Hinterland Book 3: The Wolf's Hunt (Hinterland Series)

by K. T. Harding

  More and more of the wicked colored barbs punched through his perimeter. They stabbed him from all directions. He screamed and cried in pain, but no matter how Raleigh and Bishop beat against the bubble, they couldn’t break it. They couldn’t help him.

  He danced here and there from the shafts pricking him, but he couldn’t defeat them all. He collapsed in his sphere, and the syrupy blackness closed around him. A lump stuck in Raleigh’s throat. This couldn’t be happening. The Eochehxea couldn’t defeat him like this. They couldn’t extinguish his young life in a single moment.

  A blinding explosion stabbed into her eyes, and a shock wave struck their bubble to send them flying over the clouds. The black shattered off his sphere, and Dax stood strong and light and well inside his gleaming orb.

  Raleigh cried in relief, but the Eochehxea only sailed back a short distance before the sticky black stuff formed a ball once again and returned to the attack. It rocketed past Dax and streaked through the skies toward Raleigh and Bishop’s bubble.

  Dax stood still. He put out his hand, and the black ball screeched to a stop in mid-air. Dax drew in a deep breath, and his sphere expanded. The light increased in strength until it shot to every corner of the universe. Raleigh squinted and shaded her eyes against the blinding glow.

  The Eochehxea’s black ball tumbled and glistened within inches of Raleigh’s nose. She saw her own face reflected in its surface. Those evil beings would crush her to death in a fraction of a second if Dax didn’t protect her. She never doubted that for an instant.

  The Eochehxea shot their colored shafts at the bubble and at Dax. They flew fast and thick, but they hit the bubble to shatter into showers of sparks. The streamers heading for Dax did not bounce off. They stabbed through the surface and drew blood on his skin.

  He held up his hand, and the bubble continued its innocent flight back to Earth. Dax floated toward the Eochehxea, but even at that distance, Raleigh saw the strain showing on his face. He couldn’t fight them and protect the bubble at the same time. Something had to give.

  The bubble bobbed among the clouds and started to sink. She cried out in desperation. “Dax! Don’t leave me like this!”

  He only smiled, but it was a sad little smile. He never wanted to become something that parted them, and now he had. This battle could only end one way, and she would never see him again.

  Bishop sensed the same inevitable tragedy building. He bellowed until he was hoarse. “Dax! Dax! Nooo!”

  Dax must have been able to hear them, but he only smiled and waved them away. Every movement of his hand stabbed Raleigh’s heart until she couldn’t bear it. He loved her so much, and she loved him, and now he was sending her away.

  He waited until their bubble got far enough away before he lowered his defenses. The Eochehxea concentrated all their energy on him and left the bubble alone. Thousands of those colored shafts shot out to tear him apart.

  He retreated before that lethal barrage. He drew his sphere into the clouds. The Eochehxea moved to follow. Just before Raleigh lost sight of the battle, Dax turned his burning eyes on the black ball. His eyebrows knit in the center of his brow, and he clenched his teeth in violent hatred.

  His sphere rocketed forward so fast no one could have seen it coming. He braced his powerful shoulders and balled his hands into fists. He bent forward, and the sphere raced faster and faster on a collision course for the Eochehxea.

  Raleigh lunged toward him. “Dax, no!” but it was too late. He was going too fast, and he wouldn’t stop now for anything.

  Bishop planted both hands against the bubble. He didn’t even try to hide the sobs breaking his voice apart. “Dax!”

  Dax locked his eyes on the Eochehxea. He plummeted out of the sky and smashed into the black ball going a million miles an hour. The two shining spheres, black and white, exploded in a blazing supernova of light and energy and sound.

  The impact hurled the bubble far away. It drifted far over Hinterland and eventually sank toward the ground.

  Chapter 26

  Bishop’s back slid down the bubble, and he slumped onto the floor. He hugged his knees to his chest, rested his forehead on his knees, and broke down in wrenching sobs. Raleigh’s forehead touched the firm clear wall. She closed her eyes and let the tears streak down her cheeks.

