Logan, page 19
43
Away
At the top of Silver Sparrow mountain, where the snow never melted and the air was thin from the altitude, Alex forced Polina and Hildegard into a dark cavern. Polina had never encountered power like the amulet’s. It wrapped around her, holding her fast, and caused a worrisome red glow around Hildegard. Alex dropped her and her owl in the back of the cavern. Finally free, Polina called on the metal of the mountain below her for help, but she couldn’t connect.
“Don’t bother,” Alex said.
There was no door or walls, but Polina discovered she was locked within a six-foot cube of energy. She could feel the magical force buzzing around her. It made her skin prickle. She banged on the invisible wall with her hands. “Let me out! Alex, you must know you can’t get away with this. Other witches will come. They’ll find me.”
“Like they did before? They may come, but they won’t find you. Not here. Ironically, the same enchantment that masked my amulet will mask you. You know, when you refused to return Sam from your hellmouth, I knew what you deserved. This is your own personal hellmouth. Enjoy your eternal prison. Goodbye, Polina.”
His footsteps receded with the light he’d carried. A bend in the cavern and they were plunged into total darkness. All went quiet aside from the howl of the wind outside the entrance to the cavern.
“Can you free us?” Hildegard’s small voice asked in the darkness.
Polina flattened her hands against the force that walled them in and shook her head in the darkness. “Not an ounce of metal in this enchantment. I can’t even make contact with the other side.”
“I can’t see,” Hildegard confessed. “An owl can see in the dark, even with a new moon. In order to blind me, this place must have no light. None at all.”
Polina backed away from the wall. “He means to bury us alive.”
“Aye,” Hildegard said.
Polina’s heart started to pound. The memory of the year she spent as a prisoner under Tabetha’s tree came back to her, and then being buried alive with Grateful in Washington. The walls closed in. There wasn’t enough air. She pounded her fists against the inside of the container. Screamed and then screamed again. Sprinting, she threw her weight against the wall. It didn’t budge.
She jumped and punched the roof to no effect. Shoulders, feet, head, and hands were fruitlessly ineffectual. All she managed to accomplish was to bruise herself to the point of pain. Defeated, she slid down the side of the prison, buried her head in her hands, and cried. There was a flutter of wings, and then Hildegard’s feathers pressed into her side.
“Don’t worry yourself, my lady. When Poe notices I’m missing, he’ll tell his witch. Grateful will come.”
“Do you think she’ll be able to find us?”
There was a long pause. “I don’t know.”
A horrifying realization had Polina grabbing her stomach. “Logan expects to hear from me. What if he comes looking for me? What if they hurt him?”
“He knows better,” Hildegard scoffed.
“He most certainly does not,” Polina said. “I could hardly get him to leave this morning. For someone with only one life, the man is foolishly brave.”
“You love him.”
“Yes.”
“A foul time to be buried alive.”
“Yes, it is.” She stroked Hildegard’s wing. As she pulled her hand away, a clump of feathers fell off into her fingers. “What’s happening, Hildie? You’re molting.”
Hildegard coughed. “I’m not sure. I feel strange. I feel…”
Polina’s familiar toppled onto her side, her body suddenly rigid. Polina gathered her into her arms. “Hildie? Hildegard? What’s happening?”
But Polina knew what was happening. Hildegard was dying. She could feel the life force drain from the tiny body in her arms. There was more than one way to torture and kill someone, even a witch who couldn’t physically die. It wasn’t enough for Alex to bury her alive. He’d ensured the loss of the one thing she had left, the living creature she’d shared the bulk of her existence with. He’d cursed the familiar she loved.
44
Silver Sparrow
“How long until sunset?” Logan asked, staring up at the sky above Smuggler’s Notch.
“Four hours.” Silas had his gun drawn and was following Logan away from the marked path. “Are you sure this is the right way?”
“Positive.” Logan plowed into the thick fog.
“The smell is… indescribable.” Silas covered his nose with his sleeve and breathed through his mouth.
“You called Grateful, right?” Logan asked.
