Shadow Hunter (Court of Life and Death Book 2)

by Melody Rose

  Meeting Myrcedes had been a shock. It was obvious she wasn’t ordinary the second we were in the same room. After all, how many people in the Underworld had literal fire that surrounded them? The only other creatures who radiated energy that way were Death and his twin brother. I’d assumed Minerva’s quarrel with this human woman was mere jealousy over an ancient rejection, but seeing Myrcedes’ power emanate from her in such a visible manner, it was obvious that there was something deeper. Then, for this powerful woman to step in between me, an agent of her enemy, and her own gargoyles was an act of bravery. It immediately pissed me off.

  From that first moment she’d stepped in between us, placing herself in the perfect position to be assassinated if that had been my plan, I became annoyed. I couldn’t explain why she seemed to bother me. I’d spent weeks, months even, building her up in my head as nothing more than the most recent plaything for the Kings of the Underworld. Even though this was nowhere but in my own head, it was embarrassing to admit that I’d been so unabashedly wrong. I’d assumed her merely human, inconsequential. Then to hear my own Queen admit this flaming girl was the Queen of Earth, and to watch that girl destroy one of the most ancient and powerful creatures in existence in under a minute was preposterous. Yet it happened.

  I’d helped save the Kings and watched what I had once believed to be an average human woman destroy the being I had pledged my life to serve. After that was over, I didn’t have much of a desire to stay with them in the Underworld. Besides, as soon as I’d fulfilled my purpose, I could sense the gargoyle brothers’ welcome wearing off. My help was no longer needed, after all, so once everyone had calmed down after Myrcedes’ outburst - some frivolous, petty complaint about the Kings not disclosing that Death had been involved with Minerva ages ago - I excused myself and returned to the fae realm. I had a passing suspicion that it was a bad idea, but I couldn’t abandon my home.

  The second I jumped to the yard in front of the Jewel Palace, a pit formed in my stomach. People were running around in confusion and fear, worried that whatever took the Unseelie Queen’s life would come for them. I took a deep breath and headed inside.

  “General!” Once someone called for me, the dominoes began to fall.

  “General? Where’s the General?”

  My own soldiers descended upon me. It didn’t surprise me. There were quite a few alchemists, but none as skilled as I in the Queen’s company.

  “What happened?” The accusatory and demanding voice came from none other than my right-hand man, Bahz. I kept my head high and met his gaze. I had expected this. It was the price I had to pay for betraying the Unseelie Queen. I told myself that whatever came next, it was worth it.

  “Lieutenant,” I began. “Queen Minerva is dead.”

  “What happened?” he repeated, fear creeping into his eyes. “What did you do?” Bahz grabbed my shoulders aggressively and pushed me.

  “Lieutenant!” I snapped. “Keep in mind to whom you’re speaking! I am your superior and deserve your respect.”

  “No…” the pale blonde Seelie shook his head. I felt my eyebrow twitch, not expecting such a blatant reaction. “You killed the Queen. I believe that qualifies as a resignation, don’t you?”

  “This isn’t a game, you-”

  “Take Kalian to the dungeons,” he barked. I could have laughed. This was clearly a boy too big for his breeches. All humor drained from my mind, however, when I felt two of the guards grab me. I knew better than to resist and refused to waste my energy on an explanation no one would heed, but my eyes didn’t leave Bahz’s face, rife with confusion, fear, and hubris even he knew was dangerous.

  “You’re under arrest for treason and the murder of Queen Minerva,” he announced. “More charges will be brought against you as soon as an investigation is complete.”

  A lump sat in my throat. I didn’t know what to say, so silence hung in the air as two of the soldiers began leading me through the palace, on display like a prisoner of war after a successful conquest. Appearances should have been the least of my worries that night, yet I couldn’t help but feel humiliated at the sight I must have been. Still, I kept my head high and my chest forward, ever the brave and confident General they knew me to be. I’d made my choices, and I’d accepted the consequences.

