Chapter 31
Quinn
We left the car near the base of the mountain, out of view in a stand of scrubby trees near the side of the road. After driving through the majority of the day with only a few brief pit stops, I had to stretch the stiffness out of my legs. Evening was setting in again, but having the cover of darkness for this raid would make it easier for us to sneak up on the camp.
I’d carried my messenger bag out of habit, slung over my back. Rollick eyed it. “You should leave that in the car. The less you have weighing you down, the better.”
The thought of leaving behind my stash of medication—and my first aid supplies, and my water bottle, and all the other bits and pieces that went into keeping my health stable—made my pulse stutter. Although if we didn’t make it back to the car, there was a good chance it was because I’d already kicked the bucket.
I tugged at the strap while holding on to the small crossbow with my other hand. “I’ve got the spare ammo in there.”
“Stuff your pockets full,” the demon said. “You’ve got a hoodie with your things somewhere, don’t you? Put that on and fill those pockets too. They’ll be easier to grab for quick reloading that way.” He turned away without waiting for my response. “You’ll need to wait here for a little while anyway. I need to make sure the coast is clear and interrupt that repulsing magic Lance noticed here before.”
How exactly was he going to do that? Rollick didn’t stick around to explain, vanishing into the shadows the moment he’d finished speaking. I hesitated and then popped open the trunk so I could dig my hoodie out of my backpack.
He did have a point. The crossbow put me off-balance as it was. And at this elevation with the sunlight fading, the air was already turning cool. I might appreciate the extra layer once we were even higher up.
Crag stood stoically but not too closely by while I rearranged my belongings. After a moment, Torrent and Lance emerged from the shadows they’d kept to for most of the ride. Torrent leaned against the side of the car and flexed his tentacles. I assumed he’d make most of the trip in shadowy form, but it was reassuring to see him again before we set off.
Lance prowled around the trees, his head tilting to one side and then the other in a way that reminded me of his dragon form even though he was in his human body. “They work too much unnatural magic in this place,” he muttered. “More than tricksy. Sick.”
Seeing his uneasiness made my gut twist. “You don’t have to come,” I started. “You could hang back and guard the car?—”
He whirled toward me with an emphatic shake of his head. “They got me when I stayed back before. Not again. We need to tackle the beasties together. I won’t let them get in my head, and I won’t let them get yours.”
He flashed his claws meaningfully with that last statement, but his eyes still looked wilder than I liked. This mission was only dredging up more of that old trauma for him. He might have made some peace with it when we’d come together last night, but not enough to put it completely behind him.
“Rollick will make sure the beings with the sorcerer magic aren’t around,” I reminded him.
He hummed to himself. “I’d like to show them a thing or two.” He scratched his claws across a tree trunk, starting to carve one of his abstract designs.
Torrent reached for him with his mangled hand, caught himself, and switched to snagging Lance’s arm with a tentacle. He wasn’t used to the new disability yet.
Of course he wasn’t. How long had it taken him to adjust to his injured legs?
“We shouldn’t leave obvious signs that we were here,” he said to the dragon shifter.
Lance snorted. “They’re going to know we came. There’ll be pieces of their minions all over the place to show for it.”
“They won’t know it was definitely us. You made those carvings all over the cabin—some of their followers will have seen them. It’s better to leave as little trace as possible.”
Lance growled discontentedly, but he lowered his hand. He stalked over to me instead and wrapped his arms around me from behind, burrowing his face against the side of my neck. After the confession he’d made yesterday, his touch set off both a flare of heat between my legs and a softer glow of affection in my chest. I was abruptly doubly glad for the extra layer of the hoodie, protecting him from the worst effects of contact with my protective vest.
Torrent watched us for a moment and then stepped closer to loop one tentacle around my forearm, as if he felt the need to stake his own claim. I brushed my fingers over the row of suckers, and his gaze momentarily darkened with desire, but we both knew this wasn’t the time or place for any more intensive indulgence.
