by Sadie Moss
I dragged my eyelids up, flicking my gaze around the room. I was in a bedroom, I realized. On a large bed.
As the fog lifted, I shifted slightly to reassure myself all my limbs were still attached.
“Hey!” one of the men called, catching the attention of the other two.
They stopped bickering immediately, and silence fell over the room.
I swallowed.
Three sets of eyes stared intently at me.
Akio, the incubus I’d been sent to kill, glared at me with eyes so dark they were nearly black. I’d expected him to be handsome—he was an incubus, after all. But his beauty was so striking it almost hurt to look at. His skin was a deep tan that looked smooth as silk, which only highlighted his sharp, chiseled features. It was the most stunningly perfect face I’d ever seen, and I wondered briefly if he looked like this before he became an incubus, or if his demon nature had enhanced his appeal somehow. Even with his eyes shooting daggers at me, I didn’t want to look away.
When I finally did, my jaw almost dropped.
Was I surrounded by incubi?
Akio’s two friends were as different from him and each other as could be, but they were both unreasonably handsome too.
The one sitting on the bed next to me had a long, straight nose, light brown hair, and piercing green eyes that seemed to see right through me. He regarded me with careful curiosity, and I thought I could see a bit of empathy hidden in his expression. I made note of that. If I was going to get out of this alive, I needed to get at least one of these guys on my side. He might be that one. Besides, there was something about him that put me at ease, something I innately wanted to trust—and I didn’t trust anybody.
Hovering over his shoulder, head bobbing side to side like an overexcited puppy, was a man with messy dark hair, thick eyebrows, and a bit of scruff framing his full lips.
As soon as my gaze fell on him, his chocolate brown eyes lit up, and he grinned widely. “Good morning, killer!”
Akio, who leaned against the wall by the door, snorted. “Please don’t sound so happy about my attempted assassination, Fenris. I might take it the wrong way.”
The scruffy man shrugged. “You take everything the wrong way.”
I sat up quickly—or tried to. The restraints binding my wrists to the headboard went tight, yanking me back down to the plush mattress. I twisted to peer up at my bonds, then stopped suddenly.
My ribs had definitely been broken. Now I moved and breathed with ease.
I looked back at the men, all three of whom still watched me intently. “Did you… did you heal me?”
“Jae did.” Fenris inclined his head toward the delicate-featured man sitting beside me.
“Yes,” Jae admitted. “You had several broken ribs.”
I blinked. “Wait, you’re not all incubi?”
Fenris tilted his head back and howled with laughter. “All incubi? No, thank the gods. Akio is enough. Can you imagine the ego overload if all of us were incubi? There wouldn’t be room for anything else in the house!”
Akio scowled, tilting his head at a perfect angle, like a model posing. I wasn’t even sure he knew he was doing it.
“So what are you?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized I didn’t need to ask. I knew. I could feel the power coming off them. Jae was a mage—and a strong one. Fenris was a…
“Shifter.” Fenris grinned, confirming my suspicion.
“Mage,” Jae added solemnly.
“Incubus.” Akio shot the word at me like a poison dart.
Shit. I was in a room with three powerful Gifted and Touched men. Wait, scratch that. I was tied up in a room with three magical men, at least one of whom had good reason to hate me.
How the hell was I still alive?
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said slowly, my voice gaining strength as I shook off the last vestiges of fog in my mind. “But… why did you heal me?”
“I’ve been wondering the exact same thing, actually,” Akio said coldly.
Ignoring him, I focused on Jae, choosing my words carefully. “I’m not ungrateful for your mercy. But I know how the world works. Every bit of kindness comes at a cost. So, what’s the price?”
Remembering my earlier imaginings of a sex dungeon in the basement, I suppressed a shiver. All three of them were attractive men, but I had no interest in selling my body for my freedom.
Jae cocked his head at me, regarding me with intense eyes. “I healed you because you were hurt. There is no price.”
