48. Stella

48

STELLA

Once we leave the city, it doesn’t take long to figure out where Andrew is heading.

Apparently, the Leonid compound is not so abandoned anymore

“ Fuck, fuck fuck ,” I whisper. We should have leveled the whole thing, or at least dismantled the stupid spell that only admits blood relatives and those invited.

I tighten my grip around my phone, willing it to work. To create a lifeline that will get me and my little disturbance out of here.

Fear and frustration mix. Just when I felt like I was getting a handle of the situation, this shit happens.

Maybe Stoneheart sent Fiona after I argued against it. But wouldn’t she have swooped in already?

Bargaining it is. I don’t know what is making Andrew do this, maybe he’s been a spy from the beginning, but surely, he can be reasoned with.

“You don’t have to do this,” I say into the intercom.

He laughs, again sounding so different from the young man I know. “Of course I don’t. I want to.”

“Stoneheart—” I start.

“Will get exactly what’s coming for him. And you’re going to help.”

That’s not ominous at all . Think, Stella, think. But nothing comes to me.

The building rises past the trees, and I swallow on the impending doom. I have nothing against modern architecture. I love the Firefly. But the Leonid compound more closely resembles a prison in shape, and the dark color doesn’t do it any favors. It’s brutal. There may be no barbed wire fence, but the defensive magic is heavy in the very bricks of it. The trees of the forest give the space its own berth.

The feeling of the place had been oppressive enough the one time I snuck in there to take back what they stole from Kalos.

If they get me inside there…

The car slows as we pull up to the entrance. There’s a group of men there. Two of them are familiar, but it takes a moment to recognize them. I’ve only met them once and they’re looking a little haggard even if they still wear suits, trying to project an air of authority.

Being in hiding hasn’t been kind to them.

My uncle Frank looks to be in his fifties, and my half brother Leo should look my age, but has new lines on his face. There are a few mercenary-looking guys in tactical gear behind them.

Frank opens the car door and leers in at me. “If it isn’t my long-lost niece. Get out of the car.”

The only thing I can do right now is stall. I grip the seat, determined to stay exactly where I am. Someone will come for me, and I’m going to wait for my opening until then.

“Good work,” Frank says as Andrew saunters into view.

“They didn’t suspect a thing. Poor Andrew is probably still on a wild goose chase.” His expression shifts showing some guilt, but it’s gone again before the other men in the group can catch it.

I blink in confusion. His brother. Andrew has a brother. He didn’t say he was a twin, but I guess that’s not the sort of thing that comes up in conversation.

“You’d make this easier on yourself if you cooperate,” my uncle says.

“I have no reason to believe you,” I say.

Frank’s smile is cloyingly fake. “No, but you’ll have fewer bruises in the end. We wouldn’t want you to lose any precious cargo.”

My throat tightens with fear, and I suppress the urge to cover my stomach with a protective hand. Fuck these guys.

“I’d think it would be better for you to kill me,” I say, but my voice is high no matter how casual I try to sound.

“Don’t mistake my intentions. I would.” His eyes are cruel. “But the Council needs its scapegoat. With Stoneheart out of the way, they’ll be able to go through with their plan for Kalos.”

The Council, at least the faction McConnell is a part of, is working with these guys. Fan-fucking-tastic. I don’t know how they mean to get Stoneheart out of the way, but before I can reason about it, Frank sighs and lifts his chin at Not-Andrew.

Not-Andrew isn’t much larger than I am, but he is a lion shifter and stronger. He reaches into the car and grips my arm, pulling. His fingers dig in bruising me.

I attempt to make his job harder by using my legs against the doorway to stay put, but when he pulls back like he’s going to hit my stomach, I flinch away, and he drags me out.

I’m shaking and squint in the sunlight.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Frank asks, rolling his eyes. “We only need you as the bait. It doesn’t have to be a fight.”

My heart falls. That’s how they’re getting at Stoneheart.

