by Eve A Hunt
Lucus’s weight on me sent my mind whirling. Every inch of him eased against me, and my back arched like my body didn’t need my mind to be functioning properly. With deft fingers, he slid my wide-necked shirt from my shoulder and kissed his way across my collarbone, sending heat snaking toward my thighs.
He sat up, then lifted my skirt and began shuffling my undies down my legs, letting his fingertips drag down the backs of my thighs, knees, calves. He lifted my foot and kissed the arch, the heat of his mouth dusting along my heel and ankle. In a quick movement, he pulled me close, then knelt between my legs. Bending low, a wicked gleam in his eye, he took energy from my aura as his mouth hovered just above my inner thigh. His horns caught the firelight, and his lure intensified, heating me up and sending crashing waves of tingling want through me.
“Lucus. Please.”
“Slowly, my queen. We have two hours, certainly. We must remind ourselves why we fight. To revel in life, to delight in its pleasures, to live like every day is our last.”
I tried to argue, but then his mouth was on me, and my concerns scattered like startled birds. His tongue flicked along me, teasing, barely touching. Desire thrashed inside me, and I gripped Lucus’s head, feeling the pointed tips of his ears. His lure made my lips tingle along with the rest of me, and I tried to beg. I wanted the fullness of him, and I wanted it now.
“Lucus.”
His tongue was both torture and bliss as the heat of it smoothed across me. He inhaled over my navel, pulling in my aura, and I felt my palms wake with magic to draw fae power from him. In the glittering ribbons of emerald fae magic and the dancing flames of the hearth, Lucus’s hands smoothed across my breasts, and his thumbs circled my nipples before traveling slowly, slowly across my ribs until he was holding me close with his chest pressed firmly against mine. With a quick thrust of his hips, he filled me.
Pleasure rocketed down my body, and I shouted, unable to hold back because it felt so damn good.
“Enjoying yourself, you murdering bastard?” someone whispered from the door.
Lucus was up, trousers zipped and standing between whomever it was and me before I could even register what was going on. “You are early.”
Getting to my feet, I tugged my clothes into place and turned to see the Mage Duke.
26 Coren
The Mage Duke swaggered forward, magic crackling over his entire freaking torso. I couldn’t breathe. He glanced toward the bed.
The Yew Bow.
With a grin, he snatched the weapon and examined it. “Well, well. You grow too comfortable here in my castle, Yew Queen.”
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
“Your magic is the murderer these days.” Lucus’s voice was a sword drawn from a sheath. Bright fae magic curled around his fingers, and the trees in his room shook their leaves, roots slithering toward the Duke’s tall leather boots.
The Duke stepped forward, eyes widening, showing the white all around his irises. “That is your fault! There is no innocent blood on my hands.”
“Bullshit,” I said. “If you’d never cast the curse, then the humans here would never have suffered.”
“Semantics.” The Mage Duke raised the Yew Bow, lifted his knee, and broke the weapon in two.
I rushed the asshole, magic clouding around me as I rose above his head. Lightning shot from my palms and enveloped him. He shouted, and his face contorted in pain as Lucus’s vines shot from the walls and the trees woke to smash the Duke to the floor. The broken Yew Bow on either side of him, he shut his eyes and whispered. Lightning and thunder blasted Lucus and me backward. Before I hit the stone floor beside the rug, tree roots cradled me and lowered me safely. I scrambled up to see Lucus wave an arm and a tree bash the Duke into the wall. The Duke laughed like a fucking maniac, then lightning washed through the room and flames erupted from Lucus’s wings.
Lucus shouted and pressed himself to the tree behind him, which swallowed him for a blink before releasing him, blessedly no longer on fire.
The Duke leapt to meet his ancient enemy. I charged after him, but when I grabbed the Duke’s arm to blaze him with magic, the flash of steel stopped me. The Duke had a dagger pressed against Lucus’s throat, the tip piercing the flesh and a line of blood running quickly down his chest. Lucus’s skin went dark around the wound, his fae reaction to iron. His breaths came too quickly, his throat bobbing against the steel’s fierce edge as his eyes met mine. Pain glazed their green depths, and I could feel his lure surging, then fading as he tried to affect the Duke.
