Shadowborn (19 page)

“There’s a bus heading along highway fifty-nine at the moment, filled with unsuspecting humans.” Alastair removed his silhouette of a bowler hat and rolled it in his hands. “There are even a few children on board.” He spoke with the nonchalance of someone who didn’t give an ounce of fuck about life.

My brain froze over as I averted my full attention from Liam and turned to face Alastair, who waited one step beyond the border of my Light. “Touch them, and I’ll kick your ass so hard you’ll choke to death on my shoe.”

A peal of laughter burst out of him—a sound that would have registered high on the psychotic Richter scale. A shiver rushed from my toes to my fingertips.

“My clients told me you were amusing. Strong, bold, powerful, and witty all in one. Not to mention a beauty to make any male hungry.” Alastair ran shadow fingers over his head, shifting what appeared to be long hair away from his face. “Hmm … I may have to change the terms of our agreement. I could use a new commander.”

Whatever that meant.

“Who hired you?” Liam barked, his arm clamping around my shoulders from behind.

Yeah, nice try. Like he’d tell us.

There was something I needed to know more about. What did he intend to do to the bus? “What do you want?”

Alastair’s pulsing rainbow eyes didn’t stray from me. If he’d heard Liam, he didn’t let on. “Oh, not much. A soul or two. In fact, I’m about to gain thirty more once my Shadowborn drive the bus off the road.” That laugh again. “Just turn off the Light, and I’ll leave them alone.”

Mother loving hell
. That his demand surprised me let me know how off kilter the elves had rendered me. If I gave myself up, he’d probably take the humans anyway. Not to mention, whoever wanted me killed must have had an agenda I still wasn’t privy to.
Think, Lila. Think!

The Goddess gifted you for a reason, Lilabear
, my mother’s angelic voice whispered through my head.
Do not let those gifts go to waste.

I palmed my forehead.
Idiot. Of course.
I hoped the bus wasn’t too far away for me to find the driver, and that I was capable of forcing my Will on someone at that distance. “Keep the Light on, Liam.”

“What are you going to do?” He breathed the words against my ear.

“Not now.” I turned to him and reabsorbed my Light, allowing my energy to build.

His Light flared to overpower mine.

My Sight took me out over the landscape frosted with a silver glow from the moon. Because of the late hour, nothing but creatures scurried through forests and along the dirt roads my vision took me. A light breeze carried the trees back and forth, their creaking song rising into the night as I came to a highway where, not far along, an aging yellow school bus trundled along the cracked pavement.

I knelt and pressed my hands against the cold ground, forcing my Will into the veins of the earth. Stretched so far, my energy would never reach the driver, so I sent out my silent call for more.

Within a few moments, crunching branches, flapping wings and snuffling sounds came from all directions.

“Tell me you don’t hope to defeat me with a bunch of owls and deer,” Alastair said through a snicker. “And there went my assessment of your intelligence.”

I picked up even more power from the earth and finally made it to the driver. Prickles swept through my head as I pushed through the warmth of his mind, like sticking fingers through thick pudding. I’d never invaded a singular mind to such a depth and wasn’t sure I liked it. Unsure what to do, I waited in the background of his mind for whatever would come. Could I use the driver’s eyes as Gallagher used mine?

“Last chance to save them, Lila,” Alastair said to my physical body, his voice but a whisper across a distant universe. “I own you, and soon my employers will own you. The sooner you accept your fate, the easier it will be on those around you.”

His employers would own me?
Worse and worse.
“Go fuck yourself, Alastair.” A grin split my face as I willed the driver’s vision to link with mine. The sensation unsteadied me for a moment, like seeing double while riding a boat over a choppy ocean. How did Gallagher do it all the time without getting seasick?

Silence stretched between Alastair and me, flavored with his shock at my refusal. “Very well. Their loss will be on your hands.”

I concentrated on the road out the windshield of the bus. What appeared to be a small child dressed in black darted out from the left. I knew better. The portly man whose mind I’d invaded gripped the wheel to veer around the kid, but I forced my Will into him and drove right through the shadow boy. No screaming or bump came. It had been one of Alastair’s lackeys. While the driver hollered and swore, I helped him steer.

