by Eva Brandt
“Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s a trap,” Bjorn replied. “The Dame Blanche Pierce was talking to claimed it had something to Lucienne’s magic going out of control, but I get the feeling it’s more complicated than that. I think they’re as aware as we are that we can’t continue this for much longer.”
“They’re afraid of her,” Mathias added. “They’re afraid of Lucienne and they want to use her against us. They know very well that we’re not very likely to hurt her and at the same time, her magic is one of few things in this world more powerful than my own.”
“And you still want to pursue this?” I asked in disbelief. “To go after her?”
Mathias’s lips twisted in a small, almost self-deprecating smile. “Truth be told, I know it might not be the best idea. But Declan, I’ve waited a millennium and a half to have my family back. I can’t wait any longer.
“I believe in her. I believe that, in the end, she will remember. She’s stronger than they give her credit for. Deep inside, she knows, just like we do, that we were meant to be together.”
“And better yet,” Bjorn said, “so does Pierce. He won’t help them for much longer. I can tell. He might hate us all with a passion, but he’ll do the right thing to save Lucienne. I’m sure of it.”
I didn’t have his confidence. I’d never actually met Pierce, but he was supposed to be a combination of us, so I couldn’t imagine he’d be happy to join in on our efforts. We’d have never reached an agreement if not for the fact that we’d had centuries of living together to fall back on.
At the end of the day, Pierce’s nature was to be a jealous asshole, which was something we all had in common.
Then again, maybe I was being unfair to him. If I was willing to turn into a cannibalistic monster and tear members of my pack apart, just for the vague hope of Lucienne’s future happiness, why would Pierce not want to do something similar?
“It’s not much to go on, but we have to try,” I said. “We can’t attack without a plan, though. If we get captured, that’ll be it. We’ll lose any chance we might’ve had of saving her.”
“Maybe,” Malachai replied, flipping a playing card between his fingers. His crimson eyes flared with a strange knowledge. “But that wouldn’t be anything new, would it? We’ve been the captives of her curse for over a millennium. This isn’t that different.”
It was hardly the same and our repeated circle of rebirths didn’t mean we could afford to be reckless about each individual life. Still, when I looked at Malachai and the others, I knew it wasn’t recklessness or despair that had driven them to make this suggestion. “All right,” I agreed at last. “We might as well get it over with. Where do we start?”
* * *
Pierce
“That was stupid, Pierce. What made you think you could get away with betraying us?”
I slumped against the back of my chair and stared up at the ceiling, ignoring the figure of my captor. “I never intended to betray you and you know it,” I replied. When I’d first woken up in this room, I’d almost been crippled by the fear of what he’d do to me. Now, I was just angry and exasperated. “What are you trying to prove by torturing me? You have to let me go. You need me to make sure the ritual works.”
A strong hand landed on my shoulder, the hold so tight I couldn’t help but flinch. “Don’t be so arrogant, Pierce. I’ve given you everything you have in this life. I can take it away just as easily.”
“Oh, I’m sure that’s true,” I replied. “It’s not your ability I doubt, but your willingness to go through with such a drastic step.”
Fuck you very much, I wanted to say. Fuck you and your hypocrisy, your cruelty and your lies. Honestly, I was better off telling Lucienne about the whole thing and letting her make a decision about it.
But it was too late for that. My hands were tied. Even if I hadn’t been forced into a corner by the desire to help Lucienne, my whole family still owed Louis a debt, one we could only repay through our blood, our magic, and our fealty. I couldn’t defy him without paying the price.
“Do you really think I would care if you died?” Lucienne suddenly asked. “You used me for your own self-satisfaction and pleasure. I’d rejoice in your pain.”
I opened my eyes and faced the recreation of my worst fears, shaped as my beautiful soulmate. “Nice try, but Lucienne would never say that.”
“You don’t know me very well.” The fake Lucienne laughed. “I’ve said and done far worse things.”