“Yeah, but she didn’t answer her phone. I had to leave a message.”
“Fuck.”
“I have backup on the way from the supernatural police force and the Lycanthropic Society.”
“Should we wait? It sounds like this guy wants you dead,” Logan said.
“No. We’ve waited long enough. Alex is dangerous. We’re going to find Polina and then we’re going to take him down.”
Logan nodded. “Man, I wish just this once my mother was wrong and Polina is okay.”
“Hmm.”
Logan navigated between the trees. This was the way. As long as he kept heading uphill, he should run into Polina’s place, Aurorean House, eventually.
“So, you and Polina, eh?” Silas asked. Unlike Logan, who had to watch every step, Silas navigated the woods like he was born to be there. As a werewolf, maybe he was.
“Yeah,” Logan said. “I think she could be the one. I know it’s crazy, but I’ve never felt this way before. It feels, I don’t know, destined somehow.”
Silas laughed. “Or it could be the sex.”
Logan paused and looked back at his friend. “Excuse me? I’m over thirty years old. I think I can tell the difference between love and lust.” He hooked a hand around a birch tree and pulled himself up a steep incline.
“Yeah, but that was human sex. This is magic vagina. Magic vagina can tame the wildest of beasts. Take Soleil and me. I thought we were forever, then she dumped me like a hot rock.”
“Love isn’t always forever. I get it. But I intend to enjoy it while it lasts.” Logan ran a hand through his hair and continued up the mountain.
It took almost an hour for them to reach the front yard of Aurorean House and ten seconds to notice the blown-out front window. “Whoa. What happened here?” Silas drew his gun again.
Logan sprinted over the lawn and through the door that hung open on its hinges. “Polina? Polina?” He yelled her name and scoured the house. “Fuck. She’s not here. There’s glass all over the kitchen. He has her. I know it.”
A preternatural growl came from the front yard, followed by two gunshots. “Silas!” Logan rushed to the door. A man had Silas pinned to the ground and was kneeling on his arms.
“What the hell?” Logan charged at the attacker only to be stopped in his tracks by an invisible force.
The man turned to face him. He looked a hell of a lot like Jonah, enough that Logan did a double take. There was a slight difference in the length of his hair and he was dressed differently than his sous-chef had been just hours ago. Two gunshot wounds gaped in his chest. As Logan watched, the holes filled themselves in.
“Run!” Silas yelled.
Logan couldn’t move from the neck down.
“You must be Logan,” the man said with a wicked smile. “I’m Alex, alpha of the Bloodright pack. I believe you’ve already met my Zafka, Jonah. You’re in my territory.”
“Why can’t I move?” Logan asked.
“Oh, that. You should know, I’m not like other werewolves. I’ve evolved.” He lifted the dragon amulet that hung around his neck. Logan had seen a similar talisman around Tabetha’s neck once, a scarab beetle that accentuated her power.
“Yeah? Who gave you that pretty necklace?” Logan asked, voice thick with ridicule.
Alex’s smile morphed into a sneer. “I should thank you for leading Silas here. See, I recently marked this realm as my own, and when an alpha assaults another alpha, like me, inside their territory, werewolf law says I have the right to take his life.”
“Silas isn’t an alpha,” Logan said.
Now a genuine smile slid across Alex’s face. “Is that what he told you? He’s always so careful to protect his position. Let me educate you. Silas Flynn has not only been the alpha of Fireborn pack since the day I murdered his parents, he’s also head of the Lycanthropic Society. And now, I have the legal right to kill him and usurp his position in his pack. Oh, and with the size of the pack that will give me, the Lycanthropic Society will have no choice but to install me as their new leader.”
Logan looked at Silas, who had calmed beneath Alex, eyes dulling and staring right through Logan. At once he knew it was true. Silas was the alpha. A deep well of guilt rose within him, and his mind filled with questions. Why had Silas lied? Why had his mother told him to bring Silas when she must have known the truth? And worst of all, what had Alex done to Polina to mark her realm as his own?
