Ruled

by Keira Blackwood

  “The doll,” I said.

  “I bet you still don’t know what this is about,” he said. “One child means nothing to a monster like you.”

  “Lyra—”

  “Don’t you dare speak her name,” he spat. “You have no right. No right!”

  “Let them go,” I said. “Please.”

  A cold, humorless laugh carried over the line, and made my skin crawl. I remembered the words he’d spoken so long ago, the ones I’d repeated the night of the fire—Let their blood stain these walls, their cries land only on deaf ears. None shall be spared. Kill them. Kill them all.

  “You don’t seriously think it’ll be that easy, do you?” There was no mistaking it. It was him, the wolf from the Frith, from Racaia. Somehow he’d survived, just like I had. It was him.

  “What do you want?” I asked. “I will gladly take their place. This is about you and me, surely—”

  I turned to Ashley, and she took my hand.

  “Oh you’ll get yours,” he said. “After you watch everything you’ve built, and everyone you care about, burn. Just like you did to me.”

  I looked to Bennet, to the concern that lined his face.

  “I’ll do anything you ask,” I said. “Just let them—”

  “Town Hall for the rabid Brit, Market Square for the woman and the man-baby. Make a choice. In twenty minutes, I burn them all.”

  The line cut off, and he was gone.

  “Charlie’s alive,” Angel said, and wrapped her arms around Ashley. At least there was some good news, but we didn’t have time to celebrate the victory. Soon, all would be lost.

  “Twenty minutes,” Bennet said. “That’s not long. We need a plan.”

  “I know it’s not the badass vampire way,” Hannah said, “but couldn’t we just call the police?”

  “I like that option,” Angel said.

  “It’s a trap,” Bennet said. “Both the market and the Town Hall put us in the enemy’s hands. To send in humans would just lead to their unnecessary deaths, and would do nothing to help us. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Violet, Charlie, and Walter could be at neither place, already killed. It’s the smart move.” There was truth in his words, though I held onto hope. Perhaps lives could be spared. We had to try.

  Everyone turned to me. I felt the weight of Lyra’s doll in my pocket, as heavy as the situation at hand. If this was about hurting me, he wouldn’t be at the market. He’d be at the heart of the city.

  “We don’t have a choice,” I said. “Bennet, Hannah, and Angel—you three go to Market Square. Ashley, you’re with me.”

  I brushed my thumb over Ashley’s knuckles, took solace in her presence. In this time of peril, I couldn’t let her out of my sight. I wouldn’t. I had to keep her close, and I needed her strength to ground me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Ashley

  If lives hadn’t been at risk, I probably would have been just as jazzed to use the magic tunnels as I had been the first time. Even with the knot in my belly, and the overwhelming concern for my friends, it was still fun to watch Bennet flinch, even just a little, as he stepped through the portal to Market Square. The last thing he said before he was magically transported away was, “I hate this part.”

  Hannah seemed impressed, much like I had been the first time, and as fearless taking that leap as she was with everything else. Angel squinched up her face as she stepped through, like the portal was made of spiders or something.

  With Team Rescue-Violet-and-Charlie on their way, Tyr led me to another dark pathway. This one ended in a small, windowless room.

  I’d seen Tyr sad, seen him carry the burden of his past. But something had changed when Hannah handed him that doll. The gentle green of his eyes swirled red like a Christmas candy. The turmoil that boiled inside was right there on the surface, and he was just barely holding it back.

  He reached up to a stone square on the wall, and a shimmery gateway appeared.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  He turned and looked at me, and his expression was so intense I wanted to squeeze him in my arms, kiss him and make everything better.

  “I’m worried,” he said.

  “Me, too.”

  “Whatever happens,” he said. “Stay close, and stay alive.”

  “I will,” I promised. “And so will you.”

  His jaw tightened. He wasn’t so sure.

  “Who is this guy?” I asked. “You know him, don’t you? That doll means something more than you’ve shared.”

