by J. L. Weil
“Don’t panic,” Kai whispered, hearing the sudden fluctuation in my breathing.
“Easy for you to say.” I was literally shackled to him. God, this sucked.
“On the bright side, things could get kinky.” Normally, I might appreciate his attempt to diffuse my temper, but not today.
There was no bright side, no spot of sunshine on the horizon. Only darkness and rage. “Shut up and go.”
“As you wish, little queen.” He slapped the reins, and his horse took off, jerking me back in the saddle. “I’d tell you to hold on, but I think you’ve got that covered.”
“Prick,” I muttered, causing Kai to laugh.
DEVYN
The pounding of hooves flying over the ground woke me from my pitiful attempt at sleep. It took me ten seconds to pinpoint where they were coming from and how many. Too many to be a night patrol. Twenty at least, possibly thirty. What was a group of that size doing at this time? From the sound of their pace, they were in a hurry to get wherever it was they were going.
I crept out from under the knitted roots and branches, making sure to keep hidden as I surveyed the woods. They were close, but not close enough to expose my cover. However, that could change at any moment.
Gypsy’s ears were erect, her own senses tuned in to the sudden disruption of our silence. I gazed down at the glittering sprawl of the city, just making out the silhouettes of riders galloping inland, away from the sea and toward the northeast border of Orangeoland.
Under the starlight, a stream of midnight hair caught my eye as the wind whipped it behind the rider. Female. She wasn’t riding alone. A male steered the mount with an expertise only trained soldiers or royalty possessed. The other guards kept a tight formation around the pair, either in protection or captivity.
Karina.
My entire body sang her name, and every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to sweep in now, to rescue her, to kill every man who stood between us.
I eyed them closely, making the decision to follow the band of sentinels before killing them. I needed to get closer, to see her. Slinging my pack over my shoulders, I lifted myself into the saddle of a not so happy mare and left behind a snoring pixie. I weaved toward the girl who had turned my world upside down.
Gypsy, with her unnatural gifts, kept her hooves silent as she trotted over the earth, using the cover of darkness and trees to our advantage and never getting too close to be spotted or heard by fae ears.
I followed them for miles, traveling farther and farther from the port, my body shaking with unrestrained anger. The night was cloudless—nothing but moon-kissed starlight in the sky. They rode without stopping until we reached the Clove.
The sprawl of the valley came into view from my vantage point, but my eyes were drawn to one person only.
Karina.
Pain and pleasure danced within me. She was just as I remembered—the long hair that cascaded down her slim back, the deep blue eyes that scowled at the back of Kai’s head.
Being this close to her but not being able to touch her, to hold her, to talk to her killed me. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep hidden, but it wasn’t safe for her. Not yet. She wouldn’t be returning to the castle; that I could promise her. When the time was right, I’d make my move, and if my stepbrother knew what was good for him, he’d stand with me or he would find himself as part of the carnage.
Kai slid off the horse first before turning to assist Karina from the mare’s back. His hands clutched her waist and lingered too long for my liking, but it wasn’t until she stepped away from Kai that I noticed the shackles around their wrists.
They were cuffed together.
A murderous shade of red coated my vision at the sight of those magic-binding manacles touching her skin. I’d seen them before. Pure frenzy engulfed me. I nearly lost all control at that moment.
Her powers were stifled, which answered some of the lingering questions I’d had during the journey about her welfare. Ryker was suffocating her.
Asshole wasn’t a big enough word to encompass her uncle.
I crouched behind a cluster of bushes as Bash and Ryker strode up to Karina and Kai. Father and son. Karina shifted on her feet, her eyes roaming over the Clove, a place that had once been lush, vibrant, and tranquil. Now the small pond looked like a pool of tar. The leaves on the trees were shriveled and blanketed what had been moss on the ground. The land looked as if it had been charred. The sickness killed everything in its path from the inside out.
