by Helen Harper
His mouth twisted. ‘That can be arranged,’ he said, in a voice that was all gruff Rubus rather than high-pitched Mendax. He lunged towards me, arms akimbo and hands curled into lethal claws, ready to gouge out my eyes.
Morgan got there first, leaping in front of me and pushing me away. I staggered back and fell to the ground while Rubus laughed nastily. ‘She always was your weak spot, brother,’ he hissed.
He threw out a punch that connected with Morgan’s face. Then he laughed again. ‘I knew if I took her back you’d be too distracted to think clearly. She’s not as smart as you think she is, you know. I’ve been sending her little notes and manipulating her all along. She actually believed that one of my faeries was disloyal. Ha! I even made her think that I’d tested her loyalty and she’d passed. Madrona was far better at lying before her amnesia. Now she wouldn’t fool a child.’
‘Maybe not,’ Morgan said evenly. ‘But Madrona has more good in her little finger than you have in your entire body.’
Rubus smirked. ‘I doubt that. And speaking of little fingers…’ He delved into his pocket and pulled out his pinky ring. ‘It was fun seeing you steal this from me. It turns out you’re not all that clever either, brother.’ He twisted the ring onto his finger again and admired it. ‘It doesn’t quite fit properly when I’m wearing this body. Glamouring myself as a dragon has been fun but I’ll be glad to not have to inject myself with rowan again. It’s rather unpleasant.’
‘You really did poison yourself deliberately, then.’
‘I’d cut off my right hand if I thought it would help our kind get home. That’s the kind of good faery I am. Fortunately, it won’t come to that because it turns out that you’re just as foolish as your girlfriend is. You were stupid enough to use the oath breaker. I wasn’t sure you would – at every point I thought you’d work out what was really going on. Only my brother could free me from the truce. It was a masterful stroke indeed – and not on your part. Now the truce doesn’t affect me. Now I’ve been truly unleashed.’
He kicked upwards, aiming for Morgan’s chest, but fortunately Morgan managed to dodge his foot. Even from my sprawled position, I could see him straining to fight back. His face was twisted in pain. Blood drained from my face as I realised what was wrong. Gasbudlikin bastards. We were fucked.
‘You get it now, don’t you?’ Rubus said, sneeringly. ‘The truth has finally penetrated your dim brain. By using the oath breaker, the truce no longer holds for me but it still holds for you. I can hurt you. I can kill you.’
He stretched out his arms and laughed again, the sound echoing round the faery-filled square. ‘Chen did well to find that little object. He was quite the master at locating magical items. Not that any of them did him any good in the end because faery objects don’t help dragons.’ He grinned nastily. ‘They’ve certainly helped me, though. You can’t touch me but I can do whatever I want.’
The magnitude of what we’d achieved was almost too horrifying to accept. We’d handed Rubus the keys to this demesne. By using the oath breaker, we’d granted him the freedom to destroy any faery he wanted to. We’d not thought it through. Rubus would be virtually unstoppable now. All we could do was keep the sphere out of his hands.
Rubus pointed at one of his faeries. ‘Give me a gun,’ he commanded.
‘You don’t have to do this.’ Morgan’s voice rang out loud and clear, without a trace of a tremor. ‘You don’t have to resort to murder. You don’t have to be evil.’
‘Evil?’ Rubus took the proffered weapon and hefted it in his hands as if he were testing the weight and gleefully anticipating what he would do next. ‘You’re the one who’s evil, Morganus. We have a way home. That sphere can return every single one of us to Mag Mell but you refuse to let us use it. You want to stay here, trapped in this shithole of a demesne.’
‘If you use the sphere, the consequences will be disastrous.’
Rubus rolled his eyes. ‘Puh-lease. So there will be some proper magic here. So what?’
‘That magic will kill the humans.’
There was a squeak from the small crowd of humans who were in the vicinity. They seemed to be frozen to the spot by the drama that was playing out in front of their eyes.
Rubus was oblivious to their presence. ‘You don’t know that for sure.’
Morgan glared. ‘Yes, I do.
‘Maybe,’ Rubus said softly, ‘the risk is worth the reward. We are superior beings. The humans destroyed their homeland in the name of technological advances. Returning them to the Stone Age and introducing real magic will probably do them the world of good.’
‘Got that right,’ Amellus snorted from the side. I could see other faeries nodding fervently. Surely they couldn’t all believe that Rubus was doing the right thing? Or were they so focused on getting home that they were blind to what would happen if Rubus used the sphere?
I glanced round. Only Lunaria looked uncertain, her hands twisting and her expression white and worried. If I could get through to her, there might still be hope.
I heard the blare of sirens in the distance. The police were on their way but they wouldn’t understand what was going on. They wouldn’t appreciate the danger and their intervention might only make it harder for us to get the sphere away to safety. I had to act.
‘I’m a bitch!’ I yelled, hauling myself up to my feet. ‘But even I’m not such a bitch that I think billions of people should die just so I can get back home. Think about what’s happening here!’ I yelled. ‘Think about what supporting Rubus is really doing! Will you be able to live with yourselves afterwards?’
‘You’re a murderess, Madrona,’ Rubus said calmly. ‘You seem to be coping just fine.’ He raised his head and glanced round at his assembled minions. ‘I should also point out that it’s her fault we’re here in the first place.’
There was a combined intake of breath and a hundred shocked eyes turned to me.
