by Lexi C. Foss
“What is it?” I watch as he tucks one into his furs.
“Something that may be of use.”
“Okay.” I blink at him, then tense as I hear something deeper in the cavern.
With silent steps, I ease around the desk and into the narrow tunnel behind it. My usual slayer instincts kick in, but Darynder’s growing dismay is throwing me off. I want to speak to him, to drag him aside and say ‘time out’, but that’s not the way this works. If I hesitate, I could die. So I keep going until the tunnel widens again, and more of that enchanted green light glows from the walls.
“I wondered when you’d catch up with me.” A disembodied voice floats through the damp air.
I peer around the cavern, looking for my prey. “You left an easy trail for me.”
The vampire materializes in the center of the room, his black eyes piercing me. “I wasn’t speaking to you, changeling.” His eyes flick up to Darynder. “I was speaking to my brother.”
17
Darynder
Ilsa turns to me, her eyes wide with shock.
Varalan takes that moment to rush her, but she senses him and darts out of the way.
“Stop!” I thunder, my eyes on my brother and my sword drawn. “If you so much as scratch my mate, I’ll cleave you in two.”
He hesitates, his eyes almost glowing in the dim light. Changed. Ruined. He’s almost unrecognizable. I’d held out hope that he hadn’t embraced the seeker venom, hadn’t fully turned. But that hope is gone. He’s one of them. A creature that feeds off innocent blood. He’ll never be welcomed back to Cold Comfort or the High Mountain. An outcast, a ruined wreck of a monster, even in a world full of them.
“Varalan, I’ve come to talk with you. Brother to brother. Nothing more.”
He pauses, because underneath the darkness, he’s still my brother.
“I don’t care if you’re kissing cousins, he’s going down.” Ilsa points her sword at him as she circles. She doesn’t look at me, but I can feel her roiling emotions. Hurt, betrayal, anger.
“Ilsa, I’m sorry about—”
“Shut. Up.” She glares at me with a fire that could melt my immortal heart. “Don’t say another word.”
“Your mate?” Varalan whirls on her. “A changeling?”
“I’m not a changeling.”
“Look like one.” He sniffs. “Smell like one.”
“Don’t smell my mate.” I step closer, and it’s hard to look at him. His once-fair skin is now marked with dark veins, the seeker venom turning him into a ruined husk. The wings on his back are small, puny. He can’t truly fly, not with those.
I try to keep in mind that he’s blood. Even in this form, he’s part of me. “What happened to you?”
He turns back to me as Ilsa keeps circling, moving closer, her sword ready to strike.
“Please, beloved, I will explain.” I send the message down the bond, but only silence greets me.
“I became fully formed. That’s what happened.” He spreads his arms wide. “Faster, stronger, better.”
“Were you attacked?” I need to get to the heart of the matter, to find out how he was changed. It’s my mission, the one I’ve had from the start. King Leander sent me after my brother not only to find out if I can save him, but to find out if the seekers are a threat to the realm.
“Attacked?” He shakes his head. “I was freed. Awakened.” His lip turns up in a sneer. “No longer standing in your shadow. I don’t have to follow your lead anymore, big brother. You may bow and scrape to King Leander, but I’m beyond that now.”
“You think you can challenge the king?” I cock my head to the side.
He laughs, the sound ricocheting off the stone walls. “I don’t need to challenge anyone. Change is coming. The seekers are already rising in the night realm. They’re going to take over the day.”
“Seekers have no chance in daylight,” Ilsa says. “Just like you have no chance against me. You’ll go up in a puff of dust just like the others.”
“Wrong.” He spins to her. “All wrong. The seekers are growing in power. Soon enough, the day king will bow at our feet, and then we’ll take his golden head. The other realms will fall.”
“Varalan, just tell me what happened.”
“Why do you care?” Venom laces his tone. “You’ve been content your whole life to watch me struggle, to laugh as I failed to gain favor at court, to mock me for falling short of your fighting ability. But now I’m different.” He meets my gaze again. “Stronger. No longer your little brother. I’m your god.”
