Runemaker, page 7
He blinked. No longer as alone as he thought.
“Tomás,” Aidan whispered. “You’re back.”
Tomás didn’t move.
“I am always here,” he said. “Watching. Waiting. You hate him, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” Aidan said. He rolled his head back. Looked at the ceiling; even that movement hurt with cold. Shadows danced in the flames. So many shadows. So little flame. If only he could pretend this was a dream. “He wants my glory.”
“Interesting. Still clinging to fame, even now. You will die before you find glory, my broken prince. Long, long before. And he will rise up in your stead. You, I’m afraid, are worthless.”
Shadows closed in. Aidan tried to find the fire. Tried to reach down into the pit in his chest and pull back something. A spark. A light. Anything.
He found ice. Only ice.
“I’m not worthless,” Aidan whispered. Without Fire, he couldn’t fully believe it.
“Really?” And Tomás was there, perched at his bedside, and even though Aidan could barely keep his eyes open, he could tell the incubus wasn’t looking at him with desire or strategy. He was looking at him with pity. “I believe you are mistaken. All men die. All men, that is, save for me.”
Tomás smiled, his canines sharp and gleaming.
“Howls aren’t immortal,” Aidan said. A shock of cold burst through him, ripping through his intestines, and he curled over in pain. Tomás clucked his tongue.
“How do you know? We have only been around for a few years. But I have stopped aging, broken one. The Dark Lady promised eternity, and she delivers on her promises.” Tomás leaned in. “All of her promises.”
He pressed his hand to Aidan’s chest.
“Perhaps she could heal you, as well. Perhaps she could help you live forever, as I will. You and your dear, dead mother, reunited for eternity. And Tenn, mortal and buried while you live forever in glory.”
Aidan’s eyes flickered shut. Behind them, the cold shadows began to warm. His whole body slowly relaxed, heavy heat filling his limbs. Only his chest hurt. His chest, where Tomás’s hand pressed. His chest, where Tomás’s hand burned and froze.
“How?” Aidan whispered, the word slurred.
He felt Tomás lean in, his breath hot—so hot—against his ear.
“My mistress is the ruler of death,” Tomás whispered. “To meet her, you must die.”
Aidan didn’t have the strength to fight. He didn’t want to fight. The warmth was so beautiful. Like a cocoon of shadows. A womb. And he had been cold for so, so long. He wanted to sink into that warmth. To wrap himself inside and sleep forever.
“I want—” Aidan mumbled. Words tripped on his tongue, stuck in his throat.
“Hush, broken one,” Tomás whispered. “My worthless, pitiful failure.”
Tomás’s hand clenched. Aidan wanted to scream, but he was too deep, the pit he sank through too dark. Eternity clawed at him, an endless, simmering nothingness, and he couldn’t fight.
For the first time, he didn’t want to fight.
Because there, in the darkness, he saw her face.
She held out her arms.
And as the last bit of heat and life left him, Aidan fell into his mother’s embrace.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TENN
Tenn jolted as gunfire echoed down the hall.
Two quick bursts. A thunderous silence.
The sound came from the nurses’ ward. He’d left only minutes ago, promising to grab dinner for the lot of them. He ran down the darkened hallways, past Hunters calling out or standing in shocked confusion, because this was the UK, and who had guns here? Who would ever use guns now?
Tenn knew.
Panting, he reached the room where Aidan had been. He froze the moment he reached the doorway.
Partly from shock. Partly from the gun barrel pointed directly at his face.
“Fuck,” Kianna said. She lowered the gun and looked down to Aidan. Aidan, whose dark skin was pallid. Aidan, whose chest didn’t move.
“Is he—?” he asked.
“Barely,” she replied. She looked over Tenn’s shoulder, to where a few Hunters watched on nervously. “Go grab the nurse!” she barked. She raised the gun at them. “Now!”
The Hunters fled. She pressed her free hand to Aidan’s forehead but didn’t drop the gun. Tenn looked at the wall behind Aidan, to the spray of red on white paint. Bile rose in his throat. It reminded him all too much of coming back to find the Witches torn apart in their trailers. But there wasn’t a body, so who had she shot?
Tenn took a hesitant step into the room.
“What happened?”
Kianna’s jaw clenched. They stood there for a long while, watching Aidan struggle to breathe.
“I don’t know,” she finally replied. “There was a man kneeling beside him.” She shook her head. “Not a man. He’d be dead if he was. Vanished the moment I shot him. Hit him in the chest. Twice.”
Tenn swallowed hard. Even with a fire blazing in the hearth, he felt chilled to the bone.
“Tomás,” he whispered.
Kianna jerked her gaze to him, her eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Thunderous footsteps behind them derailed the conversation. Amiina and a half dozen guards flooded into the room. Along with Jarrett. Tenn wilted back against the wall and wished he were anywhere but there. Especially since Jarrett was pretending not to see him. One of the guards rushed to Aidan’s side, a medical kit open in a heartbeat.
“What happened?” Amiina demanded. Kianna looked like she couldn’t tell if she wanted to punch the nurse or not.
