Grave Dance (40 page)

Come on, PC, come back
. He stopped just inside the circle, his tail tucked as the dancers pounded past him, but he was stil searching for the toy, his little head swinging back and forth.

I hadn’t exactly forgotten about the dragons, obviously, but I was so focused on my dog that I didn’t notice the approaching green dragon until a huge muzzle fil ed the space in front of me. The muzzle stopped, one giant nostril ridged with shiny green scales inches from my face. I froze, not moving, not breathing, not even blinking.

The dragon’s nostril flared, and the force of its inhaled breath dragged air across my face, making my hair and gown flutter. The dragon lifted its head and the giant muzzle disappeared. The muscles in my legs went soft with the sudden sense of relief fal ing through me. Relief felt too soon.

soon.

The head reappeared, the dragon peering into my hiding spot with an enormous red eye. The slitted pupil contracted, focusing.
Damn.

I threw my shields open farther. Each construct I’d fought had been more solid, more real, than the last, and the dragon was the most real yet. But I knew it was a spel fueled by souls and wrapped in a glamour. I
knew
it. I just had to convince reality.

In my second sight, the eye was a swirling mass of nearly solid mist, the color and shape superimposed over top.

Clenching my fist, I thrust my hand into the construct’s eye.

My skin encountered a moist resistance, and I rejected the sensation. It didn’t exist.

The eye vanished. The dragon didn’t.

The dragon roared in rage as its eye disappeared, only an empty socket of white mist remaining. It jerked back, swiping me with the edge of its head. My breath exploded out of my lungs as I flew backward, but there was no time to recover before the enraged beast charged. One massive paw uprooted a tree as it reached for me and missed.

Death grabbed me under the arms, hauling me to my feet, but then we both had to dive out of the way as the dragon lunged.

We scurried behind a tree, but we needed to either keep moving or turn and fight because the tree wasn’t going to stop the construct. And worse, its bel ows of rage had the other two dragons running toward us.
Fuck! Now what?

I peeked around the tree in time to see a silver blur dive in front of the dragon. Falin’s soul blazed brightly in my vision as he dodged the dragon’s swipe and then grabbed the talon on the back of the dragon’s foot and used it to vault onto the beast’s leg. He grabbed the wing where it connected to the body, and hauled himself higher, scrambling for the creature’s long neck. The rampaging beast didn’t even seem to notice Falin until the fae wedged his daggers between the dragon’s thick scales, digging for his daggers between the dragon’s thick scales, digging for its spinal column.

Then the dragon thrashed.

It craned its neck and beat at Falin with its wings, but Falin clung to the daggers, wedging them deeper. Unable to reach the source causing it pain, the dragon rol ed, its claws swiping out as it hit the ground. Falin dropped, diving into his own rol to avoid the beast’s lethal talons. The daggers didn’t fol ow, but the dragon didn’t die. It straightened, climbing to its feet and shaking dirt and uprooted grass from its scales.

“We have to help,” I yel ed, picking up the skirt of my gown and rushing forward.

I reached with my power and grabbed at the souls inside the beast, ripping them free. I’d forcibly ejected three souls by the time I reached the edge of the clearing, and Falin had scrambled back up the dragon’s back. Death and the raver joined the fight, jerking souls free with every move.

Previous constructs had shrunk with each soul freed, but either the spel had been improved or this thing had a lot of extra souls fueling it, because it didn’t change.

I fel back, avoiding a large claw, and jerked another soul free as Falin ripped his daggers out of the dragon’s neck.

He thrust the blades between another pair of scales, and the dragon froze. Its jaw dropped, as if shocked; then its form exploded into a cloud of fog. A copper disk the size of an end table hit the ground. Falin landed beside it, his blades in his hands, and his gaze already on the two approaching dragons.

“Look out,” Hol y yel ed as she emerged from the woods.

My head snapped in the direction she pointed. The magic circle now had bright red cracks like blood veins snaking through the barrier, and at the point where the disruption charm touched it, the barrier bulged, the thick magic inside pressing against the weak spot. Like a crack in a dam, the magic began trickling out around the charm. The ful force of the magic would be next.

of the magic would be next.

I turned, intending to run for the shelter of the trees. I didn’t have time.

Arms grabbed me, dragging me down and pressing me flat. Magic roared across my back, tearing at the bit of skin exposed on my shoulders. The smel of singed hair and burned clothing met my nose as the shock of the blast faded. I struggled to push to my knees and discovered that not one but two bodies covered mine.

