Sacrifice

by Jennifer Quintenz

  Only, Lucas didn’t answer his phone.

  I hung up and checked my messages, wondering if he’d left the address for our secret tryst in my voice mail. But Lucas wasn’t listed anywhere on my missed calls, and he’d sent me no text messages.

  Something was wrong.

  I dialed his phone again. And then I heard it. I lowered my phone from my ear. There, in the distance, another phone was ringing. As my call went to voicemail a second time, the other phone stopped ringing.

  I dialed Lucas a third time, this time honing in on the other ring. I glanced at the Guard’s house. Lucas’s bedroom window was open. The ringing phone was inside.

  Had he left his phone behind? No. I knew with a growing sense of dread that Lucas wouldn’t have left his phone behind, not when our whole day depended on his being able to give me the address to our secret meeting place.

  I ran, vaulting the fence between our yards and taking the front porch steps two at a time. The Guard’s front door was unlocked. I dashed up the stairs and burst through the door to Lucas’s small room.

  He was lying on his bed, tangled in his sheets, staring blankly at the ceiling.

  I dropped beside his bed, trying to fight the hysterical panic threatening to overwhelm me.

  “Lucas!” I cupped his face in my hands, turning his head to face me. His eyes were wide, glazed. A small part of me knew instantly—but I forced the thought out of my head. “No. No!” I grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. “Please, Lucas, get up. Get up!” He didn’t respond, other than to turn his eyes back to the ceiling.

  I pulled Lucas toward me, lifting his back off the bed. Beneath him, I saw lines of blood staining the sheets. And then I saw his back; his smooth skin crisscrossed with jagged, angry claw marks.

  I heard a keening wail fill the room, not recognizing the voice as my own. The pure agony of this scream—a profound, inconsolable pain— rose up through me from the deepest part of my soul.

  I gripped Lucas tighter, aware even as I clung to him that he had slipped away from me. We would never have our one perfect night—that one night Lucas would have been able to recover from. That intimate, personal, private connection had been stolen from us by another Lilitu. Were Lucas to spend a night with me now, he would cease to be Lucas; he would become a Thrall.

  Dimly, I became aware of a growing pain in my throat. My voice was shredding itself, incapable of expressing the magnitude of emotion trying to manifest itself in sound. I forced myself to choke back the scream. In its place, violent, wracking sobs tore out of my body.

  “Braedyn?!” Cassie burst into Lucas’s room.

  Her eyes landed on Lucas, and she turned abruptly away, recognizing the signs immediately.

  Amber, two steps behind her, entered in time to read Cassie’s horror. “What?! What’s happened?” Amber’s eyes settled on Lucas. Her expression went strangely blank, and her eyes moved to my face. “Oh no.”

  I lowered Lucas back to the bed, burying my face against his chest. Rage—unfiltered, unmitigated rage—rose up in me, burning away all thoughts save one. I would find her. Whoever had done this to Lucas. I would find her and I would end her.

  “Braedyn?” Lucas’s voice broke through my grief. I lifted my head, suddenly aware of the web of tears sliding down my cheeks. Lucas met my eyes and blinked. He glanced from me to Cassie to Amber. Confusion twisted his beautiful features. “What’s wrong?”

  I stared at him, stricken. He didn’t know. Somehow, he didn’t know what had happened. He watched me, hungry for answers. I opened my mouth, but no words came. I stood abruptly, turning away. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t be the one to tell him.

  I met Cassie’s gaze. She watched me, eyes creased with sorrow, gleaming with unshed tears. I had to look away.

  “I don’t understand,” Lucas said behind me. “Cassie? What’s going on?”

  I faced the window—

  And saw something that sobered me instantly. Ian slipped quietly off the Guard’s back porch. He had something bundled tightly under one arm, and he cast a nervous look at the back door behind him. Satisfied that he wasn’t being followed, Ian moved quickly to the back corner of the yard, to a loose board in the fence. He worked it aside, and in moments, he was through.

  “Stay with Lucas,” I hissed, not waiting for Cassie to acknowledge me.

