Kissed by Death - Book three of the Trueborn Heirs Series

by Queen, Nyna

  “Ann, please,” an unnerved male voice answered. “We’ve been over this. It’s absolutely not an issue. Let us simply not speak about this again…”

  Alex went completely rigid. The spider growled softly, a vicious, feline snarl.

  A soft squeak announced the backdoor opening and closing towards the park as the two speakers exited the building.

  Without thinking, Alex darted to the side and jumped over the banister. She landed on the ground in a soft crouch, one hand braced on the parquet. A heartbeat later she was out the backdoor and diving for the stairs.

  A slim, red-haired man and a woman in a simple blue robe, their arms linked, had just reached the bottom of the stairs, turned left and were following one of the torch-illuminated paths through the dark park. Alex snuck after them, skulking from one shadow to the next, silently cursing her bright red dress. If one of them looked back, she would be spotted for sure.

  The couple stopped at a bar table in a small meadow with pastel-colored lampions, their faces averted from Alex.

  Alex slipped forward and went to ground in a flowerbed behind a red clump of winged spindle bushes that concealed her a little while still offering a good view through the branches. Her skin was prickling so badly, she wanted to scratch it.

  She glared at the man and the woman engaged in a quiet conversation from which she only understood isolated words.

  Come on, turn around. Let me get a look at your face!

  Josy and Max landed next to her, both panting.

  Alex jerked.

  “What the hell?” she hissed. “What are you doing here?” Stephane and Edalyne were so going to kill her!

  “What are you doing here?” Josy whispered back. “Shouldn’t you be leaving?”

  Alex opened her mouth when a movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention. At the table, the man took two glasses from a servant, handed one to the woman and raised the second one to his lips. In the light of the lampions, she saw the profile of his face clearly etched against the darkness and suddenly she knew exactly where she’d seen his face before.

  Alex sucked in a sharp breath.

  “What is it?” Josy asked, peering worriedly at her face.

  “It’s him,” Alex hissed and pointed at the man who was taking another sip from his glass. “He’s the one who spoke to Lord Ferhus in the maze.”

  Josy followed her gaze and her face lost all color.

  “Debayne?” The girl’s voice rose to a shriek, and Alex pulled her down, covering her lips with one hand. Josy shrugged free and took another glance. She hesitated, her voice barely above a whisper now. “Are—are you sure?”

  “Dead sure.” That voice, and now the face. There was absolutely no doubt.

  “He’s one of Daddy’s closest friends,” Josy moaned. “Dad will be crushed.”

  Edward Debayne, one of the southern members of Parliament. Now that the memory box was open, Alex clearly remembered Stephane talking to him several times during the Summerball. The woman was his sister, Ann or Anna or something. Alex had been introduced to both of them, but since Debayne was an old family friend, she hadn't paid him much attention. He certainly hadn’t been anywhere high up on her possible suspect list. Damn, she could kick her own ass for being so sloppy!

  Someone cleared their throat behind them. “May I be of assistance, miss?”

  A servant stood at the opening between the bushes, a frown on his angular face at the sight of her and the kids hunkering behind the bushes like a gang of thieves.

  Josy and Max made owl eyes at him.

  Alex snatched a tiny pebble from the ground and surged to her feet, waving the stone in front of the man’s eyes so quickly that he had to get dizzy.

  “Found it!” she piped happily. “I found my earring!” She stepped past the puzzled servant and beamed at the kids. “Thank you so much for helping me search.”

  “Thank the Great Mother!” Catching on, Josy let out a sigh and peeled herself from the earth. She dusted off her blue skirt and ushered Max back onto the path. “Those are family heirlooms. Mother would have been heartbroken if you’d lost one of them. They are very precious.”

  They scurried away before the little commotion could catch the attention of the Debaynes, and before the servant could realize Alex wasn’t wearing another earring at all or wonder how she could have lost something behind the bushes in the first place.

