by Eve A Hunt
Hekla rubbed her temples, her brain wild with images of Kaippa’s grin, Sebastian dead on the street, Oliver’s tear-streaked cheeks, and Coren’s face lit purple beside her drawn bow and magic arrow. Breathing out, she forced all her worries and thoughts into an imaginary box and shut the lid firmly.
“Later,” she told all of it. “Right now, I have to focus.”
Closing her eyes, she recalled the feeling of the snow, the cold, the sensations that preceded her shift. A chill swept over her arms.
“Ooo. I’m doing it.”
But the chill faded, and she opened her eyes to see her very human arms and legs. What was the key to shifting? She had to learn to shift into and out of fox form, or her life would be a huge mess even if she did survive the Mage Duke and the demon wyvern. She could be driving and shift and wreck the car and kill people, and what about cooking? If the oven was open and she was sliding a tray of scones in and she shifted, she might set the bakery on fire.
Hekla hugged herself, her breath coming too quickly and splotches of itchy heat rising along her neck. She forced herself to take a slow, deep breath.
“I can do this. It’s good that I’m afraid. Fear breeds courage, right?”
She had to laugh at how she and Coren both talked to themselves. They’d discovered they had that in common the night they’d binged old Buffy the Vampire Slayer and made friendship bracelets. Too bad Coren didn’t know anything that could help Hekla shift properly. Hekla had questioned Lucus more after working in the casting chamber, but he didn’t have any helpful tips either.
Remembering the feel of the snow and the way her skin had changed, Hekla tried to shift again. But it just wasn’t happening. She rubbed circles on her temples. It had been so weird to be a fox; she surprised herself in wanting to experience the change. Through her fox eyes, she’d seen the world differently. Scents like the damp road and the fall leaves had been so much stronger. The colors of the buildings and the very air had been different, glowing in shades of blue and pink and red. And her fox body was so light and quick that she nearly felt like she could jump over buildings.
Her human body trembled, and suddenly the snowflakes began twisting around her limbs. A storm of white clouded her view of the tapestry and the window until she was blinking up at the ceiling that seemed much farther away than it had a minute ago. She wiggled her hand—no, it was a paw. She had done it! She was in her fox form.
But how had she managed to shift? Imagining the feelings of the cold and the swirling snowflakes hadn’t done it.
Imagining her point of view as a fox had.
Grinning and twitching her puffy, white tail, she recalled how it was to be human, to see green grass through human eyes, to make a fist, to run on two long legs.
Heat spread across her fox body, and a sensation like falling out of bed crashed over her. She stood tall as a human once again, touching her clothes to make sure they had survived shifter magic.
“All good. I’ve got this.”
With a bit more pep in her step, she left the chamber to find Coren.
21 Coren
Shouts from outside the castle filtered in through the window in Lucus’s bedroom. He’d left to rest in the largest of the pines in the courtyard. I yanked the duvet off me and threw my clothes on. No one but us could see the castle, so whatever was going on couldn’t be anything to do with us.
But the voices were growing louder as I pulled a brush through my hair, and one voice stood out over the rest.
Nancy Striffer.
“Damn it.”
I stalked out of the room and down the dim corridors to the courtyard. Lucus wasn’t in the tree anymore. He stood beside Kaippa and Hekla. They faced the castle door like they were considering opening up.
“What is going on?” I tucked in my shirt, then pulled my hair into a riotous bun.
“My next meal did me the favor of delivering itself.” Kaippa grinned with all his teeth. Though his wings were glamoured away, he still looked one hundred percent Not Human.
“No. You are staying here. I will deal with this. And Hekla?”
Hekla joined me. “Of course. Yeah. But how are they even seeing us?”
“No idea. I screwed that curse up big time. I guess anything is possible at this point.”
“Unless they only see a hill.”
“Maybe. Ugh. No caffeine and I have to deal with Nancy. Pretty fitting torture for a gal who’s been sleeping in a medieval castle.”
Hekla snorted.
