by Ciara Graves
I shut my eyes, tapping into my demon rage.
If my brother wanted a fight, then a fight he would get.
Chapter 14
Mercy
I rubbed my temples hard, glaring at the page in front of me.
Todd paced around my apartment whispering to himself under his breath.
My laptop was to my right. My coffee went cold about two hours ago. Liam’s datebook was opened to today’s date. The appointment he’d scribbled in it right there, in black and white. Taunting me.
The tree I was sure was real was starting to drive me to Crazy-town. Since I took the page and datebook from Rufus’s place, I’d been trying every search imaginable to figure out what kind it was. I’d typed in all sorts of phrases including pairing it with the Blood Moon, but there was nothing. No credible information popped up at all on it.
Now I was out of time.
My phone buzzed again, and I shoved it under one of the throw pillows on the couch.
Rafael had been calling me for the last few hours on and off. I’d texted him this morning, swearing I wasn’t out doing anything crazy and he’d left me alone. Then as the sun went down, he called, and called, and called. His latest text said he wanted to come over and check in with me, let me know the progress they’d made in tracking down the artifacts, but that wasn’t my main concern.
Finding this damned tree and this freaking sector before midnight was.
“He’s going to show up here at some point,” Todd said. “You might as well answer.”
“No, not until we figure this out. That tree means something.”
“Pretty sure typing in dead tree isn’t the right way to go about figuring what it is.”
I slid the laptop toward his transparent form. “All yours, sunshine.”
“That’s low, even for you.”
“I’m cranky. Shit happens.” I rubbed my temples harder. Of all the days not to be able to come up with some brilliant idea, it had to be today.
I’d checked the page repeatedly, with the lights on and off. The red text meant nothing to me. A search online showed up absolute crap. I tried every word on there but came up emptyhanded. Liam was dead, and he was beating me. I hated this game. Hated every single person involved in it. All I wanted was the mage responsible. To make him hurt. And I couldn’t even do that right. Anger slammed into me as my failures stacked up. We lost Liam. We technically lost the gobs, too, because we got too close. We almost didn’t stop the turf war. I went so far as to shoot Todd in the head because I let my anger get the better of me. And now I was going to lose to Liam all over again.
Furious, I picked up the datebook and chucked it across the room, barely missing Todd’s body. His brow shot up. I shrugged, plopping back down on the couch.
“What?” I snapped when he kept looking at me.
“Feel better?”
“Not even close.”
“Maybe you should throw something that’ll actually break.”
“I’m not losing any more dishes.”
Todd went to the datebook. What he was going to do with it I wasn’t sure since he couldn’t pick the thing up. Then he was crouching over it. “Uh, Mercy.”
“What?”
“You might want to come look at this.”
Unfolding myself from the couch, I padded across the floor. It had landed open to the back cover. There embossed in the leather was another image of the same damned tree. I ran my fingers over it, surprised to feel something beneath it. Sitting on the floor, I searched around the edges, but there was no seam to peel it from.
I hurried to my boots and unsheathed one of my daggers attached to the book, then worked it between the layers of leather. As I drew it back, a key fell out with a heavy thunk, hitting the floorboard.
“No shit,” I whispered, picking up the small, bronze key. “This can’t open a door.”
The key’s blade wasn’t really composed like most keys. It appeared to have bumps on it, in a cylindrical pattern, and it was small, very small. I held it in my palm, wracking my brain to understand what it would open.
I gasped and shot up off the floor.
“What? Where are you going?”
I slipped into my boots, hopping around haphazardly until they were on, then snatched up my holster and backup pistol.
“Mercy!”
“The key,” I said, putting on my coat. “This key is how we get there.”
“Get where?”
“Sector 1462.”
“Are you sure? Is there even a place for a key in the transports?”
“Haven’t you ever noticed the tiny hole at the bottom of the keypad?” I asked.
It was on every single transport I’d ever been in. I merely assumed it was for maintenance purposes. For all I knew, it was, and this could lead me absolutely nowhere. Until I gave it a shot, I wasn’t going to assume anything.
I was out the door and down the block by the time I realized I’d left my cell phone behind. The sun had set, and there was no time to go back for it. I told myself if the key worked, I’d come right back and get Rafael and the others.
Todd hovered along beside me, pushing his way through the supes on the street. A few muttered something about a sudden burst of icy chill in the air, but otherwise made no indication they saw a ghost at my side.
When we reached the transport, I closed the glass door behind us then turned to face the keypad. There at the bottom was the small hole. I withdrew the key from my pocket and holding my breath, inserted it into the hole. I turned it to the right.
Nothing happened.
Pulse hammering in my ears, I turned it to the left, and a loud click made me jump.
A red light stretched out from the hole to the keypad, and new numbers appeared. There were only four, and they overshadowed the regular keypad.
“1462,” I breathed, eyeing the red numbers. “Ready?”
Todd nodded. “Push them.”
Keeping the key in the hole, I hit the numbers in the right order and waited.
