What Ella was saying was hard to swallow. Betrayal from within and yet, nothing she confessed was truly that surprising. I’d known there was something off about her. She didn’t quite fit—not her story, not her actions.
“We need to get Kelly back,” Greer said as she finally sheathed her blade.
“Yes, we do. Before she gives up whatever it is that Andrew needs from her.” Ella nodded. “And I think I have a way.”
“You have a way?” Greer shook her head, her face a mask of anger once again. “Hell no! You’re about to be shackled.” She took two stomping steps in Ella’s direction.
“No, Greer,” I said as I unsheathed my sword. The sword Ella had given me, I realized.
Greer snorted. “You watch your step, Ariana or I’ll be reprimanding you for insubordination.”
“What are you going to do, Greer?” I countered as I lowered the sword, tip down into the dirt, hands resting on the hilt. “You going to siphon her powers? Powers that could be to our advantage if used correctly? You don’t wield stolen powers well—you know this. And the one person who understands our enemy is offering to help. A good leader would see the benefit of that.”
“A good leader.” Greer snarled. “And suddenly you know what it takes to lead?”
“Ariana understands reason and thinking logically,” Lance said as he stepped to my side, sword unsheathed and mirroring mine. “She sees the potential in Ella’s offer to help. She isn’t blinded by rage or revenge. In your current state, who knows what damage you could do to Ella? You might take so much of her power that you kill her.”
Greer flinched and I winced. Harsh but true. I’d never told him about Greer’s mistake. The one where she stole another Huntress’s powers, where the pull to take and take while she was siphoning made her take too much. He’d guessed it somehow. Greer wouldn’t see it that way though and the look she gave me hit me in the gut. Betrayed again. Strike two.
“And what would you suggest, my sister? Let her go? Let her lead us right into a trap?” Her words dripped with bitterness.
“My only goal is to get Kelly and Andrew away,” Ella offered.
“I have no interest in saving Andrew,” Greer scoffed. “You know that.”
“He is the only one who can access the prophecy. Until it is retrieved, he must remain alive,” Ella said with a frown.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about the prophecy!” Greer shouted. “That bond between Kelly and Andrew needs to be severed and we need to get her back. Nothing good has ever come from this stupid fucking sentimental attachment to useless, abusive Hunters!”
Nobody spoke for a moment, Greer’s words sliding over us like a poison. I felt a rage simmering just below the surface and had to bite my tongue from lashing out once again. My instinct warring with my vow to the tribe. Lance had proven himself as a valuable member to the tribe over only a few days. Greer was blind to everything but her agenda, exactly as Ella had warned while she’d played at being Artemis. She might have lied to me, but Ella was showing a quiet wisdom in her foresight.
“You need to know the prophecy, Greer,” Ella countered. “It can turn the tide in your favor if used appropriately.”
“How so?” Greer barked impatiently.
“My sister and I have identical powers. If you siphon her, if you take hers completely, I can show you how to access them. I can train you. And then when the time is right, you can use the prophecy to seal Tartarus forever. The gate to that hellish dimension can be widened or slammed shut…it’s all in the wielding of the spells. If you take my sister’s powers, you will triumph in a way that creates legends.”
“That will kill Saska,” I said, my eyes wide. “You would kill your twin?”
“She tried to kill me. She is not the woman who shares my DNA.” Ella ground her jaw, anger flashing. “She’s betrayed me time and time again. Watched as I was raped, brutalized, beaten. She stood by. Worse, she encouraged. She is no sister of mine. Not anymore. Not for a long time. So yes, I would kill her, but first I would offer her powers to someone who can use them for good, someone who can benefit all Huntresses. Someone with honor.”
Interest sparked in Greer’s eyes. The chance to be the ultimate champion. She glanced at my sword, one I knew she coveted. If only because it offered a chance to be something more for her Huntress tribe.
“And why should I trust you?” Greer said.
“Because I will vow it.”
“Not good enough.”
“Because I will build you a spell, give you the means to get into the camp and show you how to use it and then I will allow you to shackle me. The ultimate trust that you won’t take too much from me.”
I shuddered at the idea of that while Greer seemed to finally find satisfaction. With a nod she agreed. “And how do you propose we enter the camp undetected?”
“Not undetected.” Ella smiled coldly. “With a bang.”
Greer nodded. “Like that time when we were hunting the pack in Alberta?”
“No way, Greer, that was way too dangerous.” A bomb, she was talking about an explosion. I shook my head. “We almost burned the entire forest down that time!”
Ella moved closer. “I’ve been experimenting with my potions. I have one that will explode without the resulting fire.”
“We need something now. We have to go after Kelly before it’s too late.” Lance motioned toward the trail. “Enough time has been wasted already.”
“I need three ingredients. That’s it. Give me one Huntress, we’ll get it done in thirty minutes tops,” Ella said.
Melonie stepped forward, but flinched back just as quickly with a hard look from Greer.
“Ariana, go with her. You’ve got thirty minutes to get this done.” Greer nodded in my direction. “I need to mete out some punishment around here.”
And then I was alone with Ella, or as alone as I could be with Lance hovering nearby.
“Pick from those bushes there, the undergrowth is best.” Using a stick for support, Ella hobbled next to me. “I know what you’re thinking.”
I glanced up at her, one eyebrow cocked as I closed my fist around the leaves she pointed at and pulled.
“That you’re a lying fucking bitch?” The venom came with little effort. I’d been thinking about my visit with Artemis, angry that I’d been so eager to believe.
“Ouch.” Ella chuckled softly. “I guess I deserve that.”
