by Gaja J. Kos
“I need you to hold on a little longer, okay? I promise you can have all the release you want after that.”
He chuckled at my weak attempt of humor, but dipped his chin in agreement. “You are a mad woman, you know that, Liva?”
“Nightwraith,” I corrected and flashed him a smile. “A mad Nightwraith. Now shut up and let me work.”
Surprisingly, he obliged. I sent my power searching through the room, filtering through the stones and scraping out the cracks for any sign of something unnatural. Alarms sounded in the back of my mind, but not because of something I stumbled upon. No, they were alerting me to the fact that we would have company. Soon.
The chamber itself was constructed so that no one could evanesce in or out, which, fortunately, included the subjects of the Court of Fire. However, that also meant that we couldn’t risk ending up trapped in here, either. I needed to get this done before the Fae fucks arrived. And I was already short on time as it was.
The stirrings of a headache came to life as I infused more and more power into the chamber, saturating the air until it sizzled with magic, the energy so potent and brimming that it danced on the very verge of breaking the mansion’s particles apart. Gods, it was so tempting to just collapse this whole fucking thing and hope the crash wouldn’t bury us with the rest of them. But I feared that destroying the cell—and especially the chains—would leave far more devastating consequences than just bits of rubble falling on top of us.
So, mindful not to let it apply too much pressure on Cian’s bonds for fear of snapping the metal, I guided the currents alongside the links then drove them into the wall, precisely where the chains were tethered. A jolt of electricity rushed down my spine as I felt it, and a soft yelp left my lips at the surprise.
Embedded in the thick, damp stone were two aventurines, their natural strength of attracting luck and opportunity thoroughly twisted by spells. My magic cringed at the vileness of the act, at the corruption of something so pure and innocent as the gemstones. Shit, the brothers had managed to take something that was linked to the earth, something that belonged to it, and transformed its very core to suit their needs.
Because the aventurines were sucking the energy out of Cian, and if the link between them broke, they would unleash everything they had accumulated. I didn’t doubt for a second that the sheer power of it would bring down not only the chamber but would destroy the male within it.
I swore under my breath and began to repair the damage. There was no way to restore the stones to their original condition, not when the spells had already spread through their structure like parasites. But I could reverse those that haven’t yet had the time to sprout roots.
The two injured cores called out to me, inviting my earth-tethered magic to cleanse the unnatural stain. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I unraveled each veil of foul energy, every step bringing me closer and closer to my goal.
In the background, I could feel the Fae closing in on the chamber. Could feel their wrath at how wrong they had been, expecting the assault of an army, too. Their misconceptions had paved the way for my solitary action, leaving holes in their defenses I’d been able to slip through. But even more so it was the fact that, to them, I was simply Liva Kasun, a material empath, that prevented the bastards from seeing me as the threat I was.
A thought slipped into my mind, the shivers that spread down my limbs speaking of the truth it carried.
Perhaps this was the reason why I’d lived my life the way I had, trying to deny my true nature. Aside from Yelena, nobody knew of the true capacities of my power. I was a shadow, all too easy to dismiss, simply because they had no idea of the danger lurking in those inky depths.
I huffed. I’d never believed in fate as such, but I had to admit it had an appealing ring to it when I looked at things from that perspective. I filed the thought away for later and focused wholly on my work once more—but somehow, I felt calmer. More assured.
Just as thunder started to crackle from the Sword of Ala, alerting me that my time was almost up, the last of the spells shrouding the aventurines fell away and released the trapped energy. It traveled down the chains in a slow current, carefully reassessing itself in Cian’s core, where it belonged. The instant the last drop settled within him, I snapped the chains with my blade, and helped ease him onto his feat.
His body was still shuddering as I held him against me, but the steady pulse of power rolling off his skin reassured me it was only a temporary inconvenience.
“You can thank me later.” I smiled up at the handsome Fae as we crossed the chamber. “In fact, I expect you to really work on delivering all that gratitude.”
Cian captured my lips before I could stop him, the sensation coaxing a groan to spill from my depths. His tongue brushed against mine, thanking me, tasting me, claiming me. I melted into the kiss, accepting it as the promise and encouragement that it was.
Three more deaths and we would have our eternity.
I couldn’t ask for better motivation than that.
Chapter 30
By the time we cleared the corridor, Cian was back at his full strength. The wounds on his body had clogged, only the streaks of dried blood speaking of the injuries he had suffered. And he was pissed. Rightfully so.
With our tempers matched, we took down the first group of Fae warriors, working together as fluidly and effortlessly as if we had been fighting side by side for years. There was almost a kind of haunting beauty in our actions, a sense of rightness even when that pretty, sun-worshipping part of me refused to revel in the blood we’d shed.
“I’ll take the east wing,” I said as I extracted the sword from a fallen Fae’s chest and pointed the blade at the door to my right. “You go west, and we’ll work our way towards each other from there.”
