Night Seeker (26 page)

I took another step forward, shaking the room as I moved. Behind me, I heard Rhia, Grieve, and Chatter shouting, but I could no longer hear their voices, and right now I had work to do. I turned toward the Shadow Hunters and let out a long breath, and the winds struck the walls, shaking the chamber, howling as they echoed through the room.

The Vampiric Fae shrieked as I headed in their direction. They clung to the walls with a preternatural strength, pressing themselves against the tiles. I threw back my head, my hair whipping in the wind. As I laughed, my laughter rumbled through the room. The obsidian knife was still in my hand and now its energy began to ripple through me, a fierce hunger overtaking me.

I reached the wall and—shadow watching over my body—began to climb, like Myst’s people, clinging to the walls as the hurricane-force winds thundered from within me. My heart was buoyed by their strength. I scuttled up the wall like a spider, like an insect, and as I reached the first Shadow Hunter, he cringed as I brought up the obsidian knife.

Kill, bleed, feed, drain him dry, suck marrow from bone, feast on his heart, bathe in his blood and brains
…

The impetus drove me forward, drove my hand up, brought the knife plunging down into his body, as I ripped, tearing him apart. Laughter came burbling up, and I licked the blade, not caring when it sliced my own tongue. The salty taste of his blood only whetted my appetite and I reached out, intent on drawing him to me, but the winds that buffeted the walls sent him careening to the floor.

Even as he fell, I reached out to catch him and Ulean swept by, catching up the fan in her wake, yanking it off my wrist. I screamed, furious, but she sent it spinning down to the floor.

No! No! You do not dare!

Cicely, come back to me. Cicely, let go of the knife. Let g
o.

I cannot—we cannot withstand them without it—

Look, Cicely. Look above you.

I glanced up at the walls. The other two Shadow Hunters had scurried up, retreating to Myst’s side. She was staring at me, her mouth in a rounded “O” and, for the first time, a look of hesitation filled her eyes. I ignored Ulean and began to climb higher, my gaze fixated on her. She would know what it was like to feel the kiss of her own weapons. The winds howled, raging up toward her and her warriors.

But before I could reach the top, she withdrew, and they were gone. We were alone. I growled, wanting to take her on. But the gusting winds began to recede, and Ulean took that moment to slam against me, making me reach for the wall to hold on, dropping the knife as I did so.

I gasped, shaking my head as my thoughts slowly began
to clear. I looked down, not sure how to get back down. I was exhausted and no longer seemed to have the same knack for climbing that I’d had a few minutes before. Grieve quickly began to scale the wall.

He reached me before I fell, and, using one hand to keep hold of the handholds, he managed to help me up to the top of the room. He looked down and motioned to Chatter, who said something to Rhiannon. She picked up my fan. Chatter gingerly picked up the knife, and they began to climb, with him helping guide her.

Within a few minutes, we were sitting outside the trapdoor, in the snow, staring at the path that Myst and her hunters had forged. It was somewhere near dawn, and they were nowhere in sight. I was almost sorry. If need be, I’d take up
the fan and knife again, out here in the open, and get it over with. But inside, a voice of sanity whispered,
Even with the knife and the fan, you could not defeat her. You must have Summer’s help.

I swallowed my regret.
I’m sorry, Ulean. I did not mean to say those things.

Yes you did, Cicely. At the time, you meant them. As Lainule warned you, overusing the fan can put you at its mercy. It changes you, makes you more a part of its element. Use it too often, with too much force, and it will suck you fully into the realm of air and turn you into a hybrid—a Wind Elemental not endemic to the realm. And most of those who have that happen go mad.

I pondered this for a moment, then told the others what had happened. “The combination of the wind controlling me, and the knife…I could have taken her on. I wouldn’t have won, but I would have hurt her.”

“But then you wouldn’t have come back as you.” Rhia shook her head. “Your father is right—the knife is too dangerous for you to use until you learn how to master the power of obsidian.”

