by Alicia Wolfe
She screamed. The whip came down. White-hot agony wrapped around me, smashing me into a million splinters, then glued me back together again only for me to go through it all again. Angela lashed me and lashed me until all I knew was pain.
Finally, exhausted, she lowered the weapon, flipped a lock of sweaty auburn hair out of her face and stared at me. “You might not break today, Jade McClaren. But you’ll break eventually. They all do. And then things will get very interesting.”
Her lips twisted in a cruel half smile. I would have given some retort, but I was too drained to speak. I could barely draw breath. I was a shuddering, bloody, sweaty mess. The whip hadn’t burned me, but it had certainly cut my flesh.
“I’ll be back,” Angela said.
She gathered her whip into a coil and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind her. I stared at it for a long time, expecting her to burst back in, laughing manically, but she didn’t, and at last I slumped in guarded relief. Not that I could do much else than slump.
This was some fine plan you concocted, I told myself. If this was a game, I’d lost, that was for sure.
Chapter 14
I only had one ace up my sleeve, and I had to use it wisely.
You see, I was pretty sneaky. When I’d punched Angela earlier, I hadn’t used my full shifter strength. I’d hit her with only human-level power. I knew I couldn’t overcome both her and Nevos, so I’d tricked her, or tried to. And it had worked. She’d believed that that’s how strong I was, that I’d had my shifter strength drained away along with my fire.
Luckily the residual strength and speed of a shifter had stuck. It was my only way out now.
When Angela had tied me up, she’d assumed I couldn’t draw on any other power to get myself out the bonds. My wrists had been tied together with a magically reinforced cord, and that cord had tied to another magically reinforced cord that hung from the ceiling. The room was small and dark and wooden, with gleaming surgical instruments on trays along the walls. Instruments of torture. I had to get out of here before Angela got around to using those on me. Thanks, but no.
I really was wiped out, though. Torture sounds fun, but it actually sucks.
I waited, panting and bleeding and generally miserable, for a long time before I could summon the energy to do a pull up. Then, slowly and agonizingly, I hauled my body upward. My arms quivered and I cursed like a sailor in my head. I couldn’t do it out loud because I didn’t have the breath or the strength to curse. It’s a pretty sad day when Jade McClaren doesn’t have the strength to swear out loud.
Most of the silent curses were directed at myself.
I had been really stupid.
Finally I brought my mouth to the rope binding my wrists and wrapped my teeth around them. I bit down. A magical blast filled me, electrocuting me with pain. I cried out and shuddered. A bit of urine trickled down my leg and landed on the floor. Crying, swearing mentally, shuddering and pissing myself, I bit down harder on the rope. More pain filled me. It was heavily warded, and the only thing I had to soak up those wards was my own flesh. Luckily my shifter strength allowed me to chew through the rope, bit by bit. The pain never diminished, but I was used to it after all the whip action earlier. Thanks, Angie.
After what seemed like twenty years but was probably just a few minutes, the rope parted.
I fell in a wet heap to the floor, smack in the middle of my own piss and blood. I moaned, tried to get up, and collapsed. I lay there for a long time, wishing I were dead, then managed to sit up.
I took stock. I couldn’t go through the door. That portal would be heavily warded, like super dooper fortified. Screw that.
My gaze landed on the wall opposite the door. I was pretty sure that on the other side of that door was the outdoors. If I could get through that wall, I might have a chance. I didn’t have my spellgredients, and I knew the wall would be enspelled, too. Luckily I knew a spell that might help using only my blood and urine. Again, thanks, Angie.
Gathering a small palmful of each fluid, I dragged myself over to the wall. I smeared a circle of blood on the wall, then overlaid it with a circle of pee. The Great Pee Escape, I could hear Ruby calling this later. Well, that was fine. If I could get out of this, she could call it whatever she liked.
As I smeared the second circle, I said a chant under my breath. The circle began to glow. I said another series of words, laid my palm in the middle of the circle, and closed my eyes, funneling my reserves of strength and concentration into that section of the wall. A bright light flashed, and the wall within the stinky circle vanished. I lurched forward, off balance.
