Impervious (City of Eldrich Book 1) (29 page)

John smiled at Meaghan, the broad free smile that made the years and pain drop away from his face. “She doesn’t need me to have wings. Why feel shame for losing something I don’t need any more? I don’t need wings to be a man, Fahrayan or human, no matter what anyone thinks.”

And I don’t need a womb to be a mother, Meaghan thought. Just a functioning heart. “See?” she murmured in Jamie’s ear. “I told you. He loves you. It’s time to get you home.”

Chapter 51

M
eaghan heard a
voice speaking Fahrayan. Faltering at first but growing stronger. She craned her head around to see Sid, sitting up as he spoke. She felt a dizzying rush of relief.

Sid dragged himself to his feet and, still speaking, walked toward John. He gave V’hren a contemptuous look, and once at John’s side, grabbed his hand and raised it victoriously.

“What’s he saying?”

Jamie, who seemed energized by Sid’s recovery, pulled himself up and sat without support. “He’s telling them about the deal and about my father turning it down flat and why.”

The murmur of the crowd grew louder. After eighteen years of living in fear of V’hren, of having their thoughts clouded by magic, the Fahrayans were waking up, many nodding as Sid spoke, and staring at John with growing admiration.

And then V’hren made his move. Much like it had when Meaghan witnessed Emily attack Jamie, time seemed to slow. She saw V’hren pull a stone knife from his belt and run at John, knife raised, as Meaghan screamed a warning. Sid and John, turning toward her, saw V’hren nearly on top of them. Sid, who in his present form was bigger than John, shoved John aside as V’hren swept his hand down to strike. Instead of hitting John, V’hren plunged his knife into the middle of Sid’s chest. Sid fell to the ground.

Jamie and Meaghan both screamed. Even in Jamie’s weakened state, Meaghan had to use all her strength to keep him from throwing himself at V’hren. John rose to his feet, and in one flowing movement, plucked the knife from Sid’s chest, grabbed V’hren, and cut his throat.

And for a moment, silence. It had all happened so fast that it took a moment for the crowd to register what John had done. Then, a collective gasp rose, and they erupted—cheering, crying, screaming.

John ignored the pandemonium and tossed the knife away, dropping to his knees at Sid’s side. Meaghan pulled Jamie to his feet and half-supported, half-dragged him to where Sid lay.

Sid’s eyes were open as he smiled up at John. The pink T-shirt was soaked with the blue blood that oozed from the hole in his chest. “Is Jamie okay?” he wheezed. He began to choke and John put his arms around him and pulled him up into a semi-reclining pose. Sid coughed spasmodically, then spit up more blue blood. He was drowning inside.

Jamie grabbed his hand. “Hey, buddy. I’m here. You hang on until we get home and Natalie can fix you up.”

Sid shook his head. “I’m done, sweetie. Circling the drain. But your shithead uncle’s going with me, so it’s all good.” More coughing shook him. “Where’s Meg?”

Meaghan took his other hand. “Right here. Don’t you talk like that. You’re going to be fine.” Even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true. Sid was dying in John’s arms. Even if John and Jamie could still fly, they wouldn’t be able to get him to the gateway in time to save him. As it was, without help, it would be a grueling trek simply getting Jamie over the rocky pathless terrain to the gateway, let alone Sid.

With all eyes focused on Sid, V’hren was forgotten. Then Meaghan registered the screaming from the crowd. Sid’s eyes widened and he gave a thready hoot. Meaghan followed his gaze and saw V’hren, standing, covered in the blood that ran from his gaping throat. John had nearly decapitated him. But there he stood, his mouth twisted into a horrible parody of a smile.

As Meaghan screamed, one of V’hren’s bloody lifeless hands shot towards Jamie and twined itself into his hair. V’hren pulled Jamie onto his knees and dragged him away from Sid. V’hren’s other hand clasped the stone knife John had discarded. A hideous grin stretched across his dead face, he lifted the knife to strike.

Then a figure swooped down, like a giant bird of prey attacking, and pulled the knife from V’hren’s hand, knocking him to the ground.

Jhoro had finally chosen his moment.

Matthew had described a Fahrayan warrior in flight as a “helluva thing.” Try glorious, Meaghan thought. Terrifying, awe-inspiring. And sexy as hell. No wonder they equated losing their wings with losing their manhood. Nobody who was proportionally sized would ever mistake Jhoro for a childlike fairy.

V’hren stood up again, like a zombie in a bad horror movie. Jamie scrambled away on hands and knees as fast as he could, a look of horror on his battered face. V’hren took several fast steps and reached for the back of Jamie’s neck. His dead fingers grabbed but couldn’t get a grip.

Jhoro swooped out the sky, wrapped a muscular arm around V’hren’s neck, and pulled him into the air. A few wing strokes took them to the rocks surrounding the natural bowl where the assembled Fahrayans watched, transfixed. Jhoro made a lazy circle, climbing the air currents to about fifty feet above the ground, and then he dropped V’hren’s struggling corpse.

