Court of Darkness: A Demons of Fire and Night Novel (Institute of the Shadow Fae Book 2)

by C. N. Crawford

  I inhaled sharply, crossing closer to Ruadan. I stood so close to him that I could feel the heat radiating off his body. “He wanted you dead.”

  Ruadan’s magic pulsed around him, floating on the breeze and seeping into the forest. His body was still as stone while the breeze whipped at his hair. At last, he spoke. “The plan remains essentially the same. We get permission to depose Grand Master Savus. We find out what he really knows through an interrogation. Then, we kill him. After he dies, we go after Baleros, and my mother.”

  “You still want to find Maddan?”

  Ruadan nodded. “We will need him, yes. Grand Master Savus has reported us to the High Council as traitors. They won’t take our word alone.”

  I shivered in the cold air, teeth chattering, until Ruadan pulled me tight against him. His body warmed mine until my teeth stopped chattering, and my muscles relaxed.

  “Keep your eyes alert as we move through the forest,” he said. “Rivers and streams run all around us. Here, the forest is full of fae who can lure you into insanity. There are gancanagh, who will seduce you until you lose your mind, and bean nighe, who will drag you under the water to your death. Fuathan live in the waters, protecting this realm from invaders. There are birdlike creatures, spirits of the unquiet dead who will swoop down and drive you insane. All are here to protect Emain from invaders. Sentinels of a sort.”

  “So we need to try to find out where Maddan went, before one of these monsters slaughters him. Maybe you should shadow-leap after him. He’s not exactly the sort who would live long in any kind of dangerous situation.”

  “I’m not leaving you on your own.”

  I gripped the sword tighter. “You really think I can’t handle the fae sentinels here?”

  “I know you can fight them, but they’re not ordinary opponents. The forests can be confusing, and they can muddle your mind. They can lead you astray.”

  “The sentinels wouldn’t come after you, would they? You’re not an invader.”

  “I am now. I’ve been away a long time. Just remember, Arianna. Here, things are not always as they seem.”

  Chapter 30

  We walked through the forest, and I moved as quickly as I could, trying to keep up with Ruadan. He didn’t speak, but my pace must have frustrated him. I moved faster than an ordinary fae, but I couldn’t shadow-leap.

  We sniffed the air as we traveled, following Maddan’s path. Given what I knew about him, he’d probably arrived in Emain, panicked, then blindly run off in a random direction with literally no plan.

  As we walked, the apple orchards gave way to a thicker forest—oaks, elders, and rowans. Their boughs framed the starry night sky above us.

  “Any idea where we’re headed?” I asked after a while.

  “Maddan doesn’t know his way around Emain. It’s an island, with a few cities on the eastern shore. The rest is wilderness, inhabited only by the most ancient fae. Fae so old they’re practically part of the landscape. That’s where he’s heading.”

  “Have you ever been here before?”

  “As part of the Shadow Fae training, we spent years out here. And my mother used to take me here. She’s the one who taught me to track and to hunt.”

  Once again, I had the impression that his mum sounded brilliant. I wanted to say something reassuring, something like, “She sounds like the kind of woman who would be fine in captivity,” but everything I could think of sounded flippant and callous instead of reassuring. And what did I know? Maybe someone like Ruadan, who’d spent years training in the wild, didn’t need reassurance.

  “What were your parents?” Ruadan said, abruptly.

  It was sort of a strange way to phrase a question. Not “who were your parents.” He wanted to know what my other half was.

  “Your guess is as good as mine.” I hated lying. I wasn’t even a good liar. Still, I couldn’t tell him the truth.

  I wanted to change the subject before he could ask for more details. Details like, “Where did you come from? When did you last see your parents?” Things I wanted to avoid.

  “You said that Grand Master Savus hated you for years,” I said. “What did he do to you?”

  As soon as I felt the air frost around me, saw the breath misting in front of my face, I knew that I’d struck a nerve of some kind. At least I’d succeeded in changing the subject. A rough gust of wind slid over us, and I silently cursed the cold.

  After a minute, I was certain he didn’t want to answer.