  With the smallest effort, I cloaked myself and lunged for the doorway. Amber hissed, shrinking back against the wall to get out of the way. I flew down the stairs, my feet connecting with every third step. I barreled through the backdoor, sprinting for the back fence. When I reached the corner Ian had escaped through, I planted my feet, leapt, and cleared the fence as easily as if I’d been stepping over a curb.

  I landed hard on the other side, my heart racing but my mind focused on one single task; Ian was up to something. I was going to find out what it was.

  Chapter 16

  Despite his head start, I caught up to Ian at the edge of a wide arroyo running behind our cul-de-sac. As soon as he came into view, I slowed my steps. I was cloaked, so he couldn’t see me coming, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hear me. The late afternoon was bright and clear. From this spot near the arroyo, tucked back in a copse of Piñon and fir trees, you couldn’t even see the houses of my neighborhood. It felt wild, and strangely isolated. I watched Ian, wondering how often he’d made this trek, and what the hell he was doing out here.

  Ian stopped near a large boulder. I froze, hyper-aware of my breath, still ragged from my sprint to catch up with him. The smallest sounds seemed amplified in the quiet of this patch of wilderness. Even the sounds of traffic on the nearby streets was strangely muted. I wrestled my breath under control and waited, watching. But as the minutes stretched on, I got impatient. Was he waiting for someone? After several more minutes’ time—without a glimpse of another soul—I was ready to confront him myself. But as I took a step forward, the air seemed to split, like a curtain dividing to let a figure pass through. As soon as I saw the sun gleaming off his pale blond locks, I felt my flesh start to crawl.

  Seth.

  Ian saw Seth emerge from thin air out of the corner of his eye. He recoiled, startled, then coughed quickly—an obvious attempt to disguise his alarm.

  Seth gave him a thin smile. “Do you have it?”

  “Yes.” Ian pulled the bundle out from under his arm. Carefully, he unwrapped it. I had to bite back a gasp—I recognized the blade instantly. I’d first seen it 6 months ago. It had played a key role on that horrible night at the mission. The memory crashed over me, momentarily blinding me—

  A slender form stepped through the rift between our worlds, gaining substance in half a heartbeat. She had long, pale blond hair that fell in undulating waves down her back. She was small, shorter than Seth by a good six inches. Her limbs were delicate, perfectly proportioned. She was achingly beautiful. Of course, I thought numbly. She’s Lilitu. She held a weapon loosely in one hand. It was shorter than the stranger’s sword, but too long to be considered a knife. The curved blade was tarnished with age, but the edge tapered to a cruel point. Strange glyphs ran the length of the blade. The handle, what I could see of it, was a dark and twisted metal.

  That blade—the same blade Seth had used to kill the angel Senoy—Ian had stolen it from the Guard’s armory. And now, he was returning it to our enemy.

  For a moment, I could only stare.

  Seth took the blade and turned it over in his hands, smiling. “I never should have let this fall into the Guard’s hands in the first place.” He looked up, eyeing Ian with dark anticipation. “I am indebted to you for returning it.”

  Ian bowed his head, acknowledging the thanks.

  “Now.” Seth produced an ancient leather sheath and slid the blade inside. It fit perfectly. “What about that other little matter?”

  “They left, not 20 minutes ago.”

  “They took the bait?”

  “Just as you anticipated.” Ian shrugged with a small smile. “I only needed to
give them a small push. Hale and Murphy were chomping at the bit to gather the forces and attack as soon as I gave them a plausible location.”

  Seth nodded. “Good. We’ll be ready for them. And the little trouble maker?”

  Ian actually laughed. “She’s just discovered her boyfriend. She’ll be distracted for a good long while.”

  My head felt strangely light, but the sensation didn’t last. Two seconds later, a rage more powerful than anything I’d ever experienced struck me with the force of a hurricane. My vision swam with red and gold bursts, burning out my peripheral vision, blinding me to everything except for Ian and the smug expression on his face.

