I thumped the book closed and lowered it to my side, resisting the urge to ask Sirius to burn it. “Why didn’t Kellee tell me about the marks before?”
“The memory was hidden from him, only to be revealed when Eledan triggered it. The Hunt unearthed it too soon.”
This was a lot to take in, and though I’d love nothing more than to allow the Hunt to take Eledan, the last thing we needed was for it to get stronger. So Eledan knew of a key. Was it another failsafe? A magical one should he ever lose control of his nightmare, or something else? “Doesn’t Eledan control the Hunt?”
“No. He created it when the Wild Ones took a young, naïve prince and played his ego. He does not control it. Only Faerie’s will can control it, once the polestar, and balance, is restored.”
“If the Hunt kills Eledan and his marks are lost, what will happen?”
Sirius’s auburn lashes fluttered. “Without its creator, the Hunt will spread farther than Faerie and become unstoppable. Sol will likely be its next target.”
With their fairytales and stories, and the first war a distant memory, they couldn’t fathom battling a nightmare like the Hunt. “We must stop the Hunt from growing more powerful—”
“Kellee and Talen are already on their way to Eledan. They will find and secure him.”
Finding Eledan was one thing. Securing him was quite another. If anyone could, it was Talen and Kellee. At least with Eledan closer, I could pin him down about his deal with the Wild Ones. I straightened and nodded at Sota to relax his weapons. Reluctantly, he shuttered them away beneath his skin.
“All right,” I said. “So, we should find a secure location and hole up.”
“Talen has a plan for that also.” Sirius rubbed his temple.
“Then, what do we do?”
“We learn that there is a time for action and a time for waiting.” He slipped his tek-hand into mine and drew me down beside him. “And we hope the Wild Ones do not return too soon.”
Chapter 24
Kellee
Eledan’s fairy knoll looked like a rolling set of hills, with the occasional balcony chiseled into its green, vine-covered edges. Its resemblance to Arcon—moss-covered and overgrown—was no mistake. As it happened, vines made an excellent alternative route up walls and over balustrades, leading me right into the heart of his chambers.
He wasn’t inside, which meant I was free to roam while Talen walked in through the front door, causing enough of a stir to draw Eledan out from whatever hole he was hiding in.
The trailing drapes and puffed cushions demanded to be shredded. My fingers twitched, claws itching to be free.
On the ride over, I’d had plenty of time to recall the dream the Hunt had been so fascinated by. Eledan had made sure he would live. “These marks, given to me and my brother, are the key to the weapon’s demise and the demise of both the darkness and the light.”
“I’m telling you this so that, when the time comes, you’ll remember and do the right thing.”
He’d known this would happen, and here I was, about to drag him out of the fire when I’d prefer to see him burn.
“C’mon, Talen… spook him already,” I muttered, drifting from room to room. The place smelled like his poisonous magic, like he was already here, watching. I freed the claws, reliving their itch, and craned my head, popping a muscle in my neck. The ghost of the scar he’d given me across my neck—long healed—itched too. I hadn’t yet paid him back for that.
The main chamber door peeled open, and in strode the prince, painted in purples and silver, his oak crown sitting neatly on a head of raven black hair. “… and where am I…” He spotted me, and his long-legged stride halted.
Talen entered behind him, silver and grays to Eledan’s bruised purples. The door closed, sealing the three of us inside. That didn’t mean we were alone. I’d learned there was always someone, or something, listening here, either from the outside or inside our thoughts.
“Eledan.” I smiled, displaying a hint of sharp teeth. “We’re leaving.”
“As I just told him,” he stiffly replied, “there’s nowhere to go.” He could straighten his back and lift his chin all he liked. Fear wrapped around him, smelling like old, wet metal.
A rumbling started overhead, growing louder.
Talen casually folded his arms. “And had you let me explain, I would have told you there most definitely is.”
Eledan veered straight for the balcony, tossing the drapes aside like he wanted to rip them off. I already had a good idea what we’d find.
