“No! I know Jamie isn’t evil because I’ve held his soul in mine.” My hands shook, and I tightened my grip on Jamie’s clothes. “He didn’t trick any of us. What you saw was exactly what he is—what I’ve felt: a blend of good and evil. Right now, that part-evil pooka is out there, alone, trying to save us all. He’s doing what any of us would do: He’s trying to atone for a mistake, and it’s going to get him killed.”
Pamela gave me a sympathetic look. If she tried to pat my shoulder, she’d lose a hand.
“Then the best thing you can do is stay here and use the tether to hold him,” she said. “You can keep him away from the tyv where he can’t make things worse. That’s your top priority.”
I hesitated, tempted, though not for the reason Pamela assumed. But then I shook my head. Her plan might keep Jamie safe, even if that wasn’t her intent, but it would also deny my pooka his free will. As much as it terrified me to think of him fighting the tyv, I couldn’t deny him his choice. Doing so would tear a rift between us that no amount of apologizing could mend.
“I trust Jamie.” My voice quivered with earnestness. “And last I saw, we could use all the help we can get taking down the tyv. We have the same goal, Pamela. Please, don’t try to stop me.”
I spun on my heel and ran for the front door. Summer fell into step beside me, and I shot her a grateful look that she pretended not to see.
“Brad? She netted his entire soul?” Pamela asked softly enough that I don’t think I was supposed to hear.
“The whole thing. She said she had to for him to heal.”
“I told you she’d surprise you,” Niko said.
“Turn left here.” Pamela pointed, and I obediently cut through the intersection and powered down a sleepy neighborhood street.
I’d been so intent on chasing Jamie that I’d reached my car before I realized I didn’t have a means of tracking him. The bond had sat silent at the base of my skull, telling me Jamie hadn’t gone more than a half mile from me, but not pinpointing which direction. I’d pulled out my cell, intending to call Brad, but then Pamela had marched out of our headquarters and assumed command again as if my outburst had never happened. Per her orders, Niko and a prajurit clan rode with Summer while Pamela piloted our miniature convoy from my passenger seat. I knew better than to assume the inspector’s motives and mine aligned, but so long as she helped me find Jamie, I was more than happy to be her chauffeur.
Feathery snowflakes brushed the windshield, too light to stick and promising a freezing night ahead of us. Festive Christmas lights outlined rooftops, blinking a rainbow of colors across snow-blanketed lawns adorned with plastic blow-up Santas and snowmen. Our traditionally balmy city had transformed into a winter wonderland.
I blinked to Primordium, the monotone reality ominous and depressing in contrast to the holiday decorations. Drones buzzed across the dark sky, slipping silently over dull gray rooftops. We’d been following a zigzagging course along the border of my region for the last fifteen minutes, and judging by the increased number of drones, we were getting close. The steering wheel squeaked in my white-knuckle grip, and I fought the urge to speed through the narrow streets. Somewhere nearby, Jamie faced off against a giant tyv, believing he had to sacrifice himself to atone for his bad decisions.
Come on, Pamela. Find the damn tyv already.
I flashed back to normal sight in time to avoid a pothole. When I glanced skyward again, a flurry of white flakes cut dizzyingly through the illumination of my headlights.
“Right,” Pamela instructed as we neared the next intersection.
I flipped on my blinker and turned right, ignoring the stop sign. Without slowing, Summer cruised through the empty intersection behind me.
“There.” Pamela’s fingernail clacked against the windshield. She pointed toward a low ranch-style house adjacent to a nondescript office building. A four-foot-tall chain-link fence wrapped the building and parking lot, and a faded sign proclaimed it to be part of the Roseville High Joint Unified School District.
I slowed and chanced Primordium. Drones cluttered the sky, and a blur of black and white swirled behind a tangle of white birch branches.
“Park here,” Pamela said.
My brain finally put the enormous shape together, and I screeched to the curb. We’d found the tyv.
I burst from the car as Summer parked behind us and cut the engine. When I checked the fence again, the tyv had disappeared.
“Stay close,” Pamela said, readying her weapons. “No one goes up against a tyv alone.”
If I hadn’t learned that lesson the hard way last night, I might not have waited for the others.
