by Cate Tiernan
“Daniel. What the hell are you doing?” I wasn’t angry yet, though well on the way. Mostly I was just confused. Was this some kind of test?
“Nastasya, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. But River has told me that it would be so much easier for everyone if you left.”
Hello, anger. It’s not true it’s not true it’s not true—
“Really?” I said calmly. “Because she’s told me that if I leave, she’ll hunt me down like a dog in the street, then duct-tape me to my bed to keep me here. Force-feeding me tea and lessons and food with fiber.”
Quickly his eyes widened, then he frowned. “No. She didn’t say that.”
My mind was clear as a freaking crystal ball right now. “Yes, Daniel. She did say that.”
He tried again. “She doesn’t always say what she means.”
I was breathing through my nose, trying to keep a rein on my emotions. But right now I could have cheerfully stood over him and dropped an anvil on his head.
“Actually, Daniel, I’ve found she says exactly what she means. Even when it’s not what you want to hear.” I thought about the times she had called me on things, just nailed me. “At all.”
Now he looked irritated. “Listen—” he said, and then brought up his hand so fast, I didn’t have time to react. He snapped his fingers open at me and an invisible cannonball slammed into my chest, knocking me to my knees. In an instant I was reminded of Incy and the London cabbie, how he’d flattened the guy just with gestures in the air.
As Daniel did to me, now, tilting his fist sideways to smack me to the floor.
Oh my God, not again, I thought, my head ringing. Then I let my anger rip. Lying sideways on the floor, I pictured my palm filling with that so-awesome witchfire, and I made a hurling motion with one hand.
To our mutual shock, it worked, and a spinning, crackling ball of witchfire as big as an orange streaked through the air and hit him in the throat. He staggered backward, gagging, and then a dark figure ran up silently behind him… and brought a shovel down hard on his head.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed. I was instantly free.
“What a prick,” Brynne said, breathing hard, looking down at him. “Hey, how’d you do the fire thing? That was awesome.”
“Ottavio taught me. Oh my God—Daniel is the traitor!” I said. “We have to get to the house and tell River!”
Brynne nodded quickly, and I reached down to grab my basket, scooping the spilled bottles back into it.
“How can we make sure he stays out?” I asked, then was stopped by an awful thought. “Brynne—why were you out here alone?” I straightened slowly and looked at her. Please, not Brynne, anyone but Brynne.
“I’m not alone. I came to help him get axes and stuff. Shovels.” She inclined her head, pointing to the back of the barn.
Looking past her, I saw… Joshua, striding toward us. “Found some rope,” he said tersely, and knelt to tie Daniel’s hands together and then his feet with practiced, efficient movements, as if Daniel were a wayward sheep.
And I guess he was.
Daniel’s eyes popped open. “Dominicus—you must help m—” Joshua stuffed a handkerchief in Daniel’s mouth and jerked him to his feet by the rope.
“Okay, grab what you can,” Joshua ordered us. “Look sharp as we cross the yard. Don’t run. Head straight for the kitchen door.” Keeping hold of an increasingly furious Daniel, he pulled out his sword, a long, two-handed affair, heavy and ornate. Brynne and I grabbed the axes and two shovels and followed him out into the dark.
I was never so relieved to get into the kitchen. We burst through the door, surprising Anne and River, who leaped up, on guard.
“Here’s your stuff,” I said, dropping the basket on the kitchen worktable. “And here’s your worthless, pox-ridden, asshole brother.”
River’s mouth dropped open as Joshua half dragged Daniel into the kitchen, roped and gagged.
“What in the world?” Anne exclaimed.
“He’s our traitor,” Joshua said simply, and at that moment I realized what an incredible blessing it had been that I’d had witnesses in the barn. I had backup. I was so grateful, I almost wept.
“What?” River cried as Daniel angrily shook his head, mumbling around the handkerchief.
“He told Nastasya a bunch of crap,” Brynne said, looking at him with loathing. “How you didn’t trust her, wanted her gone.”
Anne’s intake of breath was audible.
