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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

FRANKIE

A sinister laugh echoed around me, bouncing off the pine trees that towered into the night sky. It was just like before, memory and life merging into one horrifying image. Each of their trunks and branches were solid black shadows against the light of the moon shining through. The air was a foggy, faint blue—almost silvery. It glittered in the distance. I looked straight up, but there was no end in sight for the trees.

A cold chill slid down my spine, like fingertips tracing my skin. I shivered. “You can’t have us.”

I had no idea who I was talking to, but it felt good to pretend like I wasn’t here alone. Savannah’s projected form was soft like foam, there but not fully physical. Yet Devon’s was. That made no sense. Devon’s body was in the infirmary in Headquarters, except the body I had pinned to the ground was very, very real. Her skin was warm and clammy. Her muscles were tense and tight. She was here.

Ice-cold air brushed over my feet and coiled around my ankles. Fingers clawed at my legs and tugged at my jeans. With each silent plea, their hands pulled at my body. I looked down to find a thick white fog covering our feet like we stood in a creek. Just like last time. I took solace in that. It helped me separate reality from the mind fuck of this forest. Arms made of white fog reached up, swaying unnaturally as their ghostly hands reached for me.

“ Please . . .”

“I’m not leaving you, Devon.” I clenched my teeth and held on to her and the ground.

She choked on a cough. “ Hunter ? —”

“He’s coming. Just hold on. Stay with me. ”

Floating blue flames glistened in the distance, marking the trail that sliced between the trees. My stomach was in knots. Figures made of white fog danced between the trees. They twirled in big puffy skirts of smoke, beckoning and waiting. A loud, cheerful whistle rang through the forest. It sounded like music— NO. I knew what the whistling meant. The Land of the Lore didn’t care why or what I was doing, it wanted its prey one way or another. I started singing a Halestorm song, trying to drown out the sound of the whistling.

Light flashed in the corner of my eye, but I didn’t look. I knew better than to look at anything here.

“DEVON!”

We both gasped and looked toward her name to find Hunter sprinting straight for us, racing up the trail with wide eyes and a red soulmate glyph. Behind him, Bentley, Jackson, and Warner held their weapons at the ready, their eyes bouncing left to right and back again without slowing down. Cooper hurried after them with Savannah’s body still draped in his arms. His face was ashy pale with beads of sweat rolling down his temples.

Hunter slid to his knees, dropping right at his soulmate’s side across from me. His hands were trembling as he reached for her. “Devon!”

She gasped, her eyes flew open—and then landed on him. Her lips twitched like she wanted to smile but lacked the strength. Instead, she sighed his name, “ Hunter. ”

He cupped her face in his hands. “We’re here. I’ve got you. Tegan, get us out?—”

“Not gonna be that easy, Dad.” Tegan crouched beside us. “Frankie, get up. Cooper?—”

“I’ve got it.” Cooper knelt down beside me with Savannah unconscious in his arms. “Move, Frankie.”

I pushed off the ground and Savannah’s projection lifted off Devon. Tegan chanted words in a language I did not know, causing Savannah’s projection to lower onto her body. Savannah gasped and sat up—but black magic coiled around her face and she passed out. Hunter already had Devon in his arms.

“How’d you get here so fast?” I frowned. “Wait, was that fast? How long was it?”

“Sage opened the Seelie tunnel, but she’s gone.” Tegan jumped to her feet. “Bentley, get us to the archway. Now. Frankie . . . hold on to me.”

I wrapped my arm around hers and held on tight, too tight. Her arm would definitely be bruised later but neither of us cared. She’d almost died in this place, hell, half The Coven had too. Over her shoulder I spotted Tim, Thiago, Lennox, and Mona all with their backs to us and their swords raised. No Royce or Willow. Okay, that makes sense.

“Where’s Tenn?”

“Not here,” Tegan growled. “And he’s pissed. Let’s move, Benny.”

Bentley lifted one sword, his eyes wide and staring at something I couldn’t see. “RUN!”

