Adric's Heart

by Rebecca Rivard

  Rui do Mar, Dion’s second, stood a step behind along with Dion’s brother Tiago. Next to them were a slim woman with short dark hair and large, catlike eyes, and a lean blond mixed-blood whom Langdon recognized as one of Sindre’s former envoys.

  There were other fada present, too, all men, but his gaze lingered on the woman.

  Welcome, my pretty little cat.

  He inclined his head to Cleia. “Your highness, you honor my court.” He touched a hand to his chest in a gesture of respect. “Peace to you and yours.”

  He nodded at Dion and his stone-faced second-in-command, and then turned his gaze back to the Savonett female. This time, he let his mouth curve.

  “Marjani Savonett. What a pleasure to meet you at last.”

  The blond male—Farr? Fern? Finn?—set a protective hand on her back and glared at Langdon.

  Marjani stared back unblinking. She appeared unaffected, but he sensed the cauldron of fear and anger roiling inside her. It touched off an answering darkness in him. For a few seconds, the temptation to feed was almost irresistible, but he reined it in.

  “Peace.” Cleia’s curt greeting made it clear she was unhappy with him. “I believe you have my mate’s sister. A misunderstanding, I’m sure.”

  His brow lifted. She’d gone straight to the point, skipping over several pages of the polite thrust-and-parry that every fae learned at their mother’s knee.

  The queen wasn’t just unhappy, she was furious.

  “A misunderstanding?” He steepled his fingers and tapped them against his mouth. “No, my lady. Rosana do Rio is a guest.”

  Lord Dion made a sharp, angry movement. Cleia set a calming hand on his arm. “Then invite me into your court,” she said.

  Langdon considered that. But no, the queen too powerful to risk it.

  He shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

  With a growl, Dion lunged at him. Langdon simply faded into the shadows while Quade and the other guards surged forward. It took three of them to subdue the enraged river alpha. Meanwhile, do Mar, Marjani, and the other fada rushed to his aid.

  Cleia raised her hands to the rising sun. A white-hot flame flared to life at the center of each palm. The queen didn’t produce fae balls, she simply drew on solar energy to reduce an enemy to ashes.

  “Let my mate go,” she said in a low, terrible voice.

  Langdon’s guards flinched at the bright light, even Quade, the oldest and most powerful. This was getting out of hand.

  Langdon emerged from the shadows. “Then tell him to control his temper.”

  The queen’s tawny eyes slit.

  Fane—Langdon had recalled his name—cleared his throat. “My lady. My lords.” He glanced around at Cleia, Dion and Langdon. “If I may speak?”

  Langdon inclined his head. “Go ahead.”

  The sun fae queen waited until Dion gave a curt nod and stopped struggling against the guards’ hold. The flames winked out, and she brought her hands to her sides.

  “We’ll listen,” she said. “After you release Lord Dion.”

  Langdon gestured at Quade to release the big fada. “But I’ll have your word—all of you—that you’ll respect this negotiation. Attack again, and this meeting is over.”

  When everyone had assented to Langdon’s terms, Fane slid his hands into his pockets and gave Langdon an easy smile. “If I heard you right, Rosana is a guest at your court.”

  “Yes.”

  “So as a guest, she’s free to go, yes?”

  “She is.”

  Fane gave Dion a significant look.

  The river fada alpha regarded Langdon skeptically. “My sister is free to leave New Moon?”

  “She is.”

  “Say the words,” he growled.

  “Your sister, Rosana do Rio, is free to leave my court whenever she wishes.”

  Dion briefly closed his eyes. Then he gave a short nod. “See that you inform her.”

  “However,” Langdon continued, “she has requested to remain.”

  “What? You lying filho da puta.” The big river fada stepped forward, murder in his eyes. Wicked black claws sprouted from his fingertips.

  “Dion.” Cleia gripped his bulging bicep. “You know the fae can’t lie. Explain,” she snapped at Langdon.

  “I simply granted her request. Lord Adric was being conveyed to a cell, and the young lady wished to remain with him. I was happy to oblige.”

