Rise From the Embers (Lightness Saga #4)

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “No, you don’t know.” Her eyes flamed. “It’s been two years, and there isn’t a day I don’t think of him, of what I could have done differently. It haunts me. Along with my family and all the other people who died. You do not understand for a moment what I’ve been through.”

  Shite. Leave it to a sister to cause you to feel like a wee thing. “You’re right, I don’t.” My shoulders sagged, the anger dissipating. “And I’m sorry you carry so much on your shoulders. So much pain and responsibility.”

  We both stayed quiet for a few minutes, as though reliving the painful reality of what we had gone through and what we were about to do.

  “I’m scared.” A whispered breath whisked off my tongue.

  “I know.” Kennedy wiggled closer, lacing her fingers in mine again. “So am I.”

  “I love him, Kennedy.” I gripped her hands, trying to fight the wave of emotion flooding me. “It’s so deep I can’t even breathe. What if I lose him?”

  “I’m not going to lie to you. I have no idea what we are going to do, but I promise this—I won’t stop until we find something. I have Olivia looking through anything mentioning the stone.” She pressed my hands in comfort. “You are not the only one who loves him. We will fight to get him back.”

  I nodded, none of my fears ebbing. “And Piper.” I blinked rapidly. “She is my entire world. My heart…if anything happens to her.”

  “We will get her back.”

  “My life has been revenge. War. Hate.” I gulped, my throat twisting. “I don’t know how to handle this.” With one hand I motioned to where my chest was clogged with overwhelming fear and love. “If I let myself think for a moment, I won’t be able to move or breathe.”

  Without warning, Kennedy wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into an embrace. I had not been hugged a lot growing up. It still felt uncomfortable to me. Lars had broken that barrier quickly, but to be hugged by my long-lost sister was odd but also lovely.

  Shoving through the peculiar feeling, I hugged her back.

  “I haven’t met my niece yet, but I already know there isn’t anything I won’t do to get her back.” Kennedy pulled back. “You ready to go get her?”

  It was so dangerous, bordering on stupid. But I didn’t care; I would claw and dig my way down to the dungeons if I had to.

  I was walking out with my daughter.

  Rising to my feet, I picked up the Sword of Nuada. It no longer held magic, but it was still a sword, a Druid-made weapon no less.

  Kennedy took a step back, her eyes locked on the blade.

  “Right, you two have a past.” I held it out to her. “It’s technically yours. It yielded for you.”

  As if I were tempting her with candy, she took a step closer, stretching to touch it. Her fingers almost grazed the blade before she jerked back her arm.

  “No. You take it.” She laced her hands together.

  Kennedy wasn’t a fighter, but this object still seemed to hold temptation for her. Even magicless, it was deadly. Beautiful and lethal.

  “For now.” I retracted my arm. “But it’s yours, Kennedy. It’s meant for a Queen.”

  She turned for the door and glanced back at me. “It’s meant for a warrior.”

  Leaves swayed overhead, exposing the stars above, the signs of summer licking the air with warmth. The cover of the forest hid the huge group of us moving through the brush with silent speed.

  I had not spent much time around dark dwellers, especially in their natural form, so I was unnerved by how those huge beasts could creep up on you without a sound. I thought my skills were attuned and ready for anything, but a dozen times on the journey over, a dweller had come up beside me so quietly I’d jumped.

  A few of them seemed to love to take the piss out of me. Startling me by sliding next to me, their slick fur grazed my leg or arm, then they’d disappear into the shadows before I could do anything.

  “Wankers,” I growled under my breath, only to hear a strange hiccupped growl, as though they were sniggering at me.

  But not all of us were quiet.

  “Bhean? Are we there yet? It’s been forever. It has to be dessert time. I need sustenance.” A small voice cried from Zoey’s backpack. A small brown head poked out. “Pam says she’s hungry too.”

  “Sprig,” Ryker snarled. The two girls, Lexie and Annabeth, had stayed back, but the pirate/Viking guy jogged beside Zoey, like her own bodyguard. “Be quiet or I’m going to do more than stuff that tail down your throat.”

