To Kill a King (Hollowcliff Detectives Book 2)

by C. S. Wilde

  “Mommy!” Stella fell to her knees. “Mommy, no!”

  “I will fucking end you, Corvus,” Bast gnarled through gritted teeth, his fangs sharpening, and his darkness filling him up to his head.

  “I did you a favor, little brother.” Taking a cloth from his belt pouch, Corvus cleaned the blade. “Now, you can keep your bastard sister. You should be thanking me.”

  The sick shig!

  Heart wrenching sobs escaped Stella while she crouched on the floor, her wailing piercing Bast’s chest.

  “You killed her mother in front of her!” A storm of night and stars bloomed from Bast’s body, black lightning crackling around him, making the walls shake. “She’s just a child!”

  “So were you when you murdered an assassin to save her.” Corvus observed his brother’s crackling magic without any interest. “I’m not scared of your wrath.”

  “Burn in Danu’s hells,” Bast snapped, unsheathing his sword. He pulled Stella to her feet, pushing her against his left leg, his grip tight on her.

  Corvus studied Stella’s little, sobbing, form. “Whether you want to face it or not, your sister is living on borrowed time.”

  “Enough!” Leon shouted from the door.

  Fuck! Bast had forgotten to guard his back.

  Leon had been kind enough not to attack, and Bast appreciated the show of mercy, but he slammed his spine against the wall nonetheless. His cloud of night aimed at Corvus while his blade pointed at Leon.

  Big Brother watched him closely. “You may be Yattusei, but you do realize you can’t take us both, yes? We’re trained assassins.”

  “Fucking try me,” Bast barked, holding Stella fiercely to him.

  Leon shook his head. “Father gave us a mission.”

  “And you’re finishing it over my dead body!”

  “You’ve always loved Stella more than your own blood.” A certain bitterness coated Leon’s tone. “Why?”

  Burning tears streamed down Bast’s cheeks as he realized he might defeat Corvus and Leon, but not in time to save Stella. Her death would render this entire fight pointless. His entire life, too.

  He was so screwed.

  “She is our blood! She’s better than all of us!” His voice cracked, fear once again turning into panic.

  Master Raes would be so disappointed…

  “Bad, evil princes!” Stella cried, but was smart enough to stay close to Bast.

  With a heavy sigh, Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Father hoped you’d follow through. I suppose since the mother is dead, the child won’t go to the continent. I don’t want your hate, brother, so I propose we consider the matter settled.”

  “How will you convince Father?” Corvus asked him. “He wanted them both dead.”

  “I’ll find a way.”

  “There you go, stealing all the fun as you always do,” the prick grumbled, shaking his head.

  Leon sighed in exasperation. “Why are you always such an asshole, Corvus?”

  “Because it’s fun, brother.”

  “So, it’s agreed?” Bast interrupted, still wielding his sword at Leon and his night at Corvus. “Stella may live.”

  “Father will be furious,” Corvus warned.

  Well, he wasn’t wrong.

  “If you weren’t Master Raes’ best assassin and under the League’s protection,” Leon said carefully, “the king would have killed you a long time ago for defying him. Nevertheless, he will disown you for this, rest assured.”

  “If he doesn’t banish you from the island,” Corvus added.

  “He won’t. I’ll make sure of it,” Leon countered in a threatening manner. “Our brother will remain in Lunor Insul, so will his sister. He simply won’t live in the castle with us anymore. Knowing Father, that should sort the matter, at least for now.”

  Still sobbing, Stella watched her mother’s lifeless body. “Mommy…”

  “Don’t look, Baby Sis.” Bast put a hand over her eyes before facing Big Brother. “So be it. I never cared about the throne.”

  “I know…” Leon nodded to Idillia’s body. “Remember, Bast. The moment you leave the League, you’re on your own, and no one, not even I, will be able to protect you.”

  Chapter 2

  Mera closed her eyes and listened to the ship’s hull breaking through the waves below. A warm, giddy joy spread in her chest as she imagined herself down there, underneath the hull, dashing across the ocean.

  Utterly careless. Utterly free.

  It was a beautiful dream, but a dream nonetheless.

