World Weaver (The Devany Miller Series Book 4) (39 page)

First, though, I had to find my dad and take care of the Anforsa. Kenda had to pay for what she’d done, pay hard.

I sat both kids down the night before Krosh and I planned to leave and I explained what I had to do. I left out the bloodthirsty bits, of course, but both kids expressed fear over their Grandpa Morgan’s fate. “I want you both to know you’re safe here. Lizzie and Mina and all the other Wydlings will make sure nothing happens to you while I’m gone.”

“Yeah, we know,” Liam said, already wed to the idea of living in Odd Silver forever. His sister? Not so much.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“I have to. Your grandpa needs rescuing. And the lady who hit you has to face the consequences of her actions, too.”

Bethy nibbled on her lip. “Lizzie said she’d teach me how to dream. Isn’t that kinda dumb? Maybe that’s what we’ll do while you’re gone.”

“Dream with a capital D,” I said. “And it’s pretty awesome. It’s how we talked, you know, when you were still with Arsinua.”

“Really?” Her face lit up. “That was so cool. Weird, I mean. But cool. That’s what she means when she says Dream?”

“Yep.”

“Oh. Okay.”

We spent the night together, talking late, teaching Kroshtuka how Knock Knock jokes worked, and avoided thinking about the morning. Liam and Bethany both spent the night in Krosh’s hut, curled together in the living space. Krosh and I shared his bed and long after the kids were snoring, we talked, making plans, discussing strategy.

“Do you think I should kill her?” The words felt bitter on my tongue and I hated saying them. It went against everything I’d thought I stood for, to consider killing a woman, to meditate on it. “Is it my right to do so?”

“She made many mistakes. Drank in the Omphalos’ power. Hit your daughter. Sold her. She had no regard for Bethany’s life or yours. Does this mean she must die? I don’t know. My hyena says yes.”

“And you?”

“He is me, and I, him. But. I don’t know the best answer for you. I don’t know what will heal your wounds and what will rip them wider.”

I didn’t either. That was the problem. I wanted to kill Kenda. Every time the memory of her hitting Bethany floated up to the top of my mind, the anger was instantaneous: hot, bright, and all-consuming. In that moment, had I been able to reach her, I would have killed her.

Now? In cold blood?

“I can’t trust that the Witch’s Council will do anything to punish her. They don’t have a good track record as it is.” My fingers rubbed along Krosh’s side, enjoying his skin, the feel of his ribs under his flesh, his warmth. “I can’t give her to the human authorities. They wouldn’t have anything to charge her with there. I could take her to the Slip and leave her in a cell to rot for all time.” That held some appeal. Death would ensure Kenda didn’t suffer and I kind of wanted her to.

“Perhaps you should wait to decide until you know what she’s done with your father.”

The words scared me. I didn’t want to lose my dad. Not now. Not this way. I didn’t want my kids to have to live through another murder. Didn’t want to have another scar on their hearts. I didn’t answer him, just tugged him on top of me. We formed a bubble around us to keep the sound in and to block us from view in case one of the kids got up, and then we made love. My fingers scratching, his kneading, his teeth biting my neck—gently—not so gently—oh, so rough.

This was what I wanted, where I wanted to be and I vowed to make it work.

***

The next morning we ate breakfast with the kids, then made our goodbyes. I was dressed in clean jeans and t-shirt, with a vest imbued with magic to help keep me safe from errant spells. A magical Kevlar vest, in essence. I wished I’d had it when I’d gotten beaten all to hell the last time I faced off with Kenda.

I hooked us into witch lands, focusing on the Council Hall. The disappearance of the Omphalos was starting to effect the magic, which meant I aimed for the Council Hall but ended up two blocks away. We marched up to the Council Hall and I blew open the doors. The protections that had been in place were gone, the Omphalos no longer fueling the witches’ spells. “Kenda! It’s time to pay for your crimes.”