The Duke smiled at me over his shoulder even as he pushed the dagger further into Lucus’s throat. His ribs moved under his modern shirt like he was panting from either the lure or the fighting. I shuddered at the similarity between his features and Aunt Viv’s. I couldn’t believe this man was my ancestor.
“Don’t worry, Yew Queen,” the Duke spat. “I won’t kill your murderous lover now. I want his pain to last longer than a moment. I want his pain to last forever.”
Unshed tears burned my eyes, and my fingernails bit into my sweating palms. “So what’s your plan?” My words came out in a croak.
The Mage Duke held on to Lucus and led me out of the bedroom and into the corridor. “I will see if your fellow townsfolk can please me enough to spare them.”
“I thought you cared about sparing innocents.”
“They are innocent no longer. Don’t think I am unaware of what you have been plotting here within the walls of my own home, inside my own casting chamber.”
“We only wanted to kill off the demon you and I created.” I jogged to keep up with him. I couldn’t keep my eyes off Lucus’s pained face.
Lucus tried to speak, but the Duke cut him off with a press of the blade.
“Keep fighting, fae. I welcome it.”
We ended up at the door of the casting chamber, and Hekla and Kaippa appeared at the end of the corridor. Kaippa hissed, fangs glistening in the light of the sconces, and Hekla started toward us. The Duke turned to show them the blood dripping from Lucus’s neck and down his bare torso.
Hekla stopped. “It’s not nightfall.”
“So someone is paying attention to the curse’s demands and the new moon. You see, I believe I have time to reap pain from this waste of life before the curse that is now the demon comes for what is left of his soul.”
On shaking legs, I trailed the Duke into the casting chamber. The candelabras flamed to life at the Duke’s presence, and the runes on the floor flashed with power. He was truly the lord of this manor. And I didn’t love how that put our odds against him or his dragon. Hekla clasped my hand, coming up beside me, Kaippa just behind.
“Where is your Bow?” Kaippa whispered.
“He snapped it in two.” I couldn’t quite keep my despair from weighing down my tone.
The Mage Duke eyed me. “Take the spell book and place it in the cabinet.”
I followed his orders, the snakes twisting under my touch before I tucked the book beside the sage and shut the wooden doors.
Sitting on the spell book’s table like it was a throne, the Duke held Lucus on the ground at his feet, both of them facing us. The knife ate into Lucus’s neck, and he sucked a slow breath. His skin had gone gray from the wound all the way down to his chest.
“You see the poison traveling toward his heart, don’t you?” the Duke asked. “The iron will slow his heart soon, and he’ll be much easier for me to handle then. I could use a rest after all. I’ve lived far longer than any mage…” He flicked the dagger’s edge with what looked like a practiced hand, and the wound widened. Blood poured from the gash in a river of ruby red.
My legs gave out, and Kaippa caught me. “Stay strong, Yew Queen,” he whispered as Hekla looked up at him, obviously confused at his encouragement.
The Mage Duke grinned. A jagged line of lightning arced from his hand into Lucus’s shoulder. Lucus shook hard, and his eyes closed. The emerald light he’d had at his fingertips faded, and his lure dissipated completel
y.
“What can we do?” I pushed away from Kaippa and stood on my own. My blood shushed through my veins, fast then slow then fast again. The room tilted, but I held myself upright. “How can we get you to keep him alive?”
“That is an impossibility. But if you’d like me to end him before the demon steals his soul and damns him to eternal suffering, I might be talked into that. Only if you can prove yourselves worthy.”
As if we could believe anything the Duke said. He’d just said he wanted Lucus to suffer for eternity. But I wanted him talking anyway because it gave me time to think and would possibly enlighten us. “The demon is only after Lucus’s soul?” I asked.
“I’d wager the beast is hungry for as many souls as he can harvest,” the Duke said, “but it will most likely search for those who twisted the curse.”
“So I’m doomed too,” I said.
“In your place, I would bid my farewells.”
A chill lanced through me, but I kept my gaze firmly on the Duke.
