85. Chapter 85
85
Graysen
O rganized disarray reigned as our warband worked fast and efficiently.
Jett and Kenton set up their harpoon guns further away. Horse-drawn carts once transported these very weapons. And now, an age later, here they were mounted on the back of pickup trucks.
Hunched over, Kenton furiously rotated the cocking winch to draw the bowstring of the enormous crossbow-like weapon. Across the field, in an opposite position to our older brother, Jett fumbled to shackle a shadowy chain infused with Zrenyth’s dark might to the head of a huge harpoon.
Dust billowed behind Caidan’s skidding truck as he slammed on the brakes. Leaving the engine rumbling, he jumped out of the vehicle to help unload Zrenyth’s spears. Soldiers crowded around him, scooping up armfuls of the fiendish weapons, and departed swiftly to pass them to the warband splitting into four units.
Caidan hefted a spear humming with dark energy, to feel its weight and adjust its position in his hand. Its wyrmbone tip was fashioned like a boathook, perfect for hooking wyrm scales or nudging underneath to poke vulnerable flesh.
In a rush of urgency, my father leaned into the truck to snatch up a wyrm-claw and a coil of rope that seemed to writhe with excitement in his grip. Four crescent-shaped hooks formed the wyrm-claw boltheads. Exactly like a grappling hook, once caught, it would anchor. My father hastily tossed the bolt and rope to our Second-In-Command. “Wes, we need as many wyrm-claws at the ready as possible!”
Wes Zhang was my father’s friend and his Second. He spun around, shouting instructions at our warband while quickly knotting one end of the rope firmly to the bolthead. These wyrm-claws were used to help keep the beast from taking flight. In the case of Nelle and her wyrm, we needed to stop them from swifting. The monoliths would stop her from escaping, but she’d be fucking hard to catch if she swifted about our vast estate to avoid capture.
While the rushing warband worked fast to finish the tasks at hand, I needed to be the distraction and have Nelle’s attention fixed on me. With my shield disengaged, I coiled the whip and hurried across the uneven, pitted ground littered with chunks of rock and piles of dirt from the violent quakes. At the edge of a wide fissure, I faced my little bird. The tip of my boots nudged stones to fall into the deep chasm. “Wychthorn, you can’t win!”
Nelle’s gaze sliced away from her purring wyrm, gently nudging her outspread hand with its snout.
She sprang to her feet, full of defiance. “Watch me, asshole!”
She was a tiny figure standing proudly beneath her wyrm.
I swallowed thickly. My clammy fingers flexed anxiously around Leviathan’s handle and gathered loops . Oh, how those who had once looked upon this beast an age ago must have shaken in their boots to face it on the battlefield. And this was a creature we had never seen before. Certainly not in this form, tethered to a human girl who was as fiery as the beast itself. A menace forged of spite and might.
“Let me free!” she roared.
“We can’t do that!”
“Then you leave me no choice!”
“Same, Wychthorn!”
The gigantic wyrm spread its sleek wings wide and beat down once, kicking up whorls of wind and dust. “Hells!” Gritting my teeth, my muscles strained against the forceful hot gusts that had me staggering and spluttering against the billows of filthy smoke poisoning the air.
The wyrm arched its long neck back and a deafening roar exploded into the heavens that hollowed out my ears. Flames poured upward, scouring the darkening sky with pale light and streaks of gold.
Lowering its head, the beast gracefully coiled its serpentine body and towered over Nelle.
An inhale of breath—
Sucked deep into its chest—
The beast of flames sent fire aimed right at me.
Fuuuck!
Reigniting my shield, I reared back and slammed its edge down. Hunkering low, I jammed myself against its inner protection and braced, disappearing beneath a crashing sea of fire.
The flames were so bitterly cold that ice spider-webbed over the magically hardened air before me and made my heaving breath cloud. Grunting against the force trying to punch through, I shoved back, digging my boots in, shunting my shoulder up hard against the frosty shield as the frigid inferno pounded harder and harder, sweeping all around me.