“Crazy talk if I’ve ever heard it.” Ilsa sighs. “Can we just get on with the fighting? I need to get back home.”
“Your home is with me.” I cut my gaze to her.
“No.” She grates out. “My home is with my slayers. My true home.”
Her words are a blow to our bond, fraying its edges.
“Ilsa, if you can just trust me for a little while longer, I’ll explain everything to—”
Varalan snorts. “A lover’s spat? How ridiculous. You two found your bond then came up the mountain to die? Seems almost romantic.”
“Tell me what happened to you, brother.”
He shrieks, rage instant and burning hot. “What happened? What happened to me?” He points a black claw at me. “I had a brother who cared more for the king and the Phalanx than me. I had a brother who went off to war and left me to fend for myself in Cold Comfort when I was still a newly-sired fae. I had a brother who was always disappointed, always dissatisfied, never had a kind word, and never gave much thought at all to me.”
I want to say his words are unfair … But I can’t. Because they aren’t. Everything he slings at me is true. I was busy with war and currying favor. Varalan never had a father, and our mother went to the Glowing Lands when he was born. I was the only ‘father’ he’d ever known, and I’d let him down. “I did all those things, but I did them for us. So our family name would be remembered, so we could take our place on the High Mountain—”
“You did it for you. Not me. Not for our name. Just your glory.”
His accusations sting all the more when they’re only half true. “It was for both of us. I thought if I could give us a chance, things would be different. We would be different. I’d finally have the chance to stay in Cold Comfort, the two of us working together for the king, for the realm. That’s all I wanted. But when I returned from my last mission for the king and found you gone, I told him I was going to search for you, no matter what.” Something trickles down the bond. Sorrow. Pity, maybe. I meet Ilsa’s gaze, and her eyes don’t give anything away. But I feel it, all the same.
“You were gone. I left Cold Comfort on the promise of a succubus, and then I woke to my new life. A better life. One without you.” He pulls two blades. “I don’t even need these to kill you, but I want to make it hurt, dear brother.”
“I didn’t come all this way to kill you, Varalan. I came to save you.”
“Save yourself. You never cared enough to save me. Not until now. At least your mission is almost done. You’ve found me.” He smiles, his fangs long and bone white. “Now you can get a taste of my power before you die.” He tosses a look at Ilsa. “Unless you’d like to go first, changeling.”
“Come at me, bro.” Ilsa motions him forward.
“No.” I move to the center of the cavern. “This is between brothers.”
“How gallant.” Varalan snickers. “Don’t try to run, little changeling. If I don’t get you, the wyverns will. Just wait your turn.” He leers at her, and my feral salivates to shred him.
“I came here to slay you, and I won’t leave till you’re dust. Play with your brother all you like.” She smirks and keeps her sword at the ready.
“To the death, dear brother.” He bows, then rushes me, his red eyes disappearing right as a burning pain slashes through my arm and cuts deep.
Varalan laughs, the cold sound of a killer, not the brother I left behind too many times.
; 18
Ilsa
Lied to me. Lied to me. Lied to me. Each beat of my heart brings that constant refrain. I gave my heart to a fae who’d been doing nothing but lying to me every moment since we met.
His brother!
I drop and roll out of the way as Varalan flies overhead from a stunning kick Darynder landed to his midsection. The vampire disappears, then reappears and swings his blade in a sneak attack. That’s two cuts, one on each of Darynder’s arms.
Darynder. No, that’s not the right name for him. Liar. Liar. Liar.
He was using me to find his brother. I’d told him when we met that I will always find my vamp, it’s in my blood. Instead of coming clean and telling me I was hunting his brother, he let me lead him here. To what? What’s his purpose? To save his brother?
One look at Varalan—evil oozing from his red eyes, black-veined skin, and long black claws—and I can say in my professional slayer opinion, the horses are out of the barn. Varalan is full vamp, and from what I’ve heard, he doesn’t want that to change. That means there’s only one thing to do.
