Chapter 22
I swooped high enough
to stay out of range should they have archers, but low enough to
fly directly in the window, which was open, with Kaylin waiting to
slam it shut the minute I was through.
I landed on my
dresser, then hopped to the floor and quickly transformed, my
moonstone pendant lightly hitting against my breasts. As I spilled
forward, Kaylin quickly handed me a pair of jeans, a bra, and a
turtleneck. I wriggled into my clothes.
“We have big
trouble—but we don’t have time to tell you. Just know that Lainule,
Anadey, and Geoffrey are no longer on our side. Lannan and Wrath,
however, are. Grieve’s back, too.”
At his startled look,
I shook my head. “Don’t ask—it’s just too complicated right now.
Have the Shadow Hunters made any attack?”
“Not yet, but I think
they were waiting for you. They made themselves obvious, and then
held off, keeping us in the house.”
“They must have seen
me leave earlier. And Myst knows we have Grieve—how can she not?” I
slid on a pair of lace-up steel-toed boots and then strapped my
blade to my wrist and grabbed my fan. “I need a better
blade.”
“What about the
obsidian one? The one we caught when we fought Myst and her cronies
last week? Remember?”
I thought back. When
we’d rescued Peyton, we had picked up an obsidian blade off one of
the Shadow Hunters. “Oh hell, yeah. And it wants blood. Bring it to
me.”
Kaylin hurried out of
the room, returning with the sealed box. I cautiously opened it and
pulled out the blade. Obsidian, it was fashioned with a bone
handle. I cautiously reached out to touch it. The one time before
when I’d picked it up, it had immediately tried to possess me, but
I had the feeling that now that I knew about my heritage as Myst’s
daughter, I might be able to wrest control of it.
As my hand slid
around the handle, I felt a shudder of joy run through me, a
delight in the sharpness of the edge, the piercing point that could
drive through bone and steel. This blade was magic, and it had an
essence—a strength all its own. I clasped my fingers around the
handle and a ripple of delight echoed through my breasts, my body .
. . it was better than sex.
“I can mow them down
with this,” I said, looking up at Kaylin slyly.
And indeed, a swath
of blood and destruction spread in front of me, and I knew that
whatever might come, this blade would sever limb from bone, it
would slice throats and pierce hearts and do anything I asked it
to, sucking the pain right into itself as food, and with each kill,
it would grow stronger, and so would I.
“I’m afraid.” A thin
river of regret ran through me and I glanced up at Kaylin. “I’m
afraid this blade can change who I am.”
“Only if you allow it
to. Take charge. You have to be the one to rule. You cannot allow
it to have its head—just like breaking a horse. You have to
maintain control.” He leaned over me. “We need every advantage we
can get to stop them. You have to be strong, Cicely. You have to
give a little of yourself—not all, not what Geoffrey and Lainule
were asking—but a little . . . in order to help win this war. You
can’t remain the same and come through it unscathed. None of us
can.”
I slowly inhaled,
hefting the lightweight blade in my hand, feeling the rushing waves
of destructive joy run through me. “I know. I know that we’re not
coming out of this without some damage.” Staring at the blade, I
understood—it would bring me in touch with who I used to be, who I
was a lifetime ago, as Myst’s daughter. It would take me to the
same place Geoffrey wanted me to go, but without losing all of who
I’d become in the process.
“I’ll do it. I will
carry the blade.”
A light knock on the
door and my wolf whimpered, excited. “Please, go. Give us just a
moment and we’ll be down.”
Grieve came in, his
eyes glimmering with stars against their blackened background. “We
have little time. They’re approaching the house. Cicely, I’m not
sure how you did it, but I know you’re responsible for Wrath
freeing me. I hate Lannan with a passion, but I will fight
alongside him now, and do my best to control my
nature.”
He swept me up in his
arms and I melted against him, pressing my head to his heart,
shuddering in the warmth of his embrace. I wanted him, then—there,
without pretense. Wanted to be with him forever, wanted to be his
and only his, to run away from the war and live in a quiet place
where we could settle in and just be happy.