The small shuttle gleamed in all its angular, human-made tek glory. The Sol Alliance’s crest, concentric circles around a central star, sparkled on the hull. Through the narrow observation window, Hulia sat at the controls.
The downdraft whipped dust, magic, and pollen into the air, upsetting Eledan’s immaculate appearance. He saw Hulia and snarled. She had stabbed him in the back once, and now here she was, saving his ass. That had to burn.
She saluted me. I mirrored the gesture. Then, wiping off her smile, she gave Eledan the middle finger.
“You fools are no match for the Hunt,” he snapped. “Bringing tek into Faerie’s sky is an insult—”
I struck him square in the jaw. I’d tucked the claws away, else I might have taken his head off. The weight behind the blow was enough to topple him. His head struck the banister on the way down, knocking him out cold. Now we had ourselves cargo that didn’t argue.
“That was unnecessary,” Talen remarked.
“Probably,” I cracked my knuckles. “But it felt real good.”
I scooped up the prince’s limp body and slung him over a shoulder. We waited as Hulia brought the shuttle in close enough to lower the docking ramp and open the shuttle door.
“Sugars, y’all didn’t tell me we were taking out the trash,” Hulia said once we’d secured Eledan on one of the shuttle’s fold-out bunks and pulled up, away from the knoll.
Talen took up the co-pilot’s chair beside her. “I wasn’t sure you’d agree if you knew.”
She snorted and ramped up the engines. The shuttle growled, and outside, the purple sky shifted as the shuttle nose dropped, its blasters launching us forward. “Where next?”
“To get Kesh, Sirius, and Sota,” Talen said as he effortlessly navigated the shuttle controls. “But we stay cloaked. Once the sidhe courts realize Eledan is missing, they’ll come searching.”
She winked. “Yeah, but they won’t be expecting human tek.”
I settled into a pull-down side seat and watched the unconscious prince for any sign he was waking. Hopefully, he’d stay out cold until we were all back on the Excalibur. What would happen when he woke and found himself there was anyone’s guess.
Just above his jacket collar, the tip of a warfae tattoo peeked out. They likely snaked all the way down his body, if they were anything like Kesh’s.
The hate I harbored for him hadn’t waned. He’d cut my throat, trapped Kesh in dreams for months, almost ruining her mind, and facilitated the return of the fae to Halow, killing billions. But he wasn’t his brother. Oberon’s vicious crusade to wipe out anything he disapproved of had been worse than anything Eledan had done. As much as I despised this Mad Prince, I couldn’t blame him for what he was, and that only made me want to hate him more.
“When we get to the Excalibur, we need to restrain him.”
Talen glanced back. “Physical restraints won’t stop him. It would be better not to restrain him. If we threaten him, he’ll respond in kind.”
“What am I supposed to do, treat him like he’s one of us?” I rubbed my bruised knuckles.
“No.” Talen’s tone warned me to back off. But how could I? This bastard didn’t deserve to be saved. How was he even still breathing when so many had died?
“Kellee…” Talen swiveled the co-pilot’s chair to face me. The fae had too much understanding on his face. “We need him alive.”
“He’s safe…” I grumbled. “Unless he hurts Kesh, t
hen all bets are off.”
“He won’t.” Talen turned the chair to face the front again, hiding his expression, but he couldn’t hide the regret in his tone. He almost sounded as though he were sorry Eledan wouldn’t hurt Kesh.
It revealed the same fears I had. Eledan wouldn’t hurt her because the fool loved her and had done since this started. I’d seen as much when he thought he was twisting my thoughts to his whims. Maybe it had happened when he’d had her trapped beneath Arcon, or maybe he’d fallen for her when he’d been trapped in his own dreams. Love had a way of creeping up on us. I’d loved Kesh since I’d seen her fight to come back from the Dreamweaver’s grasp. Without Eledan’s scheming as the head of Arcon, I might never have crossed Kesh’s path.
Now there was an unsettling thought.
