Betrayal

by A. S. Fenichel

  The durgot gave a battle cry. Steal clashed near her feet. Reece, glorious and beautiful, fought both priests. He held his sword high, and he repelled thrust after thrust.

  She strained for the knife at her side. The tip of her index finger grazed the metal. “Just a little more…”

  The rope fell free.

  Lillian smiled down at her. “Can you manage the rest?”

  Elizabeth picked up the Blade of Skane and cut the bonds at her feet. She would have to thank Lillian later. She jumped to her feet on the altar. Her limbs suffered from lack of activity and tight ropes, but she gripped the demon blade with both hands, leaped off the end of the stone, and plunged it into the back of the durgot.

  After jumping to the ground, she picked up the demon’s discarded short sword.

  Reece skewed the other priest through the neck and pulled his blade free.

  Twenty or more demons fought with dagger or sword, and only a few hunters defended against them. The master and his guards were no longer in the sanctuary.

  * * * *

  Reece needed to hold her, but it would have to wait. The durgots were dead, but where had the master gone?

  Tad lifted the bolts on the front door, and the hunters sliced their way through the attacking trebox and malleus.

  Tad pushed the three women into a corner. They continued their chant in the demon language.

  Elizabeth’s eyes were clear with no sign of the trance affecting the other women. She killed the durgot with a magnificent leap off the altar.

  He sliced the belly of a trebox wide open before the demon made the top step of the dais.

  “Are you able to fight, Lizzy?”

  A bloody bruise marred her elegant neck, and her wrists dripped blood, burned raw from rope. “I knew you’d come for me.”

  “All these people are defying orders to be here.”

  Dirt smudged Elizabeth’s face, her blouse had torn at the shoulder, and thick mud marred her trousers. “I can fight.”

  “The master?”

  “He may have gone to the cave.”

  A malleus charged up the steps.

  Reece jumped atop the altar and leaped onto the demon’s back, thrusting his sword into its neck.

  Elizabeth crouched and stabbed the beast through the groin.

  It went down like a rotting oak.

  Reece tumbled to the stone floor and rolled to his feet.

  She ran behind the altar and disappeared behind a black curtain.

  The demons stood little chance against the hunters. Their numbers were not great enough to hold off the superior training of The Company. Reece dashed after Elizabeth down a set of freshly carved stairs. He caught up to her at the bottom and entered the largest unnatural cave he’d ever seen. Certainly the most lushly decorated hole in the ground.

  The master lay on his high bed with the tritors flanking him. “This is your mate?”

  Elizabeth reached back and hurled her sword at the demon.

  It was a beautiful throw, which the tritor on the left batted away.

  “I am master. You cannot harm me, little hunter.”

  She still held the Blade of Skane and rested her fist on her hips. “Your hand is bleeding, demon. If you can bleed, you can die.”

  The master looked from her to Reece.

  Reece took a step forward next to his fiancée. “This is my mate. You have abused her for the last time.”

  “You humans think so small. I may lose this battle, but there will be a time when I will crush you hunters. I may decide to make you all slaves, and the entire world will be made to suffer until the last of you dies. I am quite tired of dealing with these little setbacks and annoyances.”

  Elizabeth stepped closer to the bed. “You are failing—blade in the chest, a knife in the hand. If we have to take you apart piece by piece, then that is what we will do.”

  “You only have the span of one lifetime peasant-hunter. I have as long as it takes. My life will span the ages. Your children’s children’s children will be my slaves.”

  “My great grandchildren will be your undoing, if need be.”

  The wind of a forming vortex pulled the air from the cave. A wooden chair flew toward the bed. Reece grabbed Elizabeth and tackled her to the floor before the rest of the furniture batted her toward the master and his guards. The wall behind the bed disappeared into a tornado.

  “You have won nothing.” He pointed at them with his hand dripping blood.

  A table skimmed the back of Reece’s coat. He ducked his head and covered hers with his arms. It flew over the master and through the gateway. Bits of dust and stone swirled into the vacuum. Pillows, chairs, and a rug all spun around the room until the wind sucked them away to whatever lay beyond the gate.

  Reece gasped to draw breath, but even the air left the cave.

  Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond to the master, but only closed it again.

  If he suffocated in this hole, it was going to have some meaning. Still clutching Elizabeth with one arm, he pulled the pistol from his holster, aimed, and fired. The wind skewed his mark of the center of the master’s head, but the projectile found its own mark.

  The beast on the left clutched his throat and spiraled into the vortex like a limp doll. The other guard grew in size and roared toward the ceiling.

  The master’s eyes bulged and burned red as the remaining tritor scooped him up and launched through the gate.

  It blinked closed, and the wind died. Air returned to the cave.

  Gasps for breath, his and hers, filled the silence.

  “Lizzy?”

  “I’m all right.” She pushed to her elbows and rolled onto her back, gazing up at him.

  He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. I thought he would take you from me.”

  “Nothing can do that, Reece.”

