by Meg Anne
“I take it there is no need for introductions,” she stated, her voice booming like thunder.
Kieran flinched and gave a quick shake of his head.
“Good.”
When she said nothing further, Kieran began to fidget under her scrutiny. What is she waiting for? His eyes darted to the sides, instinct pushing him to search for an escape.
“I wouldn’t risk it if I were you. There’s nothing Starshine loves more than to chase down her prey, and no one, not even the Kiri herself, can stand between a Talyrian Queen and her next meal.”
He couldn’t muster a shred of shame as a damp stain spread down the leg of his pants. Helena wrinkled her nose but refrained from commenting.
Several heartbeats passed without either of them making a sound. Just when Kieran was about to find his voice, several familiar figures crested the horizon.
“Sorry it took so long,” Lucian said. “So much of this land looks the same.”
A man with obsidian hair scowled at the Guardian, his voice little more than a deep growl. “I showed you the image exactly as she sent it to me.”
A blur of red was Kieran’s only warning before Ronan tackled him and sent him crashing to the ground. Kieran’s back slid across a sea of stone and sand as a fist stronger than iron clamped around his throat, pushing his head back into one of the many holes he’d dug.
“Tell me what you did to her!”
Kieran struggled to breathe, his eyes bulging as he blinked, trying to process the rapid shift of gravity and loss of air.
“If you expect him to tell you anything, you’ll need to let him go.”
Even trapped as he was, Kieran couldn’t help the spark of temper Lucian’s voice set off within him. Ronan may have him by the throat, but his hatred was reserved for Lucian.
Black spots were dancing in his eyes, but Kieran was still just barely able to make out Ronan’s clenched jaw and flaring nostrils. His hand tightened on Kieran’s throat and a pathetic gurgle escaped from his lips before Ronan released him with a snarl.
“Where is she?”
Kieran sat up, coughing hard as tears rolled down his face.
“Answer me!” Ronan snarled as he kicked him.
Kieran saw stars. He wasn’t surprised at the distinctive snap of one of his ribs breaking. “I-I don’t know,” he stuttered, his voice little more than a harsh rasp. “She was with you.”
That only seemed to enrage the Shield more. “And then you took her from me, so where the fuck is she?”
Kieran was truly confused. The last he’d heard the Guardians had locked Effie in a cell. “H-how should I know? He’s the one that locked her up.”
Ronan’s brows lifted, and he twisted back to address Lucian. “What’s he talking about?”
Kieran couldn’t see anything except Ronan looming over him, and he didn’t hear anyone respond.
“Stop fucking around and tell me what you’ve done with Reyna.”
“Reyna?” Kieran blinked, then he started laughing at the absurdity of his situation. They were blaming him for the loss of a woman he hardly knew, but had said nothing of the woman he’d unintentionally destroyed. “How the hell should I know?”
“Unless you want me to rip your balls out through your throat, you should probably tell me what you know about Reyna being locked up,” Ronan demanded.
One quick glance at the absolute rage in the Shield’s eyes told Kieran he wasn’t exaggerating. Gulping, Kieran shook his head, his throat on fire as he struggled to speak. “Not Reyna. Effie. He locked her in a cage.”
Ronan’s eyes frosted over. “How do you know about that?”
“Overheard.”
“And then decided to run away because of the part you played in putting her there?” Ronan accused, hands flexing as if he was barely restraining himself from beating Kieran to a pulp.
Kieran glanced away, unable to meet the other man’s eyes any longer. When did I turn into such a fucking coward?
“Yeah, we know all about the part you played in the attack on the citadel.”
He could hear his teeth grinding as he glanced back up at Ronan. “None of that was supposed to happen. It was never supposed to go that far!”
“So you are a fucking traitor.”
“You said . . . you said you knew . . .”
“We suspected and you just confirmed.”
Shit.
“How could you do this, Kieran? The Keepers were your family; they gave you a home.”
