Chapter 18
Ember
The ship sailed in, so close to the pier we could see everyone on the deck clearly, but far enough away no one could board it. Boats with Kennedy’s men surrounded it, pointing their guns at the King, waiting for the Queen’s word.
My great-uncle stood at the hull, his long black hair flowing in the wind as if he were in a modeling shoot. It looked like a strong family resemblance from afar, but the closer you got to Stavros, you saw he was a poor man’s version of Lars. Nose and face longer, not strong and fit like Lars, and he was skinny. He wore loose pants, a black button-up shirt, and a colorful sash around his waist, as though he were trying to play the part of a pirate but got the outfit at a costume store.
He wanted to be the focal point, but my eyes kept drifting to Nic and Kate. Nic’s one dark eye stared out wildly as he fought against the binds. Amara stood next to Nic, keeping a knife pointed at his gut. Strighoul circled around them both.
Dread gripped my chest, knowing nothing good was coming our way.
“Hello, all. Such a beautiful day for sailing, isn’t it?” Stavros clutched a rope, leaned out to us, not even acknowledging the guards surrounding his ship. “Thought I’d stop by and visit. Been a while since my great-niece and I spent time together.”
I ambled to the front, glaring at him. “You taking me to the park? How about Disneyland? I’ve always wanted to go there. You’d fit in there perfectly.”
“Hop on, my dear. We’ll head anywhere you’d like.” He raised his eyebrows, motioning for me to join him on the boat.
“I have to get a parent permission slip before I go off with creepy old men,” I countered. “Especially ones related to me.”
“I thought you had no parents left. Little Orphan Ember.” He grinned, but something about his demeanor iced my blood, as though he knew something. “Do you actually let yourself pretend that human could play your daddy…or the fox-shifter your mom?”
“What do you want, Stavros?” I growled.
“Well, I’ve come to realize after taking inventory of the prisons, something I love to do in my spare time, my hostages were only second rate.” Stavros strolled causally, curving around Kate, pointing at her. “I mean, a human. Ugh. How boring. She’s spunky, but damn she prattles on and on.” He batted his fingers together to simulate someone talking his ear off. “So annoying.”
“Yes. You are.” I put my hands on my hips, curving my eyebrow at him.
“What are you talking about? My voice is a dream. You haven’t even had the pleasure of hearing me sing yet. Famous opera stars told me I was in a category all my own.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they did.” I snorted.
Stavros glared down at me. “They said I was magic to listen to.”
“I’m sure you had to douse them with a lot of magic for them to believe that.”
“Dear niece, I’m starting to feel you do not support my talents. Your own family.” He tsked, then pointed at Nic. “Now this one is hot, granted, but really, unless I want to get some horny human in bed, what use is he?” He stepped around Amara’s knife, and sidled up to Nic. “Though he does make a great babysitter. You should see him try to protect that little darling girl when she’s screaming in pain.”
Fionna moved like a bull, shoving through people until she was at the end of the pier, her teeth bared. “You touch her—”
“You’ll what, Druid?” Stavros’s laugh cut her off. “Hex me again, as you tried in the cavern? I am a lot stronger now, witch, and your child is a prisoner. At my word she will be cut into little pieces.” He plucked a device out of his pocket. One of Lars’s walkie-talkie phones. “So you will sit there like the pretty, useless thing you are and continue to do nothing. Even though I have given you things to accomplish, you have done nothing.” Suddenly the figure and face of Stavros disappeared, shrinking to a brown-haired, blue-eyed little girl. I gasped. Fionna told us he was capable of doing this, but to see it in person? Crap on ash bark.
“Mummy.” Piper’s voice cried out, reaching for Fionna. “Don’t you love me? Why haven’t you saved me?”
Fionna made a heart-wrenching cry and turned her head away in anguish. We all knew it wasn’t really Piper, but that didn’t make the pain any less real. This was psychological warfare.
“Fuck you.” Fionna spat at Stavros, her eyes narrowing in pure hate.
Piper disappeared, Stavros’s image returning. “Your daughter will receive punishment for your failings… I told you, Fionna. Did you think I would not follow through?”
