“You’re awake?” Irina slid smoothly out of her spot on the velvet backed chair by the huge dresser.
“Did you sleep in the chair?”
She pressed her hands to her hips. “I did not. Baal charged me to watch over you, and I did just that.”
“And he didn’t come back?”
“Briefly, to change clothes and deliver this.” She picked something off the dresser and leaned across the bed to hand it to me.
It was a small card with elegant handwriting—an invitation to a lunch. I looked up at her quizzically.
“Apparently the other sharmuta would like to get to know you a little better. Baal has been a much-coveted Overlord. They probably want to see what you have that they don’t.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Does Baal believe my life to be in danger?”
Irina blinked. “I can’t presume to know what Baal thinks.”
“No one knows who I am, not yet anyway, so there was no need for you to stay up all night watching over me.” I pushed back my covers. The irritation at finding out Baal hadn’t returned bloomed into something more. “I’ll be having words with Baal when I see him. In the meantime, go get some sleep.”
Irina blinked at me. “But Baal said—”
“Irina, do you believe that I’m the heir to the throne?”
She nodded.
“Then believe I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” I reached under my pillow and retrieved Frieda. “This is an extension of me, and I know how to use it. I may not have been born Fearless, but trust me, after the shit I’ve been through nothing scares me. So as your future fucking queen I command you to go get some bloody sleep.”
Irina stared at me for a long beat, and then a genuine smile curved her beautiful lips. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
She headed for the adjoining door. “But I’m sending Agares to the lunch with you. After all, I do work for Baal.”
_____
Forty minutes later, washed and dressed, brooch pinned to my waistband and Frieda strapped to my right calf, I made my way through the maze-like corridors of the palace to attend my little sharmuta lunch.
I didn’t know where Baal had spent the night, and I had no clue where he was now, but I would be making it damned clear when he returned that we were supposed to be doing this together. He needed to keep me in the loop about the shit that was going on here.
Agares led the way, asking directions at regular intervals until we managed to get a palace staff member to escort us the rest of the way.
We ended up outside. Cutting across the grass, we passed under a pretty hedge archway dotted with red and orange blooms and into a lush green garden space. The space was laid out with chairs and blankets. Some sharmuta perched on the chairs sipping from teacups and nibbling on tiny morsels of food, while others lay on the blankets soaking up the sun.
“Kenna, I’ll be waiting at the arch. It wouldn’t be accepted for a male to be in attendance here.”
I nodded and walked over to join the female djinn.
They looked up with interest as I approached. A couple smiled and waved, a few remained aloof, and one of them called out to me, waving me over. I recognised her as Kai’s woman, and thank goodness she was sitting on a chair with another free beside her.
I wove over to her and parked my butt. “Hi.”
“Hello, my name is Gia,” she said with a smile. “I’m so glad you accepted our invitation.”
Some of the others murmured in agreement.
I nodded. “It was nice of you to invite me. I’m pretty new to all this.”
“Your first Black Moon huh?”
I nodded.
“Well the ceremony itself is pretty boring, but the after party is what everyone looks forward to.”
“You mean there’s more partying?”
A sharmuta to my left burst into giggles. “Oh, isn’t she sweet.”
Gia smiled. “It’s all about indulgence and the nobility do love to indulge. The true significance of the Black Moon seems to have been forgotten.”
“Oh Gia please, do you have to bore our new friend with a history lesson?” a djinn lounging on a blanket a foot away asked.
“Just because you’re illiterate doesn’t mean we all have to stop learning,” Gia said, good-naturedly.
“I may not be able to read the words in a book, but I can say all the right things to make my lord come in his pants.”
The group burst into laughter.
“Bet that doesn’t take long, Riana,” another sharmuta with blonde wavy hair said. “I’ve heard lord Velar is a few inches short of a stack.”
“Maybe, but I’d rather get poked with four inches than get crushed by the girth of an equator.”
Gia leaned in. “You probably didn’t see lord Forneus, he’s been indisposed since they arrived—the trial of being stuck in a carriage for half a day took its toll on his bedsores.”
Eww. “So tell me, what is the Black Moon all about?”
Gia’s eyes lit up. “It’s a tribute to the seer—a most powerful djinn that resides on the dark side of the moon. Once every thirty-two years his gaze falls upon our world. It is a time for revelations, of looking to the future and seizing opportunity.”
Yeah she had that right.
“It is also the day when Ibris first rose from the pit.”
“Hang on? I thought Ibris was the first djinn?”
Gia smiled. “He was the first to walk this realm, yes, but we believe that there were djinn before, living out there among the stars. Ibris was the first to colonise our world.”
“So we do what? Pray?”
Her laughter was a delicate tinkle. “We touch the dark, connect with the seer, and hope to see our futures. The ceremony is always held in the throne room as the ceiling is domed glass, and we can watch as the moon turns fully. After that we have three days of blessing before the seer’s touch is taken from us for another thirty-two years.”
There was so much about my world I needed to learn.
