Warrior Everlasting (12 page)

Scout couldn’t even see through them, but Ariston advanced confidentially, leading them out of the throne room and then out the entry way. His grip was like iron on her wrist, as if he thought somehow she could fight her way through the demons with no scepter and no unicorn—

Don’t let them through.

Them.
Scout closed her eyes, her heart breaking in shock.
Don’t let them through.
Ashra, Trey, Torz. They were here. Somewhere. Ariston had been baiting her. Hoping she’d crack and he could use her words against them.

He’d failed.

She only wished they had heard her. She wished they knew she believed in them

“We know, Scout. We already knew. But thanks for the words, anyway.”

Scout nearly sobbed at Ashra’s beautiful, sarcastic, very real voice in her head. Ashra was close enough to hear her. To speak to her.
“Ashra. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you. And tell Trey I’m so sorry I hurt him and I know he won’t hurt me, and I—”

“Quiet, Princess. You can tell him yourself. Right now, we need a plan.”

In front of her, Ariston stopped, shooing the demons out of the way. They moved, forming themselves around a tree and its fruit. He reached up, plucked one, two, three of them, and held them to his orb. They brightened then darkened, and he thrust them at Scout. “Eat.”

She wished she were stubborn enough, strong enough, to refuse him. But she wasn’t. Her hunger overruled her pride, and she grabbed them, eating as fast as she could. “Why? Why are you feeding me?”

“Because you can’t dance if you die.” He didn’t look at her as he said it. Instead, he dragged her away from the tree, toward the sound of a river. His hand shook on her wrist, and Scout, somewhat belatedly, realized for the first time just how much he needed her to drive the pain away.

It was like her back. She’d broken it in that accident, and she was never supposed to walk again. But with Lil Bit’s help and the help of a little white unicorn even Iros hadn’t known existed, Scout healed enough that she could leave the hospital, and she could walk and even dance. But it hurt. Holy snowballs, did it hurt. There were pain meds, shots, different treatments that would take the pain away temporarily, but when it returned, it was so much more painful than had she just kept the pain all along.

She’d be willing to bet Ariston’s pain was the same. Scout could alleviate it, but when she stopped dancing and it came back, it felt ten times worse than before.

He gave her water while Scout searched for Ashra in her head.
“What’s the plan? How do we get out of this?”

“Have you figured out how to get Lil Bit out of the cage yet?”

Scout hung her head in shame. She hadn’t even been able to get close to the cage yet. It was beyond the light of the orb protecting her. If soul stealers couldn’t get in, and the thousands of souls trapped within couldn’t break it, then what could?

“No. Not yet.”

Ashra’s voice was fading.
“You need us… We have to go. He’s found us. Be ready, Scout. When we come, we’ll come fast.”

Scout felt them. She felt them as they raced past, and she knew what she felt was real because half her Taraxippus guard took off after them. She just caught a glimpse of the moon hanging low in the sky, and then the sleek black form of a unicorn obliterating its light as she raced past it.

Followed by a terrifying amount of demons.

“Be safe, Ashra. Be safe.”

Ariston watched them fly with slitted eyes. “They’re braver than I gave them credit for. Or more stupid.”

“They’re more loyal,” Scout snapped. “And you knew they were there all along. You were trying to make me hurt them.”

Ariston shook his head, a rueful smile on his face as he tugged her back inside. “Yes. That little plan backfired quite a bit, didn’t it?” He turned to the demons following them. “Go, find them. Don’t come back until they’re dead.”

Hundreds of creatures flew past Scout’s head, the wind from their movement blowing her hair around her face as horror closed her throat and made her legs weak. “No. Ariston, no. Please don’t do this.”

Ariston looked at her, and there was pity on his face — real pity. Like he felt bad for what he was doing. “If they don’t die, they’ll take you away from me. And I can’t have that Scout. I can’t live another six hundred years in this kind of pain.”

“I’m mortal, Ariston. I won’t live forever. Please, let them go. Let the souls go. I’ll dance for you for the rest of my life. I won’t try to escape. I promise, Ariston.” She grabbed his wrist with both her hands, begging. She’d be on her knees if he’d let her, but he held her up on her feet. “I’ll do anything. Please, call off your demons. Leave them alone. If — if Ashra comes back, I’ll tell her to leave. Please, Ariston,” she sobbed. “Please don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry, Scout. I really am. I don’t want to kill your friends.” He disentangled himself from her hands and strode toward the throne room.

