Storykiller (37 page)

Tessa nodded, “Okay.”

The Lady smiled and then paused, “Scion, I must warn you, I see no other Advocates beyond this one. The line is dead, not unlike the line of Scions appears to be. It has come to its natural end. Should you choose to lift the veil on this Advocate, you must protect them with all you have, because like you, they are the last. Close your eyes, Scion.”

Tessa shuddered almost imperceptibly, but she knew Robin noticed it. This was the worst thing The Lady could have said to her. The Lady reached out to Tessa and placed three fingers on Tessa’s forehead, whispering some words. There was a cool flash of light and then Tessa opened her eyes and everything looked…exactly the same.

“Your eyes are clear now, and you possess all the tools you need,” The Lady said, smiling beatifically. “Be well, Scion.”

Tessa offered a small smile back in return. “Thank you.”

Tessa turned away, returning to the path. Robin did not immediately follow her and she looked back to see him speaking with The White Lady. Tessa paused and waited for him. She sort of wanted to eavesdrop, but if anything was being said, she couldn’t hear it. After a minute, he moved to join Tessa on the path, but he looked stricken.

“Are you alright?”

He nodded, curt, and she could tell by his face he was lying. “I’m fine.”

She stared at him as he passed her on the path and then looked back toward the lake. Tessa did a double take. It had disappeared, leaving behind only an endless forest. Tessa blinked and shook her head.

She would never get used to magic.

Back at the campsite, Fenris sat in front of the small fire. Tessa emerged first from the trees, and he tried not to smile at her but found it impossible. Such a strange creature she was. Young everywhere, except in her eyes which seemed as old as time. Her hair an obscenely bright red, shaved into nearly a mohawk, all long in the front, shaved in the back and on the sides. It was a look that tried so hard not to be feminine, to be tough and edgy, yet it somehow made other parts of her seem even softer. He didn’t know if the Shiki scar was going to be permanent, although he suspected it might. Some part of him hoped it would, as it made her strange features even more interesting.

She was lethally beautiful.

All long limbs and power, vintage t-shirts and big black boots, sass and brutality, warmth and sarcasm, compassion and unyielding force.

She would lead armies.

Men would follow her to death and glory. She would not even have to ask. They would fall on swords for her.

She possessed this rarest of powers and somehow it wasn’t because she was The Scion. He had met Scions before and she was unlike any of them. He didn’t quite understand it but she was something else. Something he had been waiting for a very long time.

She had to go.

But when was key.

When was all that mattered.

“Back so soon, Hardcore?” he asked.

“Why didn’t you come?” she asked him, not stopping for pleasantries. And her insight surprised him even now. He answered her plainly.

“Because I have no interest in The Lady knowing my mind,” and as he said it, Robin emerged from the trees, his face a look that told Fenris all he needed to. It was all he could do not to pat himself on the back. He smiled, the look of the cat that has finally caught the canary, and Robin looked back at him, his hatred barely restrained.

“Can the two of you finish packing up the gear?” Tessa asked. “I have to do something.”

“Of course,” they both said in unison, never taking their eyes off one another. Once Tessa had disappeared into the trees, Robin drew his dagger and, in a flash, held it to Fenris’s throat.

“Tell me how you really feel, hero,” Fenris drawled.

“When we get out of these woods, you are going to leave Lore and never come back so long as Tessa is there, or I swear to the gods I will gut you from head to furry fucking tail, Wolf.”

“Bit extreme, no?” Fenris said, edging his neck back ever so slightly from the blade as the point drew a spot of dark blood on his flesh.

“Not from where I’m standing,” Robin said. “I don’t know what your game is, but it can’t be good for her and I will end you before you touch her.”

“Try to keep it in your pants, Robin,” Fenris growled, knocking Robin’s hand roughly away from him so that the dagger flew off into the dirt.

“Like you? You’re not fooling anyone, Wolf. It’s obvious what your intentions are.”

“You forget yourself, anarchist. I’m the one that brought you to her in the first place. Don’t bloody cross me in the process or it’ll end badly for you. I’ve no fear of you or your two-bit arrow,” Fenris snapped, and then cut the comment with a smooth smile. “What are you so threatened by anyway? You’re the guy in the tent. What scares you so much about me just being here?”

Robin said nothing, and Fenris knew he’d hit his mark. “I’ll see you destroyed the same as any wolf. Even in your own story, the Huntsman wins, old man.”

“Depends on the version,” Fenris said, his eyes flashing.