Kieran’s body froze, his heart spasming in his chest when he recognized the voice he never thought he’d hear again. The one he first heard in his dreams. Great, now I’m hallucinating again. Shaking his head as if to clear it, Kieran blinked up at the small figure standing beside Ronan. When he rubbed his eyes as the illusion didn’t vanish, Kieran scrambled to his feet, arms outstretched. “Effie? Effie, you’re alive!”
She scrambled back out of reach, her voice dripping with anger. “No thanks to you.”
Ronan slammed his hand into Kieran’s chest, keeping him in place. “That’s close enough.”
Kieran was openly crying, his relief momentarily blocking the pain. Finally. Finally, he’d have a chance to explain. To make things right. “I-I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. It was all a way to prove myself to you. That I could be the man you wanted. Everything just went so wrong, and no matter what I did, you never noticed me. You never even gave me a chance to prove myself to you. All you ever saw was him.” There was no hiding the petulant cast of his voice as he hissed the last word.
Effie let out a startled bark of laughter. “You thought destroying the citadel, my home, would make me fall in love with you?”
“No!” Kieran cried out in frustration, smacking himself on the side of his head as his bloodied fingers knotted in his hair. “I just wanted you to see me. To show you I could be what you need. A hero . . .”
“Some hero you turned out to be. Do you even know how many lives you ruined? How many people you killed?”
“Effie, I—”
“You are pathetic.”
“But I just—”
“You are the worst sort of villain. You actually believe your actions were justified.”
Anger bubbled up as she continued to speak over him. Kieran couldn’t have held back the words that burst from him if he’d tried. “You all think you’re so fucking untouchable. Well I proved you weren’t, didn’t I? You should thank me for teaching you how to see more clearly.”
“Thank you?” Effie snorted with derision. “You’re lucky we don’t kill you where you stand.”
Kieran saw red. No matter what he did, what he said, she would never listen to him. Never understand him. All of this was for nothing. “That would require you to get your hands dirty and you don’t have what it takes,” he snarled, spit flying from his mouth as he lunged for her.
Instead of flinching away, Effie countered the attack, stepping into his arms and then gliding around him before Kieran could fully process the movement. He was too distracted by the fresh rose and honey scent of her hair. Even now, when he hated her as much as he loved her, she consumed him.
“Effie,” he begged, trying to touch her.
“Try it,” she said, her voice hard as she pushed the blades held at his throat and groin in a little deeper. “Give me a reason to gut you like the swine you are.”
“This has gone far enough,” Helena said, dismounting from the Talyrian as if the feline wasn’t still hovering three feet off the ground. “Lucian, bind him. Make sure to gag him, too. I’m tired of listening to the vitriol he spews.”
“With pleasure,” Lucian said, his grin too filled with violence to be mistaken for a smile.
Kieran struggled in Effie’s hold, trying to get free. He’d rather die than endure any kind of degradation at Lucian’s hand. He tossed his head back, hoping to headbutt her, but she was too small for the blow to land and all he’d managed to do was cut himself on the edge of her blade. The fiery sting did
nothing to stop his frenzied movements.
“Enough!” Ronan roared, punching Kieran so hard in the face that stars exploded behind his eyes and he slumped to the floor practically unconscious.
“Was that really necessary?” Helena asked.
“Yes.”
There was a sigh from somewhere above him and then everything went dark.
When Kieran came to, he was bound and gagged. In addition to the ones around his hands and feet, one was also looped around his neck.
Lucian hovered above him, not bothering to hide his grin. “Now, be a good boy and stand up,” the Guardian practically purred as he gave the chains around his waist a sharp tug, forcibly lifting Kieran to his feet.
Kieran growled low in his throat, saliva dripping down his chin.
“What was that? I didn’t quite catch it,” Lucian said, dropping his ear down as if trying to hear better.
“Untie me and let’s settle this like real men!” Kieran said. Although what came out sounded more like, “Ung e’n l’til iss hic eel min!”