“That’s a lie,” I replied, increasingly irritated by Louis’s insistence to use the illusion of my soulmate’s body. “Lucienne isn’t Dahud. She’s not the person you want her to be.”
Lucienne’s image vanished, replaced by that of her father. “Oh, but she is. Otherwise, we wouldn’t all be here in the first place. You’re fooling yourself if you think she’s any different now that she was in her past life.”
“I’m not fooling myself at all. I just don’t care. It’s Lucienne that I know, and I’ve seen her kindness and gentleness. Whatever she used to be, she’s changed.”
Truth be told, I didn’t believe that. I’d seen shadows of her old self in her eyes, in the magic she could barely control. But at the same time, I refused to let her lose herself to that, to the person she’d been. If all of us only saw her as Dahud, Lucienne would fade away completely. Dahud would come back, terrible and fierce, just like she had been more than a millennium ago.
Louis snapped his fingers and the bindings holding me strapped to the chair loosened. “You’re a stupid boy, you know that? How did someone like you end up my daughter’s soulmate? I must be cursed too.”
He wasn’t expecting a reply, so I didn’t provide one. I just got up, stretching my limbs in an attempt to chase away the soreness.
At the other corner of the room, a group of Dames Blanches hovered anxiously. They hadn’t said a word throughout Louis’s little interrogation. He had woken up so suddenly that he’d taken them by surprise, and they weren’t that happy about it.
He might be powerful and possibly our best chance at safeguarding Lucienne’s future, but none of them liked him.
Still, the Dames Blanches had never been cowards, so as expected, they ended up approaching us. “What do you want to do, Louis?” Ines asked, all the while eyeing me with some concern. Once a healer, always a healer, I supposed. “Should we cancel the trip?”
“No, of course not,” Louis replied. “We do nothing. We won’t be telling Lucienne about my recovery at all. It’s best for her to be unaware, until Mathias and the others are captured. She needs as much incentive as possible when she faces them.”
“So you think they’ll attack at the meeting then?” Augustine inquired.
Louis sneered, as if he thought Augustine was stupid for asking. “Of course they will. Mathias is even more eager to end this vicious circle than I am, and he’s always been reckless. You’d think that after all these years, he’d have learned to not jump into things, but he never has. In that way, he’s predictable.”
“If we do this, so are we,” I pointed out. “They’ll be ready for us.”
“Not really,” he said with a sharp smirk. “You see, Pierce, there’s one very important thing you need to learn about Lucienne. No one is ever prepared for her. That goes for me too. I underestimated her and her power, and I paid the price for it.
“But that’s why Lucienne is so valuable. She’ll easily destroy them, just as she almost did me.”
Yes, but she shouldn’t have to. We were supposed to be the ones to get rid of Mathias and the others. Sadly, Louis didn’t believe I could do that and he was more inclined to torture me than he was to grant me this responsibility.
The funniest thing was that I couldn’t blame him for it. I’d fucked up that whole conversation with Bjorn. I should’ve warned the Dames Blanches of his presence or at the very least, not pretended he wasn’t there.
At the same time, though, I still believed Louis needed me. He might deem me only an arrogant boy
, but without me, the ritual would have no anchor and we’d be unable to end the spell. Even if Lucienne killed her so-called soulmates—which I doubted she’d do—it would just start the whole circle all over again. And I hadn’t forgotten Delphine’s words, her threat, and the way she’d spoken about Lucienne.
In a way, we were at a stalemate, because I trusted Lucienne’s family even less than Louis trusted me.
“So I take it I’ll be going with her then?” I asked with a smile I didn’t feel.
Louis flicked his fingers and agony exploded through me, my magic turning against me, making my blood boil in my veins. I went down, collapsing to my knees in front of him. I tried not to scream, but I just managed to muffle my shouts by biting on my lower lip.
I tasted blood, failure, and burnt flesh in my mouth. It was suitable, considering the situation I’d landed myself in.
