Chapter 22
Quinn
Isat on the sofa with my computer poised on my lap, staring at the article on the screen. My stomach felt as if it’d plummeted right out of my body, through the floor, and possibly all the way down to the center of the earth.
Massacre in Isolated Commune, the headline read. The rest of the report went on to describe how the bloody bodies of nearly thirty men and women had been found in a tiny community in the wilderness of northern Norway just a few hours ago.
“Each of the bodies was brutally mutilated,” Rollick read aloud. “I think we can guess what those mutilations involved.”
“All their vital organs torn out as if by some kind of wild beast,” I muttered, and let my head drop back against the sofa. “I tried to warn them.”
Crag came up behind me to rest his hand on my shoulder. He’d made it back to the house shortly after Rollick had arrived with the bad news. “They might not have had time to escape anyway. We only found out about the threat this morning. The leviathan must have already been over there searching for them.”
Of course he had been. As soon as he’d realized he had such a simple opportunity to expand his powers, he’d have wanted to jump on it before there was any chance of it slipping through his fingers… or talons, or whatever exactly leviathans had.
I rubbed my forehead. “I didn’t like the enclave. The things they did were sick. But now the result of their psycho behavior is helping an even bigger psycho. How the hell are we going to stop him now?”
“We don’t know if this will be enough to allow him to carry out his ultimate plan,” Rollick said, though his tone wasn’t all that confident. “Even taking in the behemoth’s essence wasn’t enough.”
“But this is so many more sorcerers’ powers, and they were strong sorcerers too.” I groaned. “We don’t have much time. We have to figure out some kind of plan to counteract his, or we might not be able to do anything at all before he’s hauling the Highest through that rift.”
Rollick got up, tucking his phone into his pocket. “I have human associates watching that area from a distance. As soon as there’s any change in activity there, we’ll know.”
“We don’t know what we’ll do when that happens. We’ve got all these shadowkind here, but most of them won’t be able to do much against the leviathan, especially now that he’s got even more sorcery to wield. We can’t get close until he’s focusing it on compelling the Highest, and then it’ll be almost too late. Are your weapons using the materials from the trap even ready?”
The demon gave a curt nod. “Everything’s prepared. They’re almost like a larger version of your crossbow.” He aimed a tight smirk at the weapon lying on the coffee table between us.
“But we still have to figure out how to get them in place without the leviathan or his minions destroying them first.”
Crag squeezed my shoulder. “We’ve got a lot of allies on our side now to push them back, and you have your own magic that can strengthen the rest of us. He won’t be prepared for that. Maybe we should give you more of our essence. If?—”
I shook my head to cut him off. I didn’t want to say it, but there wasn’t any avoiding the truth. My hand rose to press against my clavicle. “At this point, I don’t think a lack of magic is holding me back. It’s whether my body—my heart—can handle having that much magic moving through it. It doesn’t do any good making yourselves weaker if I can’t even use all the power you’ve given me.”
Rollick let out a rough sound and started to pace. “We won’t give up. There are a lot of us willing to stand against the leviathan, even if the Highest are too arrogant or cowardly to.”
His words echoed through my head. A lot of us willing to stand against him. There was someone like that who we hadn’t called on yet, wasn’t there?
I sat up straighter, fumbling for my phone. “We have to ask Sorsha for help. She and her friends—you said they’re really powerful, didn’t you? It seemed like they’d want to stop this from happening.”
Rollick frowned. “We talked about this before. She’s unstable. I don’t know the men she runs with at all. And a phoenix isn’t going to be much help against a being of water anyway.”
I glowered at him. “If her fire won’t be much use, then there isn’t any chance of her burning the world down either, is there? She’d be able to do something, even if it’s just helping keep the other shadowkind organized. And—you told me that she’s some kind of hybrid, right? Part human? Maybe she can handle silver and iron. Maybe the leviathan can’t compel her any more than he can me. That would count for a lot.”
Rollick and I stared each other down. Crag seemed to decide it was wisest to stay out of the argument and let us duke it out on our own. The demon’s mouth twitched, and then he sighed, dropping his gaze. “I don’t even remember why I was so adamantly against her involvement. Fine. Call her. You’re right—we need all the help we can get, and quickly.”
“I’d imagine the whole ‘nearly destroyed the world’ thing was a pretty legit reason before we got to the point where the world was probably going to end anyway,” I said, to be fair. “Also, you have issues with letting anyone in on your plans or even giving away that you have plans. That probably had something to do with it too.”
Rollick went back to glowering at me. Wielding my phone, I marched into my room where I could figure out what to say to the phoenix without my monstrous men distracting me. I’d only talked to her briefly a couple of times in the past.
Once I was in the solitude of the bedroom, apprehension settled over me. I had trouble letting people in on my plans too, even if that hesitation came from a different place than Rollick’s.