We leapt into a sprint without hesitation. I pushed my legs to move faster, praying I wasn’t walking off the path because I wasn’t looking down. I kept my eyes on Bentley in front of me and my grip on Tegan’s arm. A cool gust of wind brushed over my back and swept through my hair like someone was running their fingers through it. But there was no one there. Ice-cold hands made of smoke grabbed me by the arms just like last time, but this time Tegan wasn’t playing it safe. She sliced her hands through the air and the hands on me vanished. But I refused to let her be the only defense here, so I threw my hands out and shot my magic. Blue and pink flames spread like a wildfire around us.

A soft, faint humming sound whispered through the trees. It sounded like a softer version of a church’s organ. I felt the rumble of the tone in my bones. My gaze locked on the blue flame in front of us. It flickered and swayed in the opposite direction, like it was urging us on, like it knew something we didn’t.

“Not that noise again,” I grumbled. “How far, Bentley?”

“Not close enough!” he shouted back.

My breaths were short and tight. And then the drums started. Butterflies danced in my stomach. The hairs on my arms stood tall. Each beat sent vibrations up my legs and into my bones. The ground rumbled. Every muscle in my body tensed. The drums pounded feverishly, and my pulse mimicked. My fingers tingled and I felt myself grow weaker. The branches hanging low over the trail dropped to the ground and landed on four legs. My stomach rolled. I wanted to scream. These things had haunted my sleep. They didn’t have hands or feet. Their arms and legs were made of solid white and tapered down to points. Their backs were curved like a humpback’s but had sharp spikes along the spine. These creatures had tiny round heads with big, gaping black holes where eyes should have been.

Red lightning pierced the creatures’ heads, pulling their attention away from us.

The others gasped. We all stopped short.

“ Deacon? ” someone shouted.

But no, that couldn’t have been Deacon. He was clinging to life back in Eden.

Red lightning streaked through the trees in every direction, followed by a low, feminine laughter. A girl with bright, shining silver eyes and pale-brown hair braided on one side stepped out from behind a tree with red lightning shooting from her fingertips. “Well, well, well, look what walked itself into a trap.”

“ Libby, ” Cooper whispered in a broken voice.

“And without Tenn? Tsk, tsk, tsk . . . ” She shook her head, then a wide grin spread across her pretty yet wicked face. “What a silly thing to do . . . Tegan. ”

“Libby . . .”

“Go ahead. Run. We like the hunt.” She cackled like a cartoon movie villain, then leapt behind a tree, her laughter echoing in a haunting way that sent chills down my spine. Red lightning flashed left and right.

Thunder rumbled in the distance from all around us. It sounded like a stampede of elephants charging right for us without slowing down, yet when I looked, I saw nothing. No one. And then the oak trees above me moved.

“RUN!” Bentley yelled.

We charged forward, keeping Hunter and Cooper in the middle of our group to protect Savannah and Devon. But with every step that stampede moved closer. The ground vibrated beneath my feet, making my bones buzz and rattle. The world shook. Something was coming. Something Libby said was hunting us. I pulled my sais from their holsters on my thighs, my gaze swinging left and right and back again.

“Stop, Francelina.”

I shook my head. That wasn’t Everest. That was only the forest sirens using their magic to sound like his voice.

“Francelina, you need to stop.”

My pulse skipped beats. It was torture to try and ignore my own soulmate’s voice, but I had to. That wasn’t really him. Everest never called me Frankie— Wait. He didn’t say Frankie just now. He said Francelina. My eyes widened. Did he say stop?

“FRANCELINA, STOP NOW!”

I cursed and slammed on my breaks, my feet gouged crevices in the dirt. “Wait, stop.”

Tegan stopped immediately, her pale-green eyes narrowing on the trees around us. “ Everest told you to stop?” her voice whispered through my head.

I nodded.

“ Fuck. That means there’s a trap up ahead. Go with me here.” Her voice was strong and steady. She whipped her head back and forth. “Frankie, that’s just the magic here. We have to keep moving.”