Sorrow fractured in her eyes—not for her situation, but for the state of the Clove. Whether she recognized the connection she had to this world or not, the Second Moon already had its claws inside her. The world claimed her as I so desperately wished I could.
“Kai,” she rasped his name. “I can’t do this.” Her eyes scanned the long stretch of blackened land.
The blight had spread so much farther than I’d believed, and she wasn’t the only one affected by the desolate state of the Clove. This was why Ryker had ordered she be brought here. The fool believed she would be able to heal this section of his region. Perhaps she might have been able to if he hadn’t waited so long before trying. This was beyond her abilities. It would drain her soul star completely, and if he forced her to do just that, he would be putting the rest of the Second Moon in jeopardy.
No man was that stupid.
And yet…
The look on Ryker’s face was hard and merciless as he stalked toward her.
Bastard.
Wretched bastard.
“Bash?” Ryker summoned his son. “You’ve seen what her magic can do, studied it.”
Bash nodded, unable to be distracted from the sight of his decaying home, a place he had probably played at as a child, maybe even swam in the lake. “Her affinity with the earth is small. I’m not positive she has the power or strength to keep …” He swallowed. “To keep this at bay. I suspect the connection will only grow stronger as she gains her tails. If she earned another one, it would tip the scales in our favor.”
“It doesn’t matter. We don’t have the time. It must be stopped now.” Ryker was past reason.
Seeing the crestfallen expression on her features cracked something inside my chest. What am I waiting for? I should go now. Catch them unawares.
I could take out a few guards before they had a chance to realize they were under attack, but that only gave me seconds to reach Karina. And from this distance …
I will make it, I told myself. I will. There was no other option.
Ryker gestured at two of his sentinels to escort Karina and Kai to the edge of the pond, where the blight seemed most concentrated. It was spilling into his lands from the Katsura border.
“Careful with the merchandise,” Kai warned them with one of his smirks. A muscle in his jaw thrummed, betraying the violent anger that simmered under the surface.
The guards shoved them to the ground with a laugh. “Is that gentle enough for you, Unseelie?” One of the sentinels spat with disgust, as if it were a dirty word, and in some parts of the Second Moon, being Unseelie was considered disgraceful. Kai’s mother had saved him from being shunned by the courts, but many still thought he didn’t deserve the title, his blood tainted by the darkness of his father.
On his knees with Karina at his side, Kai held up his hand, jingling the chain that swung from his wrist. “You might want to remove the accessory if you want our little queen to use her magic.”
Oh, he was up to something.
I knew Kai. Knew how that devious mind of his worked.
Both sentinels withdrew daggers. One pointed at Kai, the other at Karina. “Try anything and we’ll cut your throat.”
Spineless assholes.
“Colorful,” Kai replied, watching the guard with intrigue as another came forward to release the cuff binding Karina. “You remind me of my brother.”
The guard only unbound Karina, leaving Kai on the ground. He pressed the tip of his sword into Kai’s neck. “We have or
ders to kill him if you try anything,” the sentinel told Karina.
She looked to Kai for help, trying to read the blank expression on his face. If he had a plan, he hadn’t shared it with her. Confusion and apprehension swam in her eyes, and I could see her struggling with the choice in front of her.
Karina wasn’t someone who would choose her own life over another’s, even if that someone was Kai. If he hadn’t been so selfish, he would have told her to run. Perched on the hillside, I waited for him to tell her to save herself. The words never came.
Surrounded on all sides by sentinels, Karina walked to the edge of the lake where a guard shoved her down onto her knees. A low warning growl rumbled from her lips, her sapphire eyes brightening with magic.
I nocked an arrow in my bow.
They were all dead. Kai wasn’t the only one who could be heartless.
Chapter Thirteen
KARINA
A knot tightened in my chest.
This was insane.