  As soon as they were out of earshot, Josy grabbed her arm. “This is horrible.” She wrung her delicate hands. “I just can’t believe it’s Debayne.”

  “What is he?” Max wanted to know. “What did he do?”

  Josy cast him a glance and ignored the question, turning back to Alex. “What are we going to do now?”

  Alex considered it, forcing herself to keep calm and not do anything stupid and rushed, like cornering the man right here in front of all the people.

  “There isn’t much we can do,” she said after a second of contemplation. “At least not right now. I need to go and meet your uncle or this was all for nothing.” When she saw the shock on Josy’s face she added, “We know who he is now. He cannot escape. But we must stick to the plan. If I don’t leave now, I will never be back in time. We won’t get another opportunity like this.”

  She grabbed Max and Josy’s hands, leaning forward to make sure it sunk in. “If there is a chance, tell your parents, but make absolutely certain no one else is close by.” Imagining Stephane’s reaction when he found out one of his friends was somehow involved in this scheme against his family, Alex was almost glad she wouldn’t be in striking range. “This is imperative. Got it?”

  “Yes,” Josy said solemnly. Max nodded, eyes big on his face.

  “Good. Now go. For real this time.”

  They flew down the path.

  Alex wasn’t quite sure what Darken would tell her about trusting this information on a twitchy teenager and her big-mouthed baby brother, but so far the two of them had never let her down.

  She threw another glance in the direction of the meadow where Edward Debayne was talking to his sister.

  A worry for later. Right now, she had an appointment to keep on a bomb-riddled mountain.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ALEX reached her room without any further encounters. She entered quickly, closing the door behind her and locking it, before slowly taking inventory.

  Everything in the room—from the uneven wooden floor, to the dark oak bed with its lacy white canopy, to the ornate vanity table and the arrangements of dried flowers—had a slightly old and rustic air about it as if it belonged in a museum rather than in a guest room, but it was clean and sturdy to the touch.

  Her things, stored in a portable trunk and a big designer leather bag she’d borrowed from Edalyne, seemed to be untouched.

  Still. Stepping away from the door, Alex took a moment to unfold her sensory threads and probe the room for any kind of magic signature or other invasions. Not that she really believed anybody had tempered with her stuff but … safe was safe.

  As expected, the room turned out to be clean.

  Time to get ready then.

  With gleeful delight, Alex ditched her dress and sandals, wiped her face clean off all the makeup and went over to dig in her trunk for her ‘night outfit’.

  Fifteen minutes later, she stepped in front of the silver-framed full-length mirror beside the canopy bed. A small smile curved her lips. A shadow looked back at her, not sweet and soft, but dark and fierce and dangerous.

  Instead of the floral dress, she was clad in black pants, a black tank top, a soft black fleece jacket and boots. The bright red lipstick was gone. Her hair fell over her left shoulder in a functional braid that gleamed like threads of silver in the soft lights of the room.

  Alex grabbed a thin black beanie from the top of the vanity table and tugged it down over her hair until the rim sat on her forehead. Perfect! A black spider ready to catch a juicy little fly.

  For the first time in ages, she felt like
herself again.

  Bending to the side, Alex picked up her small backpack from inside the leather bag, which contained water, a med kit, and a couple of other useful tools, and strapped it to her back.

  Ready as can be!

  She switched off the lights, walked over to the window and pushed it up. Edalyne had made sure she’d gotten a room at the south side of the building facing the woods that stretched all the way to the faraway highway. Twenty feet below the window, a slim stony path accessed the service entrance leading to the kitchens and cellar store rooms. At least, when Alex had gotten prepped she’d seen dozens of servants walk in and out of the side door, carrying plates full of food, and bottles and pitchers. Now, most servants were scouring the grounds, offering drinks and snacks to the guests and managing the hundreds of little food displays scattered around the park. Snatches of music and talk floated over like scraps of fabric carried by the evening breeze.

