Carved in Stone: Protectors of Magic - Book Two

by Wolfhart, Jenna

  “We attack.” The smile Rhiannon flashed was a reminder that deep down inside, she was still an Unseelie fae. She craved a fight. But to tell the truth, so did I. After biding my time in a tiny dungeon cell for a week, I was aching for it.

  “Guard!” I called out after Marcus and Rhiannon had taken up their places on either side of the gate. “Guard!”

  There wasn’t a single fae in sight, but I knew they were nearby. Or, at least, near enough that they could hear me if I yelled. A moment later, the same familiar guard dragged his feet down the tunnel and stopped on the opposite side of the gate. He crossed his arms and lifted an eyebrow.

  “What’s going on? Don’t tell me you’re hungry. You’re better fed than I am.”

  Interesting. I filed that little piece of information away. King Oberon wasn’t particularly giving when it came to his underlings. Not that it surprised me. He didn’t strike me as the generous type.

  “I need to see your king,” I said. Careful to say your and not the. Because he was certainly not my king.

  “Dinner’s over, and the king is busy. He doesn’t have time for any games.”

  “He’s busy preparing for the attack on the witches,” I said. “Am I right? Well, I’ve decided he’s making a lot of sense. Those witches weren’t particularly kind to me anyway. So, I have some information that could help him plan his next move.”

  The guard eyed me warily. “You’ve certainly changed your tune.”

  “The pro of sitting in a boring cell twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week? There’s a lot of thinking time.” I pasted on the most innocent face I could muster. So far, I’d been pretty harmless. I always went along whenever the king summoned me. And I returned to my cell every evening without the tiniest hint of trouble.

  He cocked his head, silent for a long and agonizing moment. “Alright. I’ll take you to see him. But the second he wants you gone, you’re gone. And he might turn you away as soon as we get there.”

  “Sure.” I gave a nod. “Understood. Whatever the king wants, he gets. We are here to do his every bidding.”

  The sarcasm wasn’t lost on him, but he opened the gate anyway. With his hands wrapped around the crank, he jerked his chin toward the tunnel. “Alright, come on then. Don’t just stand there wasting my time.”

  “Okay.” I flicked my gaze toward Rhiannon, where she leaned nonchalantly against the wall, twirling a long piece of blonde hair around her finger. “Time to go.”

  At that, she pushed off the wall and moved at an impossible speed, hurtling through the open gate and launching herself onto the fae guard. He grunted, his hands flying from the crank. Marcus was a few steps behind, and I slid underneath the gate only seconds before it slammed to the ground.

  The three-way fight was a rush of claws and fangs, moving far too fast for me to follow. One moment, Rhiannon was on top, her nails slicing through the air. And then Marcus flipped to dominance, his wings ripping from his back. One second, he had the guard pinned. The next, he was halfway down the dark tunnel, his back slamming hard into the stone wall.

  Rhiannon hissed as the guard bore down on her. I rushed forward to do whatever I could do help, heart lurching into my throat. The two of them were nothing more than a blur of motion mixed with painful cries that echoed all around me. I looked all around me for anything I could use as a weapon, my eyes landing on the keys the guard had used to unlock the gate.

  Bingo.

  I slid the keys through my fingers and waited, knees bent, fist held up to my chest. My moment came. The guard pinned the fae and trapped her wrists to the ground. His jagged teeth gleamed with saliva, and I slammed my fist into his neck.

  He dropped back his head and roared. And before I could land another punch, he took Rhiannon’s head in his meaty hands and yanked it hard to the right.

  I froze, horror and revulsion churning nausea in my gut. The keys clattered to the floor, landing with a loud crash that battered my eardrums. Rhiannon’s mouth had gone slack. Her hands had tumbled to the ground. Her fire, her spark. It no longer danced in her eyes.

  Stumbling back, I shook my head. “No. You couldn’t have. You didn’t. She’s immortal.”

  The fae guard slowly stood, curling his hands into fists. “I could. And I did. Now, get back in that fucking cell, or I’ll snap your neck next.”

