Page 6

I came back to myself face down on a wet, muddy road. I was lucky to come around at all, as the road appeared to be pretty potholed, and the pits had filled up with the rain that was still bucketing down. My face had come to rest on the edge of one of the larger ruts, leaving me inches away from drowning in the middle of dry land.

And then I was almost run over.

Someone who smelled like Pritkin grabbed me when I tried to sit up and slammed us both flat onto the asphalt again. A large truck passed over top of us, dripping hot water from a leaky radiator onto my head. It would have had me yelping in pain, except that a strong hand was clasped firmly over my mouth.

The truck lumbered on, its patched tires thumping rhythmically down the pitted thoroughfare, and I came up gasping. I clung to Pritkin for a moment, dragging in breath after breath and wondering if my ribs were broken because everything hurt. And still did when he half led, half dragged me off the street before we ended up like road kill.

Instead, we landed in a ditch that was a third full of water, but I didn’t care, because it was also full of air. I just crouched there, getting wetter by the second, and breathed and breathed and breathed. It was glorious!

“Are you all right?” Enid asked, sloshing over to join us.

She was wetter than me but looked better, as the water loved her. Instead of my drowned rat status, her brilliant red hair was a beacon under the boiling gray skies, which looked like it was still day wherever we’d ended up, but was so dark it almost didn’t matter. Her skin was pearlescent, and her hazel eyes were lit up from the lightning flashing overhead.

“Think so,” I gasped because I still couldn’t get my lungs full after the witches’ almost-suffocation. But it was getting better. And the pain in my side felt more like a bad bruise than a broken rib. I decided to count myself lucky and started paying attention. “What’s going on?”

“You brought some friends with you,” she said dryly, nodding down the ditch to where a handful of witches were in Bodil’s face. That made me crack a grin despite everything. And then to chuckle, even though it hurt my bruised ribs.

“—on the contrary,” Bodil was saying placidly, but her eyes were suspiciously bright, which always preceded a good time.

“Just give her to us, and we’ll go,” Zara said, shooting me a look past Bodil’s shoulder. The tall, elegant fey had positioned herself between me and the witches, whether intentionally or not. “She challenged, so she’s ours!”

“Yet the challenge is finished, is it not?” Bodil asked, cutting off an explosion from Pritkin, who had come up behind her, with an elegant gesture. “She won.”

“What?”

“She did not!”

“If you hadn’t pulled her out of there, she’d be dead!”

The witches were all talking at once, but that last was from the old hag with the topknot who’d advised Zara to fight me and was now sending me the evil eye. It was less problematic than it had been back in the cave since her grizzled hair was straggling into her face, and she kept glancing worriedly at Enid; why, I didn’t know. Had I missed something?

“Did I miss something?” I asked.

“She tried to curse you as soon as you landed. I blocked her,” Enid said, loudly enough to be sure she was heard over the thunder.

“What did you expect?” One of the witches clustered around Zara demanded. “The Gauntlet hasn’t ended yet—”

“It damned well has!” Enid snapped. “You cheated! It was at least fifty of you on one! Bodil saw—”

“ She cheated!” One of the younger witches beside Zara said explosively, pointing a shaking finger at me. “You were supposed to be drained!”

“Sorry I didn’t die on cue,” I said sourly and pushed dripping bangs out of my face.

“And as such, you forfeit—the challenge and your life!”

“Or you do yours,” Bodil said, unperturbed. She threw a glance at me. “Do you wish me to kill them?”

It was so casual, so matter-of-fact, that it was all the more chilling. As if, to Bodil, that would be a minor chore or a courtesy she was extending to a member of our group. And maybe it was.

Faerie was a scary place.

“No,” I said, after a pause to let them sweat. “No, they’re not worth it. Can you just send them back?”

“Now that I cannot do,” she said regretfully.

“Why?” I looked around. “Where the hell are we?”

“Stratford,” Pritkin said hoarsely, looking around. “That’s Evesham Road.”

“What?”

“I read his mind when the two of you were talking in the garden,” Bodil said, as if mental eavesdropping was no big deal. “And had started looking for a suitable portal to get us here when you fought—”

“She could have been killed!” Enid said, her narrowed eyes never wavering from the witches. “You should have told us so we could help!”

“Nonsense. Prince Emrys had made contact with their third, and he was assisting her,” she said, using the name Pritkin went by in Faerie. “Not that the daughter of Artemis needed it. If I hadn’t found the right portal and pulled her in, she would have killed them all.”

I blinked slightly at that and hoped the rain made it look like I was simply trying to get water out of my eyes. Because that... was a goddamned lie. Bodil must have mentally heard me because she threw me an amused glance over her shoulder.

“I suppose you owe me a debt of gratitude,” she said to the witches.

Which is how I learned a lot of old English curse words, or would have, had I been paying attention. Instead, I was focused on the rest of what had been said. “We’re in Stratford? Like Upon Avon? Like where the Circle’s HQ is located?”

“That’s the one,” Pritkin answered. “And this place is crawling with Dark Circle operatives. I can feel the oil slick they call magic in the air. What the fuck happened?”

