Shifter (Wicked Woods #6) Read online

  “You know I don’t have a choice,” Briony said.

  “Even though it will trigger the Vampire Apocalypse?” Fallon asked from the side. He was obviously struggling to control himself, but at the same time, he’d managed to make an important point.

  Josh shrugged. “If it means saving the world…”

  It seemed like an impossible position. If she didn’t marry Josh, then Vigor’s army would be overwhelmed, no matter how confident he was about their abilities. If she did, then she might be condemning Fallon, her brother, and every other good vampire to death.

  “Is there no way around it?” Briony asked, turning to Sophie. If anyone knew, she would.

  Her great aunt shook her head. Vigor seemed more optimistic though. “The marriage is only one of the conditions of the destruction of the vampires. There are others.”

  “So if I marry Josh it won’t automatically mean them dying?” Briony asked. Even so, marrying Josh…

  “I’m not a fate worse than death, Briony,” Josh said, stepping close to her and taking her hand. This close, she could feel the sheer presence of him next to her, smell the masculine scent of him, and that scent fired something within her. She could feel attraction sweeping through her, and need. She shouldn’t feel it, she knew that. She loved Kevin, not him, so Josh shouldn’t be making her respond in exactly the same way. Yet even as she felt it, Briony knew what it was. Josh was an alpha wolf, and that meant that there would always be some part of her that would respond to him.

  Archer interrupted. “Guys, do you want to hurry up, maybe? These monsters are fast. I don’t need the telescope to see them now, which means we’re going to need to get our troops together in a hurry if we don’t want to end up being killed.”

  Briony looked in the direction where she’d seen the dark cloud through the telescope. She could make it out too now, swirling on the edge of what was visible from up in the palace. For a moment, the sheer speed of that frightened her, but she pushed that feeling aside. Her father had been able to force these creatures into the chasm. She had the same power. He had been the champion of Palisor, protecting it with his magic, but so was she now. She wasn’t going to fail.

  Chapter 12

  They went down into the palace, rushing off about the tasks they needed to perform before the creatures from Xylyx got there. The dragons had to fly out messages, Vigor had to start to get his army together… pretty soon, it seemed that everyone except Briony had some kind of job to do. She, meanwhile found herself left alone in the room she’d woken up in earlier, where another dress was laid out by a silk screen patterned with images of battle.

  Briony went behind it to get changed, and she was halfway into her new dress when she heard footsteps on the other side of it.

  “Briony?”

  It was Josh. Briony wasn’t sure that there was much left to say to him. He’d manipulated her, using what he knew about Palisor to push her into a position that would give him more power.

  “What do you want, Josh?” And more to the point, what did he want while she was still trying to lace up a dress that fastened at the back, meaning that no one without a servant at hand would ever be able to get into it? Who had these dresses been designed for? Princesses, probably.

  “Actually, I wanted to apologize,” Josh said. “I know that I’ve put you in a difficult position, and that you still aren’t certain about marrying me. I know I’m not what you want.”

  “You could say that,” Briony said. He wasn’t who she wanted, at least.

  “That’s how fate works sometimes though,” Josh said. “You’ll have to make a decision soon, Briony. There isn’t any time to waste.” He came up behind Briony and began helping her with the lacing, his skilled fingers quickly figuring out how it worked. He leaned in behind her, his warm breath tickling her ear, “We’d make quite a team when we’re married, wouldn’t we?” His hands found its way to her waist and he slipped his arms around her, bringing her to his chest where he held her against his lean taunt body. Brioy could feel the heat and desire radiating from him. “You smell so good, Briony,” he whispered. “So beautiful and dignified. You’re born to be my queen.”

  So he wasn’t just there to apologize. Or maybe he was, but even while he did something like that, Josh couldn’t stop himself from trying to manipulate things. That thought made something flick over in Briony, and she made a decision. The decision she suspected she’d always known she’d make.

  “I’m not marrying you, Josh.”

  “What?” Josh sounded genuinely surprised by that, like he really couldn’t believe that she would do anything other than marry him. “But you have to…”

  “No, I don’t,” Briony said, cutting him off. “The monsters from Xylyx don’t change anything. The gates don’t change anything. My father pushed the monsters back into the chasm before, without your werewolves. If he did it, then I can do it.”

  “I think you’ll regret that,” Josh said.

  Briony sighed. “Get out, Josh.”

  She heard Josh go, but she wasn’t thinking of him by then. He wasn’t important enough to think about. Instead, she turned her attention back to the dress, though it still wouldn’t lace right at the top. Maybe if she took the head of the scepter off for a moment? Briony unhooked it from around her neck, picking up the golden horn as well and putting them both down on the bed together. They touched, just barely, as she did it.

  A shimmer of power ran along her skin, and Briony looked down just in time to see the horn and the scepter starting to glow. They glowed with golden light, the chain of the scepter stretched out by it so that it and the horn formed two sides of a triangle, with Briony on the third side. Light leapt around that triangle, bouncing from it in a complex web, then arcing into her in what felt like a shock of electricity.