  Marjani gave a muted hiss, and Langdon’s nape prickled warily. The cougar fada might be small, almost delicate in appearance, but he hadn’t forgotten who’d killed Tyrus. He raised a challenging brow, daring her to break her word and give him grounds to capture her.

  But she remained where she was, slender body strung tight, hands balled at her sides.

  “Let Rosana go,” Cleia told him. “And Lord Adric, too. You have no right to keep either of them against their will.”

  “No? Lord Adric attacked me in my own home. That gives me the right to exact any justice I choose. And the do Rio female is with him at her own request. Not a prisoner, but a guest.”

  The queen’s eyes sparked dangerously. “You dare hold my mate’s sister? A woman under my court’s protection?”

  He spread his hands. “I’m not an unreasonable man. For the right incentive, I could be persuaded to expel her from my court.”

  “Name your price,” Dion said.

  Langdon permitted himself a small smile. He jerked his head at Quade. “Leave us. All of you.”

  The captain’s brows shot up, but he duly ordered the other warriors back through the portal. “I’ll be waiting on the other side,” he said with a warning glance at Cleia and Dion before following them.

  Langdon drew the shadows around them like a thick cloak. What he was about to say was for no one else’s ears.

  “You have my granddaughter at Rock Run. She’s not, in fact, dead as you and Lord Adric would like me to believe.”

  Dion’s head jerked back. Beside him, do Mar’s fists slowly opened and closed. The two men exchanged a look.

  “She’s alive,” the Rock Run alpha admitted.

  At last. Langdon’s heart sped up. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his duster, kept his face impassive. “It’s time she take her place at my court.”

  “No.” That was do Mar. “Absolutely not.”

  Langdon eyed him. “She’s not even of your blood. Why do you care what happens to her?”

  “She’s my daughter,” was the terse reply.

  Langdon scowled. He’d never understand the fada and their primitive ways. “She’s my granddaughter, the blood of my blood. At New Moon, she’ll be treated as the princess she is.”

  Another man stepped forward, the earth fada lieutenant who was Merry’s uncle. “She’s my blood relation, and I say no as well.”

  “Those are my terms. Rosana do Rio for my granddaughter.”

  “No,” Dion bit out.

  Fane cocked his head. “You said yourself that Rosana is free to leave. Why should we bargain with you for something you’ve already granted?”

  A wise man didn’t bargain when he held the upper hand. “As you say,” Langdon returned. “Peace, my lady. My lord.”

  With a nod at the queen and her mate, he moved back, retreating into the shadows layer by layer until only his face was visible, a pale glimmer.

  “You son of a bitch.” Dion stalked forward, matching him step for step. “I demand to see my sister. Now.”

  “She’s made her choice.”

  Dion swore and tried to grab him, but his fingers slashed impotently through the gray mist.

  “Wait!” Marjani sprang forward. “What about my brother?”

  “That,” Langdon said, “is not negotiable. His execution is set for the night of the new moon.”

  Her honey-colored skin went ashen. “For trespassing?”

  “He didn’t just trespass. He was here to kill me.”

  “But—”

  “More than tha
t, the death of my son requires an equal sacrifice.”

  “No! We were only defending ourselves. Tyrus came into our territory, stirring up trouble. Sent assassins after our people.”

  “Invaded my den,” growled Jace Jones. “And kidnapped me and my mate.”

  Langdon kept his gaze on the cougar fada. “The sentence hasn’t been finalized. You can still take your brother’s place.”

  When she opened her mouth, he knew he had her—until her blond mate slapped a hand over her lips. “No!” he whispered urgently. “At least give us time to find another way.”

  She hissed and twisted out of his grip.

  “Marjani,” her mate said. “I’m begging you. Wait. You don’t have to decide right now.”

