by Jaymin Eve
He reached up and rubbed away the few drops of blood still lingering around his nose.
“Yes, which would be impossible, as you’re the strongest of all the marked, and would have to die also.”
This was bad, really freaking bad.
“I’ll just have to make sure we imprison you again.”
Larky shook his head, like he was feeling sorry for me. My hands clenched as I itched to punch him again. “When I tap into the marked power, there’s no one in any of the worlds who could contain me.”
I stilled. How could he be so sure there was no one? He’d been locked away for a thousand years. My mind flashed back to the sanctuary and the training hall where my boys had joined their powers for the first time. They had a calling – to fight and destroy the dragon king. I was guessing that even with this calling the boys would still have to figure out a way to break the ties between him and the marked. They’d never kill me, I knew that without a shadow of doubt. They would let the rest of the world and all supernatural races fall before harming me, and I’d do the same for them.
“Come, Jessa.”
Larky was blood free and on his feet. He turned and walked out the now-open door. I followed him, wanting out of this room. Plus, I could use this as an opportunity to get a layout of the castle. Intel was important.
I kept a decent distance between us as we stepped out into the long, stone hallway. He turned to the right and continued on at a nice even pace.
So arrogant, turning his back on me like that.
I was going to guess he’d never met a female like me; I was going to fight him all the way. I took a running jump and two-foot-kicked him straight in the back. My hit was hard and solid, and he ended up face-down on the stone. I heard the oomph as all the breath whooshed out of him, but I didn’t stick around to see his recovery. I started running and never looked back.
I sprinted as fast as my legs would go, looking for a stairway or exit from this shithole. I heard a series of curses behind but knew better than to turn back. The odds of me escaping were slim to none, but I had to try. Maybe if I could just get outside…
“Jessa! You can’t escape from me.”
His voice was closer than I would have liked. The hallway seemed to be never ending, but there was a lighter section in the distance. I needed more speed. My wolf came to my call in an instant. It took me mere seconds to slip free of my human skin and clothes, and I let loose with a long howl as the canine in me took over.
My senses sharpened and we were so much faster on four legs, the green-gray landscape zooming by in a monotonous array. The end of the hallway was fast approaching and this gave my wolf an extra burst of speed. There were no clear exits, just a few doors scattered about. My nostrils picked up furniture and linen scents from within. Bedrooms most likely.
Just as I was about to reach the junction where the light shone brightest, a figure stepped out into my path. I skidded to a stop, my eyes darting over the newcomer. I dropped lower; growls ripping from me, rumbles in my chest, the fur standing up on my back. I didn’t hesitate to attack. The wolf didn’t understand that this creature was dangerous, maybe even more so than the dragon king chasing us. The wolf just wanted to be free, and I wanted that too, so I didn’t stop her.
The jinn did not step back. It glided across the hall and knocked into my side, smashing me against the wall. I yelped. Asshole. How the hell was there a jinn here anyway? At least this one didn’t have the markings of an elemental, but still, was he teamed up with the dragon king?
I attacked him again, from the side this time, my movements slower so I could dodge if he swiped at me. He was sidetracked for a moment by the arrival of Larky; the shifter was hard to ignore as he strolled up to us. Using that distraction, I managed to latch onto the jinn’s arm, mainly grabbing at the layers of black cloak he wore. I jerked back and ripped it free, exposing his long, sort of oddly shaped limb. I couldn’t tell in the wolf vision, but I guessed he would be marked in shades of red and black, like the last one I’d seen.
“Do not hurt her, Kirik, or I will end you.” Larky was all protective and shit, and I really wished he’d do everyone a favor and kill the jinn and then himself. Was that too much to ask?
“She’s your weakness, Larkspur. You will do well to remember your promises. This one cannot go free. If the bond is not fulfilled, you have no course with the gods. You have no firstborn and you made the deal.”
This conversation was confusing to the wolf. I knew I should still listen so I could examine it later. There was something disturbing there. Firstborn … seriously? If Larky’s dick came anywhere near me, I was cutting it off.
While the pair were focused on their argument, I took off in the opposite direction, but Larky was faster than a freaking bullet. He zipped across the corridor and enclosed my wolf in his strong arms before I could make it more than a few feet along the hall.
“Come, my little wolf. We have a dinner to attend.”
I struggled, clawing and biting the shit out of him, but no matter how much flesh I tore free, nothing loosened his grip. His whole no pain, total-chill-about-everything attitude was starting to annoy me. I needed to figure out what his buttons were and I needed to push them. Hard.
He took me back in the direction we had originally walked, past the door of my smashed-up room and all the way to the end, where a spiral staircase led down.
Three floors down, we emerged out into a massive space. It was all marbled floors, fancy artwork, and shelves filled with books, like a big recreation room slash library but completely decked out for the rich and famous. The bastard had taste. I ignored the opulence and continued my mission to scratch his arm off.
