The witch said nothing. She walked away and stopped, staring at the far wall. Finally, she turned around. “I’m coming with you.”
Max’s jaw hit the floor. “What? No fucking way. Why?”
“I need you back. I don’t want you to die. And I got you into this mess. I owe you.” Giselle ticked the reasons off on her fingers. “You stand a better chance of winning with me than without me.”
“And leave Horngate without a witch if we fail?”
“We won’t fail. You don’t know how,” Giselle said with cool determination.
“I’m going with you, too,” Tyler said. He glared at Giselle, but she said nothing.
“I guess that means I’m going, too,” Oz said, entering from the doorway. Max started to object, but the look he turned on her was deadly cold. “My witch. I’m going with her.”
Max made an exasperated sound and tossed up her hands. “Anybody else want to come? You know I have to drag your asses through the abyss, and it isn’t exactly easy.”
“You’re strong,” Giselle murmured with the kind of smile that said she was spoiling for a fight and could not wait to get started.
All of them were. They needed to relieve their grief and fury from losing five lives. Alexander was no different.
“I’ll buy a ticket to the circus if there’s room for me,” Thor said, slouching into the room with those long, liquid strides of his.
“That’s enough,” Max said before anyone else could volunteer. “I can’t take everyone, and someone has to watch over Horngate until we get back.”
“You’re leaving again? What about us?”
Max flinched at the sound of Tris’s tart voice and looked across the room at her sister, who had her hands on her hips and a look on her face that reminded Alexander of Max in a stubborn, angry mood.
“I’ll be back.”
“Will you?” There was doubt and pain threading through the cutting accusation in her words. “You come back from the dead and drag us to this godforsaken place just to abandon us. You said it would be safe. Do you have any idea what happened? It was—” Her mouth pinched shut, and she swallowed. “Now you’re running off again,” she said finally, her voice softening with unshed tears.
Max faced Tris, the muscles in her jaw knotting. “Scooter needs me. He has no one else.”
Tris wrapped her arms around her stomach. “You said you could die.”
“I could. But I don’t plan to,” Max said. “I haven’t yet.”
Her sister thrust her chin out, her lips quivering. “See that you don’t. I’ve lived with that once. I don’t need to do it again. None of us do.” Tris spun on her heel and marched back into the Great Hall. Alexander could hear the sound of her crying.
Max swore under her breath, then shook herself. “Everybody get prepped. Then hit the dining commons and calorie-load.” She hesitated. “And thanks.”
Oz pulled her into a hug. “We’re family. Don’t forget it. We’ve lost too many today. We’re not about to lose you, too.” He stomped away without another word. The others followed until it was only Giselle, Max, and Alexander.
Giselle followed Max’s gaze to the five bodies. “I couldn’t protect them. I wasn’t fast enough.” Her words were bleak and harsh.
Max exchanged a look with her, and the two women nodded slowly at each other, then Giselle left.
“What was that about?” Alexander asked curiously.
“No one gets taken alive,” Max said softly. “We come home or die trying.” She looked at him. “Still want to come?”
“I sure as hell am not getting left behind,” he said.
He hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her to him, kissing her hard. He lifted his head. She smiled, and there was a darkness in her eyes. It would not soon go away. She had a lot of grieving to do.
She touched his face gently. “Thanks for not dying. I wouldn’t—” She swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t have liked that much. But now, it’s time to finish this for Scooter and come home for good. I’m going to get Scooter’s heart. See you in the dining commons.”
And with that, she melted away into nothing.
IT WAS A SOMBER GROUP THAT GATHERED IN THE DINING commons. Max stood in the doorway, watching them for several moments before coming to sit between Alexander and Tyler. She caught Oz’s glance. They exchanged a look of understanding and shared sorrow.
Tears burned in her eyes as she thought of Niko broken, bruised, and burned. I’ll never hear him tease me again. I’ll never hear him laugh or make fun of his clothes or the way he chases women.
