by Raven Steele
“I’m trapped, Samira,” she said, staring down at her hands. “Nothing can be done.”
“That’s not true. I found a way out.”
Her gaze slowly moved up to mine. “And yet you’re back.”
“It’s temporary.”
She shook her head sadly. “It’s never temporary with Korin. He will find a way to keep you here.”
“It’s different this time,” I assured her, keeping a mask of calm on my face. She couldn’t see the weakness I felt inside, the doubt I held.
She didn’t say anything and even Teddy averted his gaze. Could they see right through me? I set my mouth in a firm line, determined to keep my emotions from showing. I pulled out a chair and sat with her at the table. Teddy did the same, sitting opposite of me.
“Tell me,” I said, “what happened to Faithe?”
Teddy’s face darkened, anger filling his countenance. “She became Korin’s plaything.”
“She did what she had to do to survive,” Kristina clarified.
“Is she compelled?”
Teddy rubbed at the back of his neck. “She could be. I rarely see her away from him. I’ve tried talking to her, but she always has this distant look in her eyes, almost as if she’s somewhere else.”
I nodded. I knew the look. I’d seen the same thing when I found her half way submerged in the lake. I’d saved her then, I could save her again.
“What do you know about Trianus?” I asked.
Both their mouths tightened as if invisible strings had pulled them tight. I groaned. “You’ve been compelled not to say anything, correct?”
They stared at me, but Teddy was blinking furiously, which told me Korin must have said something to them about Trianus.
“Somehow, I’m going to find a way to break his hold over you. Over all of you. His reign of violence and terror must end. It’s gone on too long.”
Teddy’s eyes widened. “You’ll get yourself killed.”
“Things are different now. I’m different.”
“And that makes you stronger than Korin?”
I bit my lip, something I hadn’t done since I left the coven, and thought about his words. I might be stronger with the Kiss, but did I dare unleash its full power? I’d used just a small portion of it the other night and almost didn’t stop myself before running my sword through Lynx.
I answered honestly. “I don’t know.”
He leaned toward me, his eyes serious. “Then you better get sure, because if you go against Korin with any hesitation, he’ll kill you.”
I left Winter’s Cove feeling no better than when I arrived. Since I was forced to return, I had hoped to learn something that could help me against Korin, but instead, I only discovered how much my old friends were suffering. Something had to be done.
Parking again a few blocks from Sinsual, I snuck through the roof access again and into Eddie’s office. Now that I knew he was fae, I was surprised I hadn’t noticed before. The signs were all there: small, yet quick movements, a slight sheen in his eyes when he got angry, a musical tone to his voice.
When I walked through the door, Eddie barely looked up at me from his computer, his hands flying across the keyboard. “Welcome back, Samira. Give me a second, would you? And could you close the door?”
“I can wait outside, if you’d like.”
“No, no. I’m about ready, just close the door.”
I complied and stepped to the side, settling into the room as if I was a part of it. Eddie tapped away a few more minutes, his eyes darting from a paper on his desk and to the computer screen. He stopped, pushed away from the desk, and closed his eyes. I was about to ask him if he was all right, when his body began to shimmer, then separate. Much the same way a tarantula sheds its skin, Eddie became a duplicate copy of himself. My lips parted, and a breath escaped. I’d only ever seen that one other time, and it was just as shocking as it had been the first time I saw it.
Standing, Eddie stared down at himself. “I have a stain on my shirt.”
The duplicate version of him looked down and shrugged.
“Is your duplicate body corporeal?” I asked.
“That would be impossible.” He swiped at the copy, his hand going right through his head, a swirl of blue magic twisting into the air. “As long as I avoid contact with anyone or anything, no one will ever know.”
He crossed the room and opened the door, motioning me through first. The copy of Eddie turned and stared out the office window to the club below.
“Does anyone know?”
“Only my kind, and now you. Please keep it secret.”
Outside the club, I turned toward my car, but Eddie jerked his head another direction. “This way. Black Glen isn’t far.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How big is this place?”
He looked back and grinned. “Huge.”
I didn’t waste words asking what he meant. I’d know soon enough. I hadn’t spent much time with fae in my long lifetime. Their numbers were by far the fewest among supernaturals, so they tended to keep to themselves. They also wielded powerful magic, which made a lot of the other species fear them, but I found them to be quite agreeable. Maybe it’s because I felt a kinship to them, being so different from everyone else.
Eddie turned left down Central Avenue. Streetlights lit up red hues in his hair, and when moonlight hit him just right, his skin almost looked incandescent.
“How long have you known Sersi?” he asked.
“Centuries.”
He nodded, thinking.
“You?”
“I met her a few decades back,” he said. “About the same time I opened the club. Well, shortly after. I was a mess when I first came to Rouen.”
“Most are.”
He eyed me sideways, then glanced around to make sure we weren’t being listened to. “Our kind knows something is changing in Rouen. We’ve felt the shift in the wind, a darkness blowing in from the East.”
“The East?”
“We noticed it over a decade ago, but in the past few months it has been growing.”
“What does it want?”
“What everyone in this city who desires power wants lately.” He met my gaze. “The Abydos.”
