Duck, Duck, Noose (Bitter Ashes Book 4)

by Sara C. Roethle

  Sophie turned her glare to Mikael. “They could have followed Tabitha and the others. It wouldn’t have been difficult.”

  “But they just got here,” I argued. It seemed a little fast to have everyone arrive.

  Mikael smiled. “I told you I was sending out scouts to see if any of Aislin’s people were willing to defect to our side. This must be our first shipment.”

  I turned wide eyes to him, utterly flummoxed. “What? I thought you were just feeling things out, not inviting everyone over for a party.”

  He continued to smile. “My spies infiltrated Aislin’s remaining clans in Scandinavia, just to test the waters, and see where they all stood. Any who offhandedly expressed that they would follow me were first asked to leave Aislin’s Salr. Once they were alone, and could be easily killed should they betray my spies, they were invited to come here.” He turned to Sophie. “Although, it seems we have not given them a warm welcome.”

  I frowned. “So you had them drawn away from the group before giving them an offer. What would have happened if they tried to run back to the Salr to divulge our location to the others?”

  He pushed his red hair away from his face and looked at me like I was being extremely silly.

  “Right,” I replied, getting the gist. “If there was any chance of betrayal, the new recruits would have been killed.”

  “The others can join us,” Sophie snapped, “but not Maya.”

  Mikael shook his head. “It would not be a very good welcome to kill one of our new members, and we cannot send her away to spread word of our location.”

  Sophie glared at him, then turned her gaze first to me, then to Alaric. Unfortunately, none of us could agree to her terms. Mikael was right. We were on shaky ground as it was, and we needed to take what we could get.

  With a grunt of frustration, Sophie turned on her heel and marched back out of the room.

  I turned back to Alaric and Mikael.

  “We should probably go see to our new guests,” Mikael stated.

  Alaric and I sighed in unison. I didn’t particularly want to see Maya either, and I knew he likely felt the same. We’d all risked our lives to save her, and she’d played us. She’d been held prisoner in Estus’ dungeon, but had refuted claims that she’d joined Aislin’s clan. We’d busted her out, and she’d been lying all along. As soon as we’d joined Mikael’s clan, she became our enemy.

  Mikael headed for the door. Alaric and I gave each other tired looks, then followed him out of the room toward the entrance of the Salr. There was no sign of Sophie in the hall. Alaric glanced over to meet my eyes, clearly conveying his worry. We’d need to check on her later to make sure she wasn’t devising anything that would upset our plans. Scratch that. He’d need to check on her. Sophie was scary when she was mad.

  Mikael reached the entry room, then touched his fingers to the solid wall. Seconds later, he was pulled through until he disappeared entirely. Alaric and I went next, and soon we were all above ground, standing in the middle of a circle of large stones, surrounded by loamy green earth. In front of us stood Maya, along with three other people I didn’t recognize, and one who looked vaguely familiar.

  The familiar one, a tall man with long, blond hair woven into a tight braid, stepped forward. He bowed his head to Mikael, then started speaking in Old Norsk. He must have been one of Mikael’s spies, judging by the companionable tone of their conversation. A red-haired woman stepped forward from the small waiting crowd to join in on the conversation.

  Maya waited patiently with the others, eyeing me with a small, secretive smile on her face.

  I glared at her.

  Finished with his conversation, Mikael turned his gaze to me. “Most of Aislin’s people have turned to Estus,” he explained. “These few were personally spited by him, and so chose to branch away from their clan. Others may follow once they are made aware of their defection.”

  I glanced at each of the new recruits. Maya, plus a man and another woman. The woman was around my height, 5’9”, with ample curves and dark brown hair cut into a short bob. The man was short, with an athletic build, dark skin, and short, curly hair. Maya could have been his sister with her small frame, flawless black skin, and curly hair nearly reaching her shoulders.