  “It was Lyra’s,” he said. “It has to be. I thought she’d lost it in the fire.”

  “When you found her that night in the wolves’ house?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “So you think this guy was there?” I asked. “And that he somehow survived all this time?”

  “I don’t know how else to explain it,” Tyr said. “And it’s his voice. I swear it’s the wolf that led the assault on The Frith. It’s the shifter that killed my brothers.”

  I let that sink in.

  No wonder Tyr was upset. I couldn’t imagine a shifter living so long, but I didn’t have a better explanation either. It did seem like a personal assault against the Ulfhednar bloodline. Maybe there was something I was missing. Did this really have nothing to do with the vampires from New York? I wasn’t so sure as to rule anything out.

  “I know you promised you wouldn’t kill,” I said. “I know this is bringing back everything you wish you didn’t have to face again. And it’s terrible. But like you helped me to realize, everything isn’t always black and white. We’ll figure it out. We’ll save Walter. And I’ll be by your side the whole time.”

  “I love you, Ashley King.”

  His words surprised me as much as his embrace. In the blink of an eye he crossed the small room. In the blink of an eye he held me close, with one hand on my back, and the other on my cheek. He kissed the top of my head, and I squeezed him back.

  “I love you, too.”

  I wanted to stay as much as I knew we needed to go. I could spend an eternity there in his arms, where I felt perfectly small and endlessly cherished. He was just the right size for me, like I was built to fit against his chest. And when he let go, I felt him still.

  We walked through the portal and followed the curved tunnel. I didn’t ask where it would lead, only followed, and stayed close like I promised I would.

  The walk was short, just like it had been when we’d slipped away to the docks. But this time, Tyr stepped through first.

  Like glitter threw up all over a mirror, the portal sparkled and shone. I stepped through to find biting wind and a lot of noise.

  Bright lights shone down over the street ahead. Cars crawled through the stream of heavy traffic. People walked both ways on the sidewalks, going in and out of bustling businesses. I could see it all from the dark patch of trees where we stood, hidden in shadow.

  I turned back and checked out the tree we seemed to have popped out of. I wondered what would happen to the portal if this little cluster of greenery was ever cut down. Did the portal stand without the tree? Where would the “go” button be?

  Tyr took my hand and led me down to the sidewalk and through the stopped cars on the busy street. It was funny—I’d grown up here, but everything felt so bright and loud after the dark tunnel and the quiet grounds of the estate.

  “The only time I was ever inside City Hall was a middle school field trip,” I said.

  “I was here when it was built,” Tyr said. He remained alert, flicking his gaze this way and that. He was looking for trouble. Could the bad guys have spotted us already?

  “I had much to do with the founding of the city,” he said.

  “Wow.” There wasn’t much more I could say about that. I couldn’t imagine everything he’d done, seen, and built over a thousand-year lifetime. But the closer we got to the building, the more tense I became. I could feel the same from him, in the stiffness of his shoulders and the furrow of his brow. />
  I listened to the city and watched for signs of trouble. There was noise from cars, smashing of metal, a bunch of voices, and the chatter of a yapping lapdog in the distance. I kind of wished Hannah was here with us, using her super hearing to tell me that everything was fine. And I hoped that it was, for them and for us.

  At the back of the building was a metal door. Tyr tried the handle.

  “Is it locked?” I asked, as I watched out for an ambush. So far, so good.

  “It was.” Tyr twisted the knob with the flick of his wrist and it made a crunching sound.

  There was a little box beside the door that looked like it was for keycards. Good thing we didn’t need one.

  “There used to be real keys,” he said. “I had one, once.”

  It was dark inside the building, not like the night outside with its bright lights and city sounds, but dark like some creep cut the power. Tyr flicked the switch by the door, and the lights still worked—bonus.

  I kind of expected some kind of Yeke clone, seated upon a golden throne. Instead, we faced a hallway, plain and empty.

  The air did that weird warpy thing, just like it had out in the yard at the estate. Tyr was making us invisible. I’d take any advantage we could get.