  Beyond the path, a thick tangle of bushes, yellow-tipped fortune’s spindle, hot pink azalea and ivory-white bridal spray, stretched to the estate’s massive stone wall. Here, so close to the house, it was topped with wrought-iron spikes. Alex grimaced. Like jumping over shark’s teeth. Being impaled on one of those would be a bitch.

  Worse still than the spikes was the magic ward covering the entirety of the wall, occasionally flaring like a glittering meshwork of spiderwebs in the dark, ready to fry any careless little insect—and any careless spiders. She didn’t have time to scour these wards for weaknesses, and she doubted there were any. No, the only way of getting out of here undetected would be above.

  Behind the wall, ancient tall ash and oak trees spread their gnarled, thick branches into the dark sky.

  Alex leaned forward and measured the distance. About fifteen yards to the tree line. Not a short hop, but doable. She’d jumped this far before. She could do it. Sure she could.

  Her chest tightened, and her hands were suddenly cold. If she hit that ward, they’d be finished. Not that she would have to worry about that anymore because she would be fried to a crisp.

  A rustle came from below, the sound of boots scraping over stone. Alex silently inched back into the shadows of her room, her threads of darkness weaving around her. She glanced down. One of the guards was doing his round, one hand resting on his spellgun while his eyes keenly scanned the perimeter. The sound of his steps quickly faded away into the night. The next one would follow soon. Throughout the day, she’d seen dozens of them patrol the grounds and they were on high alert.

  Time to make her move.

  Alex hopped onto the window sill, letting her threads of darkness spin around her, cloaking her in a sinister web of shadows and darkness. She felt like a sneak thief who’d broken into a house and was now escaping with her swag. Well, sneaking was her specialty. Flittering around in the spotlight and drawing attention, that’s what set her on edge. This on the other hand—this was what she’d done all her life. What a spider was born to do.

  Alex shifted in place and pulled down the window behind her, leaving just enough of a slit so that she would be able to open it again when she came back.

  She would be back. Everything would go well.

  Taking a deep breath, Alex focused on the wall, then at the trees behind it. In her head, she jumped and hit the wall, dropping to the ground like a log, half of her body charred to ashes.

  Her stomach flipped. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut to fling the gruesome image from her mind.

  Come on, sugar, you can do this!

  Alex moved her head from left to right, dispelling any stiffness, then inhaled deeply several times, flooding her muscles with oxygen. Taking one more breath, she dug her fingers into the sill and pushed herself off.

  Air rushed by her as her body propelled into the dark sky, completely weightless for an exhilarating second. She cleared the wall, never even coming close to the tips of the spikes, and grabbed a tree limb, swung under it and landed on top of it in a gentle cat crouch.

  Adrenaline pumped through her veins, making her wide awake. It was a sweet feeling full of excitement and crackling possibilities, brimming through her like lightning.

  For a second, she sat completely motionless, listening with bated breath, but nothing disturbed the common chorus of the night. No shouts, no running feet. Only the wind rustling in the leaves. Close by, an owl hooted, trying to scare critters form their little hidey-holes in the ground.

  Goody.

  Alex uncoiled and slid down the tree trunk, moving like a nimble black cat sneaking through the gloom on its hunt for mice.

  At a safe distance from the estate, she pushed up her left sleeve and checked the acum magnis circling her wrist like a silver bracelet. It looked like a halfborn watch with a time pendant inserted in the top. She’d already fed the coordinates provided by Darken into it.

  It was a neat gadget. Completely superfluous, of course, as you could simply use a compass and your brains instead, but neat all the same.

  Using a tiny spark of her magic, she activated it. The round crystal ignited and spun in its socket like a marble going nuts before it finally stopped. A glowing arrow tip pointed her west.

  West it is.

  Alex smiled, pulled down her sleeve and started jogging toward the mountains.

  DARKEN leaned against the small mountain shelter. It wasn’t much more than four wooden walls and a slanted roof over a feeder designed to allow gamekeepers to provide supplementary feed for deer, in particularly harsh winters when food was scarce and snow storms wreaked havoc on the mountain sides. Right now, it lay abandoned in the dark and therefore served as a fine landmark for a meeting place.

