Guardians of Hellfire (Guardians of the Fae Book 2)

by Elizabeth Hartwell

  “You . . . you’re . . .” I whisper, trying to sit up but failing.

  Lysette laughs, slapping me hard and making my head spin even more. “You stole from my Queen, you took from her, and now you’ll pay. Cole was to be hers.”

  “Hers . . .?” I gasp, the world growing dark. No, it can’t end like this. Not like this.

  “She was to have Cole and I was to have Jacob. After we’d had our fun, we’d use the draining spell she taught me. We were just waiting to build Jacob up so we could take them, make them ours, and rejuvenate our body and spirit with their essences. It’s a very rare gift, a very powerful spell . . . and only Cassina knows it all. She was to finish her teaching the night we took Cole and Jacob together.”

  “Vampire,” I hiss, anger giving me a little bit of strength. Lysette recoils and slaps me again.

  “Filthy Halfling whore, comparing Her Perfection to a disgusting demon degenerate! Fine, I was going to be nice and let you drift away first, do it painlessly as thanks for letting me go, but I think you deserve something more direct.”

  Lysette kneels on my chest, driving the wind out of me and reaching into the belt around the waist of her dress, pulling out a dagger. “Now this . . . this is why we had to wait,” she says as the world goes darker, everything narrowing to just blackness and her evil, leering face. “Her Highness sent this to me for just this purpose, its enchantment is that dangerous. Even your power won’t survive this. Goodbye, bitch.”

  Lysette brings the dagger up, making sure she has the angle she wants, but as she starts to plunge it downward, something takes over. I somehow find the strength to bring my arms up and the blade strikes my bracers, a spark flashing as metal meets metal.

  Freedom.

  My bracers nearly dissolve, the enchanted metal stressed one too many times, one too many blows and one too many requests to hold back my power. The golden dust rains around my face, and my power explodes outward, Lysette flung across the room to hit the wall headfirst. I hear a crack, and she falls to the ground.

  I’m on my feet, power coursing through me as I look around, green illuminating everything. Hurrying over, I kneel down, but I don’t even need to check her pulse. The way her neck’s twisted, it’s certain. Lysette’s dead.

  Time to . . . kill, my inner voice says, and I quail, rebelling as hard as I can.

  “No!” I grunt as my hands lift, a giant ball of demon fire building. “No!”

  You no longer have any choice, the voice says again, and out of the shadows, the Dark Rider emerges, lifting off his helmet and exposing a face of terrible beauty. Golden ringlets of hair flow down and over the black shoulders of his armor, and as he looks at me, he smiles. This time, I cannot risk your conscience playing a role. Now . . . I’ve taken control.

  The ball in my hands flies out to explode against the stones near my window, a wave of evil power blowing out the wall and setting the wing of the castle on fire. But as I lift off the ground and start floating toward the hole in the wall, all I can do is watch as the Dark Rider floats next to me.

  “Where are we going?”

  Where do you think? The Gate.

  “Oh my god no.”

  The chilling laughter is even darker than the night as we float out of the castle, and down into the courtyard below.

  It was true. The legend was true.

  Chapter 34

  Cole

  “I must be going soft,” Noah grumbles as he adjusts the night cloak over his shoulders. “I never wore a cloak on duty around Lunare.”

  Cole chuckles, wishing he could wear a cloak, but his sword demands that he wear only a tunic. Thankfully, he thinks, he remembers what it’s like to serve in the northlands. “It could be worse, this is only early fall. After harvest, things will become worse.”

  Noah shivers, tightening his cloak and looking at his friend. “We haven’t spoken on it much, but how are you adjusting to the homecoming?”

  Cole looks out over the castle walls, over the southern approaches to the city and nods. “In a way, I would have preferred my father and mother to be here, but it has been a good visit.”

  “You speak as if it’s temporary,” Noah says, leaning on the stone wall. “Yet it seems your sisters would prefer we stay for much longer.”