Bentley rushed over to us, his eyes wide, but there was a devious sparkle to it that I recognized in Tegan. He nodded to me. “We have to keep moving. The archway is just around that bend?—”

Cold air swept through the trees, causing the branches to freeze. Snowflakes fell from the sky. A wall of snow rolled toward us— No. Wait. That’s not snow. I cursed and then yelled, “Sentinels!”

But it was too late. Dozens of Sweyn’s vampire guard broke through the trees dressed in their all-white gear with long swords glistening in the silvery light of the fog. My pulse quickened. We circled up with our backs to each other so we saw every angle, but we were outrageously outnumbered. There were only nine of us who could fight here and there had to be four dozen of them. Tenn wasn’t here to do his non-human thing and Tegan had to be careful how much magic she used or we could lose her.

“If Sage opens the tunnel now, they’ll destroy Seelie in minutes,” Tegan spoke into our minds as she lifted her hands up. “ We have to get to the archway. I need to not use my magic. Frankie, hit ‘em with a wave.”

My stomach was in knots, but I wasn’t about to disobey my Coven Leader. I threw my hands up and pushed my magic out. Pink and blue flames rolled into the first round of sentinels. Another wave of blue flames rolled in right after mine with dark-red magic swirling around it. Lennox held two wands in each hand, expertly shooting magic like she held machine guns. Orange lightning streaked left and right. Rivers of lava shot across the ground. Sentinels went down one after another but more just popped up in their place like the worst weeds in a garden. Even the ones we hit were getting back up.

Sweyn leapt out from behind some trees and shouted in a language I’d never heard.

Creatures dropped from the trees. My stomach sank. We weren’t going to survive this. There was no way. We barely escaped alive last time, and we’d only been fighting one enemy at a time. More vampires rushed for us. The trees rustled above our heads, then Unseelie knights landed all around us. My Coven-mates cursed and fought back. I fired magic without stopping but it wasn’t going to last. We were going to lose energy and strength.

Then Libby dove out from behind a tree, unsheathed a gnarly dagger from her thigh, and slammed it into the back of a sentinel’s head. Red blood splashed onto her chest. She yanked her dagger and screamed, “NOW!”

Saber, Malik, Shi-Shi, and Braison emerged from the shadows and sprinted for us. They sliced and diced on the run, dropping creatures and vampires on the fly. Libby raced after them while shooting her red lightning into Unseelie faces. Saber slid in front of me, immediately turning her back to me. She wielded two long swords like they were nothing more than daggers. Malik and Shi-Shi took the back side of our group, working together to rip vampires to pieces. Braison was to my left, right in front of Tegan, and his magic nearly took my breath away. Dark smoke shot from his hands right into the chests of our enemies. They dropped dead instantly. They were protecting us. They’d made their allegiance known. Their betrayal was undeniable now.

Sweyn’s red eyes nearly bugged out of her head. A vein pulsed down her forehead as she screamed. She raced forward, her eyes locked right on me and Tegan. She flung her wrists and red magic spilled from her palms. I gasped and threw my hands up just as thick black smoke appeared out of thin air and swallowed hers whole.

Sweyn gasped and jerked back, her red eyes wide.

Everest stepped out of the trees dressed in his usual all-white, looking like this was any other walk in the park. But in his blue and white eyes, I saw a rage I’d never seen in him before. Release the son, betray the vice, deep in the Lore they’ll feel his bite. That’s what those lines meant. He was always meant to betray Lilith in the Land of the Lore.

“ EVEREST!” Sweyn shrieked.

He flicked his wrists and deep crevices opened up in the ground. Thick black tar poured out, then took the form of people. Everest lunged forward—and then it was mayhem. All I could do was stare with my jaw on the floor. Tar-people tackled vampires and Unseelie and dragged them down into the crevices. The ground shook like an earthquake around us. Shadows moved and snatched Unseelies right out of the air when they tried to fly away.

The whole world trembled. My knees buckled, and I crashed to the ground. Tegan was barely upright. The others were falling and getting back up. Everest threw his arms out wide, his fingers flexed. Trees snapped in half, then crumbled to dust that floated right into Everest’s palms. Those blue flames that marked the trail to the archway fizzled out like water on a fire. Streaks of moonlight broke through the haze and fog, like the outside world was sneaking through.

