Such a Daring Endeavor (29 page)

He fingers his shoulder where the magitat served as a key to the cage around what little feelings he had before he joined the rebellion. The instant Cadie finished the design and sealed it off with magic, igniting whatever was in the ink, those bars crashed away and his emotions poured in, rare and succulent, more powerful and weighty than an avalanche.

Feelings smothered him so hard it knocked him to his knees. Feelings for his sister, his parents, for his best friend Devin. He looked at Dircey and Cadie who stood smirking over him at his transformation. But mostly in that moment, he thought of Gwynn.

The shape of her face, the soft angles of her cheekbones and cushion of her mouth begging him to discover just exactly how it would feel against his, how it would be to loop his fingers through her silky hair. The thought of her leaving—he hadn’t been able to help but kiss her that night, not when she turned those bright, hopeful, celery green eyes to him. And she hadn’t pushed him away—he knew she wouldn’t.

“Wow,” says Shasa, still skimming. “Looks like she was crazy about you too.” She hands his aud back.

“I went back for her that last night, but by then she’d drunk her tears. And then I got raided by Arcs, and I think you know the rest.”

It’s quiet for a moment before Ren goes on.

“I know you don’t like Ambry—and for good reason, but she sacrificed everything to get me out of there. She gave me my magic back.”

Shasa stares at her hands fisted on her knees. “She saved my life,” she mumbles before groaning and wheeling around to rest her back against the trees. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Ren laughs. In spite of himself he inches in and tucks a stray hair out of Shasa’s face. His fingertips brush her cheek just enough, and he pauses, catching her gaze.

Shasa’s eyes lock with his. They fill with realization, with expectation.

Ren swallows and lowers his hand. “Just go easy on her. As far as I know, she and Haraway disappeared the other night to talk about keeping their distance. She’d do that for you.”

Shasa pushes up from the trunk, Ren following suit. “I hate this whole thing! For so long Talon was all I wanted, and now everything is so… and then I bump into you and…”

She punches his shoulder, and he captures her wrist. Shasa’s eyes rove across his face before planting back on his.

Like luring in a stray boat, Ren pulls her to him. She’s stiff at first, but then she thaws, wrapping her arms around him and tucking her head against his chest. His pulse kicks up a notch. He hadn’t meant to do this. He hadn’t meant to hug her, to touch her. But she fits so perfectly against him now, pulling away doesn’t make any sense.

He rests his cheek on her hair while possibilities dance across his mind, lacing themselves with curiosity to see where they’ll go. After several seconds, she pulls back just enough to glance up at him.

Her big dark eyes are pools of anticipation and sorrow. The look invokes a dozen words without saying a single one. His gaze flicks down to her mouth. Her fingers tighten in his hair.

She blinks those long lashes up at him. He gives her a gentle smile and steps away, the heat of the moment making him dizzy.

A bewitching blush climbs up her cheeks.

“Sorry,” she says, tugging her arm.

“No—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“It’s okay. Probably shouldn’t make this any more complicated than it already is, huh?”

Ren nods as she gives him one last smile, when the sirens release a heavy screech just outside of their covering. The sound knocks Ren to his knees, blurring his brain. The screen on his aud lights up—a message from Haraway.

Backup needed. Get out here now.

S
olomus and Jomeini charge forward as screams break out. The sirens flutter, and Ren dashes over across the scattered leafy debris to see the red-headed siren rising into the air. Except she’s not alone.

“Gwynn,” he says, hating the way his heart heaves even now, even after all she’s done. He whirls around.

The others flock to him. “Is it time?” Zeke asks, unsheathing his blade. The man is a menacing sight, with his eyepatch, gapped teeth and jagged knife.

“They’ve signaled,” Ren says, holding up his aud. “We’ve got to get out there. Jomeini, you up for this?”

Jomeini’s black eyes shift from side to side and she folds in, arms clutching her chest and head bowed as though trying to keep herself together. “I don’t think I can. I’m sorry, Ren. I don’t want them to see me. If they see what I can do, if they tell Tyrus, they might want to take me like Craven did.”