  It had been a week and a half now that I’d been in this cell, the same dirty hole I had locked too many prisoners in to count. I thought back through some of them as I dug into the cold meal: the ogres, banshees, spirits, and Unseelie that had sat on the same bed I sat on now.

  “I still can’t believe it…”

  The guards outside my cell were chatty, as usual. I had warned them at least a hundred times to be silent around prisoners, but their incessant chatter had become one of the few things to keep me sane. If I was right, and I knew I was, one of the older prison guards and a younger recruit were on watch. The young ones couldn’t help but gossip.

  “To be honest, I can’t either. Out of everyone…”

  “I thought he was a Seelie?” the Private questioned.

  “He is.”

  “Really? You’d think only an Unseelie would be capable of something like-”

  “Oi, the fuck!” The older guard exploded, throwing his hushed we’re-technically-whispering-so-we-don’t-get-in-trouble voice out the window. “Don’t you go spouting that bullshit around me! Your Queen was an Unseelie, and so is my wife.”

  “I-I’m sorry!” The young guard’s voice cracked as he spoke. I held back a laugh. “Y-you know, Unseelie are just more…” His voice faded, and I could only imagine that his superior was shooting him a look that could kill. I would have paid to see it.

  “That’s all rumors, idiot. The difference is red and green apples. We’re all the same.”

  “… But one of them is sour.”

  “Shut the fuck up!”

  I barely managed to stifle a laugh. Normally, I’d be admonishing them for speaking like this in front of a prisoner, and I planned to punish them thoroughly once my position was restored, but I loved the distraction as it was.

  Actually, both of them had a point, but it came with age. The distinction between Seelie and Unseelie was much more prevalent among the younger fae. Seelie could be troublesome or tricky, but that depended on the individual; when their intentions were underhanded, they were veiled under layers of smoke and mirrors, and they relied on appearing perfectly trustworthy. On the other hand, young Unseelie had more of a proclivity for bending the rules, finding loopholes, and causing more chaos than was necessary and doing so right before your very eyes. They didn’t feel the need to disguise their intentions because they thrived on being perceived as intimidating or a threat. As they got older, most of those inclinations would fade somewhere around five hundred years. Amongst those who were older, there were just as many troublesome Seelie as Unseelie, so the more senior fae often forgot that there was a distinction at that young age. Of course, for some Unseelie, like Minerva, those inclinations never faded.

  “… someone said it was Death’s mistress…”

  I perked up a bit more. Were they talking about Myrcedes?

  “I heard that too,” the older guard grunted. “It’s garbage.”

  “I don’t know… my sister has a friend that lives in the Underworld. She says it’s common knowledge there. This human, or I guess she’s a reaper, showed up a couple of months ago, and the Kings-”

  “You really believe the Unseelie Queen was reduced to ash by a human reaper? A new one at that?”

  “No,” the younger guard sighed. “I don’t believe it. It worries me that so many people in the Underworld are saying it, though.”

  I chuckled to myself. I almost wanted to interrupt and tell them exactly what had happened… but this was too entertaining, and I didn’t want to trump up another treason charge.

  “What else have you heard?”

  “Well… some people suspect it was the Ogre Lord,” the young man said. “You know, he was angry that she rejected his
marriage proposal. Someone even said they heard the General was in ogre territory just last week. He could’ve been in on it.”

  “You think there was a possibility an ogre snuck into the damn castle and squashed the Queen so hard she turned to ash and disappeared without being seen?”

  “Well, maybe-”

  “How tall you think ogres are, kid?” the older soldier practically laughed.

  “I… I know they’re big, but-”

  “Big? Son, the shortest ogre I’ve ever seen was at least fifteen feet tall. He couldn’t fit in that room to squash her in the first place!”

  “I’m just telling you what I’ve heard!” The young fae sounded petulant. I took a deep breath to keep from laughing. The last thing I wanted was for this hilarious conversation to end. “Maybe none of it’s true. Maybe it was a setup-”

  “Stop it right there. You never met the Queen in person, right? She’d never do nothing like that. Let people think she was weak enough to be killed? The woman was maniacal. She wanted to show she was powerful, not vulnerable.”

