by Gwynn White
Garrik thumped his hands together. “That is genius.” He spun to Dominik. “Take magic from me for four cloaks. You, Elion, and Dain can protect our Soul-Reaper while she takes the Bone from under those Nyhan bastards’ noses. I will have forces on every exit to the maze. Once you’re out, my soldiers and I will track down and arrest everyone involved. No one will escape.” His eyes hooded. “And by that I do mean no one.”
She was about to protest that she didn’t need protecting, when Dominik said, “Consider it done.”
Dominik didn’t even touch Garrik, but still he paled and lowered into a seat. Conversely, color flushed through Dominik’s skin, and a twinkle lit in his sea-green eyes. His fingers fluttered at a pile of crisp, folded linen on a stone bench. Four of them sailed into the air and floated over to him. He caught them in mid-air. Magic shimmered, and the sheets disappeared.
He grinned and held out his empty palm to her. “Care to try one out?”
Goose bumps pebbled her skin as her fingers brushed his. From the smolder in his green eyes, she knew her touch aroused him, too. Not wanting to draw attention to their exchange, she looked away and fumbled for the invisible linen. It was cool against her hand. “That’s amazing.”
“Try it on.” Elion smiled from ear to ear.
She swung the invisible cloak over her shoulder.
Dain doubled over with laughter and smacked his knee.
Even Soul-Forged bubbled with mirth.
She looked down at her body and barked a laugh, too. She was nothing more than a floating head. “Absolutely amazing magic.”
“I’m glad you approve.” Dominik shed his stones and clambered off the bed. “Are we ready to take them for a spin?”
She clapped his hands together. “You bet. But first we need to make sure Garrik and his army are in place.”
Garrik bowed low. “My lady, the maze is a big place. Give me a couple of hours to get my soldiers positioned. I will also have a backpack of food, water, and flares prepared for you. It will be waiting for you at your tower.”
She waited until the door clicked closed behind him and then dropped her cloak from her shoulders. She faced her three comrades.
Dain leaned against the wall and folded his arms. “This is it, isn’t it? The moment you finally explain all the weirdness.”
Dominik tossed his arm over her shoulder and grazed her cheek with his lips. “You’re telling everyone? Is that wise?”
She snuggled briefly into his chest and then pulled away, unsure if Elion’s sagging cheeks and drooping mouth were caused by their display of affection, or Dominik’s question.
Elion was the one Fae in this room she didn’t know well, but the love between the two brothers was as obvious as her and Dain’s affection. If Dominik trusted him, so could she.
She took a deep breath—and then plunged right in. “We’ve all lost friends, Fae we knew and loved during the many battles Yatres has fought over the decades.” She grimaced. “Centuries, for some of you. And we’ve never questioned that their souls were fed to the Bone. Or at least I didn’t.”
Dain and Elion stood still as statues—if statues could be glued to someone’s words.
Even Soul-Forged was silent.
“And if we did,” Dominik said, “we all accepted that it was needed to make Yatres great.”
“Exactly.” She ignored the sweat trickling down her back and heating her hands. “Then Ayda died, and I was called as Soul-Reaper.” She swallowed a lump the size of Soul-Forged’s pommel. “And I saw the souls we fed into the Bone. I saw their beauty. And their anguish, and their pain. Their longing to escape. To be free.”
Dain scratched the back of his head.
Elion—well, he was a blank. No emotion or thought crossed his handsome face. He could have been on the brink of shouting Treason! or patting her on the back, and she would have been none the wiser.
She pulled Soul-Forged from his sheath and held him up.
Stubbornly, he refused to glow.
“I’ve also met the king whose kingdom and subjects Yatres destroyed so we could claim this land. He was betrayed by a… a friend and led to his death. He’s trapped in this Sword, and has been for… well, I don’t know how many centuries.”
Soul-Forged huffed. “Ten. And a bit. And he was a rotten friend. With friends like that, who needs enemies?”
“Over a thousand years.” She grimaced. “Any wonder he’s a bit crazy?”
