Warrior Everlasting (8 page)

Ashra’s misty mane swept up, knocked Scout’s fingers out of the way, and wrapped itself tightly around Scout’s ears. They were better earmuffs than Scout’s hands could ever hope to be.

Scout swung her scepter back to her target, having faith in Torz and Trey that they could handle the other one.

“Rope?”
Ashra asked.

Scout nodded, digging hard for strength, as thin, rope-like flames snaked from her scepter. Ashra’s horn lit up, the flames winding around Scout’s, strengthening, tying them together. The soul stealer dodged to the side, moving with reptile-like quickness, but Ashra anticipated it this time and jerked her head at the last second. The rope fell neatly over the demon, and then they pulled, both of them. Ashra’s hooves danced backward through the sky, as if using the air itself for traction.

Scout’s arms began to shake, and sweat beaded at her temples, dampening her hair. “Aarrrrggh!” she screamed, throwing herself backward.

Too far backward.

Just as the Taraxippus snapped in two, Scout felt herself falling. The scepter slipped from her hands as she grasped the air for anything to stop her fall.

There was nothing.

She tumbled through the sky, hitting the ledge they’d landed on before. The ground was padded by the thick moss that grew everywhere in this place, but pain still shot through her entire body. And then the ledge broke. She had just enough time to realize she’d been right about its instability before she was rolling, cart-wheeling Sometimes falling through nothing but air, sometimes smashing into the steep mountainside.

She thought she might never stop falling.

“Ashra, where are you?”

And then she landed hard on flat ground. She was grateful for the cushion of grass, but even still, things were broken. She could tell. Groaning, she forced her eyes open.

“
Scout, I can’t get away. It’s too strong.”

Ashra, Torz, and Trey were at least a gazillion feet above her, still fighting the remaining soul stealer. Without Scout, Ashra wasn’t powerful enough to do the kind of damage necessary, and this one seemed to be much trickier to kill. And angrier.

Scout rolled over and pushed herself up to her hands and knees, spitting blood. She forced herself to her feet and raised a hand to get Ashra’s attention and show her she was okay.

The screams distracted her.

Namely, a single scream, over and over — a horrified, helpless sound that Scout would recognize anywhere.

“Lil Bit!”

Without a chance for coherent, rational thought to take hold, Scout raced for the castle doors, less than a hundred feet away. Every muscle, bone, joint — everything hurt as she ran — but she didn’t care. Her sister was in there, in pain, scared. Something was very, very wrong.

“Scout! No!” Trey bellowed from above them, and Scout could hear Ashra in her head, screaming at her, then begging, but she couldn’t stop.
Lil Bit, Lil Bit, Lil Bit.

I’m coming.

She slid through the doors, doors that she should have realized were wide open for the sole purpose of luring her in, before Ashra or Trey could get to her. And the doors-she-should-have-realized-were-wide-open-for-the-sole-purpose-of-luring-her-in slammed shut behind her.

Even then, she didn’t stop running. It wasn’t until Lil Bit’s voice nearly shattered her skull that she skidded to a stop, breathing hard.
“Scout, stop!”

“Lil Bit?” she whispered. She hurt. She couldn’t tell if it was sweat running down her temple or blood, but she was almost positive it was blood trickling across her chin.

“He tricked you.”
In all the time Lil Bit had been speaking to her this way, she’d never sounded so sad.

“Well, that was much easier than I expected. I thought for one so esteemed in my brother’s eyes, you would be much harder to catch.” Ariston dissolved out of the shadows, handsome face a mask of coldness, black eyes endless pits of horror and… pain.

Scout recognized him immediately from her nightmares. It took her hurt, battered mind several long seconds before she realized what Lil Bit had meant. He hadn’t been torturing her at all. Lil Bit was in no more danger than she had been before. Scout felt her eyes widen with realization, and with it came the pain. Crashing, horrible waves of pain that sent her to her knees and then to the ground, curling in on herself.

“You’re broken. She’s broken. How is she supposed to do anyone any good like that?” Ariston sounded utterly confused. Like it hadn’t been part of his master plan to kill her. But she heard it all from a distance, like he was at the other end of a very long, very dark tunnel.

