THE BAZAAR (The Devany Miller Series) (20 page)

'It didn't stop you. You used it.'

And I've regretted it ever since. I lost my life because of it.

'If I save my children, then it's worth it.'

She didn't answer. Perhaps she didn't have to. She'd made her point. It was stupid, in a way, not to care if I lived or died. Liam and Bethany would both be devastated if I died. I would hurt them by saving them if I did it that way. But images of Zech's flayed body kept creeping into my head. The body of the little girl Tytan had taken blood from. Yvonne and Jeremy, pale and sweating, left to die so that some asshole could be more powerful.

They could be killing my kids right now. Torturing them. 

"Fuck."

"What's wrong?" His voice sounded thick, hoarse.

"If they die," I couldn't finish.

"We'll find them."

One sob escaped and then I clamped down hard on the dread that threatened to overflow the dam. I couldn't afford to lose it now. My calves were burning; we were hiking uphill. I scanned the horizon, squinting in the gloom. "Why is this place always so dark?"

"Under the canopy, the trees block the light. Out here," he swept his arm away from his body. "The star's light doesn't reach this far."

"Star light? Oh, your sun. Right. Shouldn't it be freezing then?"

He shook his head. "It's not the same here as on Earth. We don't have north or south poles. No equator. The star's light illuminates, not heats."

"Then why isn't this a snowball planet?" I kept my attention on a spot far ahead. My heart began to thump. It might've been a building, but I couldn't be sure, didn't want to get my hopes up.

"Magic. It affects our weather, the way the plants grow, how they grow, what we can and can't do. Your planet has gravity, ours has magic. It's not the same, but close."

I touched his arm and pointed. "There. Is it what I think it is?" I held my breath, sure, he would tell me I was imagining things.

He took forever, staring and staring until the urge to scream welled up again. "Yes. Do you see the emanations?"

"What?"

He sighed then tapped me, hard on the forehead.

"Ow." I started to rub it but he grabbed my hand and pushed my face toward the far off building. 

"Now look."

My forehead buzzed, it felt heavy as I did. Then I saw a sizzle of light rising from the horizon. "Oh. Their signature."

"I don't know why they aren't cloaking, unless they don't think anyone would come out here after them." His lips twisted. "Maybe their arrogance will work to our advantage."

"How should we do this?" I was nervous now. I had pinned my hopes on my kids being there and breathing. What would happen if they weren't there, or heaven forbid, weren't alive?

"Can you feel the hook?"

"Yes. It's been pulling me this way."

He studied the area. Since we'd been walking, the ugly, bulbous trees had been thinning. The building sat among what on Earth I would have called scrub. Not sure what they considered it here. Instead of trees there were bushes and the further we traveled from the swamp the more color the plants had.

"I didn't see any building when I came here for Tytan." I had been in spider form. Still, I'd returned in my body and I didn't remember seeing any structures.

"Maybe the cloaking is activated when anyone uses the hook. It would be hard to maintain and a waste of energy to use it continuously in such a barren area."

I shook my head, creeped out that I had been that close to those bastards without knowing it. 'Did you sense anything, Neutria?'

No. Focused on hunt. On kill. Not on stupid witches.

"What will they have for security? Anything?" If they only worried about things coming through the hook at them, maybe we had a chance to sneak up on them and find Liam and Bethy.

"Maybe wards. Yarnell is so sure of his power, he might not do even that. They might feel secure out here."

"Would they worry about getting attacked by fleshcrawlers?"

"Not out in the open, not in the light. It's an anathema to them. Plus they need to stay near the swamp's waters, I believe."

I took a deep breath. Another. "Give me your hand."

"I won't deal with Skriven magic."

I held out my own hand. "I want to cloak us. Give us a little bit more of a chance to get my children back alive." His lips tightened, the skin around his eyes puckered. He was going to refuse. I tamped down the urge to slap him or scream. I took a breath. "Listen, Liam is twelve. He loves to play soccer, to listen to music, to dance when he thinks no one is watching. Bethany is ten. She gives the best hugs, puts her whole heart into them, she loves animals, and has been begging for a dog forever." My voice broke. "I can't lose them. Please, Zech."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I won't." Studying his feet for a moment, he then said, "Let's not hide from them. We'll go through the hook."

I was shaking my head before he finished. "No. No. They'll kill them the moment we show up."

"You'll do anything to save them, right?"

"Of course, but how will that save them?"

"I'll give you to them in exchange."

My nostrils flared. What was wrong with his suggestion aside from the fact I might not make it out alive?

He pushed home his point. "The only reason they captured me was to find out how the Coven of the Lotus raised so much power. That night Adamante questioned me," his voice tightened over the word as he said it, "he kept asking if we were working with the Skriven. How we raised the power. They want that power."

"And that power would be me."

He studied me. "It might mean your death. I will leave with your kids if it works, but I don't know where the other end of the hook leads to on your world. It might take me a while to get back, to send someone."

I remembered then, that I'd dropped my cell phone and cursed myself for it. "Let's do it. I don't care. Just get my kids safely home." Lucy looked like me and had my memories. Would it be such a horrible thing for her to live my life if I couldn't? "Lucy is at my home. She—she is being me while I'm here."

Disgust colored his cheeks. "They take your soul. In little bits and pieces until one day they take the last piece and you're empty. Empty of everything. You understand that? You will be nothing."

Tears warmed my face. "Just take them home. Don't tell them anything else. Please." He didn't answer so I grabbed his arms. "Please. Zech, please." Finally he nodded and I sagged in relief. I focused on the hook that had been tugging at me. I didn't give in to its siren call, instead opening a place near it. I took us Earth side first so we'd know where Zech would leave with my kids. The hook opened into a shadowy corner of a warehouse with rust-eaten metal siding. Despite a quick search, I couldn't figure out where I was though the signs warning me that I was trespassing assured me I was in an English speaking country.

