She dived toward me, pulling a knife from her arm cuff at the same time. The dress was a hindrance for her, but she was still a shifter, so she made the six foot leap with ease. We tangled together, my back crashing to the floor as she plunged the knife toward my face. I raised my forearm just in time to deflect the blow, capturing her hand and stopping her from stabbing at me again.
She was strong, filled with energy, and we struggled for dominance, neither of us wanting to give in. “The royal guards will be here any moment. You have lost. Time to say goodbye to your freak of a friend. She’s going to remain a fae plaything for the rest of her days.”
I remained focus.
Nix and I are holding off the guards. Finn’s voice was briefly there, then he was gone.
Take that, Selene, you bitch. I twisted my body to the side; her knife slipped along my arm, cutting through my shirt and slicing my cheek. I didn’t worry about the cut, it’d heal soon enough, and she let me move enough so I could swing my elbow across her brow. It clipped her hard, the brunt force enough to open her face up right along her forehead and down her temple.
She howled, rolling off me. Larak appeared then, slithering out from wherever he’d been, and launched himself at me. I knew that damn snake would be nearby, and let me just say, there is nothing scarier than a massive anaconda throwing itself at you with both fangs bared.
“Ari!” Kade growled.
Ari! Finn was in my head.
I focused on the snake. My hand brushed along a metal object as I raised both hands to defend myself. I realized a second later that it was Selene’s knife. I rolled out of the way of Larak’s first strike, scooping up the knife as I went. By the time I turned, he was launching at me again.
I twisted to the side to avoid his fangs, throwing the huge body over my shoulder and using the knife to slice along his underbody as he went.
Selene started screaming then, these long howling shrieks, and I felt a hot surge of energy crash into me as she started throwing mecca bombs at me. Only been queen for four days and she already knew how to form the mecca into powerful little balls of energy. Unfair. Sabina must have trained her with knowledge she’d hid from me.
Knocked down by a particularly huge blast, Larak went with me, his dark-brownish blood splashing across my chest and neck. It burned a little, and I was hoping it wasn’t poisonous like his venom. The mecca bombs had hurt, a lot – my side was bruised and aching where she’d hit me. I had to get moving; she would keep trying to kill me if I didn’t. But Larak’s huge body was pinning me to the floor. I was strong enough to move him normally, but my current position had me unable to get enough leverage to heave him off.
Selene’s face appeared above me, but she wasn’t looking at me. She bent down so she could run her hands frantically along her familiar.
“Larak, don’t you die on me.” Tears ran down her face, smudging her makeup and giving her a goth clown look.
I had a temporary moment of insanity, feeling bad for Larak and Selene, but then I remembered how he’d almost kill Finn in an underhanded sneak attack, and my pity fled. In a flash the weight lifted off me. Larak was pulled away and Kade was scooping me up. Selene scrambled to where Larak lay bleeding freely; the snake had his glossy eyes pinned to his queen. Over the bear’s shoulder I could see that Kade had knocked Selene’s guard unconscious. A burst of mecca rocked down the hall and all of us turned to see what was coming at us now.
Sabina, in all her cloaked glory. Her white hair was already fanning out around her as she channeled mecca. She then dropped her cloak and rushed toward us.
Her pale eyes were glancing between Kade and me, then back to Selene and Larak, as if she couldn’t decide whether to shoot a spell at me or to help the queen.
“Heal him!” Selene shrieked, so loud I was sure the glass sconces that lined the halls would shatter.
As Sabina knelt to heal Larak, Kade’s hand slipped into mine and then he was pulling me down the hall.
Selene’s voice boomed out around me as she screamed. “This isn’t over Arianna! The next time I see you I will rip you apart limb by limb! You’re dead!” The final two words shook the walls and I knew then that she wasn’t kidding. And she was possibly powerful enough to do it. The mecca coursed through both of us. The next time I saw her it would be a fight to the death.
As we rounded the corner, I was beyond relieved to see the door to the sitting room that hid the mecca stone being held open by Blaine. A flapping of wings and a howl from Finn let me know the familiars were right on our tail. I didn’t dare look behind me as we all raced into the room, Blaine slamming the doors closed after us. Just as the door slammed shut, thuds could be heard, and we all jumped back as the tip of an arrow pierced right through the wooden barrier.
The royal guard were here. Nikoli stepped up and started chanting, holding both hands out. A blue mist leaked toward the door. Blaine dived to the side to avoid being touched by the magic born’s spell. The blue increased across the door, thickening until no more arrows were visible, but I could still hear commotion on the other side.
After a few seconds, Nikoli turned to us. “It should hold long enough, but we have to hurry.”
Racing across the room, I pulled down the book that was the secret door lever into the mecca stone room. As the hidden door popped open, I was blasted with mecca. More than usual. The energy had increased again. Great.
I wished I could get word to the Summer Prince to tell him all that had happened, ask for his assistance traversing into the Otherworld, but that damn flower was in my old room.
Kade strode in behind me and the others followed. From what I could see of my people, Monica’s right arm was injured, but otherwise she looked okay. The rest were pretty much unscathed. Blaine, Monica, and Victor were all grimacing as they tried to trudge through the mecca energy in the room.
“It’s stronger,” Kade yelled over the buzzing noise the crystal was emitting.
So much stronger. Touching it right now felt like a stupid thing to do. Who knew if any of us would even survive that much mecca flooding through our bodies, but … I had to try for Violet. She was my sister, present in almost every one of my memories growing up. Like the time she was seven and had had a rough day in the human world. Some of them had teased her for her peculiar pale looks, told her she was a freak. I’d been so mad, I told her that I wanted names and addresses so I could go beat them all up. She’d laughed through her tears, told me that it didn’t matter, that our friendship was all she needed. It was probably that moment I knew we’d be lifelong best friends. We’d even decided to seal our bond with a blood oath. Violet was my blood sister, and I would literally do anything to get her back. Some people were just worth dying for.