“Bring me a soul,” he said, his voice grim. Before Scout could figure out what he meant, her body gave up, and she blacked out completely, falling into the same nightmare she’d had a thousand times since Lil Bit had been taken. Only it wasn’t a nightmare at all…

“Lil Bit! Lil Bit, where are you?” Scout’s breath hitched in her throat as she ran. It had been so mild that week, but now the night was unusually cold for October, and it felt like the air froze in her lungs as she screamed for her little sister, while the panic froze her heart.

“The unicorns! Scout, find the unicorns!” Scout heard Lil Bit’s voice, small and terrified, but she couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. She ran in circles, wasting time — precious, precious time.

“Lil Bit!” she screamed.

“Scout, the monsters are coming! Can you see them? Scout, find the unicorns! Please, Scout!”

Scout flew around a tree, frozen lungs forgotten, and nearly fell over Lil Bit where she lay curled on the forest floor.

But Lil Bit didn’t see Scout.

Lil Bit’s face was stiff in horror; her glassy eyes stared right through Scout’s soul. Her screams echoed through Scout’s head until they abruptly stopped, and Lil Bit’s eyes closed. Scout fell to her knees next to her little sister, cradling her small head in her lap. “No, no, no, no.” Time froze, everything froze, and her heart shattered in her chest — so cold.

“The unicorns are here. They’ll protect you,” Lil Bit whispered, although her mouth didn’t move.

Scout scanned the trees, frantic. “Help!” she screamed, over and over, cracking the air around them…

Minutes later, she forced her eyes open again. Whole. Unbroken. How was she not writhing in agony? She sat up slowly, testing her arms and legs. They were sore, but that was all.

“Well you took that very well, didn’t you?” Ariston murmured, standing over her. But Scout barely noticed. Soul stealers swarmed behind him, and she had nothing to fight with. Her scepter was who knew where. Ashra was outside, probably still swearing at Scout and fighting the souled Taraxippus.

“Oh, my pets. Right. I won’t let them have you. Not yet.” Ariston waved his hand absently, and the creatures shrieked and retreated like kicked puppies. Awful, horrifying puppies with no skin, and bloody rags hanging from their bones.

“Why not?” Scout asked. And promptly wanted to smack herself. Hadn’t she seen enough bad horror movies to know never to ask that question?

Ariston tipped his head, considering her. “I want to see what it is Iros is so fascinated with.”

“Tell him you’re a dancer.”

Scout blinked. Had Lil Bit lost her mind? She couldn’t be blamed, not after being trapped in these conditions for… Scout had lost track. A week? A month? An eternity? When had she seen her sister last?

“Dangerous habit,” Ariston said as a lazy smile broke the mask of indifference. “Daydreaming when faced with an adversary who can rip the soul from your body and tear it into a thousand pieces before your heart even stops beating.”

She wanted to tell him she wasn’t stupid enough to be daydreaming, but it probably wasn’t in her best interest to tell him she could talk to her sister. So she kept her mouth shut.

Ariston moved closer, and Scout backed up until her heels hit the wall behind her. Mere inches from her, he stopped, his black pits seeming to stare into her very soul. He really would have been beautiful, if he’d had eyes. His face didn’t have the cruel twist it had in her dreams. Instead, there was only sadness. “You are a disappointment to me, Scout.”

“Join the club.” Scout snarled. “I’m a disappointment to everyone.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Well, that isn’t what I was expecting.”

She shrugged. He turned on his heel and walked away, swinging a bright scepter like it was a toy. “You were far too easy to find in the first place.” His words held the same hint of a Greek accent that Iros’s had. “And much too easy to commandeer your dreams.” He turned again, walking backward.
Tsking
as he shook his head. “And then luring you in here… I really thought you would be more of a challenge, Scout.” He stopped, tipping his head to the side as he watched her. “What is it my brother is so fascinated by?”

“Tell him you’re a dancer!”
Lil Bit begged.

“Take her soul. But tear it apart. Let her sister watch. Maybe that will bring her down where I can reach her.” Ariston spoke, dropping the glowing orb of the scepter until it touched the ground. The soul stealers swarmed from behind him, shrieking, screaming, bloody claws outstretched.

