Chapter 22
Rosabel La Rouge
Present day
My face was so sweaty I could have dipped it into water. My hands, my entire body shook as I slowly turned around to see, praying still that my eyes told me my ears were fucking liars.
They didn’t.
A scream built up in me when I saw the animal sitting on its hind legs barely three feet away from me, moss-green eyes locked on mine. I bit my tongue and then my lips, and I squeezed the handles of my guns so tightly my hands hurt, just to stop that scream from ripping out of me and shaking this entire damn tree.
In front of me was a vulcera—a very specific kind of fox that, as far as I remembered from my Preternatural Beasts class in school, was found in only two places in the world (one of them was Alaska, pretty sure).
At first, my mind was filled with stupid, silly questions— like how would a vulcera make it all the way to this place? And who let it in? And don’t they enjoy snow and ice and generally very cool weather?
Yes, all those questions stood, but none were going to change the most important thing here—that this vulcera was here for me if the way it was looking right at me was any indicator.
The second most important thing was that I was going to really, really die in the next few minutes.
At least the animal that would end me was magnificently beautiful.
The vulcera is a type of fox, indeed, one of the oldest animals to have been touched and mutated by magic, possibly since the beginning of time. Their eyes have vertically slit pupils like a fox’s, and the shape of their face and ears and front of the body is identical to a fox, except the vulceras are bigger in size, and where a fox has fur, the vulcera has scales of a lizard, colored a deep charcoal. The lower part of its body, the back legs and tail, are those of a lizard, though not identical. Its back feet have larger claws and its tail is thick at the base, over thirty inches long, and thins toward the tip, which is as sharp as a blade.
It also has these curves, like petals of a flower on its back, longer at the base of its neck, smaller as they went down to its tail. The books call them antennas , and the tips of these curves are iridescent, shimmering in every color of the rainbow—the result of their magic in contact with oxygen.
I couldn’t really remember much else about the vulceras, except that they were excellent swimmers, hunted fish and rabbits and any kind of small animals, and their lizard-like scales were very hard to cut through with metal and wood. I’d never heard of a Greenfire familiar being a vulcera before. I didn’t think we even had those in Maryland, to be honest, but the moss-colored eyes with those pupils that reminded me so much of catfairies were unmistakable.
Just my fucking luck.
“Hi, there,” I said for no apparent reason other than my brain trying to cling to survival by any means necessary—even trying to talk to an animal to make it out of this alive.
The vulcera turned its head to the side, its eyes curious. Judging by the antennas on its back, it was a female—males had very few, if any.
She stood so perfectly still, her front feet shaped like paws, while her back lizard-like ones pointed to the sides. Her tail fell off the side of the branch pin straight, and it almost looked like an arrow that showed me exactly where I was going: down.
“I’m sure you know by now that I’m Mud,” I whispered, licking my dry lips. I raised my hand to wipe my brow, then pointed my guns at her again. “So…are you going to just skip the show-off part and attack me?”
The vulcera turned her head to the other side, still as curious.
A second ticked by. I was surprised the guns hadn’t fallen from my hands yet, considering how they were shaking.
Then the vulcera moved.
With the gracefulness of a feline, she stood on all fours, raised her tail until the blade-like tip of it pointed at the back of her head, and she began to spin around. She was most definitely going to show me her magic—and it was even more beautiful than any other animal I’d seen so far.
The way she moved her paws would make you think that she was climbing invisible steps until she was a few inches off the branch, spinning in the air, guiding herself with her tail. The antennas on her back came to life, spilling out those little fireflies not only in green but in red and blue and yellow as well. She spun around, moving her feet and legs and tail and neck as if she were in a choreographed dance, and goddess, I wanted her.
I wanted her by my side every second of every day for the rest of my life. I wanted to look at her, pet her, swim with her, sleep with her, watch her breathe for hours on end. I wanted to feed her and bathe her and do every little thing with her right there by my side—and this insane urge that came to me so suddenly knocked the breath right out of my lungs.
That’s not where it ended. I saw her magic so clearly, saw her level and her endurance and her stamina—an image of her running up a mountain covered in snow popped into my head as she spun around in the air. I saw how she would reinforce my own magic, how’d she share hers with me, how her intuition would be tied to me, how she’d learn my body language to a point where it would feel like she could read my mind.