Everest barely moved. His face was tense and sharp with concentration. The vampires and Unseelies didn’t know who to attack, us or Everest. Sweyn was screaming orders so loud her voice cracked. Red light flashed from somewhere, but I refused to see where. Those tree-like four-legged creatures dug into the dirt to try and keep themselves in place, but Everest’s magic was too strong. It pulled them into him, but they were piles of ash before they reached him. The humanoid creatures we’d fought last time were peeled apart bone by bone. The world was shaking so hard I could barely see what was happening. My vision was too rocky.

And then the archway crumbled, stones dropping and rolling away, magic fizzling out between them. The Unseelies hissed and dove for Everest, but he was lethal. His black smoke ripped their wings from their bodies and snapped their necks.

Sweyn screamed and charged for him.

Everest threw his hands toward her and a river of black magic coiled around her throat. In the blink of an eye, he had her in a chokehold. She growled and grabbed ahold of that stream of magic, shooting her own red mist back at him. I knew there was a battle happening around me, yet I couldn’t take my eyes off my soulmate. My heart was lodged in my throat. Black and red magic tangled and twisted together like a rope. But then Everest let out a roar like I’d never heard and the whole world shook so hard everyone else was thrown to their asses.

I scrambled back onto my knees and looked up just as Everest’s black magic flickered, burning his own clothes off his body, leaving him shirtless and barefoot and in black pants. I frowned, my body frozen in place from pride and fear. Everest’s short white hair flashed, then grew down to his elbows, whipping around him like a cape. The black lines of our soulmate mark covered his entire body from neck to toes. That heart-shaped crystal all the other soulmate pairings had finally appeared on his chest, pulsing a deep, rich red.

Sweyn threw her hands around frantically, red magic slicing through Everest’s but doing nothing to him. He held his magic coiled around her throat with one hand. Black smoke whipped out around him as if his magic knew what to do without him. Sentinels turned and fled the scene. Unseelies raced for the sky to get away from him.

Then his body began to tremble. The glyph changed from deep-red to jet-black.

Sharp pain laced down my spine. I choked on a gasp, my body arching on its own. A scream slipped through my clenched teeth. My muscles convulsed. My blood felt like lava in my veins. Whatever he was doing was somehow hurting me.

“ Everest—” I choked on my own whimpered plea.

His blue and white gaze snapped right to me. Rage faded into horror.

“What did The Coven do to make you turn against your mother?” Sweyn snarled between labored breaths, his magic still strangling her slowly.

Everest growled. “Mother never had me to begin with.”

He flicked his wrist and the rest of us went flying through the air. There was a flash of green, then I recognized the Seelie tunnels around me. I glanced around. My Coven-mates were all here. Braison, Malik, Libby, Saber, and Shi-Shi were all here. We just needed Everest. And the tunnel was closing.

I screamed his name as loud as I could.

Saber tried to run for him but his magic slammed into her chest and threw her back into the tunnel. He and Sweyn were in a lockdown of his magic against hers. I screamed his name again. Thorne and Sage sped through the tunnel and out the opening. They flew with their white angel wings right for my soulmate and grabbed ahold of him. He tried to fight them off but the golden-white Heavenly magic that rolled out of them overpowered him instantly.

Light flashed and everything else around it went jet-black.

The light soared right for us, landing inside the Seelie tunnel. The opening closed shut. The green glow of the tunnel radiated across our bodies. The white light moved to the side, and I screamed.

Everest.

His body was covered in dirt, grime, and blood of three colors. His now long white hair spilled over his shoulders as he began to shake. Those blue and white eyes were wild and kept flashing red for split seconds. I cursed and dove into my jeans’ pocket. Tegan and I had made the potion I saw he’d need. I had no proof this was the moment, but I wasn’t taking chances. I pulled that blue vial from my pocket and dumped the liquid into his open mouth.

He gasped and then collapsed in my arms.