The shadows swirling in the purple of his eyes made it clear he was just as reluctant to part as I was, but we both knew it was the only way if we wanted to corner Gearoid and his brothers. The fuckers had to die tonight. We didn’t have the luxury to return to the Earth Court and gather more men. If we allowed them to think straight even for a single minute and regroup, we would be at a disadvantage that could very well mean the difference between life and death. No, riding the wave of their failure was our only shot at winning. We had to get to them now, when the pressure was already high.
And I needed to follow up on that nagging hunch that still refused to release its residence within me.
I crushed my lips against Cian’s, raw magic sizzling at our touch, and traced a finger down his cheek. “I love you, High Lord. Stay safe.”
He growled in response, muscles rippling as he wrapped his arms around me and drew me into his body, the hardness of his arousal pressing against my stomach. “I love you, High Lady To Be. And I can hardly wait to show you just how much.”
We came together once more in a feverish kiss then broke apart, both flushed, starved, and determined. I gave my gorgeous Fae male a curt dip of my chin, then strode towards the door, the fading echo of his footsteps accompanying mine. There were no hostiles in the vicinity, but I clung to the shadows nonetheless, ensconced in mist I had never believed myself able to produce. Its tongues lapped around my form, caught in an ethereal dance as they shielded me from plain sight. I pushed forward.
The familiar pulse was getting stronger with every second that flew by, and the dread inside me grew.
Impossible. It was impossible.
And yet, when I climbed a flight of stairs and burst into a tastefully decorated chamber, I found myself face-to-face with a pureblooded demon.
He pushed away from the high bar he had been leaning against, his eyes widening as he took me in, recognizing me as his kin. He wasn’t among the strongest, not when he hadn’t sensed my presence in the manor until it practically slapped him in the face, but that didn’t make him any less lethal.
The Sword of Ala hissed in my hands, disturbed by the violent intentions the demon was projecting. She had accepted me as her mas
ter—as someone worthy of wielding her incredible strength—not the scum standing before us. And I had to admit that I wholeheartedly shared her sentiment.
“You’re a long way from home,” I crooned, my steps slow as I circled around him. “Shadow World not up to your taste?”
The demon ran a hand through his unruly dark blond hair, his blue eyes firmly on mine. A cruel smile played on his lush lips, but even his inherited sexuality couldn’t mask the bastard’s festering core.
Some demons were far, far worse than others. And the one before me certainly belonged in the former category. Even the way his energy undulated, each current tainted with corruption, made my skin crawl.
It was fuckers like him—and power players like my mother—who were the reason behind demons having a bad rep among the supernaturals. Somehow, they had failed to evolve, their minds stuck in the bloody Middle Ages where beings of darkness had terrorized humanity purely because they could. Because it was fun.
I knew now that even someone carrying both light and darkness inside, like I did, couldn’t truly be one of the good guys. You were what nature created you to be. Part of the balance of the entire world. But that didn’t mean you could use that trait as an excuse to do whatever the fuck you wished.
Lena was a natural-born killer. But her targets were never innocents.
There were ways for us to work with our nature that didn’t fall under the spectrum of evil. I guess I learned this far later in life than most—then again, at least I had. And that was a win in my book.
I rotated my wrists, lightning running down the length of the blade. The would-be sex god before me had deliberately chosen a different path. And became the Fae’s lapdog in the process.
“What, your masters decided to bench you from the fight?” I said and arched an eyebrow. “Guess you can work for the enemy, do their little dirty deeds, and clean up their shit, but you’ll never get into their circle of trust. I just hope the thrill and the money are worth it.”
“And what would you know about working for anyone, fledgling? Everyone knows of you, Liva Kasun, always trying to run away from yourself.”
I flashed him a sweet smile, tendrils of pitch-black mist erupting at my feet. “Not anymore.”
Thunder pressed from all sides, the Sword of Ala sizzling with lightning as I swung it sideways and severed the bastard’s head before he had the chance to react. His body crumpled to the ground, blood crawling across the heavy stones, but my attention was elsewhere. My knees touched the spill of warm crimson as I knelt next to the body and reached into the inner pocket of his leather jacket.
Quickly, I scanned my surroundings, making sure nobody would sneak up on me while I was vulnerable, then traced the bond to make sure Cian was okay. I could feel his energy, alive and well, and burning with the thrill of a hunt.
I distanced myself from it. I wouldn’t want to distract him in case something slipped through the bond.
Blowing out a breath, I wrapped the mist around me.
My stomach rolled unpleasantly as my fingers brushed against the simple gold ring and opened myself to its presence. The memories the object carried exploded in my mind, filling me with images I knew would stay with me until the very end of my days. But more than that, they confirmed the situation was just as fucked up as my intuition had led me to believe.
Chapter 31
With the ring securely stashed away in my pocket, I made my way back towards Cian. Although he was constantly moving, it was surprisingly easy to track him through the mansion when there was nothing obstructing our bond.
The majority of the enemy Fae had turned to hunting the larger threat—him—which left my path almost perfectly clear. My body moved on autopilot those few times I was forced to engage and struck down the attacking Fire Court’s members, the Sword of Ala guiding me through the deaths. I had no idea how many more there were in the manor, but with the body count I had already left in my wake—not to mention the ones Cian must have cut down on his way to the ruling brothers—their numbers were rapidly diminishing.
