by HD Smith
I breathed out a sigh of relief when she released him, his body dropping to the floor, unmoving.
Mab’s face was blank—devoid of emotion. Revelation had transformed her. She’d seen her son in his eyes. She knew Thanos was alive.
In a quiet even voice, she asked, “Did he come for her?”
At first I thought she was asking me, but then the curator, who I was sure was dead, spoke.
“No, my lady,” he whispered, so low I almost couldn’t hear him. “He was here, waiting for your sister.”
Mab’s eyes glowed with anger. “My sister is dead,” she said in a low growl. She pointed to me. “This imposter bears no resemblance.”
“She has the blood. She woke the realm.” He struggled to force the words out of his mouth as he labored for every breath. “The museum let her in. She is—”
With the flick of her wrist, Mab snapped his neck with her will.
The curator was dead.
Chapter 24
I pushed myself to my feet. My stomach roiled with disgust as Mab licked the curator’s blood from her fingers. I raised my hands as she approached.
She barked out a mirthless laugh. “Do you really think you can beat me, child?”
“I’ll sure as hell try,” I said, ready to throw my will at her with every ounce of untrained power I had.
With a cold stare only one of the big three could give, she snarled, “I will snap you like a twig. Do not test me.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I said, throwing my will at her.
She batted it away without effort. “You get one free pass, Claire, but try throwing your pathetic power at me again and I’ll see my son in your eyes,” she threatened.
I had to be smart about this. I couldn’t let her take advantage. She needed me. Thanos and I had a bond—something she must lack, or she would have found him five hundred years ago when he disappeared. Also, fate was sort of on my side. I was one of the contenders. Raven hadn’t been able to control me, so I had the best chance to beat her.
I dropped my hand, a show of good faith. She narrowed her eyes at me, as if she thought I might change my mind and attack at any moment.
“I want to bargain,” I said.
Her lip curled in a wicked sneer. “Do you now?”
“Yes.”
“From where I stand, you have nothing to trade.”
“I can return your son. If that holds any value for you, then I’d recommend we discuss terms.”
Mab’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. She brushed non-existent dust from her flowing silk dress and returned to the settee. Once she was seated, she motioned for me to present myself as if I were one of her subjects seeking an audience.
“I’ll hear your bargain,” she said, with all the snooty grace of an entitled monarch. “Then I’ll make a new glass box. Just. For. You.”
I had to stop myself from taking a step back. I could sense the hatred rolling off her in waves. She wanted me trapped like the Name Caller, a plaything she could torment for an eternity.
“You had five hundred years to find him,” I said. “Instead, you wrote him off as dead. Do you really think threatening me is the right approach?”
Her left eyebrow rose. “How?”
“I’m resourceful.”
“Indeed,” she said, in a calm voice that didn’t hide her anger. “First you will explain about my son. Don’t leave anything out.”
“Thanos was trapped in the fourth realm. He was there waiting for the Fall Queen to return. Instead, he got me.”
Mab’s lips pressed together. She glared at the shattered glass. I told her the rest of the story, only leaving out the part about our bond. I really didn’t want to have that talk with her yet.
“He didn’t remember who sent him,” I continued, drawing Mab’s gaze back to me, “but I can guess. The girl was more than a little excited when she sensed him. Obviously they’ve met before.”
“The girl wouldn’t tell me where he was. She said he was dead. I never wanted to believe her, but part of me thought death might be better than a few of the other scenarios she described.” Mab returned her gaze to the rubble.
“Raven claims you wanted her bound to you,” I challenged. “And that was why you kept her here.”
Mab’s eyebrows rose. “Only you, Claire, would give the most dangerous being on this planet a name. Did you consider that it might have been lost to time for a reason?”
“Would you prefer I use Name Caller instead? Or am I wrong and she’s not the contender your brothers think is dead?”
Mab’s face fell to a cold unnatural expression that would make a hardened criminal run screaming. “Be careful, child. I do not cower. Nor will I justify my actions to you. Don’t think I didn’t notice that you weren’t surprised by the curator’s claim. You will tell me how you know of my sister, and the contenders.”
“You told me,” I said.
She laughed, then looked at me closer. Her smile faded as if she could see the truth in my eyes. “When?”
“It’s a long story. Short version, Mace asked you why the blacksmith wanted my blood. You told him, then made him forget. I overheard you. Harry told me a bit more, then tried to erase it all. He failed.”
“I would have sensed you,” she said.
“You didn’t.”
“Harry doesn’t fail.”
“He did.”
She pursed her lips together as if she’d made a mental note to discuss it with Harry. “Fine,” Mab stood, “and the contenders?” She started pacing the room. “How did you hear of them, specifically the Name Caller?”
I kept my eye on her as she took a turn around the room. I liked it better when she was sitting, but she seemed more restless than aggressive. I told her an abbreviated version of the dream, without any of the details of Omar’s book.
“How did you get to East Hareington?” Mab asked, choosing not to comment on my dreams.
“Is all of this really important? Wouldn’t you rather have me find your son?”