Hekla coughed, then gulped like she was about to be sick. “How do we prove ourselves worthy?”
We were about to bargain just to have the chance to kill Lucus in a less horrible way. My stomach turned, and I fought the urge to be sick.
“Wait.” Kaippa stepped past Hekla and crossed his arms. “Why would we do anything for you?”
“I could be persuaded to spare the rest of you from the demon’s wrath,” the Duke said.
Kaippa snorted. “We don’t even know if you can control that demon dragon out there. Prove that to us first, then we’ll talk about what we can do for you.”
The Mage Duke’s mouth twitched, and his fingers moved on Lucus’s shoulder. Kaippa swore and tugged at his finger. He was trying to take the insignia ring off because the thing had gone bright red like the gold had been held over fire. The foul stench of burning skin rose as he cursed the Mage Duke and writhed against the wall, still pulling at his ring.
“Stop!” Hekla ran at the Duke, but I grabbed her arm and kept her back.
She ripped away from my grasp, and my nails cut into her skin. Ignoring the blood welling on her arm, she grabbed Kaippa’s knife from his belt and held the vampire’s wrist to the wall. He seemed too shocked to move. Glancing at him, Hekla slammed the big blade down, and Kaippa’s finger—and his ring—fell to the floor.
The Mage Duke was laughing his horrible ass off. He sniffed the air. “If I’m not mistaken, the girl is a shifter, and she is now bleeding as well.”
Kaippa had gone very still. He was either processing pain in a very weird way, or he was trying really hard not to eat Hekla. She backed away and dropped his knife.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to stop him from controlling or hurting you.”
“Thank you,” Kaippa whispered, his eyes half-lidded. “I wasn’t prepared to scent your blood, but it’ll be fine. Just go back to Coren, all right?”
Hekla returned to my side, and I gripped the shit out of her cold hand. I had zero clue what to do now, but I knew I needed my friend.
“You okay?” I asked, staring at the Mage Duke. Thoroughly in panic mode, I had the stupid idea that if I held eye contact, he wouldn’t kill Lucus. I shook off the insanity and made myself check Hekla for injuries.
“It’s just my arm. I’m fine.”
Kaippa’s ragged breaths were the only sound in the chamber. “Now that we’re done with that fun interlude, can we get back to my point?” Though he spoke to the Duke, Kaippa kept glancing at Hekla, a hungry look in his dark eyes. “Show us you can control the demon, and we’ll consider working toward a way to please you, my lord.” He did his little full-body smirk bow, and I gritted my teeth.
“Fine.” The Duke sheathed his knife. He shut his eyes and began whispering spells, only part of which I could hear.
“Born of my light
Shattered,
Broken,
Tortured.
Come, come to me,
Demon of the dark.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Hekla asked.
“Not even a little bit.” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Lucus, who collapsed, inert, at the Duke’s feet. Please don’t leave, Lucus. Please don’t leave.
27 Coren
Leaving the castle’s dark interior, the Duke used the lift spell to float Lucus alongside him into the courtyard. My army was outside shouting to get in and calling out questions. They knew something was up.
On a billowing cloud of sparkling amethyst magic, the Duke rose to the ramparts of the castle. He kept Lucus hovering by his side, several feet away. My love was unconscious, eyes closed and face slack. It killed me. He didn’t deserve any of this. He’d been through so much grief and suffered for over five hundred years for his crime, a crime he didn’t intend to commit. My eyes began to water, and I rubbed them fiercely. I would not let that asshole Duke see me cry.
I lifted myself in a cloud of power so that I was level with the Duke and could see the crowd. Titus and a few others started forward like they were going to attack, but I held up a hand to keep them back. They couldn’t hurt the Duke unless they managed a lucky shot, and I didn’t think any of them even had firearms.
As the Duke raised his arms, spells pouring from his mouth, the ground trembled. “Commoners!” he said, addressing my people. “I am the master of the demon. I have suffered for centuries the heartbreak of losing the dearest soul to my heart. This beast,” he looked at Lucus, “slayed my innocent daughter.” He waved a hand, and an illusion of a stubbled wheat field shimmered to life in the air above him. “She was my light. My joy.”
