“You’re lying,” I said. “This is a sick joke. It’s not funny. I’ve taken care of you all my life. You’re one hundred percent human. And if you’re not, you’re not my father.”
“This is touching,” said Aspen, one eye on Cedar, the other on the crowd. The vow yanked me forward, all the sharper because he hadn’t used it before. “I forbid you to—”
Magic arced through the air, and a dozen tree branches dissolved on contact with him. At the same time, I shot hypnotic magic from my palm, not aiming at Aspen but at the Sidhe spectators. “Get away from him!” I shouted—maybe they were too far gone to be hypnotised by someone else, but I had to try. “Warn your Court and bring backup!”
“You’ll do no such thing,” snarled Aspen, wheeling around to face me. “Any damage you inflict on me, your father will deflect. If it’s too strong for him, I hope you’re ready to face the consequences.”
Darkness blanketed the garden, as suddenly as though someone had switched off the sun.
Aspen’s yell of rage told me it wasn’t him. “You—” he roared. Who? Not Cedar—one of the other Sidhe must have done it.
“You have a lot to learn about binding the Sidhe,” hissed a voice that hardly sounded human. Oh boy. He’s done it this time. Too bad Cedar, Dad and I were caught right in the middle of the Sidhe’s revenge on Aspen for hypnotising them and stealing their magic.
“Stop them!” Aspen shouted.
I conjured blue light to my hands which showed me flashes of magic flying around, and Aspen in the centre, all attacks bouncing off him. Aspen stood alone, surrounded by enemies, yet didn’t show a trace of fear. None of them could touch him—not without my father taking the blow.
All the magic in my hands couldn’t stop him. The instant I moved, my father would throw himself between me and him, or he’d use the vow to bind me forever.
Aspen grinned wickedly. “Kill your father.”
No.
He didn’t need to use magic, let alone his new talisman. With one word I was powerless. With one word, my hands moved, magic rising, forming an arrow of ice, sharp enough to kill with a single strike.
“You’re not my father!” I gasped. “He’s not—he’s not the man who I looked after all my life. He’s a stranger.” I spoke more to the vow than anyone else, fighting against the awful wrenching sensation in my chest.
“You ordered me not to use magic.” I focused all my will on the ice, willing it to melt.
“I did not,” said Aspen. “I thought it’d be more interesting this way.”
“No, you did,” I gasped. “You said so, last time. You didn’t say when I could use magic again.”
His mouth twisted. “You were a hobgoblin.”
“I was still me. You ordered me, and I’m under a vow.”
The ice shattered, falling harmlessly to the floor. Dad wasn’t looking at me. He stood rigidly, held captive by a vow, just like me.
“Fine,” snarled Aspen. “You have other weapons. Kill him.”
My hand jerked towards my knife. As I fought, pain exploded behind my eyes. I stumbled back, teeth gritted, fighting the burning sensation spreading from my chest to my arms and my fingertips. Hot blood trickled from my nostrils, and my eyes stung like someone had shoved needles into the corners. My hand locked around my dagger’s hilt, and the pain lessened enough to breathe again. If I didn’t obey, I’d die.
Dad looked at me, resignation in his stare.
“Run!” I shouted. “For the Sidhe’s sakes, run—”
A heavy object struck me in the back, then a sharp tree branch locked around my arm, yanking me to the side like a living creature, and immobilising my weapon hand. Cedar. His intervention wouldn’t stop the vow from acting on me—not even as an arrow struck my upper arm, bouncing off my armour. But it won me time. And the arrow was iron.
My legs moved without my telling them, all my instincts screaming at me to act and make the pain stop, but I grabbed the arrow and stabbed myself in the hand.
The pain disappeared in a flash, as did the unbearable impulse to kill. I knew it wouldn’t last—for Cedar, it’d been only a few seconds—but I could breathe again. I called hypnotic magic to my free hand, and threw everything I had at my father. “Go,” I told him, hating myself with every word. “Run for sanctuary! Run!”
