by May Dawson
“Jacob,” she said, frowning. “What are you doing here?”
I guessed we weren’t even pretending anymore that I might visit. We used to at least pretend to be a functional family.
“I’m here to see Rosemary,” I said, flashing her a smile, no matter how hard it was. “I was worried about her.”
“She’s fine. You hurt your father the last time you were here, Jacob. You have to go.”
She started to close the door, but Penn was faster; he slammed his shoulder into the door, knocking my mother back across the room so that she fell on her ass in the living room. I couldn’t have done that, but I definitely didn’t mind that Penn did.
“He hurt me last time I was here,” I reminded her. “And a whole lot of times before that.”
“Because look at you,” she said, glaring up at me from the floor. “What happened to the sweet boy that I raised?”
“You happened,” I said. I moved into the back of the house, checking the bedrooms for Rosemary, while Penn kept an eye on the door. As I searched, I called back, “You and dad. You didn’t take care of us like parents are supposed to.”
I headed back toward the living room, passing the doorway when my dad had notched our heights into the wall, the same one I’d dug my fingers into when the alpha’s men dragged me out of the house. There were still gouge marks in the drywall that had never been repaired.
I shook my head at Penn. No Rosemary.
“Where is she?” I asked my mom. “The alpha’s house?”
“They’re getting married,” she said.
“Yeah, I’m sure they’re fated mates,” I said. “Answer the fucking question, Mom. Where are they?”
My mom didn’t seem that bothered when I implied that she never loved us, but she sure got a look on her face when I swore. “I’m not helping you.”
“Fine,” I said. I headed for the door, but I couldn’t quite do it. I turned back. “Mom. Come on. Come with us. Rosemary and I may be grown, but we still need our mom.”
The confession made me ache; I felt like I’d just showed her—and Penn—something so personal, I was almost rude to share it. Penn, though, stared at me with compassion behind those steely eyes.
I didn’t even know what I’d do with her, but I had to try. I didn’t want to leave her here with the pack when everything was going to shit.
For a second, she stared at me, her chin lifting, and I dared to hope.
“I’m staying with your father,” she said. “You might have betrayed him, Jacob, but I will always—”
I didn’t even hear what she said next. It all faded behind me as I walked out of the house and left her behind.
I had to find my sister.
Chapter Eleven
Maddie
The four of us swayed through the quiet train car, passing the other first class compartments. The lights were dimmed for evening, and everything seemed peaceful.
When we stepped onto the platform between cars, the wind rushed past us noisily and yanked at my clothes.
“We need to reach the back of the train,” Silas explained as he led us into the next car.
We walked through a few second class cars with sleeping bunks above the seats, then the dining car, the counter shuttered for the night. Then we passed through several second class cars packed with people trying to sleep on the narrow seats, and the sound of snores and deep breathing and whispers floated up past us as we traveled through.
It was strange to go from the hush of those cars to the roar of the wind on the platforms between, and back again. The force of the wind seemed intent on yanking us off the platform.
“We’re almost to the engineer’s car,” Silas said when we emerged onto the platform. “And they don’t usually invite people in. Choices: we can fight our way through or we can go up.”
He raised his finger, indicating the ladder along the back of the train.
“We’re trying not to cause a ruckus,” Rafe said. “We’ll go up.”
“I have a feeling ruckus is inevitable when you travel with Silas Zip,” Jensen said, but with more amusement than rancor. He reached out for the ladder and began to climb.
“You next,” Rafe ordered, resting his hand on my shoulder as his gaze scanned behind us all.
I sighed under my breath. He was being so protective, trying to keep me in the middle of the guys no matter where we were. I didn’t know how we were going to work together long-term if he didn’t get over that. Rafe should know by now I wasn’t fragile.
But now wasn’t the time for that conversation. I gripped the cold metal rungs and started to climb.
On the top of the roof, Jensen was waiting for me, on his knees. He grabbed my arm as I climbed onto the car. The wind up here was even more intense, like a gale trying to push us off the roof. Silas and Rafe followed us up, and even Silas seemed to wince, pulling his neck gaiter up over his mouth to cut some of the wind.
The car was wide and flat at the center, rounded at the sides, so there was plenty of room to walk. When I stood, though, the car seemed to be moving insanely fast, the trees rushing past us at dizzying speed. My stomach dropped as if I were already falling, but I kept walking forward.
We reached the end of the train and climbed down onto the rear platform. It was a little bit bigger than the platform between all the cars, and I breathed a sigh of relief to be back on solider ground.
“Stop right there!” A man shouted behind us.
I looked back to see a man shoving through the door from the engineer’s office, wearing a light gray uniform. He gripped a wand in one hand, and magic crackled around its tip.
“Stop! You’re trespassing.” The man shouted.
“I don’t have time for that,” Silas said pleasantly. He raised his magic toward the man, but magic from the man’s wand blasted toward him.
I was closest to the security guard, so I dove at him, slamming into him. His magic spiraled into the air harmlessly.
