by J. R. Thorn
I stared at the deck and my fingers twitched, wanting to touch it and confirm its power. She seemed to read my thoughts and stretched out her wrinkled arm to offer it to me. “Go on. I don’t expect you to take my word for it.”
With a crooked smile, I took her offering. “Thanks for understanding.” Magic immediately hummed as I shuffled through the cards. I should have been surprised to find the tableaus different from my own, but it seemed natural that it would be that way. Hers held a crow, a servant, and a slew of icons I didn’t recognize, but still held familiar tones to my senses. “Your cards are different.”
She nodded and took back the cards. “Yes. We’re a Fate coven. Our powers come from fate, especially our own. Mine is linked to nature and servitude.” She smiled and her gaze fell to my jacket where I’d secreted away my own deck. “Yours no doubt is full of mystery, wonder, and royalty.”
She was right. “My mother always said that royalty was a double-side blade.”
She nodded and laughed, her silver earrings dangling as carefree as she was. “That it is, child. Iris never used her royalty cards. I didn’t blame her.” She pressed her lips together and nodded. “But now you have inherited the powers of the Fate coven and it is your choice to make.” She offered her wrinkled hand. “Come. Let us wish her farewell.”
I slipped my fingers into hers and felt another, ancient kindred bond take hold. It wasn’t like the overpowering bond I had with my protectors, but this one came with the link of magic and blood. “Are we related?” I asked as we approached the coffin.
A priest appeared from behind the tree and startled me. My hand went to my deck, but the woman laughed. “Yes, apparently, if you didn’t even notice Father Hendrick praying away behind the tree.” She gave me a wink. “I’m hopeless when it comes to being observant. It runs in the family, I’m afraid.”
The priest cleared his throat. “It seems everyone is here. Shall we begin?”
My tongue finally untied. “You’re aware we’re witches, right?” I pointed at the coffin. “My mother was a witch as well.”
He nodded patiently. “Of course, my child. Witchcraft is condemned, but souls are not. Your mother does her penance in the spirit realm and my prayers will ease her on her way.”
I swallowed hard and eyed Jennie, but she didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest. “Don’t look at me like that. Your mother is the one who asked Father Hendrick to perform the service.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of it, so I shrugged and pretended I didn’t care. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”
The pastor folded his hands and recited a rehearsed eulogy, going on about how the sins of the world of men can weigh down a soul, but one who has served penance could be saved. I tried to tune him out as I stared at the coffin. Those red eyes that had faced me in the whirlwind lingered in my mind’s eye. Death was my enemy and it’d taken my mother from me. It was a beast that could never be sated and it would devour the world if no one stood in its way. I shivered, wondering if I was strong enough to face a force that was unstoppable.
The casket remained closed, but the pastor asked me if I wanted to see my mother one last time. I nodded slightly, my neck feeling stiff and my muscles taut against the grief that threatened to constrict my heart. He lifted the corner of the coffin and revealed my mother dressed in her favorite violet layered robe with a white sash she never went anywhere without. A golden key rested in her grip and I realized that this was the burial of a Keymaster. Lonely, uncelebrated, unappreciated. It was a hard pill to swallow, and even this I knew was a lesson my mother wanted me to accept.
The pastor closed the coffin again, the soft thud hitting me in the chest with death’s finality. The tears came, and I was unable to stop them this time. Death was a funny thing in the pain it could cause. I could go days or weeks without my mother at my side, but losing sight of her sleeping face hit me so hard. The knowledge that I’d never see her again folded over and over again in my mind.
“May the cards give us strength,” Jennie murmured when the pastor pressed a button and ropes went taut, lifting the coffin. He slipped the support out from under it and the coffin gently swayed before he pressed another button and it lowered into the open grave beneath it.
I wasn’t sure if I could survive that moment, but I locked my knees and watched the coffin descend. I would be strong, if not for my mother, then for all of death’s victims that I could spare for another few years. Death would always win in the end, but it didn’t have to win today.
A screech sounded and my gaze snapped to the horizon just in time to spot a sea of black heading towards us.
Great, more demons.
I cursed and yanked out my deck of cards. I knew what I had to do. This was what my mother had trained me for all my life and I wasn’t going to turn on my heritage any longer.
Jennie eyed the card that I’d pulled. “Are you sure?”
I flipped it over and the Empress stared back at me. “Damn straight I’m sure. Let’s smoke these bitches with some royalty.”
Chapter 9
Another array of voices joined the uproar in the distance. I turned in time to spot my three valiant protectors running towards me full-speed. In Jeffery’s case, he was already almost at my side with fangs bared. The rage across his face said he would try to rip the Empress card out of my hand, but he’d already cemented the bond between us. I could top his speed with my own.
I blurred out of the way and whispered the forbidden chant that came from my bloodline. A witch of the Fate coven and descendent of the Empress, the most feared, hated, and beloved figures in the history of supernaturals. It wouldn’t be in any human textbooks, but the knowledge burned deep in my heart.
I spoke the final word and Devon and Edwin both cried out in protest. They were my protectors, but they weren’t my captors. I would do what needed to be done.