Onwards, the wyrm poured its wrath of moonlit flames.
On and on, until—
Finally—
The fire died.
Holy fucking hells.
As I sucked such cold air into my lungs that it felt painful as if I’d been trapped in a freezer, I straightened up. My shivering hands were blue, and when I twisted around, the world immediately surrounding me sparkled with a blanket of frost.
Awe at Nelle’s beast and the frost-wyrm blending to it; how it even came to be that the wyrm bore both flames of moonlight and sunshine was short-lived because the earth shuddered beneath the soles of my boots, jostling me about as the beast took a threatening step closer.
Frost crunched as I swiveled around.
My eyes widened as I craned my neck to take in the wyrm rearing high, its fiery scaled form bright against the skyline. The spikes running down its snake-like length had been lowered against its spine like a plume of metal feathers. As the beast roared its fury skyward, the jagged spikes flicked into an upright position like a lion proudly ruffling its mane.
Beneath the beast’s shadow, Nelle stabbed a middle finger of fucking doom at me.
Oh hells.
Chaos erupted—
The wyrm whipped its tail upward—
The deadly tip plunged downward—
I threw myself sideways. A wake of powdery earth sprayed outward as I skidded sidelong, my panicked heartbeat ricocheting against my ribcage.
I gulped, my eyes bugging at the lethal stinger embedded deep in the ground right where I’d stood.
But there was no time. I had to keep moving.
Her mouth a grim line, Nelle flung a bolt of razor-sharp wind —
Shit, shit, shit —
Sliding one foot back, I swung my shield hard, knocking the bolt sideways and sending it slicing through the plumes of rising smoke.
Nelle battled enchantingly fast.
It was a dance of darkness and mayhem.
A riotous tempest of firestorms and wrathful gales.
My little bird hurled a blazing fireball—
A brutal spear of gale-force wind—
Stamped her foot to rattle the earth and knock me off my feet—
She was storm and rage and unholy fire.
I ducked and dived—
Threw my shield up—
Twisted around to narrowly evade her attacks.
Nelle was out to get me. But she’d never met anyone in battle before, not like this. Though she’d faced those things in the catacombs, and knew they were not-quite-alive, shredding them into nothing but ash still fractured her soul and wrecked her heart.
Here she fought living, breathing people.
And as such, her wild strikes were always just shy of a deadly blow.
However, her wyrm had no compunction.
My stomach pitched over as the beast turned its merciless focus toward the unit of soldiers racing toward Kenton to assist with the enormous harpoon gun. The wyrm slung its tail up, and like a gigantic javelin, its stinger stabbed down. Not to pierce flesh and poison blood, but to spear a soldier bodily from head to foot. Crimson dripped from the stinger as the beast yanked it free from the corpse, toppling it over.
Oh gods, my friends, my family…
The ground shuddered violently as the wyrm slammed the meat of its tail upon the earth—
Crushing a soldier too slow to dive out of the way.
Slashing the end length of its thin-bladed tail in a ruthless sweeping movement—
To slice one of our soldiers right in half.
Carnage—
Absolute carnage erupted all around as the wyrm unleashed—
A never-ending wall of flames exploded.
The world was reduced to thunderous sound, snatches of bright light through the swirling banks of smoke, and utter devastation.
Screams—
A blur of someone hurled backward—
Soldiers incinerated on the spot.
I have to stop this now!
Now!
Fucking now!
Disengaging my shield, I tucked it into my bandoleer and skittered back—
Launching forward—
Hurtling fast, careering across the cracked, fissured field—
A battle cry tore from my throat as I pushed off the edge of the chasm, leaping high to spring over the top of it—
Landing deftly.
My boots pounded swiftly over the quaking barren ground, kicking up desiccated earth. My rapid heartbeat matched my quickened footfall. Smoke swirled about me, billowing aside as I cut through ashen clouds, pumping my arms faster and faster, my fingers freeing the looped length of Leviathan Spinebender .
Releasing the coiled lash, I slung my arm back.
