Chapter 18 #2
Elysia relaxed her frigid muscles, lamenting the enormous tear that occurred as her dress caught on the ice as she slid back down to the roof’s edge. Hunkered down in a dangerous squat, she gripped the roof’s edge and waited.
The clinking of glasses. Liquid splashing over rims. And finally the toast.
“To my club’s newest centerpiece.” Maspan’s deep tones carried easily out into the night.
Elysia dropped silently into a dead hang, ramming the window upward with her bleeding feet and sailing inside.
She was almost standing when Maspan’s giant fist slammed straight into Beatriz’s face.
Her sister crumpled, flying back into a cabinet before sliding down to the ground, dazed but still conscious.
Her gaze flicked away. Elysia knew she couldn’t help her now.
Vision narrowing to the beast of a man in front of her, the sweet clarity of a fight flowed through her.
This arrogant piece of shit had planned to kill people she loved.
Any lingering remorse over the Reyezes’ requests disappeared as she ripped two blades free, ready to face the man in front of her.
Maspan straightened, and Elysia dropped into a slide that delivered her perfectly to the back of his knees. Blades in an X, she sliced efficiently, bringing him down to the floor.
Elysia staggered to her feet, memories of practicing with Gage flitting through her mind.
How he’d forced her to learn how to butcher animals—to practice the unique force and angle required for a throat versus knee.
She’d had to learn the feel of slicing through tendons and cartilage rather than the softness of flesh.
Because of those lessons, her mark crashed onto his palms, bleeding out from the backs of his legs.
She could hear Remy and someone else beyond the rush in her ears, but she wasn’t done.
Elysia stomped on his wrist, forcing him to drop the knife he had pulled out, and crouched down to where he made guttural noises as he shuddered.
Elysia watched curiously as his teeth shortened and lengthened.
“You’re a shifter,” she said quietly without emotion. “I’ve never seen someone shift.”
Rage filled his eyes, but she didn’t care. Her blade caressed his face as she whispered. “I’ve met the face of death, and now you’ll meet him too.”
One more quick draw of her knife, and her mark had been dispatched. Elysia pulled a coin out of her pocket, slipping it in between his teeth. Religious she was not, but she knew it was tradition, and she wanted to be sure this asshole got to meet Grim and Aidan.
The girls were squawking, but Elysia’s skin still vibrated and the violence inside her was turning hollow. Slowly, she wiped her blade on her no-longer-beautiful dress. She looked at her feet, not yet feeling the true extent of pain she knew she would once she came down.
The room had finally gone quiet, and she could hear that now. She needed to turn around, but she didn’t know how to—she’d just killed a man, and they’d all watched her do it.
A voice she hadn’t been expecting broke the silence. “Not bad for a Crown bitch.”
Elysia whipped around to find another familiar face.
Green catlike eyes and black hair in two tight braids that wound around her head, Jessa met Elysia’s bloodied appearance without flinching.
Gratefulness flickered in her chest. She couldn’t have stood it to see the fear or disgust that she knew her sister or at the very least Remy were likely feeling.
Jessa slapped a hand onto her shoulder. “Your way was neater anyway.”
Elysia looked away from Remy, who was administering unwanted first aid to a swearing Beatriz. “Neater?”
“Haven’t you heard? Everyone’s got their magic back outside of Kava.”
Elysia swore faintly. “Oh my gods. You were going to blow him up.”
Jessa nodded matter-of-factly. “Except I haven’t ever managed to narrow it down to a single human before. Probably for the best you swung in.”
Elysia ran a bloodied and likely frostbitten hand over her face. “Amazing.”
Beatriz appeared to be a little light on her feet but was nonetheless trying to push off Remy’s support. “You really are the worst busybody I’ve ever met. I’m in a different kingdom for the gods’ sake.”
An old, slow-burning rage licked at Elysia’s wounds. Words like ungrateful and undeserving flashed through her mind. “The response you’re looking for is thank you, Elysia, I’d be dead without you, Elysia. I’m a fucking idiot, Elysia.”
Remy’s dark brown eyes were enormous as they swung between the two Parker sisters. Jessa just grinned and stepped back to lean against the office wall.
Beatriz shoved Remy off and staggered closer, her voice scathing. “I knew what I was doing! I brought the nerd, and I brought the muscle! This isn’t my first time, you over-controlling pain in my ass.”
A muscle in Elysia’s jaw jumped. “I wasn’t even here for you.”
