After ten minutes of steeping, I poured a mugful of truth and handed it off to Shadow who had to manually tilt Bracken’s head back and used his thumb to open Bracken’s mouth. Being under my binding spell, the betrayer literally couldn’t move a muscle aside from his heart that kept him alive, and his mouth, which he refused to open.
The effects of the tea started showing after about five minutes. We knew it had when Shadow asked, “How could you hurt your best friend?”
There was guilt in Bracken’s eyes, at least. Actually, if he had the ability to flinch, I think he probably would have.
“Answer,” Rogue ordered.
“He got in the way,” Bracken replied, quietly.
“What does that mean?” I asked and his glare cut to me, full of that same hatred the wolves had shown before they attacked me on the cap. But Bracken liked me… or I thought he did.
“Ravenna said we needed to get rid of the humans. I thought with the way he treated the unworthy witch”—Unworthy witch? I swallowed hard because I knew Bracken was referring to me— “I could get him on my side. Race’s loyalty to the unworthy brought him down.”
“Who is unworthy?” Crest asked.
Bracken answered right away. “You. Rogue… and Shadow.” He said Shadow’s name with so much distain that if he wasn’t bound, I’d be afraid of him attacking my mate. Bracken took it to next-level crazy when he shot Shadow a question of his own. “How could you betray your people, shifters, immortals, by parading your witch whore around and calling her the future queen?”
Without warning, Shadow reared back his fist and let fly, punching Bracken’s cheek. Seeing as Bracken’s neck muscles kept him motionless and thus kept his head from falling back, it was like Shadow punched a wall. Bracken’s face was the wall and it looked bad.
“Shadow—” I gripped his massive arm with both hands and pulled down with all my strength, which admittedly wasn’t close to Shadows. It was more to get him to stop himself from killing Bracken than me stopping him from killing Bracken. “We need him alive, baby…” I whispered.
Shadow lowered his arm and took a half a step back. Only a half-step.
“Who’s Ravenna?” I asked.
“My mate,” he spat back.
“You mated?” Rogue asked. “Why keep it from us?”
“She told me I needed to. She told me I could no longer trust the Roc leaders. My allegiance had to be with the ravens and I had to feed them information on you, your family and the witch whore, or she could no longer be my mate. She would take her love and her beautiful sex from me. I could not have that, you understand.”
Oh man, the situation just ratcheted up a notch on the effed-up scale. That wasn’t how any of this worked. Now, I’d only been a part of this world for two weeks, nonetheless, having gone through the mating process, I’d consider myself an expert. And what made me one-hundred-percent sure was firstly, as half of the mated pair you were physically and mentally incapable of leaving your mate forever. Secondly, it went against everything in a pair-mated bond to willingly send your mate into a dangerous situation, say, spying on the royal family. All this meant his Ravenna was a serious sociopath manipulating a most-likely-lonely-Bracken into thinking it was the real thing by using her va-jay-jay.
I hated her. I hated ravens for causing a once good man to betray his friends. His people. I hated the ravens for killing Race. Because of them my mate lost not one, but two of his best friends. A cut that deep was sure to leave a scar.
“What do they plan next?” Shadow demanded.
Bracken’s eyes looked so pained; I knew he was fighting the compulsion to tell the truth. The man didn’t have enough fight in his body to fight a brew this strong. Eventually he realized it and gave in. “We use the Dangey, Kappa and other lesser immortals to put the world off-kilter.”
“Why?” Rogue asked.
“I do not know. They would not tell me until I defeated the Roc and brought them to kneel before the ravens.”
“You are Roc, stupid.” I kind of lost it a little. But, come on…
“Since they have yet to fill him in on all the details,” Crest said as he stood glaring a death-glare at Bracken, with his strong arms folded over his chest. The vibe he was giving off said his arms across his chest was a strategic move to keep himself from strangling the life out of Bracken. “It is even more important that he drink the forgetting brew and we go in undercover.”