“Yes, you’re right. Sometimes the girl just plain outwits you.”

“It’s true. And sometimes I devour everyone. I wonder if Marian would even bother to cry if I devoured you.”

“Leave her out of this.”

Fenris laughed boldly. “Make up your mind, hero. Which one are you in love with?” Fenris pushed Robin away with exceptional force, and as Robin stumbled backward, he drew his bow as effortlessly as if taking a breath. Robin rolled to the side while nocking an arrow and was on one knee, with his arrow pointed between Fenris’ eyes, faster than the Mortal eye could process it. Fenris stood, stoic and unmoving, his eyes bright and narrow, a low growl emanating from his chest. He smiled at Robin. “Touched a nerve?”

Robin released his arrow.

Brandon Ellis had stayed up half the night looking for information about Circe in the hopes that it would help him understand what was happening with his best friend and the incredibly dangerous Shiki now bound to her.

He’d found out almost nothing about The Shiki, but he had stumbled upon what he was almost certain was a business Circe owned in town. A Greek restaurant, of all things, named Nightshade (terrible name for a restaurant, considering some kinds were poison). Nightshade was a plant from the genus Circaea. Named that
because
of the Circe myth.

And that could not be a coincidence.

Well, okay, it could, but the owner a—
Cathe Greta Dushe
—which was an anagram for
Hecate’s Daughter
, and Hecate was sometimes said to be the mother of Circe, could NOT be a coincidence.

And all these facts together were impossible to ignore.

Now he just had to get someone to listen to him long enough to agree.

Less than an inch from Fenris’ face, The Black Dove knocked Robin’s arrow off course. The arrow and The Black Dove embedded in a tree beside Fenris, the axe disappearing a moment later. Tessa glared at Robin, her face furious.

She walked to the tree and yanked Robin’s arrow from it, flinging it back at him with a rage she didn’t even try to conceal. They both looked at her but didn’t speak. “Are you two idiots—who apparently forgot I have goddamn super-hearing—done pissing all over yourselves yet? I’d like to leave.” She grabbed one of the large backpacks, walked out of the clearing to the original path, and began hiking back to the car. Fenris and Robin took up the rest of the gear in silence
and followed her down.

They stopped once to eat and again when they reached the jeep, and at no time did anyone speak. One of them tried to speak as they climbed into the car. Tessa didn’t even know which one.

“Shut up!” she shouted, slamming the door.

No sooner did they begin driving, then the sky darkened dramatically, feeling almost like night, and it began to rain.

It was going to be a long way down the mountain.

It took all of first period to convince Micah of Brand’s evidence. But it took even longer—three periods of constant text messaging in fact—to get her to agree to his plan to go to the restaurant after school. And even then she wouldn’t agree to “go rogue” with him unless they could convince both Snow and Grey to go with them. Something about safety in numbers and not getting kidnapped again.

Brand could tell she really didn’t want any of it to work since she hated Snow and would never argue for something that meant spending
more
time with her.

But it had worked anyway, and Brand knew this because as they walked toward him after school, Grey had the look of someone that really did not want to have been convinced of something but knew it was too late to go back to being unconvinced. Brand slapped him good-naturedly on the back as they ran across the school parking lot through the dark afternoon rain.

Snow was easier to convince than Brand thought, maybe because they made it clear that they were going with or without her and Tessa’s “pound of flesh” speech was still ringing in her ears.

Unfortunately, the restaurant did not open for dinner until five-thirty p.m. and so the four of them waited it out in Snow’s icy condo, watching the clock and sometimes glaring at one another. Go team spirit!

As Tessa, Robin, and Fenris neared Lore, still in the woods but perhaps only ten minutes from Tessa’s house, and after more than three hours of nothing but pounding rain on the roof for company, Fenris shouted from the backseat.

“STOP!”

Robin swerved and nearly crashed his jeep into a tree, then skidded in the rain as he overcorrected. They came to a halt in the middle of the small, fortunately deserted, wet road.

“What in seven hells, Fenris?!?” Robin shouted.

Fenris yanked on the door handle but the door didn’t open. He looked at Robin, incensed, “Do you have the goddamn child locks on?!”

Robin looked at him, still confused about what was happening.

“I don—”

“Unlock the door, Robin, or I will tear it from its TOVAIEN HINGES!” Fenris roared the words, becoming less intelligible and more animal with each syllable. Tessa had never heard him use the Story language before, something was really wrong.