by Emma Dean
Emily walked into the fray and breathed in the violence and death. The smell of blood and decaying skin filled her nostrils and when she opened her eyes, she saw the guards were motionless – standing around her.
They were still as statues as they watched her, waiting.
Emily tilted her head as she considered them.
“Bow,” she ordered.
Every guard, every single one of them – bound to her by blood and not – fell to one knee before her.
Whatever magic the Red Queen had over these things; the Crown of Madness overrode it.
She caressed the haggard, rotten face of one of the guards with his bloody hood, brains oozing down his neck. Emily leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Find the Red Queen and anyone under her thrall. Then kill them.”
The guard was up and moving and Emily grinned at the rest of them as she straightened. “All of you.”
The clatter of hundreds of guards rushing to do as she commanded was the sweetest music she’d ever heard.
Emily winked at Jack and Louis. “You’re welcome.”
When she went back into the treasury, Alice had her sword pointed at Emily.
“Take off the crown.”
Emily glanced at Jace and his shoulder was lined up with Alice’s. Ben was checking over both Aiden and Chance. For the moment, she was once again factionless.
Inspecting her fingernails, she sighed slightly. It was annoying and exhausting how delicate everyone’s emotions always were. They got offended by the tiniest things. “You should be thanking me.”
“Turn your emotions back on and I will,” Jace snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.
Emily snarled at him. “Your assumption that I’m less of a person without them is becoming aggravating. I’m supposed to be your mate, all of me.” She held out her arms and turned slowly. “You don’t get to pick and choose which parts of me you want to keep.”
Blood leaked from her stomach and the gaping hole was still visible thanks to the crop top Aiden had gotten her. Emily didn’t feel the pain, she only felt the dark power from the crown stitching it up as they all watched.
“Take off the crown,” Alice repeated. “You don’t know what that kind of power will do to you.”
“I think I’ll be leaving it on until we leave,” Emily drawled. She was getting bored of this. “Otherwise those guards will come back and we’re fucked all over again. So much for your plan to get in and out unnoticed.”
Jace glared at her, but Ben gave the alpha raccoon one of his trademark looks.
“Fine, you’re right,” Jace gritted out. “But I’d like to hear about this little plan of yours that involves taking us to the Enclave.”
Emily rolled her eyes at Jace, wishing they could just get on with it all already. “I was going to help you find all three items, and then turn you and the items into the Enclave,” Emily shrugged. “Boohoo.”
Her body felt too small, but the wound was almost completely healed now thanks to the crown. A few minutes and she’d be right as rain, pain down the drain. She rolled her shoulders back and picked up a sapphire.
“I was going to present all evidence to the Enclave and ask for them to spare your lives and reinstate my position within my Collective—flock. If the world was really coming to an end, they would save it, or they wouldn’t. At that point I was just going to murder them all if they wanted to end the world.”
Emily stopped next to Ben and ran her fingers through his hair, sticky as it was with blood and gore. His hair had always been her favorite out of the four of them.
“Finding out you four were my mates complicated things a bit, but it would have given me an edge to request that you join our Collective, if you chose to live there. But either way, I was going to stay with my flock once we gathered the items.”
Emily tossed the glittering sapphire to Jace. “Something to add to your own hoard.”
“And now?” Ben asked, helping Chance to his feet. Aiden was well enough to stand on his own.
Jack helped Louis walk around her to their escape window. He eyed the terrain and ignored the drama completely. Definitely a man who knew what was really important. She could see why Alice liked him.
Emily turned back to study Ben, and then Chance. Aiden and Jace.
The weight of the Rolex was heavy on her wrist.
She couldn’t feel the mate bond at all.
The plan to return to her eyrie felt precarious at best. But it was her home. It was all she knew – all she’d ever wanted.
Her fingertips twitched, playing notes only she could hear as she considered her options.
Not that she’d ever truly felt at home with the other ravens either. Corbin had been her home. Their pairing had been perfect and now she was spiraling out of control, even solo. That sense of belonging was gone.
Corbin had found his own path.
Now she had to find hers.
Emily closed her eyes and sighed. Then she lifted the crown off her head.
Some of the weight eased from her bones, but she felt shaky – like she hadn’t eaten in days.
“Ravens don’t need mates,” she told them. Emily tucked the crown into her pack. “I don’t need mates.”
“It’s not about need,” Aiden told her, words soft and gentle as she grabbed Alice’s bow on her way to the window. Emily selected the arrow with the rope attached and knocked it. “It’s about finding the piece of your soul that was missing. But if the rest of that person doesn’t fit into your life, if you don’t love them, that is why you can deny the mate bond.”
She paused as she aimed the arrow at the tree across the castle grounds, the stone wall, and the moat.
Emily knew she loved the raccoons, even if she couldn’t currently feel it. But she also knew they didn’t fit into her life. She’d finally been able to go solo after all.
Though Corbin had never mentioned how lonely it could be – or boring.
Maybe she could work for her flock as a contractor after paying off her contract, but…
Would they still allow her to see her father, or live up in the eyrie if she wanted to?
