Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature Book 4)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  “Will this last?” Merc asked Drake. “What you’ve done…is it permanent, or a temporary solution until the fey queen realizes what has happened?”

  “I can’t be certain, but I believe it will hold for now. The queen may choose to attack Piper’s bond with someone else next time,” he said, turning to look at the trio of wolves at his back. “Be sure to report any odd behavior to me the instant you notice it.” My chest seized at his implication. “I somehow doubt this is the first you’ve seen of her magic at work.”

  I didn’t bother to answer.

  “Perhaps it would be best to secure the bear somewhere for observation,” Merc said. I wheeled on him in an instant.

  “You are not putting him in a cell downstairs!”

  “Piper, we need to be sure—”

  “I will keep him with me,” Kat said. “I’ll watch over him—once he puts some clothes on. It’s hard to focus when he’s in all his naked glory…”

  Merc silently mulled over her suggestion, then relented. “I will allow it, but do not take this duty lightly, Kat. The consequences will be dire if you do.”

  “Like I’d expect anything less from you…” She turned back to Grizz and flashed him a smile. “All right, big guy. Let’s go.”

  She strolled down the hall like nothing had happened, and he soon followed. They disappeared into her room with all eyes on them. An uneasiness settled into my gut—a feeling I didn’t understand but couldn’t shake. When it came to the fey queen (and king, for that matter), it seemed like nothing would ever really be over until they were dead.

  Which was the exact outcome I had planned for both—as soon as I figured out how.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kat and Grizz were long gone when I finally felt it was safe to release my magical hold on the wolves. They changed back into human form and paced the hallway to work off some of their adrenaline, while the rest of us reeled from what had just happened and all the implications. The fey queen had warned that she would find a way to make me pay. Check that off the list of not-so-idle threats. The question that begged to be asked was, who would she come after next? Which connection could she exploit? Merc’s and mine had been severed when he’d killed his father, but the one Knox and his wolves shared with me was as intact as ever.

  I shuddered at the thought of the fey queen turning that against us like her estranged husband had. Knox wouldn’t survive the guilt of hurting me again, and he wouldn’t let any of his boys survive if they did, either.

  My concern must have been written all over my face, because I soon found Merc and Knox flanking me in a united effort to make me feel better about something I couldn’t possibly ever feel better about.

  “It’s over now,” Merc said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

  “But it’s not.” I shrugged away from his embrace and headed for Drake. “Is it?” I stood before my uncle, arms folded across my stomach, silently demanding that he tell me just how fucked we really were.

  “No,” he said as though it pained him, “I don’t believe it is. She will try to find another way to make you pay until you give her what she wants—and then she’ll make you pay some more.”

  “It would be really helpful if we didn’t have both the king and queen coming down on us at once,” Jagger said, his cheeks as red as his hair. “Fucking fey…”

  “Fucking fey is right,” Foust added.

  “We need to figure out who the lock is,” Merc said to Knox. “We have run out of time. We must find a way to eliminate either the fey king or queen, and do so quickly.”

  “Kingston doesn’t know who it is,” I argued, “and he can’t do it on his own.”

  “Did we specifically ask him that?” Knox asked. “I’m not sure we did.”

  Merc and Knox shared a look before Merc disappeared. Drake headed for the stairs seconds later, his pace quick and full of purpose.

  “Where are you going?” I asked as I chased after him. “We need you.”

  “Which is why I’m going to get the others.”

  I followed him as he rounded the newel post, but a voice from down the hall stopped us both in our tracks.

  “Well, well, well…who do we have here?” Kingston said from behind us. Drake and I turned to find the handless warlock grinning back, Knox and Merc at his sides.

  For the first time since Kingston’s return, he stood in the presence of Drake—the brother of the warlock lord he’d killed. Drake’s pale grey eyes flared with rage, and I thought he would shred Kingston to bits any second. I stepped closer to Drake, putting my body in the way of both him and his magic.

  “We need him,” I reminded my uncle.

  “Nobody needs a traitor.”

  “Usurping is a consequence of being in charge,” Kingston said in his defense. I shot him a look over my shoulder to silence him, but he just laughed. “Have you learned who Drake is?” he asked. Drake went positively rigid. “Who Reinhardt was—to you?”

  I clenched my teeth so hard I feared they would shatter. “My uncle and my father, respectively.”

  “Did you tell her that, I wonder,” he said to Drake, “or did you leave her to figure it out on her own?”

  “How I found out doesn’t matter,” I answered for him. “What matters is that we figure out who the lock is so we can break the spell and kill the fey queen. I wonder if the amulet could help.”

  “It is of the fey queen and was given to a warlock,” Kingston replied. “Makes sense to me.”

  “Of course it does. I’ll bet you’re just dying to get your hands on it—again.” Drake clutched the pendant that hung around his neck.

  “Tell me something, Drake. What did you do when you learned of your brother’s death? Did you curse his arrogance? Mourn his stupidity?”

  “Shut. Up—”

  “Would you like to know how he groveled for Piper’s life? How he got down on his knees before me and begged me to spare her—”

  “What the fuck are you talking about, Kingston—”

  “—said that he would do anything to keep the daughter he couldn’t be bothered with before then alive—”

  “Stop lying!” I yelled at him, but he couldn’t be silenced.

