The Paladins (34 page)

Again?

“My boys.” Her voice takes on an odd inflection, deeper and more mature as she pulls them in tighter.

Wait, what?

“Isn’t this sweet? I’m told revenge usually is, and best served cold.”

Chains clink. A cacophony of machinery starts clacking around us—pulleys whir, gears click. Somewhere beyond our sight, a door slides shut with a terrific bang.

“Run!” I can’t hear my shouts above the noise. As the flooring cracks and upends, Cole and I hit an invisible shield and fall on our butts, while Gideon and Rose stumble forward.

Droplets run down the wall’s clear sides. Water rises at our feet, and I scrabble to a stand to avoid complete soaking.

One inch, two, three—liquid covers our boots. Cole bangs the glass with his fists but the barrier won’t break. We hurl ourselves against the walls and find there are four to our cage.

And Gideon’s on the other side.

The water is freezing, the air close and thin. I cough and suck an unsatisfying breath, wondering if I’m having a panic attack.

Gideon faces us. Rain falls from nowhere soaking him through, but thank God he’s escaped our fate. He snaps his fingers repeatedly, getting nothing but wet sparks. He bolts forward, fists pressed against the glass. Veins bulge in his neck as he yells, “I can’t get a fire going. Can you force the glass out with air pressure?”

Cole’s already shaking his head. “Not enough oxygen.”

Now I know why my head hurts.

Laughter filters through the chamber, as familiar as a recurring nightmare, though it isn’t Pan’s. Chill whispers brush my skin. The same corrosive breath a late frost employs to kill the last blooms.

“Desiree?” Cole asks, speaking the name on my lips.

Desiree drowned in the millpond last year behind Maddox mansion. But it’s not Desiree who’s laughing, it’s Rose.

“What have you done?” Gideon shouts. Willow roots explode from the ground sending rocks and debris flying. Thrashing does no good as the trees hobble him like an animal. “It’s impossible.” Wet hair clings to his face. Thinner branches climb his shoulders and neck. Both his hands clutch the vine at his throat. His eyes blaze, but he can’t defend himself.

“Is it?” Rose asks, hands clasping. “Is it, indeed?” Her silvery image shimmers on the far side of the room. A neon-blue glow surrounds her body as laser-like threads cut her apart. Limbs disjoint and dislocate, reorganizing themselves into someone else altogether. Rosamond is gone. But no …

She never was.

This is Desiree. The other a lie built on the back of a damaged boy who only wanted to matter.

“How could you do that to Cole?”

“Yes, I’m sorry about that.” Desiree pauses, thoughtfully studying the water at my knees. “In fairness, you were all warned. You left me no choice.”

“But, you died … ” I sound like an idiot. Obviously, she didn’t, as she’s standing right here making our lives miserable again.

“Mm, seems
I
can’t drown.” Her smile spreads like a disease. “But you can.” With a flip of her hand, a single wave in the tank pushes me down and holds me under. Just as quickly, the watery grip releases, and I break the surface, sputtering and coughing.

The night the Artisan curse was broken, the spell transferred power to four people, not three. Desiree died so quickly afterward, we never made the connection. But the fourth element
is
water, and Desiree clearly its wielder.

Squatting in the icy pool, Cole’s hands disappear under the dark liquid. He frantically slides them along the glass, searching the perimeter. After a moment, he stands and wades toward Gideon who’s still held beyond the barrier. “It’s completely sealed off,” Cole says. “There’s nothing we can do. Get out if you can.”

Gideon’s headshake is violent. “I’m not leaving.”

“No one’s going anywhere,” Desiree says, crossing her arms. “Though, I do enjoy a good drama if you’d like to try.”

The guys argue as if no one spoke. When persuasion fails, they swear and hurl insults. Tears cloud my eyes. I don’t know when or how it happened, but they’re friends.

“It’s suicide.” Cole’s frustration is evident in his glare. “You’re a sandwich short of a picnic, you know that, Maddox?” He turns his back. “I’m done, then. Piss off.”

