28

I shut my eyes against the wind scouring my face, grabbed onto Brennus's talons, but no amount of scratching and pulling loosened his grip. I couldn't fight off a damn bird? So much for me being the most powerful muckety-muck ever. Plummeting to death from high above the earth appealed to me a hell of a lot more than whatever Brennus had planned. Daring to open my eyes, I choked back a scream.

We plunged through the sky, toward the woods below. My stomach heaved at the sudden drop. The air bit into me like teeth and lashed my hair around my face.

Brennus flew us straight toward a waterfall secluded deep in the overgrown forest. It stretched higher than the falls behind the rock shop. This cataract rumbled with menacing vigor, its water spraying up in a low-hanging cloud.

We plummeted into the cascade. I gagged as water pierced my nostrils and throat.

The raven-man released me. The momentum of our flight hurled me across the cave behind the falls, straight into the rear wall. My bones cracked against solid rock, my nerves screamed from the agony. The tang of blood dribbled down the back of my throat, into my mouth. I toppled backward onto the floor, striking with a lesser, but no less excruciating, blow.

My entire body burned, ached, throbbed in the worst way. I was fairly certain I'd broken multiple bones. I tried to move my legs but they didn't budge. I managed to lift my arms and palpate my head. My scalp was moist with a warm, viscous liquid spreading through my hair. I fought for each breath, wincing at the pain in my chest.

Brennus landed by my feet. He squawked once and morphed into his humanoid form, rising above me, his head inches from the high ceiling. He dragged me by my feet into the center of the cave. His black eyes, cold and empty, bored into me.

"You must die," he said, sounding vaguely regretful about it.

I rolled my eyes to glance around the cave. Based on my glimpses of the area outside, I'd determined this wasn't the falls behind the shop. Brennus had taken me far away and I had no idea how long it might take Nevan to find me.

I was a self-reliant woman, right? I could save myself.

Except I couldn't move my legs. Or my arms. Turning my head, even a smidgen, shot searing pain through my skull.

Brennus tilted his head side to side in a bird-like mannerism. "Thank you."

I stared at him, unblinking. "Excuse me?"

The wet rattling in my voice made my gut clench. Running out of time.

"You killed Skeiron," he said. "I was bound to the king by a bargain he tricked me into, which prevented me from harming him. Skeiron commanded, and I had no choice but to obey." He swiped a hand over his bald head. "He is gone, thanks to you. But, I'm afraid, you still must die."

"Why? You're free to do what you want." I coughed, spitting blood onto my chin. "I've done nothing to you."

He gave a slow nod that turned into a shake of his head. "Another has bound me with a debt beyond all others. He spared my life once and forced me to admit the debt I owe him." Brennus knelt beside me, laying a hand on my stomach. "For a thousand years, I have served the will of my king. But on this day, I must enact the will of my true master — as I did when I terminated the life of the red-haired mortal."

The truth shivered through me. "You killed Brad."

His eyes narrowed. "Brad? Was that the mortal's name?"

"Yes." I pulled in a crackling breath, my chest on fire with pain. "Who made you do it? Who is your true master?"

He shifted over me, straddling my thighs. "Enough of this talk. You must die, but first I must know. Will your power be scattered or will it be destroyed forever?"

"No fucking idea."

He grasped my chin and yanked my head left and right, inspecting me with a ruthless focus. "I cannot perceive your magic. Only the guardian was permitted that right." His nails dug into my skin, triggering the hot sting of blood. "I must risk it. He commands me to do so."

Brennus drew back one huge hand, like a baseball player about to pitch a ball. His fingers slimmed and sharpened into black talons.

You've got magic, girl. Use it.

Fueled by desperation, I reeled my thoughts back to the moment when my power first emerged, when Nevan kissed me in the woods to test me. The passion, the freedom, the burning connection between us — those elements awakened the magic. But it was trust and love that liberated my powers.

Brennus shredded my shirt with his talons. He tapped the curved point of one talon on my chest, over my heart. "I will take your heart and hex it to bind your magic to the Four Winds. No one shall ever recover your power."

"What is it with you guys and cursing hearts?"

"The heart is the seat of the soul."

He drew a circle on my flesh, marking out his path.

I concentrated all my thoughts, all my desires, on one objective. I love you, Nevan. Could he hear me? I didn't know, but the declaration blazed through me. The potency of it wrung tears from my eyes and flooded me with energy. Hot, snapping power. It scorched my veins, energized my body, overwhelmed the pain. The doors of my mind and my soul flung wide. I might die in a few minutes, but in this moment, I was empowered.

Brennus pressed his talon down to pierce my skin. His eyes rapt on the task, he parted his lips as if admiring his handiwork.

He drove his talon deep into my chest.

