by Cassi Carver
“I feel so bad for Jaxon. What he and his mother have been through…it’s just not fair.”
Julian smiled. “Jaxon was incredibly brave. He brought honor to his mother and was instrumental in casting Brakken from the earth. When he wakes, he won’t need anyone to feel sorry for him, Kara. He can hold his head high.”
She stopped and thought about that. “Yes, he can.”
“I can’t sense Brakken’s energy trail. We’d better head back to the battle and hope he’s cocky enough to have returned.”
Kara snorted. “Oh, trust me. He’s cocky enough. I don’t think he’ll worry about you and me until he sees the door of the Abyss hitting him in the ass.”
Julian extended his hand. “Come.”
When Kara placed her fingers in his, a surge of emotion wound through her. “Julian,” she said quickly, and when he paused, she wrapped her arms around his ribs and squeezed.
His body was rigid for a moment, but then he laced his arms over her back and held her fiercely. “Are you sure you want to follow through on this next step? There’s no shame in staying on the surface. He can’t touch you there now.”
It had been so long since Kara had felt truly safe. There was a part of her that relished the idea of going home, putting on some fuzzy slippers and heating up some hot chocolate, maybe catching up on her favorite shows. But she knew that she had a destiny to fulfill. Being the only female in Demiáre history to manifest wings had to mean something.
When she’d been training for this, seeing the other females watching from the sidelines, she’d felt different. But now she understood. She was different. And it didn’t matter anymore if that was good or bad. It was simply meant to be.
She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to his chest. “When this is over, I’m going to have you and Gavin over for a game night, okay?”
Julian sounded utterly confused. “A game night? What’s that?”
She grinned and glanced up, staring into his dark eyes. “You know, we can play board games, or maybe cards, and I’ll make some special dessert. Just the three of us. It’ll be nice.” The image of the three of them together felt so right it hit her like a nine-pound hammer to the heart.
“I’m a black-wing, Kara.”
She nodded. “I know. I bet those reflexes would make you really good at Slapjack. Plus, you wouldn’t have to talk a lot.”
He laughed. “And I thought my being able to travel to the surface would be a good thing. I had no idea what I was in for.”
Despite his words, he held her tight. It made her wonder if he was more worried about what was to come than he let on. “Back to the battle?”
He released her but kept a grip on her hand. “Yes. I pray to the Maker I have what it takes to do this, Kara. I would not want your last memory of me to be disappointing to you.”
“What? Never. Just you being here when you didn’t have to be is all I ever hoped for. You have nothing else to prove.”
“Well, maybe one more thing.” He cupped his hand around her cheek and leaned down to kiss her. “That I love you and haven’t given up on us.”
She wanted to tell him that she was glad, but a moment later, they arrived back at the scene of carnage and it stole any sweet words from her mind.
In the time it had taken them to help the witches and limit Brakken’s flight plan, what had looked like chaos before had deteriorated even more. The warriors were much more spread out and there were fewer, making Kara panic, wondering where the rest had gone. Those who were still exchanging blows with their swords and dodging arrows were in much worse shape than the last time Kara had seen them. Most were bloodied and beaten, some were very seriously injured.
“Oh my God! That’s Ted!” Kara pointed to the warrior.
One of his arms was barely hanging on by a thread and his head had a deep gash in it. His movements were slowing and Kara knew he was just minutes, or even seconds, away from losing so much blood that he would go unconscious. And if that happened, there would be nothing to keep one of Brakken’s men from returning the favor of lopping off Ted’s head.
With her wings involuntarily spreading wide, Kara drew her weapon and streaked across the sky, replacing Ted’s sword with hers when Brakken’s warrior brought his arcing down. She held steady, not giving an inch even though the man was probably twice as strong as Kara.
“Lady K,” Ted said, but his words were slow and slurred. “No, lady. Stay back.”
