Last Chance (DarkWorld: SkinWalker Book 3) (14 page)

“No,” Illyria shouted, her hand held out to stop the Wraith from killing the traitor. But it was too late. The female Wraith stood staring at Illyria as the body of the attacker sank to the floor. Illyria hurried forward and fell to her knees beside the corpse, gasping as she turned him to inspect the wound.

“Did you know him?” I asked, more to break the silence because it was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that she knew this young Wraith personally.

She nodded, swallowing hard. “He was my cousin. Son of my father’s brother. He followed me into the Rebel army. In those days, we both shared the same ideals, the same goals.”

“But now he’s trying to kill you?” I asked, still annoyed that my kill had been unceremoniously taken from me. Must have been my feline instinct, but I had the deepest urge to end this new Wraith’s life just for thwarting my kill.

“If I had only know he’d changed his loyalty,” she said as she bent over him.

I glanced again at the newcomer whose hood bunched around her shoulders to reveal her almond-shaped eyes. Again, as I looked straight at her, my eyes felt funny and her shape blurred before me. She watched me, concern in her gaze. Then she sank beside Illyria. “I am truly sorry. I spoke to him in the barracks and he seemed agitated, distracted. Then he left to come here, and I confess I rifled through his belongings and found this.” She handed Illyria a note and sat back on her heels. “When I entered the room, it seemed your friend here was unable to kill him. I had to help.”

“Kailin was not unable.” Illyria defended me. “She was trying to subdue him without harming him so we could get some information out of him.”

I stiffened and had to hide my reaction. I’d been trying to make the Wraith very dead. I certainly hadn’t been told that the plan was to keep him alive for interrogation. I glanced at Illyria, but her eyes were all for the piece of paper she held in her hand. Maybe she was just trying to save face for me. She cleared her throat and continued. “Had we been given the chance to interrogate him, we would have had information and my uncle would still have his son… alive.” Her voice was bitter, but it didn’t feel like she was truly reprimanding her rescuer. More like she was upset with the way things played out.

When I looked up at the Wraith, intending to ask her what made her think I couldn’t handle him, my vision blurred again. I stared at her harder, but she averted her eyes, the attempt to hide her guilt unsuccessful under my sharp gaze. I would have missed it had I not already had my suspicion piqued.

There was something she wasn’t telling us, and I intended to find out. I walked slowly toward her, my hand closing over the hilt of the knife at my hip. I stopped beside her and waited a moment. “What is wrong with you?” I asked, my tone sharp enough to make her flinch. Besides that one failing, she was good. Her features remained implacable, her eyes unreadable.

She turned her head to glare at me, affronted. “Wrong with me? There’s nothing wrong with me?” she responded, her voice high-pitched and scratchy.

“I’m afraid I can’t agree. Every time I look at you, my eyes go blurry. It’s as if you have this film of wavy glass over your body.” I stopped speaking and stared at her, my mouth hanging open.

Illyria rose to stare at the Wraith as well, suspicion sharpening her features and eyes narrowed .

And suddenly it hit me. “You’re a shape-changer, aren’t you?” I grabbed her arm and held on tight. I’d heard that shape-changers were able to turn invisible, and the only way to be sure you know where they are is to hold on to them.

And just as I thought, the moment I laid my hand on her wrist, she disappeared.

***

The shape-changer was invisible, but beneath my hand I felt her desperate struggle. She twisted her slim wrist, bending her hand this way and that in a vain attempt to free herself. Unfortunately for her, I had an iron grip and didn’t plan on letting her loose.

Footsteps echoed to us from the tunnel outside, and Illyria and I shared a concerned glance. She came to stand beside me, some distance from the door in case this was another influx of Wraiths with murder on their mind. Instead, it turned out to be Illyria’s guard and Anjelo with Lily in tow.

They all came to a standstill just inside the doorway, taking in Illyria’s torn clothing and my strange-looking struggle that appeared a drunken pantomime.

