Destined (17 page)

Tamani spun from Klea and struck the guard holding Laurel square in the face; the black-clad faerie relinquished her easily. But the damage was done – Jamison lay powerless on the grass, his body restrained by a network of roots. Laurel slid to the ground and tore at his bonds with her fingernails, but they only seemed to pull tighter.

“Now, we finish him!” Klea screamed at Yuki, one arm cradled against her chest, her other brandishing her knife.

Yuki raised her hands but Laurel could see them shaking. The young faerie’s chest heaved and her breathing was loud and laboured as she tried to force herself to act. Laurel flung herself protectively over Jamison’s fallen form, though she knew it wouldn’t do much good against Yuki.

Tamani threw himself in front of Klea as Yuki seemed to gather her nerve. “Yuki, don’t do it, please!” Tamani gasped.

Klea leaped at Tamani, full of crazy rage. He caught her knife arm and attempted to throw her to the ground, but she used her momentum to reverse the throw and bring him down instead. The point of her knife plunged straight towards his chest.

“No!” Yuki screamed, and the earth between Klea and Tamani ripped upwards and drove them apart, tossing Tamani on to the ground and raining soil over Laurel and David. “You promised! You said he wouldn’t be harmed. You swore!”

“Shut up, child!” Klea hissed. “There are bigger things at stake than your petty crushes! Kill them all!” she yelled.

At the loud command Klea’s soldiers sprang to action again, their impassive faces taking on life almost as one.

“No!” Yuki yelled again. This time she reached through the air towards the men who were grasping for Tamani. In a flash of green and brown, thick, leafy vines burst from the ground, winding themselves around Klea’s soldiers from their ankles to their necks. “I have done everything you asked me to do and this is the only thing I
ever
asked for in return and
I will have it!
”

Laurel watched, stunned, unsure what to make of Yuki’s sudden change of heart, as the young Winter faerie ran to Tamani, who had managed to rise to his knees. She laid her hands on his shoulders.

“Tam, he was right, I—”

“Ungrateful
brat
!”

David lunged to disarm Klea, but his blade slid off her as she plunged the long, thin knife through the centre of the rumpled white blossom on Yuki’s back.

“Yuki!” Laurel cried, horrified, and tried to rise but David stepped in front of her.

“Stay back,” he whispered.

Tamani lunged at Klea as Yuki collapsed to the ground with a cry of pain. Klea thrust her knife at Tamani’s chest; he sidestepped and caught hold of her broken arm, forcing her toward him with a stifled whimper. Then he spun her round, bringing her knife hand up, and pressing her own weapon against her neck.

“Give up.” His words sliced though the night air.

The road was silent except for Yuki’s muffled cries. Laurel could hardly breathe.

Klea slumped against Tamani, defeated.

“Drop the knife.”

Klea’s hand twitched, and for a moment Laurel thought she would. But with a wordless yell, Klea drove the knife along the side of her neck, scoring her own skin and putting an inch of the blade through Tamani’s T-shirt and into his wounded shoulder. Tamani released her in surprise and stepped back as Klea staggered away, dropping the knife and pressing a hand against her oozing wound.

A single slender root slithered up from the ground and wrapped around Klea’s ankle, making her fall. Laurel turned to see Yuki’s hand fluttering weakly. She was still alive!

Klea gave a high-pitched, almost mournful laugh from where she lay sprawled in the grass. “Well, now we can all die together.”

“You, perhaps,” Tamani said coldly.

“Look at your cut,” Klea said.

Tamani hesitated, but when Klea’s look sharpened into a glare, he pursed his lips and pulled down the neck of his shirt to expose his shoulder. “Eye of Hecate,” he whispered. The edges of the wound were blackened, with dark tendrils radiating away from the gash.

“L
et me see,” Laurel said, rushing to Tamani and reaching out to him.

“Don’t touch him,” Yuki said, her voice soft but commanding. “It’ll spread to you, too.” She was on her hands and knees and black lines streaked out from the centre of her blossom and sap dripped over her petals.

Klea glared at Yuki. “Years of conditioning unravelled by one stupid
Ticer
.”

Laurel stared in horror at the black tendrils tracing their way around Tamani’s wound. She didn’t know what it was, but it looked incredibly toxic – not unlike the red smoke that Klea had unleashed against the Academy. One more reason to be glad Chelsea was still hidden safely out of reach. Jamison, too, though how
safe
he was remained uncertain.

“A concoction I’m particularly proud of,” Klea said, seeing Laurel’s dumbfounded expression. “Something of a last resort, but this seemed like a special occasion. You should feel honoured.”

“What is it?” Tamani said, glaring down at Klea.

“Is it like the red stuff in the Academy?” Laurel asked, her voice shaking.

“Please,” Klea said mockingly, “that potion is child’s play compared to this. I wouldn’t get too worked up, if I were you,” she added, her eyebrow raising as she took in Tamani with a hint of a smile. “Sit down and relax, or it’ll just spread faster.”

“You’ve got it, too.” Laurel could see the darkness spreading from the shallow cut on Klea’s neck.

