Page 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

FRANKIE

Alarms went off in the house. I gasped and jumped out of Everest’s arms. That was the call for help. I’d learned that already. The Majors and other headquarters around the world had an SOS button that sent this sharp and haunting alarm ringing through to us. It meant somewhere in the world our civilians needed The Coven’s help. My heart pounded as I dove for my Vans sneakers and slid my feet in them. My sais were on the floor right in the same spot, so I snatched them off the ground and pressed the leather straps to my thighs. Magic flashed beneath my palms, fastening the holsters into place. Another one of Lennox’s nifty tricks.

Everest was silent as a statue behind me as we raced out my door and to the stairs. I didn’t look back at him in fear of what I’d see in his eyes because he was also rushing. I’d never seen Everest rush. My Coven-mates were already downstairs. I heard them moving around and their hushed voices.

Braison met us on the landing for the second floor. He slid in beside us. “That was fast.”

When we hit the foyer, the door to downstairs opened and Saber rushed out. Her red and hazel-gold eyes landed on Everest immediately. “Took them long enough.”

“What?” Braison hissed.

Everest sighed. “I was expecting an immediate reaction, not nearly twenty-four hours.”

“Not after what you did to them.” Tegan smirked.

Tenn slid into the room. “Where’s the attack?”

“Unseelie have attacked Manhattan!” Tim shouted from out of sight.

Everyone turned to Everest.

Tenn’s face was pale, and his hands twitched. “You said?—”

“Manhattan cannot be ignored.” Everest cursed. “We must go.”

Tegan nodded and opened a portal in the middle of the living room. Everyone rushed out all at once, including our new vampire allies. But Everest paused.

Anxiety bubbled inside me. “Are you . . . your magic . . .”

“Isn’t back to full-strength yet.” He pressed his hand to the small of my back, urging me toward the portal. “I do not want to go but I must, or they will know I am weakened and will attack harder. I must put on a show of strength. Come, Francelina, we must get in there.”

Ice-cold air slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs and a hiss through my teeth. We stumbled out of Tegan’s portal onto a busy four-lane street in New York City that I’d never been before, but everyone had seen movies and shows set here to know what it looked like. That was definitely Central Park at the end of the street to the left. When I looked to the right, I spotted the bright lights of Times Square down the road. Yellow taxis swerved around humans screaming and running across the street. The air smelled like roasted peanuts, piss, and maple syrup.

Demons. That meant demons were around. I’d seen them before but never in a highly populated place like this. Big black blobs in different shapes and sizes scrambled in every direction. There were people dressed in all black and strapped with weapons chasing and killing them, but the second they registered Tenn’s aura, they all stopped and raced toward him with expectant eyes. Tenn summoned Michael’s sword to his hand, then fired that Heavenly lightning into a string of demons as he shouted orders to the Knights.

But there weren’t any Unseelies. I didn’t understand.

Screams filled the air, echoing off the skyscrapers. The ground rumbled like a stampede was headed our way. I followed Tegan’s gaze just as dozens of humans came running up a flight of stairs that led below ground- subway. That’s the subway station! I turned in a circle looking to each corner where the subway station stairs descended and found even more humans sprinting up to the street. It was like someone shoved a hose down there and was flushing them out. The humans shrieked and covered their heads with their hands. A wall of cold air crashed into me a split second before Unseelies emerged on the heels of the humans.

And then it was pandemonium on the street. People ran in every direction. Demons wiggled through the crowd while Unseelies hovered ten feet off the ground.

Everything was happening so fast. In that moment I realized just how new to war I was. Sure, I was a trained fighter and had magic, but I’d never, ever been in a situation like this. My Coven-mates all raced into battle, knowing exactly what to do. Even Tenn’s orders made no sense to me. They were clearly a code, but I hadn’t gotten that lesson. Panic choked me, freezing me in place with my sais gripped in my hands. I wasn’t proud of becoming a statue. In books and movies, the main character always seemed to adapt so perfectly, so naturally, somehow jumping into their battles with ease, always knowing just what to do.

But reality was so much different. It was a rude awakening for me at the worst time.

I glanced left and right, up and down. In every direction there was a human to save or an enemy to fight . . . and yet I couldn’t move.

