by J. L. Weil
Bash flicked a look to his father, a mischievous grin on his lips. “I told you I’d like her.”
Ryker glowered, and his wife shifted in her seat. “You might not see it now, but there is a reason you are here,” my uncle replied to me.
“Please do enlighten me,” I pushed, waving my fork in the air.
“Tomorrow,” he said, throwing back the remaining contents in his goblet and slamming the glass down onto the table with purpose. “Tonight we dine.”
My plate rattled, and I tore my eyes away from his. I toyed with the food on my plate with my fork, unable to stomach more, but I forced myself to take a bite. If I was going to survive being under Ryker’s control, I would need my strength, and allowing myself to wither away wouldn’t save my mom. Keep your wits, Tessa had told me. Listen.
So I tried to listen to the conversation around me. The three males in the room dominated the discussions of politics, surrounding kingdoms, and the harbor trades. Nothing came up about Devyn or Talin, and I grew weary of the mundane talk when my life was falling apart.
I went through the motions of eating and drinking, more drinking than eating (I needed something to dull the pain). Occasionally, Isleen would give an opinion or laugh, but I just sat there like a robot. When a lull took over the room, I blurted out, “Why doesn’t my magic work here?”
A moment of silence overtook us, all eyes landing on me. It was Ryker who answered. “The castle is warded against magic.”
Fucking great.
Defeated. That was the emotion that flashed through me.
“Then how do you expect me to fulfill my … destiny?” I decided on that word, but I was not particularly keen on it. Or was that part of his plot? To strip me of everything? My powers. My crown. My kingdom. My Shaman.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like another glass of wine?” Bash asked, his gold eyes twinkling like the devil’s.
Ryker’s jaw tightened. “You remind me so much of your mother. How is she, by the way?”
I ground my teeth, and I knew my eyes were glistening. He was a bastard to bring up my mother. “It’s been a long day. I’m tired. And I’d like to go to my room for the night.”
He inclined his head in agreement. We’d had enough of each other’s company for one day. “Before you retire, niece, I’m going to warn you only once. If you try to flee, you put not only yourself at risk, but your family as well. And the Shaman and his family too,” he added. “You being here is sanctioned by the Conclave, and they wouldn’t take kindly to you running off. Whoever is sent to retrieve you won’t be as … considerate as me.”
His threat rang out loud and clear.
Caution be damned. I shot to my feet and retreated from the room with Reilly on my heels.
Chapter Three
DEVYN
I tried not to let panic consume me as I stared at the spot where Karina had been consumed by darkness.
Fuck Ryker.
I didn’t give a pig’s ass if he was royalty. The bastard would pay for taking her and forcing her to make a decision that put her life in danger. I would kill the asshole with my bare hands, skewer him like a shish kebab, and serve him to the royal hounds.
My knees sunk into the dirt, rocks digging into my flesh, but I didn’t feel the pain. It was so minuscule compared to the agonizing ache in my chest. My head roared with a surge of rage that was so absorbing that I was willing to use anything or anyone for a release. It was that crude madness inside that made me a deadly threat to every fae in this world. I would cut down anyone who stood in my path. I will find her. I will not fail. And I will destroy him.
Blood soaked the ground around me, staining the earth, but I was immune to the coppery scent thickening the air. Ryker’s militia had retreated the second Ryker and Karina had vanished, but not before I was able to kill as many as I could. My blades were coated in their blood, and bodies littered the woods, but it wasn’t nearly enough to calm the tornado of vengeance within me.
The roaring in my head grew until I was certain I would go up in flames, burn the world in my wake. I stood up and banished the swords from my hands, but Wrath and Fury remained wrapped around my forearms like living tattoos.
A cool shadow loomed at my shoulder and was followed by a hand. I didn’t want to be touched. “Remove your hand if you want to keep it,” I snarled at Kai.
He wisely unclasped my shoulder, taking the coolness of his shadows with him. “Glad to see you haven’t lost your sunny disposition, brother.”
“Piss off, Kai.”
One of the fallen soldiers shot to his feet—clearly not dead—and thought to take his chance of escape while Kai was distracting me. His mistake.
“Oops. You missed one,” Kai said, angling his head to the side.
Not for long. I ripped a dagger from the chest of a very dead fae and tossed the blade through the air, my aim true, striking him in the back. The stupid SOB went down with a thud. My gaze returned to Kai’s. “Stay out of my way. I don’t want or need your help.”
My bond to Karina demanded that I find her, and that command wouldn’t rest until we were together again. It would consume my every thought, waking or sleeping. There wouldn’t be any rest. My first and only priority was Karina.
Kai’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t storm his castle by yourself.”
I didn’t bother to ask how he knew what my plan was. Perhaps it was what he would have done in my shoes, but I doubted it. Kai loved only himself. “The hell I can’t. Just watch me.” Bitter anger dripped from my voice like acid. I spun and headed back toward the house to load up on supplies. It would take me weeks to travel between our kingdoms, which meant I needed to leave. Now.
Kai put himself in my path. “And get yourself killed? You might be skilled and legendary, but not even you can battle an entire army. Are you going to protect her from the afterlife when you’re dead? Even if you managed to get inside, then what?”
