Wreathed in Flame (Faith of the Fallen Book 3)

by Cassandra Sky West

  He starred up at her, the light in his eyes fading.

  “It was the only way.” He coughed. “Couldn’t… ask anyone else.”

  “I love you,” she whispered. Her voice broke along with her heart.

  She shook her head, trying desperately to banish the memories. They weren’t a vision she could wake up from, or a trance she could snap out of. They were her memories, and they lived inside of her every minute of every day.

  Anger boiled up in her. She turned the shower full hot and pressed her palms against the slick walls. She gritted her teeth together as the hot water scalded her back. The pain acted as a distraction from her bleak thoughts.

  The dim yellow bulb in the bathroom flared, then died.

  “Figures,” she muttered. She lost track of time as the water pounded her shoulders. She needed to think about something, anything other than him. She pressed her face up against the tile, letting the water run down her body. The heat of the water was painful, and the sensation drove Connor from her mind—but when she grew accustomed to the temperature, his face sprang back into view behind her eyelids.

  If only she could thing of the happy memories. But guilt gnawed at her. She tried to think of what happened before. Before the demon, before the zombies. She focused her mind and plunged into the moment when she and Alexi crossed from the earth into the Fae, in search of the Well of Eternity.

  A glimmer parted the fabric of reality, and for a moment, in her shower, she could see the Fae. Faeries were incredibly secretive. When Alexi and Savanna had returned to earth, their memories of their time in the Fae vanished. Warren told her not to ask, and she recalled the threat of death the faerie levied against her before she ever went to them. The magic they used—the fae magic—they weren’t the only ones who wielded it now.

  Blue light sprang up in the shower, flickering through the water to cast rainbow colored prisms throughout the small room. Her hand glowed with an unearthly nimbus of light. Power flared in her hand and rushed through her as if a door had opened to space inside of her. The veil tore asunder and Savanna could see, and remember.

  The universe, vast and infinite hovered before her, but not empty. At its heart was the Well of Eternity, turning slowly like a star at the center of a solar system.

  Her mind reeled at the thought. She raised her hand to stare at the fire that flared around it. The power she wielded wasn’t her own. The Well called to her, it spoke to her. She could see it in the fabric of everything. The moment she had stepped inside of it, she bonded with it. She, a human, wielded the source of all magic.

  “Alexi?” She called out for her friend. She needed help, but had no idea what help that would be. The light reached a crescendo and her hand burned with a steady blue fire, evaporating the water as it fell. Tendrils of light seeped out to form a pool at her feet. She sensed great distance on the other side. Fear froze her in place. She didn’t know what was happening or how to control it. The cold of space seeped through the portal at her feet. It echoed the pulse in her hand and called to her.

  Come home.

  Terrified, she found her voice, “Alexi!” A heartbeat later the door exploded, filling the room with wooden splinters as Alexi crashed through it.

  The portal at her feet flashed a blinding light in the room. Savanna clasped her hands over her eyes and let out a scream of terror.

  The steady stream of water returned. Savanna leaned against the wall, uncovering her eyes and blinking rapidly to clear the spots. She shut the shower off and pulled the curtain aside. Alexi was leaning against the door, shaking her head and rubbing her temples.

  “What was that?” she asked as Savanna blinked to clear her vision. Savanna grabbed her robe and shrugged it on. Even in the best of conditions she didn’t like anyone to see the scars covering her skin.

  “I… I don’t know. I think it has something to do with the Fae… and my new source of magic.”

  “Your new source of… Savanna, what is going on?”

  She sighed, it was time her friend knew. When she could only speculate, it was okay to keep it to herself, but now that she remembered, it would be wrong for her to not include Alexi.

  “Let me get dressed and I will tell you everything.”

  As she moved to her room she could hear the tell-tale tone of her phone ringing. She swiped it as she passed and triggered the screen.

  “Alexi,” she yelled from her room. “Warren needs our help, and he says it’s an emergency. Story time will have to wait.”