  I moved, unable to control my body, not even hesitating when I saw the glistening metallic claws protruding from the ends of my fingers—

  But someone caught me from behind, clamping a hand over my mouth and hissing quietly into my ear, “don’t.”

  Karayan held me tightly, the both of us cloaked in broad daylight, invisible to anyone but a spotter. As we watched—me struggling in her grip—Seth turned, parted the air, and once more vanished from sight. Ian shuddered, glanced quickly around, and hurried back toward the Guard’s house. He passed within three feet of us, but Karayan tightened her grip on me until he was gone. I fought her, trying to shift my weight to throw her off of me. Karayan countered every move I made, keeping me helplessly immobilized.

  Once Ian was out of sight, something inside me broke. Hot tears of rage spilled down my cheeks. Karayan felt them on the hand she still held clamped to my mouth.

  “Easy, Braedyn. I heard the whole thing,” she murmured into my ear. “I know what you must be feeling. But you don’t have time to waste on that smarmy bastard. The Guard needs us now.”

  Stricken, I stopped fighting. Seth had said something… we’ll be ready for them. Ian had sent Dad into a trap.

  I ran, feeling strangely disoriented, like the desert around me was merely a background projected on a screen. The center of my world had been attacked; Cassie, Lucas, Dad—my thoughts were trapped in a loop that orbited around them. Everything else was pushed so far to the edge of my thoughts that it no longer seemed real.

  I was aware of Karayan running beside me, shouting something. I couldn’t hear her. I had one goal; get to my car and drive to the mines. Warn Dad and the Guard.

  We approached the fence separating my yard—and the Guard’s yard—from the undeveloped land beyond. My eyes snagged on the loose board that Ian had slipped through, but I tore my gaze back to my own fence. With the same ease as before, I vaulted over the fence. I raced through my yard and around to the driveway. My car was still parked in front of the Guard’s house. I dug in my pocket for the keys and in moments Karayan and I were climbing inside.

  “Wait! Braedyn, wait!” Cassie barreled out of the house. Behind her, Lucas, now dressed, leaned weakly against the front door frame.

  I hesitated.

  “We don’t have time.” Karayan turned toward me, her face drawn with tension.

  Cassie reached the car. “I think you have a problem.” She gasped, breathless from her dash down the stairs to meet me. “Some spotter named Rhea was just here. Ian called her, said you attacked Lucas—?”

  “Ian’s a traitor.” I turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. Cassie stepped back, startled.

  “Okay, but Rhea—she was really freaking Amber out. Something about Lilitu messing with people’s heads so even bitter enemies start to feel like friends.” Cassie looked back at the Guard’s house. Lucas stepped out onto the porch, heading toward us with unsteady steps.

  “Stay with Lucas,” I said. “Dad needs me.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to say.” Cassie wrung her hands. “Rhea’s going after Murphy right now. She blames him for you being alive.”

  I stared at Cassie, stricken. Karayan looked from me to my friend, then sighed with impatience. She opened her door and got out, jerking her seat forward. “Get in. You too, kid.” She jerked her chin at Lucas. Cassie crawled into the cramped backseat of the Firebird. Lucas slid in a few moments later, falling back into his seat weakly. Karayan repositioned her seat, got in, and slammed her car door shut. “Punch it.”

  I hit the gas. The Firebird rocketed away from the curb down the street. As I drove, I fished my phone out of my pocket and thrust it at Karayan. “Call Dad. We have to warn him.”

  Karayan thumbed the phone on and selected Dad’s number from the top of my list of favorites. She held the phone to her ear. After several long moments, she shook her head. “He’s not picking up.”

  “Try again.”

  “If they’re in the mine, they might not have reception,” Cassie said from the backseat.

  I grit my teeth. “Try it again anyway.”

  Karayan dialed again. As she tried to connect with Dad—then Hale or Gretchen—I sped out of Puerto Escondido proper toward the old silver mines to the east of the city. I had only a vague notion of where we were going, but Cassie—who’d just been there herself—helped navigate.

