by Chloe Garner
“I’m not in the mood,” she said when the woman opened her mouth to contest Jason’s entry. The woman looked at Samantha carefully, and then Jason.
“Who is he?” she asked.
“He’s one of us,” Samantha answered. The woman sniffed, then turned her face away. Samantha smiled to herself and went upstairs.
Demons went back into rooms and drew the curtains when they saw her, and the bar went quiet as the three of them passed through it, just the thumping music to cover the sound of their footsteps. A new demon was standing at the door to Nuri’s office, and he looked ready to hold his ground.
“Anadidd’na Anu’dd parroah’na lahn,” Samantha said. “Scram.”
He turned sheet white, but he didn’t glitch. She pushed the door open, ignoring him. Nuri leaned against the back wall of the room.
“Have you brought me an offering?” the demon asked.
“Just there on the floor,” Samantha said to Jason, then looked at Nuri and bowed low.
“I’ve brought you a trade.”
Nuri smiled, eyes sharp, and unfolded her arms.
“Are you sure you want him back?”
“Wait, what?” Sam asked.
“Give me Diana,” Samantha said. The motion Nuri made was smooth and clean enough that anyone who didn’t know better would believe that she actually drew the blade from behind her back. In truth, she had the blade hidden away somewhere and simply glitched away for such a short time that Samantha’s eye missed it. Samantha put out her hands for the blade as Kjarr came in from his control booth.
“What’s going on here?” he asked.
“That’s what I want to damn well know,” Jason said. Nuri placed Diana across Samantha’s palms.
“I should go get him,” Samantha said. Nuri shook her head.
“He’ll kill you,” she said.
“No, I’m the only one he won’t kill,” Samantha answered. Nuri evaluated her for a moment, then dropped her head subtly to one side.
“As you say,” she said. She went and pushed a section of wall, and it slid aside, revealing a small, dark room.
“Nuri had him the whole time?” Sam asked.
“Yes,” Samantha said.
“And you knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell us?”
She hesitated.
“Yes?”
“You always said ‘get him back’,” Jason said. “You never said ‘find him’.”
“I don’t lie,” Samantha said, looking at him. “I’m sorry. No one could know.”
Nuri motioned them into the room.
“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Jason said.
“You both do,” Kjarr echoed, behind Sam.
“Will someone please collect the tramp?” Nuri asked, standing in the doorway. Kjarr went to pick up the demon from the floor, slinging her over his shoulder. Samantha put out a hand to warn him to be careful of the dagger, then shrugged. If Cassie woke up now, it wouldn’t make much difference.
“Where is he?” Sam asked. Samantha shook her head.
“I don’t know. I needed to be able to tell people that I didn’t know where he was, but I needed to know that he was somewhere where they wouldn’t trade him away at any price.”
“Nuri was keeping him safe?”
Samantha shook her head, feeling the stab of guilt that had been with her since she’d made the deal.
“I would have killed him if you had failed,” Nuri said.
“Failed how?” Jason asked.
“Failed to bring the demon who knew how to take a dragon. Alive.”
Jason looked at Nuri, edging away from her in the tiny space.
“What are you going to do with her?” he asked.
Kjarr laughed.
“She has a pit full of animals that she’s held for as long as anyone can remember,” he said. “Hell if I know where.”
“Somewhere Heaven and Hell could never find them,” Nuri said. “Humans always will, but the rest won’t. Humans can’t help but dig in the dirt.”
The wispy woman made her way through the people in the room and spoke words Samantha didn’t know, putting her hand against a wall. There was a whoosh and the smell of rotten air as the wall disappeared.
“What was that?” Samantha asked.
“Old magic,” Nuri said. “Magic no one remembers but me.”
Samantha stepped through the doorway, feeling a peculiar twist as she went through.
“It’s a hellsgate,” she said, turning back to look at it. “Two of them.”
Nuri smiled, just her teeth showing in the darkness.
“You have always been my favorite.”
They were standing between a long row of vast circular structures, solid from floor to ceiling, and maybe a hundred feet in diameter, each.
“What are they?” Sam asked.
“Pens,” Kjarr said. “I know that design.”
“Classic,” Nuri said. “This is the eighth set I’ve had built, and they’re more elegant than the last.”
“Where is he?” Samantha asked, holding Diana in front of her. Nuri lead the way down the long hallway, turning once and stopping in front of a column of iron. She looked at Sam and Jason, then motioned to Kjarr.
“We will get her put away. You should be alone.”
Samantha nodded appreciation, and Nuri put her hand to the wall of iron. There was a low grating noise that Samantha felt through the floor more than she heard it, and then a narrow doorway appeared through the iron. She braced herself, but nothing happened. She walked slowly down the wandering hallway that emerged in the concentric iron rings, expecting Carter to ambush her at any moment.
There was nothing.
