by K. A. Tucker
“Eve?” My name came out in a croak.
My knees buckled with relief. “Oh, thank God, Veronique. Yes, it’s me. We’re going to get you out of here. Now.” One tear rolled out the corner of her right eye, trailing down to hit the red pillowcase. What they had done to her …
What they must be doing to Julian. I did a sweep of the room to confirm it was empty. “Do you know where they’ve taken my friend?”
All I got was a small negative grunt in response.
An ache formed in the back of my throat. He could be anywhere! How would I find him? In that moment, I prayed for Sofie and Caden. They always knew what to do. They were always taking care of things. Not this time. This time, I was alone. It was all on me.
God help Julian and Veronique.
Okay. I took a deep breath. First things first. I turned to Wraith. “Can you carry her? And make sure you don’t accidently kill her …”
Without answering, he quickly swooped in and, with gentle motion I didn’t think possible of Death himself, he slipped his arms under her frail body. She wriggled her brow. “Nathan?”
“Hurry,” I demanded, ignoring her confusion. There’d be plenty of time to explain later. He scooped her up and followed me out. We tore down five sets of stairs, struggling to keep quiet, rushing blood in my ears disorienting. I barreled through the red doors into the atrium …
And slammed into Caden. “Evangeline!” Caden hissed, grabbing my biceps with a death grip, murder on his face. “Are you fucking crazy?” He wasn’t alone. Amelie, Max and brothers, the wolves, Lilly, and her posse stood in a wall behind him with equally unimpressed faces.
“I had to …,” I faltered, my face burning.
He wasn’t having any of it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing in here! I tell you you’re not coming in here and so you sneak out?” His eyes turned cold and hard. I had never seen him this angry. It was a struggle not to be terrified. But now was not the time. I swallowed back the tears forming as a storm of indignation brewed within me over his chastising.
“They have Julian, Caden. I saw it. They had him and they wanted you all here so they could kill you.”
“Where?” Amelie’s lips trembled, her head whipping around in every direction.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. No one’s here. Would they have left?”
“Not likely,” Lilly murmured, cool eyes rolling over the atrium.
Caden took Veronique from Wraith’s hands. “Wraith—you idiot. You shouldn’t have brought her here. But you need to get her out. Now. Lilly, Amelie. The rest of you. Go find Julian.” They vanished without a second’s delay.
To Wraith, Max, and his brothers, Caden directed, “Help me get them both out of here and we’ll come back.” We took off, picking our steps around the upturned cobblestone and charred bodies across the atrium, back to the entrance that would lead to the garage.
“Hurry up!” Caden hissed, his brow wrinkled. “This is too easy,” I heard him mutter.
Prickles ran down my vertebrae.
Halfway across the atrium, Caden and Max stopped dead in their tracks, sending Wraith and I swerving to avoid them. “What is it?” My eyes skimmed the thousand barriers someone could hide behind, expecting they had finally spotted someone.
Caden didn’t answer.
We’re spelled! We can’t move! Max yelled. Get out of here, now!
Spelled. That meant only one thing. Witches.
I rushed around to meet Caden’s face, an ice sculpture. Frozen. Veronique still lay cradled in his arms, barely conscious.
“What is wrong?” Wraith asked curiously.
“They’re spelled.” Icy blood coursed through my veins. “Here. Take Veronique and get—”
My words were cut off.
“Clever girl!” The words reverberated through the atrium, followed by a menacing laugh. One I recognized well. “Clever and stupid. Did you think you could waltz in here with that abomination and kidnap our prisoner?”
I pivoted on my heels, madly searching for that wild, white streak of hair. Only destruction and death surrounded me.
“Still haven’t figured it out?” I shook my head dumbly in answer to her taunt.
My breath caught as forms suddenly stepped out of nothingness, as if lifting invisibility cloaks. Dozens of them, their fingers alight and primed for attack. They’d been here all along, watching. Waiting.
