Martyr (6 page)

If Hell was a city, it would have been this one.

Tenn raced through the burning buildings, Water writhing in his gut, Earth filling his body with power. Even the bricks were on fire, everything shadow and flame. Ash fell down with the rain, coated him in grey. Everything was crumbling, burning. Everything roared with despair. He skidded to a halt outside a street thronged with kravens, their misshapen bodies burning and bleeding even as their hunger drove them onward. As one, their heads snapped to face him, jagged mouths open and dripping disease. It was only then that he realized they were crouched over the broken body of a Hunter. All that was left of the corpse was cloth and snapped bones. The monsters screamed.

Water screamed back.

Tenn gave in to the siren song, and Water dragged him down with delight. Magic beat a battle drum through his veins.

He ran to meet the monsters head-on. He spun, slashed, danced with the pulse of Water. Battle might not have been graceful, but Water made it ecstasy. Blood sprayed through the air like oil, made his black clothes blacker. Water laughed, and he laughed, too.

Kravens fell around him like cards, crumpling headless into heaps. Talons slashed his skin, sent fire racing across his flesh, but Water delighted in the pain. He drowned in power, drenched himself in glory. Dozens fell, and dozens more came, drawn by the screams and the scent of blood. Water was a torrent of agony in his veins, and even that pain was bliss.

Something appeared over the writhing mass of bodies, a shape more humanoid than the monsters. The kravens went still, their prey momentarily forgotten. Tenn's breath screamed in his lungs. Water wanted more—more blood, more bliss—but he didn't attack. He stood, transfixed, surrounded by corpses. The silhouette stalked closer, slowly, and that's when Tenn realized the flames bent around the figure—not away from, but
toward
. The remaining kravens hunched over as if kneeling, scuttling back toward the shadows of a nearby alley.
What the hell?

All heat drained from the world the moment the shape resolved itself. Well,
her
self.

She wore a long white dress, splotches of black and crimson seeping up the hem. In her bloody hands was a jar. A flickering flame curled within.

“Hello, Tenn,” she said. How her voice carried over the roar of destruction, he wasn't sure. It took a moment, through the haze of Water, to realize there was no way she should know his name. “Leanna will be so delighted when I bring her your body.”

Fire opened in her chest, and the jar blazed red-hot.

Cold lanced through his body, his heart screaming with ice, with agony. His grip on Water and Earth shattered. He crumpled atop corpses and screamed as wave after wave of pain shot through him, all aimed at his heart. His back arched. His jaw clenched in a rictus.

The agony stretched on forever. He felt everything,
everything
. Rage and hatred, passion and desire—they coursed through his burning, freezing heart in a deluge. He couldn't stop screaming, couldn't stop the fist from tightening around his heart. Everything froze. Everything threatened to burn his world away. And he knew…he knew that this was how he would die.

He would become a Howl.

Then, quite suddenly, it stopped.

Heat flooded his body. His muscles relaxed, heavy and wet and shaking with warmth. A hand closed on his shoulder. He flinched aside.

“Tenn,” a voice called. Masculine, familiar. His eyes cleared. Jarrett stared down at him, his face bloody and eyes tight with worry. “It's okay,” he whispered. His hand moved to stroke Tenn's forehead. “It's me. You're safe.”

“What…” Tenn croaked. His throat was raw.

“Shh,” Jarrett said. “It's over. Can you walk?”

Tenn's body gave another involuntary shiver. He shifted and tried to sit up; he failed. That was answer enough.

Jarrett lifted him up to standing. Tenn ached with cold and heat, every nerve tingling like he'd plunged from ice-water into a sauna. The world around them was still burning. For the moment, though, Tenn could only focus on the warmth of Jarrett, the solidity of the arms wrapped tight around his body.

“Come on,” Jarrett said. “The rest of us are regrouping at the meeting point. We're too spread out.”