“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” My hatred for Kai became a breathing thing between us.
“Look, I get that you’re pissed.”
My hands clenched into fists at my sides, Wrath and Fury hissing in response to the rage pumping through my blood. “You know nothing about how I’m feeling.”
“I thought you were smart. Think about what you’re about to do.”
“He’s right, Devyn,” Holly said. The sound of her voice surprised me. I’d forgotten she was here.
The flames inside me flickered, and I needed that burn. It was the only way I was going to get through this, so I pulled my gaze from Holly’s and pinned Kai with a hateful stare. “Why do you care what happens to me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t. But I do care about my own hide and saving her is the only way I survive.”
I took a deep breath that did little to soothe the fire. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Let me go,” Kai suggested. “No one will suspect me.”
It took everything in me not to slam my fist into his face. “No,” I replied flatly, not bothering to entertain the idea for even a split second.
But Kai wasn’t about to give up. “I’m her best option. And you know it. Is that what has you so twisted up that you can’t see reason?”
I tensed. “No. I just don’t trust you.”
The look on his face wasn’t one of offense, but arrogance. “Who does?”
I was going to punch that pretentious smirk down his throat. “I want to protect her, not corrupt her.”
“Is there a difference?”
“Kai,” Holly scolded. She was so much older than her mere nine years suggested. I’d been so absorbed by the loss of Karina that what Holly must be feeling slipped my mind. She’d been held hostage by Ryker and used as bait, her life nearly sacrificed. That had to leave a scar, or at least screw with you, but looking at Holly, I couldn’t tell. She was incredible and strong.
The fact that Kai had to ask what the difference was gave me reason enough not to trust him. “I don’t want you anywhere near
her.” I pivoted and took off through the woods.
“I can be at the castle by morning. Can you say the same?” He was following me. Holly too.
I halted. So many f-bombs went off in my head. It could take me weeks to find a way to the castle. Kai had magic similar to Karina’s void, where he could summon shadows and use them to fold the space between places. Unlike Karina, Kai couldn’t bring me along for the ride. It had only been because of our link we had been able to journey here from the mortal lands by accident.
I couldn’t bank on accidents now, not with her life on the line.
I whipped around. “If I agree to this, it is only so you can keep an eye on her and make sure she isn’t being mistreated until I come for her. Is that clear?”
“Crystal,” Kai grinned like the asshole he was.
Dammit. I couldn’t believe I was making a deal with the devil.
This was wrong, so wrong, but what choice did I have? It burned my ass to rely on Kai for anything when it came to Karina. “How do I know you will keep your word? That you don’t have your own agenda?”
“Mom is going to be pissed when she finds out what you two are planning,” Holly interjected.
“Holly,” Kai and I groaned.
I rubbed my hands down my jaw, not caring about the blood splattered over me. “You are not to say anything, understood?” I told her.
She nibbled on her lip, contemplating before she finally nodded.
I sighed. “I will bring her back,” I promised Holly, determination set in my jaw. If only determination alone was enough to save her.
“I know you will,” she answered, her eyes haunted by her encounter with Ryker. I couldn’t let myself think about how this would affect her. Not yet. “Just don’t get hurt,” she added.
Kai scoffed. In his own way, he cared about Holly, but he had no attachment to Karina other than to save his own skin, which in my book made him unpredictable and dangerous. “You know he was going to let that asshole kill you, right?”
God, he could be such a dick.
She flinched, and her eyes shone bright like polished emeralds in the light. “I know, but he didn’t have a choice. I owe the queen my life.”
“Let’s go get our little mortal queen back then,” Kai said with an excitement I found frightening.
“She isn’t yours,” I growled, not caring how possessive I sounded.
Kai grinned. “You might want to check that territorial attitude. Or you’ll get us all killed.”
“When this is over, I’m going to shove those shadows you hide behind up your ass.”
His smirk only grew. “I look forward to it.”
Goddamn his cockiness.
I was in my room long enough to shower, change into fresh clothes, and arm myself with whatever weapons I could carry and conceal. I looked like shit. Being in the room that was once a haven was now torture. Her smell lingered on the bed where we had slept, tearing me up inside. It had only been days that she stayed here, and yet she had managed to take it over with her presence. Everything reminded me of her.
And it deprived the room of oxygen.
My chest seized as I left.
Each second, each minute that ticked by was wasted time, and it was driving me insane. Perhaps I wasn’t thinking straight, but who could blame me? The most important person in the world had been ripped away from me, leaving me gasping for air. I’d never been near to death, but this feeling inside my chest had to be the closest thing to dying.
I had one job. One goddamn job: to protect her. And I’d failed. I’d fucking miserably failed.
I loved her. I wasn’t supposed to. It was forbidden, and yet still, I’d never wanted anything so much in my entire existence but to be able to love her. I’d never gotten the chance to tell her my true feelings. It would haunt me. The regret. Her eyes. The sound of her laugh.
I couldn’t bear it, being apart from her, not knowing if she was in pain or scared.
