Runemaker, page 2
“What have they done to you, wee man?” she asked.
She pressed down on Aidan’s skin. Miraculously, he relaxed immediately. He shuddered again, and kept shivering, as though he were freezing even as sweat dripped down Tenn’s skin. She slid off her coat and draped it over Aidan’s naked body. It didn’t help his shivers, but it was more than Tenn or anyone else had ventured to do. Tenn felt like shit for not doing more.
“I’m Kianna,” the stranger said, not looking away from Aidan. Her words were soft, British. “And who the hell are you?”
“He’s Tenn,” Aidan replied. “He’s here to—”
Kianna didn’t wait for him to finish. She slid her hands under Aidan and picked him up, standing in one smooth motion. As though she were just picking up a doll. The movement silenced Aidan, save for a hiss of pain. She held Aidan close to her chest, one arm behind his back and the other under his knees. His head lolled against her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Tenn asked, standing. It was only then that he realized Kianna towered above him. And he’d always considered himself tall.
“Already told you.” She turned and started walking away. “Your magic can’t help him. So I’m taking him somewhere safe. He needs to rest.”
“You’re not...you’re not taking him anywhere.” Tenn’s voice shook. Being demanding was never his forte. So why was Jarrett not stepping in and taking command like normal?
Kianna looked over her shoulder. The glance she cast was positively condescending.
“Oh? Who’s stopping me?”
Tenn looked back to the others. Devon shrugged.
“You can’t,” Tenn said. Tried to firm his words. “We traveled from America to find him. We need...we need...” But he couldn’t finish his sentence. Because he had no idea why they needed Aidan. No clue what this broken boy could possibly do for them. But he knew he had to find out. He knew everything depended on it.
Clearly, the desperation in his voice worked. She didn’t stop walking away. But she did call out again.
“You can follow if you want,” she said. “But I’m taking him out of this hellhole. And if you get in the way, I promise I will kill you.”
CHAPTER TWO
TENN
There wasn’t much to deliberate.
It didn’t matter if Kianna was a Kin or a necromancer or a friend. It didn’t matter that she had somehow not only managed to survive, but walk through the destruction without being noticed by any of them. It only mattered that she had Aidan, and she was moving, and Aidan actually seemed calmer in her arms.
Even if he did keep giggling.
Tenn and the others jogged to keep up with her. Dreya kept a constant swirl of Air around them, blowing away the heavy smoke, casting aside the worst of the embers, cooling the molten ground before it could burn through the soles of their boots. If she or Devon minded the soot that blackened their white clothing, they didn’t mention it. They walked through the destruction like wraiths. Otherworldly. But then, they were otherworldly all the time.
Jarrett kept pace at Tenn’s side, his fingers light on the sword at his waist and Air a flurry in his throat. Tenn wanted to reach out, to take his hand. He wanted to, but something felt off, something he couldn’t put his finger on, and after the last few weeks of recovering and rebuilding a future together, the fissure was as unexpected as it was cutting.
Tenn’s true focus was the woman walking at his side, stepping over debris and melted pools of glass as though this were a stroll through the park. The only sign of stress was the tightness in her eyes. A knowing. Or, if not a knowing, a concern of what might have been.
“What happened here?” Tenn asked.
Her eyes flicked to him.
Something told him they were never going to be friends.
“You’ll have to ask this one,” she said.
She gave Aidan a little lift. His head rolled to the side, his eyes closed.
“They’re everywhere,” Aidan muttered. “She’s everywhere.”
“Good luck with that,” Kianna said. She didn’t speak for a moment. When she did, she looked to Tenn—it was about the most attention she’d paid him since she arrived. “How do I know you don’t have something to do with this?”
Tenn’s heart flipped over. Wondering what she’d seen. And overlaying it with another scene—him, kneeling over Leanna, his hand crushing her throat as Tomás laughed beside him and the world sparked and howled.
Kianna laughed.
