Chapter 42
Sage
“We only need to stall your guard dog for a moment,” Crane said with a sneer that sent cold fear flooding my body.
I squeezed my eyes shut and strained to send my spirit back to my body. I didn’t want to be here. I couldn’t be here. I wasn’t real when I was here, just a spirit and I belonged in the Gray.
Now. Right now. Please now.
They’d dragged me deeper into the garden, and now we stood in a small clearing, illuminated by a patch of red glowing flowers, and backed by a tall stone wall that I wouldn’t be able to climb.
I strained to hear the sounds of fighting, yelling, anything to indicate the spirit link had alerted Sir West to the danger and he was coming after me. Even if there were other men and they were stalling him, surely I’d hear something.
Unless, of course, the spirit link didn’t actually work and Sir West had no idea I’d been taken.
Crane twirled the ceremonial dagger in his hand, the engraved blade catching the red light, looking like it was dipped in blood.
I didn’t know if he needed to perform the spell in the sacred pool or not, and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out. I could only pray an accidental nick wasn’t going to be enough to start the spell.
I thrashed and clawed against the man who held me. I had to get free.
But whoever had grabbed me was so much bigger and stronger than me. I didn’t stand a chance.
Crane stepped forward and I kicked out at him.
With a snarl he jerked back. “Hold her still.”
Raven rushed forward, bending to grab my legs. I pulled them up to my chest and kicked out, slamming both into his chest and knocking him back.
“You fucking bitch,” he yelled.
The man holding me laughed and his hands started to move as if he were trying to get a better hold of me. The hand on my mouth lifted while the one on my waist loosened.
With a scream, I twisted and stomped down on his instep. Hard.
Something crunched, he howled in pain and let go.
I dove out of the way — away from the direction of the ballroom but it was the only direction I could go — before any of them could think to grab me.
Crane lunged for me, his fingers brushing my arm. A wave of exhaustion swept over me and I scrambled out of reach before he could incapacitate me.
Great Father that was too close.
And now I was even farther from the ballroom with all three men between me and escape or even help.
Lynx raced around the edge of a bush and stumbled to a stop, his eyes wide with surprise as if he hadn’t expected me to break free.
And really, looking at the only other man in the group I hadn’t already seen, I was surprised I had gotten free.
I recognized the man from the sacred pool. Crane had called him Thunder, and he was enormous, not as big as Sir West but almost as big as Lord Rider.
“Come on now,” Crane cooed, “stop making this hard on yourself. We already know you can’t send your spirit back to your body.”
“What makes you think I’m not just biding my time?” I spat back, my voice sounding way more confident than I felt.
“Because you would’ve been gone by now,” Crane said. “The moment Thunder grabbed you.” He laughed, the sound dangerous and deadly and chilling. “You would have vanished the moment you saw me in Her Brilliance’s private garden. But you didn’t. You needed West to drag you out of there.”
My pulse lurched with horrified realization. Letting me see him had been a test. He’d wanted to know if I could control my spirit form, and I’d proven to him that I couldn’t.
“For fuck’s sake,” Crane snapped, pointing the dagger at the others. “Would you get the bitch? This doesn’t work if we can’t cut her marks.”
Lynx and Raven leaped forward just as a massive shadow crashed through the bushes behind them.
Thunder turned just in time to dodge the swing of a massive sword, and Sir West stepped fully into the eerie red light.
West’s expression hadn’t changed from its usual grim, but there was a hardness in his gaze that made me almost as nervous as Crane holding that dagger.
“He tore through half a dozen men already?” Lynx squawked as he spun around, raised his hands, and shot bolts of ice at him.
West blocked the bolts with his swords, moving with a grace and speed I didn’t think possible for someone so large.
Both Raven and Thunder rushed at Sir West—
And Crane lunged at me, wrenching my attention to my own fight.
I heaved back, his fingers mere inches from my face. My chest tightened and my breathing picked up, panic turning it shallow.
One solid touch. That was all it would take. Hell, not even a solid touch. I still felt slow and tired from when he’d grazed me moments before.
Behind Crane, Lynx threw his arms forward and ice exploded around Sir West’s feet. Thick and heavy, it raced up his shins, climbing his thighs, and encircling his waist.
Lynx’s head tipped back with a wild laugh, and West’s swing at Thunder went wide.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
If Lynx could immobilize someone with ice, I was going to be next.
I darted my gaze around the clearing but couldn’t see beyond the shadowy bushes on either side of me, and the wall at the back was too tall.
With a grunt, light flared from West’s eyes, and he brought down the pommels of both his swords onto the ice in front of him.
The ice shattered with a sharp crack, the pieces spilling around him, and he surged toward Lynx, who yelped and scurried out of the way, while Raven turned and dove at me.
My pulse lurched, I’d been distracted by Crane and desperate for an escape, I hadn’t realized how close he was.
I twisted out of the way, but he caught the folds on the side of my open-backed dress, his grip high by my shoulder, and ripped open the neck of my dress.
Cool night air hit my now bare skin and he gasped, his gaze locking on my neck where my sleeping mating marks were.
“What the fuck?” Raven snapped as I tore my dress from his grip.
“No,” Crane screamed as he barreled toward me. “You think that will stop me?”
I dodged out of the way, my heel hitting a root, threatening my balance. He twisted back around and dove at me. I wasn’t going to be fast enough. He was going to tackle me.