She was glad she’d already eaten. She wouldn’t have been able to force anything down at this point. It was taking all she had to keep from throwing up.
He wasn’t the only one. Noah and Derek were gone, too. She hadn’t had to pick up the sheets to smell who was under them. She could hardly believe that Tutresiel and Xaphan were dead.
She’d liked Xaphan from the first moment she’d met him. He’d been a messenger for the enemy and a slave. He was noble, though—full of honor and a clear sense of right and wrong. Maybe she didn’t always agree with it, but he had lines he didn’t cross. Tutresiel, on the other hand, was a total rogue and mostly an ass. But he was honest far past the point of rudeness—if it suited him, and it frequently did. Somehow, Max liked him. Maybe because he hated the chains of binding as much as she did. Maybe because he made her laugh. Maybe because he wasn’t always the ass he pretended to be.
She was never going to see any of them again.
Pain shafted through her, and she got up and walked blindly across the room. She felt eyes on her, but no one followed. No one, that is, except for the witch-bitch herself.
“I’m sorry about Niko,” Giselle said.
Max jerked her head in a nod. It took her a moment before she could speak. “Why are you doing this? Everything you’ve done for most of your life has been to build this place, and now you want to leave it pretty much unprotected while we go off to fight an enemy we don’t know anything about. What’s in it for you?”
Giselle didn’t answer for a long moment. Then, quietly, “I always thought Horngate was about a strong witch and a strong coven and everyone playing their proper parts. I was supposed to run things the way I saw fit. I always thought that was the ticket to maintaining our strength. I was wrong. It’s about sacrifice, family, and love. Your bindings were never why you gave your heart and soul to this place. It was always the people. Same for everyone else.”
“Wow. You are quick on the uptake. Only took you decades to figure that one out,” Max said mockingly, though in truth, she was shocked to hear Giselle’s confession.
“I always like to be fashionably late to the party,” Giselle said wryly. “Anyhow, I’ve realized that I’m not part of the family. I’ve never let myself belong to my own covenstead. Even Alexander, Xaphan, and Tutresiel belong more than I did. That changes today. I’m done standing on the outside looking in. I traded you to Scooter for Horngate’s safety, and that was the choice that needed to be made at the time. But now what needs to be done is for me to fight by your side. Horngate isn’t about where we are, or the anneau; it’s about who we are.”
She turned to look at Max, and magic circled smoky black in her eyes. “We are a team. That is Horngate’s real strength. That’s why Tutresiel and Xaphan are dead. They gave their lives because they felt something for us.” She shook her head. “For you. You infected them with this idea that Horngate was worth it; that this family was worth it. I can’t believe they did it—” She looked away, her face tightening with resolve. “I won’t do less. Not anymore. I’m not going to be like—” She broke off, her mouth clamping shut, then continued before Max could ask questions. “I’ve got your back as much as you have mine, and I plan to put my money where my mouth is.”
Max reeled from the speech and the change it implied in Giselle. But before she could marshal her thoughts into any semblance of a reaction, Giselle changed the subject.
> “Tell me about this Ilanion. Can we trust him?”
“I do,” Max said simply.
That brought a frown to the witch’s face. “He plans to fight?”
“He does. I didn’t ask him to.”
“What’s in it for him?”
“Helping Scooter. Plus breaking the backbone of the Korvad. He gains a lot if they are out of power.”
Giselle nodded thoughtfully. Then she did something unexpected. She reached out her hand. Max eyed it like it was a coiled rattlesnake. What was the witch up to?
“This is our new start. Phoenix from the ashes. Let’s do better this time,” Giselle said huskily. Her face was graven with emotion. She caught herself, shaking her head. “No, that’s wrong. I’ll do better this time. Like I should have from the start. I always knew this place was supposed to be different, but I followed the old rules anyhow. But I want you to know this: you can trust me.”