“We had to do something. Myst would have killed us.” I shook my head. “I do believe I need to learn how to use the power of the stone, but we were in a tight spot. I now understand what Lainule and Ulean were warning me of about the fan. The power is immense. It will—and has—changed me. I came very close to being carted off by the winds.”

“We’d better get back to the warehouse.” Chatter glanced at the sky. “We are near morning, thank heavens. I’d say another ten minutes until dawn, which means Myst and her hunters should be hiding from the light.”

“We’d better get moving.” Grieve stood, holding out his hand to me. “Are you tired?”

“No, I’m strangely exhilarated. And the rest we had in the realm of Summer helped me a lot. What about you?”

“Same here. A little weary but with the adrenaline of the fight, and the sleep we got…I’m good to go.” Chatter glanced at Rhia and she nodded the same.

I gratefully accepted it, allowing Grieve to pull me up out of the snowbank in which we’d been sitting. “Do you know what day this is? We went in on Monday.”

Chatter squinted, closing his eyes. After a moment, he shook his head. “I don’t know. But you have your phone. Better call Peyton.”

“I’ll have to leave a message—they’re probably in the realm of Summer with Wrath and they won’t get the message till they pop out.” I pulled out my phone. “I hope Kaylin got away.”

“Yeah, so do I.” Rhiannon looked around. “Where the hell are we? Do we even have a clue? The forest looks the same to me here as it does anywhere. We could be twenty miles in, or we could be ten minutes from the road.”

I punched in Peyton’s number and left a message. Then I tried Kaylin. No answer. Sighing, I left my phone on and shoved it into my pocket. “Which way?”

Grieve glanced up at the growing light. “There—that’s east. We head to the west.”

As we started slogging through the snow, I began to notice that I felt odd. Odd in a way that didn’t feel sick, so much as…
changed
. Something
had
happened to me. I pulled the fan out of my pocket. More than once, both Lainule and Ulean had warned me against using it too much, and I hadn’t known why. Now I stared at it, wondering if I’d have the courage to ever use it again.

Chatter hadn’t given me back my knife, and right now I didn’t ask for it. Truthfully, the ferocity of my feelings scared the fuck out of me. It reminded me all too clearly that in another life I had been Myst’s daughter. I didn’t
want
to remember that, but every day it was becoming clearer that I was going to have to accept that fact and learn to use it rather than run from it.

Myst had been scared of me, when the wind and bloodlust from the obsidian were controlling me. And we needed her to feel fear. We needed her to hesitate, to falter while she thought things through. Every time we could put her on her guard, throw her off kilter, was one more inroad we had to destroying her.

As we plowed through the snow, my phone jangled. By now, it was obvious that morning had arrived, even though all signs of the sun were obscured by clouds. So Myst and her cronies were in hiding.

I pulled out my phone and answered.

“Cicely here. What’s up?”

Peyton sounded relieved. “I’m so glad you’re okay. You
are
okay, aren’t you? It’s been two days and we were beginning to worry.”

So we’d been in the realm of Faerie for two days this time. This losing time thing was a little intimidating. “Lainule—is she still alive?”

“Yes, she is hanging on—barely. Kaylin arrived back here with the heartstone a few hours ago. But Wrath says you must be the one to present it to her. Where are you? Are you near a road?”

“I don’t know…we’re walking west, in the woods. I have no clue how far we are from a road. Can Wrath fly over the Golden Wood to see if he can find us? He knows where the cedar is, though we don’t seem to be anywhere near that at this time. We came out a different way than we went in.”

Peyton’s voice echoed as she spoke to someone else. After a moment, she came back on the phone. “Yes, in fact, he’s headed out the door now. Stay put, out from under the trees so he can see you. The moment he sees you, he’ll land, and then you call me back.”

“Where are you? Did Luna’s sister make it in?”