Lucian laughed and pushed Kieran stumbling forward. “Why didn’t we do this sooner? I like him so much better this way.”
Kieran bucked again, but Lucian pulled the chains so tightly Kieran couldn’t breathe. “Don’t mistake my amusement for leniency. The only reason you’re still alive is because she demanded it.”
Kieran’s eyes darted over Lucian’s shoulder toward Effie.
Lucian’s smile stretched, his dark eyes glittering with malice. “No, not her. Effie asked if she could be the one to kill you. It is the Kiri who claimed the right to enforce your punishment. She is the one that requires you to live.”
Kieran’s throat bobbed as Lucian released him and pulled him forward to stand before the queen of the Chosen. Ronan and the man he didn’t know stood on either side of her, their expressions murderous. But it was Helena that made his bowels loosen.
Her eyes glowed, and her voice thundered, the sky churning like a deadly storm. “Kieran of Eatos, you have been found guilty of treason against the realm of Elysia. Since you cannot return to your own realm, you will live out the rest of your days locked deep within the Palace’s dungeon. You will rot down there long after we’ve forgotten your name, but you will never forget mine”—the sky exploded with thunder and lightning—“I am justice, I am vengeance, and I am here to collect what is rightfully mine. Your life in exchange for all of those you damned with your selfish greed. Take a good look at the sky, Prince, for it’s the last time you’ll ever see it.”
Chapter 31
“Considering you likely just pulled Elysia back from the brink of annihilation, you don’t look very victorious, or happy, for that matter.”
Effie spun around, Lucian’s deep voice shocking her from the stasis she’d been locked in ever since returning to the Palace. The last time she’d been here she’d buried her grandmother, and these halls, while exquisite, were haunted. She couldn’t wait to leave.
“Just a lot on my mind,” Effie murmured, turning back to the window she’d been staring out of, not that she was actually enjoying the view of the Kiri’s gardens below.
“Want to talk about it?”
“Want? No, not really . . .” Effie sighed, wrapping her arms a little tighter around her body.
She stiffened for the briefest moment as Lucian rested his hands on her shoulders before melting into his warmth. Somehow his mere presence made the air a little less oppressive. Not that she was about to admit it to him. His ego was big enough already.
Lucian brushed a kiss to the back of her neck, his voice dryly amused as he spoke in her mind. “I heard that.”
Her lips twitched and a little more of the melancholy faded away. “I just can’t shake the sense that this isn’t over,” Effie finally admitted. “We’ve captured the man responsible for setting off the markers, imprisoned him to ensure he cannot continue with his nefarious deeds, learned how to track the Shadows and repair the damage to the land, and yet we’re no closer to discovering who took Reyna, and we still—”
“Shhh,” Lucian breathed against her ear, cutting off the torrent of her words. “It’s always impossible to believe a war has been won when you’ve been in the thick of it for so long. True peace takes time. Just because a war is over doesn’t mean the work is done. So, yes, you are right. There are still more battles before us, but with Kieran imprisoned and unable to set off the last of the markers, the worst has passed. With him out of the way, we have the time that we need to set everything else to rights. You’ll see.”
His words eased some of the pressure in her chest. It would take time, but together they would deal with the Shadows and cast out the last of the corruption. Then, perhaps, Elysia would finally know peace once more.
“I’m worried about Ronan,” she admitted, voicing the other concern weighing heavily on her heart.
Lucian’s hands squeezed her shoulders. “I wish I could say that there’s no need for your worry, but I know better than most what it does to a man when he thinks he might lose the one he loves.”
Effie turned to look at him. “We don’t even know where to look for her. How can we help him when we don’t have a path?”
Lucian ran his knuckles over her cheek. “You cannot save everyone yourself.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he placed a gentle finger on her lips, continuing, “Helena can search in ways we cannot. Let her lead the search while we take care of other matters. She will summon us when she needs us. We will be there for your friend when it matters the most.”
