Iron Oracle

by Merry Ravenell

  He slid his hands lower and gripped the edges of her shirt. He pulled upwards. She smiled and raised her hands over her head, letting him strip her shirt.

  She sighed and turned her head to the side, exposing the length of her neck, and her shoulder to him.

  An intense trembling excitement overtook him, like hot lust, but something else. He gripped her arms instinctively, tightly, pushed his face to her neck and inhaled her scent. The scent that was always in his nose, tormenting him, sweet and alive, and her. No matter how hard he had tried to shove her away when they had reached their impasse, she had never heeded him, and he had never had the strength to do more than push.

  He inhaled again.

  “Yes,” she whispered to him.

  He pulled back, and released her arm, drew his fingertips down the smooth skin. Bones elongated, nails into claws, and he slid one claw against her pale skin. A trail of redness bloomed, and a burning, exquisite pain echoed on his own bicep.

  “Kiery,” he whispered her name as the Moon guided his claw and the bloody pattern bloomed through her skin.

  She gasped, then relaxed under his hands as the Bond, so long denied, ripped open between them.

  He breathed hard, barely daring to believe it, the Bond pulsed between them, a new, living creature, their fates entwined.

  “Take me to bed,” she whispered. “If we live long enough, we’ll take the vows, but consider it all said and sworn, you stupid First Beta.”

  “We will start on pups right now,” Lucas said.

  She laughed, soft but wild. “I am not getting any younger.”

  “Wonders of wonders, you agree with me for once? The Mark has made you docile.”

  She shoved him away and stood. “I am going to bed. I’m going to have some fun. If you want to have some fun, you can come along. Or you can sit here and drink away your last night on earth with bad sitcoms.”

  Stand Up

  It hurt so much to move I had to crawl to the bathroom.

  I sobbed until I couldn’t see.

  The contusions on my shoulder and hip, and my aching body and my ripped up hands... none of it was anything compared to the furious, scalding pain burning inside me, eating away at me like an ulcer.

  Hix.

  Hix was dead.

  Stabbed in the back and tied to a post and left to bleed to death in the freezing cold. A warning to anyone else the price for challenging the SableFur.

  Hix.

  I had failed him. I had been too weak to end his life in the dungeon when he had first arrived. I had believed in happy endings. I had believed it couldn’t possibly end like this. I, an Oracle, trained to look upon horrors and truths, had ignored the one in front of me because it was too hard.

  And I had failed him.

  I lay in the tub and the icy water pounded on me while I whimpered.

  I hope for a good death because I have not led a good life.

  I’d find a way to honor his life. I vowed that to myself. Avenging him would dishonor him. No Luna avenged a fallen warrior that had died in her service. She sent warriors to avenge a wrong against the pack. But I’d find a way to honor his life, and make sure it was known the truth of how he had died, and why. And how cowardly, and pathetic and without honor his death had been.

  Adrianna was wrong about Gabel. Gabel, the Gabel he was now, wouldn’t have executed Lucas that way. He’d have tortured him, made him suffer, maybe executed him quietly, maybe tied him outside and left him to die slowly to see if he’d be broken and start begging, but Gabel would never have stabbed him in the back.

  Romero would have stabbed a wolf in the back and laughed, thinking it proved something. The only thing it proved was that wolf’s cowardice.

  The day after, Kiery came into my room. I hadn’t moved—I had been too sick, and in too much pain, and grieving and empty.

  “Get up.”

  “Why?” I asked, at this point believing I was the next to be murdered.

  “Aaron is almost here.”

  “Aaron? Who cares?” I did not care about the IceMaw Alpha’s arrival.

  “You should,” Kiery hissed. “Now get dressed. I’ll parade you in front of the dining room.”

  “What—” She had on a short-sleeved shirt despite the cold, and as she moved, the sleeve rode up to expose the scabbed Mark twisting along her bicep in a tangle of harsh angles and crescents.

  Kiery tugged on her sleeve.

  “Is it a secret?” I asked her. “Lucas. You let Lucas—”

  “It’s not a secret. Just habit,” she said, a little flustered. “Hurry.”

  Reluctantly, I sat up, aching in every part of me.

