by S. D. Grimm
A taunt. Maybe.
A trap? Definitely.
My throat tightened and I swallowed. The door opened easily.
The soft electric light was nothing but a bare bulb screwed into the ceiling with a pull chain. That swayed.
Someone had been by here very recently.
The skin crawled on the back of my neck, and every inch of me felt exposed.
I crept down the stairs. They didn’t lead into complete blackness. That meant my trap waited below.
Three times I checked over my shoulder at a slight snuffling sound. Nothing. Her monsters were following, and how many hid in the cover of shadow, I wasn’t sure, but with every step, more joined.
I stopped on the last stair and turned around, crossbow loaded and ready. “You don’t scare me.” A soft chuckle seemed to float on the breeze. I couldn’t see it. I knew it, though. A shadow puppet. Monster of the dusk. It needed the presence of dwindling light to keep hidden. As soon as darkness fell, it would be totally exposed with no shadows to hide in.
I felt for its presence as Nick had taught me. Closed my eyes. Listened. There. I opened my eyes, aimed, and shot into darkness.
A strangled cry erupted and the creature fell from the shadow clinging to the wall and lay on the stair. “She knows you’re here,” its voice rasped. “I wasn’t alone.”
My heart skittered through a beat. Another shadow puppet must have gotten away. Fine. Let it tell Gwen I was here. She already expected me anyway. I stepped up to the small, hairy creature. It was hard to see, like a form in the dusk that’s just out of vision range. “Good. I can’t take her down if she doesn’t show up to the party.”
It hissed. “She’ll show up. And she’ll devour you, Phoenix of the Light. Get ready. The darkness is coming.”
I straightened my spine as something in that threat tried to pull a memory but seemed unable to grab hold of it. Elusive. Almost like it was a memory I couldn’t access yet. The creature’s head lolled to the side, and in a puff of dust like coal, it disappeared.
I swallowed and faced the doorway, knowing Gwen and her monsters were on the other side.
Phoenix of the Dark. And her creations. Abominations.
I checked my gun, loaded with bullets made of silver and wood in case her vampire/werewolf hybrids needed both elements to take them down.
A cold shiver clawed through my blood. Maybe Wyatt would get Nick and they’d forgive me enough to grant some backup, because right now, I was starting to think this coming alone business was a bad idea.
I placed my hand against the doorknob, feeling the pulse of the other side.
It seemed quiet. Threatening, like a wild animal waiting to spring. But it also felt cold. As if the threat on the other side was more manipulative than anything.
Nick had told me to trust my instincts, but right now, I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant.
All I knew was that I had to be ready for anything.
I turned the knob and pushed.
The door swung open, and I stood ready with my crossbow.
The dim lighting with its superficial yellow glow made it hard to see exactly who was in front of me in the open, empty space surrounded by shelves of books. A figure tied to a chair that had been tipped over. Hands and ankles bound. It was a man, and he wasn’t moving. My breaths echoed in the room. No one else was here?
Where was Yuki? My pulse raced, and I realized a puddle spread out from the figure on the ground. Blood. “Cade?” I raced over to him.
I expelled a breath when I realized this wasn’t Cade. “Nick.” A deep ache spread through my chest. I reached him. He had cuts on his head, his face, and his arms. The blood had spread out from his abdomen. I touched his head. He didn’t respond. “Nick!” My fingers were shaking. I tried to calm them enough to check his pulse. It was weak.
“Why aren’t you healing?” My voice barely made it past the tightening in my throat. I used my knife to cut his bindings. His hands fell limp.
I pressed my hands against the gash in his side. I couldn’t lose him now. “Nick, please don’t die.” I reached deep into my core and felt the love inside of me. It pulsed. Grew. Warmed me from the inside out.
And a golden light spread out from my hands. Like a sunrise bursting above the horizon. I closed my eyes and felt my power course through me, into him. Knitting his wounds, healing his bones.
I gasped. A hand grabbed my wrist and I opened my eyes.
“Ava?”
