Heartache (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress Book 5) (16 page)

“Think about it,” Ezee said. “How do you start a live-action game of
HoL
?”

“Set a couch on fire in someone’s basement?” I tried to think, remembering something along those lines from the back of the book.

“Exactly.” Levi chuckled.

“If we’re playing
HoL
,” I said. “I guess you all took the ‘running blindly into eternal damnation because you think you can win’ skill, eh?”

“I think we all took that skill at char gen,” Ezee said.

“Except Alek,” Levi added. “He took the ‘make sharp things go through soft things that scream and bleed’ skill.”

I managed a laugh at that as Alek nuzzled my cheek with a soft chuckle. Laughing felt good, a little painful, but cleansing.

“I like this skill,” Alek said.

He was right, I wasn’t alone. I was loved and surrounded by those I loved.

That’s what terrified me. I had so much to lose. And I didn’t want to lose anymore.

There had to be a way to protect them all. I closed my eyes, but it was a long time before I slept again. Samir would come at me again. He would finish me himself, I was certain of that. He was hands on, he’d want to see the life leave my eyes, watch me die as he bit into my heart and stole my soul. Watch the pain in my face as he destroyed everyone I loved, as he broke me before the end.

He would come to me.

I had to be ready. So I spent most of the night taking a tour of the memories in my head. Thinking about power, about magic, and ley lines, and how to save the people I loved.

When dawn came, I was tired, but determined. And I had a terrible, terrible plan.

We arrived at the grove to find that Freyda and the Wylde wolf pack had beat us there sometime in the night. At a glance, the Alpha of Alphas didn’t look like much. She was tall and lean, with pale skin and wheat-colored hair. Freckles dotted her nose, giving her a younger, cuter appearance that almost mocked the worry line in her forehead and the deep knowledge in her blue eyes. She was holding the wolf pack together, and had beaten all challengers to her role. Underestimating Freyda was not something that anyone did twice.

“Not what I had in mind when I told the Sherriff to tell you to get out of town and get to safety,” I said after we exchanged cautious greetings.

“You think we would run? There are strange wolves here, invading my territory without asking for passage. A man who smells of death and old blood leads them. He tried to hire some of my people.” She spit into the flowers, then glanced at Yosemite where the big druid lurked near the hut and inclined her head in apology.

“As though we would fight against the woman who saved us all,” she continued.

“Jade thinks everyone should run away and let her fight Samir all alone,” Harper said with an exaggerated eye-roll.

I glared at Harper and sighed. I was done fighting with everyone over who could stand with me. Freyda had been around a long time. She wasn’t stupid. I hoped she would realize when enough was enough and vanish when the time came.

“You may stay,” I said, pretending it was my decision. I could cling to the illusion of choice and control, right? “But the sorcerer is mine. I’m the only one who can kill him. If you want to keep the mercenaries he brought with him off my back, I’d appreciate it. I won’t interfere with that.”

Freyda looked me over and gave a small shake of her head. I could only imagine how I appeared. Dressed all in black, filthy from the fire, my black hair tangled in a halo around my probably exhausted-looking face. From her expression, she didn’t think I could kill a flea, much less Samir, but she had the intelligence, or at least the grace to not say so.

We worked out that the wolves would set up in the forest around the grove. They would be the early warning system and try to pick off Samir’s men before too many reached us. Working as a pack, we hoped they could drive Samir and his people toward the grove. Yosemite was strongest here, and the thick brambles would limit the effectiveness of guns, hopefully edging the fight into melee range where the shifters and I could have a better chance of engaging the foe.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but when you break eggs, you have to make omelets.

After that, it was a waiting game.

Know something else that druid hovels don’t come with? Showers.

I heated water over a propane camp stove and ran a washcloth over my face and neck. The tan cloth turned instantly black, as did the water as soon as I dunked it again.

“Hey,” I said to Rose as I gave up on cleanliness. “You feeling okay?”

“I’m healing,” she said. Her expression was grim and lined with grief. “As for the rest, well. Max isn’t the first baby I’ve lost. It don’t get easier.”

I shivered at the hollow pain in her voice. “I’m sorry, Rosie,” I said softly.

“Don’t start that again,” she said, looking at me with fever-bright eyes. “You just promise to keep my Azalea safe. And you kill that devil who took my Max from us.”

Devil. Her use of that word echoed Tess’s dream memory and ran a different kind of shiver down my spine.

“I promise,” I said, meeting her gaze without flinching. “I am going to keep you all safe. Nobody else dies. Not on my watch.”

With that said, I left the hut and went to find the druid.

Yosemite was at the edge of the grove, watching me approach as though he’d been waiting for me. Knowing the unfathomable ways of druids, he probably had been.

“Iollan,” I said, using his given name instead of his nickname. I continued in old Irish, so that Harper, Ezee, and Levi, who were all sacked out on blankets on the other side of the clearing wouldn’t be able to understand us if they overheard.