  She gave him an agonized look. “I’m sorry, Fane. But I can’t—”

  “Enough!” The white-hot flame flared in the queen’s palms again. “The earth fada speak the truth. Our own investigations have confirmed that your son attacked the Baltimore fada. His death is no one’s fault but his own. And in the months since, you’ve been seen multiple times in Baltimore. If Lord Adric attacked you, it was because you provoked him into it. Self-defense is not a crime. Moreover, you have no grounds to hold Rosana do Rio.”

  He sneered. “I should’ve known you’d take the fada’s side,” he said with a knowing glance at Dion.

  The flame in Cleia’s palms burned brighter. Even with the sunglasses, he had to squint to protect his sensitive eyes. He receded deeper into the shadows.

  “I’m warning you,” she said in a soft, dangerous voice. “Keep Adric and Rosana, and it will mean war.”

  He let his mouth curve. “But to us, my lady, war is food.”

  35

  Adric’s stomach dropped. He sprang to his feet. “You—no.” He paced away, then back again. “You could be wrong. Everyone knows the Sight is unpredictable.”

  Rosana spread her hands. “I’m not sure,” she admitted, “but my Gift is strong, and I’ve touched you over and over in the last few days without even a glimmer—except for this gut feeling that if you came here alone, you’d die.”

  He stared down at her, lungs jerking. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. If he died, Rosana was supposed to be safely back at Rock Run, free to mate with some other male.

  My fate is tangled up in yours now.

  He’d learned control in a hard school. But for the first time in a long time, rage got the upper hand. Rage at his uncle. Rage at Langdon and his thrice-damned son, Tyrus. Rage at the river fada who’d raped his sister, and at the members of Adric’s own clan who’d set the whole thing up.

  But most of all, rage at the world that wouldn’t let him have the woman he wanted more than life itself.

  He turned, slammed the side of his fist against the stone wall. Rosana flinched.

  He exhaled, forced himself to speak calmly. “We can’t bond. Not yet. I—you know why.”

  She jumped up as well. “I’m not asking you to choose me over Marjani,” she said in a subvocal voice. “I’d never ask that. But what if you’re wrong? What if the mate bond is the only thing that can save you? And don’t forget what I Saw—you could set off another Darktime.” She quoted her own words: “The prince will destroy your clan from the inside out.”

  “Not if I kill the motherfucker first,” he snarled.

  “Don’t you see?” She grabbed his arms. “It could mean you, not him. That you dying is what sets it off. You’re the glue holding your clan together. If they lose you, the Darktime will rise again.”

  He stared at her, arrested. Could she be right? But if she was, where did that leave his sister?

  He shook her off and backed away. “Marjani could lead in my place.”

  “Could she? Or would there be another series of challenges? Your clan is finally getting its shit together. Do you want to risk that? All I’m asking is that you stop fighting the mate bond. Maybe this is meant to be. Together, the two of us are stronger than either of us alone.”

  “Damn it, Rosana. This isn’t your fight, it’s mine.”

  “It’s mine now.”

  He growled and dropped onto the bench. He leaned forward, head clutched in his hands.

  She sat beside him. Her hand came to his nape, stroking in that way that made his cat want to lay its head on her lap and purr. He stiffened his spine against the temptation.

  “I love you for so many reasons,” she murmured.

  “But?” There was always a but.

  “No but. That you love your sister so much…” She rested her cheek against his. “It just makes me love you even more. I want you to know that.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut. Inside, the mate bond battered invisible fists against the barrier he’d erected.

  He slid down the bench, away from her and that petting hand. “He came to me, you know. Your brother.”

  “Dion?”

  “Yeah.”

  Her brows snapped down. “When?”

  “The other night. After we went to Lewes.”

  He distinctly heard her teeth grind together. “What did he say?”

  “That you and me just wouldn’t work—and not only because you’re his sister and my clan would never accept you. But because you’re a river fada. You need water. Clean, fresh water to swim in as your dolphin.”

  A slash of her hand. “You think I don’t know that? We could figure it out.”

  “You’d move to Baltimore? Leave your family, your clan? Because I sure as hell can’t move to Rock Run.”

  She raised her chin. “Yes.”