  How could this happen? Of all the people they lost in the battle, why did it have to be Dax? Why couldn’t she die in his place? Why couldn’t his power save him? Why, oh, why did she have to face the rest of her life without him?

  His death shattered her heart as much as Bishop’s ever did. She loved him. She admitted that to herself now in a way she never admitted it to herself before. She loved him as much as she ever loved Bishop.

  Why did she hold him at a distance? Why couldn’t she kiss him and hold him and touch him? Why couldn’t she show him how much she wanted him and cherished him? Now he would never know.

  She couldn’t even enjoy getting Bishop back. The pain of losing Dax destroyed her. She would never recover from this. She didn’t want to live. She didn’t want to see the sun shining in the fields. She didn’t want to sit down by Mrs. Mitchell’s fire without Dax there.

  How could she face Mrs. Mitchell? Coming home without Bishop was one thing. She dared not face Mrs. Mitchell and tell her Dax was dead. She would rather die herself.

  Oh, she hated this whole wretched world! This stinking, filthy, rotten world that kept stealing her loves away from her. She wanted to destroy it once and for all. She never wanted to see Hinterland again as long as she lived.

  She pounded her fists against the bubble, but nothing could damage it. Dax spent his vital energy creating that bubble to get them out of Solaris while he dealt with the Eochehxea. He sacrificed his life to save them and get Bishop out.

  She hated the bubble, and she hated Dax for doing this to her. How could he abandon her when she needed him most? She never wanted to love him. She hated herself for loving him so much. If she didn’t love him, his betrayal wouldn’t hurt so much now.

  She beat her fists against the wall while she cried and cried. She would never cry enough tears to express what she lost—what the whole world lost.

  She cried so hard she didn’t notice Bishop touching her leg. He wrapped both hands around her calf and gave her a tug. “Raleigh.” His voice cracked with sobs.

  She didn’t respond. She thumped the bubble one more time, just to show it how much she hated it for what it had done to her. Her sobs choked her. She wanted to hold them back and she wanted to let them go. They hurt her so much, but she had to keep crying forever.

  Bishop squeezed her leg tighter. His grip inched up over her knees. “Raleigh, Raleigh, come here.”

  She didn’t want to come over to him. She didn’t want to take refuge in his arms. She didn’t want to take refuge in anything. She wanted to dwell in agony and despair forever and never be happy again. Being happy would betray Dax’s sacrifice.

  Bishop wouldn’t let her go. He kept nagging and tugging and wheedling. “Come here. Raleigh, come here.”

  She turned to look down at him, and he took hold of her hand. He dragged her down until she had no choice but to sink down next to him. His arms closed around her, and he cried on her shoulder.

  His grief broke the dam holding her away from him. Dax gave everything so they could be together. He idolized Bishop, and he gave up the woman he loved to Bishop. She could only love Dax and repay the gift he gave her by loving Bishop, by giving freely the love in her heart for the man of her dreams.

  She bent her head, and her forehead came to rest on Bishop’s neck. A fresh outbreak of tears tore her to pieces. She couldn’t stop them. Bishop was here. He understood. He grieved for Dax as much as she did. They both lost the best thing they ever had. Now they were alone together.

  They cried together for what seemed like hours. They didn’t notice the bubble drifting and bobbing on the breeze, lower and lower, toward the ground. They stayed
locked in each other’s arms until the bubble touched the short grass in the middle of a field.

  The grass popped the bubble with a subtle kissing sound. It vaporized into nothing and left Bishop and Raleigh sitting on the grass. Bishop sat back with a shuddering sigh. Raleigh looked around through her tear-stained eyes.

  The golden sunlight shone through a thousand blades of grass. Fluffy white clouds skated across a clear blue sky. Cows grazed and rabbits hopped in the fields. Before her eyes, a herd boy strode down a country road. He whistled to himself and tugged his cap brim at her.

  So that was it. Life went on as usual. This sordid old world didn’t even know Dax was gone. They would never know and they would never care. Did the Auhlulhu know? Did they sense the loss of one of their own?