River was silent, looking from one brother to another. After a minute, she nodded slowly. “Oh, Daniel,” she said. “Who are you working with? Why would you do this?”
Wild-eyed, Daniel shook his head violently.
“His head is bleeding,” Anne said.
“I hit him with a shovel,” said Brynne. “He’d knocked Nastasya down and was going for her. So I whacked him.”
Daniel stilled, the idea sinking in that they had really seen and heard what he’d done to me. His eyes narrowed, and he gave a massive burst of strength against his ropes.
Joshua jerked the rope, keeping Daniel off-balance.
“Daniel!” River said more strongly. “How could you do this? Who put you up to this?” Her face was stern, her voice angry. Underneath everything, I felt her deep sadness and disappointment that betrayal would come from one of her own brothers.
Defiant brown eyes glared at her. Joshua reached over and yanked the handkerchief out of Daniel’s mouth.
“Talk, brother.” Joshua’s voice was as quiet and sharp as a blade scraping ice. If it were aimed at me, I’d be about to faint with fear. Daniel said nothing, and Joshua yanked harder on the rope. I saw the livid welts on Daniel’s wrists where the rope was already rasping his skin.
“You never should have aligned yourself with her,” Daniel said, motioning at me.
“Why is that, Ugolinus?” River’s voice was calm, but a calm that hid a roiling, growing anger underneath it. Daniel had called Joshua Dominicus; River called Daniel Ugolinus. I was assuming these were their original names and so had extra weight, the way Lilja had extra weight for me, snapping me back to my childhood.
“Sometimes people inherit who shouldn’t.” His cold gaze seemed to harden River’s face.
“Really?” Her mild tone was deceptive. “Like who?”
“If your choice is between a worthless piece of trash or someone of great learning and power—” Daniel began, then grunted, wincing in pain as Joshua twisted the rope so that it tightened more around Daniel’s wrists. The top layer of skin peeled away beneath the rough, dirt-stiffened rope.
My face burned—we knew who the worthless piece of trash was in this scenario.
I’d seen River irritated, angry, and disappointed, but I’d never seen her look like this, and I was glad of it. The warm, forgiving, generous person I knew, the beacon of salvation in my life, was becoming a marble statue before my eyes. She was becoming Diavola, as I had seen her in a vision when she was barely three hundred years old. The Diavola who had killed her own parents, who had plotted to kill her brothers for their power. It had been more than a thousand years since Daniel had seen Diavola, and it was dawning on him, making him blink and look a bit less certain.
Slowly River leaned closer to Daniel, and if this were some teen vampire book, it would be right now that she would lunge and rip his throat out. There was no point in hoping that could still happen, I reflected.
“What person of great learning and power are we talking about, Ugolinus?” Her voice was a whisper, a caress. The faintest breeze a serpent created right before its strike.
Daniel pressed his lips together.
Joshua put his hand on Daniel’s neck and tightened his fingers, pinching a nerve that made sweat break out on Daniel’s face, made him draw in a shaky breath.
“Answer her, brother.”
I prayed I never heard that voice directed at me. Brynne’s hand touched mine, and I gripped it anxiously.
Daniel said nothing.
; “I’ll take care of him,” said Joshua, and yanked the rope, leading Daniel out of the kitchen.
“You’ll regret this!” Daniel started, then gagged as Joshua stuffed the handkerchief into his mouth again. Joshua pulled his brother through the swinging door, and the rest of us stood there, shaken.
Letting out a deep breath, River seemed more herself, though she looked drained as she turned to me. “Tell me what Daniel said and did.”
I told her, and she looked more and more upset as I went on.
Clear brown eyes looked into mine. “Did you believe him?”
Of course I wanted to show how steadfast and faithful I was, unshakeable, etc. Then I remembered that River knew me.
“At first,” I admitted. “Just for a minute. Then I thought maybe this was some test or something. Then I thought he was being sketchy.”
“So you didn’t believe what he said?” She seemed very intent on my answer.