Leaning back against the shuttle’s bulkhead, I dug my golden marshal’s star out of my pocket and rubbed its battered surface clean. These next few days would be difficult. Whatever happened, I’d be there until the end, no matter the cost.
I pinned the star back onto my coat.
Chapter 25
Kesh
The Excalibur hung cloaked in the sky above Faerie, the only tek-ship to ever spend time close to the planet without being shot down. While we were technically hidden, I knew we’d be safe as long as we were trying to right all the wrongs of the past. If we veered off course, Faerie would reveal us.
Tek gleamed and rang every time my boots hit the catwalk gallery over the enormous weapons bays below. Every surface shone. Walls ended in sharp corners, unlike inside the smooth, undulating Faerie knolls or Shinj’s interior.
Thinking of the ship’s demise further darkened my already shadowed mood. Eledan was on board, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that knowledge or him. I’d tried so hard to escape him, but he kept coming back into my life, likely because it wasn’t my life at all. His life wasn’t his either, since Hapters’ people had spliced tek and a fragment of polestar into his chest to make him a heart. We were two parts of a star. We finally had all the polestar pieces we needed.
Before I dealt with all of that and what it meant, I entered the med-bay and found Hulia fussing over Sirius. The guardian was seated on the edge of a high med-bed. She stood beside him with a datapad, trying to log his readings, while he grumbled and groused about being fine as he latched the hook-and-eye fastenings on his shirt. His tek-hand and arm appeared to be working perfectly. The rest of him was a mess of ragged hair, dirt smudges, and exhaustion.
He saw me in the doorway. “Will you tell your friend if she continues to hover around me, I’ll not be held responsible for her wellbeing when I finally lose my patience.”
I smiled at his gruffness and approached Hulia.
Her lips twisted. She handed over the datapad. “He’s as stubborn as a Calicto drunk. He won’t let me scan him for injuries and insists he’s fine.” Barking a laugh, she threw a hand his way, making him flinch. “Look at him. He’s a mess.”
His scowl cut so deep it must have hurt. “Technically, if he says he’s fine, then he is fine,” I said. “We’ve all been through a lot.”
She rolled her eyes and flounced toward the door. “If he gives himself an aneurysm, don’t blame me. Oh, and honey… you don’t pay me enough to go within a mile of Eledan. He can rot in his room.”
If Eledan was awake, he likely wouldn’t be in his room. Kellee had argued to restrain him, but there wasn’t enough rope or chain in the worlds to hold Eledan for long, and tying him up would only piss him off.
“I don’t pay you,” I reminded her with a smile.
“That is also something I’ll be bringing up at the next meeting, along with the fact Talen’s zombie mind-slaves are freaking me the fuck out.”
“Duly noted.” Zombie mind-slaves were better than conscious Earthens who couldn’t handle the fact they were orbiting Faerie. He wasn’t hurting them, just easing their minds. Given how Captain Pierce had attacked Kellee to get her hands on the polestar, and how she’d executed a number of Sirius’s fae crew from Hapters, the Earthens were lucky to be alive.
Hulia was gone with a flick of her dreadlocks. The door whooshed shut behind her.
“She is a feisty namu,” Sirius remarked, wincing and rolling his shoulder, shifting his tek-arm.
I set the datapad down on the end of the bed. “Are you all right?”
“I would prefer to be on Faerie, where I can replenish my strength.” He flexed his tek-hand and rippled his fingers.
“Is the arm causing you discomfort?”
“Some,” he admitted. “I almost forgot it on Faerie, but here, surrounded by all this, it aches.”
Before I could talk myself out of it, I planted a very Talen-like kiss on his forehead and ran a hand down the side of his face, marveling that I could get so close to him without him threatening to murder me.
He froze, gulped, and looked up. The honesty in his eyes stripped us both raw. Like this, he was just Sirius, my silent guardian. I was only beginning to understand what that meant and knew we might never be able to explore where these feelings could take us. If he still had those feelings. He seemed to, but even now, he was restrained.
“Rest,” I said. His face was so warm, his skin fae-smooth. “We’re safe here.”