Illyria motioned for them to wait at the door and they did, although none of them looked too happy about it. Including Lily. She gave me an inquisitive glare, but I couldn’t pay attention to her because my struggles with the invisible hand just increased as the shape-changer made a frantic, last-ditch effort to get free.

I snorted. “Sorry about that, but you aren’t going anywhere. And even if I let you go, you won’t make it out of this room. The doorway is blocked. Unless, of course, you also have teleportation abilities.”

Anjelo and Lily were looking at me as if I’d finally lost it. From Anjelo’s expression, he simply wasn’t prepared to take it anymore. “Kai, what the hell is going on here?”

And just like that, the struggling stopped. So suddenly that I had to squeeze the hand in my grip to be sure I still had her. Then a disembodied voice said, “Kai? Kailin Odel?” The question was hesitant, as if the shape-shifter were hoping I would say no, I wasn’t this person.

Sorry to disappoint.

“Yes, that’s me. Now if you are a suicide bomber, could you kindly get it over with and blow us to bits, or can you take some shape or form so we can have a decent conversation?”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” The shape-changer slowly became visible, and this time she didn’t look anything like a Wraith. Her white-blond hair shimmered and she glanced at me, her pale-grey eyes apologetic. “I’m terribly sorry, Kailin. Part of my mission was to protect you should you arrive here in Wrythiin. I’m afraid I’ve failed.”

“Who are you?” My voice was sharper than normal only because I’d already suspected for whom she worked. Grams was going to get an earful from me for not giving me at least a little heads-up.

“My name is Cassandra Monteith. I work for Sentinel.” She lifted her chin and looked me straight in the eyes. “And I think you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I had an idea.”

“I do apologize for that.”

“No need. Although I think you should be apologizing to Illyria for infiltrating her ranks and impersonating one of her officers.” I looked up at the leader of the Rebel army, whose face revealed subdued anger. She had it under control, and I admired her strength.

“Don’t waste your breath on apologies. What I want to know is why Sentinel is spying on my army.” She glared at Cassandra and folded her arms. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she started to tap her feet while waiting on the shape-changer’s response.

But she didn’t have to wait too long. Cassandra answered, “I wasn’t here to spy for Sentinel. My mission was to lie low and ensure Anjelo and Celeste Odel remained in good health. Were I to find their lives in danger, I was meant to put a call out for an immediate extraction.” Her expression faltered a little. “Of course, once I found out Celeste was not here, I had to notify HQ. I would have been advised to ready myself and the boy for extraction, but an alert came to me that Kailin would be coming soon and my mission was not at an end.”

“So your placement within my team was purely to benefit the Walkers?” Illyria looked like she didn’t entirely believe her.

“Yes. I do believe they have friends in high places. Sentinel wanted to be certain the Rebel army wasn’t a threat to the Walkers being held here.”

“Anjelo is not being held here. He can leave whenever he wants,” Illyria answered defensively, probably pissed off that she had both a Widd’en and a Sentinel mole in her ranks. She probably didn’t need to be reminded of that either. “Because of our treaty with the High Council, I will neither hold you or charge you, but please could you ensure you leave my barracks immediately?” Her voice was clipped and tight, revealing her dissatisfaction.

“Of course. I will request an immediate extraction. And I do apologize for invading your privacy. I was only doing my job.” Cassandra’s lips twisted in apology, and Illyria sighed.

“I understand. I have nothing against you. Although, you can understand why I feel betrayed.” After a pause she said, “As long as you leave as soon as possible.”

But I hesitated. “Wait. Maybe we could take advantage of her skills?” Illyria stared at me as if I’d grown another head. “I’m serious. Once we have the intel, we will be making a mission into the Widd’en compound. What better way to do it than with a shape-changer who can change her looks as she goes? She could get in and find out where my mother is without raising any alarms.”

I knew I had her when she began to nod and looked decidedly impressed with my plan. “I will authorize that as long as you are sure you can trust her.”