  He shook his head.

  “It could work,” she insisted. “If we both want it to. Baltimore has fresh water—Herring Run, Jones Falls.”

  “They’re filled with trash. And when it rains, there’s run-off from the pavement. Raw sewage, when it rains hard.”

  “Then I’ll go north every few days. I wouldn’t have to go all the way up to Grace Harbor. I can swim in the Chesapeake north of Baltimore.”

  He ran some options in his mind. If he survived the next few days—and that was a big if—maybe they could work it out. There was still his clan, of course, although Marjani seemed to think they’d fall in line.

  He wrapped his fingers around his quartz. It had warmed, the crystals humming an eager, yearning song.

  Inside, the cougar snarled and scratched.

  Mate. Our mate.

  He released the quartz. “Tell you what. We’ll talk, okay? When all this is over.”

  Her smile was wide. “Okay. Sure.”

  He could’ve left it at that. She was happy. He’d all but agreed to mate-claim her. At least if he died, she’d know he’d really wanted her. But somehow his mouth was moving again.

  “You wanted to know why I didn’t challenge my uncle for alpha.”

  “No.” She squeezed his hand. “I know you, Adric. If you didn’t challenge him, then you had a good reason.”

  He glanced at her. Tempted to agree, and then drop it. He didn’t explain himself to anyone, even Marjani. But he wanted Rosana to know the truth.

  “Yeah,” he said with a bitter laugh. “I had a good reason.”

  He stared out at the shadowed room, his fingers intertwined in hers. The silence thickened. When he spoke, it was with a low rasp.

  “My dad was the first. After Leron killed him, he sent my mom to fight in South America in some stupid war between two fae. And then he took me and Marjani in, and we were supposed to obey him. Like we didn’t know what the fuck was going on. When I fought back, he beat me.”

  She sucked in a breath. “Marjani?”

  “He never touched her—which is why he lived as long as he did. But he treated her like shit. Both of us. By then, I think he’d realized I was alpha material.” His jaw set. “We never had enough food. We had to stay out all night spying on his so-called enemies. No schooling except what we picked up on our own. He even went after my friends. Fuck, I was counting the days until I was strong enough to challenge h
im. Then”—he swallowed hard—“he came to Jani, ordered her to whore for his second.”

  “Holy mother,” she breathed.

  “Yeah. His own niece.”

  “Did—?”

  He shook his head. “She’d have killed herself first.”

  “Thank Deus she had you.”

  He grunted. “It was the only thing that kept us going—that we had each other. You know what that S.O.B. did? Invited the night fae into Baltimore. He let them feed on us so he could stay in power. What kind of monster does that?”

  He was gripping her fingers too tightly, but he couldn’t let go. He stared at their two hands, unseeing, caught in the nightmare of the Darktime.

  His throat closed up. He pushed the words past it. “I was the only one strong enough to take him down.”

  Her swallow was audible.

  “I live with it every single fucking day. The Darktime. The friends I lost. My mom and dad. But killing my uncle Leron?” His lips twisted. “I haven’t lost a single minute of sleep over it.”

  She didn’t speak, didn’t try to tell him he’d done the right thing. Just opened her arms.

  His breath shuddered out. Then his hands clamped on her. He dragged her onto his lap and buried his face in her hair.

  “I love you, all right? I fucking love you. May the Goddess help us both.”

  36

  Blaer watched Langdon’s maneuverings with interest. The Rock Run alpha and the Baltimore alpha had both come to him. And now the sun fae queen herself was involved, along with the powerful Lady Olivia and most of Rock Run and Baltimore’s top people.

  The prince was a master schemer. A woman could learn from him. Maybe she’d allow him to live—for now. For one thing, she was curious to know what his endgame was.

  Her gaze turned to Luc, in his wolf form as he’d been ever since he’d brought his alpha to the prince. Her secret weapon. The prince knew Luc was under her geas—that was impossible to hide from other fae. But no one, not even Jon and Krysten, knew she could control the wolf fada through his quartz.