Chapter 28

I trembled as the Dullahan examined us. Though he was called the headless horseman, he seemed to have a head. What he didn't have was a face—there was nothing but empty darkness inside his hood.

His focus settled on Zak. The druid's spiritual power was honey to fae, drawing them like bees to a flower.

The Dullahan inhaled—that was the only way to describe the way all the air sucked toward him. His monstrous steed stamped a hoof, steam rushing from its nostrils as it grunted deep in its chest.

Your name.

The voice wasn't sound but sensation—words in the form of jagged claws tearing through my very soul.

Give me your name.

My body went rigid, unadulterated terror obliterating my senses. Cold sweat drenched me, my skin burning, the fire tempered by a single cold spot against my chest.

Speak your name to me.

With whimpering yelps, Zak's two vargs bolted into the trees. Laney cried out as her fire salamander fled with frantic, scuttling steps. I wanted to run too, but my legs wouldn't hold me. A step away, Zak bent over, clutching his head, eyes squeezed shut as he panted.

The Dullahan's deadly attention was fixed on the druid. Lady of Shadow, Night Eagle, Lallakai. Give me your true name.

The feather tattoos running down Zak's arms blurred. Phantom wings lifted off his shoulders and unfurled from his back, stretching wide. A shadowy form overlaid his body as the black eagle pulled away from him. Lallakai's emerald eyes gleamed as her curved black beak opened.

Her enraged shriek split the night air as she brought her wings down, propelling herself upward. She swept her wings down again, and blades of shadow slashed toward the Dullahan.

The darkness crawling around him surged up into a swirling barrier. The eagle fae's attack met it and fizzled away to nothing.

Lallakai, give me your true name.

She let out another piercing cry—then beat her wings. Rising into the air. Higher. Even higher, the mists of the crossroads hazing her broad feathers. Her silhouette dimmed, then disappeared.

I stared upward. She… she'd fled?

Beside me, Zak gazed skyward with wide, disbelieving eyes. His mistress, his guardian, had abandoned him.

Druid.

His limbs stiffened. His eyes went blank, pupils dilating wide, the little color in his face draining away.

Druid, give me your name.

His mouth opened, his throat working as though fighting a compulsion to obey. A hoarse rasp escaped him.

Lunging for him, I clapped my hand over his mouth before he could speak—but could the fae drag his name from his mind? The locket on my chest was like a spot of dry ice, freezing against my skin. It was doing something to protect me, but Zak had nothing.

Druid.

Even I felt the crushing power of the Dullahan's call. Zak shook, his eyes rolling back. He needed protection. He needed gold.

My gaze swung to Laney.

She'd scuttled toward the dense trees, quivering like a frightened fawn, her glassy stare locked on the Dullahan and his black steed—but when she felt my attention, her gaze shifted.

For an instant, our eyes met.

"Her!" Laney yelled, pointing at me. "Take her! Her name is Saber—"

My hand clamped harder over Zak's mouth, but he wasn't the person I needed to silence.

"—Rose—"

Zak's eyes rolled toward me, bright with horror.

"—Orien!"

The Dullahan's invisible stare turned my way—and his full attention slammed over me. I sagged into Zak, my hand slipping off his jaw.

Saber Rose Orien, give me your life.

The claws that had torn through my soul now pierced my chest. They closed tight, my heart lurching desperately, my limbs convulsing. The power ripping through my innards pulled—but the locket seared my skin, impossibly icy, and the Dullahan's magic slid away as though unable to get a proper grip.

Zak flung his hand out.

Silver liquid spilled from the vial in his grasp, flying in a wide arc. It splattered across the moss, and smoke boiled up from the points of contact. A stench like burnt oil and rusted iron clogged the air.

The Dullahan's steed threw its head back, hooves stamping as it snorted. The gray smoke thickened, obscuring its form, and Zak grabbed my arm as he shoved to his feet. I staggered up beside him.

The black equine leaped through the coiling smoke, eyes rolling and mouth gaping.