The demons descended on us and Jennie whispered out her own deck of cards, shielding her and Father Hendrick inside the trunk of the massive tree. Roots wound around them and secured them in safety as claws and sharp canines came down on us.
A heavy crown crested across my brow and tattoos spiraled down my arms, glowing with gold and fusing me with the forbidden power of my bloodline.
Devon hissed and shielded himself with hellfire when I blazed with raw sunlight, the power of the empress raining down on my enemies and allies alike. Demons in my immediate vicinity disintegrated and their ash puffed into the air. A wild grin overtook my face as the raw depth of my awakened power took over. I could do anything. The world would bow down to me if I commanded it.
A scepter formed in my grip and I thrust it out, sending a blinding ray of destruction streaking through the demon hoard. Death came for them, greedily sucking up what was left of their souls and taking them to the spirit realm where they’d be tormented for eternity. Humans and witches could eventually find their way out, but not demons. They had nowhere else to go.
Intoxicating power thrummed through me and I embraced it. This was what I had to become to stop a force like death. I had to become death itself.
Destruction rained down around me as demons fell in waves. The death spell the witch had conjured was strong and portals opened, sending demon after demon coming after me until I thought there might be no end.
Then I spotted the source.
The moon struggled to send silver rays down onto the graveyard turned into a battlefield. Each ray that touched a grave sent the air shimmering until a demon crawled from the dirt. I focused on the shadows that tried to evade human sight, but I wasn’t human anymore. I’d left that part of me behind and now I was something even stronger than the Keymaster. I was the Empress, and I sent a ray of merciless sunlight crashing down, breaking gravestones and obliterating the struggling remnants of the spell.
The remaining demons hissed, but they didn’t have the strength to face me. My protectors had taken on the flurry of ranks that tried to swarm around through the trees and cat
ch me off guard. Jeffery blurred through the leaves and ripped heads clean off their bodies. Red eyes glimmered and went dark one by one as he made short work of his portion of the battle.
Devon drew circle after circle as flames blazed through the grounds, sending demons straight back to hell. He expertly kept between the long, blistered trunks of trees to guard himself against my merciless sunlight. When he caught me watching him, he gave me a wink.
Then there was Edwin who I’d almost missed. His strong presence promised quick justice as a sword emerged from thin air and a ghost of silver wings hinted at his back. I’d dismissed a part of what made him angelic and powerful, and the more he used his supernatural powers the closer he was to reigniting the bond to the Legion instead of to me.
The Empress in me wanted to push them all aside. I didn’t need men to save me, but I knew that. What I was more concerned about was who would save them.
I snarled when a demon approached Edwin from behind. I thrust out my scepter and a merciless beam of light crashed an inch past his face, he didn’t even flinch. The demon cried out as the beam went straight through his eye and gleaming embers overtook his body until he was nothing but ash.
We dispatched the rest of the hoard until nothing was left, but the burning lust of power still threatened to consume. It felt like Devon’s hellfire, but nothing could quench this flame.
Edwin’s eyes glowed with an eerie gold that matched me and he didn’t blink or shy away. He came up to me and tossed his sword to the ground.
I challenged him and bared my teeth, but he patiently waited until I relented and allowed my scepter to drop from my hand.
He claimed me, covering my mouth with his and sunlight exploded in my core. Any other man I would have shredded to pieces as I let go of everything I’d been holding in my whole life. Death had taken something precious from me and I wanted revenge.
“Justice,” Edwin whispered in my ear as his teeth sank into my lower lip. “Never revenge.”
I closed my eyes and realized that I’d been chanting the word out loud over and over again. I allowed him to shed his light and power over me, a blazing glory that could only come from one of the Legion tasked to face death itself.
If I wanted to, I could have destroyed him then. All his defenses disintegrated and wings sprouted from his back as he loosened his control. The graveyard diminished into gold and we swept away to another realm.
It wasn’t heaven, but it was somewhere close. Metallic glimmers shone all around us and a soft foundation of bedding awaited me. I realized that this was Edwin’s home before he’d come to Earth, before I’d summoned him away from this perfect place.
His armor hung on the wall and swords gleamed with perfection. Runes lined each one, depicting the laws that an angel like Edwin upheld. He was one of the Legion and so high up in the ranks that he had no name. He was an Angel of Fate.
He was also mine.
I claimed him as I beamed with light and disintegrated his clothes until he was nothing but naked perfection hard and ready for me. I wrapped my hands around his cock and thrust down hard. He released a groan, but allowed me to do what I wanted with him.
“You said I couldn’t handle you,” I accused as I pumped him again.
He threw his head back and closed his eyes in bliss. “That was before you embraced what you are.”
I moved again and he grabbed me, but I didn’t stop. “You wanted me to become the Empress.”
His eyes went wide with challenge. The broken crystal of his irises mesmerized me as he searched my face. “Your mother wouldn’t accept this power. She couldn’t bond with her angel of heaven and her protectors died, even though she knew they would.”
Shock streaked through me as the vision of the tea leaves filtered into my mind. The line slashed between the three circles had meant the death of my protectors, and I knew that… but I refused to accept it. “I won’t allow that to happen.”
