Taste My Wrath (The Iron Fae Book 1)

by Debbie Cassidy

  “Why what?” He sounded confused.

  “Why does everything have to be on your terms?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You decide when I get to touch you, but you touch me whenever you want.”

  He sighed. “If you’d prefer me not to touch you, all you need to do is say so.”

  Urgh. He made me sound like a brat, a stupid, petty brat, but that wasn’t it at all. The truth was all tangled and complicated, and the timing of everything was off.

  I kept my voice even, mimicking his calm tone. “I don’t mean that, and you know it.”

  Silence hung between us for long seconds, and then his shoulders dropped slightly. I hadn’t even noticed they’d been tensed.

  “It takes energy to touch and be felt,” he admitted. “I expended a lot when I fought the Danaan and then carried you.”

  In other words, he hadn’t intentionally smoked on me. “Okay. I guess that makes sense.”

  Two lines appeared between his shadow eyebrows. “It means I can’t carry you to the next wall. It means I can only accompany you part of the way before…”

  My heart sank. “Before the sun comes up.”

  Before he was forced to leave me. I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want him to leave me, and I sounded like a whiny, scared bitch.

  “You’re strong, Dani,” he said. “You can do this. You don’t need me.”

  Yes, yes, I did. I needed him, and I wanted him, but those weren’t words that I could say right now even though my throat ached from suppressing them.

  Instead, I reminded him of the facts. “I almost got killed.”

  He shrugged. “Your hand was on your sword when I got to you. You would have freed yourself.”

  He was acting all cool now, but in that moment by the fire, I’d heard the desperation in his voice. In that moment, he’d been afraid. In that moment, he’d torn a Danaan to shreds, and in that moment, he’d kissed me. He’d fractured for a moment, and I’d melted into those cracks, taking what I could and giving whatever he’d accept, and now…Now those cracks were sealed, and we were back to mentor and pupil.

  “You don’t need me,” he said again.

  I doubt it was me he was trying to convince. Still. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “I mean it.”

  “I know.” I guess now wasn’t the time to hide behind quips and humor. “It can’t be long to the center now, right?”

  “I believe it’s beyond the next skywall.”

  I blinked up at him. “How can you know that?”

  “There are only four seasons on this planet,” he said. “But there were five in their original world, and I believe that the final part of this labyrinth will see you pitted against that season.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  “The season of storms. The most dangerous and the most exhilarating.”

  He knew so much. Too much. My gut twisted with foreboding. “If I hadn’t known you for so many years, if you hadn’t saved my life, I’d think you were one of them.”

  His back stiffened, spine straightening. “You’d compare me to them?” His voice was as stiff as his posture.

  I’d insulted him with my half-arsed accusation.

  “I…I’m sorry. You just know way too much about them, that’s all. You can’t blame me for wondering.”

  “Wondering? Would one of them save your life?”

  The Winter prince. I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to argue with him.

  He made a sound of exasperation. “There are many ways to gather knowledge, Danika.” There was a crisp edge to his tone, reminding me that he was the mentor and I the student.

  He stepped away from me. “Stay here while I find the wall. I’ll be back soon.”

  And then he was gone.

  The final wall was to the west. The trumpet of horns filled the night, and the world rumbled beneath our feet at regular, short intervals. Music drifted from the left and the right.

  Confusion.

  That was all there was.

  My head ached from concentrating on our path. Killion stopped after every rumble and adjusted our direction accordingly. The compass no longer worked. The needle swung back and forth with no conviction. Killion was my compass now.

  There was a crackle to the air that had my hair standing on end all over my body. It drew my nipples into peaks and sent tingles to my core. It was a heightening of sensation that came and went like a tide. Like a pulse washing across the land.

  “Can you feel that?” Killion asked.

  I cleared my throat. “Um, yeah.”

  He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I think it may have something to do with the center of this labyrinth.”

  The storm season. What kind of storm had this effect? But the closer we got to the wall, the worse the waves got, and then the sky began to turn gray.

  Sun-up was imminent.

  The days were super short here and the nights even more so. As if time had been condensed.

  “How much farther?”

  “Six hours at your pace,” Killion said.

  It wasn’t a dig, just a fact. He looked up at the rapidly lightening sky, and my stomach sank.

  “I don’t want you to go.” I made a grab for his hand, and this time he remained solid. “I wish you could stay.”

  I was stepping over the line he’d redrawn earlier, but I didn’t give a shit.

  He squeezed my fingers slightly and stopped to face me. “Listen to me, Dani. Whatever happens, you need to live.” Behind him, the sky grew lighter. “Don’t be a hero. Not when you’re this close. Remember to weigh the risks. Remember that not everyone can be saved in this place, but if you live, thousands of lives may be protected outside.”

  He grazed my cheek with his fingers as if committing my face to memory, and then the sun came up, obliterating him.

  The Autumn orchards didn’t last. With the next rumble, the world beneath my feet shook and then spun. I crouched, palms kissing the earth to ground myself against the dizziness and confusion, and when the noise died down, the trees were gone, and a narrow track stretched out in front of me, sloping gently down toward a village of tiny houses and winding streets. There was even a steeple reaching for the sky.

