I laughed. Serious, stomach-cramping, suffocating laughter. “What do you think, Xander? Should I take her threats to heart? The sun is about to set. Could she do it? Could she take my head off my shoulders before I take yours?”
“Anya, leave,” Xander said, no longer amused.
“B-but, Your Highness,” she stammered.
“Get out!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
I turned to see Anya drop her blade to her side, cowering as she backed from the room and out of sight.
“Sit,” Xander said.
“No.” I was damn tired of being told to sit.
“I said, sit.” Xander’s tone was not in the least bit playful as he directed his finger in a downward stabbing motion. I perched on the edge of a chair and leveled the tip of the sword blade until it hovered in line with the hollow of his throat.
“The last time Azriel tried to stage a coup against me, he came to me himself. He didn’t bother with any envoys or Lyhtan lackeys. He claimed he’d acquired a rare and valuable possession, and said once she came into her true power, he’d finally have my throne. Always one to brag, Azriel went on and on about how he’d stumbled across an anomaly. Apparently, you’d begun to shed your humanity before he’d met you, and he sensed that change, though you did not. A Shaede, created, it seemed, from her own will, or perhaps chosen by Fate for a far greater purpose. He told me he’d killed your abusive husband, thereby earning your undying loyalty and trust. No one would find you, he said. He’d taught you to hide, and he planned on keeping you tucked away until it was time for your existence to be known. My first thought was that he intended to use you as a weapon. I wasn’t willing to chance anything with him, and I refused to risk my kingdom. I had him taken into custody immediately, and I sent him as far away from me as possible.”
“How did it happen?” I asked, my voice quavering with emotion. “How could I possibly change myself?”
“I do not know,” Xander said. “I told you that it is possible to change a human when shadows dwell in her soul. I assume your soul was so shrouded in darkness that, unconsciously, you sought the change without even knowing what you were evolving into. Perhaps you were tied to us, through your bloodline somewhere. But of that, I have no knowledge.”
I shot from the chair and began to pace. I looked back in memory, to hazy remnants of a human life I had put behind me nearly a century ago, for an answer or at least a clue to confirm the truth of Xander’s words. Emotions that I’d locked away like old clothes in a trunk burst out to torment me. The anxiety, pain, and fear choked me with an intensity that ridiculed my usually defiant outlook.
“And what about me?” I said, turning my back to him. “You knew about me all along, and you just let me roam the city like a stray dog?”
Xander sat stoic and silent.
I whipped around to face him. “Answer me! Are you frightened of me? Is that why you exiled Azriel and abandoned me? Why hire me to kill him? Maybe you should have just killed me.”
“Honestly,” Xander sighed, “I don’t know how to kill you.”
I’d quit paying attention, and continued my rant. “Oh, Darian,” I said, mocking the eloquent bunch of lies he’d told. “If I’d only known about you. I would have fetched you away from your miserable existence years ago. You poor, stupid, pathetic creature. Let me take you under my wing. I want you so badly—Wait. What did you just say?”
Xander gave me a sad and wan smile. “I don’t know if you can be killed.”
I walked straight up to him and slapped him so hard across his face that my hand burned and stung. He took the blow and didn’t do anything to retaliate. “I suppose I deserved that.”
“What you deserve is a lot more than that,” I said.
“No more games, Darian. I’ll tell you everything I know,” he said, reaching out to take my hand.
I took a step back. No way was I going to let him try to soothe and seduce me with his gentle charm. I sat back down on the chair, sword in hand and ready to strike.
“When Azriel came to me, I didn’t believe him at first. It was unheard of, a human making the transformation on her own. But I sought you out shortly after and saw you with my own eyes and knew from that first moment that what Azriel said was true.
“You were a new and unique member of our kind, and your nature might have been as unpredictable as your evolution. He claimed that Fate had plans for you. He spoke of revenge and scores being settled. He’d lost his mind. Azriel had been convinced you were meant for something far beyond our scope of understanding. Something ancient and secret. Fear prompted me to sever his ties with you, and I made sure no one besides the two of us knew of your existence.”
“Raif?”