“Let me up, guys,” I said, sliding out from the tangle of arms. “Everyone okay?”

I received an immediate nod from Death. Falin just rol ed to his feet and offered me a hand up.
Well, the three of us
survived.
I glanced around to assess the rest of the group.

A second copper disk lay on the ground, the dragon apparently having gotten caught in the crush of the magical tide. The other dragon was missing, momentarily at least.

The gray man and the raver hadn’t bothered taking cover from the blast and they looked fine. I didn’t see Hol y or PC.

My throat cramped. The dog had been inside the circle last I’d seen. The blast wouldn’t have caught him from the inside. The dancers al stil spun and leapt, so clearly the explosion of magic had affected only those of us outside.

But where is Holly?

Then I saw her red hair as she passed a dancer who had dissolved down to his sternum. With the circle down, the spel on the enchanted panpipes had spread. Al the dancers glowed the light yel ow color I associated with humans. As the only other human in the clearing, Hol y had been cal ed to the dance.

Chapter 38

“H
ol y!”

Her head swiveled in my direction, her green eyes huge and terrified, but she didn’t stop dancing. She couldn’t. The circle was gone and the magic dispersed around the clearing, but it wasn’t like the magic vanished. The piper continued to play, the spel taking shape behind her.

I dashed forward only to be knocked back by a blast of air. Dirt and leaves swirled around me as the last remaining dragon swooped out of the sky. It landed between me and the broken circle, blocking the way. Falin grabbed my shoulders, pul ing me farther from the beast. It opened its mouth and fire fil ed the air. A wal of heat cut across our path.

Damn it.

“We have to stop the piper.” Because regardless of who was under that cloak, she was not going to dissolve my best friend.

The dragon fanned silvery wings and released another bal of fire. I dove to the right, Death and Falin at my side, and the raver and the gray man dove in the opposite direction. The air heated, my lungs burning with each panicked breath. I glanced at the destroyed circle. Hol y stil danced, and she stil looked whole, but . . .
How long will
that last?

“Distract it,” I yel ed over the wal of flames now separating Death, Falin, and me from the raver and the gray man.

“Distract it how?” the gray man cal ed back as I fought to

“Distract it how?” the gray man cal ed back as I fought to draw my dagger. “Think it would like a sonnet?”

As if in response, the dragon slashed at the gray man, its wickedly sharp claws slicing through the air. He dove aside, and the construct caught grass.

Now or never.
I dashed forward, Falin and Death on my heels.

Falin lifted his dagger as he ran. He changed his grip as if he would hurl the dagger, but as his eyes cut over the dancers, he shook his head. “I can’t get a clear shot.”

I didn’t stop running, but sent my power ahead of me. The dancers were dead. My power recognized that fact. A dead body wasn’t a natural place for a soul. I reached through the spel that kept the bodies dancing as if it weren’t there, and the souls popped free. Five bodies col apsed, the spel releasing them now that they couldn’t fuel the ritual. A clear window to the piper opened.

We’d reached the edge of the broken circle, and Falin threw his dagger without changing stride. The blade gleamed in the moonlight, the fae-wrought steel unmarred in my grave-sight. His aim was good. Perfect. The piper looked up as the blade approached, her cloak flaring with the movement.

Then everything went wrong.

The long-coated reaper appeared. He knocked the piper aside, and the fae blade passed harmlessly through his torso. He turned, a snarl-like smile curling his lips as he focused on us.

The piper hit the ground, and the music stopped. Al around us, dancing bodies froze, dead muscles turning stiff.

They col apsed, hitting the trampled grass with fleshy thumps. Only one dancer remained standing, her red hair wild around her face and her cheeks glistening.

Hol y’s hands flew to her head, her fingers digging along her scalp. “I’m al here, right? I’m not . . . ?”

“You’re good.” I didn’t stop running. The piper was already picking herself off the ground. I shot Hol y a already picking herself off the ground. I shot Hol y a desperate glance. “Get out of earshot of that spel .”

“What about you?”

I didn’t tel her I’d be fine—that might have been a lie. My grip tightened on the dagger and a smal dog yipped. PC

jumped over a leg twisted unnatural y under a fal en dancer, and I almost stopped, my sprint cut short as a wave of relief washed through me. But I didn’t have time to celebrate yet.

“Take PC with you,” I yel ed to Hol y.

