Renegade (52 page)

Rain pelted me from all angles, rain so cold it felt like a million sharp knives cutting into my skin every second. Wind pulled at my clothes and hair, pushing me back the way I came until my limbs had to strain against it to not lose any ground. The ocean waves were violent and menacing. They rose up out of the sea like a threatening tsunami and then crashed just before the shore, sending furious sprays into the once vibrant green grass.

As I approached Ana’s cabin, lightning and thunder broke through the sky, lighting up the churning sky and rumbling the ground beneath my feet.

“Ana!” I roared, the wind carrying away my voice before it could be heard.

I didn’t stop yelling. I screamed her name over and over until my voice was raw and I was at the back door, which was already open, all the glass shattered and the wooden frame beating against the stone wall as the wind knocked it around.

I rushed into the house, shoving my hair out of my eyes and looking wildly around, desperately wanting her to come rushing out of the kitchen and throw herself into the safety of my arms.

I rushed through each room, screaming her name, and each time coming up empty. The hard knot in my chest seemed to grow.

The house was empty.

Inside her bedroom a floodgate of emotion ripped out of me and I slammed my fist through the bedroom window, the glass slicing through my skin and causing blood to drip.

Where are you, Ana?

I stood there beside the window, bleeding and heaving, when movement outside caught my eye.

There was a woman concealed by a blood-red cloak, hunched forward and leaning over someone lying on the ground. The figure in the cloak shifted and I caught the sight of wheat-colored hair.

I roared and threw myself out the window, ignoring the way the remaining glass tore open my skin. The pain I felt was nothing compared to what I was going to do to Hecate.

I raced over the grass and launched myself at her, landing on her back and rolling, my arms closing around her middle and taking her with me. We rolled for several turns. She fought against me, but I wouldn’t let go.

She tried shooting magic out her palms, but her aim was untrue and most of it fired up into the storming sky, creating explosions of power. Finally we stopped rolling. I had her pinned down on the ground, her face in the mud.

My mother used to tell me men didn’t hit women.

I wasn’t much of a man.

I reared back my fist and struck her in the back of her neck, making her body jerk. I reared back to do it again when the earth around us seemed to explode and grass and dirt flew up in chunks. I turned my head to protect my eyes and caught a glimpse of Ana lying on the ground, struggling for air.

I pushed off the witch and ran to her side, skidding to a stop beside her and scooping her up in my arms, pulling her into my lap. I leaned over her, keeping the rain from hitting her face, and pushed the drenched, heavy strands of her hair out of her eyes.

She blinked up at me, her green eyes coming into focus. “Riley,” she said, her voice hoarse. My blood boiled when I noted the strangulation marks around her throat.

“Hey, baby girl,” I said, trying to sound like there wasn’t something inside me that was dying. “You were supposed to stay out of trouble.”

“Hecate found the island…” She coughed and made a face like it hurt. “She followed you.”

“I should have stayed away,” I said, hating myself just a little bit more.

“Don’t say that. I—” Whatever she was about to say was cut off when Hecate pushed herself off the ground and sent some kind of magic spiraling our way. I threw myself on top of Ana, covering her body with mine, and the ground exploded once more. Rocks and dirt pummeled me as I shielded Ana.

“She wants the flower, Riley,” Ana cried in my ear. “You can’t let her get it!”

“Riley!” Another voice yelled, coming up the path. I looked up to see Heven, Sam, and Kimber running toward us.

“Look out!” I yelled. “Hecate!”

As I warned them Hecate flung more magic. It landed at their feet, exploding, causing them to fall backward.

Then, out of the flying dirt and rock, Kimber stood. She braced her legs into the broken soil and set her eyes on Hecate.

If there was anyone who might be able to fight Hecate, it was Red. Crazy had its advantages.

The two witches began to fling power at one another, and I used the opportunity to get Ana out of the line of fire. When I wanted to go in the house, she shook her head, saying “Flower.”

I walked around the house, carrying her in my arms until we reached the bank where the flower grew. I sat her down on her feet and she would have crumpled if I hadn’t caught her.

“What did she do to you, Ana?”

“She took some of my power. The island has been compromised. I’m going to lose what power I have left very soon.”

I wasn’t sure what it meant, but she seemed to grow weaker by the moment, and it scared me. I didn’t like feeling scared.

Heven and Sam ran up beside me, Heven’s eyes appraising the way I held Ana against me and taking on an understanding glint.

