On a Black Horse: An Apocalyptic Paranormal Romance (Revelations Book 3)

by Monica Corwin

  Gwyn answered, “It sounds when royalty is present. Since I’m already here, I don’t know who that could be for.” He skirted the coffee table while avoiding Victor and Bianca’s feet and headed to a set of ivory double doors at the other end of the room. Before he reached them, a small man entered and whispered to him. Gwyn jerked back and then turned toward the collective. “Katherine, it seems you have a visitor. The All Father is here to see you.”

  Katherine’s gut twisted. She’d never even met the man, and how did he know she was even here? She took a long inhale and let it out slowly before extracting her fingers from Arwan’s and standing. “Lead the way,” Gwyn held his arm out for her to take but before she did she turned toward the others. “Do not hurt him. If someone does, they will answer to me.”

  Gwyn led her from the room and she decided it was a day for firsts. She’d never threatened her friends before, either. Outside the occasional scolding for a stolen cup of coffee or scone from the shop. Gwyn opened the door to an elaborate throne room. It confused her because Gwyn was the least King-like King she’d ever met…not that she met many. Odin stood in the middle of the room, his back to them, his hands clasped behind him. Gwyn cleared his throat and Katherine waited, unsure of protocol. Especially for Gwyn, but he marched up to Odin who turned when they were within a few steps. He reached out his hand and Gwyn shook it, to Katherine he clasped her wrist and gently kissed her knuckles. His hands were ice cold but she logged it away, waiting instead to learn what he wanted. The timing of it prickled under her skin. In as little as twenty-four hours she’d shown a stranger her other nature and then Odin comes calling? But she couldn’t entertain the idea that Arwan betrayed her. Besides, when could he?

  “To what do we owe the pleasure?” Gwyn asked Odin, pulling her from her cascade of crazy.

  Katherine catalogued the lines of him. He stood tall, long limbed but muscled, built very much like Tyr and Baldir but he had a black patch over one eye and his blonde mohawk braided from the top of his head down the back before tied in a messy bun above his suit collar. The suit he wore was expensive. Katherine viewed men in suits all day at the coffee shop. She’d become adept at picking out the expensive ones from the off-the-rack styles.

  Odin’s clear cool voice cut through Katherine’s study. “I came to see this charming young lady, of course.”

  Unease filtered through his words. She could only ask, “Why?”

  The corner of his mouth quirked up and Katherine noticed a scar there she hadn’t during her first pass of him. “You Horseman are always so forward. My daughter-in-law is much the same.”

  Katherine stifled a laugh. Of the four of them, Scarlet was the most brash and Katherine the least. “What can I help you with, then?”

  “I have a proposition for you.” He looked back to Gwyn as if just remembering he was still there. “You can go, Fairy, I won’t harm her.”

  Gwyn gave him a short bow and left the room. Katherine didn’t have much love for Gwyn, but she would have preferred he stay.

  “What kind of proposal?” she ventured, trying not to appear nervous or scared, even though her insides began twisting in knots from the second she walked in the room. She didn’t have much intuition, but what she did screamed at her. But she couldn’t take the risk of offending him.

  “I have recently been informed of some interesting news. I’d like to offer you a job.”

  Katherine hugged herself. “I have a job.”

  “Slinging coffee for humans. That is not the kind of job for one such as you.” He reached out as if he might caress her face. No, pet her face.

  She reared back. “Even without the coffee business, I still have my Horseman duties to attend to.”

  “I was under the impression you vacated that position. That you all did.”

  “It’s sort of a lifetime appointment, no matter where you live.”

  He turned again to look out the balcony and she was relieved to be out from under the gaze of his piercing yellow eye. It locked onto her and saw through her. It was almost like looking at Hades but in reverse. Everything about Odin made you want to run away from him.

  “Well, regardless of that, I’d still like to make a request. I want you to guard my palace.

  Katherine snorted. “With what? My espresso slinging skills.” But she knew he wanted the Sphinx. How could he know? Asking was out of the question or would end all plausible deniability.