That last was directed at Zara, who, unlike her companions, had been standing there, dripping and scowling but also listening. “We are in Stratford?” she said as if she didn’t believe it. “How?”

“Lady Bodil is good with portals,” Pritkin said dryly.

“She said that this will get us to the new Pythia,” ?subrand said, coming up so silently behind the small gaggle of witches that he made several jump and one try to hex him. He deflected the spell with a shrug and shot her a quelling glance before refocusing on Pritkin. “Is this true?”

Pritkin looked conflicted.

“It is true, is it not?” Bodil said, looking narrowly at Pritkin. “You said as much to Cassie. That there is a portal from here to this shoe warehouse, and from thence to the city called Vegas.”

“Yes, technically...” he began and then paused for a second, probably to think how to phrase something, but that was not the right answer. Because Bodil suddenly had him by the neck and had lifted him off the ground before any of us could blink.

“Think carefully about your next words,” she hissed. “I have expended much power that I could ill afford to open that gateway. If you now tell me I must somehow get us back—”

Pritkin broke her hold; how, I wasn’t sure, as it happened too fast. Maybe he was channeling some of Mircea’s energy, too, or maybe he was just that good. ?subrand seemed somewhat impressed, pausing to watch the subsequent scuffle but not interfering even when Pritkin somehow got the lady in a headlock, very much like the one the Ice Prince liked using on me.

Which lasted for about a second before she threw him over her shoulder and across the road, where he disappeared into what I guessed was another ditch because I heard splashing. And cursing, which made my knotted spine release somewhat. That was not the right move, as several witches took the opportunity to attack me again, only to find out that Enid had been playing before. Their spells hit a shield like rebar-reinforced steel that was wielded like a weapon, which flung them back the way they’d come and narrowly missed decapitating one, who barely ducked in time.

That was the youngest, with lavender colored hair that didn’t look like it came out of a bottle, while the others had all shielded, probably expecting retaliation if they didn’t manage to finish me off. The reflected spells ping-ponged back and forth for a moment between the shield walls, lighting us all up and sounding like symbols before flying off into the air. And were replaced by shouts from somewhere nearby and running footsteps.

That included Pritkin’s, who reached us first and hissed at Enid. “Camouflage! Now!”

I didn’t know if she managed because eight men appeared on the road the next moment, holding my attention as they were wearing the dark robes favored by the Black Circle, who liked to lean into their evil wizard reputation. Only this bunch looked low-rent, streaked with half-dried mud and old dirt and with their robes tattered enough to look like they were cosplaying dementors on Halloween. I didn’t think they were likely to see past a Margygr spell, but then, they didn’t have to.

Because something else was with them.

Pritkin gripped my arm, having peered above the ditch alongside me, and I didn’t have to ask why.

Snuffling the road where he and I had just been lying was a hyena almost as large as one of the mages, even though the beast was on all fours. It was brown and spotted and as tattered-looking as the men, with matted fur and a ring of raw flesh around the heavy leather collar it wore. It also had half of one ear missing and long-healed scars in its coat above its muddy flanks.

After a minute, it raised its head and looked straight at me, its eyes shining yellow in the flashes from the lightning storm above.

I froze, and we just stared at each other for a moment. It should have been surreal, seeing something that belonged on the veldt in Africa in freaking Stratford, accompanied by a mob of creatures out of a nightmare, but it wasn’t. Because, for once, I didn’t need Pritkin to clue me in on what was happening.

That was especially true when I noticed the forearm of the mage holding the beast’s collar. He had a sleeve of geometric, golden tats that shone brightly against his ebony skin and constantly changed patterns, like a kaleidoscope. African mages with the ability to transform had been brought over once to help the Circle track down some dangerous escapees from the main lock-up, and I’d seen them in a café in HQ’s main square. Only then, they’d been in golden collars and bright silks instead of scarred leather and a coating of mud.

I didn’t know if this was one of those, but that gaze seemed to have human intelligence. I braced myself, waiting for the howl to go up and our position to be revealed because it “saw” me just as clearly as if I hadn’t been camouflaged. Its nose must be as good as those of the master vamps known as Hounds, whose extraordinary sense of smell allowed them to read a scene with their eyes closed, even going back weeks or months.

We were screwed.

Only maybe not, I thought, as the creature suddenly sent up a howl, all right, but then bounded down the street, dragging the mage holding its collar in that direction. The other mages followed, weapons in hand, and I stared after them, unsure what had just happened. And then Alphonse grabbed me.

I hadn’t noticed him before, even though I’d assumed he’d come along for the ride. Vampires had the ability not to be seen when they didn’t want to, and maybe he’d preferred to sit this particular fiasco out. But it looked like that was over for now.

And I suddenly had a pissed-off master vamp in my face.

“You wanna start talking?” he demanded while I tried and failed to push him out of the way so I could do exactly that—with Pritkin.

“About what?”

“About what?” The glare increased in intensity. “I decide to get a little shut-eye, and the next thing I know, I’m being sucked through a portal, dumped out in hell—”

“This is Stratford—”

“In hell , with a bunch of murderous witches for company, along with every Black Circle guy for miles. This place reeks of dark magic, not to mention those things—and what the hell were those things? ”

“What things?”

