by Quinn Loftis
“Okay man I know that face. That’s the same face my father had when he told me about the dark elves and how my family was bound to serve them for all eternity. What is it, Warrior?” Tony asked finally.
“There are words you must speak, but if you speak them you will be bound between realms.”
“What?” Elora blurted out. “You didn’t tell us that part before!”
“Would it have changed whether we had gone after Tony?” he asked.
Elora considered him and then shook her head. “No,” she looked over at Tony. “I’m sorry, but one life isn’t more important than the human race.” Really what she wanted to say was that one life wasn’t worth never seeing her best friend again, never knowing if she was safe and if Lorsan was gone, but she figured that sounded much more selfish.
“I agree,” Tony told her and then looked back to Cush. “Tell me what I must say.”
“It is the language of my people so just repeat what I say as you run the knife across your skin and let your blood drip on the mirror.” Cush didn’t know what would happen to those so close to the one opening the portals so he pulled on his magic and put a shield up to make sure that none of them were sucked in with Tony when the portals finally opened. He began reciting the words he had memorized from the book and Tony’s voice followed as he brought the dagger down on his forearm, slicing effortlessly into his flesh. The blood welled up immediately and it was deep enough that it began to flow freely. Tony pressed it to the mirror as he continued to repeat what Cush was saying.
Elora’s hair began to blow around her and the lights in the room began to flicker as Tony’s blood ran down the mirror. Then, just as quickly as the air had come, it was gone. And Tony was still standing there.
“I don’t get it,” she spoke up as everyone but Cush stared slack-jawed at the human. Cush was frowning. “Did it work?”
Cush walked over to the mirror and pulled Tony’s arm away. He slowly put his hand to the mirror and pushed. The group collectively gasped as his arm went right through it. Elora wanted to grab onto him for some reason. She had this horrible feeling that something was going to latch onto him from the other side and not let go. And as if her nightmares had been heard by someone, Cush suddenly jerked his arm back. She could tell he had been pulling against something.
“Cush!” She grabbed him and pulled him back, turning him to face her. “What happened?” She refrained, somehow, from patting him down everywhere to reassure herself that he was in one piece. She really was becoming such a girl.
“The portals have already been opened. But they’re being watched,” he told her solemnly.
“What does that mean?” Oakley asked.
“It means that if we go through the portal we aren’t going to be safe. I just put my arm through and someone grabbed it,” Cush explained. “It’s extremely difficult to monitor the portals, but it can be done with someone who has a lot of power.”
Elora looked at Cush and then at Rin because the two warriors were staring at each other and she could see the same frustration mirrored there. Here were two men accustomed to taking action, to protecting those in their care, and they didn’t have a clue how to help themselves.
“Surely they can’t be monitoring every portal everywhere,” Elora pointed out.
“I don’t really want to take a chance to find out,” Cush told her meaningfully.
“So what do we do now?” Elora asked, frustration evident in the deep tone of her voice. “I mean Tony’s over there bleeding to death, we’re in a booty call motel, our vehicle’s been blown to hell, the dark elves know we’re around somewhere because we just burned their little farming operation to the ground, and we can’t even go have fun in Vegas because the creepy elf Dr. Evil is there. It seems to me like we just don’t have a lot of options here.”
“I think we need to get some rest, and then we will figure out what the next step is,” Lisa spoke up. She walked over to Elora and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know you want action, Elora. You’re just like your father, always running in guns blazing, but we have to sleep sometime. Only then will we be thinking clearly.”
Elora tried not to flinch at the mention of her father. It was still a painful topic and one they hadn’t had time to fully discuss. She finally relented. “Okay, fine, we’ll sleep first.” She started for the motel door but was brought up short by a large hand around her wrist. She didn’t turn; she’d know that touch anywhere.
“You stay with me,” Cush’s breath rushed across her neck as his lips brushed her ear with each word. When he picked her up in his arms, she didn’t resist. She just let him take care of her.
“It’s about time,” he whispered as he laid her on the bed and pulled the covers up. He climbed on next to her leaning against the headboard and then drug her up to lay against his chest. His bossiness should tick her off, but as his body warmed hers and his heartbeat lulled her to sleep, she couldn’t find the energy to be irritated, let alone mad at him.
Cush struggled with the urge to haul off and kill someone or something. As he lay with his Chosen in his arms in the dark motel room, his mind was continually drawn back to that moment when he had put his arm in the portal. Someone, and he knew it was a someone because it had been a hand, had grabbed his arm. He had felt the heat from their skin against his and when they had attempted to pull him through the portal it had enraged him. The amount of evil that had been in that touch had left his skin feeling as though thousands of ants were marching along his nerves all doing a dance to the tune of “Another One Bites the Dust.” Whoever had touched him had wanted him to feel that evil. They had wanted him to know they were hunted, they were prey, and few things angered him more than feeling like prey.
“You’re thinking awfully loud,” Elora’s tired voice broke through his thoughts.
He ran a hand over her hair and down her back, enjoying the way she felt. “Shh, Little Raven, you need more sleep.”
