Warrior Beautiful (17 page)

****

The shower was heaven, and Scout knew heaven existed because soul stealers were obvious evidence of hell. If there was bad, there had to also be good, right?
Right
, she told herself as she tried to scrub dried blood from her long, tangled mass of curls. She hurt. All of her hurt; despite the Leerha’s attempts to heal her. The wounds were gone, but her body still felt like she’d been through a… war.
Oh. I have.

She turned off the water and grabbed the soft white towel, wrapping it tight around her as she climbed out of the shower. Lil Bit hated water, and to get her through bath time, Laila used to put the towels in the dryer so they were nice and warm when Lil Bit got out. The memory made Scout’s heart hurt. Such a massive battle and they had won! And she still didn’t get her sister back.

“
I notice you worry about your sister but never your parents. Did they not get taken as well?
”
Ashra’s voice was in Scout’s head even though the gigantic black unicorn was nowhere to be seen.

“
This is like talking on a phone, huh? Nice.
”
Scout answered. Soft black clothes had been left on her bed. She didn’t know where they came from, but in a land full of magic, it wasn’t worth wondering. She pulled them on, grateful for non-bloodstained anything to wear.

“
You didn
’
t answer my question.
”

Scout wandered to the window and peered out, but there was no sign of Ashra anywhere — or anyone else, for that matter. Even Iros and Havik were gone from the valley.

“
They
’
re celebrating. We haven
’
t had a victory like this in quite some time. Amazing what a few riders can do, isn
’
t it? Now answer my question.
”

Scout smiled, leaning on the windowsill as she combed through her hair, wondering why she left it so long. Short would be so much easier. She also wondered where the comb came from, but logged it there with the clothes and magical place scenario. “My parents are tough. They can take care of themselves, and they will until I get there. Plus, they’re with Lil Bit, and they would prefer being in Aptavaras with her than safe and alive with me.” She didn’t mean it to sound as bitter as it did, but Ashra picked up on it.

“
So all the anger you hold so tight isn
’
t just toward Torz
’
s rider.
”
Now Scout could see her, materializing out of the shadows of the forest. Without her armor on, Ashra had returned to being simply glorious and not terrifying. Scout smiled as the sleek black unicorn came slowly across the green valley to Scout’s hut.

“Hey.” Scout nodded with a smirk. “How come you aren’t celebrating?”

“
Because celebrating death isn
’
t something I
’
m fond of.
”

Scout tipped her head sideways, considering. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

Ashra’s ear flicked but she said nothing.

“I saw you with her! You were all over her!” Kylin’s shriek startled both of them, and Scout tried to hide the grin when she saw the mighty warrior jump like a scared little mouse.

“
Humans like her are what give the rest of you a bad name,
”
Ashra’s tail whipped in annoyance.

Scout looked toward Trey’s hut, where she could hear his deep voice but couldn’t make out his words. “I think she’s hungry. Low blood sugar will do that to you.”

“
I fed her.
”
Ashra snorted and tossed her head and Scout smirked. The way Ashra said it made Scout think of Kylin as some sort of pet — the mean kind with sharp teeth that no one liked to play with.

Scout patted her muzzle without thinking, rubbing the baby-fine hair. “Yeah… I got nothin’.”

They stood in silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Scout stared out across the valley, positive she would never get used to the beauty of the place, while her hand absently stroked Ashra’s soft fur.

“
Lil Bit is stronger than you give her credit for,
”
Ashra said finally.

Scout nodded. “I know.” She dropped her hand, yawning. “I’m going to sleep.” Tipping her head sideways again, she frowned. “Where’s your house? Do you sleep in a barn or a — a stall or something?”

Ashra jerked her head up in indignation. “
I
’
m wild! Haven
’
t you heard the legends of the untameable unicorn? We don
’
t live in barns!
”

Scout burst out laughing. “Yeah. Indomitable spirit and all that.”

“
I sleep in the shadows, like a true warrior. With soft grass.
”
Ashra sniffed. With that she turned and ambled across the valley. Scout watched her go, feeling more at peace than she had in days. With Ashra on her side, there was no way she wouldn’t win.

