by D. D. Miers
Komodor was en route, picked up from the underground lair he'd established with his redcaps by Niall. He wanted to try to limit the fight by presenting Gray and me to the Fae as a bonded couple as well. His messenger had explained that he would bleed us and report on the truthfulness of our bond.
I assumed the bloodletting would be minimal, but I’d put on my back sheath and brought Caorach out of the bedroom with me, just in case I needed to remind him that we weren’t his goblins.
“Hey, Tryst is texting,” Niall jogged into the room and tossed me my phone. He said he’s called his people. Are the dancers going to be fighting with us?”
I groaned and shook my head. “No, Niall, no dance-offs tonight. Tryst has friends among the Fae who can witness his claim to the throne and report back to my father, and probably rat me out for marrying Gray, not knowing he blessed the joining.”
"He did?" Portia's eyes were wide. "I guess even old Fae dogs learn new tricks, on occasion."
I had no response for her. My father had been part of the tragedy that stole her baby sister from her, and any kind thing I might say about him would fall on deaf ears. I kicked the men out of the kitchen amongst jokes about sexism and gender roles and called my magic flame to the mini counter-cauldron I used for potion making.
No fire came to my summon, and I tried again, my chest constricting in panic at the loss of my magic.
"Wait, Morgana. The beast is fighting for supremacy to your other powers. Don't wake it with your struggle, just use a regular flame for the potion. It's okay. I've never called flame, and I make potions with no trouble at all." She was right, but it didn't make me feel any less like I'd lost a limb. My human magic was my oldest and strongest. If this new animal to call took over my other magics, I wasn't sure what I would do.
Portia and I stopped talking and worked in concert in my kitchen, crushing and blending herbs and oils like we used to when she was teaching me. But no wooden spoon hovered over my knuckles, waiting for me to make a mistake.
The silence was the most comfortable I’d had in her presence, as though little by little the dark cloud that covered our relationship was thinning and dissipating at the edges. She’d made an effort in the recent past to overcome her feelings about me, but for the first time, I saw us having a relationship that might even approach friendship someday.
It was a strange outcome to be sure, but I welcomed having the only mother I'd ever known as a part of my life, even if I would never accept the coven for trying to have me killed and possibly killing my mother.
Finally, we set the potion out to cool so we could add the final herbs, and she sat at the counter to stir it. "You've got to wait until the last possible moment to take this, Morgan. But if it doesn't work, I don't know what you'll do."
“Fight it, I suppose.” I flashed her a grin. “That seems to be my thing, beating the unbeatable.”
She made a rude noise. “The unbeatable seems to find you more often than most. Maybe you should stop looking for it so much.”
I shrugged. She wasn’t wrong, I did pick my battles, at least some of the time. “Gray’s got to present me to the pack. He’ll invoke the new moon to stave off any challenges, and then we’ll go to the underground to meet Komodor and Tryst and summon the Dark King.”
“Then take the potion immediately after the pack meeting. You’ll have time to find out if it doesn’t work and adjust your attack accordingly.”
“Thank you for coming back.”
Niall poked his head into the kitchen and touched his watch. “It’s time, ladies, you’d best bottle that up and shake a leg, Mo.”
“I’ve got to change into clothes more suitable for fighting in. Do you mind finishing in here?” The words sounded crazy to me even as I asked, and she seemed to recognize the import of my trusting her with my safety and sanity.
“I’ve got it. Don’t forget an extra knife in your boot, and if you still have them, those little curved knives in your hair like you used to. I noticed last night you didn’t have them.”
I had been relying more on Caorach and my magic lately than the weapons I’d depended on when I was younger. But she was right. No one was expecting me to fight like a human. Once I took the suppression potion, I had no idea what part of myself would be available for the fight.
“Thank you, Aunt.” I didn’t know if I could love her the way I wanted to, but I poured as much of my muddled feelings into those words as I could.