  “My nightmares all were of you staring blankly like those three women upstairs. I thought he would renew the bond between you.” Tears rolled down his cheeks. Stopping the outpouring of emotion was impossible. His Lizzy lived and worshiped no one but him, and he her. The image of his Lizzy being under that knife on the demon altar would live in the darkest part of his heart for all eternity, but her declaration to him in that moment would stay with him.

  She pushed on his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “That was what he tried to do tonight, but I do not believe he could have succeeded. Even he did not really believe his magic would work.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because our magic is stronger.”

  He brushed her wild hair from her face and kissed her cheek where a bruise darkened her soft skin. “We have magic?”

  The tears had stopped, but she reached up and dried what remained. “Love is our magic. It is the one thing the master has no concept of. He cannot battle its effects nor understand its origins. It is mankind’s only hope.”

  He wrapped one hand around the back of her head and lowered his lips to hers. A million sparks of lightning flooded him. Maybe magic existed, who was he to say it didn’t? He’d believed emotional entanglements were for other people until he’d opened his heart to Elizabeth. Now that he’d nearly lost her, he had no doubt living without her would kill him.

  Without breaking for another breath, he ravaged her mouth, plundered her with his tongue, sipped at her full bottom lip before deepening the kiss once again. The cold stone floor bit into his elbows, and he rolled onto his back so she lay on his chest.

  They had a bond. That’s how they had broken her tie to the master. Love bonded them together, and nothing could sever that.

  She dotted kisses on his cheeks, mouth, chin, and eyelids. “I knew you would come for me.”

  “I’m sorry it took me so long. I had some trouble with Cullum then needed to send for help. Did you see your admirers from the school are here?”

  She rested her cheek against his
chest. “To be honest, I did not have time to note who was above. I suppose we should go and see if they have the situation in hand.”

  “Yes. I suppose so.”

  Hand in hand, they walked up the jagged steps to the church. In the nave, the fighting had ended. Elizabeth bandaged a wound on Miles’s arm. Tad remained in the corner, speaking to the three women in soft tones. William and Joseph dragged demon bodies into a heap by the doors. The fire in the crucible only smoldered.

  Dorian walked toward them. “Did you find him?”

  Reece said, “We did, but he took to one of his gates.”

  “Reece managed to kill one of the tritors, and we’ve learned quite a lot.”

  Dorian stared at Elizabeth’s eyes, his dark gaze ever assessing the situation. “I’m glad you are safe, Lizzy. Cullum will be eager to hear what you learned.”

  She turned to Reece. “You said these people risked their careers for me. Does that mean The Company did not sanction my rescue?”

  “I’m afraid not, sweetheart. Cullum was sure, like the other victims, you were under the influence of the master and had betrayed us.”

  “That was what the master said. He said you would not come for me, but I knew he lied.”

  “Telling half-truths is a classic way to get information from a prisoner.” Dorian brushed dust from his jacket.

  “It did not work.” She held up the Blade of Skane. “I was not the informant who gave the location of this. But someone did, and he is still walking among us.”

  “Are you sure?” Dorian asked.

  She nodded. “There is no question The Company is compromised again.”

  * * * *

  Elizabeth relaxed into the soft chair. She listened to the banter back and forth between her colleagues, but added nothing. She’d already told them everything she’d learned from the master. Let them bicker for as long as they liked. Only the people who had come for her at the church were present with the addition of Shafton and Drake Cullum.

  “I find it hard to believe our greatest weapon against the demons is love.” Tad paced the floor. The big Scot had a soft spot for victims. He had seen the three women to the hospital before joining the hunters in the front parlor of the London office.

  Shafton stood by the door. “It is a rather unconventional tool.”

  Pale, bruised, and with a nasty scratch on her face, Lillian lounged on the chaise. “Well, we have a rather unconventional enemy.”

  Dorian added, “Why should it be so strange to you? We are fighting evil, and what better weapon than love?”

  “How am I to kill a demon with love?” Tad threw his arms in the air.

  Drake put up one hand, and the conversation stopped. “I suggest we continue to use conventional weapons. I do not believe Miss Smyth is suggesting we smother the master with an outpouring of love.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “No. I’m just telling you what I know. All of our success against the master has been because of what we will risk for the ones we love. It is the piece of the puzzle the master cannot account for. He has a plan and human emotion does not figure into it. If we were a standard army, he would have defeated us already.”

  “That is your opinion.” Tad pointed at her, his face bright red.

  “Indeed. That is my opinion.”

  Cullum stepped forward. “Perhaps you can tell us a bit more about the vortex, and we can put the ‘love’ issue aside for now.”

  She sat up and rubbed her eyes. How long had it been since she’d slept? “I’ve told you everything I know. There are different planes of existence, and the master can shift them so a gateway appears and the world we know disappears.”

  “Why do the victims not notice the shift?” Shafton sat.

  “Because there are places that look like our world, but are not.”

  “You have to admit it sounds Fantastical, Lizzy.” Lillian shook her head.