“Nick! I thought you were—” I stopped as a sob tried to escape.
“I’m okay, thanks to you.”
A flood of warmth shot through me, and I wanted to laugh and cry. He was alive. “What did she do to you?” I looked at his face. Blood still flecked his skin, but no more cuts.
“She made me drink venom. I couldn’t heal until it wore off.”
“Where’s Kelsey? Cade? Yuki?” My voice was trembling now, this wasn’t over and ice-cold fear snuffed my previous relief. More stupid tears threatened.
He clenched his jaw and the look on his face grew dark. “Gwen took them. She said you’d know where. Something about mistrust.”
“Wyatt.” My voice seemed so airy. I could hardly breathe. Guilt stabbed my heart deep. “She said you were at the docks. That she was here with Cade and Yuki.” I pressed my shaking hand up to my mouth and everything inside me started to crumble. “I sent Wyatt there to rescue you and Kelsey. I sent Wyatt to the lion’s den.”
Nick’s eyes rounded. “We have to get him out of there.”
“You”—that familiar trickle of anger spiked through me as I recalled that my brother had killed Wyatt. My whole body shook and I clenched my fists—“are not going anywhere near him.”
He glanced down and winced. “You must have remembered one of my past sins.”
“As in plural?” I asked with more bite than I meant to, my old habits rising to the surface. Everything inside of me wanted to trust Nick, screamed at me to trust him, but I couldn’t yet. Not without answers. Hot tears formed in my eyes, and I wiped them away, glaring at him. I had to face Gwen now without him.
“You certainly remember how to cut deep, Ava.”
“Me? You killed Wyatt. I can’t trust you.”
He grimaced and closed his eyes and bowed his head. “I’m sorry. You can trust me, Ava. Everything I have done has been to protect you.”
My pulse thrummed. “You’re sorry? That’s all? I don’t have time for this. I have to get to the docks.”
He raised his voice as I started to leave. “He was about to take out Cade’s throat. Yes. I shot a werewolf, Ava. A werewolf that was about to kill your brother. I’m sorry, okay? But you got what you wanted, didn’t you? He’s yours until the end of time. So let it go.”
Then it hit me. I’d likely yelled at him many times about this. Every time I remembered. My past sins, he’d said. And here I stood rubbing his face in things I’d likely forgiven him for in the past.
Nick, who died for me over and over. Since then. Before then. The only constant in my life. Could I trust him? Should I? I needed him.
Right now, I wanted two things so badly: I wanted to jump up and hug him so close. So tight. Make him promise to never leave me. To forgive me for bringing up his past sins. And I wanted to say something so hurtful that it would make him believe I never loved him and never wanted to see him again. Because that’s what Ava Elderson did. I destroyed relationships before their unraveling could hurt me.
But that was nothing more than a stupid illusion, because it did hurt. They just didn’t know it hurt me.
He looked at me. “I’m sorry I killed Wyatt. I didn’t listen to you. I should have. You have good instincts. I won’t fail you this time. I trust you.”
My heart slammed into my chest. He trusted me.
He gripped my arms. “You don’t have to do this alone. You understand? I’m with you to the end.”
And that right there melted my anger. All he’d ever done was protect me, and I�
�d believed the worst of him.
He looked into my eyes, pride shone there like the sun. Warmed me from the inside out. “Ava, no matter what Gwen says to you—the lies she will try to tell you—you are stronger than she is.”
“Then why have I never been able to beat her?”
“Because you forget your true potential. For some reason, you always push me away at first. Like you’re afraid to feel loved. I don’t know what it is, but you’ve embraced the love this time, haven’t you?” His eyes searched my face, a glimmer of tears visible.
“Y-yes.” My voice barely made it out.
“Good. Hold on to that.” He gripped my neck, pulled me close, and kissed the top of my head. “Now, enough sentimental. Let’s end this?”
“Yes.”
A creak announced the cellar door opening. Nick and I faced it, weapons ready as one of Gwen’s monsters paraded through. Other monsters pushed past it, flooding into the room. We were surrounded. And Wyatt walked through the door.