“I’m sure you two can come to some arrangement,” Logan said. “Maybe, if we all sat down and took a deep breath, we could work something out without anyone getting hurt.”
“You’re thinking like a human. That’s not how werewolf culture works. Here’s what’s going to happen. I am going to take Silas here to my pack’s camp. As custom dictates, I’m going to chain him to the sacred totem of my people. Tonight, when the pack shifts, they’ll eat him alive. It’s how it’s always been done, and it’s how it will be.”
Logan’s eyes shifted toward the human camp.
“I hope you’re not counting on the other alphas to come to his rescue. They can’t. He gave up all rights to their protection when he crossed into my territory. Of course, he probably couldn’t smell my marking over Polina’s enchantment. That witch is the gift that keeps on giving.”
Bile rose in Logan’s throat. “What have you done with her?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
A sharp pain exploded at the back of Logan’s skull and then everything went black.
45
A Light in the Darkness
It must have been a terrible nightmare. As Logan slowly came awake, he was aware that the room was all too dark but that Polina’s fingers were stroking his face. He could smell her too, that spicy sweet scent that was distinctly her own. Only, the pain at the back of his head was real, and whatever he was laying on was terribly uncomfortable.
“Logan? Logan, wake up,” Polina said, her voice raw and broken.
Logan blinked in the darkness, then pushed himself up. “Where are we?”
She hesitated. “We’re prisoners inside a cavern on my mountain. Alex took my wand.” She spread her hands. “Witches manipulate the elements. The only thing here is air, and that isn’t my element.”
“Do all supernaturals underestimate humans?”
“I hardly think this is the time for barbs or trick questions.”
Logan exhaled. “I just mean, he left my backpack on.” He pulled the pack from his shoulders, felt his way to unzip the zipper, and retrieved his flashlight. Click. The bulb blazed to life.
Polina’s face was a mask of pain, pale and streaked with mascara. Her arms were covered in bruises and her hair was a tangled mess. Logan didn’t say a word; he pulled her into his arms as a fresh burst of sobs bubbled up her throat.
“Shhh. Shhh,” Logan cooed in her ear. “This is bad, but we can figure it out. I have more things in my bag. Maybe there’s something we can use.” He’d never seen her like this. Distraught and beaten down. If he hadn’t known better, he’d think she’d lost weight. She felt like a skeleton in his arms, all poking joints and frail bones. But that was impossible. He’d been with her only hours ago.
With a long, rattling inhale, she steadied herself. “Hildegard.” The word was hardly audible but the sense of dread she communicated with it came across clearly.
Logan moved his flashlight along the floor of their cell. The light caught on a tiny, naked body. He could only tell it was once the snowy owl by the talons on its feet and the tufts of feathers still clinging erratically to its hide.
“What happened to her?”
Polina shook her head. “Some kind of magic or poison. The amulet Alex is wearing is very powerful. He means for this to be my torture. He hurt her to hurt me.”
Pressing two fingers against Hildegard’s chest, Logan felt a faint heartbeat. “She’s still alive,” he said.
“She can’t die as long as she’s bound to my life force.”
Logan looked back at Polina. “You’re keeping her alive?” he asked, eyebrows pinching above his nose. He hadn’t been mistaken. She was definitely thinner, her complexion sallow.
“I have for hours. But I have no elements to draw on here, so I can only feed her on myself… the magic that makes up my body. Alex knows I will eventually run out of power. Once I’m drained, our connection will fade. She’ll be cut off and I’ll be forced to watch her die. He put you here so that I’d have to watch you die too. And then I’ll spend eternity in this box with both of your decaying corpses.”
Logan’s mouth dropped open. “Fuck. That. This asshole does not get to win. I’m going to get us out of here, and you are going to find a way to save Hildegard.”
Polina’s eyes flicked to the floor.
“Do you think I’m weak?” Logan asked.
“No,” she whispered.
“Helpless?”
“No.”
“When I say I’m going to get you out of here, I mean it. Tell me you believe in me.”
