Crown of Blood

by D G Swank

  “You know I’m all about the drama.”

  “Yeah,” she said, swiping a tear from her cheek. “Mom convinced you to do this, didn’t she?”

  “She’s been dead for years, Ro. I don’t see ghosts. That’s Phoebe’s specialty.”

  “No, but I still see her handiwork all over this.”

  “She’s been grooming me for years,” I admitted. “For longer than you could even guess.”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to do it,” she said.

  Except we both knew that wasn’t true, not really. Our mother’s premonitions did bear weight. She’d known about our father and the Dark Set, but that was hardly the only thing she’d predicted. One time she’d pushed Phoebe, hard, seconds before a hundred-pound branch fell right where she’d been standing. And she’d always had a talent for recognizing a lie even as it was told. It didn’t matter how long she’d been dead.

  “But she was right. I’m the one to do this.” I paused. “But I need the book.”

  “The book is evil, Celeste.”

  “I know,” I said, still holding her gaze. “But I need it anyway. It’s going to help me bring down the Dark Set.”

  “What about Zane?” she asked. “Does he know?”

  “Yes, and he’s going to help me.”

  “I shouldn’t trust you,” she said. “You lied to us. You willingly went off with Donall, not once but twice. You encouraged me to kill Logan.”

  “That part was the book. You said so yourself,” I said.

  “The other parts weren’t.”

  “True, but I was trying to protect you and Bee.”

  “It’s supposed to be the other way around. I should have been protecting you, but I’ve done a shitty job.” Tears filled her eyes again. “I should have started protecting you a long time ago. Before Mom died.”

  “No,” I said softly. “This is the way it was always supposed to be. It has to be me.”

  “Yet you don’t have a real plan,” she said, sitting up straighter. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  I thought about painting a pretty picture, but she’d always had a talent for cutting through bullshit. Besides, she deserved the truth. “Possibly.”

  “Celeste…”

  “Donall is evil, Rowan. You know that better than anyone. I have to stop him. I have to stop them all.”

  “With the orb?”

  “And with Zane.” Because I believed more than ever that he was in this with me.

  “Does Brandon know? Because if he purposefully keeps this from Phoebe, she’ll never forgive him.”

  “I suspect Zane is telling him something right now. Apparently, he’s been reporting to Brandon for five years.”

  “Still… Phoebe won’t let you do this.”

  “Which is why you can’t tell her either.”

  Rowan groaned. “I knew you were going to say that.”

  “I can take the memory from you if you’d like,” I said. “I shouldn’t have told you at all, but after what Donall did to you…well, you had the right to know.”

  A look of shocked recognition filled her eyes. “You…you’ve done that to me before.”

  “Yes,” I said softly.

  “You helped Mom hide my magic from me when we were kids.”

  A lump filled my throat. “Yes.”

  My agreement must have brought the rest of the memory flooding back. Her mouth dropped open an inch or two, then she slowly shook her head. “You didn’t want to do it, but Mom made you help. You were upset for days afterward, and I didn’t want to be alone with you after that, although I had no rational reason for feeling that way other than you were my baby sister and you were…”

  “Weird.”

  She cringed. “I would have picked eccentric.” She looked close to breaking down. “Celeste, I’m so sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?” I said. “You were the damaged party. All those years you felt like you were lesser than us… I should have at least told you after Mother died.”

  “Were you worried I’d be pissed?” she asked.

  “I knew you’d be mad, but that’s not what held me back.” I paused. “Rowan, Mother had known about Dad for years. Since we were little girls. She was preparing me for my role…and protecting you from what he and the Dark Set might see as yours.”

  “You kept my magic hidden to protect me.”

  I nodded.

  She lay down next to me, gently snuggling into my side. “This is all so fucked up. It was supposed to be the other way around, Cee-Cee,” she repeated.

  “No, Rowan. Fucked up or not, this is the way it’s supposed to be.”