  The compass was useless, and without Killion, I had no clue if I was headed in the right direction. What to do? Change course or go forward? The sound of hooves in the distance galvanized me into action. There was no cover on the track or either side of it, but there was plenty of cover in the village.

  I broke into a run, away from the sound of hooves and toward potential safety. By the time I hit the village, my limbs were heavy with exhaustion. The sound of hooves was still on the wind. They were headed this way. I needed to take cover. A farmhouse stood to the left, surrounded by land; there was even a pasture visible rolling out behind it. I barreled toward it and slipped under the porch awning. The door was ajar, but there was no time for caution. I needed to hide. I ducked inside, stifling a sneeze as dust motes tickled my nostrils.

  The sound of a horn being blown shattered the silence. So close. Too close. Just outside. I stood with my back to the wall beside the window by the door and then peered out in time to see two figures on wulvhounds gallop past. They had full-sized baku with them too, prickly spines puffed out so they vibrated as they ran.

  I sank to the ground, my heart beating way too fast. I was safe. For now. Maybe they’d just run all the way through the village. I’d wait for an hour then head out. At least I knew I was on the right track. The wall had to be this way.

  Timothy’s pocket watch told me I had less than five hours to get to the center of the labyrinth.

  It had to be enough.

  The creak of wood had me going into alert mode. Silence followed, but my nape was tingling, and my scalp prickled. There was someone here.

  Slow and stealthy, Dani. Easy… I moved away from the door and farther into the shadows of the hallway. There was an open door to my left
, and the bottom of a staircase was visible through it.

  Another creak.

  Oh, shit, someone or something was inside here with me.

  Another human? Please let it be another human.

  I pressed myself against the wall and waited. Bootfalls, scuffed and muted, but still audible, were coming my way. I held my breath, ready for whoever came through the door.

  A male figure stepped out. I lunged and got him in a headlock. The scent of vanilla assaulted my senses.

  “I won’t hurt you,” the man said.

  Ha, as if he could. Wait a second.

  Golden hair.

  Embroidered deep blue clothes.

  Winter prince.

  Fuck!

  I released him and shoved him away from me before drawing my daggers. He may have saved my life from the river monster, but that didn’t mean he was on my side. These bastards were tricky, and if he made one false move, I’d cut him so fast he’d be dead before he hit the floor.

  We faced off, and he held up his hands. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I showcased my teeth in a jagged smile. “I can’t say the same.”

  He sighed and lowered his arms. “Look. Neither of us wants to be here.”

  Neither of us? Huh? I kept my expression cool and arched a brow. “Speak for yourself. I volunteered.”

  He tipped his head to one side as if conceding my point. “And I had no choice. I just want to make it out alive.”

  And then it hit me. Why the fuck was he solo? “Where’s your team?”

  He swallowed. “Out there, hunting. Humans…Me.”

  Hunting him? “What are you talking about?”

  This had to be a trick.

  “I’m talking about the fact that my team wants to kill me.” His smile was wry. “I’m not what they want in a prince. Too soft. Not Tuatha enough. Ironic, since they’re all fucking obsessed with feeling emotions.”

  Yeah, I’d picked up on that. “Why? Why do they want to feel?”

  “They don’t, not really, but my species has always wanted what it can’t or doesn’t have, and in this case, the thing they covet is humanity. The problem is, all they can do is mimic emotion. They can’t actually feel it.”

  “And you can?” I didn’t bother to keep the skepticism out of my voice. “How?”

  “I’m an anomaly. I’m…wrong. I guess I’ve not been too good at hiding it.”

  I snorted derisively. “You did fine when the Hunt was killing children. You did fine when I was being beaten.”

  His jaw clenched. “I’m sorry.”

  Just sorry? I stared at him as the anger building in my chest calmed. For some reason, sorry was better than if he’d tried to make excuses. Sorry said, I did bad shit, but I feel bad about it, and it could be a copout, but his amethyst eyes said different. They weren’t cold and dead like the other Tuatha. When he looked at me, it didn’t feel like he was dissecting me.

  He was different.

  Question was, how could I use that to my advantage? I narrowed my eyes. “They want to kill you because you have feelings?”

  “They think I’d make a weak monarch. I have two younger brothers who’d be less…empathetic, so with me out of the way…”

  Empathy…what did he know about that? Maybe he was a little different from the others, but empathy…Heck, many humans hadn’t mastered that skill yet.

  I needed more information. “How many humans have you killed?”

  “None.” He tucked in his chin. “Which is my point. But the Regency games must be attended by the princes of each court that intend to rule. I’m next in line for the monarchy for Winter. I had no choice but to come. However, my reluctance to kill has turned my team against me, or maybe this was their plan all along.” He sighed. “I’m not a warrior. I’m not a fighter. I would much rather be in my chambers, reading a good book.”