And, in return, I saw how I would give her purpose, how I’d teach her the ways of man, how I’d raise her consciousness to a new level simply by sharing a bond with her.
The feeling, these images in my head couldn’t have lasted longer than a few seconds, and suddenly I understood exactly why every player who’d bonded had laughed and played with their new familiar the way they had.
Fuck, that was intense . So intense I wanted to grab her and steal her away from this game and keep her in my room forever. So intense that I’d forgotten I was in the Iris Roe, and that she was done showing me who she was and what she was capable of, so now it was my turn .
My turn to show her my magic, how much control of it I had, how much raw power. To show her what she would get in return if she chose to bond with me.
The problem was… “I don’t have any magic.”
My voice shook. The vulcera moved her head to the sides like a confused little puppy.
Tears in my eyes because, despite everything, I still didn’t want to fucking die.
“I’m…I’m sorry. Please don’t come closer. I don’t want to shoot you.”
Did she even understand what the hell I was saying?
Doubtful, and she hardly gave my guns pointed at her face a second glance. In fact, she kept her eyes on me, waiting patiently, never moving a single inch while I slowly backed away.
“So just…just stay there, okay? Just stay there and I’m going to leave you alone. You won’t ever have to see me again. You can just go back to…wherever it is you came from.”
I had barely taken the fourth step back when she realized I didn’t plan on showing her my magic.
She stood up.
No, damn it, stay!
That growl again that vibrated on my skin and I felt it all the way to my marrow. It came from deep in her throat, and she slowly lowered her head as if preparing to attack.
Death had never been closer.
“No, don’t!”
She jumped.
I fired both my guns.
It was incredible how she moved, like her body was made out of liquid. She twisted to the sides and my bullets missed her by inches, but to get away from them she had to move to the left, so she didn’t fall on top of me. Instead, her front paw only slammed against my shoulder and pushed me to the side so hard I couldn’t keep my balance.
My feet slipped and suddenly I was falling again—only for a second. I hit wood with the side of my face, and I could have sworn my skull cracked on impact, but somehow, I was still conscious. Somehow, I was already moving, motivated by sheer terror and my survival instincts. I pushed myself up, ignoring the warmth that was dripping down my cheek. My guns were raised, and I looked up just in time to see the vulcera jumping at me from the same spot I’d just been standing on.
Again, I shot my guns, knowing that I’d miss, and I moved back at the same time. All those countless hours of my training kicked in, and suddenly I was not the weakest player thrust into this deadly game, but I was an IDD agent sent on a mission to save lives.
This vulcera was coming for my head, and I was to stop her by any means necessary.
Still, the way she moved was incredible. The instinct to drop a gun and reach for my magic was strong. I even started whispering the words of a spell that would have raised magic as thick as a brick wall to distract her before I attacked again. Very standard strategy, one that never let me down—except I had no magic to use, so I didn’t feel the pull and tug inside me at all. My finger was empty, too. My father’s ring was gone, Iris knew where.
And these guns were no good against this creature because she saw the bullets coming and moved away far too quickly.
Definitely much faster than me.
It sucked to have to put my guns away, and I barely had time to grab two daggers from their sheaths underneath my jacket before the vulcera fell on top of me with a growl that would have you thinking she was a damn lioness.
I moved without having to think about it. The branch I’d landed on wasn’t thick and for once that was a good thing. All it took was for me to put my forearm underneath her jaws to stop her from biting off my face and stab her right on the base of where her leg connected with her torso—on skin, not scale, where my knife could slide in easily and cause some damage.
At the same second, I tipped myself over with all my strength, meaning to fall off the branch together with her.
It worked. She howled in pain, raising her head, giving me enough space to throw her off balance and launch myself off the branch, but the tip of her tail had been wrapped around my ankle without my even noticing it, so she came down with me.
The fall hurt, but I was back on my feet before she was on hers. I didn’t wait, just jumped off again and went lower still, as a couple of players who still hadn’t found their familiar watched me curiously.