  Briony had felt this kind of power before, when she’d acquired the magic that had let her destroy Marcus, and when she’d transformed into the Hugtandalfer that she was now. So what was this? Was it her coming into her full power as a Hugtandalfer? As the queen of this land? Briony didn’t know, and she didn’t have the time to think about it, because in that moment the power of it overwhelmed her.

  It poured through her, flashing along every nerve, making her muscles spasm as it flowed along her synapses. Briony let out a gasp as the power moved through her, hot and cold, pleasant and painful all at once. The unicorn had told her that with the horn, she would be the ultimate slayer. Briony had assumed that it was because the horn would be some kind of weapon for her, but what if it was more than that? What if it was actually transforming her? It certainly felt like it was transforming her then, because Briony imagined that she could feel the cells of her body dissolving, changing, shifting as the power from the horn and the scepter touched them.

  Suddenly, Briony found herself looking out from a spot that seemed to be far above Palisor, staring down at the land below where the darkness of the creatures from the chasm flowed. Briony could see them now, or some of them at least, because it was like they wrapped darkness around themselves, doing automatically the kind of thing that Pietre did with shadows. Only here, the goal didn’t seem to be stealth. They simply hated the light so much that they carried literal darkness with them.

  Some of them were humanoid, but barely so. They were monsters and things of nightmares, twisted so much beyond human or Hugtandalfer shape that Briony could barely look at them. There were other creatures there too. Things with too many legs and insectoid carapaces. Things that slithered with lizard-like movements. It seemed like Xylyx held many dangers.

  She turned away from that darkness, and found herself seeing something that shone. She wished that she could see it closer, and suddenly, she was closer. Close enough to see Vigor there, dressed in shining plate armor, a sword that shone silver in the sunlight in his hand. Around him were more Hugtandalfer, arranged in ranks, armed with spears, swords and shields that gleamed so that they had to be visible from miles away. They were here on the road b
elow the palace, not clinging to the rocks to defend, but going out to meet the threat. Briony felt a surge of pride at that bravery, but also worry. Wouldn’t it be safe for Vigor and his troops to fight with high walls and higher mountain slopes to protect them?

  Then she was high up again, over the land, and Briony saw why they couldn’t. She saw the villages and the small farms in the path of the onrushing darkness. Yes, they could sit in the palace and wait for the creatures from Xylyx to come to them, but what would the vampires and the worse creatures do then? Who could predict what they would do, when they were rumored to be no more than animals? They might lay waste to the land without ever coming near the palace to fight. Vigor had done the only thing he could in going out to meet them.

  Briony blinked, and she was back in her room again. The horn and the scepter were no longer glowing, and she found herself wondering if what she’d just seen was real, or if it was just imagination produced by having that much power coursing through her.

  “Here, let me help with that.”

  Briony hadn’t heard Sophie come in, but now she moved over to Briony, pulling tight the last few stays on the dress.

  “There,” she said. “You look beautiful.”

  Sophie looked more military than beautiful. She’d tied her hair back severely, and she’d acquired silver steel armor that was a mixture of open chainmail and solid plate. She wore a pair of swords strapped to her hip, short enough and slender enough that they were more like long knives.

  “Where are you going?” Briony asked. “You’re going out to fight?”

  Sophie nodded. “I need to go join Vigor’s army. He’s already outside with them, moving to cut off the creatures.”

  So Briony had seen them. She wondered what that meant, and exactly what the horn and the scepter had done to her. For now though she didn’t say anything about what had just happened. She wasn’t the one who was about to go out to face an army of creatures even more evil than Marcus’ vampires had been.

  “You’re looking worried,” Sophie said.

  “I’m just worried about you, if you’re going to go out there.”

  “I have to,” Sophie replied. “Vigor’s army… they’re brave, and they’re strong. They’re Hugtandalfer too, and that means they’re going to be strong and fast. But they don’t have my experience of fighting vampires. They need me to go out and help. Vigor needs me.”

  “You really like him, don’t you?” Briony said.

  Sophie smiled. “He’s sweet.”

  “Sweet?” If there was one adjective Briony would never have applied to her too formal and dour step-brother, that was it. Briony sighed. “Just promise me that you’ll be careful.”

  “Oh, I’m always careful,” Sophie said. She moved forward to hug Briony, enveloping her in her arms and pressing her tight to the silver steel of her armor. “And whatever you decide when it comes to Josh and your destiny, know that I love you and I want you to be happy in all things.”

  “Josh?” Briony had put him completely out of her mind. “Are you saying that you think I should marry him?”

  Sophie smiled. “It means whatever you want it to mean. Do I have to spell these things out? You need to trust your own judgment more, darling.”

  “What if I get it wrong?” Briony asked. “People could die.”

  “Trust yourself,” Sophie insisted. “You have all the power of your father and in the scepter you have the power of your ancestors. You’ve been trained by, I’d like to think, the best slayer around. You’ve proven yourself against Pietre. You reduced Marcus to ashes. You have a weapon in that horn that Vigor tells me is incredibly powerful, and you have all the magic that goes with that. You have all the resources you need to succeed, but you’re the one who has to choose what you’re going to do.”

