Memory's Wake Omnibus: The Complete Illustrated YA Fantasy Series (72 page)

Light flickered through Memory’s eyelids. Her head ached and she forced her eyes open. Two gaunts carried her slung between them, one holding her wrists and one holding her feet. They were going down stairs. Her vision faded again.

She wavered in and out of consciousness. She saw snatches of her surroundings — tunnels, darker tunnels, dirtier tunnels — but had completely lost her bearings. Each time her eyes twitched open it took moments to even remember where she was and what was happening. She’d been captured. She was being taken somewhere. She had to fight back. And then darkness would steal her away again.

A slamming jolt shook her whole body, waking her up. She’d been dumped onto a stone alter on her back. Her body still quivered from the impact. She took quick stock of her surroundings, but all she could see were close, dark, stone walls, and cobwebs. She wished for light. The fae had much better night vision than her and moved without any. The only light was a glow coming from the opening to the room, the color of early sunrise, but dim and distant. Still, it gave Memory hope. Maybe there was a window somewhere nearby, a door, some exit she could escape to outside.

“It’s awake,” said one gaunt. A splash of black blood on its cheek shone wet in the dark.

“Keep it still,” the other replied. Its voice was strangely high pitched and gurgling despite its masculine appearance. “Remember what the master told us to do.”

The creatures held her pinned, one at her arms, and the other pushing her thighs down. She may as well have been bound by metal bars for all she could move. Their sharp claws dug cruelly into her. Panic burbled aggressively in her chest.

The panic had a voice in her head, screaming,
Let go of me, let go, don’t touch me!
Memory squinted her eyes, about to loose her magic on them.

She clenched her jaw so hard it made her aching head throb.
I can’t. Calm down. I still have my knife. There has to be another chance to escape.

Across her temple and down to her ear was a sore area that felt wet and sticky. Consciousness was a wild bird, struggling to fly off and leave her at any moment.

The gaunt holding her arms leaned close to her and sniffed at her head. “Can you smell that?” it asked the other dark fae.

The gaunt holding Memory’s legs down, the one with black blood on its face, growled a warning. “Leave it. This one is the master’s. All the blood is the master’s.”

“That blood is mine. Keep off me, monster,” Memory said. Both creatures ignored her.

“So full of magic.” The dark fae sniffing Memory leaned closer, dragging a long, raspy tongue across her forehead. It scratched on her skin like a cat’s. Memory cringed in disgust.

“Full, full, full of magic.” Excitement rose in the gaunt’s voice as it licked her a second time, sharp teeth grazing her skin. Its clawed hands closed tight on her arms, tearing into her skin. Memory cried out and wrestled against it, trying to break free.

“Stop it!” Memory said. The gaunt kept licking, getting more and more excited, more ravenous each time. Memory yelled at the other one. “Stop him, he’s going to get you both in trouble with your master!”

The gaunt holding Memory’s legs down hissed in frustration. It hesitated, then let go, rushed forward and pushed the bloodthirsty gaunt away. In return it howled in the face of the other, a berserk fury in its cry.

Out of their grasp, Memory wasted no time to take her advantage. She whipped her knife from her belt and slipped off the side of the altar onto her feet.

Both gaunts heard her move and turned on her. One roared so loudly it made Memory’s chest reverberate and hair fly around her face.

“Just stay back and let me go,” Memory said, holding her knife up in front of her as a warning. Her vision still swam and she worried she’d simply drop like a stone into unconsciousness again at any moment. “Just let me go. I don’t want to have to use this. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Both gaunts now had bloodied faces, the one with black dark fae blood, and the one with Memory’s blood red around its mouth. The one with black blood grinned. “That’s your mistake.”

It grabbed the bloodthirsty fae beside it and pushed it toward Memory. The gaunt flew at her so fast it was impaled on Memory’s knife to the hilt before she could pull back. Dark blood spattered, warm and sticky like molasses onto Memory’s hand. She recoiled, yanking her knife out of the fae. The knife had already done its damage. The wound foamed and hissed, smelling like burning hair. Thick smoke that sparkled gold within as if sparks from a fire poured from the hole.

Memory stared horrified as the gaunt collapsed in on itself. She stared too long, and the remaining gaunt lunged at her, knocking the knife from her hands.

The gaunt grabbed for her, snatching her around the waist and throwing her over its shoulder. Memory kicked at it and scraped her fingernails on its back but it had no effect. The gaunt’s musty jacket hung loose on its bony shoulders, and Memory reached down its back and grabbed the bottom hem. Curling her legs up, she wedged her feet against the gaunt’s chest and pushed off as hard as she could. She launched herself backwards, off the gaunt’s shoulder, and pulled its coat up and over its head as she went.

Memory landed against the wall with a crack and yelled in pain. The gaunt stumbled blindly, trying to free itself from the fabric covering its face.

Got to get up, get away.
Memory’s feet slipped as she tried to get them under her. Her body ached all over. A hand closed over her arm. Warm. Human.

She looked up.

Will.

He looked angrier than she’d ever seen him. He helped her to her feet then turned on the gaunt. “You hurt her.”