Cool night air washed in, bathing my face. I blinked, relishing it. My blood quickened, enlivened at the idea of escape. I could get out of here. I would get out of here.
The missing portion of the wall would rematerialize in a few seconds. I barely had the strength to slither through that hole, but I sucked it up and slid out, flopping to the walkway on the other side just as the circle popped back into being. Hopefully the interruption in magical energies had been so brief that Angela wouldn’t have been alerted. But I couldn’t count on it.
Problem was I couldn’t walk, or even stand.
And how the hell was I going to get out of here?
“Looks like you have a problem.”
Chills raced up and down my spine. The voice, like before, belonged to Nevos. Dreading what I would see, I glanced up.
Nevos Stormguard, once heir to a kingdom, mighty Fae Lord and arch-traitor, leaned against the railing of the walkway smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. The tip glowed briefly, and smoke trailed up.
“How long have you been there?” I managed. Speech proved difficult but possible.
“Long enough.” A small smile cut through his five o’clock shadow. “Angela and I agreed that you might try to escape, so I decided to post myself here.”
Despair washed over me. All that effort, for nothing. They had been one step ahead of me the whole time. I slumped even lower than before. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them out.
A faint crackling sound—Nevos’s cigarette. He watched me calmly, silently. Around us the camp had settled in for the night. A few toughs and mages strolled the ramps and walkways of the outlaw village, and some rock music blasted from a treehouse two levels down that must be a whorehouse, still going this late in the evening (however late that was—I wasn’t quite sure), but muted by walls and distance.
Gasping, I lurched up and put my back to the wall I’d just crawled out of. I stared at his cigarette.
“Got another?” I said.
“Didn’t know you smoked.”
“Used to. Quit. Now it doesn’t matter.”
“That’s rather defeatist,” he said. Still, he pulled out some papers and some tobacco and rolled one for me. He put it to my lips, then lit it with a snap of his fingers.
I inhaled gratefully. It was the first smoke I’d had since Ruby made me quit more than a year ago. The nicotine hit my bloodstream and I grinned tiredly despite everything.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Sure.”
I blew a plume of smoke at him, imagining it was my old dragonfire. As if realizing the jest, he raised a palm as if to deflect it with his magic. We both smiled, but they were small smiles.
A long moment passed. I smoked. Music drifted. Somewhere an owl hooted.
“Tell me,” Nevos said. “Is it true about you and … Davril?”
“It’s true that he’s my partner.”
“You mean, as a Fae Knight. Not … anything else?”
I watched him. “No. Not anything else.”
He seemed to think about that. “Is that because you don’t want him? No, I can see it in your face. You do want him. Does he … yes, he does, doesn’t he? Then why?”
I didn’t answer. He studied me carefully. I got the feeling this was important somehow, though I didn’t understand how. Maybe he didn’t want Davril’s leavings. Who knows. Guys are weird.
At the moment, I couldn’t give two fucks. My plan was to finish my smoke, then throw myself over the rail. I wouldn’t allow myself to be tortured into giving up Ruby’s location. I didn’t think Angela could make that happen with pain, but she was very powerful magically. I’m sure if she tried hard enough she could use some spell or artifact to loosen my tongue, however unwilling I was.
“You look like someone who could use a friend,” Nevos said.
“Go to hell.”
“No, I’m serious.” He leaned forward, just slightly. “Did you sleep with me just because you wanted inside Angela’s treehouse?”
I eyed the glowing end of my cigarette. I said nothing.
“There was something there, wasn’t there?” he said. “Between us?”
I sucked in a long drag, then blew the smoke at the stars. “Maybe,” I admitted.
“I knew it!” He smiled. Then he looked at me, and his enthusiasm faded.
“Sorry,” I said. “I know I’m not at my peak right now. Just need to powder my nose and I’ll be fine. Maybe use the dryer on my hair. No big deal. Don’t let the blood and stench of urine put you off.”