  Cole nods, pointing south. “That may be true. And if I had my way, I’d stay here with our family for a time. Long enough that we can make sure Eve is fully trained, that she’s in command of her powers, but more importantly that we can start a family. Declaration Dance aside, there are many things that would make having a long-term home nice.”

  “Family as in like . . . children?” Noah asks, and Cole nods. “I think after Tyler’s comment the other night, it’s been on all our minds. I’ll admit to thinking about it myself. It would make raising a child easier to settle down in one place.”

  Cole chuckles, nodding. He wondered if Eve was ready for the relatively slow pace at which Fae raise their children. When you have a lifetime of a thousand years to look forward to, things tend to move slower. “True. Just imagine what problems we’ll have with Jacob’s children. We’ll need a stable place.”

  Noah laughs, shaking his head. “I think all of our children will bear watching.”

  Suddenly, a piercing scream shatters the quiet of the night, and Cole looks south. In the distance, a red glow begins to light the horizon, and lashes of light begin to appear in the fields approaching the Castle.

  “Report!” Cole yells, taking command immediately.

  Within thirty seconds, a Vale trooper runs up, his bow in his hand. “Lunarian troops, my lord! Our reconnaissance says at least a regiment’s worth, and they bear the crests of the Queen’s Guard!”

  “Are there handmaidens among them?” Cole asks as the fires approach. He thought of the family that had helped him, Justin and his wife and children, but he knew there was little he could do for them right now. “What do they say of magic?”

  “We don’t know yet, sir,” the trooper replies. A scream from the inner castle village jerks them aside, and Cole curses himself for a fool. It’s standard Fae battle tactics, to use a few fast-moving troops to range ahead, spreading chaos and discord for the main body of armored troopers.

  “Close the south gates, get every fighting man mobilized, and sound the city alarm, get the people indoors and prepared,” Cole orders. “I want our best archers on the parapets, ready to repel attackers, and-”

  A tremendous explosion sends Cole tumbling to the stone, Noah grunting as his shoulder hits the flagstones. Cole staggers to his feet, watching as a wave of dark magical fire sweeps out, catching four buildings in the castle village and making them burst into flames.

  “What the-”

  A green glow blazes, and Cole gasps as Eve floats out of the hole in the castle wall, her eyes blazing and her hands held out to her side. Cole watches, but she’s not alone. Squinting, he can see a dark figure in the glow of the demon light surrounding her, mirroring her movements.

  “Eve!”

  Eve turns to look at them, but doesn’t stop as she keeps floating down, another fireball erupting from her hands to devastate the castle stables. Still, Eve doesn’t look like she’s in control, and as Cole watches three more fireballs spit from her hands to light more of the inner village on fire.

  “My lord!” the trooper with them yells, and Cole makes a decision. He’s not a lord, he gave that up centuries ago. Regardless of if these men respect him or not, he knows that whatever the Lunarian troops might be bringing, the real danger has just touched down in the courtyard below, blowing out the northern gates to the city with a blast of demon fire.

  “Get those fires out, defend the wall, and tell Deara that the Lunarian troops are not to be allowed anywhere near the north gates!” Cole commands, helping Noah up. “Noah, you okay?”

  “Pssh, it’ll take more than a tumble to stop me,” Noah grunts, clearly in pain but steady on his feet. “Was that-”

  “Eve . . . with the Da
rk Rider,” Cole says. “I could finally see him.”

  Tyler, Jacob. Eve has been taken over by the Dark Rider, Cole sends over his Link. We have to go after her, her powers are unleashed.

  Already moving, Jacob sends back.

  Tyler’s a little slower in response. I took a shot at the Dark Rider, they’re surrounded by some sort of magical field. My arrow just bounced off.

  Cole knows how much it must have worried Tyler to even attempt the shot, and he looks at Noah, whose eyes reflect the same knowledge. “Come on,” he says, heading for the stairs down to the courtyard. “Perhaps my sword can do something.”