“Do you mind!”
She smiled before she could stop herself. “And… and it’s his Bone we feed the souls to. A limb torn off his body. But instead of being burned with honor, it was kept as a source of power. One with a voracious appetite for the souls of our friends. And our enemies.”
Elion finally shifted. “What are you saying?”
Dominik replied before she could. “That the Bone and everything related to it is evil. That it has caused the endless wars we wage. That the wars have bankrupted Yatres, and now our family, too, it seems.”
Elion nodded. “I’m not arguing.” His eyes flashed. “And if Father has indeed squandered our inheritance…” He turned to Dain. “You’re quiet.”
Dain folded his arms. “If I have something to say, I will.”
The moment of truth.
She sheathed Soul-Forged. “Today, when we find the Bone, I want to use Soul-Forged to destroy it.”
“Me! And you say I’m crazy! Yoo-hoo! Every one! Nasty Reaper has lost her mind.” He cackled so loudly it took all her self-control not to clutch her head, but she couldn’t stop her eyes closing.
“He disagrees, I take it,” Dain said dryly.
She slumped down onto Dominik’s bed. “Or burn it. Something. But it cannot be given to the king.” She looked up at Elion and Dain. “So what do you think?”
Dain sat next to her. “If I do this, will I have my buddy back?”
She took his hand. “You never lost your buddy. But yes.”
“Then I’m in. That whole soul-reaping thing was beyond creepy.”
She squeezed his hand and then let go.
Now for Elion.
He and Dominik were in a staring match.
Elion put his hands on his hips. “If Father is involved, the king will never forgive him. We stand to lose everything.”
“One good thing… I won’t have to marry Taliesin.” Dominik turned hopeful eyes on her.
She nodded her agreement. Her heart almost melted when an almost boyish, happy smile brightened his face.
She wanted to give him this so much, but everything rode on his brother.
Elion chewed his lip. “Caeda, what do you intend to say to the king about this? He’s likely to remove our heads if he knows we covered for you.”
“That the Nyhan destroyed it.”
Soul-Forged blinked. “You think Cruel Fae will believe that?”
She held up her hand. “Give me a moment. The Sword has a view he’d like shared.”
Dominik chuckled. Elion and Dain both shifted, looking anything but comfortable.
Then what do you suggest?
“Tell him Soul-Forged destroyed the Bone.”
You suddenly agree to all this?
“No! Soul-Forged doesn’t. But he can’t let his Nasty Reaper and her friends be harmed by Cruel Fae just because she’s misguided.”
Gee, thanks. She opened her hands. “Simple. Soul-Forged will take the blame.”
Elion paced the room.
She expected Dominik to persuade him, but he leaned against the wall with his arms folded. With no secrets left, she stood next to him. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. She leaned into him, drinking in his smell of cedar wood and leather.
“Dom, it’s clear why you have chosen this course.”
Dominik shrugged. “I’d be a fool not to. It’s no secret that I care nothing for Taliesin. And this gives me the gap I need to pull out of my betrothal.”
“Fair enough.” Elion faced her square on. “Caeda
, if I agree, you have to promise that my Father isn’t implicated, even if he is involved.”
That wasn’t part of the plan.
“Is this love speaking, or fear that his fall from grace will affect you?”
Darkness flashed in Elion’s eyes. “I care nothing for him,” he sneered. “But I won’t see him drag us all down.”
“Even if it means that your brother has to marry a Fae he despises?”
Elion turned haunted eyes on Dominik. “It always comes down to Taliesin, doesn’t it?”
Dominik shrugged. “This is possibly the best thing that could have happened. If Father is involved, even if it’s covered up, we will know—and he will know that we know. That gives me leverage with him without risking you and the rest of the family. And if the kingdom is bankrupt, the king may want a son-in-law who comes with a fresh supply of gold coins for him to squander. I suppose I could rip every drop of magic out of Yatres to make him another million or so coins, but that does seem a tad excessive.” He grinned. “For the first time in months, I can glimpse a future that doesn’t involve Taliesin.” He took her hand. “If agreeing to this brings Elion in, please do it.”
