Page 47 of Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One 2)

he expected he could douse his sister’s fire, but wasn’t sure about her own. So she opened a door for him and his team, drawing the fire back enough to give them a path.

He glanced up, met her eyes, held them for a moment, just an instant, that seemed to spin out and out.

Then she and Laoch stood in the clearing facing Mallick. He held the crystal in his hands.

“Are you injured?”

“No.” She slid off Laoch, ran her hands over him. The way the shrapnel had flown, exploded so high … But he didn’t have a single scratch. “We’re not hurt.”

“Were you successful?”

“I caught them in time. Some of them knew my parents, so they believed me. The map you helped me draw, and showed me how to light it in the dark, helped. I followed the plan you approved, except…”

He lifted his brows. “Except?”

“Tonia asked to ride with me, to get to the prison faster. And together … I thought of it after we were in the air. We ringed the armory in fire so the enemy couldn’t get more weapons. So the New Hope soldiers could take what they had time to take, then they’d destroy it.”

He considered. “An acceptable amendment to our agreement.” He wouldn’t have known, he admitted. He wasn’t permitted to see into the crystal.

“The rest is up to them, but they had the advantage. If I could’ve stayed a little longer—”

“One hour. We agreed. See to your horse, then come inside.”

“I want to see. The crystal will show me.”

“When you come inside. Laoch needs your attention.”

“He was perfect, Mallick.” Still pulsing from the journey, from the battle, the flight, she turned to nuzzle Laoch. “We were bound so tight. He knew, I knew, every move, every turn. You were right when you said Grace wasn’t meant for battle. He is.”

She led the horse away. You are, Mallick thought, and went inside to wait for her.

* * *

They would call it the Battle of Fire.

More than a rescue, Duncan thought as he sped home with Tonia behind him. They’d secured all the prisoners, freed more than twenty slaves, and added twelve semiauto long guns, twenty-two handguns, four boxes of grenades, a couple of sawed-off shotguns, and pounds of ammunition to their own stores.

What vehicles they hadn’t disabled or destroyed they drove back to New Hope.

A rout, he thought, a frigging rout. What had nearly been a massacre had turned into one of the biggest victories of the New Hope Resistance.

“No way she just vanished into thin air.”

Duncan rolled his eyes. Every few miles Tonia shouted some variety of that same statement in his ear.

“Certain way, because she did.”

“She flew away.”

“I told you she didn’t. She was there, then she wasn’t. She poofed.”

“She wasn’t astral projecting. I touched her. I was on the damn horse. She was there.”

“She was there. Then she wasn’t.” How the hell had she done it? he wondered—as he did every few miles. He damn well wanted to figure it out and do it himself.

“There was something about her.”

“Yeah, yeah. The One. The Savior. I’ll give her the wicked cool horse and the firepower, but she looked like a regular girl witch to me.”

“You didn’t touch her. When I did? I felt this buzz, like in the blood. Not exactly like it is with you and me, but something. And I’ve been thinking about it since I’ve had time to think instead of fight. I was touching her—pressed to her on the horse—when I made the fire. I’ve never made it that fast, I’ve never made it that big. It just rolled, Duncan. I think, because of the contact. The physical contact.”

“If she’d hung around we could’ve debriefed her. What was the frigging hurry?”

“She said—I forgot to tell you—something about she didn’t have much time before she got pulled back. And no, she didn’t say where or how or why. We were a little busy at the time.”

Wind, cold and stiff, blew over them, but in it Duncan caught the scent of waking spring.

In his mind flashed an image of Fallon, face illuminated as she danced around a bonfire. A crown of white flowers over her dark hair.

“She wanted to stay.”

“What?”

“Crap,” he blurted; he hadn’t meant to say it aloud. “She wanted to stay. It’s something I felt from her. Yeah, there’s a connection. I felt it when I looked up at her right before she went poof. She wanted to stay and fight, but … it wasn’t time.”

“One thing’s for sure, if it hadn’t been time for her to show up tonight, a lot of us, maybe most of us, wouldn’t be heading home.”

“How the hell did she know? That’s my question.”

“We’ve both had visions,” Tonia reminded him.

“Have you ever had one so clear and detailed you could draw a damn map? A really accurate map.”

He wanted that skill, too. Coveted it.

“It’s like she’d been inside that base. She knew how many guards were posted at the prison, knew about the fuel tanks.”

“And blew the hell out of them,” Tonia added, full of cheer. “We’re not The One, Dunc. She knows more because she is more.”