Screw that, Kara thought, yanking her sword back and swinging it around hard, catching the other warrior in the side. She hadn’t hit him hard enough to do serious damage, but he backed away a few feet. It was enough distance for her to grab Ted and make for the island. A second later, Ted was moaning from the pain of flashing in his state, but Kara was completely unaffected.
As soon as his feet hit the ground in the square of Mercury Island, he dropped his sword and grasped his arm, as if pinning it to his side would make it any less mangled. “Help, somebody!” Kara called, and several demibreed warriors came rushing from the infirmary.
“He’s badly injured. He needs a healer,” she said.
“My lady, it’s wall-to-wall warriors in there and not to be insensitive, but the others are worse.”
Holy shit. They were worse? “And Lord Gavin? Where is he?”
“No one has seen him. Lord Aiden was injured but was able to repair the damage and return to the Shadowland. I was hoping he’d come here soon to help with the worst of the wounded.”
“Okay. I’ll look for him and Gavin when I get there.”
“We’ll take care of Tedadianthus, my lady. Do you need another silver-wing to take you back?”
She was confused for a moment, wondering how he thought she got here in the first place, then she realized he would have thought Ted brought her. “No, I have it covered. See?”
Her wings had been folded against her back, but she stretched them out and had the temporary delight of seeing the demibreed’s eyes go wide.
A moment later, she was back in Brakken’s territory, and when Julian saw her, he flashed to her side. If his flared nostrils were any indication, he was fuming mad. “Don’t you dare do that again,” he told her.
“Did you see Ted? He wasn’t going to last another minute.”
“Let the Mercury Lords worry about their men. We have a job to do.”
“Have you found Brakken?” she asked.
He frowned. “No. And…I haven’t found Gavin either.”
Kara tried to understand the correlation between those two statements, and then her stomach dropped. “No. No, no, no. Do you think Brakken has him?”
“I think it’s a possibility.”
“And how do we find them? Shit! Why did Aiden ever take those charms from me? I could have tracked Gavin that way. If you find Aiden, tell him I need those back.”
“There are other ways.” Julian flashed then returned a minute later with a warrior on the end of a tether. The warrior’s wings had been clipped, something Kara hadn’t seen since the first night she’d met the risen Julian.
The warrior bared his fangs at Kara, and with the way Julian had him tied, he looked like a feral dog on a leash.
“Where’s your master?” Kara asked him.
“Brakken is not my master. He’s a monster. A true devil. Some of us thought Prince Gavine would be a better man, but no. Your clan isn’t any better.” With that, he spit, and Julian gave a quick tug on the tether.
Kara blinked, then she looked around at the bodies strewn across the desert. At least two thirds of them were Brakken’s men. “I can see why you would think that, but Gavin is a good man. He’s kind, he’s fair and he’s loyal. But he can’t allow Brakken to continue on as he has. We mean to send him to the Abyss.”
The warrior’s eyes went wide. “And then what becomes of us if you succeed? You hunt us down one by one?”
Julian met her eyes, as if he hadn’t considered that angle. “There are some who’ll need to be punished
for what they’ve done,” she answered, the image of Rachel’s keeper coming to mind. “But the others…you can go free. Start over.”
He narrowed his eyes, as if unsure if she was toying with him. “Where?”
“Wherever you want. Here. The surface. It’s up to you.”
“Do you give me your word that when the fighting ends here, we can go free?”
“Uh…” Her word? Did she have the authority to do that? “I’m not the head of the Mercury Clan, but I promise you that I will do whatever I can to make that happen—for the warriors who didn’t have a choice but to fight.”
The man smiled, and he looked kind of rusty at pulling up the corners of his lips. “I believe you.”
Kara’s brows rose. “You do?”
“Yes. If you were trying to deceive me, you would have crafted a much better promise than that pathetic vow.”
Well, there you go. “So will you help us find Brakken? Will you help us end this violence while you still have friends out there to save?”
“Yes.”
“Julian.” She shook her head and gestured to the leash.
