“We know all that,” his wife said with a gentle smile. “Anything useful you would like to add?”
He shot her a glance that was half amused, half nervous. “Useful? He still loves Serene. If we could get her into the game, things might get more interesting.”
She snorted and patted his cheek. “Of course, darling.”
He flinched at the endearment. She continued like she didn’t notice. “That’s our priority. Lift the curse then go to war. You, Huntsman, I imagine you can call in a few favors.” She was talking to my father.
He stood and gave her a very formal bow. He was wearing his smoking jacket again. Did Penny notice? Maybe she’d make me one. Mine would be better. Ah, to have Penny in my room, me wearing nothing but a smoking jacket. No. Why would I be naked in a smoking jacket? I was going mad. Clearly the thought of Penny Lane in my bed had made me deliriously unstable. Penny Lane in my bed. Every night. Every morning. All the moments in between. I’d get nothing else done.
“And don’t get ahead of yourself and destroy Darkside,” Penny’s grandmother said, pointing at Zach. He bowed in a perfect replica of my father’s own.
“Nothing remotely nuclear.” He smiled but his eyes were wild.
She nodded and stared at me. I tried to not look like I’d been thinking about her granddaughter in my bed.
“You’re blushing.” She shook her head. “You’ll be particularly useless. Lost in rage if something goes wrong probably. Try not to be. You need to be clever, sharp, devious if you’re going to defeat my son-in-law. One thing he’s never lacked is ambition and commitment as well as a clear head.”
Did she think I’d leave Penny at the altar again? Only to save her. Even then, no. Never again. I pulled Penny closer to my side.
“I’ll make a point of it.”
Chapter 29
Witch
I walked down the aisle once more. The doves fluttered haphazardly around the room. One hit the stained glass window and fell down in a puff of feathers. That was me, careening around like a mad pigeon, from one wicked mage to another. The ring hung heavily, thumping against my stomach with every step. Thump. Thump. Thump.
A Darksider husband. Like Signore only green. I glanced over at my escort. His eyes burned red around the pupil. He looked fine, normal, but his arm was harder than usual beneath mine. He was ready for war. What would it be like to fight beside him instead of lying in the mud beneath his boot while he wove destruction above me?
I glanced ahead at Zach and Drake instead. Zach’s eyes were still wild and intense.
Drake’s eyes were steady, everything hidden beneath his careful glamour. My heart twisted at the sight of the mage I desperately loved.
I was to the steps that led to the platform when the sky cracked open, splitting through the roof and space, maybe time, like I know about those things, and then I smelled the scent of pumpkins and mustard.
Signore’s ruby sword blazed red with a black heart, glass-like, flickering with the blood of a million lost souls. He pushed me behind him while creatures came through, wings spanning twenty feet. Their feathers were tipped with iron and their clawed feet heavily armored with the most intricate joining plates. Beautiful. The creatures themselves had mostly human bodies with arms and swords and lasers, that kind of thing. Also armor. Such beautiful armor, gleaming gold and green with orangey reds so it was like a screaming sunset descended into my wedding.
They hit an invisible barrier. Sparks of blue exploded into the air and smelled like iron. I pulled the weapon from my boot and an extra knife I’d tucked into my blue garter. Pitch. Black specks danced at the edges of my vision.
“Cara mia, stay down.”
An explosion shook plaster from the walls and blew out the stained glass windows. Darkness crept across the sills, bats with human heads and as big as cats, a wild assortment of human mixed with animal that reminded me of my old kiss or kill tapestry.
“It’s Hale,” Signore hissed. His eyes were red on red with a black pit in the center.
The guests were no longer dressed in wedding gear, but in leather and armor, wielding hurters and weapons. They were all surrounding me and faced outwards, taking out the slightly cute if creepy vermin. A few bat things managed to get through the crowd, but only found death on Signore’s sword. They flapped and twitched, weighing it down until he muttered and they turned into goop and dripped to the floor in a steaming pile.
“Ew.”
He shot me a glance and smiled slightly. Those fangs. “It’s a pity not to eat them. They make excellent stew.”