Wraith’s long legs scissored forward. “Stop, demon!” Imogen screamed, pinkish-orange fire bolts shooting from her hands to slam into Wraith’s chest. With a mixture of intrigue and horror, I watched as the fired looped around his body, coiling tighter and tighter until it simply disappeared. His body absorbed the fire. When Wraith looked up at Imogen, he did something I believed him incapable of.
He smiled.
Imogen’s face turned ashen for just a second before angry heat flushed her cheeks. With a narrowing determined scowl, she waved a hand to her right, signaling someone. Two hulking thugs emerged from behind a singed bush, dragging a limp, unresponsive male body out from the shadows. The air left my lungs in a rush.
“Julian!” I cried out, lunging forward. Wraith somehow closed the five-foot distance between us, his solid arm shooting up to block me.
“He’s been a wonderful source of information!” Imogen’s eyes burned with delight. “Really. It only took a bit of … coaxing. And to think he just walked in here of his own free will!”
A glimpse at Julian’s raw feet proved exactly how they had coaxed him. I bit back a sob. Julian was always getting hurt trying to help me.
Trying not to look obvious, I searched the gaping window holes of the destroyed atrium. Where were the others? They had to be watching! They’d come, they’d rescue us, they’d—
“Looking for these?” Imogen snapped her fingers. A procession of Sentinels dragged seven Merth-bound bodies with them. Behind them came five wolves in human form, knives held against their throats. “I have to say, finding all this Merth was a pleasant surprise. It has come in quite handy.”
We were trapped.
Touch me, Max demanded. You’ll break her spell like you did with Bishop. Then I’ll gladly tear her throat out.
Genius! He was only about ten steps away. Slowly, I shifted toward him. If I could just…
“Don’t move!” Imogen shrieked, her hand now pointing at me. I froze, under no delusion that I could absorb flames like Wraith. In that second, the Sentinel swooped in, winding Merth around Max and all his brothers.
“Him too,” Imogen commanded with a head thrust toward Caden. “Get her out of his arms, though.” Obeying her orders, a large Asian man yanked Veronique out of Caden’s arms, letting her drop to the broken cobblestone as they immobilized Caden. My heart sank. “There. That’s better. Now we can focus on you.” I struggled not to cower under her gaze. They had thought of everything. Three witches stepped forward, hands stretched out toward me. Looking down at my hand, I would do anything for the Tribe’s deadly power in my touch. Of course, though, the one time I needed it …
Wraith intercepted, seizing two of their arms. I watched them crumble to the ground, their skin and bodies desiccated in seconds, the life gone from their eyes.
“Wraith!” I hissed. “Stand down!” Somehow I didn’t think they’d let him march forward and take each witch down, one by one. But he wasn’t listening to me, instead moving on to another witch nearby.
They proved my instincts right. A willowy blond witch ran for Caden’s arm, seizing it with white knuckles. “Don’t you see this one is important to her?” A broad knife appeared from out of nowhere, the tip pressing up against Caden’s chest. “I’ll skewer his heart right out of his chest and burn it if you take another step.”
A cold shiver radiated through me, swelling until my entire body was numb. She was appealing to Wraith’s sensitive side. Wraith had no sensitive side! He had only one side. One purpose. Death.
Caden was as good as dead.
I croaked, try
ing to get the useless plea out before Wraith killed again.
But he did something unexpected. He stopped of his own accord. Why would he? Realization hit me. His mission was to protect me from harm. Caden being killed would harm me. Wraith understood how important Caden was to me. His brain did process human emotions after all. I caught myself staring at him in shock.
“That’s right. You don’t want to break your girl’s heart, do you?” Imogen grinned wickedly, proud they had reins over Death himself, if only temporarily. Still, her grin only thinly veiled her terror.
Wraith scared the shit out of everyone.
17. Loop Hole—Sofie
My fingernails pierced the skin on my palms as I surveyed this latest disaster, struggling to peel my eyes from the unconscious body lying on a pile of broken cobblestones. My sister.
“I don’t know why this is such a difficult decision,” Ventus prodded. “We give you anything you want and we get what we want. Everyone wins.”