The earth tilted under my feet, and I dropped the arrow, my hand stinging with pain. At the same time, another arrow tore through the air, embedding itself in my arm. My vision blurred. Iron… no. I dropped to my knees, and Aspen’s cold laughter echoed in my ears as the world faded to blackness.
Chapter 18
I came to, seconds later, breathing in the scent of Cedar’s healing magic. He slumped beside me against the ruin of the collapsed veranda where Aspen had stood.
“Cedar!” I gasped, jerking upright. “Where—”
“Gone. The Sidhe drove him out, but I don’t think they killed him.” He struggled upright, pain flecking his face. An arrow protruded from his arm.
“Shit, Cedar.”
“One of my own soldiers turned on me. The iron—my healing ability’s not enough…” His breath rattled, and a chill formed deep inside me. The wound had healed with the arrow still inside. I might be too late.
“Let me get it out.” I leaned over him, grasping the arrow. A hiss of pain escaped him. “I have to. Sorry, Cedar. This is going to hurt.”
He yelled in pain as I wrenched the arrow free, and blood sprayed over my palms.
“Raine, we need to move!” Viola stumbled over to me, bleeding from a scratch on her cheek. “The Sidhe—they’re looking for you.”
“Dammit.” I’d let Dad go already. I wouldn’t do the same to Cedar. The wound remained seeping blood. His healing ability must be in overdrive, but the iron… damn. I lifted his arm over my shoulder, and Viola moved into help us.
A huge shape with demonic red eyes reared up behind me. I stopped dead, but Viola moved in first. Her blades flashed, and the giant horse staggered back, hissing. I’d seen one of those creatures under Aspen’s control when he’d attacked the Hornbeams’ territory.
“Wait.” Carefully laying Cedar down, I hit the beast in the face with hypnotic magic. “Cedar will die if we don’t get back, and it’s too slow to walk. I’ve ridden one of these beasts before.”
“Are you certain?” Viola asked dubiously.
“No, but he’ll die if we don’t get him out of here.”
Viola helped me pull Cedar onto the beast’s back, and the horse took off almost before I’d swung my leg behind its ear. The ground tore away, and the trees seemed to move aside as though sensing my urgency. Cedar’s grip on my back was barely existent, let alone my control over the horse. Where Aspen had got hold of them, I had no idea, but once I was riding, the faerie horse moved smoother and faster than smoke on a breeze, its steps gliding like a ship across the sea.
In seconds, we were on the path leading into the borderlands. I didn’t stop riding, not until we veered closer to the plants guarding the palace…
And the figure waiting outside the iron barrier.
I felt the sword before I saw her face—its dark presence penetrated my skin. The cold laughter of June’s talisman rippled up my spine, menacing, terrifying.
My sister stood outside our sanctuary, and the sword was back in her hands, drenched crimson with blood. My mother’s orders had overridden mine, and somehow, June had bypassed the iron boundary and taken back the sword.
Cedar made a strangled noise. “She killed the guards.” His voice was faint.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Cedar. “You’re in no shape to fight. Tell the horse to stay.”
I hit it with another blast of hypnotic magic for good measure, jumped down, and ran to confront June.
“Sister,” she said. Her nose was bleeding, her hands raw and ungloved, but grasping the talisman tight.
“What the hell is that thing?” I asked.
“Mine,” said a voice that wasn’t hers, and s
he lunged in a deadly swipe.
I dodged, skirting around her. “Stop,” I said. “I command you to—”
The blade came perilously close to decapitating me. I dropped to my side and rolled over, feeling the cold kiss of the sword’s presence against my bare neck. It hadn’t felt like she was controlling it at all.
Since when could a talisman take control of a person? She couldn’t be under hypnosis, being immune, unless she’d run into Aspen’s pan pipes. No… somehow the weapon had overpowered her will. My vow should still be working.
I dug frantically in my pocket for my knife, which splintered in my hands. I yelled aloud as the fragments sliced my hands open, achingly cold. The sword’s laughter echoed in my head. If ever I’d doubted it was a living thing, malevolent, evil, I knew it now.
