Rise of the Seven (20 page)

I tried not to dwell on that gaze as we rode,
but images of the battle were all I could seem to replace it with.
The cool night turned to day, but even the sun didn’t warm us.
Camren had fallen. Avenging her husband, the boy’s father. Wind had
saved us from the wall of water, I reminded myself, saved the boy
as well. And Camren’s lifeless body lay among the rest as the fires
set them to rights.

Anvil’s body took another hit as I relived
the fight, and Steed’s face twisted as pain cut through him. And
then Ruby’s face stared blankly up at me, the blood and mud
surrounding her so dark against her pale skin. I shook myself,
glancing again at her to confirm she was fine. Her cheeks flushed,
her emerald eyes clear and bright.

Looking ahead once more, I saw Rhys and Rider
leading and remembered their fearless efforts. It was as if I could
see the power move between them, seamlessly shifting where it was
needed.

“
Freya.” Ruby’s voice cut my
reverie and I was startled to realize how deeply I’d fallen from
the others.

I blinked, and she smiled genuinely. I was
pretty sure she was laughing at me. The sky was overcast, hiding
what I estimated to be a noon sun. “Yes, Ruby?”

“
Are you going to tell us
where we’re going?” she whispered.

“
We have to find
Junnie.”

She waited. She already knew that, she wanted
to know why, and what I’d meant by we had no time and no other
choice.

I couldn’t stop myself from glancing around
before answering. “We may have a slight problem,” I said.

Ruby’s brows shifted in a “what’s new”
motion.

I watched Chevelle as I continued, and it
dawned on me that he didn’t seem as anxious or surprised by my
revelation. I guessed he’d seen the visitor as well. “There was a
scout at the ceremony. A fire sprite, I think.”

Ruby’s nose crinkled. “Are you sure? Maybe it
was just drawn to the action.”

I shook my head. “No. It was a warning.”

“
But I thought you sent a
message to Veil,” she said.

“
I did.” I met her gaze
evenly. “That’s why we have to find Junnie.”

Her brows drew together as she opened her
mouth for another question, but a sudden call stopped her
short.

It was the wolves.

Chapter Twenty-three

Unexpected

Suddenly, the rhythmic thump of our horses’
hooves turned to the hammering of so many drums as they pounded the
dirt in a full run. The wind caught my cloak to whip behind me and
I held fast, closing my eyes to find the wolves. My mind brushed
theirs before reaching a falcon tucked within the cover of a tall
pine near them.

They were running.

I swung wide, searching for their prey, then
behind, for an attacker. When I realized they weren’t being pursued
but coming for us, the falcon swooped down in front of them so they
would know I’d found them. But instead of stopping to wait for us,
they turned to run in the opposite direction. I opened my eyes.

I called out, “West,” and the others adjusted
their course without slowing. We ran through the forest, dodging
brush and low limbs, and then into another clearing before we began
to catch them.

“
What is it?” Chevelle
yelled.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. They are
alone.”

And then we saw the smoke.

“
There,” Rider shouted as
his horse narrowly avoided a thin oak.

We broke into a short clearing in time to see
Finn and Keaton rushing through the trees ahead. At the next
clearing, we saw why.

A large circle of ash covered the ground
before us. Smoldering stumps and scattered embers were all that
remained of a copse of what had been, from the smell, maple trees.
It had burned fiercely, gone barely before we’d seen the smoke. The
section of trees had been destroyed cleanly, nothing around it was
disturbed, but the fire obviously wasn’t snuffed because another
copse was already burning.

I scanned the scene as we ran, as we kicked
up gray dust that still held heat, and saw two more patches of ash
lay to the north. Understanding was slow to come. Someone was
burning the forest in some fragmented, systematic way. Just south
of us, two more pillars of smoke rose, but Finn and Keaton took us
north of the older fires.

The underbrush became dense, and the horses
struggled through briars and thickets. They’d been fresh when we’d
left the temple, but they were nearly finished now, drawing deep,
purring breaths as sweat drenched their overworked bodies. Thunder
rumbled in the distance and I glanced up at the darkening sky.