“The book. Eledan—”
I pressed a finger to his soft kissable lips, which tried to move around my touch. “I will handle Eledan, and the book can wait.”
Switching my thumb with my fingers, I checked his gaze to make sure he wasn’t about to fly into a fit of rage over a saru violating him, and brushed my mouth over his, trading soft breaths. His arms folded around my lower back and pulled me snug between his knees. The kiss deepened, turning slow and surprisingly gentle for my guardian. But he was already wrung out, and I had others waiting on me. Breaking away, I eased from his grip.
His hand snagged my wrist, pulling me up short. “Stay with me.” It sounded like an order, but the softer request reflected in his eyes.
For someone who didn’t know how to convey his emotions, he was doing a damn fine job of it. There was no way I could walk away from that low-lashed pleading look, not when it came from the honest heart few had seen.
His chest expanded, and his glare shifted away. “What we started in my library, I know the memories were not good ones for you, but I would not change that kiss—”
“Is that what you think? That I don’t want to remember it?” I laid my arms gently over his shoulders, smiling down at my vulnerable guardian. Beneath all that armor, he was a complicated soul. When I kissed him, it turned into a heated, hungry thing, as though our time were running out and this might be our last moment together. I knew that feeling. I felt it with them all, like each conversation could be our last. How could I leave them? Why did it have to be me?
A cool tek-hand claimed my back while his other sought my face, his fingers smearing the tears he found there. Then my fingers were working at the shirt fasteners he’d done up, opening them so I could feel him beneath my hands and soak up every precious quiver and tremble I ignited.
“I wanted you to say yes to Ailish…” The words brushed my ear. His fingers sank into my hair, holding me close as though afraid to let go. “I still do. Is that wrong?”
“I wanted it too, but I’ve come too far to surrender now. I have to see it to the end. We have to see it to the end.”
“You are brave… braver than I am.”
Wrapping him in my arms, I held him close and listened to the beat of his immortal fae-heart, to the rhythm of his breathing, committing his soft hardness to memory. Maybe he’d listen to my heart, and hear my breathing, and he’d remember me. Perhaps, in his memories, I could live forever.
Chapter 26
Arriving late at the meeting in the Excalibur’s observation room revealed tensions had already flared. Kellee had moved to the back of the room to keep himself from sinking his claws into Captain Pierce, who stood on the other side of the long meeting table. The bank of s
creens behind her flickered and blinked, the tek fighting off Faerie’s influence and failing.
Talen, always the mediator, had planted himself midway between Kellee and Pierce, and Sota stood off to my right, quietly observing and analyzing.
“Where’s the guardian?” Kellee asked.
“Resting.”
Talen and Kellee shared a glance that indicated they were content to leave Sirius out of this.
“How long will this go on for?” Pierce demanded. She wore her dark blue Sol uniform like it was armor that could protect her in Faerie-space, and Kellee had found his marshal’s star. Maybe their symbols helped them when they were so far from home. Pierce’s appearance had frayed at the edges in the short time I’d known her. Kellee had told me she was a woman made of iron and would do anything to protect her people. I knew that compulsion well, but she’d also attacked and tortured Kellee, which made her my enemy. The only reason her ship and her crew were here was to keep Excalibur useful. Now, with Shinj’s death, this tek-leviathan was all we had. Keeping Pierce and her crew compliant required the finesse of Talen’s touch, something we had no time for.
“Pierce…” I approached the table. “We have an opportunity—”
“My, my…” Eledan strode into the room, demanding all eyes turn to him. “I must have missed the invitation to attend this prestigious meeting?” He’d ditched his royal robes for a snug-fitting plain shirt and black pants. Earthen clothes. He had braided his long hair into multiple tails, bunched at three places down his back. No crown. He resembled his alter ego Larson, with that same easygoing human demeanor to charm his way through life. The ear tips and ridiculously good looks marked him as fae, but all his stiffness and formality had vanished. The sudden dissonance lost me my train of thought.
Her Dark Legion Page 15