Behind me, the vulcera roared—now pissed off.
I knew I couldn’t outrun her, but I did have a plan, believe it or not. Now that the thought of I’m going to die any second now wasn’t plaguing me, my body had taken over and my mind followed. Ahead of me was exactly what I needed—those ropes that came down branches everywhere, but these were close to one another and thick enough that I didn’t think they’d snap so easily.
The vulcera roared again—so close to me I could feel the heat of her body against my back. I didn’t dare turn to see her face for fear it would slow me down. I just put my daggers back in their holsters and jumped when I was still two feet away from the branch curving upward, on the sides of which were those ropes.
I grabbed the one on the right and prayed with all my being that it was strong enough to carry my weight.
It was.
It spun me all around the thick branch and I came flying from the other side. The vulcera jumped to catch me at the perfect time. I raised my legs and kicked her on the side of her head and neck with the tips of my boots hard.
The cries of pain she let out when she slammed against the tree would have been heartbreaking if I’d stopped to think. As it was, I let go of the rope and landed just a couple of feet away, as the vulcera shook her head to clear it, still not on her feet all the way.
I didn’t let myself think or fear or second-guess how far I was, or if I’d make it. With the rope in my hand still, I ran, screaming, and slammed my shoulder onto her side—the same side I’d stabbed just a minute ago.
The vulcera stumbled back. Not nearly as far as I’d have liked, but I made it work because what other choice did I have? I pulled the rope lower and ran to her other side so that it caught her right in the middle. She roared, even more pissed off than before, but I’d already jumped off, the rope secured in my hands, and I didn’t plan to let go. I spun around the branch again just like before, only this time, I took the vulcera with. The rope went under her front leg and up to the side of her neck, pinning her in place—but I didn’t stop there.
I grabbed the rope on the other side, too, and I jumped, this time much slower because I’d had no momentum, but the result was the same. Both ropes were wrapped around the vulcera like an X against her chest, pressing her against the tree. They held her in place as she struggled to free herself, to bite off the rope underneath her jaws, but she couldn’t quite reach it.
“ Stop fighting !” I told her, breathing heavily, the rope still in my hand, hoping she listened. Hoping she stopped struggling so I could run, get away from this place, go higher up or down below the never-ending tree—it didn’t matter. So long as she didn’t come after me.
But then…
“That was impressive, not gonna lie.”
My blood turned ice-cold in an instant. I stopped breathing, blinking, thinking of anything else other than it can’t be. It cannot possibly fucking be.
That voice…
“Hello, sweetness. Missed me?”
Yes, I knew that voice.
“No, I suppose not. But I don’t remember you being able to move like that. Well done.”
An agonizingly slow applause followed.
I turned around, sure that it was all in my head, sure that this game, or this fight—or even the vulcera, who was still struggling to free herself—had done something to me.
My eyes searched the empty branches, the large leaves, the lightbulb flowers…
“Now I’m curious—what else can you do? How far can you bend?” I followed the voice with my eyes until I saw the shape of him. “And most importantly, would you be willing to demonstrate for me? Without your clothes on, that is.”
Heat spilled inside my body with the same intensity, reaching all the way up to my cheeks, but it had nothing to do with shame.
Taland Tivoux was sitting on a branch upside down, two levels over me, with his leg up and his elbow resting on his knee, watching me with a mischievous grin on his face .
“What the fuck.”
The words slipped out of me and it wasn’t even a question. It was too absurd, too senseless that Taland would be sitting on this very tree, upside down, looking up at me while I looked up at him.
Impossible .
“I knew I’d find you here first,” he said, then straightened his legs and dragged himself over to the edge of the branch. “So, what are you planning to do about that thing?”
“Wha—”
The vulcera.
My heart jumped and a lump formed in my throat instantly when I remembered what I’d been doing just now, and why those ropes were in my hands still. The vulcera had bitten off one, and she was in the process of chewing the other—possibly seconds away from breaking free and coming for me.
“ No, no, no… ” I dropped the ropes and moved back, a gun in one hand and a knife in the other within seconds—my pathetic, pathetic defense against a creature like that.
“You’re not going to make her submit to you with those , sweetness. Be smart, will you?”