  “Any guess where this guy could be hiding Walter?” I whispered.

  Tyr shook his head no, and slowly opened the first door on the left. I followed his lead and tried the one on the right.

  There was nothing—no sign of trouble, or of Walter. How much time did we have left? It couldn’t be much. I worried with every door we opened that what we found could be worse than finding nothing at all. I thought of Hannah, and hoped they were all safe, that Charlie and Violet were okay. Then I opened another door.

  “This is all much different than it was when I was last here,” Tyr whispered.

  That made sense, especially since he had an outdated key to the place.

  Every door we opened left me more anxious than the last. What happened if Walter wasn’t really here? What if Bennet was right, and there was no one left to save? What if the bad guys were all at Market Square instead of here, leaving our friends to fight without us?

  There was only one door left to open. I steeled myself, then turned the handle.

  The room was bigger than all the rest, but like the others throughout the basement, it was filled with boxes. The light was already on, and straight ahead, I saw him. Bound in chains and strapped to giant plastic barrels. Walter. His head hung, and his mouth was gagged. Blood lined the side of his face, stained his shirt. I had to help him.

  One step forward, and Tyr held me still by the wrist.

  “You know I can see right through that veil.” His voice was ice, cold and hard. I froze as soon as I heard it, and a shiver crept up my spine. “I didn’t expect you to bring anyone along,” he said.

  Finally I spotted the man, our enemy, the one who was responsible for hurting Charlie, for taking Violet, and for doing this to Walter. He was big, nearly as tall as Tyr, but twice as wide. A mountain of a man, he had no heartbeat, and his eyes burned red with hatred. He was a vampire.

  “Bennet I could see,” he said, “but the child who warmed your seat while you were gone? I thought you’d have killed her by now.”

  The urge to give him the finger was strong.

  “It’s not that simple, is it?” he said. “I see that look in your eyes. You care for her.” He clasped his hands together and cackled in a creepy, villainy way. “Then she dies first.”

  Like a wrecking ball, he swung toward me in a giant blur.

  I threw up my hands, and forced the air to obey me. Wind blasted from my palms, and I focused with all my might, like my life depended on it—because I knew it did. The force shoved over boxes, crashed down metal shelves. My target slowed, and froze in place, but was not thrown.

  Tyr stepped in front of me, and I saw the blade in his hand. It was just like the ones Walter and Bennet had.

  “You can still give this up,” Tyr said. “You and I can work this out. Just the two of us.”

  My first thought was that I didn’t get why he’d want to give this guy anything. But of course, I knew, it was about their past. This was exactly the man that Tyr had thought that we would find.

  “Like hell,” the big guy growled.

  “Where did you get the doll?” Tyr asked. “After so much time, why are you here? How did you survive?”

  “You took everything and you don’t even know my name,” he growled, then threw himself at Tyr. The two moved like lightning, a dance of ducks and weaves, punches and cuts.

  Another vampire appeared from nowhere, and sliced my arm with his knife. Stinging pain was hardly a distraction, not after Violet’s training. I threw the bastard across the room. He crashed into a shelf. The metal clanged as it fell down on top of the guy, boxes landing all over him and scattering papers across the floor.

  “My name is Nero Antonius,” the real threat said. “I’ve waited centuries for my revenge. Tonight you die for good.”

  A deafening bang belted through the basement, a sound I knew all too well. I saw the scrawny vampire on the ground just in time to raise my hand. The bullet froze mid-air, a beautiful purple thing full of burning death. I lobbed it back at him, and let the jerk meet the end that he deserved. They heavy stink of smoke filled the air, and at first I thought it was the vamp on the ground. But then I heard Walter’s muffled voice.

  Flames covered the tops of the barrels, and licked the shoulder of his shirt. I ran to him, and tried to push back the flames. Gusts blew from my palms. It worked a little, but not as much as it should have. I pulled on the chain, but it glimmered just like the portal had, like it was made of crazy-strong magical pearl, and it wouldn’t budge.