Summer and Niko climbed from her car, and a flurry of prajurit zipped out behind them, each carrying tiny satchels filled with poisonous pods to kill incubating tyver in the surrounding chimneys. Niko placed the resupply sack of seeds onto the roof of the car, speaking quietly with the scout prajurit. I leaned over the fence, straining to catch a glimpse of the tyv behind the office building, every second of delay corroding my caution.
When Niko and Summer finally joined us on the sidewalk, I didn’t give Pamela a chance to speak.
“The tyv is on the other side of this building. We all know what to do. Let’s get going.”
“Not so fast, Madison,” Pamela said. “If the pooka is helping the tyv—”
“He’s not.” I glared at the inspector, and she returned the look, undaunted.
“If he is, then we take him down first.”
I balled my fists and shoved them in my pockets. “Fine. For the sake of expediency, if Jamie is helping the tyv, we focus on him. Since he’s not, we go after the tyv. Jamie’s not strong enough to take her down himself, but that’s not going to stop him from trying. I—we—need to back him up.”
“We stick together and move as a unit,” Pamela said. “No one attacks the tyv alone. Keep that thought in the forefront of your mind. The last thing we need is someone playing hero and getting themselves killed. Again.” She gave me a pointed look.
“Got it.” Summer patted her soul breaker for a third time, her expression tight.
I rocked in place, eyes glued to the sky where I’d last spotted the tyv. Plenty of drones swooped through the air, but the tyv’s massive body remained out of sight. The memory of her pinning Jamie to the ground, sucking down his life, spiked through my brain. If she had him pinned again . . .
“Let’s go.” The fence’s icy links pinched my fingers through my gloves as I scrambled over it. Val’s strap caught on the top, slamming me against the freezing metal weave when I landed on the other side. I lost precious seconds untangling him, but my imagination raced onward, supplying horrific visions of Jamie tortured and dying.
“Madison, hold up.” Niko gripped the top of the fence and vaulted over, landing beside me. Pamela and Summer clambered after him, rattling the fence against the posts in a piercing chime. I bounced on my toes, and when Summer’s feet touched down, I spun and dashed across the snow-slick pavement. Heavy footsteps fell in line behind me.
I tore across the empty parking lot and down the side of the office building, straining to see beyond the legion of cypress trees behind it. It wasn’t until I careened through a narrow gap in the fence and broke through the tree line that I recognized the location. Four wide-open baseball fields sprawled in front of me, glossed with snow. To my right, behind another barrier of trees, sat a football stadium. My fight against the tyv had come full circle; we were back at Oakmont High.
Tonight, the stands were empty, the school grounds devoid of victims. The tyv would never have come here on her own. She must have been chased or lured here by Jamie. My clever, clever pooka.
I slid through icy mud on a well-worn trail beaten into the grass, my gaze locked on the chaotic jumble of drones looping around the massive tyv. Shockingly, drones clashed with drones, tearing each other apart with sharp mouths and barbed legs. Even more astounding, tight clusters of drones attacked the tyv, jabbing their prob
oscises into her massive thorax. In retaliation, she pulled the smaller creatures from the air and eviscerated them. Atrum glitter hazed the atmosphere around the tyv, distorting the epic battle.
The tyv jumped, buzzing to land halfway across the field. My feeble hope that the battle had weakened her died at the sight of her unaided flight. Most of the drones were slow to follow her, locked in their own skirmishes, but one broke from the masses.
Jamie.
If I’d had leftover lung power, I would have called out to him. Instead, I conserved oxygen and redoubled my speed.
“Bloody hell. Slow down, Madison!”
Jamie’s drone form had altered. He was larger, his thorax thicker, his abdomen sleeker. Pamela had been right; his fourth form wasn’t that of a drone but of a tyv. Where before he’d been the size of a Great Dane, now he dwarfed the nearest drones. Only next to the tyv did he look small, like an SUV next to a locomotive. He wasn’t hiding his true nature, either, and his limbs, wings, and face swirled with the monochromatic oil of his soul, the twin energies flexing and shifting within the confines of his body in a most un-tyv-like way.
