Titanium (Amber trilogy Book 2)

by Hati Bell

  Benedict spun the sword around his hip. “Stole it fair and square from Ali Baba and his forty robbers,” he claimed, looking proud. “What do you think about the Thousand-and-One-Nights theme, my golden draconi? How do you picture your wedding?”

  Logan looked a bit queasy. “With a noose around my neck. That’s the only bloody way someone can get me to the aisle.”

  “Ah, so a gallows theme?” Benedict said with a wink.

  A snort followed from where Faey was doing her push-ups. “Figures.”

  “Why exactly are you here again?” Logan asked, sending Faey a glare. “It’s a full moon. Shouldn’t you be crawling underneath a titanium bed somewhere?”

  Amber wasn’t surprised to hear that Logan knew about Faey’s issue with the Romanovs. She’d actually noticed a kind of truce—almost some form of friendship—between Logan and Matteo. Which wasn’t so strange considering they had so much in common, though they seemed totally oblivious to that fact.

  “Right back at ya, Ken,” Faey huffed. “Why exactly are you here? Did Malibu Barbie throw you out?”

  When Logan spun around to Faey, a scowl on his face, Amber gave him a kick from under the table. “Not tonight,” she snapped in a whisper. Faey might come across all blasé, but Amber knew she was tightly wound. The only thing keeping her from working out in the safety of the house was her pride.

  “Come on, my pretty doves. It’s time to pick out a place for the main party tent,” Benedict said, taking Cally and Benn further into the vast garden.

  Faey stopped doing her push-ups and stared after Benn and Cally, following after Benedict hand in hand. She huffed and rolled her eyes. “Those lovebirds look so sweet together. One could decorate a cake with the sugary-sweet icing wafting off them.”

  For someone complaining about Cally’s bliss, Faey sure happened to be present an awful lot of times during the planning of their wedding. Amber even suspected Faey tried to stay clear of the Romanovs long enough so she could attend the wedding.

  Benedict was still leading the couple around the garden, pointing out spots for the tent, when the moon came up. With a heavy sigh towards the moon, Faey picked up her training mat and walked inside.

  “How long do you think it will take before the Romanovs show up again?” Amber asked, when Faey was out of hearing distance.

  “Not long,” Matteo said. “The last time she beat Vasily, he appeared with Dimitri within just a few days.”

  “How many Romanov brothers are there?” Logan asked.

  “Three.” Matteo groaned, chugged down his drink and placed it back onto the table.

  “We have to find a way to help her.” Amber refused to believe there was nothing they could do. Unfortunately, she hadn’t come up with a brilliant plan yet. “She’ll be safe inside, right?”

  Matteo looked burdened. “The bedrooms are sealed off with titanium, of course, so no one can trace inside. This will at least protect her from any surprise attacks. This, however, does not prevent the Romanovs from entering the regular way. Eventually they will run out of patience, and they will just break down the front door.”

  “Maybe I could plead her case with Crassus,” she mused. Judging by the look on Matteo’s face, he didn’t give that idea much of a chance, but she wasn’t going to give up. No one deserved to live the way Faey did.

  Her gaze went to Cally, sitting at the edge of the fountain where Benedict had put her. He was feigning taking pictures of her, his mouth going a million miles an hour.

  Out of nowhere a phoenix appeared behind him, making her heart nearly seize. “Benedict!”

  Benedict spun around, dodging the knife aimed at his heart just in time.

  “Shit!” Matteo cursed and traced to Benedict’s side. At the same time, two more phoenixes showed up, surrounding them.

  They seemingly shot out of the air like fireballs, followed by over a dozen figures jumping over the garden walls.

  “Goblins.” Logan growled and jumped to his feet. He sped passed Amber within a beat, his body already growing larger, forming scales and his hands turning into claws.

  Amber drew her knife and ran towards Cally. Benn pushed his fiancee behind him, and she tumbled right into the fountain. A pair of goblins closed in on him and took him down. Logan burst into the fight, pulling a goblin off of his friend.

  She ducked when a head flew passed her shoulder. It went by too fast to see whom it belonged to. There was, however, a bloody trail leading to Logan, so she assumed it had belonged to a goblin.