“I’m coming, Lil Bit.”

****

Trey stood at his window, deliberately keeping his back to Kylin so she couldn’t see how angry he was. He watched Ashra approach, watched her stop at Scout’s window, and then he watched her leave. Scout may have had whoever knew how long to get used to the idea of unicorns, but he hadn’t, and the beauty of the mythical creature wasn’t lost on him. Ashra especially, in all her fearlessness, seemed more delicate, more surreal than the other Irwarros.

Scout belonged here. The way her dancer’s body moved across the valley, around the trees, it was like she was the human embodiment of the unicorns. And she was a soother. They even had a name for what she was, like she’d always belonged here, with them.

Kylin did not, and he was still trying to figure out where his place was. He felt at home here, more at home than he had at school with all his friends, more at home than on the football field, more at home even than home. But whether that was because Scout was here or if he truly belonged, he wasn’t sure.

And behind him, Kylin still yelled. With a groan, he whirled on her, dragging a hand through his hair. “Kylin, I fought in a war today — with demons. I have demon blood all over me,” He threw his hands around, gesturing to his entire, blood-covered self, “I want to shower. And then I want to sleep. To do that, I need you to go away because your screaming isn’t helping this headache I’ve got.”

Kylin pulled up short, her face turning that awful burgundy it did whenever she was furious. “You could take some lessons from Kasen. He would never talk to a lady like that.” As if realizing what she’d said, her hand flew to her mouth, and she shoved past him and raced out his door.

Trey stared after her, frowning. But wondering what Kasen had to do with anything took too much energy — way more than Trey had right then. Instead he mumbled something even he didn’t understand and headed for the shower.

He wondered with what brainpower he had left, if Kasen had escaped the attack. And Cole. Thinking about them led him to his brothers and his parents. He thought of them the last time he’d seen them conscious in the hospital, so worried about him. And now would he ever see them again? His parents had been unusually amazing. And his brothers, annoying though they were, had so much potential, so much life and kindness and hope. He couldn’t let them go. Somehow, he had to save them. The world still needed his family.
He
still needed them.

He scrubbed so hard his skin was raw, trying to get all the soul stealer blood off. It felt like he was stained. The blood would never be gone — even when he couldn’t see it anymore, he could still feel it, eating away at him. He scrubbed harder.

It was dark by the time he turned the water off, scrubbing his head with a towel. He walked out of the bathroom, another towel draped around his waist. He looked up and she was standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the moon in the sky outside.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize… I just…” Scout stumbled backward, tripping over her own feet before she whirled and raced away.

“Scout!” He reached his arm out like he could catch her, but he couldn’t very well go chasing after her in a towel. Swearing, he jerked his clothes on before he ran out of the hut, barefoot. “Scout,” he said as he rounded the doorway into her hut. It was still dark except for a single candle on the nightstand — lit by unicorn magic and not real flame.
Nice avoidance of fire hazards
, he thought crazily. “You — you came to my hut.” Well, didn’t he sound intelligent? But he couldn’t think of what else to say.

She paced the floor, but the hut was pretty small and he was pretty big, so there wasn’t a whole lot of room she could walk and avoid him at the same time. “I did.” She stopped her pacing and stared up at him, her cheeks flushed. “I didn’t thank you, earlier. For catching me when I fell. And—and for coming after us when Ashra wanted to kill us.”

Trey swallowed hard. He realized this was the first time she’d said anything that wasn’t angry in over a year, except for their science project, which he’d messed up royally. He prayed that he wouldn’t mess this up, too. “You’re welcome.” That seemed pretty safe.

She tipped her head, and the candlelight glinted against her silky, honey-brown waves. Her hair had always been his undoing. When they’d been together, he couldn’t keep his hands away from her hair. Or her face. Her lips, her eyes…

“What was that on your shoulder?” She was speaking and he had to drag his mind away from the past and try to figure out what she was saying.

“My shoulder?”

She crossed the short space between them, hesitating, and touched his shoulder. “Here.”

