Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature Book 4)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

“Shit…” I exhaled. “What do we do?”

  In response, Grizz grabbed me by the arm and hauled me toward the mansion. The second we were through the door, he let loose an unholy sound that had everyone running in our direction as he dragged me upstairs to the media room. Moments later, it was full of vampires and werewolves alike.

  “What the fuck was that?” Dean asked, blades raised.

  “Grizz wanted your attention,” I replied nervously.

  “Mission fucking accomplished, big guy,” Kat said, pushing her way to me. “What’s the problem?”

  I took a deep breath. “The queen just called in her favor.”

  Everyone stilled.

  “So what does the wicked witch of the west want?” Kat asked. Her harsh tone belied her concern. She wasn’t looking forward to getting an answer any more than I was to giving it.

  I looked at Merc, then back at the room full of his brothers and Knox and his pack. The absence of the other enforcers was glaring. They were sending a message to their new king—one that would have to be dealt with eventually.

  “She gave me a choice,” I said, moving to the center of the room. “Mister fuzzy britches here seems to think you all should weigh in on it…I probably should call Drake, too, since I promised I would…”

  Every eye in the room was on me, tracking my every move.

  “This oughta be good,” Brunton muttered under his breath.

  “A choice between what?” Knox asked, coming to stand beside me.

  “Kill the fey king or bring her something she desires—something she won’t disclose until after I choose—though I did get her to stipulate that it isn’t something or someone I care about.”

  Knox exhaled audibly and began pacing the room. Merc stood eerily still, the way only the dead could. Everyone else just muttered strings of curses under their breaths.

  “These options are far from ideal,” Merc said, stepping up behind me.

  “Listen, I know this is a no-win situation at best, but we have to try to figure out which one she wants us to pick and choose the other. Or choose the one we think will lead to the best outcome.”

  “Seems like a lot of people want you to kill the king,” Kat said with skepticism.

  “I know. That was my first thought, too. It begs the question as to why.”

  “Or it’s a sign that you should do it,” Dean countered.

  “Or she thinks that, by presenting that option, you’ll choose the other because you suspect a trick, which, knowing her, is likely,” Jase added.

  My head started spinning.

  “Killing the fey king isn’t an option,” Knox said, his anger plain in his tone. “The only way you can go after him is without us, and that isn’t going to happen. There aren’t enough of you to face him on his turf and survive. Piper doesn’t have her fey powers there—she would need those to defeat him.”

  “Right,” I said, looking up into his blue eyes. “Unless there was a way to kill him from the queen’s side, I don’t see how we could pull that off. I mean, we barely got out alive last time.”

  “So this second option,” Jase mused as he moved closer, “she won’t disclose what she wants until you agree to it?”

  “Yes.”

  “So it could be literally anything—or anyone?”

  “No,” I said. “Like I said, she told me it wasn’t someone I cared about. It won’t be any of you or anything of value to me.”

  “Choosing an option without knowing what you’re signing up for is suicide with someone like the fey queen,” Foust argued. Merc nodded in agreement, much to my surprise.

  “Foust is right. It’s a risk I can’t see taking.”

  “And if going after the king is a setup, too?” I said, frustration with the situation setting in. “I faced the fey king, Merc. You didn’t. I can’t stand against him on his turf, and he sure as hell isn’t going to come here so I can take him out.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.

  “Piper,” Knox said softly, taking my face in his hands, “you don’t have to go back there. We’ll find a way around this.”

  “I say give the bitch what she’s after and be done with it for now,” Dean added, dropping his arm around my shoulder. “We can deal with the fallout later.”

  The pack all mumbled their agreement.