Scout stumbled after him and his protective orb.

“The thing is,” he said over his shoulder, “I saw the look on your face when you talked about your Trey. If he feels half of what you do, he will never give up. He will never let you go. So I have no choice, you see. Please try to understand.”

“Understand?” Scout shrieked, giving the frenzied soul stealers a run for their money. “Understand? You want me to understand that you’re going to kill my unicorn and the boy I have loved since I was five years old?”

Ariston paused before his throne, his head tipped to the side, considering. “Yes. Perhaps understand was too strong a word.”

“I won’t dance for you, Ariston. I can’t soothe with a broken heart. I can’t dance if my soul is crushed.” Scout hid her hands behind her back to hide the shaking and tried to sound fierce. She failed.

In the cage, the souls fed off her terror. They wailed more fiercely, and Scout could physically feel their pain. It felt like ice in her veins.

“You’ve never danced for me, Scout. We both know that.” Ariston sounded infinitely sad. “You do not care for my peace at all. You dance for them. For your sister. For Aella.” His voice rose as he leaped to his feet. “You dance for everyone in this blasted room except the one man who protects you, who loves—” He froze, his face draining of the very little color it had.

In her cage, Aella gasped.

Scout could not form a cohesive thought.

Without a word, Ariston brushed past her, storming from the room. “Dance for your souls, Scout. They’re giving me a headache.”

Scout needed this dance as much as they did. Her heart hurt. Everything hurt. She prayed the soul stealers would come back, and she prayed that they wouldn’t. If they returned, they couldn’t hurt her friends. But if they returned, it meant her friends were already dead.

“Aella. What do I do?” she murmured, leaning her head against Aella’s bone cage.

Aella reached a hand through the bars, her fingers like an icy breeze against Scout’s cheek. “Dance, Scout. And have faith. I’ve never known Ashra to lose.”

So Scout danced. It was a dark, harsh dance, playing to the dark, harsh music in her head. She threw herself on the floor, crawled, then slid on her knees as if begging Ariston again to save them. She spun through the air like the thoughts in her mind, bent in half, and threw herself backward. She leaped and sobbed and whirled and stayed on her toes. She danced until her legs gave out, and she collapsed in a heap on the floor. And then she cried. This was all her fault.

“Have faith, big sister. Ashra will not fail you. She has your heart. Your will. She will not fail.”

“I fail at everything, Lil Bit. I failed you. I didn’t protect you like I said I would. I didn’t save you. Instead, everyone I love will die.”

“Have faith in them, Scout. Have faith in them like I have faith in you.”

Scout was so tired. So tired. Everything ached.
“You shouldn’t have faith in me, Lil Bit.”

“Scout!”

Scout’s head jerked up at the very real voice echoing through the throne room. Her mother’s voice. “Scout, don’t give up! Keep fighting, baby girl!”

Her mom believed in her. Fresh tears cascaded down Scout’s cheeks, but she nodded, forcing herself to her feet. “Okay, Mom. Okay.”

She stumbled to her blankets, her muscles protesting, her heart wondering why she forced it to keep beating. She didn’t see Ariston’s shadow until it was nearly gone from the doorway. He’d been watching the whole time.

“How can he think he loves me, Aella?” She moaned, watching him disappear.

There had been real pain on his face as he’d sent his demons to kill Ashra and Trey. Torz was just an added bonus, apparently. Guilty by association. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her. There had been real pain when he’d almost said he loved her, as well.

“You’re the first thing that can soothe his shattered heart, Scout. Did you really think he wouldn’t mistake that for love?”

Scout buried her head in her blankets, feeling Aella’s icy touch stroking her hair until she fell asleep.

Chapter Fifteen

Trey swung his scepter, his attack melding with Torz’s, not winding around each other like Ashra and Scout’s did, but actually seeping together until it was one very powerful attack. These creatures weren’t souled, but there were so many. So many, and many more still coming. The skies as far as Trey could see were black with soul stealers. They would never be able to fight them all off.