Damn it, how is this possible?!
“What the hell are you doing here, Taland?” Are you even real?
“Why, playing the game, of course,” he said with a shrug.
Fuck me.
“Are you here to kill me, is that it?” I asked because he was still there. He hadn’t disappeared, which meant he wasn’t a figment of my imagination. No way could I have kept it up for this long.
“Because you can just sit back and watch her finish the job,” I added, and I could have laughed at the stupidity of my own words.
Taland, in the Iris Roe with me, barely a few branches away.
The vulcera, seconds away from freeing herself.
“Your life is mine to take, sweetness. Mine only, ” Taland said, and I couldn’t even look at him because the vulcera was now free.
Fuck, she was free .
She spit out the pieces of rope she’d chewed, growling as she licked her right paw, her eyes instantly locking on mine.
“That creature is not going to kill you, but you’re going to have to bond with her before she hurts you,” the asshole continued.
I shook my head, jumping off the branch onto a lower one as the vulcera slowly stalked toward me with her head low.
“I can’t bond—I don’t have magic.” Which he already knew.
I looked around us to find a better spot, and thicker, longer ropes to stop the vulcera with. I really didn’t want to hurt her, but if she left me no choice, I had to kill her. I had to survive this bullshit, didn’t I?
Not really, said an ugly voice in my head.
“But you have plenty of strength,” Taland said, his voice coming from a little closer. I risked a glance up to see that he’d jumped onto another branch, and he was now standing on it upright, on the same side as me. “Familiars need to be made to submit to bond—that’s all there really is to it. And if you can’t make them submit with magic…”
The asshole shrugged as he walked closer, his eyes moving from the vulcera to me before he simply jumped to the side of the tree, then proceeded on the other side of it. Once more, he walked upside down and looked up at me, smiling still.
My heart squeezed uncomfortably.
The vulcera jumped—and I did, too.
I didn’t think it through at all. I just copied Taland, threw myself on the side of the tree, landed on my knees as the world tilted violently in front of my eyes, and I stood up on the other side, just like that.
Now I was standing parallel with Taland, who was three branches away, watching me. Watching the upper side of the branch I walked on—or was it the lower? No idea.
But the vulcera was still there, and she was coming. So, I ran.
For a second there, I heard her footsteps—her running below the branch, me over it. It was the strangest sensation—I felt her tail as it slammed against the wood with each new step, and it was inside my head as well.
Then I noticed the shadow coming closer to me—Taland, jumping branches, running together with us.
“I can’t give you my magic for this—she needs to feel yours. And you can’t outrun her. She’s spelled to chase you until the end of the game,” he called, and I jumped on the branch to the right, farther away from him.
He laughed.
“Make her submit. That’s the only way you’ll win, sweetness,” he called. “Make her submit!”
I’ll just keep running—both from the animal and you, thank you very much, I thought.
And I was going to. I wasn’t planning to stop until my legs gave up on me, but it wasn’t meant to be.
The vulcera was done playing games. She caught up with me in record time, and when she slammed her paws on my back, I fell forward, rolling on the branch and falling down— or up? —another level.
Cursing under my breath, I pushed myself to stand again as fast as I could because I knew she was coming. Taland was nowhere to be seen, but she was approaching me slowly, stalking toward me, eyeing me like I was her prey, head low and tail slicing the air behind her.
Unfortunately for me, Taland was right—I couldn’t outrun her.
My only option remained to fight until I either killed her or she killed me.
Make her submit.
How in the world could I do that without my magic? I tried to pull it out of me again, instinctively searching for my ring, searching for that spark that used to burn so brightly. It used to enlighten the inside of my mind so fast, and I took it for granted. Now that I was without it, I realized just how big a part of me my magic had been. It was what I’d turned to for anything—to fight, to distract myself, to play, to draw strength from.
And if a vulcera wasn’t about to bite into my neck any second, I’d have sat and let out the wave of tears that hit me from the inside right now.
Except, against all odds, that gnawing ache for my magic gave me hope.
Rainbow. That Rainbow with all those colors was in this game.
