House of Shadows: Royal Houses Book Two

by K. A. Linde

  “Do you really believe that he’s behind the Red Masks?” Bastian asked carefully.

  “Yes,” she said and then frowned. “I don’t know. I want to say yes. He just let them all go. And the way he treats humans and half-Fae.” Kerrigan sighed. “We need more proof.”

  “What you need to do is keep your head down,” Helly said.

  “I agree,” Bastian said, “with Kerrigan.”

  Helly looked at him in alarm. “What?”

  “We’ve been investigating for months. If Lorian is working with the Red Masks, then we need proof.”

  “Yes, of course, but Kerrigan needs to finish training first and foremost.”

  Bastian nodded. “Let us work on it in the meantime.” He patted her arm. “We will get to the bottom of this.”

  36

  The Probation

  Fordham opened the door to Kerrigan’s room bright and early the next morning. “You’re all right.”

  She half-opened her eyes to see him standing in the doorway. She’d slept terrible. It had taken ages for her to fall asleep, and then she’d been racked with nightmares about the riot.

  “I’m not in chains anymore,” she murmured.

  “Gods,” Fordham growled. He sank into the bed next to her.

  “Helly knocked me out when I found her. She wouldn’t let me come see you. This morning, she said you’re on probation?”

  She groaned. “Yeah.”

  Fordham shook his head. “That’s disgusting. You didn’t do anything wrong. And if you’re in trouble, then shouldn’t I be?”

  Kerrigan grasped his hand to keep him from barging off and doing something stupid. “Don’t. I don’t want you to get in trouble too. You wouldn’t have even been at the protest if not for me.”

  “That’s ridiculous. The way everyone is talking about it, it’s like the Red Masks weren’t even there and we destroyed those buildings ourselves.”

  “Welcome to being a minority in Kinkadia.”

  She was just so tired. So, so tired. No matter what happened, the blame befell them. And they could try and try to dig themselves out, but they were still always seen as the problem.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  Fordham rose to his feet. “Not at all.”

  Audria shot Kerrigan a knowing look. “Time for our first day of flying.”

  Kerrigan groaned and pulled her pillow over her face.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “She’s grounded. No flying for a month.”

  “What?” Audria gasped. “That’s absurd. We just started flying. She’s going to be behind. How do they expect us to be a unit without her?”

  Kerrigan shot Fordham a look, and he ushered Audria out of the room and explained in a whisper. She was glad that she didn’t have to be the one to do it.

  The first thing she’d done when she got out of the cell was send a letter to Dozan, asking about Clover, and one to Fallon’s residence in Central to ask over Hadrian. She hadn’t received any word back yet, but she couldn’t exactly leave to go find out if they were okay. Even sending the letters had felt risky with her probation hanging over her head. But she had to know.

  It hung over her head as she got ready and headed out to training early. Alura eyed her without a trace of pity. She hadn’t expected any from the trainer, but it was still frustrating. None of this was her fault.

  Tieran was waiting when she arrived. What did you do?

  “I’m sorry,” she said at once. “You’ll still be able to practice the maneuvers.”

  Little good it does me without you.

  She winced. “Look, Lorian is gunning for me. This wasn’t my fault. I get you being angry, but keep your condescension to yourself.”

  Fine, he snapped and then flew off.

  She glared at his retreating back. She couldn’t even call him back to have this out. If he wanted to be petulant about it, then fine. She couldn’t change the outcome, and she didn’t regret going.

  The worst part was sitting in the arena and observing the flying lessons. All she wanted to do was get on Tieran’s back and put the work in. Flying was her favorite thing in all the world. Bastian had probably known she’d feel cut out for missing these lessons, but he couldn’t have known that it would feel like she’d lost a limb. Flying was the one thing about all of this that had always made perfect sense. And now that she finally could do it whenever she wanted, she was barred.

  The other four trainees came off of the arena, covered in sweat but laughing and jovial. Kerrigan kept her face carefully blank. She couldn’t let them see her in distress. Kerrigan was quieter than normal, but no one commented on it. How could any of them blame her?

