They reached the ballroom without incident, Oren being his usual charming self, keeping the conversation going smoothly.
Had she gotten it wrong? Was it just a coincidence that his dagger was marked with symbols similar to the Iron Brotherhood? Perhaps it only an old family heirloom?
“I’ll be right back,” her sister promised as their parents led her away to meet someone.
“You do look amazing,” Oren said, escorting her past the numerous Fae who turned to stare.
“I see your ability to lie hasn’t improved since we last saw each other in Vegas.” Elena scanned the room for her grandmother.
Oren laughed. “Honestly, I don’t think you’ve ever looked more stunning. But after what you’ve been through, no one would have faulted you for not making an appearance.”
“Which is exactly why I need to be here.” It was the one answer that he would expect from her, whether he was part of the Iron Brotherhood or not.
“I don’t see your grandmother, “ he said.
Or Rutger. For all Elena knew, her grandmother roamed amongst the Fae in the gargoyle’s form, delighting in fooling everyone.
Rutger sure as hell would have enjoyed that kind of deception.
Her brain still struggled to equate the two beings as one, but it would certainly explain a hell of a lot, even as it led to a thousand questions.
The kind of questions that both Rutger and Titania were pros at deflecting when it suited them.
The brand on her chest heated her skin, and she fought the urge to glance down and bring attention to it. The silver gown left the Fae glyph on full display as well, and more than a few murmurs about it had swept through the room.
“One dance?” Oren asked. “And then I’ll leave you to it.”
She studied his face. If she’d gotten it wrong and Oren wasn’t involved, she’d made a mistake letting her father lock Vaughn up, even if it was only temporary. “Of course.”
Oren drew her closer.
“Just promise you’ll catch me if I faint,” she teased.
“Not sure how your wolf would feel about that.”
“Still jealous of the gargoyle? He’s secured in the dungeon.”
Oren nodded. “I suspected as much.” He led them around the dance floor with ease, and there wasn’t an immortal in the immediate vicinity who dared take their eyes off her.
She spotted Emma next to her parents, tucked in close to a group of Fae. Too close.
She turned her head to follow the group as Oren kept them moving.
“Nothing needs to happen to them,” Oren said quietly against her ear. “Keep dancing,” he purred, his face as casually elegant as ever despite his tightening grip on her.
Big mistake asshole.
Someone handed him something, and a pulse of awareness shot through her.
“Open it, Elena.” He thrust the box at her.
A charge of magic punched into her bloodstream.
Finally, the voice in her head whispered.
“Open it and no one has to die.”
Her fingers moved to comply before she caught herself.
“Do it, Elena. Do it or not only does Vaughn’s sister die, but your sister as well, along with your parents. I have men everywhere and they have the means to end their very existence.”
Where the hell was Titania?
“Your grandmother can’t save you,” Oren said, guessing what she was thinking. “Everything is already in motion. Has been since the moment the gargoyle triggered the brand on your chest.”
She shook her head.
“The Iron Queen will rise. She’ll take back the Fae kingdom that she was always meant to rule.”
Elena’s fingers trembled on the box, the Fae magic within reaching for her.
A man stood behind Emma, a blade at his side.
“It’s enchanted iron and I promise you that she’s not strong enough to survive it. I don’t even think you are.”
She felt the press of a blade against her side. No doubt the one she’d seen on him earlier.
“You want Titania dead.” This wasn’t just about resurrecting a dead queen. “Why not use your enchanted daggers on Titania yourself or don’t you have the balls?”
A cold smile touched his lips. “I’m afraid I’m not powerful enough to make it a killing blow.”
But Elena, under the Iron Queen’s influence, would be.
“Now, Elena.”
Even if she fought this, if she refused and put her family at risk, someone else would put the crown on before this was over. Oren would make sure of it. He might even risk putting it on himself.
He was crazy enough, the disturbed light in his eyes making that painfully obvious. How had she missed seeing that in him before?
Any Fae who put on that crown risked absolute corruption and eventual death, and there was no telling how many would die before that happened.
Maybe everyone in the room.
Once glance at the twisted smile on Oren’s face confirmed he was counting on that.
But he wasn’t counting on her being able to harness the magic.
She opened the box. Ancient magic rolled across her feverish skin, drawing her own to the surface. Power skated along her nerve endings, the sensation intoxicating.
She could do this. She could save them all.
Movement and shouting erupted from somewhere behind her, but she didn’t take her eyes off the plain iron crown with three prongs studded with dark stones.
“Ivy!”
She heard Vaughn’s voice, but she was already reaching into the box. It would make her strong enough.
A growl ripped the air.
Her hand closed over the cool metal at the same moment the wolf’s jaws closed over her arm.
Lightning burst across the night sky.
All around Elena a battle raged, bodies colliding in torchlight, shadows lunging and twisting across the landscape. Cries rent the air. Screams of pain, of heartbreaking loss, of utter defeat.
A wolf snarled, and she followed the sound, finding the familiar beast amidst the slaughter that would ultimately destroy every soul on the battlefield.
“Vaughn!”