“The enemy is
storming our gates, my love,” I whispered. “Myst has come to play
and she’s looking for you.”
“I won’t let her take
me back.” He pressed his lips to mine and kissed me. I could have
lived within his kiss forever, but there was no time.
“Let’s go—we can’t
let the others down.”
I took his hand, then
stopped and turned. “I’m sorry—I’m sorry I wasn’t ready when you
asked me so many years ago. I’m sorry that . . . I needed time to
know how I felt.”
He shook his head. “I
asked too soon. You were very young. I should have known better. I
just hoped you would have remembered, but no matter now. We’ll make
it through, Cicely. We’re survivors. We’ll have our
time.”
And then we were
headed down the stairs, racing to meet the oncoming
storm.
“Where are they?” I
swung into the kitchen, where the rest of them were, but realized
I’d just interrupted an argument. “What’s going on?”
“Geoffrey just called
me,” Leo said. “He told me what happened. It appears I’m being
forced to choose. He’s given me an ultimatum.”
“You have to pick
sides.” I knew it would come to this.
He nodded, staring at
me with ill-disguised anger. “Yeah, thanks to you. I know where my
strengths lie, and it’s not with you and your war. Rhiannon, you’re
my fiancée. Kaylin—you were my friend first. Choose. Come with me
and fight this war in a sane manner. Lainule and Geoffrey had a
plan, and Cicely fucked it up.”
“I chose not to hand
my life over to Geoffrey—I chose not to let him turn me into a
monster. That is hardly fucking things up, in my opinion. But
choose—by all means. If you truly believe that I should have
sacrificed myself on the altar for the vampires, then go with
Leo—because you won’t be of help here.”
Rhiannon, bitter
tears streaking her cheeks, shook her head. “No. I stand by
Cicely—Myst took my mother. And I won’t see her claim Cicely by
default.”
“I can’t believe
you’re choosing your cousin over me. So be it, then. But don’t come
crawling back to me when you’re alone and scared. Because I won’t
play second fiddle to some freak.” He turned to Kaylin. “What about
you?”
Kaylin’s face clouded
over. “Leo, dude, your ego’s speaking. You’d rather be a little
fish in a big frying pan than a little fish in a little frying pan
. . . either way, you’re going to get your fins
burned.”
“What the fuck are
you talking about?”
“Just this: No matter
how hard you try, Geoffrey’s not going to turn you. That’s what you
want, isn’t it? I’ve been watching you for some time now. You crave
power, and if it takes becoming one of the vamps, you thought why
not? But Geoffrey won’t turn you. And if he hasn’t offered by now,
he’s not going to. With us, you aren’t skilled enough to be one of
the up-front fighters—and you aren’t content with what you
can do to help. You’ll never be happy
until you can accept who you are.”
“Fuck that shit.” Leo
turned and, jamming his coat on, headed toward the front door.
“I’ll pick up my things later,” he called over his shoulder. “If
you are still alive to give them to me.” Grabbing Bart’s carrier,
he slammed out the front door with the Maine Coon.
“Crap.” I turned to
the others. “We meet the Indigo Court outside. They’ll tear down
the house if we let them in here.”
“We have another
choice. We can make a run for it, move to a new location and plan
out what we’re going to do.” Kaylin stopped my protest. “Before you
say no, think about it: There are at
least a dozen Shadow Hunters out there. They could have made a move
earlier but were waiting—they were waiting for you to get home,
Cicely.”
He glanced out the
window. “I can’t see any of them now. But you can bet that they
haven’t faded back into the forest.”
“Where would we go?”
Rhiannon whispered.
But then, even as she
spoke, the kitchen door slammed open and two of the Shadow Hunters
broke through. At the same time, Lannan came racing through the
front door, iron stakes in hand.
I was nearest the
living room, and I reached out and grabbed one of the stakes from
him as he passed by. He tossed the others to Kaylin, Peyton, and
Rhiannon, keeping one for himself. Luna, looking horrified, grabbed
up a flute, and my first thought was, You
aren’t going to charm these savage beasts with music, but
the sound that came out of her instrument was low and sultry and
quickened my blood. I stared at her, realizing she was casting a
charm over all of us—a fighting charm.
