by Annie Bellet
Wolf, whom he had been afraid of.
Wolf, whom I had found and rejoined with.
I brought my good leg up hard, going for his balls or his abs or whatever I could connect with. Samir plunged his clawed hand into my chest even as the knife hilt touched my fingertips.
Now.
Wolf flowed out of her silver circle in my mind and manifested. She slammed into Samir from the side, hard enough that he lost his grip and his fingers slid out of me with a sucking sound that was worse than the pain.
“No,” he said, his face a death mask of hatred and horror as he stared at her.
I drew the Alpha and Omega and threw myself forward, my legs refusing to hold me. Samir and I ended up in an embrace as he caught me instinctually. The dagger slid into his chest, up through the soft tissue beneath his ribs.
We were eye to eye, close enough to kiss, his arms around me, half kneeling in the snow.
“Did I ever tell you the story of the scorpion and the frog?” he murmured.
I had no idea what he was trying to say. It didn’t matter.
I was all out of fucks to give.
I twisted the Alpha and Omega and shoved it up, straight into his evil heart.
Samir didn’t die so much as explode in a puff of glittering golden dust. Without him to hold me up, I fell forward into the snow. My bad hand caught my fall and I cried out, my own voice rough in my ears.
My hair had come out of its braid and fell around me in a curtain. Something red and glowing caught my eye on the ground in the shade of my hair. It was a tiny gem, no bigger than maybe half a carat, ruby or garnet in color.
Samir’s last drop of heart’s blood. It glinted in my palm as I lifted it with my blackened fingers. A trace of his power lingered on in it, the red depth shining gold for a second as I studied it. I touched the blade of the Alpha and Omega to it and the glow died.
All I had to do to end him for good was to swallow this little thing. Such a small drop of blood. It would be good-bye, Samir.
And hello all Samir’s power. His memories. Also… hello magic apocalypse.
I licked my lips and shook my head. Nope. I wanted him dead, but the consequences were too great. At least like this he couldn’t hurt anyone. If I could keep the heart stone safe. I wasn’t leaving it here.
Wolf bonked my good shoulder with her bony head and I looked up into her starry-night eyes. A thought formed in my mind as though it were mine, but I knew it was hers.
I dropped the dagger and lifted my talisman, turning the twenty-sided die until the one showed. Or where the one should be. Now it was just a pock-mark. A divot about the right size to slot in a tiny gem. I rested the die on my bad hand and picked up the heart stone.
“Here goes nothing,” I said to Wolf. I dropped the gem into the divot.
Silver light flashed, bright enough that I closed my eyes and still saw stars. When my lids were dark again, I opened my eyes. The gem was sealed into the metal as though it had been forged that way. I picked at it with a broken nail and found it glued tight. Samir’s heart wasn’t going anywhere. I resolved to make sure I touched it with the dagger at least once a day, but this was a solution I could live with for the moment.
Wolf bonked me again and then faded away, resuming her place inside my mind.
“Jade,” Alek called to me.
He was making his way across the field. He had not a scratch on him, from what I could see. I didn’t want to think about how tough it must have been for him to stand and watch me almost lose. I didn’t want to think about what he would have done if I had fallen.
From up the hill I heard more gunfire and hoped that was a good thing.
“My leg is broken,” I said to Alek as he got near. “Help?”
“He is destroyed?” Alek said, kneeling down beside me and feeling me over gently for other injuries.
“He’s gone, but I didn’t eat him,” I said. “No apocalypse.”
The wounds on my chest were already closing. My blistered arm looked worse than it felt now. It was mostly the leg. As Alek lifted me, I could almost hear the sections of bone grinding against each other. I pushed what magic I had left at it, trying to dull the pain. It took it down to a six on a scale of one to “kill me now.”
“Vollan?” I asked.
“Heading up to take care of the mercenaries.”
“Well. We won,” I said, leaning my cheek on his chest. “Let’s go find the others.”
“I should take you away from here,” Alek said.
“No. They might need a mage up top.” I glared up at him.
“I said ‘should,’ not would,” Alek murmured.
My glare turned in to a grin. “Giddyup,” I said.
It was a sign of how relieved he was for me to be alive that he didn’t even growl.
Vollan’s crew made swift work of the remaining human mercenaries. Levi and Cal had apparently already decimated them, forming a two-man army of doom. Harper and Ezee had disarmed the bomb, but were trapped below the Commons.
Samir’s magic still clung to the doors, so I ended up being needed after all. Wolf and I managed to cut through the silver wires. I was going to need to sleep for a week after this.
Freyda emerged first, her face thin and tired. Vivian followed and started immediately coordinating the full rescue after giving me a quick once-over and assuring Alek I’d live. The shifters were in bad shape—some of them had been locked up for days without food or water; some were still injured from their capture—but nobody had died. I sat propped in a chair Levi had dragged out of a building and watched them file out to freedom. There were more shifters in Wylde than even I’d realized. Children, too.