Raising the portcullis with the lever and chains, Lucus met my gaze. “I will be watching from the wall. Lift one hand for assistance.”
“Thanks, love.” I led Hekla under the archway.
Wearing more hideous yellow, Nancy led a group of her nephews and a load of other people up the hill. I didn’t see any guns, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. Hell, for all I knew, Nancy had a .45 tucked into the back of her ironed slacks.
All eyes were on the castle, brows creased with concentration like they were having trouble seeing through the broken magic that was attempting to hide it from their sight. A girl in black walked among them—it was Raven.
“That’s my neighbor,” I said.
“Yeah, the girl who met Lucus?”
“Yep. I think she saw the demon when I loosed that arrow on it during the fight.”
“And there’s your other neighbor, that Tony guy, right?”
“Shit. It is. He hates me.”
“Well, you don’t recycle.”
“Don’t start.”
Hekla held out her hands. “I’m just saying.”
Nancy stopped in front of us, that bearded Dain guy and the always preppy and usually armed Evan flanking her like generals. Nancy’s eyes narrowed, and she clutched her pink purse closer like I was about to mug her.
I gave Nancy a smirk that would’ve made Kaippa proud. “To whom do we owe the pleasure of this little shindig?”
Hekla rolled her eyes. “Coren. Not making things better.”
“What? I’m simply curious whose idea it was to hike up here and what exactly they have in mind.”
“You need to leave town, Coren Connelly. You and all your friends.”
“Why? What exactly do you think we’ve done wrong?”
Dain’s beard twitched before he opened his mouth. “We had no trouble before you brought those freaks here.”
Raven worked her way between Evan and Nancy, her stumpy dog pulling against his red leash and his growl like hate made into sound. “I may sound nuts, but I saw something two nights ago, and it wasn’t a gas leak.”
Tony came forward wearing a scowl and a Mother Earth tee I kind of wanted to steal even though Hekla was correct in calling me out on recycling. “She’s right,” Tony said. “A few of us saw a…a…”
“Well, say it, Tony,” Nancy snapped. “You’ve tried to tell me three times already.”
“A dragon,” Tony croaked.
Well, Tony, you are a surprise, a deep voice said into my mind. I blinked, realizing the unicorn of darkness was in my head, listening to this.
Hey, do you have information? I asked the dark unicorn.
But there was no answer. Didn’t matter anyway. I didn’t have the brain space for all this shit.
About two-thirds of the crowd laughed nervously in response to Tony’s mention of the dragon. The rest backed him up, Raven included. I kept my mouth shut, not sure where this was headed. If we could get them on our side, maybe they could help us distract the demon and help me destroy it.
“It’s true,” Raven said. “Right when I made it to Coren’s driveway, I saw a blast of purple light and this big ass monster.”
Nancy nodded grimly as the crowd’s talk grew louder and more frantic, voices pitching higher and higher. “Listen! I’ve told you as much. Coren is a witch, and she has bedded a demon! We must drive them out of our beloved Franklin!”
Oh, boy. “Okay. Hold on. So you see me fighting against the monster trying to
eat our beloved Franklin but you want to toss me out?”
Nancy’s face went poppy red. “You are the reason it’s here!” Tiny spit bubbles showed at the corners of her mouth.
“You’re not wrong, but we’re trying to kill it and save your ass!”
Hekla jumped between us. “Hey. Hey. Let’s bring it down a notch, ‘kay?”
“No.” Dain jerked his head at Evan and his brother. They took a rifle from a couple of other idiots in the crowd, then handed the gun to Dain. “This ends now.”
Dain fired the weapon into the sky, and I jumped at the same moment police sirens wailed down Hillsboro.
“The demons!” someone shouted.
Lucus and Kaippa hovered above the castle, not even trying to use glamour. The sun glinted off the jagged claws of Kaippa’s wings, the claws that were still regrowing since the unseelie had filed them down. The wind tore through, smelling like piles of burning leaves, and the draft ruffled Lucus’s ivy wings.