Never mind that Taland Tivoux was somehow here, and if he was actually really real —which I doubted for obvious reasons—he was going to kill me if the vulcera didn’t first. Never mind that I had no magic to make this beast submit to me if I tried.
So, I wouldn’t try.
Instead, I was going to force her to surrender with my body and my weapons alone.
Again, I didn’t really have any clear plan in mind on how I was going to achieve that, but when the vulcera was three feet away, then lowered down another inch as she prepared to launch herself at me, I moved.
I jumped away from her reach and continued to run to the other side of the branch. Her tail missed me by a short inch. Run, run, run! my own thoughts urged me, and I did. I ran all around the branch like it was a perfectly natural thing to do, and the vulcera ran after me, never missing a beat. My long-bladed daggers were in my hands and I searched my surroundings as I went, jumping at the last second from one branch to the other to distract the vulcera because that’s the only strategy I had. She was faster than me, but if she didn’t know where I was going, she’d waste precious seconds making turns and jumping, seconds I used to my advantage as best I could.
No Taland anywhere—he’d probably been in my head—but other players stopped and stared at me as I went, curious, afraid, confused. I paid them no attention, until I saw a woman still waiting for her familiar, standing in the middle of two branches that met at the top to form an upside-down V, with ropes hanging in the middle of it.
It was exactly the kind of spot I was looking for to tie up the vulcera— properly this time. One chance, that was all I’d get. I was already exhausted while the beast seemed to be perfectly capable of running for hours. The pain in my bad leg had turned up a notch, too. If I missed this shot, I was going to get eaten.
So, I screamed at the woman wearing dark red leathers, “ Move! ”
She kept looking at me, confused, brows narrowed, and she didn’t move right away, even though she could tell I wasn’t about to slow down. But once she saw and heard the roars of the vulcera behind me, she let out a small scream and jumped to the nearest branch.
I moved to the right as I sheathed my daggers for the moment, and I stepped on the side of the tree, no longer shocked at the fact that I didn’t fall. I continued higher up, and through the corner of my eye I saw the shape of the vulcera when she jumped with her paws raised to tear into me.
I jumped, too, onto the other side of the branch and reached for the thick ropes in the middle.
Not fast enough.
Claws on my back, and even though the leather that Poppy had spelled for me held, the pain was incredible. The impact pushed me forward, and I swung hard as the rope between my hands complained with a screeching sound. My back was on fire and I gritted my teeth, feet in front of me to kick the vulcera if she jumped me from the front, but she didn’t. She chased me around the back of the branch just like I’d hoped, so I let go of the rope and continued to the other side, going against my every instinct to run upside it. I’d leave Spiderman to shame with the way I moved all the way to the top, to where the thick branches connected with one another, where I had access to all four ropes that went right through the middle.
The vulcera roared as she jumped, the sound filling my head.
I jumped, too, with two ropes in my hands, feet in front, aiming for her face.
A scream escaped me when the soles of my boots slammed onto her jaws. The next moment could have moved in slow motion for me because I saw every detail—when I made impact; when her head jerked to the side; when her paws tried to tear into my legs but slid down the leather of my pants; when she spun around at the last second, so incredibly fast when she was just inches away from the branch, and landed on her feet.
That part I didn’t see coming.
I’d hoped she’d hit the branch on her side or back to give me a moment to tie these ropes around her neck, but she landed on her feet instead like a damn cat.
No time to change course, though—I was way too close. With another scream, I landed on the vulcera’s back, right on her antennas, and the roar she let out was as loud as it was painful .
The movement of my own hands turned to a blur. It felt like I wasn’t in charge of my own body right now—my instincts had taken over completely. I wrapped both ropes around the vulcera’s neck twice as she wailed in pain, the sound of it cutting through me.
Damn it, I didn’t want to hurt her. It fucking killed me to hear her screeching cries, but I also had no choice. I had to secure those ropes around her neck as she tried to jump and get me off her back, used her tail to hit me on the shoulders hard, but I didn’t give up until I was sure she wasn’t going anywhere.
Then I jumped off her back and rolled on the wood, too disoriented to keep my balance. I ended up falling another few feet below.
