Shadow Hunter (Court of Life and Death Book 2)

by Melody Rose

  “What does the magic do exactly?”

  “Mostly, it incites trouble. It stirs up something in the air that people feel on some wavelength. This store would likely have seen an increase in thievery, blunt and unsatisfied customers, perhaps even more products coming in destroyed or rotten. An individual person with this magic around them might notice more people being aggressive toward them. Small tasks become difficult and cumbersome, and motivation is hard to develop.”

  I felt a lump in my throat as he spoke. “So how do I fix that?”

  “Well…” I could tell he was thinking. “Seelie and Unseelie magic fades over time, but it takes decades. Magic can remove it, though.”

  My heart sank. I had hoped whatever would fix it would be something I could do on my own, but I didn’t have magic outside of hellfire and my abilities as a reaper. “So, you can’t teach me?”

  He sighed. “I could try. Humans don’t have an affinity for magic usually, but you’re clearly a different case.” He looked around us as we stood in the parking lot. “What do you feel?”

  “What do I… what do you mean?” I blinked. I felt exhausted, frustrated, and angry. I felt the wind chill in the air. I felt a pit in my stomach. Somehow I didn’t think any of those were the answer he was looking for.

  “In the Underworld, your power emanates from you in purple. It’s still here. It’s just not as magnified. In the air around you, power and energy, what do you feel?”

  I sighed and closed my eyes to concentrate. I pictured my flames, and I could easily feel them surrounding me. From there, I tried to sense the air and space around me, and suddenly I felt like I hit a wall. I frowned. That must have been the magic he meant. “I found the-”

  “Just keep going,” he assured me. I hated being cut off, but I continued to try to focus. Just as there were holes in one’s mind when they put up a barrier, there were holes in this as well. I pushed through them and found myself in the middle of the cold and uncomfortable magic. A shiver went down my spine.

  “What do I do now?”

  “If you’ve found the center of it, you attack it.”

  “How do I do that?” I frowned.

  “How would you attack anything else? How did you attack Minerva?”

  “I can’t shoot fire at something that doesn’t exist-”

  “You can,” he pressed. “Try it.”

  I sighed and clenched my jaw in frustration as I visualized the center of the magic and the building. For a second, I pictured my hellfire, but it only took a moment for my mind to connect that to the burned down store in my vision. Images of the orange sky, ashes, and Lindsay’s body flashed before me, and I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick. I opened my eyes and turned away. “I can’t do that.”

  I felt him glare at me, and his voice was cold as he responded. “Fine.”

  There was silence as I looked across the parking lot to the people loading groceries into their cars, the businesses across the street cleaning windows, and the birds in the sky. The sky was blue… I kept my eyes on the blue sky, relishing the natural and beautiful color of it.

  “There,” Kalian said after a while.

  I turned to look at him. “What?”

  “It’s done.”

  I blinked and looked back at the store. It looked the exact same, but I could feel a difference in the air. The cold discomfort wasn’t there. “What did you do?”

  “I did what you asked. I destroyed it. Only magic can dispel magic. In the Queen’s army, I became abundantly familiar with undoing fae magic when it didn’t serve her desires.”

  I nodded slowly. “Thank you, Kalian.” He didn’t have to say what was on his mind. I already knew. I couldn’t force him to travel the entire world, undoing every spell every fae had placed on the people. I would need to do it myself. Somewhere else, I think I could manage. Just not here, and not with fire.

  “You are welcome, Myrcedes,” he bowed once again. I was a little surprised to hear him use my name and respond so kindly when he seemed obviously annoyed with me, but I chalked it up to his training as an army General. When he straightened back up, I met his golden eyes and searched them. For a second, they seemed soft, but as we stared at one another, I watched his expression harden back to the sullen scowl he’d carried all day for no reason.

  “You can return to the Moonstone Castle,” I said. “I need to meet with Daath and Syrion.”

