Another blast suddenly shook the whole building, and I had to stabilize myself against the wall. One of the children screamed as the beam came crashing down, with the other child directly in its path. I held up my hands, imagining a deflection globe surrounding the child. The beam bounced off the orb and slid to a rest just beside the child.
“Nicely done,” Bryn said, appearing beside me. I glanced at her and smiled, then climbed over the beam and leaned down, reaching for the child closest to me. She wrapped her arms around me as I lifted her out, and then reached for the other child. The boy said nothing, but his wide eyes told me he was scared to death. The sound of the ceiling creaking grabbed my attention and Bryn’s.
“It’s not going to hold much longer,” she said, motioning for me to hurry the hell up. I quickened my pace over the rubble in the room, holding on to the little girl in my arms as tightly as I could. I could hear Bryn just behind me when a sudden blast knocked me off my feet. I hit the ground hard, the little girl falling on top of me. She shrieked and started crying again.
“It’s okay!” I screamed, and pushed to my feet, leaning over to check on Bryn, who had also fallen. “Come on!” I shouted at her as more explosions sounded from outside.
“My foot is stuck!” she yelled back and pushed the little boy forward. “Get the kids out of here!” Bryn turned to try to free her leg, which appeared to be wedged between two beams and the wall. She held her hands together as if to use her magic, but another rumbling quake interrupted her, forcing her to use her hands to protect her face against an onslaught of debris coming from the ceiling.
“Bryn!” I called out, and knowing she could die in here, hesitated.
“Go!” she yelled. “I’ll use my magic to free myself!” Realizing I had to get the children to safety, I grabbed them, and once they were nestled in my arms, the little boy shielding his eyes against my shoulder, I bolted for the door.
Sinjin met me. “Where is she?” he demanded.
“She’s stuck!” I said in a panicked voice.
He instantly dematerialized. I had to hope he was helping Bryn, because I needed to get the children outside and away from the building, which was about to crumble into nothing. I turned to face them. “Hold onto each other and don’t let go. I’m going to get us out of here!” Then I started down the rickety staircase, praying it would hold up long enough. At the bottom, I glanced behind me, pleased to see that they were following me. Once we hit the ground floor, I started jogging for the door, glancing behind me to make sure they were still there. When we made it through the rubble and out into the night air, I felt relief flash through me until I realized that Sinjin and Bryn were still inside.
Another explosion hit the kitchen area again, and I forced the children as far from the building as possible, huddling over them as they shrieked in terror. I watched in shock as the entire structure seemed to wobble and then cave in on itself. The second floor fell into the first in a billowing cloud of dust and debris.
“Sinjin!” I screamed, feeling sick to my stomach.
In a split second, Sinjin appeared just outside the collapsed structure, Bryn in his arms. Her foot was bloodied where the beam had pinned her, but other than that, they both looked okay. I glanced at the children and back at Bryn again.
“Is this all of them?” I shouted to her.
She nodded, but there was still worry on her face.
“What about the storage facility?” I asked, wondering if it was safe to take the children there, whether it might self-destruct too.
Bryn shook her head and there was panic in her gaze. “It’s not safe either. Nothing is. This whole place is going to blow!”
“What?” I shrieked. If the whole camp blew up, it would take all my soldiers with it, us included and … Rand. I shook my head against the prospect. I could not let that happen! “There has to be a way to stop it!” I screamed. “How do we stop it?”
But Bryn shook her head as if it were out of her control. She was quiet as she seemed to struggle with what to do. “It’s Luce!” she yelled just as another building adjacent to the children’s building exploded into a mass of shrapnel.
We huddled over the children but luckily were far enough away that no one was injured. I glanced up at Bryn again, frowning. “Luce? Why would he do this?”
She shook her head. “If the compound is threatened, it’s better to destroy it than give up our secrets.”
“And all your people?” I asked.
She shook her head again. “I don’t know.”
I didn’t have time to consider why Luce was planning to blow the whole camp up. All I knew was that I had to get to Rand and Mercedes. Somehow we had to stop him.