Fionna’s chest sucked in, fury spitting off her in dark tendrils. She didn’t speak; she couldn’t do a damn thing.
“Good girl.” He smirked, winking at her. “Now, if you want to finally be useful, why don’t you run off and retrieve my nephew? Is he still too much of a coward to show his face?”
A collective rage grew like a sudden wind on the pier, clotted between all of us, stirring our magic.
“Ooooh,” Stavros cooed. “Do you feel that, Mar?” He winked at Amara. “Think they might be a wee bit upset with me? I have no idea why. I am always so generous. Look, I’m willing to give these back to them.” He motioned to Nic and Kate. “Any volunteers to take their place?”
No one moved or spoke, only because we knew it really wasn’t a question. He just loved the theatrics of it all.
“Wow.” He shook his head at his two hostages. “No one is willing to step up and take your place. That really speaks volumes of how they truly feel about you. I mean, with friends like these…” He laughed motioning to us. “Think it might be time to get new ones.”
“Enough, Stavros.” Kennedy addressed him, her head held high. “Get to the reason you’re here.”
Stavros spun to us, all playfulness dropping from him, maliciousness darkening his eyes.
“You really are mind-numbingly dull.” His nose wrinkled with disgust at her. “This is all on you, Queenie. This could end right now if you kneeled to me. You are dragging this out. Starting a war. Killing all those innocent lives. For what? Your pride?”
“I’m sure their lives would be much better off in your care. Especially the humans.” Kennedy’s voice was thick with sarcasm. Ahhh, I felt like a proud parent. Ryan and I really had rubbed off on her.
“Humans.” Stavros snorted. “The laws of nature are simple: the weak are always controlled and used as food for the stronger. They are less than us. Their true place was never supposed to be above fae. We feed off them, and it’s time they understood the true hierarchy of this world.”
“For this, and so many other reasons, I will never kneel to you,” Kennedy fired back with the authority of a true Queen.
“Then you die.” Stavros took a step toward the hull. “All of you do. Or maybe become my personal servants.” An eerie grin curved his mouth. “I know, Amara here would love to have that blond wanderer back as a plaything. It will be fun to watch her break you. I might even join in.” He winked at Ryker. “Speaking of, I have a message from your son.” Stavros clicked on the device, holding it out. Instantly the sobs of an infant in distress wailed over the monitor.
It was a blink of an eye. Ryker was standing next to me one moment, the next he was on the bow, reaching for his axe.
“Ryker! No!” Lexie screamed.
Holy shit. I hadn’t seen the wanderer use his transportation powers yet. In an instant he could transport himself somewhere else. Damn. I was jealous.
Ryker lunged for Stavros, his axe swinging at the demon. Stavros stepped to the side with a bored sigh. A scream tore from the Viking, and his huge form dropped to the deck with a thud, his hands gripping his skull. The axe tumbled from his hand, sliding over the edge, water splashing up as the huge weapon hit the water, leaving the Viking unarmed.
“Did you really think you could take me?” Stavros bent over, whispering hoarsely to Ryker. “I can pop your brain in a matter of seconds.”
Ryker heaved, his face and eyes scrunched in agony, his hands
digging into his skull as he curled over his knees.
“Looks as if we have our first volunteer.” Stavros stood fully, holding his arms out. “Do you not see how kind I’ve been? I can destroy you where you stand. Tear through your tiny brains like paper. You should be thanking me. Instead, I get attitude and disrespect.” He grabbed the knife from Amara’s hand and walked straight for Kate.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“All of you think you are so powerful, but you cannot challenge me. You want war?” He sliced through the ropes holding Kate, shoving her to the edge. “You got it.” With the slightest motion he buried the knife in her side. Her scream echoed in the wind. With a shove, Kate’s body splashed into the water below.
“No!”
“Kate!”
Annabeth and Lexie both darted for the dock closest to where she fell, shrieking her name as her body sank below the waterline. Croygen shoved past us, diving into the water, swimming for her. Stavros only laughed.