Sighing, Effie nodded, and Lucian dropped his hand, tilting her chin up. “We all have our own parts to play in life’s battles, Effie. Just because you are not leading the charge does not mean you do not play an important role.”
One side of her mouth lifted in a reluctant smile. “Spoken like a true warrior.”
“With centuries of experience. You’d do well to listen to my wisdom.”
“Is that what this is? Oh, well then . . .” They fell into a comfortable silence, a small smile playing on her mouth. “She wants to throw us a parade, you know.”
Lucian chuckled. “Mortals love to celebrate their continued existence, brief as it might be.”
“You could try to sound a little less elitist when you say that, old man.”
His hands tightened on her as his lips moved back to her ear. “Who are you calling old?” he growled, setting off a wave of tingles low in her belly. “Do I need to remind you just how virile I can be?”
She squirmed, a flash of desire making it impossible to remain still. “Maybe . . .”
Lucian caressed her cheek, turning her face so that he could lean down and steal her lips in a spine-melting kiss. It started soft, just the featherlight touch of his lips over hers before he deepened it.
Her Guardian growled low in his throat when a knock sounded at the door. “Ignore it,” he demanded, searing her with another kiss.
The door swung open, and their visitor loudly cleared his throat.
Lucian groaned, pulling away from Effie to close his eyes and rest his forehead on hers. “Remind me to start removing doorknobs from now on.”
Nord scoffed. “Like that could stop me.” Lucian glared at him, and the blond man held up his hands, laughing. “At ease. I just came to see if the two of you were ready.”
“Ready? Ready for what?” Effie asked, looking between them.
Nord grinned. “You didn’t even get around to telling her yet, did you?” Shaking his head, Nord ran his hand over his beard, giving it a little tug. “How are you two supposed to be trusted to follow through on your duties when you can’t seem to keep your hands off of each other?”
Lucian shifted his attention back to Effie, his grin wolfish. “He might have a point.”
Her cheeks were on fire with the heat of her blush. “Speak for yourself. I was just standing here minding my own business when you accosted me.”
Lucian raised a brow, his eyes hot. “Is that so? Would
you care to wager who could go longer without accosting the other?”
“No,” Effie blurted, her refusal adamant. She’d waited long enough for the Guardian to give in to his feelings for her, the last thing she wanted was to ever go back to the days when she was dazed with lust and all but vibrating from her unfulfilled desire.
Nord and Lucian roared with laughter.
“I suppose it’s a good thing there are three of us then. Kael will just have to be the responsible one for the next few hundred years or so while we get over this incessant need to touch each other.” He waggled his eyebrows in such an un-Lucian-like fashion that Effie snorted with laughter. Lucian pulled her close and nipped her ear. “Not that it’s likely I’ll ever get over it no matter how many centuries we spend together.”
Effie’s heart swelled, and she melted against him before something he said snagged her attention. “Hey!” Effie said, lightly slapping Lucian’s chest with the back of her hand. “You forgot to include me.”
Lucian’s brows furrowed. “I did?”
She nodded. “You said ‘good thing there are three of us,’ but Elysia has four Guardians now.”
His expression cleared. “Ah, actually that’s what I was coming to talk to you about.”
Now it was Effie whose brows dipped into a deep vee and sudden panic sent her heart racing. “Is something wrong?”
Lucian caught her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze. “No, nothing like that. Nord has put in his request for a transfer.”
“Nord?”
His ringed fingers were covering his mouth, doing little to hide his grin as he peeked at her with twinkling blue eyes. “I’m afraid it’s true.”
“But . . . why?” Effie asked, her heart aching at the thought of having to say goodbye to someone who had become the older brother she’d never wanted. “Where will you go?”
Nord’s hand dropped from his face, and he shrugged, his teeth flashing behind his beard. “That’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? One of the greatest adventures in life is the not knowing. For far too long I’ve been trapped in that citadel upholding the illusions necessary to keep our secret safe. But now with you here I have a chance to go out and discover my true purpose. It’s time.”
