Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature Book 4)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

  “How do we get past the wards?” Knox whispered in my ear.

  “Allow me,” Kingston said with all the hubris I remembered in his tone. He brushed his wrist along the invisible barrier as he mumbled strange words under his breath. The larger the pass of his arm, the greater the hole in the wards became. “Go!” he said, moving aside to let us pass.

  One by one, we flooded the parking lot behind the innocuous-looking apartment building just as the witches filed outside, armed with magic and ready for an attack that wasn’t coming. The coven queen was nowhere to be found.

  “Where is she?” I asked, looking for a familiar face amid the crowd. It was only then that I saw the fear in their eyes, hiding behind their rage. Ice slid down my spine as realization set in.

  We were already too late.

  To confirm that point, a portal opened only feet away. On the other side stood the two queens, one looking far better off than the other. The witch was barely standing, blood streaming down her face from a wound in her forehead that was split like a smile. If we didn’t get her back soon, she wouldn’t be alive to do what we needed done.

  The lock would truly be lost.

  “Looking for this?” she asked. The fey queen threw her head back and laughed. It was a throaty cackle that made my hair stand on end.

  “Give her to me,” I said, anger brimming in my tone. I called upon the elements on both our side of the veil and hers, hoping that I could do what I’d once done for Jagger and rip her from the fey queen’s realm, but the coven queen didn’t even budge.

  The fey queen laughed at my attempt. “Dear girl, do you think me a fool? You tipped your hand last time. I’ve prepared for your stunts this time.”

  Shit.

  “Give her to me,” I repeated.

  “I’ll give you nothing, but I might be willing to trade if you have something I want,” she replied, the devil in her stare. “What would you give me instead?”

  “Me. You can have me.”

  “You are a deal-breaker…you cannot be trusted. Your word means nothing to me.”

  “I guess we’re even now in that regard.”

  “Like mother, like daughter,” she replied, thrusting the coven queen to her knees. “Do you think I don’t know why you want her? That I’m a fool, Piper?” I didn’t bother to answer. “You want to reverse the spell, and you know you need her to do it.” Her beady eyes turned to Kingston. “Him, too…”

  “What I want with the coven queen is none of your business.”

  “It is if it puts my safety in jeopardy.”

  “Your safety will be in jeopardy as long as I draw breath,” I countered, leaning closer to the shimmering air that separated her world from mine.

  “Come closer,” she replied, mimicking my posture. “I’ll find someone to fix that for you.”

  “Enough!” Reinhardt shouted, drawing everyone’s attention as he pushed through the crowd. He was black and blue, but very much alive, and he’d come to my aid once again, just as he had before. He’d forsaken me once and learned from that mistake. Perhaps, if we survived the night, I owed him a chance to better plead his case.

  But that was a big ‘if’.

  The fey queen stared at her former lover with wide eyes. “My, my, Piper. You’re just full of surprises these days.”

  “What do you want in exchange for the coven queen?” he asked.

  “There is nothing you can give me that would make me release her to you. I might as well lop my own head off. I know you’re planning to break the spell with her.”

  “Isn’t that why you wanted Kingston?” I asked, confusion brewing.

  “Perhaps I just wanted to keep you from getting him first…”

  “To reverse the spell requires an object of power,” the coven queen wheezed. “Having Kingston and me would not be enough.”

  The fey queen’s eyes sparkled with evil delight at this revelation.

  “An object of power, you say,” she mused aloud. Her gaze turned back to me and the amulet that hung heavy around my neck. “How powerful must this object be?”

  “More powerful than any other in existence,” the coven queen replied.

  “Here is the deal I’ll make you, Piper. Give me the token I once gave your father, and you can have the witch.”

  My heart sunk to my shoes. If we did that, we’d be no better off than we were without the coven queen. My confidence started to wane as uncertainty crept in. I didn’t know what to do. Giving her the amulet was less than ideal, but leaving the coven queen to her fate with that psychotic bitch seemed beyond cruel. At least the amulet was inanimate. It couldn’t be slowly beaten to death like the witch.

