“And?”
“Well, that’s just it. We’re fighting because we don’t want to be controlled. To be told how grateful we should be for our powers, when Heaven completely disrupted our lives.” Penelope could feel heat rushing through her veins as her magic pulsed beneath her skin.
“That sounds about right for the angels.”
“They tricked us. Sent angels to mess with our lives leading up to the launch of the Apocalypse.” The heat within her built. “Expected us to bow down before their glory. I want them to pay,” she growled. Her anger surged then, and a pulse of power rocked out from her.
“Ahhh,” Sahkyo said, a smile blooming on her lips. “There it is. I don’t care about our half-Navajo blood or our complex relationship with Heaven. But rage… rage is something I can connect with.”
Penelope was silent for a few moments. “Does this mean you’ll help us?”
Sahkyo didn’t answer. She turned away from her and walked back to the cliff’s edge, staring out into the clouds. After nearly five minutes, she finally called to Penelope over her shoulder. “I’ll help you. I’ll heal your friend and I’ll teach you how to control your magic. If you do something for me.”
“What is it you had in mind?” Penelope asked, her heart thumping heavily again in her chest.
“I want you to find something for me.” Sahkyo spun and began to pace the top of the butte. “It is well hidden and well-guarded. Nigh impossible to obtain.”
“What is it?” Penelope asked.
Sahkyo’s eyes bored into her. “A key.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dynah
Something was terribly, horrifyingly wrong with Felicity. Had she succumbed to the consciousness of the Riders who came before them, as they had after their transformation? Or was it something entirely different? Dynah shivered and turned to look at Zachariah, who was still kneeling on the floor, a stunned look on his face.
Zachariah got to his feet a moment later. Dynah opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to form words for what had just happened. But before she could, Felicity swept back into the room. Her magic had faded, as had her anger. It was as if nothing had happened. “I’m starved,” she announced.
Dynah felt herself staring.
“Is something the matter?” Felicity asked. She looked in bafflement at them.
Dynah’s instincts told her to keep her cards close to her chest. “We thought you were going to change for dinner,” she said, forcing a casual air into her tone. “And then you came back so quickly. Did you forget something?”
Felicity blinked rapidly, then placed a hand to her forehead. “It’s these headaches,” she groaned, brow wrinkled. “I’m a bit of a mess. I’ll go change.”
Dynah nodded as her friend turned and strode from the room once again. She listened to her footsteps as they retreated down the hall, then up the stairs. When they reached the top, Dynah turned to Zachariah, who was back to fuming.
“Something is going on with Felicity,” she whispered.
“I would say it seems fitting behavior for a Rider. I’ve met your kind before.” He looked at her disdainfully. “I knew that little act I got at first wasn’t going to last.”
“Zachariah, I am serious,” Dynah growled. “We’ve gained control over the consciousness of the past Riders. They don’t control us. We’re different.”
“You’re fooling yourself if you believe that,” he snapped, and then he, too, stalked from the room.
Dynah stood there, alone, panic fluttering in her heart. Was he right? Was she making excuses for Felicity when it was just their nature as Riders?
She remembered those first couple of days after their transformation. The intoxicating swirl of knowledge and power within her. She’d felt as if she could crush the universe in the palm of her hand. She’d known things about time and space and the mysteries of life that made humanity seem an insignificant crumb in the grand scheme of things. Her human feelings had been shoved deep within her, a soothing numbness taking their place. Maybe Felicity’s actions only seemed outrageous to her now because she’d come back to herself. Maybe she was just a fool to think they could keep from slipping back into the thrall of the Riders within.
Dynah crossed her arms, cradling her elbows, and paced slowly around the room. She’d come to care for Felicity in the brief period they’d known each other. She’d never had friends who were girls, and now she did for the first time. Maybe it was their connection as Riders that had allowed them to grow so close so quickly. Which made what was happening all the more upsetting and… confusing.