  Then, he shot me a quick look, his eyes shining in the darkness. “You’ve seen the tattoo on my back?”

  “Yes. The fae word? What does it mean?”

  “The Shadow Fae of Emain are divided into cohorts, each named after a type of tree. My cohort was the Yew. I had two half-brothers in the cohort—my mother’s sons. We were together for centuries, training in Emain, fighting and assassinating enemies of our realm.”

  Already a sense of dread was curling around my ribs. He’d said that his brothers had died.

  “When I joined the London Institute,” he went on, “Grand Master Savus sent me on a mission. He told me to employ my old cohort—we were called the Eburones. Men of the Yew. Grand Master Savus told us we were hunting down an angel, someone who never should have come to Earth.”

  My mouth went dry. “What happened?” With an iron nerve, I willed my voice to remain steady.

  “I had to open a portal to another world. The angel was hidden there, living with his family. They lived as part of a little village, in fact. It confused me when I arrived and spotted the cottage—a wife with red hair. And a son. A young boy who ran away as soon as we arrived. I didn’t understand. Angels can’t have children. The pleasure they’d feel when siring a child would cause them to fall.”

  I could hardly breathe as he spoke. All the air had left my lungs.

  “It wasn’t an angel,” he went on. “Not an ordinary one. It was the Horseman of Death. One of the architects of the apocalypse. Do you know what sort of destruction such a creature can wreak?”

  My mind went numb. Oh yes. I knew. “What happened to your cohort?” I asked in a remarkably steady voice, but I already knew the answer.

  “Dead. Every single one of them died before my eyes.”

  I exhaled slowly. “Why didn’t you die?”

  “I was the only one there with the blood of a demon-god. I’m nearly impossible to kill. Unfortunately, Death can’t be killed either. But after what he did, he is on my list, and I will figure out a way to end him and his line. He killed almost everyone I loved. He was protecting his son, but he hit his wife in the crossfire. I remember seeing her lying in the dirt. He killed the other fae, too. The ones living with him. His son was the only one to get away.”

  My thoughts were racing out of control, and I willed my heartbeat to slow down. Ruadan could probably hear it. It would alert him that something was wrong. Only once I mastered control of myself did I speak again. “You want to kill his son?”

  “Of course. Such a creature is monstrous. He’d be a grown man now. I just need to learn who he is.”

  My blood roared in my ears. “And Savus is the one who sent you on that mission.”

  “Yes. A part of me always wondered if he’d done it on purpose. Perhaps it hadn’t just been a mistake. But maybe he’d known that Death lurked there.

  A heavy silence fell over us. “I’m sorry you lost your cohort,” I said at last. “And your half-brothers. Do you have any family left?”

  “No. My younger sister inherited the throne, but that was it.”

  “If she’s younger, why didn’t you inherit the throne?” I asked. “Or what about Caine?”

  “Bastard.”

  “Beg your pardon?”

  “I was illegitimate. And Caine and I are related on my father’s side. The city’s elders debated the line of succession, but in the end, they chose Queen Brigantia. Fine with me. I’m more of a warrior than a prince.”

  “Your own sister won’t believe you without
proof?”

  “She will, I think. But the High Council will not.”

  My mind still whirled back to everything Ruadan had told me earlier—the attack on the horseman, his entire cohort dying.

  My skull roiled with images of dead fae, littering a field. I could almost smell the death…but just as soon as the scent of decay filled my nose, it dissipated, and I breathed in the smell of fresh bread. It reminded me of home. Home before Baleros had found me. Where raspberries grew all around us.

  Now, the light seemed to grow brighter—shining silver moonlight that gleamed through the trees. As I walked, I could no longer see Ruadan, but it didn’t bother me. I felt at peace.

  A flicker of movement through the dark bushes caught my attention, and a new scent filled the air. The briny scent of the ocean. I closed my eyes, breathing it in. I licked my lips, tasting salt. Night cloaked my body like silk.

  When I opened my eyes again, a handsome man was standing before me in the dark grove. His long, brown hair fell over his shoulders. He had full eyebrows, a neatly trimmed beard, and his clothing looked as if it had been made from the colors of the forest itself: rich greens and browns, a velvety texture. Pale smoke curled from an ivory pipe in his lips.