  “—even relinquish control of the warlocks?”

  I thought fire would erupt from Drake at any moment; then I wondered if it might erupt from me as well. Though I’d never known him, Reinhardt was my father, and to hear the lengths he’d gone to to keep me safe…

  My hands balled into fists at my sides.

  “Say another word about my father and I will bury you alive again,” I said. The words were so dark and cold and flat when they left my mouth that, for a moment, fear flashed in Kingston’s eyes. Merc and Knox moved closer. “Only this time I’ll delight in the knowledge that you’ll never truly die, but live in eternal damnation. My father deserves that kind of justice.”

  “Does he?” Kingston asked, recovering quickly from my threat. “Would you still believe that if you knew how long he’d known about your existence, yet did nothing to aid you?”

  Drake stopped breathing at my side.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Do you think I’m the one who informed Reinhardt he had a bastard child?” His menacing laugh cut through the air—and my heart. “He knew long before I killed him. Do you still think he’s so noble?”

  I looked up at my uncle. He refused to meet my gaze.

  “Did you know, too?”

  “No—”

  “Lie,” Knox growled, stepping closer still.

  Drake closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s not what you think, Piper.”

  “Tell me the truth, Drake. How long did Reinhardt know I existed?”

  Sorrow like I’d never seen in my uncle’s eyes finally met my gaze. “Long enough.”

  I felt a tear slide down my cheek. “Why? Why didn’t he come for me? Help me?”

  “He knew of you, Piper. He didn’t know your identity for a long time
.”

  “And when he did?”

  Drake moved to touch me, but I stepped away. “You were already with the enforcers. He thought it best to keep you there—that you would be safer with them.”

  “With strangers?” I shouted. “Kept in a gilded cage, a free-range prisoner within its walls until night fell? I couldn’t even go out during the day for fear I’d run into assholes like him!” I jerked my head toward Kingston.

  “He thought it best that you not know who you came from—”

  “That wasn’t his call to make!” I was screaming now, a crowd growing in the hallway as I raged at the messenger because my father was too dead to weather my storm. Too gone to answer for his misguided decisions. “Do you have any idea what my life was like before the vampire king took me in?” He opened his mouth to answer, but I cut him off. “It was a daily struggle to survive–even after I had Jase and Dean and Kat to watch my back. I’d be dead if it weren’t for them, Drake. As dead as Reinhardt. And now you’re telling me that my father knew and did nothing? That he left me to my fate because he thought that was best?”

  “He loved you, Piper—”

  “Fat lot of good that love did me! He might as well have killed me himself,” I said, my voice suddenly so deadly calm that it scared even me. “Too bad he couldn’t even have been bothered to do that.”

  I reached up and yanked the amulet off Drake’s neck, breaking the chain in the process.

  “Here,” I said, throwing it to Kingston. He managed to spear the chain with his amputated wrist to catch it. “Figure out if you can use it to find the lock and let me know.”

  I started to walk away, but Kingston’s voice stopped me cold.

  “I feel you in this,” he said. I turned to find genuine confusion in his expression as he clutched the amulet between his wrists; then it slowly bled to all-knowing arrogance. His sly smile spread wide as he turned to Drake. “I feel my power in it as well. Reinhardt’s, too. But I don’t feel yours, Drake. I wonder why that is…”

  “Because I haven’t sacrificed anything to it,” he replied, voice tight.

  “Lie…”

  Drake shot Knox a murderous look. “Go away.”

  “No,” the alpha said. “I’m not leaving until you start telling the truth.”

  “Your power isn’t in this amulet for only one of two possible reasons,” Kingston said, stepping closer to Drake. “Shall I share them with the others?”

  My uncle looked at me, his expression beseeching. He was backed into a corner I didn’t understand, but it obviously scared him. The truth could do that to you.

  It was impossible to outrun forever.

  “I have to admit, I never saw this coming,” Kingston said, continuing his approach. Knox and Merc moved to stop him, but I halted them with a raised hand. I didn’t want them interfering before Kingston said what he had to say. “Even I couldn’t see through the lie. Not then. Not even now.”

  “What is he talking about?” I looked to Drake, but for the second time that night, he wouldn’t meet my gaze.

  Kingston turned his attention to me. “The first reason for his power not being in this amulet would simply be that he had not wielded it, but somehow, knowing the trials you all have faced in my absence, I’m guessing that’s not the case.”

  “No. It isn’t,” I replied.

  “Piper—please listen to me—”

  “The second,” Kingston continued, cutting Drake off, “and most fascinating possibility would be that it doesn’t register Drake’s magic because the magic that’s been used to wield it wasn’t Drake’s at all.”

  “I don’t understand—”

  “Do you know what Drake’s greatest power is and has always been?” Kingston asked, turning to face me. I shook my head. “His ability to be everything and nothing.”

  “What?” I asked, confusion addling my mind.

  “Glamour, Piper. Glamour is his greatest gift. It’s what made him so useful to your father.”