“I’m kidding,” she said. Looked forward again. “You’re too moody for reckless destruction. This has Aidan’s name written all over it.”
But does it?
Tenn looked around at the ruined expanse of London, a sick knot growing in his gut. Not just because this wasn’t how he’d expected this to go. But because, in truth, he hadn’t come here to find Aidan.
He’d come here hunting Tomás.
Ever since he’d burned the tracking runes onto Tomás’s heart, he’d been keeping loose tabs on the Kin. Tenn had felt Tomás getting farther and farther away. And then stopping.
For nearly a week, Tenn had felt Tomás out here, barely moving. Tenn knew in his gut that Tomás had found Aidan. Tenn had wanted to leave immediately. But he had stayed. At Jarrett’s urging. At the insistence that they all needed to rest. That America’s forces needed to be rallied. Back in the Guild in Outer Chicago, back in the safety of his shared room with Jarrett, back in the arms of his lover while the rest of the world burned. Jarrett had said they were needed in Outer Chicago to keep peace and mop up the rest of the necromancers that would be vying for control after the Kin Leanna’s death. Instead, Tenn had barely left the compound, had barely been needed.
Now Tenn wondered if that waiting had caused all of this, wondered how many had died because he had chosen comfort and himself over duty.
The Sphere of Water surged in his gut, dredging up his darkest shadows.
If you had been faster. If you had been stronger...
London had been a Guild, once. A Hunter-controlled haven for civilians to hide away from the monstrous hordes. The last vestige of civilization.
Now, even the bones of those who once lived here were glass.
This is your fault, too. He didn’t need to know exactly how many people had died in this city. He could feel their deaths hanging above him. Specters. Thick and cloying as the smoke that curled outside their shield’s edge, the world beyond a hell he couldn’t place.
Something had happened here. Something involving a great deal of Fire magic. Had Aidan and Tomás fought? Was Tomás...
Tenn brought the tracking runes to mind. And there, distantly, miles away, he could feel the Howl’s heartbeat. Still alive, then.
Tenn wouldn’t be so lucky.
Although a small part of him was relieved that Tomás was alive. If only so he could be the one to kill the incubus that had toyed with him for far too long.
At least, that’s what he tried to convince himself.
A deeper, darker voice wasn’t entirely convinced that Tenn didn’t enjoy being toyed with.
“Where are we going?” Jarrett asked. His words snapped Tenn from his thoughts. Which was definitely for the best. He didn’t need to be thinking about Tomás and his lascivious nature now.
“Not sure,” Kianna replied. She looked to the flames around them. “Away from here. Unless you happen to enjoy inhaling the smoke of the dead?”
Tenn looked at Jarrett, saw the telltale crease of Jarrett’s forehead. Kianna was pushing him too far. And with Air blowing away Jarrett’s softer emotions, that was an easy line to cross.
“Why couldn’t we sense you?” Jarrett asked. Paused. Air flared brighter in his throat. “Why can’t I sense you?”
Kianna gave him a wry smile.
“Your magic is flawed.” She looked back to where she was going. “Or I’m just good at being sneaky.”
Jarrett wasn’t having it.
In a heartbeat, with a pulse of Air, he was in front of her, sword out and pointed at her throat. Another step, and she would have impaled herself. But she paused. Stared down the length of the sword and into Jarrett’s eyes. Looking as indifferent as possible with a blade bared at her throat.
“Jarrett—” Tenn began.
Kianna took a half step forward. Pressed her throat to the tip of the blade. In her arms, Aidan was blissfully unaware—passed out, the sword inches away from his own face.
“I heard once that the samurai only drew their blades if they were prepared to draw blood,” Kianna said calmly. “And yet, I don’t think you’re going to hurt me. I don’t see it in your eyes.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Kianna smiled.
“It would be the last thing you did, wanker. I only injure to kill.”
“So do I,” Jarrett replied. He leaned in, seemed more than ready to slice open her throat.
