by Ciara Graves
“I’m a healer,” I said loudly, emphasizing each word. “What help could I possibly be to her?”
His arms fell to his sides, and he came closer. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but then his hand rested against my forehead.
My eyes slipped closed as I was assaulted by a whirlwind of memories. They swarmed around me, bombarding me with emotions that weren’t my own. I saw the day Iona saved Jeric when his motorcade was attacked. I felt his growing admiration for this half-goblin as he had dinner with her, confided in her, and found a friend. The memories shifted as they became so much more.
Then I saw the night he was killed. Iona had told me about it, but reliving it from Jeric’s eyes, seeing how he died and why he died tore me apart. I sank to my knees in the dirt as Jeric’s pain became my own. He’d saved the woman he loved from Venkalth.
As he removed his hand and the clearing came back into view, I understood it was my duty now to save Iona from herself.
Holding a hand to my chest, feeling a ghost of Jeric’s stab wound, I muttered, “Why me? Why not that Henson guy or anyone else? I’m not a fighter.”
He nodded slowly as if that answered my question. I rubbed the sore spot on my chest and clambered to my feet.
“That’s why you think I’ll be good for her,” I said. “And if you’re wrong? You know she can easily kick my ass. Or kill me.”
He shrugged as if that was a risk he was willing to take.
“If we both end up dead, you can’t blame me in the afterlife.” Now I had to go after Iona with no sure way of how to find her. If she was already inside, I was screwed.
I climbed into the truck and started the engine. As I threw it into drive, Jeric’s spirit materialized in the passenger seat. “You sure you want to tag along? Or I don’t know, why don’t you just go and tell her you don’t want her to do this?”
He raised his brow and motioned for me to get moving.
“Fine, but I’m damned sure she’d listen to you over me.”
Jeric shimmered out of view as I left the clearing behind and took a dirt road that wound through the trees. I’d hit the main road in about an hour. That seemed too long. I pushed the accelerator to the floorboard, and by the time I reached the blacktop, I was hitting seventy.
I’d have to park out of sight. With it being Jeric’s funeral, they’d have the royal grounds crawling with guards. I might manage to get inside using my healer credentials, but only if Venkalth didn’t spot me. Or the guard from Timber Falls. Or the other ones who came to my cabin.
“I’m going to die,” I mumbled to myself.
A touch landed on my shoulder then was gone again.
I was doing this for Jeric, though part of me still didn’t understand why. He had nothing to worry about after all. He was already dead.
Chapter 11
Iona
Getting to the royal grounds had been easier than I expected. When Henson and I arrived a couple of hours before noon, he headed inside to start his shift. I hung around on the outskirts of the grounds until there was enough for commotion for me to slip in through one of the side gates. Only servants and guards used it. They hadn’t even stopped me or asked for my credentials. I’d kept the hood up on the jacket Henson loaned me.
I had expected them to stop and check every person who came close to the mansion. They might not have done it at the gates, but they covered every single door inside. Four guards were posted at the front, the back, and both side entrances.
Luckily for me, I didn’t have to use one of those.
Once I broke from the crowd I’d used as cover to get through the outer perimeter gate, I casually made my way to the garage. The trucks, SUVs, and sedans we used for travel were lined up in neat rows. Only a few were missing in preparation for the funeral procession. It would lead from the front gates of the royal grounds to the cemetery on the other side of the capital. There, Jeric’s body would be laid to rest in the family tomb. My heart seized, and my steps faltered.
“Keep it together,” I muttered to myself. “You can mourn afterward.”
Several guards entered the garage, but it was easy enough to stay out of sight. Once they were gone, I crept around the vehicles until I reached an old rundown black and grey truck. It had been parked in the far-right corner of the garage for as long as I could remember. I’d asked about it once, and several of the older guards had laughed. When the day came I was to be the head of Jeric’s personal guard, I was finally shown what was behind the truck that never seemed to move. There was a steel door that blended into the surrounding metal walls. There was nothing to indicate there was even a door there unless you knew about it.
