by Ciara Graves
“He can,” Marlie argued. “He has my rings, one of which is able to summon shadows. He can make it night whenever he wants, as long as he wants.”
I glanced at my own rings. “And what powers do mine have?”
“Hopefully enough to stop Rudarius,” Draven murmured.
“I said I wanted the truth,” I said to Marlie, ignoring the vampire. “What do they do?”
“I will tell you everything you need to know, but we must leave here.”
“Macron told me to stop the war from the human realm,” I argued, suddenly unsure of what I should do. “I don’t think I’m meant to be there.”
“Macron?” Marlie asked confused. “He’s the one who told me to come and find you. I don’t understand why. What is he to you?”
Digging my thumb into my opposite palm, I glowered at the fae supposed to be my brother. My family by blood. “He’s the reason I’m still alive. He’s the reason I’m not still with Rudarius. The reason I wasn’t turned into a weapon against our own kind.” Yet. Minnie’s warning about turning evil rang in my ears, but I pushed it down deep. I was not evil. I wasn’t. I was pissed right now yeah, but I was not about to turn on anyone here.
Except for Owen. I’d attacked Owen to stop him from hurting Draven. If that wasn’t messed up, I wasn’t sure what was, but there was no going back.
“I am sorry,” Marlie said gently, reaching for me, but I stepped out of his reach. “You have every right to be furious with me. I wasn’t there when I should have been.”
“I was alone,” I whispered. “Alone in that dark dungeon being tortured for years. Where the hell were you, huh? Where?”
“Seneca, now isn’t the time,” Draven said.
I turned my glare to him, and he sighed, shutting up. He brought this fae into my life. He would have to deal with the consequences.
“Where were you?” I demanded again.
“In Otherworld,” Marlie told me.
I laughed darkly.
He grimaced. “You have to understand; it wasn’t safe for you there.”
“It wasn’t safe for me to stay with my brother?”
“Not just me,” he said but shook his head. “Please, we don’t have time for this.”
“We’ll make time. Who am I?”
“You are Princess Seneca,” Marlie announced loudly. “A princess of the Lower Kingdom. Burning Thorn, that is your family name. Yours and mine. We are royals, Seneca, and it is time for us to go home.”
I hadn’t heard him right. Couldn’t have. I was Seneca Savage. Savage. Not Burning Thorn. Princess? I was not a freaking princess. He limped toward me, and when I went to back away again, he latched onto my wrist, and my rings glowed with power.
“What are you doing?” I snapped, fighting to get away, but he held on, a fierce determination in his eyes.
“Let me go.”
The same warmth I felt from him earlier flowed over and around me as the light from the rings exploded outward in a swirl of blue, green, and red.
Draven and Shane were quickly surrounded by it too.
Marlie’s grip tightened on my wrist so much it hurt.
The light blinded me as my feet left the ground. We spun end over end, and I fought to get free, but he held on.
I waited to be sick as my stomach roiled and then we hit something hard, falling in a heap to the ground.
The grass was under my cheek, and I pushed up, wondering if we were still in my garden.
But when I looked around, I cursed.
Last I checked, I did not have a castle in place of my cottage.
Wherever we were, it was night, but there were no stars in the dark sky. No moon either, which seemed odd to me. Really odd.
Torches surrounded the garden we’d landed in, leading down a path toward the castle.
Shouts sounded, and then heavily-armed men in armor converged on us, lances aimed at our faces.
Draven hissed, pressing his back to mine as we looked down the guards.
“Vampires,” the large guard before us said angrily. He was fae, his shimmery blue and black translucent wings fluttered in agitation behind him. “Why have you come? Who sent you to our realm?”
“No one sent us here, you halfwit,” Draven snapped.
“Can you not piss off the heavily-armed guards,” I muttered through clenched teeth.
“What can I say, I get angry when I have silver spears aimed at my chest.”
“It’s alright, Captain,” Marlie said, climbing unsteadily to his feet with Shane’s help. Several of the guards muttered in surprise, then two rushed forward to aid him. “They’re with me.”
“Prince Marlie, where have you been?”
“Finding someone we lost a long time ago. Lower your arms! Do it now!”
One by one, the guards listened to their Prince. The fae Marlie referred to as Captain, bowed his head as he stepped forward. “We feared the worst, Prince. But why have you brought vampires here? The King and Queen will not be pleased.”
“They’ll just have to hear me out then, because we need them.”
“Hey, not all of us here are vampires,” I muttered.
The Captain tilted his head as he studied my face. “You are different, but you are a vampire. Who is this woman, Prince?”
Marlie made to answer when more shouts came from the path as a man and a woman, both wearing crowns of silver on their heads rushed toward us, with several more guards right behind them. When the woman stepped closer, my eyes widened in shock, and I staggered backward.
She hugged Marlie, as did the man. Both seemed upset with him about leaving in the first place. He assured them he was fine and stepped aside.
“I had business in the human realm. And it appears I came just in time. It should not be night.”
The man and woman both glared at the vampires, but when their gazes landed on me, they paled, and the woman sucked in a pained breath. Her hair was exactly like mine. Her face nearly identical to mine, except older. And those eyes… Those were my eyes staring back at me. This woman, the Queen, I guessed, from the circlet on her head, why did I look like her?
