by Sadie Moss
For a second, Christine’s expression changed, something like fear contorting her features.
Then she moved so fast it caught us all by surprise.
Her hand, which had been pressed against her pant leg, rose up slightly and dove into her pocket. I leapt forward, grabbing for her arm, but it was too late. She pulled out a small metal disc, pressing her thumb into a groove in the middle as she did.
A heartbeat later, clouds of purple smoke exploded around us.
Figures stepped out of the haze.
Chapter 26
There were several demons, a pixie, and what looked like a few shifters.
I couldn’t be sure exactly what they were, and I didn’t have time to figure it out, because as soon as the smoke cleared, they attacked.
Taking advantage of Corin’s distraction, Christine twisted, elbowing him in the gut and stomping on his insole. She slipped out of his grasp, and I lunged for her, but my path was suddenly blocked by a towering, rough-skinned demon.
He was at least eight feet tall, and the meaty fist he swung toward me was the size of my head. I changed course, but not fast enough. His punch clipped my jaw, sending me reeling sideways as a ringing sound reverberated in my ear. Whirling around, I threw a blast of orange flame at him. It hit him in the chest, and he screamed, batting at the fire scorching his skin.
When I looked back to where Christine had been, I couldn’t see her. I spun quickly, searching the large space.
I finally spotted her several yards away.
Shit. She must’ve made it halfway to the door before Corin caught her. The two of them traded blows as she drove him slowly closer to the exit.
Around me, the rest of my four fought the backup Christine had called. Fenris remained in wolf form, locked in a clinch with a panther, their jaws snapping. Akio had picked up Christine’s blade and was using it with surprising skill against a demon with dusky red skin. The demon opened his mouth and a plume of fire billowed out, driving Akio back. I raised my hands, hurling a blast of ice at the demon. It hit his back hard, making him pitch forward. The incubus was on him a moment later, hand raised for the killing blow.
One enemy down. How many more to go?
“Lana!”
The call came a split second before the other shifter pounced. He was a large wolf with white and gray fur, and his paws slammed into my shoulders, knocking me off my feet.
I shifted as I fell, the brief burst of pain as my bones reshaped dulled by magic and adrenaline. The gray wolf landed on top of me, and I yelped in pain as his teeth tore into my shoulder.
Fuck, that hurt.
I growled and rolled, managing to shake him off and regain my feet. We circled each other, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Christine making a run for the door again. Godsdamn it. We needed her, and we needed her alive. Though she’d never answered our question explicitly, her actions said enough.
She’d betrayed us.
But we needed to know who she was reporting to, and how much they knew. Was the entire Resistance under threat?
Breaking away from the gray wolf shifter, I bolted toward Christine and Corin. But the wolf wasn’t done with the fight. He followed me, his larger form overtaking mine easily, and leapt on my back. I whined as his teeth gripped my neck, digging through my thick fur to pierce skin.
A second later, his body stiffened and he let go with a howl. I scrambled out from under him, turning around to see Christine’s knife protruding from his side.
Damn. Akio was a good marksman.
Good thing too, because the wolf had been right on top of me when the incubus threw the blade. A few inches lower, and it would’ve impaled me.
Pressing my advantage, I bounded toward the wounded wolf, catching his neck in my strong jaws and clamping down hard. Blood filled my mouth. The animal side of me didn’t mind it at all, but the human side cringed.
The shifter beneath me gave a gagging half howl then went limp. I pulled away, blood wetting my snout, and swiveled my head, trying to catch a glimpse of Christine again. Another demon body lay on the ground near me, reassuring me that the rest of my four were handling themselves against our attackers.
But when I looked toward the door, fear iced my stomach. Corin lay on the ground near the large open entryway, unmoving.
I shifted back to human form, barely waiting for the transformation to finish before I raced toward him, heart hammering hard in my chest.
“Corin!”