Crag stayed poised a few feet away, his gaze flicking to us but his stance rigid. Would he ever touch me again, for more than a brief moment or a necessary flight?
I tried not to think about that possibility, soaking in the tenderness two of my men were offering.
It felt like no time at all when Rollick reappeared. “All right,” he said. “The camp looks pretty sparsely inhabited at the moment. My distractions were effective. Let’s get moving before they peter out and the head honchos return.”
“What exactly were your distractions?” I had to ask.
“Let’s just say I gave them reasons to think you might be a few different places where you definitely aren’t and that aren’t all that close to here.” He jerked his head toward the mountainside. “Are we rescuing this kid or what?”
I raised my chin. “I’m ready.”
Torrent squeezed my arm one last time and slipped into the shadows. Rollick followed him, but I knew even in the darkness that dappled the mountainside, he’d be leading the way for all of the shadowkind men to the spot where he thought we could best launch our attack.
Lance stepped away from me and shifted into dragon form. Crag shifted as well, his leathery wings sprouting from his stone back, and picked me up gingerly. As embarrassing as it was, I knew I was the slowpoke here. It didn’t make any sense for me to insist on walking when the ascent would take us more than twice as long that way. Every minute counted.
I didn’t want this expedition to turn into another disaster. We’d just grab Jonah, quickly observe whatever evidence there was to see about the nature of the fiends we were up against and their plans, and get out of there.
Crag took off into the air, staying close to the darkened rocky landscape as he flapped his wings. We soared up the slope at a more measured pace than I knew he was capable of, since he had to follow Rollick’s course. I wanted to point out that I was perfectly safe here in his arms despite his worries, but after our conversation in the car, I wasn’t sure if that comment would go over well.
It was probably better not to remind him of his fears right before we went into battle.
I hugged the crossbow to my chest so it didn’t bump against him. “Are the bolts and my vest bothering you?”
“It’s no problem for this short a flight,” the gargoyle insisted in his gruff way.
Abruptly, he dropped to the ground by a scrawny sapling. He set me on my feet and glanced around, I assumed to check that at least one of the other men was in range to protect me. Then he lunged into the shadows.
I understood why several seconds later when he burst back into physical form farther up the slope, where I could only just make him out in the dwindling light. He had some kind of creature pinned to the ground for an instant before he ripped its foxlike head right off. Then he was diving back into the shadows with its smoking body, removing the evidence.
A sentry. We must be getting close. I peered beyond him to the jagged edge of rock between the two nearest mountain peaks. We seemed to be heading for that spot.
Crag returned to scoop me up again without another word. I heard a few more faint squeals and gurgles as we went, when one or another of the men on the ground must have dispatched other creatures they encountered.
Crag didn’t come back to earth until we’d reached the ridge. I crouched down between two jutting spikes of rock and peered down toward the shadowkind camp.
The ring of mountains circled what looked like a massive crater with a rippling lake in its middle. A few rough buildings stood around it, maybe to hide supplies. Or maybe in preparation for housing me there. A sliver of ice ran down my spine.
A distant whimpering reached my ears a moment later. I stiffened, squinting at the buildings, but I couldn’t make out any movement. Which one was Jonah inside? How many shadowkind were lurking in the gloom between us and him?
My companions emerged around me, studying the terrain equally intently. “I think there were more here before,” Lance said approvingly. “We can handle this bunch. Slash and sever.” He clicked his claws.
“Don’t get too cocky,” Rollick said, but his tone was languid, as if we were back in his hotel discussing dinner plans. Apparently he wasn’t all that worried at this point either.
“Should we try to take any of them prisoner to question them?” Torrent asked.
The demon frowned. “I haven’t seen any higher beings that’d be able to talk so far. It’s mostly beasties they’ve left guarding the place. If you come across one and have a solid chance, go for it, but we don’t want to leave ourselves vulnerable spending extra time scouring the place.”