Emily refocused and ignored the trembling in her hands leftover from the Crown of Madness. Then she loosed the arrow and it landed exactly where she’d wanted of course. Emily took the rope and tied it to a hook above the window.
“Let’s go,” she ordered, waving Alice forward. “We don’t have time to debate inconsequential things at the moment.”
Alice wrapped her bandana around the rope and jumped without once looking back.
Jack went next with Louis.
Jace just stared at her as their temporary allies made their escape.
Screams rose throughout the castle and Emily’s fingers itched to put the crown back on, just in case. But instead she held Jace’s gaze.
Chance went through next, and then Aiden.
Still Jace held her eyes, not once blinking.
“You were right,” he finally said.
Ben busied himself, looking for something to use to go down the rope, clearly staying to listen.
Emily crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at the alpha. “I’m not going to kill you, so you can just go. You don’t need to try and sweet talk me.”
Jace sighed and handed Ben an extra bandana. “I’m not. You were right, I have to accept all of you. And this version of you, this is part of who you are.”
Ben stood and looked down at Emily, tapping her nose once before he too went out the window. For whatever reason, her being emotionless had never bothered Ben, but he didn’t have the same fears Jace did.
“I’ll turn them back on when I’m good and ready,” Emily told him. “Go first so you don’t think I’ll cut the rope when I get down there.”
Jace gave her a lopsided smile at that. “Either way, I’m glad you’re here. We wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”
Before she could respond, the alpha raccoon jumped out the window and slid dow
n the rope toward the others.
Emily’s fingers twitched as the howls of the guards grew closer and closer now that she wasn’t wearing the crown.
What was she going to do?
Screams and howls got louder and louder. Her spell over the majority of the guards had broken and Emily went completely still, cocking her head to listen.
“I want them found!” a female voice screeched. “I want them captured and then I want their heads!”
Emily snickered as she jumped out the window and slid down the rope toward the others. Pissing off the Red Queen had certainly been one of the highlights of her day.
25
Emily
Monsters prowled after them and Alice directed them through the thick trees, leading them away from the base as creatures crashed through the trees and brush after them. Aiden was limping and so was Louis. They were slow and injured and bleeding.
“Here,” Alice hissed, shoving Chance through the mouth of a cave first. “The lava cave will mask our scent and keep us warm.”
Emily wrinkled her nose at the smell of rotten eggs. Sulfur from the volcano would certainly mask even the smell of blood.
She went in next as a sign of good faith, but really, she just needed to sit down and check her wound. Careful not to show any sign of weakness, Emily sat next to Chance and slipped her pack off.
Her shoulders ached and she was covered in blood and gore. Her guns and knives were in their holsters and sheaths. The crown was still in her pack, pulsing with its dark power. Everything was accounted for.
Carefully she lifted her shirt and gritted her teeth before she looked down.
The wound was right next to where she’d been shot, and the entire area hurt – pulsing dully as she ignored it as much as she could. Emily took out her med pack, telling herself she had dealt with much worse before.
This was nothing.
“Your back looks terrible,” Chance murmured, taking one of the cleaning cloths from her. Gently he washed where the sword had inserted in her body and Emily flinched, too tired to hide it.
“How are you feeling?” Chance asked.
Whatever this was…his aura wasn’t angry. It didn’t have black marks where he harbored feelings of betrayal. There was a smidge of purple leftover from when he’d thought she’d kill Ben, but otherwise he still pulsed with the knowledge she was his mate.
“You’re not pissed I’m going to turn you in?” she asked, biting her tongue as he cleaned out the inside of the wound too.
“Whatever is making you heal like this, I’d love to know,” Chance muttered. “This should have taken you out for at least a day.”
“Chance,” she growled, eyes on the shiny black wall while he scraped the leftover gunk out.
“I was wrong about you,” he admitted quietly. “I was sure you were going to kill Ben. I really was. But he never did, and I feel like I somehow failed you because of that.”
Emily stayed quiet as she processed his words. Soothing cream was spread on the wound. Interestingly, the crown had healed from the inside out instead of the usual outside in.
Even with her emotions off Emily felt…strange. It wasn’t an emotion per se, but she had to rearrange what she knew about Chance and his personality to adjust for this depth of understanding from him.
“Ben knew you had some kind of plan, even without you possessing any emotional attachment.” Chance bandaged her back and then turned her around to face him. “What did I miss?”
In the back of her mind she catalogued each of the other raccoons and their positions. Emily knew exactly how badly each was hurt, whether it was physically or emotionally. But Chance…for some reason she couldn’t look away from him.
“I’m not sure,” she finally answered, shifting to her knees so she could hold up her shirt. “Ben doesn’t rely on his empathy when it comes to me, not from what I can tell.”
Jace stood at the mouth of the cave, watching the woods for any sign of danger, but she could feel him listening in on their conversation. Aiden and Ben were too as they checked each other over and patched up anything and everything they could.
“I just want you to know, I don’t need you to turn on your emotions if you don’t want to,” Chance told her, cleaning out the wound on her stomach.
