Chapter 14
Fourteen
The floor trembled under my feet, dust sifting from the rafters. Tay and I collapsed together, practically melting into the floor.
He rolled onto his side, curling up as another coughing fit took him. I ran back to bolt the door behind us.
“You all right?” he managed, his voice raspy and sore.
“Fine,” I promised as I crossed to the window of the tower, heart hammering. From here, I had a clear view of the square below and of Orx’s shop across the way, where I’d left Lidi safe.
But maybe nothing was safe anymore.
A massive burrower tore free from the earth in the middle of the square, its armored hide glistening.
Dairen ran toward it, his blade flashing. Which one of them had lost his ability to shift? Was it Dairen, Anayla, Maura, Fieran? Someone had screamed for Ander’s help.
The monster slammed into the front of Orx’s shop. The window shattered, raining shards down on the burrower’s unfeeling hide.
“Come on, ugly,” Dairen called, and as the burrower turned toward him, he slashed his sword across its maw. The burrower jerked back, slamming into Orx’s shop so hard the building shook.
Dairen turned and ran, drawing it away, and the monster followed.
He whirled to face it just as the creature lunged, striking like a serpent. It caught Dairen around the middle, slamming him against a wall. My nails dug into the windowsill. Dairen hacked at its side, blood spraying—but the burrower twisted and lashed, and Dairen went down hard.
He didn’t rise.
“Gods, no.” Who was near enough to help him? I pressed my face to the glass, trying to see every angle of the street. When it didn’t work, I tried to get the latches open, finally throwing the window open.
“Tay, are you all right if I leave you to help…” I didn’t know how I could help.
“I’m good,” he promised me.
I ran down the stairs. I was the only one close to Dairen; he was right outside the mayor’s hall. Maybe I could get to him and drag him in if the burrowers were distracted by the other shifters.
When I reached the bottom floor, I was halfway to the door when the wood groaned under the pressure of something slamming against it from the outside. The burrowers were trying to force their way in.
I staggered back, my pulse a wild drum in my ears. There was no way out.
Tay and I were in trouble.
Back up the stairs, two at a time. I burst into the tower room again. I sealed the door, then ran over and leaned out the window.
Dairen lay crumpled on the stones, blood pooling beneath him.
Fieran swayed on his feet, his face pale, one hand pressed to his side where blood seeped through his shirt.
He sheathed his sword, magic lining them both for a second, before he knelt and lifted his friend onto his shoulders.
Fieran staggered upright, looking as if he were barely standing, but still he reached for his friend.
The door to Orx’s shop stood open. I blinked, sure I was seeing something wrong.
Lidi stood at the door, beckoning them toward her. Toward safety.
For a stunned second, joy at seeing my sister alive and well after the burrowers’ attack on the shop lit my heart. But the door yawning wide open was an invitation not just to the shifters, but to every burrower left alive.
Where was Orx?
Too late, he reached her side, reaching to close the door. Then he stopped, his gaze following hers.
Fieran shouldered his wounded friend, staggered across the square, and disappeared inside. The door slammed shut between us.
“Lidi,” I whispered, terror rising sharp in my throat.
Through the window of the shop, shadows flickered. I caught only glimpses, fragments that made no sense: Fieran looming, his hands raised. Orx’s stout shape collapsed backward. My sister’s upturned face, her expression impossible to read as golden light reflected off her skin.
Then that awful reddish glow. The awful, unmistakable glow of magic unraveling.
The glow that had surrounded me in those last seconds when the Fae bled my magic from me.
“No!” My fists beat against the stone windowsill, as if I could shatter it and throw myself across the square. My throat tore with soundless protest.
The light ripped out of her small frame, drawn into him. Her body sagged. Fieran’s shoulders bowed, golden fire kindling in his veins.
I couldn’t breathe.
There was a thud against the house as if it had been hit by a cart. A burrower. The tower itself seemed to creak. I froze, heart pounding.
The door below creaked and groaned under the weight of claws, the screech of mandibles tearing through wood. I held my breath, hoping it would hold.
And then there came the skittering sound of talons over stone.
They were inside.
I spun, ready to throw myself over Tay’s fevered body, to be a shield if nothing else, as I desperately searched for a weapon. Anything that might be able to hold them back. But there was little in the room, just the table I had already shoved in front of the door and a few chairs.
The door burst inward. The table exploded toward me, two of the legs breaking off under the door’s force, and it tilted to one side. I jumped between it and Tay, but the table came to a stop.
A burrower slithered into the room, its armored hide glistening with slime.
Everything in me tensed to run.
Instead, I stepped toward it.
I grabbed a chair and hurled it at the creature. It shattered uselessly against its shell. Snatching up another, I raised it like a shield, planting myself between it and my brother.
“Come on then, asshole,” I told the monster, trying to summon all my strength.
The burrower lunged.
But it never reached me.
It exploded in a burst of golden fire.
I turned away instinctively, dropping the chair and raising my arms to shield myself.
When the light died, Fieran stood framed in the doorway.
The burrower collapsed in a smoking heap at his feet.
“You’re safe,” he told me confidently. “That was the last of them.”
He looked as if he expected me to fall into his arms, to weep with gratitude, and let him hold me.
Instead, I shoved past him so hard he stumbled. “What did you do to her?” My voice cracked, wild and furious. “Where is my sister?”
“Cara—”
“Don’t.” I spun on him, chest heaving, my fists clenched so tight my nails bit into my palms. “Don’t you dare touch me. Protect my brother!”
I bolted from him, down the steps and across the square to where the door to Orx’s shop had been shattered. The interior was pure chaos—shelves overturned, bottles and jars shattered across the floor. Orx groaned in the corner, clutching his head.
Lidi was slumped on the floor. She reached out for me, and I pulled her into my lap, whispering nonsense like you’re fine and everything is all right.
Words that are always lies, or we wouldn’t need to say them out loud and try to convince ourselves they’re true.
I held her tight, my tears burning down my face.
Behind me, the sound of movement. Heavy boots shifting across wooden floorboards, a groan, a curse. I turned just in time to see Dairen—Dairen, who I had watched fall, blood soaking the stones—push himself upright.
Alive.
Healed.
Whole.
Magic glowed faintly across his wounds, sealing them into faint scars.
I stared at him, horror curling in my gut. Fieran had stolen my sister’s magic to save him.
“Lidi.” My voice came out cracked and broken, raw with the emotion I always tried to protect her from.
She struggled up in my arms. “It’s all right, Cara.”
More lies.
Ander and Fieran crowded the doorway.
Fieran carried my brother’s sleeping form.