City of War (Chronicles of Arcana Book 4)

by Debbie Cassidy

He was looking at me in that hungry way again, the one I’d woken up to, the one that promised things that made my body flush with heat. But Noir was speaking, demanding my attention.

  “...the Institute,” Noir finished.

  “Sorry? What?”

  Noir pressed his lips together, probably biting back his annoyance at being ignored. He wasn’t the kind of man used to having to repeat himself. “I said, we need a way to get into the Triumph Games. We need an invite, and the only way we can get one is via the Institute.”

  I let out a bark of laughter. “Like that’s going to happen.”

  He arched a brow. “Why not? We know what Elora is up to, we know Kelter is involved and Loraine has data that could put the Institute in shit with the people if it gets out. I say we have information that should make them want to help and leverage to force them if they decide to withhold their aid.”

  Fuck, shit, he was right. “Can you get us a meeting?”

  His lips curled smugly. “You bet I can.”

  If we managed to get Tay back and get the Institute to help, there was only one thing left for me to do before hitting the Triumph Games. I’d need to take mates, which I had no idea how to do, but one step at a time, right?

  “Look,” Quinn said. “Half this stuff means nothing to me, but what I do know is that I can be of help with my zoom, zoom ability. I’m done hiding, done sitting on my arse twiddling my thumbs.”

  He was right. Benching him was a waste, especially since he could get through walls with his ability. Okay, so he’d need blood, but that could be arranged ... “Noir? Is there anything we can do?”

  Noir puffed out his cheeks and blew out a breath. “He belongs to whatever secret program the Institute has cooked up. By now they’ll be hunting for him and trying to figure out who busted into their facility. I hate to say it, but leaving that woman alive wasn’t ideal. She could identify you.”

  “Let them come,” Sebastian said. “They won’t get close. Besides, like you said, we have knowledge, and we have leverage. But we also have the one person who has the power to stop Elora. They’ll listen, they’ll help, and they’ll back the fuck off.”

  His tone, lazy yet confident, sent a delicious shiver down my spine.

  “Goodie,” Quinn said. “So, back to me?”

  An idea formed in my mind. “Hey, Noir, can you create some kind of illusion to make Quinn look not like Quinn, you know, to other people?”

  Noir pursed his lips. “You know, I think I can. I can attach it to a cuff or a—"

  “Dustkicker?” I grinned as Quinn sat up poker-straight in his seat. He’d wanted one. The woman at the facility had said so. “Can you do that?”

  Noir gave me a contemplative look. “A dustkicker? Like the one you have?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  He shrugged. “Sure.”

  Quinn offered me a small smile, and I inclined my head his way. “Okay, shirts and shoes on people, we have shit to do and less than a week to get it done.”

  Chairs scraped as everyone but Quinn got up. He looked up at me. “What? It’s not like I can do anything to help right this minute.”

  “Trevor, get him manning the phones.”

  Trevor gave me a skeptical look. “Right, because we’re inundated with calls.”

  “You never know when a client will call, and once this is over, we’ll still have a business to run.”

  Trevor hopped off his seat. “Come on, twinkle toes. Let’s get you set up.”

  Quinn trailed out of the kitchen after him.

  Seb finally pushed back his chair and stood. “We’re going outside, aren’t we?”

  Was that panic in his eyes? Oh, shit. How long had it been since he’d been outside. Wait ... “Seb ... have you ever been outside?”

  His throat bobbed. “No.” His voice was hoarse.

  A lick of anger flared in my chest, but I quickly staunched it. Anger was the last thing he needed right now. Right now, he needed calm and understanding. Right now, he needed someone to ground him, because the outside world was a big, noisy place, and he was about to get his first taste of it.

  2

  The buzz of the street was an ambient hum, and the smells, a cocktail of the city, surrounded us as we stood hand in hand on the porch steps with the door open behind us.

  “Focus on my voice, on the feel of my hand in yours, and breathe.” It was a mantra, soft and soothing, and hopefully helpful.

  His fingers tightened around mine in a death grip, sending a lance of pain shooting through my palm.