Gia caught her bottom lip between her teeth, “And now I’ve told you something, maybe you can fill us in on what we’re all dying to know.”
“And what would that be?”
“What is he like?”
The garden was suddenly silent as every eye and every ear strained in attention.
Baal. They meant Baal. My stomach fluttered and my cheeks heated.
Gia’s gaze softened. “Oh, love … that good, huh?”
I tried to come up with a cocky response, but for once I was speechless, and it worked in my favour.
“I’m sooo jealous,” lord Forneus’s sharmuta said.
“Can I trade with you?” Riana asked.
“No way. He’s mine.” The words just popped out.
The women exchanged glances and then burst into laughter.
Their comments were so good natured, these women so nice, that I couldn’t help but join in.
A woman wearing Kai’s colours came running into the garden. “The maze is ready,” she said.
Everyone ooed and aahed and began to gather their things.
“Is lunch over?” I asked.
“Oh, it hasn’t started yet. We always do the maze first, there are prizes hidden inside from the lords, and once we have our booty we eat.”
“I don’t need any prizes,” I said.
Gia reached up to caress my cheek, her eyes soft. “I’m happy for you, I truly am. We do not all get the freedom of choice in our lives, and kindness and love is something that many of us only dream of. But we have each other, and if anything should change in your arrangements with your lord, you must always remember that you are now part of a sisterhood which will comfort you best we can. They parade us and attempt to pit use against one another, and we allow them to play their games. It is the way, and you’ll soon learn who you can and can’t trust.”
She stood, and her wrap got caught on her chair arm, slipping from her shoulders to reveal ugly black bruises on her shoulders.
“Gia?” I reached for her.
Her eyes widened and she quickly adjusted her wrap. “Don’t worry yourself. I have become accustomed to my lord’s affections. It may not have been the life I wanted, but I have resigned myself to living it the best I can.”
“Do others feel the same?”
“More and more since Ibris’s death. Before, a sharmuta was respected, coveted even, and permitted to choose the lord she wished to please. Abuse was not tolerated. I recall a story told to me by my father of a lord who enjoyed inflicting pain on his sharmutas. When the truth came to light, Ibris not only stripped him of his title but also banished him to Evernight.” She sighed. “But the world changes and we do what we must to survive. Come, we have a maze to run, and at this rate there’ll be no booty left.”
I followed her out of the garden toward the maze, nodding in Agares direction as we passed to let him know I was all right, but a new cinder of rage had ignited within me at Gia’s words, because no one should be treated that way. Kai was abusing his position of power and allowing others to do the same. If a woman wanted to be a sharmuta, then so be it, but no one should be forced into this life.
My anger nudged the alters from their slumber, causing them to exert their will against my defences. They wanted action, they wanted justice. Yes. All that and more would be delivered when the time came. There would be some major changes once my butt was parked on that throne.
30
BRETT
The sound of the bolt grating against the metal snapped him out of his hypnagogic reverie. Adrenaline punched his heart, and the wounds that had dulled to misty throbs flared into high-definition pain.
He bit back a moan as the door slid open and his friendly neighbourhood torturer entered, except this time he wasn’t alone.
There was another man with him—a tall slender man with cobalt skin and amber eyes. His high cheekbones, smooth skin, and regal air defied the streaks of grey that ran through his golden mane and the crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes—eyes that were now taking him in with unconcealed pity.
The guard stepped back to allow the blue man to enter.
He paused before Brett, his golden gaze soft and filled with empathy, and then he reached into his pocket and retrieved a slender box. He clicked it open to reveal a syringe filled with glowing silver fluid.
“What is that?” Brett asked.
“Luma, in its undiluted form.”
Brett tore his gaze from the syringe back to the djinn’s face, because it was obvious this creature wasn’t a Twilighter. And then it struck him … Could this be Caldwell? His chest flared with hope and his gaze flicked to the guard at the door who was busy picking his nails.
“Caldwell, you don’t have to do this.”
The man’s eyes widened a fraction. “How do you know my name?”
So his hunch had been right. “Baal has the black mages looking for you.”
Caldwell shook his head. “I fear it is too late.” He glanced at the door. “I’m sorry my friend, but I have no choice.”
“What are you going to do?”
He exhaled. “I admire your resilience. I wish I’d been as strong.”
He raised the syringe and brought it up toward Brett’s neck.
Brett bucked, straining against his bonds to get as far away from the needle as possible, but there was very little give in the shackles. The bite of the needle drained all the fight from him.
His hands began to burn, and his vision blurred.
“What …What did you do to me?”
“I’ve begun the remaking, my friend.”
31
Mazes sucked.
I hadn’t found a single prize yet, the sun was beginning to dip, and I was hopelessly lost.
Bored now. “Hello! Come on!”
Another left and then a right.
I had no idea how long I’d been in here, but it felt much too long. Gia had promised there was no way we could get lost, and that if everyone wasn’t out in forty minutes, the maze keeper would come retrieve the missing parties.