  When she opened her eyes, her fingers dug deeper into the Nightbringer’s metallic railing. Being aboard a war vessel designed to kill schools of waterbreakers was a cruel irony. Mera had once feared these spiked, dark-metal ships when she was little.

  Now she was aboard one.

  She didn’t have a choice, really. Sailing was the only way to Lunor Insul, the night fae Island. Bast could’ve flown them, but they were carrying three sets of luggage with the basics, plus some necessary equipment. Also, before she could have asked him, he’d claimed, “I’m not a beast of burden, kitten.”

  So there she was. Aboard a fucking Nightbringer.

  The point of a warship sailing on safe waters was lost on her. No mermaid could ever cross the forbidden zone and survive to tell the tale. Unless they were the waterbreaker who impregnated Sara Hyland; the male called Poseidon⸺a siren with a god complex, who had overcome the magic within these waters. The magic that should’ve consumed his flesh, bones, and all that he was, yet he’d survived it.

  Same as Mera.

  Someone approached her from her right, but she didn’t face him. Maybe if she ignored the dickwart’s presence, he would go away.

  “You think you’re punishing me with your silent treatment,” Bast taunted playfully, “but I find it cute.”

  She turned to him, and Poseidon in the trenches, she shouldn’t have.

  The wind tousled loose threads from his messy bun, his moon-silver hair resembling either silk or spider webs. Bast’s face was made of perfectly straight lines, his smirk creating charming dimples on his cheeks.

  To top it all off, the setting sun drenched him in a mix of pink and orange, turning the male into a freaking painting. Without meaning to, Mera blushed.

  Damn her traitorous body!

  “I’m not giving you the cold shoulder,” she lied, her legs feeling awfully weak.

  With that, Mera leaned over the railing and stared at the ocean, mostly to avoid losing herself in the living magnet called Sebastian Dhay.

  ‘Beauty should be admired’, her siren sang with a chipper tune.

  Ignoring that horny bastard, Mera studied her own hands. “I don’t trust you to do the right thing, Bast. It’s shitty to say that about my partner, isn’t it?” Sadness and anger created a strange mix in her chest. “You killed everyone.”

  “If an opponent goes down, make sure they don’t get up,” he countered absently.

  “That might have worked for an assassin, but you’ve been a Hollowcliff detective for a while now.”

  Bast had told her the truth once he’d been cleared for duty, a few days after the massacre at the Summer King’s penthouse.

  At first, Mera couldn’t believe Tir Na Nog police had hired a former assassin as a detective, but she confronted Captain Asherath after Bast insisted on it. The red-haired fae had merely answered, “Bast is my best detective, and he’s been atoning for his sins. Do ‘cut him some slack’, as you humans say.”

  So, that was that.

  Glaring at her, a muscle ticked in her partner’s jaw. “If I didn’t know I’m a detective and not an assassin, my arrest rate wouldn’t be the best in Tir Na Nog, would it? But those faeries… if they spoke about you, it would have been your death sentence.”

  “I was perfectly aware of that when I made my choice.”

  “So was I!” He ran a hand over his hair, nearly undoing his bun. “I’m sorry if I’m not as selfless or as righteous as you ar
e, but my partner’s life was in danger and I did what I had to do.”

  Mera opened her lips, yet found no good comeback. She tried, though, searching her mind as she kept there, her mouth half-open and a frown on her forehead, but it was useless.

  “Sakala mi,” he cursed under his breath as he hunched over the railing. “I didn’t ask you to trust me. Our captains did. So you better do your damn job, Detective Maurea, and let me worry about my actions.”

  Her siren licked her lips. ‘Oh, angry Bast is a thing to behold.’

  Mera rolled her eyes. She hated disappointing her siren⸺not⸺but fighting with her partner would take them nowhere.

  “Your intentions were noble,” she begrudgingly admitted. “The execution was the problem, pun intended.”

  “I don’t care.” He raised a challenging eyebrow at her. “If I’m so terrible, why didn’t you tell your captain? Why am I not behind iron bars right now?”