Then the red light glowed, and the transport came to life. A hum filled my ears, drowning out all other noise. Power crackled through the air, and just when that strange tugging was about to hit my gut, the door was yanked open behind me.
It took one second to realize it was Rafael.
Then we were torn from Sector 21 and deposited somewhere very different than Nashville.
“What the hell are you doing?” I shoved Rafael out of the transport. “Are you insane?”
“I knew you were up to something,” he shot back furiously. He blinked a few times then looked past me and the transport. “Shit.”
“What?” I whirled around and froze. “The tree.”
“Where the hell are we?”
“Sector 1462,” I murmured. “It’s real. We’re actually here.”
Where exactly here was I hadn’t the slightest idea. I saw mountains along the horizon and thick woods surrounding us. The transport was little more than a booth set up right in the tree line. So well hidden no one would find it unless they literally walked right into it or came through it as we had.
Behind the transport was a large clearing. No grass grew. It was only dirt and stones. Dead center was the same dead tree that was in the book. The exact same tree down to every last twig growing out of every last branch.
I was about to tell Rafael I told him so when he grabbed my arm and yanked me away from the transport. It was glowing, indicating someone else was coming through.
Tucking the key back in my pocket to ensure it didn’t get lost, I hunkered down low with Rafael. Todd hovered over our shoulders.
“You should have waited,” Rafael breathed in my ear.
“I was going to see what the key did and then come back for you guys,” I insisted.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I do, because it’s the truth.”
The transport glowed a brilliant gold, and when the light dimmed, a single figure emerged, robed in
black, head covered with a hood. He started to walk away, then paused.
I held my breath, worried he would know we were here. He threw back his hood and breathed in deeply, but turned his back to us and threw his head back.
“Too bad,” he said.
I bit my cheek, waiting for him to call us out.
“Oh Liam, if only you had done what you were told, you would be here to take part in this glorious night.”
The man moved on toward the tree.
We shifted so we could see him better.
As he held his hands up to the tree, they glowed a sickly green.
I clamped my mouth shut to stop an angry curse word from slipping out. That light, I’d have known that damned light anywhere.
His magic filled the night air.
The scar on my face burned in recognition. I stifled my grunt of pain the best I could, curling in on myself as Rafael watched me with a worried frown.
Envy. He was here after all.
I pointed to my scar.
Rafael’s eyes darkened.
It was too late to turn back now. If we moved, the mage would spot us, and I doubted we could get away from him. There was no choice now. We were about to fight him on our own.
His green magic swirled around his head then shot into the dead tree. The ground shook beneath us, and the stones I thought were randomly scattered about the clearing took on the same sickly glow, lighting up in a circular pattern.
“Ritual,” I breathed to Rafael through the pain still coursing from my scar. “He’s doing the ritual.”
“Where are the people?”
I shrugged, unsure exactly what was going to happen next.
What did happen made my jaw drop and the instinctive part of my brain screamed at me to run.
The power turned a darker green. The tree groaned as its trunk spread, opening wide.
An arched doorway formed and from it walked people. Supes, humans… I stopped counting after ten. They came out, their eyes glowing that same sick shade of green. Each one took up a different place in the ritual space.
Envy was going to kill them all.
Todd spewed curses right and left, and then he was gone.
I worried the power had driven him away, until he reappeared next to Envy. He yelled in his ear, shouting and screaming, but if he was trying to be seen, it wasn’t working too well. Envy carried on as if there wasn’t a vengeful spirit shouting obscenities at him. Todd disappeared again and then was back at my side in a blink.
“Kill him, Mercy,” he seethed at me. “Kill him right now. Or all those people are going to die.”
I had my pistol and one dagger. I’d been in such a rush to get out of there, I hadn’t thought to take the time to truly arm myself. My magic would be a joke against his, if it even decided to manifest. Todd was right, though. If I let all those people die, I would never be able to live with myself.
“We have to stop him,” I whispered to Rafael.
“We need help,” he argued, but his tone said he agreed. “This is going to get messy.”
“It’ll be even worse if we let him go through with it. There’s no time.”
He growled, slamming his fist into the tree. I understood completely, but there was nothing else we could do. “You let me go in first.”
“Why? Are you magic resistant?”
“No, but you can’t walk up to him and shoot him in the head. I think he’ll see you coming.”
I shared an ironic glance with Todd. “Don’t have much other choice.”
“Yeah, we do. Let me draw his attention. If we can knock him out, we can stop the ritual.”
“And then what? This isn’t a time to knock him out. You think he’s going to knock us out?”
I remembered what Liam said before he was killed.
Shuval wanted me alive because I was dragonborn.
Envy might not kill me, but there was nothing stopping him from killing Rafael.
The air crackled as Envy’s power spread, encompassing the entire clearing.
I wasn’t sure what he was doing until a solid beam shot up from the tree into the sky and began to fall all around. If we didn’t move now, we were going to be stuck on the outside of that barrier unable to get to Envy. Those people inside it would be killed. Our chance to form a plan was gone. It was now or never.
Rafael followed my look, cursing when he saw the barrier coming down.