Moments of utter terror and panic can be strange. It’s almost as if your mind goes on hiatus—it can’t process everything that’s going on around it, so it enters a strange dreamscape where everything is slowed down to a snail’s pace.
As I stood there, I took in the battle raging around me. I was still far enough away that I was safe from the chaos. Behind me was empty forest—the skeletal outline of the trees seeming to offer shelter from the storm of the battle. I swallowed hard as I watched what appeared to be hundreds of our legion meeting hundreds of our enemies. It looked like two different-colored blankets of soldiers meeting together as one, only to end up a patchwork of Lurkers and Underworlders.
The night was a chaos of screams, clanking metal, explosions, and bursts of magic. At the sound of hollering, I turned and watched two of my weres drop to their knees, their clothes shredding and falling off their shifting frames. Their muscles rippled as their skin turned into fur and their rib cages expanded, the sound of fracturing bones splintering the air. To my right I could see a Daywalker bracing himself for their attack. The weres leapt at the Daywalker and managed to wrestle him to the ground, descending on him like rabid dogs. The Daywalker gripped one wolf by the throat and threw him, the wolf landing with a yelp about fifty feet away. The other one wasn’t quite as lucky. The Daywalker ripped into the wolf’s throat with his bare hands and separated his windpipe from his neck. I glanced away from the gruesome attack, unable to witness any more.
“We are not safe here,” Sinjin said as he looked between Bryn and me and the children, who were standing behind us. It did seem like the throng of soldiers was edging ever closer to us—they’d met in the middle of the camp and were now fragmenting outward.
“Back away,” Sinjin demanded, and lifted Bryn when it was apparent she would have trouble hobbling to better cover. Apparently, her ability to heal herself was delayed, owing to the fact that I’d zapped her of her strength earlier and it still hadn’t completely returned. I huddled the children together, lifting those who were too young to understand, and once we were under the cover of the trees, my breath caught in my throat. A creature had suddenly materialized in front of us. I shoved a few children behind me as Sinjin and Bryn positioned themselves by my side, Bryn favoring her injured foot. The three of us made a wall between the children and the beast. The creature had simply appeared out of nowhere, and now it stood maybe ten feet away. It was on all fours, but was like no beast I’d ever seen in nature. Its entire body was covered with red scales and its eyes glowed white. Its nostrils were wide and flaring, and as it pawed the air, I noticed talons on its hands and feet. It turned toward Bryn and seemed to somehow recognize her. As soon as it did, it aimed its furious gaze on Sinjin and me.
“Tell it to go away, Bryn,” I said in a steel voice. “Tell it to retreat.”
“I can’t,” she said, sounding frightened. “Once an Elemental metamorphoses, he loses all rational thought.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded.
“It means the creature is going to want blood, and won’t care if it’s your blood or mine.”
“What the bloody hell is it?” Sinjin asked, his face twisted with confusion.
“It’s an Elemental, Sinjin,” I responded.
“A what?” he demanded, which w
as when I realized Sinjin knew nothing about Elementals or Daywalkers. He just knew them collectively as Lurkers.
“It’s a Lurker, Sinjin, but it possesses magic.”
It was my way of saying, Keep the hell away from it! but apparently Sinjin didn’t get the message. He disappeared, then reappeared directly in front of the creature. Pulling back his arm, he pummeled it with ferocity, his fangs glowing in the moonlight. But it didn’t even faze the creature, which lashed out with its snout full of sharklike teeth. It caught Sinjin’s upper arm and pulled away, blood trailing from its mouth. Glancing at Sinjin in shock and horror, I could see the blood gushing from his ragged wound. But the brutal attack didn’t even make him wince or falter. The wound began mending almost immediately, sewing itself together as if with invisible hands.
