Unwinnable

by May Dawson

  “My brother,” I said through my tears. “He was attacked by something.”

  “It’ll be okay,” she promised me. “It’ll be okay.”

  She wrapped her arm around me comfortingly.

  “Can you call?” I asked, reaching for the phone. “Or I can.”

  A bad feeling formed in my stomach as her hand dropped to her other side. She clutched the phone tight and made no effort to call.

  I elbowed her as hard as I could, reaching for the phone, trying to snatch it from her before I ran away. I slammed my elbow into her stomach, and she doubled over, the phone flying out of her fingers.

  The cell phone hit the cement and the screen shattered. I grabbed it anyway and fled into the woods, trying to get away from her. Maybe it would still work.

  “You little shit,” she said, but with a laugh in her voice, still doubled over. “I love the spirit. If we didn’t need you to make Chase listen to reason, I’d recruit you.”

  I ran as fast as I could. My feet slipped on the wet leaves in the trees, and vines and barbs pulled at my legs. I accidentally got stuck in some barbed wire from a fallen fence, and I couldn’t help crying as I yanked my legs free, leaving long, bleeding scrapes down my ankles.

  I tried to dial 9-1-1, but the phone wouldn’t work.

  “You are idiots,” she was saying to someone else in the distance, and desperation washed over me that I could still hear her voice, no matter how faintly. I couldn’t move faster than she could—and there were others with her. Male voices. “Get that girl back for me, please.”

  I ran, but the werewolves were faster.

  I felt them behind me and then went down underneath the trees.

  The last thing I saw was the branches above and the snarling face of a wolf, and then the world went black.

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Tyson

  We saw the smoke before we even reached the capital.

  We rode hard, trying to get there in time. When we arrived, the city was on fire. Ravagers prowled everywhere. People ran through the smoke, trying to escape them.

  For a second, I stopped, overwhelmed. The air was thick with smoke, making it difficult to see. The Ravagers seemed to be everywhere. I couldn’t even see through the wreckage of the unfamiliar city streets to begin to find my way to the High Delphin.

  First things first. I tried to focus on the rain, even though I wasn’t sure what my magic would do. Lightning and thunder flashed in the distance, the sky suddenly even darker between the sudden low, oppressive clouds and the hanging ash.

  The skies opened up.

  Rain soaked my clothes to my body, my hair to my head, but it began to douse the flames too. I hadn’t been sure it would work, and relief flooded me.

  Then I heard a cry go up through the smoke. Maddie followed me as I plunged down an alleyway, only to find a young family backed into a corner by a pair of Ravagers. Both parents gripped swords, their children hiding behind them.

  I raised my magic as the Ravagers whirled to face us with their mouth full of sharp teeth.

  “Ty,” Maddie said urgently, drawing her sword.

  The cobblestone street rippled underfoot, and then vines burst out and strangled the Ravagers.

  “Thank you,” the father said, grabbing his youngest child up. He and his wife and their other children all fled for the house.

  Maddie and I made our way back to the street.

  “We need everyone’s help,” I called to Rafe and Raura. “The rain will stop the fires, but we’ve got to stop the Ravagers’ rampage, or the city is lost.”

  “I think Turic is the one who started the temple fires,” Raura said. “It’s been one more reason he insisted that the heir had to be declared dead.”

  She looked around her ravaged city, and her face reflected the dying fires and destruction around her. “We’ll fight the monsters, Ty. You get to the High Delphin.”

  “I’ll figure out how to stop him,” I promised.

  “We have to end this, now. He’s trying to destroy the spring court, just so it won’t fall into your hands…” Maddie said.

  “Go,” Rafe agreed. “Get the Delphine. End this. We’ll save these people.”

  I knew I could trust my friends, even when we had disagreed.

  I ran.

  I raced down winding, smoky streets, killing any monster that tried to get in my way.

  “This way!” Jorden called, and I ran with the ghost to the house where the Delphine had been.

  The door to the house stood empty. The woman who had greeted us before lay crumpled on the ground.

  I climbed the stairs and pushed open the door of the Delphin’s room.

  She lay in blood-soaked sheets, her throat slit, her eyes wide and staring, her lips parted as if she wanted to speak to us.

  I closed her eyes, telling her, “I’m so sorry.”

  “I knew you’d come to tell on me.” It was Turic’s voice behind me.

  I whirled, sending a blast of magic his way, but his own magic slammed me into the wall first.

  Turic stood across from me, with his hand on Nat’s shoulder. The little shifter kid was wide-eyed, but his lips were closed tightly, the same way that Raura’s had been under his spell.

  “I can cut his throat faster with my spell than you can reach me,” Turic warned. “So I think you and I should just talk.”

  “What the hell do you want?” I demanded.

  “I want the crown,” he said. “I can kill my way through the Delphine until I find one that will give me what I want. The only other thing I need is to get rid of you.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “And I can even give you what you want most, Tyson. I can give you a way out of here.”

  “There’s no way.”

  “There is,” he said. “I can use the Greyworld spell on you to convince the magic that you’re dead. As long as you go through the portal like that and wake on the other side, the magic will accept me as the closest heir.”

