Fall into Fire (Shamans of the Divide, Book 2)

Chapter Twenty-eight

She was there, standing at the wards with flames glowing off her tattered dress. They rose from her shoulders and seemed to dance on her fingertips. Coyote pulled the rifle from his back and I heard Skye stand up. A quick glance behind me and I saw that Cody was on his feet and had his gun in his hands again. Asha was still sitting, but she'd stopped the rocking back and forth and her eyes were glued on Red-Woman.

"Foolish girl," Red-Woman said. Her voice was loud, but I didn't see her mouth moving. Judging from everyone else's reactions, they heard her, too. Beside me, Renn tensed and pulled me to my feet.

"You were supposed to bring them to me, not a pile of ancient rocks," she continued. "I'll burn your eyes from your sockets for that."

Coyote turned back to look at me, but I wasn't the one Red-Woman was talking to.

Asha.

In the short distance between us, I saw tears streaming down Asha's face.

Coyote must have picked up on what was happening because he looked at her, too.

"What does she mean, Asha?" His voice was ragged. I don't think he wanted the answer.

"She promised me Adoette," Asha spoke for the first time in hours and her voice was broken and raw. Her finger jabbed out at me from under the blanket Cody had put around her shoulders. "For her."

"There's the double cross we were looking for," I said under my breath and Renn squeezed my hand. I looked up at Renn and gave a weak smile.

"I guess I owe Coyote an apology if we make it through this," I said.

"We'll make it through," he said, his eyes on Red-Woman. "And my uncle owes you one, too, apparently."

The cloaked figure that had arrived with Red-Woman stood motionless beside her, its head obscured from view. Hands were bound in front of it and from what I could tell, the creature was staring at the ground. I still couldn't tell if it was human or not, but the way it didn't move at all didn't bode well for us.

"Old timer," Red-Woman flicked her hand at Coyote. "Your worthless little chants won't save you here. Give her to me and I might let you all live."

Electricity ran up my spine and I shivered. If everyone I loved was at stake, would I give him up?

As much as I hated to admit it, I probably would.

"I'm not interested in your lies, ancient one," he said. "Return to the Divide and you might just get to live out the rest of your eternity in one piece."

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows at Coyote's words. He had some bluster in him after all we'd just survived in the past few days. If he was afraid of Red-Woman, he was hiding it better than I was.

"Kill you all here on this rock?" Red-Woman motioned to the Bear's Den towering above us. "Even better."

The crack of a rifle went off behind me and I jumped, looking to see who'd been shot. Cody stood there, rifle to his shoulder. I looked hopefully at Red-Woman, but she seemed entirely unharmed.

"Damn it," Renn muttered under his breath beside me. "She's immortal right now. It might not be permanent, but it will make killing her before she kills us all the more difficult. If I tell you to run, July, you run. You don't turn and argue with me, do you understand? You run as fast as you can and you wait for one of us to find you."

I nodded, unable to speak and knowing that if Renn told me to run, we were in over our heads.

In front of us, three of the teihiihan squeezed through what seemed like an invisible crack in the wards and shot toward me like hell's hounds unleashed.