My heart pounded away as I shook my head, not willing to believe any of this was truly happening.
Marlie said I was a princess.
It didn’t even click until right then that our parents, my parents, were the King and Queen. If that was true, then who the hell was I raised with?
“Seneca?” Draven whispered. “You alright?”
“No, I am not alright. What the hell is this?”
“Watch your tongue,” the Captain snapped.
“Captain, perhaps you should watch yours,” Marlie said sternly. “This is Princess Seneca, my sister, and long-lost daughter of the King and Queen. She has finally returned home to us.”
“Daughter,” the Queen spat angrily, her eyes growing colder the longer she glared at me. “What daughter?”
“Mother,” Marlie scolded.
She held up her hand, silencing him. “We have no daughter. Whatever creature you’ve brought here, she is not our Seneca.”
Draven hissed, as if angry for me, at her harsh words. A small part of me appreciated it, since I was too stunned to do anything for myself in response.
“Mother,” Marlie tried again. “She has come home. It’s time.”
“That is not my daughter,” the Queen insisted again. “She is nothing but a monster! Arrest them all and throw them in the cells! I will not have this tainted being in my presence any longer!”
“You bitch!” My yell made every guard gasp in shock as the Queen’s mouth fell open.
“What did you say to me?”
“You heard me. You think I wanted to come here? Your son dragged my ass here. And you, I don’t want anything to do with you, either. If you are my parents, you did a piss poor job, leaving me alone in the human realm! Who raised me, huh? Who were they? Did you even care when they died and left me alone?” I challenged even as two guards moved to grab hold of my a
rms. I fought against their hold, trying to get to the woman Marlie claimed was my real mother. “Did you care when I was taken by Rudarius?”
She clenched her jaw as she glanced at Marlie with a look I couldn’t read, then back to me. “I lost my daughter many years ago. You are not full fae. Not anymore.”
The hollowness in my soul turned to a burning fire of pure rage.
I screamed as I lunged for her, ready to attack her or kill her. I wasn’t even sure in that moment and didn’t really care either.
I heard someone yell my name and then more guards were on me, dragging me away. I heard a tearing sound as someone yanked on the back of my shirt.
Suddenly, the weight on my back was gone, and I fell to my knees in the grass, barely a foot away from the Queen's skirts.
A hush fell over the garden, heavy and wrought with tension.
I wondered what happened when cool night air brushed across my back.
My now-exposed back.
“Your wings,” Marlie whispered.
I curled in on myself, knowing exactly what they all saw.
Marlie’s voice was tortured. “Who did that to you? Seneca, where are your wings?”
The words became lodged in my throat as I felt their eyes on me, judging me, confirming their Queen’s words that I was a monster. Slowly, I sat upright and glared right into those green eyes I wanted nothing to do with as I said, “They were stolen from me. Happy, Mother? Is this what you wanted for your daughter?”
A brief flicker of regret flitted across her face, then she turned her back to me and marched away. The man I assumed was my father follow.
“You heard your Queen,” the Captain said. “Take them to the cells.”
“Captain,” Marlie argued as I was hauled to my feet. “Wait.”
“I am sorry, Prince, but I have no choice.”
I let the guards take my arms and guide me down the stone path.
Behind me, Draven kept whispering my name, but I tuned him out. Marlie and the Captain continued to argue until we were inside and led down a set of stone steps.
I was shoved into a cell, and the iron door slammed shut in my face. I remained facing the wall with a tiny window showing me overgrown weeds and nothing more.
The only light came from scattered torches lining the walls on the outside of the cells.
There were no walls between the cells, just iron bars.
“Seneca,” Draven called to me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” I asked, defeated. How had this happened? Why had I let myself get mixed up in this mess?
“Your wings. Who took them from you?”
“Who the hell do you think?” I grabbed the bars as I shook them viciously. “You think you know pain, Draven? You know nothing. You hear me? Nothing. Just leave me alone.”
“We’ll get out of this. Your brother will make them understand that we can stop Rudarius.”
“Or he won’t, and we’ll rot down here forever,” I replied quietly.
“Seneca,” he said, but the clanging of bells ringing overhead, followed by shouts, stopped whatever he was going to say.
Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I knew what those bells meant, had heard them before.
Alarm bells.
The castle was under attack.
I climbed on top of the rickety, wooden bench in my cell, stood on my toes, and peered out through the tiny window.
Sets of legs ran past. Guards, from what I could tell.
The bells continued to peal as Draven and Shane whispered behind me.
I didn’t need to listen to know they were talking about the same thing I was thinking.
Rudarius had come to the fae kingdoms.
We were too late.
Savage Deeds
Seneca Savage is a bad ass with skills. Not the kind of skills that one puts on a formal resume. She’s the daughter of a mage and a fae, and now she’s an orphan and a former street kid.
She’s had the kind of life nightmares are made of. She refused to pick up a weapon, despite the specialized training she received from her rescuer.
Now her rescuer’s gone. Her demon boyfriend isn’t so much her boyfriend anymore, and there’s a new vampire in her life who’s complicating matters.
