Lori Devoti - Amazon Ink

Ten feet behind Zery, shoved between the sidewalk and the main brick building, was an ancient oak. The thing was a hazard-its roots cracking the concrete walkway, its branches stretching from the windows of my office to Harmony’s bedroom, scratching against glass and brick. Only a few weeks earlier a late summer storm had hit the tree hard. The winds had broken several smaller limbs and cracked one particularly large one. I’d been meaning to call a tree guy, have him finish the job the storm started before another wind came along and brought two hundred pounds of oak branch down on someone’s head.

Now I was glad I hadn’t.

I focused on thebranch, then pulled in a breath through rounded lips. The air stirred, leaves rustled.

The noise registered with Zery. Her eyes flickered.

I drew on physical resources I didn’t know I had and shoved harder against the staff. A rough grunt left my lips as I did. The leaves stilled, but Zery refocused-back on me.

She twisted, her staff spinning. I dropped to a squat, let the wooden pole whiz over my head. As I did, I looked back at the branch and blew every liter of air I could spare out of my lungs.

The limb shook, cracked.

Zery didn’t hear the sound, or if she did, she ignored it. She finished her turn, landing in front of me, her staff ready to swing again. Her biceps bulged and her brows lowered. Something close to regret darkened her eyes as she pulled back the staff. This time she meant to kill me. I could read her intent in the tense lines running down her neck and the way her foot dug into the dirt as she braced herself for the impact of her staff colliding with my skull.

The realization comforted me, made what I was about to do easier. I focused on the branch and blew out again. This time Zery couldn’t miss what I was doing. My breath left my body with such force my body shot backward. I fell to the ground. My jeans burning from the friction of being shoved across concrete and packed dirt.

The end of Zery’s staff whizzed through empty space-where I had been seconds earlier. My back collided with the cafeteria’s wall, my head jerking back to smack against the wooden-but plenty solid-wall as well.

And the branch fell, or started to.

There was a crack like lightning as the tree let loose of its damaged limb. Zery stood frozen, staring at me, processing what I had done, what she should do next, and completely missing what was about to happen.

I opened my mouth, a lifelong friendship bringing a warning to my lips, but there was no air left in me, no voice-only a squeak came out.

I tried to stand-couldn’t. Reality, dark and ugly, settled around me.

Zery looked up, saw the branch, and started to move, but I knew she wouldn’t make it, that it would crush her, maim her at least.

There was a whoosh-the branch falling, I thought at first. Then I saw my mother. She leapt from the bathroom window, and kicked the branch as it fell. The limb hit the ground with a crash. I felt the impact through the soles of my boots. Zery stood beside it, untouched.

Then Mother hit, rolling from her shoulder to her opposite hip to her feet. Her gaze zipped to me, pinned me against the wall.

My fingers tightened around her staff, reminding me I still held it. I loosened my grip, let it fall to the ground.

Zery took a step forward, her own staff held low, ready to ram against my throat.

Mother whirled. “You’re not queen here.”

Zery shifted her attention to Mother, shifted her staff too, a casual change in grip, but one that fooled no one. She was ready to fight. “I’m queen everywhere.”

I scrambled to a stand. I’d have liked to have leapt up with the same grace as Zery and Mother, but my back and head ached and I was still struggling not to gasp for breath. As it was, I only managed a half stand, my hands pressed into my thighs and my head hanging between my shoulders. “Don’t let her leave,” I rasped out.

“I’m here on Amazon business. You know that.” Zery glanced at me, then back at Mother.

“Today you were. Not tonight. You didn’t tell me you were coming tonight.” Mother’s stance was casual, her arms loose at her sides, but she moved slightly as she spoke, positioning herself between my old friend and me.

“The council decided the evidence was enough. If not Mel, who?”

At my name I stood. My back and head screamed, but air seemed to be flowing through my lungs again.

Zery took a step around Mother, toward me. Mother sidestepped, blocking her. At the same time I moved too-until Mother was sandwiched between Zery and me.

“Grab her,” I said.

Zery laughed. “Are you planning to kill me too? Next time the entire tribe will show up.” Her weight shifted to the side.

Mother held out a hand.

“You can’t protect her any longer, Cleo. Not this time. Leaving the tribe, taking up residence with humans, that’s one thing, but killing her own? You know what has to be done. You agreed to it.”

A chill passed over me.

“I agreed to bringing her to council and I would have. You agreed to that.”

Zery looked to the side. “The council didn’t.”

Mother’s shoulders tensed. “They don’t trust me? When have I not done what they asked? I’ve kept them informed of every move we’ve made. Mel pees-I see it, and they know about it.”

My head lifted. Shock caused me to step backward. Mother had been spying on me for the council? How long? The entire ten years? Zery and Mother’s exchange when I’d still been catching my breath…the visitor this morning-it all clicked now. It had been Zery telling Mother the council wanted me brought back. Had I missed other visits? Or had Mother sneaked off to them…how often?

As if sensing my distress, Mother added, “It beat the alternative, Mel. You locked up, Harmony taken from you. Don’t judge me for saving you both from that.”

I tightened my jaw, fisted my hands. Betrayed again. Would I never learn?

“I have to take her.” Zery had her gaze back on Mother.

Tired of them both talking about me like I had no vote and posed no threat, I stepped around Mother, got into Zery’s face. “Try it.”

She looked at me, surprise lifting one brow, then reached out. Her hand moved toward me. I waited. I was angry. As angry as I’d allowed myself to be since I’d learned to control the dark emotion a decade ago. And a decade ago I didn’t have priestess powers, couldn’t convert that rage into fire or a blue-hot charge.

But now, I could. Fire/electricity wasn’t my preferred element, but I could use it and I did, let it vibrate inside me. Waited for her skin to touch mine, to release the charge, send us both flying.

Mother got in the way-shoved Zery against the shoulder, knocking her to the ground. I started to move, barely a flinch forward, and Mother held out one hand, her back still to me. “Don’t.”

That was it. One word and I froze, the power I’d coiled inside me, unwinding, dissipating like steam in a dry room. Zery’s staff swung toward Mother. Mother grabbed it with both hands, ripped it from Zery’s grip, then slammed the wooden pole into the dirt inches from Zery’s head.

“No one is taking my daughter-not until I believe she’s a killer.”

Zery’s eyes were dark, angry, but her voice was calm. “And if we convince you?”

Mother tensed, paused. I thought for an instant she wouldn’t answer, then, “I’ll bring her in myself.”

On a normal night the words might have hit me, hurt, but in the middle of the insanity unfolding around me, they barely grazed the hard shell quickly forming around my heart.

I cursed, walked over to the staff I’d dropped, smashed it into a trash can, and then let it drop on the ground. They looked at me then.