“Yeah?” His reassurance didn’t do much to quell the panic rising in my chest. “Then why am I tied up? What do you want from me?”
Please, gods. I spent years under Edgar’s thumb. Don’t let it happen again.
“Relax. Please.” Jae held a hand up soothingly. “I promise no harm will come to you. But tell me, who sent you? Why did you attack Akio?”
If I had a name to give him, I would’ve blurted it out without a second thought. Let the damned Gifted all kill each other with their petty squabbles and power plays.
My nose scrunched up before I admitted, “I don’t know. I have a contact person, a guy called Rat. I don’t even know his real name. He brings jobs from his Gifted clients to me and a few other mercenaries in the city. Collection jobs, sometimes thefts or setups. Not usually assassinations.” I shot a guilty look at Akio, expecting another caustic remark, but the incubus remained silent.
“You’re a mercenary?” Jae shifted on the bed, sharing a look with Fenris. “You don’t work with the Representatives?”
I scoffed. “The government? No, I don’t work with them.”
When the Great Death struck, it had wiped out most of the Presidential line of succession. After a short period of chaos and disorder, a few Gifted leaders stepped in to fill the power vacuum. What emerged over the next decade was the Order of Magic, a single-party system governed by a council of seven Representatives and presided over by the Secretary General, a man named Theron Stearns. Who they were supposed to be “representing,” I had no idea. Only the Gifted and Touched were allowed to vote. And there hadn’t been an election in years.
“A Gifted mercenary,” Jae muttered, almost to himself. “I can’t believe I haven’t heard of you before. You’re powerful enough to draw attention. I should’ve known about you.”
“I’m not…” I shook my head, confused. “I’m not Gifted.”
Akio rolled his eyes, pressing away from the wall to stalk toward me. “I told you you wouldn’t get anything but lies from her, Jae.”
“I’m not lying, you asshole! I’m one of the Blighted. Sorry if your poor little ego can’t handle a Blighted girl getting the drop on you”—I purposely echoed Fenris’s words, and was rewarded by the slight flush that crept up Akio’s tan cheeks—“but that’s exactly what happened.”
Akio stopped next to the bed, staring down at me. I couldn’t stop my gaze from sliding down his body, checking for evidence of my attack. His throat was smooth and corded with muscle, but I didn’t see any bruises; he’d changed out of his blazer and white tee into a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, which was clear of blood. Jae must have healed him too.
“That’s not exactly what happened.” Akio’s voice was a mixture of velvet and steel.
I shook my head, not understanding what he meant. If he wanted to keep insisting I hadn’t gotten the better of him, I supposed I should let him. Maybe a little ego stroking would help get me out of this.
And, a little voice in the back of my head reminded me, you did lose the fight.
But I’d only lost because I’d been sick. Jae must have healed my fever when he took care of my ribs, thank the gods.
“You released a blast of magic,” the mage said softly, pulling my attention back to him. His green eyes were clear and bright as he studied me. “I’ve never felt anything like it. You knocked all of us out for several minutes. When we came to, you were out cold. You stayed that way for almost twenty-four hours.”
My breath hitched. “What? No, that’s not….”
I trailed off, wracking my brain for an explanation. Had one of my magical gadgets gone haywire? That didn’t make any sense. I didn’t have many charmed toys left. I’d used my transport spell last night, and my cuffs were gone. And I’d never heard of magic accidentally exploding from a charmed object.
Was he lying to me? Had he been the one to release the magic, and now he was trying to pin it on me?
“I’m Blighted.” My voice wavered. “I’m not Gifted. I’ve never done magic in my life. Whatever happened, it wasn’t me.”
“Oh, it was definitely you, killer. We were all there; we felt it happen. Hell, I can still feel it.” Fenris rubbed his chest, looking pensive for the first time since I’d met him.
I shook my head adamantly. “I’m not. I’m not one of the fucking Gifted. I’m not part of your psycho little magic club, okay? I don’t get off on oppressing people or think I’m better than anyone with less power than me.”
