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He tossed me my clothes, the look on his face pained, and I knew he didn’t want to leave us. “All right, but take this.” He pressed something in my hand as I gave him a sharp nod and he was once again a puff of shadow and smoke, vanishing from sight.
I glanced at what Kaylin had given me. The obsidian knife. Gritting my teeth, knowing what was in store for us, I yanked on my clothes, as the Shadow Hunters began their creep down the ledge, using the handholds. Myst leaned in through the trap door, her laughter echoing through the room.
“Too late, too late, Cicely. And my Consort, what a naughty boy you’ve been. It’s time for summer to end. It’s time to bring the long night of the world.” Her voice was chill, the winds of winter rushing through it. At least she only had three of her Shadow Hunters with her. But three of the Vampiric Fae against four of us? Not even the beginning to a fair match.
Rhia backed up, her expression grim. “We do whatever we have to in order to get out of here.”
“Yes. And my first act is this.” I swept out my fan and aimed it at them.
Cicely, do not overuse—
There’s no choice. I cut off Ulean with an abrupt whisper. “Hurricane force.” And as I swept the fan, all hell broke loose.
The winds rose, but this time so did I. I felt myself rise half out of my body, yet I was still attached to my form. I loomed, overshadowing the chamber. I was both my shadow and myself, rising up with the winds, no longer feeling their backlash, but this time they were coming from within me. I tried to catch my breath but my shadow-self did not need to breathe, the winds were breathing for me as they raged forth from my body.
Ulean shrieked, and I turned in her direction. I could see her—the celestial sparkling form that I had only before seen when I was dreamwalking with Kaylin. Now she was clear and huge, and she spun around me.
Draw the wind back! You do not know what you are doing!
But I had to move forward. I couldn’t pull the raging winds back to me—they were sustaining me, lifting me up, making me a giant in my own world. The plinth shuddered as the hundred-mile-an-hour winds hit it square on. It shrieked, splintering as bone and branch broke apart, falling to the floor.
I took another step forward, shaking the room as I moved. Behind me, I heard Rhia, Grieve, and Chatter shouting, but I could no longer hear their voices, and right now I had work to do. I turned toward the Shadow Hunters and let out a long breath, and the winds struck the walls, shaking the chamber, howling as they echoed through the room.
The Vampiric Fae shrieked as I headed in their direction. They clung to the walls with a preternatural strength, pressing themselves against the tiles. I threw back my head, my hair whipping in the wind. As I laughed, my laughter rumbled through the room. The obsidian knife was still in my hand and now its energy began to ripple through me, a fierce hunger overtaking me.
I reached the wall and—shadow watching over my body—began to climb, like Myst’s people, clinging to the walls as the hurricane-force winds thundered from within me. My heart was buoyed by their strength. I scuttled up the wall like a spider, like an insect, and as I reached the first Shadow Hunter, he cringed as I brought up the obsidian knife.
Kill, bleed, feed, drain him dry, suck marrow from bone, feast on his heart, bathe in his blood and brains…
The impetus drove me forward, drove my hand up, brought the knife plunging down into his body, as I ripped, tearing him apart. Laughter came burbling up, and I licked the blade, not caring when it sliced my own tongue. The salty taste of his blood only whetted my appetite and I reached out, intent on drawing him to me, but the winds that buffeted the walls sent him careening to the floor.
Even as he fell, I reached out to catch him and Ulean swept by, catching up the fan in her wake, yanking it off my wrist. I screamed, furious, but she sent it spinning down to the floor.
No! No! You do not dare!
Cicely, come back to me. Cicely, let go of the knife. Let go.
I cannot—we cannot withstand them without it—
Look, Cicely. Look above you.
I glanced up at the walls. The other two Shadow Hunters had scurried up, retreating to Myst’s side. She was staring at me, her mouth in a rounded “O” and, for the first time, a look of hesitation filled her eyes. I ignored Ulean and began to climb higher, my gaze fixated on her. She would know what it was like to feel the kiss of her own weapons. The winds howled, raging up toward her and her warriors.
But before I could reach the top, she withdrew, and they were gone. We were alone. I growled, wanting to take her on. But the gusting winds began to recede, and Ulean took that moment to slam against me, making me reach for the wall to hold on, dropping the knife as I did so.
I gasped, shaking my head as my thoughts slowly began to clear. I looked down, not sure how to get back down. I was exhausted and no longer seemed to have the same knack for climbing that I’d had a few minutes before. Grieve quickly began to scale the wall.
He reached me before I fell, and, using one hand to keep hold of the handholds, he managed to help me up to the top of the room. He looked down and motioned to Chatter, who said something to Rhiannon. She picked up my fan. Chatter gingerly picked up the knife, and they began to climb, with him helping guide her.
Within a few minutes, we were sitting outside the trapdoor, in the snow, staring at the path that Myst and her hunters had forged. It was somewhere near dawn, and they were nowhere in sight. I was almost sorry. If need be, I’d take up the fan and knife again, out here in the open, and get it over with. But inside, a voice of sanity whispered, Even with the knife and the fan, you could not defeat her. You must have Summer’s help.
I swallowed my regret. I’m sorry, Ulean. I did not mean to say those things.
Yes you did, Cicely. At the time, you meant them. As Lainule warned you, overusing the fan can put you at its mercy. It changes you, makes you more a part of its element. Use it too often, with too much force, and it will suck you fully into the realm of air and turn you into a hybrid—a Wind Elemental not endemic to the realm. And most of those who have that happen go mad.
I pondered this for a moment, then told the others what had happened. “The combination of the wind controlling me, and the knife…I could have taken her on. I wouldn’t have won, but I would have hurt her.”
“But then you wouldn’t have come back as you.” Rhia shook her head. “Your father is right—the knife is too dangerous for you to use until you learn how to master the power of obsidian.”