“I… you know, wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t trust me.” My voice was barely a whisper, and she inclined her head to hear me. “Wouldn’t be surprised if you’d given up on me.” I raised my eyes to hers. “But—I think you would have told me, if you did. You’ve never told me that. Yet. And I believe you more than I believed him.”
With a small, sad smile, River put one hand on my cheek. “Thank you for trusting me,” she said softly. “Daniel was lying. Thank you for believing in me.”
She was thanking me for believing in her? Trusting her?
The kitchen door suddenly crashed open, and we all jumped. Reyn stood there, his face hard. “Something’s coming,” he said tersely.
CHAPTER 30
For a moment we all stood there, looking at one another as if someone knew what the hell was going on.
“What’s coming?” River asked.
“Don’t know,” said Reyn. “Get out of the kitchen.”
In an instant River had shot the bolts home on the kitchen door and we all hurried into the dining room. Reyn started to shift the enormous sideboard to block the swinging door. Ottavio came in to help him, and the rest of us put our backs against it.
Footsteps pounded down the stairs; Amy and Asher rushed to meet us in the dining room.
“The woods!” Amy said. “There’s people—dark shapes—moving toward us!”
“How many?” Reyn snapped. “From what direction?”
“At least forty,” Asher said. “Maybe more. Coming from all directions.”
My mouth dropped open. Forty! Oh my God! We were thinking maybe one or two, maybe a dedicated group of five! Forty? Forty evil immortals coming for us? Erik the Bloodletter and his team of eleven had taken my father’s entire castle! And we’d had guards!
“Oh, holy mother,” River breathed, her hand to her mouth.
Then it began.
The first stunning crash made me snatch up my sword, my heart pounding. We’d closed all the wooden shutters on the windows, but what we really needed was a house encased in solid steel. That had been spelled to repel magick.
“River! Quickly!” said Anne, upending a box of salt, drawing a circle on the floor of the entrance hall. River and Ottavio stepped into it, and Anne trailed a line of salt to close it. Holding hands, the four of them began raising their power, building on the layers of spells they’d been crafting for days.
Something burst against another window’s shutters; the sounds of breaking glass and an explosion barely preceded the fireball that lit the parlor as if it were daytime.
“Get into position, everyone,” Reyn commanded. Very briefly we met eyes; I was surprised by the level of pain in his. Was he surprised by the fear in mine? Probably not.
“There are more on this side of the house than the other,” Daisuke reported as he strode in from the dining room. “I added a spell to the sideboard in front of the kitchen door.”
As soon as it had flared, the fire outside winked out. River’s eyes were closed with concentration, but her shoulders were relaxed: With supreme focus, she’d managed to shut out everything but her spell.
An unearthly wailing and ululating from outside hit me like a fork scraping across ice. Almost immediately my head seemed foggy, and I absently looked down at my sword, wondering what I was doing.
“Block it!” Joshua shouted, appearing from River’s office. “They’re sending out spells! Block them! Close your minds!”
His words woke me, blowing away the clouds, and I shut my mind to outside forces, as Anne had taught me so many times.
I heard footsteps on the front steps and felt almost immobile with fear. I just couldn’t face them—I wished someone could get to them from behind, just mow them down from in—
“Reyn!”
“What?” He was poised for battle, not taking his eyes off the door they would surely break through at any second.
“We should go through the tunnels!” I said. “River! River!”
Slowly River opened her eyes—she had heard me.
“Work your magick from the tunnels,” I said urgently. “We’ll go down and come out in back of them, in the woods! When they break in, the house will be empty!”
“Yes, of course!” said Roberto.
“Come on!” I said, motioning Reyn toward River’s office.
He stared at me. “What tunnels?”
“They’ll torch the house,” said Asher, hooking a long, snub-nosed arrow into position on his crossbow. He cranked it a few times, tightening the cable.
“An arrow? Won’t that just piss them off?” I asked.
“It’s going to be on fire,” Asher said simply. “It will surprise them. You guys all head out through the tunnels. Circle back and come at them from behind. Jess, Solis, and I will stay here, working on distraction and disruption.”