  Benn and Logan stood back to back, in full dragon mode. Matteo was tracing all over the garden, flashing his knife as if his life depended on it. The once-peaceful garden had turned into a pandemonium of knives, claws, and one curved sword belonging to Benedict.

  A phoenix flashed right before her, forcing her to stop in her tracks. She recognized him from the auction.

  “The Sovereign says hi to Crassus,” he snarled, lifting his knife.

  Clearly her ‘neutral’ dress hadn’t worked.

  She blocked his jab and kneed him in the nuts, making him bend over. “Go say hi to him yourself,” she bit out, and stabbed him in the shoulder. “I’m not your delivery girl.” She pulled back her knife, pushed passed him, and hurried towards Cally.

  However, once again her path got blocked, this time by two phoenixes. One of them wore a turban she had seen before. Lovely. Another ‘acquaintance’ from the auction.

  “You’re the tightwad who gave me one lousy coin. And Attila the Hun five sheep,” she said, remembering Benedict’s words.

  “Sixty sheep and fifty horses,” he barked. “Attila was a great man, a leader. You aren’t even worth that coin, you half-breed.”

  “Says the man who didn’t have the balls to tell Crassus to his face how he really felt about his daughter,” she taunted.

  The other phoenix, a tall and thin guy resembling a human pencil, glared at her. “I think she’s calling you a coward.”

  “No one calls me a coward!” Turban said and took a jab at her.

  She jumped backward. “Yet I think I just did, mate.”

  They tried to box her in. She pondered her options as she took the defensive stance Faey had taught her. Unlike her, the phoenixes could trace, which was a point against her. Turban’s next move would be predictable, which was a point in her favor.

  Amber was prepared when Turban suddenly disappeared, and a split second later she felt heat in her back. She dropped down the moment he swung his knife. She rolled to the side and pushed to her feet before Pencil could have a go at her. The deadly dance of tracing phoenixes trying to stab her in the heart, as she jumped, rolled, and ducked away, didn’t take long. Her muscles burned from the exertion, and she was getting exhausted. She had to get away from them. There was only one way out.

  When Turban traced behind her one more time, she didn’t run away. She spun around and jumped right at him. It was obvious that he hadn’t seen this coming, and she used that small window of surprise to block his extended arm and stab him right in the heart. Blood spilled all over her hand and titanium knife. Her stomach revolted, but at least that was one less phoenix to worry about.

  “Filthy half-breed!” Pencil screamed. “I’m going to tear your head off and send it to your father.” Much to her surprise he didn’t come at her but traced away.

  She feverishly looked around her to pin his location. There he was. Over hundred feet away near the rose bushes. Her eyes widened as it dawned on her what he was waiting for. However, she’d only began to run when Turban’s body stiffened and exploded in a rain of fire and ash.

  The explosion lifted her off the ground and she flew over the grass, landing on her back with a thump. She tried to get back on her feet, with her ears ringing. She was desperately looking for her knife, when Pencil appeared before her. This time he was accompanied by two goblins. They boxed her in, forming a triangle of fury that could descend on her any minute now. Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest at the prospec
t.

  Pencil loomed over her, a smirk on his face, his knife drawn, when suddenly his hand dropped. Literally. On the ground before her, rolling towards her feet. Yuck.

  Faey traced before her and with one mighty jab she planted her knife right in Pencil’s heart. The goblins behind Amber ran away with their tails tucked between their legs.

  They’re smarted than me.

  Amber crawled on to her feet before she came in contact with another exploding body. It appeared she could have saved herself the trouble, because Faey grabbed her and traced her onto an ottoman near the garden table. Onto an ottoman! Like she was going to keep sitting on her ass while there was a war going on in their garden.

  Before she could protest, Faey had already disappeared. Roaring a battle cry, Faey burst into the circle surrounding Logan and Benn, with a fierceness Amber admired greatly.

  From her side of the garden the fountain seemed far away. By the time Amber had reached them, one of the last phoenixes picked up a goblin and traced them away. The fight was finally over. Matteo and Faey wiped their bloody knives off and put them away.

