Kerrigan watched the sky darken with the full weight of the Society dragons blotting out the sun. They had sent in the entire calvary for a small rebel group in the mountains. That told her everything she needed to know about how desperate they were to catch her. Why else would they send so many if they didn’t know she was back?
It didn’t explain how they had known that she was back. But she felt with utter certainty that they did know.
“Where can we go?” Thea asked, her arm tightening on Kivrin’s shoulder. “Is there a tunnel out through the mountain?”
Wynter shook her head. “Not that I know of. Tieran and Netta found this place.”
Netta looked to the sky, ready to jump into action at any moment. We do not know the entire expanse of this place. It is an old hunting ground, and we chose it for its secrecy.
Tieran bobbed his head and added, We will need to flee. We cannot possibly take on so many. Our allies are scattered.
Everyone began to speak at once. Each giving their own expertise on the matter. But Kerrigan saw the truth before anyone else got there. Someone had betrayed their location. There were too many of them to flee on the dragons, and the Red Masks were drawing ever closer.
“It must have been Isa,” Clover growled in frustration.
She’d taken out a loch cigarette, and Hadrian lit the thing for her.
Kerrigan cut through all the other conversation. “Isa?”
Clover looked guilty as her eyes met Kerrigan. “A lot has changed since you left.”
“But Isa didn’t change,” Kerrigan said vehemently. “She’s an assassin who dedicated her life to the Father. Tell me you didn’t trust her.”
Clover wilted under Kerrigan’s gaze. “It isn’t what you think.”
“She rescued me,” Kivrin said.
Kerrigan faced him. “Excuse me?”
“I was in the dungeons under the mountain. I’d been beaten and left to waste away.” He said the words hollowly. “She came for me with some kind of magical artifact and jumped us out of the dungeons. She brought me to Clover and the RFA. Darby helped ease my pain.” He nodded at Darby, who ducked her head slightly. “Though I no longer have the use of my legs, I am out of that mountain hell because of Isa.”
“She did it to prove that she was on our side,” Clover added.
Kerrigan could hardly believe what she was hearing. “And you believed her?”
“It wasn’t an easy task.”
“She likely did it with the Father’s approval to get on your good side. Isa cannot be trusted in any capacity. She tried to kill us. She helped the Father to his position of power.”
“We don’t have time to argue this,” Fordham interjected. “We both know that Isa isn’t trustworthy. They made a different call.”
“And we’re paying for it,” Kerrigan said with a sigh.
“We didn’t believe her at first,” Clover insisted. “But she said she wanted to go against the Father for killing her sister. She’s been feeding us information from inside the mountain. We’ve avoided raids because of her and helped get humans and half-Fae out of bad situations before they were killed.”
Whether or not Isa had been sincere didn’t matter at this point. Kerrigan had been gone. The others had lived the best that they could under the circumstances. She couldn’t judge them for the choices they’d made.
“Do we fight?” Wynter asked. She jutted her chin out, prepared for anything.
Dozan’s eyes slid to her. Kerrigan saw pride there … and something else. “To the end.”
“There’s no way,” Kerrigan said. “Do you not see—”
She was cut off by the booming of Bastian’s voice as he drew ever nearer to their location. He was using some sort of amplifier on his voice so that he could be heard from the distance.
“There is nowhere for you to go and no means of escape,” Bastian called out to them. “The only hope you have is to hand over the traitor, Kerrigan Argon. We will be lenient with the rest of you if you choose to turn her over now.”
Kerrigan’s eyes rounded. He wanted her that badly. She doubted very much that he would give anyone in their midst leniency. He wasn’t going to let them go, and with them going it would be the death of the rebellion. It would be over before it even started.
“We’re not going to turn you in,” Clover said at once, stepping forward.
“Never,” Dozan agreed.
The rest of her friends moved as one, coming between her and the advancing dragon line. Tieran and Netta flanking the party on either side. Even Wynter moved to her defense.
Fordham took her hand. The tether between them drew taut. “He won’t lay his hands on you.”
Kerrigan swallowed back emotion at the loyalty she had from her friends. She didn’t know what she had done to earn it, but she would never take it for granted. And she wouldn’t let them go down for her.
“Your attempts are valiant,” Bastian called. “But we will kill all of you and then take Kerrigan for ourselves if you do not hand her over to us.”
“Good luck,” Wynter snarled, her shadows coming to her hands.
Clover held out a necklace at her throat. A soft light glowed from it. Kerrigan had seen the necklace before, but never seen it do that.
Hadrian was far from a fighter, but even he had flames that danced at his hands. Dozan had procured knives from his pockets. Kivrin no longer had the use of his legs, and still, the wind picked up at his behest. Everyone was preparing the best they could against an immeasurable force.
But there wasn’t enough of them. Even with Fordham and his shadows. Maybe even with Kerrigan and the new power she’d taken from the stars. Powers that the Red Masks had no knowledge of. For all they knew, for all any of her friends knew, she was powerless.
Except Kerrigan wasn’t powerless.
She had magic. More magic than she’d ever had before. Magic they would never see coming. She just didn’t know if now, when they had only been back in Alandria for hours, was the time to tip her hand and reveal what she was.
She was a Doma. Daughter of Keres Andromadix. Descendant of He Who Reigns. She was formidable in this world and the next.
No one else might know what that meant, but they would. She would be sure of that. They would know, and they would burn.