Her roars didn’t stop. As much as I wanted to sit down and give myself a chance to breathe, a chance to calm down and rest my limbs, there was still a chance that she might manage to free herself, and I couldn’t let that happen. If she did, I wasn’t going to be able to tie her up again. This was my last chance.
So, I went back to where she was still struggling between the branches, the ropes tight around her neck, the colors on her antennas half ruined where I’d sat on her back. I reached behind her for the other two ropes to tie her limbs as well. The fear kept me focused and the adrenaline kept me numb, so I moved fast. I tied her tail and her back leg as well as I could, then moved the rope around one of the vertical branches closest to me and pulled.
Her roars cut off for a second because the rope squeezed her neck tightly enough to choke her. By the time I came in front of her again, my dagger was ready. I grabbed her ear in one hand and pulled up her head a little so she could breathe, then pressed the tip of the blade under her chin where she had no scales.
“ Stop! ” I shouted with all my remaining strength.
She did.
Fuck.
I was breathing heavily, and so was she. She growled, showing me her sharp teeth, but she didn’t try to reach for me or claw my face off. She knew I’d stab her faster, and she wouldn’t recover fast enough to end me. She knew, so she kept her paws down and those beautiful moss green eyes on me.
My hand was steady as I went closer and closer, holding her head down with all my strength.
“Stop it,” I whispered, my nose almost touching her muzzle. “I don’t want to hurt you. I have no magic anymore and I can’t show you how much I had before I became… this .” My eyes closed and I gritted my teeth, willing myself to keep going. “But I promise you, I don’t want to hurt you. If you don’t come after me, I won’t. ”
The vulcera blinked her eyes slowly.
“Do you understand me?”
Another blink.
She didn’t move, didn’t growl, didn’t even show me her teeth anymore. She just stared at me, and in that unusual green of her eyes I could almost read the thoughts in her head, how she promised me, in return, that when she freed herself, she was going to swallow me fucking whole.
Kill her, the reasonable part of me insisted. This was an animal—she couldn’t think rationally. She was in this game to serve a purpose and she was programmed to kill me even if she didn’t want to. She wasn’t going to stop chasing me if I let her go.
Do it, do it, do it!
I screamed—in frustration this time. I couldn’t kill this vulcera while she was tied up like this, unable to fight for her life at least. Fucking hell, I just couldn’t do it.
I fell back on my ass on the branch, so angry at myself I could set something on fire with my eyes alone.
“I can’t do it,” I kept whispering. “I can’t. I can’t do it.”
And this was another weakness of mine that was going to be the reason why I never made it to the Rainbow.
Raising my knees, I rested my elbows on them, lowered my head, and breathed. The vulcera didn’t make a single sound, just watched me, probably thinking I had lost my fucking mind.
“Enough.” I’d wasted enough time with this. Death was inevitable— why was I still insisting, still fighting, still hoping?
A couple of minutes later, I stood up and cut the ropes I’d tied her with one by one.
Yeah, I’d definitely lost my damn mind.
I reached for my guns again as I stepped back because freeing her didn’t mean that I was just going to let her eat me. I was still going to try to get away. So, I stepped back, my limbs shaking with exhaustion. I stepped back while she finally shook off all the pieces of rope on her body and looked up at me.
I was ready.
“Go ahead,” I whispered, waving her over with my gun, knowing full well that I was too weak to even fight properly anymore. She wouldn’t even need to put much effort into killing me.
Except she wasn’t coming.
She wasn’t moving at all as she watched me.
“Come on, what are you waiting for?”
The words came out slurred, my voice barely there.
“Fuck,” I breathed when my hands became too heavy to hold up—or maybe my weapons had somehow magically gained a few pounds?
My legs, too. They gave up on me before I even realized it, and then I was on my knees in front of the vulcera, completely helpless. The vulcera who sat on those strange hind legs, watching me curiously as if to say, you’re just going to make it this easy for me?
Why, yes , I answered her in my mind. Yes, I am.
Black dots spread in my vision until I couldn’t even see her anymore. Every ounce of energy in my body was already gone. I was empty.
My last thought before I felt rough wood against my cheek was that I was thankful, after all, because I’d prefer to not feel it when she sank her teeth in my neck.