As the possibility sank in, my voice rose in volume and pitch. This wasn’t possible. I couldn’t be one of the Gifted. I’d spent my life hating them, and I refused to accept that I could be one of their ranks.
But even as I spoke, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something felt different. Unfamiliar power burned low and steady in the pit of my stomach, like someone had turned on a pilot light inside me.
Fenris elbowed Jae. “Huh, where have I heard that before?”
Jae nodded, eyeing me intently. “You don’t like the Gifted very much, do you?”
“Why should I?” I countered bitterly. I was probably digging my own grave by insulting him and his kind, but I hardly cared about that anymore. A quick death didn’t sound so bad at the moment. Whatever strange ride I was on, I wanted to get off. “The Gifted killed my family, took me away from the only man I ever loved, and treat me like a disposable tool. They bicker and play power games, and the ones who pay the worst price for it are the Blighted.”
I cut off my tirade before I built up an unstoppable head of steam.
If I’d thought my words would offend them, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Fenris was beaming at me, and even Akio’s expression had softened a bit.
“This is incredible!” Fenris bounced on his toes. “She could be exactly what we’ve been looking for, Jae! It doesn’t even matter what she can do. Packing that kind of power, she can—”
He cut off when a fourth man entered the room, tucking a cell phone into his back pocket as he rounded the doorframe.
“I checked in with Christine. They haven’t picked up any chatter about the Representatives putting a price on Akio’s head. It was probably a private job, but she….”
The new man trailed off, his gaze catching mine. Clear blue eyes stopped my breath. His face was leaner and more grown-up than when I’d last seen him, his features harder. His sandy blond hair was shorter, cropped tight to his head.
But his eyes were exactly the same.
I finally found my voice.
“Corin?”
Chapter 6
The other three men glanced between me and Corin in apparent confusion. But I barely registered their surprised looks. My heart banged against my ribs as if it wanted to escape my chest. My face felt hot, and tears burned the backs of my eyes.
A dozen different emotions crashed around inside me, creating a jumble of thoughts and feelings I couldn’t begin to sort through.
Joy. Confusion. Hope.
But one emotion rose above all the others, almost choking me with its strength.
Guilt.
I was sure my face was flushed, my eyes glassy.
“Corin?” I whispered again, the word hardly more than a breath.
“Hi, Lana.”
The man I’d once known better than anyone gave me a curt nod, as if greeting an old acquaintance he hadn’t liked very much. His expression was shuttered, his eyes carefully impassive.
My shock over being told I was Gifted paled in comparison to what I was feeling now. After crying myself to sleep every night for months when I’d first come to Denver, I’d forced myself to tuck my memories of Corin into a little vault in my heart, keeping them safe but out of reach.
His arrival had just taken a stick of dynamite and blown up the entire vault. Memories rushed out in a torrent, making my head spin and my heart ache.
“Wait!” Fenris narrowed his eyes at Corin, bounding across the room toward him. “You know her?” When Corin didn’t respond, his gaze still glued to my face, Fenris pressed, “You didn’t think to mention that?”
“I don’t know her,” Corin said stiffly. “I knew her. A long time ago.”
“Still an important piece of information to share with your teammates, don’t you think?”
The dark-haired shifter looked back at me, an expression almost like envy flitting over his features. Was he jealous that his friend had a previous connection to me?
Corin’s words cut deep, the sting only made more painful by the fact that I knew I deserved them. And far worse.
An expectant silence hung in the air, but Corin seemed in no hurry to break it. The shifter looked back and forth between us, dark brown eyes wide.
“What… what are you doing here?” I finally asked, unable to stop myself. “When did you come to Denver? Is Margie—?”
“She’s dead.” He swallowed, blinking rapidly. “Died a couple years after you left.”
My heart dropped. She’d been like a mother to him since he was six, and had taken me under her wing too. I thought of her sweet face, her wrinkled, paper-thin skin, and short white hair glowing like a halo around her head. Margie had been one of the best people I’d ever known—kind and gentle, but fierce as hell.