I kept my face even, not wanting to reveal anything. Briar had put me in charge of it, and I would protect it with my life, if necessary. “What is the fae’s interest in the sacred blood?”
He let out a long, weighted breath. “Depends upon who you ask. Some want it to increase our wealth and power. Some want it because they think it will help us reproduce easier. Then there are others, like me, who want nothing to do with it. That kind of power shouldn’t be allowed in anyone’s hands. Plus, it would put a target on our back, and our population is already small. We couldn’t defend ourselves against an attack, if someone decided to fight us for it.”
He stopped walking. “We’re here.”
We still stood on the street. A line of shops were on my left, but on my right was Rouen’s biggest city park: Emerald Park. The wide expanse of manicured green lawn with strategically placed trees and walking paths held farmer’s markets in the summer, music festivals every few months, and even a yearly Renaissance fair.
I peered into the empty park using my night vision. “There’s nothing here.”
He grinned. “Not yet.”
Chapter 10
Under his breath, Eddie said, in a language he probably thought I didn’t know, “By the moon's light upon the floor, reveal the secret, open the door.”
But I did speak Fae, and I spoke it well, having learned it centuries ago. I had always made it a point to speak every language possible. This had helped me on countless occasions.
I pretended I didn’t understand him, but when the park and all its trees began to dissipate in front of me, I gasped. In its place was a city from another time.
“Come on,” Eddie said and urged me forward.
Small thatched-roof homes and shops crowded the space, the walkways betwee
n them narrow and tight. Lit sconces adorned each door, casting warm light in all directions. And it was busy. So many people, fae, bustled about in clothing reminiscent of a Scottish village in the sixteen-hundreds. They carried baskets of food, pelts from animals, and books wrapped in ribbons. The crowded shops sold all manner of food and clothing. Some sold magical objects, while others looked like small pubs.
More than all the sights and sounds of talking and the clanking of objects, were the smells that filled the air. Plum pudding, sweet rolls, and candied apples. It was as if I could taste each one on my tongue, the scents alive and vibrant. I rarely ate human food, but suddenly I wanted to taste it all.
“Why is this place so different?” I asked.
“Different?” Eddie nudged aside a plump man carrying a bag of grain. No one paid us any attention. It was as if they were used to visitors from the outside world.
I fumbled to find the right words. “So old fashioned. Quaint. And the smells…” It reminded me of my youth.
He chuckled. “The smells are the best part of this place. We plant most of our food in soil that’s over a thousand years old. It holds magical properties that grows with the food. As for the odd time period you see, Fae folk like to stick to tradition, but if you look closely, hidden within all their folds of clothing, you’ll find modern cell phones. They are the kings and queens of hypocrisy.” He stopped abruptly and turned to me, his expression serious. “Remember that.”
I nodded and moved out of the way of a man pushing a cart full of hay. This one did look at me and frowned as he eyed me up and down. My black attire must look terribly depressing to him.
“This way,” Eddie said, guiding me down a narrow alley, then cutting over to another street. He stopped suddenly. “One second. Briar is at the office trying to talk to the other me.”
He turned toward a bare wall, and a white film came over his eyes. “You know you can take whatever time you need, Briar. Just show up whenever.”
He paused, then, “Don’t feel bad. Go. You have a busy life and a lot of people depend upon you.”
Another several seconds passed.
“I just mean you have a boyfriend now and roommates. That’s a lot of responsibility. Now leave, please. I have a lot to do.”
A moment later, his eyes returned to normal, and he turned to me. “That was close. It’s hard to remember that she doesn’t know about me, and I’m not supposed to know about her.”
“I’m sure that will have to change soon.”
“Yes, I’m sure it will.”
We continued to zigzag our way through the maze of crowded homes and shops until we reached a tall iron fence. Beyond it, across an expansive lawn full of flowered gardens and shrubs, was a mansion, more like a castle by the look of its spirals and fluted columns, rivaling Winter’s Cove.
“This is Warwick Castle, where our King and Queen live,” Eddie said and walked past the open gates. There were no guards posted, no sign of security. Apparently, they didn’t live in fear of their lives like many supernaturals outside of Black Glen had to.
“Will we be meeting with them?”
He shook his head. “Not today, but we will be meeting with their lieutenant, Folas Valxina. He has information you might find helpful.”
“Why have a lieutenant when I see no soldiers or security?”
He turned right down a path, past several rose bushes that were a shade of blue I hadn’t seen before. “Oh, it’s here. You just can’t see it. Our security is probably the best in the world. We don’t take our safety lightly, not when there are so few of us. However, they know who I am, so we can move about as we wish.”
I didn’t ask any more questions, but instead took in every detail of the castle. Anything that might be useful later. I noted the oddly placed dead flowers tied with ribbons at each crossroads, and the eerie gargoyle statues resting in the center of each small garden. If Eddie was right about fae’s hypocrisy, then I would not let my eyes tell me the truth about this place. I would have to rely on my other senses, and right now they were screaming we weren’t alone, that powerful magic lay in traps around us. Even though I might appear safe here, I was far from it.