The two of us flew into the back of the train, and he grunted at the impact. He punched me across the face and the world washed red as pain exploded across my jaw. I dropped low, leveraging my weight to tip him over the railing.
The wind almost seemed to pull him away, but it tried to take me away too, tugging at me urgently.
Jensen grabbed the back of my sweater as the man fell to the snow below, landing with a plume of white. He reeled me against his body.
“God, I love you,” he murmured into my ear, his arm around my waist.
I was smiling as I turned to the guys.
Rafe did not return my smile. He said drily, “I have a completely different reaction.”
“You would,” Jensen said.
Silas was already moving his hand in a wide circle, forming a bubble of golden magic. “He’ll be fine,” he said. “That fall looked survivable. He’ll just need to use a spell to keep himself warm on a rather long hike. Let’s hope he’s not going our way.”
He flashed me a dizzyingly bright smile. Great. That sounded promising.
“Try to land as close together as possible,” he said as he formed the last of four bubbles, which shimmered at the edge of the platform. “The shields will slow your descent into the snow and protect your pretty selves from too many bruises. But we don’t want to lose each other—”
“Stop!” Another man yelled. This one was at the top of the train car, looking down at us.
Silas sighed. “This is getting so tiresome.”
“How does this work?” Rafe demanded, heading for the bubble.
“Like this,” Silas said blithely, pushing him into the bubble, which seemed to shimmer around him.
Rafe frowned, but Silas pushed him a bit further, right off the platform.
The Rafe-bubble fell toward the tracks, then began to roll down the long, snowy hill. Even though Rafe was a blur, I still got an impression of deeply annoyed.
“Let’s go!” Silas called.
Jensen and I were already rushing toward our
bubbles. As soon as I felt the warm prickle of magic around my skin, I jumped. Jensen seemed to jump almost in time with me, the two of us racing to catch up to Rafe so he wouldn’t be alone.
It was only because my bubble twisted that I saw Silas hesitate there on the edge of the platform. It seemed almost as if he was staring up at the man who had chased us, as if he knew him.
For a second, I thought Silas wasn’t going to jump at all.
Then he leapt off the train too.
The golden bubble was rolling fast around me. I saw rocks and tree limbs rush by along with the brilliant white snow, but none of them impacted me. I slid down a long hill, the bubble shimmering more and more until it burst. My momentum carried me just a few more feet, and then I rolled to a stop, face-down in the soft wet snow.
I climbed to my feet in the darkness. I was surrounded by enormously tall old trees that stretched into the sky, the trunks so wide they might be a thousand years old.
“Jensen?” I called softly. “Silas? Rafe?”
The deep silence of the night seemed to press back at me. Cold settled through my skin, sinking into my bones.
I pulled my pack off to retrieve the little pouch that held my packable winter coat and my gloves. Silas had warned us that parts of the Greyworld were very cold, even in spring, and we’d packed for all kinds of weather. My hands were already shaking from the cold—or maybe the adrenaline of the jump—as I pulled on the gloves.
“Maddie?” It was Jensen’s low, rough voice calling me through the trees, and a second later, I heard the muffled sound of his steps.
“Right here,” I said, catching a glimpse of those golden-yellow eyes shining out of the darkness before he stepped out. He covered the distance between us in a few strides, then wrapped his arm around me in the briefest of hugs, as if he had to touch me to know that I was really all right.
“Which way?” he asked, glancing back and forth; Rafe should be behind us, since he had jumped first, and Silas should be further along toward the tracks.
“Rafe first,” I said. “He’s the one who’d need us.”
Not that he’d appreciate the sentiment. But this was Silas’s world, and as much as he got himself into trouble here, he seemed to know how to get himself out too.
Jensen nodded. He pulled on his own gloves as we walked, then the two of us gripped each other’s hands.
I didn’t want to lose one of them in this strange world.
Chapter Twelve
Tyson
Raura, Arlen and I moved swiftly through the woods, moving in tandem to track down the monster.
The monster, helpfully, was stalking us as well.
The Ravager suddenly darted out of the forest, all claws and teeth; it was closest to Raura and it struck at her. She jumped unnaturally high, with the ease of a winged Fae, and its jaws closed harmlessly in the air where she’d just been.
As Raura caught a branch of the tree above, the Ravager twisted, looking for its prey. Its narrow, reptilian eyes searched around, then fell on Arlen and me as we moved toward it. It seemed to smile with that mouthful of broken, jagged teeth.
“Raura, no,” Arlen started to call, but she was already dropping; she landed on the Ravager’s back. Her blade gleamed in her hand as she wrapped one arm around the monster’s neck, and then she drove the blade into its eye.
The Ravager let out a scream as it jerked around, bucking her off; she sailed through the air, her wings snapping out from her back too late with the sound of fabric tearing. Her wings were wide open as she slammed into a tree nearby.
Arlen and I made short work of the Ravager now that it was blinded, and a few seconds later, our swords were coated in slick greenish-blue blood and the Ravager lay at our feet.
“How many times have I asked you not to play piggyback with the Ravagers?” Arlen growled as he turned to face her.
