by Chloe Adler
“Thorn.” Iphi’s voice cuts through the twilight like a thirty-two-hundred-lumen flashlight beam.
Iphigenia. Permanently hurting any of the ghouls was not first on my agenda, but now that Iphi’s joined the party, the agenda’s changed. Anything to protect her.
Two ghouls appear behind Iphi and grab her arms. I fly up and over her, aiming my fiery breath at one of the baddies. His hair ignites and he lets go, screaming and rolling on the ground, trying to put out the flames. My lizard heart thumps in my chest. I have to be willing to do whatever it takes to protect her, even if I lose the last shred of myself in the process.
Flames shoot from my throat and I screech and hiss, flapping and darting around them. Each one takes off in a different direction. I don’t have time to change course when a white-haired ghoul goes for Iphi. Caspian appears as if he’s just blinked in from outer space. He tackles the ghoul, grabbing his legs and hurling him aside. The ghoul face-plants and I use the much-needed break to drop next to him and roll him in the dirt. Even though he’s still slashing and torqueing about, the fire keeps him from jumping up again or trying to bite me until after I extinguish the flames I set in motion.
The silver-haired ghoul rises in a flash, almost as if he’s levitating.
“You can’t destroy us,” he hisses through clenched teeth, and his red eyes flash bright.
Without thinking I spray his legs with fire and he drops, expelling a scream that sears through my blackened heart. Even with burning legs he crawls toward Iphigenia, using long, jagged fingernails to propel him forward. I hover above him, aiming for his head and open my mouth.
“Thorn, no!” Iphi cries and I spin in time to see another ghoul sideswipe Caspian, throwing his body across the clearing like a rag doll. He lands with a thud. The thing reaches for Iphi, his arms looped around her, holding her like a shield.
I swoop down on them, but the ghoul twists and turns so Iphi remains in my line of fire and he stays protected behind her.
“Thorn. Save him, please.” The one on fire. Even when she’s a hostage and her life is threatened, Iphigenia worries about everyone else.
The call of my mistress pierces the haze of my anger and I do as she commands. I’m helpless not to. After I suffocate the fire with my own wings, the white-haired ghoul lays spent and panting in the dirt. His legs are too burned to walk and his eyes glaze over, head falling to the ground.
When I turn back around, Iphi’s facing the ghoul who was holding her. She’s talking to him? She whispers in his ear, and he stands there, still and unmoving, as though they’re two lovers in a private moment. Oh hell no!
While they’re both preoccupied I get a beat on the ghoul’s back and gather myself to unleash the ultimate stream of fire, one that will end this and him. So my princess can live in safety and peace.
“Thorn.” Iphi’s voice rings clear. She’s facing me now. “Spare him.” It’s not a question or a plea. It’s a demand.
Why should I?
“He’s possessed in the same way you are right now.”
She speaks the truth but I don’t have to listen.
“Don’t lose your last thread of humanity. He’s a pawn without free will. Please let him live so he can fight the possession, make it back to his family, have the chance to experience the rest of his life. A real life.”
Made helpless by rage and love both, I struggle to do as she asks. But how can I risk Iphi’s life for the mere chance that these ghouls can free themselves?
Dominic steps into the clearing, dragging a battered, unconscious ghoul by its tattered shirt. “What are our options?”
Chapter Seven
Dominic
My question is twofold. I want to distract Thorn, first and foremost. I know he doesn’t want to kill anyone else, but I recognize that darkness and rage filling his eyes. And I want to know the answer because there’s usually another way. A peaceful way. Until there isn’t. But with Iphi insisting there is, I believe in her, enough to let her try.
“Thorn.”
He turns toward me, hovering in the air, next to Iphi.
“You’ve been stuck in your shift for too long. You’re losing sight of yourself.”
There’s supposed to be a safeguard for this. We can’t remain in our shifts for more than a day, but Iphi’s mother, Aurelia, destroyed that for him.
Iphi steps up to me, and the ghoul lets her. She puts a hand on my arm and leans in close. I bend my head to listen.