  “Oh, the Viking is out in full force tonight, I see,” he quipped back, sticking out his tongue at Ryker.

  “There is a granola bar at the bottom,” Zoey said low over her shoulder.

  “What?” Sprig squeaked. “You’ve been harboring a granola bar here the whole time. Are you trying to starve me to death?”

  “Sprig, are you going to make me wish we left you with Kate?”

  Zoey pulled the bag around to her front, digging into the pouch and pulling out a bar, unwrapping it.

  “Givemegivemegiveme! Giiiiivvvveee meeeee!” The monkey bopped around the bag, his hands open and closing, reaching for the snack.

  “Now eat and be quiet.”

  “Grumpy! Thought after the noises of the two dying animals I heard in your room earlier, you’d be pleasant.”

  Zoey pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “Actually, why don’t you pass out? That would be great,” Ryker muttered under his breath.

  Sprig shoved the granola bar into his mouth but glared at the Wanderer. Holding up his fingers, he pointed them at his eyes then at Ryker.

  “Yeah, furball, you have me quaking in my boots,” he scoffed.

  Simmons’s motored wings buzzed over my head, drawing my attention away from them. The other pixie followed his friend, weaving and bobbing in the air.

  “Heeyyy, giiirrrrlllyyy?” Cal hiccupped, flying toward Ember. I could see her ponytail dancing around the sword strapped to her back in front of me. “Goood pow-pow-ner. Thiiss stuffff.” He patted the little bag around his waist. “Whhere are ya monnn-key man? Show ya …” Hiccup. “Better thannn honn-ey.”

  “I told him not to eat any, my lady.” Simmons danced around Ember’s head. “But he didn’t listen.”

  “I’m shocked,” Ember replied dryly.

  “Really, my lady? This is exactly something he would do.”

  “Sheeezz pullin your leeg, Simm-mm-on.” Cal swayed over my head, forcing me to dodge out of the way. “Clo-thez are heavy.”

  “No. No taking your clothes off, Cal,” Ember chided him.

  “But me weeee bitz?”

  “Clothes stay on.”

  “Phhhhffftt.” Cal swished his hand at Ember, faltering in the air, struggling with his coat. His head dipped, as though he was falling asleep.

  She reached up, plucking him from the air as the pixie passed out in her hands. Ember glanced over her shoulder at Zoey. “Have room for one more?”

  “Why not? What’s one more at the zoo hotel?” She laughed quietly, taking the pixie from Zoey. “Hope he enjoys sharing space with a farting sprite and a stuffed goat.”

  “That would be a Tuesday for Cal.”

  “Guys?” Kennedy held a finger to her lips, and the rest of the trip passed in silence.

  We knew we were getting close when all of us began to feel the pull to turn around and leave the area. Stavros had placed a new spell around the border, extending it to the place where Fionna and Marguerite escaped.

  It was our way in, but we couldn’t unless we could break the protective barrier. All we needed was a moment. Kennedy and I worked hard, mixing our magic within the explosive. Druid magic was the only kind which might give us that chance. We came up to the property line, the house quiet through the trees in the far distance. For some reason, I had a hard time picturing Stavros ever sleeping, as though that were too human, boring, and common for him.

  “All right.” Kennedy turned to face us,
her eyes scanning the group. My skin felt as if it were crawling when a few enormous beasts pawed past me, the glare from the stars gleaming off the poisonous spiking blades down their backs. A shiver ran along my spine, my teeth clenching together. I still wasn’t terribly comfortable around fae, and dark dwellers were the epitome of terrifying and unnerving.

  “Dwellers, you know what you have to do. We move on your signal,” Kennedy said. A dweller with green eyes moved up to her, rubbing against her leg, her fingers running through its coat. Lorcan. “Which I doubt will be subtle.”

  The beast rumbled, like he was laughing.