Beatriz blinked, her face clearing. “What?”
Elysia stalked out of the office, her tone turning cold. “We don’t have time for this. Maspan has security crawling all over the place, and his men know you weren’t supposed to walk out of here. Escaping the forest is going to be a nightmare.”
Jessa came up behind her, peering out one of the windows. “Thought you could travel now.”
“I don’t know if I can manage an entire group, but I can try.” She’d gotten Topp here easy enough, but doubt sprang up as she considered the three women next to her.
Jessa quickly shook her head. “No. I’ve seen what happens when traveling goes wrong.”
Oh. Maybe traveling with the prince hadn’t been so wise after all.
Remy spoke quietly, hanging onto whatever scraps of calm she had left. “I have an idea. But you’re not going to like it.”
Minutes later, Elysia was shivering in the rapidly dropping temperatures of the Endless Forest. Her dress may have been made for warmth, but it didn’t replace layers or a coat, and her cut-up bare feet and hands were killing her.
Worse than that, she was back to clutching the invisible net outside the stone cottage, but this time with three more bodies weighing it down until it sank dangerously in the middle, making her swear as it creaked.
“Ready?” Elysia’s question barely carried over the wind.
Petrified, Remy said nothing. Beatriz nodded grimly, looking disassociated and slightly green as she stared through the invisible netting to the ground. Naturally, it was Jessa with her eyes squeezed shut who spoke through gritted teeth. “Stop talking and just do it already.”
Knife arm up, Elysia paused, giving them each a hard look. “If a single one of you makes so much as a peep, I will leave you in this godsdamn forest.” She brought her blade arm down, cutting through where the net attached to the concrete landing.
Remy’s scream was loud enough it was probably heard all the way in godsdamned Kava.
“Shut up, shut up.” Elysia hissed, but there was nothing to be done about it.
If Maspan’s men hadn’t already realized something had gone wrong with their boss’s meeting, then they definitely knew now, and Elysia was sure they’d be taking an alternative route than the nightmare bridge to get them down to the forest floor.
Trees and branches flew past as they clung desperately to the netting, which had now twisted into an invisible rope.
A branch cracked against Elysia’s ribs, forcing all the air out of her body, but she clung on, knowing that letting go would likely mean death.
Using her feet, Elysia propelled them away from the trees the best she could after watching Remy smash her nose.
Pine needles cut and scratched against skin, and then one by one they all thudded against the base of a pine.
Slowly, she pried her cold fingers free of the netting, crashing down into the snow and dirt.
Looking around at her ragtag, busted-up crew, Elysia could hear Gage in her head.
We are not saviors. We are not rescuers. We get in. We get out. And we do not take deadweight.
All three pieces of deadweight groaned and swore.
Elysia stared at the shoveled path that led out of the forest. Lit with golden light, it was the fastest and clearest route out. She was barefoot, and she was afraid the girls wouldn’t make it through the knee-deep snow.
The sound of heavy footsteps and low voices rumbled closer, hastening her decision. Into the forest where hypothermia was likely, or onto the golden path where they’d be spotted and overtaken with swiftness.
Gage flitted through her mind one more time, but she pushed back the rush of shame threatening to slow her down. She was going to fail her mission and her mentor, but she saw no other path.
Elysia slipped back into a cool, detached headspace even as in her gut she knew they were neck-deep in shit.
Security was already in sight, the dark shadows of weapon-clad men peppering the trees.
And then the sky crackled, lighting up the darkness as the wind screamed and rain fell down in icy sheets.
Low growls carried to her ears past the wind and rain, and the hairs on her neck stood on end. Maspan was a shifter. She shoved at her friends, who were behaving like disoriented cats. “Onto the path, go, go, go! If they’re shifters, they’ll be able to see us anyway in the woods.”
A pair of feet landed solidly behind her, the crunch of snow reflexively making her whirl, blades out. Knife to artery, Elysia’s shoulders collapsed as a hysterical laugh won out.
“Going to kill me, Parker?”
“You’re a fucking asshole.” A wild surge of hope flooded through her, never happier to see the man who had not so long ago left her for dead.
“Would you have me any other way?” The prince had found battle axes and was already pulling them out, his wet hair plastered to his skin and green eyes blazing unnaturally.
A half circle of wolves slowly crept in, forming around their group, but Elysia grinned, pressing her back against his.
She lifted her knives back up.