The gaunt got its claws into the coat material and tore itself free.

Will held the iron hook, pointing it at eye level at the gaunt. Memory bent down with a groan and reclaimed her knife.

The gaunt stared at them both for a long moment.
Don’t you dare kamikaze yourself at us you crazy creature,
Memory begged silently.

“Doesn’t matter. My master will have you anyway, soon.” The gaunt threw the remains of its coat on the floor and vanished away through the Veil.

“Holy crapoly,” Memory said with a big sigh. “I do NOT like those guys.”

“You’re bleeding,” Will said.

“And apparently it’s tasty, tasty blood. Thanks for coming to the rescue. How did you get away from Mina so quick?”

Will didn’t say anything, just held up the iron hook in his hands.

Memory raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t hurt her, did you?”
Am I entirely sure if that would be a bad thing?

“No. Just threatened. Made her send me back, once she told me why she didn’t want me to go into the house. And who these creatures’ master is.”

Memory and Will found their way back out of the labyrinthine underground tunnel system and out into the cool morning wind through a wooden hatch around the back of the house.

Memory stood for a moment, breathing the freshness of that air. She felt exhausted, and not just emotionally. She was certain she was concussed. She just wanted to sleep and sleep, as soon as she knew everyone was safe. Everyone but Peirs and all the men who’d already died tonight. Memory started imagining how many families would wake up this morning without a father. She slumped, leaning into Will’s chest in an effort to stay upright. Will took initiative from there, and in a smooth scoop she was up in his arms, carried there in a strong embrace. Memory let her eyes close for a short moment as she listened to his heartbeat and tried to forget everything else.

Reaching the front of the house, a guard who had just helped a young girl into one of the carriages saw Memory and Will, and raced back into the house. Soon Eloryn, Roen, and Erec came rushing back out.

Memory’s chest warmed and tightened at the sight of them. “Roen, you’re okay. You’re alive.”

Will placed Memory softly down on her feet. She managed a few wobbly steps to greet the others and Roen met her in a just as wobbly embrace.

Eloryn quickly joined them, holding her sister strongly. “Thank the fae, you’re all right. We were just about to track where the creatures had taken you.”

“You found the captives, you saved them. Is Maeve out? Edele?”

“Maeve is fine.” Eloryn hesitated, and stepped back. “We’re still checking for everyone else.”

Memory broke away as well. She turned to watch the first coach of captives rolling off toward the castle, and more people being directed by guards into another. Erec stood by the door, his face gray and eyes red.

“Erec. I’m so sorry about Peirs. He saved my life, and I… I couldn’t save his.”

Erec turned his head to Memory, and pulled himself into stance of attention. “I know if my brother had to give his life for anyone, he would have chosen you. He believes, believed greatly in you.”

Memory just nodded, and watched as Erec returned to his duties.

Memory stared at the carriage in front of her, the smaller, faster one she’d arrived in and it felt suddenly so unfamiliar, as though it were years since they’d first arrived there that night, or that she expected to see a car there instead. She blinked, her eyes blurry.

“Let’s go home,” Eloryn said, putting an arm around Memory’s waist and leading her forward. “There’s lots of healing to be done, after tonight. But it is over now.”

Tears flooded Memory’s eyes and she blinked them away, refusing to let them fall. “No. It’s only just beginning. This place, it was Finvarra’s.”

Eloryn stopped mid step. “How do you know?”

Will looked over his shoulder at the steps of the building. “Mina let it slip when she took me away. That’s why she didn’t want me to go in. Way too dangerous, out of bounds because it was the unseelie king’s. She’s been listening for gossip and that’s what she heard.”

Eloryn’s eyes sought from side to side, the questions in her mind clear on her face. “Why? Some think him mad, but to do this? Why?”

Memory’s voice was hard and low. “Mina heard that Finvarra believes drinking human blood will prolong his life.”

Memory watched as guards brought out the last of the survivors. There weren’t many. The driver climbed onto the carriage, ready to go. The few survivors Memory saw looked in pretty bad shape, mentally as much as physically. She wondered what horrors they’d endured, all just to keep one twisted old king alive. Memory kept hearing how the fae were dying, but this was absolutely not the right way to stay alive.

“Now we know it was Finvarra who was Providence, and Hope,” Memory said. “And me and Thayl, we were just some other experiment of his, turning us into a battery to steal the magic from to charge himself up with new life.”

Roen frowned. “You think that’s what Providence would have asked of Thayl after his bargain was complete? To take all that power for himself?”

“Sure. Think about it. Finvarra couldn’t go to the human world himself to gather up all that magic. He had to send a human to do it for him. And he found just the right sucker with Thayl.”

Erec joined their group and notified them that the house had been cleared. Another troop of guards was on the way from the castle for a more thorough sweep, and to remove the dead for burial, but it was time for them to leave.

As they climbed up into their own carriage, Memory said, “The only thing I can’t work out is why he wanted me to be queen. Why was that so important? It wouldn’t have anything to do with nabbing my magic to keep his ticker going.”