I was asking Sorsha and her friends to risk their lives to help us. My men wanted to stand with me because of their feelings for me—and because they’d seen the destruction the leviathan was causing. The allies we’d gathered so far had come of their own accord. To reach out to someone who’d already helped me more than once and ask her to stick her neck out again…
I grimaced at my phone—or really at myself. My stomach was all knotted up over something Sorsha had specifically told me to do. I’d met her because she was investigating the sorcerer killings. I knew that she’d want to hear what we’d discovered and have the chance to contribute, didn’t I?
And we did need the help.
I just didn’t like the feeling that it was my responsibility if something happened to her. But she was just as much a being with her own free will as Torrent and the rest of my men were.
My jaw clenching, I hit the call button and raised the phone to my ear.
It took longer for the phoenix to pick up than it had with my mom. I guessed Sorsha probably had more on her plate than the average human in general, and definitely more than my parents did in their little underground bunker. But just when I was starting to think I’d end up going to voice mail, there was a click and a voice that sounded a bit breathless, as if she’d been running. “Hello?”
“Hey, um, Sorsha, it’s Quinn?—”
“Oh!” she said, her voice brightening and steadying at the same time. “Sorry. I really need to remember to label my Contacts better. What’s going on? Got another kid you want to shoot my way? That’s not actually an invitation. We do have plenty.”
Her irreverent tone set me at ease before I’d realized I was relaxing. A small smile even crossed my lips. “No kids this time. But—this is a much bigger ask.”
“Please tell me you know what asshole shadowkind are behind the mess we’re seeing with all these storms, because I’d really like to kick their asses.”
A relieved laugh spilled out of me. It suddenly seemed absurd that I’d hesitated to reach out to her. “That is actually why I’m calling. It’s not so much a they but a he. A leviathan. Well, there was a behemoth involved too, but we dealt with him… sort of. It’s a long story. Anyway, the leviathan is basically trying to destroy the mortal world as we know it, and we’re having some trouble making sure that doesn’t happen, so any ass-kicking you want to bring to the table would be totally appreciated.”
“You’ve got it. We’ve already been on the go trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Where exactly are you? We’ll have the Everymobile out there as fast as its supernaturally enhanced engine can take us… Maybe faster if we decide to risk a rift. That’s always a gamble.”
“Whatever you think is best,” I said. “Here, let me get—this isn’t actually my house—the demon who owns it will be able to give you clearer directions.”
“A demon house, hmm. Keeping even more interesting company than before these days.”
I couldn’t tell whether Sorsha was just amused or being suggestive, but my cheeks flared anyway. “That’s a long story too. I’ll tell you when I see you—when we’re not busy with the whole saving the world thing. Just a sec.”
I hustled back out into the living room. Rollick gave me a look that suggested he knew exactly what I was there for—which, considering the keenness of shadowkind hearing, he quite possibly did. I handed the phone over. “Be nice and tell our very helpful friends how to find your super-secret house.”
He huffed, but he said his hello with his usual charming drawl, so I figured it was safe to leave him to it.
I found myself heading into the guest room where Torrent was recovering rather than to my own bedroom. The tentacled man was still out cold since our earlier conversation, but the deep, rhythmic murmur of his breaths reassured me. I lay down on the bed next to him and imagined telling him that soon we were going to be bringing a phoenix and… whatever the rest of Sorsha’s friends were into the fray. I thought he’d understand better than anyone else how hard making that ask had been for me.
For now, I closed my eyes and let myself revel in my victory over my self-doubts for a minute. Maybe Sorsha and her companions would be a big enough force to turn the tide. If Rollick hadn’t been such a stick-in-the-mud about getting them involved before, I’d have thought to reach out sooner.
We were getting so close to having a real army. If the leviathan just allowed us another few days to finish preparing?—
The attack came on me so suddenly I didn’t even have time to catch my breath before the clenching sensation squeezed all possibility of breathing out of my lungs.
My lips parted with a silent cry of pain. My shoulders went rigid as I braced against the pressure, trying to think about anything other than the vise clamped around my chest.
But it wasn’t just the pressure that I had to endure. A hot flash rippled through me, followed by a chill as if someone had doused me with icy water. A shiver ran through my limbs. Sweat had broken out on my forehead. The thud of my heart rang loud in my ears, sounding too slow and then too fast, thundering erratically like a train about to rattle right off the tracks.
It was impossible to say how long it took before the symptoms eased off again. Finally, I became aware of my hands balled in the fabric of the sheet beneath me, my breath coming again—now with a faint rasp. An ache lingered around my ribcage after the worst of the effects had subsided.
I dragged in a deeper breath and blinked hard, staring up at the ceiling. I was relieved that my fit hadn’t woken Torrent from the healing rest he needed, but I was also feeling so very alone.
A few more days. Maybe we had that. And then we’d need to face the leviathan, and I was going to have to put every bit of power I had into winning that fight for my parents, all the beings who’d put their faith in me, and everyone else in this world.
And then, I was now surer than ever, my heart would give out completely.
But that was just how it was. At least going this way I didn’t leave millions of others to go down with me.