“Knew of you, but nothing more. I didn’t divulge the entire truth of it to him until recently.”
I could deal with the fact that Xander was scared of me. Right then, I was scared of myself. And Raif had been left as much in the dark as I. But more questions were being raised than answered, and my stomach convulsed as I fought another crippling wave of anxiety. “What about Azriel? Why do you really want him dead?”
“I think he’s discovered a truth I’d never bothered to find. I think he’s ambitious and mad for power. He’ll kill me if he gets the chance. Then what will become of my kingdom? My people? What power will the Lyhtans have over our kind if he’s allied with them? Innocents would be steeped in war and death. He’s calculating. Formidable. Azriel has been biding his time, and I think he’s spent his years in exile doing what I should have been doing for all those years.”
“I saw him two nights ago,” I said. “He came to my apartment.”
Xander nodded, momentarily lost in thought.
“Would you care to tell me what he’s been doing that you should have been?” I asked.
Xander sighed, and the phrase heavy hangs the head that wears the crown came into my head. He looked at me. “He’s been learning all about you.”
Something in that simple and yet unthinkable statement sent me into a rage the likes of which I had never felt. I stormed from Xander’s room, back down the stairs to the main floor, and past two Shaedes standing watch at the doorway. From there, I ran down into the bowels of the house, past Raif, who stood gaping, and into the council room. I stepped inside, coming to rest at the clawlike foot of the Lyhtan still secured to the chair, cackling wildly in the empty space. I grabbed it by its lanky hair that felt remarkably like corn silk, elastic and fragile but at the same time not. Fighting the urge to cringe, I jerked its head back so it would look me straight in the face, and I snarled the words, “Who is your master?”
The Lyhtan continued to laugh, the sound crawling up and down my spine like a thousand tiny insects. It spit and coughed, spewing a fowl-smelling gunk on my shirt. “I will walk proud in the light of day and laugh as we wipe your kind from the face of the earth!”
The time for talk had long passed, in my opinion. I felt the setting sun with a clarity that I had not recognized before. Every facet of my being tingled with the approach. Twilight was upon us, and, particularly, the gray hour that I longed for. I released the Lyhtan, who laughed hysterically again, drooling all over itself, rocking back and forth against its shackles. I pulled back and waited until I felt the sun pass below the horizon, as if I had plunged to the other side of the earth. With all my strength, I cut down with the blade. The Lyhtan’s laughter stopped. Its head rolled toward the door, where Raif stopped it with his foot.
“I take it we’re done with him?” he asked.
“Him?” I snorted. “How could you tell?”
Raif graced me with a humorless laugh. He rested an awkward hand on my shoulder. “What did he tell you?”
Of course, he meant his deceitful, high-handed brother. “Nothing worth a damn,” I said, leaving the Lyhtan’s body and the council room. “We’re in deep shit, Raif. This is bad.”
“Tell me,” he said, low and dangerous.
I didn’t have much to offer
, save a few threads of thought I could not weave together. I relayed everything I knew, starting with my supposed making and ending at Xander’s revelation that I was neither made nor born, but a creature of my own creation. Raif already knew almost everything else, and the things he did not know didn’t garner much surprise. He was a pragmatic man, a skilled warrior, and one of the few I counted as a friend. I didn’t leave out a single detail, and I spared no one’s feelings, least of all his in offering my opinion of his brother. The corners of Raif’s mouth twitched and he shook his head.
“It’s hard, Darian, to rule. Xander protects his people the best way he knows how. If he must lie and cover things up to do so, then so be it. I am sorry that much of it was at your expense, but you’ve got to accept these things, get over them, and focus.”
“On what?” I asked.
Raif’s eyes glowed with bloodlust. “Battle.”
Chapter 24
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“No, you won’t,” I said into my cell.
“Bullshit. You’re going to need me. I’m coming.”
I wondered what it would take to keep him at my apartment. I couldn’t focus on protecting my own neck if I was too worried about protecting his. I was officially in deep shit, and there was no way in hell I would risk Tyler’s safety. If anything happened to him—especially in the course of protecting me—I’d never forgive myself. Eternally gallant described Tyler to a tee. I didn’t want to do it, but perhaps another wish was in order. “Tyler, please . . . do as I ask.”