  They run down the stairs, and Cole’s surprised when they are met in the hellish courtyard by Lorelai, who’s dressed as a warrior. Other than in a few ceremonial situations centuries ago, Cole’s never seen his sister dressed this way. Still, it’s somehow appropriate on her, and her battle mask lends her a dramatic, focused appearance. “You will need this,” she says, handing Cole the star stone dagger from Eve’s battle gear. “To stop her.”

  Cole nods, shoving the sheath on his belt and pausing. “Help me, Lorelai. How can I stop her without killing her?”

  Lorelai looks at the rampaging wake of Eve’s destruction, and points toward the water far below. “I’ll meet you at the Lake, that’s where they’re headed. Just remember, Cole, the most powerful magic is not in the light or the dark, but in the heart. Now go!”

  Cole and Noah look at each other, and then run, Jacob and Tyler joining them at the gate.

  “What’s the plan?” Jacob asks.

  “She’s heading for the Lake, Lorelai said,” Cole says, pressing hard to close the gap with Eve.

  “The Gate,” Noah rasps before shifting to their Link. In the library, Eve read a legend, she suspects that one of the five Gates is in The Vale’s Lake.

  She may be right, Cole replies. There are many local legends of strange occurrences on the Lake. Most of the locals will not fish in it, the animals pulled out are not always . . . safe.

  So what’s the plan? Jacob asks, jumping over the burning remains of what Cole hopes is just a log and not something worse.

  We get ahead of her, clear her path, Cole replies. If I get an opportunity, I’ll use my sword to try and kill the Rider. If not . . . I have her star stone dagger. We will do what we must, as love demands.

  Remember Lorelai’s words, Noah says as he sprints ahead, turning to loop around Eve’s path of destruction and get ahead. Love is the most powerful magic.

  Cole nods, and the group splits. He hopes they can limit the destruction, but he doesn’t know what good all their effort will do.

  Everything’s gone to Hell, and it’s come to his home.

  Chapter 35

  Eve

  The ground floats an inch beneath my feet, and I fight as hard as I can, but I can’t stop the fire shooting from my fingertips.

  “Stop this . . . this isn’t about power or freedom anymore,” I plead with the Dark Rider. Suddenly, a town Guardsman charges toward me, spear raised and I glare at him, the force from my eyes sending him flying backward, bouncing off a stone wall. The force didn’t feel as powerful as when I blasted Lysette away. I hope he’s not . . . “This is wrong.”

  From a certain point of view. But we don’t care about that, they are vermin in the presence of our power, the Dark Rider says, casually tossing a bolt of fire from my hand toward a house. It explodes, and I can only hope that the people inside have seen the destruction I’ve sown previously and fled.

  It’s maybe the only mercy the Dark Rider has given the poor people of The Vale. He seems to be more concerned with general chaos and destruction than actually killing each citizen. So we’re going at an almost casual walking pace, throwing fireballs left and right and destroying much of what’s in our path.

  “They aren’t vermin . . . they’re good people. They’re not like Cassina or Lysette.”

  The Dark Rider chuckles, the sound like steel tearing through sheet metal in my brain. Those two . . . so easy to manipulate. Cassina with her vanity and fear of growing old, Lysette with her fanatical devotion to her Mistress. All it took was nudging them in the right direction, and they served my purposes so well.

  “How many?” I rasp, still trying to fight my powers but losing. “How many have you played like chess pieces?”

  Many. Trust me, little one, it doesn’t take that much mental power to manipulate weaklings. Humans are more difficult, just because I needed to manipulate so many more to create the effects I want.

  “You’re a monster!” I growl, anger flaring inside me. “You sow death and misery!”

  We all have our role to play. I merely wish to return the world to what it is supposed to be. Anarchy, where strength is the only law that matters. But let me show you how I’ve brought you here, little one.

  A light flashes, and I see the Dark Rider leaving a hotel room, chuckling under his breath as he adjusts his cock through his black tailored suit pants. She was so easy, eager to sample the forbidden pleasures of the human realm, she didn’t even realize that the man she thought she was seducing was in fact seducing her . . . and leaving her with a gift she could never take back to the Fae realm.

