AllFreeNovel
Share Us
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—”