“There was an incubus,” Tenn said. He had to think fast. Had to keep the entire Guild from finding out that one of the Kin had been here. He knew that if they had the slightest inkling of what was stalking their corridors—and why he was there—Tenn and his companions would be out on their asses faster than lightning. Or killed. Probably the latter.
“Impossible,” Amiina said. “No Howl gets past our defenses.”
“Then how d’you explain a damn incubus perched on my mate’s chest?” Kianna snarled. “Some bloody fine defenses you’ve got.”
“How do you explain no body?” Amiina replied.
“He ran off after Kianna shot him,” Tenn said. “She must have gotten it in the arm or something. I got here just as he fled.”
Jarrett didn’t say anything, but he’d gone from ignoring Tenn to staring at him like he wanted to set Tenn on fire. Kianna, too, glared daggers. Clearly, she didn’t like the suggestion that she would miss her target.
Amiina looked at them all, studying them. Then she snapped her fingers.
“Comb the Guild and lock the gates,” she said. “No one leaves or enters without my express permission. If anyone tries to flee, kill them.”
The guards nodded and ran off, leaving just Amiina and Jarrett in the doorway. At Aidan’s bedside, the nurse worked away, checking his vitals and rummaging for nonexpired medication.
When Tenn could no longer hear the Hunters’ boots down the hall, Amiina stepped up to him and growled in a hushed voice.
“If we don’t find an incubus by nightfall, I’m throwing you lot out.” Her eyes narrowed. “I still haven’t decided if I’ll be throwing out corpses.”
Then she turned to Jarrett.
“Take care of this.” Without waiting for a reply, she was gone.
Jarrett glowered at Tenn for a moment. “I told you this would get us killed,” he said. With a shake of his head, he turned and left.
For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then the nurse cleared his throat and stood.
“Um, he’ll uh, he’ll make it,” he said. “For now, at least. Keep him warm. I gave him some sedatives to help him rest. I’ll, em, I’ll have someone bring in some soup.”
He was out the door before finishing his sentence.
Kianna watched the nurse go. Then her eyes snared on Tenn. She raised the gun and pointed it at him, right between the eyes.
“Talk.”
Tenn opened his mouth. To admit to her about Tomás. To lay all his sins bare.
But before the words could leave his lips, thunder rolled through the hall, shaking the core of the building.
He toppled to the side and she fell on top of the bed; it was a miracle she didn’t shoot him in the process. It wasn’t the earthquake that stilled his words.
It was the power.
He could feel it, even from here. Stronger than Matthias. Stronger than anyone.
They didn’t have to wait for the Kin any longer.
“They’re here,” he whispered.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
TENN
Tenn and Kianna raced to the top of the Guild’s wall.
“This is bad,” Kianna muttered.
They stared out over the burnt expanse of land. Only now, they weren’t greeted with darkness. Great flames twisted up to the sky in front of them. Maybe a mile or two away. Tops. Tenn opened to Earth and stretched his senses out through the soil, fearing what he’d find in the field. The army that unfolded under his senses outnumbered any he’d ever seen. Whichever Kin this was, they hadn’t come to mess around. Howls swarmed by the thousands, and the sheer amount of magic used by the necromancers was enough to make his skin crawl.
They were here to wipe out Tenn and his comrades. Once and for all.
“I don’t suppose you have any fancy runes to kill them all, eh?” Kianna asked.
Tenn shook his head. He couldn’t stop staring at the army. They stretched across the entirety of the horizon. How had they gotten here so quickly? He’d thought he was the only one possessing runes of travel. But maybe, like Tomás, they had another way.
Shouts raced along the wall as Hunters readied themselves. Tenn watched as their Spheres blinked to life. But they were like candles against the sun. They didn’t stand a chance.
“We need to run,” Tenn said. It was the only thing he could think of. Get them out of here. Find someplace safe. Figure out how to... What? He still had no clue what to do.
“Like hell,” Kianna said. She opened the chamber of her gun and slid in two more bullets, then snapped it into place. “We die tonight. I’m not going to die with my tail between my legs. And neither should you.”
She grinned at him. In the light of the coming fires, she actually looked excited.
“Come on, you already killed one Kin. What’s one more? Just a shame that Aidan isn’t here to see this. He’d have loved it.”
Then, before Tenn could tell her she was mad, she turned and darted off along the wall, heading toward the field.
Tenn watched her go, his heart in his throat. He could sense death coming, and Water sang out its siren song. It was time to give over to the power. Your pain gives you strength. Your pain gives you strength.
It was almost time to unleash it.
It was almost time to drown.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AIDAN
Aidan floated in darkness, the world around him a shifting, breathing thing, all warmth and velvet and closeness. It should have been suffocating. Terrifying. Instead, he felt like he was finally home.
The darkness coalesced, and there, hovering before him in a gown of black silk, was the Dark Lady. A smile played on her crimson lips, her long blond hair billowing around her in a halo.
“You are dying, Aidan. Can you not feel it? The coldness of death’s doorway? Can you not hear the sound of my voice, singing you home?”