With Jarrett still supporting him, Tenn hobbled through the streets. His foot kicked something. When he glanced down, he saw it was the woman's head.

“What was…what was she?” he asked.

“A necromancer,” Jarrett said. His teeth were clenched.

Tenn didn't say anything else. He didn't want Jarrett to know that the necromancer had singled him out. That Leanna was actively hunting for him.
My sister has an interest in you
, Tomás had said. Of course he had meant Leanna. Of course they were tied together. He knew he should tell Jarrett. He knew not admitting it was close to treason, but he also had a terrible feeling that the truth was a greater betrayal.

He knew how things added up, knew why he'd been stationed outside of Outer Chicago. Why they'd all been sent out here. This wasn't just a random army. This wasn't a routine defense mission.

The Howls were hunting for him.

And the Prophets knew it.

5

The
twins and a half-dozen other Hunters waited by the obelisk. Devon was conscious, but he crouched on a bench with his head in his hands, looking at no one. The sky was a hazy pink from the flames, and Tenn felt the magic of Dreya's magical barrier the moment they walked within a block of the shore. Waves crashed hard against the stone wall separating land from lake, the roar nearly as loud as the burning city. Storms stretched across the black horizon, arcs of lightning flickering over the endless water. Tenn shuddered to think that that was their way out.

Dark shadows oozed from the city as kravens and other nightmarish creatures swarmed the boulevard. The shield should be enough to keep the Howls and necromancers at bay. How long that protection would hold, however, was anyone's guess. Judging from the strain in Dreya's features, she wouldn't last much longer.

“What do we do?” asked Katherine. There were streaks of blood across her face, and her right arm was bound with a makeshift tourniquet. She held only one dented katana, and it was smeared black with blood. Shame pulsed through Tenn—he should have stayed back to heal them. Now, after being tapped, the mere thought of touching either of his Spheres made him cringe.
If they die, it's my fault. I should have stayed back to save them
.

Jarrett helped Tenn sit down on one of the benches. A few other dirtied Hunters were there, but no one seemed too heavily injured. He prayed that this wasn't all that was left of their troop. Not only because that was a lot of deaths, but because there were many more Howls to kill.

And because, in some unknown, twisted way, those comrades were dying and bleeding because of him.

Jarrett opened his mouth to give a command when an explosion rent through the air and cut him off. Light burst from the city, followed by a tremor so great the obelisk cracked. But it wasn't the mushroom cloud billowing into the air or the scent of brimstone that made them cower—it was the power, the sheer force of the magic that ripped through the air like a bomb.

Tenn had seen power in his life, but he'd never seen power as great as that.

“What the…” Katherine whispered.

They stared in silence as the smoke cleared, weapons raised, pulses speeding. Air glowed brighter in Dreya's throat as she reinforced the shield. There was a note in her eyes that Tenn had never seen before. It wasn't just focus; it was fear. And that scared him more than anything.

From the ruins floated a shape. The silhouette appeared first, suspended high above the crumbling towers and burning storefronts. Then the glint of light, the breath of power, as the stranger's Spheres came into focus: Earth, Fire, and Air. The energy radiating from them was enough to level a whole city.

“Shit,” Jarrett cursed. He looked to the troop. They were broken, bruised, barely able to strike the lesser Howls now fleeing across the boulevard. Fear was plain on everyone's faces. Whoever this enemy was, they were far outmatched. Even Dreya's usually stoic calm cracked into wide-eyed disbelief.

“We need to run,” Jarrett said. “We can't fight this. Not now.”

Laughter cut over the sounds of fire.

“Run?” came a man's voice. The figure above the city floated closer. “I wouldn't do that if I were you. You'd be so easy to follow.”

In the blink of an eye, the figure stood before them, barely a hundred feet away. The movement reminded Tenn of Tomás, and the very thought made his stomach churn. But this man was definitely not the incubus. This man was tall and sharp, wearing an immaculate black pinstripe suit and holding an ebony cane. His grey hair was combed back, and his goatee was the color of ash. Every inch of him was sleek and strong, a sharp contradiction to the destruction around him.