“What?” He looked like a little boy who’d had his favorite toy confiscated by his mother. “Really?”
She nodded and with a flick of his hand, the rope around the man’s neck vanished. Now as for his wings…only time was going to help those. “We’ll follow your lead,” Kara told the man. “And what’s your name?”
He stilled. “You want to know my name, my lady?”
“Well, if you don’t mind my asking?”
The man stood and almost looked embarrassed to be talking to her now. Fighting for his life he was all snarls and fangs, but with just a little kindness, he was practically turning bashful. Wow, when was the last time Brakken let these guys get out?
“My name is Lancelot.” He bowed his head when he said it.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Kara told him, and behind Lancelot, Julian did a major eye roll.
“Ready now?” Julian asked her. “Anything else you like to discuss? Childhood wounds, perhaps, or your feelings on your latest book club selection?”
Now it was Kara’s turn to roll her eyes.
“You are looking for Brakken and Prince Gavine?”
Kara knotted her hands. “Brakken—yes. Let’s hope Gavin isn’t with him, though.”
“If Brakken decided to pass time on the surface, I won’t be able to take you there.” He tossed a glare over his shoulder at Julian and waggled his stumpy wings to illustrate his point.
“He’s not on the surface,” Kara answered.
“How do you know?” Lancelot asked.
“Because,” Julian said, “he was cast from the surface using Death Magic. He won’t be welcome there any longer.”
“You have a Death Magic coven under your control?” the man asked.
“The high priestess of the entire Northwestern Hemisphere takes orders directly from me,” Kara said.
Lancelot’s expression was precious. Kara could almost see him wondering just what kind of people he was dealing with here. When Julian ducked his chin and raised his brows, staring at Kara through narrowed eyes, she said, “What? She does! Sometimes. I asked her to stop putting hot peppers in our spaghetti sauce and she puts them on the side now. Jaxon loves spicy food, so it was a real victory for me.”
Julian put his hands up. “So be it.”
“Just don’t tell her I said that…about the orders thing. She’ll probably cast me from the surface next. Lance—vow of silence, okay?”
Lancelot nodded. “Very well.”
“So, silver-wing, take us to your soon-to-be-no-more master.”
“Gladly.”
Since Lancelot couldn’t fly anymore and Kara wasn’t skilled enough with her new wings to be able to navigate over a long distance while carrying a two-hundred-pound warrior, Julian was stuck carrying the man in his arms. Maybe he shouldn’t have clipped Lancelot’s wings, but it was the fastest method Julian could think of to keep the man from simply flashing away.
“That’s his main compound.” Lancelot pointed to a vast wall of cliff dwellings.
Julian shook his head. “It looks more like a maze than a main compound.”
“You have that right, black-wing. The external dwellings are only on the surface of the mountainside. Once you’re inside, it truly is a maze of sorts.”
“If he took Gavin…” Kara began, and she couldn’t cover the fear in her voice, “where do you think they would have gone?”
Lancelot frowned. “I can’t say. Perhaps the torture chamber? But then Brakken has a knack for making any locale suitable for torture, and he doesn’t make it to the actual room as often as you might think. Although some of my best friends saw the inside, and I never saw them again.”
Kara had once told Julian about posttraumatic stress disorder, and he could hear her now. She would want to sign up all these warriors for therapy. Gavin and Julian could likely provide a better therapy—a quick death for the ones who’d been warped by Brakken’s cruelty and a good riddance to the ones who might be able to readjust to life outside the crazy black-wing’s kingdom.
“Julian?” Kara asked. He still felt something strange and squiggly in his chest when she said his name. He always had, even from the first night in the alley when he’d come upon her with her seductive scent and prideful attitude. “Do you have any gut feelings on this?”
“The torture chamber might be it, but Brakken knows the best way to hurt Gavin is to force Gavin to hurt an innocent or to witness it happening. No other physical punishment could compare.”
Kara gasped. “Oh, no. Don’t say that. Don’t even think it.”
