The Last Changeling (21 page)

Naeve rose effortlessly into the air, matching my pace, and pulled a pair of thick gloves from his cape. By the time he was level with me, the gloves covered his hands. His heavy wing beats roused the stagnant air.

It gave me an idea.

Focusing my attention on the air itself, I warmed the space around me. When my warm air collided with Naeve's cold air, the force of it shook his body. Thunder crackled around us.

I laughed openly. I was only toying with him, giving him a taste of my abilities, but the gesture pleased me. It had been a long time since we had played this game.

He appeared less entertained. Drawing a whip of liquid from the clouds above, he cracked it in my direction.

The whip encircled my neck, solidifying. Naeve yanked me forward, cutting off my ability to breathe. Just as I reached him, I lashed out with my left foot, catching him in the temple. The whip leapt from his hands.

Naeve sneered, but I was already planning my next move. Focusing on the symbols that pulsed beneath my skin, I began to recite a spell. Darkness curled out of my body until it surrounded me. Still, I chanted quietly, and that darkness filled up the entire space. The humans whimpered in their cage. Even Naeve, a child of the Dark Court, would have trouble penetrating this vaporous cloud.

I slid through the air, navigating easily. How could darkness blind me? I was a part of it.

Giddily I neared Naeve, sending the vapor into his mouth, his eyes, his pores, until it choked him from the inside. He reached up, grabbing at his throat, but he could not break free, the poor baby. His wings fluttered weakly. The more he struggled, the weaker he became.

He began to fall.

Naeve was inches from the ground when the darkness disappeared. There was not enough time for him to gather his wits, and he fell into an open plot. Before he could climb out, piles of dirt poured over him.

“Don't be upset,” I called as he fought to avoid a premature burial. “It's a great color on you.”

The plot began to shake. A shower of dirt burst forth and I darted upward, evading the arc.

“Ready to stop playing around?” I asked.

Naeve pulled himself from the earth. “It would be inhospitable,” he spat, “to intimidate you.” Frustration was plain on his muddy face. Within seconds, he had risen into the air and was hovering beside the tree that caged his favorite courtiers.

I feared a breach of our terms.

“If you free them, you will prove your inferiority,” I warned.

Naeve only smiled, reaching through the branches to stroke the Lady Claremondes's face. She leaned into his touch, shuddering in pleasure.

I
followed his lead, nearing the tree that held the humans, though I kept my back to them. Naeve already knew I shared a
bond with them; I could not reveal my true attachment. “Everyone here will know I bested you,” I called. “Is that what you want?”

Naeve eyed me for a moment, lips twisted in a peculiar grin. “No,” he said, still touching the Lady's face. She was practically purring, pushing herself against his gloved hand.

My stomach turned as she kissed his fingers. “You gave me your word you wouldn't release them.”

“And I intend to keep that promise. Now I want you to do something for me.”

His courtiers snickered, but I did not understand why. A train of whispering circled the grounds, skittering from tree to tree.

“What?” I asked.

“Turn around.”

The hairs on my neck stood at attention. “I will not turn my back to you.”

“I will not attack you while you are turned.”

“And your—”

“Nor will my courtiers. And if I go back on my word, our deal will be null. You can take the humans and be out of our lives forever.”

What could possibly be hiding behind my back? Some monster I had never even imagined?

I turned around.

Oh, Darkness.

I turned, and I wished for a monster.

Please, no.

No monster can destroy us like love.

He had made his way to the middle of the tree. Now he was pulling at the branches that encased the other humans. In the chaos of my battle with Naeve, I hadn't heard him working. Or maybe I hadn't wanted to.

“Oh, Taylor.”

Suddenly the branches opened, the tiniest bit, and he was reaching for our friends. But the closer he got, the wider the opening became. Until he was slipping into it.

The branches closed around him.

Naeve.

I spun around just in time to hear the sound. The sound of
tearing
, of flesh being separated from flesh. Then came the shrieking, the guttural moans. I knew someone was choking before my eyes could register what was happening. But they did—all of me registered the sight—and bile rose in my throat.

“You gave me your word,” I said as Naeve grinned, clutching the Lady Claremondes's severed tongue. Blood poured over his gloves, black and thick.

