I couldn’t let him take me there. What if the elders were on the other side, or more of his minions? What if the prince had secretly survived and was there as the worst surprise in the world?

  But what could I do? I was stuck in the backseat. Wedged in. I could pry myself free, but not without notifying him.

  I closed my eyes, trying to call another shield up—one in front of the car—but I couldn’t. We were going too fast, and I couldn’t see in front of us. Every time I felt like I had a grip on it, it would slide out of my hand and wither inside of me.

  My answer came to me after we went through an even more atrocious pothole. It was like Baelfyre was trying to hit all of them. But then I realized two things. One, that he had probably never driven for himself in his entire life, and two, that I used the momentum to flop forward like a ragdoll, nearly doubling over and just sitting there, limp.

  Somehow it worked. He didn’t reach back and slap me, or even say anything other than more curses for the pothole. I was bent in the gap between the front seat. I was facing the wrong way, but if I could just turn a bit…

  I didn’t have to wait long. It had to be less than a minute later that we hit something else and I was able to bounce enough to get one knee facing the right way and my head tilted enough to see out the front windshield.

  We were almost to the shield. I had three minutes—maybe two—so I had to act fast. I could not let him get me over that line. On this side of the shield, I had a chance. Not so much if I crossed over.

  Not to mention Mallory was with me. Although they might keep me alive and torture me because I was a useful oracle, she wasn’t. They would kill her, and most likely right in front of me. I couldn’t let things end like that.

  If we were going make our grand exit off the stage called life, it was going to be on our terms.

  Two minutes. Maybe less. Two lives. No magic. Mal’s words played through in my head, reminding me that I couldn’t depend on the magic. That I only had me and my body.

  Time suddenly seemed to still, the breakneck pace the car was going at slowing to a crawl. I blinked, and suddenly, the spirit was right in front of me.

  “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like?”

  “But you’ll die.”

  “Is that for certain?”

  “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  I took a shaking breath. “Then it is what it is.”

  “I don’t understand. You ran from me, you’ve fought me, you’ve had your youngest banish me for a bit. You demanded that I defy all the rules and let you live. And now you’re willing to give that all up?”

  “It’s not giving up. I prefer to think of it as going out on a high note.”

  “But you promised your prince that you wouldn’t be reckless.”

  “And I’m not. If I’m going out, I’m going to take Baelfyre with me. I’m going to save Mallory.”

  “The girl whose parents killed yours?”

  “Yes.”

  The spirit smiled with both of her faces, and it was entirely unnerving. “That’s my girl.”

  Time suddenly snapped back to normal and my head spun once more before I could get my bearings. Glancing out the window, I could see the shield just ahead through the windshield, glistening, stalwart in its strength. Protecting so many lives.

  One minute. Maybe less.

  I had to do it.

  I took the quietest, deepest breath I could and then launched myself forward, a cry escaping my lips as I did.

  I actually managed to startle Baelfyre, and he jerked to the side, cursing in shock. But his pause was my gain, because I grabbed the steering wheel and wrenched it as hard to the side as I could.

  “Time to meet your prince,” I cried, a little flicker of victory blooming in my chest.

  We were going fast, so fast, and the sudden movement was too much. The car jerked, making a horrendous sound, and we were flipping butt over tea kettle. I hit the ceiling. I hit the armrest between the front seats. I was thrown this way, and that. Then I noticed that I was launching forward way too far, and suddenly glass was shattering all around me.

  I was flying through the windshield. I had to be. I was surrounded by green and rushing shapes, and I had just flown through the windshield.

  The magic inside of me bubbled out, forming around me in the wonkiest shape I had ever conjured up. I hit a tree first, the shield taking most of the impact, but that sent me ricocheting to the ground.

  And yet again, I was swallowed up by my pain and adrenaline to dive deep, deep down into the dark.

  11

  The End of the Road

  “Wake up, Davie. You need to wake up.”

  I groaned, consciousness rolling up on me like a school bully that just didn’t want to let me go. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything, there was just a jumble of discordant information that didn’t make sense.

  Come on now. Come back to the light. You can do it. Just breathe in for me. Breathe out.

  I followed the instruction of the voice, breathing in and breathing out. I couldn’t live if I couldn’t breathe.

  Slowly, bits and pieces came back to me. I was cold. And it was… It was growing darker, wasn’t it? Had the whole day gone by?

  That explained maybe why I was wet. No, not wet. Damp. Sticky? No. Tacky. Blood. Dried blood that had then been wetted again by an evening dew. Or maybe a midday drizzle. I didn’t know. What was happening again?

  Right. I’d flown through the windshield after a pretty thorough beating by gravity. Slowly, so slowly, I cracked open the only eye I could still feel.

  Red. Everything was red. I blinked several times and eventually it cleared enough for me to make the real world out.

  It wasn’t night, but it was later. It looked like afternoon, judging by the shadows, and the only reason I even knew that was from all my escaped times to the woods with Mallory.

  Mallory!

  She was still in the car. The car that I had flipped. Had we hit a tree? Was that what had sent me through the windshield? I couldn’t say. To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t even felt the impact after the first couple of flips.

