Adric's Heart

by Rebecca Rivard

  Horror gripped him as he recalled Rosana’s prophecy.

  The Darktime isn’t over. The prince will destroy your clan from the inside out.

  “Peace to you and yours, my lord.” The tall blond fae lady bowed to Langdon. “I apologize for interrupting the ritual, but I believe you’ve been looking for this woman.”

  No.

  Adric bucked wildly, fighting to get free of the night fae pinning him down.

  Neoma tightened her grip on his pendant. The pain was almost unbearable, but he gritted his teeth and kept fighting. He had to get free. Had to somehow stop this.

  The prince jerked his head at Marjani. “Take her,” he commanded.

  Twisting away from Luc, Marjani dropped into a crouch, a dagger in each hand. Two warriors broke from the circle to approach her, their own blades out, but she slashed about her, keeping them at bay.

  At the same time, Luc saw Adric pinned down in the center of the circle. He growled and started forward.

  “No.” Blaer slapped a hand on his chest.

  Luc halted. He sent a shamed look at Adric. At his sides, his fingers flexed and unflexed.

  Then Rosana grabbed Langdon’s hands. As her fingers closed around his, her body jolted and her braid lifted. The tie wrapped around the end slid off and the plait unwound itself to twist around her face in a sinuous black cloud.

  “The old ways are no more,” she said in a low, eerie voice. “Change is coming.”

  Everyone in the clearing froze, even the warriors attempting to capture Marjani.

  Rosana moistened her lips. “Merry,” she said in a scratchy voice.

  “Yes?” Langdon turned his hands so he was gripping her. “What do you See?”

  “Merry’s a princess.” She faltered. “I See a crown.”

  “Go on,” he urged.

  “Your granddaughter will rule. But not in darkness. In light.”

  The prince’s diamond-studded brows snapped together.

  Rosana’s slender body shook. Adric could hardly bear to watch her, but she’d drawn everyone’s attention. Even the men trying to corral Marjani were distracted.

  Now was his chance to get his quartz back.

  “And you,” she told the prince. “Your life is a fine-spun web. Tear the wrong thread and you’re dead. Deus, no.” Her breath sobbed in.

  Langdon’s handsome face hardened. “What?”

  Rosana shook her head and tried to pull her hands away, but he tightened his grip on her. “Tell me, damn you!”

  “Death,” Rosana whispered. “Death to your line…at the new ruler’s hand.”

  “What new ruler?”

  Rosana snatched her hands from the prince’s, backed away. He reached for her and then checked as if she’d burned him.

  Her body shimmered as if lit from inside by starlight. The night fae shrank from her. She swung around, pointed.

  “Her. Lady Blaer.”

  Blaer straightened. “You lie,” she hissed. “You’d do anything to escape.” She motioned Luc forward. “Kill her. Kill the river fada.”

  Luc’s hands fisted but he didn’t move.

  Blaer grabbed his quartz, squeezed. “I said, Kill her.”

  Luc growled, eyes wild. The man was near the breaking point—and Blaer either didn’t know or didn’t care.

  The night fae pinning Adric down were still intent on the drama. He forced his body to relax completely, and as he’d hoped, their grip on him loosened.

  Now.

  Jerking out of their hold, Adric lunged at Neoma, ripping the pendant from her hand and dropping it over his head. His body shuddered with relief at having his quartz back. As the guards dove for him, he drew on its power with everything he had, leaping straight up so they passed beneath him—and shifted while he was still in mid-air.

  He lost precious seconds during the change. When he came back to himself, he was a cougar, his clothes in shreds around him. The warriors tried again to grab him, but with a slash of his claws, he was free.

  Luc had apparently started for Rosana at Blaer’s command, but Marjani had put herself between them. The two men who’d been trying to capture her were on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds.

  “No, Luc. You can’t! She’s his mate.”

  “Get out of the way,” Luc said in a dull voice.

  “No.” Marjani took a fighting stance, daggers at the ready. “You want to kill her, you’ll have to go through me.”

  Adric went invisible. The three warriors circling him swore. One of them shot a fae ball at the spot where he’d been standing, but he’d already slipped between two of them. He reached Rosana right as she came out of her trance.