I was getting really sick of being treated like a piece of décor he could just cart around. His blood flecked my fur and his clothes, but all of the wounds were healing fast. It was impossible to inflict enough damage to escape; he healed before I could even sever the muscle, and my wolf and I were getting both frustrated and tired. Supernaturals had a lot of stamina, but I had not eaten or slept in many hours. It was starting to take its toll.
“You have to learn to stop fighting me. We are meant to be together. I’m patient. I’ve never taken a female against her will, and I’m prepared to wait for you to come to the realization that we are meant to be. You can’t escape your fate. The gods have spoken.”
Lie. I think. He was good at using lie and truth in the same sentence, which confused the detector.
I bit him again, harder this time. If it was fated, I wouldn’t have formed a partial bond with Braxton. There was something else at work here, some sort of dark magic, and there was no need for two guesses to figure out who had messed with the strings of fate. Larky had done this to me, I knew it, and I planned on rectifying the situation as soon as my ass got free.
It took us quite a few moments to pass through the beautiful room. The king continued to regale me with the most boring tales ever about how he won that piece of art in a spelling contest or something equally lame, or how that large mahogany duchess was acquired in his years as a knight. Dude was so old he made Louis look like a toddler.
Finally, we crossed into the next room, a large dining room. Off to the side I could see and scent the kitchen. Goddammit, I was starving.
I rationalized it in my head for a moment … really, there was no point denying myself food. I would only be weakened, and I needed to fight.
Plus, I was really effing hungry.
“I’m going to leave you here in the sunroom,” Larky said as he pushed open a set of double doors. My wolf eyes were quick to catalogue the cozy little nook, with its large windows and scattered couches. “The glass is magically reinforced. You can’t break out of it. Someone will be with you shortly. There’s a small bathroom just through there.”
He dropped me down, gently, before moving like a shot to the open door. I lowered myself and snarled at him, showing every fang in my mouth. I would never accept this situation. I would continue to f
ight him until one of us was dead.
His genial tone cracked a little as he gave me one last glance. “Don’t attack my … maid. I will be unhappy if she’s injured.”
What the crap? He cares about his maid?
He swept from the room, the doorway closing behind him. Just like in the bedroom upstairs, there was no handle or lock on this side. I pulled on the wolf energy, calling it back into myself, shifting into human.
Rising from a crouch, I ran toward the glassed windows, wrenching up the couch which was closest to me and flinging it with all my strength. The noise was deafening, but little happened besides it bouncing off the glass and rebounding back toward me.
Motherfucker! He hadn’t been kidding about that magically reinforced glass. I was starting to freak out. What if I never escaped from here? Shit, no way. That just wasn’t even an option.
Through the window I could see miles of green grass, flowers, hedges, and landscaped gardens. It was beautiful, but with that sheen of fakeness; everything was just too perfect. Magic. My wolf senses usually detected magic with ease, but Faerie world was so doused with it I was on overload, numb to the energy.
The door clicked behind me and I spun, crouching down again, hands aloft. Larky was crazy if he thought I wouldn’t use his maid to get out of here. This was the first weakness I’d seen in him and I was taking full advantage.
As the door widened even further, I stalked myself closer. A waif of a girl wearing a simple cotton shift dress slipped in around the corner and the door closed behind her.
She held up both hands in front of her. “I can’t reopen the door. They have it locked down with magic. He’s always one step ahead of us. I’m sorry.”
Truth.
Her low, sweet voice halted me momentarily, my claws retracting slightly as I examined her. She was totally not what I had expected, and while I didn’t want to fall for some I’m-weak-and-innocent trick, I could sense nothing truly untoward about her. Still, she might be Larky’s wolf in disguise.
Neither of us moved for a few moments, and I tried to figure out why she was so important to the dragon king. Her long, light brown hair hung in shiny strands along her face, which was small and elfin, pretty but unforgettable. She had brown eyes and a petite nose. Her skin was the most defining thing about her. It was a rich, creamy cocoa color, like she was a blend of more than one nationality, although I was pretty sure she was fey, or half at least, and in that case she could be from anywhere.
“Who are you?” I took another step closer, lowering my arms. “What do you know of old Larky?”
Those dull brown eyes met mine, and as she registered the hostility vibrating from me she flinched. Great, she worked for one of the scariest bastards in existence and she was afraid of me.
“Who the hell are you?” I demanded again, more venom this time, and I took another step closer. I realized that she was actually a little taller than my five feet four, but she was so waif -like that she seemed smaller.
“I’m … I’m as he said, the maid, and, uh … his wife.”
I blinked once. And then twice. What the what? Did she just say wife?
Chapter 2
There was nothing I hated more than disloyal men. Sure, the Compasses were as free and easy as any male, with a revolving door of ladies through their beds, but if they ever committed to anyone, that would be it, there would be no others. That was what true honor for a man was, and Larky was neither true nor honorable. In the short time I’d known him I’d found out about his wife, his chosen mate – Lemon and Orange’s mother – and me, whatever the hell I was supposed to be. Did this dick really think he could have a whole menagerie of women stashed around and that was all okay?
Fey wife was still staring at me, and I really had to ask her: “Why? Seriously … what the hell were you thinking? You could do a lot better than a weird, dead-for-a-thousand-years megalomaniac.”