I shuddered while his smile grew larger showing the rest of his teeth. None of them touched me, not with Signore’s flickering sword. He was more relaxed fighting than escorting me up the aisle.
The end of the church peeled back letting in the dark whirling world that smelled like ashes and death and pain, but in the very best way. I stepped towards Zach and Drake where they stood, staring out into the darkness instead of looking at me. The darkness flickered with orange and pale yellow, flames that wrapped around an enormous creature with a gargantuan rack. So, because I hadn’t agreed to marry him he was going to ruin my wedding? That was just rude.
Drake laughed and pulled out his green firesword, stalking towards the Darksider while Zach yelled at him to keep his defense position. Was this part of the plan? I couldn’t remember. I wanted to join Drake and the darkness, that world of chaos and freedom where there were no rules, no constraints.
I took two steps and Signore’s hand was on my arm, fingers of stone. Not just stone. I would have gone to ashes and dust, but his energy wrapped around me, holding me there.
“Cara mia, focus.” He growled, but it was gentle.
I snarled back at him, but there was no escaping from that grip. I swiped my knife across his face. He didn’t dodge or duck, instead a line of red spread across his cheek.
He caught my knife in his other hand, licked his blood off the blade then continued his relaxed destruction of the endless stream of vermin.
“So disgusting.”
He only smiled but didn’t look at me.
I had to be satisfied with watching the fight through the open wall into Darkside. Haleson was plated with yellow-orange armor while Drake had mage armor in green over his body. Haleson was so big. Not just big. Graceful. Powerful. Fast. And his spellwork. I couldn’t see what he did, but I saw Drake, saw him fumble clumsily with what should have been a flurry of blows against Haleson.
He wore a mask of flames that spread up to his antlers. He was terrifying, like a demon from, well, hell. He did make Signore look kind of normal, even with the fangs and red eyes.
Behind him flurried wings, not just the bird men, but small dragons and these horse creatures, centaurs maybe? They had horns, like Haleson. And hooves where he had boots, plated in the orange gold flickering flames.
“He knows how to make an entrance,” I admitted.
Signore snorted. “He’s a pretty mage.”
“Why is he fighting us? I thought we almost had an alliance.”
“He’s proving his worth as an ally.”
I gasped as Haleson nearly took off Drake’s head. He had to slide through the dirt to avoid the enormous flaming whips and almost got his legs cut off when the axe slammed down.
The two whirled around, Drake’s face alight with a mad smile as he faced this worthy adversary. There was no end to the creatures behind the two, spread out in the darkness, but they didn’t pour into the chapel, just kept to the edges while above us the feathered men swirled around and around.
“They’re really beautiful. All of them. The bats are a little creepy, but everything else…”
“These are only a taste of what monstrous creatures hide in the depths of Hale. He’s showing off the pretty ones. Are you impressed?”
“Super impressed.”
“My old friend.” The voice was like skittering spiders over every centimeter of my skin. I whirled around to face the doors, oppo
site of the far wall where Drake and Zach were holding out Darkside.
He was dressed in a nice suit, not too ostentatious, exactly the sort of thing you’d wear to a wedding. His hair was reddish, eyes pale aqua. I felt the wave of fury go through Signore. He let go of my arm, instinctively taking two steps towards his enemy.
That’s all it took for someone else to slip his arms around my waist. “Worth worlds,” he whispered with the scent of ozone.
I didn’t have time to fight or scream or do anything. One moment we were in the ripped apart church, the next in a swirling bubble of light. He let go of me. Scratcher.
I gasped but air wasn’t what came in my lungs. Energy? Something not air. He didn’t speak and I couldn’t move, not until the bubble bounced and shattered, leaving me in the middle of a large stone hall.
I staggered to the nearest wall and ran my fingers over it. Stone. I focused my energy and kicked it, but other than chipping away a spray of stone, the wall didn’t move.
“Pretty witch shouldn’t hurt herself against her prison.”