Shaking his head in annoyance, he strolled to Nic, whose eyes found mine.
Crap.
“This one’s special to you, right, Ember?” Holding the bloody knife to Nic’s neck, he stared at me. “You had a little fun with this one, I suspect. Oh, I hope your mate is aware of your little fling with the incubus?” He gasped in fake shock. “But really, dweller, can you blame her? He is a sex god, after all. And a lot more skilled in bed than you.”
Don’t let him provoke you, I sent to Eli through our link, feeling him behind me.
Provoke me? Brycin, if you haven’t been able to make me lose my mind yet, then I doubt this two-bit actor can.
I grinned to myself. That was my man.
And it’s not me he wants, Eli added, his fingers brushing my back. Don’t let him get to you.
Stavros’s watchful gaze drifted to me then Eli when he didn’t get the response he wanted. The knife dug into Nic’s neck. Nic tightened his jaw, spit flurrying through his teeth.
Dammit. I couldn’t let him hurt Nic. Not if I could stop it. Stavros wanted me. He would easily kill Nic to prove he could and not even bat an eye.
Blood gushed down the incubus’s neck, his nose flaring with grunts of pain.
“Stop!”
No. Eli’s stern voice shot in my head, his grip wrapping around my arm. Don’t you dare.
I have to. I pulled away, stepping forward.
Stavros propped the knife an inch away from Nic’s throat. “Are you volunteering?
“Yes.”
“Fuck,” Eli hissed behind me.
“Let him go first.” I pointed to Nic.
“No, Ember. Don’t,” Nic grunted out, but neither I nor Stavros were listening.
“Not until you are standing in his place, niece. I am no fool.”
I turned to Eli, not speaking through our link, but my eyes told him everything. This was not a choice for me. I fought for my loved ones. I wouldn’t let them be used as bait or a lesson. He knew that about me.
My hand touched his scruffy cheek. I love you. My eyes said to his.
Dammit, woman.
I knew he would let me go. I could never live with myself if I didn’t. Plus, I was dae. I would figure something out.
Hopefully.
My lips barely brushed his before I turned around, catching Kennedy’s eyes. I knew she couldn’t hear my thoughts, but we had known each other a long time. She understood my expressions. Her eyes were pained, but I knew she would have done no different.
One of the strighoul with Stavros laid down a plank, and I walked onto the boat.
“Good decision.” Stavros grabbed me by the shoulders, my gaze roaming over my two comrades. Ryker was still hunched over his knees, his face still pinched in discomfort, but not agony. He made no indication of moving.
“We don’t need him anymore.” Stavros waved a man to Nic. Two strighoul gripped the incubus, his neck badly bleeding, and his face was puffy and swollen with older bruises.
“Little dae.” Nic stared deep into my eyes before he was tossed over the side, water splashing up as he hit.
I let out of a tiny breath of relief. He would be okay. That could have totally backfired on me.
The ship pulled up anchor quickly, curving for the exit out. I stared back at my family and friends. Commotion from the dock drew my eye to Croygen dragging Kate’s body onto the pier, pumping at her chest. After a few times I saw her body convulse, like she was hacking up water. She was alive. For now. Blood still poured from her wound.
“All right. Let’s head home. It’s been an eventful day,” Stavros sang to Ryker and me.
Ryker’s white eyes darted to me, no longer filled with pain. He kept his eyes locked on mine. My eyes narrowed in question. It only took me a second to realize why he hadn’t jumped. Wyatt. He wanted to be taken prisoner.
“Now, I know there are rules when receiving new guests. But let’s be honest. Guest is such a formal word. And I prefer my company to be relaxed.”
As if a vise reached into my brain and clamped down, pressure coiled around it, filling me with unbearable, stabbing pain. Screaming, I crashed onto the planks, cradling my head, sweat pouring down the back of my neck.
Ryker grunted and groaned next to me, curling forward.
“Did I say relaxed? I meant passed out.” Stavros’s voice filtered through the agony, the pressure inside intensifying.
Consciousness seeped from me, my body needing to defend itself against the agony, bile rolling around my throat.
