“Nothing in particular. Making its presence known. Reminding his constituents of what they stand to lose if they fail. Perhaps gathering information.”
“Information,” Caelynn mutters. “On us.”
The wraith tips his head forward, smoke billowing from his skull. “Yes.”
Not altogether surprising. We’ve known they’ve been watching us since we left the cottage yesterday morning, but it’s still unnerving. The bigger question is how much information have they been able to uncover?
“It knows we're here,” Caelynn whispers.
I jerk my attention down to the manticore, whose red eyes look straight up at us. I lean in closer to Caelynn, lips grazing her ear. I’d like to appreciate the moment longer, but the panic rushing through my veins has me distracted. If that thing is simply the Night Terror’s errand boy... I shiver. What are these creatures we’ve somehow become enemies of?
“Should we run?” I ask as quietly as possible. If we have that thing’s attention...
Caelynn’s wraith soars in front of us, blocking our view of the creature and his view of us.
The ground rumbles with the manticore’s laughter. “You are but a pestering fly standing between me and my meal.”
My blood runs cold at the sound of the creature’s echoing voice. Caelynn’s fingers tense on my knee.
“Don’t worry, Shadowspell. Your time has not yet come. You may still be useful.”
I can’t see the creature now, but I can certainly hear his shuddering steps as he turns and the roaring of the flames as he steps back through them. wraith twists away with just enough time for me to see the flames close and resettle behind the massive beast.
I let out a breath as the fire licks and crackles just as before.
That monster saw us and turned around, leaving us alone.
These wraiths, thousands of them, flutter around the open air of the valley between the mountains. They answer to the Night Terror yet they do not act. What in the world could that mean?
“The Night Terror knows where we are. Why don’t the wraiths attack us?” I ask.
“They have been ordered to give information only. But that doesn’t mean they won’t kill you if you’re not careful. Keep that shield tight, Caelynn darling. Most of these wraiths are mindless. Every move, every choice, is based on instinct. Even with an order from the Night Terror to stand down, they will kill you if you make the wrong move. They desire your death. Each and every one.”
“How about you?” I ask. Is he so different?
The wraith rolls his eyes. “I have my mind and soul entirely under my own control, thank you very much. Unlike most wraiths, I can choose.”
“But you do desire his death,” Caelynn nods toward me, her eyes lidded. A challenge.
“Desire is not the right word, child. I do not relish death. Nor do I wish to cause you pain. But if you refuse to take your place outside these walls...”
“Then, you’ll kill me.” I shrug. He wants me dead to save Caelynn.
The wraith sighs and twists awkwardly. “I will not kill you so long as she is safe. Does that make you feel better?”
Caelynn rolls her eyes. “Sure,” she says. “A step in the right direction. How about if he’s in mortal danger? Will you help him?”
“Absolutely not.”
Caelynn throws up her hands.
The gathering of wraiths below begins buzzing anew, like an agitated swarm of wasps. Their moans rise in pitch. I swallow as I watch them. Light is on the horizon now. It’s time for them to settle and find their hiding place for the day.
“Don’t you see?” the wraith whispers, his voice full of desperation. “You cannot stand against them. You cannot defeat these wraiths, let alone the manticore, let alone the Night Terror. It is an impossible task. Every moment you spend here, you increase their likelihood of escape.
“You must leave, Caelynn. You are the key to their schemes. If you remain out of reach, you can still achieve your goals. If you stay, if you pass through those flames, you will be in their clutches, and you will doom the world.”
Caelynn
Oh, wonderful. The fate of the world depends on me abandoning my soulmate in fae hell. Surprise, surprise.
“I don’t trust you,” I tell the wraith. I know what he wants, and he doesn’t care about the fate of the world. He doesn’t care about the plague. I wonder if he’d even care if it passed through the Shadow Court villages, killing all the children and taking away the elemental magic of our homeland.
I don’t know. I don’t care.
