Thomas were still on the restaurant roof, trying to get a clear shot at the dragon. Even while Drake sent fire hurtling toward the wizards, his tail, claws, and wings seemed to battle the vampires of their own free will.
I reached the Valkyries, ducked their first swings, and rammed my head into one of their guts. I felt both their swords make contact as I pummeled the first woman to the ground. I ignored the pain of the cuts, pinned the woman to the wet ground, and thumped her sword hand against the pavement until she lost her grip.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Emma engage the second Valkyrie, saving me from a long gash across the back. I grabbed the Valkyrie laying under me by the chin and gave her neck a quick twist.
I looked around, realizing most of the Valkyries were dead. In fact, I could only spot one, currently in battle with Jim. Jim wasn’t a superb fighter, but he was holding his own. There were a few fae still in the fight too, but that wouldn’t last long. I spotted Faunus’ body draped through the broken window of one of the smooshed cars.
The mystical rain was increasing, and I felt thoroughly soaked as I looked around the battle field. Sedgrave was backed against the restaurant doors, panic making his eyes look large in his white face. He flung rays of pure energy at his enemies, occasionally trying to bring down his sunlight spell. I felt my knees weaken as he tried yet again.
“He’s mine,” I growled.
“For once, I agree,” said Emma as she lifted a sword from a pile of ashes.
I marched toward Sedgrave, the dirty sword in hand. This was it! I forced my mind not to think about what I was going to do, or what the results would be. If I thought about it I might back down.
“No!” a voice yelled from above.
I glanced up just in time to see Thomas drop to the sidewalk in front of me.
“You can’t kill him,” he said, his arms spreading out to defend Sedgrave.
I’m not sure who looked more surprised, Sedgrave or myself.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.
“I can control him!” announced Thomas, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Suddenly Drake stopped h
is attacks, the wizard’s rain diminished, and the battle quieted.
“No, you can’t,” I said, angry that he was holding me back, giving me time to doubt my choice. “Get out of my way!”
“Think of the power, Ashley,” Thomas said, sounding nothing like the vague, lost man we had found in Paris.
“Think of the destruction, Thomas,” I countered. “He will die today.”
By this time, Nik and Mikhail had dropped to the ground, ignoring the possible threat of the dragon. Josh, Emma, and Jim ran to my side.
“I cannot let you kill him,” repeated Thomas.
“You can’t stop me.”
Suddenly Thomas stopped arguing and threw a punch at my face. The blow pushed me off my feet. I skidded across the wet pavement, the sword still in my hand. As I quickly jumped back to my feet, I noticed Nik, Mikhail, and Josh dog-piling on top of Thomas. Emma looked as though she was too confused to move.
I wasn’t though.
I didn’t let myself think about what needed to happen, or what I might lose, or what this would do to my friends. I just did what needed to be done.
I ran to Sedgrave, afraid something else might stop me, and drove my sword into his chest, piercing his heart.
Epilogue
Josh sat at his desk in his small room in the seethe, staring intently at the blinking cursor on his computer screen. It didn’t feel finished. Something else was needed after “drove my sword into his chest, piercing his heart” but he didn’t know what. What more was there to say? After all, the main character of Ashley’s story was dead.
The red-head ran his fingers through his curling hair. He needed a haircut.
Josh didn’t know if Ashley would have wanted him to finish her trilogy, but he couldn’t leave her story untold. True, most readers, if not all, would view it as nothing more than fiction, but he and the others knew the truth.
Still, it didn’t feel like enough. Ashley deserved more than a little novel people would read as a work of fiction. She deserved a better legacy than this. After all, she had died to save others—the truest act of bravery.
The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy Page 68