She was still lying face down, her wings askew and trapped against tree branches. I ran to help her, but as I did, she turned over with a groan and sat up. Her wings twitched as she seemed to shake them out.
“How many times have I ever listened to you?” she asked lightly.
Arlen ran his hand through his hair in exasperation and then turned and strode off through the woods.
“You shouldn’t go alone!” she called after him. “You might get eaten!”
“I’d be better off,” he grumbled, then he was gone, swallowed up by the mist.
I offered her my hand, and she grabbed it so I could tow her to her feet. “What happened between the two of you?”
“Arlen and I are always fighting.” She began to dust herself off, then frowned at the heels of her hands, which were scraped and bloodied. She held her hands out to me with a smile. “You need practice.”
I scoffed at that but raised my hands above hers, letting my healing golden magic seep through her skin. The oozing wounds closed, angry and red, then faded to pink.
“You are so useful,” she said, examining her hands. “We should keep you.”
“It’s different now,” I said, refusing to let her change the subject. “You and Arlen aren’t usually fighting like this.”
She pulled a face. “On second thought, if you’re going to try to make us all talk about our feelings, maybe you should go back to your weird mortal world.”
The two of us headed through the woods together, back toward the castle. When was I going to go back? Attacks like the Ravager had just launched against us were already rare; we’d been rooting out Turic’s old portals and destroying them, and killing the monsters who had come through. That was all I’d said I would do before I went home.
And yet, if the high king was going to send guards to terrorize the villages until he got what he wanted, it didn’t feel like my journey here was over. I had a responsibility to these people.
“We need to deal with Faer,” I said. “Then I’m going home.”
Her lips pursed to one side ruefully.
“First, though, let’s see you and your men all straightened out,” I said optimistically.
At that, she pulled a face. “You can’t fix everything in our world, Ty.”
“Really? You think your love life is a bigger mess than the evil-dictator-who-wants-to-bind-us-with-magic-or-murder-everyone situation?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “We can kill Faer. I know what to do with situations like that.”
“But you don’t know what to do with your heart. Bad news, Raura. You can’t kill your way into romance.”
She threw me a cutting look. “I cannot believe I chose you to confide in. What to do with my heart. Gods. You’d better go back to the mortal world—someone will cut your throat here for being such a sap.”
“Is this what you call confiding?”
“Well, I’m trying, but you’re just… so mortal.”
“You’re mean when you’re insecure,” I observed.
“Gods,” she said again. We were almost to the mouth of the keep, and she turned to face me. “I kissed Arlen. He didn’t kiss me back. There, now you know. Were you lacking sufficient drama with Not Your Sister After All? So you have to live vicariously through me?”
“Why didn’t he kiss you back?”
She spread her hands out dramatically. “I don’t know!”
“You didn’t ask?”
Her lips parted in shock. “You expected me to stand there and ask?”
“You just jumped onto the back of a terrifying ten-foot monster but you couldn’t ask a follow-on question of one of your best friends?” I clarified drily.
“No,” she said. “Those are two very different things. Talking about my feelings is a thousand times scarier than killing monsters.”
“Being rejected is scarier than killing monsters,” I corrected. “But we all go through it. What did you do, anyway? Run away?”
“I punched him.”
“You kissed him, you felt he didn’t kiss you back, and so you punched him.” I had to say it out loud to confirm s
he’d really done such a crazy thing.
She stared back at me. “Yep.”
From shifters to Fae, I spent my life surrounded by emotional dunces.
She shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but I knew how much it did. “Can we go talk to Fenig now about stopping the carnage?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Because unlike the carnage of your love life, that I hope we can fix.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I grinned. I’d adopted a little brother in Penn, and Raura felt like a little sister. Apparently I had a penchant for finding the most annoying possible people to turn into a found family, whatever universe I was in.
“Fenig just buried her mother. Maybe this latest disaster can wait. Give her a day to grieve, at least, before the next spiral into—”
“You aren’t going to impose on my grief, Tyson.” Fenig walked out of the fog; she was an athletic woman despite the deep laugh lines around her eyes and gray in her hair. “My grief will last a long time, but I’ll manage to do other things at the same time.”
“Thank you,” I said. “We could really use your advice.”
She gave Raura a meaningful look. “Maybe we should keep him.”
Raura made a show of ignoring the dig, looking at Arlen. “Would you find Lake? He took the cadets on patrol but we should all discuss what will happen in my absence.”
“You’re not going,” he said.
Raura started to answer, but Fenig interrupted them both. “I am not listening to the two of you. Both of you, go find Lake and meet me in the dining hall.”
When the two of them had reluctantly left together, Fenig said, “There. Peace and quiet for ten minutes.”
As we walked into the dining hall, I asked her, “How will the next Delphin be selected?”
“Oh, one of the Delphine council will be elected to become High Delphin. Personally, I’m reluctant to see them all gather in one place until there’s some measure of peace in the land.”
“When the Delphine as a whole still receive prophecy, though?”