  Mother was never wrong.

  So why was a little dissenting voice in my head asking, Was she?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “What’s the way it’s supposed to be?” Phoebe asked from the doorway.

  I could see her familiar aura surrounding her again. “Your magic settled back into place,” I said, trying to change the subject.

  “It’s back,” she said with a radiant smile. “All of it. It’s like it fell asleep and just woke up.”

  Relief washed through me, and it struck me that this part of my mission had been as important to me as the rest. Order needed to be restored, and there was no order, from my perspective, if Phoebe didn’t have her connection to our Whelan ancestors. “I needed to make sure you got it back.”

  She sat on the opposite side of the bed from Rowan, who was still lying next to me. One look at her put a furrow in Phoebe’s brow. This was very uncharacteristic behavior for Rowan. “You’re not going to die,” Phoebe said. “We don’t have any ancestors nearby with a healing power, but I’ll throw you in the car and drive you to the nearest family graveyard—or hospital—myself if I have to. Zane’s out there talking to Brandon about it now.”

  “Brandon’s just trying to keep you safe,” I said. “He loves you.”

  “And I love you. In fact, I loved you first,” she said. “You trump Brandon any day.”

  The lump was back in my throat. “I love you too. Both you and Rowan. I know I’ve been difficult the past few years, but I want you to know—”

  “Stop,” Phoebe said, her face splotchy. “You’re not dying, and I’m not going to let you talk like you are.”

  “Rowan?” Logan said in the doorway. He wore a sheepish look like he knew he’d interrupted something important. “Brandon and Zane say they need you.”

  She sat up, immediately on guard. “Why?”

  The mattress shifted slightly when she moved, the tiny fluctuation sending a wave of pain through me. I tried my best to hide it.

  “Something about Zane needing to check in with Donall. They want you to glamour the room to look like somewhere else.”

  “It’s to protect his cover,” Phoebe said. “Apparently Donall thinks Zane took Celeste somewhere to train her to use the orb and he needs to do a check-in.”

  Rowan slid off the bed, her body rigid. “Let’s go fool the bastard.”

  She brushed past Logan and headed into the living room. Logan cast me a wary look, although it was more of an are-you-about-to-die look than a you-tried-to-convince-my-girlfriend-to-murder-me look, then entered the room.

  “How much pain are you in, Celeste, one to ten?” he asked.

  “Right now? Probably a three, but I suspect Zane did something to glamour the pain so I don’t feel it as much.”

  “I’m not a doctor,” he said, “but I took EMT training when I was training to be a cop. I’d like to look you over if you don’t mind.”

  I started to decline, but then I reconsidered. I did need to be in better shape before we returned to the compound, and if I didn’t need to use the book, all the better. “Sure. Thank you.”

  He moved to the side of the bed Rowan had just vacated and gently sat on the edge. “I don’t have a stethoscope, so it won’t be a complete evaluation.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “Zane said I had a punctured lung, but he repaired it wh
en he healed my broken ribs. It’s my spleen that’s giving him problems.”

  He frowned as he picked up my wrist and placed his finger on my pulse point, staring at his watch. When he lowered my wrist, his frown had deepened. “Would you mind if I examine your abdomen?”

  “It’s not going to do any good, Logan,” I said.

  “Maybe not, but it’ll help me keep track of any changes if your condition worsens.”

  “Zane’s been doing that.”

  He gave me a dry look. “Forgive me for not jumping on the trust express train with Zane. He’s been with the Dark Set for five years. I understand that he’s been undercover, but deep cover like that can change a person, Celeste. I think we need to be careful.”

  I almost argued with him, but while I completely trusted Zane, I could understand why Logan wouldn’t. Nothing I could say was likely to change that.

  I started to lift my shirt, but it took more energy than I seemed to have at the moment.

  Phoebe sent me a worried look and tenderly grabbed the bottom hem of my shirt and lifted, gasping when she saw my bare skin.