She lowered her gaze before it shot back up again; her eyes flashed as if she had only just realized I was naked. She went all wide-eyed with a sort of deer-in-the-headlights shock on her face. There was something very odd here. She was sweet, innocent, not the sort of plaything I expected Larky would keep around.
“Tell me how you came to be Larkspur’s wife.” “Wife” was such a human word to use.
She cleared her throat. “My parents sold me to him when I was fourteen and one year. There was this dragon terrorizing our village, in France. Master saved us, and in return I was promised to him when I turned sixteen.”
Holy golden donkey balls. France? There had not been a prison community there in the time of the dragon king, which meant she was not fey … she was human. “What year were you born?” I asked.
She pushed back strands of her shiny hair. “Uh, I don’t exactly recall.” She took a few moments, seeming to be calculating in her head. “I’ve been in the castle for more than a thousand years.”
“How are you still alive?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve lived here since I was acquired. I never age or change and it’s okay. I do my duties, and the … the king leaves me alone.”
I’ll bet. She must have loved it when he was gone for most of her thousand years. No wonder she looked fey, she’d been living in Faerie, surrounded by magic. It had slowly been infusing itself into her, shifting her humanness. Now she was no more human than I was.
“What happened in this castle while Larkspur was in the land between?” I asked, hoping like hell she might have any insider information. The dragon king had chosen well when he sent her to me. I would not attack one of his victims, not even to save myself.
Dammit.
“The castle does not need him to continue its journey around the fey lands. We – the other captives and staff – just lived day to day.”
She had to have been bored out of her freaking brains. I’d only been here for five minutes and I already wanted to carve out my own eyeballs and throw them against the wall just for something to do.
“What’s your name?” I tried to put on my nice and gentle voice. She seemed easily spooked and I needed her help.
“They call me ‘maid,’ or ‘wife.’ I don’t recall what my name was before that.”
Maid or wife … what the holy fuck? That’s it, I’m killing every single one of the assholes in this castle.
“Okay, well, you need a name, because I’m not calling you either of those things. Let’s go with…” I examined the timid female, trying to think of something which would suit her. “You look like a flower, all delicate and pretty so … Rose. That’s what your name can be. Rose.” Hopefully she had some hidden thorns too.
She did that blushing thing again, and I found myself shaking my head at the innocence of her. I’d thought my twin was naïve, and she had more than proven she was by trusting the bitch twins, but Rose was almost child-like. She had only been sixteen when she was taken, which was very young in the supernatural world. Not so much in the human world, especially back in her time of birth. They’d had very short lives then.
I put my general blunt nature into play. I didn’t have time for bullshit.
“Would you like to escape from here, Rose?” She stepped closer to me and I realized there was a basket at her feet. She must have dropped it when she first walked in.
“I can’t leave. If I betray the king, he will hunt me down and inflict the worst torture you can imagine. I’m the first of the dragon marked. We’re all tied to the king of course, but I’m more so than any other. He can end my life with nothing more than a thought.”
“So there were dragon marked before he was killed and sent to the realm between the worlds?”
She nodded. “There was me. He disappeared in Faerie for some time, and when he returned, he cast this spell. I was his experiment to see if he could create a bond between himself and other creatures. The spell allows him to infuse small pieces of himself into each marked, and then their life essence bonds to him. While there is even one marked alive, he cannot be
killed.”
I’d guessed as much, but it was still painful to hear that.
I straightened, blinking rapidly, trying to process her information. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked. “Surely, he doesn’t want us to know anything which might help to defeat him.”
She shook her head, before reaching down to yank up the basket. “I’m forbidden from giving you any information which might help you escape. He has not forbidden me from talking about the marked.”
Her large eyes were flashing at me, and I knew she was trying to tell me something more. That the key to defeating king of the dickheads had to do with the marked.
“Come, I must dress you. He’s expecting you for dinner.”
“No,” I snarled. “I will not dine with him. I’ll tear apart any clothes he puts me in.”
Rose did not argue with me, she just waved her hand and suddenly I was frozen in place. Great, so the rose did have some thorns – but she wasn’t supposed to use them on me.
“I don’t want to force you,” she said. “If you give in to him a little, you have more chance at him granting you the freedoms you’ll need to escape. In my time we had a saying: the snake in the grass will catch more with silence than with fear.”
Strange she brought up that analogy, when my personal feelings toward Larky was that he was a snake. But okay, she had a point with the try-and-be-nice thing. It was just so much fun to smash his belongings and rip the shit out of him, but … it definitely wasn’t getting me anywhere. I was disadvantaged here. Everyone in this damn place seemed to have more magic than me. Even the human.
Rose released her hold on me, and this time I didn’t fight as she shuffled me across to the bathroom. I cleaned up quickly, trying my best not to think about how out of control I felt. I would just have to be smarter at this game. Fighting, no matter how right it felt, was not going to work. I had to manipulate him to get the information I needed – lull him into a false sense of security. That way, when I figured out how to kill him, he would never see it coming.