I sprinted down an empty corridor, my magic constantly searching for new threats. I singed an entire chamber as I rushed past it, charring the assholes before they even managed to set one foot out the door, then hid myself in the mist as I approached a stairwell. The thought of reuniting with Cian who was fighting just one level above nagged at me, urging me to move, but there was something else prickling at my instincts and telling me to slow the fuck down.
It was hard to obey that little voice when my entire body was aching to join its mate, but I pressed myself into the deep shadows by the wall, the mist around me intensifying. The net my magic formed stayed undisturbed, yet my gut was telling me that I wasn’t alone. I ground my teeth and pushed harder. I saturated every inch of the air in my immediate vicinity, silently cursing the lack of sensation, when a thought finally clicked in my mind.
Actually, it hit me like a fucking brick to the face.
All this time, I was scanning for the imprint of a supernatural.
Furious for making such a rookie mistake, I adjusted the sensitivity of the energy field and immediately felt his presence.
“You can come out of hiding now, Faolan,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
The Fae materialized at the foot of the stairs the very next second, standing precisely where I would have been if I had blindly rushed up to Cian’s side. The Fae’s hazel eyes raked down my body, the cruel lines of his face still carrying marks of the fight he’d had with his brothers after the outburst at the auction. Although a part of me had known Dalaigh and Gearoid wouldn’t just off someone of their blood, I was massively disappointed they hadn’t at least scarred him a bit harder. The bastard sure as fuck deserved far more in the way of punishment.
“Back to being an obedient little Fae?” I asked, not entirely sure where the bravado was coming from. But it did make him hesitate for a moment—though it didn’t last nearly long enough.
He took a step closer, his powerful physique even more imposing in the confines of the hallway we were in.
“I should’ve killed you when you ran me off the road,” the Fae spat, distaste dripping off his every word.
“Funny. I wanted to say the exact same thing.”
Faolan cocked his head to the side at my smile and, before I knew it, evanesced into thin air. But only to rematerialize directly in front of me.
Luckily, I was ready.
My magic pushed at him the instant he took form, stopping the dagger that was meant to sink into my heart bare inches before it reached me. His own force kept the Sword of Ala from touching his flesh, but, much to my relief, it couldn’t control the lightning that sputtered from the blade and singed his skin. The stench of burnt flesh probed at my nostrils, but I kept my focus firmly on my magic, bringing up every inch of it that was left in my core.
He was strong. Stronger than all the assholes I’d faced so far combined, and even the iron threads woven into my shirt wouldn’t be able to do much against such power.
His energy parried my every move, and I knew that if we continued this standoff for much longer, I certainly wouldn’t be the one left breathing.
Demons and Kolduny alike didn’t grow into their powers until their eightieth year, sometimes their hundredth. Faolan had millennia on me. Millennia in which he had developed his skill, strengthened the energy inside him to the point where he didn’t even need to use glamor to mask his true nature, but simply kept it from leaving the confines of his skin. Somehow, the bastard had adapted the Kolduny’s inherent safeguard of protecting their identity and applied it to his own Fae self.
The mere thought of how much power there must be running through his veins to achieve something like that was terrifying.
Even with the Sword of Ala in my hands, even with the protection of my gear, I could never hope to battle Faolan and win. I wasn’t Fae. I wasn’t even a warrior. Those were facts I couldn’t change.
But I could hold on long enoug
h for Cian to finish off the remaining two brothers.
I felt him fighting through the bond, felt the rage, the lust for blood pulsing in his very core, as well as the iron determination. Regardless of what the brothers did, he would emerge victorious. There wasn’t a single trace of doubt in the energy he emanated. And I knew he was right.
Among them, his power remained unmatched.
Accepting the reassurance the thought offered, I shut down the bond between us to a mere trickle, and evanesced to the other end of the corridor, Faolan following suit. Then repeated the process.
Wherever I emerged, the Fae was there just a split second later, sensing my presence the instant I materialized—as I did his. But I forced him to track me, forced him to pop up in a new location time and time again, just to buy me—to buy Cian—those precious seconds that would mean everything.
A bitter laugh tore itself from my lips as I evanesced for what must have been the hundredth time. I’d kept my head down my entire life. I’d fled from violence, opened up an antique shop to live at least a semblance of a normal life. A life where I could use my magic to help people, taking on their nightmares so that they could find peace. I’d never harmed. I’d never killed. I was a pacifist sun worshipper, seeking out the beauty in everything.
And now I was neck-deep in Fae territory, an enemy one at that, jumping through rooms filled with bodies I’d slaughtered, and evading the death I knew would come.
But it was worth it. It was all worth it.
Through our bond, I felt Cian deal the killing blow to Dalaigh then throw himself at Gearoid. My mate’s mind was a red haze of fury, of justice, and the satisfaction brought on by knowing this would be the end.
The next time I evanesced then rematerialized, I stayed.
Faolan’s magic pressed against me, my own struggling in response. The iron in my shirt was all but worn out, and my tank was running on empty, but I did all I could to make the most of these remaining fumes.