  “Cee-Cee,” she cried out. “What did that monster do to you?”

  “Introduced me to his boot,” I said in a wry tone.

  “I need the edge of her jeans lowered too,” Logan said to my sister, sounding embarrassed.

  I felt her unbutton my jeans and lower the edges, revealing my lower abdomen.

  “I’m going to start palpating, Celeste. Be sure to let me know where it hurts,” he said, then I felt his warm fingertips dance over my stomach. I flinched a few times on my right side, whimpered when he palpated my ribs, and cried out and nearly jumped off the bed when he touched my left side.

  Zane was in the room seconds later, fear and anger painted on his face. “What the ever-loving fuck do you think you’re doing?” he bellowed when he saw Logan leaning over me.

  “He has EMT training, Zane,” Phoebe said reassuringly. “Let him look her over.”

  “I’ve been taking care of her,” Zane protested.

  “Forgive me if I don’t trust your medical training,” Logan said as he lowered my shirt and got to his feet.

  “Why the hell should I trust yours?” Zane demanded.

  “Because I’ve actually had training.” He moved closer to the door and lowered his voice. “She has internal bleeding, and I’m worried she’s going into shock. I think it’s past time to take her to the hospital.”

  “We can’t,” Brandon said, walking up behind Zane. “Donall realizes she has significant injuries and he’s looking for her in hospitals.”

  “How do you know that?” Logan asked.

  “He told me so,” Zane said, not looking happy about it. “He wanted to know how her training was going, and I told him it was slow since he wouldn’t let Lisa heal her, but I was keeping her in line.” He looked like he was about to be sick. “He said he was glad to hear it, that his security force will know if she sets foot in a hospital. Any hospital.”

  “So? Just have Rowan glamour her,” Logan said, getting pissed again. “Surely you can hide her.”

  For a magical newbie, he sure seemed to be rolling with the punches.

  “We can’t take the risk,” Brandon said. “We need to keep her hidden. Zane told me about the Dark Set’s big meeting tomorrow, so we’ve decided to move up our attack. She only needs to make it one more day.”

  So he’d told them about the timing of our plan, but not the reason for it. Interesting.

  “She might not make it,” Logan objected, his expression tight.

  Phoebe squeezed my hand. “We can all give her magic. Someone will stay up with her throughout the night.”

  I can save you, a voice whispered. The spirit of book. No one else seemed to hear it, not even Rowan, but her gift was mostly about seeing, wasn’t it? Or perhaps the book’s magic was even stronger than I realized.

  Either way, I knew one thing with certainty: my sisters and their men wouldn’t be the ones to save me. I wasn’t sure why I was fighting fate so much. The sooner this happened, the better off everyone would be.

  “I’m tired,” I said, which wasn’t a lie. “I want to sleep now.” I glanced up at Zane. “I’d like Zane to stay with me.”

  Phoebe leaned over and kissed my forehead. “I’ll be back in three hours to take over.”

  “No,” Zane said, his tone tight. “It needs to be me. Our powers complement each other. I can keep her alive.”

  Phoebe and Rowan exchanged a long look before Phoebe shifted her gaze to me.

  I summoned the energy to nod. “It’s true. It needs to be Zane.”

  “Sleep well,” Rowan said, her voice tight. She took Logan’s hand and practically dragged him out of the room. Phoebe followed them out.

  Zane and Brandon exchanged a look before Zane walked in and shut the door.

  “I need the book, Zane,” I whispered. “It’s time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  He knelt next to the bed and grabbed my hand, worry filling his eyes. “I can understand Logan’s concern. You’re worse.”

  I nodded. “Does Brandon know about our plan? Or that we need the book?”

  “No. I didn’t tell him. He won’t hand it over willingly.”

  I felt a surge of relief at that. That meant Brandon wouldn’t have to hide anything from Phoebe, which was good for their relationship. I wanted her to be happy, especially since I might not be around to help ensure it was so.