Air hissed through my clenched teeth. “What you want? Torture and misery? Get me back there this instant!” I would level each and every one of those witches on my own, I would burn every bitch in there, I would …
“You will lose your sister, your adopted child … everything,” Terra warned.
I inhaled deeply, trying to calm myself. “I just need to tell you what I want?” My voice sounded weak, hollow, deflated.
Incendia grinned. “Nathan back, perhaps?”
I turned steely eyes on him. “I already have him, remember?”
He guffawed. “Not that abomination. The real Nathan. Back in your arms. No strings attached. No twists to your request, no counter to it. If you want Nathan, we can erase this entire mess and it will be like it never happened.”
Erase this entire mess. Like it never happened. Be happy and free again? Free to feel Nathan’s strong arms around my body once again … and what? I’d be back where I began, trying to find a way to turn myself. And what would erase mean? Never know Evangeline? Never love her? Never allow her the chance to know Caden? I regarded the Fates with an icy gaze. Would they erase all of this from my memory or torture me with it daily?
“I want two,” I suddenly blurted, my mind working quickly. “And I want them exactly as I ask for them. No perversions.”
They laughed casually. “You get one.”
I offered a spiteful smile in return. “I will take none, then.”
Incendia frowned. “We’ve already discussed this. Why would you do that? No … we have made the decision and you must take it.”
I folded my arms over my chest, making it clear that this negotiation would be on my terms. “You will give me two or I give you nothing and your balance be damned. Read my soul, you crazy-ass faeries. This ends here, one way or another.”
Incendia’s mouth twisted as he scrutinized me. Had anyone ever challenged him? He must’ve decided I was telling the truth. His gaze rolled over the others, a silent communication between them.
“Fine …” Narrowed slits regarded me. “However, there’s a catch.”
I studied him. “Oh? And what would that be?”
It was Incendia’s turn to smile spitefully at me. “You’ll know when the time comes.”
I snorted. “So I must agree blindly?”
“Take it, or leave it and your life be damned. You only have one life, remember.” Incendia’s hands sprawled over the pit of worlds. “We have many.”
“Yes,” Unda spoke. “I believe this is a fair compromise. I will second this.” The other two announced their agreement, Terra with a nod, as if goading me to accept this fair deal.
“So, my child …” Terra crooned. “What are your two requests?”
I felt a tiny bittersweet smile curl my lips.
18. Now or Never—Evangeline
Veronique moaned feebly. She wouldn’t last long and there was nothing I could do. Nothing anyone could do. And if she died? I swallowed back the terror. I couldn’t even think about it. Not for a millisecond. I glanced over to see Caden’s bound body fifteen feet away. If only I could somehow free him …
“Come here, girl,” Imogen purred, holding her hand out to me, her eyes boring into my skull. Wraith stepped forward to block me. “Let her come forward, or he dies,” the blond warned, waving her knife in reminder. I noticed her adjust her grip on the handle purposefully, ready to drive it through his breastbone.
Wraith’s arm didn’t budge and when I tried to sidestep him, he anticipated my movements and shifted with it.
“Don’t believe me?” The blond’s left brow raised sardonically. She looked to a spot behind me on my right and signaled with a chin thrust. I turned to see a man drive a long-bladed knife into Lilly’s companion—Daniel, I think I heard her call him. He twisted roughly. The sound of bones crunching caved my legs, forcing me into a crouch.
“Wraith, please!” I croaked, violent images of the same happening to Amelie and Caden, sending a frisson of panic through me. He turned and I saw my raw desperation reflected in his mirror balls. A girl ready to crumble into dust. He took three steps back. Mustering all the strength left in my body, I forced myself to my feet, fighting to keep my knees from shaking as I strode forward into death’s grip.
With an icy smile, Imogen wrapped her thumb and index finger around my jaw and squeezed. Pain exploded as my old injury lashed out. Even as I moaned, even as tears trickled, she didn’t relent.
