by Eden Rivers
Fuck!
The sadistic bastard who’d set up the spell designed to kill the three of them the same way she’d watched Scott die ‑‑ robbed of air and gasping for breath ‑‑ had thought to let a rat loose in the room as well. Forcing away images of Eric’s bloody arms as he fought off the rodents, Sky drew a pitiful gasp of air into her lungs and murmured, “West” with the men, weaving a circle tighter than any she’d ever cast.
Hold fast. All hell’s about to…
Alec never got the chance to finish his warning. Sky tried to scream but couldn’t draw enough air to do much more than whimper as raw power assaulted the circle they’d woven, tearing at her mind with iron claws.
Heat and hell and fury didn’t begin to describe the pain. Searing, icy fingers ripped through her, shredding her hold on the circle. Alec and Zach’s agony multiplied her own, and she experienced a threefold assault as the death spell tore at them, the dark magic seeking a way out of its confinement.
Somewhere in the center of the misery and terror, their love buoyed her up. She felt darkness closing in around the edges of Alec’s vision, saw the room grow dim through his eyes, and she redoubled her efforts. Don’t you leave me! Together, remember? Zach said we can do this ‑‑ together!
Intimate vignettes raced through her mind, and her love for them flared hotter than pain or fear. Zach’s smile as they pressed nose to nose, sucking and licking Alec’s straining shaft. Alec’s string of endearments, murmured in a mix of Greek and English. Alec loving her within a sphere of silver mist. The heat of three bodies piled together on damp sheets.
So much affection. So much to lose.
The connection through which they shared each other’s suffering acted as a rugged source of strength, jarring her to take breath after gasping breath. When she felt the torrent of energy dwindle, she hardly dared hope. But with each tortured breath, the assault from within the circle ebbed, until finally, the death magic dwindled to a dull malaise.
Not yet. Hold the circle! His face a mask of pain, Alec clutched his sides, and Zach glanced longingly toward the door as he swayed on his feet.
Her mind and body ached beyond all reason, and her lungs burned, but her faith in Alec had carried her this far, and damned if she’d back out now. Minutes ticked by, until the center of their circle held only the benign imprint of their own concealing spell, and air seeped back into the room through chinks and cracks around the door and windows.
After what felt like an eternity, Alec dissolved the projection of concealing magic, and Zach closed his fist to call home his share of the energy they’d raised. Without formality of any sort, they released the circle.
Moving unsteadily, Zach crossed to the nearest window and opened it to welcome more air into the room. “Seal broke after the spell dispersed.” His voice shook, but color was starting to return to his face.
When something skittered under the bed, Sky took a wobbly step toward the door, unable to remain in the room another second. Glass and wood crunched under her feet, and her rain-damp skirt clung to her legs, hampering her movements. She almost fell twice before she reached her destination. “Got to get out of here!”
Her throat burned, and her lungs felt tight despite the abundance of fresh air. The rats. Can’t stay in here with them. Not after what happened to Eric.
As she reached for the doorknob, Alec dove for her and grabbed her hand. “More likely than not, whoever set that spell is waiting out there to see if it worked.”
“I’ve got to get out!” Panic simmered as something crashed in the bathroom, followed by more scampering.
“I know, but we’ll do this right.” Alec stroked her arm, and although his voice was still raspy, his touch conveyed strength. “No use slipping out the windows and climbing down the trellis, because they’d only take another shot at us down the line. This stops here.”
Zach picked his way through the debris until he located his backpack, and when he pulled out his gun, her first thought was that Sorren would be enraged that he’d brought a weapon into his home. Relief quickly followed, since in their weakened state, magic alone might not be enough to protect them from the dark lord.
Zach picked his way back toward the door, kicking aside torn pillows and the shattered arm of a chair. “Stay behind me, and whatever you do, keep your defenses up. Fucking powerful witch out there, and we’re half dead on our feet as it is.”
Casting outward, Sky sought reinforcements, but as she expected, the witches on the estate had wrapped themselves in rock solid shields, seeking privacy in their grief following the funerals. She hardly dared to breathe as Zach eased the door open, the three of them standing to either side of the opening. When no assault followed, he ducked low and headed out with Alec close behind. Sky followed, preferring to take her chances with the witch who’d just tried to kill them rather than face the rats, though she doubted her broken magic could do much good as back up.