  “You can’t.” Tears dripped from my eyes, leaving hot streaks behind them. “You’re not allowed to kill me.”

  His lips twisted into a cruel smile. He was so big. So tall. His massive biceps bulged against his shirt. All it would take was one heavy punch into my face, and I’d be flat on the ground. “The king isn’t here now to protect you, and you’ve just gone and pissed me off. No matter what—”

  But he didn’t get a chance to finish his thought. Marcus leapt through the air and sliced the fae’s neck with a sword he must have found nearby. I squeezed my eyes tight, blocking out the gory sight. A thump sounded in the tunnel. And then a heavy sigh. Marcus wrapped an arm around me and led me away from the slaughter, waiting patiently while I worked up the nerve to open my eyes.

  I made sure to keep my gaze locked on his strained, bloody face. I couldn’t bear to look behind me. To see the body. The bodies.

  “Oh, Marcus,” I said, gasping through the tears that shook my body. Rhiannon was dead. And all because she’d done everything in her power to help us. I never wanted anyone to die for me. I didn’t deserve that kind of sacrifice.

  “I know, love. And as much as I want to give you a chance to process what’s just happened, we need to make our move now before more guards come down that tunnel. There’s an exit at the end of these dungeons,” Marcus said, wiping a splatter of blood from his jaw. “But it means leaving the goddess sword behind.”

  I faltered. “Leave the sword behind? But that means leaving behind the only chance I have at unlocking my powers.”

  “It’s up to you, love. You’re the demigoddess, and I am here to serve you with my life.” He grabbed the guard’s sheathed dagger and shoved it into his back waistband. “We can go for the goddess sword if you’d like. Just be aware that it’ll likely end in us getting caught again. Or…we can leave these dungeons and go warn our city.”

  At the word our, my heart warmed.

  It felt wrong leaving behind the one thing that could make me the goddess my mother had wanted me to become. The magic hunters and the fae both had their sights set on the witches of the world. If I unlocked my powers, I would not only be free to be myself but I would have the powers to fight back instead of run. And I’d come so far, I’d fought so hard. That stupid weapon was somewhere in this castle. I was so close to finally having it in my grasp again.

  But what felt even more wrong? Not warning the city when I had the chance. Those shifters, even those witches, they were my family. And the fae were coming for them.

  “We’ll go.” The words sounded foreign, strange. But right. “We need to get out of here and find that raven so we can warn Kipling of what’s coming for them.”

  I picked up the sword that Marcus had found. It was surprisingly light. Much easier to manage than the swords Jasper had been using to train me. With a deep breath, I slung the scabbard over my shoulder and gave Marcus a solemn nod.

  The silver flecks in his eyes sparked, and he wrapped his hand around mine. “Those words are like music to my ears. Now, come on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Part III

  A Quest for Blood

  Chapter 22

  “Wait.” Marcus paused and held out a hand when we’d only gone a few meters deeper into the dungeons, leaving behind the dimly-lit cell we’d called home this past week. “It’s pitch black. We should grab a torch from the wall.”

  “No.” I shifted to stand in front of him, facing the darkness with bated breath. “I can see in the dark. I’ll lead us out. A torch will only give us away if someone tries to follow.”

  “You can see in the dark?” he asked. I felt a hint of pride shoot
through me. For once, I was actually being useful. For once, I was the one with the power.

  “Remember how I had the sword for a few days? This seems to be the only gift I was able to unlock in that time.”

  He let out a low whistle. “Impressive. Take the lead and do your thing. The exit should be straight ahead for quite awhile, and then we need to take the first left.”

  “Got it.” And then we were off, melting into the darkness. I took us deep into the dungeons, Marcus’s hand wrapped tightly around mine. He let me take the lead, now the one in front instead of the one behind. Up ahead, I spotted the left turn that would lead us to freedom. A warmth filled my gut. A feeling that felt a lot like hope.