It was instinct to distract the wyrm.
To swing the whip around my head—
Snap the braided lash and let it fly—
To strike the beast across its fiery snout.
Dark magic jolted through the creature painfully, like lightning cracking through a black stormy sky. The wyrm whipped its gigantic head my way, fixing its two slitted, quicksilver eyes right on me. A bellow of fury, and it breathed a bank of fearsome might—
Fuuuck—
I was already moving as fast as a foehn wind tearing down a mountain, faster than the blazing inferno. Behind me, wyrmfire scorched the field, turning it into a desolate wasteland.
Springing up, a wash of smoke whirled around my figure as I spun like a corkscrew to crack the lash—
Striking the beast in the flank—
In the shoulder—
A whirlwind of wicked strikes near the maw—
All to keep its attention on me.
However, that didn’t stop Nelle from noticing what was going on all around her. She stilled, on the cusp of hurling a blazing orb of fire at me.
Raining embers drifted about her figure. A glow of scarlet against swirling smoke. The smoldering cinders scattered wide as she twirled, glancing about furtively, taking in our positioned units.
Rows of soldiers with shields and spears protected those rapidly shackling chains to harpoon heads. Ropes to grappling hooks. Tossing brutal hammers and large stakes to others. All with one goal—to contain the wyrm and its power.
In the outer fields, Jett and Kenton frantically nocked huge harpoons into their colossal guns. The harpoons were forged by Zrenyth and strong enough to crack through wyrm scale.
A spear stood on end, partly buried in the earth beside Caidan as he fumbled with an armful of roped grappling hooks, ready to pass to my father.
Nelle snarled and I read her lips as she muttered, “Typical death-dealers,” before a clever thought brightened her eyes.
Dread chilled my hot, sweaty skin when I realized she’d clicked to how she could evade us. The telltale sign of gray feathered wind stirred about her ankles. A bluster of shadows teased the long hem of her scorch-marked t-shirt.
My father spotted it too. “She’s preparing to swift!”
Widening his feet, he raised his crossbow, squinting against the too-bright sun sinking low on the horizon. Unnatural gusts of wind ruffled his thick hair and the trembling ground shook his stance. He was tall and formidable, battle-ready. His scarred hands gripped the crossbow, finger poised at the trigger.
Infuriated, Nelle hurled the raging fireball at me.
I swiveled sideways, easily dodging the blistering flames as they soared past, the wash of heat sending my hair flying every which way. With a flick of my wrist, I cracked Leviathan beside my dusty boots. “Wychthorn, all you’re doing is making this harder on yourself!”
She flipped me off. “Fuck you, Crowther. You’ll never catch me!”
Just as Nelle and her wyrm began to fade into the void, the swifting winds whorling hot embers and white ash up into the sky, the beast thumped its massive tail on the ground, sucking air deep into its chest to unleash one last exhale of fire .
An avalanche of brutal flames swept toward the warband—
A cacophony of voices—
“Wes, on my mark!”
“Wyrmfire incoming!”
“Shields up! Brace, brace, brace!”
“WES! FIRE—NOW!”
Wyrm-claws flew fast, scoring through the dissipating inferno, followed by shivering lines of rope.
The grappling hooks arced downward, spearing between the menacing spikes—
Soldiers gripping the rope’s bitter end yanked to snag the hooks on the beast’s spiky spine.
My father, a blur of speed, rapidly sidestepped behind the line of shielded soldiers—
Reloading fast—
Firing a second wyrm-claw.
My brother threw him a third—
A fourth—
Going for a fifth—
Wes’s team furiously fired wyrm-claw after wyrm-claw.
Soldiers swung hammers high, pounding stakes through the looped end of ropes to pin them to the ground. The writhing cables of magical rope tightened in on themselves to help hold the beast, but we needed the wyrm harpoons now!
Nelle wasn’t going down without a fight. Neither was her wyrm.
Trapped, the swifting winds died.