Because I know he is too selfish to make a proper choice. He has information I require, and that’s the only reason I’ve entertained him this long.
“Leave us be,” I tell him. “Your opinion is not needed.”
The wraith’s chest puffs up, and I cross my arms. He screws up his lips, but then his eyes turn to Rev. “Let her leave. Make her,” he begs Rev, his words pointed, harsh. “It’s the only way. If you love her, if you are any kind of mate at all, you’d choose her. You’d push her out and stay here in her stead.”
Rage triggers in my chest, sparking an inferno of power inside of me. My vision turns back.
Kill him. Destroy.
Yes, I will kill him for daring to turn my mate against me.
An explosion of dark, acidic power blasts from my body, ripping at every seam. I roar in rage as I leap at the wraith. “Get out of here!”
I can’t think. I can’t see anything but the wraith that called himself my ally. That claims to be my ancestor. That wants to turn my mate against me. That wants to kill him.
The nameless wraith, one of my few allies, slams into the stones across the valley.
I send another blast, larger than the last, filled with my rage and terror.
Hissing halts below us. Silence settles in the valley, another held breath.
Hundreds of wraith eyes, void but eager, turn toward us.
“No,” my wraith whispers. “What have you done?”
I bare my teeth at him, preparing for another attack, but then warmth presses into my back. Strong but gentle arms wrap around me and pull me back. My muscles sag into them. My mind spins, a mixture of confusingly conflicting feelings. Anger but comfort. Hate but love. Frigid agony but warm hope.
Pressure digs into my skin at my waist. Fingers, I realize.
Nausea sweeps over me as I force my magic back down and give in to my mate. He cocoons me, protects me, holds me.
“Shh, Caelynn.” His voice murmurs in my ear, and my eyelids flutter.
Rev.
Mine.
I pant, barely registering what’s happening, but I don’t fight him.
“Stop, Caelynn.” It’s the fear in his voice more than anything else that brings my consciousness back to the forefront. The rising groans of the dead bombard me in an instant. Their forms swarm and twist into a wave of toxic magic. The decaying souls of the wraiths in the valley have shifted their sights on Rev and me. They murmur eagerly.
“Kill.”
“Devour.”
“Little children have come to die.”
“Rev.” My voice shakes. “I’m sorry,” I breathe. I lost control, lost my mind. My magic that was supposed to protect us has doomed us.
The wraiths are coming. And unlike the manticore, they do not intend to let us go.
Rev
I hold onto Caelynn tightly, praying we can somehow make it out of this alive. A swarm of wraiths buzz below. They call to us.
“Kill,” they cry.
“Take them.”
“Rip them apart.”
Their moans are desperate and eager, leaving the hair on my forearms standing up straight. Caelynn falls nearly limp in my arms. Is she okay? Is her mind under her control?
I knew I had to stop her, for both of our sakes, but something snapped inside of me too. Enough to understand her reaction. I remained calm, but my magic flared white-hot, desperate to reach her, desperate to save her from he
rself.
The wraith became both of our enemies at that moment.
He’s disappeared into the shadows now. Perhaps realizing there is no hope of escape for us. He can’t stop an army of wraiths this large any more than we can.
My teeth chatter. I’m thankful Caelynn has seemed to get herself under control, but terrified of the shift in calls from the wraiths below. I lean back just enough to meet Caelynn’s dark eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“What do we do?” I ask, breathlessly. “Can you hide us?” My voice cracks as I ask Caelynn the only thing I could imagine may help us. I don’t even know if she’s capable now.
“It won’t matter.” She whimpers. “We can’t hide from them now.”
I wince at her answer, but determination solidifies in my chest. It might be hopeless, but I won’t give up.
Only one possible action remains. Run.
I pull Caelynn by the waist and together we sprint down the pathway, away from the fire wall, just as the swarm of wraiths reaches our camp. My feet pound on the gravel as fast as they can carry us.