And then there was no
more time to stare because one of the Shadow Hunters was staring me
in the face. I swung, striking with the obsidian blade. The blade
seemed to adjust my aim and I managed a clean swipe along the
Shadow Hunter’s arm. He let out a shriek, unlike any I’d heard when
attacking with my switchblade, and a sudden fountain of blood
sprung up and began to bubble over onto the floor.
The knife made the
wound worse than it normally would have. I glanced at the blade and
felt a rush of joy, powerful and strong, as the pain from the
Shadow Hunter raced through me and I leaned my head back and
laughed, undulating a horrible yipping cry through the
kitchen.
The Shadow Hunter
took a long look at me as I glared at him, the power of death
flushing my cheeks. I held the power to destroy in my hands. I held
the power of the night and the dark and the shimmering blades that
ripped out hearts and tore apart the chest. Another swipe and his
arm was hanging from a thread and he went down, frothing at the
mouth, shivering as the blood spilled across the floor in an orgasm
of ripples.
I turned to the
second Shadow Hunter, who had engaged Kaylin. He saw me swing in
his direction and yelped, racing for the door. I leaped over the
dying Indigo Fae and gave chase.
“Cicely!”
“Where are you going?”
The voices were
faint, behind me, mere annoyances. I had my enemy within range, and
nothing would stop me from destroying him. I gasped as the cold hit
my lungs but flew down the steps, keeping up with the creature that
raced on ahead of me. He would not escape—no one did. No one ever
escaped Myst’s daughter when she chose her target.
Cicely—can you hear me? Cicely—slow down. Wait for the
others!
But I didn’t want to
listen. Ulean howled along beside me as the yard went by in a blur
and I raced directly into the forest. My blade sang, demanding
blood, and I had to feed her. She was thirsty and so was
I.
And then I saw him
coming toward me, a bigger member of Myst’s Court—one of her
guards, no doubt. I let my body take over and instinct kicked in as
I went sailing head over heels and landed nose-to-nose with him. I
swept the blade across his chest before he could move, and he
shrieked.
Laughing, I hoisted
the iron spike in my other hand and leaned back. My blade was
feeding; let it feed well, the spike would provide it with much
blood. He tried to fight back, tried to wave me off, but I plunged
the tip through his chest, ramming it into the bone, and blood
spread across the snow like a crimson rose.
As he fell, I went
down by his side and pressed my face to his wound, rubbing my
cheeks in his blood. I dipped the blade into the hollow next to the
spike and—as he still screamed, though much, much fainter—I let the
blade feed in the steaming pool.
“Cicely!”
The voice was not
Ulean’s, and harder to ignore.
“Cicely Waters, stand
before your father!”
Wrath’s voice broke
through where Ulean’s could not, and I slowly raised my head, my
surroundings coming into focus. Oh fucking hell! I was over the
border—but then again, they’d broken through the wards, so did it
matter?
“Get your ass off the
ground and finish him off like an honorable opponent. The Indigo
Court may have no honor, but we do.” He
reached out and snatched the blade from my hand. “That should make
it easier.”
I forced myself to my
feet, feeling the sticky mess on my face. My breath was sour with
his blood—I’d been licking it up. Queasy, I turned back to my
opponent and realized he was still alive, and suffering terribly. I
grabbed the end of the stake and, feeling faint, shoved it through
him, ending his life.
Without a word, I
turned to my father and, shaking, allowed him to grab me around the
waist. The next thing I knew, the yard was a blur again as we raced
faster than even Chatter and Grieve could.
Back at the house, I
saw Kaylin and Chatter fighting one of the Shadow Hunters. Another
was trying to get near Rhiannon, but she was holding him off with a
firestorm. Luna was treating a wound on Peyton’s arm that was
bleeding profusely. Grieve was finishing off another one of the
Vampiric Fae.
“We can’t hold the
house,” I said roughly. “We can’t hold it. We’re vulnerable as long
as we live here. Even if we take out this group, another will take
its place. Until we can strike at the heart of their Court, we’ll
just keep getting eroded away by insurgent attacks. There is great
power here, but we have no ability to tap into it.
