Page 8 of Wonder
Roibeart moved another step away from Marcas, probably positioning for a dual assault.
I held up Tormod’s knife. “Tormod and Ciorsdan would tell you differently.”
“We can see your injury. You’re weak.” Roibeart watched me carefully. He’d put on weight, and I was betting he wasn’t as fast or nimble as he’d once been.
I snorted. “Tormod’s blood gave me back everything I lost and more.” I was pleased to see Roibeart’s uneasy expression.
A louder bang came from above, and the voices who’d been shouting earlier now chorused in variations of, “Save Nicky!” or “Get Nicky!”.
I heard Reno cursing but Shirley leaned out of the window first, growling when she saw us below.
I smirked at Marcas and Roibeart. “Think you can take me plus a mountain lion shifter? Oh, and Reno up there has a gun. At this distance, he can’t miss.”
“Hey, FYI, the cops are here,” Reno called out.
I didn’t take my eyes off the twoluchd-òl fola, but it was hard to miss the SUV pulling into the driveway, a flashing red light on the dashboard. Fuck, this was a complication we didn’t need.
The driver’s door opened, and a male voice called out, “What’s goin’ on here?”
Roibeart and Marcas glanced at each other, then turned and ran down the driveway, passing the SUV at a speed the officer or whoever he was would have no hope of matching. They crossed the road and hit the trees, changing to mist form just before I lost sight of them.
Ignoring the cop, I fell to my knees next to Prince Nicol, who was indeed the person who’d been thrown from the window. He wasn’t moving, and blood was seeping from the back of his head where it had hit the ground. “Nicol!” I couldn’t use his title here, in front of so many who didn’t know. He was older, of course, fully adult. But he was small, shorter than any Elf I’d ever met, and frail and malnourished. The scrubs he wore gaped at his neck and arms. His skin was covered in bite scars and marks from restraints.
Even worse, his magical core was dull and barely moving. When I pressed my fingers to his throat, his pulse was hardly detectable. My entire chest constricted. “No, no, no. You can’t die on me. You can’t.”
KNOYDART PENINSULA, SCOTLAND – MARCH, 1946
“No.” King Domhnull held up a hand. “Nicol is dead. I felt it.”
“But, Your Majesty, you’re aware my kind can manipulate connections. Any one of the Guards with Prince Nicol could’ve severed his connections to you and everyone else. It would feel the same as if he’d died.”
My gut—filled with rage and betrayal—was telling me Kinnon had to be responsible for the attack. He would never have allowed the entire contingent to stop and get out of their cars at once, unless he’d been the one to order it.
I held up thedèideag dìon. “We have a witness. If I could take a team of Guards?—”
He scoffed. “Look how small they are. Nicol obviously didn’t care for them while he was away, and they haven’t Become enough to know what they’re saying.” Beside him Adair nodded in agreement.
I opened my mouth to explain my theory about thedèideag dìongiving their magic to Prince Nicol, but the King made a slashing motion with his hand. “Enough. Nicol is dead. Searching for his killers won’t bring him back. It will onlydelay the portal closing. We must focus on getting the last of the Wonders through the portal and the magic gifted to the humans as planned. Then we’ll never have to see this abominable world again.”
CHAPTER 3
RENO
When I madeit to the top of the stairs, Shirley was shoving against what appeared to be a bedroom door. Inside I could hear several voices, all shouting about someone named Nicky. I hoped these were the captives, because at least they were alive. Except maybe poor Nicky.
I had Shirley stand to the side while I kicked the door with my foot a few times with no result. I didn’t want to shoot the lock, because if I missed, I might hit one of the captives.
She shifted into her human form. “Let’s do it together. Hips and shoulders. On three.”
I positioned myself to be first into the room so Shirley would have time to shift after the door opened. We slammed into it together, and it finally broke free. I stumbled inside, gun first, and behind me Shirley changed back into her mountain lion form.
The room was big, probably originally two bedrooms with the connecting wall knocked out. Two rows of cells, each for a single person, lined the room. Instead of bars, crisscrossed heavy-duty metal wire kept the captives inside, certainly to prevent smallshifters from escaping. Five of the cells were occupied, and the door to one of the empty cells stood ajar.
The prisoners all pointed at the open window. “Help Nicky!” “He took Nicky!”
Shirley got there first, and I rushed to join her. Simon was facing off with two men, one of which was the guy from downstairs when we’d burst into the house. Next to them a man lay on the ground. He was some sort of Wonder, but his magic core was almost lifeless, and I couldn’t tell what species he was. His eyes were closed, and blood pooled under his head. Physically he reminded me of the photos I’d seen of concentration camp survivors, gaunt and with his head shaved. I glanced back at the other captives, and while they were wearing similar scrubs, they weren’t emaciated or shaved bald.
“Can you see him? Is he okay?” The woman in the nearest cell, an emu shifter, gripped the bars anxiously.