“You need to leave this place now, Skriven,” a witch called. I recognized her as one of Kenda’s lackeys. She gestured with her hands, her lips moving, building a spell. I tossed energy at her, cold, unstructured, and deadly. She flew back into the wall, her body hitting the marble with a low thunk of sound.

“Kenda!” My voice echoed in the halls, but there were no answering challenges. To Krosh, I asked, “Can we broadcast the picture of her boy toy Jax to every house within range?”

“There will be a control room around here somewhere that will have the necessary equipment.”

A noise made me spin, magic at the ready. I lowered my hands when I saw a young witch in the corner, her knees drawn up to hide her face. When I neared, she shrieked. “Don’t kill me! I haven’t really lived my life yet. No cats, no yard. My mom is so disappointed with me because I’m not interested in dating.”

“Hey,” I said, cutting her off. “Look at me.”

She did, her tear-streaked face moon-like.

“I won’t kill you if you help me broadcast a picture.”

“Um. Okay.” She hopped up as if she hadn’t been crying or begging for her life moments before. “Easy. Come on. There’s a room in the east wing with all the broadcasting stuff. What do you want to transmit?” I pulled up the photos on my phone and she goggled at it. “That’s so amazing. How did you get a human phone? I hear there’s a cure for the hook sickness. Can you imagine if humans came here?”

“Trust me, I don’t need to imagine it.” I gestured to her and she took the hint, tripping down the hall, her ponytail bouncing behind her.

The room with the broadcasting equipment was tiny and already occupied by a skinny man in a dirty shirt. “You can’t be in here, Eve,” he said when she pushed open the door.

Eve stepped aside and gestured to me grandly. “This is the murderous Skriven, Harry. After I wear out my usefulness, she’ll kill me.” Eve studied Harry thoughtfully. “I’ll bet she won’t find you useful at all.”

Harry’s spine snapped straight. “Please don’t ki—”

I closed in on Harry and showed him my phone. “I need pictures of Jax to go out over every viewing screen you can reach.” I leaned in close, Harry making an eep of sound when I did. “See that blood? That stump where a toe used to be? That’s nothing to what I can do.”

He almost fainted; it was close. I picked up the glass of water in front of him and tossed it in his face. There was no time for me to be nice. “Do it now.”

His fingers flew into complicated spell gestures, his mouth moving rapidly, his eyes with their contracting irises darting from me to the viewing screen in front of him. He took my phone and muttered over it and then Jax was in full living color on the wall. Harry gestured again and an icon of a cauldron appeared briefly on the screen. “There. Done.”

“Thank you.”

Krosh and I left Harry behind and went back outside to wait on the steps of the Council Hall. Eve lurked in the ruined doorway, her mouth running a mile a minute as she relayed all the excitement to someone on the other side of the runestone she was using.

“We must take her alive,” Krosh said.

I rubbed at a stain on my jeans, a faint rust-colored spot.

“Devany.”

“I know.” More rubbing. ‘Out, out damned spot,’ I thought. “I won’t kill her until I know where Dad is. Then Kenda’s fair game.”

“She won’t give up the information easily.”

“Maybe she’ll give it up for Jax.” The young man strapped to the table wasn’t guilty of anything but hooking up with the wrong woman. Could I hurt him worse than he already was?

My mind skittered away from the thought.

“And if she doesn’t?”

I’d tried looking for Dad via his life essence, but Kenda had managed to cloak him from me the same way Arsinua had hidden Bethany. I’d hoped that, without the Omphalos, the bitch wouldn’t have enough juice to do anything.

If I got close enough to her, I’d drop her through to the Slip. Then I’d have all the time in the world to convince her to give me back my father. The problem was, if she knew I planned to kill her—and she had to suspect it—then she had no motivation to talk.

Damn it.

An explosion far off to our right caught our attention. Behind us, Eve squealed and leaned out to see the commotion, chattering wildly at her friend.

Kenda? A distraction? While everyone else gazed east, I turned my head west, squinting at the houses all along the plaza. A curtain twitched, not exactly unusual when the world sounded like it was coming apart. I swept my gaze along the street, looking for anything weird, catching sight of the Anforsa only by accident.