  “What about Lisa?” I asked. “Is he going to get a team of his men to storm the compound like he did at the hospital?”

  He glanced away. “He’s not sure how many people he can get. They were going to wait for the Large Council meeting, but he sees the wisdom in attacking when only the Dark Set is present. We don’t have enough time to call in our Druid allies.”

  I let my head sink deeper into the pillows. “We can’t rely on them. They won’t be able to do this alone.”

  “Celeste…”

  “I don’t have much time. We need the book as soon as possible, especially since I need to feed it my blood.”

  His face paled.

  “It’s okay. It’s in its best interest to heal me. The real problem is they won’t let us take it. We’ll need to leave as soon as we have the book in hand. We can’t risk opening it here, and I suspect we’ll need more privacy before we use it.”

  He was still for a moment, then nodded slightly.

  Logan’s distrust of Zane surfaced in my mind. For a fleeting second, it occurred to me that he could be double-crossing all of us. That his plan all along had been to get the book—the Dark Set was desperate for it, and I suspected fanatic enough to go to elaborate lengths to get it—but my magic had mingled with Zane’s, and our connection was the most reliable truth serum of all. I could plum its depths to read his true intentions.

  I reached for his hand, and he took it, squeezing as if he thought he could physically keep me alive simply by holding on tight enough.

  I felt for his cool, serene magic, and it instantly offered me the cool comfort I craved like a lifetime smoker wants nicotine. But I didn’t stop there. I pushed on until I found his core—where his magic and his soul combined—and to my surprise, he didn’t stop me this time. He simply dropped any protective barrier that came my way.

  Tears filled his eyes and he gave me a soft smile. “Do what you need to do, Celeste.”

  Did he think I was going to hurt him? No, the tenderness in his eyes told me that he knew what I was looking for: undeniable proof, and he understood. We’d both been living hidden lives for so long we no longer trusted ourselves to know what was real. We needed proof. And I found mine, nestled in his heart. I realized he’d been watching me from afar for a long time, not for the Dark Set, but because he’d known they would come for me one day, and he’d promised himself he’d protect me.

  I gasped, then began to retreat, now exhausted. I expected his magic to chase mine, to do his own examination, which I ful
ly intended to allow, but it only nestled against me, feeding my energy with its own.

  “Don’t you want to search my heart?” I whispered.

  He gave me a sad smile. “I already have.”

  I knew he hadn’t used his magic to explore the depths of my soul, so what was he talking about?

  His smile spread. “I know you, Celeste. I understand accepting family duty. I understand your love and devotion to your sisters. I even understand your complex feelings about the book. And I understand the utter loneliness of having a magic that no one else, magical or non-magical, fully understands.” He squeezed tighter. “But now we have each other. We each have someone who understands and can love us as we truly are.”

  My heart fluttered. “Love?”

  “Celeste, you were right about our magics calling to each other. The reason I was too scared to admit it at first is because I’m pretty damn sure it makes us soulmates. Our magics are two halves of a whole. We’re incapable of betraying one another.”

  Soulmates. It was a rare occurrence, but it was possible. I’d heard about it happening before. In fact, Phoebe had always been partial to the writings of a witch author who wrote about magical soulmates whose magic completed each other as surely as their hearts did. I’d always rolled my eyes right along with Rowan, but maybe I’d been wrong. The fact that we were both expression mages made it even more likely.

  I grinned. “Soulmates, huh?”

  His eyes lit up. “I hope you’re not too sick of me yet, because if I get my way, we’ll be together for a very, very long time.”

  “I think I could live with that,” I said softly as I felt myself drifting off to sleep.

  “Celeste.” The urgency in his voice made my eyes fly open. Panic covered his face. “You can’t go to sleep, love. Okay?”

  “I don’t think I can stay awake until things settle down enough for us to find and steal the book.”

  The book’s energy surged at my words. It’s not time yet, I told it. But soon.