  “Make a decision quickly,” Merc whispered in my ear. “To waver is to appear weak. You cannot afford that.”

  “Break the amulet and give it to her,” Knox whispered in the other ear. “She didn’t say it had to be intact…”

  Then Reinhardt spoke on my behalf. “We agree to your terms, except for one.”

  “You speak for your daughter now, do you? How lovely that you have that depth of relationship with her, given how you’ve lied to her for who knows how long.”

  “You give us the coven queen first, then you can have the amulet.”

  “Intact,” she clarified, shooting Knox a look. “I want it as it is right now, save for being tethered to her neck.”

  Reinhardt pulled the amulet from my neck and placed it in my hand. “It’ll be all right, Piper. I promise.”

  There was something in his eyes when he spoke; something I’d seen before when he’d seen something I couldn’t. When he’d become aware of something I’d yet to realize. Trusting him was the last thing I wanted to do, but even in my anger, I couldn’t argue that he, as Drake, had always done right by me. Protected me. Saved me.

  I had no choice but to believe that moment was no different.

  “You will have this, as it is now, as soon as the coven queen is given over to us, alive and healed with no repercussions from her stay with you. Agreed?”

  The fey queen’s mouth pressed to a thin line, something in my directive clearly thwarting her plan. But she agreed nonetheless and hauled the bloodied witch to her feet. With a few words spoken under her breath, the coven queen’s wounds healed before our eyes. Then she thrust her through the portal. She stumbled toward me, and Knox lunged to catch her.

  “Now yours, Piper. And don’t you dare try to evade me again. You know what I’ll do should you decide on that course of action.”

  I looked at the necklace in my hand, rubbed my thumb over the deep blue stone that had left its imprint on my chest, and threw it through the portal. Lightning cracked through the sky on the other side the second it hit the veil, as though Faerie recognized its arrival. As though it were welcoming it home.

  “She has not won,” Reinhardt said quietly behind me, not that the fey queen could have heard him over the raucous noise on her side of the veil. “You are now the greatest object of power in existence on Earth, Piper. You healed the very amulet Larken now possesses. They can use you to break the spell.” I looked back at him to find a cautious smile on his face. “All is not lost, Daughter—not yet.” Reinhardt grabbed the coven queen and placed her hands on my shoulders. “Use her.”

  The witch looked from me to my father, then smiled.

  Merc hauled Kingston over, and together, the key and the lock worked through the spell. Once the coven queen had it, she locked her eyes on mine.

  “This will work, Piper. But you must focus.”

  I could hear the fey queen’s surprise from her side of the veil, but it only fueled my determination. Whatever I needed to give of myself, I would, consequences be damned. I was the princess of motherfucking Faerie. I was a force to be reckoned with.

  The coven queen began chanting in a melodic language I’d never heard before, and Kingston soon joined in. I felt the draw of magic within seconds, the burning sensation coursing through me as though I were a conduit between them and
the Earth itself. They pulled and pulled and chanted until the swell of power pushed everyone else away. Merc and Knox fought to get closer, but they couldn’t get beyond the perimeter of magic. It wouldn’t let them in.

  At some point, I fell to my knees, unable to stand against the drain I felt. The wolves howled as one, the sound permeating the orb of power around us, but it did nothing to help. I felt my life draining away as the coven queen and her son recited the same words over and over again. For a moment, I wondered if that was the plan—if we’d been double-crossed by the witch and the warlock who were slowly taking my life. But one look at the determination in their eyes said otherwise. They wanted the same outcome that we did. And they’d suffer alongside me to create that end.

  Fight, Piper… I heard in my head as I started to lose consciousness. You are stronger than this…you will be the end to this war if you just fight!

  My sleepy eyes drifted to where Merc stood stoically, staring at me through the shimmer of power that continued to grow.