He nearly choked. She wasn’t supposed to see that. But now the sea foam-green eyes were watching him with open curiosity and her lips were parted... he couldn’t tell her ‘no’. Not then, not now, not ever. He looked away, staring at the floor as he rolled the black sleeve of his shirt.

“
Forgive me
,” she read in a whisper, her finger tracing the hard black letters tattooed on his arm. Without looking from the words, she said, “When did you get this?”

“After… while you… before you left the hospital.” His entire body shook against her soft touch as she traced the ‘F’ again. Did she realize what she did to him? What she still did to him, even after all this time? No other girl had ever affected him the way she did with just the barest touch of her fingertip.

Her eyes memorized him now, unreadable, but the ever-present hatred was gone. “How? You weren’t eighteen yet.”

“My dad took me. My mom doesn’t know.” He grinned a bit at her raised eyebrow.

“What the—” Kylin screeched as she burst throw the doorway, launching herself at Scout with her fingers curled like claws. Scout danced lightly out of the way and Trey intercepted her, grabbing Kylin’s hands. “Get away from him! He’s not yours anymore!” She screamed like a banshee.

“Kylin, calm down—” Trey said but she jerked her hand away and slapped him, hard, across the face.

“You said you were going to bed. You — you lied to me so you could—” she started to sob, sobbing so hard she couldn’t get the words out. And then she threw herself against his chest. He cradled her, stroking her hair, and let her cry. He didn’t know what else to do.

“I’ll give you two some space,” Scout said quietly, inching around them toward the door. She grabbed her belt that held her scepter and tied it around her waist as she walked away without looking back.

“What is going on over there?” He heard Iros bellow. Trey stifled a groan. Awesome. Not only had he driven Scout away but he’d driven her right to Iros. Iros, who he wanted so badly to hate but couldn’t. The guy was incredible and way too kind given the life he’d lived. Lives. Whatever immortals called it.

****

“Iros, will they still try to kill me if I go wandering around by myself?” Scout asked as Iros strode across the valley after her.

Iros frowned and rubbed his square jaw, staring up at the moon like it held his answers. “No, probably not. I think you earned their grudging respect.”

“Okay. Yay.” She waved her fingers in the air with half-hearted enthusiasm.

“Walk with me, Scout.” He looped her arm through his crooked elbow and they wandered away from the huts. Scout tried hard not to think about Trey comforting Kylin behind them.
What
had she been thinking? Was she insane, letting him in like that? She shook her head, mentally shoving him away like she had a thousand-and-one times before.

In the moonlight, the entire valley seemed to glow. Scout paused, pulling Iros closer to the big silver flowers to get a better look. They were glowing, like they had fireflies trapped in their petals, the trees, too. “It’s like… like a painting. Or a dream,” Scout whispered, releasing his arm and turning around in a circle. Iros stood back and watched her.

“You should have seen it in our golden age.” Scout could hear the sadness in his voice, and it made her already crumbling heart hurt a little more.

“I’ll bet it was incredible,” she said softly.

Iros took her arm again and led her toward the forest. “Do we have anywhere in particular we’re heading?” Scout raised an eyebrow at him and he chuckled.

“Not tonight. Tonight I want to relish in our victory for a bit longer before I have to face tomorrow.” He glanced over at her. “And you? Why aren’t you sleeping? I thought Ashra sent you to bed hours ago.”

Scout smirked. “She tried.”

He didn’t say anything else and they wound their way through the forest. Scout heard the barest whisper of unicorns in the distance. Every so often she would see a horn glowing with their fiery magic. But it was all as if she were seeing it through the mist of a dream. She felt safe with Iros. He was beautiful in the way a chiseled statue might be beautiful, and he was kind. She loved to hear him speak, but that was as far as it went, even if she would give her right arm to feel even a sliver as much for him as she did for Trey. But no. Iros liked her company. They were friends, comrades.

Scout let her fingers trail across the silken petals of the glowing silver flowers, tilting her head back to watch the moon. From here, it was as silver as the flowers. It wasn’t pale yellow like at home. “Where is Aptavaras?” she asked Iros, only half paying attention. Was that a waterfall she heard in the distance?