  “Be safe and link to Ember if anything goes wrong,” she said to them. One with hazel eyes, Cole?, stepped in front of his group, roaring softly, before the two groups took off into the dark, disappearing without a sound. Alki went with them, carrying a bag and trailing after Gabby’s beast. Our whole plan was set on the items in the bag. If they didn’t work, we were screwed. Alki moved with stealth and speed that almost matched the dwellers. He knew every corner of the compound property and exactly where to attack to draw the attention away from us.

  Kennedy’s eyes tracked the darkness for a moment before she snapped back to us. “Ember, Croygen, and Ryker, you will follow Rez. Zoey, Fionna, and I will follow Goran.”

  We’d split up to make sure we each had someone who knew the compound well and a person who could jump. Though I warned them that once in the dungeon area all our powers were null and void.

  Sprig was there to break the locks, and the pixies to put any remaining guards to sleep.

  Kennedy had ordered Torin to stay behind. She wanted her soldiers to stay and protect the castle and the defenseless people among its walls. I thought Torin was going to burst all his blood vessels. Defy her. They fought for a bit before she declared it an order, and he receded to it. Not happily at all.

  “Now we wait for—”

  Boom!

  Kennedy’s words were ripped away by an explosion that shook the ground with tremendous force. Fire billowed into the sky. Green magic zapped at the barrier, cracking it like a thousand bones.

  “Holy shite.” Gasping, I grabbed my chest, staring up at the balloon of the blast on the opposite side of the grounds. It resembled a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb. A dome of smoke and fire reached for the stars, Druid magic lashing at the defense with its claws.

  The shield around the land flickered. We needed more time to cross it. A second blast wasn’t going to get all of us past the force field.

  Shouts and commotion erupted within the compound. None of us could hear specifics exactly, but I knew an alarm was going off, warning them of intruders.

  “My man does nothing small.” Ember grinned.

  “Not the dweller style, I’m imagining,” I said.

  “Understatement,” she chuckled. “Small is not in their vocabulary.”

  “Same for demons,” I smirked. “Nothing small there.”

  “Ugh.” Ember dropped her head forward. “I don’t want to know that. It’s my…uncle you’re talking about.” I heard the slight hesitation before she said uncle. Did she also feel, as Lars did, they were more than that?

  Another boom thundered a little farther out from the other, the ground trembling with its force. The spell sizzled, blinking out.

  We only had a short time before it came back.

  “All right, everyone. It’s go time.” Kennedy gripped the gun hanging from her belt, running forward.

  Piper, I’m coming. My heart thumped.

  We all joined Kennedy, jumping over the defense line. We had gone over the plan a dozen times, but that was hypothetical. This was real and was dangerous. Everything could go as planned or go terribly wrong.

  Chapter 11

  Ember

  The sound of our boots crunched down the gritty stone steps as a sharp, musty smell filled my nose. I held my sleeve to my face. The oppression of the tight narrow space curled around my throat like rope. In through the nose and out the mouth, I commanded myself. You’ve been through worse. It’s the same as the caves in Greece, when we were crawling on our stomachs.

  Dressed in black clothes, we all blended into the shadows. We rushed through the tunnel like some black ops team, sneaking into a place I once called home. Memories of the smells from Marguerite’s cooking floated from the kitchen.

  During my time living here, I had never thought about secret exits and tunnels. Thinking back, I realized how stupid that was. I had gotten so comfortable with Lars, so secure in his power and rule, I never thought about needing to escape in the night. Even now, this place still felt like coming home. Lars kept a room for me upstairs for whenever I visited. Now I was sneaking up on it like an intruder. And the man I would usually run to, forcing a hug on him, was gone.

  It felt strange, wrong.

  “There are a handful of the secret exits from below, but only three from the actual house. Lars wanted to limit the chance of enemies actually getting into the upper part of the home. There is only an entrance from the King’s private chambers, hall closet, and his office on the other side of the house. The tunnel has several exits leading to different sides of the property,” Goran said, his voice void of anything. He seemed off, with jilted movements. It was as though the part of the brain which held emotion was shut off. Losing Rimmon had to be hard, but he hadn’t even flinched when his comrade’s body had been carried away. Goran wasn’t known for his emotions, but this was different. A robot in his stead. “There is minimal protection if we meet with them head-on in the tunnels. If they attack us inside, there is a good chance we will all die.”