  Get. Up, he said in my mind, and I soon found myself forcing my body upright. Good, his smooth voice said. Now get angry, Piper. Think of what the fey queen will take from you if you fail. Think of Kat and Grizz and Jagger—my brothers. Think of all who will die at her hands if you cannot bring her down…

  The magic that had just drained away answered my call. The fire that had just burned in my veins practically beamed with delight when I pulled it into my core, siphoning it from everywhere around me. As if my magic knew what to do—as if all that power understood the witch’s command—I spewed that fire from me, incinerating a hole in the veil so vast that I wondered whether there was no longer a divide between Earth and Faerie. With every ounce of strength I had left, I shot fire toward my mother—my enemy. I watched as it enveloped her body, swirling flames dancing around what I hoped would soon be her corpse.

  Then, with a thunderous boom, I felt the spell break. My fire disappeared and the veil returned, but the bond that prevented me from killing my mother did not. It was as dead as she would soon be.

  With the orb of power gone, Knox rushed to my side, pulling me into his arms.

  “You did it, Piper,” he said before pressing his lips to mine. “You did it.”

  Before I had the chance to savor the feeling of his warm body against mine, the fey queen’s voice cut through the air like a knife through my heart.

  “Yes, she most certainly did.” I looked over to find her grinning from ear to ear. It was full of evil and malice. “Just as I planned.”

  From somewhere deep in the crowd behind her, the fey king emerged and walked up to join his wife at her side. The sight of their hands intertwining knocked the wind from me. My mind couldn’t keep up with the implications, and judging by the expressions on the faces of my friends, theirs couldn’t, either.

  “I see we have your attention,” she said, looking over to her mate.

  “We have so much to tell you,” he added.

  “Where should we start, my love?”

  “We know they’ve learned about Faerie,” Phineas said, pinning sharp eyes on Liam. “Our unwitting pawn worked out well for that.”

  “Yes.”

  “And the missing witches, though kidnapping them served two purposes, really: to fuel my lands and to eradicate any potential heirs to the coven queen.”

  “So clever, my love,” the fey queen said. “And your attack on the coronation caused such chaos for them—derailed their focus on the lock. By the time they realized it was the coven queen, I already had her. They had no idea this was all part of my plan.”

  “Of our plan,” the fey king added with an adoring look. “One step ahead as always, Larken.”

  “Do you think they know about the rest, Phineas?” the fey queen mused. “About how we manipulated them into giving us what we really wanted?” She fingered the amulet dangling around her neck. “What we needed?”

  “No. I don’t believe they do…”

  “Just fucking say what you have to say so we can get to the part where we kill you both,” Kat snarled. “It’s been a long day. I want to shred you and go to bed.”

  “I’m afraid there won’t be time for that tonight,” the fey king said, feigning a pout. “But you should get some rest. Who knows what chaos tomorrow will bring…”

  “Who knows what will happen when I restore what I once took?” the fey queen added, pulling the amulet from her neck. “What will happen when I heal the land I once fractured with the magic I stole from it?”

  With a violent swing, she smashed the stone against the ground. A blast of blue so strong and bright that it knocked us all back, squinting, erupted from the other side of the veil. It was then that I realized what we’d done; we’d healed Faerie and renewed our enemies’ power. And given the fey queen all the magic she’d need to kill me, as well as the ability to do it.

  Fucking fabulous.

  “Once Faerie’s majesty is restored, there will be no stopping us, Piper. You, your friends—all the supernaturals of New York—will either bow at our feet or die.”

  “I think perhaps Piper should die either way, my love,” the fey king added.

  “Yes, Phineas, I think you’re right. But we should start with those she loves first—make her watch as we kill her beloved guardian, the mouthy she-wolf, and her lovers, of course.”

  “The werewolves will be mine to command again,” he said, turning his piercing blue eyes to her. “If you’d be so kind as to not release them from my service again, I would be most grateful.”

  She stroked his cheek and stared at him like a woman who’d just met her true love. “Consider them yours.”