I embraced the frightening strength that spilled out of me. I’d unlocked the power of my bloodline and the surge of temptation to dominate and control threatened to consume me, but Edwin’s hard body told me that I didn’t have to do this alone. He served a greater purpose and I drew strength on his resolve.
He took my hand and knelt before me, a servant to an Empress of old. “I vow to serve you and honor you.” His words stole my breath as he placed a kissed on my hand. A glimmering ring sparkled against his lips and he kissed it as well, pledging his allegiance to my reign.
“Rise,” I commanded, and he did some in a swift movement as he ran his hands up my thighs before he pulled me to him.
I reveled in the strong touch as he clawed his fingers into my back. His lips claimed mine and then all I knew was his kiss and his naked body pressing against mine. Wings spread from his back, stronger and more vivid now that we were in his world. He lowered me to the velvety blankets and wedged himself between my thighs.
I opened for him, wanting him to fulfill the final bond I needed to fulfill my destiny. When he entered me, I threw my head back and gasped. I made my own vow as pleasure and power slammed through me.
I would never let any of my protectors die. Not Jeffery, not Devon, and not Edwin.
The words were spilling out of me again of their own accord and Edwin rewarded my vow with slow, rocking movements of approval. I clawed my fingers down his back and stopped when I reached the soft tendrils of the feathers that hinted at his shoulder blades. I stoked and caressed, making him release in a soft gasp of pleasure.
Our bond snapped into place, and then I crashed into darkness.
Chapter 10
Fucking an angel of the Legion—one of an assortment of angels tasked with humanity’s survival—was something that should have killed me. Where Devon’s hellfire could have consumed me without a little vampiric help to keep me grounded, there was nothing that could have prepared me for Edwin’s sheer strength. He was sunlight and justice—no room for mercy or give. I had to embrace the Empress to survive the influx of raw power that his connection speared through my veins. It’s why no other Keymaster before me had ever been able to cement the bond between her protectors, and it’s why the failed companionship always resulted in the triad unraveling until death got its sweet revenge.
I awoke to find my protectors doing what they did best, hovering over me while they bickered with each other.
“If she turns evil I’m blaming you,” Devon said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yeah, you’re such a bad influence,” Jeffery adamantly agreed. “She was our sweet Ren and now she’s going to turn into a vengeful Empress. Why couldn’t you just keep it in your pants?”
Edwin didn’t seem impressed. He still held that blazing power behind the crystal of his eyes. Just like he’d awakened something in me, it seemed that I’d awakened something in him, too. “I’m an angel of heaven. How, exactly, could I possibly turn her evil?”
I growled, sending them all jolting. “You could keep talking loud enough to make this splitting migraine push me over the edge and murder you all.” My head swam when I sat up, but I wasn’t going to let anyone accuse Edwin of doing anything less than what I needed from him. He was one of my protectors and he belonged to me just as much as I belonged to him.
The bond between my triad strengthened as their hands went to me to steady me. I adored each one of them more than my own life and as I met the gaze of each one, I knew that this was a companionship that would change me forever.
“How are you feeling?” Jeffery asked. His fangs retreated until he could almost pass for human, if it hadn’t been for the marble-perfection of his skin. “Your mother said that this wouldn’t happen.”
I laughed and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. Fluffy frills of lace and silk cascaded over my thighs, revealing that someone had changed me into a nightgown. I rolled my eyes. “My mother and I share a lot of traits, one of them being incapable of seeing the truth of the future right in front of us.” I had denied th
e possibility of her death and her magic until it had been shoved right into my face. I pinched a corner of the hemmed gown draping over my leg and grimaced. “We also both hate girly clothes.”
A woman’s voice as silky as the nightgown came from the doorway. “My apologies, dear, but my maidservants were only acting on protocol.” The succubus who only introduced herself as “Madame” smiled at me as she continued. “When an unconscious supernatural female is brought here for sanctuary, we make pains to offer every comfort.” She slipped inside, practically floating across the ground as she ran a graceful caress over Devon’s arms. He lifted his lip and growled like the predator he was. Any other woman would have been terrified, but Madame simply giggled. “I would have offered male companionship, but you have more than your fair share already.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not a succubus, so that’s not necessary.”
She gave me a raised brow. “You may not be, however your magic is more enticing than that which even my bloodline can offer. I would urge you to be cautious around the male gender.”
“Noted,” I said and forced myself onto my feet. I rocked, feeling unsteady on my naked toes that plunged into the plush carpet. It felt as if I had an unbalanced weight bobbing around in my chest and I couldn’t quite keep it settled.
Edwin rushed to my side and steadied me by placing a strong grip under my elbow. I gratefully eased my weight onto him. “When you’re not in your Empress form, the bond between us is too strong.”
I waved him away. “I’ll get used to it. Don’t worry about me.”
A rumble shook the mansion and I shivered, being reminded of the death spell that had killed all the people of Fortune Street. “We took out the demons. Is the spell still active?” Horror filled me as I stared at the swaying drapes that blocked out the view of New York. What would happen if the shockwave hit a crowded populace like the city? Could I really have that many deaths on my conscience and survive?