Gilded Chain

by Melle Amade

  Our unit of assassins, our cabal, was wiped out.

  Tears streamed hot down my face, falling onto the cool grass. I steadied my breathing, inhaling the chill air as deep as possible, letting it still my insides. It wouldn’t help if we both fell a part. Siobhan laid crumpled on the grass, sobbing until her steady rasping breath told me she was asleep. I slipped from my kneeling position, lying on my side in the dark field.

  Nothing would bring them back or make this right.

  It must stop.

  The senseless killing of my people had to end.

  We call them Hunters for a reason. They hunt us incessantly. Through the ages it had never stopped. They built their beliefs on a two-thousand-year-old idea that we are demon spawn, even though there is no evidence we did any of the things they claimed. We didn’t eat children, attack humans…we don’t even breed with humans. Yet still we were classified a “children of the devil” and they despised us enough to kill us. We had tried to reason, negotiate, and finally all we could do was struggle to protect our perimeters.

  And still they came.

  I raked my hand through my short red hair. The night was gone, and the sun lightened the sky, making the horizon bleed crimson. Ravensgaard still lived, but my cabal was extinguished. We hadn’t gone through the bodies, we couldn’t. We could barely shift and fly to safety. Maybe some of our people escaped and scattered, perhaps they would arrive at Castle Brannach, too.

  Maybe.

  It didn’t change the reality seering my brain as the sunrise sliced the sky.

  Hunters must die.

  We must eliminate them. It is the only answer.

  “They followed us from the concert,” Siobhan murmured into the morning pall. “It’s our fault.”

  I bit my tongue between my teeth so hard it hurt. Hard enough to make sure I didn’t say what I’m thinking. Shut the hell up. And, you’re right. We totally fucked up, and it cost our family their lives. It might as well have been us who killed them.

  The Hunters will pay.

  I will kill every last one of them.

  It won’t make it right, but it’s a decision I can understand. Something I can grip on to and throttle to death as my world falls apart.

  Siobhan hugged herself, tears streaming down her face. Mine were dry. I had no comfort for her. It would give me relief to hug and soothe her and I don’t deserve any. I moved to sit on a cold unforgiving rock watching the sun streak red. It looked like blood, sparkling off the morning dew it turned the paddock into a field of tears.

  “Castle Brannach,” I said.

  Siobhan raised her eyes to me. “No,” she whispered the word. “My parents hated the Murtaghs.”

  “We must.” I insisted. “There is nothing else for us. We can’t fight them on our own and we can’t live out here in the wild.”

  “Fight them?” Her eyes widened, reflecting the crimson sunrise. “Are you insane? My father…my paps…the baddest ass Ravensgaard around was…holy fuck, Davin-” Her words choked into gasping sobs as she hunched over clutching herself.

  His bleeding body had been on the top of the pile, like a trophy. They had run his own scian through him. Three times. His eyes were open, staring at us in disbelief. We couldn’t look away. I’d taken the scian from his body, trying to ignore the squishy sound of the metal sliding through his soft tissue. I’m going to kill the fucker who did that. And I’ll do it with Casey’s blade.

  “Castle Brannach is just a safe house,” I murmured, rubbing my hand along Siobhan’s back. “We need somewhere to go, or we will be hunted also.”

  “Master Murtagh usurped the queen.” Her words were muffled as she hunched over herself, her face buried in her coat.

  “It’s the place we’re all supposed to go if we get dislodged from our home and live.” I reached my hand down and clutched her cold fingers in mine. “If anyone has survived, that’s where they’ll be.”

  Her swollen red eyes peered up at me through her tangled black hair.

  “What have the Murtaghs ever done for us?” she asked. “They killed our prince, his wife, their child and the queen. They destroyed the true Ravensgaard royal line.”

  “We don’t know that,” I said, even though like everyone in our cabal, I believed it. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on politics and murder. We needed needed to get to safety. “What we know is he wields the magic of the Ravensgaard and protects our people.”

  “He didn’t protect us. And it’s impossible for him to wield our magic. It belongs to the blood of the royal family,” Siobhan insisted.