On that point we all agreed. Well, all except Bracken who looked visibly sick. Once he drank my brew, he wouldn’t be anything, because he wouldn’t remember any of this conversation.
The forgetting tea, having been steeping all this time, probably tasted bitter about now but its potency would be off the charts. Therefore, I took the mug that once held the truth tea and poured it full of forget.
Once again Shadow used his thumb to force open Bracken’s mouth and poured every drop down his throat. While we waited for it to take effect, the four of us put the second part of our plan in motion.
Basically, we had to mourn the passing of Race—which wasn’t hard to do—but blame it on the Dangey. I hoped the men had their OSCAR-winning acting skills ready because we needed Bracken to think all was as it had been, as in, the men trusting him completely.
I used the unbinding spell, which had been written on the same folded piece of paper as the binding spell, to release the traitor from his invisible bondage. They walked a confused Bracken over to the bed, pushing him to lay down. Then the three Roc brothers knelt on the floor in front of the couch with their heads hung low, tears in their eyes. I stood to Shadow’s back, hugging him from behind but chanced a look at Bracken, who blinked, and I knew the potion had started working.
When I kissed the top of Shadow’s head, our signal to show him when to start, he reached up to squeeze my hand lovingly. “They will pay,” he gritted out. “To threaten my mate, to injure one friend and kill the other… those Dangey will pay.”
“Wha—what happened?” Bracken asked as he stood, taking in the scene.
Shadow, Rogue and Crest turned their heads to look at Bracken—now or never—and Crest stood up. “You’re awake,” he said. “When we found you, Race was already down. You and Meena fighting for your lives.”
“We were worried about you, Brack.” Rogue stood too, and walked over to pull Bracken roughly into a thank-god-you’re-okay hug.
Over his shoulder, Bracken shot his gaze to Race. “Race,” he whispered, pushed off from Rogue and walked over to stare down at his once best friend. Bracken then put a hand from his forehead, called up some crocodile tears and said, “I need to walk. I cannot be here right now.”
“One of us will go with you. You should not be alone right now,” Shadow said.
“No.” Bracken refused him. “I need to be alone right now. I need a chance to process everything you just said.”
“In this state, you should be with your friends, but you do what you have to do.” Shadow then stood, walked over to pat Bracken’s shoulder then claimed me in a hug.
Bracken took the opportunity to walk out the front door, slamming it shut behind him. He slammed it so hard that it bounced back open. Before he could get too far, I used the invisibility spell to move over me and all the men. They shifted to bird, Shadow collected me by my shoulders and flew us out. Bracken had changed to bird and we followed him. We flew and flew, the wind whipping at my face, straight into the ravens’ lair.
Oh, crap!
When we landed, only two of the brothers, who pulled back their bird forms the moment their feet touched ground, landed. Rogue flew off to gather the troops. I touched the ground with my hand to put out a call to Acetylene. We needed his help. His and any of his friends who might be willing.
A beautiful woman with deep, almond-shaped eyes and long midnight-black hair emerged from a moss-and-vine-covered cave with her arms spread wide. “Baby,” she cooed. It was the same woman who took off right before the Dangey attacked us inside the factory. With only h
er eyes, she looked from side to side and asked, “You weren’t followed, were you?”
“No,” Bracken said as she reached him, folding her body around him like she was ready to have sex with him and not like a comforting spouse. “They are busy mourning Race.”
“What about you, my love?” She then asked in a sticky-sweet voice. It was safe to say, I did not like this woman. “Are you morning Race?”
When he didn’t respond, I wouldn’t say I gained a little more respect for the man, only… maybe… a little less disrespect.
“Let me make you feel better,” she whispered in his ear, dropping her mouth to bite the lobe, then—I kid not—she dropped to her knees in front of him, unzipping his jeans. Ugh! We couldn’t let them out of our sight and so were forced to watch that scene play out. And because of that I was forced to amend my earlier thought. She was a sociopath manipulating Bracken with her va-jay-jay and mouth.