  “I hate to play devil’s advocate,” Kat said from her spot on the sofa, “but am I the only one who thinks giving the queen anything she wants is a terrible idea?” The entire pack turned to glare at her. She stood and strolled through the room like she gave zero fucks. She didn’t care about their scrutiny—she cared about me. “Let’s just think this through for a minute, shall we, boys? Yes, the queen stated that this object-slash-being is of no concern to Piper, but it’s clearly of interest to her, which should scare the shit out of all of us. What if it’s a charmed item—something that could enslave us all like the fey king can enslave the wolves? What if it’s something that can kill Piper? Are you all willing to bet her life or ours on that because you don’t think you can kill your maker?”

  Knox growled his disapproval. “You have no idea what he is capable of.”

  “You’re right, I don’t. But I do know what that bitch is willing to do to any one of us, given the opportunity, and I’m sure as fuck in no hurry to make that job easier for her by walking right into this little trap.”

  “What if she’s bluffing?” Brunton argued. He stalked toward Kat, stopping just shy of her. “What if she offered that option knowing that we’d all rather choose the devil we know over the one we don’t?”

  “Then the joke’s on us,” Kat replied, never flinching.

  “There is a third option,” Merc said, garnering everyone’s attention, including mine. If he thought there was a way out of the other two, I was all ears.

  “What?” I asked, my heart in my throat.

  “You don’t honor your bargain with the queen.”

  Again, a hush fell upon the room, and the silence made me want to run from it screaming.

  “Yeah…that can’t end well, Merc.”

  “The queen will not come for you—she learned the hard way how that ends,” he said, a faint smile punctuating his sentence. “Nor will the fey king. He has lost his best weapon against us. He will not come for you on his own, either.”

  “So we just do nothing?” I asked. He nodded.

  “The queen will find a way to force our hand, and you know it,” Knox snarled at Merc. “She will find a way to punish Piper. I know a thing or two about not honoring your promise to the fey queen. Angering her isn’t going to make this situation better.”

  “Let her be angry from her side of the veil. Unless she is willing to cross the divide, she is no threat.” Merc’s tone was strong and haughty. He sounded every bit the vampire king he’d become.

  “But she threatened me—told me that she could find multiple ways to torture me. She’s not talking about hurting me. She’s talking about hurting you guys. She’s seen firsthand the lengths I’ll go to for you. She knows that hurting you is more effective leverage than anything else. I have to give her an answer, and I have to do it soon!”

  Grizz let out a huff and stormed toward me, pulling me out from under Dean’s arm and throwing me over his shoulder. He was halfway to my bedroom before I could protest.

  “Hiding me in my room is not going to work either, Grizz.”

  The man-bear seemed to disagree.

  “You know what? Fuck it,” Kat said, jumping in front of Grizz to block the way, “I change my vote to the unknown because fuck that fairy bitch. If Piper says she can’t take out the king, then we do her highness’ dirty deed and pray like hell it doesn’t backfire.”

  Grizz reluctantly set me down while his stare shot daggers at Kat.

  “We’re with you either way, Piper,” Jagger said from down the hall. He forced a smile, and I did my best to return it, but all I could see in my mind was the queen torturing him to get to me, and my face fe
ll.

  I turned my gaze to Merc and Knox standing beside one another, a semi-united front.

  “I’ve guaranteed that she’s not going after someone I love,” I said, swallowing back my emotions. “At least we know that much.”

  “The feys’ words are never to be trusted,” Merc said carefully.

  “They can’t lie outright, but they sure as fuck can twist things into something pretty close,” Knox added. “Are you sure about this?”

  I choked on a nervous laugh. “Of course I’m not sure, but I don’t know what else to do.”

  “And what if the object she desires is in the king’s realm?” Brunton asked, his irritation with the situation plain.

  “Then we’re just as fucked as we would have been going there to kill him, so the point is kind of moot.”

  He gave me a grim nod.

  “So it is decided?” Merc asked.

  “I think it is. Kat’s right. We take our chances with the unknown.”