Falling to my knees next to his prone form, I looked him over quickly, searching for any major wounds. I didn’t see any, thank the gods. When his eyelids fluttered, relief surged through me.
“She had… a potion. Blew me backward. She ran.”
I glanced up toward the door, then back at the fight behind me.
It was almost over. Jae and Akio had teamed up to finish off the giant, rough-skinned demon, and Fenris stood over the pixie’s body, his dark fur bloody.
Corin rose up onto his elbows, shaking his head to clear it. I pressed a kiss to his lips then leapt up and raced toward the door, shifting as I went.
Fen! I called through our mind-connection as my paws pounded the ground. I could feel his adrenaline from the fight, his focus and determination. Make sure Corin’s okay! I’m going after Christine.
Killer, no! Wait for backup.
The sharp spike of fear he felt resonated through me, but I kept moving, dipping my head to the ground to pick up Christine’s scent.
Come find me then. I’ll track her, but I’ll hang back as much as I can until you get here. We can’t let her get away.
Fuck. Be safe.
His love and worry hit me like a ton of bricks, almost overwhelming me.
Then my nose picked up the smell of cloves and spice. The cigars Christine liked to smoke clung to her skin, making her scent easy to follow.
She’d gone on foot, abandoning the car she must’ve driven here—a beat-up burgundy hatchback that was parked several yards away from the warehouse entrance. I followed her trail down the small winding road. There were no other buildings nearby, just trees and shrubs lining the road.
About a quarter mile away, her path veered abruptly into the woods. I shot a glance back the way I’d come. A dark gray wolf rounded a bend in the road, loping toward me. Behind him ran three other figures. Relief flooded me.
She’s in the woods! I called to Fen in my mind, darting into the trees. More odors assailed my senses in here, but I could still pick up Christine’s distinctive smell. It weaved around trees and through patches of tall grass, until—
It stopped.
Fuck.
I retraced my steps a little, heart pounding harder as I pressed my nose so low it almost brushed the ground. Yes, I’d had it right. Her path wended through the brush and grass then suddenly cut off.
Shit! I lost her trail. She’s gone. Frustration filled my tone as I called to Fenris through our mind-link.
Hang tight, killer. Maybe I can help.
Growling, I lowered my head to the ground again, circling a tree. Godsdamn it, had she used a transportation spell? If she had one, why did she wait so long to use it? She could’ve activated it during her fight with Corin, or even the second she escaped the warehouse. Why now?
A rustling sound came from behind me, and I looked up to see my four pushing through the underbrush. Fen’s nose was to the ground, and I could hear him sniffing loudly.
Then another sound caught my ear, this one coming from above.
I didn’t even have time to glance up at the branches of the tree before a body slammed into me, making me stagger. Rough hands grasped my fur, and Christine’s body jerked as she stomped hard on something at the base of the tree.
Purple smoke billowed into the air, quickly surrounding the two of us and obscuring my vision.
The last thing I saw was four sets of horrified eyes staring at me.
Then the transport spell swept me away.
Chapter 27
Th
e purple smoke began to dissipate, and I blinked.
Darkness surrounded me. After the bright light of the sun, my eyes could barely make out anything. Where the hell was I?
Christine leapt off my back, and I turned quickly, jaws snapping. She evaded my bite, her footsteps retreating into the darkness. I charged after her. I had no idea where we were, but she must.
And she was my ticket out of here.
She seemed to know where she was going, even in the dim light, because she didn’t stumble or slow her pace as she ran. As my eyes adjusted, I was able to pick out more details of my surroundings. We were in some kind of tunnel system, the walls made of bare, stained cement. Light glowed ahead of us, and I put on a burst of speed, wanting to overtake her before she reached it. But she hurled a potion behind her, and when it struck the ground in front of me, it exploded in a burst of white light, throwing me back.
I recovered quickly, paws pounding the ground as my breath came in short pants.