Roaring pain carves through my back as a wraith’s magical claws slice through my jacket reaching the soft flesh below. I stumble. Caelynn snarls, holding me up with one arm while the other blasts an arrow of shadow magic at my attacker.
A dark puff of magic bounces off of him, sending him bounding into three wraiths behind him. Only a few thousand left to go.
“Can we get to the cabin?” I ask.
“That magic won’t save us this time, Rev.”
I know she’s right the moment the words leave her mouth. Is there any hope? Is this it? Is there really no way to get out of this?
“The fire wall.” Caelynn pants, sprinting beside me. “They won’t cross it.”
My heart rises and then sinks immediately. “You mean the fire wall we’re running away from?”
She doesn’t respond, and I don’t blame her. A half-baked plan forms in my mind, but it’s enough to spark the hope I desperately need to keep running, to push harder. These wraiths are mindless, as Caelynn’s wraith told us.
If we curl all the way around the mountain with them trailing, it may leave our path open to reach the wall. If we can make it that far.
The swarm of wraiths is just behind us, nipping at our heels.
We are on one of the smaller mountains... Maybe we can make it. I don’t have the breath or presence of mind to explain my plan, but she keeps up with me step for step.
“Come to us,” the wraiths cry in unison.
“Come to die.”
“Join us. Become like us.”
The voices surround us, curling in, eerily bouncing off of the mountains—so much I can’t tell which direction they’re coming from. I can only hope they’re still behind us or this plan is fruitless.
Our pathway ends abruptly, but we don’t have time to think or seek a new path. We leap over the edge, falling through the shadows below.
We crash down onto solid ground. I stumble, but Caelynn pulls me up and propels me forward. We are in a pass on the west side of our mountain. The sky is bright red over its black silhouette. Sharp slabs of stone cover either side of our narrow passageway. We’ve got to pray it leads all the way through because if not, we’ll be trapped.
My legs ache. My lungs burn. But I flee for my life—and Caelynn’s. I hold her hand tightly in mine, praying she won’t try to sacrifice herself to free me.
I can’t lose her now.
I won’t.
We barely remain ahead of the herd for a full mile, and the heat begins to increase. The sky grows redder, glowing. We’re close. So close.
The pathway curls back around, opening to the roadway.
The firewall comes into view, its intimidating, roaring flames hundreds of feet up. It’s raging heat burning hot on my skin. Its stacks of black smoke waft into the sky. It’s less than a mile away now, we can make it. We can—
Black smoke wings flash in front of us, and we both slide to a stop. I blast light at the wraith, and it screeches, flying in the opposite direction. But my hand flies to my mouth as a swarm of wraiths drop in front of us. They twist and spin together, creating a wall, rising in the sky, blocking our path.
“Fuck,” Caelynn hisses. Another wall of wraiths forms behind us.
I grip Caelynn’s hand, panting desperately. My magic is nearly full, though I suspect Caelynn can’t say the same. I can fight. I can probably blast through a set of them and maybe get us through... maybe. I pull in my magic, charging the heat, gathering it to fight for me.
The wraiths shift, each one moving to the right, forming a spinning circle around us. The wind picks up as their speed does.
“Come to die, children,” they moan.
They move so quickly around us that soon, they blur together and the wind rips at our clothes.
“They’re making a fucking wraith-magic tornado,” Caelynn shrieks. “What the fuck?”
I pull her in closer, arms wrapping around her waist. She melts into me. There’s no escape now. They have us surrounded on every side. She presses her face into my neck. I realize this might be our last moment alive.
A rush of ice-cold magic overwhelms me for one quick instant, and I yell out in surprise. Caelynn clenches my arms, fingers digging into my skin. Her eyes are pressed closed in concertation.
“What are you doing?” I call over the roar of the raging storm.
The dump of glacial magic bombards me again, only, this time, I recognize it as shadow magic.
“Caelynn!” I cry out.