  She still had to go to all of her regular lessons. The new air instructor was nothing like Zina with her eccentricities. Frankly, he was boring. The rest of the lessons were even more grueling. She’d received no word from Zina after her disappearance, and it took two whole days before she heard back from Dozan. A short missive that said Clover and Hadrian had made it out of the massacre. Clover hadn’t come herself to deliver the message. She’d gotten it from one of Dozan’s little spies. It was at least a relief that they were alive, but she couldn’t imagine what was keeping Clover away.

  She felt very lonely without any word from any of her friends and isolated from the four that she had been making these months of training. Probation loomed overhead like a dark cloud threatening rain.

  “Pst,” Audria said, peeking her head into Kerrigan’s bedroom one night a couple of weeks into her grounding.

  Kerrigan looked up from the parchment she’d been working on for her philosophy assignment. “Hey.”

  Audria pressed a finger to her lips and nodded down the hall. “Come with me.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Are we going to get in trouble?”

  “No, of course not.”

  But Audria had mischief in her eyes. Kerrigan recognized it because it was like looking in a mirror.

  “I can’t. If I get in trouble, then I’m kicked out.”

  “You won’t get in trouble,” Audria insisted. “We’d never let that happen. It’s a spot of fun.”

  Kerrigan frowned and shook her head. No fun for her.

  Audria huffed. “You can’t shut us all out like this.”

  Shut them out? She wasn’t doing anything of the sort. “I’m not.”

  “Maybe you don’t see it, but you are. You’re even shutting out Fordham.” Audria gave her a pointed look. “Just come have a fun night with us. You need it most of all.”

  Kerrigan should argue. The last thing she needed was to do something that would get her in trouble. She couldn’t be kicked out of the Society. She had little else in her life, and it would mean being without Tieran forever.

  But she didn’t argue. She wanted to get away from her studies and be with her friends. Audria usually had a good idea about whether or not she’d get in trouble. Not that she knew what it was like to be half-Fae. Kerrigan would take the fall even if the others were caught as well. That was how it always was.

  Still, she pulled on her cloak and left her room. They met up with Fordham, Noda, and Roake a floor up, waiting together in a landing.

  “See, I told you that I’d get her to come with us,” Audria said.

  Fordham’s eyes were only for Kerrigan as he shot her a look that she couldn’t read. Noda cheered, and Roake just winked. She couldn’t help but grin. Kerrigan followed the lot of them through the mountain. She gathered where they were going first. Long before Audria pulled the door open and gestured behind her.

  “Ta-da!” Audria said.

  The others gaped at the lush greenhouse beyond. Thousands of marks’ worth of glass lined the walls and ceiling of the incredible structure. It had been the work of magnificent ancient earth Fae masters. They’d designed the building to not only produce crops year-round for the mountain, but also for medicinal use. Kerrigan had spent one or two nights here with Lyam, trying out the f
orbidden herbs and laughing at the ceiling all night. They’d gotten in so much trouble. She clutched at her skirt, where his compass lay in her pocket, as it always did now. A constant reminder.

  But that night was gone, and what lay ahead were new friendships.

  “I’ve never been in here,” Noda whispered reverently, lighting a few faerie lights to illuminate the path.

  “It’s massive,” Roake added.

  Audria pulled a bottle from the bag at her hip. “I thought we could loosen up a bit.”

  Fordham shook his head. “Who would have guessed you were the troublemaker?”

  “I am more than just a title,” Audria said indignantly, tilting her nose up.

  “What kind of faerie punch is that?” Kerrigan asked, stepping inside and letting the door close behind her.

  “I’ve no idea,” she said with a laugh, linking arms with Kerrigan and winding through the plant life until they came upon the small circle at its center that was used for lessons. “I filched it out of the storeroom and didn’t even bother looking.”

  “And you said this wouldn’t be trouble.”

  “It’s the middle of the night. No one saw me take it, and no one is going to find us.”