  “That looks terrible,” Kiery said of my contusions. She unwrapped my bandaged hands. I had been neglecting them, and now my hands were swollen and red and a little yellow-crusty. “Damn, Gianna. You are falling apart.”

  She stopped me again and looked at my eye.

  “Is it still there?” I asked her.

  “I don’t think it’s ever going to leave. You are falling apart.”

  Who cared. Hix was dead. My strangled Bond was killing me, and there was a version of the future where I failed. I was so close to failure it almost seemed pointless to keep fighting.

  “Did they take down his body?” I asked, tears brimming again.

  “Yes.”

  “His fangs? Who did it?” I pleaded.

  “Lucas took care of it. Hix wasn’t de-fanged.”

  “Stupid Beta. Stupid, stupid Beta!” I whimpered.

  “Yes, Betas are stupid,” Kiery agreed softly. “Stupid and wonderful at the same time. Hix died serving you, and Lucas buried him with admiration for what he did. He said it was the finest death any warrior could hope for. I’m sorry, Gianna. That’s all the comfort I can give you. He died in your name, and he did it gladly.”

  I sobbed. “There’s no comfort in that! Would that comfort you if Lucas died that way?”

  “No,” Kiery admitted. “It wouldn’t.”

  Kiery pressed her cheek to my forehead, then looked around the mess of a room for something halfway clean to wear. My laundry had been brought to me and I had been ignoring it. She fetched some clothes.

  “It’s Magnes, isn’t it?” she whispered as she wrestled a shirt over my head.

  I looked at her.

  “Magnes is Gabel’s father. All of this leads right back to Magnes,” she whispered.

  “You can’t let Magnes know. He’ll kill you.”

  A grim smile. “Adrianna would kill me first. Magnes is trying to make himself the King-Alpha off his bastard’s back. I’ve seen where he succeeds.”

  “No.” I grabbed her. “No, not you too! Have you seen the crown of bones and blood? The bleeding one with obsidian and tourmaline?”

  “No. I’ve seen a crown made of Gabel’s skull, and a scepter made from his arm, and a cloak of Aaron’s pelt.”

  I trembled.

  “How do we prove any of this, Gianna? Tell me we have something.”

  “I only have my eye, and nobody seems to remember the mirror except Anita, who won’t talk! It’s the only proof we have, but nobody will say who it belonged to! Was Thessa here?”

  “She was a child,” Kiery said. “It was twenty-seven years ago. The memories are long gone, or buried deep. All the adults are silent. Either they don’t know, or they know, and they keep the secret to hide their own shame. No one is going to speak.”

  I wept.

  “I’ve been trying to figure out how to get rid of Anita and shame her, but she’s too clever for that. Magnes will protect her.”

  “For obvious reasons,” I said sourly.

  “You got more honesty out of her than I did, but she probably thinks Lucas and I are still on bad terms. Publicly I’m telling Lucas to stay out of it, it’s Oracle business.”

  “That works until people see the Mark on your arm.”

  “Which is why I’m covering it carefully. Nobody has noticed yet.” She shook her head onc
e. “Gianna, there isn’t much time. Magnes already suspects Aaron’s agenda. That’s why he’s here. You need to put on a good show to get Aaron out of this.”

  “Oh yeah, because I feel like making out, Kiery. And I look fabulous, don’t I.”

  “For males, it’s the scent,” Kiery said. “Looks are secondary. It’s all about the scent.”

  “I bet I reek of blood and grief.”

  “Lucas and I need a little more time,” Kiery said.

  “What are you planning?”

  “The only thing we’ve got,” Kiery whispered. “Gianna, I’m going to march you sternly past the dining room under the pretense you need to be looked at. Which you do, but it can wait while Aaron fusses over you.”

  I nodded.

  “If he offers to take you with him, accept. I’ll vindicate you using your eye as the mark of the Moon’s favor. I’ll say you satisfied the secret test, I won’t need to be more specific. Leave. Quickly. Get away from here. In a few days, I won’t be alive to protect you anymore. If you escape with Aaron, you still have a chance of setting all this right.”

  “Lucas is going to challenge Magnes,” I whispered.