Shrieking in outrage, Nelle stamped her foot. The ground erupted with a malevolent earthquake. The heaving land jutted upward in places and fell in others. Cracks and fissures jostled inward to reform smoothly.
Nelle slung threads of power to smash into the soldiers protecting my father, sending them sprawling. Tried to set the magically infused ropes alight. To rip the heavy stakes from the ground with ferocious shudders that thrust us about.
Roaring in fury, the frenzied wyrm bucked and thrashed—
Fighting against the ropes anchoring it to the field.
A mountain of fiery muscle and scaled limbs.
Its enormous tail surged around—
My father had his head down, drawing up his bowstring swiftly.
Fear crushed my chest. “DAD!”
No, no, no…
Caidan lunged forward jabbing a spear hissing with wild magic—
Too late, too far—
The thick meaty length of the beast’s tail swept wide against the barren earth—
And struck my father.
He grunted in surprise and pain, knocked off his feet—
Hard. Fast. High—
He tumbled recklessly through the air.
Up, up, up—
Higher still—
It almost seemed as if time had paused when he hit the arc’s apex. The burnishing light turned his figure into black shadow before he plummeted—
Straight down.
Oh my gods!
I hurtled forward as he fell .
My father didn’t possess unnatural healing. He wasn’t going to land on the field. No …not with the downward path in which he was falling. He was going to plunge into the chasm.
And Nelle’s quaking aggression was savage—
The shuddering chasm narrowed—
And narrowed—
Closing in on itself.
He was going to be crushed alive before he even smashed upon the rock-strewn earth deep below.
I can’t lose my father too!
Hurling out Leviathan’s braided length, I charged faster, closer, as my father’s hands frantically scrambled for anything on him that would help him catch hold of the edge of the crumbling side of the chasm and survive.
Too late. Too late.
Our wide eyes locked in mutual horror right before he disappeared.
“DAD!” I roared in anguish, slinging my arm forward, letting the lash fly. The tail end swooped down the narrowing crevasse in a snake strike—fast and true.
I didn’t see him. But I felt my father’s weight as he grabbed hold of the lash.
It was a violent tug on my arms.
A cruel jolt on my joints.
Skidding to a halt, I leaned back and dug my boots in deep. “Fuck!” My muscles shook with the heavy load I bore as my father used his momentum to swing sideways and slingshot upward.
He soared from the chasm in a fearsome streak of black, tucking and rolling to land in a crouch, fist to the ground, clouds of dust flying.
In a deafening noise, the earthy walls closed inward, crashing up against each other.
Utter relief squeezed my heart and my knees almost buckled beneath me.
My father was all teeth and a broad, unrestrained grin like he’d just experienced the best rollercoaster ride of his entire life. “HELLSGATE!” he boomed. “HOLY HELLSGATE!”
I was already dashing forward as he rose, throwing myself at him. Squeezing him in a tight hug as he clapped me on the back. “Hells, Dad,” was all I could choke out.
Fear was a sharp inhale of breath. The stiffening of limbs.
Terror infused his voice. “Caidan…”
Letting go, I spun around—
Horror chilled my heart.
I hadn’t known… Hadn’t seen it coming…
My brother’s spine bowed. The cords in his neck strained with agony.
Stabbed into Caidan’s back was the beast’s stinger dripping with poison. The creature raised its tail higher to dangle my brother right in front of its enormous snarling mouth.
Fading sunlight glinted off vicious fangs. Flames and toxic fumes drew up from the deep well of the beast’s guts.
It was going to burn my brother. Incinerate him.
Fear throttled my throat.
My father cried, “Caidan!”
I shoved forward —
Running fast —
Snapped the whip viciously.
The sizzling noise of dark energy cracked above the carnage as the shadowed lash soared through the air, striking the wyrm across the jaw and tangling around a fang —
Wrenched hard —
Yanking the beast’s head around.
Its roar of rage and a blast of flames scorched the side of Caidan’s face.
Skin melted—
Hair caught fire—
Wyrmfire sputtered out as the beast’s snake-like neck followed.