I pulled out the forty bucks I always tried to keep in my pocket and handed it to him. "Take this. It's not much, but it'll buy you a phone call and some food."

He pocketed it. "Ready?"

I nodded. I felt for the hook and this time I used it. It pulled both of us through and we ended up in a cavernous room that was, but wasn't there. I blinked, my vision blurry. I squinted but couldn't focus my sight.

"Vanished," Zech breathed.

"No, it's not. It's around us. If I could just, oh lord, this reminds me of the Slip." I leaned on him for support and then concentrated hard on my surroundings, trying to set it like Tytan set his house for me.

Zech shouted.

"What?"

"It snapped around us. One minute nothing and the next boom." He spun in a circle. "I've been here. This is where they were holding me. Not here, here, but close by. They dragged me through here."

The sharp sound of someone clapping spun me around. Three men watched me: Adamante, the one who'd attacked Arsinua at the fair, and a thin man who glowed. Even from this distance, I could see the evil around that one. He was Skriven. He felt like the loose slack skin of the dead. 

At his worst, Tytan couldn't inspire as much agitation in me as facing this one.  

"I want my kids." My voice echoed in the room, bouncing off the angled walls in strange ways. 

"Power," the Skriven breathed. He sounded lustful. 

I shuddered, ignored him and aimed my glare at Yarnell. "My kids. I'll trade myself for them. Let them leave with Zech, then you can have me."

"You cows are always so rude.” He had the skinny, twitchy look of a drug user. “Introductions first. I am Yarnell. This man you've met, though I dare say the meeting wasn't ideal. You blasted him through several walls."

"You're lucky you're so far away," I said. "Otherwise you'd have my hand around your neck. My kids. I want to see them. Now."

He smiled wider, his jaw working. He was chewing gum. "This other gentleman is Cambion. Although, I suppose I'd better not say gentleman. He's been fantasizing about your children. I've had to restrain him several times from visiting them."

"Where are they?" I'd expected to shout again, but my voice came out pitched low and deadly.

"Here. Stewing, you might say. Getting ready for their turn to be the star attraction at the Bazaar." He stepped forward, his body narrow, his face narrow, the fingers he splayed narrow. "For the love of your brats you're willing to give yourself to us, knowing what we want from you?"

"Yes. It’s an easy choice. Don't fuck with me. Show them to me now or I'm done talking and I won't be giving myself up. And I'll make sure I take you with me." I stared at him, pouring my hate into it. He stepped back as if I'd slapped him.

"Fine. I'll show you where they are." His coat belled around his legs. I so wanted to run up and kick his ass—literally kick it—but I fisted my hands and kept my distance, waiting until he was a ways ahead before I followed.

At the back of the room he swept aside a dusty curtain that had the same color as the crumbling wall on either side. The gesture reminded me of Zech's sugar tent. It must have resonated with him as well because he muttered, “Bastards. Can't even come up with an original idea.”

Yeah, as if that were our biggest problem right now. I shushed him and made a face at Yarnell when he tried to wave me through. Chuckling at my paranoia, he disappeared and I followed, stopping the moment I saw where I was. Rows of people were chained to the wall in varying stages of hook sickness. Tents lined the room and I recognized the vendors. The Bazaar. I saw Bethy and Liam roped together, both dazed and out of it. I ran for them but the Skriven stuck out an arm. My breath left me in a grunt of pain.

“
Don't want you scaring the customers,” Yarnell purred.

Only then did I realize there were people milling around, pausing in front of the people chained to the wall, poking them or discussing their condition. Waiting for them to die.

I wanted to kill them all.

“
Adamante. Be a good boy and collect the children. Do it quietly.”

Adamante glared but complied. Clasping my stomach, I kept my eye on him, ready to rip the fucker's head off if he so much as looked wrong at my kids. I could feel the Skriven's gaze on me as if trying to dissect me to see how I worked.

"What is it that makes you so powerful?”

“
Indeed,” Yarnell said. “What makes you different from the other cows?”

Breathe, I told myself. Let it go. I kept my calm; Zech exploded. "You know nothing about humans. They are living beings. They feel, they have families, lives. How could you kill them? Use them the way you do, how?" 

Yarnell waved his hand, dismissing him. "Another argument, another pointless defense. They are cows. Why else would our world hook with theirs? Why else would our world affect them the way it does if we weren't supposed to use them?" One of the chained captives cursed at him. He strode over and grasped the man's chin. “Why should I be forced to give up the chance to have a family of my own because a few old fools have some sort of misguided guilt about harvesting your kind to bolster our fading power?”

The man spat in Yarnell's face but he only chuckled, lifting his hand with a tiny spark of energy glowing at his fingertips. In a snap, his face was clean. The chained man's face mottled with rage.

Zech's chin inched upward. “We regret the sacrifices. But what right do we have to trade one life for another? If we can't protect ourselves, maybe we deserve to fade.”

Yarnell stopped in front of Zech, his lips drawn, his jaw tight. “My wife and child do not deserve to fade. They do not deserve to live without power because you fools think it a waste. My family is not. A waste!”

“You are a greedy bastard. Stealing power for your own selfish ends and refusing to give back to keep the rest of us safe.” Zech yanked the pin from the lock on the chain that threaded through each captive's leg manacle. He reached for the top pin and the Skriven pinned to the wall.

“
Let him go,” I shouted.

Yarnell's face reddened. He took a step toward Zech, blue sparks dancing across his knuckles. “Our kind will fade anyway if we are too busy fighting off the Wilds to have children.”