“I was trying to be gentlemanly and not mention it.”
He said it lightly, humorously. Surprising myself, I laughed a little.
“You’re all right sometimes,” I said.
“Only sometimes?” His eyebrows shot up, as if I’d wounded him.
“Well, you are evil.”
“Evil is a tad harsh.”
“You do serve the Shadow. Unless I’ve been greatly misinformed.” For a moment doubt rose up in me. Was it possible that I’d been lied to the whole time, that I was really on the wrong side of this conflict? Maybe Nevos had been in the right all along.
“No,” he said. “I do. I serve the Shadow.”
Or maybe not.
“Why?” I said. “The Shadow overran the kingdoms of the Fae. Killed countless of your kind. Subjected many others and drove the rest out of your world entirely. Now you’re here, helping the Shadow bring ruin to the few that remain? I’d call that evil. And I don’t feel bad about using you.” Although I did.
He drew in the last drag of his cigarette, then stubbed the butt out. Standing, he moved toward me.
He held out a hand to me.
“Time to take me back in, is it?” I said. Well, this was it. I’d put the cigarette out on his hand and jump over the railing while he was distracted. Goodbye, cruel world. At least I’d gotten laid before I left it. And it had been pretty good, too.
“Maybe not.” His voice was low and strange.
So strange that I switched my gaze from his hand, which I’d been about to strike, to his eyes. They were dark. Conflicted. But a resolution was growing there.
Feeling as if I were in a dream, I offered him the hand not holding the cigarette and allowed him to help me to my feet. I was still weak and unsteady, and he had to put his hands to my sides and make sure I didn’t fall over. His hands were strong and firm.
I blew a cloud of smoke in his face.
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“I may serve the Shadow, Jade, but you don’t know everything. You don’t know what happened between me and Davril. You don’t know what’s going on here with Angela and I.”
“You two have something going?”
He started to remove his hands. I listed to the side, and he caught me. I still had one drag left. One last chance to use my cigarette to help me get away … for the brief moment I needed.
“That’s not what I mean,” Nevos said. “We both serve Lord Vorkoth, but for different reasons. And we both want to be the one that brings him victory.”
I blinked tiredly. “So you and Angela … are enemies?”
“She needed my help in finding the knob. I needed hers in using it. Now that time has come.” He patted his hip pocket, and to my shock I saw a bulge there.
“Is that … is that it?” I said. I couldn’t have been more surprised if Hugh Grant had shown up wearing a tube top.
“Yes. I helped myself to it on the way out.”
“What … does that mean?” I tried to analyze his face, but it was swimming in and out of focus. Was I about to pass out? Great. Dredging up my last brain cells, I said, “Are you …. busting out of here?”
“Yes. And I was weighing whether or not to take you with me.” He cupped my cheek with his palm. “You know, I like this face better.”
His lips were very close. I pulled back. He let me.
“Do you want to go with me?” he said.
“Where … to? What does the knob do?”
“Opens a door,” he said, smiling. “What else? Now, I need an answer, Jade. It will be dangerous, and there could be—”
“Yes! For the love of God, yes! Get me the fuck out of here! Just promise me that there will be a shower at the other end of this ride.”
“Well, I didn’t want to be the first one to say it.”
He kissed me. His lips were full and hot, and I kissed back. My brain reeled, with dizziness, exhaustion, pain and just sheer surprise, but his kiss oriented me somehow. Pulling away from him, I took the last hit off the cigarette and stubbed it out.
“You’ll need this,” he said and handed me something.
Dully I realized it was my utility belt. Trying not to sob in relief, I strapped it around my waist, reassured at its familiar weight. Now at last I could defend myself.
“There!” someone shouted. “There they are! Get them!”
“Shit,” I said.
Before I could prepare myself, footsteps rushed toward us.
Chapter 15
“Was this part of the plan?” I said.