  He rounded on her and entered her personal space so far she had to lean back to avoid pressing noses with him. “Don’t toy with me, little girl. I know what you are.”

  She swallowed as he moved back a pace. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  From her first change, she feared this moment. Anyone who learned about her wanted to use her for their own gain. If he knew, it meant others knew, and soon she’d be attacked on every front to take her alive and position her as some guard.

  “I know the story, Katherine. You were to be punished. The Horseman of Famine taking advantage of the world, using it as a toy, and then you were cursed to become what you are now. Any excess on your part can trigger a change. I want you to be as you were made to be. Stay in your other form and help keep my people safe.”

  She bit her cheek, trying to suppress the memories that shamed her a thousand years later. “I can’t do it. Not right now.”

  He looked her up and down. “Tell me what you want. What could I give you that will sway you to my side?”

  A favor from the All Father wasn’t to be treated lightly. She could probably ask for anything on Earth, and it would be granted to her. For a moment she considered Arwan. What if she could make him human, properly human? Then discarded the notion. If he became human, he would have a human’s life span, and there was no telling how long she would live. Even though they were new to each other, she wanted time to find out what they could be together.

  “I’m sorry. But there is nothing I want.”

  He pursed his lips and stared at her, clearly displeased for having been denied. In a flash, he pulled a long black feather from inside his suit jacket and handed it to her. “Should you change your mind, use this to contact me. My raven will deliver any message you have.”

  Katherine swallowed and reached out for the feather. As soon as she took it, he disappeared in a blink of light. Her hands shook holding the feather, a priceless offer from a King.

  She turned around and headed back the way she’d come, and easily navigated back to the others. They all eyed the feather as she resumed her seat next to Arwan.

  Silence stretched heavily until Bianca finally asked what everyone wanted to. “What the hell did he want?”

  Chapter 18

  From the moment he decided to make Katherine his, fear had become a constant companion. Not for himself, but for her. Odin could only want one thing from her, and it terrified him because Odin was not the kind of God who took no for a final answer. He’d do anything in his power to take Katherine if need be, and Arwan wasn’t powerful enough stand up to All Father.

  Katherine’s hand shook softly in his but it was her only outward sign of her fear. He clasped it between both of his hands so none of the others spotted it. Although Gwyn watched him with narrowed eyes through the entire exchange.

  “Odin wants me to guard him or his home, or something. I said no. He doesn’t want anything to do with me, only that other part.”

  It saddened him that she couldn’t see that side of herself as strong and beautiful. He wished she could live in peace with all her parts. The fact that she’d hidden it for so long would be a hard habit to break but Arwan promised himself he would help in any way he could.

  She lay the feather on the white coffee table and it created an eerie image before them. They sat in silence staring at its black blue sheen in the sunlight coming in from the balcony. Arwan hadn’t had time to process the balcony, or the waterfall, and the definitely non-New York features outside the window. And he wouldn’t get to as Scarlet burst into the r
oom throwing the doors wide. She wore a black t-shirt, black pants, and shoes. Her long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Tyr steamed in behind her. “Hel is here.”

  They all jumped up. “What?”

  Gwyn slammed a fist on the table silencing them all. “Everyone, be quiet. I’ll send her away.”

  “No need,” came a voice on a wave of bitter cold. Arwan inched in front of Katherine to stare at his old mistress. Death had not been kind. Half of her face was the same hollowed out evil he remembered but the other side had taken on a deathly mask. Her skin flat, colorless, and hung on her skull like too big clothing.

  “Don’t I make a pretty picture?” she said, spinning before them.

  Bianca hopped over the back of the couch and went for her, only to have her fingers pass through thin air.

  “Do you think I’d be stupid enough to come to Fairy alone, in person. Give me more credit than that.”

  Bianca didn’t move out from in front of the specter. “Are you dead or not?”

  “Decidedly not, but not entirely whole either…yet. I knew the Skin of Healing would come in handy one day. And be careful, I have more tricks up my sleeves.”

  Bianca turned toward the group. “How many magical artifacts can one person have?”