  “Very well,” he said simply. “Farewell.” Without another word, he left. I rolled my eyes. He could be incredibly cold. I made up my mind to return to Seattle soon, on my own. I would try to find more places like this one, with heavy concentrations of Seelie or Unseelie magic, and destroy them myself. He was an asset, but he was damn near the most condescending creature I’d ever met. I only wanted to ask him for help again if I had no other options.

  Looking around the parking lot until I was sure no one could see me, I visualized the Kings of the Night and let the darkness swallow me, spitting me out in the House of Stars.

  13

  Myrcedes

  Daath and Syrion looked up when I appeared in the study. The House of Stars had had a very quaint library with the moving ladders from old movies and a set of desks, organized in jarringly neat stacks of paper, maps, books, and office supplies. Eternity was more than enough time to develop good organizational habits, I guessed, but it was almost creepy how clean everything was while they were both in the middle of working at their desks.

  “There you are, little owl,” Daath said sweetly, standing from his seat to give me a kiss. “We’ve been waiting.”

  “I told you I would be here as soon as I finished something on Earth,” I reassured him, crossing to their desks. “I hope you haven’t started without me.”

  “Not to worry,” Syrion said. I looked at him and smiled. He had the same cold demeanor he always had, but his coldness was a part of his personality. It was cool and understanding, not icy and condescending the way Kalian’s was. “We would never do such a thing.”

  “Good,” I nodded. “So, what updates are there?”

  Syrion sighed. “I don’t have much. I’ve been questioning some other ancient creatures. I can’t imagine how there could have been such a massive prophecy with such important information, and no one knew of it but Minerva, yet that seems to be the case. Everyone I’ve spoken to is shocked to learn of your existence and your power. I’m afraid this will be a dead end.”

  “Really?” I felt my stomach drop and leaned on the edge of Syrion’s desk. I was so hopeful that someone else would know of it, someone I could ask questions. I still had so many.

  “I apologize, darling,” Syrion nodded, placing his hand on mine. “We’ll have to look elsewhere.”

  I simply nodded and remained silent. Daath leaned against the desk. “Well, luckily, I have a bit more information. Minerva must have missed that small snippet of his memory we saw, and that made for an excellent foothold for uncovering the rest of the memories relating to it. It seems that Minerva charged him with locating you.”

  I froze. “Me?”

  “Yes,” he nodded. “She’s known about this prophecy for ages. So, for ages, Oli’s been searching for you before you even existed.”

  “How did he know what to look for?” Syrion leaned back in his chair, still holding tight to my hand.

  “He mostly didn’t,” Daath chuckled. “The imbecile made a lot of false calls. But there used to be a small coven of witches outside the town limits of Seattle, and they began a flurry of activity about eighteen years ago, lots of spells that hadn’t been done in ages, and someone sent word to Oli. He went to visit them and learned they were preparing for a powerful young girl whose mother had contacted them in the hopes of learning what was going on with her child.”

  My breath caught in my throat when he mentioned my mother. “What was happening? Why did she try to contact someone?”

  Daath shook his head, and I felt my heart shatter. “He didn’t know. He only knew a mothe
r was searching for answers and contacted the coven.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “The coven met with your family-”

  “I remember that,” I said quickly. “Not well… but a little. I remember a field and people. They told my mom to bring me back when I was older…” Tears flooded my eyes as I spoke.

  The black-haired King nodded. “That sounds right. Oli wasn’t there. He missed you, so he tortured the witches to get your name. The witches were all killed. It was during that event that he suffered the injuries that required Kalian’s rescue. Before he returned to the Queen, he went to your house to see you. That was the memory we saw.”

  He continued. “Then the Seelie came to get him, and the next day, the Queen repressed all of these memories. He had no knowledge of these events, but he remembered the house and your mother. If he remembered that much, that’s probably why he felt guilty the day of the trial.”

  I was silent for a long time. Finally, I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Well… what next?”

  “Next,” Syrion began. “We find every other member of the council and find out what they knew. I doubt, out of the entire council, she only used one of them as an errand boy.”