Many of them thanked Alek and I; some were crying. I sat awkwardly and tried to smile.
I had saved them. It was enough.
It took hours to dig Harper and Ezee out, but they were in decent shape and made it to Levi’s house with the rest of us while Alek took off into the woods to tell Yosemite, Rose, and Junebug that we’d won.
Mikhail offered Alek and I the use of an RV on his property until my place was rebuilt. I told him we’d think about it. Rachel was up at the state offices, giving the higher-ups some serious hell. She was confident she’d be reinstated. Vollan and his people had taken care of disappearing the bodies at the RV park and up at Juniper. I figured the less questions asked, the better. The Dean at Juniper was an owl shifter and had been one of the people locked up. She was handling the explanations to the returning faculty and students.
Brie and Ciaran were free from the Fey. They called from the Dublin airport. I realized I hadn’t told them that they had no home to come back to, but I figured another day wouldn’t hurt until I faced that reality.
Rose left the day after the fight with Samir. She was going to go see family, she said. She’d been up late talking to Harper, but I hadn’t heard the conversation. Her eyes were still full of grief as she hugged me.
“I’ll be back in the spring,” she said. “Rebuild the Henhouse. I just need some time.”
“Take all the time you need,” I said, hugging her back as best I could. I was still not great at standing, so she was bent over me. Seated hugs are always awkward.
Alek and I shared Levi’s guest bed, Alek’s feet hanging over the end. My leg ached and I couldn’t sleep. The clock said five. It was still dark out.
I pushed Alek’s heavy arm off me and slid of out bed, wincing as I put my left foot down. I limped from the room, closing the door behind me as quietly as I could. Making my way to the kitchen I saw a duffel bag sitting by the back door.
The door opened, light shining in from the rear porch, and Harper stood there, her green eyes wide like a deer in headlights.
“You leaving?” I whispered, aware of Ezee sleeping on the couch in the living room behind us.
“Come on,” Harper said. She picked up her bag and I followed her out into the freezing predawn morning.
She had an old Honda pulled up there, trunk op
en. Harper tossed the bag in and came back up to the porch.
“I’m taking off for a while,” she said.
I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.” Harper didn’t look at me, staring off into the middle distance, seeing things I could only guess at. “I’ve been meaning to do some more tournaments, go to more cons. I can’t stay here, Jade. I just can’t.”
“Everywhere you look, you see Max,” I guessed. I knew that feeling. That grief.
“Everywhere,” she whispered. She stepped up beside me on my good side and slid a warm arm around my waist. “Does it go away?”
I wrapped my arm over her shoulder and pulled in her closer. “Kind of. It gets easier to bear. With time.”
“I see him. I keep expecting him to come through the door or phone me asking for a ride some-place. I hear his voice in my head. Everywhere I look, I remember Max. There’s no part of Wylde that isn’t also part of him.”
“Oh, furball,” I murmured, turning to pull her into a full hug. My arm twinged and my leg complained, but I ignored them. Fuck pain. This was more important.
“Thank you,” she said, pulling back a little so she could look into my face. “For killing that bastard. I’m just sorry I missed it.”
Guilt clogged my throat. I resisted the urge to rub my talisman, to feel the heart gem still embedded there. I hadn’t told her the truth, only that Samir was destroyed. I had let her assume he was dead.
A dark voice inside my head whispered that maybe Samir was right. Maybe in the end we did always betray the ones we loved.
“You’ll always have a place at the table,” I told her instead.
“Say good-bye to the twins for me? I don’t meant to sneak away, but I can’t stand the thought of long good-byes. I’ll e-mail and Skype and stuff.” She sniffled, her eyes bright with tears.
“Of course,” I said, squeezing her into another hug. “Good luck, have fun.”
I stood in the freezing morning air and watched my best friend drive away. I watched until long after her brake lights had disappeared. Then I went back into the house and tucked my freezing feet against Alek’s legs. He pulled me in closer and didn’t even complain.
My leg healed within a couple of days. My heart took a little longer. I was bone tired after the fight and all the aftermath of seeing everyone home safe and sound and a million rounds of explanations. It was hard to accept that after all these years of running, it was over. No more Samir. No more hiding. The weather turned wet and then warm. I finally got the city to approve my permits and began the fight with the insurance company over my building.
The day was sunny and warm enough that I only had a hoodie on as I sat on a folding chair across the street from where my store had stood. I wasn’t great with power tools, so I was leaving the demo and cleanup to Levi and Junebug. They were directing the construction crew I’d hired like pros. Ezee was trying to drive a tractor and scoop up debris.
Trying being the operative word there. Levi hung off the side of the Caterpillar yelling instructions as Ezee jerked the tractor around in fits and starts. I had been laughing all morning so hard my face hurt. Alek went to get us some lunch with a shake of his head.
“There’s my favorite sorceress,” a lilting Irish voice said.