It seemed brutally unfair that Izanna had been punished while her accomplice got off without a mention, but what option did she have? She held out her hand to Elion. “Deal.”
He shook it.
She let out a long, slow breath. In just a few hours, the terrible nightmare that had started with Ayda’s death would be over. Laylea and countless others would be free.
And so would she and Dominik.
“Not so fast, Nasty Reaper. You still have to convince me.”
She gritted her teeth. Not even Soul-Forged, with all his power, would stop her.
21
It was snowing when Caeda, Dominik, Dain, and Elion arrived at their chosen entrance to the maze. Her three comrades all bristled with blades while she carried Soul-Forged on her hip. Garrik’s troops were already encamped, waiting for her to send up one of the flares in the backpack he’d left for her. Little did they know that there would be no flare and no Bone for them to escort back to the king.
Dominik handed them each an invisibility cloak. “Don’t drop them. If you lose them, you won’t find them again.”
She twirled hers over her shoulders and clasped it at her throat. As soon as she entered the maze, she’d pull the hood over her head. Only her face would show, but she could cover that and still see through it.
Elion sidled up to her. “Can you feel the Bone calling?”
She shook her head. “Soul-Forged is searching for it. The minute he picks something up, you’ll be the first to know.”
Invisible fingers brushed her arm. She didn’t need to see him to know Dominik stood behind her. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Cover your faces everyone,” Dominik commanded. He whistled out a birdcall—the signal they had chosen to communicate with each other in case they were separated—and she and her invisible friends filed into the snowy maze.
The sharp scent of evergreen and frost filled her. They walked in silence, the falling snow covering their footsteps right after they’d made them. Dominik walked at her side while she was mentally engaged in her search for the Bone. The brush of his cloak against hers kept her on track as they traipsed from one dead end to another through the snowy labyrinth. Dain and Elion trailed behind them.
The farther she slogged in the ever-deepening snow, the more the chill crept through the warm clothes she’d changed into for this expedition. It sank deep into her bones. Her toes were numb, and her socks soaked through her tough boots, but still the Bone didn’t respond to her calls.
Dominik touched her through her cloak. “Can you sense anything?” he whispered. “Feels like we’ve been picking our way through here for hours.”
“Nothing.”
Desperation made her plead to Soul-Forged. It has to be here somewhere. I know I saw it.
“Our Bone is close. Our Bone is waiting. How exciting!”
She nearly tripped over a fallen branch hidden in the snow. Can you sense it?
“It’s miles and hills away, hiding but not hiding. Enemies lurk everywhere, just waiting for the chance to pounce.”
She slowed, lifting her feet a little more carefully. Nyhan soldiers could be around any corner, ready to trap them in a dead end.
Soul-Forged flared. “No one shall touch my Nasty Reaper. No one.” Although her cloak hid the light, it warmed her thigh.
She patted him to soothe him, but her own anxiety shot up with his. “We’ve got this. We’ll find the Bone before the Nyhans know what hit them.”
And then she felt it.
A tiny tug on her mind, so small it was barely noticeable.
“Our Bone, our Bone!” Soul-Forged squealed. “It calls for help from the center of the maze.”
She nudged Dominik and sped up. He matched her pace, as did Dain and Elion.
The invisible thread kept pulling, reeling her in like a fish on a line.
“Come and see. Come and find me.”
Snow kicked up from her boots sprayed her cloak. She shook it off and kept moving.
The thread led her deeper and deeper into the maze, through twists and turns and bends, never once dragging her into a dead end.
It grew stronger and thicker with each passing moment.
Soul-Forged giggled incessantly. If he had legs, he’d be running.
The weight of the Nyhan souls trapped in the sword also pressed on her mind, worms burrowing their way into her consciousness, as if they, too, knew the Bone was near.