She was screaming, running up the street at me, power dripping from her like sparks from a broken power line. She was insane, oh yes, and all her crazy was focused on one thing.

Me.

***

A blast of magic boiled from her hands, super-heating the air it tore through, leaving behind a fiery trail. I thumped down a protection bubble and her spell washed over it, sticking to it in spots. Eating through it. I leaped back just as the magic started dripping, eating into the stone where I’d been standing seconds ago.

“Where is my Jax?” she screamed at me.

“In the Slip where you can never get at him,” I said, my heart thundering painfully in my chest. When this was all over, I needed to get my blood pressure checked. “Probably still screaming about his toe.”

Another blast of magic. I dove out of its way and it splatted against the Council Hall where it proceeded to eat the marble. “Give him back to me or I’ll see that you burn.”

“You hit my daughter and sold her. I don’t think you have any room to talk.” I sent a gout of magic back at her that she deflected with a wave of her hand.

She kept walking toward me, her eyes burning pits of hatred. I’d taken her boyfriend and she was pissed off. She took my daughter and didn’t think it was worth mentioning. The cow. I threw more magic at her and more, but each time she swept it away. Mainlining the power of the Omphalos had obviously strengthened her, but for how long? Had it also given her some sort of magical cancer that was eating its way through her? Her skin was damaged—I could see pits in her skin that glowed around the edges—and no more fat remained on her frame. She was skin and bones, quite literally. “Give him to me,” she hissed.

I couldn’t dodge the magic this time. It blasted me smack dab in the middle of my stomach and spread through me, burning. I screamed, trying to use my own magic to stop the agony, to put out the flames, but it only seemed to increase the heat. Hands fell on me, Krosh’s hands, maybe. Cool washed over me as another explosion rocked the square.

When I could open my eyes again, when the pain had eased enough I could concentrate on something besides my agony, Kenda was talking to someone out of my line of sight. I craned my head. Marantha stood opposite Kenda and shoulder to shoulder with Dad. Dad? “Sit me up,” I said, and Krosh helped me up. “Thank you. Did she get you too?”

He shook his head. “She wasn’t after me.”

“You cannot stop me, Marantha,” Kenda said. “I am the Anforsa of the Council. You have no power here.”

“I have every power,” Marantha said, her voice ringing. “Your actions these past weeks have proved you unfit for your position. As such, a new Council has been formed and we have voted that you are stripped of your office.”

Kenda snarled, sounding more animal than witch. “You cannot disband the Council. You cannot take this away from me. I am the Council and I will not step down.” She raised her hands and I tensed, my body still hurting from the hit she’d given me. I wished the vest had worked and whispered so to Krosh.

He whispered back, “Had you not been wearing it, you would be dead. That was a death curse she threw at you.”

Shit.

When she spoke again, Marantha sounded dead calm. “Let go of the power you hold or, when we remove your title, it will kill you.”

“You. Cannot. Remove anything. You cannot.” Kenda moved her fingers in a complicated spell. Marantha did nothing to defend herself, just stood there looking stern. Dad saw me and winked. Winked, as if this wasn’t life or death. “I should have killed you long ago.”

“You’re welcome to try now.” Marantha lifted a hand and witches poured into the square, their hands moving, their lips moving. Wydlings joined them, the Theleoni too. Queen Nephele, new leader of the fleshcrawlers, shaded under a large umbrella held by two handsome witches. A man who wore the brightly colored clothes of a carnicus master and held in his hand a bull whip.

How had Marantha done all this? Marantha and Dad, I amended. How had they gotten Nephele out of the swamps? How had they sent word to her without getting eaten?

Kenda spun around, staring, her eyes wide, the spell seemingly forgotten. “What is this?”

“We have decided that the Council no longer serves our people. We’ve decided that it is against the natural laws to control the magic. We have therefore decided to make sure all the people of our lands are represented when we make laws. And the new Council has decided to remove your power right now.”