When she’d gotten so depressed that all she did was lie on the living room rug staring into the fireplace, he’d changed to his cougar and slept curled next to her, knowing that what she needed most of all was touch. And when nightmares left her whimpering and shaken, he nudged her awake and told her stories from their childhood.
Without him, she’d have gone completely feral.
“Jani?” Adric said. “You still there?”
She gave a hard swallow. “I’m fine.” She glanced around the cavern and decided her brother didn’t need to know everything. “And don’t worry, I’m safe.”
Then she realized what he’d said. “What do you mean it’s been over a month? What day is it?”
“August thirty-first.”
“Holy shit. By my reckoning it’s only August eighth.”
“So you got inside the ice fae court.”
“Yeah,” she said, still reeling at how much time she’d lost. “And Ric, Luc did, too, but they caught him. Put him in a fucking iron cage. I got him out, but I’m not sure he got away. The last I saw he was fighting with the ice fae king.”
“A cage? The king put him in a cage?” Her brother’s voice was chillier than Sindre’s tower.
She shook her head. “That’s the strange thing. The king definitely knows about it, but the person behind it seems to be a lady in his court—a Lady B, who’s also the woman the king hired you to track down in India.”
“The fae lady I sent Corban after?”
“Yeah. And Ric, it’s bad. She knows the secret of our quartzes. She grabbed mine and tried to use it to compel me, but I’d switched it out for a fake quartz. Corban must’ve told her.”
Adric muttered something dark. Only a few fae knew the secret of controlling the earth fada through their quartz—and those fae had been either bribed or threatened into keeping quiet. “What the hell’s going on?”
“It’s a long story. I promise I’ll explain everything when I get back. For now, you need to get the word out to the other earth fada clans.”
“Agreed. I’ll contact the other alphas as soon as we’re done. And Corban?”
“He’s in an iron cage, too, completely under her power. I was told they were lovers, but now he’s her prisoner. There’s no way he could’ve sent that message to you on his own.”
“But it was his writing. The motherfucker tried to sell me out to save himself.”
“Yeah. Or she ordered him to send the message.” She rubbed a thumb over the quartz’s chunky crystals. “He’s sick, Ric. Iron poisoning. It’s bad—he’s almost gone.”
“Saves you the trouble of offing him.”
She huffed a laugh with zero humor. “There is that.”
“Where are you now?”
“Safe in a cavern about three miles from the court. The court itself is in a castle carved out of a dead volcano.” She gave him the castle’s precise coordinates, knowing he’d file the information for future use. “You can’t see it in the human world. It’s completely hidden behind look-away spells and warded to keep out intruders. The only way in is through portals that the ice fae have to open.”
“So how did you get inside?”
She glanced at Fane, curled into a ball and shivering helplessly. Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Adric that the SOB had played her. Her brother didn’t need another reason to question her judgment—and besides, Fane was Evie’s father, and she liked Evie. Jace’s mate might be mostly human, but she was good people.
“Evie’s father helped me.” It was the truth—just not the whole truth.
“He knew who you were?”
“Yeah. Turns out he’s a wayfarer. He was at Jace and Evie’s mating.”
Adric didn’t like that. “And none of us scented him?”
“He says the king gave him a charm that disguises his scent.”
“Huh.” She could almost hear her alpha brother filing that away for future investigation. “You need to come home, Jani.”
“What about Luc? I can’t leave without him.”
“He’s a big boy.”
Marjani gave the quartz a look of disbelief. Sometimes her brother could be so damn cold.
“I am not leaving him to that night fae bitch. She puts fada in those cages so she can feed on their fear and anger. You should see Corban. He’s—broken, just this side of feral. I only saw him as his wolf.”
Silence. Then a careful question. “And you? You’re…all right?”
Her jaw clenched. She knew he meant well, but it hurt, to have her own brother doubting her control. “What d’you think?”
“You sound good,” he said immediately. “I’m sorry.”
