Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (19 page)

Yeira lifted her hand toward her shoulder, palm up as she’d seen her mother do hundreds of times. Ebon hopped onto her hand and pecked gently against her skin, searching for his treat.

“I’ve been among your enemies and I know what they know. I’ve become a trusted member of their ranks. They’re massing to destroy you, Mother. And you’ll need my help to stop them.”

Ever so slowly, like thick blood sifting through the narrow tube of a funnel, Edwige’s anger leeched from her face. When she smiled, her eyes shone with unshed tears. “I knew you would come back to me, darling.”

Yeira’s heart broke and she blinked against her own tears. Frowning to cover the unwelcome emotion, she said, “I want your word that you will not harm this bird. He’s the same partner you have loved for all these years. All you need to do is perform the spell to rejoin with him and you
will
be whole again.”

Edwige’s gaze slid to Ebon and softened. Her hand came up, holding a large seed between her fingertips.

Ebon leaned cautiously forward and took the treat, hopping slightly in Yeira’s palm as he ate it.

Edwige laughed. “Hello, my friend. I’ve missed you.”

Yeira moved past her mother, through the door. “Good. Now let’s get you two linked again. Then I’ll tell you where we can find all our enemies.”

“How will you do this?” Yeira asked the witch.

Edwige moved quickly around her scrying room, gathering herbs and other ingredients and arraying them around a large black cauldron in the center of the room. She stopped in front of her cauldron, holding a shiny black feather over the bubbling liquid. The tip of the feather was covered in a mix of blood—Edwige’s and Ebon’s. “I must first purge the room of all magics.”

Panic slipped up Yeira’s spine. She prayed Joris knew what he was doing with Ebon.

She’ll remove the gnome’s spell.
Audie hissed in her ear.

Yeira dropped her hand behind her back and pointed to the door.

His voice softened further, brushing past her ear.
No. I won’t leave you alone.

“You must,” she breathed in his direction. “Should I leave the room?” she asked the witch.

“No, it can’t strip you of your inherent energy, child.”

Yeira frowned. Well, that was probably good news as far as the raven was concerned.

Yeira.

“Out, Kord.”

Edwige’s head snapped up and her eyes narrowed. “Did you say something?”

Thinking fast, Yeira stepped closer. “I was just wondering what magics you were trying to eradicate.”

The witch held her gaze for a long moment. It was clear she still didn’t entirely trust Yeira.

“Many seek to entrap and defeat me, child. I’ve learned to be cautious.

Did her eyes narrow slightly?

Yeira folded her hands and stood perfectly still, watching everything the elder witch did. She’d only seen Edwige do the linking spell one other time and she wasn’t sure she remembered it. But it was important that she verify the preparations, in case Edwige had something up her sleeve.

She’d watched for an hour as Edwige performed a series of basic spells to purge the area of contaminants, clear the room of residual magic, and prep herself and Ebon for the merging to come.

For his part, Ebon took the preparations stoically, accepting both the pain and violation of her magic as would be expected of a loyal familiar. But the big bird’s gaze slid often toward Yeira and something in the midnight depths made her uncomfortable.

Yeira resisted his gaze, knowing she couldn’t help the bird…any more than she could help herself. If things were different…if she was going to live beyond the next few days…maybe.

She brutally snipped that line of thought. It wasn’t going to happen.

Yeira inhaled deeply, trying to shake off the sadness pulling at her. Edwige’s lair was cold and prohibitive, lacking even the semblance of humanity. The oily evil of her magics hung in the air, saturating it to the point where nothing warm could survive there.

Yeira remembered that coldness well. It had permeated her life growing up in Edwige’s shadow. The only warmth she’d ever known had been her times with the Healer. And those happy times had been too few for a growing child.

She had a sudden pang for Audie. She worried that he wasn’t far enough away to avoid the purge. What if Edwige exposed him? Yeira couldn’t bear it if he was hurt, or worse. She sensed his presence just beyond the closed door, as if her spirit was tied to his. His displeasure with being sent away was clear. But Yeira was glad for the distance despite his unhappiness.

It was up to her to defeat her mother.

No one else would suffer under Edwige’s evil thumb.

Never again.

Though Edwige most likely didn’t realize it. Yeira had been raised for the very thing she was about to do. She’d been lonely and alone all her life. She’d craved the loving touch of another human being, even while Edwige showed by example the horrible aloneness that hate and fear produced.

But now that she’d tasted what it was like to be treasured by another human being…maybe even loved…she longed for that warmth again. She would do anything to protect the man who’d gifted it to her.

Even dying herself to keep him safe.

Edwige glanced up. “Come here, child. I would take a drop of your blood too.”

Yeira blinked, surprised. “My blood? Why?”

The witch settled the blood-tipped feather onto the counter and picked up her boline. “Because Ebon must be yours too. A double-linked familiar cannot be disconnected. It is safest for all of us.”

Yeira recognized the truth in her words. A familiar linked to a bloodline rather than a single witch would always share a link to that bloodline. Unless and until the last of the line was dead.

It made perfect sense if Edwige believed that Yeira was joining her.

It made perfect sense if Edwige
didn’t
believe that Yeira wanted an alliance with her.

Either way, Yeira would find it more difficult to break with Edwige. And through Ebon, Edwige would know everything Yeira planned to do.

But what would it do to Joris’s magics? Would Yeira be weakened by them too?

“Come.” Edwige’s expression was tight with suspicion. “You do intend to ally with me, don’t you?”

Yeira swallowed. “Of course. You have my word.”
For what it’s worth.

She forced herself to move forward, pulling the tunic down to bare her chest for Edwige’s blade.

Edwige made a small cut between Yeira’s breasts.