  “Where’s Benedict?” During the chaos she’d neither seen or heard from him.

  Matteo looked grim. “A phoenix reminded him of his promesi and Benedict went bonkers. Then they easily stabbed him through the heart.”

  Internally fuming for someone once again abusing Benedict’s weakness, she shook her head. “Everyone else okay? Where’s Cally?”

  Benn turned around and jumped into the fountain, which had a pink color now. “Cally!” He fished her out of the water and carefully put her onto the grass. He dropped on his knees next to her, looking absolutely heartbroken.

  Amber crouched down on Cally’s other side. Panic grabbed her by the throat when she saw her friend wasn’t moving. There was a knife lodged into her chest, right below her heart. She put her fingers to Cally’s throat, breathing a sigh of relief when she realized she was still alive. “We have to get her to a hospital.”

  “You move her and she will bleed to death,” Faey said as she too kneeled next to Cally. She put her hand on her wound, a determined look crossing her face. “There might be another way to save her.”

  “How?” Benn asked, his voice gravelly.

  “I could give her my life’s fire. That would heal her.”

  “No, you will not!” Matteo said, a panic in his voice. “You are far too weak and too young to—”

  “Still, I could try,” Faey stated, folding her hands over Cally’s heart. “The last time I died it took weeks for me to rise from my ashes.” She let out a deep sigh. “It takes longer every time, brother. The next time I may not rise at all. If I save Cally, at least my life will have had some meaning after all. And since it’s my life, it’s my choice.”

  “Dammit, Faey,” Matteo snapped. “You are just a baby in phoenix years. What you are willing to do will not work. Also, it is forbidden.”

  “I could try.” Faey held on stubbornly. “Consider it my wedding gift. You know I’m not the type to buy a soup bowl or salad spinner.”

  Her brother frantically shook his head. “Even if you succeeded in giving her your life’s fire, the consequence for you would be—”

  Faey looked at him with pain in her eyes. “I’m tired, brother. So damn tired of having to die over and over again. This isn’t something I decided just now. The last time Vasily shot an arrow through my heart, I had already decided it would be my last death.”

  Matteo cursed a streak but then looked resigned. “It sounds like nothing I can say would change your mind.”

  “It can’t,” Faey admitted.

  He nodded and sighed. Then he traced behind his sister, and kicked her away from Cally.

  Faey dropped on her back, jumped up, fists swinging, and opened her mouth, ready to give him shit. Matteo grabbed her and traced her to the other side of the garden.

  Amber would never learn what Faey had wanted to tell him, because Matteo stabbed Faey right in the heart.

  A deadly silence fell. She was speechless. Absolutely speechless. Her body and mind had gotten so used to violence this evening that she didn’t even flinch when two beats later Matteo reappeared at the fountain, and Faey’s body exploded.

  “That was cold, mate. Even for a phoenix,” Logan chided him, and dropped on the rim of the fountain, looking exhausted.

  Amber wanted to rage and rant at Matteo, but now wasn’t the time. Cally’s life was hanging by a thread. Faey had believed she could save Cally. It only made sense that Matteo should be able to do the same.

  “Can you save Cally?” she asked him. She remembered Namaka claiming that Matteo couldn’t lie to her because he was her promesi. “Answer me,” she said, when he kept silent. “You want my loyalty? Then bloody save Cally’s life and you have it. Or else I’m done with you and our so-called promesi bond.”

  “A phoenix can not give his life’s fire to an inferi without permission. It would have grave consequences.”

  She was in no state of mind to listen to his excuses. Surely he could pay a fine of a hundred gold coins. “Save her, Matteo. Please.”

  He frowned and then, to her surprise, looked at Logan. “What are you willing to do for Benn’s happiness?”

  Logan sent him a threatening look. “Keep me out of this, firefly.”

  Matteo kneeled next to Cally and put his hands on her heart. A light shone from underneath them, bringing back the pink to Cally’s pale face.

  “It’s working!” Benn shouted. “I owe you.”