For a corpse it had to be. Meaghan had seen up close how deep and savage the cut across V’hren’s throat had been. John had struck a killing blow that V’hren could not have survived. Whatever inhabited him now manipulated his body through dark magic or sheer force of will.

Meaghan held her breath, waiting to see if V’hren would rise yet again.

He didn’t disappoint. After a quick moment on the ground, V’hren launched himself into the air, his wings broken and askew but still effective. He shot towards Jhoro, who watched in horror as his father’s corpse flew toward him. Jhoro hovered until the last moment, then he dove straight downwards at speed. V’hren howled in rage and dove after him.

A moment before he reached the ground, Jhoro did a tight forward roll so his feet now faced downward. He braked slightly with his wings. Using his legs like springs, he pushed off the ground at an angle and shot back into the sky.

V’hren’s broken wings and broken body lacked the dexterity to copy the maneuver. He crashed headfirst hard into the ground and lay still, face down, his body broken and contorted. Jhoro landed beside him and probed the corpse with his spear. When V’hren didn’t respond, Jhoro rolled him over.

The impact had crushed the top of V’hren’s skull, caving in his bloody forehead. One eye was gone and the skin below it was peeled back to expose the cheekbone. Something that looked like gray cottage cheese and raspberry jelly smeared his neck and chest.

Jhoro stared for a moment, nodded, and then launched himself back in the air.

Brains, Meaghan thought. Those are his brains smeared all over him. He’s not getting up from that. She turned her head, willing herself not to vomit. After several deep breaths, the nausea passed.

She felt Sid squeeze her hand. She turned her attention back to him.

“Showoff. Stealing my death scene,” he gasped. “Take care of Melanie. She didn’t want me to go in the first place. Neither did you. So don’t feel guilty. Tell her too. Tell everybody how awesome brave I was. Get Jamie over here and give us a minute alone, okay?”

John caught her gaze. He still kneeled at Sid’s head, supporting him, his arms around him. Silent, John gestured with his head to indicate Jamie’s position, a worried look on his somber face.

Jamie crouched a few yards away, a rock held tightly in his hand, glaring at his uncle’s corpse. “Stay dead, fucker, or I’ll bash the rest of your skull in. Stay dead. You stay dead,” he muttered.

He looked crazed and feral, like something had snapped inside him. It hadn’t even been two full days, Meaghan realized, since the cookout at her house, and the happy young husband and father was now a broken man. It would take more than medical treatment and rest to save him. She feared he might be so broken he couldn’t be saved.

“Jamie,” she said in a low voice, moving slowly toward him. “Honey. Sid wants to talk to you.” She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He grunted and lifted the rock to strike before recognizing her. The rock fell from his hand and he burst into huge racking sobs. “C’mon, honey,” she said, holding out her hand. “Let’s go see Sid.”

Meaghan helped him hobble to Sid’s side. She and John stepped away as Sid requested. A hush fell over the crowd as Jhoro landed next to her, followed by Finn, and several other young Fahrayan men. And a few women, Meaghan noticed. There were about a dozen of them, towering around her. She saw Finn slip his hand into Jhoro’s and squeeze it for a moment before he let go. They exchanged a quick glance. The contact was meant to be surreptitious, and neither Finn nor Jhoro realized that Meaghan had witnessed it.

Startled, she realized what it was she’d felt between them earlier. They were far more than friends and comrades. They were lovers. And they didn’t want anyone to know.

Your secret is safe with me, she thought. If you found love in this horrible place, as fugitives, good for you.

Meaghan felt the knot in her chest loosen. V’hren was defeated. Jhoro and his men would help them get back to the gateway with Jamie and Sid. The knot returned. Sid’s
body
, she corrected herself. She dreaded facing Melanie. But at least now they could return Sid’s body and give Melanie the small comfort of being able to follow whatever rituals the Troon observed at death.

Sid was gone, but Jamie was alive. Broken but alive. And John, somehow, was better. Not well, maybe, but better than he’d been since his exile. He’d made peace with his ordeal in time to help his son find a way forward. They only needed to hitch a lift back to the gateway and they would be home.

Where she could have a mug of Russ’s coffee. And a bath. And sleep. She noticed in that moment her own fatigue and pain. Her arm ached where the scorpion had bit her. Her knee and right palm, injured climbing the outcrop to free Jamie, throbbed in counterpoint. Her clothes were wet with Jamie’s blood. Every muscle hurt and she had a boom thumper of a headache.

“I’m too old for this action hero shit,” she mumbled. Jhoro looked down at her with his gorgeous smile. She smiled back.

They were going to be okay.

And then V’hren sat up.

Chapter 52

J
amie,
by Sid’s
side, let out a blood-curdling wail. With a roar, John threw himself at V’hren. An instant later, Jhoro followed.