It had honestly never occurred to her until they met the demons of Sassafras’s caravan that two women could be more than friends. Her world and her plans for the future had only ever held the idea of a husband. That’s what proper women did—they married men. And then even after that, she hadn’t really thought about it until the night before. When Felicity’s lips touched hers and everything she’d known went whooshing away. Every idea of love. Every notion of the future. She had felt herself respond… and that had surprised her more than anything. Which was absolutely dreadful timing since now Felicity seemed to be struggling with some other presence within her. Her Felicity was gone.
Dynah came to an abrupt halt in her pacing as horror washed through her. Maybe her Felicity didn’t feel that way about women. Maybe it had only been whatever strange madness kept overtaking her.
Dynah didn’t think she’d ever felt more alone and confused in her whole life.
“What are you thinking about?”
Dynah nearly jumped out of her skin. Felicity stood in the doorway to the sitting room. She hadn’t heard her come down the stairs.
“Oh, just ending the Apocalypse. Gaining control of our powers.” Dynah shrugged. She shoved down her emotions and painted a smile on her face to hide what she felt. “Ready for dinner?”
“Yes,” Felicity said. “I could eat a horse.” She smiled and there was something off about it.
Dynah suppressed a shiver. “Well, let’s find Zachariah and be on our way, then.”
They found the Fallen lurking on the doorstep of the townhouse. He didn’t make eye contact with either of them as they walked to the nearest tavern, the same one they’d visited the night before. Dinner passed uneventfully. Felicity seemed mostly normal, though here and there she’d say something that seemed strange for her, or she’d stare at someone just a bit too intently.
After dinner, as they walked back toward the townhouse, Felicity said, abruptly, “I don’t want to waste any more time. We should begin our search for supplies for the spell. I’m sure there’s a time loop that has what we’re looking for.”
Zachariah nodded, though his lips were pressed into a thin line. “We can do that if you wish, though you could probably find supplies just as easily back in your own world.”
“On the contrary,” Felicity said, her tone tightening, “In the outside world we’ll be hunted by Heaven, and won’t have the ability to transport directly to a specific location, which wastes time we don’t have. This is the fastest way.”
Dynah wanted to get back to Penelope and Willow as soon as possible, but she could tell that Felicity had already made up her mind. She didn’t want to risk angering her again. It couldn’t take that long to gather supplies. She just needed to hang on a little bit longer, and then she’d have the other two to help her sort this out.
When they reached the townhouse, each of them placed a hand on the angel statue that stood to the right of the steps. A moment later they were standing in the temple of the Fallen. Felicity immediately began to stride up and down the rows of books, her eyes sweeping back and forth as she passed. Dynah took a different row and did the same. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for—how was she going to know a good place and time in history to purchase the crystals and herbs they needed?
Shanghai 1548
Moscow 1601
Rio de Janeiro 1740
I mea
n, these things could potentially be in any of those places. Or none of them. And how long would it take them to search?
“Aha!” Felicity called.
She had stopped by a book about thirty paces away. Dynah strode over, as did Zachariah, though he seemed to be purposefully dragging his feet. When they arrived, she stabbed her finger toward the book.
“Zachariah, did you not know this was here?”
Dynah looked down. The title of the book was Alexandria Egypt 980 B.C.
“That is a difficult time loop to travel in,” Zachariah said. “For two women, specifically. Especially you, Dynah. With your pale skin you’ll stand out like a flaming pyre. Remember, the people in these time loops are real people, with the beliefs and attitudes of their time. They can be dangerous, just like the real world.”
“True as that may be, this is exactly what we’re looking for. We’ll be able to find all of our supplies.” Felicity frowned, and Dynah felt a ripple of her power. “You had to know that.”
“Beziel charged me with keeping the two of you safe,” Zachariah said. “And I do not advise it.”
Felicity’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “Is that it, or were you just hoping we’d give up and leave, so you’d be free of the duty you find so onerous?” Another pulse of power.
