Heir to the Throne (The Wardbreaker Book 4)

by Katerina Martinez

  “The crown is hers. It’s not yours or mine.”

  “You’ve used it at least once before. I know you have.”

  “How could you possibly know that?”

  “I felt it. We all did. Every mage for a hundred miles felt it.”

  “Are you sure?” I angled my head to the side. “Are you sure you didn’t just feel the crown coming into the world?”

  Asmodius stared into my eyes. Already I could feel psychic tendrils reaching for my mind, trying to burrow into my head through my irises. He was going to extract the information he wanted from me one way or another. I started to wriggle, trying desperately to knee him in the stomach, or the groin, but it was no use.

  Whoever had tied me down was a pro, and I wasn’t going anywhere.

  A sudden buildup of pressure pushed against the sides of my temples, and the Psionic recoiled, pushing the chair away from him and sending me crashing onto my back. I hit my head so hard stars exploded in front of my eyes, but I was alive, and my mind was still my own. He, on the other hand, had a look on his face as if I’d just killed his favorite crow.

  “Becket,” Asmodius snarled. He then placed one foot on the chair and used it to pull me back up to a seated position. The chair slammed into place, and I was staring at him again.

  The demon.

  Asmodius must’ve sensed it inside of me. I had to admit, everything I’d ever heard about demons—that they were selfish, evil parasites who enjoyed inflicting pain—was starting to fall apart. This demon had come in handy, stopping assholes from manipulating or reading my thoughts. If it kept it up, I’d have to give it a cookie or something.

  “Found something you didn’t like in there?” I asked.

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve allowed that Infernal to do to you?” he said. “Of course not, because you’re just a stupid little girl with no real knowledge of the way our world works. You have no respect for authority, for magic itself, or even for your own soul, do you?”

  “The first one, sure, but the rest? I think that’s probably taking it a little too far.”

  “I don’t think so.” He moved in a little closer. “You have placed your loyalty in a man who had no issue with cutting out a piece of his own soul and handing it to a parasite to feast off. What makes you think he won’t cut you out of his life the moment he feels like he’s done leeching off your unique talents?”

  “You’re right, it’s almost like putting my trust in someone who planned on stealing my talent by eating my heart.”

  “What makes you think that wasn’t also a part of his plan?”

  I paused, not able to formulate an answer quickly enough.

  “I thought so,” he said. “Now, are you going to tell me why I couldn’t make this thing work, or do we have to start getting creative?”

  “I told you, it beats the hell out of me. But if you’re gonna go around your house wearing it, trying to make it work, I might suggest you also put on a dress and heels.” I shrugged. “Maybe you need to really channel your inner Queen to make it work.”

  Asmodius frowned and delivered a back-handed strike across my right cheek. The impact stung, and sent a sharp stab of fresh, warm pain shooting into my jaw and neck. Already I could taste blood in my mouth, I could feel it pooling under my tongue.

  I turned my head up at him again, defiantly, and grinned. “Is that all you’ve got?” I asked, blood seeping between my teeth.

  Asmodius’ lip curled. “Sooner or later you’re going to give me what I want,” he said. “Everybody does.”

  “I think you’re a little too used to that.”

  “Perhaps I am, but right now, I’m the one in a position of power. I’m going to give you a little time to reconsider helping me. I can assure you, that will be a far more enjoyable position for you to be in than the one you’re in now.”

  I didn’t speak, deciding instead to let him have the last word. A moment later, he and his big friend decided to leave. The big man shut the door behind him, leaving me in darkness and alone with my thoughts and my demon; a far more frightening proposition now that I couldn’t see my own nose in front of my head.

  That thing Becket had told me about the way these creatures sapped a person’s energy was really starting to make sense. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hold onto consciousness for, or if I would even be able to do so at all.

  I took a deep breath, sighing. “Alright, guys,” I said, “I’m the one who needs saving, now. You’d better have a plan.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Can someone explain to me why we don’t have a plan yet?” Karim asked, a little panic in his voice.