He motioned to the buildings. “We have a straight path to get to them but not much cover. Crag and Torrent will charge ahead and clear the way. Lance and I will hang back with Quinn. As soon as we reach the buildings, we check each one. Quinn cajoles the kid so he doesn’t throw a complete fit, Crag picks up the two of them, and we get back to the car as fast as we can move. During all that, everyone keep an eye out for traces of the shadowkind who built this place that might be useful. Any questions?”
Torrent rolled his shoulders. “We go right now?”
“No time like the present.” The demon glanced at me. “Assuming you’re good to go.”
It was hard to be offended by him singling me out when I was the least capable fighter among us by approximately ten miles. I brandished my loaded crossbow with all the bravado I could muster. “As good as I’ll ever be.”
Rollick flicked his hand, and Torrent and Crag leapt forward, Torrent vanishing into the darkness and Crag staying in his gargoyle form. As they barreled ahead of us, I heaved myself over the lip of the crater and dashed down the shallow rocky slope as quickly as I could while making sure I didn’t trip on the uneven ground.
Lance’s claws scrabbled against the stone surface behind me. I didn’t look back, but I suspected Rollick had slipped into the shadows like Torrent had, though for different reasons.
Torrent could move much more easily that way. Rollick simply didn’t want any witnesses that he’d been here.
How much would he intervene even if our lives were at stake?
I tightened my grip on the crossbow. I couldn’t worry about that, only about doing whatever I could to ensure we didn’t get to that point.
As the now-cool breeze whipped through my hair, the first wave of shadowkind creatures burst from the shadows to meet our charge. There were far fewer of them than we’d faced when they’d been the ones descending on us out of the blue, but my pulse still hiccupped at the sight of the unnerving shapes wavering into being as if from nothing.
One thing that looked like an elongated racoon popped into being right in front of me. My finger squeezed on the trigger once—twice. The second bolt caught the thing in the chest, tossing it backward with an agonized hiss and a spurt of smoky blood. As I ran on past its slumped body, Lance slashed through its neck to chop off its head for good measure.
Crag and Torrent caught most of the beasts before they got near me. Crag whipped in one direction and another, tearing through the shadowkind like they were made of tissue paper. Torrent didn’t fully emerge, but his tentacles lashed out of the gloom to smash one creature’s skull and hurl another all the way to the lake.
Feeling a little steadier after my initial victory, I fumbled in my pocket for more bolts and managed to fit one and then another into the crossbow while slowing my pace only a little.
A lizard-like being hurtled at me from the side, and I threw myself away from it, stumbling and landing on my butt. My shot went wild, but then a clawed, ruddy hand snatched out of the shadows and ripped its chest open.
Okay, so Rollick wasn’t just hanging around watching the rest of us do all the work.
A bristly boar-like thing raced toward me, but I saw it quickly enough to aim properly despite my hitch of breath. I caught it square in the forehead. It tumbled over onto its back, and Lance finished that one off too with a triumphant snarl.
Shrieks and grunts were echoing all across the crater’s sides now. Smoking bodies slumped everywhere I looked. I shoved myself to my feet and hurried on toward the semi-circle of buildings near the lake.
A sudden, sickening thought unfurled in my head, making my stomach clench. How many of these creatures even wanted to be fighting us? We had no idea how many were supporting our enemies because they believed in their cause or wanted to impress them, and how many had been forced into obedience with their overlords’ new sorcerous powers.
It didn’t really matter, did it? We had to get through them either way. If the shadowkind men around me felt any remorse about slaughtering beings who might be victims rather than villains, they weren’t letting it stop them.
Torrent and Crag would have killed Lance to protect me yesterday if they’d had to. They wouldn’t have wanted to, but they’d have done it.
For me.
That realization left me chilled from head to toe. I picked out my lovers’ forms in the darkness: Crag rampaging across the landscape, Torrent flinging out his tentacles, Lance springing this way and that.