Everest had vanished. That wasn’t helping. I found myself scanning every source of light for his white hair and looking into shadows to try to find him hiding.

Libby cursed. “Shit, we need Deacon.”

“COOPER!” I shouted because I couldn’t find him in this chaos. “Deacon!”

Cooper darted in front of me, waving his left hand full of sparkling dark-blue magic as he chased a demon with his sword. Red mist sparkled in front of me, then Deacon appeared in his astral projection form where his body looked real but wasn’t.

Deacon smiled at me. “What’s— no. ” His eyes widened, his face falling as he registered the attack. “NO.”

Emersyn gasped, then screamed, “DEACON, HUMANS OUT! RAZZLE DAZZLE!”

Without hesitation or question, Deacon threw his hands up and sent red smoke billowing in every direction. His magic wrapped around Libby’s body and dragged her over to his side. She didn’t flinch or pause to ask, she just fired red lightning into the crowd with one hand and sent her magic into Deacon’s projection with the other.

The second Deacon’s magic hit the humans, they stopped screaming and panicking and focused on getting to safety, which apparently meant to duck inside the nearest building.

Tenn turned and pointed behind him. “Connie! Lock down the school and stay inside!”

One of Tegan’s portals opened up right behind her. Constance leapt backwards into it. I saw an old stone cathedral for a moment before the portal closed.

I need to guard Emersyn at all costs. I spun on my toes and sprinted to where Emersyn was crouched low to the ground with that blindfold firmly in place. It wasn’t until I grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet that I realized there was red smoke coiled around my body. I frowned and looked up to find Deacon watching me. He’d just used his magic on me. But I wasn’t mad. This was his soulmate, and she was blind.

“GOT HER! GO!” I yelled to him and dragged her over to crouch at Tegan’s feet. “I’ll watch your backs!”

Tegan glanced down at Em, then turned back to the battle. She flicked her hands and little slivers of magic shot out of her. “Twin, you feel that?”

Em nodded and threw fire out, tracing those slivers. “Yes. Keep doing it.”

Saber emerged from the chaos with Tenn’s arm gripped in her hand. She shoved him into Tegan, then held her daggers up. “You two need to stay together. We cannot risk your safety, no matter who else gets hurt. Got it?”

They nodded.

Saber used a dagger to point at them. “I’ve got your back. You do you but here .”

I glanced around and then back to her. “Where’s Everest?”

Worry filled her eyes, and I finally understood it. All this time, the emotions I saw from her for him finally made sense. That knowledge was freeing because all my jealousy was instantly gone. She eyed the darkness of the street. “In the shadows, watching and waiting.”

I nodded. I need to send my waves out. I flinched. Where’d that come from? Even as I wondered it, my body turned to face the fight. My arms flew up and magic spilled from my palms. Then I spotted Deacon and Libby standing in the middle of the fight. I grinned. Wicked. My neon-blue and pink magic rolled like a tsunami into the demons and Unseelie. The Unseelie shrieked and all leapt into the air to get out of it, but the demons were trapped. Not drowned, trapped. My magic worked like cement to pin them in place. Their bodies convulsed as they tried to fight my hold. Tenn shouted orders to the Knights who split up and went for the demons in my web.

Tenn pushed off the ground, his white wings flapping, but Saber reached out and grabbed him by the ankle, then yanked him back down. He gasped and spun on her with wide eyes.

Saber growled. “I SAID STAY! Our enemy has just been betrayed and is furious! They’re emotional?—-”

“And revenge leads to mistakes.” Tenn groaned, then threw his magic into the battle.

Saber pointed to him. “You stay right here. We have the upper hand. Let them make the mistakes. Frankie, keep those waves going.”

I cursed and looked back to my waves, which had lightened in my distraction. With a twirl of my wrist, I pushed my magic out more. I couldn’t believe how useless I felt in this fight.

“TEGAN!” Willow screamed from somewhere. I couldn’t see her, but I saw flashes of her blue magic in the air.

A massive tornado formed directly above Central Park and it was moving toward us, debris flying all around it. Wind kicked up. Lightning cracked across the sky. Humans screamed as they fled the border of the park, glancing over their shoulders to the tornado. I wondered if they saw the Unseelies chasing after them.