Mab ran a sharpened nail along the wall, leaving a noticeable line in the stone. “I thought we’d keep this civil, but if you’d prefer I get the information the hard way, by all means keep refusing my requests.”
Last spring she’d practically scrambled my brain with a spell to read my mind. For many reasons I wanted to avoid that option. I gave her a tight smile. Threat delivered and received. “Your Bounty Hunter kidnapped me. He gave me to Cinnamon as a gift.”
Mab stopped, turning her head toward me. “My Bounty Hunter?”
“Is there another one?”
In a flash she was in front of me, lifting me off the floor until we were nose to nose.
“Did he give you anything to drink on your journey?”
I thought back to the silver flask—owned by Ronin’s master, Mab.
“He offered, I refused.”
She took in a long breath, as if she were able to smell the lie. I remained still, trying to appear calm. Her hands fisted in my bodice. Shit, can she tell I am bound to Ronin?
Pulling me close, she snarled, “Why do you smell of my son?”
Fuck. Me.
Chapter 25
“Look, I didn’t want to do it,” I said, trying to wiggle out of her hold. “He just bound us together without asking.”
“You married my son?” Mab screamed.
“I wouldn’t call it married, exactly.” It was way more permanent than that. “He said I could use the bond to find him.” I left out the part about “even if I’m dead”—I refused to give her any ideas. “His link to me has weakened, but I know it’s there. Tell me how to use it. Help me save your son.”
Mab released me, a disgusted look on her face. I staggered from the drop, then righted myself. She walked away from me, seething. I covered my ears as she released a sound to rival a banshee’s wail, then ducked when she blasted the stone wall with her will, sending chunks of debris flying.
“This isn’t helping,” I screamed at her.
>
Stepping back into the nearest archway for cover, I waited her out. She sandblasted a large gash into two of the six sides before finally lowering her arms.
“You will find my son for me, now!” Mab threw out her hand and yanked me back to her. Right palm pressed flat toward me, she drove me back until I hit the wall. “Find him. Now.”
“How?”
“Use your ability. He’s in your heart now, it shouldn’t be that difficult,” she spat.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The one that lets you walk around incorporeally spying on people.”
“Oh, that one.” Was she serious? I’d never even considered that my presence could somehow get that far away from my body. I jumped around the museum, which was much larger and farther than I’d ever sent it before, but Thanos was so far away his connection so weak I could barely feel it. Could I really use my gift to find him?
Mab snarled at me, which was apparently her idea of encouragement.
I held up my hands, palms out. “Give me a minute.”
I closed my eyes and thought of Thanos. His essence was faint, but I knew it was there. I considered the way I’d manipulated the spells that were cast on me, the way I’d imagined a garden of geodes, which gave them a visual reference.
I imagined my link to Thanos as a string connecting us. It was thin, but it thrummed with the beat of his heart. I slipped out of my body, but instead of appearing in the museum with Mab, my presence followed the line. As if gliding to the pulse of the rhythm, I slipped effortlessly to his location. My presence was so close I could have touched him.
Thanos’s head swiveled toward me, his eyes black.
Raven’s voice broke the moment. “What are you looking at, slave?”
“Look away,” I whispered, hoping she couldn’t sense me.
Thanos faced forward, as if I weren’t there.
I wanted to curse when I looked beyond Thanos to see Raven perched on Cinnamon’s gilded throne. Fuck. They were at the Countess’s estate in Purgatory.
Raven was no longer dressed in the cutesy nightgown. Now, she was head to toe in a black leather cat suit that was so age inappropriate it was frightening.
Mace stood on Raven’s other side. His eyes too were as black as night. Cinnamon and the twins were nowhere to be seen.
“Of all the places she could go, why here?” I murmured.
“You were here, you are here, you will be here,” Thanos said.
I eyed Raven. She was glaring at him. “Silence, slave.”
Had he brought her here, hoping to be discovered? He must have remembered me mentioning the Countess. Being Mab’s son, he would have known what that meant even if he didn’t know who was here; Raven probably gave a very generic command to take her somewhere safe, which allowed him to choose this location. Perhaps he thought our bond would be affected by her control, so he wanted to be where I was planning to go next?
I glanced at Mace, who hadn’t moved a muscle since I arrived. Did that mean Thanos wasn’t as mindlessly under her control as the others? I hoped so, because if he couldn’t help me save him, we were both screwed.
“I’ll be back,” I whispered, then opened my eyes, returning to my body in the museum.
“Where is he?” Mab demanded.
“A place I know well.”
“Tell me.”
“We haven’t struck a deal yet,” I countered.
Mab’s eyes flared white hot. “You dare try to hide him from me?”
“No,” I said, holding up my hands as if that would keep her away, “but you and I need to come to an understanding before I go and get myself killed trying to save him.”
Mab laughed. “Do you really think I’ll leave his fate to you?” she asked mockingly. “I have people that can rescue him. You’re not needed.”
It was my turn to laugh. “And do these other people have an immunity to her particular form of persuasion?”
Mab’s eyes narrowed on me. “No one has the ability to refuse her. Do you expect me to believe you’re outside of her control?”
