I filled her in on the fog, on the voice and the phantom beasts that had claimed my Hunt. “I need to know what we’re dealing with. I need to know how to kill it and get my Hunt back.”
Morrigan turned to the Raven. “Summon Baron.”
The Raven inclined his head and left the room.
Morrigan swept her hand toward the empty seats by the window. “Please sit.”
I collapsed into the nearest chair. “Have you ever heard of anything like this?”
She was silent for a long time. “Yes. I’ve heard of something similar. You don’t live as long as I have and not learn of the monsters that can rival even your lifespan. I hope, however, that I am wrong, that what you have stumbled across is a mere imitation of what I believe it to be.”
“And if it isn’t?” Caister asked.
This time her smile was filled with dread. “Then our world is in very grave danger.”
Baron kept his head down, not even daring to look up at his queen, his hands trembling as he turned the pages of an ancient volume. His jowls quivered as he silently read the words.
Caister had relayed our experience to the tiny man, who looked like he was about to pass out under the queen’s regard.
He continued turning the pages, searching for something that could help us. “Ah…Ah, yes. Here we have…we have a passage. Phantom constructs—wolves and bears are used by some dark forces to promote fear and cause chaos. The constructs tap into the deepest aspects of their victim’s psyche and prey on their worst fears, creating paranoia and thus spawning destructive actions that lead to chaos and death.”
I shook my head. “No, these things were doing more than that. It looked like they were infecting the Hunt.”
Caister tensed. “Infecting?”
I turned to him. “I saw Dia’s face. I saw these inky veins climb over her skin.”
He rolled up his sleeve and showed me his forearm. “Like this?”
His tanned skin was a network of black veins. “Oh, God. Why didn’t you say something?”
Shit, was this what Dia had been hiding from me? The reason she’d asked me to hurry up and find myself? Was this somehow my fault?
Baron blinked down at Caister’s arm and then looked up at me. “The Hunt is a unique construct in itself.” His brows shot up. “Oh…oh my. This looks like the taint mentioned in the texts. And you got this in the fog?”
“No,” Caister said. “This was a week or so ago. It grew after our last reaping.”
The last reaping of power had felt wrong, bitter and off. “The power was tainted. The deaths have been coming hard and fast, all born of sudden violence. All born of chaos…”
“So, this power has been causing small incidents of chaos, resulting in death around Faerie?” Caister shook his head. “We got infected because we siphoned the power.”
Baron mumbled something.
“What is it?” the queen snapped. “Spit it out, man.”
“This force may have been attracted to the Hunt because they are also a construct of sorts and feed off energy like it does.”
The queen began to pace. “Baron, does your book say anything about the world eater?”
Baron almost dropped his volume. “Your Majesty?”
She shot him a glare, and he shook his head. “Nothing has been penned. But all that is known has been passed down orally from high scholar to high scholar.”
“Tell me what you know.”
His throat bobbed. “The world eater is stealthy; it ingratiates itself into its chosen world, it tests and prods and adapts its attack to the organisms that are born of the land it craves. It causes and feeds off chaos, and it grows in power until it devours all.” He faltered. “But Your Majesty…you don’t think…”
She glared at him again, and he snapped his mouth shut.
Caister cursed softly, but the queen didn’t look shocked… She knew, or suspected. Wait. The thinnings had been closed for months now. Was this why?
And, if so, why hadn’t she warned us? “You knew?” I didn’t bother to mask the accusation in my tone.
She looked down her nose at me. “I suspected.”
“It’s why you closed the thinnings. Oh, God, Alaron… it has his daughter, doesn’t it?”
She shrugged. “Possibly. We can’t be sure. Rayne has a reputation for causing trouble.”
But Alaron didn’t believe that; he’d been certain a terrible force had his daughter and was adamant about finding her.
Pieces of the puzzle clicked into place and suspicion bloomed in my mind. “You told Alaron that his daughter was in Berrywell, didn’t you? You sent him there to do your dirty work.”
Her smile was cold. “A queen does what she must to protect her people. And for all we know, his daughter could be there.”
“To protect her people or to protect herself?”
Caister grabbed my wrist, a reminder of my earlier warning to be civil, and now, here I was, burning bridges with my rudeness.
“Alaron is your people too. How did sending him to Berrywell without the facts protect him? Did you tell him what you suspected?”
“I am the queen, and I do not answer to anyone.”
My lip curled. “And I am the fucking Hunt, and I don’t answer to you. So if you want my help, you better start talking. How do we stop this thing?”
Her chest rose and fell. “I don’t know.”
Great. I rubbed my temple. “You created this realm and you created the Hunt, a force which you have no control over, so where’s your power now? Why are you sending others to fight this threat?”
Her mouth was a tight line, her eyes sapphire gems. “Creation takes its toll, and sometimes power cannot be reclaimed.”
Wait, was she telling me she was out of juice? Shit. Well, that would explain the handovers she’d been doing.
Her smile held a warning. “Don’t be fooled, I am not defenseless. If this power is what I suspect it to be, then I will fight it with my last breath. But until I know for sure, I will conserve my energies.”
