Chapter 679: Territories At Odds
Nice of you to make the party, I sent as she settled on the other side of Sunny. Pender and a large group of Enforcers remained afloat, facing off with the European guard. Things could get ugly really fast, but for some reason I wasn't feeling stressed about it.
I guess I really didn't think the Brotherhood would risk a confrontation with so much firepower on my side. And the fact I was surrounded by those who loved me made a huge difference, when Applegate was pretty much on her own.
Not for the first time, I wondered where her Enforcer Leader, Elliot, had gone. Had a sudden sick feeling about him.
Hoped I was wrong.
"You've brought our two territories to the edge of war." Mom was in Applegate's face so fast the woman retreated, Meira stepping away to give our mother her kick at the can. Mom turned to her, smiled up at my sister like nothing was going on and patted her hand. "Hi, sweetie."
Meira bent and kissed Mom's cheek. "Hi, Mom."
Surreal.
Their simple exchange had an amazing effect on Applegate. She froze, face suddenly slack, as though her controllers had no idea how to take the situation they found their puppet in. If I ever had a scrap of doubt the Brotherhood owned her, it was gone with that obvious lack of soul staring out of her eyes.
And her Enforcers saw it. A ripple of despair went through them. I reached out to them, felt their power. They remained clean, all of them, not a taint of sorcery to be found. But Applegate was a lost cause.
Mom, I can try to free her, I sent. If there was ever a good time...
She hesitated.
Too long, it turned out.
Applegate twitched, face a sunken mask of absolute hate, eyes crawling with black. The Czar must have seen she'd lost, because he chose that unfortunate moment to speak up.
"We demand-"
He didn't get a chance to finish. Applegate spun on him with a snarl and extended one hand. Her power wrapped around his throat and squeezed, so hard and so fast no one could act quickly enough.
Not that I wanted to save him or anything. But I would have liked to have been spared the splintering sound his spine made as she crushed his neck. I couldn't help but wonder as I forced my mind to detach from the popping, snapping soundtrack of his death if the Brotherhood were behind this particular execution or if it was just Applegate's build-up anger finding a place to outlet.
Belaisle. Had to be.
Which made me question what Yure may have known that could have helped me.
Too late now. Damn it. But at least I'd saved the werewolves from a fate worse than Yure Danko.
"Father!" Isabelle's broken cry bit through the night air as she rushed forward, held back only when Piers gently caught her and kept her from reaching the dying Czar.
Yes, he was a scumbag. But he was her dad. I got it.
Didn't like it. But I got it.
The gathered sorcerers of his sect wavered, cried out, sinking to their knees to weep into their hands at the loss of their leader. My quick visual search for Vasyl turned up nothing, though. Cut and run. Back to his masters, I supposed.
Let him go. This one was a victory for the good guys. I just wished I was there to see Liander's face when his little viper came crawling home.
The whole place fell silent, the whistle of the wind the only sound. That and the solid thud of the Czar's dead body as Applegate released him to crash to what remained of the floor.
Piers finally let Isabelle go, the young vampire falling to her knees at Yure's side. She didn't touch him, simply hugged herself and rocked forward and back while the soft keening of the werewolves marked his passing. It grew from a hum to a bellow to a roar as they threw up their arms and howled their joy into the darkness.
Applegate turned back to me, her hate still alive and well, though her little execution seemed to have pulled her under control. She didn't speak until the last of the werewolves fell silent again, but her message was expected. "You are no longer welcome in Europe," she said. "And will be escorted out of my territory."
"No," I said, feeling the magic around me, my mother, sister, Sunny, the Steam Union, all pushing against her. "I'm not going anywhere. You have no say over what I do and you know it. Follow your own laws for once, Applegate."
The woman's shriek of frustration cut through me as she lurched into the air, gathered up her Enforcers and vanished in a blast of blue flame.
Most of her Enforcers. A handful remained behind. And my babysitters.
Figured.
I chose to ignore them, knowing Pender would hold them off if necessary and hugged Mom. She kissed me softly before I squeezed Meira and Sunny. Uncle Frank. Turned to Piers, who offered his hand to his mother.
"Sydlynn Hayle," he said. "May I introduce Eva Southway?"
A slim girl hugged Piers as his mother shook my hand, her power touching mine out of courtesy. I fought off the immediate stab of jealousy at the sight of him hugging the thin, pretty thing, trying not to let his cheating bastard status ruin things for me. I was so pissed for her I wanted to punch him in his happy place.