Sky froze in horror as Laura raised her hands to launch a spell from the end of the hall. “Look out!”
Time froze as light coalesced around Laura’s hands, her face set in a grim mask, ugly with the effort of calling a torrent of power. Zach had been looking the other way, toward the stairs, but he spun, gun raised, at her warning. The feisty healer’s betrayal ripped away Sky’s last bit of faith, reaffirming that trust only led to defeat. Tangles of red hair swept across Laura’s face, moved by the energy she raised, as Zach pointed his weapon at her chest.
“No!” Plowing into him, Alec knocked Zach’s aim off center before he had a chance to fire. “It’s not Laura! Power surge at the other end of the hall ‑‑ that’s our spy!”
“Witch. Death magic. Around the corner!” Laura’s frantic warning echoed through the hallway as she let loose a barrage of energy.
The stream surged through the hall like liquid silver, and a woman shrieked near the stairs. Running hard, Sky’s lungs burned, and she gulped air as she followed Zach toward the sound, desperate not to let a second rogue escape this week. A lash of power caught them midstride, tumbling them to the carpet. Pain darted along her leg as her knee smashed into the floor, but she rolled and struggled to her feet.
Zach and Alec were up and running by the time Sky took her first strides, and Laura caught up with her as she panted, unable to keep up with the men. She felt Zach’s lungs pinch and his shins ache where the chair hit him earlier, and Alec’s breath seemed to rasp through her own throat as he raced to catch up with the dark lord.
Together. Bound so tight there was no room for doubt or fear between them.
Cursing the winding hallways that made up Sorren’s vast home, Sky latched on to the psychic imprint of loathing up ahead, and touched Alec and Zach’s thoughts to direct them toward the main stairway. She’s trying to get away. We’ll lose her!
But as they raced around the corner and pounded toward the winding staircase, a tall woman dressed in black keyed a spell and formed an obsidian sphere on her palm, her long brown braid swinging behind her as she rounded on them. Recognition teased at the edge of Sky’s memory, and she recalled seeing the witch speaking with Sorren at the funerals. Death dark, the spell pulsed as the woman murmured words to set its power imprint.
Zach raised his weapon at her, but cursed and dropped the gun before he had a chance to fire. A wisp of smoke drifted up when it hit the carpet. As Alec and Zach split up and moved closer to the witch, their magic simmering around them like a rising storm, Sky’s fear crowded out hope and reason. She lashed out in desperation, letting her magic do what it would, and the witch screamed as an overhead chandelier crashed down, hitting her shoulder.
Somehow, the woman held on to the small orb of dark magic, her face creased with pain and effort. “I’ll take them first, just like you took Daniel! You’ll die with no one to hold you.”
“Elisa, don’t do this!” Laura’s cry went unheeded, and the woman offered nothing more than a scowl in response.
Zach and Alec added their pleas, addres
sing the witch by name, but Sky suspected the death magic had such a hold on the woman that nothing could dissuade her. Laura inched closer to the dark lord, and Sky watched in horror as the black sphere on the witch’s palm swelled to the size of a sooty apple. Alec fashioned a glowing sword and threw it like a knife, spinning end over end, but the woman dodged to the side, and it lodged harmlessly in the wall before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
“Everyone down!” Laura’s cry brought an instant response, and they plastered themselves to the floor as a wild torrent of energy coursed above them.
As Laura’s magic spent itself, Sky sensed Alec and Zach’s hearts pounding, alive and fierce, and her hope swelled along with theirs. A desperate shriek tore through the air, and a pitiful series of gasps followed. Laura closed the distance between herself and the fallen woman as Sky struggled to her feet. By the time she and the men scrambled to join the healer, the brown-haired witch lay lifeless on the floor, her eyes frozen open, and her mouth twisted into a startled O.
“I’d only intended to knock her off her feet.” Laura choked back sobs as she knelt to feel for a pulse. “Her spell must have triggered before she had time to reabsorb the power.”