Wait … What if they were trying to find me but kept missing me because I kept moving? I leaned up against the hedge and slid to the ground, stretching my prosthetic out in front of me.
Nothing to do but wait.
Long minutes ticked by, and here, in the depths of the maze, where sound was muted, it felt like I was the only girl in the world. The air shimmered and a pair of masculine legs encased in soft leather boots appeared before me. I looked up into Davin’s gold-flecked gaze. He held out his hand, and I took it allowing him to pull me up, adjusting my weight to compensate for my limb.
He looked down at my leg. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing?”
He reached for my pants and I batted him away.
“Tell me.”
I blew out a breath. “I have a prosthetic.”
His brow crinkled. “You lost your limb?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I just kinda misplaced the darn thing. No. I did not lose it. I just … lost it.”
“I’m sorry, Kenna.”
“You remember my name?”
He chuckled. “Why? Do you not remember mine?”
“Of course I do, but you’re a djinn, and I was—am, just a human.”
“Yes, about that … What are you doing here, and with Baal nonetheless?”
“Would you believe me if I said I was taking a sabbatical from kicking denizen ass?”
He crossed his arms over his broad chest.
“Okay, but it was worth a try.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“Because I can’t. Not yet anyway.”
There was something about him that made me feel safe. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what though.
He sighed heavily. “You put me in an awkward position, Kenna. I am sworn to Kai and should tell him that you are not djinn.”
“But you haven’t, not yet. Why?”
He rolled his eyes heavenward. “I have no idea.”
I flashed him a cheeky smile. “So you’ll keep quiet?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Is that your official favour? Asking me to keep my silence about who you really are?”
Crap. I’d been hoping to use that for something else.
His eyes travelled down to my leg. “I can fix it, you know.”
My heart missed a beat. “What?”
“You’re leg. I can make you whole again.”
“No, that’s not possible. Baal would have said something if it were.”
It was Davin’s turn to smile, showcasing pearly whites. “Baal cannot tell you something he has no knowledge of.”
My heart was thudding against my ribcage now, slow and determined.
“I fixed Ben, remember? Gave him back his ability to walk.”
“But Ben had his limbs.”
“Useless lumps of flesh until I pressed life into them.”
“And then you took it away.”
“Yes I did. He was not deserving of my gift.”
“You could give me a leg, a real flesh-and-blood leg?” The tightness in my chest was too much, the flutter of longing in my throat a bitter truth. “How do you have this power?”
“A gift. A curse. I do not know, but it is not something I share lightly. Ben trapped me, forced me to do his bidding with dark magick, and you are already aware of my gift.”
“Kai?”
Davin snorted. “No.”
“So you don’t have to tell him everything?”
He took a step closer, his huge body pressing me back into the hedgerow. “No Kenna, I don’t. Do you have to tell Baal everything?”
My mouth was as dry as the desert. “What?”
His eyes bore into mine, his brow crinkled. “Why can’t I read you?”
I swallowed and lifted my chin. “I have my secrets too, Davin.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I like you Kenna.”
“I’ll
take that as a compliment. Now can you back up? I’m getting claustrophobic.”
He chuckled and took a step back. “So? Would you like me fix you?”
The moment of truth. I stared down at my prosthetic. The thought of having a real leg, having my old life back, was sweeter than the first bite of a perfectly ripe strawberry, but it wouldn’t be real. Davin could take it back at any moment. I’d be beholden to him, but it was more than that. As much as I wanted to go back to the way things had been, I wasn’t that woman anymore. There would always be the before-The-Hat-Man-Kenna, and the Kenna that was born after. I was djinn, and yet the fragility of my mortal body kept me grounded, kept me connected to my humanity, something Bella had died to gift to me. I couldn’t belittle her sacrifice by taking the risk that I may lose it.
“Kenna?”
“No.” I softened the rejection with a small smile. “This is who I am now.”
Davin cocked his head, and the muffled sound of footsteps drifted over the hedge.
“It looks like the maze keeper is almost upon us. Is that your final decision?” Davin asked.
Crap. Gah! I nodded.
“Very well, I will hold your favour for a while longer.”
“And you won’t tell Kai who I am?”
“I will keep your secret Kenna, if only for the entertainment of seeing how it plays out.”
I watched him shimmer out of existence just as the maze keeper came barrelling around the corner to my left.
32
BRETT
His blood ran like fire through his veins, every joint and sinew in his body screamed, and his head felt as if tiny blacksmiths had taken up residence inside his skull.
“Please. No more.”
“I’m sorry, so sorry,” Caldwell said. “I’ve done my best to dilute the doses in order to give you time, but I fear that Orin is becoming suspicious.”
Caldwell, yes, he’d found the mage. Found him but wished he hadn’t, because Caldwell was working for the enemy as a prisoner and a pawn.
Caldwell leaned in. “I’ve done all I can to make my presence known about the palace in the hope that the black mages will find me. I promise that if they come for me I will alert them to your predicament. Just hold on my friend.”
Into Evernight: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Fearless Destiny Book 2) Page 14