To his mind, he would want more than an hour, no matter how successful, to be sure of that.

When they crossed into New Hope, Tonia went with the team to debrief, treat, and house those who’d been imprisoned or enslaved. He expected Hannah would spend most of the night at the clinic.

A lot they’d brought in were in bad shape.

He went with another team to transfer the confiscated weapons to their armory.

As Will went to interrogate Patrick, Duncan didn’t expect to see him again until the next day. But in under an hour, Will came into the armory.

“Did that rat bastard confess?” Duncan demanded. “And what the hell do we do about him?”

“No, and we’re going to bury him.” Will paced the length of the room. “The son of a bitch. The son of a bitch hanged himself in his cell.”

Eddie let out a sigh. “Well, hell, Will, maybe that’s the best thing all around. Now we don’t have to decide what to do about him. It’s done.”

“I needed to talk to him.” Vibrating with frustration, Will pounded a fist into his palm. “I need to find out how they knew we’d scout just where we found him. How much more they know.”

“They’ve worked with Dark Uncannys before,” Eddie pointed out. “Those fuckers Eric and Allegra. We thought we’d killed them back in Pennsylvania, but they lived through it. Maybe they lived through what Lana hit them with after Max. Or they got another. Some of them have visions like Lana used to, some of ours do, too.”

“Maybe.” Will turned around, eyes cold in a weary face. “Or maybe we’ve got a spy.”

“Well, Jesus, Will.”

“We take people into the community. We’re taking more right now. Some may stay, some may move on.”

“We, you know, vet them pretty good.”

“Another couple of hours out there, Patrick would’ve died the day we found him.” Duncan worried at the germ of a thought. “Hannah told me, and she’d know. Rachel had to operate on him, and he had internal injuries on top of it. It’s why I had a hard time believing the girl—Fallon—at first.”

“True believer.” Will nodded. “He wouldn’t be the only one. We’ve seen the type before.”

“They’re half-crazy most of the time,” Eddie pointed out. “We’d notice half-crazy.”

“I’d like to think so.” Will rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know which to hope it is. Either way, we’re going to have to take more precautions.”

“We’ve already got magickal shields up, but we can add to them.” They’d work on that, Duncan thought. “If somebody working with the PWs is already inside the shield, we have to figure out how they’re getting information out.”

“Probably not a magickal. Yeah, they work with them now and then,

” Eddie continued, “but mostly they don’t. They hate their ever-fucking guts. Sorry, Duncan.”

“I hate theirs back, so we’re good. Not that hard to get intel out, is it? You volunteer for a hunting party, a scavenger detail, or scouting. Or one of the farms. You leave a message at some checkpoint.”

“They have communications, too. We could have somebody with a radio, transmitting information. Let’s start there,” Will decided. “Add to the shields, start checking for transmissions, and I hate to say it, but take a closer look at anybody who’s come in and stayed in the last six months. One of the slaves—maybe more than one—could’ve been brainwashed, indoctrinated.”

He walked to the window, stared out. “If Fallon hadn’t warned us … I’d’ve led us into a massacre.”

“You don’t take that on,” Eddie began, and with considerable heat.

“I took the job, I take it on. Now I’m going to bury the son of a bitch I thought we’d broken down enough to give us information on how to free slaves and prisoners.”

“He did give it. I’m with Eddie on this, Will. He screwed with all of us. We believed him because he told us the truth. Most of it. I’ll help you bury him.”

“No, thanks, but Pinney and I will take care of it. It’ll help Pinney. He was sitting on Patrick. Just a precaution until we got back. Fell asleep—no reason not to. Nobody figured the fucker for suicidal. Woke up, went back to check the cell. Patrick’s hanging by his bedsheet. Still warm, Pinney said. He cut him down, tried to bring him back. Still warm, but gone.”

“That’s not on Pinney, either.”

“No, Eddie, it’s not on him, or anybody. Patrick made his choice, took his side. Just get this stuff locked up. You don’t need to do a full inventory tonight. Just lock up, go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Will? I know it’s a problem, thinking about how we almost got ambushed, and how that came to be. But we all got home. We did what we set out to do, and we all got home. You shouldn’t forget that.”

“I won’t.”

Eddie sighed again when Will went out. “I’m sure as shit glad I never had to be in charge. It carries a lot of weight. You’re a soldier, that’s hard enough, but it’s a lot harder to be the one giving all the orders. So let’s be good soldiers and follow orders. We’ll lock up, go home. I want to tell Fred about Lana’s girl.”

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