I was out of my chair and wrapped up in a hug before I could even register Ciaran’s presence. The leprechaun was wearing his usual red jacket with gold buttons. After he let me go, Brie stepped in and gave me a quick hug as well. She had her red hair in two braids pinned around her head, but looked odd without her apron. No bakery though, so no apron. Which was all my fault.
“You came. Thank you,” I said. They’d taken the news of Brie’s bakery and Ciaran’s curios shop with a shrug and the Irish equivalent of “shit happens.” Still, I hadn’t been sure they would come today and talk to me about the new plans.
“As I said, I totally understand if you guys want to scoop up another location. This is going to take months. But I’m hoping you’ll want to stay. I’m going to make the building way better.” I smiled at them, sweeping my arm in a grand gesture at the pile of burned wood and rubble across the street. It was going to take every penny I had saved over the years, plus whatever insurance would get me, but it would be worth it.
“Rent somewhere else? No,” Brie said. “Don’t be silly.”
“We’ve got a proposition for you,” Ciaran said, grinning at my obvious relief.
“Oh?” I motioned toward the stack of folding chairs we’d borrowed from the sewing shop behind us. “You guys want to sit?”
Ciaran and Brie shook their heads, but they were still smiling like they’d eaten canaries or something.
“We want to be partners. Help you out with the building. Go in for thirds.”
“That’s not going to be cheap,” I said. In my surprise, I forgot little details like manners and politeness.
Ciaran laughed. “I’m a leprechaun,” he said with a wink.
“You got a pot of gold hiding in a rainbow?” I made a face at him, not exactly enjoying being the butt of a joke they weren’t letting me in on.
Ciaran leaned in toward me and flicked his fingers by my ear. He pulled his hand back and a gold coin appeared there. When he held it out to me, I took it. It was heavy, solid. One side was stamped with a shamrock, the other with a triskelion similar to the mark that he, Brie, and Iollan all had tattooed.
“There’s more of that, whatever you need,” Ciaran said.
“Thanks,” I said. “Is Iollan still out in the Frank?”
Brie nodded. “He’s finishing up the new safeguards on Balor’s head.”
“Good,” I said. I had no idea where the three of them had relocated the head to and I was glad of that. The druid had argued that nobody should know except him, but he had needed Brie and Ciaran’s help. That stone box wasn’t light, even for a giant to carry.
“I’ve got a meeting set up with Perkins tomorrow at two, to hammer out some paperwork and details. Will that work for you?” Brie asked me.
“Yeah, sure, of course,” I stammered. “I’ll be there.”
“Great, see you tomorrow,” she said. She and Ciaran walked away, waving to Levi as he leapt free of the Caterpillar.
I stood and watched them go, the coin still in my hand.
“Sandwich for your thoughts?” Alek said. I hadn’t heard him approach, but I rarely did.
I turned to him and accepted the meatball sub, but I dropped it into the chair beside me and instead held up the gold coin.
“Ciaran and Brie want to go in on the building,” I said.
Alek put his own sandwich down.
“Good,” he said, looking not the least surprised.
“They tell you?”
“No, but it makes sense.”
Alek stepped up to me and pulled me into an embrace. He’d barely let me out of his sight, much less his arms, since the fight with Samir. It was the most obvious sign I had that he had been terrified for me. I twisted in his arms to face the street and leaned back into his strength.
“Think Harper will ever come back?” I said softly as I watched Ezee chasing Levi around the tractor, trying to whack his twin with a baseball cap.
“Yes,” Alek said. His voice was a deep rumble that vibrated in his chest, almost like a purr.
“You sound so confident,” I muttered. “How do you know?”
“This is her home,” he said. “You are her family. This is where she belongs. Her heart will draw her back when she is ready.”
I watched my friends laughing in the rubble of my shop and took a deep breath of air that held the promise of spring. Then I lifted my chin, tilting my head back until I could see the golden stubble on Alek’s own chin. He tipped his head down and pressed his lips to my forehead.
And thinking about it, I understood his confidence. He was right. Alek usually was.
He was my family. This was my home.
; I closed my eyes and let him hold me. For the first time in a very, very long time, I was at peace.
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Look for Dungeon Crawl, the exciting eighth book in The Twenty-sided Sorceress series.
Coming in 2016.
Also by Annie Bellet:
The Gryphonpike Chronicles:
Witch Hunt
Twice Drowned Dragon
A Stone’s Throw
Dead of Knight
The Barrows (Omnibus Vol.1)
Chwedl Duology:
A Heart in Sun and Shadow
The Raven King
Pyrrh Considerable Crimes Division Series:
Avarice
Wrath
Hunger
Short Story Collections:
Till Human Voices Wake Us
Dusk and Shiver
Forgotten Tigers and Other Stories
About the Author:
Annie Bellet lives and writes in the Pacific NW. She is the USA Today bestselling author of the Gryphonpike Chronicles and the Twenty-Sided Sorceress series. Follow her at her website at www.anniebellet.com