Shadowlander (15 page)

Both he and Kallus stepped into the tapestry. The strange snap and pull of portal travel shoved them through the flat second dimension for a moment, then spit them out in the borderlands. Rook’s breath frosted in the air. The snow was falling heavier now. He wished he’d thought to bring heavy coats for the women. They’d need it when he found them.

He took a moment to sniff the air, seeking out any trace of the combination of vanilla, cinnamon, and warm sweet female that marked Cate. He caught a whiff of the scent from the eastern forest and grimaced. The women were headed straight for the border with Wyldwood and into danger, and they didn’t even know it. But that’s precisely where the old portal tree was located.

“Make double time, Thayer. They’re headed for Wyldwood.”

Kallus frowned, scanning the ground, his eyes narrowing in concentration. “How can you tell? There aren’t any prints.” The snow had fallen thickly enough that their footsteps had been obliterated.

“I smell her.”

§

Cate kept pushing through the snow, her legs aching from the cold. Her gown was no protection against the bitter weather. Maya, who was still in her summer clothes, fared no better. They were perfect for the warm weather in Seattle, but were totally worthless here. Maya shivered. “We’ve got to get out of this cold.”

“I know, I know. But we’re almost there,” Cate said, trying to encourage her to move a bit faster. “God, what I wouldn’t give for some gilly fruit.”

Up ahead, Cate spied a familiar bend in the snow-covered path. There was the familiar stack of stones and a few yards behind it the huge old tree with the ankh carved into the trunk. She grabbed Maya by the arm. “There it is! Come on!”

They moved as fast as they could through knee-deep snow.

“Hold where you are!” The man’s voice startled Cate. She whipped around to see six men clothed in the scarlet coats of Wyldwood holding drawn weapons on them.

“Oh, come on!” Cate yelled at no one in particular. “Look at us. Do we seriously look like a threat to you guys?”

None of the Wyldwood soldiers answered.

“We just want to go home,” Maya wailed. “I’m freezing!”

The soldiers advanced toward them. Maya screamed. Cate shoved her away and yelled, “Run! Go for that big tree!”

Cate screamed as one of the fae grabbed a fistful of the hair at the back of her head and swung her around like a rag doll. He jerked, then grew still. Cate squealed when she spotted the thick arrow sticking out of the man’s chest.

She scrambled away from him, toward the cover of the trees. An explosion behind her shoved her face first into the snow, but Cate quickly pushed back up on her hands, shaking her head to ward off the ringing in her ears. The fae’s chest was now open with a gaping hole the size of a dinner plate where the bolt had once been, and the snow was stained red.

Adrenaline roared through her system, pushing her to stay low and move quickly. Her eyes scanned for Maya as she went, dodging fighting fae and trying to stay out of range of their weapons and fists. She caught a glance of Rook battling one of the red fae guard in hand-to-hand combat, his arms bulging, his teeth bared. Kallus stood out among them, his blond hair whipping about his face. He pulled and shot the exploding arrows from his bow so quickly the thunking sound of each bolt was like a heartbeat.
Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk.

Finally she spotted Maya, on her knees and hovering well behind Kallus near the giant tree. Cate bolted to reach her friend. Maya was shivering, the snow dusting her hair and eyelashes. Her eyes were wide and dilated with shock.

“Come on, get up!” Cate said, pulling on Maya’s arm. Her friend staggered to her feet and Cate pulled her along into the trees.

“Who. Are. Those. Guys?” Maya’s teeth chattered, breaking the words into bits.

“Let Rook and Kallus worry about that.” If she had any chance of getting Maya out of the fae realm, she had to do it now while they were both distracted by more pressing matters. Cate took the coin she’d stolen from Rook out of her pocket and threw it at the enormous old tree.

The familiar shimmer and wave began to warp the tree until it seemed to wiggle, then a golden seam appeared, growing longer and thicker until it split down the center into a human-size hole.

On the other side of the opening, Cate saw the uplit Space Needle and the night skyline of Seattle, both of which glittered peacefully over the tops of the trees in the arboretum. A freaky window to her own world and a direct contrast to the cold and chaos unleashed around them. Maya let out a gasp.

“How’d you do that?”

Cate didn’t bother to answer. There wasn’t time. “Come on!” She grabbed hold of Maya and pulled her toward the opening.

Just then a terrible roar rent the air, and it made Cate’s insides instantly chill. She hesitated, knowing it was Rook’s voice she’d felt to the marrow of her bones. She glanced back and saw that the battle continued. Only instead of jointly fighting the enemy who lay broken and bloodied around them, Rook and Kallus now circled each other.

“I’ve challenged you to a Cattan and you accepted. By the law I choose when we shall battle and I choose now.” Kallus swung his bow, swiping the metal-tipped end of it at Rook.

Rook dodged the hit. A metallic hiss sliced through the cold air as he pulled his blade from the scabbard on his back. The polished sword glinted in the light, a silver flash as it moved. “What are you going to do now, Thayer? You can’t kill me. I’m of the House of Shadows. You do, and you’ve signed your own death order.”

Kallus dropped his bow in the snow at his feet and took out a dagger from his belt. “I can’t kill you. But I can hurt you until you wish you were dead, you pompous ass.” He flipped the blade around and around his fingers in a dizzying spin. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to bring you down a peg. And your father isn’t here to back you up this time.”

Both of them began to shift, their faces and bodies growing larger as their warrior animal natures rose to the surface. Their canines grew longer, their faces warping to look more like the catamounts they rode. Cate was both horrified and unable to look away. There was a loud crack and the sickening sound of flesh hitting flesh as Kallus lashed out at Rook with his free hand, hitting him hard and without warning in the face.