Yet.”
“You’re right.”
Lannan came up beside me. “You can’t hold it. Best to fall back,
regroup, and strategize.”
“Where can we go? We
can’t go to Peyton’s house—Anadey has linked herself to Geoffrey
and Lainule.”
Lannan let out a long
breath. “For now, you may come to my place. All of you. You cannot
stay there—that would not be wise, but you may come.”
And then Rhiannon
raced over to Luna and was shouting frantically to her. Luna nodded
and ran into the house, as Rhia motioned to me.
“The house, the house
is on fire. Do you have anything in there? Do you have your
necklace and fan?”
I nodded. “Yes, I
have them with me. But all your things—all of our memories—where’s
the fire?”
Just then, Luna came
out leading a string of cats, following behind her, as she played a
tune, leading them like the piper. Rhia jogged over and, together
with Chatter and Grieve, grabbed up all seven of them.
I pulled out my keys.
We sprinted around front and I opened the back door to Favonis, and
we piled the cats in there. Luna crawled in with them, playing to
charm them into a lulling sleep.
Turning to Rhia I
said, “Where’s the fire? I don’t see the fire.”
“I saw it—I know I
saw it—”
As she gestured
frantically, a sudden fireball appeared from the back and the roof
lit up. The others raced around, Peyton and Kaylin and Wrath, and
we watched as the flames engulfed the roof of the Veil
House.
“Who set it on
fire?”
“I did . . . ”
Rhiannon whispered, looking pale and terrified. “It was an
accident. I caught a low-hanging branch and it smoldered. I was
focusing on the Shadow Hunter, trying to stop him before he could
get to me and then . . . by the time the flames chased him back,
the branch burst and sent a flame to the shingles. It caught, but I
thought it might go out there . . . the snow was coming down so
thick.”
“Magical fire burns
hotter than regular fire.” I glanced around. Myst’s people hadn’t
come into the front yard. They were probably too busy watching the
fire from the borders of the wood.
“Call nine-one-one?”
Peyton asked.
I took out my phone
and tried, but when the operator picked up and I told her what
house it was, she cut me off and the line went dead.
“Either Geoffrey or
Myst cut off our access to help. We are truly alone.”
“Not so much. We have
the Consortium—we can go to them. Bring in some of the powerful
magic-born.” Rhiannon shook her head. “Formalize our Society and
then call on them for backing. If we’re part of the Consortium,
they’ll have to help us.”
I glanced at
Rhiannon. “You might have something there. As of tonight, I form
the Moon Spinners Society—and we who are here are the founders. Our
initiation is by fire and ice—our powers of strength.”
We joined hands, all
but Luna, whom we mentally included in our circle, and with Ulean
at my back, we made our pledges.
By life and death . . .
By sacred trust . . .
I pledge my honor . . .
I pledge my love . . .
I pledge my power . . .
I pledge my heart . . .
I pledge my magic . . .
I pledge my Art.
As we each repeated
the charm, the power grew, and I stepped forward. I was High
Priestess of the Moon Spinners, and it was up to me to take the
lead. I pulled out my fan and, cheeks stained with the blood of our
enemy, I whispered, Hurricane Force,
and sent the wind speeding toward the house.
The wind whipped the
flames into a fury, acting like a bomb, and exploded them high into
the night sky. If we couldn’t have the house, neither could Myst.
She might try to harness the power of the land, but I had a feeling
the ley lines ran far older than she, and my bets were they would
refuse to be used by the Indigo Court. I hoped to hell I was
right.
“Let all within
earshot of slipstream and wind currents hear me: The Moon Spinners
are coming for you, Myst. We will not rest until we grind you
beneath our feet. And we are from all walks of life, and all paths,
and all races. We will not bow before the Indigo Court. We will not
rest until we’ve reclaimed and rebuilt our home. I, Cicely who was
once Cherish, your daughter, lead the army.”
As my words echoed
through the yard, carrying on the wind to all quarters, carrying on
the slipstream, I turned back to the others. “Lannan, your offer is
a welcome one, but you’re right—we can’t stay there. Kaylin, can
you find us a place to hide for now?”