  Hel chuckled and reached toward Bianca who skittered back. They weren’t sure what she was capable of in normal form, let alone this ghostly visage. Arwan reached back to hold Katherine’s hand. She grounded and comforted him in a way he never knew he needed. But the movement caught her vision. “Ah Arwan, how I’ve missed my hounds. Come here.”

  Arwan felt the jerk of the command in his belly button and his feet begin to move forward of their own volition. Katherine held on, and Cloris stepped in front of him. He could see Hel’s eyes, or rather eye and an empty eye socket, over Cloris’ shoulder.

  “State your business Hel, or leave.”

  She met Cloris’s gaze and Arwan sagged back into Katherine, released from whatever hold Hel had over him. “I want my hounds back.”

  Bianca smiled. “Unfortunately, most that were left have been dispatched.”

  Hel eyed Arwan. “I want my sword back.”

  Bianca put her hands on her hips. “Also not going to happen. You were defeated in battle and as far as the sword is concerned it will only answer to me now.”

  Hel surged forward almost shouting now. “I want my home back.”

  Hades fielded that demand, stepping up in line with Cloris and Bianca. “It was never your home, Hel, it was mine, and now, it is governed by Persephone.

  She growled low in her throat. “That hippie will never be able to rule as I did.”

  Hades nodded. “Indeed, and everyone prefers it that way.”

  Hel’s image flickered before them and she gave them one last growl and a whisper of “sweet dreams” before disappearing.

  Arwan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he held for so long. “What was that all about?”

  Katherine hugged him from behind but no one answered. Hel was a master of manipulation. This game wasn’t over.

  Everyone else began to take seats again while Scarlet and Tyr stood behind Bianca and Victor. Tyr broke the silence. “What was my father doing here?”

  Katherine let out a long sigh. “Asking me to guard something.”

  His brow furrowed and he eyed her but left it. The tension in the room had grown heavy again as they all stood around staring at each other until Arwan couldn’t endure anymore. “If one of you has a problem, we might as well get it all out now. I’m not going anywhere.”

  He met each of their eyes decidedly. If there was a single doubt in any of them he wanted it gone. He would only leave Katherine’s side if she herself sent him away.

  “What are your intentions?” Tyr asked loudly.

  Arwan glanced at Katherine to find a red flush crawling up her neck. He answered as honestly as he could. “I have no intentions. Katherine and I have not had the chance to discuss any details. We are taking it one day at a time, and I’ll remain with her until she tells me otherwise.” She met his eyes and gave him a tiny shake of the head. He took it as she wouldn’t ask him. He lifted her hand and kissed the back softly.

  Gywn spoke up next. “There is the little issue of Hel’s ability to order you around.”

  His heart sank. If Hel could order him it put everyone, including Katherine, in danger. Katherine clutched his hand tight. “Then we will both leave until we can figure out what needs to be done with Hel.”

  Bianca shook her head. “No, I won’t see you on the run again. I just got you home, I want you to stay.”

  It was the nicest thing Arwan had witnessed her say so far.

  Katherine shook her head. “I can’t allow my decisions to put you all in danger.”

  Gwyn stood now and walked toward the balcony. “I might have a solution but I’ll need a day or two to prepare.”

  “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  Gwyn pinned Katherine with an equally serious look. “It will involve both of you.”

  Bianca rose and wrapped her arms around Gwyn’s torso, well as much as she was able since she was considerably smaller than the man. “For now, you all can stay for dinner.”

  Arwan glanced at the lengthened shadows around the room, and then at his watch. Somehow in what felt like two hours the time had stretched the entire day. “Fairy time runs differently when its feels like it.” Gwyn offered, with a shrug.

  They all rose and Gwyn took Bianca and Victor’s hands as he passed through the doors Scarlet threw open. Arwan hung back, stalling Katherine until everyone left the room. “Are you okay?” He clasped her face in his hands and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “I can go if you want me to.”

  She wound her arms around his back. “If you tell me you’re leaving one more time, I might sic Bianca on you.”

  “Message received. I suppose we should go eat. I’m starving.”

  She nodded. “The faster we eat, the faster we can go to bed.”

