Promises to Keep

hanging on the gossamer strands.

Except spiderwebs were fragile. This had existed, and would continue, for ages.

Brina was a bright glow near him. Yes, her vampirism was gone, but he realized she had power in her, like a witch’s magic, lingering, dormant in her blood. Could that power wake?

He skipped his awareness along the line of Shantel territory, through the leaves and winter breezes, the pine trees stretching in the cold air, and the deciduous trees tranquil in their long sleep.

He reached for Brina’s hand. She hesitated before taking his, concerned that he had told her to touch him only if she needed to interrupt him, but then followed his lead.

Look.

It was clumsy, like a child’s first steps, but once she realized what he was trying to do, she worked with him. Her artist’s mind was able to manipulate the patterns of magic in an instinctive way, so she was able to “see” as he did. The trees were his nerves, and the animals, his eyes. He could feel the power like a heartbeat and a pulse, a thought that made Brina nervous, until she recklessly submerged herself in the forest’s awareness.

They both could have drowned that way, forgetting their purpose in the lazy pulse of the forest’s slow life, but then they touched Rikai and Xeke. Those unwelcome powers were an irritation, like hot ash falling on the skin. Both of them were in pain, exhausted and starving, not for food but for power … and for hope. They had been lost since Jay and Brina had disappeared.

This way, Jay called.

Brina echoed him, lending her power to his. This way, she said. Hurry.

Together, they siphoned some of the forest’s abundant energy into the Triste and vampire, giving them the strength to stand and walk.

Once Rikai and Xeke drew near, though, their efforts drew the elemental’s attention. Until then the forest had responded to Jay and Brina, but now the elemental itself noticed what they were doing. As Rikai and Xeke hoisted themselves over the stone borders of the plaza and hurried to Jay and Brina, the spiderweb of magic shook itself, flinging Jay and Brina away.

When they opened their eyes, disoriented, a figure loomed in front of them.

She did not register to any sense but Jay’s eyes; to his magic, she was an extension of the land itself, in no way a separate being. Once, this body had belonged to a shapeshifter with ink-black skin and hair marked with white. Now, it had been claimed by darkness itself.

True darkness wasn’t evil. It was the ultimate neutral. People could kill each other under its cover, or make love. Like so many things, the only value the darkness held was that which others gave it, often based on its use —or ancient fears, of course, since so many things had used the darkness for their own nefarious purposes.

This darkness might once have been the neutral coolness of a deep cave, beyond the interference of fire’s light, but now it had been tainted by pain and loss and anger. It looked at Jay, and in its face he saw the fury of betrayal.

CHAPTER 25

THE CREATURE THAT stood before them, possessing the shapeshifter’s form, no longer saw Jay as an ally.

“Shantel,” Rikai said, stepping between Jay and the hostile immortal, “I know now how you have grown so strong. All that power in the ruins of Midnight, all the flesh sacrificed that day—you used them to bond yourself to everyone at the battle, including the other elementals. Since that day, you have secretly fed on every elemental that gave magic to that fight. That is how you are now strong enough to challenge Leona, while others have faded into obscurity.”

Jay would have been happy to let the Triste negotiate with the elemental, but Brina stepped forward, madly, and reached for the once-shapeshifter’s hand. As in everything, she saw heartbreaking beauty in this figure.

She is the night, Brina thought.

That’s not your Pet anymore, Jay thought back. The elemental was clearly occupying the shapeshifter’s body, but Jay doubted that made it weaker. Maybe you shouldn’t move so—

Brina touched the elemental’s arm, and the jolt of power passed through her and Jay both, blinding and deafening them for several moments.

By the time he recovered, the world around him had changed. The shadowy felines that had haunted the corners of his perception before were now solid and visible before him. Cats of all colors and patterns—many not found in nature—stalked around them. They were not entirely real, but neither could they be disregarded.

It took him three tries to see Lynx, who looked pale and colorless against the visions. Lynx backed away from the other cats, bristling.

The elemental stood above them like a vengeful angel.

“We didn’t come here to hurt you or any of your … people,” Jay said as he pushed himself slowly back to his feet. “We came here to try to ask you not to hurt my people. They never harmed you or any of your—”

“They did not help us, either,” the elemental replied, its voice heavy like thunder. Jay feared that its words alone might have the power to destroy him. Listening to it speak made his bones ache.

“Who do you think destroyed Midnight centuries ago?” Jay argued. Where were Xeke and Rikai? Nearby, he hoped.…

“What good did that little revolution do, when the worst creatures all survived? When, after your kin declared victory, my child continued to live in suffering?”

You’re reasoning with it the wrong way, Brina thought.

“Spirit of the Shantel,” Brina said, her voice gentle and respectful, “you wear the form of one who used to belong to me.”

The elemental snarled, recoiling. “The sakkri of the Shantel belongs to no one!”

Brina tilted her head, as if confused. “I know of no sakkri. I know only of a creature named Pet. Has she not introduced herself to you as such?”

Was the elemental getting bigger? Or was Jay shrinking?

“Brina,” he whispered, trying to warn.

“You tried to name her and tried to own her,” the elemental said, “but the shell you possessed was meaningless.”

“The same shell you possess now?” Brina asked, tilting her head as if confused. “Is the sakkri even in there with you? Did you protect her at all, or did you just claim her for your own use? After all, you could not have been too fond of her, considering you were the one who gave her away. Is all this anger just a mask for your own regrets?”

Brina’s distraction had given Jay a chance to recall their original plan: get inside Shantel land, and therefore inside the elemental’s defenses, so Leona could fight back. If the Shantel elemental is here, where’s Leona?

“You think this is all of me?” the elemental replied to his thought. “This shell you see is a fragment of my power, nothing more than I need to speak with you. The battle continues, beyond the ken of mere mortals.”

“Shantel!” Xeke called, striding forward. “This is a foolish battle.”

The elemental turned to him, and the felines moved closer, snarling, until the rumble of the earth threw Jay and Brina to the ground. Only as he fell did Jay realize that Xeke’s form was shimmering, as overwhelming to behold as the possessed sakkri herself.

One of Xeke’s progenitors has a bond to an earth elemental called Leshan, Rikai had said. I was able to partially block Xeke’s connection to Leona and tighten his bond to Leshan.