“You are most welcome, Niece.” She ducked her head and swallowed, but when she raised her eyes to mine, her own tears were contained, shining in her eyes.
“You are always welcome at my table. Now get out of here. It’s about to get hairy, and I don’t mean that figuratively. Someday, when my place here is secure, you will be invited to the circle as an honored guest.”
Niall walked her to the door, his head bowed a little like he did when Gray chewed him out. I sensed an apology was coming. It was one of my favorite things about him that unlike my hunky alpha mate he was quick to make amends when he was wrong.
I glanced back at them as I headed back to my bedroom. My slender aunt had wrapped her arms around the wolf, and he buried his face in her dark hair. They were like moonlight and a star together and watching them, something shifted in the air. Tides were changing. New allies would be made, and new enemies. But one thing was sure. Every minute from now on was a step further away from the life and battles I'd known.
Caorach sang her song of battle in my head, humming as my power rose up to answer her. I took a breath and tied up my hair as my aunt had suggested, adding blades that slid into the leather thong and nestled into my messy bun. It took practice to draw them without slicing my hair off, and I gave a quick prayer that my lack of recent practice didn’t make that a problem.
Next, I tugged my combat boots up over my jeans, sliding a blade into the outside of each one. I strapped my thigh sheath to my leg and at the last second added my shoulder holster, more as a security blanket than for the firepower. Fights with the Fae and shifters tended to be too close for me to feel comfortable firing into the mess of bodies just hoping to hit the right ones.
I looked myself over in the mirror, covered in blades from my hair to my forearms to my legs. I put on my leather jacket on and pushed my magic to the surface as much as I could. My eyes didn’t even glow.
“Goddess, don’t let me get everyone killed tonight.”
Gray waited for me at the front door, our tradition since I’d been named the Valkyr for the pack was to meet him and escort him to the circle as his primary guard. Niall joined us at the lobby, and together, we headed down to the cavern the pack maintained beneath the building where the magic was strongest and the security tightest.
The kids were in the pool, still, or again, and Blythe popped up out of the water to give me a quick smile and a wave. It was hard not to smile back, but I managed to control my expression and slipped them a wink as we passed.
The circle was nearly when we entered, shifters filling the spectator seats all the way to the top of the cavern. Gray took his seat at the alpha’s throne, and I took my place at his right shoulder, Niall at his left. When the shouts and various animal sounds subsided, Niall and I moved to our new positions, me in the throne next to the alpha, and Niall at my right shoulder.
The room erupted in fresh shouts and cheers as the rumors of our bonding were confirmed, and the majority of the shifters celebrated. An alpha with no mate was a weaker alpha, and with a female by his side, even I thought Gray was unstoppable.
As the news screams and howls died down, one female stood and approached the throne.
“Is anyone surprised that it’s Rexa?” I muttered just loud enough for Niall and Grayson to hear.
Niall squeezed my shoulder in response. Rexa, when she wasn’t trying to blitz me on the pack runs, had been talking other females into challenging me. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn she’d been the one behind the attack on me when I’d last arrived fr
om Fairy.
“I challenge the right of this human to sit on the queen’s throne.”
I felt the beast inside me rising to meet the challenge, and pushed it back with all my strength, my fingers wrapping around the vial Portia had left on my kitchen counter for me.
“The challenge is null. No human sits on the throne.” It was Niall who spoke up, as my first in command. According to pack rules, once an alpha chooses a mate, that mate is responsible for running the army, and the alpha directs her, like a commander in chief and his four-star general.
"All I see is this human witch, trying again to infiltrate the pack." She spat the words in my face, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gray's fingers tighten on the arms of the great stone throne.
I placed my hand over his and scoffed at her. “All you see is a woman in the throne that will never be yours, Rexa.” The beast clawed at my insides, and I let it leak out my eyes at her, only to stop the pain before it was too strong to hide.
She gasped and backed away a single step, then froze, realizing the mistake she’d made. “I challenge you to the throne of the queen,” she hissed.