  The upside to working with the troll was the money. Rayburn had never seen gold before he started bringing the monstrosity his snacks. Now, that was all gone. With a growl of frustration Rayburn threw his beer across the room, narrowly missing Ace. The aluminum can exploded against the wall in a geyser of froth.

  “How the hell did she kill the troll?” His wolves didn’t answer. None of them wanted make him any angrier than he already was. Usually he liked knowing how firmly they were under his thumb, but this time it just fueled his rage.

  With a roar, he upended the polished dining room table. It crashed into the wall with a loud crack of breaking wood. Trashing the house would make him feel better, but ultimately it would only hurt them. With the troll dead, Grennick would probably stop working with them. He’d never met a more greedy soul in his life—and that was part of why he felt he could trust the filthy creature. Greed was predictable.

  “If you insist in rolling in the mud,” came a voice, “you’ll never be anything more than a mutt.”

  The wolves all leaped to their feet, astonished to find strangers in the room. Who could have snuck up on them?

  Two men—twins, by the look of it—stood fifteen feet away. Their backs were against a wall, nowhere near the door. Smug and pretty.

  “You ladies have a death wish?” Rayburn snarled. “Ace—” He gestured at one second, giving him the kill signal.

  Then the one with the long hair… started singing. Rayburn wanted to laugh. He wanted to stand up and slap the smug look of their stupid faces.

  Except, he couldn’t move.

  None of his wolves were moving.

  “What is this?” He managed to growl out.

  The other one smiled and walked toward him to sit on the coffee table. They were impeccably dressed, with perfect skin and feature. Rayburn had known many humans in his life. None looked these two. There was something off about them, but he couldn’t nail it down.

  He called for his wolf, to break whatever spell they had put on him. For the first time since he had been turned, his wolf refused.

  The pretty boy smirked. “Not used to being powerless, are you? Well, when you surround yourself with only the weak…” He shrugged. “Stop trying to call your wolf, or I’ll have to kill you. I’d rather talk about our mutual problem.”

  Rayburn swallowed, a prickle of… something… crawling up his spine. Something he hadn’t felt in a long time, and still wasn’t sure he could admit to.

  “Okay,” he finally grunted out. “Talk.”

  Pretty Boy smiled, and his brother stopped singing. Just like that, they could all move again.

  “Who are you?” Rayburn asked.

  “Let’s just say we’re… concerned citizens. We want to talk to you about a certain blonde vampire.”

  “Thank you for coming,” Warren said as he ushered her and Savanna through the back door of The Book Fairy. Alexi wrinkled her nose at the smell, dust, old leather and… blood. She knew immediately it wasn’t human. A wave of intense hunger washed over her, powerful enough to force her to lean against the wall. Savanna squeezed her shoulder, “You okay?” Alexi returned the gesture.

  “Yeah… I just need a second. I haven’t been eating enough.” She didn’t like saying it. Asking to feed on her friend made her feel cheap, like she was asking someone else to pay the bill.

  She needed more than a second. Even with Savanna letting her feed every couple of days, and the occasional sip from John, she was wasting away. The de
lightful aroma that assaulted her senses reminded her of this.

  “We’re not going to have a problem are we?” Warren said with a wary look. “She’s a friend.”

  “You’ve helped us more than enough, Warren,” Alexi said. “We’re not going to trespass on your kindness. Besides, you should know I don’t force people. Having said that, I can’t stay too long. It’s… overpowering.”

  Warren led them through the back room to a solid wall behind his desk. He waved his hand over it and the wall shimmered. After a moment, it vanished. The room it concealed was small. Only enough space for what was in it. A toilet, sink, dresser, bed, and a girl. Alexi let out a low gasp as the light touched the girls face. Her skin was a dark blue, her eyes were golden, with white irises, and her hair was just as dark as her skin. She was small but perfectly shaped. Alexi could tell from her heartbeat that she was asleep.