He nodded. “All are
pledged by death and honor to keep our new digs secret. You know
that, don’t you?” Looking specifically at Lannan, he waited for us.
We each answered with a nod, even Lannan.
And so, as the Veil
House roared in flames against the sky, we headed for our cars and
passed off Vyne Street, a silent procession in the night. Wrath
rode with me and Luna and the cats, who slept silently, engulfed in
the depths of Luna’s charm.
“My dear, you do
realize what you have done?” My father glanced at me as we crept
down the snowy streets, our engines muffled by the thick layer of
snow Myst was wreaking upon the area.
“Yes, I do. I’ve
created a force. I’ve created a power. And we will go to the
Consortium and demand backing. They may not like the fact that we
are Fae and magic-born, Were and magic-born, Fae and Indigo Court,
yummanii, and vampire, but they will have to accept us. They gave
me the challenge and I have risen to it. But I still want to learn
to control my blade.”
He shook his head.
“The obsidian knife is a dangerous tool for one with Myst’s soul
blood—it’s bad enough in the hands of one of her soldiers. Obsidian
links with the energy of the Vampiric Fae; it’s
symbiotic.”
“Then so much the
better. I had no trouble killing off her warriors with it. Look at
what the blade did for me—it turned me into a
warrior—”
“No!” Wrath glowered.
“It turned you into a killing machine. Look at your face—look at
your hands. Think back to the joy in your heart over the
devastation of your enemy. Though we must fight them, though we
must destroy them, it is not our way to take great pleasure in the
pain of others. Cambyra Fae are dark, yes; we walk on the edge of
the Unseelie Court depending on our nature . . . but in my family,
we do not align ourselves with monsters!”
I let out a slow
cough, the memory of my sheer delight in the carnage tweaking me.
“I know . . . but there may come a time, my father, when you will
have to turn me loose against them. I may be the only weapon you
have. And I will need every advantage I can garner. Put the blade
away for now, if you will, but promise me you won’t destroy
it.”
He sighed, then
nodded. “I will do so. And in return, I will outfit you with a
blade from my realm that will leave you joyful, but not a monster
at heart. I have a silver dagger that I saved for you, when I knew
Krystal was pregnant.”
That was the first
time he’d ever said her name, and I glanced at him. “Did you like
her?” Please, oh please, say you liked her.
Please say you didn’t just fuck her because Lainule ordered you
to.
As the streets glided
by in a silent blur of snowflakes and flickering streetlights,
Wrath let out a long sigh.
“She was a troubled
young woman. I wanted to help, but it would have interfered with
your future. I could have taken her to my realm, kept her among my
consorts where she would have been happy—or at least, less
troubled. But Lainule foresaw the future . . . she knew you would
need the childhood you had in order to toughen you up. Your mother
was . . . a sacrifice so that you might become the woman you
are.”
Tears streaming down
my face, I pressed my lips shut and followed Kaylin and Rhiannon.
He was driving her car, with Peyton and Grieve and Chatter inside.
As we wove through the night, a strange inky cloak seemed to
surround both vehicles and I knew it was coming from
Kaylin.
His night-veil is awake, and it can create shadows to
cloak movement. No one can see the cars or feel our
presence.
Thank you. And Ulean, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you
earlier. I was caught up in the rush of the blade, in the power of
the hunt.
I understand. But Cicely, there are long, dark days ahead.
Don’t be so rash. Don’t be so quick to lead the brigade. A good
leader learns when to hang back and let someone more experienced
take over.
It was Kaylin’s idea for me to use the obsidian knife. Do
you think he knew what would happen?
I don’t know . . . but Kaylin runs clean energy, even now
with his night-veil demon awake.
A peal of bells rang
twelve times as we turned into the industrial district right
outside town and crept into a maze of a parking lot. Old junkers
filled the lot and we parked near the edge of a huge warehouse and
climbed out.
“Welcome to your new
home,” Kaylin said. “Follow me.”
And, under the veil
of night, we followed the night-veil, carrying seven cats, into the
heart of the darkness.