The Blue Woods (35 page)

I rolled my eyes at her. As she jogged back to the car, Jonah called after her, “By the way, don't think for a minute that the Porsche is yours, Bree. We're twins; we share everything.”

She flashed him a grin and ducked into the car. A minute later, she disappeared back up the dirt lane and the rumble of the engine faded into the night.

Jonah and I shut the door and stared at each other.

We were alone.

Well and truly alone.

We closed the distance between us in one breath. He lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms tight around his neck. He carried me to the bed and we tumbled onto it, our bodies connected so that it was hard to tell where he ended and I began. Time slowed down, became luxurious, capturing us inside a snow globe where minutes stretched longer than sixty seconds.

I knew we weren't going to make love; he would make some romantic protest about not deserving me. Besides, I doubted there was a condom anywhere within twenty-five miles. And somehow, the lack of that expectation softened us and sweetened those long minutes. There was only so far we were going to go, and that was fine. In the shadow-lit cabin, it was easy to pretend we would have another chance, more time, a future.

We slipped under the thick quilts and stretched out long. The warmth of him surrounded me like a protective bubble no one could break through. We spoke to each other in whispers, even though no one but the wind and the trees would hear us. Anything louder would break the bubble.

“I just want time to stop,” Jonah murmured, his lips at the hollow of my throat. “Stay here forever.”

I stroked my fingertips up and down his spine, feeling the goose bumps that rose on his skin. All the forces beyond the cabin that kept us apart dissolved into the warm darkness beneath the quilts. For as long as this moment went on, we were safe. There was nothing that could come between us here.

But there was one force, one thing that would always slam its way in, one thing we could not keep out.

I felt the Call inside him at the same moment I felt it in me. It shuddered through us both, tugging at our hearts. “Oh, God, no,” Jonah whispered. He wrapped his arms around me, crushing me against him. I clung to his shoulder, my nails biting into his skin with the effort to keep from shifting. He kissed me hard. Our hearts beat frantically against one another. And in the same breath, we both let go.

I hovered near the ceiling, the Panther below me. And on the bed, our bodies lay silent as death, still entwined in a lovers' kiss.

The Longest Night

Alessia

I'm coming with you,
Jonah said.
When you were in Italy, it was easy to ignore the Call. But I can't stay here while you're fighting at the Waterfall
.
I need to be there to watch out for you.

I can handle myself, thanks very much.

Oh, I know.
Jonah pawed at the doorknob, the door fell open, and we lit out into the night.
But I'm still a gentleman.

Ha-ha.
Somehow joking with him made it easier to wing my way toward the Waterfall, toward what might be our last night on earth.

Alessia! Where the hell are you?
Heath's frantic voice broke into my thoughts.

I'm—

Never mind. Get to the farm, to Nerina's lair.

Why there?

Just get here now!

I shut my mind off to him and opened back up to Jonah.
I have to meet them at my farm. I can fly faster—

—if you're not waiting for me,
Jonah finished.
Go.

I tore off through the trees, my heart still with him below. I watched his silver-haloed figure disappear into the woods. The main road soon appeared, and I followed it back to Twin Willows. I tried not to think about where Jonah was, or what would happen to him when he showed his face to the Malandanti, and veered over the roof of my farmhouse.

I pulled up short.

The hillside beneath me was bathed in blue, alive with light. Benandanti from every Clan swarmed the pasture and beyond, their celestial auras beaming out like the great hope I suddenly felt in my chest. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, so many strong, determined Benandanti in one place, come to fight the last battle in the long, good fight. I dove to join them, and five other winged Benandanti joined me in the air. Eagles, Hawks, another Falcon, and an Owl, the same shape my grandmother had taken.

Lions, Lynxes, Foxes, Wolves, more than one Stag, the Snow Leopards of Tibet that Bree had told me about, and the
Concilio
. The twin White Tigers, Sal and Gio, crowded in next to the Leopards. Adamo the Phoenix joined us in the air. And above us all, Dario, the enormous red-and-gold Dragon, his tail dripping blue light each time it swished.