Max’s mouth twisted. She couldn’t help her snort of disbelief. Giselle had always lied to her. Even when she told the truth, it was wrapped up in secrets and distortion. “Yeah, right,” she said, not taking the proffered hand.
“You’ll trust this Ilanion—a total stranger—more than you will me?”
“Can you blame me?”
The witch hesitated and then shook her head with a sigh, her hand falling to her side in resignation. “No. I hoped you could, even though I knew it wasn’t reasonable. But I’m telling you, I will prove myself to you, Max. Don’t give up on me yet.”
Max gave a bitter laugh. “Don’t you think I would have if I could? I’m as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to you. I’d love to be wrong this time.”
She turned back to look at the group at the table. They had heard the entire exchange. It was impossible for them not to. Still, they focused on their food as if they were doing open-heart surgery. “All right. I hope you’re all full. Let’s get a move on. I don’t know how much time we have left.”
Magpie came out of the kitchen and stood near the door, watching, her face still as stone. Whatever she was thinking, she wasn’t sharing.
The three Blades and Oz rose, gathering their packs. Max left hers on the table. She was going to do this in several trips.
She motioned toward Oz and Tyler. “You two first.”
They stepped over, and with them came Tyler’s Grim. She didn’t know how, but even though it looked exactly like the one following Alexander around, they were as different as apples and oranges. It wasn’t a smell or anything about the way they looked. It was something more subtle than that. But she had no problem telling them apart.
It stopped a few feet away from Tyler, as if it wasn’t all that sure it wanted to be closer, and yet it didn’t want to be left behind, either.
“Forget it, dog,” Max told it. “You can just stay put.”
“How does this work?” Oz asked uneasily.
“I take you first into the abyss and then into Chadaré.”
“What do we have to do?” Tyler asked.
“Hold on tight.”
Max took their hands and plunged down into her fortress. Going into the abyss was getting easier and even slightly less painful each time. Or maybe she was just getting used to it.
A moment later, they hung in the abyss. Both of her companions looked wonderstruck as they gazed about themselves. Max found herself staring in shock at Tyler’s Grim. The beast drifted a few feet away. It shook itself and padded forward through the air to nudge up against Tyler, who started, then stroked a tentative hand over the beast’s broad black head.
Gathering herself, Max pulled the men out of the abyss into Ilanion’s compound. She chose to bring them into the dining room.
They dropped down about five feet and crash-landed on a table. Max was more ready than Tyler and Oz and stayed on her feet. The other two windmilled and leaped to the floor, and the Grim settled gently on the table top. All around them, gargoyle creatures jumped to their feet, drawing swords and leveling crossbows at the intruders.
Max held up her hands. “It’s OK,” she said loudly, hoping no one would start shooting before she could convince them that they were friends. But she was in luck.
“Quite an entrance,” Ilanion said.
He stood up from his seat at the far end of the room. He was surrounded by a group of gargoyles and a couple of other creatures that were sort of pinkly gray and soft-looking, like earthworms. They had elongated faces, three round eyes each, lipless holes for mouths and ears, and tall, thin bodies. Their bodies were thick with sword and knife belts, an array of throwing stars, and what looked like darts. Long tubes strapped to their backs suggested that they were blow darts.
Max looked at Ilanion. “Did you get a reply to the challenge yet?”
He nodded. “We’ve got about two hours. At that time, they’ll ring the city bells, and we’ll have one hour to show up or forfeit.” He glanced at Tyler, Oz, and the Grim. “Is this the help you went to get?”
“Some of it. I’ve got another trip or two to make,” she said. “This is Tyler and Oz, and that—” She gestured at the Grim and shook her head. “That I’m not sure about. This is Ilanion,” she told Tyler and Oz. “I’ll be back.”
Back in Horngate, she found the others waiting in tense silence.
“That was fast,” Giselle said.
“Are you ready? You and Thor are next.”
They stepped forward, and she took their hands. A few minutes later, they dropped into the dining hall in Ilanion’s compound. The tables had been cleared to provide a safer landing area. Max and Thor kept their feet easily, while Giselle sprawled heavily across the floor. She got quickly to her feet, examining her surroundings with a cool eye.