Her grandfather steps up, putting a long arm around her shoulders. “That’s not how the world works,” Solomus says with a reassuring smile. “Not in most cases. You’ll be fine.”

She sniffs. “It was in my case. And Talon’s.”

She begins wringing her hair, the way she did when Ren first met her. Cries resound outside the cover of trees, making everyone jerk a glance in its direction. Ren inhales. He knows Jomeini had it rough. But they don’t have time for this, not with Ambry and Talon already out there.

“They need our help,” says Ren. “And it’s your tears on the line. Help or don’t, but Talon and Ambry are moving in, and we’ve got to be ready however we can be. You burned Craven to nothing but ashes, can you do that again if we need it?”

Jomeini looks right at him, her dark eyes steady in a way they weren't minutes ago. She lowers her arms and straightens. “I’ll try.”

Shasa adjusts a set of throwing knives in the belt strapped across her chest. Zeke twirls the knife from his belt as well. Cadie’s wings flap, and Ren blinks as she slowly fades into her surroundings so that a small stirring in the leaves behind her is all he can see.

“You give the word,” the invisible nymph says.

“With the sirens, we outnumber them. We can do this,” he says. The others nod, and he takes a shaky breath before running out from the safety of the trees toward the vehicles.

***

Ren, Shasa, Zeke, Solomus, and Ayso break out from the trees toward the sirens. Jomeini follows last, her hands wrapped around a small flame.

At their appearance, several sirens break for the sky, their wings flapping air toward them in a rush.

I run down the path, pushing through low branches and slipping once on the dirt before slapping the ground hard on my backside.

“They’re with us!” I call, wishing, but knowing the sirens won’t hear me. This is madness. They should have come talk to me—why didn’t they just come talk to me?

I push myself up, tiptoeing through growth to see Jomeini’s hands explode into flame much larger than before. She projects it, not toward the soldiers, but at the oncoming winged women.

“No—they’re with us!” I call again, pushing down the mountain, not sure who I’m talking to this time. I have to slow my steps at the risk of tripping again, but I finally break from the mountain’s growth, back on level ground.

Ren and Ayso fight two soldiers near one of the vehicles. Another soldier whips back as though struck by something invisible. Jomeini stands before them all, stalking forward with a detached, determined expression.

“Jomeini!” I call. “The soldiers, Jo, the soldiers!”

She was in the room—she knows who the enemy is. Why is Jomeini attacking the sirens?

Talon barrels through from behind me, carving into the soldiers with ease. I ignore everyone else until I reach Jomeini. Despite the fire lapping up her arms, I pull on her shoulder, jerking her.

Clarity rings through her eyes at my touch, and she blinks as if just remembering where she is.

“The tears,” I tell her, winded.

Jomeini’s eyes boggle at the fighting around us, and she stares at her hands, open-mouthed. “The tears,” she repeats.

I pause for a moment to be sure she’s back on board with us before turning.

I scan the skirmish, searching for the flowing red hair and emerald green wings—if any of the sirens have the tears, it will be Estelle. She’s hovering, confronted by a gaggle of soldiers. She flaps her wings at them, the force of air knocking a few back. One launches a spear at her. Another soldier hits a siren behind Estelle right in the chest, knocking her from the sky.

A small flash runs through soldiers, jarring them from side to side. Cadie flickers in and out of sight, blending with her surroundings, now sky and cloud, now grass and dirt. The invisible force punts a soldier to the ground, and she flickers back into sight for an instant before stabbing her finger into the soldier’s chest. The soldier lets out a gargled groan, folding in half before his life is siphoned out.

I rush toward Estelle, shoving a soldier out of the way, less concerned with fighting and more concerned with getting there before the siren flies away once more. A pair of hands grips my waist from behind, lifting me from the ground.

“What are you doing?” I shout, but the pixie-haired siren rises, the pump of her wings projecting us up, away from the skirmish.

