Six (21 page)

“I liked you better when you didn’t have opinions.” He peeks at me through his fingers. At my expression he amends quickly, “That’s not how it should be. When I make love to you for the first time, I want you to feel it as it’s supposed to be felt. Passion, longing…lust pressing on you so heavy you think you might crack. I want forever with you, not just tonight.” I shake my head in awe. Feeling with Finn is effortless. I know I am not able to decide what I feel or when I feel it, but I know without the emotion present, that I
will
love him. I catch a tear that threatens to roll down my face on the tip of my finger.

I examine the small liquid ball. “I am so happy I am crying. I thought I was confused before,” I admit. Finn laughs. The sound is perfectly lyrical, a salve to the jagged part of my heart. I watch his silvery brown eyes crinkle at the corner. I capture this moment and pair it next to the day at the lagoon. An unflawed moment marked in history. “It brings me indescribable happiness to know that the best moments, filled with emotion, are yet to come,” I tell him as he continues smiling. He watches closely as he drags a finger over my collarbone and down the center of my bare chest. I swallow as the longing for his body immediately begins again. His touch is like a switch.

A loud crash jolts us upright. It echoes through the room, originating outside the broken window. Finn is on his feet and armed in a flash. I pull on my shirt just as he tosses me a knife—my knife, that he must have packed before he left our circle. I catch it and follow behind him to the edge of the window. Lost in each other we left ourselves unguarded and unprotected.

We are at least thirty floors above the heated ground. Ruined buildings line the street spanning as far as the eye can see. Lana swings out from the window next to us. She wears a devil-may-care smirk and swings her bow around her wrist, while teetering on one foot. She flirts with disaster as easily as she handles witch princes, darklings, and angry savages.

“You guys heard it too? I wasn’t sure if you would. You were making so much damn noise in there,” Lana says. She smiles and sighs as she grabs the ledge and shimmies herself into the room where we stand. Lana casually glances at Finn’s shirtless chest and for the first time, I feel jealous she stares so openly.

She clears her throat too loudly. “I’m glad to see you’ve kept your good humor since you’ve arrived at this pleasant location,” Finn says, irony lacing his words.

A shot of fire blazes from the ground up into the air by our window. Lana shakes her bow at it. Finn walks over and grabs his shirt off the bed, and shrugs it on. He flips his brown shaggy hair out of his eyes and starts assembling some mechanical contraption on the table.

“The only way out of the Dark Citadel is by spell,” he says. “The sorceress who guards the abandoned city has the ability to get us back into the forests that surround the circles, but we’ll have to make it to her first.” Finn peers out the windows at the winged creatures, and then picks up the machine he is working on. I recognize it as a gun from the old world. “I’ve found that guns works better for getting them out of the sky.” Thoughts of the desert circle and of Louis cloud my mind. It seems a lifetime ago that the nasty attack was the worst thing in my life. I laugh. Finn peers at me curiously.

Lana scoffs. “Better than my arrows would? I seriously doubt that.” I bite my lip to keep from laughing. Lana tells Finn that the Prince and his guard are after me and we do not have much time to waste. Finn tells Lana that he gave away love for the ability to enter the Dark Citadel. They come to the conclusion that we are stuck. If I cannot feel the last two emotions in a week, I am to go back with Liam. If he finds me, which seems doubtful in this place, I will have go back with him as well. So, we hide and we run.

“Well why don’t you guys just fucking
feel
already? The last ones are always the easiest!” Lana hisses. “Should I lock you in this room for a few days? I’ll go kill shit for fun. Sound like a plan?” A beastly roar sounds from the window. I swallow loudly.

“We’ll feel no emotions in this hellish place. Obviously.” Finn points the gun out the window and fires it. I cover my ears as the blast echoes in the room.

The scaly green creature swoops down, but returns to hover in the air next to the building. It is too large to come in, but the fire that steams from its mouth promises pain.