Zak threw me clear as the horse rammed him, knocking him down. I fell, rolled, and scrambled up on shaky legs. Zak had staggered up too, one of the crystal artifacts on his chest glowing. His hand lit with a golden glow as he cast his whip spell at the horse's face. The equine reared, front hooves kicking out.

He couldn't fight the Dullahan, so he was attacking the fae's mount—but that wouldn't protect him for long.

Whirling on my heel, I sprinted toward Laney.

She yanked something from her boot and lunged to her feet. An eight-inch utility knife flashed, her fingers clutching its handle. I pulled out my switchblade and pressed the trigger. Four inches of steel popped out with a click. Behind me, the Dullahan's steed screamed furiously, its hooves thudding against the ground.

I didn't wait for Laney to posture, to threaten, to brace for attack. I rushed in, silent and determined.

Fear widened her eyes, and she slashed clumsily. I caught her wrist with one hand, and with the other, I thrust my short blade down into the top of her thigh. She screamed as her leg buckled. I shoved her down, rammed my knee into her sternum, and twisted her knife out of her hand. Flinging it away, I pressed my knife to her ribs.

Tears of agony streamed down her contorted face. "Just kill me already."

"I'm not going to kill you." Keeping my knife on her, I grabbed the tangled chains on her chest and yanked them over her head. "And I didn't kill Arla either."

Druid.

The weight of the Dullahan's voice slammed down, almost driving me into the ground.

Give me your name.

I shoved off Laney, stumbling weakly, my legs threatening to buckle. Gold chains in hand, I left the witch where she lay and ran toward the shadow-enshrouded Dullahan and his mount, Zak somewhere beyond them. I couldn't see the glow of his whip spell.

Druid, give me your—

"I know his name!"

Laney's crazed shout rang out, ten yards behind me, and my running steps faltered. I spun, halfway between her and the Dullahan.

As she pushed up onto her knees, bitter triumph and stark anguish competed in her expression. "That man is Zakariya An—"

Her eyes widened, that blend of triumph and guilt frozen on her face—triumph that she would extinguish the life I was trying to protect, guilt that she'd failed to protect her mother's life.

She blinked slowly. Her hand lifted, fingers fluttering around the handle of my switchblade, embedded in her throat. Blood bubbled around the wound. She sagged backward, sitting on her heels.

I lowered my arm, still able to feel the blade leaving my hand. Still seeing it flash, spinning end over end in a perfect arc, before striking her throat.

She collapsed onto her front, limbs jerking. Awful wheezes and gargles filled the otherwise silent woods.

I turned away from her. The Dullahan, atop his huge mount, watched the woman with his invisible gaze. Air rushed around us with the creature's slow inhalation, as though he were savoring the welcome arrival of death.

Behind the black steed's long legs, Zak was on his knees, a hand pressed to his head and his shoulders heaving. I peeled a long chain from the tangle I'd taken from Laney and crumpled it into a ball.

The Dullahan's hood turned as he refocused on his preferred victim. Druid, Zakariya—

Zak went rigid, the creature's call hitting even harder now that he knew part of his name.

—give me your—

"Here!" With my shout, I flung the necklace beneath the horse. It landed on Zak's knees.

I dropped two more chains over my neck, and clutching the last one, I dove toward the glint of steel on the ground—Laney's knife. Snatching the handle, I ran toward the Dullahan as I wrapped the gold chain around the blade. The horse's head swung my way.

Feet flying across the mossy ground, I leaped at the black horse. My grasping fingers caught a handful of the ragged fabric hanging from the Dullahan's thin body, and I hauled myself up as the horse skittered away.

My arm drew back. Swung down.

I drove the gold-wrapped knife into his chest. It plunged in as though sinking into hard clay instead of flesh.

Then clawed fingers closed around my throat.

At the touch of the Dullahan's hand, I had a moment, just a moment, to realize how utterly stupid I'd been to think a mortal weapon could harm this being. How utterly stupid I'd been to think I could survive him when so many had perished, when even powerful fae fled his presence.