The gargoyle’s face was set in a mask of grim determination. He was taking no pleasure or pride in this fight. Maybe he saw slaughtering as many of the attackers as he could as the only way he could start to make up for the minor injury he’d given me.
Torrent still hadn’t completely emerged from the shadows. He was too wounded now to be able to fully fight, but he was still giving it his all because he refused to back down when my life was on the line.
And Lance leapt from place to place with his typical energy and grace, but I caught the nervous twitch of his head here and there as he cast quick glances around the crater. Afraid of who else might be lurking here and what they could do to him. How they might warp his mind so he barely belonged to himself.
My gut balled into a cold, queasy knot. Since I’d met these men, I’d lost a lot, but that was because of our enemies. The three of them had given me the chance to become something more than I’d been before. To discover new sides to myself, to recognize new skills and desires… Right now, I was standing up to these nightmarish creatures like I’d never have believed I could weeks ago.
But what had I given my men in return? Looking at them now, I couldn’t help thinking that I’d taken more than I’d given. I’d left them with less of everything except the damage they’d been dealt.
What kind of love was that?
A larger creature loomed over Lance from behind, and my arms reacted automatically. I shot it in the head and the chest, and it stumbled enough to give the dragon shifter time to whirl around and finish the job.
I could protect the men a little… but not half as much as they did for me.
Something clicked together in my head, fragments of ideas colliding into a picture that filled me with a sense of horrified resignation. That emotion solidified into resolve as it sank in my chest like a stone.
They were willing to do all kinds of horrible things to defend me. I’d already pushed away my own parents and every friend I’d had or could have had to spare them the trouble and pain that came from being close to me, even when the only reason was my uncertain health. I’d gotten by on my own, keeping the burdens of my life to myself as much as I possibly could, for years. Why wouldn’t I do the same for these men when they were facing so much worse?
If I really cared about them, if I really wanted to protect them properly, then I couldn’t shy away from being as monstrous as they were.
My throat had constricted, but I didn’t have time to wallow in the discomfort of the decision. I shoved more bolts into the crossbow, shot another small beast that scurried toward me, and then my sneakers were thundering onto the flatter terrain near the lake to reach the closest building.
Crag pushed ahead of me, jerking around me with an awkward motion to make sure he didn’t come close to touching me. He slammed the door open. A shadowkind creature sprang at us from inside, but he wrenched its body in two without missing a beat.
The small room inside the hut was empty other than a few crates marked with grocery logos. Food for the shadowkind who enjoyed it or for the mortal prisoner they’d planned to keep?
We dashed onward, and a sob reached my ears from a hut around the curve of the lake. I pushed myself faster.
Torrent made it there first, one tentacle yanking the door off its hinges, the other whipping inside to snatch at the shadowkind guarding the boy.
“What’s going on?” Jonah wailed.
I lowered the crossbow to my side as I hurtled through the doorway. The little boy was crouched by the far wall on a thin mattress, shaking, his eyes red-rimmed. For a second, he stared at me with as much terror as if I really had been one of the monsters. Then his face brightened slightly. “You’re the lady. You were talking to Mommy and Daddy.”
“I’m here to bring you someplace safe,” I told him, bending down, and to my relief he raised his arms to welcome my embrace. An instant later, Crag caught us up from behind.
Jonah squealed and squirmed, and I squeezed him tight, struggling to keep my grip on my weapon at the same time. “It’s all right,” I murmured. “This one’s a friend. We’re getting you out of here.”
The boy whimpered but clung to me without further resistance. Another creature flung itself at me, and I had no way of fending it off now. Its claws raked through my calf in the instant before Lance slashed through it. Then we were hurtling off into the air, my leg stinging, the little boy shivering in my arms, and this one small wrongness made right.
We’d shown our enemies that they couldn’t call all the shots. That we wouldn’t always be running away from them while they pushed us closer and closer to the edge of destruction. I was pushing back now, and I intended to drive them right out of this realm if it was the last thing I did.
But first I was going to have to do a little destroying of my own to fix the mess I’d made.