  “Why don’t I trust you?” I asked.

  “Maybe because you don’t really want to go,” he said. His hand slid across Nat’s throat. “Maybe you need some motivation. This world will be a better place without you, Tyson.”

  “I doubt that very much.”

  His hand tightened around Nat’s throat, his long, pointed nails sinking into the boy’s skin.

  “Just let the kid go,” I said.

  “He can walk away when you do,” he told me.

  Beyond him, through the window, green branches scraped the glass as a tree was shaken by the wind of the storm.

  “Okay,” I said. “This isn’t my world anyway. I don’t care.”

  I hadn’t realized it was a lie until I said those words out loud.

  “You have to promise—” he began.

  “What did promises ever mean to you?” Jorden demanded, appearing suddenly at the door.

  Turic jumped. “You’re—you’re not alive—”

  “Who’s fault is that?” Jorden asked.

  Turic was so focused on Jorden that he didn’t notice the branches that suddenly whipped through the window and attacked him.

  I grabbed Nat and pushed him toward the stairs. “Go!”

  He ran out of the house just as Turic sent a blast of magic my way. The wall of the house disappeared behind me, and I plunged down into the street, slamming into the stones.

  I raised my hand, and the branches dragged Turic down to where I was. He fought to get himself free as vines burst out from deep within the earth, sending cobblestones flying into the air. They wrapped around him, and the soft, wet earth began to open up beneath him.

  But this time, I wouldn’t let him come back up.

  “Take some mercy—” he began.

  “As much as you would have for the spring court,” I said.

  The earth dragged him under.

  Then I went to stop my city from being torn apart by the last of his monsters.

  Chapter Sixty-Two

>   Maddie

  Raura rallied the town to fight the fires while the rest of us battled the monsters.

  When Tyson finally came back, I threw my arms around him. He hugged me back tight. He was smudged with soot and blood, and he looked exhausted, but then, so were we all.

  “Raura’s the true heart of this place,” he told me quietly.

  “Does that mean you’re coming home with me?” I asked.

  “I’ll do everything I can to come home to you,” he promised. “But the magic won’t let me go that easily.”

  “We can’t go without you,” I said.

  “I can’t.” His eyes begged me. “Maddie, please. I have to stay. But trust me.”

  We both knew what it would mean for the team if we didn’t go back now.

  “I want to ask you to promise to come back to me,” I whispered. “But I know you can’t promise that. Tyson…”

  “I will find you,” he told me, “in any world. Always.”

  He kissed me hard, as if he didn’t want me to forget him, and tears stung my eyes before I stepped away.

  Rafe nodded to me, and I drew the portal in the air. When the door shimmered in front of us, though, I couldn’t stand to open it. Not yet.

  Raura came to my side, her lips parting as if she didn’t know what to say. This was what she had wanted—Tyson here as their king—and yet now she seemed as filled with regret as I was.

  I told her, “Look after him for me.”

  “I’ll try,” she promised. “I’m sure our Fae king will always come after his queen.”

  She looked at me uncertainly, and I stared back, wondering what that expression meant. Then she suddenly threw her arms around me, hugging me tight. I ducked my head, hiding my smile.

  “Thanks for sharing him with us, Maddie,” she whispered. “And thank you for being my friend.”

  “Thanks for being mine,” I said.

  Jensen’s hand fell on my shoulder, comforting me. Then he stepped up to hug Tyson. The two of them embraced tightly, clapping each other on the back. It almost seemed as if they couldn’t find the words to speak to each other, but maybe they didn’t have to.

  Tyson looked at Rafe uncertainly. We all knew Rafe was still furious. My breath froze in my chest, hoping they’d actually say goodbye to each other. I knew they’d both ache afterward if they didn’t, but my men could be so damned stubborn.

  “Be careful,” Rafe said, his face guarded.

  Tyson nodded. “I will.”

  “You don’t get to play king forever,” Rafe said. “Sooner or later, you’re coming back with us.”

  Ty raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure you’re going to want me back?”

  “Don’t be fucking dim,” Rafe snapped, and Tyson grinned in response. Rafe leaned in to hug him, wrapping one arm around his shoulders. They hugged in that way guys do sometimes, barely touching except for their shoulders, but it still seemed as if they were clinging to each other for a second.

  “Enjoy your vacation,” Rafe said as he headed toward the portal I’d drawn in the air. “It better be over soon, Ty.”

  It was just three of us who left Tyson behind and stepped through, and when we walked onto academy grounds, it felt eerie. We had gone in as eight, an inseparable team.

  Or so we’d thought. It turned out we weren’t inseparable after all.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chase

  Alice had me meet her in the center of a sprawling public park. I sat down beside her on the park bench. The dark crown was in the backpack I carried over my shoulder, and I kept a tight hold on it.

  “Hello there, Chase Freeman,” she said. “Show me my crown?”

  I unzipped the bag and she peeked inside. Then I pulled it away, still keeping a tight hold on it. “Give me back my brother and sister.”

  “Sure,” she said. “they’re barely the worse for wear.”

  My stomach dropped out at her words.

  “They’d better be fine,” I growled out.

  “They’re great,” she assured me. “You can see for yourself.”