Alastair roared and spewed curses. “You think you’ve won?”

Damn right I do.
I grinned, still connected to the driver. “Yep.”

“I shall see your amusement erased soon enough.” As Alastair melted back into the shadows, his laughter made me bristle.

Continuing to draw energy, I stayed with the driver until he reached his destination, another twenty minutes down the highway, while Liam prodded at my physical body, demanding answers. I centered my concentration on my task and ignored him.

How many more humans had fallen since I’d last talked to James from the Canadian Mounties? There would be limitless opportunities for Alastair to recruit, and I wouldn’t be able to save everyone.

“We need to go.” Returned to my body, I grabbed Liam’s wrist and pulled myself to my feet.

“Dammit, what took you so long? And why didn’t you answer me? I thought something happened to you.” Liam inspected my body as if expecting me to be wounded, even though he’d been beside me the entire time.

“You need to get us to the Black City. I’m sure Alastair’s on the rampage by now, and who knows what he’ll do.” My small respite evaporated as I imagined him hunting down more victims in a blind rage.

“What happened to the bus?”

“They’re fine, but that won’t stop him from finding someone else. Nobody’s safe until I kill his ass.”

Without another word, Liam shifted into his owl form. I only hoped that once I climbed onto his back, he wouldn’t feel how badly my body trembled.

16

Liam’s great, white wings angled, countering the stiff wind blowing from the north, and he touched down near the right-most cavern entrance of Seven Gates. Tiny needles of frost pricked my flesh, both from the winter air and the cold fear spreading through my bones like a disease.

I slid from his back, thankful Nix wasn’t waiting outside for me to return. If my people found out I was about to go into the Sluagh city alone, they’d probably shackle me in iron and keep me in the dungeon for the next hundred years.

Immortality had its downside.

Grunts and groans rose from Liam’s throat as his owl body shrank. His beak flattened and disappeared, leaving a perfect nose in its place. Bones cracked and popped, and his feathers retreated back into his skin. Head hung down and panting, Liam stood before me.

I kept my gaze above his many distractions. With my inner turmoil, I didn’t think even his hills and valleys would improve my mood. “Are you all right?” It was a stupid question, causing me an internal cringe and an eye roll. No matter what he said, his metamorphosis had to be painful.

Liam nodded, rolled his neck and flexed his fingers. “Just need a minute,” he said, his voice tight.

Torn between wanting to meet Parthalan—to tear off the proverbial band-aid with one terrible jerk—and being considerate to Liam, I paced and diverted my attention. How would I get myself into Cargun? Being entirely telepathic would have come in handy—as it was, I only got images when I invaded someone with my Will—but I already had more than my share of the Goddess’s gifts, and I couldn’t be greedy. Somehow, I had to communicate my need to the shifters and convince them to help me get through whatever barrier Bain had used to seal the Sluagh in and the fae out.

Something warm grabbed my wrist. I gasped and recoiled, only to find Liam watching me with a scrutiny I didn’t like. His narrowed eyes swept over me. I could almost see the wheels turning in that sharp brain of his. That or my guilt made me imagine it.

“Are you sure you want to do this tonight?” His voice came soft and smooth, the sort someone might use to sooth a frightened child.

“Yes.” My answer snapped out a little too fast. I turned and entered the cavern before I gave anything else away.

His bare feet padded along the stone behind me into the passageway that held a chill greater than the one outside. Even though Liam never said a word, the back of my neck burned under the stare I imagined he cast in my direction and the questions that must have been brewing in his mind.

Before he could launch another protest, I sped to the shimmering, yellow distortion on the wall and stepped through. Tingles invaded my body as if I’d grabbed onto an electric fence, the volts charging through, looking for an exit and finding none. Nausea rolled over me as I stepped into the shifter on the other side of the portal, the one that housed the gateways in the Black City.

The room dwarfed me, rising up at least thirty feet at the apex. My hands sought the red wall while I gazed at the white, rib-like beams that began as thin bands at the floor and grew to thick bones that spanned the ceiling.