Especially with Ashra’s weaker magic. Without Scout, she was just another unicorn. Crazier, braver, more passionate than most. But not more powerful.

He watched as she raced across the sky, her horn ramming through one, two, then three soul stealers, impaling them until they burst into a bloody mess of ash and bone. And Trey thought maybe crazier, braver, more passionate might be enough.

Until he looked up. And saw the darkening skies even as the pale sun rose. Too many. There were too many.

“We can’t fight them, Ashra. We’ve got to run!”

“Run where, exactly? We can’t get out of here, Torz. And even if we could—”
Ashra paused in her tirade to rip the head off the demon closest to her, using her razor-sharp teeth.
“Even if we could, I’m not leaving without her.”

Torz snorted, frustrated. His horn seemed to feed off his anger, his flames brighter, faster, more powerful than before, and Trey joined him. He put everything into his attacks. His pain, his fear, his complete desperation. And his anger. So much anger.

He counted thirteen demons as they fell from the sky under his and Torz’s onslaught.

“See? Keep that up, boys. We’ll be fine.”
Ashra’s voice was far too optimistic for the situation.

If Trey didn’t know better, he’d think she was enjoying this. She wasn’t using her magic, much. She was using her size and her fiery wings and her sharp, sharp hooves. Like she wanted to tear them all apart, up close and personal.

“Ashra has a lot of anger issues,” Trey called to Torz.

“So do you. Let’s use them, shall we?”
Torz shot up through the air, big wings pumping, sparks exploding from the feathers, igniting anything that came too close.

Trey swung his scepter down hard, snapping the claw reaching for Torz’s side. The creature screamed, and Trey shot a blast of fire into its open mouth. The head exploded, as did the demon right behind it, and they both fell. Over and over, he threw out attacks and soul stealers fell from the sky, until his arms ached and he was covered in blood — theirs and his and Torz’s. Ashra’s wings were failing as she tipped and swayed in the air, but she didn’t stop fighting.

“Torz! Ashra! We’ve got to run!” Trey screamed to be heard over the shrieks of the Taraxippus.

Ashra’s ear flicking toward him was the only indication she’d heard him. She didn’t pause in her attacks, even as her wings stuttered and she fell lower.

“Ashra, we’re done! Run!”
Torz pushed her, hard, and she tumbled through the sky, regaining her balance just before she hit the earth below. Torz raced after her, and they galloped through the air, the screaming demons hard on their heels.
“To the canyon, Ashra!”

She didn’t respond but flew lower through the sky, her feet just above the soft ground, wings pumping hard.

Claws reached for Torz, tearing into his flanks. Trey spun on his back, an unspeakable rage overtaking him, and his scepter exploded with a wide, flat wall of fire. The demons closest to them screamed as they burst into flames, and the ones behind them crashed into their inferno and lit up like a bonfire. Dozens fell from the sky. But more flew out and around the fiery wall. Trey did it again, unsure where the attack had come from — it wasn’t one that Iros had taught them. But it took so much energy. So much strength that he just didn’t have anymore. His arms shook as sweat and blood poured from him.

Ashra hit the canyon, tucking her wings to fit through the narrow opening. Her feet crashed over the ground, splitting it with every step, and Torz followed close behind. Trey dug deep, searching for one last attack, one last effort, and his scepter erupted, shooting the fire and stopping the demons at the canyon mouth.

“I bought us some time, but they’ll come over the top.” He panted, turning to face the front again. Ashra’s mighty steps were faltering, and Torz stumbled twice, nearly pitching Trey over his head.

“We’ve got to hide. Torz, ideas would be good right now.”

“I came up with the canyon idea. It’s your turn.”

She didn’t have an answer for that, apparently, because she said nothing and kept running, veering around the sharp turns in the canyon.

Trey risked a glance over his shoulder. Not far behind them now, the soul stealers were coming up the canyon walls. They would be trapped soon. Trey had a horrible memory of Iros and Havik, surrounded by dozens and dozens of soul stealers, falling through the sky as the demons tore at the mighty leaders. If they couldn’t fight these things off, what hope did Trey, Torz, and a rider-less Ashra have?