The locks were all on the other side and could only be unlocked by someone with the correct key and pin number. As I leaned against the door, I worried that Henson hadn’t been able to get to it yet. If I hung around the garage too long, someone would find me. I gave the door another push, and it grated against the concrete floor as it opened.
I slipped through the narrowest crack possible then shut it behind me. Henson had left the key hanging on the keypad. I quickly locked it and tucked the key back in my pocket. If everything went according to plan, this would be my exit.
The walk from the garage through the underground tunnel would take exactly five minutes. It was more time I had to worry about how I’d left Aiden. Knocking him out seemed like the only way to keep him safe. He wasn’t made to deal with the dark side of our people. I was. If he was smart, he’d head back to Orion and go into hiding with the other goblins. I didn’t want him worrying about me or thinking I was his responsibility.
He’d been right, though. If this mission started to go south, if I didn’t think I could get out of this mansion alive, I was more than ready to die.
As long as Mariana and Venkalth were dead, of course.
This whole time, I kept expecting to hear Jeric inside my head again or to feel his presence. I was alone, though. It was just me, and it was better this way. I had probably just been summoning his voice to comfort myself with his loss.
When I reached the end of the tunnel, I pressed my ear to the wooden door that only appeared as a door on this side. In the mansion, this entrance came out behind a large painting of Jeric’s parents that resided on the first floor. It was off the main hall and was usually void of too many people. Voices floated by and I waited for them to depart. I stayed hidden until I counted off sixty seconds with no sounds. I pulled the latch near the top right of the door and opened it carefully.
The hallway was deserted. I wasted no time and hurried on to the back stairs to the second floor. Mariana’s rooms resided here, on at the opposite end from Jeric’s. At the first landing, I ran into a guard. His eyes widened as he reached for his sidearm, his mouth already open on a yell. I grabbed for his com first, yanking it free. My other hand closed around his on the gun, and I headbutted him. He fell back on the steps. I immediately disarmed him then punched him in the face. He slumped over unconscious. I kicked his body down the steps back toward the rear hall and shoved him inside a closet.
After I removed the magazine from the gun, I tossed it in with the guard and closed the door. I never did like guns. They were too damned loud and too easy to rely on. It’s how most guards got themselves killed.
I took the stairs two at a time and made it to the second floor without running into anyone else. As I turned the corner to head to Mariana’s room, however, I came face to face with another guard. This one had his right arm in a sling, and his face was bruised. It only took half a second for me to recognize him as the survivor from Timber Falls.
“Miss me, Gary?” I asked then spun around and kicked him in the face as he started to shout.
My kick cut off the sound, and I punched him in the throat to stop him from yelling at all. He gasped, and I finished him with another solid hit to the face. He crashed to the floor. I dragged his body into a room off the hall, a room used for guests. Thankfully, there were no guests currently a
t the mansion.
With Gary out of the way, I unsheathed my daggers and snuck down the hall to Mariana’s bedroom door. I knocked and waited. When there was no answer, I knocked louder. I knew she was still here. There’d be no reason for any guard to patrol this floor otherwise. We always cleared the floor before any royal returned to their chambers. I opened the door and rushed in, ready to tell Mariana I knew what she was planning.
Except, the room was empty. Her things were gone, all of them. It was like she never lived here at all. I slammed the closet door shut as fury made my blood boil. Her brother wasn’t even buried yet, and that traitorous witch had taken the king’s chambers for her own. There was nowhere else for her to be.
No longer thinking clearly, I charged out of Mariana’s room into the hall. Three guards were there, one of them holding up a pissed-off looking Gary.
All of them turned at the sound of the bedroom door crashing into the wall.
Iona, don’t, Jeric’s voice whispered through my mind.
I rolled my shoulders and glared at the guards. It was too late to get out of here in one piece. If I was going down, I was damned sure Mariana was going down with me.