  And so Hinterland came full circle. Maybe Cassandra was dead, too. The baby boy who disappeared no longer existed. He would never do the work for which he came into this world. Then again, maybe he already did it.

  Bishop rubbed his face against his shoulders and took a deep breath. “Well, that’s it, then.”

  He got to his feet and put out his hand to Raleigh. She took it, and he helped her to her feet without a word. They set off in silence down the road. Neither said a word until they came to the village. Bishop strode through it the way he always did, through the other side and farther through the fields to the stairs leading up to the Gingerbread House.

  They looked neither right nor left or said anything to anybody until they got back home. Bishop went inside. At least he would have to face Mrs. Mitchell. Raleigh went to the shed to feed the twen. She glared at it while she cut up the blue mussel meat. She hated the little creature. She never wanted to see or think about it again. It was responsible for all of this. It sent her to Hinterland in the first place.

  She threw the remains of the blue mussel back into the crate and slammed the door going out. She found the kitchen door standing open as usual, but when she stepped into the familiar room, she heard Mrs. Mitchell crying in the servants’ quarters. So she knew.

  Every pot and chair and speck of dust on the floor screamed Dax. They used to scream Bishop. Now he was back and Dax was gone. The pall of rot and death fell over the house.

  Raleigh stood in the doorway and inspected every piece of furniture, every crack in the walls, every knot in the roof beams. Dax lived and breathed in every one of them. She couldn’t sit by the blazing fire without seeing him across from her. She couldn’t open her eyes without seeing his twisted grin and his hair tumbling into his eyes.

  The nightmare started all over again, but with a different man fixed before her eyes. How could she love Bishop with Dax occupying her every thought? How could she touch him without thinking about Dax?

  She couldn’t live in this house another day. She had to leave. If she couldn’t go home to her father, she would find somewhere else to live. She would wander the Earth in search of some resting place where she could die and forget.

  She wandered through the kitchen and into the foyer. She looked all around her in wooden despair. This house was a graveyard. Her heart lay buried here along with all the other dead ghosts.

  She meandered back to her own room, but she couldn’t rest there, either. She hated the thought of Bishop coming for her there. She couldn’t bear the thought of anyone touching her or seeing her vulnerable and exposed.

  She sat down on the bed, but she couldn’t sit still. Even here, in the place where she always felt Bishop’s presence before, she sensed Dax now. Those few times she held him in her arms and kissed him expanded to fill her whole awareness. She couldn’t remember all the other times.

  She left the room the way she found it, but no matter where she went, the same phantasms plagued her. They destroyed her life. She went upstairs and inched down the hall past every door. Some of the doors that once remained closed now stood open. Lamps burned on the walls, and a fire blazed in Bishop’s bedroom.

  He was here. He infused this part of the house with life. A lamp even burned in his office, but he wasn’t there. Raleigh continued to the last door and found him sitting in his chair in the parlor. Dancing flames in the fireplace reflected off his cheekbones and glistened in his eyes.

  He didn’t look up when Raleigh entered. She stood in the shadows and watched him. He hadn’t changed his clothes, and he hadn’t cleaned up the dried blood and dirt around his wounds. He made a sorry sight from the elegant gentleman she first met so many long months ago.

  He stared into the flames, insensible to everything. Dax weighed him down as much as Raleigh. Dax’s death destroyed him the same way. He didn’t want to live or think or feel anything ever again, either.

  Raleigh’s heart went out to him. Someone had to pull Bishop back from the brink. Someone had to clean him up and set him on his feet again, and no one could do that job but her.

  She stepped into the glow of light. He looked up, but no sign of recognition flashed in those eyes. He had no idea what she went through while he was gone. He didn’t know she hammered out an alliance with Rianne. He didn’t know she traveled to the mountains to visit Cassandra. He didn’t know she found out the truth about his relationship with Angela.