I swallowed my scream, because goddammit, I would not give him the satisfaction.

Nevan's energy poured into me. Warm. Spicy. Earthy. Just like him.

The talon fractured my ribs. I screamed and hurled everything I had at him, uncertain of what I was wielding or how it worked. A wave of glittering, ice-blue magic collided with the raven-man. His body jerked. His talon popped out of my chest. Another, stronger wave — a tsunami of power — bowled him over backward. He flipped end over end, flying through the air, to wham into the wall.

"Nobody curses my heart."

Speaking sent me into a fit of wet hacking. Liquid dribbled from my lips, accompanied by the bitter taste of blood. Blackness invaded my vision.

Nevan blipped into view beside me, his face wrenched with grief.

Yeah. I was dying. The idea bothered me less than I would've expected, lost as I was in a haze of numbness. I wanted to see my family, to be held by Nevan one more time.

From far away, I watched Nevan produce his sword, targeting Brennus.

"Don't kill him." I spoke the words, my voice rattling, though I felt detached from my own voice. "Someone else made him do it. A bargain."

Nevan stopped with his sword still raised over the assassin and glanced at me. "Who?"

Another figure materialized near my feet, on a diagonal to Nevan and Brennus. In a throaty Texas drawl, the newcomer said, "I made him do it."

A chill like none I'd ever experienced froze me from my skin straight down to my soul. I croaked, "Calder?"

"Howdy, angel." Hunched over, as if his spine had been permanently crooked, he extended a bony hand to point his claw-tipped finger at me. His eyes had no whites, only golden brown irises that filled the orbs, with black pupils dilated by the gloom in the cave. "Took me a long time to figure out how to get you, how to get the power to do it. You got no clue how many bargains I had to make."

Calder's voice scraped like sandpaper on granite. Long, wiry hairs sprouted from his arms, exposed by the ripped and filthy short-sleeve T-shirt that hung on his emaciated torso.

Nevan let his sword-holding arm fall, the tip of his blade lodging in the dirt. "This is Calder?"

My formerly dead ex-fiancé laughed, the sound sharp and rough as broken glass. "And you're her new honey. Sorry, but you lose. She's mine, forever."

Nevan gritted his teeth, forcing words out between them. "You made it appear she had murdered that man. Why?"

"You oughta know how it works." Calder dropped into a crouch, running his teeth over his bottom lip, revealing two sharp canines, inhuman in size and shape. "The forging has to be entered into willingly. She's gotta want to die."

I tried to sit up, but pain racked my body and forced me down again. "Forging? What are you talking about?"

"Why d'ya think I did all this?"

"Revenge. I shot you."

"Nah, you got it all wrong, sweetness." He trailed one claw up the inside of my calf, raking it over the denim of my jeans. "I was trying to tell ya that night. We can have eternity together, but only if you go through the forging. Like I did."

The forging. Puzzle pieces clicked into place in my mind, forming a vivid picture I'd never wanted to see. Nevan had told me how, as his mortal body lay dying, his blood had opened a portal and drawn the sylph king Notus to him. On the night I had shot Calder, he kept saying my blood was the key, and if I died, I'd be strong enough to become his mate forever.

Oh God. His mate.

I focused on his eyes, the odd coloring and the lack of whites. His wicked canines. The long hairs on his arms. He wasn't human anymore. He wasn't a ghost either. Nevan had told me it took enormous strength of character to survive the forging process intact. Why on earth would Calder have volunteered for it?

"I was attacked," he said, curling those clawed fingers over my knee. "I can tell you're wondering why I signed up for this. Well, I didn't — exactly. I went hiking in the woods and a damn cougar got me. I was dying, but I'd fallen next to a stream."

Water. A portal.

"All of a sudden," Calder said, "this man was there. Offered me a chance to live, but in a different way. I'd be immortal and powerful, practically invincible, and he swore I could still have you. But only if you went through the forging."

I coughed, wheezing for air, dizzy from blood loss and pain — and the stark reality of everything Calder had done. For me. No. For himself. "If you loved me, you would've let me go."

Nevan fell to his knees beside me, laying a palm on my forehead. He eyed Calder sideways. "She needs healing."

"Uh-uh." Calder flicked one claw at Brennus, who conjured Skeiron's endued sword and wedged the tip at the base of Nevan's skull. Calder wagged a finger, tsking. "She has to die, you know that. I'm getting my mate back and this is the only way. She's gotta be forged and become like me — like us."

Nevan's lip curled. "You and I are nothing alike. I'm a sylph. You are one of the kerkopes, a filthy shapeshifter, a monkey in a man's body. I can see why you chose the species, they are as vile as your soul."

Calder slammed his fist onto the rock floor. "Shut up! Lindsey was mine way before she ever met you. She wore my ring."

