They positioned themselves on either side of the clearing, and Leena settled into the weight of her heels. Every sound stopped. Nightingales halted midcall, and the lightning bugs scattered for safety. It was as if they knew. As if they could feel the sudden swell of power emanating from her emblem. Her Charmer’s symbol ignited in a brilliant display of rosewood light, roots and branches climbing the expanse of her hand and arm—a beautiful interlocking filigree of leaves and flowers. Fingers twitching, she studied the space between her and Calem.
“Go ahead. I’ll give you a chance to call forth your beast. Otherwise, it will be over before you know it.” He was nothing more than shadows and red eyes, a terrifying mockery of a man.
The heavy groan of a door opening shattered the silence of the night, and an influx of magic encircled Leena. Wind mussed her hair, and my heart stilled. Something was different. Beside me, Kost’s eyes widened and Ozias stiffened. Power unlike anything she’d demonstrated streamed from her, lashing against the night air and sending a charge through the wind.
When the breeze receded and the rosewood glow died, all the breath left my body.
Not one monster, but three emerged from the beast realm and clung to their master.
Leena grinned. “You said no rules.” Twin serpents with dragon-like heads and whiskers trailing the length of their scaly bodies glided through the air around her, constantly moving, constantly assessing. Electric blue in coloring, the first one growled, barring heavy fangs in Calem’s direction. The other, white as fresh snow, simply watched: sharp gray eyes trained on its target.
“Assassins don’t fight fair, either.” He winked out of existence, only an empty space where he used to be. The serpents tilted their heads, nostrils flaring wide as they searched for his scent. The third beast remained motionless. Child-size and sitting cross-legged at her feet, six arms with humanlike hands spread wide around its frame—two palms facing up to the sky, two flat and parallel to the earth, and the final two firmly pressed against the ground. Its cow-like head swiveled in our direction, ears going taut, and ten white eyes locked on us.
Shadows naturally began to fester around my feet. Safety in darkness.
Ozias rubbed his hand over cropped hair, back to front. “Leena might have strength in numbers, but Calem doesn’t like to lose. Ever.”
Calem crept through the dark, visible only to us. Her serpents hissed and groaned as they failed to flush him out. Leena only smiled, occasionally encouraging them with a soft clucking. Kost shifted into a low crouch, muscles tense, and waited for me to give the command—only I didn’t know if he’d be targeting Calem or Leena.
Calem moved before I could think. Leaping from the shadows and barreling toward her with unmatched swiftness, he had a clear shot on her unprotected neck. The world slowed as I remembered the way purplish bruises had immediately swelled against her skin when I’d held her suspended above the ground.
As Calem’s hands sliced through the air, an invisible, bubble-like shield rippled to life. He smashed into it, ricocheted off, and landed on the ground a few feet away from Leena. One of the cow beast’s eyes closed.
“Kinana, now,” Leena said. The blue serpent sped toward Calem, flying over the grass with the fluidity and grace of liquid. Dislocating her jaw, she opened her mouth wide, and an ocean of water blasted Calem deep into the ground. Leena flicked her wrist. “Kapro.” Kinana peeled off, and the snow-white serpent bulleted toward Calem. Snowflakes and tiny crystals trailed behind it, frosting the blades of grass beneath its underbelly. Like Kinana, Kapro unhinged his jaw.
Calem was spurred into motion and leaped away just as Kapro unleashed a blizzard of frosty air. The droplets of water in the grass cracked and froze, an icy imprint in the ground where Calem had landed. He bounded out of reach onto a nearby branch, dusting icicles off the edges of his trousers. He laughed, a croak from the back of his throat. Flashes of oily black blades winked in his palms. “Missed me.”
“Calem.” We needed her alive. I needed to know more about the Gyss and the wishes it could grant. Only after… I flexed my hand, and the binding oath on my wrist seemed to smirk at me.
He flinched, but didn’t acknowledge me. He’d certainly heard me, but the drive that made him so unbelievably lethal had started to take hold. He was by no means an old member of our guild, and yet he’d completed more jobs than any assassin. Including me.
Calem sped forward again, and a barrage of jet-black shadow blades cascaded from his hands. Crafted from darkness by the god of death, those blades could pierce almost anything. They careened right toward Leena’s unmoving body. One by one, they crashed into her shield.
The beast by her feet closed six more eyes.
Leena shuddered as another blade smashed against the dome. A sweat broke out across her forehead, and the beast closed yet another eye. Two milky orbs left. What would happen when all lids sealed shut? Was that good? Or bad?
“Calem!” This couldn’t go on. A dead Charmer was only good once we got our beasts. More than that, I couldn’t stand the thought of her hurt or, worse, gone.
No. That wasn’t it. Thatcouldn’tbe it. It was about responsibility. I’d promised that my men wouldn’t hurt her. That was all. The fingernails along my left hand sharpened to fine points, and my fingers trembled.
Kost’s gaze dropped to my hand for a flash. Grimacing, he turned back to the fight. “Are you sure?”
No. I wasn’t sure at all. My nails sharpened further, and my pulse throbbed in my empty palm. Beckoning. I didn’t want to answer it, but if Calem couldn’t follow an order, if he was too lost in the thrill of the hunt to obey…
I already had to keep my comrades at arm’s length. Something like this would only push Calem further away. I needed this delicate balance I’d found—a leader, but not quite a friend, close and yet not close enough—to survive. If I destroyed his trust, I’d lose him. There wasn’t enough between us to keep him around. I had made sure of that, if only to keep him safe.
His dark laugh floated in the air and coaxed my fingers to move. He wouldn’t stop. Not until he won. If he killed her, I’d never have the chance to close that distance, anyway.
With daggerlike nails, I slit a thin line across the palm of my right hand. Blood pooled in my heart line, waiting to do my bidding. The blood of a guild master. It swirled and formed a hardened blade much stronger than the shadows, hovering at the edge of my fingers.
“Noc.” Ozias gripped my shoulder, his worried gaze darting to my weapon.
The tip turned serrated. Dangerous weapons to enemies, but to my brethren… If my blade met Calem’s skin, the call of his leader would shock him into submission. He’d have to follow my command until the remnants of my blood cycled out of his system. To be stripped of free will… I’d only seen Talmage use the power once, and the horrid screams of the affected assassin still haunted me. To do that to Calem…
Bile gathered in the back of my throat. He’d never forgive me, not really, but if he wouldn’t listen, I’d have to compel him to follow my orders. I needed that beast.
I needed Leena alive.For now, I forced myself to add.
