Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

BASH

“ Jada, NOW! ”

Jada grabbed Ellie’s arm and shot straight up through the trees without hesitation. That was the plan. My mother had planned to ambush us again. The fact that I hadn’t sensed her presence again terrified me. But it was clear she was at least a little afraid of Savina.

I spun back toward the mage Queen and my breath left me in a rush. She stood in the snow with the blizzard whipping all around her, the magic cloak flying behind her like a cape, tangling with her long blonde hair. The sky was darkening with every second as the weather got worse, yet Savina’s red magic glowed bright like First Realm sunshine. The woman held pain in the palm of her hand, used at her will. Her magic was pain of the most excruciating kind.

My father lay sprawled on the snow with his back arched and his limbs convulsing. His dark-green hair was spread above his head. He screamed and writhed, but Savina did not ease up. She blasted him harder and harder. The whole forest flashed red.

I walked closer and stopped a foot from his face, then I crouched down. “Look at me, Father.”

He opened his eyes, and the green color was now a gray. “ We have no proof of that, ” he said through clenched teeth.

Decades ago, that would have bothered me. I was too broken for that mind game now. He’d have to try new tricks, yet even those weren’t going to pack the same punch.

“Do you want me to stop?” Savina asked behind me as he writhed on the ground.

“Not at all.” I narrowed my eyes. “Tell me, Father, how do I break the bond between Mother and the realm?”

He flipped onto his side, but his body curled into fetal position. He coughed and blood splattered on the snow. Yet still, he let out a chuckle. “Ask Violette.”

“What does that mean?”

“Ask . . .” His whole body spasmed, “. . . Violette.”

“ What does that mean? ” Savina snarled and eased her magic a little. “Answer or I’ll kill you slowly.”

My father flipped onto his back, threw his head into the snow, and screamed. My father rarely used his sonic scream magic, so it took me too long to anticipate what he was doing. His scream was so high-pitched and sharp it knocked trees over and cracked them into pieces. It pierced my eardrums and sent pain shooting through my head. Savina hissed and crouched down and tried to cover her ears with her arms so she could keep blasting him.

I dove forward and slammed my hand over his mouth. Savina’s magic hit my skin and sent pain into every muscle of my arm. “ TELL ME!” I bellowed.

He threw me off of him, then screamed even louder.

Savina lit him up so bright every single inch of him was covered in her magic. He wasn’t going to tell us anything else. Hopefully ask Violette meant something to someone. Savina’s magic bore into him relentlessly.

She was killing him.

I waited for remorse or regret to show up, to feel pain over this, but it never happened. There was no love for this man. No heartbreak. No sadness. Just anger and hate. As he writhed and squirmed on the snow and his skin turned pale, I felt nothing. “Kill him.”

Savina thrust her arms forward, and his whole body glowed neon-red.

“ Finally, ” my father whispered. He smiled wide, then his eyes rolled back and his body collapsed.

She kept her magic on him, but his body had gone still.

My father was dead.

I wished I cared. I wished it hurt. I wished he meant a damn thing to me. But I’d mourned my family decades ago. This man was just a monster who deserved far worse than the death Savina had just given to him.

She pulled her magic back and sighed.

I reached forward and pressed my fingers to his throat to check for a pulse. There wasn’t one. “He’s dead.”

"You’re allowed to be relieved by that,” Savina said softly. “God knows I was.”

“Thank you for doing it.” I touched my bloodstone ring to summon my dagger. As the hilt touched my palm, I wondered why Venus hadn’t taken them from me. But I had to save that question for later. I yanked his shirt open to find the tiger’s eye stone sitting in the center of his olive-toned chest. “One more thing before we go . . .”

She crouched down across from me. “What are you doing?”

