by A. K. Koonce
Yes, all of the above.
Please get to the fucking point before this smile falls.
“In two days, I’m taking Minden.”
A garbled sound is my only reply as I choke on a bite of eggs with my plaster-face smile.
“Don’t choke with your mouth open, darling, it’s a sign of weakness.”
For a split second I close my mouth and wallow in the strangled sound before gasping, spewing chunks of food over the shining tabletop, and then dabbing my mouth sweetly at the corner.
“Excuse me.”
I meet her astounded gaze to find her lip curled back just slightly.
A muffled cough—or is that laughter?—comes from behind me, and I instantly know it’s Sinister.
“I was saying”—she pushes back her plate and smooths the front of her white gown—“I want your help. We can help one another. As long as we have trust.”
The faith she has shining in her gaze is locked on me.
“Do you trust me, Arlow?”
No. “Yes.”
“Unshakable trust. A partnership cannot work without unbreakable trust. Do we have that?”
Not at fucking all. “Completely.”
Another short pause of consideration passes between us. The dim lighting of the room doesn’t stop her from studying every lie I’m hiding beneath my smile.
“Good,” she whispers.
A pent-up breath slips from my lips, and she continues.
“I wondered if you’d choose your mate over me yesterday. I must admit it was a test of sorts, but devotion must be tested, don’t you agree?”
I’m not a psychopath.
Not at all in comparison.
“Of course.” I nod genuinely.
“I trust you, Arlow. I really do. And I want to remove the magic that’s binding you. I want you to practice as much as you possibly can in the next forty-eight hours. I’ll be saving my energy until then but I’d like to practice with you the way your own mother never did. Starting tonight.”
The passive-aggressive is really preening now.
I don’t immediately notice that I’ve been nodding my head illogically since she started talking about trust several minutes ago.
I stop abruptly.
“That sounds like a perfect plan.”
She’s full-on beaming but she has absolutely no idea what I have planned for her. I have to buy us time. I need backup. Quite honestly, I need my fucking mommy. And any other mage who’s willing to help me. So, I’ll stall for as long as I can.
Ellise picked the wrong mage.
I’m an incident waiting to happen.
The ancient stone of the castle floor trembles beneath our feet. Ellise’s eyes grow wide with an alert gaze that hasn’t stopped sweeping since we started this practice run over an hour ago. The magic in my fingertips builds like I haven’t felt since I stepped foot inside this kingdom. She unleashed me, and right about now I bet she’s wishing she hadn’t.
Then…a very pronounced bock calls through the room. Just one at first. A single rooster yelling out for help before thousands follow after it. The feathered creatures land on their feet but quickly fall over, scuttling around and finding their footing but ultimately stumbling onto their sides all over again in a mass destruction of chaotic rooster madness.
The entire room is a disarray of frantic clucking and ruffling feathers. Bird shit starts to litter the stone floor left and right, and I see the calm in Ellise just fucking combusting right before my eyes.
Her hand lifts, and she expels that magic she wanted to save so badly just to halt the bristling movements of the little clumsy creatures.
They’re basically my spirit animals.
“WHAT”—she takes a deep inhale and a slow exhale before lowering her voice—“what in all of Attika was that? I told you to ‘drop rocks’. An attack. It’s a very basic attack for any normal mortal soldier. Launch rocks at our enemy. I gave you the command to drop rock and I…I don’t even know what all of this is. Chickens? You gave me chickens?” She smooths her dress over and over again with a shaking hand.
I force myself not to smile even as a roar of laughter sounds through my bond from three shifters standing in the mess of farm animals. “Oh. You said drop rock.” I nod a silly little nod. “I thought you said floppy cock. The roosters, they’re not very coordinated. I tried to make them flip over this way and that for you. Floppy. Floppy cocks… Just a misunderstanding clearly. I mean, it could have been a lot worse really.” I pause as a disturbing image of other things flopping through the room flashes through my mind. “I’ll try again,” I whisper.
I lift my hand, but she leaps over a rooster to stop me. “No. That’s…that’s enough for today. We should have stopped after the mice packs you gave me when I asked for ice attacks. Honestly, you’re exhausting. I don’t know how you made it alive into adulthood, Arlow.”
I wish I could say she’s the first person to feel this way.
But I did do one thing right. I used up her magic, pissed her off, and…
“Let’s call it quits for today.”
I got her to give up.
“Okay,” I say in my most discouraged voice while inside I’m raising a glass to my shitty magic and my ability to fuck up the most simplest of things.
To the most painfully awkward mage in all the land. Hear, hear.
“Clean this stuff up.” She turns away, her shoulders slumped low, a frown pulling her thin lips down with every weaving step she takes through the crowd of cocks.
It isn’t until the door clicks closed that I smile.
And so do my men as they stride over to me.
“You were…awful. A beautiful fucking disaster from start to finish.” Rime’s hands clasp my hips, and he guides me back until he pins me to the wall, his tilted smile hovering over mine as his gaze eats up the happiness in my eyes. “Say floppy cocks one more time for us.”