“So we’re your test subjects?”
She didn’t reply; not that it mattered, there was no backing out now. This dark power had something that belonged to me. “Fine, so it feeds on chaos, right? So we take away its source of fuel.”
“We stop the chaos,” Caister said.
Baron blinked in surprise. “Yes, yes. There will be chaos somewhere in the town, conflict born of the construct’s influence. If you ease the conflict, you can take away the dark force’s fuel.”
Baron’s earlier statement filled my head. Adapts to the organisms that are born of the land… “It adapts to the fey. It can hurt fey but not the creatures of another world.”
Caister sucked in a breath. “The Fangs, the Vladul, and the djinn.”
“Yes.” The guys weren’t fey or constructs, so they’d be safe from its mental attacks and safe from infection.
They were the Hunt’s only hope. My smile was cold and determined as I looked at the queen. “I need you to send for my guys.”
“Your otherworld lovers?” Was that a hint of jealousy in her tone?
“They’re more than that. They’re warriors.”
Morrigan tapped her chin. “It will take them days to get here on foot. Take the griffins.”
The Raven’s brows twitched. “As you wish.” He left the room.
Griffins? As in the flying creatures with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion? Well, the platforms around the fortress made sense now. Damn, I’d love to see the guys’ faces when they saw those creatures.
Heck, I’d love to see the guys full stop.
Caister touched my elbow lightly. “Not long now.”
But would it be too late for the Hunt?
Chapter Six
LOGAN
She could be dead. Gods can die. She could be dead.
I hurt her. I fucking hurt her. My pride, stupid fucking pride. Never been one to share. Never been one to back down, and now…
She could be dead.
Can’t just stay here and wait. Should have gone with her, should have gone with the Hunt. Could have helped. This isn’t a reaping. Fuck, we’re Fangs. Fangs and a djinn and a fucking Vladul with skills.
Fuck this shit.
No more waiting.
No more pride.
JACE
They should be back by now. A whole night and almost a whole day. They should be back.
My heart is racing with foreboding, and I’m sure the others feel the same. We’ve congregated in the kitchen, because that is our meetup place, our go-to place. It’s where we gravitate when we want to touch base with the others, and right now it’s the spot for our vigil.
Elias sits at the kitchen table, drumming his lean fingers across the wood, while Ash and Sage stand at the window, looking out. Logan left to take a walk a while ago. The vigil is real, because there is no doubt in my mind that we all feel the stomach-sinking dread that something has gone terribly wrong. Our connection to Eva may not be a tangible thing like it is for the Hunt, but our love for her, the bond we share, gives us soul connection.
Eva is in trouble and we need to go to her. The words are on the tip of my tongue when Elias blurts them out as if he’s plucked them from my head.
“We should just go there,” Elias says. “Just leave for Berrywell right now.”
“No,” Sage replies. “We need to wait, and trust that Eva has this under control.”
“Sage is right,” Ash signs. “Eva is a god. She can take care of herself.”
“But we have no idea what she’s up against; no one does,” Elias points out.
Everyone lapses into silence. I need to pick a side, but I’m torn. Eva is fiercely independent, and after the debacle before she left, would she appreciate us interrupting Hunt business? Except, a little voice whispers, this isn’t exactly Hunt business, is it?
Bootfalls echo down the corridor and Logan enters the room. “Fuck this,” he snaps. “What the fuck are we doing sitting around with our thumbs up our arses? When do we ever wait around to be told what to do?”
Elias is on his feet instantly. “I’m with you.”
Logan looks surprised but masks it quickly. Those two will never be the best of friends, probably because they’re too much alike, but right now they’re united in their cause.
Ash tucks in his chin and sighs. When he raises his head, it’s obvious he’s been swayed, and something inside me snaps.
“Fuck it, I’m in.”
Sage makes a sound of exasperation but doesn’t argue; instead, he points out the practical. “It’ll take days to get to Berrywell.”
He’s right, but all I can think is that Eva might be hurt. She may be a god, but gods can be killed. Cernunnos is a prime example, and the Hunt…The Hunt has never fully accepted Eva. This isn’t a reaping, this is something else.
“Then we best get going,” Elias says.
Logan leads the charge for the door, and we make it outside a split second before the late afternoon sun is blocked by a huge shadow. The Raven lands a moment later, his expression solemn. Huge creatures circle overhead, beasts unlike anything I’ve ever seen, with wingspans that block the sky.
“Motherfucker,” Logan says softly under his breath.
“You’ve been summoned to the citadel,” the Raven says. He indicates the sky. “And I have brought mounts, hmmmm.”
“Fuck you,” Logan snaps. “We don’t bow to your queen. We’re headed to Berrywell. Care to lend us the mounts for that?”
The Raven smiled. “I didn’t say it was the queen who’d summoned you.”
Chapter Seven
Being alone in a room with Caister after what happened in the farmhouse was a test in self-control. Not because I wanted to tear off his clothes and have my way with him, but because of all the unsaid stuff. We’d found ourselves in a sexual position through no choice of our own, but we didn’t have to finish what the gancanagh had started. And that meant something… I just wasn’t sure what. To top it off, I’d have to tell the guys about the incident because we were a unit. We had an understanding, and Caister was outside of that understanding.