  I pushed myself up to my hands and knees, joints popping, muscles screaming, but I had to find Mallory. She was sick. She needed my help. And what if Baelfyre had her? Where even was he?

  Questions like that flowed through my brain, disjointed and frayed at the edges. I was like a machine running on battery saver, only enough in me to do the barest of functions.

  But I was going to find her. I had to. I hadn’t survived everything that had happened to just leave Mallory pinned in some car.

  I didn’t even think what would happen if I found her dead, or horrifically injured. I didn’t even think of how badly off I was. I was walking with a limp, and I could barely see through a single eye. I was pretty sure that I heard glass tinkling as it moved in my hair.

  Then I saw it—the car just a few feet away. It was practically wrapped around a tree and smoking ever-so-slightly. Branches were everywhere, along with leaves, and I could smell the staleness of blood.

  I came around the front of the car, which was facing the same way as the back of the car, the whole thing practically forming a U around the trunk of the tree. There I saw what was left of Baelfyre. He was practically gray, with purple between his knuckles where they still gripped the steering wheel. I could see that he was impaled in multiple places, and it looked like maybe a part of his head was missing.

  I stood there, observing the macabre scene, looking for the rise and fall of his chest. But there was none. Whatever kind of soul he had had inside of his body was long gone. Baelfyre was dead.

  He was dead.

  I stood there a moment, almost as if I was frozen while my brain tried to compute all that that meant. The betrayer, the man who had tricked us all, then proved to be one of our most persistent foes, was gone. The dragon that had outlived his prince and managed to wrest me from Bronn’s relative safety. The specter who had tried to trade my honor for favor. Who tried to have me just because he thought it might hurt Bronn where he was weakest. He had just taken and taken and taken, always greedy for more. Always demanding.

  And now he was dead. All of that was over.

  Good riddance.

  I lingered there a moment, trying to comprehend that he was never going to come back. That he was one fear that couldn’t hurt us anymore. But then my original goal came back to me.

  “Mallory,” I rasped, although it came out as more of a strangled sound than anything else.

  I stumbled away to the front of the car and toward the side. It wasn’t easy, with the ground rippling under my feet like some sort of very large waterbed. I needed to get to her. To make sure that she was alright. The opposite of Baelfyre.

  “So this is the thing that has caused us so much grief?”

  I jolted to a stop. Or at least tried to. In reality, I stumbled slightly to the side, catching myself against a thin sapling at the sound of a vaguely familiar voice. When I could get my body to move how I wanted to, I looked behind me to see three figures just on the other side of my shield, watching me.

  One woman, with long hair and eyes as dark as obsidian. An older man, with salt-and-pepper hair and a royal chin. A blond man, strapping and put together, a clean-cut silhouette against the jaggedness of the rest of the world.

  The elders.

  But how were they there? How was any of it happening?!

  “I expected…more,” the woman continued, tilting her head to the other side.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” the blond said, his voice jovial and charming. He looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, which made my adrenaline kick in even more.

  I was in the presence of predators. Some of the oldest ones on the planet. I was bleeding, exhausted, and concussed. I couldn’t think straight, let alone run, and yet they were…right…there.

  “That’s the point of an oracle, isn’t it? So much power, so much possibility, all hid within a plain little package.”

  “And it is a plain one, isn’t it?” the final one asked, his voice just as low and rumbling as it had been in my visions. “Hard to believe she’s the one who kept your grandson at bay.”

  “And foiled your dearest nephew too, do not forget that.” The woman raised her hand and trailed it along the shield, causing what felt like fire to scratch itself down my front. But it was only there for a flash, disappearing in the next moment like it was never there in the first place. “Our proudest progeny brought low by a pen and one of their human beasts of metal and oil. There must be recompense.”

  “Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Valirie.” The blond looked at me, giving me a soft smile and his kind, blue eyes crinkling warmly. He was almost like a movie star or some vestige of old Hollywood glamor. “You’re just trying to survive, aren’t you, lovely? You don’t know how they’ve tricked you, but I’m sure you can tell how those you call your friends are using you. No one is more dangerous than those who wear two faces.”

  I couldn’t say anything, could only stare in cold horror at them. I knew the man was a trap, an orb spider luring me with sweet words and affection, when nothing but death awaited in his grasp.

  “Come with us, love. We’ll always be straight with you. All can be forgiven, you know. All you have to do is help us out when we need it.”

  I just stood there, clutching the tree, knees shaking. I was trying to grab the magic within me. To do something. I didn’t understand how the elders had gotten to us so soon, or why they were at the edge of the shield, or why I just wanted to sleep. It felt like my brain was dribbling out of my ear.

  At least when I was dying the first time, things were much quieter. Everything was so loud around me now. Pain, exhaustion, and fear all rippled into each other, rebounding and building in an endless cacophony.

  “Look at her! Addled, just staring at us like a cow. Can you even understand us?”

  “Calm yourself, Valirie. She’s probably still being influenced by the old curse you reawakened.”

  “If she was influenced, she would still be asleep.”

  “Yes,” the dark-haired one remarked. “Perhaps your skills and knowledge are not as foolproof as you would have us believe.”

