The Guardian (20 page)

“Walk with me a little more.”

Fala looked around at the woods they were in. “We're heading toward the cave. I thought you said this was just a walk.”

“I want us to spend some time alone together. I missed you all day.” He pulled her close, kissed her hard on the lips, and felt her shudder.

She gulped hard. “That isn't just walking.”

“So sue me. I had to watch Akando putting his hands all over you. It drove me crazy.”

“Get used to it. We'll be married tomorrow. I guess you'll be leaving after midnight when I get my powers.”

“Yes.”

Silence settled between them, interrupted by a lone, sad appeal from an owl. Fala let Stephen lead her toward
the cave, but he felt her fingers tense around his. She couldn't suspect what he was about to do, could she? No, or she wouldn't have come with him. Her reticence must stem from her sense of duty to Akando. That was all it was.

When they reached the entrance, she froze and said, “I've changed my mind. I'm not going in there.”

F
ala couldn't believe Stephen had led her to the mouth of the Patomani's sacred sweat cave, the one where she'd felt so much love for him. The irony churned in her stomach, tasted bitter in her throat, even as she felt the charm buzz and flail against her skin. Tumseneha waited for her inside. Gooseflesh ran up the back of her neck and along her arms. So this was the place Stephen meant to kill her, and Tumseneha meant to rob her powers. Both menyahas.

But she hadn't come unprotected. She had her magic, and she never went into battle without a gun. She felt her Colt hidden securely beneath her coat. A snub-nosed .38 she'd borrowed from Takala's arsenal weighed down her pocket. And a knife rode inside her left boot. She wouldn't go down without a fight. And now that she saw that Stephen meant to murder her on the reservation's holiest ground, she began to believe her own doubts about
whether he cared about her at all. She thought she had felt all the heartache she could in one lifetime, but tightness wrenched her chest yet again.

“What's wrong? We won't stay but a minute. It's cold. We can warm up by a fire.” He gently nudged her elbow toward the cave.

Fala ground her teeth so tightly her jaw hurt. This was it. Her test. Him or her. So be it. She hardened her resolve and tried to calm the fear unfurling inside her as she said, “I'll follow you.”

He looked at her, those silver eyes sharp and glistening. “Okay.” He stepped inside first.

Fala let her free right hand slip down into her coat pocket. Her fingers found the .38 as she followed him into a certain trap.

Fala didn't know what she'd find inside. Everything looked the same: the skins hadn't been moved, or the altar. She looked at the exact area where they had made love only a night ago, and the cinch around her chest squeezed tighter. Then she noticed a dim flicker of torchlight coming from the passage in the back of the cave, the same dark abyss that had terrified her in the past—except that one time when she'd made love to Stephen. This odd quirk of fate didn't escape her. He'd made her feel comfortable with the unknown darkness, and now he would lure her there to face her death. She must have always sensed this twist of fate somewhere in the cave's gloom.

She forced a note of amazement in her voice as she asked, “When did you do all this?”

“Earlier.”

“You must have been sure of yourself,” she quipped, flashing a tense smile.

“No, only sure of you.”

Which I can use to my advantage.

“Come, this way.” He beckoned her down through the passage.

Fala had never seen the darkest reaches of the cave, and she took in the twists and turns, the jagged, glistening stalagmites and stalactites that looked like knives growing from floor and ceiling. As they descended into the bowels of the earth, her pulse quickened, her fingers tightened on the gun butt. Cold air closed in around her, feeling heavy with dampness. Her breath blew streams of white vapors around her face. How much farther?

The path narrowed, the flickering light growing brighter. They crossed a shimmering pool of water, tainted deep green by mineral deposits. Shadowy jade diamonds flickered over the surface and blurred and distorted her reflection. Fala grew aware of the brutal, mesmerizing beauty around her. Had she known it was this grand, she might have faced her fears and explored the cave. Too late for that. The beauty would be marred forever.

Suddenly they hopped onto a ledge and stepped into a cavern, about thirty feet across. The ceiling rose up fifty or sixty feet, jagged with sharp rocks. In the center, a fire roared. Fala noticed they stood on a rock pyre, carved naturally into the cave's floor. A deep, circular gully ran around the cavern's perimeter. A ring of stones had been strategically placed within the ring, forming a hex pentagram. So here was where it would happen.