Because the moment he touched me, the full force of his soul-rending power deluged me. My limbs seized. My heart stopped—literally stopped, succumbing to the storm raging through my body and spirit. The icy weight of gold around my neck disappeared. Nothing could protect me with the creature's touch on my skin.

This was how Jason had died. This was why his locket hadn't saved him.

Give me your life, Saber Rose Orie—

Zak lunged up on the Dullahan's other side, grabbing the horse's mane for leverage, and looped the gold chain I'd thrown him over the creature's hooded head.

The Dullahan's arm snapped toward him, impossibly fast—but he didn't grab Zak by the throat.

His black-clawed fingers plunged into the druid's chest, disappearing inside his body. Holding me by the throat and Zak by the chest, the Dullahan lifted the druid close to his shrouded face as he inhaled. The mind-crushing pressure of his power shifted to the druid.

If you will not give me your heart, then I will take it.

In my blurred vision, I glimpsed a line of gold glinting against dark fabric. My limbs trembled. I was weak—but I'd always been weak. I was defeated—but I never gave up.

I grabbed the chain Zak had dropped around the Dullahan's neck and pulled. The gold links snapped taut, and for an instant, nothing happened—then the chain slid.

Slid like a wire cutting through clay.

Slid right through the Dullahan's neck.

The resistance on the chain disappeared and I fell, landing hard on my back, the gold chain clutched in my numb, quaking hands. A thud sounded as Zak hit the ground on the horse's other side.

The Dullahan sat atop his unmoving steed, a dark figure with no head. The horse's ears were flattened, its fiery orange eyes rolling, its legs straight and stiff.

Air rushed through the clearing. The Dullahan inhaling.

But he had no head. No face. No mouth.

He inhaled—then he howled.

The bellowing cry slammed me down as the creature's power exploded out of him in a wild, uncontrolled tidal wave. The mists of the crossroads writhed, the semi-transparent trees rippling, the vines and their flowers withering and dying.

A dark shape plunged out of the dark, misty sky.

Black wings spread wide, Lallakai plummeted—a beautiful woman with streaming black hair and the phantom wings of her eagle form. A blade of black power arched from her hands, and as she met the headless Dullahan, she drove it through the creature's chest.

Her momentum hurled the Dullahan off his mount, and together they crashed to the ground. The black horse leaped away, galloping into the mists.

Lallakai pinned the Dullahan to the ground with her blade. Black flames raged around the two fae—two wielders of shadows and darkness. She drove it deeper into him, and his clawed hands twitched and jerked toward her weapon. Her emerald eyes blazed brighter, and the twisting darkness around them swirled into a tight maelstrom, sucking into her black sword.

The Dullahan convulsed, then sagged—and sagged more, his black robes sinking to the ground as the Night Eagle's power devoured his body, his very essence. The spinning darkness faded. Lallakai pulled her weapon from the ground and straightened, her wings arching off her back. The Dullahan's dark garments were empty, the ragged fabric pooled on the moss.

The headless horseman was gone.

I slowly pushed into a sitting position. A few yards away, Zak lay on his back, his chest heaving with rough breaths and one hand gripping the front of his shirt where the Dullahan had sunk his hand into him.

His shirt wasn't torn. No blood. Though the creature had held him off the ground with his phantom grip, he hadn't damaged Zak's flesh.

Fae magic was terrifying.

Lallakai opened her hand. Her shadow blade faded away like dark smoke, and her phantom wings furled against her back and melted into nothing. She turned, studying her gasping druid, then looked at me, her beautiful face unreadable.

With a rough cough, Zak pushed onto his elbows, then sat up as though so exhausted he could barely manage that small movement. His weary green eyes lifted to mine. I could see the questions in his gaze—why had I come back to warn him, why had I tried so hard to save him, why had I killed a woman to protect him?

I stared back at him, too tired to answer his unspoken queries.

Especially since I had no answers.