“If you give me a little time, I may be able to fix this. There’s got to be a cure. If I can get to my mother’s grimoire . . . I know our situation appears bleak, but I refuse to believe there isn’t another way.”
“I admire your determination and your belief in a better alternative,” I whisper back, into her hair, “but the danger outweighs our options.”
She shakes her head, the soft curls tickling my nose. “There’s always another option.”
I allow myself a fleeting moment to breathe her in, turning my head into her hair. Lilacs from her shampoo, and a tinge of sweet musk, pheromones that spark deep into my core. I exhale, long and hard, struggling not to breathe her in again, to lose myself in her golden light. “Be careful.”
“Master talk to girl.” Iphi’s ghoul interrupts our moment. “Talk, talk.”
But it sounds more like tock, tock.
Over my dead body. Trust her, Dominic.
Thorn sputters in the air, shooting fire just to the side of the ghoul’s head. I hold up a hand, motioning to the one I’m dragging. “Thorn, I need your help with this, please.” He flies to my side and lifts the bedraggled thing with his talons.
Caspian lurches up from where he was sprawled, checking his body, and then limps to my side.
Cool down, I mouth to Thorn, and then aloud, “Can you deposit that thing far from here, in a treetop or something, and then come back and do the same with the others? Make sure they’re incapacitated but not dead. Can you do that?” The dragon nods its spiny head and flies off, craning his neck around before disappearing over the treetops.
I turn back to Iphi and her hand tightens on my bicep.
I side-eye the ghoul. “Where she goes, we go too.”
“Please,” her voice is soft but unwavering, her bright eyes focused on mine. “If it means the mayhem will stop, I will go willingly.”
“Like hell you will,” says Caspian.
The ghoul stands between us, unmoving.
Iphi licks her lips, looking between me and Cas. I wait, not saying a word.
“I understand you two are scared and worried about me, but I also know you want this nightmare to end. Am I right?”
We both nod and Caspian moves to her other side, flanking her. I let him put his arm around her shoulders but she keeps a grip on my forearm.
“You both trust me?”
“Of course,” I say.
She motions with one arm for us to lean in closer and we both do. “I want to find out where his master is, who his master is. If I don’t go with him now, we may never know. Or the master may approach me when I’m not prepared. This way, I’m walking in with my eyes open and you three at my back. There’s no way to defeat this thing if we don’t even know what we’re dealing with.”
“She makes a good point,” I say to my brother.
He shifts from one leg to the other, arm still protectively wrapped around her shoulders. “If you go,” he says through gritted teeth, “we follow in our shifts.”
Thorn returns to remove the next ghoul.
“Without being seen,” she agrees.
Caspian turns her body toward his and her hand falls away from my arm. The cold absence rocks me but I watch them, mostly to take my mind off of my instinct to club the ghoul and sling Iphi over my shoulder.
He slips his other hand under her chin and raises her face. She lets him take her mouth and they press their bodies together, forming an impenetrable unit. I know this is their moment but I can’t look away. I want to kiss her to
o, to pet her hair, to touch her skin. Her eyes are closed, her head turned to the side so they don’t bump noses. I’ve seen Caspian kiss other women but I’ve never seen him kiss anyone the way he’s kissing her, with an intensity and a focus that he usually reserves for drawing. Her eyes flutter open and her gaze meets mine. My brother’s lips are tasting her but in this moment, she’s giving a part of herself to me.
“We go, now,” the ghoul growls, breaking their embrace.
Iphi’s eyes don’t leave mine until she turns.
Caspian grabs my arm in the same spot Iphi held it only moments ago. I know he’s silently asking me to keep him from running after her and I place my hand on top of his and squeeze gently. We hold our breath, together, in silence.
But as soon as Iphi and the ghoul are out of sight, I jut my chin toward the nearest tree and move behind it to shift. Shifting is a private affair, and we try not to do it in front of one another if we can help it. Once safely tucked behind the tree I shift into my small animal, a tawny owl, and take flight. This way I can follow and watch without being seen.