The image of Lucilla, the red-haired girl Lucus had accidentally killed so long ago, appeared in the illusion, but she was far younger than she had been in the memory Lucus had shown me. This was a memory of her childhood, as seen by her father. A laugh stretched her cheeks and brought a rosy color to her skin. The Duke choked on a sob, then broke the illusion apart with a crash of thunder and lightning that reached from the sky to the ground right in front of Ami’s feet. She jumped back, thankfully okay for now.
The Duke glanced at the sky, and it began to pour rain. “I will spare your settlement only if you give me tribute.”
“What do you want?” Titus called out, rainwater plastering his hair to his skull.
Children cried out, but no one ran. A fire stirred in my heart. If I hadn’t known what I knew, would I have stayed and shown this level of courage, or would I have run?
The Duke’s illusion blasted into view again, this time cloaked in streaks of darkness like spilled black paint. Lucilla’s young, rosy face decayed in a flash of amethyst light, and she was a laughing skeleton with only the remnants of flesh hanging from her bones. Lucilla had died long after the age she appeared to be in this horrible scene, so this wasn’t a memory, but a representation of his grief.
I wanted to explain that Lucilla had spoken to me during my first casting and that she had forgiven Lucus. I recalled her soft, strong voice and the way sadness had pulled at her lovely eyes. But the Duke wouldn’t listen to me. I knew that. He’d never believe Lucilla forgave Lucus because he himself couldn’t. Even mentioning the fact that his daughter—yet another of my distant ancestors—had spoken to me might set him off and have him kill Lucus and the rest of us right now.
Between the sound of crashing thunder and the rain hammering the street and the castle walls, the Duke railed and sobbed. His lift spell faded, and Lucus dropped to the ramparts. The Duke bent double, his cloud of magic drifting away and his feet settling onto the ramparts’ wet stone several feet from where Lucus lay. Rain washed the blood from Lucus’s wound. How was he still alive?
I looked down into the castle’s courtyard to see Hekla hugging herself in the pouring rain and Kaippa beside her, unmoving, eyes coal black.
With the Duke losing it, I dared to land beside Lucus on the castle walls. I stepped slowly closer, watching to see if the Duke would notice me, but he kept raging and talking to himself and
screaming at the sky as his illusion played repeatedly like a sick, recurring dream.
I touched Lucus’s bare shoulder. His wet skin was ice cold. “Lucus. Can you hear me?”
His eyes opened a crack, and his sad smile smashed my heart. “My queen. Am I dead?”
“Not yet. Listen, what can we offer the Mage Duke that might make him happy and less inclined to kill everyone in town with that damn demon dragon?”
Head dropping to the side, Lucus lost consciousness again.
I placed my hand against his face. “Feed from my aura. Please, Lucus. I need you to fight to stay alive.”
His head shifted in the blood-tinged puddle surrounding him, and he raised his nose. He was sensing my energy. I knew the mannerism from our time alone.
“Yes. Take it. Take it all, love.”
Chest shaking like he couldn’t quite feed properly, he inhaled. The blood stopped flowing from his wound as his body healed itself partially. The gash remained open, though, and the rest of him didn’t seem able to move.
“Lucus. Keep feeding. Stay with me.”
He breathed again, and color returned to his face, skin going from gray to the olive tone it normally was. “Coren.”
The sound of my name on his now pink lips wrenched a grateful sob from my throat. “What can we offer the Mage Duke to please him? To keep him from killing everyone?”
The urge to rush the Duke gnashed its teeth inside me, but he was too much of a wild card. He knew so much damned magic and controlled the demon—or so he claimed. He’d kill me and possibly everyone else if I tried it.
Lucus coughed, and the Duke’s head turned. “Flowers,” Lucus whispered.
“What?” I must have heard him wrong.
The Duke’s wild eyes locked on mine. Rain slicked down his hair and over the grimace pulling at his lips.
“Flowers. Lucilla loved flowers.”
“Get back!” The Duke stormed at me and lifted his palms. Light crackled across his palms, and the shiver of knowing I was about to be slammed with power rattled my spine.