  “Plan?” Danvers asked, “Why are you talking about a plan?”

  “Because her Royal highness, Queen Isabella of the Glittered Goddess, is missing, obviously.”

  “Could you calm down? RJ is out looking for her.”

  “What is she even doing out in the first place? It’s the middle of the bloody night.”

  Axel pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, and shut his eyes. He’d been trying to reach Izzy with magic, using the power of the Tempest to enhance the reach of his psychic antenna to try and find her signal across the dead of night. It hadn’t worked. Either she was out of his range, or someone was blocking him from reaching her.

  That second possibility scared him way more than the first.

  “Okay,” Axel said, shaking his head, “Who spoke to her last?”

  “I did,” Danvers said, “About two hours ago, before we turned in for bed. I didn’t think she was gonna get any sleep, not the way her brain was racing. We talked in her room for a while, and then I went to mine. I didn’t hear her door open again, and even if I had, it probably wouldn’t have set my Spidey senses off.”

  “Why not?”

  Danvers rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me say it? It’s weird enough the two of you are smashing as it is.”

  “There’s an elephant in the room I wouldn’t want to address if my life depended on it,” Karim said, “But getting back to the matter at hand. Danvers says she saw Izzy two hours ago. Assuming she didn’t immediately leave her room, she could be anywhere in the city by now. What I want to know is why did she leave? It’s not like her to go walkabouts all of a sudden, especially when you consider how absolutely unsafe we all are outside right now.”

  Axel sighed. “Unfortunately, it is like her to just get up and go. She’s done it twice before.”

  “Twice?”

  “Once the night she answered the Tempest’s call, and again the other night.”

  “Wait, what?” Danvers asked, “Where’d she go the other night?”

  “I don’t know where she was planning on going, but she did leave the house. I caught her standing out on the street. It was like she was sleepwalking.”

  “I’ve never known Izzy to be a sleepwalker.”

  “And why haven’t any of us been informed of this troubling development?” Karim interrupted.

  “Because she didn’t want to worry anyone,” Axel said, “She’s clearly not in the right frame of mind right now.”

  “Did she give you a reason why she suddenly wanted to venture into the great beyond?”

  “She thinks it has something to do with the Queen… she had the crown with her. It was all just… bizarre.”

  Danvers and Karim gave each other cocked eyebrows. “Let me get this straight,” Danvers said, placing a hand on her hip. “So, the other night, you caught Izzy sleepwalking out of the house, with the crown in her hand, saying it maybe had something to do with the crazy psycho Tempest Queen who wants to eat her soul or whatever, and both of you decided to keep quiet about that? Jesus, you guys really worked together on this screw up, didn’t you?”

  “You should have told us,” Karim said, “Maybe we could’ve prepared for something like this.”

  “It wasn’t up to me to tell you.”

  “Wasn’t it?” Danvers asked, “Izzy’s gone now, we hav
e no idea where she is, or who she’s with. Where’s the crown?”

  “With Becket, as far as I know. He hid it from her.”

  Danvers nodded. “That’s something, at least.”

  The front door to the house opened, and RJ came rushing inside. He took one look at the group assembled by the table they’d just reconstructed a few days ago, and shook his head. “Nothing,” he said.

  “Please, mister animal-man, be more specific,” Karim said.

  “I tracked her scent out of the house and up the street. Then things got weird. Scent went up into the air. It got pretty hard to track after that, but I traced the scent all the way out to Williamsburg, then I lost it.”

  “Williamsburg?” Axel asked, “There’s nothing relevant in Williamsburg.”

  “Maybe she just fancied a moonlit stroll,” Karim said, waving his arm, “It’s a nice night for it.”

  “Now isn’t the time to be cracking jokes,” RJ said, his tone a scolding one.

  “Fuck,” Danvers cursed, slamming her foot into the floor. “Where the hell did she go?”