But what choice did I have? If I used my powers to escape or attack, then I would risk Kai’s life. Not that he didn’t deserve it for what he had done to me, but I also was grateful for his presence, prick or not. I glanced over my shoulder to see the shackle around his wrist and the tip of the blade pressed into his flesh. He wore a mask of boredom on his devilish face, not an ounce of fear or worry.
He knew my soul, knew I would do as Ryker commanded, knew I wouldn’t let them hurt him. Behind me, Ryker and Bash stood with another group of sentinels, watching us closely and waiting with impatient expressions. “Do not keep us waiting,” Ryker shouted.
The two moons hung high in the sky. All traces of the sun had dipped behind the horizon, leaving the Clove bathed in moonlight. I closed my eyes and took a breath, searching deep within myself for that pool of magic. I focused on my breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Slow, even breaths through my nose.
My fingers sunk into the sodden earth, my blood, my body, my soul filling with power as if my Kitsune knew precisely what was required of me. I tried to think about what would happen to Kai or to me if I failed, but then, as my magic touched the earth, a dark power slammed into me, knocking the air out of my lungs. Tears glistened in my eyes. “The land screams,” I whispered, my voice catching on the emotion churning and churning inside me. Could they not see, not hear, not feel the earth’s pain?
It rippled through my body, wave after wave after wave, and a cry of pain shattered me. I ground my teeth in an attempt to pay no attention to the agony the blight caused the land. Magic stirred again in my blood, and I sent it into the thick, cool mud.
But no matter how hard or how much of myself I shoved into the sickened earth, it wasn’t enough. The blight pushed right back—a challenge, as if to say, You won’t beat me, little half-breed.
I bristled like the words had been whispered in my ear. A shadow hovered over me, and I sensed my uncle’s burning gaze upon me. “It’s not working,” I stammered, feeling distraught and so very tired. Between my restless nights, the daily exercises with Bash, and now this, my bones and muscles were giving out on me.
More than a dozen pairs of eyes watched me as I sunk deeper into the earth, feeling my magic drain away.
I recalled the tree in Ashland, how it had been dead, and under Devyn’s guidance, I’d been able to restore life back to its roots, to its veins. That had been a single tree. How did Ryker expect me to heal a whole section of his lands—big or small?
“I can’t do it,” I cried. “It’s too much.”
My fingers flew to my temples where an incessant throbbing wouldn’t quit. I winced at the pain assaulting my head, and then I turned and vomited my entire dinner.
“You’re weak,” Ryker spat. His words hit me like a physical blow. “You will do this or he will die,” my uncle seethed, pointing at Kai. The guard added a fracture of pressure to his blade, piercing the skin at Kai’s neck. To his credit, Kai didn’t so much as flinch, but any fool could see the shadows gathering in his dark eyes. If we made it out of here alive, Kai would kill the sentinel who cut him without reservation or guilt.
I shuddered and returned my attention back to the murky water’s edge. The temperature in the Clove had dropped, and I let my eyes flutter closed when I sensed or smelled something in the wind.
A scent I recognized.
My heart skipped a beat, almost too afraid to hope.
Then I heard it—the whizzing of an arrow through the trees. I whipped my head toward Kai, who gave me a knowing grin just as the guard in front of him fell, an arrow protruding from his chest.
Kai picked up the dead guard’s sword. “He’s here.”
Devyn.
My breath caught in my throat before his name flew off my lips in a whisper of thanks and love.
Commotion descended upon the sentinels, and I searched the darkness for a sign of the green-eyed Shaman, hungry to see him with my own eyes, but my vision was wavering. Black spots danced behind my eyelids. Shit. I was going to hurl again. No, worse: I was going to black out.
My magic was spent, my body drained.
Kai battled his way toward me. Ryker was barking orders, and he had no intention of letting either one of us leave. Kai reached me and bent down, lifting me to my feet, which turned out to be a bad idea. The whirling depths of unconscious threatened to claim me.
There were different shades of darkness—some good, some comforting, and some so evil it instilled a fear that broke the soul. That was the kind of evil I’d felt from the blight. Terrifying and unholy.