  “This is Tink, you probably don’t remember, but she helped us when we translated to the—”

  “Stop.” Savanna put her had up, palm out toward Warren.

  Tink didn’t move, but both Warren and Alexi turned to the witch.

  “You can’t say their name. I can’t have them looking at me right now.”

  Alexi had a vague recollection of what had happened last winter, more an idea of what happened than an actual memory. She recalled the girl in blue, Warren helping them go somewhere. And then they returned and the world had gone to hell in their absence. She knew why they went, the damn zombies had infected Savanna, and their only hope of curing her was to travel… somewhere.

  “Savanna,” Warren asked, “what aren’t you telling me?”

  “Does this have to do with what happened earlier, the thing with your hand?” Alexi asked.

  “We can’t talk openly.” Savanna gave Warren a meaningful look.

  Alexi understood. She remembered the golden-eyed faerie warning them there were things worse than death. Illyana had a similar warning about invoking their name. For a moment, a hundred urban legends about saying names over and over again popped into her head.

  “Can you show me what is wrong with your hand? I thought our trip fixed it?”

  Savanna smirked. She gestured with her fingers in a fine, almost mesmerizing way. Each finger flowing after the other in a pattern she could only describe as beautiful. Trails of shimmering light followed her fingers and suddenly a nimbus of soft blue light engulfed her fingers. It burned and crackled like a fire, but Alexi felt no hear from it.

  Alexi hadn’t known Warren could turn quite that shade of white.

  “This… this isn’t possible,” he breathed.

  “Warren in the last year, I have fought demons and traveled to other dimensions. Consider your use of the word ‘impossible’.”

  He nodded slowly, eyes fixed on every swirl of Savanna’s fingers. The light glittered off the reflective surfaces in the room.

  “So… you’re telling me that you’re—you’ve…” Warren stopped and shook his head. “Are you connected to it?”

  “I… I think so. I don’t know why, but when I stepped into it… something happened. It calls to me, and I can call on it for power.”

  Warren rubbed his hands over his face, leaning back against the wall as though for balance.

  Savanna made a curving gesture, and the light went out. The room felt colder without the faefire, and without its distraction, Alexi’s hunger crashed back down on her. She could smell the blood in the air. Tink’s blood. The blue faerie was bleeding profusely.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, but now you know why we can’t talk about them.”

  “I do. Better than you, I suspect. Okay, no names. Maybe we can find a book in here to help you shield us from them in the future, but for now I need your help.”

  “You have it, of course,” Alexi said. She would’ve helped Warren even without his unfailing generosity to them.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Both of you. It means a lot to me. Tink is… well, maybe a little more than a friend. Anyway, she’s hurt. I don’t know who, or what, could have done this, but I have my suspicions. Humans can’t really hurt us, not in any realm. Nor can werewolves or vampires… but demons and other extra-dimensional beings can.”

  “Why would a demon hurt her?” Savanna asked.

  “I don't know. Whoever did it chopped off her wings. They should have had mercy on her and killed her first. Without her wings, she’s stranded here. I don’t know if they will ever grow back.”

  Alexi took a step back as a fresh wave of blood assaulted her nose. The faerie’s wounds were severe. She couldn’t take it.

  “We’ll help however we can,” Savanna said confidently.

  Alexi nodded her assent. “We will… but I have to go now. I’m sorry. There’s just… too much blood,” she said. “Text me where you’re going and I’ll meet you there, Savanna.” As she spoke, she stumbled backward out of the room. Her hands shook when she turned around, thankfully in time to conceal her growing canines. She needed to eat. It called to her, whispered in her ear to prey upon someone. She shook her head as she walked out the back door and slid her jean clad thighs over the bike. She needed to be where the air was clean.

  Savanna tried to ignore the worry that tugged at her heart. Warren’s reaction wasn’t encouraging at all. Combined with Alexi almost losing it she worried about the things to come. Fae blood could be powerful, but unpredictable. Even smelling it could set Alexi off, and it looked like it had.