  “I’m only relaying what the master told me. The bigger issue is, we have a spy in our Company and no idea who it might be.”

  Everyone nodded and some mumbled agreement.

  Miles, William, and Joseph had not contributed to the debate, but they sat along the bench at the back of the room.

  Elizabeth dragged herself up from the soft chair and joined them. “I do not know how to thank the three of you.”

  William said, “You are alive and safe, that is thanks enough for us.”

  “It will be strange going back to Spero Hall after all this.” Miles smiled and spread his arms.

  She pushed past the lump in her throat. “The three of you were amazing. I’m honored you would risk your lives and your careers for me.”

  “You would do the same for any one of us.” Joseph stood and gave her a quick hug.

  “I hope I shall never have to return the favor, my friends. But I guarantee if the need arises, I am at your service. Be sure to take care of yourselves. You still have to finish your training. If I hear you have been slacking, I’m going to come to Spero and beat some sense into you.”

  They laughed and the other two hugged her. The meeting broke up.

  Tad left with hooded eyes and fisted hands.

  “Miss Smyth, will you remain a moment?” Drake Cullum dismissed the rest of the group.

  Reece squeezed her hand and looked her in the eye.

  “I will be fine.” She smiled and let go.

  Shafton looked from her to Cullum, gave a nod, and closed the door on his way out.

  Her legs wobbled, but she stood facing her employer.

  “Elizabeth Smyth, I am about to do something I never do.” Cullum braced his hands on his hips and grimaced.

  “Are you?” She would have liked to have a bath before taking her set down. A nice clean dress and her weapons, and she would have been whole. Yet exhaustion stood as a kind of shield. There was protection in being too tired to care.

  “I owe you an apology.”

  She sagged against the back of the settee. “Do you?”

  “I never apologize.”

  “Should I send for a scribe to record the event?”

  Remarkably, he laughed. “I had no idea you were such a wit, Elizabeth.”

  “I am not. I’m just very tired.”

  He opened his hand and indicated she should sit. “I can imagine. I will be brief, and then you should take as much time as you need to recover from your ordeal.”

  “All I require is a good night’s sleep.”

  He nodded. “I thought you had betrayed The Company. I assumed because you had a connection to the master and both you and the Blade of Skane went missing, you had committed treason. I did not believe you were strong enough to break the link.”

  “I might not have been if not for Reece.”

  “He never lost faith in you.”

  “No.”

  “Even when the people he trusts believed you were lost, he knew you were not.”

  There was no appropriate response. What transpired between she and Reece would remain private and had no place in this conversation. “You do not need to boost my opinion of my fiancé. I’m already quite fixated on him.”

  “Of course.” He paced. “You garner more respect than I would have expected in one so young and inexperienced. The young men from the school came to your aid. They did so against my express orders. I can understand Reece disobeying me, but Lillian, Dorian, Shafton, Thaddeus, and those boys? This is a puzzle to me. No one has ever disobeyed my orders before. At least not without my knowing they would.”

  “I do not understand, sir.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Ah, well, Lillian Dellacourt often believed she had disobeyed orders, but I always knew what she would do. She performs better if she believes she is working outside the rules.”

  “So you manipulate her?”

  “I manipulate you all. I get the best out of each and every hunter by giving them what they need.”

  “Yet you would
have left me to be destroyed by the master.”

  “I regret that more than I can say, Elizabeth. All I can do is apologize and hope you will accept that I made a mistake. Most of all, I hope you will not leave The Company as we still need your skills to defeat the enemy.”

  She stood up and put her fists on her hips. “I’m not leaving The Company. I will hunt until the master is either dead or returned to hell where he belongs. The only way you will stop me is to kill me. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Perfectly clear.”

  “I would like to point something out, Mr. Cullum. You never thought Belinda Clayton had betrayed The Company. You never assumed she’d told company secrets to the master and her circumstance was not much different from mine. You keep telling me to act more like a hunter and less like a servant, yet you treat me differently, and the only excuse I can find is my birth is not from a good family.”

  “I am very sorry about this incident, but I assure you your background had nothing to do with it. You did a fine job of collecting information under the worst conditions imaginable. I should have had more faith in you.”

  “I would like to believe that is the truth. One of the finest things about The Company is the appearance of equality. Without that, you are just another bureaucrat and this is just another makeshift government. As for the rest, I did my job and you do not know me very well. Besides, it’s rather comforting to know that even the great Drake Cullum makes mistakes.”

  “More than I care to admit.” He stopped pacing. “I could not care less about your family name or your gender. The Company turns people into warriors if they have the heart and drive. Each one emerges new, different, and decidedly equal. I would not have it any other way. Perhaps I should spend more time at the school and get to know new recruits.”

  The light she associated with The Company brightened again. She believed him. She wanted to believe him. If he lied, then he was gifted at the skill. She nodded. “You have bigger problems.”

  “Oh?”

  “There is still a betrayer within our ranks. While I did not tell the master how to retrieve the Blade of Skane, someone did. The master told me so himself.”