I whirled around at the Scratcher. I stalked towards him while he watched me come with that peculiar face, two directions at one time. He kept turning his head back and forth so he could watch me with each eye.
I gripped his shirt and shook him. “Where am I? What did he pay you? What does he want?”
“Release the Scratcher, princess.” My father’s voice was so infuriatingly parental.
I flinched from that word, princess? What was he drinking? I whirled around, holding Scratcher in front of me. I’d snap his neck if my father came any closer. I glared at the Sorcerer whose face had looked much better before Signore’d impacted it.
“Release me and I’ll release him.”
He sighed heavily. “You don’t understand, of course not. I’ll explain. Scratcher isn’t something you can threaten. If he didn’t like you being so close to him, he wouldn’t be.”
I released the Scratcher and took two steps away from him. He glanced over his shoulder at me, smiled a jagged smile and then lunged at me. I jerked back but he was gone before he made contact.
“Now that you’re here, we can finally get to know one another.” He walked over to a table that hadn’t been there a moment before. An enormous tea was spread out, the most delicious things imaginable. He sat down and put his feet out to a blank wall that immediately grew a fireplace with accompanying flickering flames.
The flames reminded me of Haleson. I gripped the ring. I still had that. All I had to do was touch my father and the bills would engage. Drake would be able to defeat him.
I exhaled, trying to channel peace and happiness instead of the swirling Pitch that had been in my fingertips the moment Scratch had touched me. I walked over to the table, sat down, and started buttering a scone. It looked like blackberry.
He stared at me for a moment before he continued spreading jam on his crumpet. “How are you enjoying classes at Rosewood?”
“It’s better than I expected. How are you enjoying destroying the empire of the mage I love?”
He smiled slightly, his eyes crinkling around the corners like he’d never dream of ripping apart a baby, his baby. There they were, hanging over his shirt beneath his jacket, two baby ribs dipped in gold strung on a thin chain.
He touched them with fingers smeared red from strawberry jam.
I looked away while my stomach churned and my fingers itched to rip out his throat and tear off his face. I had to touch him. I had to not rip him apart. That wouldn’t engage the spell.
“To be honest, I like him. I’ve very rarely enjoyed playing with a mage as much as him.”
I snarled at him. Drake was my mage. I was the only one who got to play with him.
He laughed and smacked the table with his hand. “Look at you, not even trying to hide your love. Even if you have no magic, you should be able to deceive easily enough. What did Serene teach you?”
I stiffened up. The way he said her name was far too casual. “Are you hiding your love for my mother? You sound as though she wouldn’t rip off your face and force it down your throat if she were here.”
He raised his eyebrows. “We both know she would never waste so much energy. She would kill me or torture me, but disfigurement wouldn’t occur to her.”
“Do you honestly think that you ripping out my ribs was as good as could be expected? Do you think that cursing me and her wasn’t completely vile and wicked?”
He frowned at me. “Ah, the curse. Your magic often creates some interesting curses that I didn’t entirely plan.”
“Are you seriously blaming me for being cursed?” I stood up and gripped the edge of the table, trying not to launch myself at him.
He smiled. Creepy smile. I slowly sat back down.
“Why haven’t you attacked me yet? Are you actually convinced that you can’t defeat me? That’s surprisingly wise of you.”
“That’s me, surprisingly wise. I take after my grandmother.”
He sighed. “I didn’t realize who Serene’s mother was. It was quite the secret, the Devil marrying the Rose? Such a scandal! If I’d known, I probably wouldn’t have asked Serene to assassinate her. It doesn’t appear that it stuck. Serene was so beautiful at death. I was jealous sometimes of her love for killing.”
I gave him a flat smile. How would she kill this monster?
He smiled and cocked his head. “She couldn’t kill me without it hurting you, possibly killing you. That’s why she ran instead of fighting. Love is such a weakness. She loves you though. And your stepfather. I suppose she loves him as well.” His eyes went pitch black for a moment with blatant madness in those depths.
I swallowed before I nodded. “She adores Revere. He tucks her into the dungeon every night with screams that rip the night apart.”