  The words cast a spell about the greenhouse. As if by saying them aloud, they were true.

  They dragged cushions into a small circle and drew their faerie lights in close, so just the five of them were brightened. Audria passed around the faerie punch. She’d apparently taken a few bottles. Not conspicuous at all.

  “We’re all frazzled, and we need the break,” Audria insisted.

  Roake didn’t complain as he took the first swig, passing it to Noda. She held it aloft and then shrugged, taking a drink. When it reached Kerrigan, she looked at the label, but it gave nothing away. A red bottle of faerie punch had once knocked her on her ass for two days straight. Helly refused to heal her, and nothing Darby did made it better. She’d had to suffer the consequences. Gods, she hoped this wasn’t the same stuff.

  She took a drink, and the punch went down smooth. Not usually a good sign. The more potent it was, the sweeter the punch, as if it were lulling you into a false sense of security.

  “Let’s play a game!” Audria insisted after she took her drink. She pulled out a second bottle with a green liquid swishing inside and handed it off.

  “What kind of game?” Roake asked, burping. They all groaned, and he just laughed.

  “Truth or Dare.”

  “What’s that?” Fordham asked.

  Kerrigan looked at him skeptically. “Surely, you played Truth or Dare in the House of Shadows.”

  Audria laughed. “It must be so dull there if you haven’t. Either you choose to answer a question truthfully or you perform some action. If you refuse one, you must do the other.”

  “Ah. We called it Challenge or Consequence,” Fordham explained. “Everyone was challenged with a question, and if they refused to answer, they were given a consequence.”

  “Ooh,” Audria gushed. “Let’s play that way!”

  Kerrigan nudged him. “Look what you’ve done.”

  “My apologies,” he said with a smirk that said he was nothing of the sort.

  “I’ll start,” Audria chirped. “I challenge Noda.”

  Noda sighed heavily. “Fine.”

  “What is your deepest, darkest secret?”

  Noda frowned and thought for a long minute. “That I’m not good enough for the Society and I can’t hack it.”

  “That’s not a secret,” Roake said. “You already are good enough.”

  Noda withdrew at the accusation. “Well, that’s what it feels like to me.”

  The circle was quiet for a moment. That would be a heavy burden to hold.

  “Your turn, Noda,” Audria said.

  Noda swallowed. “I challenge Fordham.”

  He sat up straight, anticipating the blow. Kerrigan guessed that the ones in the House of Shadows were brutal. If her short stint there was any indication.

  “Who is your one true love?”

  He balked. Whatever he’d been anticipating, that hadn’t been it.

  Kerrigan held her breath. She waited to see if he would name Dacia. He’d bitten her head off at the mere mention of her name. She never brought it up again.

  “Consequence,” he ground out.

  Everyone blinked. They’d all thought it would be an easy question. He could have named anyone. Could have said he’d never been in love even. Instead he thought it so private that he wouldn’t even answer.

  “Oh,” Noda said. “Uh… your consequence is to strip naked and run a lap around the greenhouse.”

  Roake burst into laughter. “Oh man, this should be good. No way you’re going to do that.”

  But Fordham rose to his feet, and then as they all watched, he unbuttoned his silk shirt. Kerrigan gulped at the first inch of exposed skin and then all the way down to his abdominals. He wrenched the shirt off, exposing his chest and arms. The group was in a hush as he went for his pants, releasing the ties and dropping them to the floor.

  Audria gasped and turned away at the sight of his muscular thighs. Noda, too, blushed and covered her face. Kerrigan was peeking. How could she not?

  Only Roake laughed through the whole thing. Perhaps he’d expected him to stop.

  Kerrigan’s mouth was dry. She could no more look away than make a joke of it. For his eyes found hers in the dim lighting. She wanted to blush, but all she felt was… need.

  But Fordham didn’t stop. He arched an eyebrow at her. A challenge, waiting for her to be embarrassed. But she wasn’t embarrassed. Just interested.