“Let’s just go, Felicity,” Dynah said, resting her hand gently on her friend’s arm.
Felicity’s smoldering gaze whipped around, and Dynah flinched.
“The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be out of your hair,” Dynah said to Zachariah. “Glamour us. Give me something hooded, perhaps, so I don’t stand out.”
Zachariah’s jaw rolled and his eyes were stormy, but he waved a hand in the air. Dynah felt his magic wash over them. She looked down at herself, and she now wore a rustic dress and a brown hooded cloak. The cloak was voluminous, so she could pull the hood around her face. If she kept her head down, no one would notice her skin.
Then she looked over at Felicity, whose glamour looked quite different.
“I don’t need your magic, Fallen,” she said, eyes glowing.
Felicity wore a brilliant red dress, the neckline bejeweled with onyx and malachite and lapis. Her hair was swept up beneath a bronze crown. Her eyes were lined with kohl, and her lips touched with rouge. Bracelets jangled around her wrists. She looked like a priestess, or a goddess. She looked…familiar.
And Dynah knew then, abruptly, what was so terribly wrong with Felicity. It wasn’t that she was fighting with her inner Rider. It was another entity entirely who lived inside her. A being who had sworn revenge on them.
Sekhmet.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Willow
Willow awoke with a start.
A slice of sunlight pierced her eyes, and something dark hovered over her. She rolled to the side and struck out with a fist and the toe of one boot.
“Oww!!” someone yelled.
The stars cleared from her eyes and she saw Penelope hovering over her, rubbing her chin.
“You kicked me!” she groaned.
“Where are we? Where are the monsters?” Willow asked. She could feel her eyes stretched wide, and the too-fast staccato of her heart.
“The monsters are gone. We’re somewhere safe.” Penelope groaned again and sat down on the ground next to Willow. “I’ll tell you what happened if you’ll settle down and quit attacking me.”
“I already quit attacking you,” Willow quipped.
Penelope shot her a dark look.
“Go on. Please,” she added.
Penelope sighed. “After we were attacked by the monster, I wandered for almost two days. The magic inside Sahkyo’s realm kept turning me around. I couldn’t find my way out.”
Willow remembered then, flashes of landscape. Strange dreams. She shuddered.
“Then more monsters found us. I was surrounded. I screamed to Sahkyo, and she actually answered. Transported us to her lookout in the sky.”
“Lookout in the sky?” Willow echoed.
Penelope waved a hand. “It’s hard to describe. I don’t think it was technically in this world, but it looked down on it. She likes to watch things unfold.”
“Sounds…unsettling.”
Penelope nodded. “Yeah. Anyway, we debated for a while about whether or not she would help us. She—”
“Did she really start the last Apocalypse?”
“Shh. Let me finish.” Penelope glared. “But yes, she did. Anyway, she decided to help us. I think we’re her entertainment.”
Willow made a face.
“I know.” Penelope drew in a breath, let it out slowly. “She agreed to save you and teach us how to use our magic. If we find something for her.”
“What?”
“A key.”
“A key?” Willow frowned. “Why does she need us to find a key? A key to what?”
“She didn’t elaborate on that.”
“Did you ask?”
“No, Willow,” Penelope said tersely. “I didn’t ask. You were a hair from death. I would have agreed to do just about anything she requested.”
Willow’s jaw clenched. “And she knew it. She did this on purpose. Sent her monsters after us.”
Penelope shrugged. “Maybe. Does it matter? We knew she wasn’t the most benevolent of beings. The point is we need her. To save the world. To have even a chance of a future, slim as that chance is.”
Now it was Willow’s turn to take a big breath. “Okay. So where is this key?”
“In the Forest of Time.”
Willow blinked. “What in the hell is the Forest of Time?”
“I don’t know, I guess we’ll see when we get there. Oh, and one other thing: the land around the forest blocks all magic. There’s like a perimeter or something. Similar to what she has around her realm to keep out Heaven.”