As the water rises, something in my chest shrinks. I think it’s faith.

Gideon works a hand free and presses his palm to the barrier.

I fit my smaller hand inside his.
Go,
I mouth.

“The hell.” His eyes narrow. I know that look.

“Please,
please
do this for me.”

“Oh, enough already.” Desiree lifts her chin. “It’s time, Pan!”

Rain ceases outside the cage. A quake under our feet sends vibrations rippling through the water. The passage we came down cracks along the top, and sunlight cuts the gloom in sharp angles. Stone breaks apart as the tower splits into two even halves. Once the halves fall away, the exposed staircase bumps along the earth like the spine of a gutted whale left to rot.

Desiree hesitates near Cole. “Sorry, lover. You’re just not my type.” She frees a long root attached to Gideon’s bonds, wraps it several times around her arm, and drags him from the ruined tower.

Without their captive, other roots sprawl uselessly across the floor. Dirt and gravel continue sifting like flour over the glass ceiling of our cage.

Water laps Cole’s chest. He seems not to notice, just stares with a look of dazed horror.

“Cole?”

He startles before plowing both hands through his soaking hair. “I should have known. It’s all my own stupid fault!” Rose’s betrayal shows in his tortured eyes.

My heart cramps for him, but there’s no time for blame. I grab both shoulders. “No it isn’t. It’s hers. Now, help me get out of here so we can kick her ass.”

He glances again at the surrounding devastation, and I can only hope I’ve gotten through.

Desiree is planning who knows what for Gideon. There’s a crap ton of water still rising, and our air’s almost gone.

Think, Rae, think, think, think, think
…

My mind snatches at bits of information. What does it mean to control the elements? How can it help? Individually, we’re weaker, but together we might be stronger.

“Cole, call the wind.”

“I’ve tried.”

“Try again! Reach past the glass. We can’t give up.” I close my eyes and search for the trees with my mind. No one is close, none but the willows who hate me. Then my mother’s words find me again.
Miss Willow will betray you if she can.

If.

You must bend them all to your will.

I concentrate on the willow roots. They snap and curl away at my beckoning, but the thought of Gideon only steels my will.

Come!

Begrudgingly, the roots make their way forward. I ask them to encircle the barrier. The more they balk, the harder my thoughts push. Howling wind strengthens my resolve, knowing Cole is fighting, too.

I open my eyes to a sea of roots wrapping around our jail.
Pressure,
I order.
Tighten, squeeze, smash my cage.

The waterline ripples over my nose. We tip our heads back for air that’s tepid and lean.

I appeal to every tree in The Void. Animals, plant life, soil, the earth itself, begging them to fight for us.

Willow roots flex and strain. Tiny fissures fork like silver veins of lightning across the glass box. The ground shudders. More roots tunnel up from the soil and butt against the clear floor of our prison cell. Glass snaps and crunches.

Our heads press the ceiling where there’s a final gulp of air before submersion.

Cole takes my arm. Our eyes are open as we face one another. Black hair swims around his handsome face. He lifts a palm to my cheek.

I know what he wants. It’s written inside his sad, weary eyes. Forgiveness. I take his hand in both of mine and give it, though there’s nothing to forgive.

All the while, my mind chants.
Smash the cage
…

The waters darken and blur. Cole’s eyes roll white. His hand drops, and he falls away.

I’m floating. Weightless, my body drifts as though I’m made of nothing but foam. I’m a bubble riding the waves to the shoreline. It occurs to me I’m dreaming … or drowning. My journey is peaceful until the surf changes. The ocean turns angry, wind bellows with a brave and vicious sound. Waves break me against an unyielding surface, and then I’m flung up and out of the sea, carried on the wind to freedom.

I’m not breathing, but I can’t decide if that’s important anymore. Enveloped in a cloud of sweet clover, I’m not unhappy.

A dull pain knocks at my chest as though I’m a door and someone wants in.
Thud. Ka-thud.
My body convulses. Another and another, though the pounding is more battering ram than polite knock. It almost sounds like a heartbeat.
Ka-thud, ka-thud, ka-thud.