“Jarrett!” Tenn yelped. He jumped over. Placed his hand on Jarrett’s arm. His lover’s muscles were taut and unyielding, and Tenn didn’t try to force his hand. Not when there was a chance it would make things worse. “That’s enough. We’re on the same side.”
Jarrett looked over at Tenn, and that glare made Tenn’s skin grow cold. Tenn knew Air users could become emotionless, knew Air could sweep aside anything beyond thought and action. But up until now, that was a side Jarrett had never shown. His pale eyes were cold.
“Are we?” he asked.
But he didn’t press it. He stepped back, lowered his sword. He didn’t sheathe it.
“This is ridiculous.” He looked to Tenn, Air still a pale fire in his throat. “We never should have come here. This is what we get for following your damn ‘spirits.’”
The words stung. So did the tears that tried to poke their way up, blurring Tenn’s vision.
“If you are going to be angry,” Dreya said, stepping up beside them, “at least do something useful with it. Fighting amongst ourselves will lead nowhere.”
Jarrett turned his glare to her. Tenn expected him to soften. He didn’t. What the hell was going on with him?
“Fine,” Jarrett said. “If we’re stuck here, I’m going to find a Guild. No use walking around blindly.”
Before any of them could agree or argue, Air swirled bright in Jarrett’s throat and wind billowed his black trench coat out like a raven’s wings. He was airborne before Tenn could open his mouth, shooting up to the horizon like a star. Tenn wanted to call out.
Though what he was going to say—be safe? come back?—was beyond him. All he knew was that this was not how this was supposed to go.
“You two together?” Kianna asked when Jarrett had disappeared from view.
Tenn swallowed hard. Are we? He nodded.
She chuckled.
“Lucky you. He’s a real treat.”
She kept walking.
Tenn didn’t try talking to her again.
CHAPTER THREE
TENN
They walked in silence for what felt like hours.
It might have only been minutes. Maybe days. It was impossible to tell, with the sky roiling red and angry above them and everything around them smoking and engulfed in flame. It didn’t help that Tenn was surrounded by people who refused to talk. Normally, he hated chitchat, but right now he would have killed for a little bit of banter. Anything to lighten the mood that lay heavy across them. Anything to distract him from the questions that raced through his brain. The uncertainty. The fear.
Jarrett didn’t return.
Dreya, Devon and Kianna said nothing. And Aidan just slept in Kianna’s arms, giggling to himself occasionally.
It wasn’t just the silence that grated on Tenn’s nerves, though—it was the fact that everything looked exactly the same. Time didn’t seem to pass and neither did the landscape. Tenn had imagined that eventually, the destruction would have to give way. That the intensity of the blast would lessen farther from the source, and they would find something left of London—a flat, a fish and chips shop, an Underground entrance. Anything to show that this place had once been a thriving metropolis.
But the city had been leveled as if by a knife, everything sharp and hot. Tenn could feel the rain above, coalescing in the burning clouds. He felt the rain, and he almost reached out to it, almost brought it down to cool the angry earth, to douse the flames and bring this all to an end.
He also knew that playing with weather rarely yielded the results you wanted. With his luck, the ensuing steam would choke them out, or a flash flood would threaten to wipe them away. But maybe just a light drizzle. To feel like he was doing something, at the very least.
Right now, with no mission or clue what they were doing or what was happening, he felt absolutely useless. He couldn’t even ask anyone and expect to get a real answer.
There was nothing to do in the silence but think. They needed to reach a Guild. Needed to heal Aidan. Because Tenn knew destruction such as this wouldn’t go unnoticed. The entire world had turned upside down since he killed Leanna. America, without its ruling undead matriarch, had been thrown into chaos. Necromancers had declared an all-out war. Not just against the humans they’d normally stalked, but against each other. Tenn wondered if something similar had happened here. Maybe, once he got Aidan safe, he could go back and try to do another journey or whatever it was with the Witches. Try to figure out why exactly he’d been sent to find Aidan.