The glow at the end of the tunnel came from the cracks around a doorframe. Christine slammed her weight against the door, pressing it open, and I raced through after her. My teeth snapped, catching the back pocket of her cargo pants. A small piece of fabric tore off in my mouth, but she put on an extra burst of speed, diving forward and rolling when she hit the ground.
The screech of metal split the air, and my hackles rose.
I crouched, then leapt toward her fallen form.
But before I could reach her, a huge metal cage dropped from the ceiling. I slammed against its thick bars, and pain nearly blinded me as I tumbled to the ground. Unbidden, my wolf form retreated, pulling back into my body and forcing the shift back to human.
Fenris! I screamed in my head, even as my bones morphed and reshaped, certain he was too far away to hear me anyway. Help!
And then my wolf was gone. I’d shifted back only partially clothed, left in just my pants, a bra, and one boot. Blood seeped from the bite wound on my shoulder.
The pain that had ricocheted through me when I hit the bars was gone, but something else was wrong.
My magic.
My magic was gone.
It was as if the little pilot light of power that had burned steadily in my belly since the day I woke up in Akio’s bedroom had winked out.
I stood on shaky legs, watching as Christine climbed to her feet outside my cage. She turned around to face me, smoothing her tight ponytail back into place, her hazel eyes hard.
“What the fuck, Christine?” My voice shook with anger and fear. “How could you do this?”
“I warned you all. I told you the Blighted can be as untrustworthy as the Gifted.” Her gaze locked on mine, but I got the feeling she was looking through me, her attention focused inward to some internal struggle.
“What about all the people at the Resistance headquarters? The ones you told me about, who came seeking asylum? How could you give all of them up like that?”
The older woman shook her head, her eyes clearing. “I never told him where the Resistance is located, and I never will. They’ll be safe. All he wanted was you.”
My stomach dropped. He who? Wanted me for what?
“So you’ve been a double agent this whole time. You betrayed your own cause.”
Her lips pressed into a line, and she stalked closer to my cage—though she was careful to keep out of arm’s reach, I noticed. “Not this whole time. I have given everything I have to this cause, Ms. Crow. I’ve given my life to it. I believe in the rights of the Blighted, and I will never stop fighting for them.”
“Really? So why have you been trading all the hard-won information I gathered to one of the Gifted?”
Her expression cracked, the hard lines of her face shattering like glass until there was nothing left but a tired, very sad looking middle-aged woman. She opened her mouth but didn’t speak, her eyes growing glassy. When she finally found words, her voice was softer than I’d ever heard it.
“Because… he found her. She’s alive. And I need her back.”
My heart twisted with fear and pity. “Who? Need who back? And who do you work for?”
She shook her head, lost in her own mind again. This Christine was so different from the one I’d first met, the one who led an entire resistance movement with the strength of her will.
“She works for me, Miss Lockwood.”
A raspy voice struck my ears, and I froze.
I looked up, truly taking in the rest of my surroundings for the first time. The room Christine had led me into was large and cavernous, with dark stone walls and a soaring ceiling. Sconces lit with magic cast a dim light over the space, and on one side, a staircase led up to a door high in the wall.
Rain walked slowly down the stairs, the bags under his eyes crinkling as he smiled at me. “I must admit, I didn’t know if I would see shock on your face or angry acceptance. I really wasn’t sure how close you were to uncovering the truth of all this. But it seems perhaps my worry was for nothing.”
“Rain?” My voice was too loud and too thin, but I hardly noticed. “What are you…?” I turned to Christine. “You’ve been working for him?”
She ignored me, her face hard again, though her eyes still held a haunted look. When Rain reached the bottom step, she turned to him, pulling a potion out of her pocket and holding it out like a grenade. “It’s done. I did what you asked. Now give me what you promised.”
The brown-haired mage waved a hand at her. “Of course. Of course.”
