The Onyx Vial (Shadows of The Nine Book 1) (41 page)

Chapter 38

Killian met his father’s malicious gaze.

“Is this
disloyalty
the repayment you give me?” he said.

Killian almost laughed. He tore his eyes from the man, surveying, quickly, what he could of the fight beneath him.

The archers on the steps had surrounded the king in a protective circle. They pulled arrow after arrow from their quivers, their fingers igniting the shafts as they drew back and fired. A few faced the arch in the hedge. Those Shadows who braved it were quickly taken out. The rest of the archers delivered their arrows into the swirling masses of men battling on the side islands.

Those archers who were not Fyydor or Fvudor had abandoned their bows and turned to the elements to fight. Two of them worked the stone steps into a fortress-like wall as a Shadow traversed the water, bringing a tidal surge with him.

On the right, Killian spotted Harold taking down a Huntsman at the edge of the fray with one hand, coaxing a tree limb around the neck of a second Huntsman with the other. He worked quickly, efficiently, his sights set on the center island—which was too far behind Killian to see.

Directly below him, Ariana’s thick-necked captor lay struggling against an unseen foe, pawing at his neck as though strangled.

It seemed Asrea was as capable a killer as Harold.

“I know what you did,” Falken called.

Killian's attention drew back to his father. Every muscle in his body tightened as the memories resurfaced. He squeezed the pendant tight, no longer feeling the bite of the metal in his skin. He wouldn't take the bait. “And I, you,” he replied, not fighting to hide the acid in his words.

Falken lifted a brow. He was intrigued, though only Killian could detect it.

“What?” His father’s tone was smooth—condescending. “That I didn’t tell you about the brother you were never going to have? That I used you to track him down, so that I could wipe him from existence?” 

Killian narrowed his eyes, forcing away the images of Xalen Dae, the tip of Killian’s blade at his neck. “More than that.”

His father’s laugh was full of derision. “Oh, yes. There’s much, much more than that.”

The look in his father’s eyes told him the King knew something he didn’t. Something important.

He’s trying to distract me.

“Stop this foolishness,” his father said. “Come down.”

Killian shook his head.

Falken was unaffected. He cast his gaze about the scene, then looked up at Killian again. “Your band of rebels are losing this fight.” He spread his arms to gesture around. “You can’t honestly tell me
theirs
is the side you’ve chosen?”

Killian took stock of the situation. His father was right. The Huntsmen had gathered their wits and broken the advantage of the Shadows’ ambush. Killian could help. He was smarter, more powerful, better trained than half the Huntsmen fighting. It would be easy to take them down. But if he did, he would open himself as a target to the biggest threat in the courtyard.

“You are a Fyrennian, Killian. I know your soul. You thrive on the one thing only I can give you. Power.”

Killian leveled his gaze on his father. What he said rang too true to ignore.

“Come down now and all will be forgiven.”

But there was something else he couldn't ignore; something that no lure of power could overcome. He had a brother. Whom his father wanted dead.

He twisted to peer at the island over his shoulder. Ariana was at Hunter’s side. The arrow still protruded from Hunter’s chest. His shirt stained crimson.

“What about
him
?” Killian asked, turning back to his father.

The calm facade crumbled from Falken’s face, revealing the monster behind it. “What
about
him?”

Killian's fingers itched. The hair on his arms stood up. “He’s my brother."

"He's no son of mine."

"I’m not leaving him to die.”

Falken’s eyes yellowed as his power built inside him. “He’s already dead.”

Killian knew what his words would trigger, but for the first time in his life, he welcomed it. “Then consider me dead as well.”

A blink of a lull between the telltale twitch of his father’s eye and Killian was engulfed in black flame.

He clenched his jaw to keep from screaming. Everything twisted into a pinhole and spewed itself back out.

He was on the ground, Ariana beside him, her eyes wide and lifeless. In her hand was the Onyx Vial. The white stone wavered unsteadily, as if it were liquid or gas.

Above him a
Stoalvenger
brayed in fear and flapped its wings. Fenix. Its rider—he, Killian—flickered in the dark like a shadowed mirage. Burning. Just like his mother.