  “We need to keep level heads,” RJ said, “Last thing we need to do right now is be freaking out. I know this is another situation to add to the list of messed up situations we’ve been in, but there has to be a reason for this. Anybody talked to Becket?”

  “He’s aware, and he’s working on it.”

  “And working on it means…?” Karim asked, trailing off.

  “I don’t know what it means. I also don’t know how long he’s going to take. What I do know is we can’t just sit around waiting for him to tell us what to do next. We need to do something.”

  “I agree,” Danvers said, “But what?”

  “RJ says he tracked her scent to Williamsburg… can you give all of us the ability trace scents?”

  RJ’s eyebrows went up. “I could… but you guys ain’t trackers. How do you think you’re gonna find her?”

  “Three inexperienced noses probably amount to one experienced one, no?” Karim asked.

  RJ shook his head. “It don’t work like that. You can’t just slap on a dog’s nose and get after it, man. Tracking takes patience and skill.”

  “So, then we’ll look for her the old-fashioned way,” Axel said, “There are four of us. We can all cover a lot of ground if we split up.”

  “Wait,” Karim put his hands up, “Split up? You mean, go and search for her alone, in the cold?”

  “That’s what split up means, genius,” Danvers said, rolling her eyes.

  Karim scowled. “You’ve had some terrible ideas before, but this one is by far some of your best work. You do know who’s still after us, right? Splitting up is a death sentence.”

  “So, then we’ve sentenced her to death!” Axel snapped, sending a chilling silence through the room. The rest of the group stared at him, but said nothing, leaving the echo of his voice lingering, stalking. “I know who’s out there. I don’t know for sure if anything’s happened to her, but if something has, and I’m sitting on my ass, I’m never going to forgive myself.”

  Danvers walked over to Axel, slowly, and placed a comforting hand on his arm. “I know how you feel,” she said, “I’m scared too… that’s why I’m with you. I think we should find her, no matter how dangerous it could be.”

  “You’re both insane,” Karim said, “I’m all for a little adventure, but this is crazy.”

  “So, when we find her,” Danvers said, “Do you want to tell her how you refused to mount a rescue, or should we?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m the one who asked why we didn’t have a plan, yet, remember? What I’m saying is that this is a bad plan. We’re Mages, for crying out loud, and the best solution you have is I guess we can look for her the old-fashioned way. No! We can find a better solution; we just need to think a little harder and not act impulsively.”

  “Karim is right,” Becket said, his voice immediately commanding the attention of the room. Axel turned to look at him, and as always, his gaze went to the Infernal’s red eyes. They were impossible to miss, especially in dim light. “We mustn’t act impulsively.”

  “Did you find anything?” Axel asked.

  “I have.” Becket paused, scanning the room before settling his stare on Axel. “She’s been captured by your father.”

  Axel’s stomach sank. “My… what? How?”

  “She left the safety of this house. Ordinarily, that alone probably wouldn’t have been enough to draw your father to her like a magnet, even if he’d been continuously searching for her magical signature… but she has the crown with her.”

  “Didn’t you hide that from her?” RJ asked.

  “I did. I don’t understand how she was able to retrieve it, least of all without my knowing, but the moment the crown left the protective bubble of this house, I suspect the information wouldn’t have been far from Asmodius’ senses. He ambushed her in a park.”

  “And where is she now?”

  “In a dark room with plain, concrete walls and a single door leading in and out. I wish I knew more, but my source can only give me so much information.”

  “Source?” Karim asked, “You have someone on the inside?”

  “Not someone. A demon. I need you to all not ask too many questions, but needless to say, she’s in danger, and we must act quickly. Asmodius hasn’t been able to use the crown, but it won’t be long before Izzy does use it, likely in an attempt to escape his grasp.”

  “Then we have to leave now,” Axel said, heading for the door.