  “I think I’m corrupting you,” Arwan whispered before kissing her once more. He fell into that kiss, tasting her, teasing her, until someone shouted into the open doorway. “Get a room.”

  They jerked apart and Katherine blushed red. A color he was beginning to enjoy seeing on her. He might have to make it his mission to elicit that sort of response every time they made love. He could think of quite a few things she wouldn’t have done before that would make her blush.

  Entwining their fingers, he led her out into the hall where the butler motioned them toward the dining room. Arwan jerked to a halt in the doorway. Everyone was dressed for a formal dinner. He looked down to find himself outfitted in a black tux and Katherine in a purple shimmering ball gown. Her hair piled high on her head in an artful array. Sparkles glinted in the candle light above her eyes. “Wow, you look beautiful.”

  She ducked her head. “You do, too.”

  He led her around the table to the two empty seats across from Tyr and Scarlet. With a flourish, he pulled out her chair and helped her sit before taking his own. “Is this how you guys always eat?’ he asked, addressing Gwyn.

  “Depends on Fairy’s mood. We go with it. Don’t worry, you’ll return to your normal self when you leave again.”

  Food floated around the room and invisible hands served them random helpings of strange foods. Lobster, steak, tacos, beans. An interesting mix, but delicious nonetheless. Arwan dug in but attempted to keep the front of his tuxedo clean. He’d never actually worn one before so the technique for keeping the white perfectly white was never shared with him. The color usually resulted in a mess of tea, coffee, ink, and dust by the end of the day. Black hid everything.

  Once he’d eaten his fill he sat back in the chair and glanced over at Katherine who watched some fairy folk dance in a daze.

  “Shall we,” he asked. Her eyes popped open as she spotted his hand. “Oh no, I don’t dance.”

  He rose to his feet and pulled out her chair. “Every
one dances.”

  She allowed him to lead her on the floor but kept glancing around nervously. With a smile he lifted her chin so she could meet his eyes. “This is easy. All you have to do is surrender to me and let me lead you.”

  “What is it with you and surrender?” she asked, with a mischievous grin.

  He waited for the next beat, and spun her into a dance with ease. They fell in perfectly and the smile growing on Katherine’s face with each step made the trials of the day so worth it. When the last crescendo sounded and music stopped they halted, a little dazed, slightly out of breath, staring into each other’s eyes. “See, you can dance,” he whispered, before leaning down to take her lips. The world disappeared around him as he kissed her and he didn’t even mind losing himself.

  Gwyn interrupted with his hand on Arwan’s shoulder. “Can you come with me for a moment? There is something we need to discuss.”

  He nodded, kissed Katherine once more, and followed Gwyn from the room.

  They exited the glitter and sparkle of the dining room to the hall. Unease began to prickle in the back of his mind. The hair on his arms were beginning to lift. Katherine warned him about Gwyn and he’d let his guard down by leaving with him alone. Gwyn showed him into an office and gestured for him to take a seat. No longer in a tuxedo Arwan sat comfortably in jeans, crossing his leg over one knee.

  “What’s up?”

  Gwyn stared at him for a long time. Longer than Arwan was comfortable with, but he stayed still, waiting, because Fairy Kings had their quirks, he assumed.

  “I’m the one who invited Odin here.”

  Puzzle pieces began to slide in place and he was about to tell Gwyn off, royalty or not when Gwyn held up his hand to stall him. “Don’t. We haven’t the time.” Gwyn snapped his fingers and the doors opened, Hel trailing in behind his chair.

  Arwan got one last look at Gwyn, memorizing his face so he could kill him later before his vision went hazy.

  Chapter 19

  Katherine woke disoriented and cold. The room was gray and the stone she lay upon was not the soft bed she fell asleep in beside Arwan. Fear clawed at her as she glanced down her naked form. Chains rattled somewhere in the distance and a scream echoed around the room. It wasn’t hers and that didn’t bode well. Wrapping her arms around her knees she focused through the gloom, but a light cast through the shadow by an open door drew her attention. Odin standing in the doorway however, was not what she expected.