He’d barely cleared the riotous cloud of drones when they converged on him again, attacking with the same ferocity they’d exhibited with the tyv. My stomach lurched, and a harsh wheeze-whimper escaped my throat. Fifty yards away, I couldn’t do anything to help him.
Jamie ducked and evaded, landing a solid strike to the tyv before peeling away to confront the drones around him. A fresh contingent of evil mutant mosquitoes swept from the seething sky, dividing to attack the tyv and Jamie’s assailants, and the air thickened with atrum dust once more.
Jamie wasn’t fighting the tyv alone; he used drones against her the same way he’d used them against me. Unfortunately, for every individual Jamie commanded, the tyv controlled five more. Even as I sprinted across the uneven sod, her drones tore through those around Jamie, forcing him to retreat. By the time he’d gathered another squadron, the tyv had jumped again, this time toward the football stadium.
I altered course to follow, ignoring the white bullets whizzing over my shoulder just as I ignored the trio of drones that split from the battle and buzzed me. I had no fear of being struck. My thoughts had aligned on a single, clear point: Save Jamie. Nothing would alter that.
The sharp tips of drone proboscises sliced through my shoulders, and I stumbled but kept running, eyes locked on my pooka. He dove for the tyv’s thorax, but she pivoted, and before Jamie could reverse course, her sharp claw hooked his abdomen and yanked him toward the ground. He lashed out, slicing the leg holding him and escaping, but as he flew away, a trail of lux lucis and atrum dripped from his wound. A flurry of drones enveloped him, and he powered through them, then spiraled away from his attackers.
Hang on, Ja—
Agony wrenched my legs out from under me, and I fell face-first into the snow, my momentum rolling me onto my back. I clamped a hand over my burning side and blinked through blurry vision at a hefty drone hunched over me. Dimly, I followed the line of its proboscis to where it disappeared into my hip.
My soul wrenched sideways, tearing fractures through my body. Fresh tears clouded my vision, and my brain labored for an explanation. It came on another burst of pain.
It’s not a drone; it’s a tyv.
Not the tyv, but another one, smaller but no less deadly.
With numb fingers, I clutched the curve of the soul breaker, tugging it from its sheath. In slow motion, my hand swept toward the tyv’s head. The barbed tips of the soul breaker met a rubbery resistance, and for an agonizing second, I thought I wouldn’t be strong enough to penetrate the tyv’s metaphysical exoskeleton. Then the soul breaker punctured the tyv through its multifaceted eyes and didn’t stop until they pierced its thorax. I shoved lux lucis through the weapon, and the miniature sjel tyv exploded in a mushroom cloud of atrum.
I scanned my surroundings with dull eyes, echoes of pain quaking through me. The riot of evil insects blurred into an incoherent mass above me, newly hatched tyver indistinguishable from their smaller drone counterparts. When none changed course to attack me, I tried to stand.
My legs didn’t respond, so I rolled onto my stomach. The palmquell in my pocket stabbed my ribs, Val jabbed my hip, and wet snow stuck to my cheek, numbing my face. Still clutching my soul breaker, I stretched out my arms and swept aside the snow, absorbing lux lucis from the frozen grass beneath it. Energy curled through me, faint and welcome. When I’d depleted the meager supply of lux lucis within reach, I army-crawled past the dead patch and collapsed on my stomach again. Grass held little energy, but stranded in the middle of the field, I didn’t have another option. Twice more, I dragged myself to a new location and consumed the grass’s lux lucis before I contemplated attempting to walk to the nearest tree. I pictured the series of dead-grass angels I left behind and worried what the groundskeeper would make of them. The absurd anxiety in the midst of so much danger lodged an inappropriate giggle in my throat.
“Are you injured?” Niko demanded.
I rolled my head back. He stood beside me, his attention focused on a clump of incoming drones. One after the next, he shot them from the sky, exploding their bodies well before they drew close. I twisted to peer behind me. His footsteps marred the snow next to my mutant angels. He’d been standing over me during my stuttering recovery, and I hadn’t noticed. It also explained why no drones had attacked me in my weakened state.
“I’m fine,” I answered after too long of a pause. Fine covered a range of physical states, I’d learned, everything from I’m not dead yet to I’m refreshed and ready to fight. Right then, I decided I can move met the qualifications of the word.