I turned to check on the children, afraid that they were witnessing the horrible ordeal, but Bryn had diverted their attention to the trees behind us, asking them if they could see the pixies in the branches. As I glanced behind me, I could see the flickering of lights between the trees and had to wonder if Bryn had magicked the supposed pixies. Relieved, I brought my attention back to Sinjin and watched him open his mouth to reveal his fully extended fangs. He ripped into the creature’s neck, but the beast just kicked out and sent him sprawling into a tree. The children gasped, and some screamed when he hit the tree. Bryn managed to escort them away from the creature and farther into the forest, hobbling as she did so.
I glanced back at Sinjin. In a split second he materialized in front of the Elemental, wrapped his hands around the thing’s neck and simply snapped it. The lifeless carcass fell to the ground as Sinjin dusted himself off. The only reminder that his arm had been wounded was his ripped sleeve.
Turning to look at Bryn, I saw that her eyes were on me. “Well, apparently your Elementals aren’t quite as strong as my vampires,” I said in a snide way.
She raised a brow. “That was a human Elemental, not one of our strongest by any means.”
I didn’t say anything else, not wanting to reflect on the fact that it had been a weak Elemental. I looked over at the battlefield, trying to figure out if my side was prevailing. There was so much going on all around me, I had trouble focusing. But then my gaze settled on two women standing to my left, and I recognized the one closest to me as one of my own, a vampire. The woman she was sparring with was a Daywalker—I could tell by her tiny fangs. But small fangs or not, she was a force to be reckoned with. She was quick, almost faster than my vampire, and pivoted around the smaller woman until she looked like a ballerina on fast-forward.
My vampire seemed unsure on her feet. It was clear that she was unaccustomed to such an opponent, and she almost appeared clumsy as she avoided some fist falls and was pummeled with others. The Daywalker was stronger than the vampire, and seemed far from exhausted. The vampire, on the other hand, was tired and getting more and more clumsy. Pretty soon it was apparent that the Daywalker was toying with her, just postponing the inevitable. I felt my palms grow clammy—I couldn’t just stand by and watch. I had to do something.
“There’s nothing you can do,” Bryn said flatly, and I realized I wasn’t doing a good job of hiding my thoughts. Dammit, I’d have to be way more careful whenever she was nearby.
“Well, I’m also not going to let that—that woman just toy with her when it’s clear they aren’t evenly matched.”
Bryn frowned and then shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. “All is fair in love and war, right?”
“What does that even mean?” I threw back at her.
“It means it is their fight,” Sinjin said calmly, watching the two women. “And furthermore, I will not allow you anywhere near them. It is too dangerous.”
Even though I had it in mind to argue, by the time I returned my attention to the combatants, my vampire had been reduced to a pile of ash, which was in the process of being blown into obscurity by the wind. I was too late. I felt a cry catch in my throat as my people continued to fight our enemies and buildings continued to self-destruct around us.
I needed to focus on finding Mercedes. Now. She would know what to do. But the problem was I had no idea where to find her. I closed my eyes and relied on my sixth sense, sending out mental feelers as I imagined the supreme witch of all witches in front of me.
Find her, I said to myself. Mercedes, where are you?
With my eyes still clenched firmly shut, I suddenly saw her. She was standing on the crest of the hill just on the west side of A Street, adjacent to the house in which Luce had held me prisoner. I opened my eyes and turned to face Sinjin, whose gaze had already settled on me.
“I have to go to Mercedes,” I said quickly.
He nodded and took a few steps toward me, as if to say he was going with me. That was when I realized our quandary. Someone had to stay behind to protect the children, over a dozen of them now in our charge. But I wasn’t about to relegate Bryn to that position. I still wasn’t convinced she wasn’t playing some part in this whole thing. “Sinjin, I need you to stay behind and make sure the children are safe,” I said softly.
He firmly shook his head. “You are my priority, my Queen.”
Just as I was about to argue, Bryn glanced over at us. “Let me find someone suitable.”
Sinjin nodded, showing his support for the idea. Bryn started looking around as if searching.
“The redhead,” she said abruptly, pointing to a woman who was three people deep in a mob of soldiers. Sinjin nodded and grasped her arm, allowing her to use him as a crutch. Then they disappeared, materializing through space, no doubt. I checked behind me to ensure the children were all present and accounted for, then took a deep breath, anxiously awaiting Sinjin’s and Bryn’s return.