  “And what about Oli?” my throat felt impossibly dry.

  “Until we get everything sorted out,” Daath stroked my hair as he spoke, “or until you decide what you want to do with him, he’ll live in the dungeon in the Castle. We haven’t gotten to use that in a few hundred centuries.” He chuckled. “No one needs to know he’s there.”

  I nodded. That sounded fine to me. I knew if he was easy to get to, there was a chance I might just take revenge on my own, and I wasn’t sure that was the smartest decision quite yet.

  “Very well,” I replied. “Do you have the names of the other council members?” Daath nodded. “Good… we can begin work on that tomorrow then.”

  “I’ve drafted up letters requesting a private meeting with them each. We only need to send them,” the onyx-eyed man explained. I stared into his eyes as he spoke. There was so much kindness and love in there, even amongst the silly and cocky behavior. It was a warm contrast to the rude manner of Kalian.

  “… Kalian?”

  “What?” I flinched, realizing I’d zoned out while they were speaking to me.

  Syrion blinked. “I said you were on Earth with Kalian, weren’t you?”

  “Just now, yes,” I nodded, composing myself. “He was helping me to identify some fae magic and try to dispel it… it didn’t go very well.”

  Daath frowned. “So, I suppose he’ll be helping you with that often?”

  I tilted my head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing,” he raised an eyebrow in a bit of a challenging manner. “Simply that he’s had many opportunities to spend time with you lately.”

  I felt taken aback by the statement, not sure what they were getting at. “I suppose so. And?”

  They were both quiet for a moment until Syrion spoke up. “Do we have reason to be concerned about this fae?”

  I frowned, feeling a little cornered. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow. What do you think you have to be concerned about?”

  The silver-haired brother sighed. “We’re not blind to the fact that the Seelie is attractive, as are you. Is there any reason that we should feel threatened?”

  I felt like they’d each just slapped me in the face. “No?” I spoke with an incredulous expression.

  “Very well-” Daath began, trying to brush this off, but I cut him off, refusing to let this go.

  “No, and it’s unfair of you two to accuse me of something like that.” The brothers looked at me with a clear lack of understanding. “Do you know how jealous those daughters of Aphrodite at the Moonstone Castle have tried to make me? How many times they have reminded me that the two of you visit them? And you truly want to accuse me of… I’m not even sure what you’re accusing me of.” I almost laughed at how ridiculous they were being.

  “I don’t own either of you,” I continued. “I’ve maintained that. I haven’t confronted you with any jealous feelings I have. But the same rings true for me. You don’t own me, either. But at the end of the day, I don’t care what you do with someone else because the thing that matters, the bond we have with one another, is untouchable. I know that no one could replace me in your hearts. You have to know that the same is true for you. I haven’t done anything with Kalian, and I don’t plan to, but even if something did happen, what matters is the connection between the three of us. No one can even come close to touching that. Do you understand that?”

  The brothers looked almost ashamed of themselves. They were silent for a while, and it occurred to me that they were communicating with one another. Knowing they were having a separate conversation without me didn’t help to make me any less pissed off.

  Finally, Syrion stood from his chair and wrapped his arms around me, stroking my hair. “Forgive us, darling… we’ve never had someone like you that meant so much to us. We’ve never loved like this… it’s new to us.”

  It was new to me too. I was someone who’d never felt drawn to anything except monogamy, and here I was, arguing with my boyfriends for the right to sleep with other people. It was more nuanced than that, but I had to admit the scenario at face value was funny.

  “But you’re right,” Daath said, coming over to kiss my head. “As long as you feel for us as we do you, nothing should threaten us. The truth is, we both miss you deeply. The three of us have been apart for so long…”

  I sighed and nodded. He was right. And I had missed them both so much lately, though I’d been preoccupied with other things. “I know. I miss you too.”

  Daath leaned down and kissed me while Syrion moved behind me, brushing my hair away from my neck and gently placing his lips to my skin.