  I already knew why Maya hated Estus. He’d had her tortured for days on end, and at one point she’d even lost a foot . . . though it had been miraculously replaced. I’d be interested to learn the stories of the other two. I could even throw in my own story of the time Estus had me tortured, though mine was far less gruesome than Maya’s.

  Maya’s dark eyes met mine as she continued to smile. “This is Chance,” she nodded to the man, “and Rose,” she gestured to the woman. “We’re willing to name you our Doyen, if it means we’ll get to be a part of Estus’ downfall.”

  I believed her. I might not have liked Maya, and she probably didn’t like me, but we both hated Estus more.

  I looked back to Mikael for guidance.

  He shrugged. “It’s a start.”

  Alaric sighed. “Sophie is not going to like this.”

  “I’ll stay away from Sophie,” Maya cut in quickly. “She has every reason to hate me. I won’t get in her way.”

  I nodded. It was as good as we were going to get.

  A sudden gust of chilly air hit us, and I looked up to see the banshees closing in. They were always waiting for me to surface, unable to enter the Salr themselves. Since I’d let their power dwindle, they’d been reduced to insubstantial phantoms, more like traditional ghosts that couldn’t really harm anyone. I really needed to recharge them. It had been stupid of me to wait so long.

  Even so, all of the newcomers looked up nervously as the banshees approached. Since it was daytime, their forms were mostly transparent, making it difficult to view them with any detail, but they were still scary.

  “So it’s true,” Maya observed. She shifted her gaze away from the banshees overhead. “You’re the new Phantom Queen. Maybe we stand a chance after all.”

  I smirked. “You decided to join us, thinking we had no chance of surviving?”

  She raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same, if you were in my shoes.”

  I shrugged. She was right. In fact, I was already doing the same, going up against Estus in a fight I wasn’t sure I could win.

  I wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the cold, but it did little good. “Let’s go back down,” I decided. “I’d like to speak to Marcos further.”

  I was suddenly hit with a wave of nervousness, though it wasn’t my own.

  “Marcos is here?” the woman, Rose, questioned, her blue eyes wide with fear.

  I nodded, realizing that I was sensing her nerves, and maybe a bit from Maya and Chance.

  “He joined us after Aislin was killed,” I explained. I didn’t feel the need to add that Marcos was the one who killed her, though he’d been possessed by the Morrigan at the time.

  “Well shit,” Maya muttered. She glanced up at the banshees again. “If you’re going for the scary vibe, you totally nailed it.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” I replied, then turned away from them to re-enter the Salr.

  Mikael joined us as Alaric and I began to lower into the earth. I glanced back to see Mikael’s people take up posts on either side of the new recruits. It appeared they would remain under guard, which was fine with me.

  I closed my eyes, overcome with a strange, sinking feeling, then suddenly we were back underground, facing a long, stone corridor.

  “We should find Sophie,” Alaric said immediately.

  I nodded, then looked to Mikael.

  “I’ll show the newbies around,” he assured, just as said newbies emerged from the wall behind him.

  Alaric put his hand at the small of my back and guided me out of the entryway to walk down the corridor. Our room, which was the same room I’d stayed in when Mara was still alive, was down the hall on the right, several doors past our common
room.

  Sophie’s room was right across the hall from ours. We walked side by side until we reached her closed door. I looked to Alaric as he reached for the knob, his dark eyes holding concern.

  “Why do I have the feeling that she’s not going to be in there?” he asked quizzically.

  I nodded my agreement as I placed a comforting hand on his arm. “I have the same feeling.”

  Without another word, he opened the door. The room was empty.

  We both walked forward through the doorway, then approached the bed in the center of the large room. Upon the black bedspread lay a note.

  Without even needing to read it, Alaric sighed. “She ran away, not wanting to face Maya.”

  I nodded, but picked up the note for confirmation. Alaric and his sister had spent five hundred years together, so I trusted his assertation, but maybe the note would tell us whether or not she was coming back.

  My eyes scanned the note quickly, then I looked up to meet Alaric’s waiting gaze. “It says, If you don’t kill her, I will.”