“Your little raven is going to peck your eye balls out if you don’t quit telling her what to do.” Cush chuckled at her kitten like growl. “You like it when I boss you around,” he teased as he whispered against her ear. She was still sprawled across his chest where he had put her, and even though she was arguing with him, she had yet to attempt to move away.
“Yes, well I also like the smell of gasoline and the way a snake feels, so I wouldn’t bank your actions too much on what I like.”
“The way a snake feels?” he repeated and though she couldn’t see him he still quirked a brow at her.
“Blame it on the dark blood,” she said dryly.
She buried herself closer to him and pressed her face against his neck. Cush stubbornly tried not to enjoy it too much, but her warm breath skittered across his skin and distracted him from the evil he had been so focused on.
“I keep hearing something about evil dance across your thoughts, Warrior,” she said softly. “What evil?”
He knew that he needed to be open with her, but his first instinct was to protect her, to keep her from having to deal with dangerous things. He knew that if he attempted to cage his raven she would indeed peck his eyes out. He let out a deep breath before he answered her.
“Whatever grabbed me was something so evil, so vile, that I can still feel the residue of it on my skin,” he admitted and actually felt his mood lighten after the words were out.
Elora pulled back so she could look up at his face and he saw the concern in her eyes, concern for him. He reached a hand up and ran his fingers across her cheek, completely in awe of the creature before him who would worry for him.
“Do you think it’s Lorsan, or are you thinking there is someone else now joining the fray?” she asked.
“Whoever it was, they definitely are a player for Lorsan, but I don’t think it was Lorsan himself.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “It didn’t feel male.”
She let out an un-ladylike snort. “Do I want to even know why you think that? Per
haps your hand landed on something.”
His finger landed across her lips silencing her as his eyes narrowed in warning. When he finally pulled his finger away she let out an exasperated huff.
“I say that it didn’t feel male because magic can have a masculine or an un-masculine quality to it. This was definitely un-masculine,” he explained.
“So how are we going to get back to Trik and Cassie?”
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted after several heartbeats of silence.
“I’m probably worrying for nothing,” she said as she snuggled back down against him. “They’ve probably smacked Lorsan to the curb and are having a party.”
“Weren’t we just standing in a castle?” Cassie asked as she looked around at the rubble surrounding her. She was trying not to look at Trik as though he had just deflected an explosion and kept all of their people safe while allowing the destruction to take its toll on the dark elves still in the vicinity. But frankly, that’s exactly what he had done, and bloody freaking hell, who has that kind of power, she thought as she stared at her husband.
Trik looked at her and in total Trik fashion, he winked. “Just think what I can do in the bedroom.”
Cassie rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the others around her. Syndra was talking to Tyndril and Tao, weird as that was. The two tigers were unharmed but seemed very agitated. Tamsin was checking on the other warriors and gathering up any of the dark elves who had lived through the blast.
“He knew his people would be killed and harmed, and still he blew up his own freaking home?” Cassie growled.
“Lorsan cares about power, Love; nothing else matters to him,” Trik told her.
“Yes but doesn’t he realize that if he kills off all his warriors he won’t be able to hold onto that power?”
Trik smiled at her. “He obviously doesn’t have a queen with wisdom such as yours to advise him.”
Cassie laughed. “If we weren’t in the middle of an exploded castle, I might think you were trying to earn some brownie points for some reason.”
“Always, beautiful Cassandra, always.” He took her hand and led her over to where Tamsin stood with the captives on their knees and hands bound behind their backs.
“Most of them didn’t even know you had returned to power,” Tamsin told Trik. “They were completely clueless. So either Lorsan doesn’t trust his own people or he had been planning on sacrificing them all along and didn’t want them to be aware of it.”
“Dude is sick,” Cassie muttered under her breath.
“And evil,” Syndra added as she came to stand next to them. “What are you going to do with them, Trik?” she asked.
Trik looked down at the dark elves kneeling before him. There were around twenty-five and they were all looking back at him, some in awe, some in confusion, but none of them looked hostile. These had been his fellow warriors for centuries, and yet standing before them now as their King, he felt as if he’d never met them.
“The Forest Lords have seen fit to restore me back as the rightful king over all the elves. You can pledge your loyalty to me and to my queen,” he motioned to Cassie, “and the Forest Lords, or you forfeit your life.” He figured that would make the choice pretty simple.
“May I speak,” a male with long dark hair and red eyes spoke up.
Trik nodded his head and answered, remembering the warrior’s name. “Leer, what say you?”
The dark elf stood and pulled his shoulders back as he narrowed his eyes at Trik. “We know you probably better than the light-elf king and queen. We know your reputation and have seen firsthand the death you have delivered over the centuries. Why should we follow you? Why should we pledge our loyalty to an assassin, one who worked so closely with Lorsan?” There was a rumble of agreement behind Leer as the other dark elves agreed with his questions.
Trik knew that these questions would come. He knew he couldn’t expect the light or dark elves to forget all of his past; they would be foolish to not question him. He didn’t want to be a leader of a race that could not think for themselves. He would never ask them to follow blindly and he would never lead haphazardly.