I circle around to find Caspian in his lion shift already running after them. I hope he stays out of sight unless he truly needs to intervene. It takes me less than a minute to catch up to her, to them. He’s leading her deeper into the dense forest. They walk side by side, her mouth moving. I fly closer to listen.
“I know who you are and I know you don’t want to hurt me.”
The ghoul says nothing, just keeps walking forward.
“You were in my sister Sadie’s class in high school. Your name is Ayden and you were on the football team.”
The ghoul blinks several times, his blackened eyes glinting blue and then black again. He shakes his head as though trying to clear it.
She stops walking, turning toward him. He stops too but cocks his head at her, like an animal scenting the air. “Ayden. Take back your free will.”
He just turns away and keeps walking.
Iphi follows him but I don’t fully comprehend why. After a few more yards he stops in front of a large tree. At its base, something spins, throwing off sparks of color. A hole? A doorway? Whatever it is, if I weren’t absolutely terrified for Iphi, I’d consider it quite beautiful. Ayden stands in front of it and points, but she shakes her head.
“I’m not going in there. If he wants to talk to me, he can come out.”
Who the hell is he?
The doorway spins faster and more sparks fly until a white hand tipped with long, sharp claws bursts through. Iphigenia jumps back, but then stops just out of reach. Why the hell isn’t she running as far from it as she can?
I fly down from the tree to scratch at the hand, drawing thick black blood. It pulls back inside the spinning portal, which closes with a hiss. The spinning stops and the hole in the tree disappears.
“Master is angry.” Ayden bares his teeth at her. “He will make you pay for this.”
“Ayden, no!” Iphi throws her hands up in front of her face but Ayden moves in to bite her. Screeching, I draw his attention upward and then fly down to pull at his hair, clawing the back of his neck.
“Dominic, stop.” How does Iphi know it’s me? Ignoring her wishes, I sink my talons into his shoulder but he writhes and swats at me with his hands. At least he’s focused on me and not her.
“I have my amulet, he can’t hurt me,” Iphi says. “I know you’re trying to help but this isn’t the right way.”
Ayden grabs my wings, trying to tear me off. Pain sears through my body and I let go but he’s still holding me, one wing in each hand, and I realize he’s about to tear me in two.
Caspian roars, his bellow reverberating in the darkness, bouncing off the trees. He leaps into view, batting the ghoul down with a single massive paw. I fly down with him, landing hard on the ground, the wind knocked out of me. Caspian grabs Ayden’s body in his jaws and shakes him like a dog playing tug-o-war with a rope.
“Caspian. Please stop. Don’t do this.” Iphi’s voice is strong, belying the fear that rolls off her in waves.
Cas pauses, looks up at her, Ayden hanging limply from his maw. Cas looks back at me and we lock eyes in silent communication. We’ve worked together in our shifts for most of our lives, long enough to have whole conversations with nothing but our eyes. My brother sets down Ayden’s bedraggled body.
I only have a minute to process that I could have died without ever telling Iphigenia how I feel about her. She flashes Caspian a radiant smile, bends and scoops me up, petting the top of my head softly and holding me against her chest.
“Thank you,” she says to Cas.
He sits down on the ground, crossing his paws and raising his head, a regal sphinx. Dammit, Cas, I want to growl, that’s my pose and you know it, but instead I burrow my head against Iphi’s soft breasts.
Chapter Eight
Iphigenia
My legs are wobbly even though my outward appearance suggests strength. I have to be strong for my men right now, lest they lose themselves to their animal natures and kill that puppet ghoul. Ayden may be an acting baddie but I know him and remember that he was a good guy. He stands up, sways for a moment, sneers at us and then takes off into the woods.
Caspian growls and gathers himself for the chase.
“Leave it,” I say as though he’s a pet dog. It works. He turns his soulful eyes to me. “We still don’t know who screamed. There’s no sign of Nolan here either. We need to get back to the Grove.”