The second Gary opened his mouth and shouted for them to grab me, I threw a dagger at his head. It hit home at the center of his forehead. The other guard dropped him and joined the charge for me.
I grabbed a third dagger from my boot and met the first guard with a kick to the chest. it threw him into his comrade, but the third guard made it to me. He aimed his gun at my head, and I swiped his arm to the side. The bullet struck the wall behind me. I stabbed him in the bicep, and he screamed as I twisted the dagger. I spun out the other way, knocked the gun from his hand, and ran my other dagger through his neck. As he clapped his hands to his neck to staunch the bleeding, I flipped the daggers over and used the hilts to fend off the attacks of the next two guards.
They opted for daggers as well, and the blades jangled loudly in the hallway.
Yelling sounded on the main floor. More guards would show up eventually. I didn’t have time for this shit. After the fight yesterday, I was weakening fast. I bashed the hilts of my daggers into one fae’s face, but another managed to slash his blade down my back. I snarled as the tip of the blade tore through my flannel shirt and bit into my skin. He smirked, but I wiped it off his face a second later when I slammed my dagger under his chin. I kicked out the legs of the other guard, riding him down with my other dagger to his chest.
“Intruder! Get upstairs,” the order was shouted from the stairs.
Grabbing my daggers, I sprinted down the hall to Jeric’s chambers. I kicked open the door. Mariana screamed in alarm.
I slammed it shut behind me and threw the bolt.
“You. How dare you come back here,” she shouted. “You’ve just signed your death warrant.”
She was decked out in a black silk gown, her red hair pulled back, giving her a severe look. Her hands fisted at her side, yet she seemed unafraid of the killer standing in her bedroom. The guards banged on the door. They’d be through any second.
I stalked toward her. “We both know what you did,” I whispered harshly. “I’ve come to avenge your brother.”
“My brother? You think I had something to do with his death?” she asked, appalled, pressing a hand to her chest.
“You can drop the act. You have anything you want to say before I kill you?”
I waited for her to plead for her life. Or to stop looking at me with those eyes that said she was winning. The guards might come through that door and kill me, but not before I killed her. Venkalth was still out there. It wasn’t an ideal way to go out, but it’d have to do.
Mariana sighed heavily and snapped her fingers. “I will never understand what my brother saw in you,” she said as the door to the bedroom opened. “I believe you know my friend, Venkalth.”
My hands tightened on the daggers as the bastard himself strode into the room. He wasn’t alone. Held in his grasp, barely conscious, was Aiden. His face was beaten, his right eye swollen shut, and he favored his right side. What was he even doing here? How had he gotten inside? It didn’t change anything. I had Mariana and Venkalth in front of me. I’d kill them. And if Aiden’s life was forfeit with mine, then so be it.
You don’t mean that, Jeric whispered and this time I felt him standing right behind me. You can’t let him die, Iona. That’s not who you are.
Aiden tried to speak, but Venkalth placed a dagger at his throat. An image of Jeric dying flashed before my eyes. I took a step forward—as if I could stop it.
Venkalth clicked his tongue. “I’d stay put if I were you. Don’t want to get someone else killed now do you?”
“You think you can kill me? Your poison didn’t even do the trick.”
Venkalth sneered. “Yes, and I’m certain I have this healer to thank for that. Don’t worry. He won’t be able to save you a second time.”
I tried to take another step, but this time when Venkalth threatened Aiden with the blade, blood appeared on its tip.
I froze and held up my hands. “What do you want?”
“Oh, I think that’d be quite obvious,” Mariana mused. “Turn yourself in, and your friend here goes free.”
“Right, because I’d believe you.”
She shrugged. “You’re right. We’d kill him after we killed you, but alas, I can’t have traitors running amok when I take the throne, now can I?”
“It’ll never happen. I won’t let it.”
“My dear Iona, you don’t get a say in the matter. You’re going to be dead.”