  Bram Stoker’s Dracula…

  The corner of his mouth turned up as if he was reading my thoughts. I hardened my expression. I wasn’t here to make friends with the enemy. Trusting one of them was like stepping into a cage with a starving lion and hoping it curbed its primal urge to hunt. But if I got him out alive, maybe he could help me with Nina. A straight-forward clinical deal would suffice.

  He was watching me warily, and I noted his disheveled state for the first time. The blood on his cheek, the dirt on his clothes and under his fingernails. The tangles in his golden hair. He looked hunted.

  I sheathed my blades. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll keep you alive, but in return, you need to get me to my sister, Nina. You took her. Remember?”

  He frowned. “The Hunt took her. I merely rode with them.”

  “You rode with them and watched them murder innocent children.”

  He winced. “I had no choice.”

  He was weak, and he made me sick. But he was also scared, and that was my advantage. “Can you get me to my sister or not?”

  He wasn’t a fool. I could see his mind working behind his pretty eyes. He might feel, but he was still one of them, a cold, calculating predator.

  “Well?” I prodded.

  “Yes. I can get you to her.”

  It would have to do. He could change his mind later, renege on his deal. Hell, he could decide to double-cross me and hand me over to his team to save his skin, but if that happened, I’d make sure I took him out with me. Right now, in this moment, the deal was the best option.

  “So, we have a deal?”

  “It’s a deal,” he replied.

  “We just need to stay alive for the next few hours. Do you know how to get to the wall?”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  I’d put my daggers away, but now I relaxed. “We wait here for a little while before heading out.”

  “Good plan, they should be through the wall by then.”

  “Will they hurt our loved ones?”

  He looked at me in confusion. “Loved ones?”

  “We were given a message that someone we loved had been taken and could be found at the center of the labyrinth.”

  He cursed softly.

  “What?”

  “That’s a lie. That isn’t how the games work. The center of the maze is the killing ground. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. It’s an arena where the remaining teams fight for the last kills.”

  “You kill each other?”

  “We’re not supposed to, but everyone has their own agenda, and what happens in the labyrinth stays in the labyrinth.” His smile was laced with bitterness. “When it’s all said and done, only the headcount matters.”

  Human heads. Don’t think about it. “Rest up, we leave in thirty.”

  28

  Once we got into the village proper, we stayed close to the houses, running through the backyards, keeping low, and taking cover at every strange sound. According to the prince, the skywall was on the other end of this village. The houses were getting farther apart now, the yards bigger, which told me that we were getting close to the other end of the village.

  “How many are left alive?” the prince asked as we crossed a lawn with a tiny pond and a rickety old swing set.

  I shot him a sharp look.

  “I know you’ve been killing them.”

  “Four. Two Summer and two Winter.”

  His brows shot up. “You killed the rest?”

  “I didn’t kill the Summer prince. Autumn did that. And I haven’t killed you…” I left the sentence hanging with a silent yet.

  He nodded and blinked his pretty eyes. “So, it will be four of them against us and any humans who get through.”

  “How long will we have to stay in the center of the arena?”

  Until the thirty-six hours is up, I assume,” he said.

  “Then we wait till the last minute to go through that wall.”

  His eyes widened. “Of course. There’ll be no need to fight then.”

  Doh. He was pretty, but he wasn’t too bright. I jumped the fence into the next garden. This one wa
s dappled with orange and russet leaves, so the grass looked like a golden carpet. A regal oak tree with a treehouse planted high in its branches stood in the center. A rope ladder dangled from the platform.

  “Wait here.” I didn’t check to see if he would comply, but climbed the ladder and hoisted myself up into the treehouse.

  It was empty, but someone had placed a rug up here to make the floor more comfortable. I scooted over to the window and peered out. From this vantage point, I could see that we were on the edge of the village. A field lay beyond dotted with posts, probably where scarecrows were hung in the summertime. And beyond the field was the skywall. We could make it in less than fifteen minutes at a run, and until it was time to make that run, this was the perfect place to hide.

  “We’re not evil, you know,” the prince said.

  “We don’t need to talk.” I kept my eyes on the field, looking for movement.

  “I want to explain.”

  Annoyance flickered to life in my chest. Why the fuck couldn’t he shut up? “Look, we have a deal that benefits us both. I don’t need to know anything else.”

  “But you hate my kind.”

  “Yes.”

  “Because you think we’re evil.”

  “Really? You want to have this conversation now? You want to piss me off so I fucking leave you to rot?”

  He frowned.

  “You’re murderers. You get pleasure from playing fucked-up games with us. You hunt us for sport. You are evil.”

  “We’re predators.”

  “Fuck off. Predators hunt for food. They don’t hunt for sport.”

  He was silent.

  “You can make excuses all you want, but the fact remains that your people are sick in the head.”

  “Wanting to understand humanity, wanting to feel something doesn’t make us evil. Can you imagine standing at the foot of a rainbow and seeing nothing but gray? That is what it’s like for most Tuatha. There is a deadness inside them, inside us, that’s grown over the centuries. We weren’t always like this, you know. There was a time when we were almost like you, and then the sickness came, and it left us…barren of emotion and with a yearning to reclaim the ability to feel.”