Let her sister watch.

Scout couldn’t put Lil Bit through that. She couldn’t let them kill her in front of her baby sister. “I’m a dancer!” she yelled.

The soul stealers didn’t care. She thought she caught just a gasp of Ashra’s voice in her head as the claws reached her, and she threw her hands over her face.
“I’m sorry.”

“Stop!”

Ariston’s voice seemed to freeze them all. Several of them already had their claws on her soul, tearing through her skin, her muscle. But none made a move to rip her soul out.

“I’m a dancer,” she gasped through the pain. “I’m a dancer.”

“Leave her.”

The claws retracted, which was nearly as painful as them going in. Scout bit back a scream, nearly breaking her teeth in the effort not to make a sound.

Ariston came closer again. “Do you soothe when you dance? Or do you merely dance? Young people in your world have absolutely horrid definitions of dance.”

“I soothe,” Scout answered, praying it was the right thing to say.

“Very well. Dance for me.”

“What?” she asked dumbly, staring at him in complete bewilderment.

“You said you’re a dancer. Dance for me.” He stepped back several paces and spread his arms wide. “Is this not enough room for you?”

For the first time, Scout looked beyond him to the castle surrounding them. It was dark — not as in the absence of light, for there were many candles hanging from the black chandeliers. The floors were black, the sparse furniture was all dark, twisted wood. The walls weren’t painted, but whatever the castle was made of — it was black as well. She couldn’t see the ceiling. It disappeared far beyond her view, obliterated by the mass of writhing soul stealers. The room itself stretched wide, nearly the size of a football field. But she saw no cage of unicorn bones holding thousands of souls.

“Where are you keeping my sister — my family?”

He raised an eyebrow. “In the throne room, of course. They keep me company.”

She stared at him. What, exactly, did she do now? She hurt, she was terrified, and there was no way she could fight this creature in front of her. She didn’t even dare demand she see her sister. Where was Ashra’s strength when she needed it?

Oh right. I left her outside fighting. I abandoned them to throw myself into a trap.

“This way.” Ariston turned sharply, snapping his fingers at her like she was some sort of servant. She opened and closed her mouth like a lost sea creature, but as soon as the orb from his scepter faded, the soul stealers swarmed in. With a screech rivaling any banshee, Scout bolted after him — after the protective glow of the orb.

At the far end of the room, a normal-size arch was nearly hidden in the darkness. Everything else in the castle was so wide, so sweeping, that the regular-ness of the doorway confused Scout.

“Are you coming, or did you want to play with my pets?” Ariston sounded exasperated. Not cruel, not evil. This human aspect of him threw Scout off. Everyone talked about him like he was larger than life and completely evil. She expected him to have horns and be thirty feet tall. It was harder to hate him when he sounded like any guy she might meet on a boat to Greece.

Until she saw the cage.

She came through the archway into another large room, although not as large as the first. The ceiling above her seemed to be alive, until she looked closer and realized it was roiling with soul stealers so thick it was impossible to see through them. And she knew why. Torz had been right — they weren’t swarming Aptavaras because they were attracted to the souls. To the left, in the shadows, was the cage of unicorn bones. It rose at least two stories high. Scout squinted, trying to see through the bones. They were woven together with only small gaps through, but then she saw them — hands. White, wispy hands reaching through the cracks in the cage, desperate to escape. Except… The closer the hands got to the floor, the less they were reaching, until at the very bottom the hands lay motionless, like they had given up.

Lil Bit was in there somewhere. Scout’s heart didn’t know whether to leap with hope or shatter in horror. So it did neither.

It kept beating.

Chapter Ten

“I’m here, Scout. We’re here at the top.”
Lil Bit’s voice was stronger when Scout was so close. It didn’t sound frightened or hurt. Lil Bit sounded… perky. Cheerful even, like if Scout could look up and see her, she would be waving enthusiastically her big, dark eyes shining. Like she would be unmindful of the fact that she was a soul without a body, trapped in an unbreakable cage, surrounded by creatures that wanted to tear her apart. Like she was only a little sister who was excited to see her big sister.

Scout’s heart broke and she sobbed.