“Dar—” He started to argue back, but the next thing I heard turned my warm blood to ice. A scuffle, shouting, and several loud crashes. I held the air in my lungs and didn’t dare breathe as I listened to sounds of Tyler’s assault, followed by a furious roar that could only have come from an animal. Raif peeked around the corner from the next room and froze, watching with suspicion. I returned his regard with my own expression of urgency, and he left his comrade in midconversation. He stood at my shoulder—and waited.
I heard the sickly rasping of breath before it actually spoke. The same wave of terror raced down my spine. The war had begun.
“We have your pet, Shaede,” the voice said. “If you want him back . . . unsullied, you must turn yourself over to my master.”
“How do I know you won’t kill him anyway?”
The creature laughed—a sound I had come to hate—and said, “How, indeed?”
“Tell Azriel and your Enphigmalé I’m not afraid of them,” I said with as much defiance as I could spare. I’d almost reached my quota for one night, and I needed to save a little for later.
Again the creature laughed. I’d begun to think it was the only sound their race could make. “You’ll come, Shaede. Because if you don’t, the Jinn will die.”
Could I wish Tyler out of this very dangerous situation? It might work. He was my genie. If I made a wish, he had to grant it. Right?
“Well,” I said aloud, as if I were actually contemplating letting them have Ty, “I’m not sure that’s a fair trade. A magic-wish granter in exchange for a girl? Seems like you’re getting the shitty end of that deal.”
More laughter. The first thing I planned to do when I got my hands on this particular Lyhtan was rip out its vocal cords. I’d see if it found that funny.
“Come and trade yourself for him, or he dies.”
I sighed. “Do you know what I wish—?”
“Don’t say it,” the Lyhtan hissed. “Make a single wish, and we tear the Jinn’s throat open.”
They wanted me. Period. And to get me, they’d taken the only thing on this planet I cared about. Shit, how could I have been so stupid? I should have handcuffed Tyler to me, begged him to come with me, rather than wish him confined to my apartment for the day. I couldn’t lose him. I refused to let him die in my place. Azriel was a shrewd sonofabitch. Leave it him to know my Achilles’ heel: affection.
“Fine.” The word sounded as final as death. I put my finger to my lips as Raif opened his mouth to protest. “Where and when?”
“Dawn. At the domed fountain.”
The domed fountain. I knew of only one in the city that matched the description. “I’ll be there,” I said, and the call disconnected.
“Where are you going?” Raif demanded.
“The Seattle Center. They want to make a trade.”
Raif glared and shook his head as if he felt sorry for my simple stupidity. “The Jinn for you—am I right?”
I nodded. Tyler’s smile, his homey smell, the warmth that blossomed within me every time I saw him . . . The growing lump in my throat would undoubtedly betray my bravado if I spoke.
“They’ll more than likely kill him anyway. You know that, don’t you?” Raif was as cool and detached as anyone could get. I envied him that.
Laughter bubbled up from my chest. I thought of the insectlike creature holding Tyler’s phone up to its . . . ear hole? I couldn’t help myself. The sound sputtered from my closed lips and quickly turned into an all-out guffaw. Raif looked at me like I’d finally lost my mind, and for a moment I would have agreed with him. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I continued to laugh. My stomach ached from it. But slowly the laughter transformed into something altogether more hard and angry. It ended in a slow, building scream that sent my mentor back a pace or two.
“Out!” Raif commanded, and every soul in the room vacated the main floor in a dusting of shadow, the compression of which nearly forced the air from my chest.
I doubled over, drawing as much oxygen into my lungs as I could. Shaking with rage and fear, I stayed bent over for a long time, unable to meet Raif’s gaze. A quiet moment passed, and I focused on the sound of my breathing until Xander came rushing down the stairs.