“Think what?” Lancelot asked. “What am I missing, my lady?”
“The females,” Julian answered. “Killing Gavin won’t be enough to appease Brakken’s anger. Especially not now that he was bested by a witch. Can you get us to where he keeps the menagerie?”
“Of course. There is a secret entrance in the side of the mountain there.” He pointed to a cliff dwelling that looked much the same as any of the other stone houses. “Though I wouldn’t say it’s that much of a secret. Many a warrior has lost his life over the years sneaking through that door. I myself was invited by a lady back in 1917. Of course, I didn’t go through with it, which is why I’m still alive and kicking today.”
“If he’s in there, Julian, how do we get him out? How do we get them all out?”
He would do what he could to save Gavin Cross, for Kara and for the fact that the stories of his and Gavin’s former friendship intrigued him. But with the rage Brakken had been in when Julian last saw him, Gavin might already be dead.
“Julian?”
He glanced at Kara. “We don’t need to get them out. We need to get Brakken out. I just need to make sure he doesn’t nick me with an arrow again. Whatever they’re made of, it brings me too close to corporeal for my comfort. And as for you…”
He looked Kara up and down and shook his head. Why was he letting her be a part of this? Damn the Sanctiáre to hell. Without Kara, his existence would be flat and one-dimensional. Maybe it was true that the Aniliáre didn’t know how to love, but Kara had taught him. If he lost her he would have no reason to maintain his tenuous grip on his humanity.
But what if he rescued Gavin Cross and then lost Kara anyway? The two had already “made love”. That’s what Gavin had called it. Regardless of what nonsense Gavin spoke about his and Julian’s past friendship, maybe Julian should be thankful his competition with the man could soon be over thanks to Brakken.
But that would destroy Kara, and putting her through that pain wasn’t something Julian could willingly do. He felt trapped with few options. Kara hadn’t even forgiven him yet for trying to protect her from the scout. His only choice was to keep her close and keep her safe.
They flew low, heading for the cliff dwelling that Brakken’s warrior had pointed out. “You’re lucky I’m here,” Lancelot said. “Once you e
nter the maze, you won’t be able to find your way out without me.”
“Yes, we’re very lucky,” Julian said dryly. “How did I ever find you? Oh, yes, I plucked you from the sky like low-lying fruit.”
“Thank you, Lance,” Kara told him and flew close enough to shove Julian’s shoulder. When the warrior flashed her a truly dopey smile, Julian had sudden fantasies about removing the smile with four knuckles to the mouth.
When they alighted on the side of the cliff, Julian released the man.
“It’s through here,” Lancelot whispered, crouching low and making his way through the stacked-stone entrance. “There used to be booby traps, but I’m not sure they even work anymore. And if you know what to look for—” He pointed to a stone that stood up just a little higher on the floor than the others, and he carefully avoided that one with his boot.
But with Lancelot’s next step, the walls around them exploded.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kara simply sat for a moment, trying to understand what had just happened. Empty adobe room. Fallen stones littered the floor. Arrows. Thick, short arrows about three inches long lay scattered about the room. Except for the ones in Kara. She blinked. “Julian?”
Her black-wing was almost transparent, but he gained substance there on the floor, bowing over her. “You…Kara…I’m so sorry. By the time I saw it coming, I couldn’t stop it.”
Her head lolled back, but she caught it. “Don’t be sorry. I’m just glad you went misty. Wish I could do that.” But she hadn’t even had the time or forethought to flash.
She glanced down at her legs to see several spikes sticking from her thighs and calves. But what hurt was her stomach. “Oh, crap.” She had a spike through her abdomen and another just under her ribs.
“You’re going to be all right, love.” Julian squeezed her hand. “We’re just lucky Brakken’s warrior was in the lead.”
“Lance?” She whipped her head around and that’s when she saw him. He looked like a porcupine with half-inch diameter quills protruding from every part of him. “Oh my God. Julian, help him!”