Rook’s head snapped back and, with his other hand, Kallus sliced at Rook’s midsection with the short blade. Rook arced away, but not far enough. His blue coat and black tunic split open, revealing an expanse of skin with a blood-red line slashed across it.

She’d felt that very skin beneath her fingers, tasted it with her tongue. Cate sucked in a startled gasp and took a step toward him. Rook’s gaze locked with hers, his eyes dark with pain. He growled and launched himself at Kallus like a coiled black panther. With two swipes of his sword he left Kallus bleeding, his tunic in shreds.

“Cate!” Maya’s voice rang in her ear.

She stepped toward Maya, knowing she should follow her friend through the opening. Her hand strayed to the rusted nails in her pocket, but she stepped over the glittering edge, one foot on the snowy ground of the Shadowland and the other in the damp green grass of Seattle.

She glanced back one last time. Rook took a swing at Kallus, pivoted, then lashed out again from the opposite direction.

Kallus took the hit, the razor-sharp edge of the sword biting into his back. His shaggy head swung in her direction and he glared at her, his sides heaving.

Rook raised his sword above his head to deliver a finishing blow, but Kallus pointed in the direction of the portal tree. “You’ve failed, Blackwood. We both have. The Seer is lost to us.”

Rook paused, his sword still balanced over his head, and glanced at her. Sorrow flitted across his features for just a split second, but it was long enough. Kallus took advantage of Rook’s distraction and kicked out. A terrible crunching sound filled the air as Rook’s leg bent at an unnatural angle outward. Rook howled and dropped to the snow. Kallus moved to slice him across the back with the dagger, a haughty gleam in his eye.

Cate didn’t stop. Or think. She just acted on instinct. She grabbed the handful of nails left in her pocket, slipped them between her fingers just as she’d showed Maya, and ran like hell, screaming, straight at Kallus.

He whipped around right as the rusted nails scored the length of his side. He grunted, grabbing his ribs, and his ripped clothing and skin began to smoke, the putrid smell of burning flesh tainting the cold air. She jammed the nails home with a hard punch, leaving them sticking in his side. Red-hot pain rocketed up her arm and stars sparked in front of her vision. She let out a string of curses, knowing she’d broken her hand.

“Cate!”

Maya’s panicked voice made her look back to the rift. Her friend waited for her on the other side, but the golden seam was sealing shut.

Time had just run out.

Chapter 10

The golden rift between her world and the fae realm disappeared in a flash of light, leaving only the hulking trunks of the forest standing as silent sentinels.

Cate was breathing hard, her skin nearly numb from cold, the chill of the air cutting her lungs. The trunk of the portal tree looked as if it had never split at all. Only the ankh portal symbol still glowed. A few feet away, Kallus lay passed out in the snow.

“Cate…” Rook’s voice was quiet, but it speared through her. He sat up in the snow, kneeling on his good leg, his hands fisted so hard the knuckles turned white. His face and body had returned to normal, no longer looking like a cross between himself and a feline demon. Deep lines of pain etched around his narrowed eyes and his lips pressed tightly together.

Gran had been right. About everything. And about nothing. Yes, the iron had been a substantial weapon. Yes, following the fae had been far more troublesome than she’d anticipated and she wasn’t certain she could get home. But Gran had never said anything about falling in love.

Her heart thumped, filling her ears with its pulse. Choosing to stand beside him and fight rather than going back with Maya had been something her heart had decided for her. It had chosen saving him over seeing her family, perhaps ever again.

But Cate knew one thing for sure. She was never meant to be with a human man. It had taken a fae to break her free of the rules that had imprisoned her. A fae to show her that she had more to give than she’d ever believed possible.

A fae to waken her deepest desires and capture her heart.

Rook held out his hand. Cate slipped her cold fingers into his large grasp and, instantly, warmth spiraled up her arm and wrapped around her heart. Rook gave her a body-melting smile and squeezed her hand.

“You didn’t leave,” he said, his voice cracking with unspoken emotion.

“I wanted to.”

Hurt filtered into his gaze like clouds across the sun. “I’ll take you if you wish. The coin will come back to me by tomorrow.”

Cate pressed a finger to his lips. “You would really do that for me?”

He nodded and Cate kissed him hard.

“Is that a kiss good-bye?” he asked, his voice broken.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

Hope flared to life in his face.

Cate cupped his strong jaw in her hand, looking deeply into the eyes of the man she loved. “I wanted to go back, but I couldn’t. You were in this stupid death-match thing with Kallus.”

She glanced at the other man. With the snow falling gently across his unconscious body, he looked peaceful. Hardly the threat he’d been a mere minute before. “I couldn’t bear to think of him killing you. I love you.”

Rook struggled to his feet, balancing his weight on his good leg and wrapped his arm about her, pulling her close. “My beautiful Seer, it was only a Cattan for the right to you and your friend. He would have only tried to beat me senseless, but never killed me.”

She pulled back and stared at him. “You know, I’m not seeing how that’s a great option either. You’re hurt.”

“It will heal.” He chuckled, but then winced against the pain. “Besides, it allows me to be with you, and that’s all that really matters,” he murmured into her wet hair. “You’ve got to be freezing.”

“Just don’t stick your tongue on my skin or it might get stuck there.” Yes, her skin was cold, but inside, her heart was warm and overflowing.

Rook pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her, then kissed her soundly. Cate felt markedly better.

He broke their kiss and held her close, his eyes full of love. “I know just what you need.” A sparkle of mischief and desire brightened his face. “A nice hot bath.”