  I bit back a wince. “Okay?”

  “Yes. I’m fine.” His usually confident tone was strained. “Let’s just do this.”

  We stepped off the porch and into the driveway. Mini was a few feet away, waiting patiently. He stopped, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and his grip on my hand was suddenly punishing.

  “Shit!” I tried to tug free, and he released me abruptly, stumbling back, eyes wide. Oh, crap. I reached for him, wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing the side of my face to his chest. “I’m here, Seb. Focus on me.”

  He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my hair. “Too much, so much.”

  “More than the ether?”

  “Different, violent and brash and sharp.”

  “Didn’t you experience this through me?”

  “Yes, but it was muted, shades of gray with splashes of color, not like this, not so abrasive. See ...”

  And suddenly, it was as if someone had turned up the volume, every sound, every smell, every buzz and hum and clank and clink was heightened. Oh, God, how? How could he stand it? But then if he could allow me to feel the world through him, surely it could work the other way, at least until he acclimatized.

  I held him tighter. “Use me. Feel through me.”

  His grip on me tightened and then a gentle heat infused my limbs. His muscles relaxed, and he raised his head, blinking at the world around him.

  I pulled back. “Better?”

  His throat worked, and he dropped his arms from around me. “It’s fine. Let’s go get Tay back.”

  We were standing inches apart, our minds linked, our souls entwined, and yet there was a chasm of icy darkness between us.

  Sighing heavily, I led him toward Mini. Muting the world through me was one thing, but folding his body into Mini was going to be a whole new ballgame.

  We drove toward the Hunter and Prey in silence, which was fine by me, because there were so many questions whirring in my head about what we were, how us would work, and so far, we hadn’t really spoken about it.

  I swerved through the traffic expertly at the lights. “We haven’t really spoken about the guys.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  What did I mean? “Are you ... okay with me taking mates?”

  “We will be taking mates, Wila, not just you. If you recall, I did suggest you let go and fuck them all a few weeks ago.”

  My neck heated. “Yeah, yeah. I remember.”

  His chuckle was a harsh, twisted sound. “Oh, look, she’s blushing.” His tone was far from pleasant—it was downright nasty, laced with bitter sarcasm.

  “Stop it.”

  “Stop what?”

  “Being a dick. I get it. You’re pissed, and you have every right to be, but stop taking it out on me. I’m just as much a victim as you.”

  The air was suddenly charged with fizzing atoms on the verge of explosion, but I was damned if I was backing down. Yesterday had been emotional, and I’d allowed guilt to cloud my judgment and actions, but a decent night’s sleep was an amazing weapon of clarity. And no, this wasn’t my fault. What had happened to him was Liana’s fault. Yes, he’d suffered, and fuck it, there was no way I was denying that, but I refused to be his scapegoat.

  If I could be certain it would truly ease his pain, I’d kill Liana myself. Goodness knows I’d had the chance when my hands had been round her throat, but it wouldn’t give us back the lost time. It woul
dn’t solve anything, and she’d be getting off lightly. All we were doing by dwelling was wasting more time, time that we could be using to reconnect emotionally, to simply be together as we’d been intended to be. The thoughts were a delicate tumble in my brain, and somewhere along the line, the tension evaporated.

  “Damn you, Wila,” Seb said softly. “Damn you.” His hand slid onto my thigh and moved up toward my crotch, sending a wave of heat rushing through my blood and images filtering through my brain. His hands on my breasts, his mouth closing on my nipple, his fingers sliding into my wetness, stroking that ache and throb into insane submission. The car swerved, horns beeped, and my foot slammed down on the brakes.

  “Fucking hell, Seb! Are you trying to get us killed?” I twisted in my seat, heart slamming against my ribs, eyes hot with fear and anger, because, shit, we’d almost died.

  He kept his eyes on the road, a small smile playing on his lips. “No, we wouldn’t have.”

  “What?”

  “Died. I wouldn’t have allowed it.”

  Hands shaking, I gripped the wheel. “Don’t do that again.”

