by Ciara Graves
“Damn it,” she shouted when the gun clicked empty. She chucked it aside, then kicked the nearest dead guard. She planted her hands on her hips, muttering to herself. A second later, she was making for the other SUVs.
“What are you doing?” I asked, quickly getting to my feet to follow.
“Going after him. I can’t let him live.”
“You sure about that? What if there’s more of them?” I asked, even as I glanced around at the dead bodies. All courtesy of her. It wasn’t hard to see anymore how she earned such a high rank in her guild, or why she had been Jeric’s head guard.
“I don’t have a choice.” She opened the driver’s side door, but didn’t get in.
“Iona?”
“Shit,” she mumbled. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell over into my arms.
I caught her but ended up on the ground with her in my lap.
I tapped her cheeks hard. She grumbled, but didn’t come to.
“Told you it was too soon,” I muttered. “Damned stubborn woman.”
“Aiden!” Orion, Teresa, and Henry came running around the SUV. “Is she alright?”
“She overdid it.”
“She took them all out,” Henry said, amazed. “What do we do with her now?”
“We keep her safe. We protect her,” Orion stated. “Aiden, take her to my cabin, outside of town. We’ll see to the bodies and the vehicles.”
“No, I should take her back to my place. And I can’t just leave you with dead guards.”
“My boy, it’s a bit late for that. If that Venkalth sent his men here, I have no doubt he sent them to your place, too.” He handed me a set of keys. “Get going. We can clean up this mess. No one else will die in Timber Falls.”
I wanted to keep disagreeing, but even Teresa and Henry both looked ready to argue with me if I tried to go anywhere but Orion’s place. It was more secluded than mine, and with any luck, the guards didn’t even know about it. With Henry’s help, I picked up Iona and carried her back to my truck.
As I was about to drive away, I rolled down the window and called to Henry.
“Do me a favor and gather any daggers you find,” I told him. “I have a feeling she might be wanting some sort of weapon when she wakes up.”
He said he’d see it done and then I drove away from Timber Falls and into the woods.
Iona shifted in her seat, her head resting against the window, but she didn’t wake up. I’d seen her move fast when she went after me and Teresa, but this time she took down twelve guards on her own. I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept for the next two days. I hadn’t expected her to be up and walking around after being tormented by the Reaper Venom, yet she had taken on twelve guards like it was nothing.
“How am I supposed to keep you alive if you’re running around doing crap like that?” I murmured, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel. “Jeric is going to kill me.”
“What did you say?”
I jumped at her question. I sensed her eyes on me as I struggled to find a reply.
By the time I came up with something that might pass as the truth, she was passed out again.
I blew out a breath, not sure if I’d get so lucky the next time she overheard me talking about Jeric.
The real problem was going to be what would happen to Timber Falls.
The guard would tell Venkalth and others what happened. They’d all be in danger now.
Orion would have an evacuation plan in place. They’d all have to leave their homes.
Iona would not be happy to hear that either when she woke.
So much for today being an easy day.
Chapter 9
Iona
Now you’re just slacking.
I grumbled at Jeric’s words. “I never slack.”
That might be true, he said with a laugh. That was reckless.
“Did you want those guards to slaughter those innocent people?” I asked. “Or hurt those kids?”
You know I didn’t, but you’re important. You’re one of the few who knows the truth.
“No, actually, I don’t. All I know is someone hired Venkalth to kill you, and you threw yourself into a killing blow meant for me,” I snapped, wanting to wake up from whatever dream or hallucination this was. I missed Jeric, but the last thing I needed was his voice inside my head, lecturing me.
Who said I was lecturing?
I cursed and shifted. I was on something soft, but it wasn’t a bed. A couch maybe. The smell was different from the herbs that filled Aiden’s cabin. Probably a good thing we hadn’t gone back there. If Venkalth sent men to Timber Falls, he probably had more waiting for Aiden to return to the cabin.
Are you angry with me?
“You’re in my head. You tell me.”
I opened my eyes and glanced around. It appeared to be a sitting room. Wooden walls, a few bookshelves that held trinkets instead of books. The top shelves were filled with framed photographs of Orion and other goblins. I recognized a few of them from the streets. One was the woman who had been thrown to the ground. The other was the woman from the clinic, the one Aiden called Matilda. Orion had mentioned he was the town elder. He hadn’t been when I was growing up there. I was so different now, I doubted anyone remembered me. Not like I was there for long, all those years ago.
I swung my legs off the couch and rubbed my hands down my face then through my tangled hair.
What would you have had me do? Watch you die? Jeric whispered.
I hung my head.
The room was empty aside from myself. Guess it was possible I was simply going crazy and not actually haunted by his spirit.
“Let me protect you as was my duty. A duty I failed.”
When he started to whisper my name, I shook my head and snarled loudly. His voice faded away. A sharp pain stabbed me in the heart as it did, but I couldn’t have him pulling away from my focus. Venkalth was hunting me down, and he’d kill anyone that got in his way. I had to figure out who he was hired by, then kill them both. My boots were sitting by the door. I picked them up but didn’t put them on so my steps would be quiet. I assumed I was in Orion’s home. It would make sense. I crept out of the door and down the long stretch of hall. Several doors lined the hallway, all of them open. I poked my head inside each to find a simple bedroom, the beds appeared recently slept in. Apparently he had a lot of guests.