“Emma you can’t use any dark magic. You can’t let it surface at all. It’s how the witches will track you. They can’t take what they can’t find. This place is enormous and they will be out of their element, as it hasn’t been touched since the old world. They will be in just as much danger as we are. A lot of their magic is subdued in the abandoned city. The sorceress who so kindly took my emotion as toll into this place told me she wasn’t a fan of the witches.” Finn looks out the window again and fires the gun just as the winged beast sucks in a breath to blast fire. It dips below, and this time, stays down. “She also told me not to kill her pet savages, but we don’t have a choice.” Reloading his gun, he shrugs.

“Great! So you’re pissing off the bitch who has our only way out of here?” Lana screams.

While Finn and Lana bicker, I stoop down and open my backpack. I pull out the onyx charm and place it back on the necklace with Finn’s heart. I clasp it around my neck and unwrap the cakes I have packed. I hand one to Lana and one to Finn. His eyes widen as he sees the intricately designed layers of sugar that are weaved into the confection. I smile, remembering the novelty of the lavish foods at the palace. Lana shoves the whole cake in her mouth and chews it. Spitting crumbs from her mouth, she screams profanities out the window.

“Liam does not want an heir. He just wants me,” I tell Finn.

He takes a deep breath and hikes his shoulders. “Of course he does,” he says, defeated. I bring my hands up and rub my eyes. “Go get some sleep, Emma. I’ll make sure you’re safe,” Finn says as he pulls me into a hug. He kisses me lightly on the mouth and smiles contentedly. Lana catcalls from behind us. I ignore her and walk to the bed, and fall into the ash covered blankets. A puff of dust billows into the air around me.

Right before blackness takes me over, I hear Lana and Finn whispering. “You are on thin ice after you cranked off Louis’ head. You won’t be able to get them to budge.” Finn responds so quietly I do not hear his words. “What? That’s a horrible idea!” Lana rasps.

I hear Finn say, “Go to bed, Lana. I’ll crank off more heads so you can get some rest.”

I feel the bed weigh down next to me. I fall blissfully asleep.

Chapter Twenty-Six

July 27th, Morning

Heat and gunfire jolt me awake and I think it is probably the worst possible way to come to consciousness. The room lights with orange fire and Finn is shooting into the flames at a creature hovering just behind the large blaze at our window.

Time stands still. A small drop of sweat rolls down his face then he looks at me. “Come on, ladies. Time to get out of here,” Finn yells averting his eyes back to the target.

Lana and I stumble out of the bed. I grab my pack and knife as Lana struggles to scrounge Finn’s things off the floor before we exit into the hallway. We take the same stairs as the night before, almost flying down. I know my magic would be surfacing now if I did not wear my onyx pendant to control it. I am scared and I know my heart is thrumming because I do not know what comes next. Lana and Finn are flinging orders to each other.

They are a perfect team, a well-oiled machine that runs efficiently without any help. I am only a hindrance. As if sensing my distress, Finn slows to wait for me. He grabs my hand and we take the stairs at my pace instead of theirs. The stairwell proves quiet…too quiet. It blocks all the noise from the outside world, giving a false sense of security. It only seems safer in these close quarters than by the rooms with the broken windows, open to the repugnant atmosphere outdoors.

We come up short as we round a stairwell and almost run into a savage. Finn takes a protective stance in front of me, with an arm thrown out to hold me back. One glance and I know this is not a savage from the forest—or any breed I have ever seen. This thing is beastly. Its properly proportioned eyes are vastly intelligent. It stands much taller than Finn and its exposed skin glistens wet. It has a pair of small demonic horns atop his enormous round head. It also wears clothing.

When it notices us studying, it smiles to reveal a mouth full of jaggedly sharp teeth. I realize this savage
is
intelligent. With the savage in the front of us, it traps us in this corridor. The door above us is too far to reach and the exit to the outside is behind the savage. It takes a large step toward us. Finn raises the gun using both hands and takes aim. It leers at Finn and the throaty noise that escapes its mouth actually resembles a true laugh. He fires the gun and hits the savage directly in the stomach. It merely looks down, unbothered by the wound, then returns his focus back to us. The wound hisses and squirts. Covering my mouth, I step back as far as I can.