No, not blood. Venom
.

One little lick makes baby sick.

“You cannot use your courtiers against me,” I said.

Two on the neck means baby's death.

“This is not for you,” Naeve said, drawing back his arm. “It's for him.”

He let his weapon fly. I had little doubt his aim would be perfect. Without even thinking, my arm shot up to stop the poison from reaching Taylor.

Instinctively, I chose love over life.

Sticky venom oozed over my skin. I had taken off my gloves, hadn't I, to be able to fight with my bare hands? I had wanted to feel Naeve's skin under my fingernails as he took his final breath.

Now my lungs suffered a spasm as I fought for breath. Black spots loomed before my eyes. They blotted out everything. My love. My life.

I screamed.

I fell.

28

T
aylo
R

My scream reverberated off the cage. I clawed at the branches, trying to break them apart with my hands. Splinters slid into my skin, making a home there, but it didn't matter. Nothi
ng
mattered except Elora.

I have to save her
.

At least she was alive. That much was clear in the way she writhed in the dirt, her fingers curling as she tried to push herself up. She fell back against the ground, blood shooting from her mouth, blending with her hair. Dark symbols pulsed under her skin, and her wings, black and tattered like clawed curtains, shielded her from nothing.

Now I was seeing her in her faerie form. Now
,
when she was so close to death.

Why now?

Naeve descended like he had all the time in the world. When he passed by our cage, I pressed myself against the bottom branches. I wanted him to think I was cowering, maybe passed out from the fear. It was better if he thought I wasn't a threat.

Down on the ground, Elora pressed her knuckles into the dirt, pushing herself to her knees. Blood dripped from her mouth when she said, “What now?”

She's taunting him.

Warmth flooded my chest. I almost smiled, until Naeve touched down beside her. “Now,” he said, “we discuss your limited options.”

“Out with it,” she spat. “The wait … is killing me.”

“How delightful.” He stroked her hair, and my stomach churned. “You joke even upon the cold threshold of death.”

“The threshold is wider than you think.” She paused, licking her lips. “I don't believe you have what it takes to get me there.”

The crowd snickered at that. They didn't seem to care who was winning, as long as there was a bloodbath.

Naeve stretched his arms like a cat. I thought of how it would feel to wrench those arms from their sockets. Then he walked to the back of the throne and lifted something from the ground. “Oh, but I do have what it takes.” He showcased the object to Elora.

Blood rushed through my ears.

“That sword has a metal blade,” Elora said.

“Indeed. A special kind of metal.”

“Iron is forbidden, Naeve. Even to you.”

“You would lecture me on the laws of Faerie?” He lifted his chin toward the tree that acted as our cage. I pressed my stomach against the bottom, flattening myself. Still, I could see over the edge as he said, “If you lie here before me and weep, I will carve into you only a little.”

Elora laughed.

“Fine.” He lifted the sword over his head. “We'll do it your way. You have forsaken your people for the company of mortals. May the punishment fit the crime.”

He brought down the blade.

“No!” I screamed, but he didn't look at me. He didn't even care that I existed. Holding Elora up by her hair, he sawed back and forth across the base of her wings. Even then, she refused to cry out. But her pain was a tangible thing. It filled up the graveyard like thick, black smoke, seeping into my nose and mouth. Choking me. I wanted desperately to break the branches of our cage, leap to the ground and gather her into my arms, kissing her until she was healed, the way kisses healed in fairy tales.

Then it came to me in a rush. This was no fairy tale. This was real. I was caged. Elora was suffering. Soon we'd all be dead.

The end.

Maybe.

“We have to get out of here,” I said, as much to myself as to my friends. I didn't expect the words to come out so shaky. “Please look at me. Please listen to me. We're going to die in here.”

It was Kylie who responded. Her lips were cracked and bleeding. I would have done anything to get her a drink of water. She said, “Safer here.”

I shook my head. “They're dark faeries. They'll find a way to kill us.”

Now she was laughing. Her eyelids fluttered like she'd gone a little crazy. I guess I couldn't blame her if she had. “Not faeries,” she said.

Alexia turned, just barely. “She thinks faeries are little babies with butterfly wings and magic wands. Love spells, that kind of shit.”