A sly smile spread across Klea’s face. “But unlike you,
I
have the cure.”

Hope burst to life in Laurel’s chest as Klea held out a hand, two sugar-glass vials of serum on her outstretched palm. Laurel lunged forward, grasping.

“Not so fast,” Klea said, yanking the vials out of Laurel’s reach and closing her fist over them. “I want you to hear me out. And don’t think you can get out of this by making a cure yourself,” she added. “Nothing short of the viridefaeco potion can save them from this toxin. And that is
so
far beyond you.” Klea chuckled. “So far beyond anyone at the Academy.”

Viridefaeco.
It was a word Laurel knew from her very first day in the classroom at the Academy, two summers ago. She had since learned that it was a healing potion no one knew how to make anymore – not even Yeardley.

“What do you want?” Laurel said.

“I want you to join me,” Klea said, her voice almost casual as she spun the vials artfully through her nimble fingers. “Be my ambassador.”

“Why would I do that?” Laurel spat. Klea had
lost
! She was dying! How could she still be acting as though everything was going according to plan?

“You mean, besides saving him?” Her head tilted scornfully at Tamani. “Because, when it comes right down to it, we both want the same thing.”

Laurel narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t see how that could possibly be true.”

“That’s because you’re a shallow, gullible child,” Klea said, sneering. “You only see what’s on the surface; that’s why it’s been so easy to manipulate you over the years. For me, and for them.” Klea nodded toward Jamison, still prone in the grass at the side of the road.

Laurel pressed her lips together against the insult.

“I, on the other hand, am the most talented Mixer Avalon has ever seen. Even you can’t deny that. I made things beyond the wildest imaginings of those stodgy Academy lapdogs. Sometimes, things they didn’t want to see. Poisons, like this one,” she said, pointing to her own neck.

“What they never understood is that it’s only by becoming familiar with poisons that you can make the best antidotes. It’s true,” Klea said when Laurel raised her eyebrows. “You can say what you want about the poison they had me mix for your mother, but that line of research led me to formulas that could do for humans what we already do for faeries – treat any ailment, heal any wound, even reverse old age! Avalon has forgotten how much humans have to offer and would prefer to forget they exist at all – certainly no one wants to make potions to
help
them.

“The Council was furious. Told me I was
overstepping my bounds
. They called me Unseelie and exiled me.” She leaned forwards. “They do this kind of thing all the time. Lies, double standards. Avalon is built on deception – deception, and prejudice.”

But Laurel refused to be manipulated by clever words and half truths; even if Klea had been legitimately wronged, nothing could justify the destruction she’d wrought. “So you decided to kill everybody? How is that better? All of those soldiers at the gate, the faeries in the Academy.”
Tamani, Yuki,
she added in her mind, then had to push the thought away before despair overwhelmed her. Laurel had to keep Klea talking. She had to get her hands on that antidote.

“You’re too sensitive.”

Laurel thought of Yeardley’s words and the tiny red flower in her pocket. “I’m no more sensitive than I should be – than
any
Autumn faerie should be.”

“Irrational, then. You think I’m a monster, don’t you? That I simply go around killing people, thinking,
Huzzah, death!
” She shook her head with a smile. “I never sacrifice anything for nothing. The Autumn faeries would have been the most resistant to change. They don’t feel oppressed and they work for their high positions. They feel
justifiably
elevated. But with most of them gone, Avalon will need me for my skills, and the Spring and Summer fae will be more likely to accept the change that’s coming.”

“You’ve destroyed the Academy, the labs, the gardens full of specimens; your Mixer skills aren’t worth much without those.”

“You really do think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

Laurel forced herself to say nothing.

“One of my specialties is delayed effects. I was able to hide my research for years by Mixing potions that had no apparent effect – so later, when they kicked in, the effects would be blamed on the failure of some other Mixing. The mist I set off in the tower is short-term – it’s neutralising as we speak. The firewalls will preserve most of the structure – not to mention the components. The smoke damage will be extensive, I admit, but the labs will be completely useable in a quarter of an hour. I will have everything I need to rebuild Avalon.”

“And the thousands you killed?” Laurel demanded.

“Even with the fae deaths, on balance I’ve done Avalon a huge favour. Thanks to my serum and my recruiting efforts, as of today trolls are effectively extinct on the entire Pacific Rim.”

“It was your vaccine,” Laurel realised, remembering the way the trolls had fallen so suddenly, dead where they stood. “It killed them.”

“Like I said,” Klea purred with a smile. “Delayed effects.”

“Why kill them so soon? Why not keep them around to help you with your
takeover
?”

“Trust
trolls
?” Klea laughed. “Those filthy animals just wanted to sack Avalon. They thought they were using
me
to get here, and they intended for me to die as surely as I intended the same fate for them. The second the trolls passed through the gate I couldn’t have convinced them to protect me from a faerie
child
, much less a Bender. The timing was delicate and almost ruined by your stupid high-school dance, but in the end they had to die – that was
always
the plan.”

“That’s horrible,” Laurel said.

Klea shrugged. “Well, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.”

