by Lexi Blake
“I would not have the three of you be apart for all the worlds, Your Highness,” Myrddin replied.
“I’ll come down and open the temple for you.” Daniel stopped in front of me, leaning over to brush his mouth across mine. “I’ll be back soon.”
“He’s using Dev’s temple?” I didn’t like the thought of Myrddin being in that sacred place.
“No, we’re going to use the dark space, Your Highness,” Nimue explained.
“We have a dark space? I wasn’t aware we had a demonic church here on Council grounds.” No one had bothered to mention that to me. It was a big building, but I’d explored pretty much every inch of it over the years. I would remember a Satanic church.
“It’s new, baby. Myrddin requires a place where he can focus the dark side of his nature.” Daniel frowned as he faced me, as though he knew what was going through my head. “We have a temple for the Fae and a Heavenly shrine. The witches in the building have their own temple. I’m merely accommodating our newest residents.”
“And we are thrilled with it. The king even attended the cursing ceremony.” Myrddin nodded Daniel’s way. “I think relations with the Hell plane will soon be better than ever. You don’t have to come down with us. I have a key. It seems you are needed here. We’ll be ready at midnight.”
They turned and left the office.
I stared at my husband and wondered what else he was keeping from me.
“Trent and I will be back at midnight, too,” Gray said, his voice grave. “I’m going up to speak with Albert now.”
“The boys are out at soccer practice,” I informed them. “You don’t have to worry about Fen seeing you. I’d like to keep my kids in the dark until we can see if Nim’s magic works better than Sarah’s. I don’t want to worry them if I don’t have to.”
They nodded their agreement and left me alone with Daniel.
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t like it.” Daniel got the words out quickly, as if he knew the storm was coming and thought he could hold it off.
“Well, you’re right. I don’t like it. What happened to our official ‘demons are bad’ stance? Now we’re suddenly building cursed spaces for them to hold potlucks in? How many are we inviting in, Danny? Because I kind of thought it would only be the one. And since when is Myrddin a permanent resident?”
“Since we met him.” Daniel moved around to his desk, sinking behind it. The big maple monstrosity put an effective barrier between us. “You’ve always known I intended for him to live here at the Council headquarters and when he was ready, he would take his place as my advisor. It’s his right as long as I carry Excalibur. As for the demons, talk to your friend when we find her. It was Kelsey who convinced me I needed to open discussions with the Hell plane.”
I knew exactly why she’d done that. “I agree with the Nex Apparatus. We can’t shut out the lower plane forever. It was a dangerous path, but I didn’t dream you would open the Earth plane up to the point that they need their own temple in our house. Are we letting them use the daycare services too? Want them to drop off their demonic spawn while they head up to the spa?”
“Are you done berating me?” A huff of a laugh came out of his mouth. “You know he called this, right? He knew you wouldn’t understand.”
A chill went over my skin. “You better be talking about Devinshea.”
Daniel’s jaw went rigid and I knew exactly who he’d been discussing me with. His mentor.
“You always choose me, huh?” I turned because I had better things to do with my time than stand here and argue with Daniel. He obviously didn’t need me to help him make decisions.
“Zoey?” He’d stood again. There was a weariness in his eyes that almost made me go back to him. Almost. “Come on, baby. Don’t do this now. We’ve got bigger trouble than the fact that you never warmed up to Myrddin. I don’t know how to make you understand that he’s not here to take your place. Dev gets it. Dev is perfectly comfortable with him. Why do you have to be jealous of him? He’s here to help us.”
“We don’t need help.” We had taken the crown. We had formed the Council. Danny, Dev, and I, along with our friends. We’d built this place and all of our alliances while Myrddin had been doing god knew what on the Hell plane. And I wasn’t jealous. I was afraid.