I hear Lana fishing for an arrow. “Oh, for crying out loud!” she screeches from beside me. She raises her bow and instead of shooting an arrow at the savage in front of us, she aims directly up. “Move, bitches. It’s dinner time for the uglies.”

I look up and see another savage falling from high above us. We scamper back a few paces just as a savage of a different species lands with a thick, wet thud in front of us. Lana’s arrow sticks in its deformed head, right between the black, engorged eyes. The horned savage in front of us descends on the other savage, tearing into the carcass with vicious bites and swipes with its claws. Thick, dark blood sprays everywhere. During the disgusting melee we are able to escape to the bottom floor, completely surrounded by glass and metal.

“Tell me again how your guuu-n is better than my arrows,” Lana smarts.

Finn claps Lana on the shoulder. “Well done, killer,” he says. Lana preens under his praise, oblivious to everything else.

All I can do is bring my knife up in front of me, still frightened and unable to rein in my emotions. The hissing of the fire from the crack in the street sounds similar to the savage’s growls and it echoes in this open space.

He lays a hand on my shoulder. I know the gesture is meant to reassure me, but it causes me to startle. “I know the way back to the sorceress. It will probably take a day to get there. That is if she hasn’t switched locations. All we have to do is convince her to let us back into the circles even though an entire palace is hunting for Emma,” Finn says as he reloads his gun. “I’m running low on bullets and now we’ll have to fight the damn savages off. I’ve been able to determine once one finds a target they all gain the knowledge. They are connected telepathically.” Which means they all know we are here in this building standing still—unmoving targets.

I take a deep breath. “If they know where we are at anyways, I will just use magic to get us to the sorceress quicker. Not using it makes no difference at this point. We will die by the savage’s hand or the witches will catch us. The probability of either fate is high,” I say. Lana and Finn both look at me and then at each other. They have a silent exchange. I feel envious of their ability to communicate without words.

They nod in unison. “It will have to be quick,” Lana says. She scans the room with her bow. I look at Finn and he bobs his head slightly in agreement. I take off my necklace, shove it into my pocket, and ball up my fists by my sides. I think of all the emotions…even the ones I do not have and then I urge them to overtake me. I want to sample the ferocity of each one. When anger and fear merge, I feel the glow of dark magic well inside me, lighting the dormant place that buzzes with power. I think of the emotions, but I do not feel them and for that I am thankful because Finn turns his head away when my emotionless eyes glow white. I know what he sees. I am dark, empty—a shell of the person he is fond of.

Remembering the task at hand, I flip both of my palms up and the spinning orbs appear above them, twirling at such a high speed that my hair whips around my face. A fire lights every molecule that my magic controls. I am gone. My eyes brighten to light the orbs and all falls silent.

“Show me the sorceress,” I say, my voice mechanical. The streams of glowing magic wrap my body. My bare skin prickles as the dark orbs melt into one large sphere. Beginning dim and growing more precise as the seconds go by, the image builds. The beautiful sorceress wears a long white dress, untouched by ash and dirt. She swishes her flowing dress by grabbing the sides and turning in circles. Back and forth she sways. Her long, wavy blond hair entrances me. She is ethereal. She is perfect. She turns and I catch a glimpse of her light blue eyes. When I realize she looks like me, I cannot dart my gaze to the scenery behind her to know where she resides. “I will come to you, princess,” the sorceress says. Nothing is more impossible than looking away. Something inside her calls to something inside me.

“Oh, my.” I hear my words, but do not remember deciding to say them. Finn grabs one of my hands while Lana grabs the other and they bring them together in an exaggerated clap. The orb disappears and I feel sad. The sorceress holds infinite, lonely grace.

“I saw where she was just in case she doesn’t find us quick enough. I recognized the background. She wants us to expect her. She wouldn’t have shown herself in Emma’s vision otherwise,” Finn says. He completely ignores the way the vision makes me feel, not even chancing a look my way.