  We pulled up to the old mines about 15 minutes later. The small dirt lot that served as temporary parking was empty. Of course; all the Guard had parked at the turnout half a mile away. I looked around. They’d had a good head start on us. So why couldn’t I see any soldiers?

  I parked and killed the engine, keeping my eyes fixed on the entrance to the old mine.

  “Cassie, stay here with Lucas.”

  “Okay.” Cassie’s voice was thin and high, betraying her anxiety.

  “You might need me,” Lucas said, hoarsely.

  “That’s sweet,” Karayan said, glancing back at Lucas. There was something almost genuine about the way she said it. “But you need to sit this one out. You’re not going to be 100% for a long time, kid.”

  Lucas saw me watching him in the rearview mirror. He dropped his eyes, bright shame flooding his cheeks. Karayan glanced at me and nodded. We needed to move.

  Karayan and I got out of the car and walked toward the entrance to the mine. I couldn’t hear anything from inside.

  A large, welded-steel gate covered the front of the mine, but both heavy barred doors stood open. We slipped inside wordlessly.

  I could feel a change in the air almost instantly. The cavern was cool, loaded with a cloying moisture that wasn’t present in the high desert air outside; there must be an underground water source somewhere below. It had the sharp, earthy smell of minerals that was both strange and invigorating. A line of bare-bulbs was strung up on one side of the cave. As we moved further away from the entrance—and the natural daylight outside—those bare bulbs became the only illumination. Not that either Karayan or I needed light to see. Our Lilitu vision would have made pitch dark as comfortable for us to navigate as bright daylight.

  As we moved further into the cavern, we heard the rustling echo of a large group of people. We hurried down the narrow shaft, and suddenly the path opened up before us. Guardsmen were gathered in the large, central cavern that seemed to be the heart of the planned tourist attraction. Fake mining props lined the space, artfully arranged next to visitor information boards and a ticket booth for a “Wild Mine Ride.” In one corner, a wheelbarrow of gleaming fake coal stood next to a pair of plastic pick-axes and some lighted helmets. In another corner, an old mining-elevator stood open.

  The Guardsmen were arming themselves from the four black duffle bags I’d helped Dad and Gretchen pack. Hale, slender sword in hand, was calling out instructions for search parties. It sounded like he was preparing to send groups of Guardsmen down each individual path further into the mine, looking for a non-existent Temple of Lilith.

  “A fast, thorough search,” he was barking. “Down and back. If you find anything, send someone here for reinforcements. Any questions?”

  When no one spoke, Hale nodded. “Okay.” He pointed out shafts as he called off teams. “First team. Second team—”

  “Stop!” I ran forward, entering the cavern as the first team moved to
ward their assigned shaft. At my command, they froze, glancing uncertainly back at Hale.

  Rhea, the spotter assigned to the first team, stepped out of her group. Her fist tightened on the hilt of her daggers. “You’ve got some nerve coming here.”

  I ignored Rhea, sliding through the crowd toward Hale. “Listen to me. Ian’s betrayed us. This is a trap.”

  A buzzing murmur spread through the crowd at these words.

  “You want to see a traitor, Hale?” Rhea drew her daggers, pointing the blades straight at me. “Look no further than your pet demon.” I gaped at Rhea, furious, but she turned to the assembled Guardsmen. “I was going to spare you this until after the fight,” she glared at me, “but if you want to force the issue, fine. We can do it now. Do you want to confess your sins, or shall I confess them for you?”

  “Rhea,” I said, trying to force a patience I didn’t feel into my voice. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “Don’t I?”

  “What sins? What is she talking about?” Hale frowned, turning to face me.

  “She’s been misinformed! We have to get out of here!” I turned to Dad. He watched me, eyes creased with concern. “This is a trap. They wanted us here. I don’t know why, but we have to—”

  “Don’t listen to her!” Rhea cut me off. “You can’t trust anything that little bitch says.”

  “Excuse me?” Dad turned to face Rhea, unmistakable fury flashing in his eyes.

  “Wait,” Gretchen said. “We should hear Braedyn out—”

  “You say that now,” Rhea spat, smirking with dark amusement.