Stephen poked the fire with what looked like a pointed
quartz dagger. It glinted dark purple and yellow in the firelight. “Do you like it?”

“It's amazing.” She stared at the blade. An image from her dream sent an icy shiver through her. What would his face look like when he tried to kill her? Would he regret it? “How did you find it?” Fala kept her voice steady while her heart battered her chest.

“I searched the cave earlier today.” He faced her and shimmered toward her so quickly, she could hardly track the advance.

“I see your wounds have healed enough to allow you to teleport,” she casually remarked.

“Yes.” He drew her into his arms. “And we're finally alone,” he whispered against her mouth.

The heat of his lips sent a shiver through her. “Right, alone,” she echoed.

Stephen touched her chin and kissed her. His lips crushed hers, then he devoured her mouth. Fala felt his arm rise behind her back, and she knew he had the quartz dagger in his hand. She pointed the snub-nose at his gut. She broke the kiss and stared deep into his silver eyes. They had turned a strange shade of greenish gold. Was that conflicting raw pain she saw in them?

Fala warred with her feelings. He could plunge the dagger in her back at any second. But would he? She had to know. Fala couldn't stop the love for him welling up inside her, as strong as when they'd made love. It was pure and overwhelming and everlasting, like an all-powerful sun burning in her chest. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to trust that her love for him was stronger than the evil forcing him to betray
her. Somehow she could reach him. Her whole being demanded she try.

“Did you ever love me?” she asked, her gaze digging into his face. “You never said it. Say it, Stephen?”

She looked deep into his eyes, the silver gold glazing over with agony. He gritted his teeth as if he were fighting not to speak.

“Tell me!” Her frantic cry echoed through the cave. “Do you care for me at all? Has the love we shared been a lie? Tell me! I deserve to know.”

Her words speared him and he seemed unable to look away. After a second, he dropped the dagger.

It crashed to the rock floor behind her and shattered.

Fala let out the breath she'd been holding and felt some of the cracked stone strike her calf.

“Kill her, you fool!” Tumseneha's roar filled the cavern and shook the cave floor.

Stephen held fast to Fala, and she to him. He cared for her. But it was a hollow triumph, because Fala knew they might not survive.

A shadow covered them. Fala glanced up to see Tumseneha overhead. He floated above the pyre and seemed to grow larger by the moment, rage spitting from his red demon eyes.

Stephen shoved Fala behind him and said, “Leave her alone.”

“Be assured your brothers will die a slow and agonizing death.”

“You have brothers?” Fala asked.

“Two,” Stephen said.

Tumseneha growled, “Still alive, but not for long.”

Was that why Stephen had betrayed her? Fala glared up at Tumseneha, a floating hell-spawned gargoyle filling up her vision. “I should have known you'd act true to form, menyaha.”

Tumseneha's yellow fangs showed as he grinned. “Call me what you like, witch.”

Why did he look so smug?

Gong.

The drumlike boom filled the cavern, the chord deafening.

“Hear that, Guardian? Those are your death tolls. At the stroke of twelve, you die and I claim your powers.” Tumseneha began chanting in an underworld language that Fala didn't understand.

“What's he doing?” she asked Stephen.

“He's calling your powers down from heaven.”

“He can't.”

“Yes, he can. But in order to keep them he has to kill you. And that's not going to happen if I can help it.” Stephen waved his hands. A writhing fireball formed between them. He threw it at Tumseneha.

His vicious laughter scarred the air as he easily deflected the blow.

The fireball hit the ceiling and rained flames down on their heads.

Gong.

Fala sensed something happening inside her, a drawing sensation that tugged at her very being. And she heard a chorus of females, whispering inside her head. The voices weren't evil, she sensed. She understood the Patomani chant:

You have passed the trial of the heart, Fala,

Tsimshian, you shall be,

Take your powers and set the world free.

 

Fala recognized the voices of her sister Guardians, her spirit guides. It was the first time in her life she'd ever heard them. No, she didn't want her powers now. Tumseneha would get them.

Gong.

A flaming spear appeared in Tumseneha's hand. He threw it at her.

Stephen shoved Fala down, covering her body with his.

The spear hissed by them, barely missing Stephen's back.

Gong.