She came to a small central room, stepping out of the hallway and into the room. She saw torches on the wall that she recognized, and snapped her fingers, lighting them with sharp white flames that cast shadowy light around the room. Carter looked up from the bed, his eyes puffy.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice weak. He swallowed. “And what are you wearing?”
She frowned.
“Demon hunting clothes,” she said. He stared at his feet, one eyebrow down.
“On your hand.”
She grimaced. He would be the one to see the ring.
“What does it look like?” she asked. He looked up at her again, the white light dancing across his face as his eyes dodged away and back at her.
“What happened to you?” she asked. He slowly eased out of the bed and put his hand out to her.
“I understand,” he said, hoarse. She handed him Diana, and he took the blade gingerly, running long fingers over the metal.
“Are you okay?” she asked. He looked up at her, leaving his head down as he turned Diana over in his hands.
“What did you do?” he asked.
She hesitated, then did the only thing she knew how to do. She told the truth.
“I made a deal,” she said. He swallowed and straightened.
“For my life?”
“For your life.”
“And it’s done?”
“There are things you’ll need to know, but yes. It’s done.”
“She wasn’t going to trade me?”
“No. But she needed you to believe she would kill you. It was the only way to hold you for this long.”
He blinked, and scratched the back of his head.
“I can’t believe she actually did it. What is this place?”
“Where she keeps secrets,” Samantha said. “I’m sorry I took so long.”
He put his hand out, and she quashed the instinct to edge away. Sam was tense, waiting to make sure she was safe. She was confused, but she reassured him anyway. Carter didn’t seem to be in a murdering mood. He was… quiet. She’d never seen him quiet before. Moody, certainly. Silent, often. But never quiet.
“It’s what was supposed to happen,” he said. She blinked. Tried not to show too much surprise.
/>
“Abby is okay?” he asked. Stranger and stranger. She nodded.
“No one would touch her while you were still alive,” she said.
“I expect you took good care of her,” he said, squeezing her shoulder and dropping his hand. “Let’s go home now.”
Stunned beyond the ability to react, she simply followed him out of the chamber and followed Sam’s direction to where Nuri was sealing in Cassie.
“If you threaten me, Carter, I will strand all of you here,” she warned. Carter laughed.
“Why would I threaten you?”
Nuri looked at Samantha with wide eyes, and Samantha shrugged. She had no answer.
“We’re ready to go,” she said, instead.
“I’ll be well rid of him,” Nuri answered, leading the way back to the double gate, her dress swishing in tight lines behind her.
“She’s a beautiful woman,” Carter said. “A bad person, but a beautiful woman.”
“Are you feeling all right?” Jason asked. Samantha shook her head. Don’t ask.
They went back through the double gate and Nuri closed the wall entrance to the small room behind them. She turned to face Samantha.
“You’ve done well, Sam,” she said. “I believe we have fulfilled all of our terms.”
Samantha thought back with a cold chill to the day sitting in Nuri’s office, just over there, negotiating the terms of the deal. She nodded.
“Yes. As contracted.”
Jason frowned at Nuri.
“One thing. Why not sell him? Or torture her to get the secret?”
Nuri slinked down onto her couch, curling her arms in sharp shapes to support her head.
“I like my kingdom as it is. Unleash that much power, and things might change.” She looked at Carter with a small smile. “I don’t like change.”
Jason twisted his head to the side.
“Fair enough.”
<><><>
Abby was waiting for them at Carter’s apartment. She slapped Samantha.
“Now that that’s out of the way,” she said, “there’s a wedding to plan. We need to pick a date.”
“As soon as possible,” Samantha said. There was a spike of shock from Sam, and she went to stand against him, asking the unspoken question: is that what he wanted? Or did he need more time to think about it?
The tumble of emotions that came back were nothing but affirmative. Relief, joy, contentment, eagerness. Lust. Abby looked disappointed, and Samantha held up a finger.
“No pre-parties, no showers, no stalling. You get Carter’s list together; all of them will come at short notice. Call Kara. I guarantee she knows how to put together a party. Everyone Sam can think of. Put them all up downtown. Carter is paying. Get a place, get everyone there, it’s done. Next weekend. The one after that at the latest. Got it?”
Abby was ticking things off on her fingers silently. Samantha collapsed against Sam and he sighed, shifting her closer.
“And now I’m going home to sleep,” she said. “Jason, too.” She looked up at him. “I really don’t care. Do you?”
He kissed her forehead and shook his head.
“I’d elope if Doris wouldn’t kill us for it.”
She nodded.
“It’s settled. I sleep, you plan.” She closed her eyes and laughed. “I’ll marry you in the morning.”
There was a shuffle of motion that she was no longer paying attention to, and they ended up in the elevator.
“Are you sure?” Sam asked at one point. “Isn’t this kind of a big deal to just… do?”