  He hooked his thumbs into the waist of his undergarments and dragged them off too. Every muscled inch of him on full display. Her mind went fuzzy at the sight of him in all of his naked glory. A pulse shot through her body, straight to her center. And still she didn’t look away.

  Fordham threw his pants into the circle, whirling away from the lot so they all got a flash of a perfectly muscled butt. Then, he was running.

  Kerrigan’s eyes rounded as he dashed away.

  Roake whistled. “Well… I might be more into males than I thought.”

  All the girls broke down into giggles.

  “A body like that would make anyone interested,” Noda said.

  Audria shook her head. “I have a horribly embarrassing question.” They all looked at her in question. “Does it always look like that?”

  “Does what?” Noda asked.

  “It,” she said, gesturing between her legs.

  Now, they all fell backward in laughter at the question. No one answered, and Audria just snatched the green bottle back and downed it to hide her blush.

  Fordham returned moments later, pulling his clothes back on as efficiently as he had taken them off. “My turn. I challenge Roake.”

  “I’m ready. Lay it on me.”

  “How old were you with the first woman you ever lay with?”

  Roake sputtered. He puffed his chest up, and they’d all been around him enough to know when he was about to bluster.

  “The truth, or you take a worse consequence,” Fordham demanded.

  Roake deflated. “I mean, how old was I? I was… well, I haven’t… precisely.”

  “You haven’t?” Audria gasped.

  “You just asked if it always looked like that! As if you’d never seen one!” Roake shot back.

  Audria giggled. “Yes, but I’m not the one always bragging about my conquests.”

  “It’s fine that you haven’t,” Kerrigan said.

  “Agreed,” Noda said, her voice solemn. “It’s better than regretting it.”

  And no one had a response to that.

  “Well, I suppose that I challenge Audria,” Roake said.

  “Big surprise,” Audria said, flipping her hair.

  “If you could have your first time with one person in this circle, who would it be?”

  Audria gaped. “That’s… that’s not fair.”
<
br />   Roake shrugged. “That’s the question.”

  “I…” Audria looked around. Her gaze jerking between each person and then shrugging. “I can’t choose. Consequence, I suppose.”

  “Then, you have to kiss Noda.”

  Audria huffed. “That’s a terrible consequence.”

  Noda looked offended by her response for one moment, but then Audria was on her hands and knees, crawling across the small circle. Her movements were unsteady. The alcohol was getting to them all. Kerrigan’s head felt fuzzy. But she was unprepared for Audria to gently take Noda’s face in her hands as if she were precious and kiss her so soft and slowly.

  Roake gaped at them. Kerrigan’s eyebrows rose. They were kind of hot. She was definitely into guys, but still… it was hot.

  Audria pulled back and winked at Noda. “I’m an excellent kisser.”

  Noda nodded, dazed. “That you are.”

  Audria giggled and returned to her spot. “I challenge Kerrigan.”

  “Of course,” Kerrigan said, taking a fortifying sip of faerie punch. “What do you have?”

  “What did you see in your bonding ceremony?”

  Kerrigan froze. Her head spun. Did Audria know that she and Tieran weren’t bonded? Had she guessed and then gotten her drunk so that she’d reveal it?

  “We all know what the others saw, but you’ve never shared it,” Audria continued. “I’ve been dying to know.”

  No, she didn’t know. She was just being Audria and nosy. But of course, Kerrigan couldn’t say. Because they weren’t bonded. And Fordham would know if she was lying.

  “Come on. It’s an easy one,” Audria encouraged.

  But it wasn’t an easy one for Kerrigan.

  “Consequence,” she murmured.

  “Well,” Audria frowned, tapping her lip. “Your consequence is to go off into the greenhouse and kiss Fordham for three minutes.”

  “What?” she chirped.

  “It was an easy challenge. So, I’m giving you a bigger consequence,” she informed her haughtily. A twinkle was in her eye. As if she’d planned this all along. The little matchmaker.

  “Fine,” she said, coming unsteadily to her feet.