Nevan arched one eyebrow. "And yet she remained a virgin while with you. She gave herself to me after four days." His hand still on my forehead, he bent his fingers to caress me in a soothing gesture. "We both know which of us she chooses."

Calder leaped up, his bare feet lifting off the floor and smacking down again. His feet bracketed my thighs, inches from Nevan. Calder bent, then flexed, his fingers. "Lindsey, tell him. You choose the forging. You choose me."

My voice thin and reedy, I said, "Brennus said you wanted me dead."

Throwing his head back, Calder groaned. "The bird's being too literal. You have to die to be forged."

Nevan winced as Brennus prodded his neck with the sword. "She does not want — "

"Shut up!" Calder screeched, clutching his head in both hands, eyes wild. "You don't get to choose for her."

"And you believe you do?" The cold hatred in Nevan's voice made me look at him, but his face gave away nothing.

"I love her," Calder growled. "It's my right."

"Nobody decides for me," I said, lifting my head to meet Calder's gaze. "You tormented me for days, framing me for murder and sending Brennus to stalk me. You must've known Skeiron was after me, but you didn't do a damn thing about it. Guess who did." I smiled weakly at Nevan, then turned back to Calder. "Why on earth would I ever choose you? I'm sure as hell not dying to be with you, turning myself into a giant monkey-thing so I can be your mate."

Calder backed away from me, past my feet, hiding near the wall. "Then you die. For good, for real, no take-backs."

Nevan squinted at Calder. "I will never allow it."

"That's why you die first, lover boy."

Calder nodded to Brennus.

The assassin sliced Skeiron's sword down at Nevan's neck.

Nevan rolled out of the blade's trajectory, kicking at the sword with such strength it popped out of Brennus's grasp. Nevan snatched it up, bounded to his feet, and slashed the blade toward Brennus.

"Stop!" I said.

Nevan hesitated, the blade nicking Brennus's skin. A droplet of crimson blood trickled down the iridescent blue-black flesh of his throat. Nevan looked to me, a question in his eyes.

He'd stopped because he had to, thanks to the life debt.

"Don't kill him," I said. "You of all people should understand it's not his fault."

"But he'll kill us both. His debt to this one — " Nevan pointed the sword's tip at Calder. " — coerces him to do so."

I summoned the last ounce of my life energy, though it drained away on every drop of blood, to push up onto my elbows and address Calder. Pain coruscated through my nerves, my bones. "You signed up for the forging because you wanted power, didn't you? Not for me. Not out of love or a desire to stay with me. Anyone who loved me could never ask me to give up my humanity. And you're not even asking, you demand it."

Calder inched toward me. "If you love me, you'll do it."

A great sadness filled me, part grief over what had become of Calder, part regret for what I needed to say. "I never loved you, Calder. I wanted to, tried to, thought I should and even convinced myself I must have. It wasn't real. I'm sorry, but it's true."

He leaped forward in a crouch to squat on my midsection.

Nevan rushed toward me, but Brennus punched him in the chest, hurling him backward into the cave wall.

Calder scraped a sharp claw lightly down my throat. "You're dying, baby. Let me help you be reborn."

"I'm the Janusite. How do you know I can be forged?"

"Worth a shot." He leaned down to press his rough, cold lips to mine. "The sylph must've put a spell on you, to make you forget how much you love me. It's why you ran away to this nowhere place. But you can't escape destiny. The forging will free you."

The man I'd known — the sweet, charming man who swept me off my feet — had died three years ago, before I shot him. He chose eternal life and immense power over the peace of natural death. If I died here in this cave, my soul would move on and I would leave this world certain I'd achieve immortality through the memories of my family, my friends, and Nevan.

He'd shown me real love, forged from trust and respect — not a need to control and possess.

"Kill me," I said, "but I will never submit to the forging."

Chin quivering, Calder shook his head. "You'll change your mind when the time comes."

"I won't."

"You will." He raised his hand and his claw elongated, the tip sharpening into a thin, double-edged blade. "You will."

He lanced the claw across my throat. My arms gave out. I collapsed onto the floor, my head thudding on the stone floor. Lights flashed in my vision, then fizzled out.

Nevan roared. He tackled Calder, the two wrestling and grunting and thrashing their limbs.

My body had gone numb, the only sensation that of hot blood streaming down my throat. As my eyesight waned into a deepening darkness, the shapes of the battling elementals faded from view. The noise of their scuffling seemed far away.

Crunch.

Silence.

A final thought flitted through my mind. One of the men had snapped the other's neck, and somehow, I knew Nevan had emerged victorious.

The living world spun away from me as my consciousness receded toward a blessed emptiness and the void claimed me.