I reached for his hand, squeezed it, and together we sprinted forward, toward the clearing. We slid into the stone circle as the green wall crashed to the ground behind us, sealing us in.
Envy lowered his arms, sighing as if content with his work. He spun around, and his green eyes landed on us. Well, the two of us since he couldn’t see Todd. I’m sure he realized we were obviously not meant to be here as his sacrifices as I’d drawn my pistol and aimed it at his head.
Rafael was armed with a sword which appeared goblin-made. I’d have to thank Rufus for giving it to him if we made it out of this alive. I wondered what else the goblin might’ve given him.
“Isn’t this an interesting turn of events,” Envy said, his voice higher pitched than I expected.
He let out a laugh that sent chills down my back. That laugh, I’d heard it before. The scar on my face gave a twinge, and I winced. His gaze zeroed in on my cheek then widened.
“My, my, I would know my handiwork anywhere. You are not one I expected to see so soon, not at all.” He grinned wider, flashing fangs.
Damned hybrid, just like I remembered. Just like Liam.
“Stop this ritual right now,” I ordered, “or I put a bullet between your eyes.”
“Is that so?” He clasped his hands together, shifting his gaze to Rafael. “And who might you be? A demon who doesn’t know his place? Perhaps I should send you back to the slum that spawned you.”
I waited for Rafael’s growl of fury, or for him to overreact and attack without thinking.
Instead, a slow smile spread across his face. “Yeah, not much you can insult me with at the moment. You should do as she asks, and this might not end badly for you.”
That wasn’t entirely true.
Envy was not leaving this place alive if I had anything to do about it.
The hybrid mage sighed dramatically then snapped his fingers.
All the people in the circle under his control suddenly focused on us. This was bad, very bad. If they attacked us, we’d have no choice but to defend ourselves, but we couldn’t hurt them. Hoping Rafael would forgive me, I pulled the trigger. The gunshot resounded off the magical barrier, and I waited to hear the thud of Envy’s body hitting the ground. Should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.
The bullet had stopped an inch from Envy’s face. One more inch and this would’ve all been over. He waved his hand. The bullet shot past him, striking the tree instead. His smile turned creepy, and he snapped his fingers again.
The people all moved as one toward us, hands outstretched.
“Mercy,” Rafael muttered, placing his back to mine. “Ideas would be great right now.”
“What do you want me to do?”
They were getting closer, and beyond them, Envy’s evil cackle sounded louder and louder. How did we let this happen?
I holstered my gun.
Rafael collapsed the sword.
We were here to save these people, not kill them. Todd was back to screaming in Envy’s ear, but the mage made no indication he heard the ghost at all. Todd was useless, and this night just went from bad to worse.
A man lunged at me, and I kicked him in the stomach driving him back. He staggered into two others, but they moved around him and then I was fending off punches, landing a few of my own, apologizing all the while.
Rafael’s growling grew further away.
I glanced over my shoulder.
He was swarmed by six supes, all werewolves from the look of them. They surrounded him, and he defended himself, but didn’t fight back.
“You have to a
ttack,” I yelled to him as I clocked a fairy in the face.
She sailed backward, hitting the ground hard.
“Rafael.”
“I’ll hurt them.”
“Yeah, and they’re going to kill you. Just do it.”
Between the bodies of supes and humans fighting to get to me, I caught a glimpse of Envy pulling something from his robes.
Todd stopped his shouting long enough to see whatever it was and then he was gone.
“Mercy,” he yelled in my ear, and I jumped, taking a hit to the gut for it. “Sorry, but he’s got an artifact. The Dagger of Truth. He’s going to use it to jumpstart the ritual.”
Distraction. That’s all this was. The sacrifices were in the circle still, so they would be killed.
“Todd. Get it from him,” I yelled.
He shook his head. “I can’t. Mercy.”
Another hit to my side had me gasping for air and then I was on the ground. Supes and humans beat down on me as I covered my head. It was like the damned gobs all over again. A surge ripped through the air and for a solid five seconds, the attack stopped as if all the sacrifices held a collective breath. Then it was over, and they were attacking harder. If I didn’t do something, they were going to kill me. The only thing I could do now was kill them first. I closed my eyes, taking the blows as the scar on my face throbbed in time with my pounding heartbeat.
I was stronger than this. I was a damned mage just like my dad. I had the power within me, and though I hadn’t felt it since returning from Sector 18, it was there all the same.
A flash of light made me open my eyes. My hands glowed bright white and gold. Flames flickered in my palms. I reminded myself not to hurt the innocents.
I threw back my head with a yell. My power shot outward in all directions, and the attack halted. The wind whipped my hair loose from my braid as I easily found my feet and glared Envy down.
“Rafael,” I yelled, not letting my eyes leave Envy’s.
“Here. I’m here,” he replied in awe. “Mercy. Your eyes.”
There was no time to wonder what he saw.
Envy had the dagger in hand and marched toward me. “You cannot defeat me,” he bellowed.
“Watch me,” I shot back and thrust my right hand outward. His body lifted off the ground and slammed into the tree, the air escaping his lungs in a vicious gasp.