“Julian said you were special to Sofie. Why?” she asked. “No matter. We have you. We have her,” she jerked her head toward Veronique. After examining my yellowed eyes for a moment, she shoved me to the ground toward the crippled body, wiping her hands on her jeans. I wasted no time, scrambling to Veronique’s side to lift her head and place it gently in my lap. “We have all that we need to trap and rid this world of these vile creatures, once and for all.”
“But you don’t have Viggo and Mortimer,” I answered hurriedly, aware that I was grasping at straws. Sofie … where are you? I need you right now!
Another wicked smile. “Oh, don’t worry. They will be along shortly. And they will die.” Turning to the Sentinel thugs, she commanded, “Bring them inside the circle.”
The circle … My eyes darted to the ground to see the yellow chalk line snaking over the broken concrete and around the scorched gardens to form a giant warped circle, fifty feet in diameter. I watched as the Sentinel dragged Amelie, Lilly, and her cohorts within the boundaries of the line. Caden, Max, and his brothers already lay inside. When all was said and done, only one witch stood outside the circle with thirty Sentinel surrounding her.
“Not you,” Imogen’s finger shot out to Wraith, who inched forward. “You take twenty steps back. Now.” After a long pause, he listened, his steps small. Still, the twenty-pace gap may as well have been a thousand. Satisfied, Imogen reached out to either side of her. “Sisters. Join hands. Lend me your power.” All witches but Caden’s captor shifted forward until their toes touched the inside of the yellow chalk line. They clasped hands. As Imogen chanted softly, the others joined in. It reminded me of the Tribal women when they were trying to save Julian, though I knew beyond a doubt there was no healing intended here today.
My hands formed a protective barrier around Veronique’s body as the chant continued. At first, nothing happened. But then I noticed an iridescent pink glow rise from the yellow chalk, stretching higher and higher until it converged in a dome shape thirty feet above our heads.
“It is done!” Imogen’s shoulders sagged with relaxation.
A sickly moan pulled my attention down to my lap. Veronique’s eyelids fluttered open briefly to show only the whites of her eyes. My pulse began to race. Veronique was a goner.
“She’s going to die!” I leveled Imogen with as hard a look as I could muster. “Help her or you’ll never get what you want from them, I promise.”
“Yes, she likely will die. But I can’t help her, even if I wanted to. She’s a vile toxic mess, like you.” She dismissed me with a
shrug, turning her attention to the dark-skinned witch standing outside the circle perimeter. “Sharie? Please let our friends know we’re ready for them.”
The woman nodded and turned to face the garage entrance, silent words fluttering off her lips. Like a malfunctioning mirage, I watched the perfect cast-iron gate illusion drop, revealing the gaping hole where the witches had stormed Viggo’s palace not long ago, and the street beyond. A perfect view of the impending war should a passerby slow long enough to notice.
“They’re not out there,” I said half-heartedly.
Imogen’s head fell back as a bone-chilling cackle echoed. “They’re always out there. The Merth boundary is down. It won’t be long now.” Triumphant eyes crushed me with their confidence.
It took five minutes. Five minutes for the spies watching the place to inform their employers. Five minutes for Viggo and Mortimer to drop their Jonah hunt. Five minutes to appear out of thin air, two looming forms stalking in perfect unison. Five minutes for me to resign myself to the fact that this was it—the last nerve-racking secret revealed to all.
What I hadn’t expected, what felt like a dip in an ice bath after a high fever, was seeing Mage and a wild-eyed Bishop follow immediately. They must’ve been watching from Lilly’s condo! Mage’s shrewd gaze dissected the entire situation with the expertise of a master swordsman, deciding where she could inflict the most harm. That is, if she was able to do anything besides keep a firm grip of Bishop’s bicep.
Poor Bishop … he twisted and thrashed and seethed, trying to break free and drown himself in the sweet euphoria of revenge. Mage leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Soon, it looked like she said. Soon … what? Her word seemed to calm him down for he stopped fighting her, his body relaxing. His eyes grazed over his friends’ predicament but they didn’t rest long there, finally settling on a mound of ash eight feet from me. Bishop’s jaw clenched fiercely. It took me a moment to clue in.
Fiona’s final resting spot. I turned away, unable to witness his pain.