“Heven!” Ana said, and Heven rushed forward.

“You must protect the flower! Above all else, the flower must make it out of here.”

“Of course.” Heven agreed. There was something about the way Ana talked that sounded like she didn’t expect to make it out.

“Here,” Ana said, reaching beneath her shirt with unsteady hands to pull out a black velvet satchel. “It’s all I had time to make. Make it last.”

Heven took the sack and handed it to Sam who shoved it into one of the pockets in his cargo pants.

A great rumble cut through the ground, shaking everything like an earthquake, and I heard Hecate cackle.

Heven glanced over her shoulder and then back. “Kimber won’t be able to hold her off much longer.”

“Take the flower and go. Someone will find you, someone who will be able to protect it,” Ana said.

Heven and Sam kneeled down in the dirt beside the flower, the flower that still glittered like there wasn’t a war raging around it, and began to dig it up.

“Get lots of soil!” Ana instructed, her voice practically a whisper. She looked at me helplessly, with fear in her eyes.

“Get lots of soil,” I yelled at them and they nodded, scooping great handfuls of it up. Sam ripped off the hoodie he was wearing and made a sort of makeshift sack that they dumped all the soil into.

Hecate cackled again and then she appeared at the edge of the yard. I wondered if Kimber was dead.

“Get the flower,” I yelled at Heven and she jammed her hand deep into the soil and lifted out the fragile flower and placed it in the homemade bag.

“Go! Get out of here,” Ana said, trying to sit up.

Heven rushed to her side, showing her the flower. Ana smiled a brilliant smile as the glittering of the flower made her skin glow.

“Heven, let’s go!” Sam shouted and yanked the black satchel out of his pants and tossed it at her and then shifted.

Heven tucked the flower and the last of its dust into her arms and then climbed on the hellhound’s back. Hecate took aim at them as he shot across the yard, away from danger, and she might have made the shot if she wasn’t struck down by a jolt of something at her back.

Guess Kimber wasn’t dead after all.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” I told Ana.

She shook her head.

“Yes, there is no more island anymore,” I shouted over the storm, and as if to prove my point, the roof of her cottage caved in.

“You don’t understand,” Ana said, laying a hand on my arm. “I’m dying.”

“No!” I roared. “No, you aren’t. I’ll get you out of here and then everything will be just fine.”

“I can’t go with you Riley. I’m not allowed.”

Time seemed to slow after the words left her lips. I dropped down onto my knees, still holding her against me, and looked down into her once vivid beauty.

“I want you,” I told her.

She smiled. “I know. I want you too. I will treasure the time I did have with you forever.”

“Please don’t die,” I said, suddenly understanding the times I’d seen Sam almost break down.

“I’m not really dying,” she said. “I’m just leaving this life to enter another one. I’m going home.”

I didn’t understand. Her home was here. Her home was with me.

As I stared at her, an angel lowered himself from the sky. He was bare-chested and well muscled. The storm didn’t seem to touch him at all. He was completely dry and unruffled.

I recognized him immediately as Lorn. Ana’s match.

“You can’t have her,” I roared, tightening my hold around her.

“That’s not for you to decide,
hound
,” the angel said. He thought he was better than me.

He was.

Didn’t mean I wouldn’t kick his ass.

“Riley, you have to let me go. I broke the rules. I let you come here, I… I
felt
for you. The fact that Lorn has even come for me at all is a blessing.”

“Where are you going?” I yelled over the whipping of the wind. Even if it had been still I would have yelled. The storm outside was no match for the one that seemed to rage inside my chest.

“Home,” she said, a smile lighting up her face. “Heaven.”

“Come with me now,” Lorn said, looking at Ana. “Or you will not be welcome at all.”

She nodded like she understood, and anger lit my insides. How could she just do what he said? Why would she just go with him? How could she just leave me behind?

“Riley.” Her hand reached up and gripped my shirt. “We aren’t meant for each other. This cannot be.”

I wanted to hit something. I wanted to rage and fight. I wanted to kick Lorn’s ass.

Instead, I looked into Ana’s green eyes. Eyes that I would always see when I looked at summer grass, and nodded. “I’m going to give you what you want.”

Then I handed her to Lorn.

When I would’ve turned away, she grabbed my wrist, pulling me back. “Don’t let this harden you, Riley Stone. You’re going to find your place someday and you will understand.”