Desperate, I dove to the side. I tucked and rolled but he landed first and seized a handful of my skirt.
The fabric pulled taut, and I toppled forward. I hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs and sending pain shooting through my palms and knees.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
I scrambled forward, desperate to get away, but Crane yanked on my dress dragging me back.
My pulse raced, rushing in my ears, and I fought to catch my breath.
I kicked back, my heel hitting his shoulder and drawing a snarl of pain. His grip loosened and I lurched forward, my hands slipping in the damp grass.
“You won’t get away, bitch,” he screamed as I fought to get to my knees.
Another yank, jerking my hands out from under me. My face hit the ground, sending lights flashing across my vision.
No.
“Got you!” His cold hand seized my ankle and exhaustion swept through me. “You’re mine now.”
No. Please no.
I kicked back as I swept my hands through the grass, scrambling to find a weapon. I needed a branch, a stone, something to stop him.
There. On the ground. A few feet away. A dagger.
I didn’t know who’d dropped it and I didn’t care.
I grabbed for it, my fingertips skimming the pommel.
Shit.
I heaved forward. I had to get closer. Just a little closer.
But my arms and legs already were heavy with sudden exhaustion, my whole body weighed down despite everything inside me screaming to keep fighting.
My fingers brushed the pommel again. I wasn’t going to make it.
Come on. Come on!
I just needed a weapon. Any weapon.
Please!
Warmth filled my palm, and my hand spasmed. My fingers closed around a familiar leather grip, and I stared at Sawyer’s dagger, the dagger I’d taken with me into the Gray and had worn every day since.
My vision blurred, Crane’s magical fatigue threatening to drag me under, and the desperate need to close my eyes was overwhelming.
No. Fuck no. I wouldn’t let him have me.
With a scream half of determination and half desperation to find the strength to move, I threw myself back at him.
His yellow eyes flashed wide, as if he hadn’t expected me to fight back even though he’d already seen me stab Wells to death.
“No,” I yelled, plunging the dagger into his eye — the closest vulnerable area I could get to — drawing a shriek of agony. “I’m not yours. I’m not anyone’s.”
I wrenched the dagger back and plunged it into his neck.
With a snarl, I twisted and pulled the dagger free with a wild spray of blood.
His grip on my ankle loosened, and the magical drain of strength and vitality stopped, leaving me so tired it was a miracle I was still conscious.
I stared at his body, my chest heaving with each strained breath.
I’d killed another man.
And I didn’t feel a damn thing about it.
Maybe once I wasn’t so tired I’d care, but I wasn’t sure that would be the case.
Something thudded a few feet away and I dragged my attention to West, who stood surrounded by Thunder, Raven, and Lynx’s bodies.
No one was left alive. No one able to answer questions. Had he meant to kill them or was that just the way it had turned out?
His expression hadn’t changed and he didn’t even look winded, so I had no idea if it had been necessary for him to kill all three of them or not.
Movement from the garden path made me flinch, my hand tightening on the dagger that I’d somehow manifested into existence.
Ash burst into the clearing and skidded to a stop, his eyes wild, his beautiful, heartbreaking face tight with fear.
He held a bloodied sword in his hand and there looked like there were a few wet patches on his black doublet that could have been blood and not water but it was impossible to tell.
All I knew was I was relieved and happy and overwhelmed to see him again.
His gaze swept over the bodies, over West, over me on the ground with blood on my hands and my dress and my face, and he opened his mouth to say something but Lord Rider, Talon, and Lord Quill burst into the clearing and rushed right past him toward me.
“Are you hurt?” Rider dropped to one knee beside me.
“Just bruised,” I said, exhaustion slurring my words and thoughts.
Quill checked me for injuries, his hands steady and gentle as they moved while Talon stood guard, his gaze scanning the garden.
I set my dagger on the ground beside me and it vanished just like Lord Quill said it would, proving that I had finally managed to manifest something in the Garden.
It felt so strange that something so impossible could have saved me.
But I guess it didn’t matter. Crane was dead, and I was—
My pulse stuttered.
I was free. I didn’t have to hide from Crane. I wasn’t trapped in the Divine Residence, a prisoner in the guise of protection.
“It’s over,” I said, searching the clearing for Ash.
He stood back from the others, his head tipped so that his hair fell forward and veiled the scarred side of his face.
“We can be together again.” I reached for him, but he didn’t move. “Ash?”
“Every time I turn around, you’re in another mess,” he said, his tone cold, void of the warmth and comfort I’d become familiar with.
“What?”
“You’re constantly in trouble. Even the High Priestess could see that. That’s why she gave you West.” He jerked his thumb at the enormous knight.
“What the hell, Ash?” Talon asked, taking a step toward him.
Ash held up his hand, stopping him. “No. I’m done. Crane is dead, and she’s got more than enough nursemaids to take care of her.”
No. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t Ash. He wouldn’t behave like this. He was kind and caring and safe.
“But I thought—?”
“You thought what?” Ash asked.
That there was something between us, a safety, a comfort that I desperately needed. He’d helped me when the pressure from my mating marks had overwhelmed me. He’d teased and flirted with me. He’d been my friend when no one else cared about me.
“I thought it meant something,” I said, my voice small, my confession ripped from a throat tight with tears I didn’t want to cry.
He shrugged. “Maybe to you.”
Then he vanished in a swirl of black smoke.
To be continued…