  “This is shaping up to be an epic shitshow,” Kat said, heading back to the media room. “I’m so down it’s not even funny.” Grizz shot her a nasty side-eye, and she laughed. “Come on, big guy. It can’t be worse than anything else we’ve faced.” He snorted and shook his head in disbelief, then stormed off. Kat, in all her sarcastic glory, actually looked worried that she’d pushed him too far. That her dark humor had driven her friend away—one of the only beings she’d let close to her since Jensen died.

  I tried to give her a reassuring look, but she merely disappeared down the stairs.

  “What do we do now?” Jagger asked, leaning against the wall as though he needed its support to stand.

  I let out a sigh. “First, I have to call my uncle and tell him about this mess. Then we wait for the bitch to come back, and pray we’re not making a huge mistake.”

  Chapter Ten

  After three failed attempts to reach Drake, I settled for a message that I hoped wouldn’t induce a heart attack. I never heard back from him. Then, exactly one hour later, I returned to the lawn with a small entourage—Merc, Knox, Grizz, and Kat—at my side. Foust and Brunton had fought to be there, but Knox had made them stay behind with Jase and Dean to settle the pack and keep an eye on Liam, not that I thought that was a good plan. I feared Brunton would tear the bars off the cell just to get at him.

  Right on the dot, a portal opened in the yard, revealing the queen in an emerald green dress cut short in the front to reveal black leather pants—like something you’d wear to a fancy ass-kicking party. Not a good sign.

  “Hello Piper. I see you’ve brought your pets with you. Worried our meeting would go awry?”

  “Only a fool would expect otherwise,” Merc said on my behalf.

  “I’ve made my decision,” I said, stepping closer to her. She mirrored my approach on her side of the veil.

  “And what did you choose?” There was fire in her eyes, delight in the knowledge that she was about to torture me one way or another.

  “I will bring you what you desire.”

  Her wicked smile widened. “Excellent.”

  “So what am I going on the hunt for?”

  “No hunt necessary. You know exactly where to look.”

  I felt Merc and Knox go rigid beside me.

  “Where…?”

  “Oh, I don’t know the particulars, dear. I’m not the one who killed Kingston…”

  The blood drained from my face. Every hair on my body stood on end. I couldn’t have heard what I just heard—my mind refused to believe it.

  “What did you say?” I whispered, fear paralyzing my vocal cords.

  “I said I’m not the one who killed Kingston. You are, so that would lead me to believe that you know where to find his body. I know he’s somewhere in Alaska. I need you to bring him to me.”

  “But he’s dead…”

  Her brow quirked at my words. “Is he, now…?” She clicked her tongue in question. “It is my understanding that the Earth has taken him, but that is not necessarily the same thing as death, is it?”

  I felt my knees give out right before strong arms caught my waist, righting me.

  “What do you want him for?”

  “Oh, don’t you worry about that. You agreed to bring him to me. Nothing more. Nothing less.” She pinned hardened eyes on me and glared across the divide. “A deal is a deal, Piper. Remember what I told you earlier—you do not want to cross me.”

  “And if I can’t do what you want? If I can’t bring him back?”

  She tutted at me like I was a small child; the small child she’d thrown to the wolves. Literally.

  “Let’s think positively now, shall we? I have every confidence that you can accomplish this. Very powerful blood roars through your veins.” With that, the portal started to close. “I’ll see you soon, Piper. Enjoy your trip to Alaska…”

  ***

  None of us said a word.

  It felt like eons passed as I waited for Merc and Knox to gather those that would be coming on our little field trip. The moment they joined us in the yard, the eerie light of the moon broke through the clouds, shining brightly upon us. Whether it was a good omen or an ominous one, I didn’t know. All I did know was that this shit was about to go down, and none of us knew what to do or say as we braced for the inevitable.

  “Are we really going to do this?” Kat finally asked, sounding totally unlike herself. That unnerved me even more.

  “We don’t have a choice, remember?”

  “We do, but not one with happy consequences,” Knox corrected.