Aidan was the key.
The trouble was, Tenn had no clue what that key was for. Right now, judging from the pure expanse of destruction Aidan had caused, Tenn doubted it was a door he wanted to open, anyway.
What if you weren’t sent to save him? a voice whispered. What if you were sent to prevent this? And you failed. What if it’s up to you to keep this from happening again? He looked over to Aidan nestled in Kianna’s arms. Killing him was the last thing he wanted to do. He needed to save Aidan, whatever the cost. They couldn’t risk losing a power like his.
Then, after what felt like days of walking through hell, they reached the end.
It came as a shock. Their shield pressed through fog, and suddenly the fog billowed against brick. A large, long brick building that pushed three stories through the heat, its facade burning red and orange. Still smoking. Still hot.
Dreya pressed through her powers and the shield expanded, heavy smoke billowing to the sides like a drawn curtain. Rows upon rows of houses solidified through the smoke, all of them smoldering, arched windows shattered and wooden doors flecked red with embers.
The destruction cut off like a knife.
All of it, like a knife. As if the fire had spread, and then been sucked back.
Tenn had never seen power like this.
Even with the heat rising around them, a shudder crept through his body.
Everything about this felt wrong, and every time he thought that, his eyes snared on Aidan.
How could he have channeled so much power without burning up? Even at the height of Tenn’s unintentional magic, he’d not been able to level a city the size of London. He’d done the impossible by bringing Jarrett back from the brink of death, yes, and he’d channeled more Water than anyone before him. But so much of that had been outside of his control. Or through the runes.
The gods speak to you through Water. So what gods spoke to Aidan through all of this Fire?
Tenn glanced at Aidan’s tattoos. They crossed all over his body, from knuckles to ankles. Some of them were designs—swirls and faces, even a sexy merman on his pec—and others appeared to be runes or sigils. How much was decorative, and how much had a more esoteric meaning? Had the boy learned how to read runes himself? Were these markings special, for strength or extra magic? Who had taught him?
Once more, he glanced at the brand covering Aidan’s Hunter’s mark. The symbol burned in Tenn’s mind, sucking his thoughts in like a black hole. It was more than a brand. More than a welt. More than a symbol. It didn’t speak to him, not like the runes of the Witches. Instead, it was a great silence in his mind. In that emptiness, there was no magic, no light, no hope. And that void scared Tenn more than the eyes of the Dark Lady herself.
The runes were the language of the gods, divine and pure.
This brand, he knew, was of human making, and there was nothing sacred or pure in its intention.
Kianna coughed, and Tenn realized he’d been staring at Aidan’s scantily covered body for far too long. He blushed and looked away, his thoughts sloshing with questions. Chief amongst them, guilty though he felt for not focusing on the crisis at hand, he wondered where Jarrett was, and why he was acting this way. They kept walking.
The night deepened—Tenn had left Outer Chicago in the early afternoon, and the sudden darkness was disconcerting, especially without hours of travel to get here—and the cold crept in. With every step, Aidan’s shivers got worse.
“We need to stop soon,” Kianna eventually said. She glanced down to Aidan, her face scrunching in concern. “He’s about to freeze to death.”
Tenn placed his hand on Aidan’s brow, considered taking off his coat to help. After attuning to Water, the wet cold never bothered him—it felt like home. Tenn hissed the moment their skin touched.
One, from the shock of energy that pulsed between them. And two...
“He’s burning up,” Tenn muttered.
“Really?” Kianna said. “I hadn’t noticed.” She sighed. Heavily. “He’s cold-blooded. And after what they did to him...”
“Who did what to him?”
This was the most talkative Kianna had been since they met. He wasn’t about to pass it up.
“The Church,” she said. She cast him a dark look. “Whatever this is—” she nodded at his forearm “—cuts him off from Fire. And the boy is addicted to it during the best of times. At least they got what was coming to them.” She paused, then muttered, “Too fast, if you ask me.”