Darynder groans as Varalan gets another slice in, cutting across the back of Darynder’s thigh.
“Cheap shots,” I call out. “You said you’re so much stronger now. But look at you, cheating with your disappearing act instead of facing your brother.” I make a pffft sound. “You’re still standing in his shadow. Doesn’t matter if you’re fae or seeker.”
“Ilsa.” Darynder’s voice carries a warning tone.
“You want me to best him with no weapons?”
“Weapons are fine. Just stop with the magic tricks. Beat him fae to fae.” I shrug. “You said you could.”
“You aren’t clever, changeling.”
“But I’m pretty.” I grin.
He smiles, and it’s just as ugly as his black heart. “I like that the Ancestors chose this mate for you, brother. She will vex you for the rest of your short life.”
I watch as he tosses his blades to the side. Tall, he’s almost as big as Darynder, but he doesn’t have the muscle. I can see the resemblance between them only faintly, and I know Varalan was a handsome fae before he was turned. No Darynder, but good-looking all the same.
“The succubi from the cursed hut,” I’m thinking out loud. “Did one of them lure you?”
“You found my pretties?” he asks. “Are they well?”
“Well enough for dead chicks, sure.” I shrug.
He hisses and advances on me.
“Here,” Darynder calls and drops his sword. “I’m the one who ended their torment. Your fight is with me.”
“It’s always been with you, brother, but I don’t fight fair.” Varalan disappears again, then reappears right behind me, his fangs pressing to my throat.
“Drop the weapon, changeling, or I’ll drain you and turn you.”
“Varalan!” Darynder rushes forward, fear ringing down the bond like a death knell.
“Drop it,” he hisses.
I let my sword fall. It clangs to the ground.
“You shouldn’t have dropped your weapon, Darynder. Foolish on your part.”
“You are without honor,” Darynder rebukes, his feral form threatening. His eyes flash feline.
I roll my eyes. “He’s a vamp. No honor. No emotions. Nothing except the desire to kill and feed. Why do you think there’s an entire sisterhood of slayers designed to—”
“Enough!” Varalan screeches in my ear. “I’ve won. Now I get to enjoy my spoils.”
“Varalan.” Darynder holds up a hand.
“You’re going to watch as I drain your mate and turn her. And then I’ll drain you and turn you, as well. I’ll be your sire, the one who holds your leash for once. And you will serve me.” He drags me backwards as Darynder follows.
“Don’t do this,” Darynder pleads, his face draining of all color. “I’m begging you.”
“You should listen to your mate.” He stops once he’s backed against the wall. “She’s right. Every word she said, spot on. I want to do this. I want to hurt her while you watch.”
I keep my eyes locked with Darynder’s, and unlike my usual style, I wait. I’ve been waiting ever since Varalan appeared behind me. I’m waiting still, waiting for Darynder to accept what has to be done.
“I wanted to save you.” Darynder’s eyes water, and part of my heart breaks. “I came here to save you, brother. I really did.”
“My bite will save you. You’ll see.” He rears back to strike my throat.
Darynder nods.
With a sudden movement, I stab Varalan, the blade I’ve been holding at my side cutting through his middle. Then I twist it and turn as he lets out a piercing scream. His red eyes open wide as I pull the blade free and swing it hard and true. His head falls to the ground. In a rush of ash, Varalan is gone, nothing but dusty evil on the stone floor.
19
Darynder
“Stop trying to talk to me.” Ilsa leans down and pets her unicorn, then changes her voice to something verging on babytalk. “You can talk to me though, Caridan. Tell me a story.”
Her unicorn shoots me a gloating glance and launches into a tale about an obsidian witch who once ruled a realm. We move slowly through the trees, our mounts still recovering from yesterday’s breakneck run down the mountain to avoid the wyvern fire and fangs.
Ilsa hasn’t spoken to me. She’s ignored every salvo, every whisper down the bond.
Losing Varalan is hard enough, but to lose my mate, too? I can’t let it happen. I’d failed my brother, but I won’t fail Ilsa.