  “May we show you how much we missed you?” Daath whispered, sliding his hand around my waist.

  I practically purred in response. “Only if I can return the favor.”

  “You can do that anytime, my love.” Syrion’s husky voice and warm breath sent shivers down my spine as his hands wrapped around me, traveling up under my shirt. Daath snapped, and like that, my shirt and bra vanished. They reappeared on Daath’s desk, folded neatly. The dark-haired King kissed me passionately as Syrion’s hands caressed my chest. His left hand gradually slid up to gently wrap around the base of my throat. He never squeezed, but the placement made my pulse race wildly. Meanwhile, his other hand slid down my torso toward my pants. Daath snapped once more, and the rest of my clothing left my body, along with theirs.

  Now that I was fully available, Syrion’s hand slid down so that his fingers were against my clit. He began rubbing it gently, barely grazing the skin with his fingers. It took me no time at all to respond desperately to such a teasing action. I shivered, wrapping one hand behind his head and weaving it through his hair, resting the other on Daath’s bare chest. I moaned and felt my hips buck involuntarily, begging for more, for him to move harder, faster.

  Daath chuckled darkly and held the sides of my face. “You’re giving too much away, little owl. We can hear your every thought.”

  “You know you needn’t beg for more,” Syrion whispered in my ear. As he spoke, he pressed down harder on my clit and began to rub it faster. “You just have to ask.”

  “Tell us what you want,” Daath said before kissing me again. I kissed him back hard, grabbing his lower lip gently with my teeth.

  “I want you,” I moaned. “I want both of you… to take me… ravage me.”

  “As you wish,” they said in unison.

  Syrion’s hands disappeared, and it disappointed me for a second until I felt his hard cock slide inside me. I gasped at the sudden pressure, and the gasp melted into a moan of pure pleasure. Daath’s hands took their place on my clit, while those phantom hands he could conjure up with his mind caressed my body, tweaking at my nipples every so often as they massaged my breasts.

  Syrion t
hrust himself in and out of me. I felt my knees go weak from the pleasure across all areas of my body and wrapped my arms around Daath to keep steady. He smirked, and as I began to climax from his fingers and Syrion’s shaft, I felt one of the phantom hands slap my ass hard. I moaned again, and that pushed me over the edge. Pleasure flooded every inch of my body, and I dug my nails into Daath’s back without even realizing I was doing so, just to keep steady.

  My orgasm felt like it lasted for five minutes, wave after wave of pleasure washing over me, each one replacing the last just as it began to fade. When I finally felt my ecstasy subside, I felt Syrion’s cock twitch inside me as he filled my pussy with his cum. I held onto Daath as my knees quivered, and I moaned, kissing him hard.

  “Fuck, I love you,” Daath growled. I felt Syrion’s hand snake through my hair as he kissed my back, shoulders, and neck.

  I pulled my lips from my King’s and knelt to my knees, taking Daath’s swollen, pulsing member into my mouth. I immediately felt a shiver ripple through his body. As I moved my head back and forth, I felt Syrion’s warm body behind me, his cock pressed against my ass as he reached around my waist to continue playing with my clit. I moaned around Daath’s length, feeling his tip hit the back of my throat. Daath’s hands pulled at my hair as he moved in and out, and I felt him throb in my mouth.

  My own frame shivered as Syrion attacked the area between my legs. I was grateful I was on my knees because I knew I wouldn’t have been able to stand.

  I barely managed not to scream as I began to climax again, and I felt Daath pull on my hair and groan, signaling to me that he was about to cum himself. He pulled my face closer as his hot liquid shot down my throat. I shuddered as my body relaxed, and grabbed his hips, holding him close.

  Once he finished, he gasped and pulled himself off me. I swallowed everything left in my mouth and took a deep breath to clear my throat. The three of us stayed still for a moment, steadying our breathing. I leaned against Syrion’s chest and closed my eyes. He stroked my hair and wrapped his arms around me, and I felt a sense of peace and safety I only felt with them.