Long minutes ticked by, stretching out into an hour as the sky beyond the window turned orange, then red, then darkened to showcase the moon. The Hunt was out there, and the longer we waited, the more this dark power sank its claws into them.
Caister wandered over to the window to look out at the night sky. The room was plunged into darkness, only the moonlight to illuminate it. It kissed his profile and lit the tips of his lashes in silver.
“You could turn on the light,” Caister said. “The citadel is progressive. They have electricity.”
What? Why the fuck hadn’t he said something before? I walked over to the wall by the door, the standard place to keep a light switch, and there it was.
I flicked it on and bathed the room in amber glow. “How come the mansion doesn’t have electricity?”
“Electricity needs a place to be grounded,” he said. “The mansion is a construct that moves.”
Of course it was. “That makes sense.”
We may as well have been discussing the fucking weather. Once the Hunt was safe, we’d discuss what had happened. We’d—
“I wanted you,” Caister said gruffly.
My heart stalled. “What?” I turned to face him. His expression was stony. Had I heard right? “What did you say?”
His lip curled. “You heard me.”
“I’m not sure I heard right.” I canted my head. “You wanted me?”
He gave me the familiar narrow eyes. “And you wanted me too. The gancanagh’s thrall wouldn’t have worked otherwise.”
Oh, crap. Well, that answered the main question. “So, there’s an attraction.” I shrugged. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
His expression closed. “No. It doesn’t.”
“Good. I’ll tell the guys what happened. They’ll understand.”
“That you’re attracted to me.”
Fuck. “I’ll sort it.”
The door opened, and Logan’s zesty scent hit me hard. My stomach flipped and I was across the room in a heartbeat. His arms closed around me and then I was lifted off the floor in a bear hug.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so fucking sorry for being such a dick. Eva, I love you. I love you so much.” His voice was thick and gruff and emotional, which was so not Logan that it made me want to swallow the words with my kisses.
I blinked back the heat in my eyes. “I love you too.”
The others entered the room, crowding it with their huge frames, surrounding me. But Logan didn’t release me. Instead, he gathered me closer, as if staking his claim.
“I don’t care what you do,” he said. “I don’t care who you are as long as you let me love you. I get it, I get that the Hunt is a part of you, that it is you, and if I have to love it too, then I will. I won’t lose you.”
His words released the tension in the air, and I sagged against him. “Thank you.”
Sage tapped Logan on the shoulder. “Hey, stop hogging the hugs.”
Logan released me reluctantly and Sage pulled me into his arms, then Ash, Elias, and finally I was facing Jace. He scanned my face, his throat bobbing, and then he wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in the crook of my neck. His lips brushed my pulse in a soft kiss that sent a lance of longing through me. It was a promise, it was acceptance.
Their strength coursed through me, and the power inside me flared brighter. Caister gasped and met my gaze over Jace’s shoulder. His eyes glowed bright for a moment as the connection between us fortified, and in that moment, I felt them. The Hunt.
They were far away, and the connection was weak, but it was there. They were there, and they were alive.
I pulled out of Jace’s embrace and looked at the guys. “I need you. I need you to help me get them back. I need you all to help me save the Hunt.”
I was asking them to risk their lives for the Hunt,
a construct they had no love for, and I felt no guilt over it. But for the first time since I’d been reborn, I didn’t question my conviction. This was who I was. The person who did what needed to be done. Who asked the questions that needed to be asked and found the answers. This was my core, and I embraced it.
I looked at each of them levelly. “That thing in the fog is unlike anything we’ve ever faced. Now is the time for me to give you an out, but I’m not going to, because I need you. I need all of you.”
“We’re with you,” Jace said. “All the way.”
He was sincere, and his tone held no doubt, but was he really speaking for the others?
My gaze slid over his shoulder to settle on Ash. He nodded.
I jerked my chin at the powerful djinn who always left me weak-kneed. “Sage?”
“I’m with you, Eva. Whatever you need.” His voice rumbled over me, reassuring and determined.
“If you have to ask, I’ll be offended,” Elias said, his tone low.
Logan’s jaw was tense. “If the Hunt is in trouble, then you’re in trouble, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you.”
They were in, and was that a flicker of warmth in my cool, godly heart? I’d felt detached for so long, and now, in this room, with the Hunt in need and my guys here to answer the call, the warmth that I’d been struggling to latch on to ever since we’d come here was back.
Jace’s lips curled in a smile. “Heck, we’ve stopped the Vladul, we’ve stopped a virus, and we saved a world… this dark power has nothing on us.”
“But you’ll need to wait till morning,” the Raven interrupted.
When had he entered the room?
“Why?” Logan asked.
“The griffins can’t fly at night,” he said. “They’re night blind.”
My stomach turned in nausea at the thought of leaving my Hunt to the dark power’s mercy for any longer, but there was no other option. If we made the journey on foot, we’d reach our destination by tomorrow afternoon, but if we waited and flew by griffin, we’d be there before midday.
For the Hunt Page 5