I couldn’t stop staring at him, trying to reconcile what I thought I knew of the man with this strange new development. He was the one Christine had been working for? Did that mean he was the one who’d taken Gerald’s magic? Who’d orchestrated the bombing at the palace? He had told me he cared for my grandmother and looked out for the Lockwood family because of an old connection to my father.
But that could’ve all been a lie.
My hands curled into fists, rage burning through my veins—both at myself and at him. I’d been so out of my element, so desperate for an ally in the palace after Beatrice’s death, that I’d accepted his story much too easily. I’d tried to be cautious, letting him help me without giving him any of the information I’d learned—except I had been, unwittingly, through Christine.
“I said now!”
Christine’s harsh voice yanked my thoughts back to the room. She squared off with Rain, and it occurred to me that she really didn’t like or trust him at all. So why had she agreed to work for him? Why betray the organization she’d helped build?
“Patience, Ms. O’Connell. Here she is.”
As he spoke, the door at the top of the stairs opened. A young woman of about fifteen wearing a loose-fitting gray dress walked through, her gaze darting around the room. Christine’s breath hitched, and she stopped breathing entirely as the girl walked timidly down the stairs. Their eyes were locked on each other, and tears streamed down Christine’s face.
When the girl’s foot left the last step, Christine slipped the potion back into her pocket. She sucked in a shuddering breath, sobbing and laughing as she walked quickly toward the child. “Mira. Oh, my baby!”
She pulled Mira toward her, enveloping her in a hug that almost drowned the girl. Mira’s body stiffened at first, but as Christine swayed gently back and forth, still sobbing, she relaxed slightly, one arm coming up to rest low on the older woman’s back.
Against my will, tears stung my eyes as I watched them.
So this was why Christine had turned her back on the Resistance, why she’d sold me and my men out to Rain. For her daughter. A riot of emotions whirled through me as I watched their reunion.
Pity. Anger. Jealousy.
I’d never forgive Christine for what she did, but I hated that she’d been given such an impossible choice. Rain had used her daughter to manipulate her. What would I do to protect any of my four? I liked to think I had some morals, but if it came down to saving their lives, I wasn’t sure there was much I wouldn’t do.
<
br /> Christine ran a shaking hand over her daughter’s hair. Still clutched tight in her embrace, Mira raised her other hand. Light sparked between her fingertips.
What the fuck?
The light grew, electricity flowing from her fingers and gathering above her palm like caged lightning. She brought her hand down toward the older woman’s back, and my stomach dropped.
“Christine—!”
A bolt of electricity shot from the girl’s fingertips, striking Christine’s body with a loud popping sound. The Resistance leader jerked back, all her muscles going rigid as her ragged cry pierced the air before cutting off suddenly.
She crumpled to the floor, sparks still dancing over her skin.
Sightless hazel eyes stared up at the ceiling, and the face that had been so hard and full of strength in life looked wan and pale in the dim light.
Mira stepped back, and as she did, her features transformed. The woman who stood before Christine’s body now looked older, with gleaming black hair and olive skin. Her face was expressionless as she looked down at the corpse in front of her.
“Well done, Kate.” Rain’s voice made me jump. In my horror, I’d almost forgotten he was here. “Clean that up, please, and leave us.”
The woman nodded and flicked a hand. Christine’s body rose into the air, floating ahead of Mira—Kate—as she walked back up the stairs and left.
“What. The. Fuck?”
My words were barely a whisper, but Rain heard them anyway, and seemed to take them as an invitation to start a conversation. He brushed an invisible speck off his suit jacket, turning away from the stairs.
“I hated to do that. Christine has only been working for me for a very short while, but she proved an invaluable asset. Once I found the right leverage over her, she gave me a great deal of useful information, including the fact that you were the one who destroyed all my tracking spells. However, I don’t think she would have taken it too well when she learned the long-lost daughter I located was not, in fact, her daughter. It would’ve gotten ugly; better to just avoid the whole mess, I say.”