  “Well shit,” Alaric muttered.

  I pursed my lips in thought. “Would it really be that bad?”

  Alaric frowned at me. “If it’s your goal to become Doyen, you must plan your next few moves wisely. Our new additions are the keystones of any plan we could hope to form. Their presence is what’s going to help us recruit any of AisliIn’s remaining people to our cause.”

  “We couldn’t just kill Maya, and keep the others?” I asked hopefully, already knowing the answer.

  He smiled down at me. We both knew we couldn’t kill her. “I’ll track Sophie down before she can do anything stupid,” he promised.

  “Won’t she already be expecting that though?” I inquired.

  Alaric would try to track his sister down by scent, but she would naturally know that would be his approach after reading her note. I had no doubt she would do her best to remain one step ahead of him, until an opportunity to kill Maya presented itself.

  He sighed. “Yes, but I see no other plan of action. I’ll simply have to track her faster than she can run away.”

  A sick feeling of foreboding permeated my gut. “What if she tries to lead you somewhere far away? She’s probably already thinking that you won’t want to leave me alone with our new recruits. It would stand to reason that she would run too far for you to follow, hoping to lose you, so that she might return undetected.”

  He shrugged. “In that case, she’d be correct in her assumptions. I don’t like leaving you at all, and will not search for her to the ends of the earth. If she still eludes me by nightfall, I will return without her, and we will keep Maya under guard at all times. Still, I would prefer to end this quietly. If I can speak to her, perhaps I can talk some sense into her.”

  I folded the note and put it in my back pocket, not wanting to leave it in the room for anyone else to find. “You know how she is when it comes to Maya,” I commented. “I have a feeling she might be harder to convince than you’re giving her credit for.”

  He sighed, then pulled me into the circle of his arms. “I know, but I still have to try.”

  I wrapped my arms around his lower back, then rested my cheek against his chest, right below his neck. His heartbeat thumped gently in my ear. “I know. Please be careful. After all that has happened, I’m going to be a nervous wreck the entire time you’re gone.”

  He turned his face and kissed the side of my head. “I won’t do anything dangerous, and I’ll be back before you know it.”

  We pulled away from each other enough to press our lips together in a gentle kiss, then I looked up into his dark eyes. “If you don’t return by nightfall, I’m sending out a search party.”

  “Deal,” he replied. “As long as you’re not part of that search party.”

  I frowned.

  “And I ask that you remain with Mikael at all times until I return,” he added.

  I blinked up at him in surprise.

  He sighed. “I know he’ll protect you,” he grumbled. “That is all I currently care about.”

  I nodded, still surprised, as he took my hand and led me out of the room. I didn’t appreciate the implication that I couldn’t protect myself, but given all that had happened, I couldn’t really blame him for being worried.

  He kept my hand in his as we ventured out in search of Mikael. I still had a feeling of dread in my gut, but knew it would do little good to voice my concerns. Alaric hadn’t survived for over five hundred years by being lucky. He could take care of himself, but it was like the concept of being a good driver. You wouldn’t cause an accident yourself, but there are always plenty of other assholes on the road, waiting to T-bone you at a red light.

  Chapter 4

  We found Mikael in the common room with the new recruits. Aila had joined him, which meant someone else had been tasked with Marcos guard duty. Everyone turned to stare as Alaric and I entered.

  My eyes met Mikael’s. “A moment please?” I questioned.

  He stood without a word, leaving Aila to watch over Maya and the others. Normally, leaving one person to guard three didn’t seem like a good idea, but I had little doubt that Aila could handle herself, and everyone else for that matter. As we left the room, she crossed her bare, well muscled arms and glared down at Maya, Rose, and Chance with her icy blue eyes, daring them to make a move. I wasn’t at the correct angle to see everyone else’s reactions, but I could picture them all staring hard at the table to avoid her gaze.

  Mikael walked with us down the hall, out of hearing range of the others, then turned and waited for an explanation. His amber eyes held slight worry, already expecting the next catastrophe.