  “Well… well, what do you think happened then?” the young man pouted.

  “I think it was them Kings,” the older one tried to whisper. Whispering in a small space with stone walls where sound bounced? I rolled my eyes in disappointment. “You know they were here. But the Lieutenant says that’s confidential, no one outside the army is to know that information.”

  “I know… but… do you think it’s okay that I told my sister?”

  “You what?” the older guard practically yelled. “You were given direct instructions to keep something confidential by order of the highest-ranking member of the Queen’s Army, and you tell your fucking sister?”

  “It’s just my sister!” the younger guard’s voice cracked, and I had to bite down on the meat and hold my breath to keep from howling with laughter. “She won’t tell anyone, I promise! Don’t tell the Lieutenant, please!”

  “Oh, you want me to keep a secret, that’s rich!”

  “It was an accident. It won’t happen again!”

  “Better not,” the older guard huffed. “You’re on thin ice, Private.”

  I could practically hear the tension in the air between the two of them and forced myself not to laugh. I could picture the young guard cowering with his crossbow, waiting for a chance to impress his superior officer. If I leaned over on the bed, I could just barely see the disgruntled face of the older Soldier, and at that, I did laugh.

  “Hey! Quiet in there!” the Private squeaked with more aggression than was necessary, barely masking a crack in his voice.

  “My apologies.” I took a deep breath to try to find some composure. Spending time in this cell wasn’t preferable, but thanks to these idiots, it could have been a lot worse.

  “What’s going on down here?” I perked up and felt my muscles tense at a new voice in the conversation. It was Bahz. “There’s so much noise they can hear it up the damn stairs!”

  The older soldier cleared his throat. “Deepest apologies, Lieutenant. It won’t happen again.”

  “You know he’s not a normal prisoner, right?” Bahz’s voice nearly growled with anger. “He knows you. He knows everyone you talk about. And he killed our Queen. This isn’t a playdate.” I couldn’t help but feel he was a little harsh. He wasn’t wrong, of course, but he was abnormally aggressive over such a small command. “If I hear another word out of this prison, you’ll both be joining him on treason charges.”

  There was a pause before two voices answered, “Yes, sir.”

  The guards remained silent as Bahz’s light footsteps left the room and ascended the stairs, gradually fading until the slam of the door punctuated them at the top of the staircase.

  “When’s the General’s trial supposed to be?” the Private asked. I perked up with attention.

  “The trial? That starts tomorrow.”

  3

  Daath

  Syrion and I sat across from one another in the study; he was looking over some maps while I was reading reports from the reapers. We’d spent more time than usual in the Moonstone Castle while we were trying to heal. Being closer to the Source was good for us. The wounds from Minerva’s torture had gone, but I’d be lying if I said I felt completely recovered from the events. I felt weaker than I wanted to, and sore, and I knew Syrion felt the same. We’d always enjoyed working in the study. In the Moonstone Castle, our study was sleek, with almost no clutter to distract us. I forewent using a desk to lounge in a dark burgundy velvet armchair while Syrion preferred the dark-stained wooden executive desk.

  I was making some notes on some of the reports when a certain silver-eyed woman burst in, bringing a smile to my face. She was always a pleasant sight, especially now as Syrion and I were still healing. Her long, silvery purple locks framed her elegant face and fell over her shoulders like a waterfall. Her gait, confident and strong, commanded attention in a way that was absolutely admirable and incredibly sexy. Her eyes were always full of warmth and curiosity for the world around her, a safe place that my brother and I could escape to anytime we missed her… Well, they usually were at least.

  “Hello, little owl-”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Kalian?” Myrcedes cut me off.

  I shared a look of confusion with Syrion before bringing my gaze back to her. “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t believe you. After everything that happened, you promised to be honest and stop hiding things from me!”

