by Leia Stone
“By the heavies, you mean the guy I took down with pepper spray?” I asked.
“Watch it,” Tore warned. “I’m going to get you back for that.”
I knew it. He was totally plotting some nasty revenge. “Oh, I think dragging me on an inter-realm quest of doom is plenty payback, thank you very much.” I frowned. “There’s something else I don’t understand. If Gran was a warrior, then she was immortal too. But she died in her sleep last summer. Natural causes. How is that possible?”
Tore raised one eyebrow. “Did you ever see a coroner’s report?”
“Well, no,” I said. “I never asked for one. When I found her in her bed in the morning, I just figured . . .”
“Your grandmother didn’t die in her sleep.” Tore spoke slowly, as if he were choosing his words with care. “An undercover Asgardian posed as the coroner and doctored her death certificate to preserve your identity, but it wasn’t true. Your grandmother was killed by a dark scout.”
Ice laced through my vertebrae. “What’s a dark scout?”
“A hunter who works for the highest bidder—a mercenary,” Tore explained. “Scouts do routine sweeps of the realms, and report back if they identify any wanted beings. Nott put out a search order for you shortly after your mom went into the sleep. Your grandmother was amazing—she kept you hidden for nearly seventeen years before a scout got anywhere near you. From what I heard, your grandmother recognized the scout for what it was and went all warrior granny on it. She injured it so badly, it never made it off Midgard. But the scout injured her, too . . . its weapons were infused with dark magic, and that was what killed her.”
I dropped into a squat and tried not to heave as my stomach lurched wildly. The remainder of my breakfast threatened to make an unsightly return all over the pristine forest floor.
“Hey.” Tore knelt down beside me as his hand palmed the small of my back. “It’s going to be okay.”
“No, it’s not.” I wrapped my arms around my knees and held on tight. “Nott and her demons took down my Gran, my dad, and my mom. Who am I to think she won’t take me out, too?”
Tore’s hand moved against my back in a slow circle. “You have something your family didn’t have.”
I turned my head so my cheek rested on my knee. “A magic glowy necklace I can’t take off?”
“You do have that,” Tore confirmed, giving me the sideways grin that made my heart turn over. “But you also have me.”
My heart beat faster. I wish. “And what are you going to do that my warrior granny couldn’t?”
Tore’s eyes shot blue ice. “I’m going to turn you into the most lethal killing machine the realms have ever seen. When I’m done with you, that monster will wish she’d never started the Night War.”
Oh my God, he meant business. His voice absolutely teemed with rage, and it was all kinds of hot.
“How are you going to do that?” I whispered. “I can’t even beat Johann with swords. And I’ll never beat any of you in hand to hand. I’m not strong enough.”
“No, you’re not. Not yet. We’ll have to train harder, and you’ll need to learn to use your energy as a weapon.” Tore pushed himself to his feet and held out a hand. I reached for it, and he pulled me up. “You’re still fearful, Allie. I get it, but it needs to stop. You and I are going back to the cabin to work on your energy, and when we’ve wiped the fear from your system, you’ll see a major surge in your physical training. Fear drains power. So let’s kick its butt.”
“Right now?” I looked up at snowflakes drifting through the loopy trees.
Tore’s dimple popped as one corner of his mouth turned up. “Yes, right now. We need to turn you into a Night killer.”
We headed back to the house, our intended scouting lesson forgotten. As we walked, I turned to study his focused profile. “How do you know so much about energy?” I asked. “I mean, no offense, but you’re a descendant of Revenge, not Healing. What happened?”
His eyes looked to the dotted tree line, and a flicker of sadness crossed his features. “My mother taught me. She was a healer, too. She and your mom were good friends.”
A lump formed in my throat. “Were?”
The vein in Tore’s jaw popped as he clenched down. “My mom’s dead.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “Nott?”
He shook his head ‘no’, and that was all. We walked the rest of the way home in silence.
****
“All right, Pepper, today we’re going to try something different.” Tore led me, Bodie, Johann, and Mack out of the safe house and into the forest. We walked in the general direction of the complex, our boots crunching on three-day-old snow. “What we’re going to do is dangerous, but you have to get your feet wet some time.” Tore’s words didn’t exactly make me excited for whatever it was he had planned.