Kai’s darkness was different from both mine and the plague that crept over this world. He didn’t tip the good/bad scale one way or the other, but teetered back and forth.
As if sensing how close I was to passing out, Kai put an arm around my waist and tugged me into his firm body. I was surrounded by cool darkness that swept away the sickness and the sheer exhaustion weighing on me.
“Don’t give in, not yet,” he whispered.
It was then that I saw him—full of the promise of death and retribution. He hit the ground rolling, and when he uncoiled to his feet, Wrath and Fury were in his hands, only feet away from me. Ever my warrior, he cut through two sentinels in one breath.
Devyn.
I sunk into Kai heavily and was thankful for his strength because my knees would have surely buckled if he hadn’t been there to keep me upright. I told myself not to fall apart. He had come for me. And this was our only chance to get away. I refused to let my exhausted body get in the way. I would find the strength to fight.
DEVYN
I sized up the guards, their positions, how many I could quickly and quietly dispatch, and the distance it would take me to reach Karina. She was within my grasp, so close. I only had to stretch out my arm and take her from Kai, but I couldn’t afford the luxury.
Four sentinels lay dead by my hand.
Chaos scattered the remaining guards as they tried to find me among the foliage. Ryker paced about, desperate to keep what he had taken from me. But I wasn’t leaving here without her, and I was prepared to kill every last fae, including the lord of Orangeoland himself.
I made my move. A flash of my sword and another sentinel was dead. Blood slickened my blades and sprayed across my face. I was ready to slit throats. Seeing her fall into Kai was the last straw as my heart halted in my chest.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, would stand in my way of getting to Karina.
No one would separate us again. I’d die before it happened.
I allowed myself a brief glance at her as she lay in Kai’s arms and tried not to throw a dagger in between his eyes. Her dark hair had come untangled from her braid, and blood was splattered on her ivory skin. Not hers, thank the gods.
The wind shifted, blowing toward Karina. She was so ungodly pale. The breeze from the east blew her scent to me, and my knees nearly buckled. The fae alpha in me went wild. Wrath and Fury appeared at my back as my control slipped. I trembled with rage. A surge of protectiveness sw
ept through me, and it took all my willpower not to whisk her into my arms. Where she belonged.
Later.
First, I had to get us out of this mess alive.
I would not yield.
Whirling, I came face to face with someone I considered an old friend, but not today. “I will kill you if you don’t get out of my way,” I hissed at Reilly. Friend or foe, I had no qualms about cutting him down. He might be better suited than me to sit beside Karina on the throne, but I was past the point of caring about court decorum. She was mine.
The words reverberated inside me.
He made no advances to attack. “Let me help you,” he said, putting his hands in the air to show he meant me no harm.
“We need to get out of here now!” Kai shouted at us from down by the water, shielding Karina from the carnage. Soon I’d deal with him. After she was safe. After, I repeated to myself, needing to stay focused regardless of how much I wanted to hurt him. “We don’t have time for this,” Kai argued.
I cocked my head to the side and threw a dagger at Reilly. “Don’t make me regret this.”
Together, Reilly and I cut a path through the sentinels, forcing our way to Kai and Karina. Only a dozen remained, not including Ryker or his son. The lord cast his dark eyes upon me and roared, “Kill him!”
Not a single flicker of regret shone within me as I struck down guard after guard. Their names, their families, they weren’t important.
“Tell me you have a plan to get her out of here,” Reilly panted as he defended my back.
“Do you want me to lie to you?”
“Jesus, Devyn. We can’t outrun them. Do you plan to kill them all?”
“If I must.” He was right though. I did need a plan. Kai was bound from using magic, not that he would have helped get anyone out but himself. Our only hope was Karina, but her power was depleted thanks to her jackass of an uncle.
“I’ll buy you a few minutes, but after that, you’re on your own. He will pursue you. Get as far as you can as fast as you can.”