  She glanced around, blinking. “Adric?” she asked on a rising note of fear—and collapsed to the ground.

  In an instant, he was standing over her, ready to protect her at all costs.

  He nuzzled Rosana’s neck, sending reassurance through their bond. To his relief, her eyelids fluttered and then opened.

  “You’re here,” she whispered, sinking her fingers into his fur.

  He rumbled in response.

  “What—?” Her gaze went past him and Marjani to Luc. She sucked in a breath and tried to stand but could only manage to bring herself to sitting. She leaned against Adric, lungs working, face as drawn as if she’d run a marathon.

  Luc’s claws slid out. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he told Marjani in flat, emotionless tones. “Just get the fuck out of the way.”

  “No.” She jabbed a dagger at him, forcing him to back off. “I won’t let you do this.”

  Langdon stalked toward Blaer. Adric could almost see the prince recalling his earlier insinuation—that Blaer had manipulated events so Adric could assassinate him.

  “A Seer in the grip of a vision doesn’t lie,” Langdon stated. He seemed to grow taller, darker as he spoke.

  Blaer licked her lips. “She’s a fada Seer,” she said with a scornful glance at Rosana. “Who knows what she can do?” She looked at Luc. “I gave you an order—kill Rosana do Rio. If the Savonett woman is in the way, then kill her, too.”

  Luc’s irises turned pure wolf, twin orange embers in the dark clearing. He glanced from Blaer to Marjani, and then he withdrew his claws and turned away. “No.”

  Blaer cast him an incredulous look. “What did you say?”

  “No,” Luc repeated.

  Blaer lunged. “I said, Kill them both. Now!” She squeezed Luc’s quartz, her lips moving, adding the power of the incantation to the geas.

  Luc jolted and dropped to his knees, his body a man, his scent all wolf. He was seconds from going feral, and Blaer either didn’t know, or she just didn’t care. He dropped his head back and howled at the sky, a sad, lost song that had even the night fae tensing.

  Blaer bent with him, tightening her grip on his quartz. “Kill. Them. Both.”

  It was a fatal mistake. Luc had accepted the geas to save Marjani’s life. By ordering him to kill Marjani, the fae lady had broken their bargain, releasing Luc from the geas.

  Luc tore off his clothes and shifted. Blaer went stick-still as the brown wolf’s fierce, half-mad growls filled the clearing. She threw up her hands and began to call on some other kind of magic, but it was too late. Luc sprang, slamming her to the ground.

  With a muttered incantation, the prince raised a long-fingered hand. The leaves and twigs scattered around the clearing levitated off the ground and streamed toward Luc and Blaer.

  The other night fae edged to the clearing’s outskirts, giving the prince a wide berth.

  Marjani inched back to stand by Rosana. A brief caress of Adric’s back told him that she knew he was there, too, but her gaze was glued on Luc and Blaer and the debris swirling around them.

  “What the fuck?” she breathed.

  A twig formed itself into a wolf that knocked Luc off Blaer, tossing him three yards away before falling back to the ground, a twig again. Langdon rotated his wrist and the other leaves spiraled around Blaer, faster a
nd faster, before morphing into ravens that flew around her in tight circles.

  Blaer scrambled to her feet, but it was too late. She was enclosed inside a living cage of ravens.

  Luc got off the ground and gave himself a shake. He bounded back to Blaer, lips peeled in a furious snarl—and then stopped short. He prowled around the circling birds, searching for a way to get at Blaer.

  She locked gazes with Langdon. “You want a fight, my lord?” Her chin jutted. “You forget I’m half ice fae.”

  “No,” was the prince’s reply. “I haven’t forgotten.”

  The ravens’ harsh caws filled the clearing.

  Blaer raised her hands. Frost crept up Langdon’s shoes.

  He flicked a finger and the birds dove, pecking at her eyes and face. She shrieked and dropped to her knees, arms flung up to protect herself.

  At a murmur from Langdon, the ravens backed off but continued to twine around Blaer so she was forced to remain crouched on the ground.

  Luc crept closer, eyes burning.