Fala knew she had to shift to fight Tumseneha. She shoved Stephen aside, called forth all the power of the Maiden Bear, and shifted into animal form. She let out a roar that rocked the air, the sudden force of it knocked Tumseneha back up into the ceiling.

Gong.

He struck the stalactites with a loud whack that pounded the cave wall and sent them crashing down.

Gong.

He merely laughed, then his enormous form barreled toward her and plowed into her. When they hit the ground, Fala's back flopped right into the fire.

For a moment all she could feel was searing pain, smell her own flesh and fur burning. Instantly she was reliving the dream of being staked over the fire, where Tumseneha had turned into Stephen.

Gong.

Her head whirled with pain. She chomped down into Tumseneha's hard, scaly shoulder, grabbed him with both paws and rolled off the fire. Sparks and flames flew as they both reeled, locked in a death match.

Tumseneha kept chanting. Fala felt his power bombarding her. Energy swirled and fought and Tumseneha's magic broke through hers. A sphere of undulating black energy formed around them, glowing red and black and pulsing. Tumseneha had her truly trapped within the evil bubble.

Gong.

Fala hit his neck this time. He javelined his pointed tail into her chest. Thousands of jolts of power hit her body and she buckled and lost her grip on him.

Gong.

He saw his opening and leaped on top of her. He grabbed Fala's neck, his webbed talons digging into her flesh. She smelled his rotting breath as he said, “You'll die now, witch. You and all your kind.” He reached for her throat to rip it out.

Fala heard Stephen pounding on the magic sphere, trying to break it so he could help her. Tears gleamed in his eyes but he wouldn't let them fall as he screamed, “Fala! Fala!”

Gong.

Fala felt the warmth of her love for him still burning inside her, even as Tumseneha's talons tightened around her throat. Her powers would arrive at any moment.

Gong.

The voices of the spirit guides grew louder, clearer, a mantra in her head:

Fireworks of white magic javelined and tore and exploded around Fala as her powers zoomed down through slabs of rock, crashing through Tumseneha's orb of black magic. It burst into a thousand red glowing embers.

Gong.

Fala saw the whirling ray of bright light coming directly at them.

Gong.

Tumseneha saw it, too. He dropped his grip on her throat and leaped for the shaft of power.

Stephen threw a fireball at Tumseneha. He careened back against the cavern wall. His scream of frustration boomed through the cave.

Fala held out both her paws and siphoned in her powers. Her spine bowed and for a moment she was borne upward, floating, her body glowing white-hot embers. Energy flowed in her, through her, and burst from her eye sockets, her mouth, her nose, her fingertips and her toes. She was pure energy, the energy that formed universes and held stars in the heavens.

Tumseneha came at her again, his body flaming with rage, turning into a red aura of fire.

Fala directed the incandescent rays shooting out from her paws at her nemesis.

The waves staggered him, burst over him, and suddenly turned into bands of light, wrapping around and around him, mummifying him in white magic. He screamed and thrashed but couldn't break free.

Fala recited, “From night you are born and from light you shall be bound. I call forth all the magic of my ancestors and that of the mighty Maiden Bear. We banish you back to darkness, Tumseneha, never to return. Mark this day as your last on Earth and tell the underworld that the next Guardian is here, waiting.” Her words thundered through the cavern and rumbled with thousands of jolts of energy.

Tumseneha's screams died as the bands clamped around his mouth. Then suddenly the straps collapsed into one line of light, an inch wide. Tumseneha shrunk with it. Then he vanished in a blink of sparks.

Fala reined in her new power, feeling it stretch the boundaries of her physical body as she shifted back into human form. The transformation healed the burns on her back.

A hiss sounded above her. She glanced up as a magic gateway opened in the ceiling. Flames danced around the edges and smoke spewed out as two men fell through it. They hit the ground at the same time, coughing, looking disoriented. The opening closed with the same fizzing sound.

Fala noticed one of guys had short sandy-blond hair and wore gold-rimmed glasses; the other had shaggy raven locks. They looked in their twenties, and they both had Stephen's handsome chiseled features; the resemblance was unmistakable.

Stephen had been walking toward Fala, but he froze, staring at his brothers in disbelief. “Brice.” He looked at the dark-headed guy, then at the blond. “Leland.”

His brothers saw him and they scrambled to their feet.
All three ran toward each other. They slapped backs in a group hug.

Leland said, “We thought you were dead.”