I swerved through all the figures, searching for my Clan, for Bree. I found them at the front of the crowd, next to the stone wall, where Bree was opening the trap door that led down into Nerina's lair.
What are we doing here?
I asked Heath the moment I spotted him.

Finally! Where were you?

Does it really matter? What are we doing here?
I repeated.

He twisted his neck to look up at me.
We deciphered those pages we found in the Twin Willows book. They were coded blueprints for the lair.

So?

So one of them showed a secret passage. Your grandparents must've
built it and then died before they told anyone.
Heath pawed at the ground, his whole body tense.
A secret passage that leads directly from the lair to the Waterfall.

I spun upward, my gaze fanned out over the Benan-dante-covered hill to the farmhouse beyond. It was my grandparents' last gift, like they'd known someday their granddaughter would be fighting the war for them. A secret passage, a surprise attack, an upper hand that we so desperately needed.

Bree disappeared down into the lair. Dario hovered above the stone wall and faced his army.
We'll head into
the passage two by two. Just like Noah. I want the Twin Wil
lows Clan at the front. They will not be surprised to see you . . . but hopefully what comes behind will surprise the hell out of them.

Cora dropped in next to me, and together we fluttered into the lair. It had been untouched since that day Nerina had been taken, the chairs still overturned, the cushions still spilling their guts out, the fancy espresso machine in the kitchen still smashed. We followed Bree to the back of the lair and watched as she felt along the bottom edge of the wall.

“There,” she breathed, and pushed hard.

Like she'd just said
Open Sesame
, the outline of a door appeared and began to creak slowly, painfully, open. Bree peered down the passageway, looked back at us, and shrugged. “I just hope there aren't any snakes,” she said and headed into it.

We came right after her, keeping close to each other. The passage was narrow; we wouldn't have been able to come in any way
but
two by two. The walls and floor were earthen, and twisted tree roots sprung out on all sides. I glanced behind me. Heath and Cal were right on our tail, Jeff and Nerina just beyond them.

The ground began to rise up, up, up, the tree roots thinning out. We hit a dead end, but Bree climbed up three footholds in the dirt wall and pushed at a stone in the ceiling. A trapdoor opened and moonlight beamed down, bathing Bree in white light. “I think we're at the top of the stream,” she whispered. “Someone with wings should go first, in case there's a Malandante close by.”

I surged forward, Cora at my tail. A string of fear threaded through me—this was it!—but I wasn't going to let it slow me down. This
was
it, and it only seemed right that I was on the front line.

We soared out of the confines of the tunnel, just above the rocks where I used to sit with my father. The air was so clear I could taste the stars. Inside the Malandanti barrier, the Raven rose, his wings beating with frantic, jerky movement. I barreled toward him, but stopped short of the mottled silver dome that surrounded the site. We stared at each other through the magic, my body rigid with the urge to strike, bite, claw . . . whatever I had to do to take him down.

But he could not leave the barrier and I could not go in. We were trapped there, each of us itching for revenge.

The rest of the Twin Willows Clan fanned out around the Waterfall. The Raven tore his beady gaze away from me and dove toward the water. An instant later, hordes of Malandanti poured out of the woods; that's where they'd been waiting for us, expecting us to come in through the birch trees. A mass of silver auras tumbled out of the brush; every Malandanti Clan had been Called to Maine to defend their last remaining holdout.

I could almost hear their laughter as they faced off against the six of us. I imagined the words flying through all their brains right now.
Stupid Benandanti thought that having right on their side was enough to overtake all of us.
Snarling and snapping, the Malandanti closed in.

The ground beneath the stream rattled and shook. As the Malandanti pounced, Dario burst out of the tunnel, spraying fire at the first line of Malandanti. Yowls and screeches echoed across the water as they fell back. The
Concilio Celeste
tumbled out behind the Dragon, the Phoenix showering sparks, the White Tigers diving into the fray, the Pegasus lighting up the dark, and the She-Wolf leaping for the closest Malandante, her jaws gaping.