He inhaled shallowly. “You shouldn’t speak like that.”
“Why not? Are you going to rip out the rest of my ribs? Maybe you’ll just steal my energy like you stole my magic.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Because it’s ill-mannered.” He stood up, movement sharp, staccato. “There isn’t any way for a magickless witch to escape, and no way for anyone to trace you, not even a finder like Narcollo. Enjoy your tea alone. For the record, it’s not your energy. I gave it to you to replace the magic. Otherwise, the process would have killed you.”
“I have your energy? You gave it to me, like a trade or something?”
He sighed heavily. “Certainly not. You have the energy of another sorcerer. The Prince of Darkness’s brother. He was his favorite. I really shouldn’t have toyed with that one, but he was almost as amusing as your dragon. Which reminds me. It’s time to go to war. There are so many of his men who haven’t sworn fealty. I think it would be fitting if he had to murder every last one of them. It would be quite poignant, don’t you agree?”
I threw my scone at him. It shattered on his invisible shield. “Thief! Liar! You’re dishonorable and irresponsible! There isn’t a single redeeming quality about you! How could my mother possibly still love you?”
He froze, his eyes staring into me as the darkness leaked out until he was left with the pale blue. “I’m a sorcerer. I’m not supposed to have any redeeming qualities. Do you imagine that the Prince of Darkness has virtue? Perhaps weakness, but not virtue. He is such a friend of yours. Perhaps I should have sold you to him rather than Hale, but he would enjoy that too much. Do you want to know what he offered me for you?”
I almost threw up all over the beautiful tea. “You’re lying. Signore wouldn’t ever make a deal with you. You’re the devil.”
“Your grandfather is the devil. He sold Serene to me. Such a pretty price. I’m still paying off that debt. So many debts. Your reactions are quite charming. You don’t understand what I could do to you, my magickless daughter. I could whisper in your ear anything at all, and you’d believe me. You’d kill your mage if I told you to.”
“Like mother killed grandmama? It doesn’t seem your whisper
s work quite that well.”
“I never whispered to Serene. Let’s stop using that word. It’s quite monotonous, don’t you agree? I appreciated her for everything she was, the darkness inside of her more beautiful than a night without stars. That mage,” he said with a curl of his lips, “couldn’t appreciate the darkness, couldn’t revel in it and give it the freedom to grow to its full potential. Your mother was darkness. She was pain. She was blistering agonizing death and then she had you.” His gaze was sharp, the anger and hate in them making my skin crawl. “Her precious bloody babe with its tufts of hair and hideous red face. She should have hated you. I was prepared to care for you as a dutiful father should an aberration, but she clung to you, nursed you, gazed at you as though you held the world in your muddy eyes.” He stalked towards me, rage and madness fighting for dominance.
I clenched my fists, braced for the moment his hands came around my throat, strangling me, touching me, but instead he exhaled and shook his head.
He gave me a wry smile. “No sense dwelling on the past. Soon enough you’ll be safely in the arms of your husband, your step-father will be dispersed into shreds of nothingness, and your mother will have nothing to protect. She will return home to me. We will rule the world together.”
“You’re a raving lunatic. Seriously, completely loony. My mother would never forgive you for cursing us.”
He shrugged. “She will be by my side whether of her own will or in chains. To be honest, I’m looking forward to seeing my wife in chains.”
He smiled and I shuddered. He turned and disappeared without touching me.
I screamed for a minute or two before I searched the room. I scaled the wall, searching for a crack, but it was like a stone box, nothing but the fireplace and the tea table in the space. I sniffed around trying to find a crack for mice or rats, but nothing. Seriously.
He was super psychotic. More than I expected. So, I had Signore’s brother’s energy. He’d never mentioned it. Didn’t he have to have his brother’s energy so he could become the Prince of Darkness? Maybe he was going to rip my heart out and eat it at some point. Had he actually tried to get my dad to sell me to him? I shook my head vigorously.
Deadly Morsel: Rosewood Academy of Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 5) Page 27