  Darken had arrived here about two hours ago. After dropping off the family and Alex at the Canterbury Estate stables this morning, he had cruised around aimlessly for a while, making absolutely sure he wasn’t being followed before he parked the unmarked coach at a car park at the foot of the mountains. From there, he had tracked his way up the mountain side. The jolly weather had driven many hikers and families from their houses, and he’d had to move carefully to avoid being spotted. As evening approached and people left for the comfort of their homes, he’d been able to move with more ease.

  Darken shifted a little at the wall. In the gloom below the pines, a handful of star-shaped white flowers sensed the movement and snapped open, exhaling puffs of milky white mist into the air. Ghost’s Breath—beautiful and deadly. Even from his position, Darken could smell the sweet, appealing scent that begged him to lean closer for a deeper sniff. If he were foolish enough to follow that impulse, he would fall asleep to the most pleasant of dreams induced by the plant’s hallucinogenic vapors and never wake again while the plant’s roots would sneak through the soil and suck the fluids out of his body.

  Ghost’s Breath had a terrible reputation for killing careless hikers. Yet although gruesome and efficient, the plant wasn’t evil. It simply couldn’t escape its nature.

  Just like himself.

  Darken smiled bitterly. He hadn’t exactly been surprised that he hadn’t been invited to the Flora Canis Rae along with his family given what had happened at the Summerball and the guardaí’s obvious fixation on him as the possible culprit. The polite but explicit exclusion in the invitation had stung nonetheless. Innocent until proven guilty, right?

  Just another reminder that, whenever possible, people were glad when they could keep him at bay—him, the dangerous killer, the Forfeit who couldn’t be trusted to control his deadly nature. Hoping that he might finally learn his place. Too bad for them he was a slow learner that way.

  He wasn’t the only one of the Dubois family who wasn’t present at the festival either. Tyler, though included in the invitation, had declined to go, claiming he still wasn’t feeling well enough, much to the displeasure of their mother. Come to think of it, the kid had been behaving a little odd ever since the Summerball, but Darken really had too many important things to deal with to have time to entertain one of his little brot
her’s eccentricities.

  He checked his horanium iactari. The time pendant indicated twenty past eleven. Alex wouldn’t be there for at least another half hour—that was if she’d been able to leave on time and her estimates about her running speed were accurate. Darken frowned. When she had told him she could run thirty miles in less than two hours, he’d been, well, surprised didn’t really cover it. Of course, he knew shapers were said to be extremely endurable, but that? It just seemed like a lot.

  He was a fair runner himself. With the right incentive, he might be able to run thirty miles, but even on a good day, he’d need at least six to seven hours, probably more, especially when the terrain was rough. And he would be at the end of his tether afterwards.

  Yet Alex had been quite confident that she would be able to make it to Maria Carvalis and back to the Canterbury Estate during the night. Unless, of course, she’d overestimated herself again. The Great Mother knew it wouldn’t be the first time.

  Darken rubbed his hands over his eyes. Here he was thinking about Alex again. Not that he’d been thinking about much else lately. She was the siren call to the lost ship of his heart, and he had long given up on trying to steer it back on course.

  The forcefulness with which she’d insisted to accompany him on this trip had startled him. It had also secretly pleased him. He might be reading too much into it, but he didn’t think she was mainly motivated by her desire to get out of the house. No, she wanted to go with him so that she could have his back. She didn’t want him to get hurt.

  Of course, her worry might have more to do with the outcome of their mission than with his wellbeing per se, but nonetheless, she was worried about him.

  Well, there’s the snag! Darken certainly didn’t want her to get hurt, which was why he had resisted her coming along at first. What if they did run into trouble? When that woman saw danger, she would jump right at it, crying ‘yiihaaa’, and never think twice about it. Like drinking from a cup she knew contained poison.