“It doesn’t matter if they torch the house,” River said as Anne dismantled the circle as fast as possible. “The only thing that matters is that we win.”
“I’ll open them up,” said Joshua, pushing past me.
“Tunnels?” Brynne asked as we hurried into River’s office. “We have tunnels?”
Reyn was nonplussed when Joshua opened the side of River’s desk, looking from Joshua, to me, to the desk. Joshua ducked through first, keeping his weapons close to his sides, then I crawled through and stood up on the steps, an old pro at this hidden-tunnel thing. Daisuke, Amy, Brynne, Roberto, and Reyn all followed. I was at the bottom when I heard Solis say, “Go! Go! I’ll spell it closed after you!”
I didn’t see Daniel (if he was down there) as we ran through the dimly lit tunnels. I thought about how angry and disgusted Joshua and River had been and shuddered at what Joshua may have done to him.
“You knew about these tunnels,” Reyn said, not even breathing hard as I panted beside him, feeling like my lungs were on fire.
“Uh-huh,” I got out.
“Where do they come out?”
“Five places,” I said, recalling the mental images River had ingrained in me. “Two hundred yards behind the big barn. A hundred and fifty yards to the east of the chicken coop. A hundred and seventy yards to the southeast of the parking area. In the horse barn, beneath Titus’s stall. Beneath one of the cold frames in the kitchen garden. And there are dead ends, too.”
Just then Joshua stopped at one of the main intersections. “Reyn—take Brynne,” he said, and Reyn nodded. “Nastasya, you go with Daisuke, and you, Bertino. Amy will come with me. All right?” Three teams, each led by a seasoned warrior, each with a mewling liability in tow. Actually I guess I was the only one mewling. Silently. In my head.
I wanted to go with Reyn, but when he grimly nodded, I understood: He didn’t want to be distracted by me, worrying about me. If he had to, he could sacrifice Brynne. As Joshua could sacrifice Amy, and Daisuke could sacrifice me. War just simples things right up.
Joshua knelt and drew a small square in the dirt, then some other squares around it. “This is the house,” he said, pointing, “and the outbuildings. Here’s where the tunnels
come out. Reyn, you come out here, in back of the barn. Daisuke, you go east and come up in the woods beyond the chicken coop. You’ll probably be able to see the enemy right away. I’ll take Amy and come out behind the car park.” He looked up, his face hardened and sure. Reyn and Daisuke both nodded briefly.
“And we’ll all move toward the house,” said Daisuke tensely. I’d seen him glancing at his sword in dislike, even revulsion. But like me he was committed to defending River’s Edge, a place where so many had turned their lives around, and River, the person who had saved us. “Cut them down, one by one. Our best bet would be to pick off the periphery, then rush in and clean up the rest.”
“Like, actually kill them?” Amy sounded doubtful.
Daisuke gave her a pained smile. “I’m afraid so. This is a war—they’re not here because they want our gold. They mean to kill us, every last one of us. And they will, absolutely, unless we kill them first.”
“Easier in the old days, eh?” said Joshua without humor.
“Yes,” said Reyn.
I really, really didn’t want to leave Reyn. As Daisuke, Roberto, and I turned to go, Reyn grabbed my arm, spinning me to face him. There, in front of everyone, in the middle of a battle, he bent and kissed me hard.
Holding the back of my head with his sword-free hand, he hissed into my ear: “Do not die. You hear me?”
I nodded and whispered back: “Before I even get in your pants? I don’t think so.”
“You ready to fight, or you need to canoodle your lady some more?” Joshua’s snarl made Reyn jerk back, his eyes narrowed.
“Ready,” he said coldly. “And I’ll see you on the other side, if you manage not to get your pansy-ass killed.”
I saw Joshua grin before he and Amy ran off into the darkness.
Then Daisuke tugged on my hand, and I ran after him, putting all thoughts out of my mind except: Fight. Victory. Survive.
The three of us reached the end of the tunnel too quickly. I would have been happy to run for another hour or so, if it meant I could avoid what was waiting for us aboveground. But Daisuke slowed and then stopped, his hand out to us, motioning us to wait.