“You don’t need him,” a voice said from behind her.
Elena whirled to face the Iron Queen.
“You don’t need any of them. You must know that.”
Magic coursed through Elena, the waves of it steady on the surface. Below that, they raged.
“You’ve always been stronger on your own.”
Yes, she had. Hadn’t she?
“Even when you played your games, you did it on your own,” the Fae continued.
The wolf snarled, and Elena turned to see him tearing through the masses to get to her. And he would reach her. He wouldn’t stop fighting to get to her, not even if it meant crossing a hundred battlefields to do it.
She knew that. Just as she knew she would do the same to get to him.
The Fae magic wrenched at her hard but she didn’t take her eyes off the landscape.
Why the battlefield? Why had the Iron Queen kept bringing her to this place? From the beginning she’d boasted that she needed no one, that she could save everyone.
So why the army? If she could save them all, why would she have sacrificed her people?
Because the magic had corrupted her?
“You told no one of your games, Elena, because they didn’t need to know. Because they need you more than you will ever need them.”
No….yes?
“They tell you only what they must to keep you close. You own mother left you and then pretended to be someone else. And she wasn’t the first, was she?”
“Elena!”
She could hear how close Vaughn was, but she couldn’t look away from the Iron Queen.
“My sister deceived you, too. Because they know if they tell you the truth, you won’t be there when they need you. My sister knows how powerful you are. She kept the truth about who she really was because she fear
s you.”
No. Her grandmother didn’t fear her. Did she?
Fae magic licked at her, making it hard to think clearly.
Yes, her mother and grandmother had lied, about quite a few things. But so had Elena. What if they’d done it for the same reason she’d lied to Emma and her parents? To protect them?
Even though Titania had hidden her true identity, she’d kept Elena close. Rutger had always treated her like family.
She glanced back at the battlefield again, the scene pulling at her. The first time she’d been here it had been after the battle, the sheer devastation crushing.
And now the battle raged anew. She stumbled forward, scanning the faces.
“What are you looking for?” The queen asked, sounding nervous.
There, in the heart of the battle, a lone figure fought with the speed and strength of ten warriors, her lethal form slicing through the enemy.
But there were so many. Too many.
“It wasn’t enough, was it?” She glanced over her shoulder. “Magic doesn’t make a hero. You always believed that. Until it wasn’t enough.”
She and her people had lost the battle, and it pushed her to embrace magic in all its forms. So no one would have to sacrifice their lives again. And it had destroyed her.
The sadness in the other woman’s eyes faded, power simmering in the swirling red depths. “Take my hand.” She held it out, waiting.
“Elena don’t!” Covered in dirt and blood Vaughn reached for her.
And hit an invisible barrier.
“Elena!” Snarling, he lunged for the Iron Queen and hit the same wall. He struck his hands unable to reach either of them. “Come on, Ivy. Don’t do this.”
“Take my hand,” the Fae pressed. “I can give you everything.”
“I believe you.” She reached for the Iron Queen’s hand. “But I’m not doing this alone anymore.” She thrust a hand toward Vaughn, and the moment he clamped down, she grabbed the Fae’s wrist. “Neither of us is doing this alone anymore.”
Magic exploded inside Elena, and right before everything vanished, she thought she saw the Iron Queen smile.
Elena landed on her knees in the same grassy meadow as before.
Her world tilted for a few seconds, and then she jerked her head up. Vaughn?” She rocketed to her feet. “Vaughn!”
“You will see him soon enough.”
“Where is he?” This time when she faced the Iron Queen, magic rolled up from the balls of Elena’s feet, more intense than ever before.
“Magic doesn’t make a hero, remember?” Where the hardened warrior once stood with red eyes roiling with power, Elena found a woman dressed in a simple green gown.
No suffocating waves of magic or darkness. Only warmth and light. But still very much a warrior, judging by the sword strapped to the Fae’s back.
Elena’s hand itched for a weapon of her own. “What’s happening?”
“You made your choice.”
“Was this all…a test?”
The Fae shrugged. “Perhaps it was for both of us.”
“And if we hadn’t passed?”
A coy smile curved her lips. “There are some things we are better off not contemplating.” She turned and walked away.
Wait a second. “So what now?”
“Now I sleep.” She turned, walking backward. “But I’m there if you ever need me.”
Elena glanced down. The Fae glyph had been replaced by a much smaller version, but instead of a blue gem at the heart of the curling ivy, a gray one winked in the sunlight as if real.
“Tell my sister I’ll be waiting for her.”
“Wait!” She had more questions. There was so much she still didn’t understand. “Stay.”
She shook her head. “Keeping up with you is exhausting, fledgling. I’m going to…what do they say now? Crash?” She grinned and vanished.
***
“Elena!”
His mate didn’t move, her chest barely rising.
Vaughn dropped to his knees and hauled her into his arms.
The wolf snarled as if he was still on the battlefield fighting to reach her. His chest burned from the sword tip that sliced him from shoulder to midsection, but there was no wound. There wasn’t a mark on him despite the blood and dirt he’d clawed through to get to his mate.
