Pale blue eyes blazed over me, flecked with gold. I’d know those eyes anywhere. Eyes that haunted my nightmares. Death.
He leaned down, breathing into my mouth, and warmth blossomed in my lungs.
I opened my eyes, gasping. Pain racked my body, and I gripped my heart. A wound gaped in my chest. And yet…
I was alive. I’d come back to life.
If I could come back to life, that meant…
It took me a moment to realize someone was cradling me, and I looked up into Ruadan’s black eyes. For a second, I took in the pain etched on his features. Then, the shock as he realized my eyes had opened.
I clutched my chest, gasping. Pain still coursed through my muscles, until Ruadan’s magic slid over my skin. It soothed the hurt.
“How are you alive?” he asked, his voice rough and jagged.
I held my hand over the gaping wound in my chest, and I simply shook my head. I’d thought of him in death. Who could have imagined that my dying thoughts would turn to the Wraith? Things were definitely not always as they seemed.
“Never mind,” said Ruadan. “Don’t try to speak. You killed Baleros.” The scent of burnt flesh filled the air, and smoke curled behind Ruadan’s head. “The fire goddess will bring him back.” Ruadan’s pale hair caught in the wind, and he cocked his head, studying me closely with those black eyes. “He killed you. He drove an iron sword into your heart. You were dead.”
I loosed a long breath. Death is difficult to kill.
He leaned down, and his breath warmed the shell of my ear. “What are you?”
A nightmare. I said nothing. I’d learned from the best.
His magic still whispered over my body, leaching away the pain. I wanted sleep more than anything. I rested my head against his powerful chest, and I closed my eyes.
I sat before a mirror while Ciara did her best to smooth my hair over the back of my long gown. Silver chinks shimmered on the sheer fabric like stars, and its violet hue matched the lumen stone around my neck.
My oldest friend’s skin looked normal again, but fire still licked in her eyes. Apparently, this was the new Ciara.
Moonlight streamed in through the windows. I had my own room now—one covered in wildflowers, with a bath of my own.
It had only been three days day since Baleros had rammed an iron blade into my heart, and a deep scar still marred my chest. Ruadan’s magic hadn’t been able to fully heal the skin, but he’d mended everything inside me, knitting together arteries and muscles with his magic. Now, I felt only a dull ache in the center of my chest.
Ciara took a hairbrush to my hair, and I winced at the sharp tug of the bristles through my tangles.
I glanced at Ciara, whose red hair still snaked around her head.
“You never told me you were a demon,” I said.
She shrugged. “I didn’t know. Just kind of came out. I told you my grandma came from a volcano, didn’t I?”
My lips twitched in a smile. “We’ll make a formidable gods-damn team, you know that?”
“Ciarianna has risen again.” She yanked at my hair, tugging my snarls into submission with the brutal hairbrush. “And now, you’re about to be knighted as a Shadow Fae by Grand Master Ruadan. Are you ready for it?”
I stared at myself in the mirror. For just a moment, darkness flitted through my eyes, and weightlessness tugged at my chest. Then, my mind cleared. “I’m ready. Now, you’d better get the hells out of here before someone finds you.”
“They still don’t want me here?”
“No, Ciara. We’re supposed to slaughter demons. That hasn’t changed.”
She blew a strand of her hair out of her eyes with a sigh. “Fine. Good luck with your knighthood. I’m coming back to check on you.” She jabbed me in the ribs. “And we need to fatten you up. You’re too thin.” Then she crossed to the center of the room. Fire blazed around her, a small tornado of flames that consumed her body. When the fire burned out, she left nothing behind but a few ashes and the scent of smoke.
I coughed. I’d need to think of some way to explain the scent of burned flesh that the New Ciara left behind whenever she departed.
A knock sounded at my door, and I crossed to it. I pulled it open and smiled at the sight of Melusine. She still wore a violet lumen stone around her neck.
“Melusine!” I beamed. “Did you return just for the knighting ceremony?”