  “Maybe one still lives, then,” I shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t like it any more than you do. But they’re the most powerful raven family anywhere and they’re sitting in a protected castle.”

  “They have never stepped foot in an actual battle against the Hunters,” Siobhan said. “They do nothing while we die on the frontline.”

  I lowered my face to hers, making sure she saw the truth in my eyes. “We have nowhere else to go.”

  She stared out to the pale, limp blue horizon.

  “You know I’m right,” I said.

  Her head bowed as she sucked in her cheeks and blew out a breath. Her jumbled hair moved against her pale cheeks.

  “Fine.” She breathed the word into the tear-stained grass.

  My heart clutched. It was a small victory. One I didn’t really want, but we needed help. We needed to know if there were survivors. We needed reinforcements.

  4

  Three days later bedraggled, exhausted, and hungry we arrived at the outskirts of the Ravensgaard land. We had managed to subsist as ravens, but I’m tired of worms and ready for some dumplings and mash. The Fox and Crow pub was in the distance. It was hard not to spot the bright blue freestanding pub even at night. It was a clear target from the air.

  The village was small but part of the battalion protecting the castle; a line of defense made up of small villages and pubs splaying out in a wide circular parameter. We had shifters in all of them, but the Fox and Crow was the only one that would give access to the castle. The rest were rigid and survived in protection mode.

  I shivered in the chill night air, but it wasn’t from the cold. Siobhan clutched my hand as I pulled open the door. We never thought we would come to this place. We were frontline killers, not castle dwellers. But we had lost the war in Dublin and this was our last refuge.

  The petite blond behind the bar looked us up-and-down as we entered. Clearly, she wasn’t impressed with my wild red hair and ripped clothes.

  “You look like a couple of strays,” she said.

  Siobhan’s stomach growled and I tilted my head at the girl behind the bar.

  “We want to go to Castle Brannach.” I didn’t have time for pleasantries.

  “And you think the good Master allows anyone to walk into his castle?” she asked.

  I leaned across the counter, not touching any of the weapons strapped to my body but making sure they were in plain sight. My voice was low.

  “You might spend all your time around here serving drinks,” I said. “But I’ve spent my life on the streets of Dublin killing Hunters and I’ve learned a thing or two. If you don’t want to experience those things, you might want to cut the crap and tell us how we get into Castle Brannach. I have a message for the great Master Murtagh.”

  I didn’t tell her that my message was he fucked up and we needed more resources to sort out the Hunters once and for all.

  I didn’t have time.

  A knife slammed, point first, between my fingers and into the counter; its blade pressed cold against my skin. My fingers twitched, but I didn’t move my hand, even though I wanted to punch her in the face.

  “You think I’m afraid of you?” The woman asked. Her eyes switched from me to Siobhan and back to me. “You’re at the gate of the Ravensgaard. Do you think they put just anyone here?”

  She had a point.

  “I don’t know how you people do it up in Dublin,” she
said, “but here we have rules and protocol.”

  “These girls giving you trouble, Caitlin?” A voice asked over my shoulder.

  I used the distraction to withdraw my hand and turned away from her. A black haired, sharp-featured young man stepped forward and leaned against the counter. His black eyes were penetrating and unnerving as he twisted a ring on his index finger.

  “I can handle them, Riordan, to be sure,” Caitlin said smugly.

  “We won’t be any trouble if someone can get us to Castle Brannach,” I said. The pub was empty but, regardless, Riordan slowly scanned the room as if I shouldn’t be mentioning the castle out loud.

  “And who might you be?” he asked, his gaze took in every part of my outfit and I suddenly wished I didn’t have four days’ worth of dirt on me. My clothes and my body could all use a wash.

  “Davin.” I raised my chin and looked him in the eye to make sure he knew I wasn’t intimidated by him. “This is Siobhan.” I motioned towards my friend whose eyes were still glazed with tears. That was all the introduction I was capable of this early in the morning.

  “Why has she been crying?” His brows knitted together.