Instead he’d woken to the sounds of shouting as Nessa and Mac and some of the Fae contained the Iron Brotherhood forces.
Elena had been next to him and lying so still…
“Come on, Ivy. I know you hate missing out on a party.” He brushed the hair back from her cheek.
Gods, he couldn’t lose her. He never should have let it get to this point, never should have fought his instincts.
She was his. He should have protected her from the start, not sacrificed her. He might as well have put that crown on her head himself. Every step he’d taken had led her here, and there hadn’t been time to tell her how sorry he was for that. How sorry he was for turning his back on their bond for so long.
He’d spend an eternity making up for that, starting as soon as she opened those stunning eyes of hers and threatened to blast him across the room if he didn’t stop squeezing her so hard.
Someone yelled behind him, and he turned, finding the source. One of the Brotherhood was on his knees, Nessa’s sword at his throat.
“Who invited the huntress?” Someone whispered close to him.
Movement from the corner of his eye spurred Vaughn into action.
But he wasn’t fast enough to prevent the Fae bastard from snatching the crown off of Elena’s head and bolting.
Son of a bitch.
“Go.” Titania crouched next to him. “I’ll stay with her.”
“This is your fault. If she doesn’t wake up—”
She cut him off. “Now, Vaughn! There isn’t time.”
He let the wolf loose, the need for blood and vengeance pulsing through every cell in his body until he knew nothing but the scent of his enemy.
Nessa followed on his heels, another wolf close behind her. Mac.
Steps echoed in the distance. He tore down one corridor after another, the halls and doorways becoming a maze. He skidded to a stop where the hallway separated.
He took the left one, leaving the right to Mac and Nessa. Either direction could lead nowhere, merely part of an elaborate glamour manufactured by the Fae with the crown. He didn’t let that stop him.
In less than a minute he caught up with the bastard.
Vaughn launched himself forward, knocking into the Fae and sending them both crashing the floor.
His claws dug into the stone as he fought to get back on his feet. The Fae he recognized from Mac’s party rolled to his back as Vaughn gave up trying to hold back the wolf that wanted to sink its jaws into the Fae’s throat.
A guttural roar echoed from somewhere deep in the castle.
The sound leached the color from the Fae’s face. He fumbled, hands smacking the floor in an attempt to get out from beneath the wolf. When that didn’t work, he delivered a sharp jab, but it still wasn’t enough to shake Vaughn off.
The floor vibrated with the weight of something heavy running toward them.
The Fae slid a hand between their bodies, sinking a blade into the wolf’s side.
Snarling through the pain, he refused to let go. The Fae drew back his arm to deliver another blow. He froze as a giant burst through the doorway ahead, barreling straight toward them.
What the fuck?
They scrambled apart, the Fae diving for the crown he’d dropped, the wolf facing the giant, hackles raised.
“No more,” the Fae said, plunking the crown on his head.
Both wolf and Giant collectively tensed, bracing themselves.
Nothing happened.
“Performance anxiety, Oren?”
Elena?
She walked toward the Fae, her hand stroking the wolf’s flank as she paused next to him. “Someone should have told you that I bled th
at sucker dry.”
He yanked the crown off his head, staring at it.
“You could have just used it yourself from the start and avoided a lot of headaches. Of course,” she continued, “the Iron Queen would have eaten you up.”
“You couldn’t have… She should have taken control,” he stammered.
“We came to an agreement,” she said, sounding a little bored.
“You’re lying. Where is she?”
Elena cocked her head, the gesture eerily similar to the Fae who’d tried corrupting his mate on the battlefield.
“Oh she’s still here. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to meet her, though.”
The Fae snarled and dove for Elena.
The giant was faster than Vaughn and snatched the Fae off the floor, using the blade Oren had dropped and burying the dagger in the Fae’s side.
Oren twitched as the giant released him.
“No!” As fast as he embraced his animal half, Vaughn shifted to human, grabbing the Fae and lifting him off the floor. “Where the fuck is my sister?”
“No…idea,” the Fae slurred, his eyes going dull. His body went slack.
The giant took Oren’s body from him, tucking it under his arm like a prize.
“Elden?” Titania pushed her way to the giant’s side. “You’re alive?”
The giant nodded.
“I’ve seen you before,” Elena said. “In Vegas. We had a little run-in.”
The scrape on Elena’s face from the night of Mac’s party had come from him. The wolf pressed against Vaughn’s mind, liking the giant even less.
“Elden was my sister’s friend.”
The giant bobbed his head. He pointed at Elena. “She wouldn’t listen. Needed my protection.”
“You were there to protect me?” Elena didn’t even try to mask her skepticism.
Titania reached for the giant’s hand. “Who told you to do that?”
“Lacie.”
“My sister,” Titania said, her eyes misting over. She turned then, noticed the new Fae glyph on Elena’s chest. She raised her hand, then paused, waiting.
Elena nodded for her to continue.
The Fae queen ran her fingers gently across the mark.
“She says she’s waiting for you.”
Primal Bounty_Pendragon Gargoyles Page 31