“I did the big plan before,” she said. “Showers, invitations, picking dresses, song lists. Took us six months to plan a wedding and everyone said we were crazy to do it that fast.” There was the shock and discomfort she had expected. He’d forgotten. “I’m not doing it again,” she said, yawning. “I’m not waiting.”
<><><>
Her next thoughts were dreams.
<><><>
The girls wore lavender.
Apparently Kara wanted black dresses with combat boots, and Abby had been willing to go along, but Krista and Maryann intervened. Samantha was still trying to figure that one out.
Sam had found her white dress from her bags, and insisted she wear it. Simple white linen. It had been handmade to match the dress she wore in her lush green valley on the paradise plane. She had expected something much more dramatic, but she was pleased with his choice.
He wore matching white linen, styled in the same pattern.
It nearly made her cry.
There were flowers and music, things she was sure Abby had picked very carefully after deep consultation with… someone, but she didn’t notice any of them. She remembered that Carter looked genuinely happy when he took her hand to walk her down the aisle, and she remembered looking at her friends - Krista, Maryann, Kara, and Abby in that preposterous purple, and Jason, Carson, Tanner, and Kelly in their tailored suits - and feeling like something she could have never arranged had gone very right, anyway.
There were words.
Lots of words.
Nuri looked severe. Kjarr beamed. Doris bawled.
Looking over the crowd that came, the line between the Rangers and her own people was stark. Walking with Sam back down the aisle between the two groups held a poignant symbolism that her fuzzy, sleepy, and over-stimulated brain didn’t have time to appreciate.
And then it was over.
<><><>
Kara wasn’t much for ceremony. Trade shots, trade rings, call it a wedding. What she was good at was parties. The reception was rolling with loud music and liquor-fueled dancing, and Jason and Kara were in the center of it. She changed out of her bridesmaid dress into something that showed more leg and more chest, and he didn’t even consider sharing her with the rest of the crowd. She’d been angry at him that they’d missed Reno. And Little Rock. And Chicago. And the other seasonal events that had been fixed points in his life for so long.
But not that angry.
It promised to be a very, very good night.
And then he realized something was wrong.
It took him a few minutes to find Abby.
“Where are they?” he asked, head up, still searching the crowd. In white, they should have stuck out, but he couldn’t find them.
“They’re gone,” she shouted in his ear.
“They’re what?” he shouted back.
“Gone,” she said. “And Sam said you’ve got a job.”
“Which Sam?” he asked. She grinned.
“Sam says it’s your job as best man to make sure none of the Rangers go home with demons.”
He considered.
“Which Sam?” he asked again. She shook her head and winked, then wandered away. He looked at the throbbing crowd of dancers. Kara in the middle of it. Already dancing with someone else.
“Dammit.”
<><><>
Samantha lay with her head on Sam’s stomach on the bright green hillside, staring at the sky. They’d been basking like this for hours.
Nowhere to be, nothing to do. No responsibilities. The sense of weightlessness was intoxicating, and it didn’t hurt that Sam felt the same way.
Oh, how she’d missed him.
Neither of them had yet gotten over how glad they were she wasn’t wearing the hair pin any more.
They lay in the grass, fingers playing in a loose tangle.
She was happy.
Everything here was perfect. The sky, the grass, the smell of the air, the sound of the water.
The little old man on the hillside, just a few feet away.
Who was watching her.
She frowned and sat up.
“Well done,” he said. “He’s mine now.”
“Is that what happened?” she asked. He nodded.
“It is.”
She smiled, not really considering what it meant. She would do that later. She didn’t lay back down, though, because he was still watching her. Sam sat up and looked o
ver as they spoke. The old man’s cheeks wrinkled with a smile, and his eyes twinkled.
“Save Ashley.”
She waited. He spiked his eyebrows at her, then smiled again and looked up at the sky. The smile drained off her face and she tipped her head to the side.
“Aw, come on.” She waited. He didn’t move. Sam was confused. She wasn’t. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
END OF BOOK FIVE
Thank you for reading Dragonsword, book five of the Sam and Sam series by Chloe Garner. If you enjoyed this story please come on over to Amazon and tell us what you liked about it. Also be sure to check out the next book in the series, Child.
The instructions were very specific. They just weren't very helpful.
Save Ashley.
Samantha is now Samantha Elliott, and as she and Sam begin working out what their lives are going to look like, as a married couple, Jason is going to have to come to grips with what his life is going to look like, without Sam. So they go back to their roots, finding problems, killing monsters, ashing demons. It's what they do best, but Samantha has still got to figure out who Ashley is and how to save her.
Heavenly mandates are hardly ever unimportant.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chloe Garner is, a wanderer with a host of identities in her head fighting each other to get out. Chloe writes about the things that go bump in the night, the future, and all things fantastical. Find her on Twitter as BlenderFiction, on Goodreads and Facebook as Chloe Garner, or at blenderfiction.wordpress.com.
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