  “Sophie is missing,” Alaric explained quickly. “She intends to kill Maya, and I intend to stop her. I’d appreciate it if you would keep Madeline by your side.”

  I crossed my arms and pouted, once again not liking the idea that I needed protection, but I kept my mouth shut. Time was of the essence, and we’d already wasted enough of it.

  Mikael nodded, his face expressionless, which seemed to be good enough for Alaric. He turned to me and wrapped me up in his arms, then gave me a quick goodbye kiss.

  “I love you,” he whispered as he pulled away.

  “I love you too,” I replied.

  He turned away from me, then hurried down the hall, as if another touch or glance would change his mind and cause him to stay. I understood completely. I felt the same way.

  “What I wouldn’t give to have a woman watch me like that,” Mikael mused.

  I tore my eyes away from Alaric’s back as he disappeared around a corner to narrow them at Mikael. “Maybe if you didn’t tease us so much, our looks toward you would be a little nicer.”

  He smirked. “But what would be the fun in that?”

  I shook my head and laughed. “We should get back to the new recruits.”

  Despite my words, I leaned to the side to peek past Mikael, unable to resist one last glance down the hall, even though I knew I wouldn’t see Alaric there.

  Mikael sighed, but didn’t move back toward the common room. “We’ll take care of them later,” he explained at my questioning expression.

  I furrowed my brow. “I need a distraction, and getting the new recruits settled seems as good a one as any.”

  He rolled his eyes at me. “We’ve been plotting and planning all morning. Especially you. Let’s go above ground and get some fresh air.”

  I glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the common room. “We probably shouldn’t leave Aila alone with them for too long,” I countered.

  He snorted. “Are you worried about her?”

  I laughed, though it was strained. “Not at all, I’m worried about them.”

  Mikael chuckled. He moved his hand to the small of my back, then began guiding me down the hall. “Let’s get you a coat, then we’ll send someone else to protect the new recruits from Aila.”

  “We should at least speak more with Marcos,” I argued as h
e hustled me down the hall.

  He shook his head. “You need to relax.”

  “You’ve already assured me that my baby is basically indestructible,” I countered, “so I really don’t need to relax.”

  “I’m not doing this for the sake of your baby,” he explained as we reached my room. “Your powers are more based around your mental abilities and emotions, as opposed to physical skills. You need to rest your mind if you hope to be at your best.”

  We entered my room. I waited by the door while he retrieved my black winter coat from where I’d left it at the foot of the bed.

  I sighed and leaned my back against the wall. “There is no way I’m going to be able to relax my mind while Alaric is out looking for Sophie.”

  Mikael tsked at me. “Your little kitty cat will be fine. He’s a survivor, and he won’t do anything that would risk him not being able to return to you.”

  I raised my eyebrows at him as he came to stand in front of me, offering me my coat. “My, that was almost comforting,” I joked.

  When I didn’t take my coat from him, he moved to my side, grabbed my shoulder to pull me away from the wall, then wrapped the coat around me.

  With a resigned sigh, I stood on my own and put the coat on properly, then met his strange, amber eyes. “Okay,” I conceded. “We’ll go for a nice, relaxing stroll. Then we’ll get back to planning.”

  “You’re such a workaholic,” he quipped, then led the way out of my room.

  I followed him dejectedly as he walked down the hall. At one point, we came across the tall blond man with the braid who’d accompanied Maya and the others. Mikael gave him orders regarding the newbies to relay to Faas. That settled, we finished our journey down the hall to the Salr’s entrance. We both touched the wall side by side. I felt a tugging sensation on my hand as I was pulled into the earth, followed by a moment of panic where I couldn’t breathe, then we were both above ground, unharmed.

  Mikael began walking toward the coast. I followed, glancing around for Alaric, though I knew he was probably long gone. Hopefully not too long gone. If Sophie led him too far away, I was going to be pissed.