A few days had passed since Tore had dropped his mom news. He’d been true to his word and devoted his waking hours to turning me into a Night killer. I doubted I’d ever be ready to take on the goddess of all things evil, but the guys said my form was improving. And I’d put on another pound of muscle, which seemed to make Tore mildly pleased. I, however, was on the fence. On the one hand, my improved abilities and increased mass meant we were that much closer to being able to hunt down the pieces of my weapon. On the other hand, it meant I was that much closer to having to fight Nott and her minions to the death. And as much as I wanted to save my realm and bring back my mom, the idea of a death-fight still scared me.
“We’re not going that way.” Tore put a hand on my arm as I turned toward the complex.
I shot him a confused look. “But it’s training time.”
“Exactly. And while we’ve trained you in weapons, weights, creative combat, and, to some degree, energy management, we still haven’t taught you to use your greatest weapon.” Tore marched into the woods. I trotted after him.
“My brilliant wit?” I offered.
“I was going to say your ethereal beauty, Allie.” Johann threw an arm around my shoulders.
“That too,” I quipped. We moved deeper into the forest until we reached a small clearing. Massive evergreens stood in a circle around us, and a thin sheen of frost covered the ground. Tore came to a stop in the center of the ring, and Johann and Mack sidled up so they stood directly to my right and my left.
Bodie stood slightly apart from the rest of us. “I’ll be the guinea pig,” he offered.
Tore raised one eyebrow in a questioning look. Bodie just nodded. “I got this,” he affirmed.
“It’s your funeral.” Tore shrugged.
“You guys are freaking me out. What are we doing here?” I adjusted the leather strap of my shoulder armor. Usually, the metal arm piece made me feel tough, but the abrupt change of training venue and mention of a potential funeral had me slightly on edge.
Bodie stepped in front of me and gave me a cocky wink. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to these.” He flexed his biceps, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Thanks. That’s one stress off my plate, at least.” I chuckled.
Tore stepped in beside us and placed one possessive hand on my lower back.
“Focus, Allie,” he commanded. “Look at Bodie’s energy.”
At Tore’s words, I switched gears and opened up my sight to scan my friend. Bright, blueish-green waves radiated three feet off of his body. “I see it,” I told Tore. Where are we going with this?
Tore nodded. “Okay, now listen carefully. Every living thing has this energy whether you can see it or not.” I assumed he was talking about himself with the “or not” comment.
“I’m aware of that. Thanks.”
Tore’s frown suggested he didn’t appreciate my sarcasm. “Well, are you aware that you can take that energy to weaken someone and make them easier to kill?”
My mouth fell open at his words. “I’m not doing that to Bodie.” First of all, he was my friend. Second, I had no idea how to manipulate someone that way. I�
��d dedicated my eighteen years of life to avoiding other people’s energy, thank you very much.
Bodie stepped forward so he was right against my space. He put his hands on my arms, bending down so his eyes were level with mine. “I promise I won’t let you hurt me. If it’s too much, I’ll back off—I know my limits. But you have to learn to do this if you’re going to defeat Nott and her night elves.”
Tore stood with his arms crossed, looking at me like I was a remedial student. “It’s not a skill you can learn from a book, Allie. You have to actually do it.”
“All right, fine! I’ll try to suck the life out of Bodie.” I exhaled loudly. A snicker from my left shifted Tore’s intense stare from me to Johann. One icy glare shut him right up.
“Okay.” Tore took a slow breath and held up his hands. “Open the energy centers in your palms, and place them on Bodie’s chest.”
I grounded myself to the snowy forest floor, then turned my palms upward and waited. The energy centers pulsed, swirling and opening like flowers drinking in the sunlight. I gave Bodie a questioning look, and he nodded. But when I placed my hands on his chest, he flinched. “Whoa,” he said.
I wanted to ask what that meant, but I knew he’d tell me if it was too much. So, I kept my palms on his shirt and waited for the next direction.