“And were the sentries some of your
eggs
?” Tamani demanded. “Do you have any idea how many faeries died today?”

“Thousands,” Klea said, her voice deadly serious. “And their martyrdom is the foundation on which I will build a new order.” She hesitated. “I admit things could have gone better. I never expected Excalibur – especially not with Marion in charge – so I had to change things up and send in some sleeping mist at the gate.”

Was that
regret
in her voice? Over a
change of plans
? The woman really was stark-raving mad.

“But what’s done is done. And I’m out of time to reminisce. The smoke from the Academy fire will keep the Sparklers’ and Ticers’ attention away from our little party here, but it is also likely to woo the Benders out before I’m ready. Laurel, look here,” Klea said, opening her hand to reveal the two vials again – one containing a dark green solution, one a deep purple. “One of these is just a vial of the serum I injected into the trolls. The other is viridefaeco. Do as I ask, and I will give you the potion. Refuse and” – she clenched her fists, not quite hard enough to break the vials – “the serums will mix, their components will neutralise each other, and the cure will be useless.”

Laurel hesitated. But at this point it didn’t hurt to at least find out what Klea’s terms were. “What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“It doesn’t matter, Laurel. Don’t help her!” Tamani called, his voice full of desperation.

“You think yours is the only life at stake here, Ticer?” Klea snapped at Tamani. “Even as we sit talking, looking so innocent and pathetic in the grass, this toxin is spreading right out of your skin – to the grass you’re sitting on, to the roots Yuki has so kindly wrapped around me. To the trees in the forest, to Jamison lying over there at death’s door anyway. It won’t stop. In time, it will remake Avalon into a barren rock. And without me, you will
never
be able to make the antidote in time.”

Klea turned back to Laurel. “Go to Marion and Yasmine,” she said evenly.

“How do you know about Yasmine?” Laurel asked. “She sprouted after you were exiled.”

“How many times have you spoken of her when you thought you were all alone?”

Laurel’s jaw snapped shut.

“You’ll be able to get past the sentries,” Klea continued as if Laurel hadn’t spoken. “Tell them about my poison, that all of Avalon is going to die. They can save their precious island by coming down and exchanging their lives for my assistance in curing everyone and everything.”

“And if they accept?” Laurel asked.

“Then they will be executed in Spring Square – a public example declaring the end of the pathetic Bender dynasty. Avalon will live, and I will take over.”

“Yasmine’s only a child,” Laurel said, her stomach writhing at Klea’s brutality.

“Sacrifices, Laurel. We all have to make them.”

“And Jamison?”

“I need
all
the Benders gone.”

Laurel sucked in a breath but Klea continued smoothly.

“You know Marion isn’t a good queen. I seriously doubt a child she trained could be any better. The Benders need to go. Avalon needs a change. With your help, I can still make that happen. Bring them, and I’ll give you the cure for Tamani.”

Laurel didn’t think there was room in her body for the hatred she felt towards this smug faerie.

“Not only that, I’ll make more – and as a show of good faith, I’ll teach you how. Because you’ll need it. This vial,” she said, lifting her hand, “will cure, at most, two people.”

“And if I choose to use it on them?” Laurel asked, pointing to Tamani and Yuki. “What then? You’ll die.”

“Then who will teach you to make the antidote to save everyone else?”

Laurel wanted to scream. No matter what she chose, someone was going to die. “You would kill all of Avalon, just to have your way?” Laurel said, her voice quivering.

“It’s not my choice, Laurel. It’s yours. Will
you
kill all of Avalon, just to get
your
way?”

Laurel forced herself to keep breathing. Now there really was no way out. Not through Yeardley, not through Jamison. If she didn’t do as Klea asked, Tamani was going to die.

And slowly, so would everyone else.

If she delivered Marion and Yasmine to Klea, Tamani would live.

Everyone would live.

Three lives for all of Avalon.

And for Tamani.

There was only one thing to do.

“All right,” Laurel said slowly, looking Klea squarely in the eye. “I will bring you the Winter faeries.”

“Laurel, no!” Tamani said, lifting one knee as if to rise.

“Just don’t move,” Laurel said to Tamani, hearing the desperation in her own voice as she stepped towards him. “I need you alive when I get back!”

“Don’t do this,” he pleaded. “I would rather die than live under her rule.”

“But it’s not just you,” Laurel whispered. “It’s everyone.”

“But Klea?” Tamani said, lifting one hand reflexively, as if to grasp hers, before clenching his fist and letting it drop to his side.

Laurel shook her head. “I can’t stand to the side and let everyone die when I can do something about it.” She realised she was talking loud – almost shouting – and took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. Then, a voice that didn’t sound quite like her own said, “I can’t and I won’t.”

“Laurel.”

David’s voice made Laurel pause.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Not so fast,” Klea said. “She goes alone, or I crush the vials and
everyone
dies.”

“Stay,” Laurel said, reaching out a hand that slid off David’s arm. “Just in case things go wrong. Help Jamison. Do what you can for him.” She raised her voice a little. “I’m going to head up the road – the wide one that leads to the palace.”