Real laughter falls from my lips, the first genuine sound of happiness that I’ve had in weeks, and he kisses that sound away, pressing every inch of his body to mine like he physically needs me to complete him.
Bruising strength bites into my skin, his hold on me tightening the moment I stroke my tongue against his. He pulls back just enough to nip at my lower lip, taking a whimper from me before kissing me even harder.
“We’re surrounded by bird shit, and they’re one thrust of his hips away from fucking,” Sinister mumbles.
I barely hear it, but Rime clearly does.
“Watching my hips pretty closely, huh, Demon?” Rime’s smirking attention doesn’t leave me. If anything, his eyes light up with a sort of memory. “Which reminds me.” An inch of space settles between us, and I want nothing more than to get lost in his kiss again. But he’s apparently on to a more pressing topic. “I do remember what you told my dragon about a…certain blow job.” Rime’s tongue slides across his lower lip.
It takes me exactly half a second before I remember spilling my guts to his dragon about how quickly Rime forgot me. And how I’d whined just a little, the tiniest amount about Rime being able to steal Sin away with just one good blow job.
What, I was moping. A girl can have a pity party with her dragon-man-shifter without it coming back to bite it in the ass, can’t she?
I bite the inside of my cheek.
Nothing.
I got nothing to say to that.
“A blow job?” Sinister’s gaze searches mine.
No comment.
I’d like a change in conversation.
“I think we have other things we should be talking about,” I say with a touch of carelessness in my tone.
“We definitely have other things we should be talking about,” Kain adds.
“No, tell me more about this blow job.” Chaos comes closer until he’s leaning against the wall at my side, completely ready for a story time that we just clearly don’t have time for.
“We’re much too busy. Sorry.” I shake my head but don’t make a move
to slip out of Rime’s arms.
Rime’s grip on me shifts until his palms splay wide, holding me fully against him as he brushes his lips sweetly over mine. “I’ll keep your blow job meltdown between us.”
“What the fuck?” Chaos says on a disheartened whisper.
“But”—Rime kisses me slowly one more time before looking me fully in the eyes—“just know that none of us would ever forget you.” His temple rests to mine as my heart gives an uncontrollable flutter. “Not even for a thousand good blow jobs.”
“Aww.” It’s all I can say.
A thousand. I’m worth one thousand good blow jobs.
And Chaos only adds to the romance.
“I agree. No one will ever take your place. No matter how many times Kain offers, I keep telling him I just don’t see him that way.”
Kain slips his gaze toward his friend with a heavy glare that only Kain is capable of. His annoyance gives us all laughter like I haven’t heard in so long. My heart hurts from all the happiness we’ve missed out on in our lives.
The sounds of our amusement cuts away the moment feathers ruffling against rock flutters through the big room. I tense my fingers against Rime’s shoulders and look from one frozen-in-place rooster to the next. The uneasiness that the innocent noise brings me is unexplainable.
It’s something that doesn’t fit.
It doesn’t belong here in the stillness of the animals filling this room.
Too much magic is holding my creatures in place. And yet, a bird is moving somewhere.
Something isn’t right.
A caw shrieks. Wings flutter and soar. It darts right at me, and Rime pulls me away at the very last second.
We watch the bird as it glides through the room, circling us before drifting down, down, down.
And lands at my feet.
Silence drops once more, making my words carry through the dense quietness.
“It’s a spying sparrow.”
I bend, kneeling in front of the small endangered creature who I haven’t seen since I returned the one Linden loaned me. They’re mage’s companions.
And that gives me all the reason in the world to fear the inky little bird.
Is it Ellise’s?
Has she been spying on us? We’ve been careless in this kingdom. We’ve spoken too freely.
What does this sparrow know about us?
I extend my hand. My mates inch closer just as the two thin claws wrap around my index finger. His feathers are like silk, shining and flawless. The two beady eyes that look up at me shine just as much.
I’ve never used a spying sparrow. They nearly went extinct right along with mages decades ago. But I’ve been told, a single phrase holds their magic. They’re easy, helpful animals. If they trust you.
I say the words.
And pray like fuck that he trusts me.
“Show me,” I whisper softly.
Those ebony eyes turn gold, rippling with memories, unblinking and wide-eyed as the sparrow projects images just as I’d asked.
Her face is blurred and unrecognizable, someone the bird doesn’t know but is following nonetheless. It soars at the woman’s side, peering over at the stranger from time to time as she hikes through the snow. Another woman flashes in at the woman’s side. This one also blurred but moving just as quickly as the first. The two of them kick up white frost with every rushing step they take. The sun sets and blooms across the horizon all over again, lighting up the two women in blinding white sun.
Attikan sunlight.
It’s the last thing the sparrow shows me. That short, mysterious clip of two unknown women hiking through this kingdom.
The golden hue of the bird’s eyes fades out into a dimness, and just as I’m about to lower him, his eyes brighten once more. The ripple effect glows through his gaze. The projection starts. The five of us wait, my attention spiking so high I’m terrified to even blink in case I miss something.
Heavy snow falls into the bird’s-eye view.