But the element of surprise lasted only so long. As the rest of the Benandanti flooded into the open, the Malandanti seemed to find their footing. From my high vantage point, I spotted those mangy Wild Dogs from the Congo, spreading out in their familiar circular pattern.
The Dogs are surrounding the site,
I said.
Watch out if you try to leave the perimeter.

A black Malandante Hawk collided into me, knocking me sideways. I faced off against it, our auras crackling blue and silver as we circled each other. The Hawk struck out with its talons, catching me on my leg. I kicked out and snagged my claws across its back. Screaming, it surged at me, but I spiraled up. The Hawk climbed behind me, its beak snapping. When I reached the treetops, I dove, whizzing past the Hawk so fast it spun in the air. With a cry, it plunged after me. But nothing can catch a Falcon on a dive.

I pulled up fast, too fast for the Hawk, and it slammed into a Malandante Vulture. Thinking it was being attacked by the enemy, the Vulture knocked the Hawk away with one swish of its massive wing. The instant it realized its mistake, the Vulture craned its long neck and launched toward me. Its wingspan blotted out the moon as I dodged this way and that, trying to shake it off my tail.

Adamo appeared to my right, his fiery feathers a beacon in the dark.
On the count of three, we turn and fight,
he said.
The Vulture won't be expecting that.
Bene?

Bene
, I answered.

Uno.

We veered around a barren oak tree. Was that a bud on one of its branches? Was spring dawning at last?

Due.

Over the tip of a pine, its needles brown and drooping from winter fatigue, the Vulture's wings beat so hard I could feel its gusts of wind. We dropped lower, and the Vulture followed.

Tre.

Like it was a dance we had choreographed, we spun at the same time and buffeted toward the Vulture. The enormous bird halted in midair, thrown sideways as Adamo went high and I went low. It didn't know which one of us to attack first . . . I latched my claws into its belly while Adamo fixed his beak on the back of its neck. Together we dragged the Vulture down, down. It twisted and screamed in our grasp, trying to free itself, but I pressed my claws in deeper.

The second before we hit the ground, I let go. The Vulture smashed into a fallen log. I pounced onto one of its wings, hard enough that I felt the bone snap. Adamo sliced his talon across the Vulture's back. We rose, and it did not follow. It just lay there on its side, its broken wing sticking up at an angle that made me cringe. I knew we hadn't killed it, but it would have to return to its human body in order to survive.

With a
good job
nod, Adamo veered away. I plunged through the brush, keeping low so I could catch anyone who needed my help. As I rounded the birch trees, I spotted a telltale silver glow within their copse, but even before I reached him, I felt him in my mind.
Jonah?

He jerked his head up.
Thank God. You okay?

Yeah. What are you—?

A ball of silver crashed into me, saliva-dripping jaws snapping at me, huge paws swiping, grasping . . . Jonah was yelling in my head, but I couldn't take the time to answer as I scrambled out of the Lion's reach. I flew up, but the Lion gathered its back legs and sprang so high it might as well have had wings. Jonah raced out of the birch copse, streaking in front of the Lion, who swerved to avoid a collision. In that moment, I mounted the air, well out of the Lion's range.

I kept my eyes on the flash of silver that I knew was Jonah. He positioned himself between two Wild Dogs at the perimeter of the site.
Anyone needing to get outside the perimeter,
I told the Clans,
head for the northwest section. There's a Malandante Panther there who will let you through.

How the hell do you know that?
Sal shot back at me.

She's right,
Heath said.
We can trust that Panther.

I circled high above the Waterfall, picking out pieces of the battle below. Nerina and the Harpy fought in the center of the stream, their auras sizzling each time they clashed. Earth and sky were separated into two battlefields, each element flooded with blue and silver light that flickered and charged the air with electricity. I saw two Benandanti head northwest out of the site. When they reached Jonah, he padded backward, bowing a little as they passed.
Who is that Panther?
one of them said, but they disappeared into the brush before I could answer.