Or cast it outward, taking some of us with her. Sky shivered and glanced at Alec and Zach to reassure herself they were all right. Nothing had ever been sweeter than the sight of her two princes standing whole and strong in their ruined suits.
“Rest easy, troubled soul.” Zach bent down to close the woman’s eyelids, drawing his hand across her forehead and down over her nose as gently as he’d touch a child.
Sky had seen one too many dead bodies lately, and she turned away, covering her mouth with her hands. She hurt all over, and her lungs stung with each breath she took. She didn’t think she’d ever forget the pasty color of the dark lord’s skin, or the rigid cast of her mouth locked in a scream. Worse, Alec, Zach, and Laura had known this woman, and she didn’t have the heart to ask how ‑‑ didn’t want to know how close the witch walked within Sorren’s inner circle.
“Goddess help me, I’m a healer. I’ve never… I can’t… Not even defensive magic…” Laura lowered her head, her red hair pooling around her face as her shoulders heaved with wracking sobs.
Fighting back nausea, Sky knelt beside the healer and wrapped an arm around her back. Lena had shown her friendship earlier when she’d neither expected nor deserved it, and it wouldn’t kill her to do the same for Laura. Alec disappeared into a nearby bedroom and returned with a blanket to cover the dead witch. Downstairs a door slammed, and footsteps echoed through the silence.
“Show yourself! Who dares raise destructive power in my home?” Sorren’s voice boomed out with the threat of violence to anyone who crossed him. “Zach?”
“We’re here. Stand down. Danger’s past.” Zach went to greet the elder witch as he pounded up the stairs, staff raised and white braid twisting behind him like an angry serpent.
Matt followed fast on Sorren’s heels, and power crackled around both of them like a cyclone on an August afternoon. Sky swallowed hard, battered by the psychic imprint of their fear and rage.
“Please, stand down! We’re okay.” Alec held out his hands, open and upright, and Sorren released the thread of energy. Never taking his eyes away from Sorren, Alec inclined his head toward the corpse. “I’m so sorry, Sorren. She got caught up in her own spell. There was nothing we could do to stop her.”
Confused, Sky clung tighter to Laura, stroking the healer’s back as she cried. Every instinct insisted Sorren presented a threat.
“Who? What happened?” Sorren’s voice held all the warmth of a January blizzard as he knelt and touched the blanket covering the fallen witch’s forehead.
Matt knelt beside Sorren and the dead witch, his rain-drenched hair glistening around his face, and when he pulled the blanket away to identify the fallen witch, Sorren dropped to his knees and uttered a piercing cry.
“No!”
Light whipped around the elder witch, and trembling as magic thickened around them, Laura clung to Sky. For a few moments, everyone stood frozen in place, hardly daring to breathe.
Pain creased Sorren’s face, and the psychic impact of his grief raged through Sky’s senses. But when Alec approached and held out his hand, the elder witch grasped it and released the thread of power he’d summoned. Somehow, the fury of suffering surrounding her seemed magnified by the fact that the witches were already dressed for mourning, as if death had stamped its mark on this day and refused to let go.
Tears staining his face, Sorren cupped his palm against the fallen woman’s cheek. “I’m so terribly sorry.”
Unable to bear Sorren’s pain, Sky eased out of Laura’s grasp and walked over to join him. She felt Alec and Zach tense, but didn’t press them for explanations ‑‑ figured if she knew the whole story, she wouldn’t have the guts to do this. Kneeling beside Alec, she joined him in tracing soothing circles over Sorren’s back.
“My cousin, Elisa.” Sorren’s voice cracked. “Her husband, Daniel… You’ll remember him as the quiet, heavyset witch from the pentacle rite last year.”
Sorren touched Sky’s arm, and she felt his grief sear across the contact. “After the publicity surrounding the rite, he lost his chiropractic practice. They sold their home and moved into a house on my estate.”
“Sorren, I’m so sorry.” No matter how far she traveled from the day she spoke to the press and named the witches involved in the rite, her mistake came back to haunt her. No wonder Elisa had hated her.