  “What are you talking about?” Syrion’s eyebrows pinched together in confusion.

  She rolled her eyes. I knew she felt upset, but I didn’t think I’d ever stop enjoying watching her do that. Her look of exasperation and irritation was far too attractive for her own good. “Hestus told Siena that Kalian is on trial in the fae realm for murdering Minerva, and you two didn’t tell me!”

  I blinked in surprise and glanced at my brother. “Myrcedes, we didn’t know. All we knew was that he helped you, Hestus, and Maluc get to us, and he was gone without any sort of introduction.”

  She seemed to relax a touch. “You… you swear you had no idea?”

  “Of course not,” Syrion said, standing from his readings. “We told you, we won’t hide things from you anymore.” But despite knowing she hadn’t been lied to, Myrcedes still looked upset.

  “What’s the matter?” I leaned forward, taking her hand in mine and rubbing my thumb over the back of her hand in circles.

  “What’s the matter? Daath, he’s on trial for something he didn’t do. He didn’t murder her. I did it!”

  “Yes, and I’m sure he’ll explain that in court,” I shrugged. I didn’t see what the big deal was. If he truly couldn’t lie, it would force the court to believe him. “If anything, they may convict him of treason.”

  Her silver eyes gazed at me in frustration. “And that doesn’t bother you?”

  “We don’t meddle in political matters,” Syrion explained as she pulled her hand from mine. “It only causes problems. We learned that a long time ago.” Problems was an understatement. Back when we felt like it was our responsibility to police the universe, if someone seemed like they were overreaching their power or mistreating innocent people, we would step in. That simply led to wars we had no business being in and usually more loss of life than was necessary. We were Kings of the Night; I ruled the Underworld. There was no point in trying to be anything else. If a tyrant found their way to power, I needed only to send reapers to collect the souls of their victims.

  “This isn’t about politics. This is about a man who sacrificed everything to save the two of you!” She balled her hands into small fists that rested on her hips. “It doesn’t bother you? If he hadn’t defected from Minerva, who knows what would have happened? I don’t even want to think about what she would have done to you both!”

  I paused at the thought. She had a point. When the Unseelie Queen had kidnapped my brother and me, I’d managed to let Myrcedes know, and I told her to send the gargo
yles and go into hiding herself, but she came anyway. It was luck that Kalian showed up at the same time, and it was because of his knowledge of the palace and Minerva’s plan, as well as his alchemy, that they safely got where they needed to be. The woman we loved was stubborn and would have likely come to get us on her own, so if it hadn’t been for his help, there was a chance Myrcedes could be dead.

  Syrion sensed these thoughts, and I could tell his own train was similar. In times of frustration, confusion, or even just disagreement, it made all the difference to have the connection that allowed my twin to look into my mind and understand my thoughts. It helped to have that with Myrcedes as well; it had literally saved all three of our lives a few times already. My brother leaned against the desk and sighed. “What exactly do you want to do, Myrcedes?”

  “I want to go stop his trial and tell them he’s innocent!”

  I cringed. “You want to walk into a fae court on fae soil and tell every high-ranking Seelie and Unseelie that you killed their Queen?” This woman was absolutely mad.

  “We don’t have any other option,” she stated quite factually. “He can’t be punished for something he didn’t do. I won’t allow it.”

  I shook my head. There was no way she’d thought this through, and I wasn’t about to let her put herself in danger just after we’d resolved everything that was threatening her. “I can’t let you do something so dangerous.”

  “Daath,” Syrion interjected. I could tell his tone was thoughtful. “I know what you’re worried about. I agree, but… to walk into a fae court on fae soil and proclaim that Myrcedes killed the Unseelie Queen… I can’t imagine a more powerful way to proclaim her as our Queen. Can you?”

  Her pink lips spread into a grin at the idea, and I laughed a bit. “You like that idea, do you?”

  “I like the idea of being a Queen who stands up for the ones who helped her save her Kings, the ones who need it, and who did nothing wrong.”