Voices reached me from the end of the hall where a set of wooden stairs led downward. There was no way to sneak into the room with cathedral ceilings and a fire roaring away in a large, stone hearth. A familiar head of silver hair was visible in a plaid armchair. Orion sat across from Aiden on a matching sofa with his feet propped up on an ottoman. Neither appeared overly concerned about what had just happened in town.
As soon as I started down, the steps creaked, and both men turned. “Ah, you’re awake. Good. Aiden can stop panicking.”
“I wasn’t panicking,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” I answered shortly. “You should be panicking. Why aren’t you both more worried? What about the goblins in town? Venkalth will send more guards.”
“It’s already been taken care of,” Orion assured me.
“How? Not like you can arm the goblins.”
Aiden rested a hand on my shoulder. “Orion and other town elders in Charus have contingency plans in case the fae ever decided to turn on us. They’ve been evacuated to safe houses. Venkalth won’t find them.”
“You don’t know him. He’s not going to stop hunting me.”
“You’re not leaving,” he said quickly when I slipped on my boots and headed for the front door. “You just took down twelve guards alone and collapsed. You cannot go back out there right now.”
“I’m not going to fight.”
“Then what are you doing?” he demanded, using a tone I hadn’t known the healer was capable of having. Then again, watching him stare down the barrel of a gun today was impressive. He was certainly not as useless as I first assumed. Je
ric’s grunt of annoyance inside my head caught me off guard, and I flinched.
Aiden frowned. “Iona?”
“If I’m going to stop Venkalth, I have to get a message to someone,” I explained. “You’ve helped me enough, both of you. After today, I can’t risk anyone else getting dragged into this bloody mess. It’s mine to deal with.”
“Not alone.” Orion hefted himself out of his chair, coughing quietly as he did so. I’d seen the blood on his lips that morning. He was sick, very sick, and yet here he was still risking his life for his kin. “You are not alone in your anger and sorrow over Jeric’s untimely death. We’re going to help you and before we stand here arguing about it with each other for hours, just accept it, eh?” he added with a wink. “Looks like for the moment, we’re all you’ve got.”
He was right, and I hated it. “If you two get killed, you better not haunt me too.”
“Too?” Aiden exchanged a glance with Orion.
“Never mind. Doesn’t matter. I have to get a message to the only guard I can still trust.”
“Are you sure you can?”
I’d trusted Henson with my life and the secret relationship I had with Jeric. That would never change. Besides, I if couldn’t trust him, then I was screwed. “Yes, I can.”
“How are you going to get a message to him?’
“Fighters Guild trick. You have any daggers by chance?”
Aiden went to a satchel by the front door. “I had Henry collect them from the dead guards on the off chance you would want a weapon. The guns were too risky to take.” He brought me the whole bag. “Does it matter they’re not yours?”
“Mine have been tainted,” I said quietly, fighting back the lump in my throat as I saw my dagger plunge itself into Jeric’s chest all over again. “These will do.”
I pulled out a long, thin blade that was most like the ones I used. The fire burning hot in the hearth would work well enough for what I needed. Gripping the dagger in my hand, I closed my eyes and focused on my message. Once I had the words aligned in my head, I squeezed the blade of the dagger just enough to draw blood.
“Iona,” Aiden said, worried.
“I’m alright. All part of the plan,” I told him then felt the blade grow hot. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from wincing. When the blade cooled, I held it out to show them the words inscribed in code on the blade. “That should do it.”
“How are you going to get that to him?” Orion asked.
“Like this.” I held out my open hand to the fire, whispering words I was taught so many years ago. How to contact another in the guild. The fire shifted from orange to violet. I tossed the dagger into the heart of the fire. The flames wrapped around it from hilt to the tip, and when they cleared, the blade was gone. “It’ll find its way to Henson soon enough.”
“What did you tell him?”
I wasn’t sure how they would take the news, but if they were serious about helping me, there was no use lying. Both had proven they weren’t just going to turn me over to the guards for their gain. Aiden wasn’t telling me the truth about why he hadn’t, but I’d get it out of him eventually.
“I told him I’m alive and gave him a mission to complete. We’ll need to get to the designated location by midnight.” The clock above the hearth read half-past nine. “Where are we exactly?”
Orion gave me directions from Timber Falls. I mapped it out in my head. “Where are you meeting this guard of yours?” he asked.
“Not too far away, but we should head out soon. I don’t want to miss him in case he gets there early.”
“What mission did you give him?”
I pulled my hair back in a bun as I told Aiden, “You’ll find out once we get there. Let’s get moving.” Once my hair was fixed, I removed more daggers from the bag and tucked two in the laces of my boots. I didn’t have any sheaths on me, so this would have to do for now.
And I stopped to reassure myself. Henson was smart. He wouldn’t let himself be followed.
Venkalth was smarter though, and that fae had it out for me. I wasn’t going to take any chances of being caught off guard.