And then the lined and worn features of my only friend cuts into sight like she’s speaking directly to me. “I’m coming, Low. The weather here is incredibly insulting. But tell that bitch queen of ours I’m coming.”
A smile pulls across my lips, and I feel revived. I’m breathing in the dry air of this closed-off castle with optimism.
Because I know now who the other two people were in the sparrow’s vision.
And they’re all headed here.
Fourteen
Don’t Disturb the Dead
When I slip my fingers around the cold metal handle of the dungeon door, a hand snatches my wrist. Rime and Chaos step right up to the demon currently manhandling me a bit too much for my shifters’ comfort.
The man’s crimson eyes look from the two shifters in front him, to Kain and then Sinister. He rounds back to Sin as if unsure he really saw another demon or not. And then finally comes to me. Slowly he releases me but doesn’t step away. A thick beard covers his face in a messy way, masking him from me for the most part.
But he doesn’t seem to be here to harm us.
“My queen instructed me to guide you to your rooms. She said the dungeon is no place for friends.”
Friends.
We’re friends now. Right.
But I need the three mages imprisoned down there so…
“Um, well, you see I left something of mine downstairs. I-I really quite like the dungeon. It’s become a home away from home if you will. I think…I think we’ll just stay there. It’s quaint. What’s another forty-eight-ish hours in a dungeon, right?” My rambling goes unnoticed.
The demon doesn’t even wait for me to finish before he shoves on by, ‘guiding me to my rooms’. I give quick glance over my shoulder to make sure he isn’t watching. Then I reach for the handle again.
It doesn’t turn. It catches on a lock.
I’m locked out of my own prison. Really?
Feels a little rude, but I guess now is not the time to comment on it.
My steps stumble against an uneven brick, and I race after the demon. I nearly run right into him when we reach the narrow stairs. From the corner of his fiery eyes, he looks back at me with an unimpressed glance I’ve seen a time or two in my life. It’s mostly quiet and I mostly stay off the heel of his shoes as we stride up to the second floor. He stops at a door right off the landing, heading down a small hall, and I’m thankful we’re not too terribly far away from the dungeon.
I never in my life thought I’d be so anxious to get back in a prison cell before.
He gestures sarcastically to the only door on this floor and then trails off like he’s too good to really serve me.
Which, I mean, he really is. I’m a nobody. I’m not even a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’m like one of those flopping cocks in sheep’s clothing.
But I am at least good at pretending. And it shows because I’m no longer a prisoner of the Kingdom of Attika. I’m the queen’s most trusted friend.
Which just goes to show what a completely shitty, shitty person she is to only have a traitor as a friend.
Kain turns the knob and walks into the room slowly. The white light of the moon casts the space in a pale vision of ancient lavishness. A crimson rug runs the length of the brick flooring. A big four poster bed is painted white, breaking up the bleak darkness of the stone walls with a small amount of flat color.
It’s…oddly nice.
Or maybe I’ve just been in a dungeon for a bit too long.
Probably that second one.
“I think we really should rest as much as we can.” Sinister drifts through the room, running his fingertips along the arch of the fireplace near the door. He studies it for a moment, and with a small tic of his fingers, a fire roars to life from the old logs in the center of it.
Heat crawls through the chilled room and lights up his boyish good looks with a golden hue. The way his inky hair nearly touches his lowered lashes, the set of his shoulders, even the casual way he stands there m
akes me realize he’s not my laid-back, carefree friend right now.
He’s worried. And tired.
We all are.
But I don’t have time to just sit back and rest. I want to be alone with them and just relax and remember why I love them tonight. I want to feel their bodies against mine and hear the whisper of all the words we haven’t been able to say to each other over the past few days.
But I can’t right now.
“I have to get to the dungeon. I have let those mages in on our plan.”
“What is our plan, Tamer?” There’s no aggression to Rime’s words. There rarely is any more, and it causes me to pause and dissect the hard set of his jaw, the tension in his posture, the pull of his strong arms folded across his chest.
There’s never a thought in my mind to wonder if Rime is mad at me. I just don’t believe he ever is. Even when he hated me at the start. I think life made Rime see the world in dark colors of hate and anger, but there’s so much more than just hate and anger inside him. And he shows that side of himself to me time and time again.
That’s why, when I look at him, I look beneath the constant aggression he always keeps on standby. I look into his frost-kissed eyes and see so much more than what he shows everyone else.
His gaze is gentle. Searching. His gaze skims over my features, and I know he wants nothing more than to wrap me up and take care of this issue in the quickest, most violent way.
And that’s not an option for us.
“The plan is to get enough magic here that we stand a fighting chance against the most powerful mage in the world. I’m not a match for Ellise. No matter how many floppy cocks I conjure, she probably has a bit more impressive magic than I do.”
“I don’t know, that was a lot of flopping…roosters.” Sin passes me a smirk.
Chaos mirrors the humor. Rime and Kain both seem…completely fucking disappointed in this conversation.
“I have to keep expelling her power. Mage magic can literally dry up temporarily if used in abundance. I’ll exhaust her little by little, and then when the time is right, we’ll strike.”