In the distance, sounding more like a dream, I heard a roar, the call of a dark dweller, before blackness submerged me, taking me to its deepest depths.
My lids blinked open. My gaze stared right at the familiar wooden doors leading down to the castle dungeon. The torches were low, suggesting it was late at night, that time had passed from when I was taken, this part of the castle quiet. After what happened, I doubted anyone was sleeping. I didn’t want to think about where my physical form was, but I knew it was nowhere near this castle. It was with Stavros, probably already at Lars’s compound, stuffed in a room way below my old bedroom.
“Damn! Not again,” I muttered, very aware who brought me here. The tug of Torin, the flux of his emotions, raked along my spine, so I turned to stare down the hallway. Anger. Fear. Frustration. And something else he was trying to deny…excitement. I could feel it pulsing under the rest.
Gazing down the corridor, I waited for the sound of Torin’s boots. He was the only reason I was here, his defenses receding enough to pull me in. A smile curved my mouth when I heard him turn the corner, his jaw set rigidly. He walked past the doors and stopped, his head rotating back, but the rest of his body didn’t follow.
Huffing he rubbed his head and stared at the ceiling as though he searched for an answer, then he took another step and stopped.
“What’s wrong, Torin? Something bothering you? Hmmm?” I asked, knowing he couldn’t hear or see me. Dreamwalks were fun. I could dance around him, taunt him, and he’d never know. I walked over to the doors, holding my hands similar to a game show host. “What’s behind door number one? Could it be a tall, dark-haired goddess who is driving you a bit mad?”
I could sense something had shifted in Torin. He saw Thara differently. But he was so stubborn. Set in the black and white. Right and wrong. Rules. Obligations. Blah-blah…
It would be nice to see him follow his heart one time and not his moral code. The work Eli and I did had taught me life was much more complicated than black-and-white extremes.
Dragging his hand down his face, he stared at the door.
“Oh, come on. You know you want to,” I teased. “I’m not here to watch you pace the hallways. You dragged my ass here for a reason.”
His boots squeaked as he turned to face the twin doors. He sucked in, rolled his shoulders back, and reached for the door, yanking it open. Following him down the path, he took every step with a cool aloofness, as if he was doing this because he was ordered to.
“Thara
knows you too well. She’ll see through that.”
His eyebrows creased, as though he heard me, a little murmur in his subconscious. We moved along the same corridor we took before, reaching the last cell.
Thara sat almost in the same position as last time—on her bed, her knees pulled up to her chest. This time she leaned her head back into the wall, her eyes closed, deep in meditation.
Torin cleared his throat, running his hand over his hair, his feet bouncing slightly. Nervous? Wow. I could not recall a time I had ever seen him anxious like this. Not with me. For once he didn’t seem sure of himself…and he was not comfortable with it.
“As if I didn’t know you are here,” Thara said, keeping her eyes closed. “I could hear your meticulous strides the moment you entered.”
“You knew without a doubt it was me?”
“I have studied the weight of your steps, the length of your stride. If you were angry, worried, determined, sad, happy, even scared. What each breath you took meant. I could pick you out in a pitch-black room, solely by the sound of your breathing.” Her brow furrowed, her lids still shut. “When we were in training, I used to close my eyes at night, listen to you walk in, climb into bed, and determine what mood you were in. It was a little game I played. Before long, it became second nature.”
Torin frowned, looking at his boots. “I did not know that.”
“Of course you didn’t.” Thara’s eyes popped open, her gaze centering on him. “When it came to me, you never saw. You simply assumed I would be there. And I always was, letting you take me for granted, just so I could be close to you... You never saw.”
Torin shifted to his other leg, glancing away.
“What are you doing here, Torin?” Her voice was strong, but her gaze fell to her knees. “I thought we already covered this. I have nothing new to say.”
He gritted his teeth, irritation flexing his hands. But I could feel it wasn’t annoyance with her. It was pointed at himself.
“I’ve made my apologies to the Queen. To you. I will not grovel if that is what you came here for.”
Rise From the Embers (Lightness Saga #4) Page 23