World Weaver (The Devany Miller Series Book 4) (12 page)

“Soon.” I’d hold her in my arms and kiss her hair and thank all that was good in the world that she was back with me. I wished I had something more than positive thinking to bolster me. Some deity who took pity on her poor creations and threw us a fricking bone every once in a while.

There were days when not believing felt like the loneliest thing in the world.

“One more time,” Mal said, and we ran through the plan again. It sounded so fool-proof. I would distract Arsinua, and when Mal said distract, he meant something big. Exploding buildings big. I wasn’t going to risk killing innocent people to get her attention, but I thought tossing my magic at Arsinua’s front door would do it. Mal would be with me; if Arsinua caught wind of him, she’d probably assume he was Skriven and freak. Surely a Skriven at her front door would keep her from catching wind of Zeph and Krosh as they sneaked up on the place from the rear.

My dad would be on standby, ready to subdue any witches who stuck their noses into our business. He assured me he would be able to take care of a few ‘upstart, panty-waisted nincompoops.’ If there wasn’t anyone around, he’d join Mal and me out front.

Krosh would get Bethy. Zeph would cover his back.

We’d all retreat to the hotel to ride out the tide.

That’s how it was supposed to go down. Why did it feel like it would all fall apart, then?

It didn’t help that even now the magic sat rough against my skin, like sea water on sunburn, pricking. The sun was going down and the tide wasn’t supposed to roll in for another two hours, but already the place felt different. Feral.

When the horn sound forty minutes later, I about jumped out of my skin. The long, low blast sent goosebumps screaming up my arms.

“It’s early,” Zeph said, her dark eyes worried. “We need to roll.”

We left the building together and immediately split up. Dad went on ahead, Krosh and Zeph turned down an alley to skirt the road out front of Arsinua’s hideout.

Mal and I? We walked straight down the street.

The horn sounded again, raising the hairs on my arms, and a fine mist crept up on us, sliding past the buildings and over the cobblestones like serpents. Heart hammering, I stayed beside Mal as we closed in on Arsinua, thankful he was with me. It didn’t help my nerves that I was picturing Silent Hill as I walked, my footsteps echoing against the blank-faced buildings. I tried—without much luck—
not
to picture Pyramid Head. Arsinua had warned me once, “Don’t add anything, ever,” to my spells. This wasn’t a spell but the magic was thick in the air and it probed my skin, wanting in. Wanting me.

“This is awful,” I whispered.

He didn’t answer, but his magic leaked from him with an alarming rapidity.

“Mal?”

“It’s dragging it from me. I’m not sure I can hold it.”

“Then get back to the hotel room,” I said, not wanting to deal with him melting down on top of Arsinua. I already knew who I’d choose to focus on and I didn’t want to have to make that choice.

“No. I can do it.”

“Mal, so help me, if you fuck this up for me, I’ll kill you.”

He stopped, staring hard at his feet, obviously struggling for control. “I am ashamed.”

“Of what? Go on. Back to the hotel. I can freak out Arsinua all by myself. You wait.” To my inner spider, I asked, ‘Neutria? Can you help me do something big. Big big?’

She didn’t answer me, but she pressed forward in my head until I thought brains would leak out my ears. A fireball sputtered to life before my eyes and grew. And grew.

‘Uh, Neutria. I don’t want to burn my daughter to death.’

Watch, stupid human.
She moved my arms for me—something I protested to no avail, and lobbed the fireball up into the air. It exploded with a bang so loud I couldn’t even hear myself scream. The sound was deafening, the sparks that fell like rain a nightmare.

‘I’m stupid?’ I shouted at her, but my words strangled to a stop when the door banged open. “Arsinua!”

Arsinua stumbled out the door, her arm bleeding. Why was she hurt? “You need to get out of here now, Devany,” she said, stumbling into the street. Her face was pale, shocky. She fell to her knees on the cobbles and I winced in sympathy.

“Where’s Bethy?”