  “I don’t understand how I’m supposed to do this,” I said aloud, though more to myself than anyone else. “He should be dead…”

  “Queenie seems to think you can,” Kat countered, “and she’s pretty hot and bothered about getting her hands on him, which can’t be good for anyone.”

  “But why? What could she possibly gain from him?” I asked. “He is nothing without the amulet. She’s not after his power—”

  “She’s after his knowledge,” Knox answered. “I’d bet money on that.”

  “That always was his currency of choice,” I said. “But if he’s dead, then whatever he knows died with him.”

  “Perhaps he isn’t dead at all.” The haunting tone of Merc’s voice when he said that sent shivers down my spine—and not the good kind.

  “But—”

  “I cannot imagine the fey queen wants his corpse, so she clearly knows something that we do not.”

  “We’ll find out soon enough,” Knox added.

  I hated how right he was.

  “You really do keep it interesting, Piper,” Dean said, slinging his arm around my shoulder. Then he gave me a squeeze. “It’s going to be okay. He can’t hurt you anymore…”

  Maybe he couldn’t, but somehow my body hadn’t gotten that memo. I was shaking all over, just like I had the night Kingston had shown up at the lodge and tried to kill everyone I’d ever cared about.

  “But the queen sure can,” I said softly. “We need to figure out what she wants him for before we hand him over.”

  The tension in the group thickened until Kat, in her infinite wisdom, broke it.

  “She said you had to deliver him to her, but she never specified when…”

  “No, she didn’t,” Knox said with a smile.

  “Well then, let’s go collect that slimy bastard and beat his dead-or-undead corpse until he tells us what we need to know,” Kat replied, “and then beat him some more just for fun.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The return to the pack’s lodge was anticlimactic. Merc and his brothers ghosted us there after calculating the perfect window of darkness, accounting for the season and time change. Once we arrived, we stood together in front of the rubble that had once been Knox’s home for wayward wolves and stared. It was an eerie sight, one I’d avoided the night it had burned to the ground. But now there was no avoiding the skeletal remains of the pack’s old life; a reminder of what had happened that nig
ht.

  I turned to Knox, a tear in my eye, and took his hand in mine. “I’m so sorry…”

  “You didn’t burn it down,” he said, a half-smile on his lips.

  “And life is much more interesting now,” Foust added.

  I choked on a laugh. “Interesting bad, though. Not interesting good.”

  He shrugged. “That’s a matter of opinion…chicken legs.”

  Knox, Jagger, Foust, and Brunton all smiled at me, the inside joke reminding us all of the night we’d met.

  “Can this conclude the memory lane portion of the evening?” Kat asked. “Because I can’t say that I have any fond ones of this place. I’d like to collect what we came for and go home.”

  She nailed Brunton with a pointed look, then turned to storm off to where the battle had taken place. Where Kingston’s body was entombed somewhere deep below the surface.

  “Kat’s right,” Jase added. “We can’t waste any time. We need to figure out why the queen wants him.”

  I nodded, then followed Jase and Dean, the others falling in behind. In silence, we walked around the decimated lodge. I could feel the spot where Kingston had fallen as I neared, as though it were calling to me; as though Kingston were begging to be let loose. Maybe it was our shared warlock blood, or maybe something else entirely, but I couldn’t ignore it. How I’d not felt it the night I’d buried him alive, I didn’t understand.

  “So,” I said nervously, “what do I do?”

  “Ask for him back,” Merc replied from behind me. I turned to find his expression as masked as ever. “Nature seems to be yours to command, so command it.”

  Seemed reasonable enough.

  “Return him to me,” I said under my breath, focusing on the pulse of the Earth below me and the connection to Kingston that I hated but needed. Small tremors began, a soft vibration as the ground awoke at my words. But almost as soon as it started, it stopped. I tried again with the same results.

  Then I felt Knox at my back.

  “Here,” he whispered in my ear. He wrapped his arm around my chest and pressed my body to his. “Let me help.”