The full moon lit up the clearing as we waited for midnight and Henson’s arrival. It hadn’t taken us long to get here. I’d hoped some of my anxiety would fade, but it grew worse. I flipped a flaming dagger end over end, pacing in front of Aiden’s red truck. He sat on the tailgate, watching me, as if worried I was either going to go nuts or collapse.
“We’ve got time,” he repeated. “Why don’t you sit down and conserve your energy?”
“I’m fine.”
“Iona,” he said, and when I glanced over, I found him scowling at me. That look might work on his more stubborn patients, but it did nothing to me. “Fine, whatever, pace away.”
I tossed the dagger end over end one more time then sighed. I walked to the tailgate and hopped up, so I sat beside him, the dagger still flaming in my hand. “There. Happy?”
He studied the fire as it roamed over the blade. “May I?”
I handed it over hilt first. The fire stayed on the blade for a few seconds then went out. He ran his fingers over the steel, shaking his head. “What? You don’t approve?”
“It’s not that. I was just never one for causing harm. They tried, my parents. Both were in the Fighters Guild. As were my three siblings, but not me. I’m the black sheep of the family.”
“We all can’t be killers. Someone has to keep our asses alive.”
He smiled softly. “Be nice if my family would see it that way. I’ve spent so much of my life trying to gain their approval until I decided I wanted nothing to do with them or the Fighters Guild. If they couldn’t understand what I did and why, what was the point?”
“You turned out alright,” I told him. “Look at all the good you do for the goblins. Hell, you saved my life from Reaper Venom. I don’t think there’s another healer who can say that.”
He handed back the dagger. “No, but that won’t matter to them.”
“Makes you feel any better, the guild will disown me if I can’t clear my name. If I don’t end up dead at Venkalth’s hand, someone else will do it. I’ll be a mark of shame on them until someone gets lucky.”
“Even if you’re innocent?”
“The evidence all points to the contrary. Everyone believes I killed the king.” I placed the dagger in my boot and hopped off the tailgate, unable to sit still. “All that matters now is avenging his death.”
“And afterward? If you succeed? What will you do then?”
“One step at a time.”
In truth, I had no idea what I’d do. Probably turn into a hermit, go travel the world. Get as far away from Charus as I could. There was no point in me sticking around without Jeric here. I was surrounded by too many memories that would just continue to haunt me. I left my dagger in my boot but went back to pacing. On one of my turnarounds, I took my time observing Aiden and his head of silver hair. The moonlight brought out the different tones of white and silver in the strands. His hair color didn’t age him, only brought out his attractive features. Whereas Jeric had a stern jawline with a thick beard, Aiden’s face was smooth with high cheekbones and softer features. They didn’t make him look weak, far from it. The two fae couldn’t be more different, but unlike Jeric, I couldn’t quite figure this healer out.
His brow arched suddenly, and his lips twitched.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing, just wondering why you’re staring.”
“Your silver hair, how did you get it?”
“You don’t think I was born with it?”
I shrugged. “Were you?” If he wanted me to stop pacing around like a madwoman, he needed to help me out here and distract me. I crossed my arms and waited.
“It was a mishap about ten years ago,” he explained, holding up a strand of it. “I was working on an antidote for another poison that’s said to be quite difficult to save anyone from. I mixed the wrong ingredients, and let’s just say that
’s not my first cabin.”
“You blew it up?”
“Sky-high. Changed my hair to silver. I only survived because Orion was in the area and saw it go up. He dragged me out. Saved my life.”
“Wait. How long have you been on your own?” Goblins and fae aged slowly. We didn’t exactly count years as humans did. By our standards, I was still in my early twenties. Though in reality, I was closer to my thirties. I guessed Aiden was the same.
“I’d say twenty-five years now. Been a long while,” he mused with a sad smile.
“You’ve done quite well for yourself. You should be proud.” I meant it, too. Aiden was beyond an impressive as a healer. He was calm under pressure, and he’d saved me from Reaper Venom. It was said to have no antidote, and somehow, he came up with one. Wherever his family was, I hoped one day they’d see their son was incredible.
“What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“I know you told Orion you didn’t have any family, but where did you grow up?”
I picked at my tiny black claws as I avoided his inquisitive stare. “All over. I bounced around for a while until the guild found me and took me in. They trained me. They became my family.”
“Do you know what happened to them? Your parents, I mean?”
“Died when I was little as far as anyone remembers.” I shrugged as I forced a smile to my face.
He looked ready to keep asking questions I was going to have to do better at avoiding when sticks and leaves crunched behind me. I drew a dagger and turned my back to Aiden.
“Don’t move,” I told him.
“It’s Henson, right?”
“Might not be. I’m not taking any chances until I see him.”
Headlights bounced off the trees. A black truck appeared. It parked at the edge of the clearing and killed the engine. The door opened, and I held my breath half-expecting to see Venkalth step out. When Henson appeared around the door, a huge smile of relief on his face, I dropped the dagger back into my boot.
“Iona,” he muttered, and then he was embracing me. I hugged him back, fighting back the wave of emotions that wanted to burst forth. “I thought you were dead. There was no word. What the hell happened?”