“I can’t see them, but I can feel them chasing the humans. Why?” Emersyn whimpered. “What do they want? Why go after humans? For what?”

“Blood,” I heard myself answer. “In Seelie, when they consumed Seelie blood, they got their own coloring back?—-”

“Because they are Seelie, technically.” Saber sliced her daggers expertly through a demon that got near. “Evolution and Lilith have created their new forms and needs but consuming Seelie blood will strengthen them.”

A thought occurred to me. “Wait a second. In Avolire Sweyn kept kidnapping humans. Human blood makes vampires stronger.”

Saber nodded. “Yes.”

Tenn kept lifting off the ground, then forcing himself back down. He looked like a panicked dog on a leash trying to chase a cat.

Saber reached out and grabbed one of his wings, helping to reel him back in. Suddenly, Saber’s entire personality made so much more sense. She wasn’t just some vampire. She was the granddaughter to Lilith. Regardless of who her mother was, Saber inherited a crazy kind of magic from her father. A normal civilian vampire wouldn’t have felt confident or comfortable enough ordering Tennessee around, not to mention grabbing him the way she was, but a thousand-year-old granddaughter of Lilith would. “Easy, Little Michael, or I’ll ship you off to Seelie until this is over.”

As Tennessee growled in protest, I turned my attention back to the battle. I’d never felt more helpless or useless. Sure, I was guarding Emersyn and that was important because our Empress was important—-for many reasons. Her being blind was a huge detriment to our cause. The least I could do was ensure she remained alive so we could get her vision back. But as I threw my magic waves over and over, I couldn’t help but feel like a little kid on a bike with training wheels. I felt like Nemo with his special little fin trying to swim fast. I wanted to help my Coven- mates protect the humans from the Unseelie flying over their heads. Or at least help the Knights kill demons.

And then a figure dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of the intersection. A figure with long dark hair that looked black again instead of the navy-blue it had been in Seelie. But those yellow eyes with the cat-like pupils looked as I remembered them. A cold chill slid down my spine.

The Unseelie Prince had arrived.

He stood in the middle of my magic waves like they did nothing to him. Tenn and Tegan let out strings of violent curses. Saber growled so loud it sent goosebumps across my back.

Emersyn sat up straight, holding her hands up high. “What is that? I feel it. It’s strong?—-”

“Unseelie Prince. Do not engage.” Saber grabbed hold of Tenn’s wing and did not let go. “Stand down, Haven. He is not your fight tonight.”

The air was pulsing around Tenn. His whole body trembled as if staying in one place was physically hurting him. The Unseelie Prince’s gaze narrowed on Tenn. A cocky sideways grin spread on his alien face.

And then he was charging for us, running at full speed.

My pulse quickened.

“Do not engage!” Saber yelled, still holding Tenn’s wing.

Everest leapt from a shadow right behind me. I gasped as he landed in front of us. Without missing a beat, he flicked his wrists. Black smoke slammed into the Prince’s chest, throwing him at least fifty feet away.

“Wind.” Everest turned to us and pointed. “They cannot adapt to Earth’s wind. Throw them to the park. Get them off the streets. But on my cue.”

Over his shoulder I watched in horror as the Unseelie Prince jumped effortlessly back to his feet and charged for us again.

Everest didn’t wait for a response from us, he just turned and leapt toward the Prince. He flexed both hands and long swords with a gnarly curve appeared in his hands. The Unseelie Prince was picking up speed and distance fast. Everest rolled to the balls of his feet, then lunged forward, expertly wielding his weapons as he engaged the Prince. They parried each other’s strikes back and forth. I’d never seen Everest fight with a sword, and he was fierce. They both moved so fast it was hard to see every move they made. Everest leapt forward, spun around in a tight circle, then jumped backward. The Prince followed his steps, turning to keep his stance facing Everest.

But he didn’t seem to notice the black shadow coiling around his feet until Everest flicked his wrists and pulled that black tar out of the ground. It shot up and wrapped around the Prince’s body. Everest raised his hand and the tar covered the Prince’s entire body. When Everest thrust his hand back into the earth, the tar pulled the Prince into the ground with it . . . and then he disappeared.

