rylee adamson 10 - blood of the lost (4 page)

Blaz swept his wings forward and then back again, knocking most of the men off. Rylee rolled, and was on her feet in a flash, rubbing at her neck. The men who’d been attacking her lay on the ground, seemingly stunned.

Everyone mount. We have to get out of here. There are too many of these minions of Orion,
Blaz snapped, his words hitting us all like a kick in the ass.

Alex ran for Eve, and I followed him. Berget and Liam mounted Marcus with the heavy curtains draped between them. Cactus and Lark with Peta climbed up Blaz behind Rylee and then we were all in the air with a whoosh of wings. Below us, there came a smattering of gunshots and a few cries of pain. I grinned over my shoulder at Alex. “Stupid humans.”

He grinned back. “Yeah, and I was one of them.”

I blanched and he dropped his forehead to my shoulder, laughing softly, the same way he had hundreds of times before. Same old Alex.

“Rylee,” I shouted across the divide between Eve and Blaz, “Where are we going?”

She looked to me and then over her shoulder to the elementals behind her. “That’s up to Lark.”

Lark gave a nod and lifted her right hand. “Head to the West Coast. You’re about to see something not even other supernaturals get to see. I’m taking you to the Rim.”

Alex breathed softly behind me, his exhalation ruffling my hair. “The Rim? What’s that, do you think?”

“I don’t know, but I guess we’re about to find out.”

Blaz banked hard to the right and we did a one-eighty, heading straight west.

Eve cocked her head and glanced back at us. “Alex, how do you feel now?”

He shrugged and leaned forward. “I don’t remember much of my time stuck in between forms, Eve. I have emotions attached to people, but that’s about it. I know who my family is.” He tightened his hold on me for a brief moment. “That’s all that matters, I think.”

She bobbed her head and swung closer to Blaz. I wanted to ask Rylee if she felt the same thing I did: escaping the human mob had been too easy.

Like maybe Orion was driving us toward something. I swallowed the fears spooled in me. Whatever we would face, we’d do it together. I placed a hand over Alex’s that rested on my stomach. I was with my family again, and we were whole in more ways than one. We’d lost people we loved—Frank’s face seemed to float in front of me for a moment—but we were together. And I had to believe that would be enough.

Please, let it be enough.

CHAPTER 4

LARK

THE AIR AROUND us was cool, with a hint of the coming dawn. The breeze and the sounds of the world around us were glorious to my freedom-starved body and mind.

Who was I kidding? If the air had been filled with smoke and ash, I would have been as happy.

Behind me, Cactus sat quietly. “Your father isn’t going to be happy you were broken out of the oubliette.”

That was an understatement. Then again, my father hadn’t been happy with me for a very long time. I was getting used to disappointing him.

Peta sniffed, sitting in my lap, curled around herself. Her green eyes all but glowed in the dim light. “Cactus, don’t point out the obvious.”

It felt as though I’d never gone missing, their banter back to where it left off.

“No, he’s not going to be happy. But there is no choice but to go to the Rim and get
Jonathan
. You know that.”

I felt more than saw him nod. Cactus was my oldest friend, the one who knew me the best and loved me despite the dark spots in my life.

And yet, I wished Ash were with me too. I missed him fiercely, as though a piece of me was gone, shattered against the rocks of lost hope. He’d been the one to train me as an Ender and protector of my home; the one to fight at my side as I’d struggled to find my place in the world. I closed my eyes, envisioning his face as I’d done every day I’d sat in the oubliette.

I kept a hand on Peta, letting her calm flow through me. Having her back was at least one wound bandaged. We’d been apart for too many years. A soft purr rumbled through her, as she picked up on the direction of my thoughts.

There was a creak of the leather rigging as Rylee twisted in her seat, and I opened my eyes. The swirling colors of her irises didn’t bother me; they weren’t that different from my own strangely colored eyes.

“Jonathan. That’s the kid we’re going after?”

“Not really a kid. He’d be about sixteen, now, I guess,” I said. “He is the reason you and I met. I wonder if Giselle knew we had to meet before this moment, and set it up. The shadow walker that stole Jonathan never really had a great purpose for taking him.”

She frowned and I watched her struggle with the new information. “I’d like to say Giselle wouldn’t fuck around like that, but when she saw something she thought needed doing, she did it.” She said.

“Yes, she was like that.” I glanced at Peta, as I debated how much to say about Jonathan. “The automatic writer; he’s not going to seem all that important at first. He will be another psychic who can give you a glimpse into your future.”