“She’s—”

A figure came through the door, a tall, thin woman, her blond hair pulled back from her bony face. She was holding onto something out of my sight. “It was a nice effort. Unfortunately, you didn’t succeed.” She yanked and my daughter stumbled into view.

“Bethany! Kenda, I will kill you if you hurt her.”

“Mommy!” My daughter’s face was streaked from tears and she was so very afraid. She yanked on her arm, but the Anforsa held her too tight.

Kenda laughed and gestured with her other hand. A protection bubble formed around her and Bethy. More witches strode from the house. One had Dad in the equivalent of magical handcuffs. “It’s over, Devany Miller. Come with me peacefully and I won’t kill your father.”

“Let. Them. Go.” I drew in power hand over fist, spooling it up inside me. The Anforsa’s madness oozed off her, scraping up against my skin. It wasn’t anything like Ravana. This was a deliberate insanity, if there was such a thing. She was like a meth user before the addiction overtook her and destroyed her body. There wasn’t any way I could beat her right now. I could only hope to … what?

“If you fight me, I get to kill you. No trial. No more chances.”

“No!” Bethy screamed. She kicked the Anforsa and Kenda shook her like a dog with a bone.

I surged forward only to be knocked backward by a concrete fist of air. It stole my breath and cracked a few ribs; I felt them go. My head rang when it slammed into a nearby building. Pushing myself to my feet took all my strength.

Then Mal stepped forward, a dangerous expression on his face. “Hello, Kenda.”

Kenda’s smile faltered.

His magic hit me as it must have hit Kenda. She went down to her knees as Arsinua had and Bethy yanked her arm free and bolted.

I ran for her, my ribs screaming.

One of the witches grabbed my little girl, lobbing magic at me as he did. I tried to dodge and slipped on the wet cobbles. The magic almost took my head off, singeing my hair and filling my nose with the smell of it. “Give her to me. Please.”

Mal’s magic hit them next. One man fell onto his companion, pushing him up against the tavern, kissing him deeply.

“Not my daughter,” I whispered. I shoved myself to my feet and limped forward, my eyes only for Bethy. Her eyes were glazed, Mal’s insidious power affecting even her. “Bethy. Sing. Hum. Concentrate on me. It will be okay.”

“How dare you?” Kenda said, somehow finding her feet. Her lips were parted, her expression that of a woman well laid. Power dripped off her, dewy and strange, as if it were being perverted by her thoughts, or rather by the thoughts Mal was putting in her head. “What are you?”

“I am the Great Seal’s
sorcier sexe
and I’ve come to take accounting for your deeds.”

Kenda’s chin rose. “That bitch has no power here.”

I threw magic at Kenda, hoping to catch her off guard. It slammed into her side and sent her skidding down the street. Her feet hit Arsinua’s prone body and she fell on her ass.

I threw more magic at the witches near my daughter. They scattered like leaves in the wind. Then another blast slapped me back, a hot, golden discharge of magic that sent me reeling.

Then the tide hit, a miasma of wrongness that washed over me, over Mal, over Kenda. Our magic scattered in its wake, coated in its oily malevolence.

“Inside!” Kenda screamed. She got to Bethy first, her eyes glowing with the power of the Omphalos. She was protected, the magic tumbled and broken by the tide unable to touch her. Me, on the other hand …

I put up a protection bubble that fell away in tatters.

“You have no power here,” she said, her voice pitched low, augmented by the Omphalos. “You are an abomination!”

“Stop it!” Bethany screamed, and kicked Kenda in the ankle.

The woman yanked Bethy close with one hand and slapped her. Bethy’s head whipped hard right, her cry one of surprise and fear. She’d never been hit in her life. Until now.

I ran at the Anforsa, ribs forgotten, my one goal to catch the bitch and rip her head off for touching my child. Her eyes widened as I got closer and she screamed for help.

I had my hand on Bethy’s, my fingers curling around my daughter’s. Her skin was warm, her big eyes full of tears and anger. The Anforsa’s hand print a livid brand on her cheek.