“I’m not going to die,” Aidan said, and with every word he felt a bit more solid. A bit more certain. He knew he didn’t have much time left. But he also knew he wasn’t bluffing. “You need me. You need me alive.”
“Do I, now?” she asked, her smile widening.
Aidan nodded.
“I’ve read the words you’ve written, just as I’ve heard the language of the gods you serve. You need me.”
“All men are replaceable.”
“And yet here I am, still clinging on to life. Because you know as well as I do that no one else can do what I do.” He knew, then, that it was true. The reason he’d been singled out. The reason Fire had begun acting so strangely, had connected him to a darkness he once thought he battled against.
He could do what even the Dark Lady could not.
“I read the runes you used on Calum. I know they weren’t perfect. I know what you could have done differently.”
“You destroyed those runes when you unleashed his power,” the Dark Lady said. “And now, that folly is killing you.”
“I remember them,” Aidan said. “And I know why you wanted me to get it. You didn’t need the stone. You needed the runes. You need someone to bring you back from the dead.”
For the first time, the Dark Lady didn’t look smug. She looked uncertain.
Aidan let his smile widen. Here, close to death, he could finally feel the heat of Fire in his chest. The sparks racing through his veins as victory neared. Victory not over just Tenn and the Howls, but over Death herself.
“I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll bring you back to life. For a price.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TENN
Tenn was halfway to the wall when Jarrett stepped out and intercepted him. The last person he wanted to see.
“We have to get you out of here,” Jarrett said.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He looked up to the blazing red sky. Thought of the boy he was bound to save only a few hundred feet away. He couldn’t leave Aidan. He couldn’t leave anyone. Not after he’d come so far.
“Please, Tenn,” Jarrett said. And his voice softened. Took on the tone that melted Tenn’s heart like butter. “Please. I’m sorry about before. About everything. But you have to understand—you are important. So very important. And if you die here, we lose. All of us. We all lose.”
Bile rose in the back of his throat. This felt way too much like when he had let his old Guildmates die for him, back at Outpost 37. It seemed like years ago, but even now, even with the true battle looming around him, he could hear Matthias’s mocking laughter as he chased Tenn down.
Tenn was done running.
“I can help them,” he said. “I have runes—”
“You know they aren’t enough. The twins are already rallying Aidan and Kianna. They’re going to fly him and the two of them out of here. And we have to be out there, waiting, for when they arrive.”
“What?”
“They want you to create a safe spot,” Jarrett said. His eyes flickered to the red above them. “Just out of harm’s way. Like you did before. For me. They’ll bring Aidan and Kianna to us.” He looked back to Tenn. “Trust me. Please. This is the only way.”
Tenn swallowed.
An explosion shook the Guild, toppling him into Jarrett’s arms. Jarrett, who held him strong and secure, warm and loving. Tenn took a deep breath. There was logic in Jarrett’s words. He didn’t want to leave the others to die, but this was the only way to keep them safe. At least for now.
“Okay,” he said into Jarrett’s chest.
Jarrett kissed the top of his head.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I know where to go. I just need you to draw the runes.”
Tenn nodded and knelt. Quickly scrawled the runes in the dirt.
“Ready,” he said.
Jarrett took his hand.
“Ready.”
Tenn opened to Earth. Jarrett opened to Air. And as the world around them vanished in a swirl of dust and shadow, Tenn had to convince himself he wasn’t running away.
He was helping.
He was helping.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
AIDAN
Aidan could barely move. Could barely see. But he was strong enough—just strong enough—to grab the dagger Kianna had left on the nightstand.
Strong enough to bring it to the welt over his Hunter’s mark.
He was so cold, he didn’t even feel the dagger as it sliced through his flesh.
He was so close to death, he could barely see his own work. Not at first, and not as blood slicked over his skin.
He didn’t need to.
The runes he scrawled glowed bright red, streaming out like light, like blood, and maybe he had been through too much pain, maybe he’d become dull from the torture, but he didn’t feel a damn thing. Only light. Only light.
And the hiss of the runes that pooled in his blood like poison.
Thunder rolled outside. Dust fell from the ceiling. Distantly, he heard the shouts of this ragtag Guild as they assembled for one final battle.
It sounded like a coronation. A battle hymn.
It sounded like the praise he had never truly been given, but would finally take.
Because he knew, in the back of his mind, the Kin and the rest were coming for him.
They thought he was an easy target. Broken after the Inquisition. Helpless.
He sneered at their faces in the flames of the hearth fire. Scratched deeper into his tender, burning flesh. Over scar tissue. Through tattoos. A different sort of ink pooling and spreading in his veins.
Magic.
He felt it as surely as he’d once felt Fire burning in his chest.
It tingled under his skin, crawling and biting like fire ants.
It burned in his breath, a smoke he would never exhale.
And with every rune he cleaved into his skin, the power grew.
He rewrote the runes that had once given him strength.
He massacred the Church’s brand with words far deeper, far more ancient, than any human fear.
He wrote the words of the darkness. The words of that first, impregnating spark.