  Holy crap. O-kay.

  Lars was always prepared. He thought of circumstances no one else would. But I doubt even he had foreseen this future.

  Goran pushed our group ahead quickly, only pausing to check a corner as if to sense an attacker.

  We weren’t far into the tunnels when I picked up on traces of iron. High fairy’s kryptonite. Every species had some weakness. Goblin-made metal worked against all fae, but for some reason, iron was also another weakness for fairies. Since the Seelie were the Unseelie’s true enemy at one time, I wasn’t really shocked Lars had embedded iron in his walls. I was the only one who could feel it in this group.

  “My lady, are you okay?” Simmons, who sat on my shoulder, must have felt me tense.

  “Fine.” I gritted my teeth, my skin itching, wanting to slither off my body and crawl back to the exit. I tensed in the too quiet passage, ready for something to jump out at me at any minute.

  We came to a fork in the passage, and Goran motioned our group to go ahead. This was where we would split up. Past these walls anything could go wrong.

  Cal flew from Zoey’s bag, completely sober, and landed on my other shoulder. Both he and Simmons gripped my ponytail, staying quiet. I wasn’t afraid of danger, but I was no good at living in the unknown. Were there a hundred strighoul waiting for us on the other side? Two hundred?

  “Human,” Ryker rumbled, striding to Zoey and grabbing the back of her head.

  “Viking.” She barely got the word out before his mouth crushed into hers with a brutal force, their kiss so passionate my toes curled.

  “You stay alive,” he muttered to her.

  “Ditto,” she replied, her eyes glistening with raw love and passion.

  “I’m going with her,” Sprig said, his head and arms hanging out of the bag. “Magic fingers, remember?” He wiggled his hands. “Though I’m a little upset I had to leave my cape behind... and Pam. Holy honey possum—what she called you two when I told her she had to stay.” He clicked his tongue.

  Ryker chuckled then kissed Zoey again. Rubbing Sprig’s head, he wheeled around, his muscles locked, his expression severe. He was ready to go.

  Croygen eyed Sprig. “Keep her alive, rodent, or I will make banana pudding and bury you in it.”

  Sprig’s eyes widened in horror. “You wouldn’t.”

  “I so would.”

  “Can
you make juniper pudding and bury me in it?” Cal raised his hand, offering himself.

  “Quiet,” Goran stated, his tone and face not showing a single emotion. The more I looked at him, the more forlorn he appeared. His eyes were distant, as though his mind were somewhere else. What had happened to him?

  Kennedy clutched my hand, then Rez’s. “Good luck.”

  “You too.” I swallowed back the knot of nerves in my throat.

  Goran waved them forward, and I watched Kennedy, Fionna, Zoey, and Sprig disappear down the dark tunnel. Dread burned in my gut. What if this was the last time I saw them? Shaking my head, I turned to our leader. Rez was already stepping in front of our group.

  “This way. Keep close.” Rez nodded for us to start down the other side. She knew every inch of this property. Lars had made sure she was one of the few people who knew every entrance and exit in case of an emergency. This was definitely an emergency.

  The deeper we went, the more the iron content in the walls bowed my shoulders. Gnashing my teeth, I took in harsh breaths. If I was full fairy, I would have been on the ground, compressed with pain. My demon and dark dweller parts helped me push through the metal’s power although my heart still walloped in my chest as iron siphoned my powers away.

  Rez paused at a section of stone wall, which appeared no different than the rest. Scurrying around Aneira’s castle, trying to break in, I learned that passages could blend into the walls, or a solid tunnel could lead nowhere. Lars’s setup probably wasn’t much different.

  She sucked in a breath, flipped up a hidden keyboard, seamlessly blended in the stone, and typed in a code. The chances were slim Stavros hadn’t changed these, but we had to try.

  The red button flared up, denying us access.

  “All right, ladies, move aside.” Croygen brushed past me, pulling some small tools from a satchel. Electricity and computers were never a sure thing, so the hidden doors contained a manual lock.