Agent of Darkness (Dark Fae FBI Book 3)
Page 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Agent of Darkness
C.N. Crawford
Alex Rivers
Agent of Darkness
Book 3 of the Dark Fae FBI Series.
Copyright © 2017 by C. N. Crawford and Alex Rivers.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by C.N. Crawford
Chapter 1
I sat on Roan’s floor, bathed in the orange light that licked along the length of a charred log in the fireplace. I pulled the rough wool blanket tighter around my naked skin. Exhaustion had seeped into my muscles like a toxin, eating at my tendons. The last few days had taken their toll on my body, and my legs wouldn’t stop shaking. I felt like the last time I’d actually slept well had been in Roan’s arms, listening to his heart beat, enveloped in his warmth.
But it wasn’t just the physical effects of my journey through the woods that made me shiver. My thoughts churned in my mind like unquiet spirits. In the past few weeks, I’d discovered that the people who’d raised me weren’t my birth parents. I was a fae changeling, swapped at birth. My biological father had been a sadistic monster known as the Rix—and I’d killed him. I’d trapped my human counterpart, Siofra, in a reflection. As far as I knew, she lingered there still.
Unable to get warm, I trembled under the coarse blanket, trying to block out the look in Siofra’s eyes when she had realized what was happening to her.
With a sudden snap, the log in the fireplace broke into two, its pieces tumbling into the glowing embers. A stream of sparks shot up from the flames, the fire crackling. I took a shuddering breath.
Footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned to see Roan, clutching a pile of clothes. He dropped them next to my bag on the floor. “I found you something to wear.”
Golden firelight danced over the beautiful planes of his face, and his emerald eyes burned into me. I forced my breathing to slow down, taking in the vicious tattoos that whorled over his thickly-corded forearms. He could feel my inner turmoil, the thoughts that roiled in my skull. I knew he could feel my emotions whirling out of control, though his expression remained stony, his jaw rigid with disapproval. I’d disappointed him by arriving days later than I’d promised, and he was not in a sympathetic mood. I could almost feel his anger washing over me.
Slowly, I rose. “Thanks.” I had meant for it to sound grateful, but instead it sounded bitter, acidic.
Shadows darkened his eyes. “The king’s men are canvasing the woods, looking for me. You can’t stay here long. They’ll sense your pixie energy.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Your aura shields mine.”
He folded his arms, glaring at me.
“Look, I came here,” I said. “As I promised.”
“We needed you days ago, at the Council—as I said. Your presence serves no purpose now.”
I was not getting into that argument again. I couldn’t have come at that point, not while my changeling twin had been slaughtering humans across the city. “You said that war is coming to the fae realm. Maybe we can still stop it. You said I was the key. Tell me what I need to—”
“I no longer need your help, and this war is none of your concern.”
I took a deep breath. I’d traveled here past a frozen forest of fae monsters, and I didn’t want to believe it served no purpose. “Tell me about the war,” I said, hoping to stall, to distract him. “What was so important about this council meeting that I missed?”
He simply stared at me, his otherworldly stillness raising the hair on the back of my neck. Only the shadows moved over his golden skin. After a moment, he spoke again. “Tell me why you’re really here.”
“Because I made a promise, and I’m here to keep it.”
“Lie.” The air grew colder, the fire waning in the fireplace.
I frowned. “It’s not a lie. I made a promise to you, and I intended to keep it. I’m true to my word.” I didn’t add the obvious second part of the sentence. Breaking a promise to a fae tended to end really badly, as I’d painfully learned.
“You’re not telling me the whole truth.” His low growl wrapped around me, tingling up my spine. His voice alone threw me off guard, and I found it hard to concentrate.
I sucked in a sharp breath, clearing my thoughts. Not telling him the whole truth. He was right—there was more than just the promise. After everything that had happened in London, my head had been a complete mess. I’d just needed to do something. “I didn’t feel right just going back to America, just carrying on at the FBI like none of this had ever happened. Like the magical world didn’t exist. I’m involved in the fae world now.”
“Lie.” Shadows darkened his eyes, and a chill whispered over my skin. “You’re still not telling me the whole truth.”
I swallowed hard. When I’d found myself alone and in quiet moments after defeating Siofra, I’d felt lost at sea with my own thoughts. I needed to escape them. As long as I kept moving, maybe I could stay one step ahead of the memories that threatened to drag me under the surface. I could forget the sounds of my mother’s life slipping away from her, and the toxic feel of the Rix’s twisted soul just before I’d killed him. I craved distraction from those dark thoughts the way sunflowers craved the light. “I also needed an escape.”