Daniel’s hands were suddenly fists at his sides, and I could see the wealth of anger in his eyes. “Maybe you don’t need help. Maybe you’re perfectly happy with your job. Mine doesn’t include shopping and playing with the kids. Mine includes constantly being worried about keeping this alliance together, constantly knowing that it could all fall apart. Your biggest worry is what lip gloss to wear, so no you don’t need help.”
Danny can get testy when things go wrong. He’d always been this way, though it had been years since he’d fucked up like this. Dev smoothed things over for him, or maybe we simply hadn’t clashed in a long time. We seemed so in synch, and no one had tried to murder us in…like a week. It was plain to see that the stress of having Dev missing was getting to us both.
And I didn’t care. All I could see was my husband shutting me out in favor of that fucking wizard who would kill our son if he knew. I was all alone in dealing with this because he would choose Myrddin. I knew it deep inside.
Hadn’t Gray said something about his fury being a thunderstorm or something? If he ever knew how Heaven had tricked him… What if the “him” in the prophecy was Myrddin Emrys? Gray didn’t seem to like the wizard. He couldn’t tell me straight out what was happening, but he could show it in small ways. He could lead me to the truth.
“Zoey, I didn’t mean that.” Daniel stared at me across the room. “I’m stressed and I’m sorry. I know it was wrong not to tell you about the temple, but it didn’t seem important.”
Or Myrddin had convinced him it wasn’t, and what Myrddin wanted was important to Daniel. More important than being open and honest with me. I had to wonder if Myrddin had been the one to plant it in Danny’s head that all I did was put on makeup and run the kids around town.
Having a knock-down, drag-out fight seemed like playing into the wizard’s hands. What I really needed to do was stop freaking out and start playing this smart.
Devinshea was gone. Marcus was gone. Kelsey was gone. All of Daniel’s closest advisors, including his Nex Apparatus.
Daniel would be left with no one but Myrddin to advise him during delicate negotiations with the Hell plane. Wasn’t that convenient?
And now there was a place built to help focus Myrddin’s demonic powers.
“I’m going to go upstairs with Gray and Trent, make sure they have everything they need.” I wasn’t, but I didn’t want Danny to know where I was going. It was time to plot behind my husband’s back. It had been a while, but I still knew how to do it and I knew exactly who would help me.
“Zoey, please,” Daniel said.
But I kept walking. I had things I needed to do.
It was time to really figure out why Myrddin was here.
Chapter Four
Summer
The woman named Kelsey had to have an incredibly high pain threshold.
Or she wasn’t as human and fragile as I’d thought she was. Either way, I moved back when she gestured for me to. I was well versed at fighting, but I stood no chance against these warriors. I didn’t even have a weapon. Erna would have my hide for losing my knife, but I’d sold it for the information I’d needed to complete my mission. I could always steal another one, I’d thought at the time, but there hadn’t been any handy ones left out on my way home. Then there had been all the running.
I could fight hand to hand, but again, I was woefully outnumbered.
Kelsey didn’t seem to think that was an issue.
“No takers?” Kelsey asked. “Because I can start picking you off, but I usually like to have an order in my head.”
Kor laughed, the sound jarring. “Stand down, female. I don’t intend to kill you. Why would I do that? Your corpse brings
us nothing. I like my women still breathing when I fuck them.”
“I don’t care either way, General,” one of the smaller soldiers said, a leer in his eyes.
“You should run, Kelsey.” I could still make this work. If she could run, they wouldn’t waste their time following her when they had me. “They will do everything they say.”
“That’s an excellent reason to not run,” Kelsey replied. “How about I fix this problem for you and then we’re going to have a nice long talk. I’ve got about a million questions.”
“Are you going to make me put you in the ground, whore?” Kor asked.
Kelsey’s eyes rolled. “Are you Fae? Because I didn’t bring cold iron bullets. I work for this Fae dude and he takes exception to them. And you are so lucky I didn’t bring Gladys. I didn’t realize I was going to be sucked into another freaking dimension, so I’m without any of my necessaries.”