But only on her terms.
Bastian was forcing her hand. Forcing all of them to fight again on his terms. Well, she’d seen how well that went in the arena after the council election. She had seen what it was for him to choose his battle and set the stage for his success. Allowing him to fight here and now would be the same thing.
He had the advantage. The only way to win was for it to be on her terms. Bastian had picked the last battlefield. This time, it was Kerrigan’s turn.
“Ford,” she whispered, “do you think you could jump us out of here?”
Fordham didn’t balk at her request. He carefully assessed the situation, counting the number of people. “And the dragons?”
“Preferably.”
He frowned at that. “A short distance without the dragons would be doable. I’d be depleted, but we’d have a chance. The dragons could fly to another safe keep.”
Kerrigan didn’t like that option. Not one bit. Fordham’s magic was growing day in and day out. He was moving them miles farther than he’d ever been able to before, but this was asking too much, too soon. Even with her magic bolstering him, he wasn’t ready to make that kind of jump. And she refused to sacrifice even one of her friends. Not when she had just gotten them back.
“This is going to suck,” she said.
Fordham shot her a look, but already, she was pushing her way through her friends. She knew what she had to do.
“Bastian,” she called out, “you have come all this way for nothing. I was really looking forward to seeing you too.”
Her voice rang back to him as amplified as his. He wasn’t close enough for her to make out his expression, and anyway, she could tell that he was wearing that red metal mask that named him the Father of the terrorist organization. He probably didn’t like that she’d called him by name.
“Hello, Kerrigan. Are you prepared to surrender?” he asked, unmoved.
“You know, surrender doesn’t really sound like my style. You should know me better than that.”
“Then, you doom all your friends.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Kerrigan lifted her hand to shoulder height. There were no markers laid out. Nothing to contain the spell that she was about to cast. She had seen her mother do this exactly once, and it had drained her magic thoroughly. But that had been a portal to another world, and this was within a world. She still didn’t know if she had enough magic, but she saw no other option.
Not one that didn’t involve the Red Masks capturing her and using her as an example. Something she refused to let happen. They wouldn’t win. They couldn’t. Not after all she’d gone through to get back here.
Bastian thought she didn’t have magic. She couldn’t help but feel grim satisfaction that she would get to show him how wrong he was about that assumption.
The bangle snapped tight around her wrist. It wasn’t constricting, but it wasn’t loose and jangling, as it had been since her mother had thrust it onto her wrist. It heated slightly, almost uncomfortably. She stretched her awareness to find a safe place to take her people. Somewhere the Red Masks couldn’t touch.
Her focus was sharp and contained as she released her magic like a flood into the portal. A gasp left her lips. The magic was a torrent more than a trickle. Her mother had told her it would take a lot of her magic, but she hadn’t been prepared for how much it would use to create the portal that shimmered to life under her hand.
Bastian roared, “Impossible!” just as the portal locked into place.
She was panting by the end, and sweat trickled down her face and back. But it was secure. It had worked. She hadn’t been sure she could master the bangle as a demi-Doma, but her magical blood was too strong.
“What in the gods’ names …” Thea whispered in awe.
“A portal,” Kivrin said reverently. “Created by the daughter of a Doma.”
Kerrigan nodded. He’d known all along. She understood why he’d kept it from her. She understood it all now.
“Go,” she yelled to her friends. “Get through the portal. Quickly!”
With wide, shocked eyes, they all rushed for the portal entrance. Their figures disappeared through the iridescent doorway in ones and twos. It was large enough to get Tieran and Netta through as well. That had been part of the problem. It would have taken less power to create something large enough just for people, but she wouldn’t leave the dragons behind.
Something has changed within you, Tieran noted.
“So much has changed,” she told him. “I will explain more, along with our bond, when we’re safe.”
His golden eyes widened. We can be bonded?
“A new sort of bond,” she promised. “Now, get safe.”
Bastian was nearly upon them when the last of her friends helped her father through the portal. She could see the fury in Bastian’s eyes, even through his stupid mask. He had thought this would be an easy victory. He had come himself after all.
And she was getting away.
“We removed your magic!” he roared.
Fordham linked their fingers together and smirked. “He’s a little behind.”
“Isn’t he?” Kerrigan held her hands up, gesturing obscenely at Bastian’s furious face. “Guess you didn’t do a good enough job.”
Then, she and Fordham stepped through the portal. It sucked against her before she safely walked through into the mountains around the House of Shadows. She could almost still hear Bastian’s rage on the other side.
“Well?” Fordham asked.
She lifted her hand and let the portal collapse. The extra thread of magic was almost too much. She grasped his shoulder for support. Immediately, his arm came around her to hold her up. Her vision blurred and Fordham’s voice was distant
“Kerrigan,” he said earnestly, “did you use too much?”
She blinked a few times and tried to bring her eyes back into focus.
“How did you do that?” Clover asked.
“It’s a long story,” Fordham said.
Black formed in her vision.
“Escaping was a victory. It won’t be enough next time. Now, he knows that my magic is back, but I wanted to face down Bastian and the Red Masks on our terms. We’ll face them, and we’ll win.”
She watched her friends’ expressions shift from shock to approval. They had endured without her in this hellscape. Enduring wasn’t enough. Surviving wasn’t enough. What had happened in this world in her absence would never be good enough.
And now … it was time to fight back.