He reached out his free hand and tentatively stroked the surface of Dreya's shield. It crackled under his touch, flurries of sparkling energy trailing to the ground with a hiss.

“So charming,” he mused as he watched the sparks fall. “And so naïve to think a magic so simple could protect him from me.”

Then, with the press of his finger, he brought the whole shield down in a cascade of sparks. Dreya gasped, hands going to her throat as Air winked out. The man smiled. Directly at Tenn. That look poured ice down Tenn's veins, and he knew without a doubt that none of them would leave here.

“Who are you?” Jarrett asked. He took a step forward, his sword held at the ready. Air burned in his throat, but he didn't make any move to attack. Tenn couldn't help but notice the slight shake in his hand. That was almost worse than the man's ease at dismantling their shield.

“My name is Matthias,” the man answered. He gave a curt nod. “And I have come for the boy.” He pointed to Tenn. Tenn took a half-step back.

“You can't have him,” Jarrett said.

Matthias grinned. “Oh, I think you'll find you're much mistaken. My mistress desires him, and I shall bring him to her with or without your cooperation.”

“Mistress?”

“Leanna.” Matthias's words dripped poison. The hole in Tenn's stomach grew wider.

“Never,” Jarrett said. He didn't take his eyes off the man, but Tenn knew the body language well. Jarrett was preparing himself for one last stand. But Tenn wouldn't let him fight alone. He tightened his grip on his staff, and a hand clamped down on his arm. Dreya. Her eyes were wide and her lips were tight. She gave a slight shake of her head, her eyes never leaving Matthias.

“Let's let him decide that, shall we?” Matthias asked. He winked at Tenn. “After all, who better to decide the worth of his own life? Is it worth, say, one other?”

He swatted his hand, like he was batting away a fly. Fire flared brighter in his chest.

Katherine didn't even have time to scream.

Fire burst from her chest and lips, curling around her and hollowing her out so, in less than a heartbeat, she was nothing more than a shell of ash. Her katana clattered to the ground, dropping from her paper fingers. The rest of her collapsed in a cascade of soot.

No one screamed. No one outwardly mourned her death. The silence in the air could suffocate, and when Jarrett took a step forward, Matthias held out a hand to stop him.

“Now, now,” he said. “Let's not be too hasty. After all, I highly doubt Tenn would like any more deaths to weigh on his soul, especially yours.” Then he looked at Tenn, his smile deepening. “Personally, I would have thought Mommy and Daddy were enough.”

The words were a punch to Tenn's gut. He stumbled back and felt another set of hands holding him up. He barely had time to register the twins flanking him before Water stirred in his stomach, dragged at him with cold fingers.
Mom, Dad, where are you?
It took everything he had to force the bloody memory down.

“Stay away from him,” Jarrett said. His voice was deadly low.

“Your choice, Tenn,” Matthias said, as though he hadn't heard Jarrett's warning. He gestured to the rest of the troop. “You have seven more chances to come willingly.”

There was no way in Hell Tenn was going to let anyone die for him. He wasn't worth it.

“Okay,” he said. “I'll go.”

But before he could shake off the twins to join Matthias, Jarrett lunged into action.

Tenn screamed, but Matthias just brushed Jarrett aside with a wave of his hand. Jarrett skittered to the ground at Tenn's feet. Barely a second passed before the rest of the troop rallied. They ran toward Matthias, weapons raised and magic blazing.

Tenn wasn't allowed to watch. Before he could push away to fight, before he could keep these idiots from dying for him—
him
, worthless, meaningless him—someone was pulling him back, back toward the waves. Fog descended over the boulevard, a fog broken only by muffled shouts and flares of fire. All he saw before he plunged into the icy waters of the lake were the shadows of the twins and another shape he prayed was Jarrett. Then everything went cold and black.