Everest turned to us and yelled, “NOW!”

Tenn and Tegan grabbed each other’s hands, then threw them in the air. Hurricane-force winds slammed into the battle in front of us. Unseelies were thrown into Central Park. The Knights and my Coven-mates dropped to the ground to lie beneath the wind. Only Everest stood in the wind unmoved.

Tegan cursed. “CONNIE!”

Constance raced over and grabbed Emersyn’s arms, lifting her back onto her feet. “I’ve got you, Em?—-”

“I’m sorry, twin. Guard the school. Light it on fire!” Tegan snapped her fingers and a portal opened. “Get moving, Constance.”

As the two of them vanished into the portal, white light flashed all around me. Once again, I only recognized Central Park from all the movies, but there was no doubt as to where we were. The wind from Tenn and Tegan whipped through the park, slicing through the tops of the trees and forcing the Unseelie to the ground. Every time they tried to fly, the wind pushed them back down.

That made me grin—-and then that gave me an idea. An idea I’d seen done in Seelie. I scanned the park for Everest only to spot him fifteen feet away with half a demon under his boot and the other half impaled on his sword.

I slid to a stop in front of him. “Saffie ripped them apart with tree roots.”

He nodded but didn’t look to me. He sliced his sword through an Unseelie’s armor. “I know. I saw.”

“Why can’t we do that?” I fisted his shirt in my hand. “Royce or Tegan or Tenn?”

He cursed, then looked to me. “Because that happened in Seelie, where their magic is the same?—-”

“So still the no new tricks thing? For how long?” I pointed to the Unseelies still on their feet. “Something has to give here eventually.”

He cursed and then threw his hand out and shouted in another language. Deacon's magic hit me in the chest. More magic! I threw my hands up and sent waves of my magic rolling across the park.

“Come.” Everest gently gripped my elbow and dragged me back over to where Tenn and Tegan stood with Saber guarding their back. He pointed to our Coven Leaders. “You two must remain priority. Don’t argue with me.”

They nodded and let us shield them. Three Unseelie sprinted out of the shadow of a tree and charged us, but about a foot away they spotted Everest and then stopped short. They cursed in their language, then scrambled to flee the scene.

I tugged on Everest’s shirt. “Their armor, it’s not normal metal, is it?”

“Not from Earth, no. Why?”

Saber shook her head. “It’s a shame Easton went down. He could’ve peeled it off them anyway, then let Lilly blast them in the face with sunlight.”

Tegan grimaced, her pale eyes bouncing back and forth as she watched the fight. “I know.”

Everest narrowed his eyes on her, then turned to me. “What were you thinking, Gali?”

I pushed more waves, but this time sent them flying a little higher in the air. “One of the Empress’s gifts is control over metal?—-”

Tegan gasped. “We need to find a way for her to work with theirs!”

Everest pursed his lips. “You’re right. Saber—-” Then he spoke in a language I didn’t know.

Saber nodded and slid her swords into their holsters on her back. “On it.”

He flicked his wrist, and she jumped into the Seelie tunnel on the run. “She’ll get us started on that, but I fear it might take us time and magic to sort that out.”

Tegan’s face fell. “Worth a try.”

Saffie appeared out of nowhere wrapped in thick brown vines head-to-toe like a fishnet bodysuit. She ran by us carrying half a dozen different Seelie plants in her arms that I only recognized as being from Seelie because we didn’t have plants like that here.

“ROYCE! TEGAN!” Saffie tossed the plants to Tegan while she ran. Then she threw vines from her body into the ground. They sprouted up from the ground in a dozen other places. One by one, these vines pierced through the bodies of the Unseelies and ripped them apart.

Savannah cackled from somewhere. “ASSASSIN SAFFIE!”

“ROYCE, NO!” Tegan cursed as she tossed half the plants from Saffie in his direction. “No poison, Roycy! Not yet!”

Royce stuck his bottom lip out in a pout but then he slammed two plants into the grounds like they were bombs. His magic rippled through the grass, then pierced the ground and embedded itself into the Unseelie’s legs. Royce didn’t hesitate and he didn’t miss a beat. He knew what to do as he threw his hands up and forced the Unseelies to lift into the air and flip upside down. He flicked his wrists, and more vines pierced through our enemies, ripping them into small pieces.