Tail whiplashing, its stinger ripped free from Caidan’s body, flinging him far.
Blood burst from the wound like crimson raindrops.
Caidan’s agonizing scream rang out against the noise of battle.
He smashed hard against the ground, tumbling over to come to an ungainly halt, still and silent.
Poisoned. Dead. I didn’t know.
My blood turned to ice to see my brother so ashen and lying awkwardly, not moving.
But I had another problem, a much bigger one.
The wyrm lowered its fiery, horned head. Quicksilver eyes glared right at me as it growled low and vicious—a promise.
Shit, shit, shit…
With a flick of my wrist, I loosened the lash from the beast’s deadly fang, dodging a snap of its jaws as I bolted. Moving, always moving. My footfall thudded like a machine gun against the shivering uneven ground as I drew the wyrm’s attention from my downed brother and prayed to every god that would hear my plea.
The enormous shadow of the beast and its inflamed-might followed me.
Beneath the collar of my adamere armor, sweat drizzled down my spine. My lungs burned as painfully as the wyrm’s fearsome heat beating at my body.
My father was a blur of panicked speed. He crashed to his knees beside Caidan, running his hands up my brother’s throat, checking for a pulse.
Caidan groaned, stirring weakly, and my father leaned back on his heels, releasing a pent-up breath of relief.
And I did the same.
My father slung an arm around Caidan, rising and hoisting him over his shoulder. Half-twisting my way, he bellowed, “You must hold the wyrm, Gray!” before surging forward, racing toward our medics treating our injured.
Faster, faster, I hurtled, dashing across the field to where chaos ruled over my father’s team. The wyrm roared, fighting against the grappling hooks tying its might—
Beating its wings, straining its spine hard and high—
Stakes and lines of rope pinged free from the ground.
We needed the harpoons!
Without them, we were lost!
I let Leviathan Spinebender soar once more—
The tail of the lash wound around the barbed tip of a wing.
Using its awkward momentum against it, I swung wide—
Hauled strenuously, forcing the wing out, unbalancing the beast—
The wyrm lurched over, one taloned foot crashing against the earth in a colossal thump .
Dirt blasted upward in a blinding wave of grime.
A rush of blustering wind. A fierce wash of scorching heat.
A mighty storm of smoke and dirt plowed into me like a sweltering wall.
My arms shook to keep hold of the beast’s wing. Sweat rolled down my brows and over my gritty lashes, blurring my vision. My boots skidded and slipped over the churned earth, unable to gain traction.
Across the field, Kenton took forever grinding hard on winches to shift the angle of the gigantic weapon. The stiff mechanism creaked in protest as the ancient gun slowly swung toward the monstrous wyrm of fire.
“Move faster!” I roared at Kenton.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuck!
Kenton shot me a pissed-off scowl, muttering under his breath as he surfaced from grinding—
Taking aim—
Firing—
Heavy thumps cut through the air as the weapons were unleashed, flying fast, arching high. A deadly streak against the smoke-inked sky. A rattle of chains as the lines followed—
Mighty thuds as the harpoons struck fiery scales, cracking as they were breached, the barbed tips embedding into flamed flesh.
A deafening bellow of hurt erupted from the wyrm, drowning out the sound of shouting, of my brothers yelling to one another, of more harpoons being fired. Soldiers hammering the ends of chains into the ground.
Kenton and Jett fired again—
And again—
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
The wyrm thrashed and bucked and struggled against the powerful weapons Zrenyth forged to trap those beasts.
Nelle battled frantically to save her wyrm.
A turbulent squall unraveled my whip’s lash from the beast’s wing—
And punched me into the air—
Pummeling me fast and far—
Right into the wall of adamere.
I hit unyielding stone hard.
A startled cry barked from my throat as mind-bending agony ensnared every part of my body. Bones fractured and my ears rang. Sliding downward, I crumpled upon the pitted earth and stared dazedly upwards. Plumes of gritty smoke turned the clouds dark like a grim city skyline.