She unclenched her jaw. After all, Adric had a right to doubt her. She had almost lost it last winter. And she was still having trouble with control. “Okay. Okay.”
“But I still want you home,” he added, and made her angry all over again, especially when he added, “I could make it an order.”
“Try it,” she snarled.
Another taut silence. Then Adric expelled a breath. “Damn it, I’m your alpha. When I give you an order, you obey it.”
“I’m your second for a reason,” she shot back. “You trust me to tell you when you have your head up your ass.”
A low growl—and then she heard him swallow. “I can’t lose you, Jani.”
Her heart constricted. Because she felt the same way—if she lost her only brother, she really would go feral.
She softened her tone. “We can’t leave Luc here to die in a fucking cage. You know if the shoe were on the other foot, he’d do anything he could to rescue me—or you, for that matter.”
“Then I’ll send someone else. Please, Jani. I’d come myself, but I can’t.”
“Why not?” Not that she wanted him to come, but she knew her brother. It must be killing him to stay home while she and Luc hunted Corban.
“We have a situation here.”
She got that odd tingle in her gut; her Gift at work. “The night fae are looking for me, aren’t they?”
He took a long time answering. “Not you in particular—at least, not as far as I know. But a few days after you left, the prince demanded a meeting.”
“Hell.” She stared at the steam rising from the pool. “What happened?”
“He hinted that he knows who killed his son. But you know the fae. We danced around the question, each of us trying to gauge how much the other knows. But he’s going to come back, and when he does, I’d better be here.”
“And if he asks straight out who killed his son?”
“I’ll tell him to go to Hades. He has no right to ask anything of me. His son died because he was in my territory, fucking with my lieutenant and his mate.”
“We can’t afford to make an enemy of him.”
Adric gave a mirthless laugh. “Too late.”
“You know what?” she said slowly. “Iceland might be the safest place for me right now. The last place anyone would expect to find me is deep in ice fae territory.”
A pissed-off snarl. “I can protect my own damn sister. He’s not going to find out who killed Tyrus. I want you home.”
“Ric.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. This was why she’d slipped out of Baltimore without telling him. “You have to trust me. Anyone else will only get caught. The only reason I got inside the ice fae castle was because Fane helped me.” Well, that and the fact that Sindre and/or Blaer had apparently wanted her inside anyway.
At the sound of his name, Fane groaned, a deep, animal sound.
“What was that?” Adric demanded.
“Fane.” She frowned down at the sick man as he flung himself on his back, a shudder jerking his long limbs. She touched his shoulder and he jolted upright, staring at her with glassy eyes.
“He’s hurt? What the fuck, Jani?”
“Look, I gotta go. I’ll report as soon as I know anything.”
She cut the connection and zipped her quartz back into a side pocket of her
cargo pants before laying a hand against Fane’s forehead. It was burning hot.
She cursed under her breath as she guided him to lie back down. “You’re not going to die on me, got it?”
Stripping off her shirt, she wet it in the pool and used it to bathe his forehead. His breath sighed out.
“That’s it.” She dabbed his face and neck, wishing she could do more. But she hadn’t been blessed with even a speck of a healer’s Gift. “Feels better, doesn’t it? Now rest. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”
She hoped.
19
Adric clenched his quartz.
She’s safe, at least for now. That’s good.
Although he hated to admit it, maybe Marjani was right, she was safer in Iceland than Baltimore. Because Prince Langdon had requested another meeting.
No, demanded it. Tonight.
The prince was a night fae, so of course he’d set the meeting for midnight, choosing a bar on the top floor of a fancy hotel in midtown Baltimore.
Adric arrived at eleven, Jace at his side. Zuri took a seat on a metal stool at the shiny black bar, and several soldiers grabbed a nearby table. They’d dressed to blend in—dark button-up shirts and jeans or dress pants, their quartz pendants tucked discreetly into their shirts.