“That tree teleportation thing you did when we were fighting the Fomorians,” I said. “Do you have to use trees? Could you teleport more than one person at a time?” We’d leapt into a tree portal, voluntarily and with haste. I had something else in mind this time.

He was silent a long time, his eyes fixed on my face as though it were a book he could read. Then he sighed and ran a hand through his thick red curls.

“I would say it is not possible, but we are in my grove. Here, many things might be possible.”

“Because we are on the biggest node I’ve ever felt?” I asked, curious if he could feel it, could maybe even tap its power.

“Partially. There is a reason the Eldertree grows here,” he said, gesturing at the huge oak. “You want me to take people away from here?”

“Yes,” I said simply. “When the fighting reaches us, when Samir shows up, I want you to get everyone out. Everyone,” I repeated. “Except me.”

Yosemite turned away and ran is fingers along a blackberry cane, tracing lines and thorns. The cane went from winter brown to summer green as I watched, then faded again back to dull, dormant.

“This is a hard thing you ask.”

“I cannot watch them die,” I said softly, glancing back to where my friends rested. “I need to be able to fight Samir without worrying. This is not their battle anymore. Please, Iollan. Please help me.”

“Will they forgive me?” he asked, more to himself than to me. “Will he?”

I had no answer for him. I knew he and Ezee had a troubled relationship. Ezee had described it as a bird loving a fish once, but they’d grown closer over the last month. Turmoil does that, I suppose. Some people it rips apart. Others, it binds together, paring us down to our core values and desires, showing us just how damned important the ones we love are, how important that love is all by itself.

I was counting on his love for my friend. Counting on his own desire to keep them from dying, using it to get my way. I would have felt worse about manipulating the druid like this, but I needed to save my friends.

Harper wanted her vengeance, but she couldn’t have it. It would only get her killed. I wasn’t sure I could defeat Samir, but I’d hatched a plan.

“Do you have a plan?” Yosemite asked, almost as if reading my mind.

I looked up at him. He’d stepped back toward me and I’d forgotten how huge he was. He had a good six inches on Alek, who had a nearly a foot on me. For a moment Yosemite seemed as old and solid as the oak above us.

“I do,” I said. “I need to know they are safe, or I won’t be able to do what is necessary.”

“Does your plan involve destroying my grove?” A dark glint of humor lurked in his eyes and the corners of his mouth twitched beneath his beard.

Maybe he could read my mind. Damnit.

“Possibly,” I said. I didn’t really know. It had a good chance of it though. What I planned wasn’t subtle.

“Will you survive?”

“Samir won’t,” I said with more conviction than I felt. That was all the answer to Yosemite’s question I was planning on giving.

“If you do, you’ll have your hands full apologizing,” he said, the smile gone.

“I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it,” I muttered. Alek would forgive me. Eventually.

“All right, Jade Crow. I give you my oath. When the fighting starts, I will take them away.” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “What about the wolves?”

I repressed my feelings of triumph. This was not something to celebrate, but just knowing that I had Yosemite helping me, that my friends had a chance to escape and live, lifted a weight from my shoulders, unbending my spine.

“Freyda isn’t an idiot,” I said. “She’ll do what she must out there against the other shifters. If it gets too dangerous, she’ll pull back the pack.” That I was sure of, more or less. She was a survivor, and her skin in this game was thin. She loved Wylde and felt duty-bound as the Alpha of Alphas, but she wouldn’t risk her pack on a suicide mission. She was happy enough to leave Samir and the true war to me.

If only my own damn friends were that pragmatic. Rushing into certain doom because they thought they could win was definitely a feat those loveable bastards all had in common, the twins were right about that.

“How quickly can you get them away?”

He rubbed his beard in a gesture that mimicked Ezee’s usual joking one, looking almost professorial himself.

“Not quickly. I will have to use the earth to transport them away. We will not get very far, and I will need them clustered. Especially if they are unwilling.”

“Oh, they’ll be unwilling,” I said.

“Aye.” Yosemite gave me a sardonic look. I supposed I was being Captain Obvious again.

“So you’ll have to wait and do it when they are distracted. That’ll be more dangerous.” I didn’t like it, but it was the best plan we had. “How far can you get them?”

“A couple miles. I have a destination in mind. That will be almost equally dangerous. If I lose my grip on anyone, they could be lost and end up who knows where, if the earth spit them back out at all.”

Great. So if this went wrong, my friends could call be lost in time and space. Awesomesauce.

“I know it isn’t the best plan. But staying here and watching them die while I’m too distracted to save them is worse. Just… do what you can.” By which, I meant “save them all” but I decided to stop saying the obvious while I was ahead. He’d agreed to try and given me his oath. That was all I needed.

Yosemite moved away from me and I took the hint, walking back into the grove. I sank down on the warm bed of flowers and lay back. Summoning my magic, I gently probed the node. Raw power sang beneath me, as vast and unknowable as the ocean.

Yep, terrible plan. But it was the only one I had.

I guessed I had taken the same damn feat at char gen. Go me.