A break in the brush revealed an area of
smooth rock where the wolves waited for us. They stood, chests
heaving, tongues lolling to the side, and I was struck suddenly
with the utter transformation – I’d never before seen them so
wholly animal. How long had they been running?

The eight of us swung from our horses,
landing softly on the flat stones of a now dry spring, and moved to
stand before their silvery-gray forms. Finn nodded toward Rhys, and
the two were off, running swift and silent through the trees beside
us. They were headed for the fires. After some signal from Keaton,
Steed sent the horses farther north, away from the blazes. The echo
of cracking limbs and falling timbers muffled their escape, but the
wind picked up and even the sounds of destruction were overcome by
the rustling leaves surrounding us.

Chevelle moved beside me, as uneasy as the
rest of us at the unknown, and we watched Keaton. He stood still
now, eyes closed in some strange meditation, and I wondered if he
was in the mind of his brother. I closed my own eyes, searching the
forests, but the birds were gone, fled from the danger. A light
brush of something else distracted me, but then my eyes shot open
at the sound of a snapping branch nearby.

Finn burst back into the opening, Rhys steps
behind.

“
Rowan,” Rhys said. “They’ve
found Rowan and he’s hunting Junnie, trying to burn her
out.”

“
What? Why?” I
stammered.

Rhys shook his head. “I don’t know, but he’s
cursing her to the flames. He’s vowed to kill her.”

Chevelle stiffened. “Is he alone?”

“
No,” Rhys answered. “We
couldn’t get close enough to see without being spotted, but he’s
definitely got at least one with him. He was shouting
orders.”

Keaton growled.

I glanced briefly at the wolf as my next
question came. “Why isn’t she fighting? Or running?”

Anvil stepped forward. “If she were pinned
down, that filthy son of an imp wouldn’t be burning these
groves.”

“
So he doesn’t know where
she is,” Rider said. “But why is she hiding?”

Finn pawed the ground at my feet with an
insistence that made me pause. I cursed.

The others focused on me, plainly unsure what
to make of it. “The baby,” I explained. “Junnie’s protecting the
human.”

“
Why would Rowan care about
the baby?” Steed asked.

My brows pulled together, but before I could
answer, an explosion of flame erupted less than a hundred yards
south of us.

A furry shoulder nudged my leg and I glanced
down at Finn. He was trying to tell me something, but the brush of
something against my mind prickled my skin.

“
We have to get Junnie,” I
said, ignoring the worry snaking its way through my gut. Before the
others had a chance to respond, I was running toward the
flames.

I could hear the others
behind me, following as I bore down on that connection. It was
different, less lucid and harder to grasp, but I could pin down its
location.
Her
location.

Keaton bounced in front of me as we ran, but
I didn’t slow. There was an urgency now, a strong sense of pain and
fear coming through the link. I had to get to them. Flames erupted
beside us, and I heard the voice. Rowan called to Junnie, taunting
her with death and suffering. He couldn’t be more than a hundred
yards from us, and Junnie was hiding in between.

It was surprising Rowan hadn’t found her
already, but from the sound of his tirade, he’d clearly been driven
to madness. He must have been pushed; something must have caused
him to break. I thought of the wolves and their recent absence just
as they leapt to a stop in front of me, muzzles pulled back in a
snarl.

I stopped, crouched down, and turned my face
away as the blaze exploded before us.

“
There,” I whispered,
staring back into the flames, “Junnie is in there.”

Without a word, Ruby vaulted over the brush
and into the mass of trees. Junnie had formed them perfectly, a
natural barrier of oak and pine so solid they would have to be
destroyed to reach her. And they were being destroyed now.

Heat burned my face as I watched the smoke
and flame rise. Rowan’s voice echoed through what was left of the
forest, promising Junnie’s death to the inferno. I wanted to shut
him up. Permanently.

Two more heartbeats and the flames began to
waver. I took a breath, knowing Ruby had her. Had them. Chevelle’s
hand grasped my arm, but I couldn’t look away. I had to be
sure.