Eddie walked beneath an arched stone tunnel lined with torches until we reached a thick, iron door. This seemed to be a back entrance into the castle. He knocked in a pattern, three hard raps of his knuckles followed by two softer ones.
The door creaked open. A small fae woman with narrow eyes and pointy ears motioned us in, her mouth a straight line. Eddie said nothing to her as we passed and descended a long set of stairs. With all this rock and moving down, the temperature should be cool, but it was pleasantly warm.
At the bottom of the steps, the space opened up into an archaic library with thick wooden shelves and straight tables with no curves or beveled edges. Even the chairs were wooden and hard-backed. In one of them, a tall thin man wearing a red robe pored over several books sprawled out in front of him. His clothes underneath his robe were rumpled, and his shaggy blond hair hung over his eyes. He looked up at us, his cold dark eyes boring into me.
“Folas,” Eddie began, “this is Samira, the vampire I told you about, the same one Sersi vouched for. She is looking for information about Trianus.”
“Sit,” he ordered. Two chairs across from him pulled away from the table on their own accord.
“Thank you for seeing me, Folas,” I said and lowered into the chair, staying just on the edge should I need to bolt quickly. There was something about this man that made me not trust him. Maybe it was because of the wooden stake tucked under a book to the side of him, or the tip of a silver dagger peaking beneath the folds of his robe.
“You want information on Trianus,” he said, leaning forward, his hands resting only an inch from the stake. “May I ask why?”
“I believe someone is still trying to bring him back into our realm. I want to stop this from happening. As we both know, Trianus has the power to destroy our world.”
“Yes, he does. We also want to stop him.” He reached with his long arm for a book near the corner of the table. His sleeve slipped up exposing a small tattoo of what looked like a pitchfork with a circle around it on top of his wrist. He set the book in front of me and flipped it open to a page. “Do you know this tale?”
I quickly read its contents. It spoke of a powerful fae witch named Ivona. Her powers were unmatched for her time, and yet she couldn’t have the one thing she wanted—a child. When she finally did have one after years of trying, the child mysteriously died shortly after. Grief stricken, Ivona turned mad and raised a demon from hell to take over the child’s body, Trianus. It was a familiar tale, one Briar had retold to me after hearing it from one of Dominic’s bodyguards. That was also the same night Briar had first seen the smoke creature speaking with Dominic in the graveyard.
“I’ve heard the story, but,” I scanned the pages searching for a date, “when did Ivona raise Trianus? I don’t see it here.”
“Thousands of years ago in Babylon,” he explained. “It took powerful supernaturals to send him back to hell. Ivona, however, escaped. She continued throughout time to try and raise him again. It was the Red Tree Witches’, a coven made from twelve of the world’s most powerful witches, who finally contained the immortal fae in the ninth century. They buried on her sacred land beneath one of their homes. She remained there up until about one hundred and fifty years ago.” He flashed me a deadly stare, a dark glimmer in his eyes. “Ivona should never have gotten out.”
I stared right through him as something dawned on me. Detrand knew about the fae witch because he’d been one of the first to discover she’d escaped. That’s one of the reasons he sent me to Rouen: to watch for the fae witch who would most likely be drawn to Rouen’s unique placement on the globe. Rouen had been built over a rift in the earth’s magic, where power from the earth’s core leaked into the world. It’s why supernaturals were drawn to the area, and also made it the perfect place to raise Trianus.
; I had no idea until just now that Ivona and the fae witch were one. Detrand mustn’t know either. All he knew about her was that she was extremely powerful and wanted to bring Trianus into the world.
“I agree. She should’ve remained buried.”
Nodding, he closed the book and set it down on a stack next to him. “But she did and now she’s in Rouen in search of the Abydos. In fact, the Komira fought her not that long ago.”
I barely managed to keep my mouth closed. They knew Briar was a Komira? I glanced at Eddie. They knew too much. “When did this supposed fight happen?”
“At Fire Ridge,” Folas said. “Ivona was in smoke form then.”
My head snapped back to Folas, my brain working quickly. The smoke in the graveyard with Dominic, the paintings of Vincent and Dominic worshipping the entity, and finally the way Vincent had fought side by side with it against us all in order to get the Abydos. I was surprised and frustrated with myself that I hadn’t put the pieces together sooner, but I simply hadn’t put much stock in the story Briar had heard. It made more sense that someone else would try to raise Trianus.
“How do you know it was her?” I asked, still needing confirmation.
“Many of us fae lived during Ivona’s reign of terror. A few of us even helped the Red Tree Witches bind her deep within the earth. We know the magic they used and how it worked. Not only did they trap her, but they also stripped her of what powers they could. That way if she ever did escape, her abilities would be limited.”
“That doesn’t quite answer my question.”
He leaned forward. “One thing you should know about the fae is that we are incredibly intelligent and love to gather knowledge. There is very little we don’t know. And because we live such long lifetimes, we are always thinking ahead, centuries even, into the future. We knew it was just a matter of time when Ivona eventually escaped, so we secretly created our own spell around the home to alert us when that time came. And it was little surprise that when she did escape, she came to Rouen. She needs the Abydos.”