My brothers… My father…
Nelle…
Grimacing against the pain, I clambered upright to stagger to my feet as bones knitted back together. I swayed woozily, facing a mountain of coiling flames that swallowed the world in blinding light. Fiery might and blistering heat billowed outward. Sweat made my armor stick to my body and ash coated my hair and shoulders.
In the background came the sound of firing shots, the rattle of chains, and the thud of harpoons.
The hammering of stakes and enraged roaring.
But all I saw was her.
And the beast behind her tiny figure.
Everything faded away as I felt myself being beckoned toward Nelle.
All I heard was her heartbeat, a ponderous war drum in my ears, the bassline to the bittersweet melody strumming in my blood, that wicked, ancient strain that kept urging me forward—
Save her, save her, save her.
Soot stained Nelle’s temple and the creases feathered from her narrowed eyes. She spread her bare feet wide apart and braced her stance. The dark magic cupped in her hands spat and sizzled, its wavering shadows shimmering against the falling twilight.
The wyrm swiveled its massive head in my direction, slashing its long tail upward, the stinger slowly circling.
Onward I walked, enthralled, drifting as if caught in a dream. Keeping my gaze fixed on the wyrm, its fathomless, quicksilver eyes stared right back at me. The beast loosened a threatening growl, a noise that I felt vibrate all the way to my bones.
The ends of Nelle’s hair flailed in the blustering currents of wind and fire, as did the t-shirt she wore, the blackened and pockmarked fabric molding to one side of her figure. The beast dwarfed her tiny form as it leaned over. Its huge nostrils flared as it drew in my scent, and the rumble from its throat was the sound of thunder rolling over swollen storm clouds.
Nelle gulped down ragged breaths, and her gray eyes darkened. Feral. There was hardly anything of her left in their depth. She pulled her lips back from straight-white teeth and gave a low warning growl.
Her wyrm reacted—
Bared fangs as large as my forearm—
Inside its yawning mouth, I saw rows and rows of deadly teeth.
The only warning I had was a fearsome inhale of air sucked down its throat—
Before it unleashed its might.
Wyrmfire exploded—
Flames swept toward me—
Glacial, flesh-shredding flames, pale as moonlight, woven through with blistering flames of heat, golden like sunshine.
I had one thought, one wish, and one heartfelt hope left to give Nelle before the firestorm barreled into me.
Pain—
Agonizing pain erupted through my body.
Fire scorched and blistered and flayed my flesh. Boiled the blood in my veins. Melted my eyes, my organs. Reduced my mind to nothingness. Sent my black soul straight to Nine Hells and Hazus.
Her fire devoured me. Consumed me. Turned my bones to cinder, then ash.
Hot currents of wind blew all that remained of me in a dirty stream to scatter over the battlefield like spindrift.
Except—
It hadn’t.
Air buffeted about me as if I stood inside a bubble. I watched flames part all around me like rushing water battering a river boulder, and I breathed in the cool, crisp air that tasted of autumn.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Neither did Nelle.
I blinked in surprise.
As did she.
Neither of us were able to understand why she had saved my life.
As her wyrm had unleashed fire, Nelle had cast an icy gale to protect me.
She stood with her arm arched over her head—frozen in the act of spinning currents of wintry air—staring at me wide-eyed. The wildness was gone from their silvery-gray depth, and her chest heaved with quickened breath as she looked to me as if begging for me to explain the why of it all. But she knew. I could tell the moment she realized why, when silver lined her eyes and tears glistened on her lashes .
She couldn’t hurt me. She didn’t have it in her. She wasn’t like me.
And because I could feel her, like embers stoked in a banked fire, what she felt for me flowed beneath my flesh and warmed my heart.
She still cared for me.
And selfishly, fucking selfishly, I could have fallen to my knees and wept at the injustice of it all.
Nelle’s wyrm was a sea of silver flames against a dying sun.
Yet, the beast’s otherworldly form forged from fire seemed to dim as it found itself trapped and tied down. The dark magic of Zrenyth leeched its might through the embedded harpoons and chains, the ropes that now crisscrossed its mammoth body.