The line connecting her to the Bone was no longer a simple thread. It was as thick and solid as steel. Soul-Forged hissed in anticipation every time they turned a corner, but when just another passageway like every other opened before them, his excitement waned.
Beads of sweat ran down her temples and spine, and her hair stuck to the back of her neck. She breathed through gritted teeth and tried not to stumble into the constricting hedges.
A sharp breeze eddied toward her.
Her nose twitched.
Chewing tobacco, sweat, and copper. A smell she hadn’t noticed above the perfume of evergreen and frost in her vision, but now tugged on the edges of her memory. A scent mixed in with the stink of piss and mildew in the tavern.
The Nyhan soldiers.
Dominik’s hiss at her ear told her she wasn’t the only one to notice.
“Our Bone, our Bone!” Soul-Forged shrieked. A flare of light shimmered from him. “The thieves are here. The Evil Fae is here!”
Stop that! she snapped, pulling the invisible folds of the cloak closer. They’ll see us!
“They’re blind. We hide under Sad Fae’s magic.”
She reached another turn in the maze. Entirely covered by her cloak, she poked her head around it.
Through the flurry of snowflakes, a large courtyard opened before her. Blue light illuminated snow falling into a frozen fountain. She stood on tiptoes and peered into the bowl.
Dusted with snow, the Bone rested on a velvet cushion.
“There it is! There it is!”
A dark shadow passed across the light.
A soldier. Steel glinted from a string of daggers in a baldric across his chest. He had a long sword strapped to his hip.
Three more soldiers circled the fountain.
She recognized them—survivors from the tavern. Blood still caked their clothes, black with age and stinking of copper and iron. One of them had a cut on one side of his face. It had just missed his eye. Ten other soldiers carrying Nyhan swords drifted around the courtyard.
Fourteen in total.
Which probably explained why no wards glimmered, just as she’d seen in the vision.
She backed away, bumping into Dominik. He took her hand, and they tiptoed after Dain and Elion back the way they had come.
Only once they were out of earshot of the courtyard did they stop and huddle
together.
“I pulled enough juice out of Garrik to take down a couple of them,” Dominik hissed. “And I sensed an Image-Meddler there. His magic will help, but if this is the tavern all over again, we need to expect nasty surprises.”
“Can’t you rain something down on them like you did during the battle?” Dain whispered. “That was incredibly effective.”
“Impressed, were you?”
She smacked Dominik. “Stop smirking and answer the question.”
“I could, but it will be a one-shot wonder, and I’ll be depleted. And it will alert their buddies. It would be much better if I used what I have on a one-to-one.”
That made sense.
“I could help,” Elion whispered.
“No!” Dominik growled. “That isn’t safe for you or us.”
“Which is why I’m going to cause a distraction,” she whispered. “They won’t give up a chance to get their hands on the Soul-Reaper and the Sword. I can lure them away long enough for you to grab the Bone and run.”
“That’s insane, Caeda,” Dain snapped. “What if they capture you? We’re not trading your life for the Bone—”
“They won’t capture me,” she interrupted. “Have you forgotten that I can fight? And I have Soul-Forged on my side. He won’t let them touch me.”
“At least let me help with the distraction,” Dain hissed. “Just in case it all goes wrong.”
She shook her head. “If something goes wrong, you need to be with the Bone. To end all this, it has to be destroyed.”
Elion’s blue eyes appeared through his cloak. “It’s a good plan. I’ll guard the Bone while the muscle”—he patted Dain and Dominik’s shoulders—“pick off any stragglers who don’t go after Caeda. When it’s over, Caeda can follow our scents back through the maze.”
Her gaze flicked to Dominik, a silent request to ensure that the Bone didn’t leave the maze. They would never get a better opportunity to destroy it.
He squeezed her hand. “None of us will fail you.”
“I need some assurances here,” Dain whispered urgently. “If things go wrong, I’m taking Caeda, and I’m getting out with her.”
“Not necessary,” she snapped.
“Yes, it is necessary,” Dain said mulishly. He looked at Dominik. “Support me in this.”