  “What the fuck is this?” I asked, finally finding my voice.

  “What?” the fey queen replied, her tone incredulous. “Have you not seen a couple reconcile before?” Her eyes darted to Merc, then back to me. “I’m quite certain that you of all people, daughter, understand the concept of forgiveness.”

  “We’ve found common ground again,” the king added. “We have a renewed mutual interest in our kingdom.”

  “You mean my kingdom,” I said, my anger growing. “It’s mine to inherit. It answers to me, too. You’re fools to think you can just waltz into my world and kill my friends and me. Your hubris will fall seconds before your bodies do.”

  Merc and Knox stood at my sides, their presence as intimidating as ever. The others fell into formation behind them, my army of wolves and enforcers. The witches would soon join our ranks, as would the warlocks—Mack’s pack too, if he wanted to live. They’d have no choice. If the fey royals were coming, they were coming for us all. If they claimed New York City, they’d be unstoppable. The supernatural world as we knew it would be gone.

  The enemies of my enemy were about to become my allies.

  “Your birthright is strong, Piper, I must admit that. But you cannot stand against us both. Not even with your little army at your back. My advice? Go home. Enjoy your final few days on Earth, because when we come for you, there will be no stopping us. No running. You will meet your end one way or another, just as you should have the day you were born.” Her expression was as hard as stone as she stared me down from the safety of her realm. “I will right that wrong if it’s the last thing I do.”

  “You can try,” I said before pushing Merc away and latching onto Knox. With every ounce of power I had left, I sealed the portal, killing whatever retort she started to throw my way in the process. “You can fucking try.”

  Epilogue

  The end times were upon us. Nobody knew what to do—what to say. The king and queen of Faerie had played us all and, because of it, were likely going to march into NYC and take over the city as soon as their power was sufficiently boosted. That realization hung heavy in the air of the media room, into which we’d all crowded to update the others.

  “What do we do now?” I asked, looking to Merc and Knox for suggestions. I wondered if Drake would know what to do—then I remembered who he was and what
he’d done and banished him from my mind.

  “I know what we’re not going to do,” Kat said, pushing her way through the crowd. She had two armfuls of whiskey and tequila bottles clutched to her chest—and something else. I watched as she looked around the room for something, trying to read the writing she’d scrawled across her forehead. When she finally located what she wanted, she walked past me. I couldn’t help but giggle at the words written in black marker on her face. “We’re not going to sit around here moping. If I’m going down, I’m going down drinking and fighting—maybe something else, too.” She extended a bottle of amber-colored liquid to Brunton and he took it, a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

  “’Brunton is the shit’?” I said, choking on a laugh.

  “Damn right I am,” he replied, taking a swig from the bottle. Nervous laughter broke out among the pack, approval of Kat’s olive branch, so to speak.

  “I’m regretting this already,” she said under her breath. Her sentiment was met with even more laughter. With a huff, she pulled out the marker and walked over to a mirror hanging on the wall. With some effort, she blacked out one of the words. “Ah…that’s better.”

  She turned to face us, the word ‘the’ no longer visible. “Now Brunton’s just shit.”

  “She’s got you there, bro,” Jagger said, barely able to spit it out between bursts of hysterics.

  “She knows you all too well,” Foust added, wiping tears from his eyes.

  “Hey Foust?” I called. He turned to face me. “Why don’t you find one of those animated movies you love so much and put it on. We can have a pack-style movie night…one last time.”

  He smiled back at me. “Sounds good to me.”

  A chorus of agreement rang through the room, and everyone started vying for a spot on the couches or floor. Even the enforcers hung around, bringing in chairs from various rooms in the mansion. Kat slipped into the corner of the sectional—Brunton’s favorite spot—and winked at him, her graffitied forehead scrunching as she did. I found a spot between Merc and Knox with Jagger, Jase, and Dean at my feet. Brunton and Foust found places near Kat’s—next to the curled up bear.