  She tossed her head, the cuts on her face already healing. “Go,” she told him bitterly. “The geas is broken. You have your freedom.”

  But he didn’t leave. Instead, he paced a circle around her, not attacking the ravens, but clearly guarding her.

  Adric frowned at that—and then set it from his mind, because the prince had turned back to Rosana and Marjani.

  Adric changed back to man but remained invisible. He rose to his feet, drawing Rosana up with him. Marjani shoved a dagger in his general direction, and he took it with a murmured thanks as she retrieved another dagger from the sheath around her neck.

  Neoma conjured up a fae ball and aimed it at Marjani. “Stand down, fada.”

  Adric sprang at Neoma, slashed her forearm. The fae ball winked out of existence as she hissed and twisted away.

  Meanwhile, Marjani had slipped Rosana the third dagger. The two of them stood back to back. Rosana blinked down at the iron blade, still shaky from her vision.

  Adric’s heart clenched. She needed food, rest.

  He moved up beside her. “Leave,” he whispered. “We’ll cover you.”

  She tightened her grip on the dagger and lunged at a night fae approaching from her other side, slashing it across his knife arm. “Together,” she growled as the warrior danced backward.

  “Nice,” murmured Marjani.

  “Thanks,” Rosana returned.

  Adric’s mouth twitched. “Together,” he agreed. “Jani. What’s the plan?”

  “Get the fuck out of this warded circle. There’s help on the other side.”

  He nodded. “You two go first. I’ll keep them busy until you’re out. The night fae might be able to sense me, but they can’t be sure exactly where I am, especially if I keep moving.”

  “Works,” said Marjani.

  Rosana was more suspicious. “Promise you’ll come with us.”

  He touched her cheek. “You have my word,” he said, and then sprinted across the clearing to kick over the fire pit. The dark fire blinked out as it hit the ground.

  The night fae hissed and snarled. Fae balls appeared in more warriors’ hands. Adric slashed at the nearest one’s arm and darted away.

  The two women edged toward the portal while Adric bedeviled the night fae, dashing from one side of the clearing to the other, slashing at arms, legs, faces—anything to draw attention from Rosana and Marjani.

  A crack of lightning split the night. Wind whipped through the clearing, but the wards—or whatever was protecting the circle—kept out the rain.

  “Capture him!” the prince commanded. “You can’t see him, but he’s bleeding emotion. Focus on that.”

  The shadows deepened. Tendrils snaked through the night, seeking Adric. He instinctively froze. A glance over his shoulder told him that Rosana and Marjani had almost reached the portal.

  He doggedly continued to zigzag through the night fae. But he was moving slower now, his limbs strangely heavy, as if the shadows had somehow taken on weight and were tugging on him.

  Another bolt of lightning forced the shadows to retreat. Or maybe it wasn’t lightning, but the sun fae.

  Hope surged in Adric. He slipped around a couple of night fae warriors to join Marjani and Rosana, but the prince had realized the two were about to escape.

  He flung up a hand. “Marjani Savonett and Rosana do Rio!” he commanded in a voice thick with power. “Halt!”

  Rosana checked, but Marjani spun around, one hand on a silver charm that hung from her quartz. For the first time, he realized she was wearing a protection charm.

  A warrior started forward, fae ball in hand.

  Adric rushed back to Rosana and his sister. “I can cloak all three of us,” he said. “Get ready to run like hell.” He slipped an arm around each of their shoulders.

  The portal wavered.

  “Hurry!” he said. “Before it closes.”

  The shadows surrounded them. Tendrils snaked toward them.

  Marjani shoved the protection charm at them and they retreated. But the portal had closed.

  “Fuck,” she muttered.

  Then the sky lit like someone had torn back a curtain to let in the noon sun. As the night fae hissed in pain, the wards broke with an audible crack, sending a surge of energy that forced the three of them to stagger back.

  Rain sluiced down.

  “Go!” Adric urged the two women forward again.

  More bolts of light slashed through the night. Queen Cleia strode into the clearing, her body a sunlit column, bolts of gold shooting from her fingertips.

  For a few seconds, everyone—even Prince Langdon—stared at her, mouths ajar. Then the night fae snapped to life.