  “Welcome,” he said. He spoke in Ancient Fae—a language I’d never learned. And yet somehow, I could understand him. He stepped closer to me, his movements oddly silent. “Who walks before me with all the darkness and beauty of a cloudless, starry sky?” He took another step closer, and with a delicate stroke of his fingertip, he brushed a lock of my hair off my cheek. I shuddered at his touch.

  “Your beauty is like the ocean,” he purred, “stirring within me terror and ecstasy, an inexorable lure.” His voice wrapped itself around my body, and I closed my eyes.

  I hardly noticed myself dropping the sword to the soil. What did I need a sword for? Love was all around me.

  “I will bathe you in morning dew.” His fingertips were on my hips, stroking them in circles.

  Where was I? I had no idea, and it didn’t matter because nothing in the world mattered but the feel of his fingertips on my skin. Why was I wearing this stupid dress? The fae lived in nature. We weren’t made to wear clothing.

  As if hearing my thoughts, my new friend began inching up my dress. My skin started to heat.

  I had a vague sense that I should be fighting him, that he was dangerous, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

  “When I’m around you,” he went on, his honeyed voice licking at my skin, “a fevered heat blooms in me.”

  He pulled my dress off, and the heavy night wrapped itself around my bare skin. With an ecstatic shiver, I leaned back into his body. Hunger grew within me.

  He stroked a hand down my skin, and my mind blazed with images of Ruadan—his golden skin, his powerful arms...

  “Your breasts draw me in like the moon in Earth’s orbit, the waves of your hair frame your face like the ocean frames the shore, and light radiates from your eyes—two perfect orbs like two moons.”

  This time, my body tensed at his voice. Was it just me, or was he a little bit of a knob? At this point, his metaphors were just confusing me, and he had at least three moons in that one.

  Smoke curled from his white pipe, but I smelled something different in it. The scent of decay.

  I pulled away from him, narrowing my eyes. Now, he looked a little different. The pipe he smoked looked like a human rib, and a drop of blood shone at the corner of his lips.

  I took a step back from him. What had happened to Ruadan? And where was my dress? So this was the gancanagh. Honestly, I’d expected better game than this from a legendary seducer. This guy sucked.

  He reached for me, his dark eyes wide. Now, his cheekbones looked sharp, his features a little too hungry. “A wild storm rages within my breast, a ruthless tempest. You are Diana, and I am—”

  “Fuck off.” I scanned the ground, searching for my dress, my sword. As I reached for the iron, the gancanagh lunged for me, canines bared. His teeth sank into my neck, and he yanked down my bra as he bit me.

  Just moments ago, I’d wanted his hands all over me. Now, I yearned for the feel of knuckles hammering bone. I reared back my arm and slammed my fist into his face, over and over. My knuckles sang as I broke the skin on his skull, and it felt glorious.

  Blood streamed from my throat where he’d bitten me, but I ignored it, focusing instead on pounding his face.

  He grabbed my throat, fingers tightening. From below, I brought my elbow up into his jaw, knocking him off. He staggered back, and I punched him hard in the throat.

  Something glinted out of the corner of my eye—the dull gleam of an iron blade. I grabbed the silver hilt, and the gancanagh reached for one of my legs. Surprisingly strong, he yanked me to the ground, and I slammed down hard on my back. The sword fell from my fingers, and the gancanagh’s hands were around my throat again, squeezing until I thought my larynx might crush my spine. My eyes bulged, and the creature leaned down, groaning as he licked my cheek.

  I grabbed one of his wrists, then rotated my hips until I managed to knock him off. I rolled, shifting him off me. I pinned him to the ground with my knee over his throat.

  I punched him—once, twice—until his eyes looked glazed. Then, I shifted off him to snatch my sword from the earth.

  As he rose to lunge for me, I swung the sword through his neck. Blood sprayed all over my bare skin, and his head rolled over the forest floor. With the fight finished, my pulse began to slow.