  “Yes.”

  It won’t work.

  And looking at Kiery, she had already seen it wouldn’t work.

  She put her hand on my shoulder. “I’ll vindicate you, you leave with Aaron. He’ll take you with him, he’ll put the Mark on your arm and make you his Luna within three days. Lucas and I will say what needs to be said, and if you’re safe, you might still have a chance of helping Aaron and Gabel not end up crowning Magnes with bones.”

  There had only been one crown, and it hadn’t been for a male’s head.

  “Maybe if I shout it loud enough someone will remember and whisper the name to you.” Kiery’s hand trembled a little bit. She would face her death bravely, but it was still her death.

  She swallowed, and then said, “Seek out my family in NightScent. My mother may have a story to tell you. It won’t be much, but it might be something. Don’t tell them how I died, if it comes to that.”

  “They deserve to know.”

  “So tell them I died at my mate’s side,” she said with a bittersweet, teary smile. “Tell them I died with my mate, the First Beta, and he died a warrior’s death, and he died so loved I went with him.”

  “It will be the truth.” I blinked back my own tears. “How long until Lucas challenges Magnes?”

  “A few days, if things go in his favor. He’s stirring the pot right now, stroking the fires of discontent, as it were.”

  “If he’s a First Beta like Hix, he doesn’t know how to keep his opinions to himself,” I said softly.

  “First Betas never do.” Kiery smiled warmly, then turned serious.

  I swallowed. I couldn’t leave. But if Kiery and Anita were having visions that Magnes would prevail, and kill not just Gabel but Aaron too, then the future might be in flux, and I was perilously close to failure.

  And an Oracle couldn’t scry for herself. Anita I didn’t trust, but Kiery I did. The only way I could scry for myself was to use the tourmaline to go to the place beyond the Tides, and I didn’t have three days to do that. I didn’t have the strength left.

  Had I failed so dramatically that now the only way left to succeed was leave with Aaron?

  There had to be an alternative. There had to be something. The Moon would not have marked my eye, given me the tourmaline, and, now that I thought on it, planted the mirror and runestones.

  Those hadn’t been sitting there for nearly thirty years. The five exact runes I needed, and a piece of a broken mirror? In my vision Gabel’s mother had been in wolf-form and fled, she hadn’t taken anything with her except the pups. She hadn’t even taken her human name.

  If the Moon had planted those items for me to find, those exact items, then that had to mean there was no evidence left in this world.

  And when Lucas failed it would make Magnes that much stronger.

  My hope flickered. This wasn’t going like I had thought it would, although I wasn’t sure how I thought any of it would go except just... not like this. I had thought the Moon would offer more help, something, not just cryptic messages and strange, tiny, ordinary visions mixed with the bizarreness of the place beyond the Tides that I could tell to no one.

  I looked at Kiery, focused on her face. “You and I have had different visions.”

  “For our sake, I hope yours is the right one.”

  “You know as well as I do there’s no such thing. Fine.” I sighed to myself. “Parade me in front of the Alphas.”

  The Blood of an Alpha

  “Gianna,” Aaron said before he even saw me. “Wait a moment, Oracle Kiery.”

  “We are expected somewhere,” Kiery told him, coldly, from the hallway.

  I dredged up the energy to peek around the doorway and look curious about Aaron’s presence in the dining room.

  “Gianna.” Aaron smiled. “You look drawn, beautiful one.”

  Beautiful? I was so far away from beautiful he shouldn’t even have tried. “I told you flattery wouldn’t get you anywhere.”

  Still, I had to flirt with him... sort of. At least that’s what Kiery said, and something about it rang true.

  “Gah.” Kiery threw up her hands. “Fine. I’ll be back in ten minutes. Males and their scents.”

  “We have business to attend to,” Magnes told Aaron.

  “What business?” Aaron gestured for me to come into the dining room, more interested in me than whatever Magnes was rattled about. Magnes glared at me, but the power of his presence was diluted by Aaron’s own prestige.

  Aaron stood up very well to Magnes. He had given a good account of himself against Gabel, and probably would have fared a little better if he hadn’t underestimated him. He could partially shift, and he had done enough damage to Gabel we had had to get it treated sooner than later.