  The woman’s dark eyes flashed as she whirled to the man beside her. “I am not an oracle, I would remind you. The fact that I could even find and call upon the old webs within the amulet we gave our progeny is something that you could never dream of.”

  “Valcrus, Valirie, enough. We’re putting on a poor show in front of the lady.” He grinned back at me. “Forgive them. Travel does make them so cranky.”

  It was like watching some sort of reality TV where all three of them were on different scripts. And yet somehow the trio in front of me was supposed to be some all-powerful, ancient dragons that had been around for centuries.

  How disappointing.

  I opened my mouth to say as much, but there was the sound of screeching metal behind me.

  “Davie?” I heard a small, wavering voice behind the awful metallic sound. “Davie, are you there?”

  I craned my neck back from where I was still clinging to the tree to see a back door open.

  “Mallory?”

  I almost couldn’t believe it. A quick thought flashed through my mouth, wondering if she was a ghost and I had truly gone mad, but when she stumbled out of the wreck, I knew she was really, actually there.

  Although barely.

  She was covered in blood, and I couldn’t tell how much was hers and how much was Baelfyre’s. One of her arms hung limply at her side, twisted a bit, and the other was pressing into her middle.

  “Davie?” she asked again, looking blearily around.

  “Mallory!” I called back, finally letting go of the sapling and taking a couple of loping, limping steps toward her.

  “Davie!” She stumbled towards me as well, both of us looking like we were about to come apart at the seams. We met in a fragile clash of comfort, sinking to our knees, Mallory practically collapsed against me.

  “I… Something is wrong, Davie. Really wrong.”

  Her voice was so weak. Barely there. I didn’t know if it was her throat or my ears, but I had a sneaking suspicion it could be both.

  “It’s okay, Mallory. We’re on the right side of the shield. I’ll get you to safety and into a medical room and we’ll both be right as rain soon enough.”

  She was still covered in sweat and it was mixing with the blood on her to drip in gory little rivulets down her face and arms. Suddenly all our fighting, everything else, seemed so stupid. So clumsy. Wasted time that we would never get back.

  “No, Davie, I…” She paused, a rattle going through her. “I’m going to be sick,” she said in one breathless rush, leaning to the side and retching horribly. “Let me go!” she cried, sounding panicked.

  “Mallory, I’m not holding you.” Panic rose inside of me, punching through everything else. “What’s wrong? Let me help you.”

  “I just… Something’s wrong. Something…” She crawled away from me, swaying heavily. I tried to rise to follow after her, but I lost my footing, nearly falling completely over. “I’m gonna be sick. I’m gonna…”

  She was two yards from me, maybe a touch more. She was heading toward the shield, toward the elders, and the panic somehow doubled within me.

  “Mallory—”

  My words didn’t quite make it out as Mallory wretched so hard I saw her spine bend, then suddenly, green bile was pouring out of her mouth.

  I couldn’t help it, I fell back on my behind, staring at her. The first thought that crossed my mind was that she had a head injury and the nausea was getting to her. But then the green liquid kept coming and coming, almost seeming to glow as it spattered across the dirt.

  Dirt that was…melting?

  I blinked. My head was full of the awful sounds she was making. Green gas was rising from wherever the liquid touched, coiling and swirling like wicked fingers trying to bite into the very world.

  “Mallory? Mallory, are you alright?” What a dumb question. She was throwing up what looked and smelled like acid, and the ground in front of her was rapidly sinking like quicksand. How many times had I said my friend’s name in just the past few moments? It was starting not to sound like a word at all.

  “Verlarius, is what I think is happening actually happening?”

  “I… I think it might, Valirie.”

  But the voices of the elders didn’t matter to me. I crept forward again, struggling to move but needing to get closer to Mallory. To comfort her.

  But the smell… It was awful. Acrid and like death. Something unnatural. Something that wasn’t supposed to be in our world but definitely wanted it. There was an outright hole in front of the small woman now, pouring virulent green steam up and into the air. The afternoon sun was starting to be blotted out, covered by a malevolent layer of lime.

  I’d never thought of lime being particularly intimidating, and yet I knew that it couldn’t be good. That nothing that would benefit us could come out of something that reminded me so much of nuclear waste.

  “Davie!” I heard my name, barely squeaked out, and then more vomiting. She was putting out so much liquid, more than a single human possibly could, and yet she just kept going and going, and the air grew worse by the minute. I couldn’t see the edges of the hole anymore, only green, green, green steam blotting everything out.

  “This is history being made. Right in front of us.”

  I continued to ignore the elders. They were on the other side of the shield. They didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was Mallory.

  “I’m coming. I’m coming. It’s gonna be okay. I promise. I promise, okay? You’re going to be okay.”

  I was repeating myself and I knew it, but the words were just bubbling out of their own volition, fueled by my damaged brain. I crawled toward her, finally reaching her, my shaking hand landing softly on her back.

  Oh geez, my hand was covered in blood and dirt and grossness. I was so startled for a beat that I just stood there, my brain desperately trying to supply me with a solution but mostly just coming up empty.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12