Chapter 24 #2
The ghost clenched down on his heart, and Tracker’s eyes widened.
The spirit squeezed until it burst. His body shuddered, sorrow and devastation watering his eyes, pleading, then they glazed over.
His frame dropped to the ground, his eyes wide open, staring at me like he had seen a real-life monster.
Me.
“Brexley!” Warwick’s voice called to me, my name piercing me like a balloon. I stepped back from Tracker’s dead body with a sharp inhale, his eyes staring up in horror like Tad’s had.
Oh my gods, what did I do?
I was the villain.
The nectar fell from my fingers, my lungs struggling to draw in air, panic strangling them.
“Be here with me.” Hands clasped my face, aqua irises pulling me in. “Sotet démonom.” Warwick’s voice plunged me back to Earth, anchoring me. My senses sharpened, drawing my attention around me.
Horror almost dropped me to the ground.
Beyond the ring of dead soldiers my ghosts had murdered, flames billowed high into the air, bathing the entire area in light. Screams of fear and pain hurdled from the large circus tent. Horses, tigers, and people ran from the inferno.
Members of the troupe tried to get everyone out to safety as the magic-induced fire raged hot and fast, catching some of the food wagons nearby on fire, destroying everything in its wake.
“Oh gods!” A cry cut through my chest, my feet moving toward the fire, feeling the heat burn at my skin.
“Go! Run!” Hank waved for people to get out as the fire neared him, using his body as a shield between the person and the flames.
“Hank!” I cried out, his gaze meeting mine. Half of his face was covered in singed ash. Behind him, I could see the stands, people climbing over each other to get out. And in the middle was Jethro trying to get people to safety.
Some of the carnies were rushing to the river with buckets, trying to lessen the flames, but they were consuming everything faster than the carnies could move. The fabric of the tent was deteriorating, the stakes keeping it up, burning and snapping.
“Jethro!” My voice barely carried through the noise of the flames and the screams of the people.
The instinct to save him lurched me forward right as the tent buckled. Arms wrapped around me, keeping me in place, my gut wringing as Hank scrambled forward, rushing to Lulu and their kids, getting away as the top came down.
Jethro was still inside.
“Nooooooo!” The scream bellowed from me, hope burning up along with the lives still inside. I bucked and thrashed; Warwick held me tighter until I felt all the energy drain, leaving me limp and sobbing.
The carnies continued to try to put out the fire as sirens wailed, growing louder and closer.
“We have to go,” Warwick muttered in my ear.
My head shook, my voice lost.
“You can’t do anything for them.”
“It’s my fault,” I whispered, my soul too heavy to carry. I thought I had grown, that I had trained enough, but one touch of the nectar and I destroyed everything. I let it take over me.
I hurt everyone who got near me.
“Getting caught by the police now won’t bring them back.” He squeezed me into him. “Don’t give up on me now, Kovacs. I need you.”
My head turned to him, the honest vulnerability he expressed sending more tears to my eyes.
“Whatever it takes,” he stated firmly.
The sirens from the police and the firefighters pierced the air, the flickers of light coming through the trees as shouts and orders descended the hill.
“Come on.” Warwick gripped my hand, pulling me the opposite way.
“The nectar?”
“I have it,” he replied, pulling me into the dark woods, the police barreling down the steps to what was left of the carnival. Smoke billowed from what was supposed to be a fun, thrilling night. Instead, the ruined wagons and half-burnt vardos turned into a grave for some.
It’s all my fault.
The fire was mostly put out, but the damage was already done. The lives were already taken. Because I couldn’t control it. Tad warned me. Esmeralda did too. Of course, I didn’t listen. I thought I could handle it like I had before.
Something had changed. It felt so much stronger. As if it was growing in power and control too.
All I did since I found the nectar was cause death and devastation. Andris was right. This much magic shouldn’t exist. No one, including me, could contain it. Though the idea of destroying it also created panic in me. Like I would lose a part of myself.
Warwick circled us far around the edges of the park, trying to get to the motorcycles they hid at the entrance. The trees absorbed most of the outside noise, the woods engulfed with darkness.
A sensation stabbed up my spine, forcing me to suck in, my head snapping behind me. Alarm stung my skin and clenched down my chest. It was the same sensation that came upon me earlier with Caden. The same fear I felt when my eyes met that creature in the woods.