The bar had a stripped-down, urban feel: concrete floors, exposed brick walls and galvanized steel lights hanging like pendants from the ceiling. Running down one wall were floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of Baltimore’s Washington Monument, and across Mount Vernon Place, the waning moon peeked from behind the spires of a gothic cathedral dating to the late 1800s.
Adric and Jace chose a table in the corner with a view of the entrance. A pretty redhead in a white shirt, cropped black pants and purple suspenders took their order for a couple of the pricey craft beers.
Adric and Jace nursed their beers as the hour until midnight ticked by. At the bar, two women in tight skirts were flirting with Zuri, and he flirted right back while keeping his back to the bar, dark eyes scanning the room.
Adric looked at Jace. “Any more problem with the night fae?”
“Nah. But I invited Horace to stay with us—for back up. You know how Evie loves him. He’s with them right now.”
Horace was a cheerful, dreadlocked cougar and a member of Jace’s den.
“Good,” Adric said. “Let me know if you need more men.”
“Will do. But I think the prince was just messing with my head. Still, I’ll be glad when Kyler graduates. Evie says she’ll sell the house and they’ll move in with me for good. She’s already after me to redecorate the living room of my den. Says it looks like something you’d find in a frat house.”
He grinned at Adric, crazy about his mate and not caring who knew it.
Lucky man.
Midnight approached. Adric scented Prince Langdon before he saw him—silver and decay. The night fae made their homes in elaborate crypts, and their scents held a hint of the graveyard.
Adric’s hackles raised. He and Jace exchanged a look and scanned the area.
The prince appeared in a corner a few feet away, coalescing out of the shadows. The night fae were creepy like that. He was flanked by two bodyguards, a male and female—sea fada, by the scent.
“Your highness.” Adric rose to his feet and murmured the traditional fae greeting. “Peace to you and yours.”
Langdon trod noiselessly forward, dressed in black from his fae-tailored shirt to his Italian leather shoes. His eyes and shoulder-length hair were the same midnight color, a striking contrast to his dead-white skin. His narrow, aristocratic face sported winged black brows in which sparkled several tiny diamonds. More diamonds outlined his pointed ears, and his right index finger was decorated with a square-cut diamond as large as Adric’s thumbnail.
“Lord Adric. Peace to you and yours,” the prince returned. He had a low, rich voice. From what Adric had heard, women loved it. He nodded to Jace. “And to yours.”
The lieutenant jerked his head. “Peace.”
Adric indicated the chair across from him. “Please have a seat.” The polite words tasted acrid in his mouth, but that was a downside of being alpha. You had to make nice with the fae.
The male guard pulled out the chair and Langdon lowered his tall, elegant body into it. The guards took a stance against the wall, the man scanning the room, the woman keeping her gaze firmly on Adric and Jace.
The pretty waitress bustled up, oozing excitement. She might not know exactly who Langdon was, but she’d guessed he was a fae. “May I get you a drink, sir?”
“You can, love.” The prince granted her a small smile that brought a flush to her creamy skin. “Wine.” He named a merlot that was no doubt rare and expensive.
“Coming right up. And you?” she asked Adric and Jace. When they shook their heads, she glanced at the stony-eyed guards. “What about your…companions?”
“Nothing for us,” the woman said.
The waitress gave Langdon another wide smile. “I’ll be right back with that wine.” She headed for the bar.
The prince contemplated her very fine ass for a moment before turning back to Adric. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
Like I had a choice. But Adric gave a little nod.
“It’s a beautiful night.” The prince leaned back in his chair, taking in the dark sky outside the plate glass windows. “Summer is almost over. We’ll be celebrating the autumn equinox soon—and then Samhain.” He used the Celtic term for Halloween. “My favorite time of the year.”
“Yeah?” Get to the point, damn it.
The redhead returned with Langdon’s wine. When he thanked her in that deep, seductive voice, she backed away as starry-eyed as if he were a Hollywood A-lister.
“In our clan, the little ones trick-or-treat,” Langdon said. “Do yours?”