‘If I did that,’ I shouted, ‘it was a mistake!’
‘You know you did it,’ Rubus said simply. ‘I proved it to you. And I don’t think it was a mistake at all. Now hand over the sphere. It’s mine. It belongs to me.’ He pointed the gun at Morgan then moved it to me. ‘Or neither of you will walk out of here. I’ll get it in the end so you might as well give it up willingly.’
Finn threw back his head and roared. A moment later, he sprang forward, throwing himself at Rubus and knocking him to the ground. He used his large Redcap body to hold Rubus in place and pin down his hand. Rubus didn’t release the gun, though, and several of the hovering faeries lunged for Finn.
‘I’ll kill him,’ Finn screeched. ‘I’m not bound by the truce. Come any nearer and I’ll destroy Rubus in front of your eyes.’
‘A single Redcap is no match for a faery,’ Rubus spat.
I shot forward. ‘Not under normal circumstances. But you’re weakening.’ I faced the group, who were virtually slavering at the mouth to get at Finn. ‘The truce might not hold for your boss but, until he has some nux and returns to his real body, he’s still poisoned. He’s probably had so much rowan in his system that much more of this and he’ll collapse.’ I glanced at Finn, whose eyes met mine. ‘You can do it,’ I told him. ‘You have the power right now.’
‘Get this bastard off of me!’ Rubus screamed. He writhed and jerked, his hand twisting as he tried to turn the gun back to his advantage.
I was right – he was indeed weakened but unfortunately he wasn’t weakened enough.
Amellus rolled up his sleeves and prepared to take the risk and grab Finn.
At that moment, several police vans pulled up. Armed men jumped out of each one. ‘Put down the weapons!’ a loudspeaker boomed.
A rush of clarity hit me. I knew what to do. ‘Give me the sphere,’ I hissed at Morgan.
‘What?’
‘Trust me,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘Trust me in this, if nothing else. Otherwise this will become a bloodbath and Rubus will still win.’
Morgan’s eyes met min
e. There wasn’t a trace of doubt in his expression. ‘I believe in you,’ he said quietly. He dug into his pocket and drew out the sphere. Our fingers brushed as he passed it over. I shivered and then I shoved it into my pocket.
‘She’s got it!’ a faery yelled. ‘She’s got the sphere!’
Underneath Finn, Rubus jerked. He tried to raise his hand with the gun and let out a shot. The police boomed out another command but, loud as it was, the words seemed indistinct to me.
I threw myself forward towards Finn and Rubus and grabbed the gun, wrestling it out of Rubus’s grip and yanking it upwards. I started waving it around.
‘I’ve killed!’ I shrieked as loudly as I could. ‘I’ve killed before and I’ll kill again.’ I pointed the gun upwards and squeezed the trigger. A loud shot cracked through the air and the recoil jerked me downwards. A moment later, there was another shot – but not from me or from one of the armed faeries. It came from behind one of the police vans.
For the briefest moment – and for the last time – I jerked on the magic inside me and caused time to slow. My eyes met Morgan’s. He stared at me in stunned confusion and growing horror.
‘This is for the best,’ I told him. ‘This is the way it should be. I deserve it. My belongings will be impounded as evidence. The sphere will be safe, at least for a while. The rest will be up to you. Stop Rubus.’
Comprehension flew across Morgan’s face. ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘You…’
I released my hold on time. The first bullet from the police gun had missed but the second, which I hadn’t even had time to hear, slammed into me. I deserved this. For one strange second, I didn’t feel anything at all then there was a brief searing pain.
Even though I’d engineered this outcome, there was only one thought running through my mind as the world pitched into blackness.
Gasbudlikins.
Thank you so much for reading Quiver of Cobras! If you get the chance, it would make a massive difference if you could leave a review on Amazon – feedback is the lifeblood for indie authors like me. The third book in the series, Skulk of Foxes, will be released on July 30th and is available for pre-order here.
About the author
After teaching English literature in the UK, Japan and Malaysia, Helen Harper left behind the world of education following the worldwide success of her Blood Destiny series of books. She is a professional member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and writes full time, thanking her lucky stars every day that's she lucky enough to do so!
Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland.
She currently lives in Devon in the UK with far too many cats – not to mention the dragons, fairies, demons, wizards and vampires that seem to keep appearing from nowhere.
You can find out more by visiting Helen's website: http://helenharper.co.uk
If you would like to subscribe for Helen’s email based newsletter to ensure you never miss a new release and get the chance to receive special content, you can sign up here.
Other titles
The complete Blood Destiny series
Bloodfire
Bloodmagic
Bloodrage
Blood Politics
Bloodlust
Blood Destiny Box Set (The complete series: Books 1 – 5)
Also
- Corrigan Fire
- Corrigan Magic
- Corrigan Rage
-Corrigan Politics
-Corrigan Lust
The complete Bo Blackman series
Dire Straits
New Order
High Stakes
Red Angel
Vigilante Vampire
Dark Tomorrow
The complete Highland Magic series
Gifted Thief
Honour Bound
Veiled Threat
Last Wish
The complete Dreamweaver series
Night Shade
Night Terrors
Night Lights
Olympiana stand - alone
Eros
The complete Lazy Girl’s Guide To Magic series
Slouch Witch
Star Witch
Spirit Witch
Sparkle Witch
Wraith stand-alone
The Fractured Faery series
Box of Frogs
Quiver of Cobras
Skulk of Foxes