Dain pressed the cold end of his gun against my temple and forced me to start walking. “Tell your lover to back off or—”
“Or what, Dain? You’re going to shoot me, then go to prison for life? Bullshit. You’re not going to shoot me, fucknugget.”
Evan had his rifle angled up so its tip pushed against Hekla’s jaw. Her eyes were wide, her bangs wet with perspiration and sticking to her forehead.
Lucus surged toward us, but I didn’t want him attacking. They already hated us. We had to show them we were on their side.
“I’ll handle this!” I called up, then watched as he drew back with a mighty wingbeat, Kaippa on his six.
The armed jackasses roughly escorted Hekla and me into two separate white SUVs. I hated the fact that my Yew Bow was in the casting chamber.
Dain cupped a hand at his bearded mouth and squinted his eyes at Lucus. “I’m dropping her at mile marker 69, the mall exit. Meet them there if you want. I don’t want to break any laws, but I will if I have to in order to protect Franklin. If y’all come back, all bets are off.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “And how exactly did your past behavior take care of our precious hometown? I seem to remember you getting arrested for graffiti at the Franklin skate park.”
Evan’s ruddy-cheeked brother pushed me across the slick leather seat and belted me in. Evan sat in the front passenger seat and pointed his rifle at me while Dain crawled into the driver’s side.
I had to figure this out without using Lucus and Kaippa. We couldn’t just kill these people. Sure, they were idiots, but I didn’t honestly blame them for wanting to get us out of town. We were trouble. Problem was, they thought the demon dragon would leave if we did. I didn’t think it was going to be that easy for them.
Dain peeled out of the parking spot along the street and barreled down the road. We zipped down First Street, past the new Americana Taphouse, the old granary silos, then bumped over the railroad tracks, heading for the interstate ramp off Murfreesboro Road.
“Hey, guys. Listen. I get it. The world isn’t what you thought it was. Welcome to the party. I didn’t know about any of this insanity until recently either. But believe it or not, we are the good guys here. We are trying to take that monster down, and we’re the only ones who can. The thing isn’t going to just slip out of town on my heels. I mean if it does, great. But that castle we were in, the one your eyes probably tried not to see, that was real and it belongs to a complete asshat psycho nightmare named Ludovico Sforza. He is the real thing, guys. The real damn thing. You do not want to deal with him on your own, and he is set to arrive at any minute. I don’t gamble much, but if I were like you, Dain, I’d throw all my craft beer money on the fact that old Ludo is going to want to rule his new kingdom with a very magical and very iron fist. That means Franklin is in serious danger. You can’t be picky about your allies here. You need me. You need my whole freak crew, man. You do.”
Dain’s arm hung halfway out his open window, and the wind tossed his hair and beard. He didn’t seem to be listening to me at all.
“Dain?”
His phone rang from its perch in a little holder on the dash. Dain pressed the button, and Nancy’s voice came roaring out.
22 Coren
I held my breath, wondering if Nancy was about to order them to kill us. Magic snaked across my knuckles, singeing the leather seat. I wasn’t sure I could kill these guys. They were awful, but they didn’t deserve to be roasted. They needed to be shown the reality of things.
“Will do, Auntie.”
Auntie. I rolled my eyes. “Nancy! You don’t understand. We should be banding together to fight that thing my neighbors saw. I have a weapon I can use to fight it. It’s inside that castle.”
“Shut that witch up,” Nancy said. The phone clicked off.
Evan smirked, then knocked the end of his gun across my jaw. “Shut up, crazy bitch.”
Pain flared across my mouth, and blood dripped onto my skirt. I smiled at him and let the blood flow. “Oh, you’ll pay for that, pretty boy.”
Evan moved back in his seat, then cocked his gun and aimed it right between my eyes. The truck jostled as we merged onto the interstate.
“You’re going to shoot me and go to prison, Evan,” I whispered. “You won’t like that. You are way too bougie for jail.”
