Page 64 of Samhain Savior
“Release her.”
Archer’s snarled words rumbled across the space between us, sliding over my damp skin and leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.
Helena cackled, her shrill voice right at my ear as she held me tight.
“Not a chance, demon. I worked far too hard to catch her to hand her back to you.” Her fist clenched my hair tighter, and I couldn’t hold back my wince. Archer snapped his gaze to my face again, his jaw clenching as he registered my pain.
“I will not ask again.Give me my witch.”
“Your words are as powerless as you are. The Storm-bringer will raze this city to its knees, then he will set his sights on the rest of the Brotherhood strongholds. Your time at the top is over.”
“Oh, the Storm-bringer will not be doing anything of the sort, I’m afraid.” Flicking one hand, Archer gestured over his shoulder, and it was then that I noticed the others moving in behind him, the limp body of the Storm-bringer hanging between them in a cocoon of shadow. “He was ridiculously easy to stop, actually. Embarrassing, actually, given all his bluster.”
“Storm pun,” Vine chortled softly. “Nice.”
“No!” Helena shrieked, her body jerking with her shock and causing the blade of the knife to slide across my flesh. I could feel the sting as the sharp edge cut through my skin like it was butter, and I let out a hiss of pain. At my chest, Pandora began to click and chitter madly, her tiny claws tearing at the canvas of her pouch. Unable to move my head to look down, I couldn’t tell if she was making any progress.
At my throat, I could feel the collar vibrating like an angry rattlesnake, as though it was seething with rage on my behalf.
“Wake him!” Helena demanded, trembling with rage and panic. “You will pay for this, demon.”
“I will not wake him,” Archer said, his voice tight. Behind him, Vine and Corson stood, their bodies stiff with tension as they held their weapons ready. “But I may consider a trade. The traitor for the witch.”
“I—I don’t...” Helena seemed at a loss, her earlier bravado gone now that the powerful demon she had been hiding behind was out of the picture.
I kept my eyes on Archer; he wasn’t looking at me, not directly, but I could still feel his dark gaze as he stood there, negotiating for my release from a deranged member of the Order.
It made no sense. Why was he prioritizing me? He had what he was really after. The relic was the whole reason he had come to Boston. It was why he had been in New York. He could very easily take it and go, leaving me to the mercy of the Order and never thinking of me again.
So why was he trying so hard to get her to release me?
At my feet, the orb pulsed, the rich wave of power it emitted rolling over me, calling to me with its tantalizing siren’s song. My body swayed toward it, ignoring the way the blade cut deeper as I leaned toward the source of that magic. I could feel the warm blood as it trickled down my throat, mingling with the cold, damp fabric of my dress, but I didn’t pull back. I couldn’t.
I needed that relic more than I needed air.
“Stop!” Archer commanded, and even though I wasn’t sure he was even talking to me, I obeyed. It was pure instinct, my muscles responding without conscious thought. Locked tight, I hovered there, on my knees in the dirt, the burning in my chest desperate to reach the orb but the voice in my mind salivating for another command from the demon before me.
“Good girl,” Archer murmured, the word like a physical caress to my frayed nerves. Staring at me with fire in his eyes, Archer dipped his chin slightly as he acknowledged my action, and inside, I preened.
“Alright Helena,” he said, and I hated that he looked away from me as he spoke to her. “What is it that you want?”
“Release him,” she replied immediately, as though it was the only thing that mattered to her. Belatedly, she added, “And I’m taking the relic.”
“No!” I couldn’t have that. It was mine. Ineededit. “You’ll never have it!”
“Quiet, witch.” His words were firm, but not unkind, as though he could tell how badly the magic was affecting me.
I opened my mouth to respond, to curse and scream for him to let me keep it, but before I could speak Mal appeared, his raven releasing a loud caw as he swoopeddown from the sky and landed on the grass before Shem’s headstone, snapping his beak in annoyance.
He was telling me to listen, to allow Archer and the others to do what they had to do. But everything inside me was bubbling, feeling like a volcano ready to explode, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold it back.
“I’ll let you leave with the Storm-bringer,” Archer conceded, even though he looked as though the words tasted like ash in his mouth. “I’ll even open the gate for you myself. But I can’t let you have the relic.” His eyes flicked to mine, and for a moment, I thought I saw a flash of apology in them, there and gone again. “Not even for the witch.”
“Then we have no deal.”
Helena released my hair, her foot suddenly planted between my shoulder blades as she gave me a sharp kick forward. Letting out a yelp, I tumbled, my balance compromised as I landed hard on my hands and knees. Pandora, her canvas pouch compromised by her angry claws, tumbled, squealing and yipping, out of her ruined housing and into the mud.
“Concussa!” Helena shouted, and my entire body locked up tight, as though I had been struck with one of Storm-bringer’s bolts of lightning. My mouth opened in a silent scream, my vocal chords frozen as fire burned through my veins.