  As soon as we stepped out into the fresh air, Marcus wrapped his arms around my waist. Wings beat against the wind, and we lifted from the ground, shooting fast and far from the Blood Coven’s castle. I didn’t dare look behind us. I didn’t want to see if we’d been spotted. Instead, I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Marcus’s neck, burying my nose in his skin.

  * * *

  We touched down in front of the outbuilding where we’d taken cover what felt like years ago. Our feet landed heavily on the ground. We were safe now. But he didn’t let go of me, and I didn’t let go of him. We stood there in the empty field, silent, our arms wrapped tight around each other. Tears filled my eyes as sorrow crashed down around me. We might be free from the fae, but it had been at such a horrible cost. Images of Rhiannon’s face flashed in my mind, and the look on her face when the guard had snapped her neck. The sound that had echoed through the stone tunnels had been sharp, loud, wrong.

  “I know, love.” Marcus whispered into my hair, rubbing his strong, warm hands against my back. “She deserved better than that.”

  I pulled back to look into his eyes, our foreheads resting together, our tears mixing as they fell down our cheeks. “She died because of us.”

  “No. She died because she no longer wanted to be trapped by King Oberon.”

  At the thought of the cruel king, I clenched my jaw. “We have to warn the others.”

  He nodded. “That’s why we stopped here. I spotted the raven from the sky. Looks like it followed us to this building, but then lost us somewhere in the storm. It never made it to the castle.”

  He finally let go of me then. Instantly, I wanted nothing more than his arms wrapped around me once again, to feel the warmth of his skin on mine. But we had much to do.

  The raven landed on my shoulder, its tiny claws digging into my skin. Marcus pulled a small notepad and pen from his interior coat pocket and scribbled down a few words. He didn’t meet my eyes when he spoke his next words. “I’m warning them what’s coming and telling them to evacuate the city.”

  “Good,” I said, but my heart clenched at the solemn line of his lips. There was something else he wasn’t telling me. “Let me see it.”

  “Not necessary.” He curled the note and tied a brown string around it.

  “I’m not an idiot, Marcus.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What else did you write on that note?”

  He let out a heavy sigh. “I’ve told them to come collect you here.”

  “Wait, what?” My heart thumped hard. “Why would you say that? Aren’t we going straight there?”

  “You are going straight there.” He ran a hand down his face and sighed. “I’m going back to the castle.”

  “You can’t possibly be serious.”

  His voice went fierce and rough, and he pointed in the vague direction of the castle. “The fae want to kill every last witch in the world. That includes the blood mages. Ones who are stuck hiding inside that damn castle. They have no hope of surviving if they stay there. I have to go back and get them out. I left them once, Rowena, and look what happened. I can’t leave them again. Not like this. Not when they truly need me to save them.”

  “Marcus.” My heart hurt at the brutal emotion dripping from his words. His face was pained, angry, and full of fury. “They’ll kill you. The fae will kill you.”

  “Not if I stay out of sight. Not if I’m silent.”

  But Marcus wasn’t silent and deadly. He was loud and brash and brimming with power.

  “Okay,” I said with a nod. “We’ll go back and get the mages out of there.”

  He took a sharp breath in through his nose. “We?”

  “That’s right.” I took a step closer to him, erasing the distance between us. “You shouldn’t have to do this alone. I’m coming with you.”

  “But Rowena, you’re—”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Useless? Weak? Powerless?”

  “None of the above.” He shook his head. “Your life is too damn important.”

  “Your life is just as important as mine.” A pause. “Besides, Jasper has been training me. That fae weapon you found is light enough for me to handle. I can do this. I’m certain of it.”

  “Rowena, I…” He gave me an odd look as he trailed off, not because he didn’t think I had the strength. But because he wanted to keep me safe just as much as I wanted to have his back. “If this is about getting your goddess sword back, I don’t know if we’ll be able to—”

  “It’s not.” A firm voice. “Fuck my sword. I want to do this for you. You’ve been helping me since the day we met. Let me do something to help you.”

  A long, silent pause. And then a nod. “Alright.”