  “But how does that have anything to do with Drake’s imprint on the amulet?”

  “Will you tell her or shall I?” he asked my uncle, his voice rich with self-satisfaction. When Drake didn’t respond, he continued. “When a warlock of great power dies, that power transfers to the one who rules our kind. The fallen one’s abilities become his.”

  “Oh my God,” I breathed.

  “When Reinhardt came to me that day, I have to admit that I was so filled with lust for power that it never occurred to me that it could have been his brother wearing his skin.”

  My head turned slowly to see Drake staring down at me, unshed tears in his eyes.

  “Show me the truth,” I said to the silence around us. Wind stirred at his feet, swirling around him until he was surrounded by a funnel of magic, lifting his hair and clothing—changing his very appearance right before my eyes. When it stopped, I found a totally different male standing before me. Though his hair color and style were similar to his brother’s, he was bigger—more imposing—with larger features that demanded your attention. But it was his eyes that did me in. They were wide and sapphire blue and staring back at me full of pain and regret.

  My heart sank to my feet.

  “I’m so sorry, Piper. I had to…I did it all to keep you safe…”

  “Reinhardt?” His name was a punch to the gut. “You’re my father…?”

  “Yes. I am.”

  Silence settled upon us for a moment. Then Knox broke it with a single word.

  “Truth…”

  My knees gave out from under me, and I nearly crashed to the floor. Strong arms hooked under mine, keeping me from that fate.

  “All this time,” I said, almost to myself. “All this time together training—facing the fey queen and all the other bullshit—and you never told me. You kept the lie alive.” My mind raced, replaying our every interaction until it landed on the day I’d first met him. “When I came looking for you with Kat—found you filthy and squatting in that godforsaken building—you attacked us. You threatened me—”

  “I didn’t know who you were, Piper! I’d never seen you before—”

  “But you figured it out the second you knew I was the one Kingston had gone after.” His silence spoke volumes. “You were so cruel,” I said, choking back a sob. “You said you wouldn’t train me—that I should go find my parents—”

  “I told you that you were part warlock in the hope that you could find one who would take you in—”

  “You could have!” I shouted.

  “I panicked, Piper! I never in a million years expected to meet you, and after hearing what had happened—knowing all that was going on in New York—I didn’t want to fail you again. I wanted to push you away so that nobody would figure out who you were. Kingston was dead and gone. With his death, the knowledge of your lineage died, too.”

  “Except it didn’t,” Knox growled as he still held me. “You have no idea what she’s been through—”

  “I wish it could have been different, Piper. If I could do it over again, I would.”

  My hands, with a life of their own, lifted the hem of my shirt to show Reinhardt what had happened to me because he’d thought it was safer to stay away—to not reveal himself to his daughter.

  “This is what happens when you don’t protect your magical child in this city,” I said, my voice empty and cold. “This is what happened when your warlocks came after me, unchecked by their leader—by you! They burned me alive, Father. They left me to die.”

  “Piper…I…”

  Knox’s fist slammed into Reinhardt’s face, driving him back a step. But Knox wasn’t finished. He charged my father, knocking him down with fists and claws swinging. He was Changing. And Reinhardt wasn’t fighting back.

  His raven appeared from nowhere and circled overhead, cawing with distress. It landed on my shoulder, its huge black eyes beseeching me to stop the fight. Begging me to forgive the unforgivable.

  “Knox!” I shouted, reaching for him. Only wh
en I bent down over Reinhardt did he stop. “He’s not worth it,” I said, cupping the alpha’s cheek. His teeth had grown larger and sharper and his eyes glowed with power, but he still recognized me without effort. We were too connected for him not to—at least for the time being. “Save your energy for the royals.”

  I stood, and Knox followed. Kingston smiled with delight at the chaos he’d created, but one swipe of Knox’s claws to the face wiped that smug expression away. I looked back to find Grizz and Kat among those who had congregated in the now-cramped hall. The bear came nose-to-nose with the raven on my shoulder, a silent standoff brewing between them, but then the bird squawked at him before it flew to its master, and Grizz huffed in response. When he did, there was frustration in his eyes that I didn’t understand.

  Judgment that felt unwarranted.

  I turned away, not wanting to see it. If I wanted to hate my father for what he’d done, that was my decision to make. I wasn’t about to let my furry guardian browbeat me out of my reaction or guilt me into a new one, especially after what he’d just done earlier that night.

  I wasn’t in the wrong.

  My lying, absentee father was.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The mob wanted blood, and Knox seemed willing to let them have it, but not before Merc said his piece. He had yet to say a word during all that had gone down, and that didn’t bode well for Reinhardt. My father was about to learn what the vampire king would do for those he cared for.

  The few he loved.

  “I should rip your heart from your chest as you have just done to Piper.” Merc took slow, calculated steps toward my father. “I should burn you as your warlocks burned her.” His eyes drifted to my stomach, now covered with my shirt, and stared. The pain in his eyes was unmistakable. “I found her the night they did it. She didn’t understand her magic then—didn’t know how to call it. If only she’d had someone to show her…”

  The crowd tightened around them, choking off any means of escape for the warlock in the center.