Rylee shook her head. “Not possible. Immune, remember?”

“He will have ways around that,” I replied. “The reality is, he already knows he’s going to be at the final battle. He saw it as a kid. And while certain players are going to appear more important than him”—I paused, looking for the right words—“He will be able to show you things no one else can.”

“A whole new world?” Her eyebrow arched and a smile flitted over her lips.

I stared at her. “I hear the mockery in your voice, Rylee. You forget that every person in your circle has a reason for being here. We are all needed to defeat Orion. One piece missing, no matter how miniscule, could cause our failure and Orion’s triumph.”

The smile faded, and her eyes swirled faster, the tri-colors blending and diving into one another. She took a slow breath. “Okay, I get it. But there are other things that are fucking dodgy right now, Lark.”

“What?”

“There are four horsemen out there: war, famine, pestilence, and death. I don’t think that human mob was our real stumbling block, do you?”

Damn, she reminded me of . . . no . . . I wasn’t going there. My past memories were all I had trapped in that damn oubliette. And they were raw, like open wounds gouged over and over, never allowed to heal.

I stared into the dark sky ahead of us. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have at least one of them waiting for us along the way. Demons and their goblin piss surprise attacks. I hate them.”

Her eyes flickered. “Have you dealt with many demon attacks before?”

This was where things got sticky. I couldn’t tell her everything, not yet, maybe not ever.

Peta gave a slight shake of her head. This was one of those times I was glad Rylee and the other supernaturals couldn’t hear my familiar. Only my own kind could. “You can’t tell her,” Peta said. That’s what I was afraid of.

“I’ve dealt with them enough that I know to be careful and always assume the worst.”

Rylee laughed, but it was bitter and cynical. “Like that’s any different than the rest of my life.”

I wasn’t a touchy feely kind of person, but I could feel her spirit flagging, spiraling downward. Though I didn’t know her well, I knew it wasn’t like her to mope.

Reaching out, I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “Don’t think like that, Rylee. That is what Orion wants. He wants you to forget why you’re here, why you’re so important, and what it is you’re saving.”

A quick roll of her shoulders removed my hand. “Don’t try and soften this, Lark. I fucking well know what I’m going into.”

I grabbed her shoulder and half-spun her to face me. “Perhaps I know more than you think, you little fool. If you go into this battle with a hard heart, he will win. Do you understand me? If you go in believing the worst, he will win. If you go in having already given up, he will win.”

Her jaw flexed and her eyes narrowed, the three colors swirling faster as her temper rose. “Let go of me, Lark.”

“Not until I’m sure you understand.”

She shoved my hand off again. “Don’t fucking touch me, Elemental.”

“Then don’t be stupid and think you know everything. You don’t.” I leaned back, glaring at her as she glared right back at me.

Below us the dragon let out a low rumble.

I hate to interrupt, but I need to talk to Rylee.

I let out a breath. Cactus put a hand on either side of my hips. “She’ll come around, Lark. She has to.”

That was the thing. If Rylee couldn’t find it in her to still believe in the impossible, believe we could defeat Orion, we were done before we even stepped foot onto the battlefield.

She had to find that courage again. That strength had brought her this far. Worm shit, why of all times did this have to be the moment she started to doubt herself?

I had less than three days to help her find her heart strength.

Shit on a green stick, this was going to be tough.

CHAPTER 5

RYLEE

TAKE A BREATH, Rylee. She is trying to help you.
Blaz’s voice flowed over me and with it a sense of calm. But I didn’t want to be calm. I wanted to be angry because the anger helped me block the fear swiftly wrapping around my heart. How the hell Lark had known, I could only guess.

Her connection to Spirit, Rylee; she can sense when you falter. Hell, even I felt it. Why now? What has brought you so low?

I scrubbed a hand over my face, then back around to my neck, rubbing at a bump that had risen there. The men who tackled me at Giselle’s place had smashed me good and bruises sprouted all over my back and shoulders. But the piercing stab in the back of my neck really freaked me out. If Blaz hadn’t knocked the men off, I would’ve had my head cut from my shoulders.

I didn’t want to speak out loud like normal with Blaz, not with Lark behind me. We might have been cousins, but that didn’t mean I was totally comfortable with how easily she read me.

Slowly I formulated my thoughts for Blaz. The enormous loss of supernaturals due to the pox circulating the world, the deaths of Milly and Frank, the way Liam had to bind himself to Faris so he wouldn’t leave me again. And above all those things, the fact that Tian Shan was compromised and my daughter was no longer safe.