My heart crumbled because this time it was my fault.
“Don’t kill him!” Kelsey’s voice came through the stairwell next. A monster carried her in. Two others carried Yuki and Cade as well. Yuki fought and squirmed, so the monster hit her head and she dangled in his arms. My stomach dropped and my heartbeat paused; when it started up, it hurt. Cade hung limp. Blood dripped from his nose. I wanted to scream.
I looked at Wyatt and clenched my fists, ready to fight for all of them.
He shrugged. “She had Kelsey. It was watch my sister die or become Gwen’s again.”
Gwen chuckled as she walked through the door. “It didn’t take him long to decide.”
I looked at Wyatt, at his empty eyes. “Wyatt. You have to fight her.”
Gwen smiled, sick and smug. “He’s not yours anymore. So say goodbye.”
Chapter Fifty
Ava
Wyatt stood next to Gwen. A slow smile stretched his lips that made my skin crawl. I recalled that smile. It wasn’t mine. It was hers. He was hers. Again. My heart squeezed.
“Wyatt?” My voice sounded so small and unsure.
“I thought you expected this much of me, Ava. Isn’t that why you sent me away?”
He sounded more like Denton: cocky and self-assured. Not my Wyatt. A thought settled deep in the pit of my stomach. Would he ever be my Wyatt again?
Gwen chuckled. “Leverage is never something you quite understood.”
Tears burned in my eyes and I blinked them back. My skin was hot. I called on my fire and it sparked to life in my hands. “What do you want?”
Gwen’s eyebrows rose. “A pyrotechnics display? You’re weak.” She held up her hand and opened her palm. Fire—black as night and tinted with a sickly green color—burst to life. The flame rose within inches of the ceiling, making mine look like nothing more with a candle with an untrimmed wick. My stomach dropped, leaving a painful, hollow hole in me. How could I possibly compete with that?
Gwen laughed. “As we discussed, I want your power. I will be able to bring it to its full potential.”
“You want my fire?” My voice was a whisper in the room.
“Ava, don’t listen to her.” Nick’s steady voice broke against my doubt.
“No.” Gwen shook her head as if she pitied my stupidity. “I want your Taker powers. If I become a Taker and a Giver, I can kill you. Kill Cade. And even Nick.” Her attention shifted to Nick. “For good.”
I clenched my fists, and my body shook as I glared at her. “I’ll never give it to you!”
“Okay. I’ll entertain your little fight to death. It’s not like I have anything to lose. You, on the other hand, have everything to lose.”
Nick stood closer to me. “I’ll take down the monsters. You run to her as soon as you get the chance and take her out once and for all. Understand?” His eyes searched my face as if he feared I would let him down now. “When you know you can take her out, do not hesitate. You are stronger.”
“We’re surrounded.”
He smiled, cocky, and, for a moment, he looked more like Cade than I’d ever noticed. “Never stopped us before.”
I stared at the monsters coming our way. There had to be at least thirty. His smile still sparked courage in me. His words rang in my soul. In my depths. Fueled my fire—and it grew. I pulled out my silver dagger and sliced into the first monster. It fell dead. I recalled that this dagger was very potent. Good. I didn’t have room for error. The next monster rammed me off my feet. As it barreled over me, I jumped up and stabbed it through. Another one turned to dust.
They kept coming. She called them out of the ground. I would never make it to her if this continued.
“Are you afraid of me?” I shouted.
As if my words had stalled time, the monsters parted and I had a straight shot at Gwen.
My heart thrummed.
“Afraid of you?” The disgusted look on her face morphed into a grin. “You really are simple.”
“Don’t underestimate what you don’t understand.” I made a break toward her, fire pulsing in my palms.
Her eyes widened. White visible. She wasn’t ready to defend. I’d kill her. For good.
I thought of everyone she tried to take from me. All the lifetimes she’d cut short. The times she’d killed someone I loved. Of Wyatt. And fire pulsed into my hand. Hot. Strong. Fierce.