“I’m so sorry, Corin.”
He shook his head slightly. “She died peacefully. I was there to watch over her and keep her safe.”
I winced. That dig hurt too. I hadn’t been there for her, but it seemed pointless to explain to him that I had wanted to be, with all my heart.
“I’m sorry,” Akio interjected. “But would you mind explaining exactly how it is you know the woman someone hired to kill me?”
Corin cleared his throat, finally wrenching his gaze away from me. “It’s a long story.”
Akio crossed his arms and arched one eyebrow. “I’ve got nothing but time.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t. Christine wants us to bring her in for questioning.”
Shit. That didn’t sound good. The last time I’d been “brought in for questioning” by one of the Gifted, I’d ended up in indentured servitude to him for years. Was that why Corin was here? Had these men blackmailed or coerced him into serving them? They weren’t talking to him like an underling. In fact, if I hadn’t known him for years and been certain he was Blighted, I would have thought he was one of them. They treated him like an equal.
“Can we trust her?” Jae, who had been silently observing our exchange, stood and turned to Corin.
The blond man scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck in a familiar gesture. He’d been unable to tear his eyes away from me when he first entered the room, but now it seemed he couldn’t bring himself to look at me. Finally, he sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”
A tiny flicker of anger rose above the guilt I felt. It was true Corin had plenty of reasons not to trust me, but he had to know telling a roomful of Gifted and Touched men that he wasn’t sure I was trustworthy put me in mortal danger. I’d seen Blighted people sentenced to death based on an accusation alone. If these men thought I was a threat, they could put me down without a second thought and face no consequences for it.
“I’m not going to try to kill any of you,” I blurted. “You’ve got me outnumbered, and I’m not stupid. And my contract for the incubus is null now anyway.”
Akio snorted.
Jae regarded me thoughtfully for a moment. Then he bent over the bed, fiddling with the restraints that bound my wrists. With a soft click,
they popped open.
I was so stunned I just lay there, staring up at him. He glanced down and caught my eyes. His face wasn’t a mask like Corin’s was, but I still couldn’t read it. He was clearly very intelligent; it was as if his expression was a thought too complex for me to understand.
My breath caught in my throat, and only when Jae stood did my lungs find the space to pull in a long drag of air.
I sat up slowly, rubbing my wrists and working out the kinks in my tingling arms.
“What are you doing?” Akio had been leaning against the side of the headboard, but he straightened indignantly. “Have we all lost sight of the fact that she tried to kill me?”
“Of course not,” Jae said, stepping back to let me have some space.
Akio didn’t seem inclined to do me the same courtesy. He towered over me, his disapproving glare practically burning a hole in my skull. “Then why—?”
“She said it herself. We have her outnumbered, and she has no reason to kill you anymore. She’s a hired gun, not the operator behind the curtain. And if we want her to help us, we need to stop treating her like a prisoner. Having another powerful Gifted person on our side could change everything.”
“I’m not Gifted,” I repeated, though it felt like giving up the one trump card I carried. A sudden thought occurred to me, and I gestured to Corin. “Ask him, he knows! I’m Blighted. We grew up in the same human settlement together.”
Everyone looked back at Corin. He flushed, obviously uncomfortable being put on the spot again.
“I thought you were, Lana. I really did. But…” His voice trailed off, his brows drawing together. “But what you unleashed yesterday was magic of some kind. I’m sure of that.”
“That can’t be!”
“I was there, Lana. It happened.” He dipped his head, looking almost sorry for me.
The irony of him pitying me for the discovery I might be Gifted wasn’t lost on me. If it were true, it would automatically elevate me in society. I could get a real job—one that didn’t involve stealing, fighting, or cooking and cleaning for the citizens of the Capital. I could go where I wanted, when I wanted, without fear of getting randomly stopped and questioned by Peacekeepers.