“But—”

I wasn’t listening anymore. The reaper opened his coat and pul ed a looped whip from a strap in his belt. The whip rustled as it uncoiled. He flicked his wrist and a loud crack thundered through the clearing. I faltered, my hands covering my ears without conscious thought on my part.

Then a new sound competed with the ringing in my ears.

Pipe music fil ed the night, and my body responded to the sound.
No. No. I wouldn’t dance.

I couldn’t help but move, my feet leading me in a turn, a leap. And I wasn’t the only one. Falin, his teeth gritted and his hand clenched around his remaining blade, also danced.
She’s playing for fae souls now.
Only she wasn’t playing. The pipes played themselves, the magic coalescing in the air streaming through them.

“Rianna, why?” I cried as my legs carried me in the dance.

The piper turned, her cloak moving as she tilted her head. Then she pushed the hood back and I wasn’t staring at Rianna’s sunken green eyes and lank red hair but at the face of a stranger. Relief coursed through me, though it didn’t last.

“You should have helped me. Told me how you touched the dead. Opened realities for me,” she said, frowning at me, and I realized with a sick sense of shock that I recognized her more handsome than pretty features.

“You’re the woman from the Bloom. The one who thanked me for releasing you from the endless dance.”

me for releasing you from the endless dance.”

“Yes.” She smiled, but it was a smile cut with sadness and darkened with hate. “Trapping me in the Eternal Dance was some fool’s idea of an ironic punishment, but you freed me and soon nothing and no one wil keep me from my love.”

Her love.
The reaper.

Another crack cut through the air from the reaper’s whip, but I didn’t have enough control over my body to cringe, let alone twist to see what was happening. The piper—Edana, that was what she had cal ed herself—closed her eyes, her head tilting back as magic coursed through her and the pipes. No, not just magic. An unstable gap opened behind her, the edges wavering, flickering through planes of existence.

No. She couldn’t merge realities.

But she was.

I struggled against the spel , fought to stop dancing. To stil myself. My body continued twisting and jumping.

Beyond the circle, the gray man and the raver fought the dragon, jerking souls free one after the other, but the construct didn’t shrink. A leap and swirl in the dance turned me away from Edana so I couldn’t see the spreading rift.

But I could see the reaper. His whip snaked outward, wrapping around Death’s neck. Death winced, but grabbed the length of the whip, holding it immobile as the reaper tried to jerk him forward. Death held his ground, not budging.

Then magic slammed into his back.

Death toppled forward, fal ing to his knees. A woman’s laugh twined with the pipe music. I couldn’t see Edana, but I could see the thick black lines of the spel she’d hurled. A spel with lines not only slamming magic into Death but pul ing something out of him as wel .

His essence.

“You’re exactly what we need,” she said, and the dance turned me, bringing her into view again.

turned me, bringing her into view again.

“Stop. Leave him alone!”

She glanced at me. “You’l have your own time to fuel the spel . Be patient.”

I swal owed. Falin and I were both part of the spel now. I could see him in my peripheral vision, stil whole and alive.

The spel holding us was kil ing us slowly. Whatever she was doing to Death was draining him fast.

I have to stop her.

Grave essence leached off the fal en dancers’ bodies, the magic their souls had generated fil ed the air, and Aetheric energy shot through al of it. The gap had spread, the bodies closest to the center of the circle rotting away as the land of the dead touched them. Aetheric energy swirled in the air, dark tendrils wrapping around Edana as if she’d plugged herself into the very fabric of the magic realm.

I forced my shields wider, opening myself to everything, blocking nothing. The chil of the grave rushed into my body, but there was more magic to be had than just grave essence. I drew it in indiscriminately, pul ing power until my skin felt ready to burst. Then I let it explode out of me, hurtling toward Edana.

She wasn’t a corpse, so my power couldn’t sink into her, or jerk her soul free of her body. It slid over her skin, her life and her shields protecting her.
No.
I had to do something. I
had
to.

Fred had told me that when the world decayed I’d have to do what was against my nature. According to Kyran, my nature was to weave reality together, but I could also shove it apart. So that’s what I did.

I shoved.

With everything I had inside me, I shoved at the realities converging around Edana. I started at her skin, pushing outward. As it had when I’d been in the shadow court, reality buckled and then moved under my magic’s touch. I poured more power into the effort, thrusting with my magic.

The enchanted pipes slipped out of Edana’s hands as The enchanted pipes slipped out of Edana’s hands as though she could no longer hold them, and the music stopped.