Tore re-crossed his arms. “You already know not to merge energies—your bubble is your armor, and you need to guard your space against energetic invaders. You can’t be corded, or drained, unless you let your guard down and let someone in. So don’t ever let anyone in. Not even one of us. Do you understand that, Allie?”
“I do,” I whispered.
“Good.” Tore leaned back. “Now, when you’re near a dark being you have to be extra vigilant. Darkness feeds off light. And a dark being will try harder than you know to penetrate your bubble and cord you. When battling dark energy, you need to first create an energy bowl.”
“A bowl?” I asked. “Seriously? That’s your plan?”
Tore looked like he was losing patience with me. “Look, I wish one of our mothers were here to explain this better, but they’re not, so you need to work with me.”
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Take some of the energy from the surrounding nature, and make a bowl.”
I grumbled. “You’re saying that like it’s easy.”
“You have no idea what you’re capable of.” Tore’s eyes bored into mine. “You’re Eir’s daughter. Compared to what you’ll be doing in a few years, this is easy.”
I tried not to look as frustrated as I felt. “Maybe. But you can’t just say ‘make a bowl with nature’s energy,’ and expect me to have half a clue how to do that. You need to show me.”
Tore placed his hands over mine. He kept one firmly against Bodie’s chest, and tugged the other away so it hovered over the frost covered grass. “Hold your hands like this. Now, draw up energy from the earth, and mold it into the shape of a bowl, like it’s clay. Energy’s easily manipulated, Allie. With strong enough intention, you can make it do whatever you want it to.”
It took a tremendous amount of restraint to not roll my eyes at Tore’s assertion that one could shape energy to one’s will. He, Bodie, Mack, and Johann all stared at me so earnestly, I had zero doubt they actually believed this mumbo jumbo. And since I was not in the mood to disappoint all four of my protectors in one day, I played along.
“Okay, fine. Energy bowl. Easy peasy.” I filled my cheeks with air and exhaled. For the first time in my life, I tried to draw energy in, instead of pushing it away or shutting it down. My eyes zeroed in on the grass and the calm, white energy that hovered just above it. I took another slow breath, imagined my hands were straws, then sucked the white energy into my hand.
I gasped out loud as the energy pulled up with ease and coiled into a loose ball in my hand. It felt like I’d just molded a scoop of peanut butter.
“That’s good. Now make an impression in the center for the bowl,” Tore instructed.
I looked at him incredulously. “Can you see it?”
“Of course.” He grinned. “I have the same sight you do. I got it from my mother.”
I glanced at Bodie, who shrugged. “I can’t see anything. My parents weren’t healers. But I can feel it when you guys move energy around—it tickles.”
Whoa. Before I could lose concentration, I exhaled, letting the movement of my breath send a pulse through my left hand. The ball formed into a small bowl. It hovered above my palm, then lowered to the ground at my feet. It was ready to receive whatever I sent it.
Holy mother!
“Good.” Tore tapped my right arm. “Now, take a portion of Bodie’s energy, and place it in the bowl.”
I hesitated. “I . . . I don’t want to hurt him.”
Bodie raised one eyebrow. “Gonna take more than a little energy draw to hurt me. I’ll tell you when to stop.”
All right, here goes nothing. I checked my grounding and expanded the circle of stability around me. Then I began to pull. Bodie’s blue-green energy flowed into my right hand, danced along my armor, and slid down my left arm. Sweat broke out on Bodie’s brow, and I heard the mashing of molars as he ground his teeth. But at Tore’s nod, I kept pulling. The once-empty bowl slowly pooled with Bodie’s essence, and without warning, my friend let out a cry. Bodie’s legs shook violently for a beat before he dropped to his knees.
“Yes! That’s when you kill him. Knife through the heart.” Tore mimed a stabbing motion with one hand.
“What? Is he okay?” I shrieked. I fell on the ground beside my friend, throwing my arms around him. Bodie’s skin had paled, and he was bathed in a thin sheen of sweat. But he was still breathing. Please, be okay. Please be okay.