  Had Aaron really underestimated Gabel, or had he just wanted to see what Gabel was about?

  I didn’t believe physically Aaron was any match for Gabel in war-form, perhaps only Flint was (Flint was beyond terrifying and literally ripped other war-forms into two pieces), but Aaron was cunning, clever, and ruthless in his own way.

  I believed when Aaron said he would never kneel before another anyone. I wasn’t sure Gabel could make himself a King, but I knew for certain Aaron would never kneel.

  Magnes, hands folded on his lap, narrowed his eyes at Aaron. “The matter of why you didn’t attack GleamingFang when Gabel left it unattended.”

  “Because it’d be too easy.” Aaron gestured with his broad hands as if it were not even worth discussing. “I have my eyes on what was MarchMoon. Then I can squeeze GleamingFang like a boil. I’m not empire-building, Magnes. I’m proving a point to all of Gabel’s thralls: he can be beaten.”

  Aaron stood and gestured for me to take his chair. I did so, aware of Magnes studying my altered eye. Aaron leaned back against the table, hands braced on the edge. “Your eye. What is that?”

  “The Mark of the Moon’s Favor.” I hadn’t been prepared to answer and just coughed it up. Crap.

  “Ah, so you are almost done here? And then you will have your Oracle title back? Time to move on to your revenge?”

  My mouth went dry. “Kiery gets the final say in that.”

  “Perhaps Magnes summoning me here is most fortuitous. Regrettably, I am going back to RedWater, which is no place for you. But I’m certain the wolves of IceMaw’s heart will treat you well in my absence.”

  “Aaron,” Magnes lost his patience, “enough. I am not going to sit here and watch you dance and yip around with the scent of a female in your nose. Why haven’t you taken MarchMoon if GleamingFang isn’t to your tastes?”

  Aaron smirked like Magnes was an idiot. “Are you accusing me of something, Magnes?”

  Magnes’ eyes hardened, and I quailed inwardly at the brutal cast his features took. Aaron grinned a little wider, daring Magnes to come at him, he�
�d welcome it. Magnes growled, “Should I be?”

  “I told you, I am not empire-building. Gabel is off exhausting his army on personal vendettas and imagined slights. I’m not going to whip my forces into a froth just to grab at things because they’re there. Gabel will come back from Shadowless, be furious I am within earshot, and attack. My forces will be fresh, his will be exhausted, and I will run them back to IronMoon’s heart.”

  Magnes’ expression twisted into something between a frown and reluctant nod, being forced to accept the validity of Aaron’s plan, but he didn’t trust Aaron. Nor should he, but the SableFur didn’t accept Alphas acting on impulse and instinct.

  A critical flaw that Aaron now gleefully exploited.

  Aaron continued, “Perhaps I will even kill him, so I can rip off his head and present it to Gianna.” He reached out and tilted my chin up to face him, his touch very gentle, but his expression sharp and cruel, thrilled at the prospect of such a violent victory. “The Alpha who, in fact, had no idea what he had, and even less idea how to keep it. Up to and including his very own head.”

  My skin prickled, and for another terrifying second, the Bond dropped out of my awareness completely before resurfacing. I whispered, shaken, “You’re just as twisted as Gabel.”

  “No, I am an Alpha, and I intend to stay an Alpha. But I notice your first response isn’t that you’ll refuse my gift, just an observation that I am similar to your previous mate.” His grin grew a little brighter. “I did not lie to you, Gianna, but you are lying to yourself if you ignore your nature. How many executions did you watch? How many offerings of blood did you accept from Gabel’s hand? How many did you order he bring you?”

  I couldn’t answer that. The answer wasn’t zero.

  “You are a Luna who knows and appreciates violence, and I, despite my civilized exterior, am an Alpha.”

  “She is not a Luna,” Magnes corrected in a brittle tone.

  “Temporary. I will make her one again.” Aaron all but purred at Magnes. His fingers left my chin and caressed my exposed arm, which was purple and blue from the spreading bruises. His fingertips found where his Mark would go, pressing in just slightly. “A palette for the future, hmm? I can see the design I will give you, and it is glorious.”