After he grunted his final grunt, the woman stood, wiping the corners of her mouth, and watched while he tucked his manhood back in his pants and zipped them back up. Without speaking, she tagged his shirt and pulled him behind her into the cave. Crest, Shadow and I followed, staying far enough behind for him not to sense us.
Obviously, it was on the darker side inside the cave. Four men sat around a simple wooden table lit by an oil lamp in the center. Each man wore black leather vests over bare chests and black denim tucked into black Doc Martin-style boots. All of them kept their midnight-black hair pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of their necks. From where we stood, I could only see two of their eyes but of those two, they both had coal-black eyes like the woman Ravenna. The scent of evil drifted throughout the small room. Before today, I didn’t know evil had a smell, but boy did it ever. And it stank.
“What’s the state of play?” The man facing us at the table tipped his head up to ask Ravenna and Bracken.
“They are here,” Bracken replied. “They are mourning.”
“And that means?” The man sitting on the right end asked.
“It means if we attack now, the city will fall. Talon is a feeble old man. Their five best warriors—the brothers, Race and myself—have left the city.”
“But they have a witch,” the first man cut in.
“We take her out first.” When Bracken said that, I had to throw my hand over my mouth to keep them from hearing me gasp. “She cannot fight us all off. Without their leaders, their men won’t know what to do. That means… the city… will… fall.”
“I’ll gather the troops.” The man, whose back was to us, stood from his seat to fish a phone from his pocket.
We couldn’t let him mobilize, but too late, he pressed a button on his phone and clipped, “It’s go time.”
Our situation turned even more precarious when we heard the caws descending outside the cave. It was too soon for the ravens to get here. Shadow, Crest and I ran out when the six—five ravens plus Bracken—moved to go outside.
Still cloaked, I pulled my cell from my front pocket and called Rogue.
“Meena?” he asked.
“They’re sending an army to Cloud,” I whispered. “But we need you here.” And then I hung up.
I wasn’t practiced enough to use my magic against the ravens and keep the men invisible, which meant I’d come to an uneasy decision and slid next to the magic in the empty space where Shadow should be, crossed my invisible fingers that I had the right guy, and whispered, “I love you,” in the space where his ear should’ve been.
“Love you, too, eaglet.” Phew! Shadow. I wiped my invisible brow, dropped the cloak and shot out a bolt of electricity towards the closest being to me. Ravenna. The magic took her off guard and knocked her on her butt, literally. She flew through the air without wings and landed hard.
“Venna,” Bracken shouted and rushed to her.
“Get them you fool,” she shouted back, refusing his help.
Arms morphed to wings as beaks pushed free from their faces and feathers sprouted, no traces of men left. My giant copper eagle and his brother, a giant brass-colored bird, flew above my head. So many ravens filled the sky they turned it black. We didn’t stand a chance at winning with their numbers, but I was willing to give it my all.
As eagles and ravens locked in mortal combat, sparks of white magic flew from my fingertips. I shot without discretion, knowing my Roc warriors were at my back and would be safe from anything I threw out.
I turned my attention to a divebombing raven and shot it out of the sky, but taking my eyes off the—aptly named—unkindness of ravens proved painful when a second bird flew at me from the side, catching a claw across my cheek, stopping just short of my eye because his raven head was torn from his body.
Crest saved my life and immediately flew off to assist his brother taking on ten ravens at once. We were holding our own but there was no way we could win this. Not until we heard the mighty screeching of about one hundred eagles led by a giant, regal bronze bird. Rogue.
It was Clash of the Titans out here. More ravens dropped from the sky than eagles but as I turned to shoot another bolt, I saw him. Bracken. I’d never forget his coloring and he was aiming straight for my mate.
“Shadow,” I screamed and shot a—well, it wasn’t white magic—I shot a ball of pure energy, it was hard to explain it, but it wasn’t electricity. It was energy pulled from the very air around us. Pulled from the trees and the ground. And I hit that traitor Bracken square between the shoulder blades. His body seized and he dropped. The ravens saw, hell, everyone saw, but those ravens—the cowards—shot off like bats out of hell.