Why had Aiden done this? I’d had a plan, one that might’ve ended in my death, but it was a plan that would’ve avenged Jeric’s death and saved the kingdom from a terrible fate. Why had he shown up? To stop me? I was furious with him.
As much as I told myself I was fine with his death, the thought of seeing Aiden dead at the hands of Venkalth sent an uncomfortable shiver down my spine. It wasn’t just because he’d saved my life. No, this came from something else I couldn’t quite explain. I hated him for it. Hated him for getting himself in the same damned situation Jeric had been in.
This time, I wasn’t going to watch him die. Hoping he realized what this cost me, I winked at Aiden. His good eye widened as he subtly shook his head. Too damned late. He got his ass here, and I was going to get us both out, alive.
My revenge would just have to wait for another day.
“Well? What’s your answer? I don’t have all day,” Mariana complained. “There’s a funeral to get to and then, of course, the dinner afterward. Did you know Prince Reyson will be there? He was terribly saddened at the news of Jeric’s murder at your hands. Just dreadful, he said.”
“Enjoy your life while you can, Princess,” I said, aiming a dagger at her. “Death will come for you, and I’ll be the one who guides it right to your cold, rotten heart.”
“One day maybe, but I plan on wearing the crown for a very long time before that happens.”
While she went on, more and more, about her rule, I watched Venkalth closely. His eyes hadn’t left me, and his grip on Aiden seemed to tighten. Timing would be everything.
I’d worked out a plan with Henson on the off chance I killed Mariana and wasn’t caught. We needed a way for him to know there was a body to be found. And I couldn’t be standing anywhere near it. He’d brought me an old com this morning and had it set to only a channel he and I would hear.
There were two codewords Henson, and I had used while we worked together. We simply changed the meaning for this particular mission. The first word, Reaper, would mean I was successful, and the target was dead. The second word meant I needed a diversion.
Mariana paused, realizing Venkalth and I were having a stare down instead of listening to her.
I smirked. “Your Grace,” I said.
“Are you speaking to me?” Mariana asked with a confused glance at Venkalth.
The assassin, on the other hand, started to laugh.
“Oh, you are good, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” Mariana demanded. “What’s happening?”
We both ignored her. Henson’s voice came through the com, “Roger. Five seconds and counting. Brace yourself.”
As Henson counted down, I dropped my daggers to the floor.
Aiden frowned as Venkalth loosened his grip on his arm. The dagger came away from his throat.
I knew what he was planning to do. He was going to kill Aiden.
Just as Henson reached one, I leaped across the room, hands outstretched for Aiden. Venkalth moved to stab me as I struck the healer.
The mansion shook violently in sync with the sound of a mighty explosion.
It tossed Venkalth and Mariana clear across the room. Aiden and I hit the floor. I rolled and yanked him up with me.
“Can you run?” I shouted, already making for the bedroom and the passage that led from Jeric’s chambers to a secret set of stairs, then straight outside.
Aiden nodded, but whatever he said was cut off by a second explosion.
With the guards on high alert, the armory had been wide open, so they would have easy access to weapons in a hurry. No one probably paid any attention to Henson as he waltzed in and waltzed right back out with a bag full of grenades.
I shoved Aiden ahead of me into Jeric’s room, then guided him toward the bed. I pressed the knob on the headboard, and the wall to the right swung inward. The moment we were through, Venkalth appeared in the doorway to the bedroom.
He shouted my name, but I sealed the passage behind me.
“On the south lawn,” Henson informed me. “Black truck with the silver stripe.”
“Copy.”
I grabbed Aiden’s shoulder to steady him as another explosion thundered through the mansion.
Once we hit the ground floor, we sprinted along the short tunnel to another door that led directly outside. Using the key I’d tucked in my pocket earlier, I unlocked it and punched in the code on the keypad. The light above the door turned green, and we were out, running into the late morning sun.