At the exit, Dain pulled into the gravel beside the ramp, and dust billowed around the SUV. The vehicle Hekla was in skidded to a stop beside us. Our abductors got out of the vehicles, murmuring to one another. Dain unbelted me and threw me to the ground while Nancy herself came around the other SUV with Hekla in tow.
Nancy pointed to the bushes where something metallic glinted between the leaves. “Your bike is there. Take it and leave. Do not come back.”
My jaw ached from gritting my teeth. “You stole my motorcycle. Kidnapped us at gunpoint. And now you’re saying we have to leave everything we own just because you can’t handle the truth of the situation.”
“If you return, you die.”
I crossed my arms, Kaippa style. “Oh, yeah? How exactly are you going to manage to do that when there are things called policemen?”
A scary grin spread across Nancy’s lips, cracking the pink lipstick dried there. “I have an understanding with the sheriff.”
The sun beat down on my shoulders, making the straps of my sleeveless shirt stick. “Do you or do you not believe there is a monster attacking this area?”
“I do not.”
Hekla threw her arms wide. “But what about Coren’s neighbors? They told you they saw it.”
“They were frightened by more of your…activities in the street, I’m sure. You are of the devil, and as soon as you leave, the earthquakes will cease.”
“You are the worst journalist ever.”
“I know the truth.”
“See? That’s the problem. You think your job is to sum it all up for people. It’s not. Journalism is about reporting facts. A lot of folks in your industry need to relearn that.”
“And this coming from a dirty girl running a diabetes castle.”
For a second, I thought she was talking about the Duke’s castle, but I realized she meant the bakery. A laugh popped out of me. “Diabetes castle? Oh, I love that. Can I use that?”
Even Hekla was half laughing, her fear-paled cheeks twitching.
“Did you get that idea from the actual castle you saw this morning? You know you saw it. And yet, you deny it. The castle is real. The demon dragon is real. Just like Lucus’s horns and wings. Magic is real!”
Dain, Evan, and the other Striffer relatives looked from Nancy to me.
Dain tilted his head. “Can you show us the monster?”
“Yeah, if you can, then maybe we’ll listen to you,” Evan said.
“No!” Nancy’s voice lifted into the stratosphere. “She is a liar and a sick freak who worships the devil. Boys, we are leaving.”
I couldn’t let them turn their backs on this. We had to get back to the castle and to my Yew Bow. Even if L
ucus and Kaippa came to get us and had secured my Bow, without the town behind us, none of this would work. They’d be on us constantly, getting in the way and getting themselves killed.
“Nancy! Please. We are on the same side.”
A car up on the interstate swerved as Lucus and Kaippa landed beside us. Tires squealed as interstate drivers gaped at their wings and horns, at the true forms they no longer tried to hide.
Nancy shrieked, holding her purse to her chest, then ran for the SUV’s side door.
Deafening cracks sounded above the car horns and tires skidding. The interstate buckled, and a massive hole opened in the center lane. Dain, Evan, and the rest of Nancy’s boys ran toward the barrier to see as the demon dragon shot through the hole. A dozen cars smashed together as people tried to stop and avoid the hole. Nancy’s purse sat at her feet, and her screams rivaled the demon’s roar. The demon launched itself out of the opening in the interstate, expanded its wings, and hovered above the SUVs.
Nancy just kept screaming.
The demon’s gray eyes shifted to focus on her, then with one great diving movement, he came down on her, mouth open. The demon devoured Nancy and the earth under her as it drove underground.
Hekla stood at the very edge of the new hole, her face slack. “Oh. My. God.”
Lucus and Kaippa swooped low and lifted each of us. We flew away from the continued rumbling of the demon dragon under the interstate ramp.
I reveled in the feel of Lucus’s powerful muscles against my back and under my knees. “Now what?”
“I suggest we get back to your growing army.” The wind whipped his black and emerald hair, tangling it around his horns.
“My army.”
“Yes. Your neighbor Raven has rallied the troops, so to speak.”
Raven? We’d hardly spoken in the years I’d lived here. I certainly hadn’t earned her support. Damn. “It must have been my pumpkin muffins.”