  I was sure there was some sort of trick. I wouldn’t believe I really had my sister and brother back until I saw them. No, until I heard something from their mouths that only they would say. I didn’t trust her not to hand over two witches who would try to kill us, who were enchanted to look like Blake and Skyla.

  She held out her hand and pointed at the two of them coming up the trail around the lake. Blake and Skyla were holding hands.

  They never held hands.

  “What kind of trick are you playing?” I demanded. Maybe things were different right now after all the trauma they’d been through, but it still struck me as really strange.

  “I know you think I’m evil,” she said. “But I don’t want to kill them. I don’t want to hurt anyone who isn’t a wolf shifter.”

  She flashed me a smile. “And now that you’re all nothing, I don’t have a reason to hurt you either.”

  I grabbed the backpack and headed toward Blake and Skyla.

  “Uh-uh, Chase,” she said, her voice stopping me. I exhaled slowly as I stood there, wishing I could just rip her head off and be done with it. “You know my people are watching them and are ready to kill them if you don’t give me the crown. Just like I know your people are watching us too.”

  As Blake and Skyla reached us, they didn’t say anything.

  “Tell me something only you would know,” I told Blake, as my eyes searched his face and Skyla’s. Their faces didn’t tell me anything. Skyla’s eyes were wide with fear and the same chocolate-brown as always.

  “They can’t tell you anything.” Alice examined her fingernails. “They’re enchanted to keep their mouths shut. The spell will wear off soon.”

  “Why?” I demanded.

  “Have you met anyone in your family?” she asked, arching her eyebrows. “You are all very annoying, as it turns out.”

  I scoffed at that.

  “Give me the bag, Chase,” she said, holding out her hand. “I don’t want to hurt them, but I’m not dramatically opposed to it either. I’d rather kill them than say, order a Hawaiian pizza or commit some other true travesty.”

  Skyla reached toward me, and I almost ducked back, thinking it was some kind of attack, since I wasn’t sure it was really her or if she might be mind-controlled by Alice.

  Skyla held her hand out for me to shake. The stupid little handshake routine that she’d taught me popped into mind. She’d been obsessed with that movie where separated twins find each other at summer camp, and there was an elaborate handshake routine that one girl did with her butler.

  And I’d been pressed into playing Skyla’s butler.

  Our mom had been dying, and it had been the one thing I could do to make Skyla smile.

  So I shook her hand, bumped elbows with her, high fived, low-fived, all the while feeling a sense of relief flooding my chest.

  It was really her. Really Blake. Alive and well.

  I all but threw the backpack at Alice, then grabbed the two of them in a hug as relief surged through me. I knew that the team would be waiting for Alice, and would try to keep her from getting away with the dark crown.

  But my job was just Blake and Skyla—to get them out of here, alive and safe.

  “Come with me,” I said, ready to hurry them out of the park. I didn’t know the spell that Alice had used to seal their mouths, so I couldn’t undo it right then. That scared me, but for now I just had to get them to safety.

  I made a beeline straight for where a part of the Northsea pack was set up in a perimeter. There was a car waiting for us. Clearborn had told me to worry about nothing but getting Blake and Skyla to safety, and I could have hugged him for that.

  As I rushed them down the path through the woods to the parking lot, for the first time I dared to hope Blake and Skyla were going to be okay.

  And then suddenly, Blake lurched to one side. His eyes were wide in terror, and he clutched his body as if he wer
e in sudden pain.

  “What’s wrong?” I demanded.

  My brother opened his mouth in a silent scream, dropping to his knees.

  Claws sprouted from his fingertips.

  Werewolf claws.

  “We’ve got to move,” I said. I grabbed Skyla and pushed Blake down the trail. I didn’t know if this was just some trick of Alice’s or if my brother had been turned, but if Alice was just trying to distract us, I wasn’t going to let her.

  No matter what was happening, I couldn’t let my brother turn into a wolf in the middle of the day in a public park. There were good reasons why shifters were a secret.

  Then Skyla fell to the ground. Her eyes were wide and terrified as her body bucked and shivered across the sandy trail.

  I was terrified about what was happening to my little sister but I got her up and threw her over my shoulder. I could feel her continuing to seize. I had to get her to a hospital, now.

  As long as she wasn’t transforming into a werewolf….

  The thought was a nagging fear at the back of my mind, but she couldn’t be. She was too young to be turned. Born shifters didn’t begin to shift for the first time until they were well into their teens, when theoretically they were mature enough to handle it—although to be honest, I hadn’t met a lot of shifters that impressed me with the depth of their maturity. But Skyla was just a kid.

  If she had been turned somehow, if she was shifting, I wasn’t sure she could even survive it.

  And I had no one to ask until we escaped and our team stopped Alice.

  Blake stumbled and dropped to both knees just as we reached the parking lot. I threw open the passenger door and set Skyla down on the seat—her hands were gripping my t-shirt tightly and I had to yank myself away to close the door, even though I hated to pull away from her.

  I went back for Blake, and he looked up at me with a mouthful of fangs, giving off a terrifying growl. A woman at her car nearby, stretching before a jog, let out a startled yelp.