He was geared up for a fight. His mode of dress wasn’t unlike Raif’s, though it lacked the elfin flair. With a sword on one hip and a dagger at the other, he reminded me of a medieval knight, complete with chain mail. Xander’s was a little more modern—shiny and somehow glittering in the faint artificial light. His boots looked like military issue to me. I wondered if a Shaede among us ever considered using a gun, but I assumed a bullet to the chest would not be nearly as effective as a clean cut through the spine.
“What’s going on here?” he asked his brother.
“I think she’s finally cracked,” Raif said.
I would have laughed again, but I was afraid of another hysterical fit, so I kept my amusement to myself. I straightened and stared Xander down. “None of your business—that’s what’s going on.”
“She’s agreed to give herself up in exchange for the Jinn,” Raif said. “The Lyhtans have taken him.”
“Don’t be a fool, Darian.” Xander said, as if I weren’t allowed to do anything of the sort. “Raif will send a party to retrieve your pet. There’s no reason for you to stick your neck out for him.”
“I’m going, Xander,” I said. “They’re going to kill him.”
“No,” Xander said. “You’re not going after him by yourself.”
“But, Xander,” I crooned, my voice dripping with honey, “don’t you want me to do my job? Don’t you want Azriel to shut up once and for all? It would be a win-win for you if I go, wouldn’t it?”
“Darian.” Raif laid a hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged him away. “We need to strategize, collect ourselves. Forming a plan will serve Tyler better than charging off like this.”
“We don’t have time, Raif.” I tried to keep my voice level, controlled. But it quavered with anger and fear. “They’ll kill him. He’s bound to me, and it will be my fault if he dies. Mine!”
Xander brought his fist down on an end table near the foot of the stairs. The wood splintered and cracked, sending a vase of flowers spilling into the foyer. “This is ridiculous!” he bellowed. “You. Can. Not. Go! That is an order from your king.”
“You are not my king!” I walked right up to him, my head held high. “And I am not yours to command.”
&n
bsp; “Darian—” Raif tried to interject, but I ignored him, my anger focused solely on Xander.
“I’m going to go get Tyler. Then I’m going to find Azriel, and I’m going to kill the fucker. And after that . . . you can go to hell.”
Raif’s fingers grazed my shoulder as he tried to stop me, but he was too late. I had already passed into shadow.
The beveled-dome fountain at the Seattle Center looked different in the dark. A bit surreal and almost magical, it appeared to hover over the pavers. Round lights ringed the dome, illuminating it from beneath, making it look like a flying saucer. Water sprayed in a tall plume from the top of the dome, while smaller jets fanned out from the base. The Space Needle loomed in the background like a sentinel watching over the city. I wondered if it watched over me.
Staying in the shadows, I crept along the buildings, making sure to blend in with the scenery. I felt the energy of unrest all around me, my assassin’s senses alert and tuned in to the faintest sound or movement. Azriel had taught me to be stealthy, but Raif had taught me to be deadly, and I didn’t plan on going down without a fight.
The area usually swarming with people resembled a ghost town this early in the morning. Even the usual scattering of the homeless had taken their leave and found another place to haunt. The Seattle Center Monorail sat dead on its track as it waited to take the normal rush of tourists and travelers to their destinations. I missed the whooshing sound of its motion among too much silence. A strange and unwelcome stillness settled over me, and the peace did little to encourage my hopes that this would all end well. I tasted danger, smelled it as it raced to me on the blossoming wind, and felt it all the way to my bone marrow.
As the sky began to lighten, I left the cover of shadow and paced around the fountain, edging the wet pavers heel to toe, heel to toe, keeping my path confined to the dry area that marked the boundary of the water jets’ reach. Stealth would do me little good once the sun rose. The Lyhtans wouldn’t come until the sun peeked over the eastern horizon, thereby securing a weakened Shaede. Keeping myself hidden would only help so much, and if it came to a fight—which it assuredly would—I needed to be in an open enough area to properly defend myself. Sybil’s rhyme looped in my mind as my hand relaxed and clenched around the hilt of my dagger. Her words taunted me with newfound meaning and renewed confusion. Once alienated from the world, I’d been gathered into the folds of my own kind, only to be cast out and marked as something else.
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