He grabbed my hand and hauled me along the walkway. I stumbled, righted myself and ran just behind him. Adrenaline flooded my system, restoring some of my sorely needed clarity. And coordination. At the moment, that was perhaps even more important.
I bounced off a guardrail as I ran and tried to move in a straight line. Shouts were coming from all over.
“There!” someone said. “I see them!”
“I take it this wasn’t part of your plan,” I panted.
“Not entirely.”
We ran over a bridge to a walkway on the far side. Half a dozen biker-types gathered there, brandishing guns and knives and chains.
“Stop right there!” the leader said. “We’re not supposed to let you through.”
Nevos placed his hand to his hip, and suddenly I saw he was wearing a sword there, slim and gorgeously wrought. Had it just materialized? Was that a Stormguard thing? He pulled out the sword and it glimmered with strange lights.
“Come and get me.”
The biker leader sneered. “Drill him, boys.”
The three members of his gang that carried pistols raised them. I braced myself. After all I’d gone through to die by gunfire almost seemed laughable. I wished I still had my crossbow. Even my shifter strength and speed had deserted me, at least for the moment.
Nevos raised his free hand, the one not holding the sword. Light flashed out. The bikers staggered back, gasping and dropping their weapons. I’d seen Davril perform the same feat once in Walsh’s adopted penthouse. I knew he could only do it once until the power regenerated, which took time.
Looking wearied, Nevos said, “Come.”
He resumed running across the bridge, and I followed. When I reached the fallen bikers, who were moaning and stirring feebly, I reached down and grabbed the knife off one and shoved it through my belt. I grabbed the pistol off another.
“Thanks for the donation,” I said.
Bird shrieks made my head snap up.
“Damn,” said Nevos.
Three Razor Wings in bird form raced at us. In the open area between trees where the bridge was, they could be quite effective. I started to raise my gun, but there was no time to aim, and they could heal fast anyway.
Nevos and I ran. We reached the end of the bridge and took a turn. He fled up a ramp
. Goons spilled out from doorways of huts. Some shouted or lunged at us. I kicked one over the side of the rail. Nevos chopped one down with his sword.
A magical ball of energy smashed into the wooden decking near my feet. I glanced around to see a mage coiling his wand for another strike. Already fiery energy gathered at the wand’s tip.
I shot him through the head. He crumpled to the floor, dead.
“Hurry!” Nevos said. “We’re almost there.”
“Almost where?”
He didn’t answer. Bird shrieks reached my ears again as we fled, and glancing over my shoulder I saw the Razor Wings still on our trail. They couldn’t come in close because of the tree limbs, though. Good. But how were we going to get out of this? Usually when you kick a beehive you should have plans to be far away by the time the bees start to swarm. You don’t kick a beehive in the middle of the beehive. Whatever Nevos’s plan was, it had obviously gone horribly wrong somehow.
Two shapes materialized ahead: Lyra and Tae, Nevos’s knights.
“This way!” said Lyra. She fired what looked like an old-fashioned blunderbuss into the face of an oncoming warrior in black leather. Instead of gun smoke, magical green light flashed out. The warrior dissolved from the top down, becoming a puddle of goo. Steam rose from the remains.
“Damn,” I said.
“The mounts are ready?” Nevos said.
“They’re champing at the bit, my lord,” said Tae.
“Good!” Nevos threw a tiny knife at a mage taking aim at us with his wand on a nearby platform.
I shot at a witch as we ran, taking a turn. Lyra and Tae led up a ramp and onto a platform that served as a roost: all sorts of winged creatures were tied up here, from giant crows and bats to the Fae’s tarons. They cawed eagerly at seeing us. Lyra and Tae jumped astride theirs, and Nevos did his, too, then patted the seat behind him.
“With us, Jade!”
As if I had a choice. Shit, I was still wobbly. I crawled behind him and held on as he gave the dinosaur-like flying creature his heels. It took off with a furious flapping of scaly, leathery wings. We shot into the skies, Lyra and Tae just behind us.