  But more people poured into the clearing behind the queen.

  Sun fae. River fada. And Jace, Fane, and a pack of Baltimore wolves with Zuri at the head.

  “Now these kind of odds I can live with,” his sister said.

  Adric dropped the cloak so the three of them were visible again. The earth fada surrounded them, and they prepared to fight as fae on each side armed themselves with fiery balls of light.

  Cleia planted herself at the center. With a wave of her hand, a fireball exploded at Langdon’s feet. “I warned you to set the fada free, my lord. Now I’m here to demand their release. And think before you answer. I have two hundred more warriors itching for a fight.”

  Langdon conjured up a seething mass of shadows and doused the fireball.

  “Shadows blot out the sun,” he returned. “It’s the night of the new moon. Do you think you can beat me?”

  Cleia raised her hands. Behind her, Dion placed his hands on her shoulders. Something flashed between the two of them. Twin suns sparked to life in her hands.

  “But sunlight chases away the shadows.” The glowing balls in her hands grew brighter.

  Langdon recovered first. He took two steps forward, face pale and eyebrows glittering. Two black-clad warriors flanked him, fae balls glowing in their palms.

  Cleia raised her hands higher. An unearthly flame danced in her palms, lighting her gold, silver and copper hair so that it shone like living fire.

  “Tell your guards to stand down,” she gritted, “or I’ll turn them into ashes.”

  “Try it.” Langdon pointed a finger at Cleia, but the rest of them had had time to shrug off whatever spell he’d cast.

  Dion leapt to block him. In his hand was a dagger shimmering with magic.

  Langdon flicked his fingers at the dagger, trying to change it to something else, but the bespelled dagger remained just that—a dagger.

  Dion lashed out at Langdon, fada-fast. The prince only just managed to leap clear of the slashing blade.

  Dion stalked after him, his eyes pure, molten silver.

  The prince conjured up a whirling wall of twigs and leaves, but Dion slashed his way through them.

  Meanwhile, the priests and priestesses had melted into the shadows so that only their eyes were visible.

&n
bsp; Two wolves came at Langdon from either direction, but he evaded them by sinking into the shadows himself. More twigs and leaves swirled around Cleia, but before they could turn into anything, she incinerated them with another bolt.

  A second, more powerful explosion ripped the night fae from the shadows. This time, Langdon was ready. He threw up a shade of leaves and other debris to protect him and his people from the worst of the light.

  But Adric and the other fada had engaged them, he and Marjani fighting neck-and-neck with Rui and Tiago, while nearby, Zuri and the other wolves took down another couple of night fae.

  Adric could see the moment Langdon realized that even if he survived, he was going to take heavy casualties, including losing most of the court’s priests and priestesses.

  He threw up his arms and a powerful wind blasted everyone except Cleia to the opposite side of the circle. But when they jumped to their feet, he ordered his own people to stand down, and then turned to Cleia.

  “Peace, my lady.” He kept his hands by his sides, palms out, in a proudly open posture. “Rosana do Rio is yours. I ask only one thing in return—that you grant me the rights I’m owed as a grandfather.”

  Dion moved next to Cleia. “A grandfather?”

  “Yes. I demand the right to know the daughter of my youngest son. You and your clan have no right to keep me from the blood of my blood.”

  “Fuck your rights.” Adric shoved his way next to Dion. “You’ll have to go through me and every member of my clan first,” he spat.

  But Dion nodded as if he was considering it. “You’ll release my sister without obligation?” While he was speaking, Dion undid the silver bracelet around his wrist and tossed it to Rosana, who quickly clasped it around her own wrist.

  Adric shot him a furious look, but something in the other alpha’s expression made him hold back.

  “Yes,” Langdon said. “She’s given me an invaluable piece of information. I consider any debt between us paid in full. That is,” he said to Rosana. “If I can’t persuade you to remain as court Seer?”

  Rosana couldn’t conceal a shudder. “No,” she said curtly. “But I refuse to leave without Marjani and Adric.”

  “Rosana,” Dion said with a scowl.

  Her jaw set. “He’s my mate.”