“And you thought I could h
elp.”
I nodded. If Roan kicked me out of here, I had nothing to return to. I couldn’t just go back to my old life, haunted by these memories.
“And that’s it? Those are all your reasons?”
“Yes.”
For just a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of pain flash in his eyes. The air seemed to thin, cooling around me.
Really, I’d still only given him part of the answer. As I looked at him, I knew he’d drawn me here too, his beauty so exquisite that it actually hurt to look at him. And beyond the muscled body and golden skin, his eyes shone with a deep sadness. I couldn’t escape the sense that grief seemed to hang over him like a funeral shroud, and right now, I had the strongest urge to cross to him and lay my hand against his chest, to feel his heart. I wanted to drop the blanket from my body and press myself against him, to feel the warmth of his naked skin against mine. I wanted to escape my own pain, and to pull him from his, too. But I knew if I tried anything like that, he’d just rebuff me. He didn’t seem the type to forgive easily. “I’m sorry I disappointed you. I want to help. Maybe I still can.”
“The timing mattered,” he began. “The Callach said I needed to bring you to the Council when it was meeting.” He cocked his head almost imperceptibly. “The Callach said you were the key.” Something about his tone suggested he no longer entirely believed this claim.
“Why was the timing so important?”
“The fae High King—King Ogmios—had been fighting the Elder Fae in the Hawkwood Forest for centuries. After the council meeting, he defeated them, broke their forces, chased them away from their homes. Most of their warriors are dead, and those remaining are in hiding with Ebor, their king. This changes everything.”
Dread whispered over my skin. “Why?”
“Because now King Ogmios is free to do what he’s always wanted to do. To wage a war with his true enemies—the fae who drove him from his lands, who forced him to carve out his own kingdom from the lands of the Elder Fae. Now that he has vanquished his enemies here, he no longer fights two battlefronts. He is free to press with all his might and attack the Seelie.”
My stomach lurched, and I held tighter to the blanket. “So let’s find a way to stop him. If I’m the key, maybe I can still help.”
He stared at me, the shadows seeming to thicken around him. “Since when do you care about our politics? About King Ogmios?”
“I don’t want a war.”
He moved closer, his muscles tightly coiled, like a snake about to strike. He peered down into my eyes, and I could feel the heat radiating from his powerful body. “What does an FBI agent care about a fae war?”
“I know that the casualties will be immense.”
His eyes narrowed. “You are worried about the humans.”
I stared right back at him. “Humans raised me. Of course I care about them.”
“You think you belong among them? Among humans like your friend Gabriel—is that where you intend to live out your life?”
I shrugged. “I guess. I certainly don’t get the sense I belong here.”
For just an instant, a look of intense pain flashed in Roan’s eyes. “And yet they don’t accept you, do they? What would the CIA do with you, if they knew the truth about you?” He cocked his head. “I understand where your loyalty lies, and it means you are of no use to me. You’re a liability. I needed you a week ago, before the slaughter of the Elder Fae tribes, but you failed me because of your loyalty to your humans. You have no place here. And moreover, you’re not capable of fighting among the fae. As you said, you grew up among the humans.”
The insult stung. Without thinking, I said, “I can fight as well as any fae. You’ve already seen me do it.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Cassandra. Go home. As far as I am concerned, you are worthless.”
My heart hammered in my chest, and a heavy silence hung in the air. Maybe it was my fatigue, but tears pricked my eyes, and his words hit me like a punch to the gut. “Is that right?”
“You should return to your people,” he said at last. “You have no business here. Get dressed, and I will take you to the portal.”
Roan’s white horse towered over me, and I stared up at it. I’d never ridden a horse, and this one seemed much larger and angrier than anything I’d seen before. Its black eyes locked on me, and it snorted, emitting a cloud of steam from its nostrils.
Roan leapt on the horse’s back in one swift movement, grasping its reins. He peered down at me, waiting for me to climb on.
“What’s his name?”
“Oberon. Aren’t you joining us?” He failed to offer me any help.
“He’s a bit tall.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Of course. I should have expected as much.”
I gritted my teeth, resolved to climb that horse even if it killed me. I knew nothing about horses, but I had done my share of wall climbing back in the Academy. That’s what this was—a wall of muscle, skin, and fur.