“I wouldn’t mind her roughed up. She’s the reason we’ve had to hide in the first place.” Leo speaks for the first time, and his voice has an obnoxious whine.

Frank just shrugs. “You go against a dragon with a shit plan, and shit happens. Lorenzo should have listened to me. Let’s get inside.”

“No!” I yell, and my fear shakes loose enough for me to struggle against Not-Andrew’s hold. I can’t be taken in there.

The men laugh at my struggles, but they cut off when thud sounds near my ear.

Not-Andrew’s grip loosens, and I pull away. He has a knife sticking out of his chest. His shock is gruesome and matches mine and everyone else’s.

“Run!” Fiona shouts from the camouflage of the surrounding trees, and her voice spurs me forward as chaos breaks out behind me. A flare of fire magic from the mercenaries gets thrown. Another man cries out as if he’s hit by something.

I nearly trip over the rocks surrounding the paved road but make a mad dash away from the building. Everything happens so fast. It feels like I’ve run a mile, but the building is still in sight when something catches hold and yanks me backward.

“Got you!” Leo’s breath is rank, and I cry out when he twists my arm behind me. “Looks like I can get my pound of flesh after all.”

He twists the arm cruelly, and I sob.

A roar breaks through the pain, and a shadow blocks out the sun.

The sound is primal and makes me want to drop to the ground to cower even as the relief is quick. I can’t imagine what it sparks in the heart of the enemy.

Stoneheart is here.

“Finally!” Leo says, keeping a firm hold on me while he retrieves something from his breast pocket. “This had better work. It was made special for him after all.”

My reaction is instant. I can’t let myself be used to lure him in.

I stomp on his foot as hard as I can, and the rest of the training Fiona has tried to drill into me surfaces enough for me to break his hold. I stumble away, but it’s too late.

A large gray body to swoops past, tackling Leo to the ground.

Powder fills the air around them, and Leo laughs before gurgling when Stoneheart crushes his throat. The crack of my half brother’s spine results in silence.

No, no, no . I chant in my head.

Stoneheart stands, all lethal power. The powder clings to him and looks ridiculously like glittery soot, but the magic hanging in the air feels dark.

“Stoneheart—”

He doesn’t give me a chance to argue, just gathers me in his arms. With a beat of his powerful wings and the lurch of my stomach, we’re airborne.

Gods, I hate flying.

The sounds from the fighting shrink as we gain altitude. I catch the glint of glass windows as we enter the city line.

“I thought I lost you,” he says. “If Fiona hadn’t been tailing you?—”

He breaks off with a huff, and my arms tighten around his neck when the glide of his wings falter.

Dread diminishes my fear of heights enough for me to take in his face. His icy gaze is disoriented. The hope that we’d left whatever spell Leo targeted him with behind dies in my chest.

“Remy—”

“I know,” he interrupts. “I feel it. I don’t have much time. I have to get you to safety.”

He’s been cursed.

The Firefly comes into view, and we soar up the side of the building.

His wings shake, and Stoneheart snarls. “Almost there.”

We land on top of the building without any of his usual grace. His wings stay extended because they’ve turned to stone.

“No, no, no,” I say, trying to wipe the soot from his chest as more patches of gray harden. I need metals, crystals, something! Tears blur my vision.

I’m helpless as the curse spreads over his skin.

“Listen to me, firefly,” Stoneheart says, and I can barely see his expression, but what I do see is full of acceptance. His hand cups my cheek. “I’ll love you longer than the mountains stand.”

“Stop!” I’m nonsensical at his calm. If anything, it makes me angrier. How can he be so calm when my world is ending?

He nuzzles the top of my head. “They couldn’t ask for a better leader.”

The flesh of his palm against my cheek stiffens and cools, turning to stone. I fall backward, but no one is there to catch me. Only a statue and the icy cold of the gravel under me.

All that’s left of my husband is lifeless rock.