My lungs rip apart as air seeps inside. A cough blasts water from my throat. I choke and strangle and cough some more.

Ferdy’s image wavers above me. He hits my chest with his fist, and I bounce.

“That’s enough, mate.” Cole’s face bleeds into view across from the bull’s head. Without a word, he lowers his mouth, fits his lips to mine, and gently breathes for me.

My limbs tingle, energy infuses my tired muscles. The clover covering my chest give their lives to renew mine. Power zings through my veins, heart, brain. Healing, rejuvenating, more plants come, replacing those that die until I feel as strong as ten men.

As Cole lowers his head again, my arms reach around his neck. “I’m okay,” I whisper.

He straightens with a smile. “Rae, thank God. I was having kittens until your eyes opened.”

“Thank you, bro. I’m all right, now.” I sit up and throw myself onto Ferdy’s body, hugging him with all my might. “You found us!” No matter what happens, he’s coming home with me. Whatever it takes to keep him safe, it’s done. I let my bull friend loose and bolt to my feet. We’re still amidst the rubble of what was the tower. “Where’s Gideon?”

“Out there, I think.” Cole jerks his chin.

Ferdy moos low in his throat. Mucus plonks the floor.

“Your cow fished me out of the water tank, and then went back for you.”

“Are you all right?” I ask.

“The air hit me straight away. I don’t know how it works, but I feel strong as an ox.”

Ferdy snorts.

“No pun intended.”

We climb up the broken tower to the courtyard. As tense and ready as a cage fighter, a thundering crash only makes me move faster.

After crawling out of the hole together, we line up, shoulder to shoulder, and face our enemies.

But nothing could prepare me for the sight awaiting us.

Cole

Air element has darkened the sky in answer to my call, blotting the sun with gathering storm clouds. I felt the response, even from beyond Desiree’s cell. Energy coursed through my body the moment the glass broke, as though the air waited impatiently to aid me.

Ferdy throws his head back and trumpets. If I could, I might do the same.

Thousands of trees gather at our right, towering over the tops of the hedgerow that make up the maze. Assembled in rows like wooden soldiers, they’re impressive in number, and I assume here at Rae’s request.

Gideon is missing, but Desiree waits to our left and behind her—a legion. Her blond hair whips in the breeze I’ve created. She pushes a few strands away exposing a small crossbow attached to her wrist. The weapon is laughable. What does the wielder of water need with a toy like that?

Her white dress flaps and molds itself to voluptuous curves. Such a waste. She could have started over, lived her life. Yet, her relentless need to blight the happiness of others sealed her fate.

I, for one, intend to make sure this ends. Today.

The army of Draugar part and something steps into view beside Desiree. The wind carries her greeting. “Hello, Pan. Dressing down today, are we?”

Pan. In his true form, I’m guessing. He’s naked, which is disgusting, because from the waist up, his skin is smooth and chalky white. From waist to foot, however, he’s covered in shaggy goat hair. Two thick horns protrude from his head, winding around his twitchy goat ears. Slanted, yellow eyes are wideset over a broad, flat nose. Though smaller, he and Ferdy pitted against one another would make quite a show.

Desiree inclines her head. “This concludes our arrangement?”

“It does.”

“Our bargain?”

“Yes, yes, tiresome creature. The boy is yours, the others mine.”

“Not the girl, the girl dies.”

Raven tugs my arm, but I shake her off to listen.

“I think not,” Pan answers. “I’ve decided to keep her, especially.” There’s finality, even masked warning in his tone. “With you and the Maddox boy gone, I’ll need them both until I can appoint new Artisans and replenish my stores.”

Desiree’s white smile appears as sincere as a shark’s. “Very well. So long as Gideon and I are free, what do I care?”

Pan waves a limp hand. As the Draugar trudge forward, Desiree and Pan slip behind the mob of undead. Bloody cowards.

I turn to Rae. “If they win, she gets Gideon. Pan wants you and me.”