  He tore up the paper, scribbled another note, and handed it to the raven without another word. Two seconds later, the bird was gone, a mere speck on the horizon. Marcus’s eyes stayed locked on me the entire time, and the gulf between our bodies felt endless. Every single cell in my body wanted to make the space between us disappear, but I couldn’t move. It felt dangerous and terrifying. If I gave into the burn I felt around my heart, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to douse the flames.

  “What did that one say?” I finally whispered.

  “That one just held the warning. I said we’d be there before the fae launch the attack.”

  “And we will,” I said. “We’ll rescue the blood mages, and then we’ll go straight to the city.”

  He tucked his finger under my chin, a light twinkling in his eyes. “How did you get to be so brave?” And then he dropped back his head, looked up at the sky. “Dawn has come. We’ll need to wait for night so that we’ll at least have the cover of darkness. We can hole up in this building until we’re ready to head back. That will give us some time to come up with a plan. And you can take a nap, if you need one.”

  My stomach fluttered. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to fall asleep.”

  “I know.” He sighed. “It’s been a crazy past twenty-four hours, and the next twenty-four promises more of the same. Come on. Let’s go inside before someone sees us.”

  But that wasn’t why I was worried I wouldn’t sleep. It was spending the next several hours tucked away in a small intimate space with Marcus. How would I be able to do that without losing my mind?

  * * *

  Turns out, the body takes over even when the mind is racing. Within five minutes of settling onto the rough floor, my heavy eyelids snapped shut. I awoke with a start several hours later, my head in Marcus’s lap. I opened my eyes and looked up. Marcus was staring down at me with an uncharacteristic, soft look on his face.

  “Feeling better, love?” he murmured.

  “Much better.” I eased off his lap and brushed the dirt from my dress. “Did you manage to sleep at all?”

  “No, but I don’t need to,” he said. “I got enough rest when I was recovering from this wound. I’ll sleep when everyone is safe.”

  “So, what are we going to do?”

  “There are several safe rooms inside the castle. We went to one. Obviously, the blood mages aren’t there. That narrows things down quite a lot, especially since they appear to have stuck around for so long. It means they’re not able to make a run for it, which leads me to believe they’re hiding out in this tower.” Marcus pointed at a square that had be
en etched in the dirt floor. I widened my eyes. While I’d been sleeping, Marcus had been busy. He’d constructed a crude drawing of the castle grounds, spread out all around us and giving us a bird’s eye view of the buildings.

  “The doorway for this building is within view of here and here.” He pointed to the castle gates and to another building on the map. “There are guards all around the gates, and this right here is where the king and his closest fae are staying, which means he’ll have at least two more guards standing watch at this door.” He drew a line from that door to the tower building where the mages might be hiding. “There’s no way they can leave without being seen.”

  “Then, why don’t they just go back through the tunnels and go to another safe room? Somewhere they can more easily escape from? Or try to get into the dungeons where there’s an exit? And why don’t they just fight? They’re mages. The fae might be strong, but it’s not like witches and warlocks don’t have their own sets of powers.”

  “I’m not sure.” He frowned. “Something must have happened to trap them there. They could be injured.”

  I nodded. “So, we basically just need to storm the place, take out a few guards, and carry some injured mages out the front gates without the king getting wind of it.” I let out a hiss and clapped my hands. “Easy peasy.”

  Marcus chuckled. “Don’t worry. That’s not the plan. I have a much better idea.”

  He launched into a detailed explanation of exactly what that was. And, as I watched him speak excitedly of his ideas, a warmth spread through me, not unlike how it feels to cozy up next to a roaring fireplace after a walk outside in the cold. A soothing sort of heat that slowly curls through your body, relaxing you, calming you, making you feel as though the world outside isn’t a threat at all. Not when you feel like this.

  Marcus paused when he caught me staring at him. A smirk curled the left corner of his lip. He shifted away from the map and pulled me toward him. My breath caught; my heart stopped. And his violet eyes searched mine. I was pretty certain I knew what he was looking for, and he would find it. Because the feel of his hands on mine, his skin brushing against me…I could barely breathe around the intensity of how it made me feel.