She doesn’t respond. Is this another one of her episodes? Has she blacked out again?
The raging storm of wraith magic surrounds us on every side. They made a tornado out of their joint magic, and we are at the center of it. The center, which is closing very quickly.
The blur of black wind sweeps toward us in one massive surge. The roaring winds rip at our clothing. My bag flies into the storm, all of our supplies lost. I desperately grip my pocket to make sure I haven’t lost my precious stone. It warms in my pocket—or is that just my imagination?
One last surge and the brunt of the storm slams into my back, ripping through my flesh.
I scream as chaos takes over every sense. There is pain and magic and chaos and—her. Caelynn’s intense grip on my forearms barely keeps me grounded. My feet release from the ground, claws digging into my shoulder, ripping. Caelynn cries out, though I don’t even know how I could hear her in the thundering roars of the dead, but it’s inside of me. Her pain. My pain.
Our pain.
Her scream echoes through the tornado of wraiths, gripping me, burning, searing. I thrust a wall of luminescent magic around us and their magic falters. We fall back to the ground in a heap of limbs. I can do that again and again, but eventually, I’ll run out of magic and they won’t. There are too many of them.
And there is nowhere to run.
The roaring wall of wind crashes into us again, and Caelynn leaps toward me as she latches her arms around my body, and that cold shadow magic grips me again.
I’m torn apart. My skin splitting. I’m certain death has me in its grip when even my mind is split, giving way to the void of dark shadows.
Caelynn
I knew I would die today, here in the Schorchedlands.
But of all the ways I expected it to happen—a wraith-nado was not on my list of possibilities. Death by wraith? Hell yeah. Being ripped to shreds by thousands of them at once while they used their magic to mimic a natural weather pattern?
Not so much.
I dig into Rev’s arms, knowing I could be doing serious damage, but letting him go is not an option. Torn muscle and shards of fingernail broken inside his flesh are significantly better than death.
All I can think is that I cannot let him go. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
All of it, everything I’ve ever sacrificed, was for him. It will not end this way. I will not give up on him so long as I hav
e breath in my lungs.
Love or hate. Adoration or disgust. Hope or pain. I don’t care about any of it.
He will live. I will not. Those are the facts I know without a doubt.
And so, even though I’ve used too much of my magic already, I pull at every ounce to save him.
Save him. Save him.
Mine, my magic whispers in response.
Yes! He is mine. Take him with us!
My magic whips out, wraps around my mate, tearing at his very being until he is no more.
MY BACK SLAMS INTO the thick hot mud. Rev’s chest slams into mine, taking away my breath—and not in a good way.
His eyes are wide as a wraith’s empty sockets as he stares at me. The wind is gone—or rather, it’s a hundred feet north of us at the moment.
My vision blinks black, and Rev rolls off of me.
I suck in desperate breaths. My limbs tingle, bare of magic.
This is not the place to be stuck without magic. But then again, it doesn’t matter if I die. It’s probably better that way.
The wall of flames flickers just a few feet away, heat like an oven rolling off of it, burning my skin. I’ll pass out if we stay this close to it for too long.
Anxiety crawls through me at the thought of walking into that. But we have to.
“What just happened?” Rev asks, and I shudder out another breath.
It worked. That’s the only thing I can think of. It actually worked. I swallow and turn to the flames. “We have to go in,” I say, terror clinging to my limbs. I’m petrified of this magical fortress. And I’m horrified of what lies on the other side.
The roaring winds of wraith magic still overpower most sounds. The tornado rages just a few dozen feet from where we stand, but they’ve have not yet realized we escaped their trap. They rip our supplies and my lost jacket to shreds, but I have to assume that it won’t take them long to figure out that their prey has escaped. And we did not make it far.
One shift, one moment, and they’ll have us in their grasp again.
“What did you do?” Rev says, brushing the hair from my eyes. “How?”
Soul of Thorns (Wicked Fae Book 3) Page 10