She nodded weakly in the light of his flashlight.
Logan dumped out the contents of his backpack. The water bottle was empty. “Plastic,” he said disappointedly. “I should have switched to aluminum.” He put on the hooded jacket. “Aha!” Out of the pocket, he pulled a small Swiss army knife, holding it out to her in his outstretched palm like it was a great prize.
She took the knife, weighing it in her palm. “Let me see the flashlight.”
He handed it over.
“Almost nothing. The batteries might help but not enough to make a difference. Not worth losing the light.” She stood with the knife and limped closer to him, touching the zipper of his coat. At once, the metal teeth and slider melted from the cloth and soaked into her hand. Logan might have been mistaken, but he thought he saw some color come back to her cheeks. “Anything else in there?”
“Money, bandages.”
She shook her head. “The zipper on the bag?”
He held it up to her. She made short work of it, then turned toward the wall of the container. “Shine the light over here.”
He pointed the flashlight in the direction of her voice. “The magic sealed itself once he moved you inside, but maybe, if I can find a crack or seam, I can get us out of here.”
She ran her hands along the wall, twirling the pocketknife between her fingers. The metal morphed into a living thing and inched its way along with her. A small river of liquid silver.
“Well?” he asked as she arrived at the place she’d begun.
“There’s no seam,” she murmured. “Not even an area of weakness, as far as I can tell.”
Logan balanced the flashlight on its end to evenly spread light across the small area. He stood up and started running his hands along the invisible barrier. He was six feet two inches tall and could easily reach the ceiling. The box they were in was barely longer than it was tall. In minutes they had searched every square inch.
“It’s sealed,” Polina said. She turned toward Logan, the upward-facing light giving her face a ghoulish appearance. The blob of metal re-formed into his pocketknife and she handed it back to him.
“What else can we try? If you absorb this, can you blast us out of here?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t blast us out of here when I was at my strongest.”
Logan slid down the wall, digging in the empty pockets of the backpack and flipping the bottle and knife over in his hands. He refused to accept that there was no way out.
“They’re going to kill Silas,” Logan said.
“Alex has him?” Polina asked.
Logan nodded.
“Then perhaps it’s best we die in here. If Alex takes control of all werewolf packs and has the dragon fae amulet, no witch or supernatural being, short of Hecate herself, will rival his power. And humans…” She shook her head.
“Grateful and Rick will come. Silas called them for help.”
“Silas spoke with Grateful Knight?”
“Well, no, he left her a message.”
Polina licked her lips and paced the cell. “Poe will notice Hildegard is missing. They’ll come, but it will be too late for Silas. If they have him, he’s probably already dead.”
“No. Alex said there was some ritual. He had to wait for the pack to shift and then they would… eat Silas.”
“I’d forgotten about that ritual.”
Logan shrugged. “When is sunset? Alex did not leave me my phone, and I don’t have a watch.”
“We have less than an hour,” she murmured. “I can feel the coming of night, even in here.” She folded her hands against her heart and stared at the wall.
Panic rose in Logan’s chest. The sight of Hildegard dying on the floor, Polina wasting away before his eyes, and the thought that he would die in here, in this box, was so unfair. For the first time in his life, he loved someone and felt loved in return and before he could even enjoy it, it was over. Everything was over.
He rubbed his chest, his heart beating so hard it ached. His mind wandered to Rick, to that scar on his chest, and to Polina, kneeling on the floor in the room of reflections, admitting that she’d prepped him to become her caretaker, just in case, in order to save his life if she’d had to.
A chill calm came over Logan. Flashes of suffering and scenes of elation coursed through his brain, the faces of friends, past lovers, people he knew through the restaurant. Everything he was, had been, would be, washed into him all at once. The tide had come in on the edge of a storm. In the eye of the hurricane, in the center of the swirl of emotions as he considered the end of his life, all he could see was Polina. All he could feel was dread at the thought that he would die but she would go on and on, an eternity of suffering. He couldn’t have it. He wouldn’t.