“I would say I don’t care if you believe me, but I do, because I want Thanos back safe. She’ll sense whoever you send and trap them before they can escape with him.” Raven had known Thanos was outside the museum, and she’d sensed my name once my presence was inside the cage with her. I assumed that meant her power was like a net that could catch anything in the vicinity. Anyone Mab sent would be caught. I doubted even Ronin’s claim that only I had ever sensed him would keep him safe.
“I have more than one with extraordinary gifts,” she said.
“And how many do you plan to sacrifice before you make your deal with me?”
Mab turned from me, balling and releasing her fists as she walked the room. “I have another like you. She will be immune to Raven as well,” Mab said.
“Who?”
Mab smiled. “Who do you think—now that you know you aren’t unique?”
Was she serious? “So, snatch and grab using another contender is the plan, then leave Raven to the world?”
“What do I care of the world?”
“She’s in Purgatory, so you may want to reevaluate your end game. And which contender are you assuming has my immunity? The Death Seeker? Or the Wanderer?”
“You are—”
“The only one that can save him,” I said, cutting her off. “You don’t know why her gift doesn’t work on me—hell, I don’t even know. You can’t assume one of the others will have the same ability. And do you really want to show your hand so completely to Harry and The Boss?”
Mab cut another swath of will across the sandstone.
“Melodramatic much?” I asked as if I had a death wish.
Closing her eyes she took a deep breath, then calmly walked back to the settee and sat down. She motioned again, for me to present myself before her.
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to face the settee.
“What is your bargain?”
Chapter 26
Mab’s eyes were locked with mine—waiting. She wanted the details of my bargain.
“I’ll rescue Thanos from Raven and bring him back to the museum.”
“She’s more powerful than you can imagine.”
Between the total control she had over the curator and Mace and the ability she had to force Thanos to remain in a deserted realm for five hundred years—not to mention the prophecy and the painting from the dreams—I was very well versed in how she rolled. “Don’t worry, I read the memo.”
Mab chuckled. “Good, then you will also bring her back to me—incapacitated, of course, or dead.”
Was she crazy? I’d be lucky to get myself and Thanos out. Taking Raven from the castle, where Mace—and most likely Cinnamon, Sage, and Sorrel—could protect her was suicide.
“She’s your mess. You clean it up.”
Mab arched her perfect eyebrow. “You are the one making bargains. You are the one claiming to be immune from her power. You are the one that let her escape.”
“You were the one that let her live in the first place.”
Mab’s lip quivered as if she were about to snarl then rip off her calm façade and tear me to shreds.
“We both want Thanos safe,” I continued. “He seems to have an ability to sense me when I’m near. That will give me an advantage in saving him. I can’t fight the others and win.”
“What others?”
“She has Mace, probably Cinnamon and the twins too. I don’t know. They weren’t there when I dropped in.”
Mab smiled a wicked grin. “She’s at the castle in East Hareington?”
Shit, I hadn’t wanted to confirm his location before I had a deal. She had no better option for saving him, but now she had leverage. Even if it wouldn’t work, Mab could try sending another. Ronin would have to go if she commanded it, and he would either die trying or become one of Raven’s slaves. Once Raven had him, she’d have me. “You need me. There’s no guarantee one of the others would be immune
.”
Mab looked away, as if considering her other pawns. She tapped her lower lip with her index finger.
I couldn’t let her make the wrong choice. She had to let me save him. “I’ll bring back the girl too,” I said, before I lost my nerve.
Her eyes turned to me, alight as if scheming. “What do you want in return?”
Freedom, I wanted to say, but I knew I’d never get that. She’d find a loophole and my reward would be meaningless. I thought of Ronin. She’d given his services to repay a debt, which knowing Mab as I do would be way more useful than freedom.
“I want a favor,” I said. “A request you will have to honor.”
“And what do I get if you fail?”
“Purgatory overrun with Ravenites,” I said, as if that should have been obvious. “I’ll be dead and she’ll have won. You do the math.”
She pursed her lips, studying me.
“The bargain is to return your son and Raven—incapacitated or dead. If I can’t make that happen, you won’t owe me a favor. If I can, you will. That’s the deal I’m willing to make.” I had no clue what she expected to get from me if I failed. She already had a claim, not that I was admitting anything, and it wasn’t like I’d come back without Thanos. If he died, I’d try to take Raven with me, but in the worst case outcome, I’d be dead, and there would be nothing for me to give her. If by some miracle I survived all of them and he didn’t, I’d run, find my way back to the fourth realm, and hide—but she didn’t need to know that.
Mab stood again, but didn’t say anything.
“From where I stand, I’m your only hope,” I persisted. No reason to overcomplicate things by actually considering my odds.
As if unconcerned with the outcome, Mab took another turn around the room.
“Do we have a deal?” I pressed.
“Why do you want a favor? Why not ask for your life? Your freedom?”
“We both know you’ll never give me either. Anything that even remotely looks like that kind of deal will be twisted into something meaningless. So I want your word that you will honor my request, that you will do the favor I ask when I ask it, that you will owe me a debt.”