“Yes, and we have some wonderful news. Well, potentially wonderful. But that will keep. Hurry and position yourself at a point where Wrath will be able to see you. As for us…well…we’re in Lannan’s mansion. Several things happened while you were gone and they weren’t all good. And Cicely—be careful. Leo and Geoffrey are on the move, and they aren’t going to stop hunting down you and Rhiannon. Be cautious.”

As she hung up, I glanced around. “Let’s get to open ground and then we wait for Wrath. And be careful. Watch out for any day-runners that might be Geoffrey’s or Leo’s men.” I didn’t have to warn them that Rhia and I were being hunted. They already knew that.

As we struggled through the deep snow, looking for a clearing, it occurred to me that Geoffrey and Leo were almost as dangerous as Myst. More so, because they knew we could kill them. I may have jangled Myst’s nerves, but for now she still claimed most of the game board for her side. Geoffrey and Leo, on the other hand, were playing from the place of “nothing much to lose.” And men—or vampires—who had nothing to lose were far more deadly than someone who had a reason to use common sense and caution.

We’d been walking for about ten minutes when we found a meadow, with a large boulder in the center. We huddled near the granite slab, waiting, and within twenty minutes, I looked overhead and saw the great horned owl.
Wrath.
He’d found us. He circled high, getting his bearings, then slowly settled to the ground, turning back into the King of Summer as he landed. I ran over to him.

“We found the heartstone. But Myst almost caught us. Kaylin took the gem and dreamwalked out of there.”

“I know. He was there when I left.” My father stared at me. “He told us about the end fight. How did you escape Myst?” His gaze pierced into me and I knew I’d have to tell him what had happened.
Everything
, without censoring myself.

“The fan…it took hold of me and I became the hurricane. And then I used the obsidian blade to slaughter one of the Shadow Hunters. Myst and her other two guardians ran. She was scared of me.” My words came out in a rush as I realized what I was saying. But it was true. I’d seen her face, felt the shock in her. Myst had retreated.

Wrath pressed his lips together. He let out a long breath
and then wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Come, we need to get home. Lainule must have her heartstone and you must be the one to present it to her. I cannot touch it. We will speak of these other things later.” But under the steady tones of his voice, I could hear the thunder in the distance.

We were a mere ten minutes from the road, though the distance was some nine or ten miles from where we’d begun our journey two days back. I called Peyton and gave her my father’s coordinates and as we trudged through the snow, none of us said much. At least Kaylin had made it back. And it was daylight, so I wouldn’t have to deal with Lannan—whatever his state—until tonight.

We broke through the undergrowth, out onto the road without any interference and there was Peyton, waiting. She looked grim, as we climbed into the car, but gave me a weary smile.

“I’m so glad you’re back. Lannan’s been pissed out of his mind and he’s been raging around the mansion.”

“Why did you go there instead of stay in the realm of Summer?” I glanced at her, then Wrath. Both of them looked uncomfortable.

Peyton bit her lip. “The energy within Summer’s realm is like alcohol to my father. He was giddy on it, and one of the guards tried to goad him into drinking wine. Rex is a recovering alcoholic. He felt cornered, and when a werepuma feels cornered, the resulting tiff isn’t pretty.”

Wrath sighed. “Rex turned into his puma self and went after the guard. He didn’t hurt him—” He held up his hand when I shot up, worried that Peyton’s father might have been hurt. “Neither man was harmed. But it wasn’t an auspicious start and it seemed better to have them join Lannan in his mansion. Luna and Zoey went with them. I checked on them yesterday and they were fine, and Lannan—for all his foibles—kept them safe. The realm of Summer is an uneasy place for any but those of Fae blood, either half or full.”

I grumbled, leaning back, but kept my mouth shut. I had the feeling the guard had been deliberately baiting Rex, but there was no way to prove it, and really, what good would
it do except to cause even more animosity? So I decided to leave it alone. We had enough problems as it was.