She nodded. “That, and I live here now. I wanted to come back, and I hear about this job opening and I think, that’s my chance. Turns out, the librarian can’t fly around so well anymore. Got a skull fracture in a Segway accident. So I show up and I say, you know what? I belong in the library, on account of my superior intellectual skills. I can read in over three languages. English, Ancient Fae, Modern Fae, and English written by Scottish people.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good at stuff.”
I smoothed my hair over my shoulder. I felt oddly nervous for this ceremony, unaccustomed to this sort of attention. “Want to walk with me to the knighting?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” And without another word, she began stomping down the hallway.
I hurried to catch up with her.
As she crossed into the stairwell, she shot me a puzzled look. “Hey, why did it smell like smoke in your room?”
I cleared my throat. “I’ve been smoking.”
She shook her head. “No, it did not smell like tobacco. It smelled like burnt flesh.”
I traced my fingers over the stone walls as we descended, and I tried to think of a plausible lie. “I roasted a squirrel.”
Nope. Nope. Not a good one.
“I heard a fire demon took out part of the mist army,” she said, as we reached the bottom of the stairwell. “A friend of yours. Not supposed to be in this realm anymore though, is she? I put two and two together.” Before pushing through the door, she stared at me for a long time. At last, she said, “Not my problem. I’m just the librarian.”
She stepped out onto the night-dark Tower Green. Shadow magic pulsed around her body, and she leapt across the green to the white stone Cailleach Tower.
For a moment, my eyes flicked across the Green to the spot where Baleros had driven a blade through my heart. My breath caught in my lungs. That feeling of weightlessness whispered through my blood, dizzying me.
I faltered, then focused again on the feel of my feet on the stony earth, rooting me in place. I was here, my feet solidly on the ground. I was alive. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Then, I shadow-leapt to the entrance of the Cailleach Tower. The oak door stood open, and I crossed inside.
The silk gown brushed against my legs as I walked. I wasn’t used to wearing such delicate fabrics, but I liked the way the dress draped over my body. Even better, I liked imagining what the new Grand Master’s face would look like when he saw me in it.
I smiled to myself as I crossed into the Great Hall.
The last time I’d been in here, I’d been standing over an execution block, while Maddan smirked at me, awaiting my demise.
Aengus, Melusine, and the others lined either side of the hall, waiting to see me knighted.
Ruadan sat in the rocky throne on the dais, and a silver crown gleamed on his head.
Baleros might have the mist army, but Ruadan had the crown and the blessing of Emain. Now Ruadan ruled London’s Institute of the Shadow Fae.
And just as I’d imagined, his eyes bored right into me, drinking in the sight of the thin, silky gown. A smile curled my lips. He might be the ruler here, but I had my own sort of power over him, and I wanted to see how far I could push that.
I’d never wanted to be a spell-slayer, never imagined myself as an enforcer of arbitrary laws. But now, as I walked deeper into the hall before Ruadan, a thrill washed over me.
Now I belonged somewhere.
Ruadan rose as I crossed to him, and he drew his sword. Just before the dais, I knelt on the stone floor. This time, I didn’t mind kneeling.
As Ruadan tapped the sword on my shoulder, a crackling power imbued my muscles. At last, he commanded me to rise. I stood, looking into his violet eyes. I’m pretty sure I saw pride glinting there.
Then, he leaned down, whispering into my ear, “What are you, Arianna?”
I smiled at him, then turned to walk away.
Let’s see how well The Wraith liked the silent treatment.
Thank you for reading Court of Shadows. This book is part of the Demons of Fire and Night world. Caine and Bael appear in the Vampires’s Mage and Shadows and Flame series, and the Spy Among the Fallen series is also part of the same world.
If you want to grab a set of free stories in the Demons of Fire and Night World, click here.
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to my supportive family, and to Michael Omer for his fantastic feedback and help managing my many author crises. Thanks to Nick for his insight and help crafting the book.
Robin Marcus and Blair Schuyler are my fabulous editors. Thanks to my advanced reader team for their help, and to C.N. Crawford’s Coven on Facebook!
Court of Darkness: A Demons of Fire and Night Novel (Institute of the Shadow Fae Book 2) Page 20