I stood, before shoving the handful of leaves into her open satchel. “You deserve to have your fucking sword shoved up your ass. Champion? It was all a lie, right? Everything you told me about the sword?” I lowered my voice so not to catch Lance’s attention and draw him closer. I’d asked him to stay behind, but he hadn’t listened, had been trailing me with Ella for the past ten minutes.
“No, I didn’t lie to you. That sword does everything I said it will. I should know—I made it, after all.”
I blinked hard. “Um, what?”
She motioned for me to unsheathe the sword, which I did. Holding it in my left hand and unwilling to let her have it back. For all my venom, I wanted to keep the damn thing.
“Do you feel the power in it yet?” She ran her finger against the tip, drawing a line of blood in its wake.
Ever since Lance had re-bonded with me, I’d been feeling something. A buzzing that made me giddy. I’d thought it had been my own powers coming back, but as I held the sword, looking at its shining metal, the vow engraved into the hilt, I felt something more. “Yes.”
“Imagine that power amplified by a thousand and you’ll begin to understand what it can do in the right hands.”
“With a sacrifice,” I said as I glanced in Lance’s general direction.
“All worthy things come with sacrifice.” Ella nodded. “I made that sword at Lazarus’s bidding centuries ago.”
I pulled the sword back, sheathing it so I could concentrate on Ella’s words. The power made my stomach flutter, making me think it was the only destiny for me—a sword with power that came at a cost.
“He wanted a talisman that would help him locate Huntresses.”
“So that’s how he did it,” Lance said as he came from behind a tree.
I startled at his appearance. Fuck.
“The Order could never figure out how he was able to get to the Huntresses before us.” Lance motioned in my direction. “You gave him the means though, didn’t you?”
“I’m afraid so.” Ella nodded. “Gladly. It meant a reprieve for a while from the hell that was my existence. Being in Lazarus’s good graces was something many strived for. I used it too. There is much Huntress blood on my hands.” Ella closed her eyes for a moment, sucking in a deep breath, blowing it out. “I have much to atone for.”
“And so you gave it to Ariana.” Lance clenched his jaw for a moment. “Why?”
“No,” I said as panic surged. “No reason other than to aid in my own battle.”
Lance cocked his head, studying me. “Now it’s you who’s lying, Huntress.”
“I created the sword and I enhanced it,” Ella said. “I didn’t lie to you, Ariana. The tribe needs a champion for all of us who have been brutalized in some way. Maybe that champion is you. Maybe it isn’t. The decision, as with everything, is yours. You know my feelings about keeping the stakeholders in the dark, though.” Ella gave me one last knowing look and then nodded toward camp. “I’ve got what I need to build the spell.”
With a nod at each of us in turn, she left. Lance needed to know. That was what she was saying.
“What decision?” Lance demanded, his eyes flashing. “You’re keeping something from me, something big. I can feel it through the bond.”
Damn Ella. Damn Lance. Damn the queasy feeling I had in the pit of my stomach making me want to retch, the truth as hateful to me suddenly as the reality.
“The sword,” I said as I drew it once again, this time to show Lance. “Offers me a choice.”
Lance folded his arms his expression showing impatience, his mouth opening to speak.
“When Artemis…Ella gave it to me, she said that it can be used to sever a bad bond between Hunter and Huntress. Freeing an abused woman, granting her powers without the cost of violence or emotional trauma.”
Lance’s expression softened a little, his arms losing some of their tension. “And she thinks you can be a champion for those women?”
“I am. Or I may be.” I gulped, knowing that I couldn’t leave it at that. “But…”
“But?” He reached for me, bypassing the sword, latching onto my wrists and forcing me to look at him. “Ariana, tell me the truth. Is this what you want? Do you want to become the champion to wronged Huntresses? Because if you do, I think that it’s a noble and honorable thing and I will stand by your side if you chose that path. We can leave the tribe, the Order, whatever you need to do, just as long as we are together.”
No. No, he did not just do that! I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. How could he say something so damn perfect in such an imperfect situation?
Tears burned my eyes, my vision swam.
“Ariana?” Lance frowned. “Whatever you want, I’m there, at your side.”
“Stop,” I croaked as I tore my wrists away, sheathing my sword as I stumbled from him, wiping the tears that streaked down my cheeks.
“Ariana!” He gripped my arm, pulled me back.
“You think you’re so perfect! So understanding! You don’t understand a damn thing!” I spun on him, anger flashing. “The sword demands loyalty, Lance! Pure, uninhibited loyalty. Being the champion comes with a sacrifice! It demands a pound of flesh, a heart’s desire, whatever your greatest love may be, now or in the future. From a Huntress, it demands her Hunter. Yes, I can be the champion, but the first cut must be mine. I will have to sever my bond to you and force you back to being a human. Is that what you want? Really, Lance? Do you really want what will make me happiest?”
Once the words were out I wanted to take them back, suck them in like a giant vacuum. Lance deflated, his shoulders slumped, his eyes glazed and he didn’t say a word.
“So, yes, Lance, that’s what I want. More than anything in the world, I want to be a champion…or at least that’s what I want to say, but in my heart.” I tapped my chest angrily. “I have a battle raging for you. You and your damn bond are making me think that the sacrifice is too great.”
He flinched, and then his eyes grew cold, frozen over by my confession. “Well, if that’s what you want, don’t let me stand in your way. Sever the bond. Being a human is preferable to being shackled to a woman with a heart of stone anyway.”
And then it was my turn to flinch. He held my gaze for a heartbeat longer and then turned and left.
And I didn’t try to stop him.