The moment is still and quiet, the only sound the soft rustling of leaves in the slight breeze. Caspian breaks the silence with a rumble, tosses his mane and waits for me to lead the way. He follows so closely behind his snuffling rings softly in my ears. Thorn swoops down from above and perches on my shoulder. I turn and kiss his leathery face.
I pause in front of the Palace. “Cas, you wait outside. I’m going to clean up.” He circles the tiny porch and then lies down next to my front door. I enter with Dominic and Thorn, placing the owl gingerly on the couch. The dragon flies off my shoulder to perch on the coffee table.
“Dom, Thorn, I need to check on Nolan. If that scream earlier came from him . . .” I trail off and screw my eyes shut, trying to recapture the sound, the voice. But I can’t. Whoever it was, they were long gone by the time we got to the forest clearing. Either way, I need to see for myself if he’s fine. We’ve left him in the puppet master’s clutches for too long as it is, nearly a full twenty-four hours now. The amulet I threw together for him clearly didn’t work, but with more ghouls roaming the Edge, we can’t just let Nolan run around unchecked until I have a chance to perfect his amulet. Besides, I’ve got one more ace up my sleeve—er, down my shirt—to play.
Dominic’s owl head turns, seemingly all the way around, blinking at me. I can hear the thoughts he’s practically screaming at me but I grit my jaw and look away. If I don’t react, he won’t know I can hear his thoughts, and I can do what I think is right.
Thorn says nothing, just blinks his slitted lizard eyes at me.
“And we need to get Dominic healed up. I’m going to text Burgundy and tell her to come over.”
I type away on my phone and then gather the candles needed to cast the circle.
My phone pings. I can be there in about ninety minutes. Good.
Thanks Burg, see you then.
I want to shower after that stint in the forest but I need to move this along. I open my front door and squat next to Caspian. He opens his eyes and pushes his muzzle into my hand. I pet his thick fur and then sit cross-legged next to him.
“Burgundy will be here in an hour and a half to heal Dom,” I whisper. “In the meantime I’m going to summon Nolan, if I can.” If he’s not hurt and bleeding somewhere. I send up a quick prayer to the Goddess that he’s okay.
Caspian growls and flashes his huge fangs.
“I need you to trust me on this. You can come inside when he gets here.” If he gets here. “And make sure he doesn’t do anything crazy.”
&n
bsp; Caspian shakes his huge head, tossing his mane, and places a large paw on my lap.
“Thank you.” I bend down and kiss the side of his whiskered cheek. He throws one enormous paw over my shoulder and pulls me in for a hug.
After I extricate myself from the beast, I go back in my house and draw an invoking pentagram in the four directions, light the candles and speak my incantation. Then I sit next to Dom on the couch and wait. Thorn flies to the bar top and begins his pacing. In a matter of minutes Caspian roars outside and scratches at the door. I run to open it.
But it’s Nolan, not Caspian, standing in front of my door, framed by the porch lights and looking more bedraggled than I’ve ever seen him. I want to throw my arms around him but I refrain. His eyes shift side to side but he’s not looking at Caspian, he’s looking into the woods surrounding the Grove, his expression heavy with some unnamed grief.
“Was it you that screamed earlier?” I ask.
He says nothing, just keeps staring into the woods. It must have been some fight.
Cas nudges him forward with the top of his head and Nolan spills through the front door. The lion follows, his girth barely squeezing through. The doorway creaks and groans in protest.
“Iphi,” Nolan finally says through clenched teeth, his ragged breath catching in his chest.
I motion him over to the couch, within the cast circle, now broken. Does he know I summoned him? He sits with a thud, leans back and closes his eyes. His clothing is tattered and torn.
“Iphi,” he says again and I drop down next to him, pulling Dom carefully into my lap.
Nolan’s emotions are tumultuous, but his. For now, at least, there’s no sign of the puppet master’s control in his psyche. But that doesn’t mean Nolan is okay. He radiates pain, the agony old and deep, and it snares me like a rope, wrapping around my ankle and dragging me high into the rafters. It cinches my heart, squeezing out my breath. So much remorse. For most of his life, a past he cannot change.