“Mommy!”

Then one of her witches blindsided me, ripping me away. The Anforsa’s arms went around Bethy’s middle, her eyes lit up with gleeful malevolence. The witch’s heavy body slammed me onto the street, his weight grinding my broken ribs into the vulnerable flesh inside me. Pain threatened to black me out, but Neutria surged forward, keeping me conscious.

She brought up my elbow and smashed it into the witch’s nose. She arched my back, bucking the witch off before rolling me out from the man’s clutches. She got me to my feet when I would have been curled up crying on the pavers, pulling back my leg to kick the bastard in the balls. His cry wasn’t enough. I wanted to kill him, too.

“Mommy!”

A nightmare. I moved too slowly, gasping with pain as I spun. The tide scraped claws against my skin, raking through it, shredding the magic that vibrated around me. Still I pushed forward, Neutria holding me together with her strength alone. “I’m coming,” I mouthed, unable to catch enough air to say it aloud. “Coming.”

I staggered one step, two, pain like licking fire around my middle. “No.” The Anforsa was grinning. I wanted to shout at her, but I was pushed back by a hurricane wind. When I lost my footing, I tumbled, weightless, in the air until I slammed into the same food cart Krosh and I had eaten the day before. I scrabbled for purchase, trying to hang on to the silver handle the vendor used to push the damn thing around. Again, I was ripped free and thrown, farther than the last time. Tossed and thrown. I wouldn’t have made it without Neutria fortifying me. When I finally hit the dirt, all parts of me bruised or broken and aching, I stared in desolation at a starry sky.

I’d had her. I’d touched my sweet Bethany. And then she was gone.

I tried to push myself off the ground and failed, the pain too sharp and knife-bright. I could only tip my head. In front of me was the barrier of the witches, lit up with golden energy. It buzzed like an electric fence and when I put out a tentative hand, it zapped me hard enough to make me yelp and jerk my hand back to cradle it against my chest.

The witches had fixed the barrier and I’d been banished from it.

I would never be able to get my daughter back now.

TEN

Ty found me and took me to the Slip, working to repair my broken bones, scrapes, and bruises. What he couldn’t heal was the dead place inside me. He cajoled and coaxed, threatened and coerced to get me to eat or drink anything. I had no strength to care for myself; I couldn’t concentrate on anything. All my thoughts were with Bethy.

My daughter was with a woman who thought nothing of hitting her. Trapped in that hellish place without anyone to defend her or care for her. Arsinua was either dead or incapacitated. My father taken captive. Could I hope that he’d be able to protect Bethy? He would if the Anforsa didn’t have him killed. I didn’t know what had come of Mal or Zephyrinia.

And what of Krosh? Had the tides forced him to change? I feared he was dead.

My daughter was gone.

I wanted my baby so badly.

“Where is your hyena, Devany?” Ty asked during one of my lucid periods.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. ‘Dead,’ said something dark inside me. I tried to sit up and knives of pain stabbed through me.

“Stay still.” Ty touched me, flooding me with his power, sending me back to sleep. Right before unconsciousness took me, I heard him say, “I should have been there, by your side.”

The next time I struggled awake, Nex was by my bedside. “Is there anything we can get you, Devany?”

I shrugged, wincing when it tugged on my healing ribs. “My daughter.”

“I wish that I could be the one to bring her to you, Devany,” Nex said. “Until then, you should eat something.”

“Not hungry,” I muttered. My eyelids were heavy and they kept sliding shut despite my wanting to stay awake. “I need to find her.” I rolled slowly to my side, gasping at the pain that banded my ribs. I managed to push to my elbow when the door opened and Ty walked in.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Gotta get up.” The room spun and my arm shook from the strain of propping myself up. So weak it was ridiculous. “How long have I been here?”

“Not long enough. You’re in more pieces than a jigsaw puzzle and screwing around like this will only keep you here longer.”

Something cool pressed against my lips, then water slid into my mouth. How had he gotten so close without me noticing? “Thank you.”