City of War (Chronicles of Arcana Book 4)

by Debbie Cassidy

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2018, Debbie Cassidy

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover by Vanessa Garkova

  1

  “Azren? Are you there? Can you hear me? What is this? Why the wall? Please don’t shut me out. I can hear your heartbeat. Why’s it beating so fast? Let me in! Just let me in, dammit!”

  My fingers scraped at the brick, talons coming out to claw and dislodge the cement holding it all together. The murmur of a voice drifted through the gap.

  This can’t be happening. I won’t let you. I won’t let you do this.

  An icy wind and an eternal darkness closed on my mind. “Azren?”

  Wila? No!

  The force of a phantom impact hit me in the solar plexus, sending me spiraling into an eternal night.

  I opened my eyes to find myself drowning in a turquoise sea. Seb blinked slowly, keeping his stunning gaze locked with mine. We’d slept together, just slept, curled up like we’d done so long ago before we’d been born. No dreams, no nightmares, just deep, satisfying slumber ... Well, almost.

  “He’s blocked us out,” Seb said softly. “I can’t get through either.”

  I closed my eyes. “Why is he doing this? Why won’t he speak to me?”

  “He’s protecting you from something. Hiding something.”

  A Salvador Dali clock appeared in my mind, the hands melted and dripping. No time. There was no time. But for the first time in my life, it felt like I’d actually slept. My body was energized, fizzing with potential, and my mind was crystal clear with the actions that we needed to take before the Triumph Games in order to bring Azren home and force Elora to her knees, and maybe take off her head, who knew?

  “Your inner monologue is strangely loud,” Sebastian drawled. His cinnamon breath tickled my senses and soothed the flutter of anxiety in my chest.

  “Then stop listening.” Despite the lingering disconcertion from the dream, I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips, because this felt so perfectly right, so absolutely normal.

  He was in bed with me. Right up close, legs entwined with mine, arm slung over my waist possessively, and groin pressed to ... whoa. Yeah, it seemed that even ether-beings got morning glory. My mouth was suddenly arid, and heat blossomed in my lower abdomen.

  Sebastian leaned over me, his silver hair tousled from sleep. His intense gaze dropped to my lips. “You snore, did you know that?”

  “I do not.”

  “Do too.” He brushed his lips across mine. “You breathe.” He licked my bottom lip. “You squirm.” He kissed me lightly, teasingly, but the flex of his fingers against my hip bone spoke of restraint, it told me that the control was an act. “You’re alive, Wila. So alive, and it’s impossible to drift while lying beside you.” He trailed kisses across my cheek and into the hollow of my neck, lingering with a flick of tongue and the scrape of teeth.

  My pulse raced, breath coming shallow and fast. “Seb, we should ... there’s stuff we have to ...” Shit. Where was my train of thought? Oh, yes, being torn to shreds by the press of his body, the heat of his mouth, and the brush of his fingers across the tops of my breasts.

  “Do you want me to stop?” His voice was thick with desire, and his pulse beneath my fingers echoed mine.

  No. No, I didn’t want to stop, but now wasn’t the time for this step, even though it felt inevitable, even though it felt as if we’d been waiting for it forever.

  I shifted beneath him, drawing a shuddering breath. “I really don’t want to stop, but we have to.”

  He pulled back and looked into my eyes, his pupils large and all-encompassing. “Yes, I suppose we do.”

  He rolled away to lie on his back, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. This, being free, must be so weird for him. Was the stimulation too much? Was I expecting too much of him?

  He chuckled low and abrasive and then I was crushed to the mattress by the length of his powerful, lithe frame.

  “Nothing is too much for me, Wila.” His mouth claimed mine in a devouring kiss that sucked the air from my lungs. His hips settled between my thighs, and his arousal ground against me, sliding against the telling wetness in my panties.

  He broke the kiss, his breath ragged, tearing a moan of protest from my lips. Oh, God. I needed more, so much more. But he was pulling away, leaving me cold and bereft as he padded across the room, his body glowing with an inner light.

  “Oh, fuck, that was just mean.”

  Another chuckle. “You have no idea, Wila. No idea.”

  It was the simmering rage speaking again, the broken-glass voice that wanted to tear at something. It was a cold bucket of water washing away the wanton heat.

  It was definitely time to get up and start the day.

  I was on my second cup of tea and Seb was on his third when Noir and Quinn padded into the kitchen. Quinn was dressed in his usual black on black outfit with his feet bare, and Noir was sporting only his PJ bottoms and totally rocking the bare-chest vibe.

  The testosterone in the room spiked.

  Trevor trotted into the room, paused to take in Noir’s bare torso, and then sniffed. “Do you have an aversion to shirts?”