  Raleigh couldn’t think about Angela right now. Was Angela alive or dead? Raleigh might never know, but this wreck of a man needed something from her. What he needed, she couldn’t guess, but maybe he needed her. Maybe she could soothe his battered heart and find comfort for herself.

  She came to stand in front of him, but he turned aside and returned to gazing into the flames. She waited, but he said nothing.

  Raleigh searched her brain for anything to say to him. “The twen is doing well. It’s eating the blue mussels we bought for it.”

  He didn’t turn.

  “I tried to complete your contract, but since I had no idea who hired you, I couldn’t return the twen to your client.”

  “I don’t know who hired me,” he replied. “I told you that. An agent contacted me, and the client remained anonymous.”

  “I know, but while I was investigating, I discovered there is the possibility the cabal hired you. If that’s the case, we can’t hand over the twen. We have to find out exactly who hired you.”

  “It doesn’t matter now. We don’t have to hand over the twen.”

  Raleigh blinked at him. “Why not? We can’t leave the contract unfulfilled.”

  “I don’t care about the contract. I don’t care what happens to the twen. I’m finished with all that. I’m not a slayer anymore. I quit.”

  Raleigh’s jaw hit the floor. “You can’t quit. The twen is right out there in the shed. What are we going to do with it?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “If we don’t keep feeding it, it will die.”

  He shrugged. “So what? It won’t be the first twen to die.”

  “Well, what do you want to do with it? I can’t just leave it sitting there.”

  “Do what you want with it. I don’t want to have anything else to do with it.”

  She took a deep breath and stepped closer. She laid her hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t feel her touch. The old charge no longer sparked between them. An impassable barrier separated them from each other, and the barrier’s name was Dax.

  “Listen, Bishop. I know how you feel. I really do. I don’t want to deal with the twen, either. I would like nothing better in the world to quit and forget all about it, but I can’t do that and neither can you. You already accepted payment for this contract. You can’t leave it undone, and you can’t let the twen die. The Guild of Martial Arts is setting up their new headquarters in Henleyville. Once the cabal succeeds in creating the Elixir of Life, they’ll take over the world.”

  He picked up his old pipe from the side table at his elbow. He stuck his finger into the bowl the way he used to, but then he let his hand fall onto his knee without giving it another thought. He went back to staring at nothing. “It doesn’t matter. They’ll take over
eventually anyway. If they can’t get this twen, they’ll just get another one. We can’t stop the cabal by doing anything with the twen.”

  Raleigh’s resolve started to flag. What could she say to snap him out of this depression, especially when she felt the same heavy despair herself? She tried one last time. “I know you’re upset about losing Dax…”

  He cut her off before she said anything else. “Then you understand.” That sharp edge in his voice told her not to say anymore.

  She turned around and walked out of the room. The moment she left the fire’s welcoming glow, the chill settled into her heart. The despondence oppressed her heart until she thought she could never rise again.

  She got halfway down the hall when Bishop’s voice boomed off the walls behind her. “Raleigh, wait!”

  She turned around to see him standing in the parlor door. His long hair hung in his eyes, and his mouth wrenched in wordless misery. He strode down the hall to stop in front of her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t demean your investigation. You and….you did good work while I was gone.”

  “I feel the same way you do,” she told him. “I wanted to quit after we lost you. I thought you were dead, and I never wanted to be a slayer again. I went home to my father, but he convinced me I had to finish this contract. I planned to hand over the twen and then leave. That’s all I’m trying to do now. If you don’t care about the cabal getting their hands on the twen, then contact your agent and turn it over. That’s all there is to it. Don’t saddle me with the decision on what to do with it.”

  He cast his eyes down to the floor. “I know. You’re right. I’m just not thinking clearly. I can’t stop thinking about…” He broke off.

  “Don’t you think I feel the same way you do? Don’t you think I’m dying inside for Dax?” Her voice cracked, and her mouth twisted in anguish.

  His face spasmed at the ragged sound, and he took a rapid step toward her. “Don’t do this. It’s hard enough. Let’s just forget it for now and go to bed. We’ll deal with the whole investigation in the morning.”