His heart raced. He was in Hunter’s consciousness. But he couldn’t stay there. He had to fight the flame.

He shook his head, opened his mouth, and let the inferno sweep through him.

Chapter 39

Ariana gazed, unblinking, at the world through her tears. Hunter’s eyes were wide. His mouth open in a scream she couldn't hear. Tehya lay face up on the ground, no arrow in sight. The black shapes of the Huntsmen swam in and out of focus. They were closing in, emerging from the water like nightmarish beasts, eager to watch the last of her life drain out of her.

She breathed in.

The Onyx Vial exploded.

Shards of white stone flew past her.

The storm ceased.

A blinding white light engulfed the courtyard, carried by a wave of sound, like a blast of wind charging through a forest of icicles.

Whatever drew her soul released it.

As the ringing echo of the light-sound died out, an unearthly silence surged in to take its place. Warmth poured into her hands. She touched her face. It was burning up.

The back of her hand stung. She raised it weakly to her eyes, bits of stone no doubt lodged in her skin. But what she found were the bright white traces of her newly emerged race mark.

This is my Marking Day.

She dropped back on her heels beside a pile of freshly fallen snow. She looked at it, confused. For an instant, she saw something move in the soft white pile, but before she could investigate, her attention diverted.

Voices. Movement. A surge of wind and a blast of fire. The concussive wave from the Vial’s released power had pushed the Huntsmen back, but the battle resumed. They were moving in again. Quickly.

Now there was nothing to keep them back.

Sparks flickered on the Huntsmen’s palms.

Instinctively, she stuffed her hands in the snow, prepared to use it in defense. But as she cupped the mass of flakes. Something wriggled in her palm. It was soft and warm.

Her heart caught, stumbled.

Through the shifting white flakes emerged a tiny, downy baby bird.

A tendril of flame leapt at her. She ducked, cupping the bird to her chest, eliciting an unhappy chirp from her hand. The flame missed, the trailing smoke wrapping itself around her neck. She coughed as she pulled the bird away from her chest.

A screech. The sound like a flock of birds crying out from a glacial cave.

Everything went white.

Chapter 40

Another screech. Hunter’s eyes snapped open. He was blind. And he was on fire. Scalding heat bloomed from the arrowhead, spreading across his chest and threatening to split it open. He couldn’t breathe. 

The sound died away. The white light subsided.

The heat in his chest cooled. He blinked rapidly, the darkness consuming everything he tried to focus on.

Then a familiar tug—a swirling—inside his chest. Switch. He couldn't see her but he could feel her presence. She was in the courtyard. The wind whipped around him, encircling the island. Like the eye of a tornado, it was calm. She was trying to keep him calm. But the thought of her out there surrounded by Huntsmen made his heart leap in panic.

He blinked, forcing his eyes to focus. Flames tore through the wind tunnel, but caught and swirled with the wind around them. Switch was helping—but in keeping them safe from attack she'd also gotten them trapped.

"Ariana?" It was Tehya's voice. "What's happening?"

"I don't know," Ariana answered, her eyes scanning them with a look of relief.

Hunter found his voice. "Switch."

Ariana looked at him. "Who?"

"Mustang," he tried again. Every word caused him pain. "Helping. Wind. Blocking."

Ariana nodded. "We still have to get out of here." She looked at Tehya. "Are you hurt?"

Tehya looked down at the arrow lying in the grass beside her. "No," she said, sounding astonished.

Ariana turned to Hunter's right. "Perry? Can you walk?"

"Not a Mervais' chance in Helede," he groaned.

Ariana glanced around. Something—it looked like a tiny dinosaur—wriggled in her palm. "Speaking of Mervais… Where's Dilyn?" she asked, her features grim.

"Haven't seen him since the gorse bushes exploded," Tehya answered guiltily.

Before anyone could respond to that, a dark form materialized in the tunnel of fire, and Dilyn stumbled through, sopping wet and caked in mud. He cracked a grim smile. "What'd I miss?"