  Gil snorted and then placed a plate of bacon on the table. The sleepyhead guys were suddenly all animation. Yeah, bacon had that effect on people, and the delicious, crispy bites were gone way too soon.

  Quinn sat back and patted his taut abdomen. “That was delicious, Gil. You truly are a maestro in the kitchen.”

  Gil was more than a maestro in the kitchen, more than my friendly paternal resident ghost, he was also a Draconi, and I needed to find out who he was and how the heck he’d ended up trapped in my house—the house Liana had asked Lex to buy for me. It was time to formulate a plan to get all the answers, to put an end to the mess Elora and Liana were planning to cause once and for all.

  Seb poured himself another cup of tea, and when I shot him a shocked glance, he shrugged.

  “It’s called making up for lost time,” he said lazily.

  Yeah, there was no arguing with the fact that there was no more time to lose. “Noir, can you take me back to Lex’s so we can pick up Valance?”

  “I called up and checked on him,” No
ir said. “He’s not ready to be moved yet. Another day should do it, maybe this evening?”

  My skin itched, antsy. I needed my scalemate with me. Lex had helped Liana hide who I was all my life, and there was only so much trust I was willing to give him. “Are you sure he’s all right? Did you speak to him?”

  Noir smiled reassuringly. “Yes, Wila. I spoke to him. Lex won’t do anything to hurt Valance; in fact, from what he said, I got the impression he was severely regretting his part in hiding your identity.”

  “Bit late for that now.”

  “Maybe, but maybe he can be of some help? Liana seems a little ... fanatical.”

  “Pfft, that’s an understatement. I can’t believe he agrees with her, that he thinks all Draconi should be wiped out.”

  “He doesn’t,” a mellow voice piped up from the kitchen doorway.

  Leopold sauntered into the room, his body rippling beneath the skin-tight material of his all-in-one suit. Eyes up, Bastion. Eyes up. “You’re supposed to be watching Valance.”

  “Valance is fine. In fact, he sent me here to watch over you.”

  I rolled my eyes. Typical Valance.

  “What do you know about Lex’s views?” Sebastian asked the Other.

  Leopold tore his gaze from my face and fixed it on my ether-kindred. “It’s good to finally meet you,” he said. “I’m sorry for the way you were treated.”

  Sebastian’s jaw flexed, and his eyes grew dark. His teacup clattered into its saucer. “No, you’re not. If you were sorry, you would have taken some action.”

  Leopold inclined his head. “Action is why I am here. I wish to ally myself with your cause. Liana’s thirst for revenge has warped her mind. I hoped and believed that once she was confronted with her daughter she might see the error of her ways, and that she may mellow and listen, but alas, it isn’t to be.”

  Seb’s jaw was ticking, his eyes dangerous slits of distrust.

  His doubt pierced me, becoming my own. “How do I know you can be trusted?”

  Leopold blinked in surprise at the question. “How can you know?” He shook his head. “Haven’t I proven my loyalty time and time again?”

  Dammit, he was right. Liana had been more than pissed when she’d found out that Leopold, in the form of Hound, had been saving my ass. It was Seb’s suspicion clouding my mind, and I needed to shake it off.

  I locked gazes with my ether-kindred. “We can trust him. He saved my life several times.” I turned to Leopold. “I’m sorry, I’m just on edge. Of course we’d love to have you on board.”

  Seb slid an icy look my way, but I studiously ignored it. He may have been connected to me, but he hadn’t been there when I’d almost died several times. He hadn’t been there when Hound had taken a spear intended for me, or when he’d been probed by the Genesi in my place.

  “Please, grab a seat.” I indicated the chair opposite me.

  Leopold slipped into it. “Thank you.”

  “So, what is Liana doing now? I mean now that I’m whole?” I flicked a glance in Seb’s direction, but his attention was on his teacup, his long, lean fingers circling the rim.

  Leopold followed my gaze. “She believes that you will see the error of your ways and join her in annihilating the Draconi.”

  “Yeah, that isn’t going to happen.”

  “I know.” Leopold’s beautiful mouth lifted in a smile. “I believe there can be peace for all. I believe that we can coexist, under the right queen’s rule.” He arched a brow, his gaze pointed.

  Whoa, hang on a sec. “If you’re implying what I think you’re implying, then you’re way off base. I have no intention of being queen. I just want to get rid of the current queen bitch and liberate the people.”

  “And then what?” Leopold said evenly.

  Noir shifted in his seat. “He does have a point. The people will need a figurehead.”

  “I’m not disputing that. They’ll have a figurehead, they’ll have Valance.”

  Leopold’s mouth quirked. “Who just happens to be your scalemate. Can’t you see this was meant to be?”

  Beside me, Seb was ominously silent, and the thud of my heartbeat was suddenly way too loud, and then Seb’s frosty tone trickled into the room like icy fingers.