  Nine months later, he’s standing outside a house, looking up in satisfaction as a soft cry filters through the soft Southern air, followed by a scream of terror. His plan’s in place . . . now he just needs to prepare the path.

  The Dark Rider giving orders to Joe Gonzalez, telling him how to set up the dominoes in Haven, and when to push them over and make them fall.

  The Dark Rider encouraging the Vampires to emerge, to try and take over.

  Swirling through the Gray, knocking me off of Cole at just the right time to send me tumbling into a pile of horseshit and scattering my Guardian’s weapons into a forest, lost forever.

  “You’ve been there every step of the way,” I whisper as the world comes back into focus and I see another fireball take a man’s head off. “Why me?”

  Because you are important, the one to open the Gate again.

  A chill goes through me, and I force myself to look at him, his golden curls and insane eyes total contrasts of innocent beauty and malicious evil. “So the Gate is here.”

  That it is.

  I hear a yell from the side and it’s Noah, his staff raised over his head as he strikes at the Dark Rider, but his staff shatters on the field that surrounds us and he’s sent hurtling off.

  “No!”

  Stop resisting me and they’ll be allowed to live, the Dark Rider threatens me. If not, I’ll kill him now . . . by your hand.

  “I . . . I’ll stop fighting,” I whisper, and the Dark Rider laughs.

  That’s a good little one. Oh, how I’m looking forward to spending more time with you.

  We keep making our way toward the Lake, and there’s a dark side of me that revels in the wanton destruction. It’s sort of like when I was a kid, and I got to kick down the Christmas gift box fort. Or that one time I for some reason got a huge rush when I accidentally kicked a soccer ball through the back window . . . though I felt incredibly guilty a minute later.

  We reach the edge of the lake, and the Dark Rider stops me. This part must be you. I can’t influence you. Raise the Gate.

  “But . . . how?” I ask, though suddenly the knowledge blooms in my mind, and I know. Words that no mouth should be able to form pour from my lips, and I raise my hands, chanting in an unknown language.

  A great rumble shakes the ground, and in the middle of the lake a platform lifts out of the water. It’s all black rock, shining in the light of the silvery white light of the moon. A weak red pulsing light in the center of an obelisk stabs into the sky, and the Dark Rider rubs his hands together in glee.

  Time to open the gate. Come, little one.

  “Wait,” I beg, trying to stall for time, for some form of miracle. “Who are you?”

  The Dark Rider turns to me, and smirks. It’s a smirk I’ve seen before, but it takes
me a few seconds before I can place it. The eyes, the way his cheekbones aren’t quite high but aren’t flat either . . . I’ve seen them before. In my mirror.

  “No!”

  Yes, my little Eve. Oh, I laughed so hard when your mother named you that. I mean, they screwed up the details, but there was another Eve, long ago. She fell to my power too.

  “You . . . you’re . . .!” I cry out, and the Dark Rider shakes his head.

  No . . . although the old saying that my greatest trick was convincing the world I don’t exist certainly holds true. Long ago, I was the Light. I was everywhere, and I was alone. Then my universe collapsed, and after so long that you can’t imagine, I was no longer alone. Everyone was with me, I was everywhere, I was everything. The realms were in me, and I was in all realms. And then one fool, one do-gooder stole the mantle of the Light from me, and the universe was reborn anew. But all I want is to have things back the way they were. So I became what was necessary. For every positive, there must be a negative, the universe runs on a zero-sum game. I became the Darkness.

  “And what do I call you?”

  How about Father? the Dark Rider asks, smiling. Oh, not this form, this is just my shade. As powerful as it is, I still am only an avatar in this realm. But I look forward to meeting you in the flesh, Daughter.

  “You’re a liar!” I growl, staring into his eyes. “My father died in a car crash.”

  Ah yes, the meatsuit who burped you . . . a necessary tool, discarded when no longer needed. You needed to see that humans are vermin, aberrations in the fabric of the universe, and the Fae are just foppish sycophants to the Light. But no more delays, your betrothed approach and I don’t want them interfering in the ceremony.