  Briony stepped back from her great-aunt, nodding. “Then there isn’t going to be a wedding. Not today. Not that there would be the time for it. We have a battle to fight instead. You’re right, I do need to make these decisions. Help me get out of this dress, Sophie, and find me some armor.”

  “Why?” Sophie asked, sounding suspicious. “You aren’t planning to…”

  “I can sit in here waiting for you, Vigor and the others to solve my problems, or I can go out and deal with them myself,” Briony said. “I’m not going to sit in here waiting for the creatures of Xylyx to come over the walls. If you lose, then they’ll come here and they’ll kill everyone who waits behind. It’s better to be out there fighting. At least there I can help.”

  “But…”

  “You were just telling me how much power I had,” Briony pointed out. She shifted the golden horn in her hand, working out what kind of weapon it would be. “Well, I want to use it. I’m going to use it. Now, could you please help me find some armor? I don’t want to go into the middle of a battle in just a dress.”

  Sophie stood there, hesitating for several seconds, obviously trying to think of a way to keep Briony safe. Finally though, she gave in and nodded.

  “I’ll go down to the armory to see what’s left.”

  Chapter 13

  Sophie went off to fetch armor for Briony, and while she did that, Archer and Fletcher came into her room together. Fletcher nodded to her, while Archer moved forward, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. His touch was light and surprisingly warm as Briony looked him in the eye. The dragon looked a little uncomfortable.

  “I wanted to say, my queen, that it has been a pleasure being your dragon.”

  There was something about the way he said that. It worried Briony. “You’re talking like you aren’t expecting to be around me much longer.”

  “I will stay beside you, whatever happens,” Archer said, “but this threat is a dangerous one.” He paused, looking back at Fletcher. “I will stay, but Fletcher is going. One of us has to alert the rest of the dragons of Palisor.”

  “I thought there were plenty of dragons around here?” Briony said.

  Archer shrugged. “Some, but most of us do not serve Hugtandalfer or live among them. There are whole clans of our kind in the mountains.” Archer smiled. “I have a big family, and they all have power. They’re all loyal to Palisor too. Fletcher should be able to bring a few of them back with him.”

  “How many?” Briony asked.

  “Enough, maybe,” Archer replied. “I heard that you’re not marrying Josh. That means no werewolves, so we’re going to need all the dragons we can get. Maybe there will be enough to turn the tide. I hope so.”

  Briony nodded. She knew how difficult the absence of the werewolves would make things, yet she couldn’t make her decisions based on just that. The only question now was whether they would be able to fill the gap left by the werewolves’ absence.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “I mean, I’m sure you have plenty of family, but with the scale of what’s out there…”

  Fletcher stepped forward. “I will be able to fetch you dragons, your majesty. My blood goes back to that of the oldest dragons, when they ruled this land.”

  Briony vaguely remembered that story, that the Hugtandalfer had used magic to control the dragons and bond with them, taking control of Palisor from them.

  “You’re saying the two of you are some kind of dragon royalty?” Briony asked.

  Archer shook his head. “No. There is no dragon royalty anymore.”

  “But if there were,” Fletcher said, “then Archer and I would be it.”

  Archer glanced across to him, and it was obvious this was an argument the two dragons had had before.

  “What?” Fletcher demanded. He returned his attention to Briony. “I’ll get you your dragons.”

  With that, he left, obviously in a hurry to fetch his relatives and the rest of the dragons.

  “Well,” Briony said, “that’s one piece of good news, at least.”

  Archer nodded. “So, we have a full on battle coming up, and we’ll have dragons. Now what? Where do we go from here?”

  Briony was going to p
oint out that she wasn’t sure either, but she guessed that, as the ruler there, she didn’t get to admit that. In any case, Sophie arrived back then with the armor and weapons for her to prepare for the battle. She took Briony behind the screen in her room again, helping her to change.

  There was chainmail. There was padding that went under the chainmail. There were greaves, bracers and other sections of light but solid plate. There was a long jacket that looked suspiciously like the one Sophie had left Wicked in, that came complete with pockets and hangers for stakes and knives.

  Briony was already rushing to get into armor and to get what she needed to fight. She had the unicorn’s horn as a weapon, but she wasn’t sure how much the legend holds true in a time of battle. She placed a jacket on herself that she recognized from Sophie’s stash of slayer weapons. The jacket had stake holders sewn into it so she can carry a few wooden stakes in it.

  More than a few, in fact. There was a belt loop for the golden horn too, and Briony wore it like a sword, slung from her waist.

  “Use it, but don’t rely on it,” Sophie said. “It’s an untested weapon. It ought to be a deadly one if the myths are true, but until we know for sure, don’t risk your life by trying to use it as your only weapon. Use the stakes, or use your magic. The kind of fireball that finished Marcus should work.”

  Briony nodded. “I will,” she promised, though even as she promised it, she could feel a strange kind of confidence in the back of her mind that the golden horn would work. She just needed to have the courage to use it.

  “I thought you had more sense than to throw yourself into something like this.”

  Briony stepped out from behind the screen to see Josh standing there.

  “Isn’t all this a bit extreme to keep from marrying me?” he asked. “Getting suited up in armor and putting your life at risk?”

  “I would have done that anyway,” Briony insisted.