When I reached him, I kicked the naked form several times to make sure he was good and dead. Bracken was good and dead.
Ravenna got away, but at least I got my vengeance for Race. My face dripped blood and I was a mess. Acetylene never showed. His friends never showed. That, I didn’t take as good news. I felt myself starting to lose it.
“Take care of the traitor,” Shadow, still in bird form, ordered one warrior. “Race’s body is at the old hunting cabin,” he said to another before he lifted me up and flew us home.
Chapter Twenty-One:
Endings and New Beginnings
As Bracken was dead, the city and Race’s family was robbed of their trial. Because of this, they asked to be allowed a small funeral service, instead of the grand state funeral was his due, to mourn him without thousands of eyes on them.
His funeral was held on the grounds of the palace. His body lain upon a dais raised by twelve-foot pillars. Flags with his family’s crest were flown at half-staff and he wore the ruby-red funerary tunic of his ancestors. Race’s father, as was his due, lit the pyre while he kept one arm wrapped around his wife, who sobbed into his shoulder.
Since we buried our dead, this was very new to me. I watched with my head held high. Race had given his life to save mine… I owed him this much.
Talon spoke on behalf of the royal family. Then Shadow, Rogue and Crest all spoke as friends and brothers-at-arms. That was when the tears began to fall.
The flames reflected blood-red in the sky until the rain started to fall, but still we didn’t leave until the last flickering flame was extinguished and Race took his place among the warriors who had fallen before him.
Without the Dangey feeding the lava flow, the threat from the volcano had dropped down from critical to keep an eye on, since they’d woken it up. Speaking of the Dangey, we’d yet to make contact with them, though, Shadow had feelers out to find them.
The day after Race’s funeral, my mate handed me my phone and pretty much demanded I turn in my resignation. That led to an argument of epic proportions. Although, in the end I’d realized he was right. My job expected me to go where they sent me and since we knew the ravens and incubi were scheming together to wreak havoc on the world, something had to give.
It was now one month past the ordeal with the ravens and holy crap, I thought I’d been busy before I met Shadow.
“Meena, dear…”
Avalon rested her hand on my shoulder to stare at my reflection in the mirror. “You look beautiful, but you’re going to be late.”
“Unless you know something I don’t, they can’t start without me,” I teased.
“As there is no one else in the world for my son, no, they can’t start without you. But my son can be a grouch when he doesn’t get what he wants. And right now, he wants you in the temple of Saēna to declare your love and life to him in front of your people.”
My people.
They loved me here, though, I thought that had a lot to do with them loving Shadow. Avalon helped me to stand with the massive eagle headdress made up of copper eagle feathers and rose gold. Then she helped me into my wedding dress. A rose gold silk caftan-style tunic embroidered with copper and yellow gold stitching.
On my feet I wore copper-stained leather sandals. For my makeup, my friend Delta—who’d done my hair and makeup so beautifully for the Great War Commemoration, it turned out she was a professional cosmetologist—Delta who would be at my side for the ceremony had glammed me up before she left to get ready.
Hand in hand, Avalon—dressed from head to toe in the vibrant yellow gold of her husband and the shining silver-white palladium, which is her color—accompanied me down to the palace gates where a convertible rickshaw-type vehicle awaited us. Although it had two exceptionally large spindle wheels, it was driven by four of the royal guards in full uniform. Two to the back and two to the front.
The streets had been roped off and revelers lined up along the entire route to see us pass. Shadow told me that people had started lining up last night to get a spot. I smiled and waved as we passed, as did their queen. And I had to admit, she had the queen-wave down.
Flags of the king’s yellow gold and the family’s crest flew at full staff along the route along with flags of copper and rose gold, and the closer to the temple we got, copper and rose gold signifying our union, were flown at three-quarters staff. There were urns filled with pink flowers of all different shades and varieties.
Flight: The Roc Warriors (Immortal Elements Book 1) Page 19