“What work did she undo?”
The Lady of the Lakes turned to him, her rippling face finally solidifying into a reflection of Myron. “You are the Master of Labyrinths. We met once, years ago.”
“We did,” Myron said, taking a big step away from Marci. “And I amnotwith her.” Everyone shot him a deadly look, which Myron pointedly ignored, nodding instead to the pool at Algonquin’s feet. “I can feel incredible magic coming from this. You’re making something extraordinary here. What is it?”
“My Mortal Spirit,” she said sadly, reaching down to trail her fingers through the bloody water. “Or what’s left of it after Marci Novalli let her rabid cat turn savage.”
Julius heard General Jackson’s breathing speed up. “Youhave a Mortal Spirit?” she said, stepping forward. “Another one?”
“Had,” Algonquin corrected, glaring at Marci. “And will have again. Wealwaysrise again, but this delay is most inconvenient.” Her face shifted again, becoming a watery mockery of Marci’s. “Why did you do it? Were you that determined to be the first?”
“Actually, I didn’t set out to break your Mortal Spirit,” Marci said. “I was just trying to break out of your cage. Now that it’s over, though, I’m glad we did it. The more I learn about Mortal Spirits, the more I understand that they are us. They belong to humans—ourmagic to use forourcommon good—not yours.”
“My good is your good, fool,” Algonquin hissed, shooting to her feet. “Did you not listen to a word I told you? I’m not a dragon, investing decades of time and magic into something purely for my own power or vanity. What I’m doing here is vitally important for all of us. If I don’t get control of a Mortal Spirit soon, the others will start rising, and then it will be too late. You think your god of death is a monster? You don’t even know what that word means.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m looking at it,” Marci said, glaring straight at the Lady of the Lakes. “But I told you already, Algonquin. You’re not the only one on this planet who gets a say in its future. I don’t doubt you know a lot more than we do about magic, but that doesn’t mean you get to make our decisions for us. Whatever is coming, if you need help to face it, then you’ll have to come to us as equals.”
“You are not my equal,” Algonquin hissed, shaking with so much rage, she couldn’t even hold a face. “You will eat those words, mortal.”
“Not before you eat the dirt,” Marci replied defiantly. “Face it, lake water, you need us. I think Ghost and I have just proven we can’t be forced, so the ball’s back in your court. Either you come up with a fair deal this time, or we walk for good.”
By the time she finished, Algonquin looked less like water imitating a person and more like a boiling cauldron of pure rage. Just being in the same zip code as that was enough to make Julius sweat, and he leaned in to whisper in Marci’s ear. “Are you sure about this?”
“Positive,” she whispered back, never taking her eyes off Algonquin. “I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t plan for this to happen, but it’s working out great. Algonquin desperately needs a Mortal Spirit, and now that Ghost’s ruined hers, we’re all she’s got left. Shecan’tkill us, not if she wants to stay on schedule.” Her face split into a grin. “I think I just found our ticket out of—”
Julius never got to hear the rest. In that moment, something wet and impossibly heavy slapped him across the back. He went down like a shot, slamming into the muddy grass so hard, it knocked the breath out of his body. He was scrambling back to his feet on instinct alone when the thing that had knocked him down—a huge, black coil his stumbling brain belatedly recognized as one of the Leviathan’s tentacles—wrapped around his midsection and lifted him into the air, throwing him straight at Algonquin before Marci could even scream.
***
No!she thought frantically.No, no, no, no!
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to be forcing Algonquin into a compromise, just as Julius always did. The Lady of the Lakes didn’t care about the others, which meant no one else was supposed to get hurt. And when the spirit did try something—because of course she should—the Empty Wind was poised to snatch Marci back into the other world. It should have been an airtight plan, but all of it went out the window when the Leviathan’s tentacles came down like a divine hand and snatched Julius away, jerking him into the sky like a rag doll before tossing him in the shallow, bloody water at Algonquin’s feet.
“Oh dear,” Algonquin said, putting her dripping foot on Julius’s chest. “Look what I found.”
Chelsie pulled her Fang in response, but Algonquin just flicked her hand, and a wave shot out, washing the Heartstriker’s enforcer off her feet in a cascade of dark, icy lake water. Unlike an actual wave, though, this one didn’t crash. It just circled and stayed, locking Chelsie inside a bubble of cloudy, fishy-smelling water she seemed unable to escape from.
“None of that,” the Lady of the Lakes said, smiling coldly as Chelsie slashed ineffectively at the water’s walls. “You’re in my world now, snakes.Iam in control here.” Her face flickered back to Marci’s reflection as she turned back to her prey. “You want a fairer deal than serve me or die? Fine.” She waved her hand a second time, and again, water followed, sweeping over Julius from head to toe, surrounding him in a cocoon of dark water so fast, he didn’t even have a chance to close his mouth before the water poured in. “Serve orhedies. How’s that for a better offer?”
“No!” Marci said, putting up her hands at once. “There’s no need to be hasty. Let’s talk this through.”
“I’d love to,” Algonquin said. “But I’m afraid your dragon doesn’t have time to wait while we discuss. I’ve doneextensiveexperiments on how long it takes dragons to drown, and while the older female can probably last a good twenty minutes, a little baby like this isn’t much better than your average human. I give him two minutes before he passes out and another three before the oxygen deprivation kills his brain. That gives us five minutes to arrange the conditions of your surrender.”
Marci froze, her brain spinning frantically to find a way out of this, but Algonquin wasn’t finished.
“And before you waste any time trying to convince me you don’t care about him, remember that I know your history.” She smiled Marci’s own smile down at Julius, who was thrashing frantically inside the watery prison. “I know exactly what the Heartstriker’s infamous Nice Dragon means to you, Marci Novalli, which means you have two options: continue being stubborn and watch the object of your ill-conceived affections die, or agree to work for me and I set them all free. It’s the same deal you offered me last night, so it shouldn’t take you long. Whatever you decide, though, do it quick. You’ve only got four minutes left before the water makes the choice for you.”
By the time she finished, Marci’s heart was pounding so hard it hurt.Ghost?
I can’t stop her,he said, answering the question she’d been too frantic to complete.I’ve already put the people she killed to rest. That means Algonquin is stronger than I am again, and Julius isn’t connected to me like you are, so I can’t take him into death where immortal spirits can’t reach like I can for you.
Marci swore under her breath. That had been her next question. “What about you?” she asked, looking at General Jackson and Raven, because forget Myron. “You’re some kind of crazy super-weapon, right? Can’t you do something?”
“If we could stand up to Algonquin, we would have done it years ago,” Raven said, shaking his head. “I know this is difficult, Marci, but you can’t give in. If Algonquin’s also trying to get her hands on the first Merlin, that makes you more important than ever. You’re the only weapon we have against her. We can’t let her win.”
That was easy for him to say. He was an immortal animal spirit, and his dragon wasn’t drowning. “But we don’t even know if I can help!” she cried. “I’m not even a Merlin yet! For all we know, I never will be.”
“You will,” General Jackson promised, stepping forward. “Ignore what Myron said. He’s a prideful fool, and he’s hardly our only mage. Whatever help you want, I’ll get it for you. I will stay here and fight Algonquin myself to buy you time to escape if I have to. I’ll do whatever it takes, but Iwill notlet our first chance in sixty years of actually fighting back sink into that lake. Do you understand me?”