“Bodie’s going to be fine. You just have to reverse the draw. Now, funnel the energy back,” Tore commanded. Bodie’s thin sheen of sweat had advanced to a steady gush. He looked like he was in agony.
Crap! I placed one hand on Bodie’s chest and the other above the bowl. With another cleansing breath, I reversed the process. On my inhale, I sucked in the blue-green energy through my left palm. On my exhale, I sent it back to Bodie through my right. Over and over, I repeated the process, until there was nothing left in the bowl. But Bodie didn’t move—he just lay on the ground, sweating. Come on, Bodie! Open your eyes! After a slow eternity, a smile crossed Bodie’s face, and his eyelids fluttered open. He looked up at Tore with a wink.
“She’s ready,” Bodie declared. Johann gave a whoop of excitement as relief crashed over me.
“Well done, Allie.” Mack’s gentle voice came from my side. He’d been so quiet, I’d forgotten he was there.
“Ready for what?” I asked. If they thought I was ready to just go out on a Nott-killing mission, I strongly disagreed.
Tore gave me a wicked grin. “We have a little surprise for you. Let’s go to the complex now.”
Have mercy. I fervently hoped I wasn’t walking straight into Tore’s pepper spray revenge.
****
“Are you people insane?” I whirled to face each of my protectors in turn. Since they all blinked calmly back at me, the answer was clearly ‘you betcha.’ I turned back around and jabbed my finger toward the creature bound and blindfolded in a folding chair. “That is a night elf. A night elf! Tied up in the complex. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Tore narrowed his gaze. “I’m not letting the first night elf you kill be out in battle. You need a test run before we start jumping realms. We never know what we’re going to run into, even in a light realm, and we need to know you’re ready for anything.”
Crap. Part of me felt bad. Sure, night elves were awful, but this particular one wasn’t trying to kill me at the moment. It was tied to a chair, defenseless.
Tore handed me a weapon. When I grabbed it, the tip lit up with a fierce blue fire.
“Make your bowl,” Tore commanded. With a glare, I drew up energy from the wooden floor of the barn and formed a repository at my feet. Bo
die and Johann crossed to the weapon wall and suited up. When they were fully loaded with swords, maces, and some weird sticks on chains, they each took their positions at my left and right sides. I guessed they were ready to intervene if it looked like I was going to die or something. Awesome.
Mack crossed to the chair and began sawing through the night elf’s ropes with a sharp blade. He was cutting it loose?
“What the hell are you doing?” I shrieked.
Tore spoke calmly, as if he were talking me through a routine weight drill—not unleashing a dark elf on a perfectly nice co-ed. “Now, you won’t be able to put your hand on a night elf’s chest and ask him to wait patiently while you weaken his energy. You need to do an energy draw each time you punch or hit him. With more training, you’ll be able to siphon his essence without even touching him.”
The night elf hissed—he’d nearly broken free from his ropes. I tried not to panic as I tightened my grip on my sword. Tore grabbed a long blade from the wall case and stood behind the writhing elf as Mack hacked the last of the bindings from the elf’s legs. Once free, the demon leapt to his feet, shifting his weight back and forth in a fighting stance. I probably should have been grateful the guys hadn’t given the night elf a weapon—I supposed this was their way of taking it easy on me. But terror gripped my heart as the elf paced in the small space between us. My dominant emotion at the moment was fear—not gratitude. I still wasn’t sure I could just kill someone, even if that someone was a night elf.
“You,” the elf seethed. Its beady eyes zeroed in on my chest, where my heart pounded against my ribcage. The elf let out a low hiss and bared a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. “I want your soul.”
Okay, maybe I could kill after all. The elf lunged at me, and I dove for the ground, rolling out of the way before taking an offensive stance beside the chair. With my weapon in hand, I stalked forward. Lunging, I executed the jab move Tore had taught me and cracked the elf in the face. As I touched him, I sucked a chunk of dark, sickly energy from his body. The black mist snaked up my arm, across my armor and filtered through my palm. I aimed my hand at the bowl, and the blackness shot across the room in a fierce stream. Once inside the receptacle, it pooled into a steaming ball and hissed.