“What does that mean exactly? How will we pass into it?”
“Sahkyo says we can pass into it, but we’ll be stripped of our powers. Just ordinary humans again.”
Willow felt a strange sense of loss at the thought. She’d only been a Rider for a short period of time. Never even knew that magic existed a little over a month ago. But now, the idea of not having it felt just as strange as not having a heart, or lungs, or blood in her veins.
“So, we find this forest, and we find the key, return it to her, and she’ll tutor us?”
“Yes,” Penelope said. “She gave her word.”
“Can she be trusted?”
“Do we have another option?”
Willow looked down at her boots. “Guess not. So—when do we start?”
Penelope got to her feet and waved a hand at their surroundings. “We’re just outside the barrier now. Sahkyo transported us here.”
Willow climbed clumsily to her feet. Penelope reached out to steady her as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She felt like she’d been trampled by a herd of buffalo. It passed after a few moments and she gazed ahead. They stood in rolling green foothills which undulated as far as the eye could see. The air was cool and dry. Clouds rolled far in the distance, but the sky overhead was clear. She couldn’t see a forest anywhere.
“Where are we?”
“Montana, I think.”
Willow snorted. “Well, let’s find us a forest.”
Penelope whistled to Domino who stood grazing a few yards away. The gelding lifted his head and began to trot in their direction. Bullet followed. Willow felt a swell of joy in her heart.
“I bet they were starving,” she said as the two horses trotted up. Bullet shoved her nose into Willow’s chest as if to make sure she was really alive. “And come to think of it—” Her stomach growled loudly.
“Yeah.” Penelope frowned. “We’ve eaten next to nothing the last two days. That key is going to have to wait until we find some sustenance. There should be some rabbits or something around here.” She patted the bow at her side.
“Heck, I’d even eat some snake right about now,” Willow said. “Anything t
hat moves is going into my stomach.”
A grasshopper leapt up out of the grass at that very moment and Penelope shot her a look.
“Okay. I’m not quite that hungry yet.”
They took a few minutes to saddle the horses, then mounted up and rode north. Within a few hundred yards, they hit the barrier. It felt like stepping through an ice-cold blizzard naked, a moment of burning agony which left her shaking all over. Bullet flinched beneath her, and Willow’s heart tumbled. Her horse hadn’t signed up for this. For these powers. Not that any of them had.
And then they were through the invisible wall. Everything looked the same as it had on the other side, but Willow felt… raw. She felt as if her skin had been scrubbed with a bristled brush. A hollowness rang within her, like she was empty. She wanted nothing more than to turn heel and pass back through to the safety on the other side. The urge was overwhelming, and a glance over at Penelope told her that her friend fought the same battle.
“It’s the world,” Penelope said through gritted teeth. “We have to find the key. There is no turning back without sacrificing humanity.”
In that moment, Willow didn’t give a flying flip about humanity. But she knew that if they didn’t learn to control their magic, to become more powerful than they now were, they’d never have a chance of beating Heaven. And if this was how it felt to be stripped of her powers, well… it was quite motivating.
So, she pressed her legs to Bullet’s sides and they loped forward across the plains. At the crest of each hill, Willow’s heart flipped, her eyes straining to spot the forest on the other side. And she finally did see a dark blot on the horizon. But it wasn’t the forest. It was a town.
“Thank god,” Penelope mumbled. “I feel like I’m going to faint from hunger. Now we don’t have to hunt.”
They rode for the town at high speed, putting the last bit of their energy into the ride. Despite the discomfort she still felt—the rawness had subsided a bit, but was still an ever-present buzz along her skin—there was always something refreshing about a gallop. Bullet and Domino couldn’t fly in this place, and they couldn’t move at supernatural speeds across the earth. But they were still pretty damn fast. The wind still coursed down her lungs, tore tears from her eyes, made her heart beat faster.
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