Louis knelt next to me and gripped my chin. His fingers felt icy cold when he touched me. “Yes, you will,” he whispered. “You’ll be going with her. But you won’t be alone. I’ll be watching you, boy, and if you take one step out of line, I’ll make you wish you’d stayed a shattered piece of nothing. Understand?”
Half in a daze, I nodded, although I would’ve preferred to spit in his face. “I understand.”
“Good boy.” Louis patted my cheek mockingly. Another wave of pain rushed over me, as if he was trying to reaffirm the point he was making, to show me he was stronger than I could ever hope to be. “Now you’re getting the message.”
Had I thought I hated his female persona more than I did him? I must’ve been out of my mind. Or maybe I hadn’t been, and Louis’s secret goal was to make me as crazy as he was.
Thankfully, I’d at least been right about his priorities. He still needed me, so he pulled away after a few seconds. “I’ll take my leave now. Ladies, do make sure this one keeps his promise. I wouldn’t want us to fail in our plan because he does something stupid.”
Without waiting for a reply, he walked off, the sharp bite of his magic fading away as he put distance between us. I heard the door open and close, but was too tired and in too much pain to make sure he’d left the room. I still uttered the words that had been on my mind for weeks now. “Fuck you. One of these days, I’ll be the one holding you down and making you suffer.”
Every word was like a dagger to my chest, but I fought my way past the pulsing pain through sheer spite and stubbornness. It was stupid of me to make myself sick over two sentences Louis couldn’t even hear, but I was so fucking tired of letting him win every single battle.
He owned me, owned my soul, my life, my family, the woman I loved—and he knew it, damn him.
With a sigh, Ines walked up to me and offered me her hand. I ignored it and got up on my own. She pressed her lips together in visible disapproval, but didn’t address my unsubtle rebuff. “Oh, Pierce... What in the world were you thinking? Why didn’t you tell us you’d seen the inquisitor?”
“It didn’t occur to me at the time,” I said as I spat blood on the floor. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“Not now, but it would have, before,” she pointed out. “Look, Pierce, you have to take this seriously, if not for your sake, for Lucienne’s. And don’t forget Diane and Clara. They’re in danger too if you fuck up.”
Her use of such vulgar language spoke volumes of how much trouble we were in. I’d already been aware of it, and it didn’t change anything. How was I supposed to work for a man I hated, while lying to my soulmate and betraying her?
“We know this is difficult for you, but sometimes, you have to do distasteful things to achieve your goals,” Delphine pointed out. “This is all for a good purpose, remember? To make sure Lucienne is free.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” I said. “I just... I need to think.”
I also needed to get out of here, to take a break from this place that was suffocating me. I wondered if this was how Lucienne felt all the time, if she’d experienced this strange pressure that threatened to split my skull.
If so, I deserved all the pain and torture Louis had inflicted upon me. He might have manifested as Lucienne to deliberately mock me with my worst fears, but that didn’t make those fears any less real or the things he’d said falsehoods.
I stumbled out of the room and almost shed tears of relief when the Dames Blanches didn’t follow me. Maybe they appreciated my company as much as I appreciated theirs—that is to say, not at all.
Somehow, I found my way into the gardens of the mansion. It was still the middle of the night and the air was pleasantly cool on my overheated skin. It didn’t help me much.
I sat on the grass and stared up at the sky, seeking answers in the stars. I didn’t know what to do. No one here would ever understand. Diane thought I should just go along with what the Dames Blanches and Louis wanted. My mother was still in a coma. My beautiful soulmate was practically brainwashed by her own father.
I was trapped, trapped with no help and no way to save Lucienne from her own fate.
No. There was still something I could do, something important. If in this life as Pierce Garnier, I couldn’t be what Lucienne needed, it stood to reason that I had to start over.
Darius and the others had gotten plenty of tries. They’d failed every single time, but still, the fact remained that their repeated circle of rebirths meant that I could come back too. And if I died and was reborn as someone from a different bloodline, I would no longer be bound by a magical vow to the same man who’d destroyed me during my first life.