“No. That’s not one of our traditions. We honor our dead with a special ceremony, but that’s all.”
“Ah.” Langdon contemplated the blood-red wine in his glass. “I had three sons, once. But you know that.”
“Mm.” Adric’s nape tightened. He willed his heartbeat to stay steady.
“And they’re all dead. I know what you fada say about the night fae. That we’re heartless. That we feed on the darkness in others.”
Because you do.
“But we love our children as much as you do. I’ve seen six hundred turns of the sun, and in that time I’ve only been blessed with the three sons. And now they’ve all passed to the other side…before their time.” The prince’s black eyes burned into Adric’s.
He felt an unwilling twinge of sympathy. The man was genuinely grieving. But that didn’t mean his son Tyrus didn’t deserve to be dead.
“Look,” he said, “I’m sorry for your loss, but I want you out of Baltimore. This is my town now. Whatever deal you had with my uncle is null and void.”
Langdon’s eyes blazed red. “You think to tell me what to do? A prince with a lineage going back a thousand turns of the sun?”
Adric bared his fangs. He might be young, but the Darktime had been a crash course in eat-or-be-eaten. “I’m not looking for trouble, your highness. But if you bring it to my doorstep, I’ll fight back with everything I have. Are we clear on that?”
The prince took a sip of wine—and changed the subject. “One of my sons had a daughter. Merry Jones.”
Jace didn’t move, but Adric heard his heart speed up. Langdon’s son Silver had mated with Jace’s only sister, Takira. Their daughter was Jace’s thirteen-year-old niece Merry.
The prince’s gaze flicked to Jace, no doubt detecting the lieutenant’s agitation with his night fae senses.
“We were told she died in a fire.” Adric was careful not to lie. He had been told that Merry Jones died in a fire. In fact, he and Jace had believed for years that the girl was dead.
“A fire set by night fae assassins.” Jace’s voice was a harsh scrape.
Those assassins had also killed first Takira and
later, Silver. Only Merry had escaped. And it had been Lord Tyrus who’d set the assassins on them, because Silver was Tyrus’s half-brother and Tyrus didn’t want any competition for Langdon’s throne.
The prince leveled a stare at Adric. “We all know that isn’t true. Merry Jones is alive and living at Rock Run. I’m also aware that you see her regularly.” He glanced at Jace. “Both of you. I’m sure the Rock Run fada told you about the ward I set, a ward of protection keyed to her quartz. If any of my people try to harm her—if they even lay hands on her without her express permission—they die.”
He waited until Adric nodded, then added, “That should be proof enough that I wish the girl no harm. I made no exceptions with the ward except for myself. Even my son Tyrus knew he’d die if he tried to touch her again.”
“I know this, yes,” Adric said, confused now. Where was Langdon going with this?
The prince’s jaw worked. “Tyrus went too far.”
“He did. But what does this have to do with Mer—?”
Langdon leaned forward, cutting him off. “You killed my son. We both know it.”
“No. I didn’t.”
Langdon waved that aside. “Oh, you didn’t do the deed yourself. But someone in your clan did. I’ve traced him to Baltimore. He hasn’t been seen since. And recently, I received some information from one of your former clan members. Corban, his name is.”
Adric went rigid. Because it was Marjani they were talking about—and he had the bad feeling that Langdon had picked up his sudden tension with those Spidey-senses of his.
Damn you, Corban. What have you done?
He set his hands on the table. “Get out of my town. You’re not welcome here.”
Langdon sat back. “What would the other fae think if I informed them your sister had killed my last surviving son?”
Adric narrowed his eyes. “They’d think it was your son’s own fucking fault for sending assassins to off my lieutenant.”
Jace growled. After all, he was the lieutenant that Tyrus had targeted. “We know who had your other two sons assassinated,” he said. “Tyrus didn’t want any rivals for your title, did he?”
A bleak look crossed Langdon’s face. “I didn’t know. Not until it was too late.”
Charming Marjani Page 13