As I moved, faster than her monsters, the flames grew and pulsed.
And I raised my hands. She was in my sights. The path of my anger. My vengeance.
I shot fire at her with both hands. It blazed, orange and red and yellow. Hot, like my anger. It reached farther than I’d ever seen it reach before.
This was it.
My pulse raced.
Her hand raised as if to shield her from my torrent of flame. Her fire spiraled out from her palms. A darkness filled her eyes. I recalled it from the time I’d seen her as a flame on the beach. Her fire, black with sickly green tendrils raced out to meet my red-hot flames like a geyser of fire rushing at me. Her tendrils of smoke and fire billowed out from the sides, vines meant to choke and snuff.
As her power slammed into mine, my body jolted.
I kept my hands up, the steady stream of fire going.
I pushed back, hard. Reaching through every part of me. Fueled through my desire for vengeance. For freedom. My heart thrummed. I screamed as the fire shot like a hundred burning arrows, ripping through a piece of me, heading toward my enemy. Sweat dripped into my eyes.
She. Would. Die.
Black-and-green flames licked around the sides of my fire, dimming the color. Snuffing my power.
No! How was that possible?
My fire.
I pushed harder. Tried to think of all the things she’d taken from me. A sob clawed inside of me. I screamed my desperation until it ripped through my chest.
Then something slammed into me so hard, I flew backward. My back rammed into the wall and overwhelming pain poured into me. As if all the sound in the room was suddenly zapped into oblivion, I heard nothing. But I felt everything.
My fire was no more than five feet in front of me, struggling to hold back Gwen’s power. Too weak. Not enough. The wall started to crack as she kept pushing.
My throat was so raw from screaming.
I had nothing left.
My fire died.
And her flames hit me.
Sound returned and I heard Nick scream my name. He pushed me and I tumbled to the floor. A swarm of Gwen’s monsters separated us and she walked toward me. “No fair. If I get no outside help, neither do you.”
I stood, my bones mending, and wiped blood from my nose. “Since when do you play fair?”
“Good point.” She snapped her fingers.
A sharp cry behind me made me stutter a step. I pulled the silver dagger from its sheath as someone crashed into me, sending me sprawling to the ground.
I looked up into Wyatt’s eyes as he stood above me on hands and knees.
“No,” I whispered and my soul cracked. Of course she would make me fight him.
Chapter Fifty-One
Ava
Wyatt towered above my, growling and screaming as his bones started cracking. He was changing. She’d snapped her fingers, and he was powerless to stop the change from taking place.
My breathing shook. My heart ached. I put my hand on his chest and pushed, but he wouldn’t budge. “She can’t control you. Don’t let her have a hold on you. Push the monster away, Wyatt. I know you can.”
“Oh, Ava.” Wyatt’s eyes looked to be filled with mock pity, then he growled. “This is me.”
His words were a blade to my heart. I put my silver dagger away and pulled out a different one. I wouldn’t kill him. I had to free him. He reared back and let out a horrendous cry as he changed into the monster. I scrambled back from him, across the dirt-packed ground.
But he caught me by the leg, his claws pressing against my jeans, and pulled me closer. Fangs protruding out of his long nose, and he snarled in my face. “Could you love this, Ava?”
Tears leaked out of my eyes. “Wyatt, that’s not you.”
He lunged toward me, fangs exposed. Claws ripped my shirt, dug into my skin, and he pushed me against the hard ground. I cried out. My head banged into the hard floor.
But I had the dagger. Slowly I moved my arm while maintaining eye contact. His eyes were so wild. Raw. Afraid and angry.
“Wyatt.”
He snarled and thrust his weight harder into me.
I showed him the dagger in my trembling hand.
“Will you finally kill me for good?” He mocked me. “Because of what I am?”
“I knew what you were. I brought you here because I loved you.”
“Loved.” He scoffed.
“You have to fight this. You can. I’ve seen it. The love inside you makes you able to control it.”
“What love?” he asked. “Everyone thinks I’m weak. No one believed I would be able to withstand her again.”