  “Many reasons,” she pondered. “I guess I didn’t want to see you in jail for protecting me. It didn’t seem fair.” A grin hooked on the left side of his cheek, but she immediately raised a warning finger at him. “Just don’t go berserk and kill a bunch of people again. Okay?”

  Bast’s scorching blue eyes fixed on her as he stepped closer. “So long as they’re no threat to you, fine.”

  “I’m not a damsel in distress,” Mera snapped, hating the flutter in her stomach that increased with his proximity. “We’re here to protect and serve. Remember that.”

  “Always.” Bast winked at her, then nodded over his shoulder toward the ship’s faraway destination, where a patch of land the size of a thumb rose from the sea. “So, are we in this together?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  His laughter engulfed her, as if Mera had told him a funny joke. “Not really.”

  Captain Asherath shouldn’t have put Bast on this case. After all, he was the potential victim’s son. However, he was the only nightling in the Tir Na Nog precinct, which made him the most qualified faerie to do this⸺and also the worst possible choice.

  Asherath did ask her to keep an eye on him and make sure he was okay, not that Sebastian Dhay needed any help with that.

  Suddenly, his hands lifted to touch her face, but Mera instinctively stepped back. “What are you doing?”

  A certain hurt flashed behind his eyes, but could he blame her for being on her guard around him? Bast was a trained assassin… and also her partner.

  Ugh! Working with him wasn’t going to be easy.

  “I need to unleash the Faeish you learned in school from your mind,” he said as if it was no big deal. “Most faeries who work with tourism speak English, but the rest of us prefer sticking to our ancient tongue.”

  A lot of Tagradians⸺shifters, witches, and humans mostly⸺visited Lunor Insul’s crystalline beaches during summer. Mera had always wanted to go, but Ruth refused to let her near salt water.

  A wise decision, really.

  “I learned Faeish at school,” she pointed out, “Didn’t faeries learn English, too?”

  “Of course we did, but you aren’t exactly fluent in my language, are you? Unused knowledge is lost knowledge.”

  Check mate.

  Lower faeries also visited the island, though light Sidhe from Tir Na Nog refused to step into Night Court territory. Vamps preferred Lunor Insul during winter, when it was foggy and rainy, though one vampire diplomat, a Mr. Charles Grey, had been living on the island for decades. He worked as a city auditor to the Night King’s practices, but he hadn’t reported an incident to Hollowcliff since… well, ever.

  “Be that as it may,” she tapped her temple, “you’re not having a peek, buddy.”

  Bast studied her intently. “Kitten, this will make things a lot easier for you. Besides, reading minds isn’t a stroll in the park for me. I can unleash knowledge you already acquired, and I can slightly blur memories that recently happened, but getting front row seat to what’s going on in there?” He knocked on her forehead. “Not so easy.”

  The possibility of giving a partner she didn’t fully trust a free pass into her head didn’t please her, but if he was right, Mera would need fluent Faeish to interrogate their suspects.

  “Fine.” She raised one finger. “But no funny business.”

  Placing a hand over his heart, he bowed his head at her in a silent promise. Which didn’t set her at ease, mostly because she wasn’t sure if Bast’s word was worth something. Not anymore.

  Pressing his thumbs on her forehead, his other fingers dug on the back of her skull. Bast closed his eyes, going still.

  Mera stared at him, waiting to feel something other than the warm sensation pooling between her thighs.

  Why did he have to be so freakishly handsome?

  “You need to relax,” he noted, his perfect face deep in concentration.

  Fine.

  Closing her eyes, Mera let her shoulders drop before taking a deep breath. A long moment passed, but she felt nothing out of the ordinary.

  “When are you—”

  Bast removed his hands. “I’m done, chichi.”

  “Seriously?” She opened her eyes, glancing at him dubiously. “I don’t feel any different.”

  Chuckling, he crossed his arms. “You do realize I just spoke Faeish with you?”

  No way!

  “You never learned certain words, so you won’t know how to translate them at first,” he explained. “You’ll understand the translation for others, but if their meaning is more complicated than in English, you’ll perceive the original in Faeish faster.”

  “Akka baku,” she said then slapped a hand over her mouth. “I spoke Faeish. I’m speaking in Faeish right now!”