“It’s I who am sorry.” Sorren’s back shook as she rubbed circles across his spine. “Family ties blinded me. I knew she held anger in her heart after Daniel’s death. Yet I excluded her from suspicion due to family loyalties.”
Not about to press a grieving witch for details, she glanced at Alec, seeking clarification.
Elisa’s husband, Daniel, downed a bottle of Scotch and ran his car off the road six months ago. Alec shifted uneasily, and she felt agitation ripple through him, fear that Sorren would lash out in his grief.
Sky shook her head. No, I’ll be okay. Sorren needs our support ‑‑ he won’t hurt us.
“If I’d known she blamed me and Skyler for Daniel’s death and would resort to working with Jaimis for revenge…” For the first time since she’d met him, Sorren looked old.
Or if I’d had the sense to keep my mouth shut after the pentacle rite. But neither of us can change things now. With a deep breath for courage, Sky took Sorren’s hand. “Please, come with me and Alec. Matt and Zach will gather the others and bring Elisa to the cemetery.”
No day should end with a fourth funeral. But no sense waiting and drawing out the suffering. Alec helped her pull the elder witch to his feet, and Sorren accompanied them without resistance as they made their way down the stairs, through the great room, and back out into the rain.
* * * * *
As they made their way along the sun-dappled path, Sky felt Alec’s eyes on her like a caress. They hadn’t spent much time together since the funerals last week, and under his appraising gaze, she felt next to naked in her sheer blouse, silk camisole, and white shorts. Bless it, the teal and white scarf she’d used to tie her hair back was downright girly. When she’d received her first check after signing on with Sorren in his fight to corral the dark lords, Nikki and Laura had dragged her shopping, and they’d stridently vetoed every choice she made involving leather or the color black.
“Stop fretting.” Alec slid his hand to the small of her back, the warmth of his palm penetrating her filmy blouse. “You look great.”
For a moment, she thought he’d raise the issue of her hanging out with Nicole, but evidently, they’d been around that subject enough times that he’d decided to let it rest and trust her judgment in befriending the former dark lord. She and Nikki had both been hurt ‑‑ horribly ‑‑ by the same man. And they’d both made mistakes. Somehow, she found that kinship comforting, and with Lena busy caring for Eric, she appreciat
ed Nikki’s company.
As they picked their way over fallen branches, their silence stretched into the realm of awkwardness, and she wondered if they’d manage to bridge the gap. Somehow, taking Sorren up on his offer to rent one of the guest cottages seemed to have been a misstep, as far as Alec was concerned.
“I understand you need some space.” Letting his hand drop away from her back, he pointed ahead at what looked like an old tree fort. “That’s where we’re heading. As for the rest, I guess I’m at loose ends with Zach organizing Sorren’s enforcers down in St. Paul, and you busy settling in at the cottage.”
“I got a call from Zach this morning.” With a grin, Sky recalled Zach’s tirade over the details of organizing a group of enforcers for the elder witch. “Sounds like he and Sorren are still going around about the issue of whether or not he’ll carry a gun when he’s looking in on dark lords and their followers.”
“He called me, too. But what I got involved a heap of unsolicited advice regarding you, and warnings not to fuck things up.” Grabbing her hand, Alec led her toward the tree that housed the fort and glanced down at her new white tennis sneakers. “Guess I should have warned you we’re dining in the rough today.”
Sky eyed the lowest branch, just above chest level, and frowned when Alec held out his intertwined hands to give her a leg up. “You’re serious? Lunch is up there?”
Hell, for someone Zach had insisted was a champagne and caviar kind of guy, Alec seemed to need some basic instruction on how to arrange a date. Like no tree forts. But his nervousness coursed across their link like a cry for help, and they may as well talk here as elsewhere. Sliding her foot onto his hands, she pushed up and grabbed onto the branch. He followed once she scrambled up, spotting her as she pulled herself through the opening that served as a door to the old wooden fort, long since abandoned by whoever had built it.
“Found this place years ago, when I needed some time off by myself,” Alec said, balancing on the branch right behind her. “Used it as a thinking spot after that, every time I stayed at Sorren’s place.”