I looked at Cassandra, my lips twisting as I considered her. “I don’t know her so I can’t vouch for her, but I know who sent her and I trust that person with my life. So yes, I will trust her.”

***

As we left the training area and headed down the tunnel, another Wraith came running up to us. He weaved past the front guard and Anjelo and Lily, stopping only when he reached Illyria. She seemed pleased when he handed her a small, folded-up piece of paper, then turned and disappeared down the tunnel again. My heart knocked against my ribs. I hoped it was what I thought it was. The intel that would give us my mother’s location.

Illyria had Cassandra taken to the war room where the Sentinel agent was instructed to wait. Despite her assurances that she was going nowhere, she was watched by two of the Rebel guard while Illyria called us into a meeting with Anjelo and her generals. I still found it strange that the hierarchy within the Rebel army was so similar to the armies of the human species. But the Wraiths used to live side by side with humans, much like the Fae until the Wraiths were banished, so it wasn’t all that surprising for them to model their army reporting structure on that of the humans.

We all filed into Illyria’s office with Lily, who looked pretty impressed that she was being included. I noticed she had my satchel over her shoulder and had brought my crossbow and scimitar, the metal of both weapons peeking out from the top of the flap.

I took a seat in front of the Rebel leader, and Lily stood beside me. Then I wondered if there was some sort of protocol, if maybe only the three generals were allowed to sit. But nobody made a face or chided me, so I figured I was safe.

Illyria opened the message and said, “As you must have suspected, I have in my hand the intel from our mole within Widd’en’s army. I am not going to assume this information is untainted. We need to be prepared for anything, including another betrayal. My only hope is the news of Ni’kai’s failure to kill me would have died with him. Then we have the element of surprise to our advantage.”

Illyria nodded at one of her generals, who now stood un-hooded beside her desk. He turned sharply and went to a shelf behind the desk. The rickety wooden bookcase was filled to the brim with rolls and rolls of maps. He looked through the stack, found what he was searching for, and handed it to Illyria. She opened the small catch that held the roll together and spread the map open on her desk.

Over her head, the general glanced up at me and my heart stopped. The dislike in his eyes was so strong I could almost taste it. Even my panther mewled with concern. What is his deal? I didn’t recall having any dealings with him since I’d arrived.’

I pulled my gaze away as Illyria began to speak. “Widd’en’s army is holed up here.” She pointed at a range of craggy mountains. “This is called the Black Mountain of Wrygos, and the compound is on the north face of the range. It is a sixty-mile hike to the mountains, over dangerous territory. Between here and Wrygos, the land is bare and frozen, dotted with treacherous patches of thin ice. The ice in certain places is thinner because of underground geysers that spout hot water to the surface. But this is not ordinary water. The Black Lake of Wrythiin contains a liquid similar in construct to oil, sticky and wet. And poisonous. Drinking this water is a death sentence to anyone not born of Wrythiin.

I raised an eyebrow. Talk about a treacherous journey. I glanced up at Lily, and she immediately sent me a narrow-eyed glare that said,
Like hell are you making me stay behind.

Illyria looked up, her gaze meeting mine first, then Anjelo’s. “If you come, you must be prepared for the journey. This is not a mission for a weakling.”

I nodded, leaning forward as if the mere action would assure her. “We will be fine, Illyria.” Then I fell silent. I decided the less said, the better. Better not to make light of things in the face of a mission that looked quite likely to take at least one of our lives before it was done. Anjelo looked at me, then glanced up at Lily. She must have given him the same glare, because he almost flinched, then hurriedly looked away. I wanted to laugh but quickly suppressed the desire.

Illyria continued. “Who will be responsible for the Sentinel agent?”

The room was silent for a moment, but I hadn’t intended for anyone else to volunteer for babysitting duty. I nodded at the Rebel leader. “I will. You won’t have to worry about her, though. If she says she will do the mission, then you can believe her. She did save your life.”