“You are right to question and I will answer you to the best of my ability.” He took a deep breath and looked down when he felt a small hand slip into his. Cassie was smiling up at him, her face the picture of innocence and truth—his truth. He drew on the confidence she gave him and turned back to the dark elves. “When I walked away from my crown so many centuries ago, the Forest Lords gave me a prophecy although I did not remember it until it started to unfold. They said that the choice would be laid before me to take my crown back when I found my Chosen. They said she would be a vessel of goodness and light, one so pure that she would conquer the darkness that I had allowed a foothold in my own soul. Cassandra is my Chosen. Why the Forest Lords have given me someone so gentle and kind I will never know. I do know that I may be many things, but I am not a fool and it would be foolish of me to reject the gift of my Chosen. She has restored the light in my life, she has helped me to see that our creators, the Forest Lords, have a purpose and plan for us, and it was never for us to be a divided nation.
“I’ve committed myself once again to their leadership and teachings and choose to follow them. I will no longer let evil rule in my heart nor will I let it reign in the hearts of any of our elves, light or dark. A time of cleansing is coming and they will wipe from our realm any that do not choose the correct path. Change is painful, and change for the good is sometimes more than painful because it requires death so that new life can grow.” Trik’s eyes met Leer’s and then he met the stare of each dark-elf captive. “You have a chance to do something good, something selfless; don’t let this chance pass you by.”
He turned then to Tamsin. “If they pledge loyalty release them immediately; if not then bring them back to the castle and I will deal with them.”
“You don’t have to do it alone,” Tamsin told him.
Trik met his eyes. “I have set their death sentence. I should be the one to carry it out.” He heard Cassie’s intake of breath and knew that she would argue against it, but he knew it was the right thing to do. “Cassie and I will continue to seek out survivors, and Syndra will use her healing ability on the wounded.” He looked up at the rest of the light-elf warriors still waiting on orders. “Be vigilant as you search the ruins, and if you can keep from killing then please do. We will take as many alive as possible and give them the opportunity to choose their own fate.”
“Why do you think you have to be the one to kill them?” Cassie asked as soon as they were away from the others.
“Are we really going discuss this now?” Trik asked her.
“Well we can always wait and discuss the fact that you think you have to be the one to deal out the death sentences later, when we’re alone, in the room we now share because we’re married.” Cassie knew she wasn’t playing fair, but then she was married to an assassin. The way she saw it he probably didn’t even know what playing fair looked like.
“That’s just wrong, Cassandra,” Trik nearly growled at her.
She shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m sure there’s nothing else you’d rather be doing later anyways, so you are totally right; there’s no need to talk about it right now.”
“Cassie,” Trik warned.
“Can’t hear you,” she sung as she continued to look for injured dark elves, all the while a secret smile danced on her lips. She shouldn’t manipulate him, but as she looked back over her shoulder at the frustrated, now huffy king, she couldn’t help the slight amount of satisfaction she found in it. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t quite as pure and gentle as they thought.
Chapter 16
“Life is happening all around us. War, bloodshed, loyalties being given and taken away and yet there is still us. At the end of the day you are the one who I share my hurts, my worries, my fears and my hopes with. You are the one who sees me fall apart when I’ve been holding it together in front of eve
ryone else. When everything else is falling apart, you are the one who continually holds me together.” ~Cassie
Cassie drug herself into the room she had now called home for more days than she could remember. She didn’t even know if she could recall what her bedroom at her parents’ house looked like, and that thought nearly dropped her to her knees. She was so tired—the kind of tired that seeped into your bones and didn’t let go until you had given into it and slept for days, but she knew that wouldn’t be happening. After searching the rubble and then traveling across the realm back to the light-elf castle, they now had close to fifty dark-elf captives to deal with. Of course her mate thought he had to handle it all himself. Little did he know that she was about to put her foot down and he was going to listen.
She went ahead and showered quickly, needing to get the dust out of her hair and used the time to gather her thoughts. She had been building her argument all day, knowing that it would take some pretty good convincing to get Trik to change his mind. By the time she was clean, dressed in a simple nightgown, and working on the tangles in her hair Trik walked into her, well their room now. He looked so tired and yet when his eyes landed on her he seemed to fill up with life, like a balloon being re-inflated.
“Hey, Beautiful,” he said smiling despite his obvious weariness.
“Why don’t you get a shower,” Cassie suggested before he could come wrap his dirty arms around her.
Trik looked down at himself, his clothes covered in ash and dust, and then looked back up at her. “So you don’t like your men dirty?” he asked with a wink.
Cassie felt her heart stutter at the inhumanly handsome elf before her. Trik was gorgeous on a good day, but when he flirted he took it to a whole other level. She didn’t want to be affected by him at the moment and so she did her best to frown at him, but she could tell he wasn’t buying it.
“Relax, Cassie, I’ll go take a shower so you can continue to work on your argument against my killing the captives.” He laughed when her frown turned to a scowl. As the door closed she heard him call out, “And don’t think that the discussion is going to postpone any other activities that need to happen and will happen.”
