“No,” said Trix. “This place… it gives me a bad feeling.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said. “I think Adair might have the cure. It’s not in the warehouse, but someone came here and ordered everyone to die, and I don’t think it was Shawn.”
Unless they’d been operating on a previously given instruction, it would have been Adair’s persuasive magic which had forced them to end their lives. The Family were one step ahead of me, as per usual.
“Who’s Adair?” asked Trix.
“My brother… well, not by blood,” I clarified. “Adair… he’s half elf, like me, except not nice in the slightest.”
That was putting it mildly.
“Oh, that’s sad,” he said. “I don’t have any family left.”
My heart clenched. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologising?”
Because my family might have killed yours. But I didn’t know for sure, and now wasn’t the time for that conversation. Sudden movement came from behind us, and we both turned around as Shawn rose to his feet, his gaze strangely blank.
“What the—?”
That’s when the other fallen bodies in the warehouse climbed upright as though propelled by an invisible force. In unison, every single one of them turned in our direction.
“Oh, shit,” I said.
I backed up. So did Trix. While both of us had the advantage of enhanced speed, Miles didn’t, and he might be anywhere down here, vulnerable to getting trampled. Or worse, in the hands of the person who was controlling them.
Lex. Her power afforded her control over the dead as well as the living. I hadn’t seen her use it for a long time, but nobody else could be responsible.
The Family had already taken one friend from me. I wouldn’t let them take another. Especially Miles.
“Run,” I told Trix. “Go ahead. Keep an eye out for Miles. I’ll take care of Shawn.”
He wasn’t dead, and for all I knew, he’d regain consciousness any second now. I’d rather put him down permanently first. Not that that would stop Lex’s army of zombies, but even an elf would have trouble handling her, with or without Adair fighting at her side.
“I won’t run,” he said. “I’m going to call the wyrm back, but it might be a little loud. Should I?”
“I’m all out of better ideas,” I said. “All right.”
He let out a whistle, loud and shrill. I all but jumped out of my skin, not expecting the sudden noise, yet no wyrm appeared.
“Trix, I don’t think the wyrm’s listening to you.”
“Huh.” His brow wrinkled. “That should have worked.”
The bodies began to walk again, feet dragging on the battered ground. “You know what, let’s use my idea and run instead.”
As we did so, I shot a fireball over my shoulder to slow some of them down. We cleared the rise of a small hill—and stopped abruptly at the sight of Adair standing in the shadow of a large coiled shape, wearing a lazy smile. The wyrm curled up at his back, its jaws closed around Miles from behind.
22
I faced my brother. “Let him go.”
The wyrm kept a firm grip on Miles, while Trix halted, staring up at him.
“Stop,” Adair said, and Shawn’s unconscious body skidded to a halt behind us. The others, however, kept on moving, zombie-style. Lex was somewhere nearby, all right, but had declined to show her face. Shawn and Adair were quite enough to deal with on their own, though. Not to mention the wyrm.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded. “Where’s Lex?”
“She has important business to deal with in Elysium.”
“She isn’t here?” It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she’d gone after the Houses. Or what was left of them.
Miles, meanwhile, remained stuck in the monster’s mouth, unable to move. I kept one eye on him as I approached my brother. “So she left you here alone. Again.”
“This time you won’t beat me,” he said. “You’ll see there’s no other option but to join me.”
“Someday you’ll take a hint,” I replied. “I wouldn’t join you if you paid me.”
“But would you if it meant saving your friend?” he said.
Dammit. “Let him go. He’s not part of the deal.”
“We don’t have a deal,” he said. “And since that other traitorous little friend of yours is dead—”
Fire punched from my fist, right at his face. He barely got a yelp out before he fell flat on his back. The wyrm growled, keeping its jaws locked around Miles’s body, but its movements were slow, reluctant. Maybe Trix had had it right. The beast didn’t want to hurt him.
Adair climbed to his feet, spitting out curses. “Attacking me won’t help you. Your friend is doomed and so are those spirit mage allies of yours back in Elysium.”
Miles stiffened, but he was still unable to move without ending up impaled on the wyrm’s teeth. “Is that what Lex is doing? Or is that a lie she told you to get you out of the way?”
“She has the cure,” he said, with a grin. “And she’s taking it to Elysium right now to offer to the Houses in exchange for their cooperation.”
Oh, Elements. So that was their plan—bribe the Houses into taking their side. It might well work, too, with no other cure within sight and the Order on the side of the enemy. Meanwhile, our own side was looking pretty damn sparse. In fact, I couldn’t even see Trix anywhere. I wouldn’t expect him to run off, but I didn’t blame him if he had, considering the army of zombies drawing closer to us by the second.
Behind Adair, the air shimmered with an odd light. Is that another illusion?
It hadn’t been there before, so it wasn’t a cantrip, surely. A gasp lodged in my throat as I made out the shapes of a dozen tiny humanoid faces among the lights. The sprites we’d freed from the citadel. Trix popped up behind them, unseen by my brother. Thanks, Trix.
Adair tilted his head. “Well? Going to agree to join me?”
“I’d rather eat dirt.” I gave a slight nod to Trix, a signal to attack.
At once, the