I walked back a few steps, then ran forward and leaped up, grabbing on to the horse’s fur. As I did, the damn wall moved away. Still, ungracefully, I managed to hook my leg over its rump. I steadied myself by grabbing hold of Roan’s enormous torso.
“Graceful,” he said.
“I made it, didn’t I?”
He shrugged, and kicked the horse into motion. The first step nearly made me tumble backward, and I tightened my grip, clinging tightly to Roan’s chest. Under his dark wool sweater, I could feel his powerful muscles shifting slightly as he spurred his horse.
I wasn’t ready for the horse’s speed, for the lurches as he galloped. My legs tightened, and against my better judgment, I clenched my hands around Roan’s body. He seemed completely at ease, his body moving as one with his steed. I somehow managed to do the exact opposite. When the horse would go down, my body would lift above it. Then the horse would rise up just as I came crashing down, my ass jolting against its body. I considered asking Roan to slow down, but pride stopped me. Surely he was unnerving me on purpose?
The horse jolted me hard, and my teeth snapped shut, nearly biting my tongue in half. As we rode, I took pleasure in digging my fingernails into Roan. He gave no indication that he minded, or that he enjoyed it. In fact, he gave no indication that he noticed my presence at all.
After a while, I figured out how to move in tune with the horse, and the ride became more bearable. Exhaustion gripped my mind, and I found myself relaxing as I watched the cedars and pines from the corner of my vision. Milky sunlight sparked off icicles hanging from their boughs and flecked the snowy earth with sparks of light. The air smelled thickly of moss and soil, and the ancient wisdom of oaks. Slowly, the horse’s rhythmic gallop began lulling me to sleep. For the first time in ages, my mind felt quiet, and beautiful images flickered in my mind—a sun-dappled river sparkling in the sunlight beneath the oaks, wild strawberries growing on its banks. I rested my head against Roan’s back as the images claimed my mind.
“Damn it.” Roan’s voice suddenly jolted me awake.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The king’s men.”
My pulse began to race, and I searched the quiet, snow-laden oaks as we went past. “I don’t see anyone.”
“You will.”
I hugged him tighter. “Why are they after you?”
“After the battle with the Elder Fae, they know for certain I’m working against them. But they can track me out here in the Hawkwood Forest.”
He leaned forward, kicking up Oberon’s speed into a proper gallop. The wind tore at my hair, and my breath left my lungs as we picked up speed, the trees moving past us in a blur. It seemed impossible that the horse could keep up this pace without slamming into a tree, but Roan navigated the woods seamlessly.
With a sound like a boom of thunder, the foliage behind us broke and a flock of large, copper-red birds burst between the branches, their wings shimmering. Oberon sped up, moving at breakneck speed, and I turned to look back at the birds. Then,
from the shrubs, a rider emerged, snow spraying under his horse’s feet, sparkling in the light, and the sight of him nearly stopped my heart. He had three bird-like heads, each covered in a dark hood. Long, curved beaks protruded from the hoods, their dark eyes glinting. And on his cloak, he wore a familiar insignia—a skull under water.
One of the heads opened a dark beak, unleashing a shrill battle cry that froze my heart. He drew a sword from his cloak, and spurred his horse.
Oberon huffed and snorted, his pace too fast to maintain, and the three-headed fae galloped closer. My mind scrambled for options. In the bag on my back, I had a gun loaded with iron bullets, but it was an awkward angle, and I doubted I’d hit him.
The mirrors in my bag… It would be good to have one on hand. Perhaps if I disappeared, Oberon could gallop faster, shake the pursuit. Gripping Roan with one hand, I fumbled in my bag with the other.
“Hold tight!” Roan snarled. “Let me lose him.”
He suddenly twisted the reins, and I hugged him tighter. Behind us, the rider unleashed a shriek that echoed off the forest’s oaks.
Off the trail, tree branches whipped at my body as we raced through the forest. Roan leaned down, and I followed suit, trying to shield my face. Several times, leaves and nettles lashed at my cheeks, and a large branch hit my back, tearing into my shirt and skin.
But the branches slowed the rider, too, ever so slightly. His flock of coppery birds swooped overhead.
“Hang on tight!” Roan pulled at the reins, and Oberon reared on his hind legs. I clung onto Roan for dear life, just managing to stay on. By the time Oberon’s front hooves landed in the snow, Roan had unsheathed his sword.