  “Action should be taken, yes, but I have no way of knowing how secure this compound is or how much hostility we’ll be facing once we descend upon it. Asmodius likely already believes we’re preparing to mount a rescue, so his facility will be on high alert. If we want to get her out, we’ll need her help.”

  “How are we gonna do that?” RJ asked, “She’s under guard in a compound.”

  “I don’t yet know, but there’s another problem. As long as we are separated, I have no control over the beast. It will try to take her for itself. Time is of the essence here.”

  “We don’t even know where she is,” Danvers said.

  “No, but we know where to start looking,” RJ said. “Maybe you can’t all track her by scent, but if he jumped her in Williamsburg, it means he could be operating from somewhere nearby.”

  “Unless he used a portal to get the hell out of dodge.”

  Axel shook his head. “My father doesn’t use portals. Doesn’t trust them.”

  “I don’t blame him,” Becket said, “The mental acuity needed to successfully link two places in time and space is… not for the faint hearted or for the intellectually unimpressive. If we’re going to go and look for Izzy, then we need to move now. But we can’t do this alone. We will need help.”

  “Help?” Karim asked, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re kind of social pariahs in this city. Who’s going to help us?”

  “The Magistrate. Asmodius is a wanted criminal, and he’s taken one of the Magistrate’s Mages. It’s time they got involved in the hunt to bring him to justice.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The binds around my hands weren’t coming off. It was no use. Whoever tied me up had done a good enough job that all I’d succeeded in doing so far was making my wrists raw from all the wriggling. The chair itself was bolted to the ground, too, so I couldn’t tip it over. Needless to say, magic was out of the question; the anti-magic runes glowing all over the walls were making sure of that.

  “Save your strength,” Ifrit said, “You’ll need it when the time comes.”

  “And if it doesn’t?” I asked, “I can’t just sit here and wait. I’ve never been good at that.”

  “Weren’t you going to wait to be rescued?”

  Grunting, I tried moving my feet, but they didn’t budge. “That seemed like a good idea for about five minutes, but then I got bored.”

  “Asmodius isn’t a novice. He’s made sure you c
an’t get out of this room on your own.”

  “Maybe, but there has to be something he missed, or something one of his cronies missed. I think one of the rear bolts is a little loose.”

  “Izzy, stop.”

  I stared at the little flame sitting on my lap. “I can’t, okay? I don’t know how long I’ve been in here, but I’m already starting to feel… weird.”

  “The demon, yes. I know. It’s trying to find a vulnerability, too. A weakness it can exploit. I’m keeping it at bay, it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Whether you can handle it or not, it’s still a pretty solid argument for getting the hell back to Becket in a hurry. He’s the only one who can take this thing out of me, unless Asmodius happens to have an exorcist on hand.”

  “Somehow, I doubt that very much.”

  “Exactly.”

  I tried twisting again, groaning from the effort. I thought I could feel the rear bolt giving way, even if it was only a little bit. Then again, that could’ve just been my mind desperately trying to cling to the hopeless idea that I could get out of here on my own steam. Ifrit was right. Asmodius had locked this place up pretty damn well.

  He had me, and it was only a matter of time until—the door unlocked with a heavy clunk sound, sending my heart leaping into my throat. I settled back into the chair as the door opened slowly, letting a little light from the corridor beyond spill into the room. Asmodius and the man from before walked into the room—Asmodius holding the crown, his friend holding… a toolbox.

  “Come to do a little maintenance work?” I asked. “Good idea. I think the chair isn’t properly secured to the ground.”

  The thug with the big hands set the toolbox down on the floor and opened it. Inside, I saw several instruments, many of them rusty and old, some of them sharp. The door slowly swung just as Asmodius took his position in front of me. The room fell into darkness again, but only for a moment. With a click of his right thumb and forefinger, Asmodius brought a ball of red-violet light into his hand.

  The light shimmered off the crown in his other hand, the colors dancing on the smooth metal. “Well then,” he said, “I think I’ve given you enough time to reconsider your earlier decision, don’t you?”