“You challenge the bonded mate of the West Coast alpha, Rexa, be certain you are willing to bear the consequences of your actions.”
“I see no proof that you are a bonded pair.”
Niall tossed the giant garnet-colored stone into my lap. “This is the magic their handfasting wrought, challenger.”
The stone was warm in my hands, and I knew the power was still there if I used it in measure and didn't wear out the connection again. I breathed and summoned a single flame to the center of the stone, slowly raising the brightness until the entire room could see the crimson glow dancing on the smooth cavern ceiling.
"Witch magic to infect our pack," Rexa snarled. She tried to slap the stone out of my hands but jerked away screaming, her hand burned from the flame I held without pain.
My control weakened, and I dropped the stone onto my lap, extinguishing the flames as the beast paced just under the surface of my skin, demanding release.
“Challenge has been made. Do you accept, my queen?”
I knew Gray’s plan to delay the fight until after my first change, but the beast wanted blood, and my lips were moving before I realized what was coming out of them.
"I accept the challenge and declare the wolf Rexa enemy. Enter the ring, or be exiled from this pack and every pack to the ends of the earth."
No, no, no, no, no. That’s not what you say, stupid. You don’t want to fight right now. Mentally I cursed myself for opening my mouth at all.
The beast is hungry for the hunt, Blood-princess. I will help you win the fight, but I cannot help you control the animal within. Even Caorach seemed frustrated and upset about the turn of events. Not surprising since she’d been fighting me for control of us since I’d picked her up for the first time.
I leaped into the circle and waited for Rexa to join me. She hesitated until Gray stood, then scrambled back from him and into the fighting ring, keeping her distance from me.
Niall stepped up to the edge of the ring and called for attention from the crowd. They immediately fell silent when he raised his hands and declared the duel to be to third blood. Rexa’s pale face regained some color as she realized the pack wasn’t going to let me kill her, but the beast in me had no intention of stopping at a few little scratches.
We circled each other, each of us looking for the best opening for an attack, and then she sprang at me, lengthening her fingers into claws as she flew at me. It took great power and great control to only change part of your body, limiting the beast to your command.
I had no such control.
The beast rose up to meet her, and I screamed as my skin tore from me in places as if it was being flayed from my body. I fell to all fours and braced for her impact, only to realize that I was on four golden feet. She braked hard and scrambled back on the hard earth, and I roared my challenge to her. But it wasn't a lion's roar that escaped me, but the deep throaty song of the she-bear, just like Eloise had trumpeted in her warning to the hunters.
Confused, I shook my head from side to side, catching sight of a scorpion’s tale as I looked back over my shoulder.
No. I don’t want this. This isn’t me. I pled with the magic in me as though it had a literal personality of its own.
Suddenly, Niall was at my side, pouring liquid down my throat. In seconds, I felt the cool herbal magic working its way through my body, gently changing back what had been rent from me.
“Are you there, Morgan?” he whispered, and I nodded a human head at him.
“That was so fucked up. I don’t even know, I don’t even…”
“Manticore…kind of. Super cool, by the way, but not a real thing.”
I blinked fast and gaped at him. “Manticores are real, Niall…But only in Arcadia, in the Forest of the Lost.”
He thought for a minute as I gathered myself, then nodded. “It makes sense, you know? You’re not an earthly animal, you’re a Fairy animal. Cool.”
I didn't know how cool it was if my mixed blood meant the power couldn't decide, but manticore was not the animal for me. I'd felt it, abrasive, all sharp edges trying to fit inside my brain, and the pain had been maddening.
Rexa was already rescinding her challenge. I heard her apologize to Grayson and waited for my turn...
Not gonna happen. She hates your ass.
Caorach’s very human observation made me smile to myself. Maybe not, but I still won.