But V’hren, now on his feet, had one last trick to show them. He conjured a magical barrier. Before John could grab V’hren, a bright light flashed and John was thrown through the air. Meaghan screamed and ran to him, her heart pounding.

John was stunned but otherwise unhurt. She helped him up. He wrapped her in a crushing hug for a moment. “Stay with Jamie,” he said before letting her go and running toward V’hren. She ran to Jamie, who was huddled over Sid, and she threw herself on top of both of them.

John shouted something at V’hren in Fahrayan. V’hren grinned back, his mouth stretched in a horrible rictus across his bloody face.

V’hren’s head lay on his shoulder at an impossible angle and Meaghan realized his neck was broken. Yet he still stood. He slashed one hand through the air.

Meaghan didn’t want to believe her eyes. It looked like V’hren had ripped a tear in the space in front of him. Meaghan saw a wavering, black vertical line several feet long. V’hren made a pulling motion and the line widened into a gaping hole. With a last ravenous look, he stepped through the gap and was gone.

The ground shook beneath their feet. With a roar, the gap widened. She felt a sudden wind rush past her. Dust and small stones were carried up in the flow and pulled into the gap. Within moments, the wind increased to a gale and, in a rush of panic, Meaghan realized what V’hren had done. Melanie had described Fahraya as a bubble of space time, but Meaghan saw now that it was more like a balloon, and V’hren had torn a hole in it. Fahraya was collapsing.

Meaghan, gripping Jamie and Sid, shouted to John. “We have to go!
Now!
”

John stared at the gap, the blood drained from his face. She knew he saw the same thing she did and understood what it meant. If V’hren couldn’t have Fahraya, no one could.

John shouted something to Jhoro, Finn, and the rest of Jhoro’s followers. Finn, already airborne, scooped up Meaghan. Jhoro grabbed Jamie, and launched into the air, followed by another Fahrayan who had Sid’s body. She heard more shouting and over Finn’s shoulder saw the assembled Fahrayans arise en masse and fly in different directions toward the various gateways.

“John? Where’s John?” she shouted at Finn. He pointed behind them. One of Jhoro’s men carried John through the air.

They were headed for the Eldrich gateway, flying hard against the headwind caused by the atmosphere rushing into the gap. It was like flying into a hurricane.

It had taken Sid and Meaghan hours to get from the gateway to the settlement. At the rate Fahraya was ripping itself apart, they had mere minutes to make the return trip.

Meaghan could feel Finn struggle against the roaring wind, his heart pounding as he sprinted for the gateway. She clung to him. Fahrayans were all around them, those without passengers moving much faster. Meaghan felt a hand reach for her arm. She resisted, then looked over at Jhoro and saw that he now shared Jamie with another Fahrayan, each tightly gripping one of Jamie’s arms.

“Oh shit oh shit
oh shit
,” she cried as she squeezed her eyes shut and let the hand take her arm. Scared beyond rational thought, Meaghan now dangled between two Fahrayans as they flew.

By the time they got to the gateway, it was all the Fahrayans could do to hold course in face of the howling, roaring wind. Large rocks flew through the air and she heard screams and knew that someone had been hit.

John grabbed her and shouted in her ear. “Go. You go now.”

“No,” she shouted back. “I’m not leaving you here.”

“You’re the only one big enough to take Sid through. You go now. I’ll be there soon. Once my people are through.”

A leaf the size of a comforter blew through the gateway and nearly hit them. The gap was starting to pull debris from the other side. She nodded.

But before she could go, he pulled her close and kissed her hard, as if trying to compress his passion into a moment. He pulled away.

“Don’t you die,” she shouted. “I want to do that again.”

“That’s what I hope,” he shouted back. He helped drape Sid’s body across her shoulders in a fireman carry and shoved her toward the stone pillars that marked the gateway. Struggling against the wind and Sid’s weight, she staggered through. She stumbled as she felt Sid grow suddenly lighter and smaller.

She and Sid fell into the clearing. Lynette and Natalie were waiting, swaying in the growing wind, mouths hanging open in shock.

“What the hell’s going on?” Natalie shouted over the roar of the trees as she ran to Meaghan.

“End of the world,” Meaghan shouted back. “Fahraya’s collapsing. Once everybody’s through, we have to close the gateways.”

“Everybody?” Lynette shouted. “What do you mean?”

“Everybody. The whole damn population’s coming through the gateways. Then we need to shut them. All of them. Soon. How do we do that?’

Natalie shook her head. “There’s no way to do it.” Then her face fell. “Except, maybe . . . but you can’t.”

“Can’t what? If we don’t stop this, it’s taking this world with it.” Out of the corner of her eye, Meaghan saw a steady stream of Fahrayans, now tiny, zoom past.

Natalie stared in shock at the tiny Fahrayans flowing through the gateway.

“Natalie, goddammit, how do we shut the gateways?”

Natalie turned back to her, a dazed look on her face and tears in her eyes. “There’s only one way I can think of. You do it. You shut them. You go back in and right before the end, you take off your amulet.”