  Siobhan ducked her head self-consciously and wiped an arm against her tear-stained face.

  “We’re from the Dublin cabal.” I leaned in to make sure he understood my words, my tone dipped like I was talking to an idiot. “We got annihilated. Unless anyone else has shown up, we’re the lone survivors, so I would thank you to take us to Castle Brannach so we can get some support from the Master.”

  “You can’t be speaking to the master’s son that way.” Caitlin pulled the knife out of the counter, holding it steady in her hand.

  My hand twitched, nerves raw and jagged. My shifter family was brutally murdered. I don’t have time for formalities. I threw a glare at Caitlin.

  “Maybe that’s exactly how I should be speaking to him. He’s likely the only one who can take us to his dad.”

  Riordan’s face had changed though. It smacked of sympathy. “You’re from Dublin.” He leaned forward, his hands gripping my elbows as if I needed support.

  I backed out of his clasp and held my back up straight. “Yeah,” I said.

  “We have scouts who told us of the attack,” Riordan looked over at Siobhan. “We didn’t think there were any survivors.”

  “No one else showed up?” Siobhan asked, her voice caught in her throat.

  My gaze flipped to Caitlin, hoping maybe we were wrong. But the look on her face made it clear. They were waiting for stragglers and we were the only ones who had arrived.

  So far. So far. I whispered in my head. Trying to cling to a bit of hope.

  “Come on.” Riordan stepped back, not touching me again, and motioned us toward the door. “I’ll take you to the castle.”

  We stepped outside and without hesitation Riordan shifted in the middle of the road. He flew into the sky as Siobhan and I exchanged a look. It was a far cry from the way we lived in the shadows of Dublin, always hiding and trying to avoid being spotted.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Siobhan, who stood shivering in the cold. It was a dumb ass question. Of course, she wasn’t okay.

  “My father always said, you have to take care of yourself by any means possible.” Her breath shook as she inhaled. “I can do this.”

  Before I even thought of a response she transformed into her majestic raven self, wings spreading out into the night and climbed in the air after Riordan.

  “We do whatever it takes to beat the enemy.” Casey’s words echoed in my head. I jumped and shifted, racing to keep up so I didn’t get completely lost.

  Flying at night when you don’t know where you’re going and you’re trying to follow a black raven is pretty damn difficult. When I caught up with them, they were flying side-by-side. I kept a few feet back so I could see their tails, but I don’t bother completely catching up. I might be naturally competitive, but not in this case.

  Our cabal hadn’t trusted Master Murtagh and there wasn’t a lot of reason for us to trust his son. Especially if they were somehow still getting magic from the royal family.

  We landed in a field somewhere in the middle of gloom and darkness. The full moon was up, casting pale blue light across everything. In the distance were tall black spires of what I could only guess was Castle Brannach.

  “Why did we stop here?” I asked. “We’re still two miles from the castle.”

  Riordan looked at me sideways. “What do you mean?”

  “Why are we landing out here in a freaking field when the castle is right there?” I was too tired and hungry to waste time in the mud.

  “You can see the castle?” Riordan asked.

  “What are you playing at?” I asked. “Of course, I can see the damn castle. It’s right there.”

  “What castle?” Siobhan looked at us like we were crazy, her gaze followed my finger toward the horizon.

  I tilted my head to look at her, dumbfounded. “How can you not see the castle?” I finally asked.

  “Good question,” Riordan said with a soft lilt to his voice. “But a better question, is how can you see it, Davin?”

  “With my eyes,” I said.

  Riordan’s glare flicked towards me as if I was wasting his time. “I’ll show you,” he said to Siobhan. He clasped her on the shoulder, staring down into her face and murmured in the damp night. “What is dark, may you see. What is light, may you avoid. See the truth lying before thee.”

  “What sort of mumbo-jumbo is that?” I asked.

  Riordan raised his hand over Siobhan’s head and, holy fuck, something happened to her. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth went slack. Some sort of a thin black smoke drifted around her hair.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “What’s wrong Siobhan?”