  Everything shook, like an earthquake had rattled the whole building. My first thought was of Tyr. He had to be okay. A billion horrible things ran through my head, and I had to see that none of them were true.

  Chunks of drywall fell from the ceiling. Cinderblocks were cracked and falling from the wall. Antonius stood, muscles flexed and shirt in tatters. He stared downward.

  I couldn’t see past the mountainous vampire. Tyr had to be okay. I couldn’t lose him. Not him. I loved him. We were amor aeternus.

  “Tyr,” I called, panic making my voice shrill and unrecognizable.

  Walter mumbled something in a garbled yell.

  The flames grew. I pushed them back, doing what I could to stop them from burning my friend.

  “Tyr,” I screamed.

  Antonius howled, the sound of a beast more than a man.

  “For my part…” The voice was Tyr’s. Hallelujah, the voice was Tyr’s.

  “For what I’ve done, I’m sorry,” he said.

  Antonius fell back onto a pile of boxes. Tyr stood, bruised but not broken. And relief filled me, but it was short-lived.

  The vampire on the ground made terrible sounds, cracking and howling.

  “The doll belonged to my daughter.” His voice was rough and distorted. “To Lyra.”

  I pulled on Walter’s chains, tried moving them up and down. Nothing worked.

  Hair erupted all over Antonius’s back. He rose to all fours as his face grew long and his clothes were torn to rags. His back was arched, his size unnaturally large, like a horror-movie monster. This was no majestic, elegant wolf like Hannah, but a hideous, unnatural creature.

  “Holy shit,” I murmured. “It’s a freaking wolffang.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Bennet

  Bustling foot traffic raced to and fro over the creaking planks of the boardwalk. The market was as alive in the dead of night as it was on a Saturday morning. The vendors were different—fried food carts and carnival games had replaced potted herb sellers and hand-painted bird houses. The crowd had changed as well—young adults outnumbered the rest, instead of the majority being middle-aged or older. Or so Hannah had told me once. I’d never actually seen Market Square during daylight.

&nbs
p; Perfumes and perspiration mixed with the greasy scent of funnel cake and salty humidity of the harbor. I weaved through the masses and weighed every potential threat. Our enemies were here before us. The question was where.

  Hannah watched our backs, with Angel safely between us. We stayed close, and we remained vigilant. Heartbeats and chatter filled the air as I scanned the crowd for signs of enemies, and signs of allies.

  I wanted them to be okay, to see Charlie’s smile and Violet’s scowl again. I hoped for my brother to be safe, and for Tyr and Ashley to return unharmed with him. Life was not always so kind.

  Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Every night since the attack on the estate, I’d expected an assault filled with ultraviolet bullets, a territory war with the coven from New York. It was difficult to move past, to see beyond while that threat loomed. But it seemed that war was truly here.

  “We’ve got a tail,” Hannah said.

  “How can you tell?” Angel asked.

  “No heartbeat,” Hannah said. “Plus he’s staring and closing in.”

  We kept walking.

  I caught a glimpse of another, a man in a suit, alone in the crowd. Too well dressed to work there, too stiff to belong, I pegged him for New York’s coven. He stood at the base of the Ferris wheel, and stared out into the throng, searching. When our eyes met, he raised his wrist and spoke. I couldn’t hear his words, but I didn’t have to. He was alerting the others.

  “By the Ferris wheel,” I said. “They’re coming.”

  “I don’t see anything,” Angel said. Her voice was crisp, on edge. “What are we supposed to do?”

  “Remain calm,” I said. “Stay close.”

  I could count on Hannah when the fight inevitably broke loose. The altercation was imminent. Angel was too newly turned, and untrained. She needed protection.

  “When they attack,” I said. “Get down. Hide. Stay safe. Don’t try to fight them.”

  “Okay,” she said. “But what about Charlie? I don’t see him. He’s here, right? He’s not dead, and everything will be okay, won’t it?”