If he hurt her …
The things I would do to him, they’d make grown men cry and beg to be killed.
I hoped Ryker was prepared for the storm I was about to unleash on his kingdom. The sea would thrash. The winds would scream. And the land would quake.
It wouldn’t end until the ocean ran red with his blood.
Chapter Four
KARINA
“Do you have a death wish, highness?” Reilly hissed near my ear, keeping his voice low so the sentinels wouldn’t overhear.
We climbed the spiral stairs, and for a brief moment, I thought about running. “No. I just want to go home.” Perhaps I could plead with Reilly to help me out of this situation, to take me to the mountains where his dragon clan dwelled.
“You know that isn't an option anymore.” He gave me a long look, his eyes softening. “My offer still stands. I can offer you my protection.”
Hope rose in me but then crashed as I comprehended the implication. He meant protection as his wife.
I shook my head. “I’m not ready to make a decision like that. Not without …”
He forked a hand through his auburn hair. “Devyn? You’re still hung up on the Shaman?”
“It’s not like that,” I insisted, putting a sharpness in my voice, even though it was precisely like that.
Reilly raised his eyebrows. “If you say so, but I’ve known Devyn St. Cyr a long time. He isn’t going to give up on you, regardless of how many sentinels stand in his way. Coming here is a suicide mission, and he knows it, yet he will still come for you.”
I didn’t want to believe the castle was so secure that Devyn wouldn’t be able to reach me, but the sinking pit in my stomach said otherwise. “I don’t want him to die,” I whispered. We were at the top of the tower where another set of guards were posted.
“Think about my offer.”
I’d had enough warnings to last me a lifetime. “Good night, Reilly.”
“Good night, your highness.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Don’t call me that.”
He gave a slight tip of his head. “As you wish, Karina.”
He waited until I was inside the bedroom before his footsteps faded away. One of the guards locked the door behind me, the metallic click echoing across the stone ceilings. I sunk against the wall and sighed.
I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Reilly if he would be here in the morning. Tomorrow I would find a way to speak to him. Alone. He might be just the ally I needed in a place like this, but first, I needed to know where his loyalties lied.
It would be so nice to have someone on my side, someone to stand with me against my uncle, but I wasn’t delusional. Reilly had his own agenda. That hadn’t changed since our last meeting, which I’d rather not think about.
I went through the motions of going to bed, but sleep was far off. How could I possibly rest under the roof of someone who had tried to kill me?
He didn’t actually think this room could hold me, did he? That we wouldn’t find a way back to each other? I might not understand the link that tied Devyn and I together, but I did know that together we were a force to be reckoned with.
Restless in the massive bed, I stared at the ceiling and through the little round window above my head, which made it seem as if I was sleeping under the stars. I found small comfort in knowing Devyn was out there somewhere under the same sky. At least we weren’t worlds apart. A small blessing.
The cool evening breeze blew in through the window, sending the fabric at each corner of the bedposts dancing in the darkness. Night was in full bloom, and I let my thoughts drift.
This was the first time in weeks I would sleep alone without the warmth and strength of Devyn. I’d grown so dependent on him being there for everything, regardless of how strong I had become.
My lips wobbled, and I bit them to keep them from trembling. It seemed the cryfest I’d had before dinner wasn’t the end of my sorrow. The agony and loneliness had sunken deep within me.
What was he doing?
Was Holly
okay?
Was he as tormented by the miles and miles that separated us as I was?
Did he miss me?
Tears spilled from my eyes, tracking down my cheeks. Again.
I brushed roughly at my face, smearing the salty tears, and sniffed. I refused to cry myself to sleep, to let Ryker break me. I would keep my chin up and my wits about me, just as Tessa had said. I could endure.
Just as this world would endure.
The stars would continue to shine. The moons would glow. And I would fulfill my destiny.
It was wrong of me to pretend that if I closed my eyes and went to sleep, I’d wake from this nightmare in some rundown motel beside him. I wanted it to be true so badly that my chest ached.
Eventually, my eyes grew heavier and heavier to the point where I gave in, allowing sleep to claim me into an oblivion empty of pain, hurt, fear, and uncertainty.
The stench of blood filled the air—the unmistakable metallic scent burning my nose. Over my right shoulder loomed a gate of gray stone. On either side of it ran a fence made of thorns. Dark stains coated some of the stones, and I was positive it was blood.
It was an effort not to gag, to hold in the small amount of food in my stomach. I took a step backward, retreating from the dark and ominous gate of death. Beneath my foot, something crunched, and I glanced down. A gasp cut off the bile rising up my throat when I saw what was under my boot. A skull.
My eyes swept the area around me. The ground was littered with corpses—fae bodies.
“You did this,” a voice hissed, and I spun around, searching for the source of that hideous voice.
Where are you? What do you mean this is my fault? My stomach twisted, and a clammy feeling prickled along my skin. Tingles of my magic coursed through my veins in warning. Something evil was coming.
There was no sunlight, nothing good, no hope to cling to through the dark gray that shrouded the world. This wasn’t my first dream of the end of the Second Moon, and it wouldn’t be the last. These dreams had plagued my nights for weeks.