“But you believe me?” I crawled over to Alexia.

She shrugged, looking at anything but me, or Kylie, or the ground. She was avoiding all of it. “Why shouldn't I?” she said. “She told me they weren't vampires.”

“Stay with me, please,” I begged. Down below, Elora was crying, a high, muffled sound, like she wanted to hide it.

“I'm here,” Alexia said. “I am.
I am
.” She tried to steady her hands.

But her devastation was nothing compared to the sweat dripping down Keegan's face. He looked as sick as Kylie did. Saliva slipped from his lips. He dipped his head down, close to her neck.

He's trying to suck away the venom.

“Oh, God.” I tried to pull him away from her. He was cradling her like a baby. “Don't do that. Don't do that, please. She won't die from it.”

I didn't realize the truth of my words until I spoke them. But I'd seen the faeries surround Kylie at the cemetery gate, and she hadn't tried to fight them. They couldn't take her life unless she had.

“They can't kill you unless you enter the fight
willingly
,” I explained, recalling Elora's story. “Those are the rules. The venom is temporary.”

Keegan glared at me like I was the one who'd put it in her veins.

I reached for Alexia's hand. “I'm going to need your help with this. You're the only one who can.”

“No, I can't. I can't look, Taylor.” She covered her face with her hands. Tears were sliding down her fingers, but she wiped them away quickly. “I thought I could handle anything. But this is too much—”

“We need to get Kylie to a hospital. You know that, right?”

“Taylor, I can't.”

“Yes, you can. We can figure this out. We can save them. I'll help you if you'll help me.”

She stared at my outstretched hand.

“Come on, please?” I said. “We can do this.”

Alexia took my hand. Together, we peered through the bars of the cage. Naeve had released his grip on Elora. Now she lay slumped on the ground. Two jagged black stumps rose out of her back, one trailing a long, dark vein.

He'd really done it.

He'd taken her wings.

They lay in a heap in the dirt.

“Oh, God,” Alexia said beside me. I tightened my grip on her hand.

Naeve tossed his sword into the air. It circled slowly,
catching the light. As he chanted under his breath, I prayed that my intuition was wrong and he wasn't going to hurt her anymore. The sword fell into the stone angel and shattered
. The shards glittered in the air like stars.

Then they fell.

Naeve picked up a piece and knelt beside Elora.

“No, no, no,” I said.

He didn't listen. Instead, he slid the shard into Elora's back. That's how it looked to me, effortless. He was destroying her without even trying.

Her skin started to hiss.

“Does it hurt?” Naeve asked, picking up another shard from the sword. He turned it over in his hand, toying with her. “Not nearly as much a
s it should.”

I turned away as it pierced her skin. Alexia was running her hands over the wood of the cage, like maybe she could break it. Even Keegan was starting to pay attention.

“What are you doing?” he mumbled.

“How alive do you think this is?” She pulled a leaf from a nearby branch. The tree shuddered a little. “Jesus.”

“What are you doing?” Keegan laid his sister down gently. He crawled over to us. “Don't do it.”

Alexia reached under her dress and pulled something out of her thigh-high.

“
Don't do it
.” Keegan was shaking, but his eyes had cleared.

“What are you going to do?” I asked. But I'd already recognized the object in Alexia's hand. I'd seen it before, in Kylie's possession.

“You're going to get us killed,” Keegan said, raising his voice, but nobody outside the cage could hear us. The dark faeries were cheering too loudly.

Alexia held the lighter up to a branch.

“We could fall to our deaths,” pressed Keegan. “Burn up—”

“I'll take that over the alternative,” she said.

We looked down. Naeve had stopped torturing Elora for the moment, but almost all of the shards were sticking out of her back.

I turned to Alexia. “Do it.”

She flicked the lighter.

Nothing happened.

“No. No, damn it.” She flicked it again. Barely a spark. Then nothing. “Damn it,
damn it. Help me!”

“What can we do?” I asked. “None of us has another lighter.”

“I do.”

We turned. Kylie was holding out her hand.

Another flash of gold. Another lighter.

“Oh my God, baby. Thank you.” Alexia cradled the lighter in her hand. “You're perfect. You're the best.”