With a whistling noise, the sword cut the air, dragging June along with it. I fired magic at the ground and turned the earth to ice, and her steps slowed, but didn’t stop. She moved elegantly, gliding over the ice. Like a dancer, even carrying a sword with a mind of its own.
We were the same… so close to the same. And yet she’d been steered down a different path.
“Put it down,” I warned. “Put the talisman down.”
Her mouth twisted, and she raised the blade. A current of icy air hit me like a whip, slamming me onto my back.
“Is your talisman controlling you?” I gasped. “Put it down. Try.”
She leaned over me, not smiling. Her mouth was cracked and bleeding, as was the skin on her hands, and her breath came out in gasps.
I am ancient, mortal, and you will bow to me. The voice rang out, echoing like a scream against the metal walls of a cage. Devastating, ancient, and more deadly than any Sidhe.
My sister screamed, as though she felt the voice inside her head, too, and held the sword over my heart. “Die, sister, before it kills both of us.”
I am ancient, mortal… the voice came from the sword, thrumming like a beating heart. The heart of the talisman’s magic.
I reached for that heart, searching for the deep knot that showed me where magic held its grip on her soul. The sword’s evil presence was everywhere, binding it to her. I shoved my transformative power at her with everything I had.
Laughter echoed. “Did you seek to displace me, you fool?”
“Go to hell,” I snarled at the voice, and pushed harder, harder. Magic exploded from my hands, fracturing the air in shards of ice, a whirlwind engulfing the pair of us.
And then Cedar’s hand was on mine, his healing power reducing the pain as the clash of magic threatened to burn me out. His magic brushed against mine, entwined with it—and burst out of my own skin in a torrent of turquoise light. My—our—magic swamped hers, pushing until my body shook uncontrollably.
But unlike last time, I didn’t feel death’s cold touch. Only the sword’s fury as its voice was stamped out, piece by piece.
Because of Cedar’s magic and mine, as one.
I screamed as the sword emitted a piercing shriek more like an animal than anything. My ears rang with it, and blood trickled down the side of my neck. I felt myself falling, and Cedar fell with me—and we stopped, skidding to a halt on the ice.
The sword dropped to the ground with an echoing clang, and my sister fell to her knees.
“You—you’re not strong enough to…” She choked. “You should have died. Like… Lady Hornbeam. You should be dead.”
“She told you, did she?” I looked up at her, where she lay sprawled on the ice. “Well, if that’s the case…” I glanced at Cedar, whose eyes were slightly glazed and carried a hint of bright green from the magic he’d used… and blue.
We did that. I crawled over to the sword and picked it up. No cold, angry voice spoke in my head. No dark impulses stirred in my blood. Green and blue light shone on the sword’s hilt. I pointed it at June.
“Don’t kill me,” gasped my sister. “I didn’t want to fight you again.”
I lowered the weapon. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt only because I know that thing had a hold over you. Did she tell you before she gave you the sword?”
“It’s not mine,” hissed June. “You—you stole my magic. Where is it? Where’s my vow to Lady Whitefall? And what did you do to the sword?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “No thank you for ridding me of the creepy talking sword. Some gratitude.”
“You destroyed my magic,” she gasped. “You poisoned my talisman. I won’t bow to you. She’ll take your talisman’s power away from you soon enough.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’d seriously rather serve her than me? All right, then. When she and Aspen are dead, you’re welcome to do whatever the hell you like. If you think I care, you’re seriously overestimating your own importance.”
She scanned me, as though searching my face for clues. “You’re not the same kid who took the talisman.”
“Thanks for noticing the obvious. Give Lady Whitefall the memo, if you see her again. But don’t tell her what I did.”
June pushed to her feet, her body trembling. “She’ll know. She’ll sense her magic in me, when I come back.”
“The magic,” I said, “is mine.” On the last word, I swore I heard an echo of another voice entirely. The sword glowed faintly blue. I put my magic inside it. Not just mine, but Cedar’s.