“Heart’s blood for a blood bond.” Edwige touched the tip of the feather to the welling blood and a spark flared on its tip. “Forever linked in thought and deed, power shared, weakness freed, all is joined, three lives as one, as I have said so mote it be.”

The flickering blue and orange flame grew until it consumed the entire feather, licking at Edwige’s fingertips. She didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes were glassy, her movements reflex. She dropped the feather into the cauldron and lifted her hands over the enormous, black pot. “With this blood and magic three, return my lost ally to me. All that I have, all that they need. All that they bear, all that I crave. And what kills one will kill all three…

Yeira cried out as she realized how she’d been duped.

“Together we serve the perfect deed. Not one shall languish. Not one shall bleed.”

The roiling silver liquid in the pot blazed, the flames rising over the rim to dance just below the witch’s hands. Edwige lowered her head, closed her eyes. And the cold fist of the blood tie wrapped around Yeira’s heart, squeezing.

She gasped, dropping to her knees. Her lungs were caught in the vise of Edwige’s magic too, and she gasped as she tried to breathe past it.

“Let it be done. Unite all three.”

The pain in Yeira’s chest blossomed, stabbing into her flesh like daggers. Like poison, the bond sizzled through her veins, dragging a scream from her throat.

Vaguely aware of Ebon squawking, his wings pounding the air in staccato beats, she writhed and twisted, and tried to breathe past the tearing agony.

Fractures formed within her, splitting her into metaphorical parts. In her mind they were real enough. Each disparate part had different thoughts, a range of feelings, and an array of memories.

Like images dancing across her mind, Yeira lived each one of those memories, shuddering under their impact. Reborns being sliced and torn and burned alive. Disappointment a bright shard in her chest as Joris regarded her with a smug smile and cold, lying eyes. The blue, clear skies above a better time, a cleaner world, as the wind shifted beneath her wings. A battlefield, carnage, smoke, a distant, broken castle, and breathtaking pain in her heart that made her footsteps heavy and slow as she approached.

Finally, the images faded. The pain receded. And Yeira was left a jittering mass on the floor. Her muscles twitched uncontrollably as she opened her eyes and looked around. Edwige knelt on the floor a few feet away, her head bowed. Yeira didn’t see Ebon.

Yeira shoved against the floor and pushed herself upright. She scrubbed a hand over her face, taking a quick, physical inventory. She was shaky, but not with weariness. Her chest fairly sizzled with energy and her legs twitched with it. Her fingers tingled, and when she looked at them they sparked. Her power, always something buried deep within and hard to retrieve, sizzled just beneath her skin.

Edwige’s magic had brought it to life.

Edwige stirred, slowly lifting her head. And when she looked at Yeira, her eyes glowed with silver fire.

“Oh my god,” Yeira murmured. “What have I done?”

A deep rumbling groan sounded behind her and Edwige’s terrifying gaze slid past Yeira.

Yeira whipped around, crying out.

Audie! He was sprawled across the floor behind her, his eyes just opening.

“Oh my god!” Yeira scrambled to her feet, flinging herself between the hunter and Edwige as the witch flew off the ground, levitating three feet above the stone floor. Edwige opened her hands in Audie’s direction and Yeira took the blast in her middle, surging backward. She took Audie with her as he jumped to his feet.

Fire sizzled over her skin but didn’t burn as Yeira’s own energy flared in protective response. She turned to the hunter. “Run.”

“I’m not leaving you, woman.” He had his sword in his hand and murder in his eye.

“I’m done, Kord. Leave the monsters to duke it out. I’ll finish this.”

He shook his head and stepped around her, lifting his sword.

A black stream of oily magic rose into the air above Edwige and formed into a massive panther with sparking green eyes. The panther sprang but Audie got his blade up just in time to deflect it, sending it sprawling across the room. The big cat rolled and leapt to its feet, leapt back toward Audie.

Yeira looked from Edwige to the panther, not sure which one to tackle first.

Energy jolted past, exploding the rock wall inches from her head.

Yeira looked up and sucked in a surprised gasp. Joris stood across the room, his hands raised and charcoal-gray energy sizzling beneath them. His gaze was fixed on Edwige, but Yeira knew he didn’t intend to kill her. She could see into his mind as if they were…

Linked? “Oh my god, you linked us to Joris!”

Edwige’s sparking silver gaze darkened with rage. When she spoke her voice pulsed through the room, rich with bass echoes. “He tricked us. He took the form of my beloved Ebon. He’s the worst sort of traitor.”

Joris laughed, the sound throbbing with power. “We are true equals now, witch. You can’t kill me or you, yourself will die. That was a stroke of genius on your part Edwige. I couldn’t have planned it better myself. Now I have access to all your power as well as my own. We’ll be unstoppable.”

Blue light flashed and Yeira turned to Audie. He had the panther locked inside restrictive magics. Lifting his hand, he blasted the trapped magic with a thick ribbon of guide magics and the figment evaporated in a spray of sparks. Somehow, his magics seemed to have gotten a boost too.

The hunter turned to Joris and Edwige. He lifted his sword. Edwige’s eyes sparked. Joris lifted his hands, energy sizzling on his fingertips.

Yeira panicked, realizing he was dead if they combined power against him. So she did the only thing she could think to do.

Whatsoever kills one, will kill all three…

She threw herself in front of him as the combined force of both witches seared the air in a terrifying arc. The room shook under its power, a thunderous roar filled the air. The energy hit Yeira and threw her into the air, tossing her about like a rag doll. It tore through her with the force of a lightning bolt, joining with her own energy to consume and destroy from within.

The power slammed her to the ground and pounded her, turning her bones to dust and her organs to mush. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Her heart shuddered and slowed. Cold infused her frame, spreading inexorably through her limbs. By the time the magic finally rolled away, Yeira had nothing left except a small, bright memory.