Chapter 1
Draven
“We have to get the hell out of here.” Shane tugged on the iron bars so hard I waited for him to dislocate his shoulders.
“Working on it.”
I grabbed the bars, too, but they held fast. There would be no breaking them with my strength. I had no weapons, and the one person who could use magic to get us out of here sat in the corner of the cell opposite ours, holding her head in her hands, looking like she was finished. Done with this place. Done with living.
That was unacceptable. Those bells were a warning the Lower Kingdom was under attack. It was Rudarius, had to be him, and I would not be sitting in a cell when he broke into this castle and destroyed it.
When I rescued Marlie, to take him to Seneca, this was not the outcome I foresaw. I wanted them to meet so he could convince her I was on her side with wanting Rudarius dead. Then I could have two fae to use as weapons against the scum. Well, one since we didn’t have Marlie’s rings. But then the damned prince had to go and drag us here. He used me to get to his sister and bring her home. Two-timing bastard.
I knew he only did it to stop me from using them first.
Some homecoming she had, thanks to our entrance. My mind returned to the vision of those scars on Seneca’s back. I’d been tortured for decades, it was true, but Rudarius didn’t steal a part of me. He didn’t yank it out and make me less of a vampire. If anything, he made me more dangerous.
With Seneca, he tried to destroy the fae side of her. The agony she must’ve endured that day, and so many after, I couldn’t even begin to imagine. My sympathy for her grew again as a plan formed in my mind. One I was going to hate, but it was our only choice.
“Seneca,” I called to her. “Seneca, look at me, damn it.”
“What?” she snapped without lifting her head.
“If those are Rudarius’s forces attacking, we can’t stay here.” I gripped the bars harder, willing myself to be strong enough to break them apart. I wasn’t. Leave it to the fae to have damned secure dungeons. “If he finds us in these cells, we’re finished. All of us.”
“Perhaps it’s better this way.” She glared at me through the bars, green eyes flickering to vampire-red with her building fury. “Let him come and destroy this place. What should I care? He can drain them all dry and leave their bodies to rot. I’m tired of fighting. I’ll just hand myself over to him and be done with it.”
“No, you won’t.”
“What would you know, huh? What?” She snarled, looking more menacing than the first time we fought. “Leave me alone.”
“Not happening.” I walked along the bars until I was even with her. I hated myself already for what I was about to do, but now wasn’t the time to be old Draven. Now was the time to be an utter asshole if it got us out of these cells and away from Rudarius. “Right now, you’re the only one who can get us out of here alive. Use your damned rings and blow up the cells.”
“I can’t.” Those eyes glowered at me fiercely. “Told you, they’re not that powerful.”
“You’re a damned royal. A princess. They can call down the sun if need be. Use them and get us out of here.”
“No.” She bared her fangs at me and lowered her head again.
“This is a shitty plan,” Shane whispered from behind me.
I paced back and forth along the bars, running a hand through my hair. The bells continued to peal overhead, and the shouting grew louder, more panicked. We were out of time.
“You’re right,” I said loudly, but I wasn’t talking to Shane. “But it’s not the rings that aren’t powerful enough. It’s you.”
She hissed but didn’t get up.
“Just like your dear sweet mother s
aid, you’re tainted now, have been ever since Rudarius took you away and tortured you. After he used your blood.” I continued, guilt tearing me apart on the inside, but Seneca was on her feet now. “You’re worthless. Not full fae, not full vampire. You’re just a freak of nature who doesn’t even have enough power to use the only real weapon you have. Weak, that’s what you are.” I pressed myself as hard as I could against the bars, bracing for the outburst that was likely to come with my next words. “Rudarius broke you.”
She wrapped her hands around the bars and shook them. “Shut up.”
“No, because it’s true. All of it. Your family left you to die. No one cares about you. No one cares that bastard ripped your wings from your back, or that you were turned.” I smiled as if I enjoyed tearing her down. “Seneca the weak, that’s what we should call you. No princess title for you.”
“Uh, Draven?” Shane uttered.
I ignored him. “I was wrong. You’re not a killer. You’re not anything.”
“Draven.” Shane grabbed my shoulder hard enough to hurt.
“What?”
He said nothing else but pointed to Seneca.
I’d been so intent on her face, I missed the glowing coming from the three rings on her hand. They pulsed rapidly. as if in time with her pounding heartbeat as she glared at me. I wondered for a second if I hadn’t pushed her too hard when she raised her left hand and yelled, unleashing her full fury at the bars.
The brightness blinded us as we dove to the side.
The harsh sounds of metal twisting and breaking deafened me to anything else.
The entire dungeon shook. When the sounds stopped, I lifted my head to find Seneca standing in front of a hole. One, not just through the bars on her cell, but ours, too.
Her hand fell to her side, and she blinked quickly as if working to stay conscious.
Stepping around metal debris, Shane and I went to her cell as she carefully stepped out, wide-eyed at the destruction she caused. When she appeared ready to fall over, I reached to catch her, but she shrugged away, frowning at me, confused. Then the look was gone, and she was back to looking like she was ready to kill me.