Beyond all shadow of a doubt, Cedar was the source of power my mother sought out. The other half of the magic she’d wanted to use to take over the Courts.
And my magic was within June, too. I had a hold over her deeper than a vow, just like the control my mother had had over Viola. Where is my vow to Lady Whitefall? she’d asked.
Had I obliterated it? Or—was it because I’d replaced her magic?
“June,” I said. “Tell me honestly. Do you still sense the vow binding you to me?”
She shook her head hesitantly. “Not exactly… I sense your magic. Not the same. Worse. Get it out of me.”
“No chance,” I said. “Tell me if you took anything else when you stole the sword back.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t.”
I made a mental note to check the Summer security talisman anyway, and said, “Good. Now, I command you to stand outside the territory in the place of the guards you killed. If anyone asks, you’re here because I commanded you to guard the territory. You are not to touch, speak to, or injure anyone unless I tell you to, until I decide to release you from your vow.”
Which meant never, if I had anything to do with it. If my mother showed up—my wayward sister was the least of any of our concerns.
“She’ll get to you first,” said my sister. “She still wants your magic, and she wants you at her side. Or dead.”
“Same old. You are not to speak a word to anyone about what happened today. On pain of death.”
She nodded, her eyes clouded.
“Good. Go and guard the gates. I’ll wait here for the others to come back.”
She walked away. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath, then looked for Cedar.
He lay on his side where we’d fought, and he didn’t move.
“Shit.” I grabbed Cedar’s hand. “Don’t you dare die,” I growled. “Don’t you fucking dare. Not after this—not now.” My voice broke. I didn’t have healing abilities, but he did. And it wasn’t enough, not for iron poisoning.
Wait. Our magic had connected before—and he’d used mine, at the same time as me. Somehow, we’d exchanged abilities, for a brief second there.
I let blue light flow over my hands, mingling with his, turning to healing light. Blue and green became turquoise. His hand locked around my wrist and he gasped, his eyes flying open.
“Thank the Sidhe.” I grabbed his shoulders and wrapped my arms tight around him.
“I don’t think they’re who you should be thanking,” he murmured against my shoulder.
“No, I guess not.” Sidhe’s blood, what had our magic done? And knowing that—what were we supposed to do to stop Lady Whit
efall finding out?
I released him. “My delightful sister broke your security.”
“I can fix it,” said Cedar, but his expression darkened when he saw the fallen guards. “We need to make sure the others are safe.”
* * *
What with rebuilding the defences, helping the injured, and getting everyone safely back into the palace, Cedar and I didn’t get another moment alone all day. I wasn’t sure if he knew any more than I did about what our magic had done, but I was fairly sure he didn’t know the important talisman my mother was looking for… was him.
“Hey!” Viola waved a hand in front of my face. I hadn’t noticed her sneak up on me while I’d been pacing around the perimeter to check on the iron barrier. “The barrier’s fine, Raine. You’ve walked past the same spot six times.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Just checking it’s secure.” I wanted to ask if she’d seen Cedar, but I wasn’t sure what to say to him. After all, he was hardly Lady Whitefall’s only target. She wanted every talisman, not only his magic. For all I knew, we weren’t that important to her.
But he was important to me. The battle had driven it home for me, as sharply as a spear lodged in my chest.
“You haven’t sat down since the battle,” said Viola. “Come on, Raine. Let’s get something to eat.”
She was right, of course. I walked with her to the cafeteria, and chose a table away from prying eyes. Aside from Volt, her pet sprite, who flew happily around our heads and chased the ceiling lights.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “You’re wandering around like you saw Lady Hornbeam’s ghost. Was it June? Why leave her alive, anyway?”
“She wasn’t exactly acting under her own power.” I gave her a brief run-down of the events, including what Cedar and I had done to the sword. Her eyes widened when I reached that part, and even Volt the sprite stared at me, though I wasn’t sure he could really understand.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You didn’t know it was possible either?”
“Of course I didn’t. My magic’s the same as yours, remember?”
Exiled Queen (The Thief's Talisman Book 3) Page 15