“Let me go!” I screech.

“You were told to stay out of it,” she says in my ear, her wings flapping, lifting me higher and higher, toward the mountain. The trees, the people, the vehicles all shrink. “I’m only following orders. We can’t protect you if you go running right into battle.”

“Protect me? Let me go, put me down!”

I glance down, eyes desperate to capture what’s happening. And then I spot Gwynn kneeling to the ground just behind the vehicle she hasn’t dared to stray far from since she arrived.

The siren drops me roughly at the cliff below their meadow. I stumble to the rock face, scraping my palms against the stone.

“Take me back. Hey!”

I barely catch sight of her brown hair and dainty toes before she launches herself back toward the fighting.

I gasp, horrified to find Gwynn yanking Elodia’s chain, dragging the crippled siren across the dirt and away from everyone else.

“What have you done?” I say, rushing back down the mountainside. I’ll never get there in time. Never. So instead I pause, too caught up with Gwynn to be able to move.

Gwynn tears a knife away from a fallen soldier and yanks Elodia’s chain again, knocking the weakened siren to the ground. Gwynn shoves her forward with a boot on her back, takes a moth-ridden wing in hand, and begins sawing it from the girl’s shoulder.

The scream is astounding.

It plucks the air, wrenching between every creature below. Soldiers cover their ears. Sirens freeze, some in mid-air, some on the ground.

“Stop!” Estelle cries, and the word carries such power the soldiers halt as well. Everyone—Ren, Ayso, Solomus, they all stay their hands. I push down the path, hurrying, panting.

Sirens move to block my small band of rebels, trapping them in their wings and singing low on the air. Talon slinks down, even Jomeini crumbles under their song.

Gwynn doesn’t stop though. Her mouth puckers in glee. Her magic flares into the chain so the siren at its end gives out another shriek. Pink blood drips from her hands as she works the knife on the final few strands.

“No!” cries the caramel-skinned siren holding Solomus.

“Give me the tears!” Gwynn demands, ripping Elodia’s wing off the rest of the way.

The ground lurches beneath my feet, and I gasp. Ren’s words—even Talon’s—sear through at the sight.
It’s not Gwynn,
I tell myself. I have to talk to her. To make her see reason.

Estelle dives toward Gwynn. I wait for the blow, half dreading it, half praying she takes Gwynn out as swiftly as possible. I’ll meet her; she’ll let me talk to Gwynn. Maybe together we can convince her how badly she’s being fooled.

Instead, Estelle gives me one last glance before tucking into the folds of her cleavage and removing a tiny jar, an intricate curve in its glass, filled with glistening blue liquid.

The moment the tears meet the open air, their cry slits through me. It’s nothing to be caught by the casual ear. Instead, it pesters its way from my chest up to its usual place at my neck, hammering into my spine. My feet fall from beneath me, my palms smacking the dirt. The pressure is overwhelming. Maybe more so because I haven’t heard it this hard in so long.

“Ambry!” Ren cries, his voice faint from the distance.

“I’m coming!” I tell them, pushing myself to my feet.

In one greedy snatch, Gwynn nabs the vial, dropping the severed wing.

“No!” I shout. My mind is a flurry. Estelle and the other sirens rise to their feet. Ren, Solomus and Jomeini, along with the Black Vaulters bolt for the fray. Fire froths at Jomeini’s hands, glittering with streaks of fiery stars, but the sirens release their shrieking battle-cry-song, instantly knocking everyone to the ground.

“Stop it!” I shout, hoping to be heard over the din. All they’re doing is taking out those who’ve come to help!

Gwynn drops the chain, shoving Elodia toward Estelle to give herself time to duck into the backseat of her vehicle. Its wheels roar to life with flashes of purple electricity crossing along the rims.

The vehicle peels out as sirens flock around their fallen sister. Two rise into the sky with Elodia in their clutches while the other sirens follow after the screeching vehicles, floating just over them. Shasa thrusts a throwing knife at one of the abandoned soldiers, hitting him in the throat.