Kor seemed to have decided he was sick of playing with his food. “I don’t know who your Gladys is, but I’m about to see your head on the end of my sword. I’ll teach you not to run with outlaws. Get Her Majesty and make sure she doesn’t slip away. It won’t take me long to kill this whore.”
Kelsey’s lips curled up and she lifted her right hand. I watched as it changed. She was a shapeshifter, but one with spectacular control since the rest of her body stayed humanlike. Except her eyes. I would have sworn those were the eyes of a wolf.
But her hand wasn’t wolf-like at all. Her hand was pure demon. The skin turned a vibrant red, and nasty talons sprouted from her fingertips.
Was she an assassin? Had the Hell plane sent their emissaries?
I took a step back, but suddenly there were hands gripping my arms. Pain flared through me because one of the soldiers had claws, and he didn’t mind sinking them into my flesh.
I could feel my power. It was all there, bubbling under my surface. I could kill them all in the blink of an eye and I wouldn’t even feel weak from the use. My power was an endless well and I’d never once found the bottom of it.
But I knew where the top was. It was in the charm that rested around my throat, the only thing that stopped me from drawing on the magic I’d been born into. According to some, I was magic. I had so much power, Turi believed I could fuel whole planes of existence without batting an eye.
I could destroy whole planes, too. I could destroy the world without even thinking about it, and that was why I wore the necklace. That was why I took the pain.
Because once, I’d been the pain, and everyone I’d loved had suffered.
I grimaced as the soldier holding me tightened his grip.
Kelsey reached into her jacket with her still human-looking hand and came back with a metallic object.
Gun. The word flashed through my head. I’d seen one before. This was a weapon of the Earth plane. I’d stopped this weapon once. I could hear a masculine voice speaking to me, telling me how to stop the bullet coming our way. My mother had taken one but managed to protect me. Then a man had held me, and he’d been the one to understand how to communicate with me. But it hadn’t been my father. My father had been trapped in his own body, unable to wake due to the sun’s position in the sky.
“What is that thing?” Kor asked.
Kelsey smiled and pointed it right at the soldier currently mangling my arm. “Let me show you.”
A loud boom burst from the gun and seemed to echo through the forest. Immediately the claw in my arm relaxed and the soldier dropped to the ground.
Kor stood there, sword in hand, staring at the male on the ground. It was obvious to me he wouldn’t get up again.
“Huh,” Kelsey said with a huff. “I guess when you take the old brainpan out you don’t need cold iron. Good to know.” She turned her attention back to Kor. “As a wise Earth man once said, this is my boom stick. You want a piece of it? And the next one of you who makes that kid there bleed is not going down as easy as the last one, if you know what I mean. Summer, get behind me.”
Instead, I picked up the soldier’s sword. It had dropped when the bullet had bisected his mostly unused brain. Yes, that might not be a kind thing to think of the recently deceased, but anyone who followed Turi deserved it. He demanded absolute obedience from his men, so they were all pretty much bleating sheep in the end. The sword, however, was pretty nice. Turi didn’t spare the expense when it came to weaponry. It was heavy for me, but I could wield it.
“I don’t need to hide now,” I explained to my new friend before I brought the sword up and back, making contact with the complete idiot who’d been sneaking up behind me. Like I couldn’t hear him breathing and walking. The sword made hard contact with the soldier’s leather vest. Luckily I’m pretty strong, and I put my full weight behind that thrust.
I heard a low groan as I shoved it through his chest.
“I like you, Summer,” Kelsey said, moving toward Kor, who seemed to understand that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought it would be. He had his sword up and his remaining men flanked him. “But until we have that talk, I need you alive. I can handle these guys.”
“Yes, apparently you can use your boom stick. I’ve heard it called a gun.” Just because it seemed like Kelsey was perfectly competent, and she’d told me herself she wasn’t evil, I wasn’t about to drop the sword and sit back while she fought.
“Oh, you’re going to be so much fun.”