I tumbled to the ground, my legs col apsing under me. My whole body shook, a darkening light-headedness threatening behind my eyes. Stil I pushed with my power.

Layers of reality peeled away from Edana, leaving an area like a giant bubble around her clear of everything but mortal reality.

The spel draining Death fizzled out of existence. He slumped forward, and I released the power channeling through me. I tried to climb to my feet, but al my limbs were numb, too heavy, too slow. A scream interrupted the sound of my teeth chattering.

Edana backed through the gap she’d opened, and the bubble I’d created moved with her. Layers of reality pushed aside, bunching around the tear. As they fel back into place, the already tenuous gap snapped closed, reality righting itself everywhere except the bubble I’d created around her.

Edana screamed again, stil backing away. “No! What have you done? What have you done?”

The reaper dropped the whip, letting it fal to the grass as he ran toward her. “Love, what is it?” he asked and then stopped short three feet away. Right on the edge of the bubble.

He couldn’t pass. His reality didn’t exist around her.

He pounded on the empty air. “No! What’s happening?”

As Edana lifted hands suddenly withered and liverspotted to her rapidly wrinkling face, I wondered the same thing. Before my eyes, she aged until her back bent and her skin turned paper thin around a skeletal frame.

Then she crumbled, turning to dust.

I swal owed. I’d cut her off from al realities, al magics.

Even Faerie. And changelings relied on Faerie’s magic to keep their years from catching up with them. Soon al that was left of Edana was a dim, sickly yel ow ghost standing in was left of Edana was a dim, sickly yel ow ghost standing in the middle of a dead spot. But the land of the dead didn’t exist in the bubble, and her energy dissipated as she tried to retain a sense of herself.

Then she faded from sight.

“No!” the reaper yel ed, stil pushing on the bubble of reality. Then he spun around to face me. “You.” His eyes were hard, fierce, and if I could have backed away, I would have. But my body stil wasn’t working.

The reaper stormed toward me, the air crackling around him. “You did this. You took her away from me.” He lunged for me, his fist slamming into—and through—my chest wal .

“Alex!” Death jumped to his unsteady feet.

He wouldn’t be fast enough. We both knew it. The other two col ectors had finished off the dragon, but they were stil too far away to get to me in time.

I stared at where the reaper’s wrists disappeared into my sternum, knowing what would come next. He would pul my soul free and it would be over.

Then something flickered in the moonlight as it soared over my head. A fae-wrought blade buried itself in the reaper’s chest. He blinked at it, as if he couldn’t believe it, and his hand fel from me. Falin’s dagger fel free as soon as the reaper released me and I stopped acting as a bridge between him and reality. But the damage was already done. Dark blood seeped from the chest wound, and the raver grabbed him from behind.

She wrapped her long fingers around his upper arms.

“End of the line,” she said, and they vanished.

Falin pul ed me to my feet, and held me there when I would have fal en. “I’ve got you,” he whispered. “Are you okay? Is he gone?”

I nodded, leaning into Falin. My soul might be a bit jarred, but I would make it. Death final y reached me, but the gray man grabbed his arm, pul ing him back.

“She’s fine,” the gray man said. “I’l make certain of that, but in the meantime, you need to go.” When Death would but in the meantime, you need to go.” When Death would have protested, he shook his head. “Go.”

Death frowned, his gaze moving to me again. Then he vanished.

The gray man strol ed across the grass, col ecting the half-dissolved souls of the late dancers. His roundabout route brought him directly in front of me, and he stared at me, whether studying or assessing, I wasn’t sure.

“Remember this day. Remember this place,” he said, sweeping a hand out to encompass the remains of the ritual. “This is why the two of you can never be.” He stared at me for another long moment. Then he vanished.

The two of us?
Death and me.

I frowned at the empty space where he’d been for a long time until a rustling in the trees behind us caused Falin to turn, taking me with him. Kyran walked into the clearing, stil carrying his hourglass, al the sand now in the bottom half.

“Brava, brava,” he said, leaning the staff in the crook of his arm so he could offer an exaggerated clap. “I must say, I was a bit worried about the dragons at one point, but splendid job.”

“You were watching the whole time?” I asked around my chattering teeth.

“But of course. I said I wouldn’t miss it. Wel , my dear, I believe we are about to get more company.” He gave me a smal bow. “Until you dream again.”

He disappeared into the woods just as Hol y stepped into the clearing. She carried PC under one arm and in her wake stormed several ABMU officers in ful tactical gear.