It took a few more moments to realize the white noise at the back of my head was actually screaming and cheering louder than any I'd ever heard before. Rexa might have wanted me dead still, but the pack was ecstatic that I had changed at all. Support from the masses could finally be checked off our to-do list, right under ‘marry Gray's ass before we're both old and decrepit.'
Check, check. Next item, put down Lothar Night Dragon before his hunters swarmed the city to destroy us.
Twenty-Two
The potion had worked, and I made certain to text my aunt and thank her as Gray rallied the pack. He chose a dozen of his best fighters, and Rexa…which bothered me.
“Niall, I can’t have her at my back,” I hissed at him.
“She’s the most powerful female in the pack besides you.”
“Yeah, well, when my back’s turned, that could be a problem, since I just drank a potion that squelches my power.”
He nodded and whispered in Gray’s ear, who shook his head and continued speaking.
“Sorry, Mo, he’s got something in mind. We’ll just have to trust him.”
Not my ideal going-into-battle arrangement, but Niall was right. Gray was the alpha, and in the circle, I’d never side against his decisions.
I would simply wait until we were alone and rip his head off for making my defense weaker by adding a known dissenter. Caorach trilled her agreement with a slightly off-key song in my head, and I bit my tongue until the circle was disbanded and we headed back up to the apartment for the rest of the lotions, potions, and powders, Portia had left on my dining room table.
The shifters who were to go with us were given an angelica and rosemary mixture to apply to their eyelids and ears, to prevent the hunters from terrifying them with dark glamor.
I pocketed the remainder of the suppression potion. Even without knowing its efficacy in a second dose, I felt better having it in my pocket.
We piled into the sleek black SUVs, Niall driving one, Gray and I in another, and Rexa driving the last.
"You put her behind the wheel so I couldn't wish her dead on the way there, didn't you?" I was kidding, but he just tilted his head a little. "Grayson Xenos, I don't wish people dead, and they die…Goddess how much easier would life be, if I could though?"
Scattered laughter met me from the back of the car, and Gray shot me a dirty look.
“Well, it would.”
He gave me the silent treatment all the way to the waterfront doorwa
y to the underground. Tryst waited for us outside, hands shoved in his pockets as he scowled at us.
“Where’s your glow, Princess?”
"My glow? I haven't gotten a proper wedding night, but I'll be sure to come to see you when I get laid next."
More of my packmates chuckled at me, but Gray watched me carefully. “You okay?”
“I’m fine, Gray. A little stressed out, and in a fighting mood, but I’m okay.” In reality, I wasn’t sure. I hoped I was fine, but the potion had stifled a big part of me. I hadn’t thought of what it might do to my diplomacy or my personality. “Okay, I think I’m fine, but I might be a little on edge. So don’t ask me why I don’t look powerful, or why I’m cracking inappropriate jokes, or why I look like I’m going to murder the next asshole who glances at me wrong. ‘Kay?”
No one answered, which was fine by me. I felt like I was walking on glass, unable to feel the ground beneath my feet. Parts of me were numb that I wished weren’t, and at the edges, I felt the things I didn’t want to, leaking into me.
I palmed the vial of potion and glared at Tryst. "Let's just get this done, before I turn back into a manticore, okay?"
His eyes flew open, and he cleared the glamor from the opening to the underground without another word. I followed him in, and the pack followed me, with Grayson bringing up the rear with Niall.
Deep under the Fae black market, Komodor had created a dismal, goblinesque home away from home. It was dank and dreary, the only light coming from glow moss and underground fungi. Tryst lit torches and set them on the far side of the large cavern, where it wouldn't bother the goblins until their large eyes adjusted to the light.
I used the herbs and spell-chalk my aunt had left with us to create a circle of protection on the floor just beyond Komodor’s great, black mirror.
"Once I ignite this, no one gets in, and no one gets out until I break the circle. It will not scuff, or fade, or bleed. No matter what happens tonight, no Ufasach Bas will get to the surface by this door. Are we clear?"