Emily hissed in a breath as the sting caught her off guard. “Why is that?”
He shrugged and tossed the cloth into the pile of bloody and used items. “You are who you are regardless. Quirky and a little bit crazy.” Chance grinned when she shoved him back, but it wasn’t hard enough to mean it. “You are Emily. You just happen to also be a raven assassin. And that’s enough for me.”
Chance patted the bandage over her stomach a little harder than necessary and this time she shoved him hard. He fell on his butt with a chuckle and she buried the pain down as far as she could.
“That hurt,” she grumbled, eyeing his handiwork.
Emily was a raven assassin as he’d said, and ravens didn’t mate.
She had never felt like she was missing out on something, knowing she wouldn’t end up mated. She didn’t need someone like that in her life, the magical bond tying souls together with an intensity that knocked the breath from one’s lungs.
The whole thing was absolutely ridiculous in her opinion.
But she didn’t need to be mated to these assholes to care about them—to love them.
Nothing could take away that moment she’d spotted them from across the ballroom during Samhain. Before she’d known or cared about them at all. Or the moment she’d felt Ben’s attention on her, prowling across the dance floor to demand to know why she’d been staring at them.
Not even the knowledge they were mates.
Even without her emotions on, Emily wanted this faction. They worked well together, and they’d successfully completed their first mission together despite some pretty severe setbacks.
She looked over at Aiden whose neck was still bruised. “Everyone in one piece?” she asked, flicking her gaze over Jace and Ben as well.
“For the most part,” Aiden admitted. His soft, understanding smile was filed away along with everything else she’d learned about him over the last week and a half.
“Where’s the crown?” Alice asked.
Jack and Louis seemed fine considering, but Alice was definitely still pissed at Emily’s little game.
“We would have died without it,” Emily told her. “And I remember you agreeing to let us have it if we got you the Vorpal sword.”
Those blue eyes flashed at her and Jace stepped closer to Emily, shoulder slightly between the both of them. Emily couldn’t tell if it was because he thought Emily might just slit her throat or if he thought Alice was going to slice Emily’s head off with that pretty sword of hers.
“I did,” Alice admitted, hefting the sword in one hand. It wasn’t light and Emily filed that bit of information away as well. “Do you still have the crown?”
Emily reached into her pack and pulled it out, ignoring the siren call to place it back on her head where it had fit so perfectly.
Twirling it around her finger, she smiled slightly at the blonde female who set her teeth on edge. “I do. So, I’d say our deal here is done.”
“You nearly got them killed,” Alice hissed, knuckles turning white as her grip tightened on the sword.
“I also saved them,” Emily said, standing with the crown in hand. “I’d say we’re even considering the fact you lied about those creatures not being able to scent us.”
“I didn’t lie.” Alice’s cheeks were turning red and Emily could see her anger blazing in her aura amongst the softer pinks of her normal personality.
Jack appeared out of the shadows like he was made from them and set a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “She didn’t lie. We simply got some bad luck.”
Aiden snorted at that and hefted his pack over his shoulder. “That was some pretty spectacular bad luck then.”
“No shit,” Jace muttered. “Our deal here is d
one, and no one technically betrayed anyone. You don’t have to like the way she went about it, but if it weren’t for Emily’s quick thinking, we’d all be monster meat.”
Alice sighed and sheathed the sword at her back. “That did not go as planned. I apologize.”
“We made it out, and we got what we needed,” Louis told her, one hand on his side where the bandage was wrapped around his torso. “Jace is right. We’d all be captured again, Alice, if not for them.”
Those ice blue eyes were so cold Emily knew it would burn if Alice ever decided to unleash her wrath. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, but I don’t have to like it.”
“No one asked you to,” Emily said with a smirk. “So, can we be on our way, or do you need an escort to your base?”
Alice glared at Emily, and then the anger just drained away. It was the strangest thing she’d ever seen, but the violent red calmed and Alice was once more that smiling woman who had saved them from Dead Man’s River.
“I apologize,” Alice said again. “Really. I know you were trying to save the ones you love. If I had been in your position, I probably would have done the same.”
Emily studied the other female and wondered why, but it didn’t really matter. Alice saw something in her she related to – and given the color of her aura, Emily found that the most interesting of all.
Corbin had told her once what her aura looked like and it was something she’d never forget. And yet, this female saw a piece of herself in Emily. Even without her emotions on.
“I hope you win the war and make that red bitch pay,” Emily told her, holding out her hand.
Alice grinned. “I will.” She shook Emily’s hand, strong and sure. “No offense, but I hope to never see you again.”
“None taken.” Emily stepped back until she felt Chance at her side, Aiden on the other, and Ben watching over all of them.
Jace handed over a slip of paper to Louis. “This is where our safe house is in our world. You’re welcome to it at any time, if you can find a portal. I’ve written the code and parallel planes on there.”
Louis nodded once and tucked the paper away. “I hope we never need to use it. And you lot are all welcome to stay with us whenever you’re in Wonderland. Just expect us to put you to work.”