  I looked down at myself. No bra or dress, covered in blood. I’m not sure I’d make a super convincing defendant when I showed up at the High Council to plead our case.

  As I caught my breath, I spotted my black dress on the ground. I grabbed it. Grimacing, I used it to clean off the gancanagh’s blood, leaving behind only a few streaks of red. With the cotton soaked in blood, I didn’t want to put the dress back on. Instead, I crumpled it up and threw it next to the headless fae.

  I’d have to ask for Ruadan’s shirt.

  Speaking of Ruadan, where the hells was he? The bastard thought he was going to protect me, and here I was getting attacked by creepy poets lurking in the bushes.

  It took me a few moments to get my bearings, until I glimpsed the broken branches that marked my path back to the main trail. I pushed through the undergrowth, sticks scratching at my bare skin, until I found my way to the larger, clear path. I was wearing nothing but my knickers, but I held my hand over my breasts as I walked.

  On the main path, I found not a single incubus. I considered yelling out for Ruadan, but decided I may not want to call any more attention to myself, particularly considering I was basically naked and reeking of ancient fae blood.

  An alluring song floated through the tree boughs—a female voice. I sniffed the air, breathing in the scent of pine, a faint hint of apples. Ruadan was nearby. I spotted a few broken branches in the shrubs, and I sniffed the air again.

  Well, well, well. Seems Ruadan got a bit distracted as well.

  I cupped my breasts as I walked through the darkened forest, my feet crunching over the leaves, until the little path opened into a clearing. A sensual song floated through the night air, trembling over my skin. A sapphire pond glittered in the starlight, so beautiful I nearly missed the people standing by the lake’s edge.

  My chest tightened with irritation at the sight of Ruadan. Sirens dressed in sheer, gossamer dresses surrounded him, singing into his ears. Their wild berry-colored hair cascaded over delicate shoulders. The women—with very visible nipples—gripped his limbs, sliding their hands over his body. Pearly wings swooped down their backs, rhythmically beating the air.

  Ruadan’s eyes had turned black as the night sky, and he didn’t seem to see me. The sirens’ music lured me closer, their song a powerful tug in my chest.

  I gripped the sword tighter. I ran my fingertips over the iron, using the pain to keep control of myself, even as the song seduced me. Ruadan’s muscles tensed. With a grunt, h
e ripped himself away from the sirens. He whirled on them, snarling, canines bared. His dark magic poisoned the air, and the lake began to ice over. Finally.

  The sirens’ wings fluttered, feathers flying around as they scrambled away from him. Their beautiful song fragmented, the melodies falling apart. Then, they clambered back into the icy lake.

  “Enjoying yourself, Ruadan?”

  Chapter 31

  His head snapped toward me, eyes dark as pitch. “I was just leaving.” His eyes slowly raked up and down my body. “Perhaps I could ask the same of you. It seems someone has divested you of your clothing.”

  “He’s dead now. But it just seems like you were making a few friends.”

  His magic lashed the air around him as he stared at me. He went completely still, and I had the odd sensation that he was about to pounce on me like a wild animal.

  After a moment of silence, he said. “You’re wearing nothing but a few streaks of fae blood.”

  “Why are we still talking about that?” I snapped.

  I crossed to the sirens, my eye on one with blue hair. Before she could escape me, I leaned down and gripped her arm hard. I pointed my sword at her. Chunks of ice floated around her, and her breath clouded the air. She blinked at me, pouting, her face a mask of innocence. I tried to ignore the fact that I’d now totally uncovered my breasts.

  “I’m going to need your dress,” I said. “Now.”

  She opened her mouth to sing, and my back started arching at the sound. “Stop it!” I yelled. “I will sing over you. And nobody wants that. It’s not pretty. Also, in case I wasn’t clear, this sword is made of iron and I will cut out your larynx.”

  Did I feel bad for stealing a woman’s dress at swordpoint? Maybe a little, but I really needed it, and I’m sure she could find a new one.

  She pouted for a moment, then held out her free arm. The other sirens swarmed around her, untying the ribbons from her arms and back. They peeled off the gossamer fabric, and her breasts bobbed in the water. She scowled at me as she handed me the dress.