  Her hand swiped through the air and she cracked it against Riordan’s face. “What the fuck, asshole?” Her voice shrill.

  Riordan didn’t flinch from the slap. In fact, he looked like he might have enjoyed it. “Take a look.” He turned her toward the castle.

  “How did that get there?” Siobhan asked.

  “It always was there,” Riordan said. His eyes glowed ebony in the dim moonlight as he turned towards me. “How did you know the spell?”

  “I don’t know any spell.” I countered.

  “If you hadn’t heard it before, then there’s no way you could’ve seen the castle,” he murmured. “When were you here before?”

  “I wasn’t,” I said. “This is bullshit. Come on, I’m tired, I’m hungry, she’s hungry. Take us to the castle now.”

  His eyes disappeared in the night, but I don’t care. I needed to eat. My right hand instinctively gripped the scian in my belt. I’m sure he wasn’t intimidated, but his glance told me he noted my movements. He nodded and waved us upward. I brushed my left hand against Casey’s scian, which I had tucked into the other side of my belt. I was going to have to learn to find with both blades, and soon.

  We took off and flew the last couple of miles to the castle. The black walls rose cold and foreboding before us. A chill emanated from them that went beyond the natural night air. Shifting, we landed in the courtyard dwarfed by the ebony spires that cast long, thin shadows over us. The gravel crackled under my feet as I eye the imposing wooden doors.

  To the side of the entrance was a sentry. A remarkably tall, thin man who, though dressed in black, was the color of ash. His hair was gray, his eyes were gray, and his skin was gray. Had he been dressed in gray I would have thought he was a statue.

  “Walsh,” Riordan snapped at him. “These girls need a shower before they meet my father.”

  Walsh barely acknowledged Riordan; whose nose seemed to turn even higher in the air. What an asshole. Rude to the servant, insulting of us. But the wind shifted, and I got a whiff of myself. Okay, so I maybe I needed a shower. Like a hot scolding one and a good scrub.

  “I’m in,” I said.

  With only a quick, penetrating look, Walsh motion
ed us through the open portal. His loud clap behind us startled me, but a maid appeared out of nowhere. “Jane, take them to the guest suites. The one on the top level,” he said.

  The petite maid’s eyes grew wide as she curtsied, but she only gave Walsh a furtive glance before turning and leading us out of the entry way.

  “Must be nice having a butler and all,” I murmured under my breath. “Take them to the chambers on the top floor.” I mimicked Riordan’s pompous accent. “He sounds like a British ass.”

  Siobhan elbowed me. “You made us come here,” she said.

  “We didn’t have a choice.”

  “I agree.” Her voice was strained with annoyance. “So, shut up and be grateful we’re getting a hot bath. If we’re lucky maybe a meal and a bed for the night.”

  It was irritating that when she said “bed” I got a flash of Riordan’s piercing eyes and wondered what elaborate chambers he resided in. I shook the image away and followed Jane up the broad, winding stairs. Her black, rubber soled shoes were silent on the dark wood. We avoided the main hallway with its giant oak doors and instead veered out of the main causeway and went up a narrow stairwell that led to a dark, small hallway.

  I shrugged. It may be the servants’ quarters, but it was still ten times larger than the space we’d had in Dublin. A stab of guilt moved through my chest at the thought. Dublin was home. I wanted nothing to do with the sheltered life of the Ravensgaards who surrounded the high seat of our clan.

  Jane pressed a switch on the wall and the dusty hall was bathed in dim yellow light. It didn’t look like it was used very often, if at all. But that was fine with me. I’d never seen anything so grand and impressive as this castle. The timber from the bannister reached out to the wall and interlaced with stone as if they were clasping on to each other. The crisp stone lines of the hallway were softened by the wooden cornices over each doorway.

  The maid’s small fingers delicated unlocked one of the doors and she held out the key, her head bowed.

  “This part of the castle hasn’t been updated,” she said. “The bathroom is down the hall, and you’ll find towels on your beds, miss.”

  “Were you expecting us?” I asked.