  “Savanna, I need your help with her.” Warren waved his hand over where the wall had been and it rematerialized without a sound. “I think we’re both in the same boat here,” he continued. “I haven’t been welcomed home in over a thousand years. Whoever did this—my shop is the first place they’re going to come looking.”

  Savanna peered at Warren, “Who could do this? I thought you were all but immortal on this plane.”

  “Apparently not. Tink was half dead when she stumbled through the door. She was confused, addled… she couldn’t tell me who attacked her.”

  “Without her wings she can’t..?”

  “No. It was one of her gifts. She could open portals with her wings.”

  “If she uses her wings, how do you do it?”

  “Magic,” he smiled.

  “Then why did we need her help?”

  “I didn’t say it was easy magic.”

  They both chuckled at the joke. No magic was easy.

  Savanna leaned against the door frame of the office while she examined the problem. She would have preferred Alexi stay, but she understood.

  You going to be okay? She asked her friend through the link they shared. Savanna could still feel the effects from the feeding the night before.

  Whoa. I almost crashed just now, thank you very much.

  It’s not like I can ring your mind up. Seriously, though, you okay?

  Yeah, I just… with everything that has happened lately, I feel out of sorts. There’s just a lot going on, and I feel like I’m being pulled in too many directions. I just need a little alone time. I’ll meet you before the sun goes down in a few hours. Just text me where.

  Okay, stay safe.

  Poor Alexi. She was constantly at war with herself, and it was hard for Savanna to watch her friend suffer. Anger at having to feed would keep her from feeding until it was almost too late. Then, when she enjoyed it, that would make her feel guilty, too. It was a cycle she wasn’t sure Alexi could ever break.

  She shook her head. Warren had been talking to her and she had spaced it out.

  “Sorry, start over. What do you need?” she asked.

  Alexi guided her Ducati through the narrow streets at a sedate pace. The bike’s heavy frame and large size didn’t make it the ideal vehicle for slow speed maneuvers, but right now she couldn’t afford her usual pace. Traffic flowed heavy in the steep streets, which all angled down toward the water front and the Alaska Way viaduct. The overpass offered a brief respite from the sun as she passed under it. On a whi
m she decided to park and walk the rest of the way. The area was safe enough that she didn’t worry about someone stealing it. They’d probably stop to take pictures, but it would be there when she got back.

  She pushed her hands deep in the pockets of her leather coat as she walked down the hill. It wasn’t an unpleasant angle, but enough so that she needed to pay semi-attention to where she walked. As she passed out into the sun, a wave of dizziness rolled over her. The rare sight of the sun had the sidewalks full. The people of Seattle never wasted a warm, sunny day.

  Footsteps sounded behind her, and her hands curled into fists inside her pockets as she tried to smell out who was following her. They were clean steps—purposeful, not the wandering gate of a passerby.

  “Alexi?”

  She turned, the glare on her face faltering as she looked into her father’s eyes.

  “It is you,” he breathed. He looked almost afraid, as though he thought she might vanish into the sea air. “I had a friend run your plates, after that night on the ferry. It took me to that shop, but I knew… god, I knew it was you.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. How many times had she thought of this moment? Sometimes a dream, sometimes a nightmare.

  “Hi.” That was all she could manage.

  Her father stepped forward, catching her up in a fierce embrace.

  For a brief second, a window opened in her mind and memories flooded through.

  She was riding on his shoulders, with the sun bright overhead, green grass below. Then it was her fourteenth birthday, and a neighborhood boy tried to kiss her…

  “This is your first motorcycle. Do your old man a favor, and wear your helmet.”

  She watched him on the curb, waving goodbye as she boarded the bus for boot camp.

  As quickly as they came, they vanished. She grasped for them as they slipped away, like a dream she couldn’t quite remember.

  Her father was crying, repeating over and over, “Thank you, god.”