A few minutes went by before I could see them on the horizon again. They were accompanied by the redheaded Lurker. She was dressed in training combat gear, so I assumed she was a soldier. Her hair was in disarray and blood and dirt smeared half her face. Sinjin was holding her arms behind her back with one hand and supporting Bryn with the other.
“Do not attempt anything,” Sinjin said to Bryn, narrowing his eyes at her.
She nodded, then faced the redheaded woman. “Rhonda, I need you to take the children the back way through the compound until you get to the gatehouse. Once there, tell Hanz that I directed you to take one of the vans.”
“What about you?” Rhonda asked her, glancing at Sinjin. “Will you be safe?”
“Do not worry about her,” Sinjin responded, his tone icy. “Just do as you are instructed.”
The redhead glared at him. Sinjin smiled in return.
“And if the vans are all gone?” Rhonda demanded of Bryn.
“Then you can walk until you find another means of transportation,” Bryn said. “Give me your hand.”
But before Rhonda could so much as move, Sinjin grasped Bryn’s hand himself.
“Rhonda won’t get far with Hanz unless she has my blessing,” Bryn said through gritted teeth.
Sinjin released Bryn’s hand and Rhonda took it, staring at Sinjin with undisguised anger. Bryn closed her eyes as she traced something in Rhonda’s palm, which lit up and glowed in what was now dark night. It looked like a circle with a line through it. Then she opened her eyes and dropped the other Lurker’s hand.
“What was that all about?” I asked suspiciously.
Bryn frowned as if she didn’t appreciate my tone. It was more than obvious that she didn’t trust me, so I guessed we had that in common. “It’s my signature so that Hanz, the guard at the gate, immediately recognizes Rhonda.” Then she faced Rhonda again. “Okay, Plumhoff, when you get to the gate and get everyone in the van, go as far away from the compound as you can.”
“Understood,” Rhonda said. “Where do you want me to go?”
Bryn faced Sinjin and me. “Breisgau is straight down the A5 and the closest city to us. They should be safe there.”
“My Queen?” Sinjin said, allowing me to make the final decision.
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I looked at Rhonda and Bryn and nodded.
Rhonda inhaled deeply and said, “You be careful, boss.” She gave Sinjin and me a parting glare, as if she hated the idea of leaving Bryn in our care.
The three of us watched as Rhonda picked up the two youngest children and started forward with the others. They all disappeared over a valley in the grassy landscape. I hoped she wouldn’t have any trouble getting to Breisgau.
I took a deep breath. “We have to find the prophetess,” I said to Bryn. “She’s the only one who will know how to stop this place from blowing, taking your people and mine with it.”
Bryn nodded, then pursed her lips as she regarded me angrily. “I am only assisting you because I don’t want to see everyone destroyed.”
“Whatever your reasons, we don’t have time to discuss it now.”
Sinjin offered me his arm at the same time as he grabbed Bryn’s upper arm. His expression said she better not try any funny business with him. He flashed a devil’s smile at me. “Where is the prophetess?” he asked.
“At the end of A Street,” I answered, and closed my eyes, preparing for Sinjin’s brand of air travel. The swoosh of wind across my face didn’t even make me flinch, and when I opened my eyes a second or so later, I found we were nearly at the end of the dirt cul-de-sac of A Street. Another blast of air across my cheeks signified the fact that Sinjin was now closing the gap. I opened my eyes and noticed all the buildings had been completely flattened, and nothing remained but burnt-out craters where homes had once stood.
That, however, wasn’t what captured my attention. We had found Mercedes, all right, but apparently so had Luce. The two were standing on top of the hill at the end of A Street, facing each other. They were surrounded by a circle of blue flames that arced up every once in a while in a great show of light and sparks. Although five feet separated them, it was obvious they were engaged in battle. Each had a hand raised in front of them and an intense look of concentration.