Sweat trickled down my spine from the scorching heat radiating from the beast as it fought against my family and soldiers working fast to cinch the magical lines tighter. With every passing second, the wyrm became weaker and weaker.
Against the sound of my brother’s shouts, the rhythmic thump of hammers driving stakes into the ground, and the furious bellowing of Nelle’s wyrm as it struggled to free itself, Nelle and I stood in front of one another—just a guy and a girl.
Nelle’s brows slashed up as she gave a small, bewildered smile. “It’s a wyrm… I’m a wyrm.”
My huff of laughter sounded wrong to my ears, more raw and rough. “I know.”
She tilted her head slightly, and her wild, pale hair slipped down her chest. “And you’re a Tamer,” she said, then dragged her teeth over her lower lip to roll the trembling flesh into her mouth.
I ruffled the sweat-damp locks at the nape of my neck while hitching a shoulder and blinking rapidly against the heat burning the backs of my eyes. “I have no idea how to tame a wyrm,” I replied hoarsely.
“Charm the fuck out of them?” Her watery smile grew into a grin, and then it faded, as did mine too.
My gaze never left hers. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but it was an impossible choice. What could I do?
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—
I clicked my fingers, indicating I wanted a piece of Zrenyth’s rope my father was holding.
Curious, but understanding what I needed, he sliced a length off the end and while I tossed him Leviathan Spinebender , he threw me the rope. I snatched it out of the air and, with shaky hands, made quick work of tying and looping the frayed ends around itself.
I stepped up to Nelle and she sucked in a deep breath, fear slashing across her sooty features. She reached out to press a placating hand on my chest. “Graysen, please don’t do this…” Her bottom lip wobbled and fresh tears rolled down her dirty cheeks as she asked one last time. “Choose me. Can’t you choose me?”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I couldn’t. I couldn’t allow myself to think of Nelle. Because if I did, I’d turn against my family, against the single goal we’d worked toward all these wretched years—for the girl who stole my heart.
And…
And I’d fail my mother…
Yet again.
My mother with her grassy-green eyes and golden hair, toothy smiles, and a heart full of love. My mother who had, without a single thought for herself, betrayed the Horned Gods to save an innocent girl.
And in turn, those she warned had betrayed her.
Twelve years ago the Horned God with the red hair and forked tongue had shattered every bone in my body and stolen my mother. For herself, or someone else, we didn’t know. We couldn’t even discover the vile creature’s whereabouts.
My mother was alive. And we had one shot at finding the Horned God and saving my mother.
Because whoever or whatever possessed my mother inflicted cruelty upon her.
“Why?” I heard Nelle ask. Opening my eyes, I found her brows nudged together and her features hardened. “I understand you want revenge on the Horned God…but why through me?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, you do. You’ve always had a choice. Destroy the Alverac and let me go.”
“It’s not as easy as that. We need you.”
“We?” I could see her turning the phrase over— we , not I—and felt how much it hurt her.
“We need you, little bird. You’re the key to finding my mother.”
She blinked, her features slackening. She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“My mother’s alive, Nelle.”
Her gray eyes widened and she stared at me, dumbfounded. “It’s been—”
“Twelve years.”
Twelve long years of fruitless searching for the Horned God. Chasing down every lead in every part of the world left us with one miserable conclusion. The only chance we had of finding her was at the Witches Ball.
We’d missed our opportunity seven years ago, but this time, we possessed something of value, something that would entice the closed ranks of those nefarious creatures to invite us in.
“How do you even know she’s still alive?”
My gaze slid to my brother Jett. His pained eyes were glassy, and there was a slight sheen of sweat on his upper lip. He clenched his jaw and rubbed his thumbs across the outside of his tightly fisted fingers. Little shadow, my mother used to call him— Where’s my little shadow?
“We know she lives.” I glanced down at the rope in my hand as I kneaded its coarseness while wishing that I never had to inflict this on her. “Nelle, my mother is alive and she is suffering.”