  Bast laughed; an earthy, joyful sound that made her smile. “Yes, you are, chichi.”

  She frowned. “What does chichi mean?”

  “Kitten.”

  “Malachai,” she whispered, but couldn’t hold back the grin that spread on her lips.

  Meanwhile, Lunor Insul grew bigger at the bow of the ship.

  The island was simply enormous, a long and wide piece of land with three mountains spread in a line that cut through the territory. If she didn’t know better, Mera might have confused it with the continent.

  She finally understood why the locals called it Lunor Insul—the approaching port was shaped like a half-moon. Sunset drenched the island in an earthy orange and pink that quickly changed to purple. Slowly, lights began flicking to life at the base and around the mountains.

  “If it wasn’t for my mom,” Bast confessed, observing Lunor Insul with a certain bitterness, “I wouldn’t have returned.”

  His mom, the Night Queen.

  For the little they interacted, she’d seemed kind, and yet… aloof. As if her mind and body didn’t occupy the same place.

  Mera had hoped Seraphina Dhay would’ve joined them in the Nightbringer, but she’d chosen to fly back to the island a day earlier. When Mera asked why, Bast’s mother cast a bitter glance at the water. “Better death plummeting from the sky.”

  Distracted by thoughts of the queen, Mera barely noticed the spear that cut through the air, piercing the wooden floor right between her and Bast.

  A miracle really, that it hadn’t hit them.

  Adrenaline shot through her veins as she whipped out her gun. “What the hell?”

  “Danu in the fucking prairies,” Bast grumbled before he sent a whip of darkness toward the sky.

  A Sidhe clad in black fighting leathers flew above them, but he wasn’t fast enough to evade Bast’s whip of night and stars. It twirled around his body, and when Bast pulled, the fae crashed onto the Nightbringer’s deck.

  Mera thought she’d heard bones break, but the faerie didn’t utter a sound. His wings disappeared into thin air.

  The rest of the passengers—a group of crow-shifters with bleached hair—rushed toward the bow, ready to morph and take flight, but they probably didn’t want to abandon their surfboards. So they waited.<
br />
  Idiots.

  Mera aimed at the kneeling faerie. She’d seen his uniform before… the assassin sent to kill Bast two weeks ago had worn those same clothes. Which meant this fae must be with the League of Darkness.

  She gripped her gun harder. “Don’t these bakus ever give up?”

  The fae frowned at Mera, as if something other than the fact she was aiming a gun at his head had surprised him.

  Ah, yes. She’d spoken in Faeish.

  This assassin looked a lot younger than the last. He had lavender skin, and his white hair hung below his left ear, turning under. Like he was in a boy band or something.

  He tried to break free from Bast’s whip of night, but it was no use. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up but nearly tumbled over. He tried again until he shakily stood on both legs.

  “I’m draining your energy, youngling,” Bast explained. “The more you fight, the more tired you’ll become.”

  “This is your gift, Yattusei.” The young faerie snapped, sweat blooming on his forehead. “To consume, corrode, and destroy.” Facing Mera, he glared at her. “He is death, human. You’ll do well to stay away from him.”

  The image of Bast shoving a dagger through the previous assassin’s throat flashed in her mind, followed by the massacre at the penthouse. She shook off the memories, hoping her partner wouldn’t repeat his ways, and yet, the boy’s words stayed with her.

  “He is death…”

  “Tell me about it, kid.” Funny that she’d called him kid when he might be a lot older than her.

  “You’re a child,” Bast noted the obvious, his lips curling in offense. “Does Master Raes think so little of me?”

  The boy stopped struggling and gave in to Bast’s night, his chest heaving up and down with the effort. “You were once a child, too. That did not stop you from becoming Yattusei.”

  Bast waved his hand in the air, dismissing the argument. “My lead is not one to be followed. Why did Master Raes send you?”

  “He didn’t. After Eckbach failed to return from his mission, I assumed you’d done something to him.” His eyes glistened with tears. “I’m here not for revenge, as that is not the way of the shadows. I’m here, because I deserve an answer, Yattusei. My mentor must be mourned.”