She and Ilanion exchanged a sharp look. “You’re Ilanion, I take it,” she said, not waiting for an introduction.
“I am. And you are?”
“Giselle.”
“A witch.” He glanced at Max. “The one you were bound to?”
“That’s her,” Max said, and stretched. She was starting to feel hungry. When she got back again, she was going to need to eat, regardless of her grief. She was just about to leave when the Calopus appeared and whined. It pawed at her leg.
She was ridiculously happy to see the spiked wolf.
“Not you, too,” Oz said. “What’s with all the pets all of a sudden?”
“Friend of yours?” Tyler asked with a smirk at Oz.
She glanced at his hand, which was scratching his Grim’s back. “Seems to be going around.”
“Love is in the air,” Oz said sardonically. “Pretty soon, Horngate will be overrun with puppies.”
“You’re just jealous,” Tyler said. “No one picked you.”
“Remember that when you’re cleaning up dog crap and I’m not,” Oz said.
Max smiled and then felt an ice pick drive through her heart. Niko would never join in their banter again. “I’ll be back in a second,” she said abruptly, and headed back into the abyss. It took her a few minutes there to gather herself and return to Horngate.
Alexander was pacing when she returned. He held the box with Scooter’s heart and had Max’s gear slung over his shoulder. His Prime was high. But then, it had been since the last time she’d seen him.
“I am ready,” he said, and laced his fingers with hers. Beyul pushed between them. He looked down at the beast. “You have to stay here.”
“I don’t think he does, actually,” Max said. “But you do have to get there by yourself,” she told the Grim.
A few minutes later, they were back in Ilanion’s compound. Max was exhausted. The last trip was a lot to handle. If she had to pull them all into the abyss at one time . . . She wouldn’t be able to. Which meant there weren’t going to be any backdoor escapes from this challenge. She wasn’t leaving anybody behind.
She sagged down at a table. The Calopus and the two Grims were exchanging stiff-legged sniffs.
“Are you all right?” Ilanion asked.
“I should eat,” she said.
He sent a gargoyle for food. She noticed that Drida, the gargoyle who’d guided her to the kitchens, was among those he’d been meeting with.
“Tell me about the terms of the challenge,” she said. “They agreed to the winner takes everything? They won’t cheat or hold back on their side of it?”
He shook his head, leaning back on the table behind him, raising his wings out of the way. Tyler, Alexander, Oz, and Giselle stared at him, grim-faced. One by one, they looked away, but she knew it was going to be a lot harder than that to forget Xaphan and Tutresiel. Or to stop missing them. She smiled inwardly. Tutresiel would be irritated to find out he’d actually be missed. He’d worked so hard to make sure that never happened.
“The coliseum has rigid rules, and even the Korvad can’t circumvent them. Upon entering, both sides declare the nature of the challenge and the prize for the winner and the cost for the loser. The judge then oversees the contest. If anyone tries to cheat, they are killed.”
“Just like that? The judge has that power?”
“Challengers give her that power as part of the contract.”
“OK. How big a fight is it going to be?”
“You can have up to twenty fighters. The playing field will be a section of the city.”
“Wait. I thought this took place in some kind of an arena,” Max said, frowning.
“The coliseum exists anywhere in Chadaré. As the ones who were challenged, the Korvad chose the location. It is being established there now.”
“Established?” Giselle asked.
She had propped herself on a table between Tyler and Oz. Just one of the team. Max eyed her narrowly. Was she for real?
“The coliseum is a boundary. Inside it, the judge rules. When it is established on the chosen ground, it begins no bigger than a pinprick and expands outward until it is the desired size. Anybody in its way is pushed outward. Only combatants are allowed inside. Anybody may watch, however. The events within are transmitted throughout the city. There will be a festival today while everybody watches.”
“How’s Scooter?”
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