“You may test that assumption at your convenience.” Always unhurried, usually kind, Rue kicked my ass and cast a sigil on me that had me throwing up for a week.
I stormed back to her cottage. I came to learn, she understood I would never be a quiet, careful witch so she laughed and then opened her arms. Her acceptance was my whole being.
Rue had taught me everything she knew–potions, sigils, herb work, crystal healing–in the finest wiccan tradition but her patience with a lost little girl meant more than any diamond. Her kitchen door always stood open to me. Which, Godds truth, was kinda a miracle. Especially when it didn’t seem like I was capable of any real magic. My sister had her bestie, Fallon. Ihad Rue. The greatest magic Rue ever performed was taking all my pain and rage and transforming it into love. What would she think of me now? Of my quest on her behalf?
She mainly worked her witchcraft at the scarred kitchen table, repainted too many times, burned, nicked and scrubbed here and there. That's where I found her, slumped over her table, Noth’s blade sticking out of her back. That's where I should have killed him instead of prolonging this into something ugly. It would have been quick justice at that time.
Now guilt sloshed around like spoiled wine while I tore myself in two, trying to have my nightmare cake and eat it too. All the while worrying what my mentor would have thought if she had met my Noth. She would have been gracious and kind–helped him with his night terrors. Or encouraged me to use all my energy to help his mission. She would have seen the truth of him much faster than I would have. I chewed on the fact that maybe she wouldn’t have wanted revenge for herself at all.
Walking the road all day, watching the sunset didn’t calm my turmoil. It was just an hourglass on this custard toast disaster. Evie and Fallon insisted that nasty, wiggly mess was the Godds’ gift to the Harrowlands but the over-sugared glop never hit my plate, not even at my heaviest. That was the best comparison I could think of to this unmitigated muddle - wobbly, loathsome insanity.
Watching Noth clean Portsgrave Harbor like it was nothing more than meditation turned out to be thehottest thing I had ever seen in my life. And the scariest. They might not have realized it, but Noth made that a working port again. Trade would come back to the small village. His casual use of mind-altering power really got the girly bits chattering louder than they should have been. But his monster’s automatic protection and eagerness to play lit my brain up screaming ‘total package’. The careful and thorough tongue orgasms didn't hurt either. I didn't even like a man's mouth on me like that but somehow he teased, bullied and managed me into some of the best fucking of my life. The problem remained. I still needed to kill him and if I didn’t do it soon, it would be a hopeless endeavor.
What if he whipped out diamonds next? Rare in the Harrowlands, since they were the one crystal that never needed recharging, I was a sucker for the fearlessness, invincibility and fortitude they supposedly imbued in the user.
“Have you ever seen a diamond?”
What a stupid question when we walked down the road, covered in dust, the sun mixing sweat into an unflattering combination of exhaustion and grime.
Noth snapped his head around, looking down at me from the salamander I refused to ride. He, of course, rode pristine, floating above the dirt.
“I don’t think so,” he replied.
Rue said she had some, but I never saw them on her person or at thecottage.
“Why do you ask?”
I remained sullenly silent, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other so I wouldn’t think about the Motionless River ahead and the crossing.
“Answer, or I can pass the time with a song!” Noth threatened.
I threw up a little in the back of my mouth. Ward stopped asking him to sing at our gatherings for a reason. “They’re pretty, okay. That’s it. I’m sorry I said anything.”
His lip curled at my tone. No one beat Noth for an indignant huff. He added a hair toss for good measure, his charcoal tresses fanning out behind him to catch the light like some sort of slow-motion dream. My jaw clenched. It wasn’t guilt that made me snap at him. Not a drop of it.
Just like I wouldn't feel guilty about taking advantage of the human soldier I saw on the Harbor’s pier. It looked like Brad, the guy who tried to raise a shifter army to rule the Harrowlands, spread his forgotten little goons all over the place like an invasive species. Wasn’t it enough that dipfuck messed with my sister, kidnaped Fallon and me, mind-controlled every shifter and had the bad grace to wear beige like it was his entire personality? Did he need to abandon the people who helped him too? At least they weren’t helpless, even if they were human. Many of them fought well in Ward and Evie’s final battle, if on the wrong side.
How could I not slip away to find help to defeat the Nightmare wholooked more and more unbeatable? Those soldiers had hand cannons that ripped the scariest monster to shreds. If nothing else, he would be a deadly distraction as I tried one more time to kill Noth like I was supposed to. I had to do something before my lady bits made the biggest mistake of my life.
Noth slowed as we came to the bridge crossing. As he had explained before we left, you had to crank it down and then back up once you crossed so the floodwaters didn’t destroy the bridge. He told me, because of course he was going to make me do it while he sat on his mount, buffing his nails or crooning to the Calix, or whatever.
That unfortunately–no, fortunately–made him a sitting target for the soldier that rose out of the murky water rushing under the bridge. The dagger flew through the air, the strange weapon in his other hand booming as he rushed forward.
I ducked with Noth as the dagger embedded into his bicep and the black cannon weapon shouted another sharp report. Noth jerked back. I jumped higher, a spurt of fear running through me. I would never get used to those explosions. With no time to see where it hit, I raced to the wheel that levered the bridge down, keeping the memory of Rue’s cooling face front and center.
I cranked on the mechanism for all I was worth, blocking out the sounds of male grunts and harsh shouts. I wouldn’t look. I couldn’t look. Okay, I had to look.
The soldier, Jax, sprawled Noth into the dirt and sprayed some sort of magic into his face. I turned thewheel faster. The two tumbled in the dust, a battle for supremacy, until Noth gripped the man by his throat and flung him twenty feet down the road. My breath stuttered out. I realized Noth was playing with him. There went my fifty gold talons. Good thing I stole them from Noth.
Eyes streaming, Noth spit out the magic that left his face glittery as a unicorn’s horn. He shook his head, pouring shadows from his hands, in a natural defensive fighting stance. All I thought about was licking it off him to find out how bad it would sting. I cranked the wheel harder, wrangling my wayward lust.
I had to give him credit. Jax didn’t give up when he had every right to just run away. His copper hair hung in hanks in front of his eyes and he sported a gash across his forehead, but he raced toward Noth with lethal intent.
The two crashed together, with Noth using his speed to his advantage and Jax countering with his deafening weapon’s power.
“I knew that mouth-breather wasn’t dead. Brad sent you to finish the job?”
I clamped my mouth shut. Let Noth think the megalomaniac human was still on the loose and ordered Jax to kill him. The bridge was almost down. I would steal the salamander to make our escape. Except Noth didn’t appear close to dying. Sure, his face glittered in the waning light and he bled out of the knife wound in his bicep, but he hadn’t turned Nightmare and he grinned way too wide.