  “No, you will not be the one to owe me,” Matteo said and pulled away one hand. Immediately the color on Cally’s face began to disappear. “That is, should I decide to grant her my fire. Make no mistake. The second I let go of my connection to this inferi, she will be finished.”

  Benn pulled at his hair, staring at his lost fiancee and then at Logan. “Please, Logan. Brother, please…”

  “Matteo.” She couldn’t believe he would hold such a threat over their heads.

  “Logan?” Matteo asked once again.

  “Bloody hell. Shit, shit!” Logan got off the fountain, stepping away from them.

  Never before had she heard such a panic in his voice. Not even when he got tortured by his own father had he sounded in such despair.

  “She only has minutes left,” Matteo said. “What is it going to be, Logan? Will you give me a dragon promise in return for her life, a promise to return my gift in an equal manner, or not? Make it quick. My hands are getting tired.”

  Logan scowled and started cursing. “What kind of promise, exactly?”

  “To become Faey’s promesi.” Matteo sounded very casual as he dropped this particular bombshell.

  Her jaw nearly dropped. Matteo must be out of his mind to demand such thing. “Logan isn’t a phoenix. What you ask of him isn’t even possible.”

  “It may be unusual for a phoenix to have a bond with a mortal, but not impossible. For obvious reasons it is far from ideal for both sides, but it has happened before. It is where the words ‘till death do us part’ originate from.”

  How Matteo-like to instigate a history lesson in the midst of all this chaos. “But, still, what you ask of him is—”

  “It is nothing less than what you ask from me,” he countered.

  She highly doubted that. A fine didn’t come anywhere close to putting your life on the line for someone you could barely stand. But she didn’t know what to say or do to change Matteo’s mind. If Logan accepted the deal, then the next time the Romanovs came for Faey, he would probably die with her. The chance of him defeating the Romanovs was small, but it was still a chance. More of a chance than Cally had right now. The second Matteo let her go, she would die.

  “Shit.” Logan scrubbed his hands over his head, and looked as if he could puke any moment. “Anything but that,” he pleaded. “Ask me anything but that.”

  “There is nothing else I want. Just as your friend Benn, one you consider a brother, wants nothing else but Call
y.” Matteo was ruthless, pointedly looking at his watch.

  Eventually Logan nodded, looking grim. Then a spark came into his eye. “Cally’s life and that painting hanging in Benedict’s room. You will give it to him. Those are my terms.”

  “We have a deal,” Matteo said.

  Logan walked over to him, forming one hand into a claw and cutting into his palm. “Don’t think I will forget this.” He made a cut on Matteo’s hand not too gently. “I hereby promise to become your sister’s pro—”

  “Faey Rose Laine Lancaster,” Matteo corrected him. “It doesn’t work without her full name.”

  “I hereby promise to become Faey Rose Laine Lancaster’s promesi.” Logan said, then added, “if you give Cally your life’s fire and save her life.”

  Matteo shook his bloodied hand with Logan’s. After the ceremony, he put both his hands on Cally and an almost blinding light shone from under them.

  Amber turned away from the light to protect her eyes. When the light disappeared, she suddenly saw a movement from the corner of her eyes. On the far end of the wall stood two men clad in black leather. She recognized one of them as Vasily Romanov.

  She realized that Faey hadn’t stood a chance. The night of the full moon had gone down exactly as she had foreseen in her vision: with Faey’s death.

  Tears welled and angry, hot tears coated her cheeks. But when she turned her back on the Romanovs, they turned into tears of joy, for before her sat Cally, alive and well.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Amber was surrounded by the acid smell of death. Her knuckles tightened around the wheel as she waited at a red light. She tried not to think of the fact that she’d lost both Benedict and Faey that night. Never before had she felt so unhinged, as if someone had pulled out her guts through her nose.

  After Logan, Benn and Cally had left, she had refused to stay another second with Matteo. She couldn’t stand the sight of him, not after he had just killed his own sister. He surely had his reasons, as always, but she wasn’t ready to hear them yet. All she wanted right now was to be with her own family, that is, what was left of it. She had texted Ian half an hour ago, and to her surprise he had answered it right away. Usually her brother was a heavy sleeper and answered her texts in the morning.