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“Let’s go home.” She reaffirmed. We all turned to the staircase before us. A rumble from outside told us that the battle had just begun. I should have known Kieran would not just let me leave. I dropped the now empty firearm to the stone floor with a clatter, not caring that it would be a pain for Rycon to replace. I needed one hand free. The other one was still gripping that jade-hilted knife.
The ordeal with Marcus seemed to have taken more of a toll on me than I had thought. Walking up the steps to the outside world was painful, and difficult. Clair had one arm behind me, and the other one supporting my left wrist. My hand still clutching Rycon’s knife like my life depended on it. Rycon himself flowed up ahead of us, despite being thrown against the wall by a blast of witch-fire.
‘Shifters are naturally resistant to magick,’ He explained as I struggled up the stairs. I think he was trying to distract me. I hadn't realized how hurt I was. Both physically and psychologically. ‘It can still kill us, but it takes longer, and way more power than that douchebag had.’ I didn’t have it in me to respond.
After what seemed like forever, we made it to the final plateau. We paused to allow me to catch my breath, and then... the very shadows themselves began to come alive.
My bones constricted in fear, pain flared down the translucent white lines that now coated my body, thanks to the mage I had just murdered. I stood, shaking, waiting for Kieran’s signature swarm to appear. Clair’s hands tightened on me and she pulled me towards her, but Rycon remained still.
Instead of Kieran, Amon materialized before us. I had never seen him dressed for battle before. Even when he had come for the widowmaker, he had worn a collared shirt and charcoal slacks. Today he stood before me, Prince of the Court of Pride, armed and ready for war. Ornate silver raven-shaped fastenings held a bolt of midnight fabric to his shoulders. The ebony cape draped around him to the ground, fading into night where it swept his booted ankles.
The rest of his body was plated in close-fitting matte black metal, and that sword made of pure nighttime rested at his hip. Up close, the blade seemed to gobble up the light around it. My aura strained towards that empty black sword, and the triquetra burned until my core quieted. The daemon’s face was serious, and those piercing green eyes met mine, even as Clair stepped in front of me, gently pressing me behind her again.
“I have been trying to reach you since you called.” He said to me, his voice flowed like liquid over my bare skin, cooling the fire in my scars.
“They had her in a time loop,” Clair stated. Amon’s gaze jerked to her as if noticing, for the first time, that she was there at all. Let alone acknowledging the fact that she was the only reason I was still standing. He nodded toward her, in the closest thing to a bow a prince could make.
“Clairafine,” he said simply by way of greeting. She tilted her head in return. Clairafine? When this was all over, Clair had some explaining to do.
“Prince Amon,” She responded, and the side of his mouth twitched up in a half smile before he turned the full attention of his gaze back to me. Of course, she knew who he was. I seemed to be the only person who hadn’t known how the world really worked until a few weeks ago. Well me, and probably Jeremy.
“Can you walk?” Amon asked me, almost gently. The burn of his gaze told me that if I needed help, now was not the time to try and be a hero. There was another great rumble and the very bricks around us shifted. Once we went outside, things would move very quickly.
I did a quick scan of my body. I was weak, but with Rycon’s bond back, I could draw enough energy to get away, especially if he guarded me. Mentally, I was in shambles. I was wrecked enough that I wasn’t questioning things like how Amon had known I was here, or why it seemed like he and Clair had met before.
He had asked if I could walk, not if I could run.
I nodded.
56
“Good.” Amon said. He turned to Rycon, who had been waiting indifferently at my side.
With Amon’s entrance, the panther had pressed himself against my hip, but remained silent.
My mind was still moving too slowly. I could barely register Amon as a threat. I was just glad he was there and seemed to be on our side for the moment. I couldn’t take any more surprises.
“You,” Amon spat the word at Rycon like he knew what he had done to me. I wondered how much he had seen through the touch-based tracker he had placed on my chin before Kieran had taken me underground. “You will get Raven out of here. If you fail, Rycon, I will make sure you spend the rest of your life, praying for death.” Watching a cat roll its eyes was strange, but it happened.
“Stay behind me,” The daemon prince ordered and turned to open the door to the outside world. It seemed he was used to giving orders, and even more used to having them obeyed.
His cape of night brushed against me as he moved and my aura reacted to it, only to be slammed down by the triquetra. I bit back the gasp of pain that shot down my spine as my stars collided with the planets that orbited them. The daemon in me poked its nose out from between the fingers of the fist I kept around it. Kieran’s magick dug down into my raw skin trying to find it. To draw it out.
Without warning, Amon opened the door to the world and my iris’ constricted against the new light. Rycon leapt from my side into the early morning sun and Clair formed a shield of glowing energy before us. Amon looked back at me once before drawing his blade of midnight. All I could do was grip my jade hilted knife tighter, and I knew now, that I would use it.
The docks were cloved in a fuschia-cerulean light. Was it the sunrise of the morning after I had been incarcerated? No. I wouldn’t let myself think about that.
I remembered the day when Clair had found me on the chesterfield, and we had a dirt war in the backyard. That day now felt like it had been so long ago. When this was all over, we would go back and plant those damned sunflowers. I pushed the image of that little sack of seeds that were waiting for us into her mind. She smiled at me and squeezed my hand as we stepped out onto the pavement.
‘Yes, as soon as we get home.’ She said to me. I blinked against the light. So different from what I had been exposed to for what had felt like months underground. I blinked and couldn't get my bearings. I staggered and Rycon’s soft, hard body was there when I thought for sure I would fall over.
I bit back the choking scream in my throat and gripped a tight fist into Rycon’s fur. I can’t see, I can’t see, I can’t see…
Amon’s mind pressed into mine. ‘You are ok. Your eyes just need to adjust. You still have all your other senses. Use them.’ As his aura brushed against me, the triquetra weakened. My eyes struggled to adjust. I used my aura to feel out the scene before me. I could sense the auras of Kieran and his dark army and the familiar energies of my friends. They stood in a neat line before the impossible wall of sickly Nightshades.
Conrad’s salty ocean aura, humming before the itchy parasite that was Maria. Meredith's leafy green energy was facing Kieran’s venom. There were also auras I didn’t recognize on both sides.
On our side, there was an aura that I immediately recognized as Mr. Abbey. He was strong and steady. I realized now that he must have walked around with a damper on his power. His energy was formidable. There was a woman with him, she was older, wiser even than Mr. Abbey himself. She had the steadiness of the tide, and Conrad’s turbulent, playful storm seemed to derive from hers. Was this Patricia?