She sits up and looks over at me with a heavy sigh. “You didn’t fail Varalan.”
I blink and stop both the unicorns. “You can hear my thoughts?”
“Not generally, but that one zinged down the bond like its ass was on fire.”
I frown.
“You didn’t fail him. He made a choice. It led him to this mountain and his death.” She shrugs. “He had beef with you. Okay, sure. But what little brother doesn’t have beef with the older one?”
I want to ask her what beef is, but I think I get the gist.
She growls in frustration. “I want to comfort you, okay? I really do. But I’m also so damn mad at you I can’t think straight! And then you look at me with those big eyes, and that hard body is right there, and I start to waver, but I can’t! You lied to me, Darynder. So many lies.”
“I needed you to find my brother. I don’t deny it.” I reach for her hand.
She lets me take it, and I count that as a victory. But she still gives me a nasty look from the corner of her eyes.
“Yes, I lied. I didn’t tell you we were on the same trail. But what would you’ve done?” I fold her hand between mine, warming her.
“I would’ve …” She bites the inside of her cheek.
“You would’ve left me behind at your first opportunity. Just disappeared into the snow so you could get your kill and move on.”
She doesn’t deny it.
“You’re my mate, my heart. I couldn’t let you go. He was my brother. I couldn’t let you slay him without giving him a chance. Do you see my dilemma?” I send a prayer to the Ancestors that she can look at it from my point of view, that she can give me a single scrap of understanding. “I apologize with everything I am for hurting you.”
“You lied to me.” Her lip starts to wobble, and I can’t bear the pain that ripples along our connection. “I’m over here giving you my heart, my body, my everything, and you weren’t even being honest with me. Do you have any idea how messed up that is? You kept saying all this stuff about claiming me and how important I am to you and on and on, but the whole time I was your patsy.” She gasps in a breath. “I was a trusting fool when it came to you.” Her eyes harden despite the wetness in them. “But never again.”
I jump down from my unicorn and then drop to my knee. “I promise you, right here, right now. Ilsa Domenico, I will never lie to you again. If I do, I swear to the magic it can take my life a
nd send me to the Glowing Lands.” The sizzle of magic is like a lightning strike, my word igniting a living oath between us.
She stares down at me, her eyes wide. “What the—”
I grip her waist and pull her down with me. “I mean every word.”
“I noticed.” She looks up at the cloudy sky. “The lightning was a pretty big hint. Why would you do that?” She shakes her head in wonder. “That’s nuts. You could die! I could be all ‘do these pants make my butt look big’ and if you say ‘no’ then bam, you’re a goner.”
“Would you like to release me from my vow?” I pull her closer, feeling her thawing as she looks up at me.
Her eyes narrow. “Not a chance.”
I laugh, my heart not yet mended, but certainly healing from the warmth of my mate.
She reaches up and touches my cheek. Her voice is softer than fresh snow when she says, “I really am sorry about your brother.”
I lean down and press my forehead to hers. “I know.”
“I had to,” she whispers. “Can you forgive me?”
“Can you forgive me?” I ask, my soul balancing on the edge of a knife as I wait for her answer.
Her brows knit together. “Wait. Are these forgivenesses co-dependent?”
“I forgive you fully and completely.” I kiss her forehead. “Given freely.”
“Oh.” Her eyes water, and she looks as if she might be surprised.
“Of course I forgive you.” I tilt her chin up. “I love you. Irrevocably. Nothing will ever change that.”
She takes a deep breath.
“Do you forgive me?”
Her eyes twinkle with tears and mischief. “Depends on how good the make-up sex is.”
Epilogue
Ilsa
“Stop fidgeting.” Darynder squeezes my hand. “You look radiant.”
“The fabric is itchy, my blade doesn’t go with the outfit, and I’m supposed to be on a seeker recon mission in the night realm. Oh, and I’m about to meet royalty. But sure, I guess I’ll just stop fidgeting,” I whisper-hiss.