It took two tries to get to my feet, but once my legs were beneath me, my balance returned. Clutching the soul breaker, I took stock of the battle. Not much had changed, at least not in the sky. Drones drove Pamela and Summer away from us, and a tyv hiding in their midst struck Pamela before either woman saw it. Summer killed it an instant later, and the drones scattered. Before the women could collect themselves, another cluster of drones broke from the aerial battle to attack them, half splitting to angle for Niko and me.
“We need to regroup with the others,” Niko said, tracking the drones. When they drew within range, he fired. Every single shot hit its intended target.
“They’re wasting time on drones. They don’t matter. We need to take out the tyv and save—” Jamie. The tyv had injured him. I spun in a circle, eyes on the sky, staggering when the sudden rotation stole my balance.
Jamie plummeted from a seething ball of drones, spiraling out of control toward the ground. My heart leapt to my throat, my feet moving before I consciously gave them the signal to run.
“Niko!”
“Wait!” He cursed, but the pounding of his footsteps assured me I wasn’t alone.
A string of drones broke from the mass to chase Jamie, closing the gap. He caught himself inches above the ground, spinning with uncanny skill to dart in a new direction. Less than half the drones made the turn with him, the others scattering before regrouping. The pooka didn’t slow or hesitate, striking straight for the tyv. I pushed energy into my sluggish legs, feeling as if I were running in sand. The tyv crouched less than ten yards from me. If I could squeeze more speed out, I could time my attack with Jamie’s—
“On your right!”
Niko’s shout brought my head around. A giant drone barreled down on me, proboscis extended. Despite a dozen lux lucis bullets puncturing its thorax, it didn’t explode or slow. Tyv! I stumbled when I tried to dodge, and the tyv skewered me.
Pain spiked through me, stealing the last of my coordination. I fell swinging, slicing my soul breaker through the tyv’s abdomen. It shuddered but clung to me, pivoting its body to shift its abdomen out of reach. My soul ratcheted around the twisting tip of its proboscis, searing molten fire through my limbs. Thrashing, I jabbed the tyv again and again until finally the soul breaker hit its thorax and lux lucis gushed
through my palm into the tyv. Atrum glitter mushroomed above me.
I collapsed onto my back. The dusty remains of the tyv faded to gray, settling on my heaving chest. I flopped an arm over my nose and mouth to avoid sucking the particles into my lungs.
“Incoming,” Niko bellowed.
A pair of tyver dropped between me and Niko, both focused on his bright soul. Niko wielded a slender soul breaker as if it were an extension of his hand, punching and thrusting, forcing the tyver back. Despite his efforts, they herded him away from me.
Shoving to my feet took Herculean effort. On limp legs, my arms dangling as heavy as sacks of wet sand, I stumbled after Niko and the tyver attacking him. When I realized I would be useless in my current state, I altered course, lumbering to the nearest hedge and draping my body across it. Lux lucis leapt from the sharp branches and icy leaves, flooding my body. Acutely aware of Niko’s peril, I sank into the energy, willing it to hurry. Through the network of branches, the thicker trunk stalks and roots, all the way down to the tiny hair-thin feelers deep in the soil—every scrap of lux lucis in the plant surged to me, and I drained it dry before pushing upright.
Niko’s skirmish had carried him halfway across the field. Only one small tyv remained in front of him, and even as I straightened, he thrust his soul breaker into it, exploding the evil creature. Without waiting for the dust to settle, Niko jogged toward me. Far behind him, almost back at the fence line, Summer and Pamela fought an endless assault of drones and tyver.
I turned away, locking my sights on the gargantuan tyv. Pamela and Summer had each other; Jamie had no one.
If Jamie had weakened the tyv, it hadn’t been by much. At the rate she consumed drones, she might have actually been getting stronger. Jamie, on the other hand, visibly leaked lux lucis and atrum as he dove for the tyv again. If he maintained his solo assault, it would be suicide.
“Ready?” I asked Niko, who had caught up and was recharging on a nearby sapling.
“Any chance you’re headed toward Pamela?”
A Fistful of Frost Page 40