  “And your true purpose is revealed.” Seb’s words were biting. “I should tear your heart out where you sit.”

  Leopold’s shoulders tensed but his expression remained relaxed and unthreatened.

  “Seb.” I glared at him until he raised his gaze from the teacup and met mine. “What the fuck?”

  My ether-kindred’s eyes were a little too dilated, with a manic edge that preceded a dark episode. He dismissed me in favor of his cup and continued to run his finger around the porcelain rim. “You were with Mother,” he addressed Leopold. “You did her bidding, and you knew about me. You knew, and you let me rot.” His tone was pleasantly conversational, belying the danger that hovered on the fringes of his consciousness. It brushed against the back of my mind in warning, forcing me to sit up straighter, to meet Leopold’s gaze and give a tiny shake of my head. Beware, it said. Don’t be fooled by the tone.

  Leopold swallowed hard. “I did what I had to in order to protect Wila.”

  Seb’s lips turned down. “Wila. Yes, it’s always about Wila, isn’t it?”

  He sounded like a jealous sibling, and in that moment, the connection made complete sense—siblings, lovers, family, friends, we were everything to one another and yet not enough. That was where Taylem and Azren and Valance came in, that was why we needed them, to balance us, to stop us losing ourselves in each other. They were the dilution to what could possibly be a toxic relationship. Blood roared in my ears and the revelation sank in, but Sebastian’s words reached me clear as a bell.

  “Seb, just drop it.”

  But I needn’t have bothered with the admonishment, because he was already leaning back in his seat in the perfect imitation of unfazed, but his hooded gaze was a reminder that the dark rage still simmered inside him.

  “You’re here now,” he said to Leopold, “because you know that war is inevitable, and you know that to win you need a figurehead. A rational, powerful figurehead. Wila fits the bill perfectly.” He flashed his teeth in what was probably meant to be a smile but was more of a warning. “Wila may have been taken by your Hound heroics, but I’m not fooled by you. You don’t care about Wila. You care only for what she can do for the Others. That she can finally set them free from the shit they’ve been forced to swim in for the past century.”

  The stunned look on Leopold’s face said it all, but it smoothed out quickly, as if someone had taken an eraser to it. “There’s no denying your perception skills,” he said. “Yes, I admit that was my aim to begin with, but it’s impossible to spend time with Wila and not grow to care for her.”

  He sounded resigned more than anything else, and honestly, arguing about why he was here and whether he gave a shit about me as a person was a waste of time. Worrying about how Sebastian and I might fuck each other up was a task for another day.

  I placed a hand on Seb’s arm but addressed Leopold. “I’m glad you’re here. We could use your expertise.”

  Seb’s bicep flexed beneath my fingertips, the only sign of his agitation, because his alabaster face was a perfect mask of control. The inky darkness melted away from his eyes as if my assertion had somehow tamed his ire.

  I cleared my throat. “I think we should move on to the next thing on my mental agenda.”

  “Which is?” Noir asked.

  “Getting Tay back?”

  Noir’s brows shot up. “What’s happened to Taylem?”

  “He went into Slumber to leave the knell so he could be with me, and now they won’t let him go.”

  “So, he’s in Slumber? Indefinitely?” Noir frowned. “That can’t be healthy.”

  “I don’t know if it’s healthy or not, all I know is that we need to find a way to pull him out.”

  “Before we do that, we need to figure
out what the knell is exactly,” Noir pointed out.

  “Mack wasn’t too forthcoming on that. It’s almost as though he didn’t want to be, or couldn’t reveal too much.”

  Trevor tapped a paw on the table. “Slumber is a meditative state that allows troll bloods to astral travel to another plane.”

  All eyes were suddenly on the Jack Pomeranian.

  “What?” He did a little doggy shrug. “I’ve lived a while, met people and picked up stuff.” He sniffed. “I may, or may not, have had a thing with a troll blood a long time ago. Obviously, we couldn’t ... you know, but we had a connection, she told me things. Maybe it was the fact that I was a dog, you know, maybe that was some kind of loophole to her being able to speak about it in depth.”

  Noir was frowning. “So the knell is an actual place.”

  “Yep.” Trevor lapped at his tea. “Don’t ask me how you’re going to get there, though.”

  “I know how,” Seb said softly.

  I looked to him. “You do?”

  He gave the table a half smile. “Astral planes are accessible via the ether.”

  And he was an ether-being, so he could go there, but… “I need to come with you.”

  He gave me one of his slow blinks. “We’re connected, Wila. You can always go where I go.”

  He was back, and the darkness was gone. No me without you, no you without me. “So, you can get us there?”

  He nodded slowly. “We’ll need to hitch a ride on Taylem’s subconscious, but yes, I can get us there. But getting him out will be on you. It’s you he shares a connection with.”

  “I can do that.”