I wasn’t sure if she was talking about me or killing all the men in our vicinity because she immediately went to work. She shot the soldier coming up on her left. It was obvious to me the woman had incredible aim, almost preternatural, because she’d barely glanced the man’s way and yet a neat hole had appeared right between his eyes. She didn’t look back to make sure she’d gotten him. She’d moved on to dealing with Kor. She kicked out, shoving him back before he could bring that sword down.
“Do you know who you’re protecting?” Kor asked, snarling Kelsey’s way. “They call her the Destroyer for a reason. You would do the planes better to give her into my custody. Only my king can control her evil.”
Though I knew he was wrong, shame still flooded my system. It’s a terrible nickname. Summer, the Destroyer.
“Oh, I’ll control her evil if I need to. She doesn’t know it yet, but it’s kind of my job, and I’ll totally take her off your hands. If she destroys things, I’ve got a few people I would like her to work that mojo on,” Kelsey said right before she turned and shot the soldier running at her from behind.
She missed that male, or rather he ducked at an excellent time and her shot went wide. Kor started to attack. His men followed his example and I found myself hefting the sword I’d found as one of them came after me.
“Don’t kill her!” Kor shouted out.
Pain flared along my shoulders as I blocked a sword that would have come down on my throat. Due to the unique nature of my being, I heal fairly quickly, and Turi’s soldiers knew that. However, with my magic contained, I wasn’t sure if even I could heal a slit throat. I forced myself to fight back, though the sword wasn’t my favorite weapon. I went on the offensive but now there were two soldiers attacking, one to my front and one at my side. I moved between them, trying to back away.
I heard the gun go off again, saw another soldier fall out of the corner of my eye. Kelsey was fighting hand to hand when all the attackers had swords.
My heart beat hard in my chest. Despite how magnificently she fought, Kelsey and I were still going to be overwhelmed. I could see it so easily. She would die fighting for me, and she didn’t even know who I was.
Or I could die. I think about death far too much for a creature who wasn’t supposed to be able to die. I saw the big sword coming my way, felt the air swooshing around me, and knew it would make contact. It was as though time slowed and I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless to watch that sharp edge coming for me. It would strike my shoulder, where it made a curve to my neck. Given the strength that was behind it, I would likely be partially decapitated
. I prayed to Danu that the charm held. I wasn’t sure what would happen if the spell that held my magic in was suddenly unleashed. I would rather die than be the cause of another unmaking.
Then the sword simply stopped. Or rather it was stopped. A thick vine popped up from the ground and wound itself around the sword.
And the man. The soldier who’d been ready to take off my head was suddenly wrapped in thick, green vines that hadn’t been there before. The forest floor had spotty grass and patches of moss, but nothing like the vibrant green vines that tangled around the soldier’s body. I turned to face my second attacker, but he was already on the ground, nestled in the same vines.
“Don’t use all those bullets, bella,” a deep voice to my right said. “If we’re going to defend the queen, we’re probably going to need them since neither Devinshea nor myself can figure out how to open that door again.”
Kelsey blocked Kor’s next parry with her arm. Her arm. She shoved it up and let the red skin of her forearm take what should have been a blow to separate her from the limb. I heard Kor curse in Gaelic and then he grunted as she tried to pull the sword from his grasp.
Something hard smacked my backside and I yelped, turning only to find one of those crazy vines waving at me.
“It’s not the queen, Marcus.” Kelsey didn’t break a sweat. She merely tossed the gun toward the dark-haired man who was to my left. “The queen is back at Council headquarters. And hold that for me unless you want to do that thing where you make everyone gut themselves.”
“And spoil your fun?” the man asked. “I would never. Besides, I can feel your anxiety from here and I haven’t felt anything from you in months. You need to blow off steam. It’s going to be all right, Kelsey.”
“What do you mean she’s not the queen?” a deep voice asked. His accent reminded me of the people who’d raised me, lyrical and soothing. “I think I know the queen when I see her.”