“What things, she says,” he threw up his hands. “ Those things. The big, ugly, hyena-looking—”

“Hyenas,” I said, and gave up trying to get around him. Moving Gibraltar would be easier than budging a pissed-off vamp. “And why are you acting like this is my fault?”

“Because it’s always your fault! You know, I was at the fey court for months before you showed up with nary an incident, then you arrive, and in two days—hell, less than two days—the entire place gets blown up —”

“That had nothing to do with me!”

“—then we show up here, on a devastated Earth, and get attacked by a bunch of ravenous gods right before you decide to pick a fight with a bunch of lunatic witches!”

“Hey,” somebody said, but Alphonse was on a roll.

“So, yeah, I’m thinking it’s your fault! If I understand right, we’re now in Europe when we’re supposed to be in Vegas , and how do you suggest we get back? ‘Cause big and scary back there,” he hiked a thumb in the direction of Bodil, “is saying she can’t make another portal for who knows how long—”

“I didn’t make this one,” Bodil said sourly. “I opened one that was already there.”

Which brought up a point. “You guys had a portal to Stratford?” I said, peering around Alphonse to where Zara et al. were still huddled in a bunch, looking pissed, frightened, and confused in turn. Except for the lady herself, who was staring me down.

That continued for a long moment as if she was trying to decide something. Which I guessed she did because I finally got an answer. “We used it to spy on the Circle.”

“Hush!”

“Shh!”

“What are you doing?”

Her chorus wasn’t happy about anything that didn’t involve my head on a pike, but seemed even less so about the idea of us talking. To her credit, Zara didn’t look like she gave a damn. “That creature saw you,” she said, scowling at me. “Yet it drew the others away. Did you cause that?”

“No.”

“Then what just happened? We would have been in a hell of a fight with nine dark mages loaded for bear!”

“Nine?” ?subrand said sharply. “I saw only eight.”

“The hyena was also a mage,” I explained, which caused his eyes to widen and his hand to move in the air as if warding off evil.

“So why did it obey you?” Zara demanded.

“It didn’t obey. I didn’t give a suggestion—”

“Then you did?” she demanded, turning on Bodil and receiving only a sneer of disdain in return.

“I do not talk to the minds of beasts, especially Earth ones.”

“Then why did it lead them away?”

“Ask the mage,” Bodil said, her narrowed eyes on Pritkin, who she clearly wasn’t done with yet.

“I don’t know,” he began.

“Then guess!”

“I was about to!” he snapped and then got himself under control. “As a guess, he recognized Cassie. Perhaps he saw through our camouflage—”

“A Margygr spell?” Bodil raised an elegant eyebrow. “I think not.”

“—or, more likely, he knew her by scent. Anything they encounter is stored in their scent memory, even from years ago. If he had scented her before—”

“I saw some once in HQ,” I confirmed. “They were there to help Jonas on a hunt. I didn’t know they’d seen me.”

“They don’t miss much,” Pritkin said dryly. “It was why they were brought over in the first place and were still here when the gods returned. It looks like they were enslaved thereafter—”

“Not all of them,” Zara said more quietly. “Some chose the dark path once it was in the ascendancy. Others refused and were trapped in their beast form permanently to serve, whether they chose to or not.”

“They were used to track some of us down,” Grizzled Topknot said. “When we came here for information. The Circle were the only ones who knew anything after the world fell apart, and they weren’t sharing.”

“Fortunately, we’d been spying on them for years,” the young witch said. In addition to a fall of pale purple hair, she had opalescent skin that changed highlight shades as she moved, evidencing fey blood. “Even after the Circle’s HQ fell—”

“What?” Pritkin asked hoarsely, but she ignored him as if he hadn’t spoken.

“—and the Corps was butchered,” she added, so maybe she had heard and was turning the knife, “they didn’t discover our way in. We used to come here to spy on the dark mages for updates on the war and to see how close they were to tracking down our sisters—”

“Until they caught wise, and the bastards started deploying those things,” Grizzled Topknot said, gesturing after the hyena, “to find us and rip us to shreds! More than one sister lost her life under those great yellowed teeth.”

“You see, witch,” another said, with a ginger butch cut over ebony skin. “We did fight until it made no more sense. Until our numbers shrank to nothing, and we had no help or hope. And even then, we tried for our sisters, for our world!”

“And where the hell were you?” Grizzled Topknot demanded, her ancient gray eyes boring a hole into my soul.

“Fighting somewhere else,” I said because it was the truth, and I had no better answer.

The old woman looked like she had a reply to that, but Zara waved it away. “Even if the beast recognized Cassie,” she said to Pritkin. “That doesn’t explain why it drew them away. It will be punished for that when they find nothing.”

“It explains it perfectly, as you well know,” he said, scowling at her. “You may have lost your way, huddled in the dark for so long, but others have not. It knew her scent, understood she was back, and realized what that meant.”

“And what does it mean?” Zara demanded, looking at me this time. “What exactly are you here to do?”

I sighed and faced up to it because everybody was looking at me, and there was no way to make it sound any better. “Save the world.”