Royce turned to me and signed, “I need these.”

I smiled up at Everest. “Maybe we need a small Seelie garden for them to use until we eliminate the flea infestation?”

Everest smirked. “I’ll talk to Thorne.”

I opened my mouth to push for more information on that when Everest placed his hand over mine.

Without looking at me, he whispered, “ Drop your wave. ”

I listened. Obviously. My magic vanished the second I dropped my hands.

“Tegan, can you open the air just above us?” Everest glanced over his shoulder at them. “Tenn, keep that wind over the city.”

Tegan threw both hands up with rainbow mist swirling between her fingers. She waved her arms in the air in the shape of a tornado. Everest spoke in a language I didn’t know, but Braison, Malik, and Shi-Shi sprinted over to stand guard around Tenn and Tegan. Up ahead, Libby whispered to Deacon, who turned to her with a cocky smirk. They leapt behind a tree.

And then Everest vanished.

I hated the gasp that came out of me. But I also hated that he didn’t speak in full sentences. He didn’t think out loud. He didn’t tell us what his plan was since he clearly had one. I balled my hands into fists so tight I felt my fingernails pinch my palms. My Coven-mates had scattered around this clearing to guard the perimeter while Royce and Saffie had gone to work with their garden savagery.

Shadows slid overhead. I glanced up, then did a double take. Another dozen Unseelies were lowering into the clearing. I sucked in a deep breath and raised my hands. Saffie spotted them at the same time I did. She looked down at her empty hands, then flew on those wings made of starlight over to Royce. He turned to face her with wide sapphire eyes. His hands were also empty. They were out of ammunition. Saffie shouted something in a language I didn’t know, and not the same one Everest had used.

Tenn and Tegan were literally shaking with the desire to fight, but we couldn’t let them. I understood their side and Everest’s. We needed them to live to fight another day, and we weren’t in a position worth risking them. I pushed just enough magic out to make a circle around our little huddle, just in case.

The Unseelie landed with snarls on their faces, half-hidden beneath their silvery helmets. Those black eyes—- black. That was interesting. These Unseelie all had black eyes still, which meant they hadn’t gotten any sustenance from Seelie or Earth. That little revelation didn’t tell me much, especially as all dozen soulless gazes locked right on Tenn and Tegan. They grinned and my stomach rolled at the sight of their razor-sharp teeth.

Black smoke shot up from the ground behind them. It moved like it was their own shadow, slowly and quietly creeping up on them until it wrapped around their bodies. The five in the back had enough time for their eyes to widen in shock before they disintegrated into dust without a sound. The other seven were still strolling toward us obliviously. The black smoke sank beneath the grass like it had never been there. For the count of three seconds, it was gone entirely. Then the smoke burst from the ground between us and them.

This time . . . they saw it.

They shouted in what sounded like a curse as they leapt backwards, but that smoke was relentless. It lunged forward as if it were a living jungle cat, but when it slammed into the four Unseelie in the front it wrapped around their bodies like paint. They shrieked but the sound cut off as their bodies turned to ash.

The black smoke swirled together like a tornado for a split second, then Everest stepped out. All three of the Unseelie remaining hissed and leapt into the air, fleeing the scene. Except Everest was faster. He snatched the middle one by the throat and held him a foot off the ground. His magic raced up into the air and swallowed the other two whole. Their wings sprinkled down in glittery dust to the grass.

Everest yanked the last one down, then sank his fangs into the Unseelie’s throat. Purple blood splashed onto the ground beneath his feet. Everest pulled back enough to see the Unseelie’s throat had a gnarly chunk missing and there was purple blood gushing from the wound and down his chest.

Everest growled in his face. “Give Sweyn my regards.”

Then he threw him into the clouds.

“Why’d you let one live?” Warner asked, his hands on top of his head and his eyes wide.

Everest smirked, but instead of answering, he pointed to Savannah and snapped his fingers.

Savannah snort-laughed, then said with a wide, unnerving grin, “ Because dead men tell no tales! ”