Kylie smiled sleepily. Her eyes were clearing, just like Keegan's had. But I wasn't about to ask her to get up and see Elora writhing on the ground.

She needed her strength.

Once Alexia had the lighter upright, she unleashed its flame. The tree shrieked and pulled back a branch. For one beautiful moment a window opened for us. A window of opportunity. A window of escape.

Then it closed.

“No. No, damn it!” Alexia was cursing again. She kept lighting the branch, then watching the opening close before we could get through it.

“Empty your pockets,” Keegan said.

I could barely keep my hands steady, but I did as he asked. Half the contents of my pockets spilled out into the cage. But the branches were pressed so close together, only a few pennies fell through. The rest of my stuff was still within reach.

“What are you thinking?” I asked as Keegan sorted through my things.

“Small flame, small opening. Big flame … you follow me?”

“Dutifully.”

He smiled. It was so good to see, and I needed it. I needed something good in all of this darkness. “Got any kindling in there?” he quipped.

God, we laughed so hard. We were being held captive by
a
tree
, yet we couldn't get to any of the smaller branches to gather kindling. Our laughter died down quickly, but hope remained.

“I'll make some,” I said, picking up my keys. “I'll figure it out.” From the corner of my eye, I saw Elora m
oving. She was crawling in the opposite direction of our tree. The movement forced Naeve to follow her, keeping his back to us.

She's distracting him
.

I took the largest key and started sawing at one of the branches. I knew I wouldn't be able to sever it completely. I just needed to fray the sides. While I worked, Keegan handed a piece of gum to Alexia, taking one for himself. Then he pulled the bills out of my wallet. “Ten, twenty, forty, fifty. Why the hell are you carrying around fifty-three bucks?”

“In case of emergency.”

“These branches are too big,” Alexia said. “They won't burn.”

“We never should've left that flask in the car.” Keegan started sticking bills onto the branches with the gum, right beside the pitiful strips of wood I'd managed to fray. “Hiding anything in your panties?” he asked Alexia.

“What panties?”

Kylie laughed. “I have stuff,” she mumbled, pulling what looked like a pile of lint out of her jacket pocket. But hidden beneath the lint was a tube of lip balm.

Keegan snatched it up. “Bingo!”

“Big deal,” I said, lining up more bills along the branches.

“This crap's loaded with petroleum.” Keegan slid the tube over the bills before applying the lip balm directly to the branch. “Petroleum and fire are total BFFs.”

“Thank you, disturbed teenager,” Alexia said.

“A Boy Scout is always prepared.”

“Oh, God.”

“This is good.” I stared at the piles of money stuck around the branches. “This could work.”

“If only we could get Lora to help us,” Alexia said.

“She's trying to distract him.” I didn't want to look down. I'd been trying very hard to focus on my task and block out the rest. But now I let my gaze flicker down, and saw Elora lying on her side. Her eyes settled on me.

Alexia ran her thumb across the lighter, showing Elora what we were planning. Elora's hair darkened until it was black. She looked frightening, severe. Then she did the strangest thing.

She pulled Naeve down and kissed him.

Alexia unleashed the lighter's flame. At first, nothing happened. My heart sank like a rock. Then the first bill began to curl, and within seconds the bills were glowing with orange and blue flame. The tree started to shudder, then shake. It was like it knew what we were planning.

And it was afraid.

“It's working, it's working,” Kylie gushed. Then, “He sees us!”

It wa
s true. Naeve had noticed the burning tree and was striding in our direction. Elora did not try to follow him, but watched in silence. It seemed she was summoning her magic, summoning her strength. And when
the tree began to scream and pull back its flaming branches, she blasted a gust of wind into Naeve.

God, it was beautiful. Naeve's body made a perfect arc through the air. When he slammed into the big stone angel, I resisted the urge to laugh. A trail of blood stained the marble as he slid to the ground. Within seconds, he was trying to push himself to his knees.

“Now,” I said to Alexia, and she helped Kylie out of the opening. Already the fire was dying down. Keegan was next; I ushered him along, then watched for three eternal seconds as he climbed down the trunk of the shaking tree. All eyes were on us now, and the faeries in their cages were shrieking in fury.