"Dilyn!" the girls cried in relief.

"What happened to you?"

"Got blown into the water," he answered. "Huntsman fell on top of me. I stayed under til' I thought it was safe."

"Came up too early," Perry grunted, snapping the shaft of the arrow a few inches above where it was embedded in his shin.

Dilyn's eyes widened as he took in the sight of them, his eyes lingering on the arrow in Hunter's chest. He rushed over and helped Perry to stand.

"Uh. I hate to state the obvious when its clearly not good news, but… where are we going from here?" Perry asked, leaning his weight on Dilyn's shoulder.

"Toward the back," Ariana answered.

"There's no way off in that direction," Dilyn warned.

"Then that's exactly where the Huntsmen won't be," Ariana said.

S
he was right. Dark, shadowy forms drew nearer to the flame-tornado in all directions except the back.

"What about. Fire?" Hunter asked, but his words cost too much to say more. Each breath was as if the arrowhead had punctured his lungs.

"I've got that under control," Ariana said. "Tehya, help me lift him."

Tehya
gently reached under his armpit and push his back into a sitting position as Ariana came around the other side.

"I know this will hurt you, Hunter, but you've got to stand." She knelt and tenderly reached under his other arm, being especially careful of the arrow they were all too afraid to remove.

As Hunter stood, the whirlwind in his chest tightened—his connection to Switch—pulled taught and, in an instant drowned by a horse's scream, the connection snapped. The wall of wind and fire whooshed out.

"Switch!" Hunter cried. The sudden disconnection made him stumble, and Ariana's one-armed hold on him slipped.

The creature in her hand tumbled to the ground as flashes of fire streaked toward them. Tehya yelped, recovering her hold on Hunter as dirt flew up to meet the flames just inches before their faces.

Ariana dove toward the creature, but she missed. It hit the ground with an ear-shattering chirp. Ariana lifted it off the ground but the creature screeched and didn't stop.

The sound overwhelmed him. It froze him and everyone around him. He couldn't move—couldn't speak. The courtyard illuminated. The battle freeze-framed. Nothing moved. Fire hung in the air like streamers. Clouds of dirt suspended around them. Water hung like mist. Hunter couldn't even blink. His heart didn't seem to beat.

Hunter's chest stirred as he
saw the edges of cloaks stirring in a wind—and a flash of movement—grey and white. It took a moment for his frozen mind to register that Switch was running full-tilt—limping, really—straight for him.

Whatever magic the creature in Ariana's hand had used, Switch was immune.

A few yards ahead of the mustang, Falken Fyrenn stood like a statue, fury evident on his upturned face, his arms outstretched to the sky—no, to Killian and the Stoalvenger—the horse's wings still flapping, hovering, unfazed by the creature's power.

As Switch got closer, the wind built to a gale, drawing the sound of the creature toward her and away from the island. As it did, Hunter's limbs, his muscles, began to thaw. The sound of the night rushed back in, but it was eerily quiet now.

Switch's hooves drummed against the stones. 

Spell broken, Killian hollered from above them "The Mustang is drawing the sound off you. Ariana, keep it going! The rest of you, move to the back. I'll get help."

Killian steered the Stoalvenger away as Ariana and Tehya helped drag Hunter alongside Dilyn and Perry.

As they reached the burned remains of the bridge, Killian reappeared with Asrea, Harold and George Stratton. No one else stirred.

Harold quickly formed a bridge out of the earth, George ushering them across.

"Get you out of the hedge, then we'll use the book," Harold said. "Ariana, keep that thing at it."

"As if I know how," she retorted, but nodded anyway and looked determinedly at the bird.

"Go on ahead," Killian added. "I'll fend them off once the bird stops. Then I'll be right behind."

"Switch?" Hunter asked, feeling dizzy with the effort of moving and speaking.

"We'll make sure she gets out safely," George answered, as the world grew dark.

"We're losing him. Move. Quick."

The last thing Hunter felt before passing out were stronger hands replacing Tehya and Ariana's, and a sense of weightlessness.