“Aptavaras is… everywhere and nowhere. Like Paradesos.” He swept his free hand around like that explained everything.

Scout squinted in the distance. That
was
a waterfall. She sucked in a breath as they got closer. It was magnificent, like everything else in this place. The water was pale blue and sparkled in the moonlight. She wandered over and stuck her toes in the pond, shivering at its chill. Without thinking, she rolled her pant legs up to her knees and waded in, spreading her arms wide and spinning in a circle. She felt her hair brushing the small of her back, just barely, and she giggled like a little girl.

And then the ground was suddenly gone from beneath her and she plunged into the icy depths. Instinctively she screamed, but water filled her mouth and her lungs. She kicked hard, trying to get her bearings. Iros’ strong arms wrapped tight around her and pulled her up out of the water. She gasped and sputtered, trying to suck in much needed air. Iros carried her over to the edge of the pond and they both collapsed into the grass. He rolled over and pounded her hard on the back while she spit up water.

“Are you okay?” He searched her eyes, after the threat of having water coughed into his face had passed.

She nodded and groaned, still coughing. “I feel like an idiot.”

“How could you know? It was beautiful watching you… until you fell.” He grinned at her and she felt her cheeks redden.

“It was just so sudden. There was ground and then, nothing.”

“Yes. Wounded ground.” Iros’ face darkened and he looked away.

Scout frowned, searching the grass around them. She didn’t see wounds of any kind. “Excuse me?”

Iros nodded toward the waterfall and the little pond. “The waterfall is created by the tears of heartbroken unicorns. When Havik and I sent my brother out of Paradesos and into Aptavaras, it created a wound in the ground that never healed. Nothing could grow there. Eventually, the tears of the unicorns filled it.”

Scout studied the pond with renewed interest. “The way to Aptavaras is right through that hole?”

“Don’t get any ideas, Scout.” Iros frowned. “Those hordes of monsters we faced today? There are tens of thousands of them in Aptavaras, just waiting for their chance to seek revenge. They aren’t smart, mostly they follow orders, but they feel the pain of loss as surely as we do, and they have punished us and those who have helped us many times by their quest for revenge.”

Scout couldn’t tear her eyes from the pond. She’d been so close. “So what stops them from just marching through that hole and attacking Paradesos?” She leaned forward and dragged her fingers through the water, watching it ripple away from her, but her soaking wet clothes made her shiver.

Ever the gentleman, Iros noticed and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s get you back to your hut. And in answer to your question, they don’t have a soul. If they did come to Paradesos, they would die… like, the air itself would poison them.” They moved faster through the forest than they had coming in, but Scout still felt her teeth start to chatter before they came within sight of the valley.

“So they’re going to make the souls attack Paradesos? Like my sister and my parents?” Her teeth chattered loudly.

“No.” Iros’ voice was suddenly much colder and much darker than she’d ever heard it. “Ten thousand souls equal one soul stealer’s soul. They tear the good souls apart and piece them back together to create one evil soul. When my brother has an army, then they will march on Paradesos.”

Scout gasped, shoving her fist into her mouth to stifle the scream building in her throat. It took her several seconds before she trusted herself enough to lower her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me that days ago? We need to go now!”

Iros raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t tell you days ago because you didn’t even know I existed days ago. And this process takes decades — to build one soul. We have to build an army of our own, Scout, or we all lose.”

Scout scrubbed her eyes. “So much for getting any sleep tonight.”
Or ever again
. She glanced at her hut, praying Trey and Kylin weren’t still there.

“Here. This will give you good dreams.” Iros tapped lightly on his scepter, and little sparks leaped free. He caught them in his left hand and pressed them against Scout’s forehead.

Instantly, she was dizzy and sleepy. “That’s some powerful sleep aid you’ve got there, Iros,” she mumbled. He walked her to her hut, where she stripped off the soaking clothes through an exhausted haze and found the soft cotton pajamas folded on the nightstand. Then she stumbled to her cot and collapsed, curling into a ball. She felt him pull the blanket over her and then nothing. Where she escaped to, even nightmares couldn’t follow.