“Taking back what was never his.” I slammed my dagger into my father’s chest, dodging the initial splatter of blood spray, then dragged the blade around the edge of the tiger’s eye crystal embedded there. His heart had stopped pumping blood so it didn’t gush out or splatter but ran out of his body like rivers. I was only halfway around the tiger’s eye crystal when I felt his blood pooling beneath his body and soaking into the fabric of my pants where my knees touched the ground. With each slice of my blade more blood poured out of his body and over my hands, but that was fine. It felt good to see his blood on my hands while Collins barely clung to life.

“What do we do with that now?”

“Collins has been returning them to Crystal-henge.” I shuddered and shook off the rush of emotions. I shoved the crystal into my pocket and stood. “I’m going to save this for her. Let’s get back.”

She took my hand and let me hold on to her while we dodged snowflakes the size of my hand. The flight back to the portal took even longer than the first time. Every few feet we scanned the ground for signs of Ellie and Jada, but there was no sign of them.

Or my mother.

One was a blessing. The other a curse.

A gust of wind swept over me . . . carrying the thick scent of blood. I slowed my pace and pushed my magic out. Except I found nothing. Nothing at all, which was part of the problem.

“Why are you slowing?”

“I smell blood.” I hissed. “Hold on.”

I slowed down to fly low to the ground to try and blend in as we rounded the mountain to where the portal sat glistening in the snow—I gasped. The portal was visible. The tarp to conceal it was gone. The ground in front of it was red.

“No.” I flew us over as quickly as possible, landing just before the blood. My breath left me in a rush. I dropped Savina to the crimson-drenched snow and tugged on my hair. “No, no, no, no.”

Three villagers lay face-down in the snow in pools of their own blood.

“ No, no, no, ” I cried. My feet carried me over to them. I dove to check for their pulses even though their auras were gone. They were dead, and I knew it.

Savina put her hand on my shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do for them now.”

“I don’t understand. What happened—” I gasped. My body filled with dread as it clicked.

Savina’s eyes widened. “ Tephine. ”

“It was a trap!” I cursed, wrapped my arm around her waist and flew us headfirst into the portal back to First Realm.

“ Oh, thank God! ” Nickel shouted. “Hurry!”

Our feet had barely touched the ground when Nickel grabbed our arms and literally dragged us across to the First Realm portal that would take us anywhere we needed to go within First.

“What’s going on?” Savina yelled.

I glanced around for the others, but it was just us. “Where are they?”

“Seattle! Tephine!” She jumped out of the way, then shoved us into the portal. “PIKE STREET MARKET!”

Light flashed for a split-second, then my feet hit cement and I stumbled forward a few feet before my wings caught me. Savina caught herself on a pole. Nickel had shoved us through the portal and yelled some words out, but I had no idea what that meant. The only word I had known was Tephine.

My stomach rolled. It’d been another trick. She’d fled the forest pretending to be running from Savina when really she’d just sacrificed my father to give her time to attack. Once I caught my balance, I looked up and my jaw dropped. It was still dark out, the sky a deep navy-blue, which meant we’d traveled a few time zones back. There was a massive, glowing neon-red sign that read PUBLIC MARKET CENTER and a smaller one that read FARMER’S MARKET. I frowned. Where the hell am I? We were in some kind of city with towering buildings on one side. The glowing neon signs reflected off the wet pavement.

Red light flashed in the corner of my eye.

I spun toward it just as Savina launched herself forward, magic blazing. My concussion must have been struggling to heal because my mind was sluggish. My senses were off. I kept noticing things slower than usual. But the smell of roses to my left told me Venus was here seconds before I spotted her. Where’s Mother?

Purple lightning streaked across the dark-blue sky. Ellie. I scanned the street for her and spotted her across the way, half-hiding behind a pole while shooting her magic into the corner. Stellan was behind her with silver magic sparkling left and right. I followed their magic until I found my mother at the other end. She was in a three-on-one fight with Ellie and the Royal siblings. Shylock and Weston were on the other side fighting Venus.

Jada landed on the pavement beside me. “We can’t find the answers we need while fighting to stay alive.”

“I don’t know how else to trap her in Third?—”

“Then we ask someone who does.” Jada yanked a feather off her back. “Time to deal with the devil.”