Warwick stopped, his neck swinging around, his eyes darting to every dark shadow. He shifted slightly in front of me, a growl vibrating in his throat. The Wolf expanded through his shoulders, his back curling in defense.
“Don’t move,” he muttered into my ear; our link was used up with the nectar.
“What is it?” I mumbled back.
Warwick’s nose flared, taking in the air. “I have no idea. Not something I’ve come across before.”
My hand went to the handle of my gun, ready to grab and shoot, my gaze flying everywhere, not sure where the threat was coming from. All I knew was it was there.
Ready to kill.
“Whatever the fuck you are, I wouldn’t,” Warwick rumbled, his body seeming to grow bigger. “You might think you bring death . . . but we are death.”
For a blink, I thought I saw red eyes peer through the brush at my right as I heard a crack of twigs from our left.
A low growl rushed adrenaline through me as the enormous monster I saw earlier was suddenly in front of us.
A gasp blew out of my lungs as I stared at the outline.
The largest animal I had ever seen stepped from the bushes.
It looked like a cross between a wolf and a panther—black as night with knife blades lined down its spine.
Its red eyes latched onto us. Terror froze me in place as the massive creature took a step, its long, razor-sharp claws cutting into the earth.
It was designed to kill. To attack in silence.
To slice the head off a man without warning.
“Fuck,” Warwick muttered, his expression awed disbelief.
A low growl throttled in the beast’s throat. Its focus latched onto Warwick, and its hind legs looked like it was about to pounce.
My hand whipped out my gun, my finger ready to pull the trigger and shoot until that thing was a bloody corpse.
“Eli, stop!” A woman’s voice cut through, the beast instantly stopping, but a deep growl snarled from its fanged teeth. “Don’t!”
A girl ran up, stopping beside the huge beast. Something right away made me wrench back.
She reminded me of the girl I saw working in Carnal Row who had split features.
This woman had one bright greenish yellow eye, a high demon color, the other a violet blue, which was a high pure-blood fairy color.
Her black hair was streaked with red like flames were burning through her strands.
It wasn’t her unusual looks that took me back.
There was something about her aura, the magic she put off, which felt so familiar it sent chills up my back.
She watched me with the same reserved curiosity. “Who the hell are you?”
I blinked, not ready for that response.
“And who the fuck are you?”
The beast next to her snarled, his paw padding at the ground. Warwick snarled back, inching farther in front of me.
“I heard the rumors your king had Dark Dwellers working for him, though I didn’t believe it until now,” Warwick spoke to the creature. “Thought it was a story to create fear and panic.”
“We don’t need to be a story to cause fear.” She stroked the creature’s head, causing flames to dance in its eyes. “We are fear.”
“Dark Dweller?” My lungs fluttered. I had heard about them. They were killers in the Otherworld. Hired mercenaries. One of the most feared species but were considered almost extinct, with only a handful left.
One was the Unseelie King and the Seelie queen’s personal bounty hunter.
“You came to kill me.” I lifted my chin in a challenge.
“That was part of it,” the girl replied. “But the primary task is to—”
“Take the nectar,” I finished for her.
“That’s not going to happen.” Warwick rolled his hands into fists. “Sorry you came all this way for nothing.”
The beast snarled, his enormous paws stepping closer.
“Eli.” She stroked his neck, muttering something in his ear.
He rumbled, stepping back into the shadows.
Along with the sound of bones popping, a low groan came from the spot the great beast blended into, but when he stepped back, a man of about 6’4”, ripped, gorgeous, tattooed, and naked, stood there.
“Azta . . .” Wow. I blinked, unable to look away from the man’s physique. Warwick looked over at me, one brow cocked.
I would pay for that later.
“Put the weapon away, Dragen.” The girl rolled her eyes, grabbing sweats from the bag on her back and tossing them to her partner.
“Didn’t say that earlier, Brycin,” he muttered, yanking on the sweats, winking at her. She shook her head, a slight smile curling her lips.
Then her gaze came back to me, studying me like I was a bug. “I’ll ask again. Who the hell are you? How were you able to do that?” She motioned in the direction of the circus.
My shoulders bristled. “Do what?”