"I wish I could say it's a pleasure," Eva said. "At least, the circumstances."
I nodded, refusing to look at Piers. "Me, too." I said. "Maybe we can arrange a more formal intro once this is over."
She smiled, just a little. "I look forward to it," she said before bowing her head to Mom, Sunny and Meira.
I turned, forgetting the fact I was as guilty of kissing someone other than my significant other, and went looking for Charlotte. Found her and the werewolves coming to gather around the fallen form of the Czar, his own people shrinking from them as they herded the few sorcerers of the sect into the center with their dead master.
One more thing to do before this was over.
I joined my friend over the body of her fallen master. Charlotte looked up at me, smiling, really smiling, her eyes full of tears, one crystallizing on her cheek in the cold. Only then did I remember the frigid temperature and begin to shiver, though it was at that moment I understood I really wasn't cold. It was in my head.
Sharing the bond with Charlotte had created another new pathway inside me, freeing me from common discomfort as much as our link liberated her from the Czar.
Another step closer to being full maji. One more benefit of membership, I supposed.
"My people." She turned to them as Raoul came and hugged her, Oleksander embracing her, too, kissing the top of her head. "It's time we were free forever."
They rumbled their unhappiness, some looking terrified, others clutching their guns to their chests as though they couldn't bear to be parted with the life they knew. I was sure she and her family would have a big job on her hands. The training of centuries of servitude wouldn't be erased overnight, no matter her wishes to the contrary.
"Trust in your princess," Oleksander said. Smiled at me, blue eyes full of hope. "Trust in Sydlynn Hayle."
I glanced down at the small group of sorcerers and realized just how few there had been all along. How twisted and horrible they were, their faces the same, some distorted by inbreeding. And when I looked up again at the growing crowd of looming werewolves, I realized how thin their thread of slavery really was.
Time to break it.
Charlotte must have been sharing my thoughts still through the power between us, because she took my hand.
"We have been too long under the control of those without honor." She wiped at the tear on her face, the piece of ice falling free. "It is time to live our own lives, to make our own way. A way built on the principles we choose."
I nodded while the werewolves did, too, hanging on her every word while Oleksander beamed in pride.
"Will you help us?" I'd never seen her look so happy, so much like just a beautiful young woman without the accustomed hard shell she usually wore. "Will you free us from them?"
"I will," I said. "But I can only break the first bond at this point."
Maksym grunted and spoke up. "She did as she promised," he said to his pack. "She freed us of our individual bonds to them." He spit on the ground, the beautiful tile crystallizing with frost from its exposure to the open air. His eyes met mine. "We are ready to be free of all constraints."
Finally, murmuring hope, the shedding of guns, a hundred pairs of eyes staring at me while, through Charlotte, I felt hundreds more out there, in the world, working for sorcerers they despised.
Their handlers were about to get a very unhappy wakeup call.
I turned to Mom and the others, seeing Meira perk as though she knew what I was thinking.
"I need your help." They gathered around, Sunny and Uncle Frank despite the threat of coming morning. Piers and Eva, Mom, Meira, even while the few Enforcers Applegate left behind tried to break us up.
Pender took care of things above while I connected with the others.
I need to use my maji power, I sent. But in order to do it, I need to act through you to disguise what I'm doing.
Mom didn't hesitate. Neither did Meira or Sunny. Eva looked confused and alarmed. But when Piers freed himself from the girl at his side and reached for my hand while my jealousy twinged despite my focus, she slapped it away.
Tell us what you need us to do, she sent, mental voice as crisp as her spoken one.
Just let me in, I sent. I'll do the rest.
You're hoping this works. Leave it to my vampire to douse me with a splash of cold reality.
I am. I didn't have a Sidhe power to work through, but since Applegate couldn't access the magic of the Fey, I wasn't worried about her poking holes in my story.
No, I needed witch magic. But using the others to diffuse my magical scent would go a long way to keeping what I was about to do under wraps.
You hope, my vampire sent again.
Oh, hush, my demon growled at her.
Shaylee's giggle made me grin.
I turned to Charlotte, pushing myself into the magic users behind me even as I spoke. "You want freedom?" I beamed at her as I then reached to her, through her, down the path of her blood to every werewolf alive. "You got it."
***
