I’d refused him twice now.
Shit, I was in trouble if he asked me again.
The pouch she gave me I tucked under my cloak. Magic dust; it was probably ground-up psychedelic mushrooms. But you never knew when a little magic would come in handy.
I took a few steps back from her. All I had left was a verse I remembered from when someone died of old age in the pride. I put two fingers to my mouth, then knelt and pressed them to the ground. “May you meet your ancestors in death, Destry, and may they hold you tight and not turn you away from your final place among the stars.”
The ground rumbled and cracked around her body, splitting in all directions. I stepped back fast, my eyes locked on the vines that erupted out of the ground and wrapped around her body.
Whispering vines that spoke of blood and power.
Laughing softly as they drove into her body like spears. Horror froze me as I watched them suck her blood, the vines bulging as they gulped her down, and her body shrinking right in front of my eyes.
This was the Emperor.
This was the death he would bring to our world if he were released. Which meant I couldn’t kill Marsum. I couldn’t take his jewel, no matter what anyone else said.
The sound of hoof beats turned me around. “Lila?” I shouted for her, thinking that maybe she’d turned around and come back without Maks. Because she’d not been gone long enough to have found him.
“Run!” Lila screamed. “He’s got other Jinn and the hyenas with him! They’ve got Balder.”
Chapter Fifteen
Lila’s shout didn’t give me much warning. But the idea that Maks had already hooked up with other Jinn was bad. Worse than bad was that they’d somehow snagged the hyenas.
I gave a low whistle for Balder. He whinnied off to my right as the three horses and riders circled me, a hyena chained to each. The werehyenas were, to say the least, pissed. They snapped and snarled, lunging at the end of their long chains.
I let my eyes go to Maks first. He was not on Balder, but another Jinn was. I glared at him. “That’s my horse.”
I gave a three-toned shrill whistle and Balder reared up, going from well-trained war horse to bucking bronco in 2.2 seconds. The other Jinn I didn’t recognize shot forward on a big black horse. That Jinn held his hand out and mist poured from his fingers.
Lila screamed and I twisted to find her held tightly by Maks. He held her in front of him, wrapped up so her wings were bound flat against her body.
I reached for the flail but the mist hit me first, pinning my arms to my ribs. I shifted to my cat form and howled as I fell on my face, my front legs stuck back to my sides. I squirmed and fought, shifted back to two legs and booted the Jinn in the face as he bent close.
“That’s right, keep fighting. It’ll give me something to blame the bruises on.” The Jinn leaned over me, pale blue eyes visible and all but glowing in the dark. I snapped a knee up and caught him in the side, flipping him away from me.
“Vic, I told you to just pin her down.” Maks sounded tired, and then the bands on me tightened and my eyes shot to him. His hand was held out to me and thick gray sparkling mist danced around his fingers. My legs jerked together and my hands were forced to my back as tightly as if they were using iron bands.
Lila let out a roar that was both pitiful and heartbreaking. Defeat was not a good look on either of us. I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to see Maks’s face. I couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t think about the betrayal he was clearly showing us. Maybe it was all Marsum. Maybe it wasn’t.
“Kill the dragon, Maks,” one of the Jinn said.
“NO!” I screamed the word and my eyes popped open wide. Whatever defiance and strength left in me came surging to the surface. I rolled around so I was on my butt, then rocked back onto my shoulders and flipped up onto my feet.
The werehyenas chattered their maniacal laughter at me.
I wobbled. “No, I need her with me.”
“We don’t need her,” the Jinn that went by Vic said. He looked at me. “What will you give me for her life?”
“The flail,” I whispered. “Take the flail.”
“No!” Lila yelled. “You need that!”
Vic tipped his head to the side. “What flail?”
I twisted so he could see my back. “The flail of Marsum.”
He crowed and I was jerked off my feet as he snagged the flail. I whispered softly, “Take his life, please.”
The flail left my back and Vic swung it around, testing the weight. I dropped to my knees and the twin spike balls barely missed my head.
“It’s light,” Vic said. “Too light for battle. This can’t be the flail of Marsum.”
I held my breath. I needed to save Lila. “Flail, I know you can hear me. If I am your master, if you belonged to my mother, then you can do as I say. Take his life!” I yelled the words and Vic laughed.
“Kill the dragon,” Vic said.
“PLEASE!” I screamed. I was desperate. Because Maks wasn’t going to save her. Because I had no pride when it came to saving the sister of my heart.
I whipped my head around to see Maks still holding Lila, but his eyes were blank, and his hands hadn’t moved.
“Maks, you know you can’t do this! You can’t kill her! She saved us both! Please, Maks, if there is anything left of the man I knew, you won’t do this!” I begged and didn’t care that I begged. I had no pride left to me if it meant I could save her.
His throat bobbed with a heavy swallow, but he didn’t move to do anything, so I counted that as something. Lila sobbed, her body shaking even while she was pinned down. The sapphire stone, along with the other two, were in my bag, tucked away because that had seemed like the best idea. If we got out of this, I was never letting her take it off.
“Remember the țuică, Maks?” I said. “Remember that night we almost died in the snow? When you helped me out of the river? You are not a killer, Maks. You aren’t. You aren’t like them.” His eyes flickered closed as I kept speaking. “Please, hate me all you want. Take me to Marsum. But don’t kill her. She doesn’t deserve to die.”
The third Jinn approached him. “Give her to me, whelp, if you can’t be a man and do as you’re told.”
Time seemed to slow, and I wished with all I had that there was some magic in me, that somehow, I could free Lila, that I could undo the magic that held her.
Please, please let me be something more, not for me, but for her. To save her.
There was a moment where Maks and I locked eyes. And then Lila let out a screech and her wings snapped out from her body, unleashed as she shot into the air, winging hard for height. “Shoot her!” Vic hollered.
“GO!” I yelled up at her. I didn’t know where she’d go, only that she had to. But she was as fierce as she was little and she listened about as well as I did when it came to running from a fight.
There was a rush of something falling, the whistle of wind over her body, and then she was just there, dropping out of the sky, barrel rolling and avoiding the Jinn’s mist. She belched as she went over the nameless Jinn, and green acid poured from her lips, sparking and dancing as it fell on his upturned face.
He screamed as the droplets hit him and then she was away again, heading for camp. “In the bag!” I yelled after her.
If she could get the sapphire then maybe we could get out of here. Maybe. Hope whispered through me.
“You mean these?” Vic held up the three stones. Clear diamond, blue sapphire, and deep emerald winked back at me.
I slumped. I knew Lila wouldn’t leave me, but I didn’t know how to keep her safe. Vic hauled me to my feet and then lifted me with ease so I was draped across his saddle, my ass not far from one of his hands.
He laid a hand on my butt. “I can see why you wanted to fuck her, Maks. She really does have a nice ass.” He gave it a squeeze, then a swat, and I gritted my teeth. A low hiss slid out of me and the horse under us shied to the side.
Vic gave me a sharp slap on the other cheek. “Knock it off, cat.”
I made myself stay still as the third Jinn managed to gather himself up. He mounted Balder again, wobbling, whimpering, one hand to his face. I grimaced at his unbalanced seat, knowing how much it would throw my horse off.