Yes, this was what I needed to do. That damn incubus had been right. I needed to stop being selfish and think of Lucienne first. If Pierce Garnier wasn’t enough to make sure Lucienne was finally happy, then I’d find a way to be something or someone different.
Nine
Accursed Reunions
Lucienne
I didn’t clearly remember the first time I’d spoken to an official of The Pure Kingdom of Alaria. It had been during the attack at the wedding, but I’d just received an injury, and my confusion, pain, anguish, and grief had been so intense it was a miracle I remembered anything at all.
My second meeting with the Alarians was very different. It was held in a small grove three miles from the fairy mound that belonged to Delphine’s informer. By the time we arrived, evening had fallen and the Alarian delegation was already there. The two groups were bickering, in that very polite, yet biting way that, ironically, Alarians and fae shared.
I didn’t get to hear any of the sharp barbs that undoubtedly flew back and forth, because as soon as my plane landed and I stepped onto the grass, everyone was on their best behavior. It was almost unnerving to see, and it gave me a bad feeling—the feeling that I was missing something.
Hiding my unease, I headed toward the two leaders of the delegations, with a silent Pierce by my side. The fae spoke first. He was a tall man with blond hair and iridescent, golden wings. His deceptively mellow voice held more magic than three Dames Blanches put together, and his power lit up the grove, allowing all of us to see clearly. “Greetings, Lady de Hastingues. My name is Blossom. Welcome to our lands. It is an honor to have you here.”
I suppressed a sigh at the introduction. The fae’s name wasn’t Blossom. Paranormal beings like him believed that names had too much power to be shared with the whole world. Despite belonging to a branch of the larger fae species, my family didn’t think that was true and I agreed. A name was an artificially chosen label, and most of the time, it said very little about who and what a person was on the inside.
Still, I respected their customs. I just deemed it weird that this particular fae would pick a name that was so obviously fake. Usually, they went with more dignified options like Ash, Oak, or Thorn. Blossom reminded me of the Powerpuff Girls.
If there was already a power play going on here and it had manifested into something like this, I would not be held responsible for my actions. For the moment, I ignored it and offered him my best smile. “On the cont
rary, the honor is all mine. I appreciate any help and information you could provide.”
The Alarian representative was also male, and just like Blossom, he was almost painfully polite. “Greetings, Your Highness. My name is Valerian Christensen. In the name of His Royal Majesty, King Sterling of the House of Alarisson, I’d like to extend a thank you for your most gracious visit and your assistance in the matter of the plagues.”
It was a little strange that he’d call me by such a title, since I wasn’t a princess or anything like that. Still, as long as the man helped me find the culprits behind the attack on my wedding, I wouldn’t question their traditions.
“You are too kind. It will be my honor to cooperate with both the Alarians and the fae of El Dorado.”
“I trust we will manage to deal with this threat as efficiently as we have in the past, if not more so,” Pierce added.
I was glad I had him by my side, although at the same time, I was a little worried about him. Since he’d witnessed the aftermath of my nightmare, he’d been acting a little strangely. I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d finally pushed him too far, if my inability to decide how to handle our relationship would make him change his mind about us.
But now was not the time to think about such things. We were here today to build a real diplomatic connection with Alaria and the Alabama branch of the El Dorado fae. Notorious for their tendency to hoard items made out of precious metals, they’d once been the source of the human myth of the great golden city. It wasn’t true, of course, as fae preferred their smaller, reclusive mounds to huge settlements. They were also powerful and could be a real asset in our quest to make Mathias Vandale pay for what he’d done.
Fae didn’t bother with tables whenever they left their mounds, but they liked their comfort. We ended up seated in a circle on the ground, on soft, warm moss that had appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m told you have information for us regarding the scavengers who attacked my wedding,” I said without preamble. “What exactly have you found at this maximum security prison you mentioned?”