The instant Ruby pushed through the trees,
the rest of us turned to run. The blaze had parted for her, obeying
her talent as water on a current, and she broke through with Junnie
in tow. The bundle in Junnie’s arms was safe, though mildly singed
, and the relief at knowing Junnie was alive was only surpassed by
the relief of finally knowing she wasn’t the one. Junnie had not
been a part of the attacks on me; all doubt over the responsible
party was gone. And my bargain with Veil would be a good one.

I wasn’t certain where we were running to,
where Rhys and Rider were leading us, but as we crossed a low
ridge, two massive silver wolves crashed into me, knocking me
solidly off my feet. We were not airborne for long, as my back
slammed into a bank of dirt, eighty pounds of Keaton’s furry body
landing on top of me. He chuffed, I gasped, and we both rolled to
the side to cough air back into our lungs.

A kind of roar escaped someone on the ridge,
and I forced my head up to find Chevelle. He stood before a barrier
of flame, which I assumed was more of Rowan’s doing until I saw
Ruby. Her body was rigid as she poured so much power into the wall,
though I couldn’t bring my mind to comprehend her motives. A soft
whine came from the wolf beside me and I followed his gaze to find
Finn lying still among the ground ivy.

I crawled to him, relieved to see his chest
heave with breath, and ran my hand over his side, searching for
broken bones. Finn’s head raised, the silver-blue of his eyes
meeting mine with more emotion than any ordinary beast could hold,
and I understood. He’d taken a strike.

His nose twitched and pointed toward his
shoulder. I brushed the fur aside, searching for the wound. There
was a clean, small puncture directly beside the bone. I stared back
into his eyes, knowing the pain I would cause when I turned him
over, and lifted his legs to roll the other shoulder free. I
glanced over my own shoulder, finding Keaton’s back to me as he
stood guard. Anvil and Grey remained on the ridge by Ruby, Rhys and
Chevelle were running toward us.

As I looked down once more, my hand crossed
the point of something sharp on Finn’s side. I pulled my hand back,
pressing the finger I’d pricked, and a drop of blood formed over
the ash from Finn’s coat. I looked up at Chevelle as his boots
landed beside me and he bent down to slide a hand around the base
of my arm. But he wasn’t looking at the blood. He was looking at
Rhys’s hand, which now held the weapon that had pierced Finn’s
shoulder. The bitter tang of poison reached me through the shock,
and my stomach turned as I stared at the spear of steeled ice.

Chapter Twenty-four

Blood and Bone

The hand gripping my arm pulled me to
standing and Chevelle pressed my finger to his mouth. He turned his
head and spat, and then nodded once, apparently satisfied it had
not tasted of poison.

He glanced over my shoulder at Rhys. “Move
him to the pines. We will free Ruby.”

My mind whirled, attempting to catch up, and
I realized why Ruby had created a wall of fire. My feet were moving
without thought. Finn would need her. We would face the ice.

“
Ruby,” I shouted over the
noise. Wind whipped the top of the ridge, and then was pulled into
the inferno to strengthen the flame. The overcast sky had gone dark
grey, bruised with purple and blue. Light flickered through the
clouds and I glanced over Ruby’s shoulder at Anvil as the exposed
skin of my arms prickled.

“
Frey,” she whispered, not
looking away from her barrier.

Her outstretched arms trembled and I placed a
hand on the one nearest me. “Let it go, Ruby. Finn needs you.”

She swallowed, nodded, and dropped her arms.
The fire remained as she glanced at me, and then fell to nothing
when she turned away.

Anvil, Grey, Steed, and Rider stood alongside
Chevelle and me atop the ridge. Barrier gone, we could see Rowan
calling to the skies. I dared not look for Junnie, who lay at the
base of the bank behind us, protecting the child. The wind was
cutting without the heat of the flame. And though thunder rolled
across the clouds, Rowan’s words still reached my ears.

“
Kill them. Asher’s throne
will be yours.”

For a moment, I couldn’t understand. But then
I realized the flicker of light above had not been lightning, but a
fey.

“
Down,” I yelled, rolling
from the edge of the ridge onto its slant.