The shifter trembled under my touch. A sense of joy that wasn’t my own rippled down my arm. “I missed you too,” I said.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Liam asked from right beside me.

A squeal escaped my suddenly gaping mouth. “Shit.” I shook out my hands to expend some energy. I hadn’t heard him step out of the portal. “You scared the hell out of me.”

His eyes widened. “That you admitted I scared you worries me even more. What’s going on, Lila? What happened in Freymoor? What do they want you to do?” The unmistakable command in his tone put a scowl on my face.

I went for the exit. “I don’t have time for twenty questions.” Grunting, I pushed the door open and looked at him over my shoulder.
Goddess, get it together! You’re acting like a jittery fool.
“You coming or not?”

A string of mumbled curses trickled from his lips as he shook his head and followed after me. I stepped into the Black City under the purple sky where the Unseelie spirits congregated after their existence on earth ended. On either side of the cobblestone street, black houses with dark, shining scales stood in rows. Candlelight or some sort of flickering source shone out from their window eyes.

I’d made it half a block along the street before I realized Liam wasn’t behind me—he remained at the door. His gaze swept the city held in perpetual night.

My stomach lurched when I realized why, followed by a rage-born fire burning up my throat. I threw up my hands, my lip curled in disgust. “Afraid someone will see you slinking off, naked, with the enemy queen? And on the eve of your wedding, no less?”

Liam’s jaw dropped, and he straightened. Before he spit out whatever retort he had, his head tilted forward, and his shoulders slumped.

Dammit
. I pressed my palms against my temples, the weight of his sadness snuffing out my fury. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean … oh, hell. Forget I said that.” So much for not making the situation worse.

Liam shuffled closer, though he didn’t come near enough to touch me. “This really sucks, doesn’t it?”

“That’s the understatement of the millennia.” I managed an awkward laugh and tucked my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t reach for him. Even though our bond was gone, it didn’t make me stop wanting to be close to him. Liam once told me certain fae could become addicted to one another, and I’d come to believe him wholeheartedly.

I wondered if I’d feel differently about him after the ceremony. The weight of that settled across my shoulders like a ten ton dragon breathing fire against my brain.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Liam cocked his head. “If the lines in your forehead get any deeper, they’re going to press on your skull.”

I blurted out a nervous laugh and started down the street again. “I’m not thinking about anything.”
At least nothing worth saying out loud.

Liam grunted and launched another bout of curses so low that if I hadn’t been standing close enough, I wouldn’t have known he said anything.

I choked on the ass-ripping that wanted to come out of my mouth and instead said, “Sorry. I’m just feeling a little off after the mind fucking the elves gave me, okay? Cut me some slack.”

He sped up and blocked my path. If the men in my life didn’t stop doing that, I was going to burst a vein. His eyes flickered with desperation. He wrapped his fingers around my upper arms, confining but not hurting. “Talk to me.” As he stared at me, his jaw worked, and a hint of something else invaded his stare—hurt. “Don’t you trust me?”

I turned my face from his pained expression, but Liam gripped my chin and forced it back to him.

“Let me go.” My chest squeezed tighter with each passing second. I did trust him, but he wouldn’t understand my need to confront Parthalan.

I leaned a hand against a tall, thin building with one bright eye above its red door. It sent joyous vibrations along my arm. The cool, scaly wall gave way under my weight. I fell through it with a grunt onto the black tile floor of the interior room, thankful for being saved from responding to questions I couldn’t answer. Once my feet cleared the opening, the shifter sealed up the space, blotting out Liam’s gaping face on the outside. That was the second time a house had eaten me.

I jumped to my feet as Liam screeched my name from the other side of the wall, knowing I’d have only a few seconds to talk to the shifter before Liam beat his way through the wooden door to my left.

“I’m fine,” I shouted to Liam and lowered my voice to speak to the red ceiling. “I think you have telepathic abilities, so I’ll get right to the point. Do you understand what I want to do?”

The floor trembled. I shot my arms out to keep my balance while Liam pounded on the entrance. A painting grew on the wall, complete with gilded frame, but instead of a landscape, it showed one black word on a white background—yes.