  “Really?”

  I licked my suddenly dry lips. “Don’t do it again unless you’re doing it for real.” The words were thick with wanton desire, and then I cranked Mini to life and swerved back onto the road. “Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself.”

  His laughter filled the car.

  Tay lay on his bed, his beautiful face relaxed in slumber. Even in repose, he radiated power.

  “Are you sure about this?” Mack wrung his hands. “Slumber is ...” He trailed off with a soft, barely audible curse.

  He really couldn’t tell me. “I know what it is, Mack. You don’t have to worry.”

  His brow cleared. “You do?”

  “Yeah, turns out Trevor had a connection with a troll blood back in the day; him being a canine must have allowed her to speak to him about it.”

  Mack sagged against the door frame. “Thank God for that. I’ve been beating myself up about not being able to speak to you about the details.”

  “We’ll get him back,” Seb said with quiet confidence.

  I climbed up onto the bed beside Tay, resisting the urge to wrap my arms around his waist and bury my nose in the crook of his neck. “Okay, what do we do, exactly?”

  “Lie with him,” Seb said. “You need to be touching him for this to work.”

  Ah, all my dreams come true. Tay’s body was warm, almost too warm, as if he had a fever. I slung my arm around his waist, over his T-shirt.

  “Skin on skin,” Seb instructed.

  Ookay. I slipped a hand under Tay’s T-shirt, skimming up across his tight abs and coming to rest on his smooth pectoral.

  Seb sucked in a breath. “That’s it.” His tone was thicker now, and then he climbed up onto the bed behind me, pressing his chest to my back, his groin to my ass, and burying his face in the nape of my neck. “Close your eyes, Wila. Drift with me.”

  My eyelids fluttered closed, and my heartbeat adjusted to the rhythm of Seb’s thrumming against my spine. Tay’s steady heartbeat under my palm attuned to match mine and Seb’s. We were in sync, and the darkness behind my eyelids was slowly infused with sparkling light; it was like being suspended in viscous glitter that shifted and formed globules and then separated, leaving long tails of sparkles suspended between the new smaller spheres.

  “Welcome to the ether.” Seb was beside me, his silver hair floating around his perfect face. His eyes were eerily bright in contrast to his inky lashes, and his delectable mouth was curved in a smug smile.

  This was his home, this was who he was, what he was, and he’d pulled me in with him. He was sharing an essential part of himself with me, and wonder bloomed in my heart.

  He floated closer and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Look around, do you sense Tay?”

  “Here, in the ether?”

  “Yes. He would have passed this way to get to his destination, although he wouldn’t know it. He would have left an imprint in the fabric of this place.”

  Tay? Where are you? With Seb as an anchor, I twisted and turned, reaching out with my senses, searching for a trace of him. “Dammit, what am I looking for?”

  Seb’s breath coasted against the shell of my ear. “His smile, his laugh, his heady scent, the way he makes your heart skip a beat when he enters a room. The callous scrape of his fingers as they move across your flesh.”

  Oh, fuck, what was he trying to do to me? “Okay, okay, I get it. Quit the smexy talk already.”

  His laugh was small and breathless and cut off too soon. “Hurry. You can’t stay here for too long.”

  Okay. Tay, what did you leave behind? Once again, I reached out with my senses, opening myself up, drifting in Seb’s solid arms, and there it was, Tay’s troll scent.

  “This way!” I tugged at Seb, moving in the direction of the scent, excitement a bubbling brook in my veins.

  “Good. Yes. I feel it now. Hold tight.”

  And then the glitter stuff was whooshing past in a miasma of iridescent color. The world tipped, and then we were tumbling onto emerald grass. The aroma of honeysuckle hit me next, and then an azure sky was staring down at me.

  “Auntie Em, are we in Kansas?”

  A hand appeared in my line of vision. “Up you get. We don’t have much time. We aren’t meant to be here, and soon this place will realize that and try to evict us. We need to work fast. Find Tay and get him out.” He hauled me up.

  Rolling hills greeted us, and far below us, nestled in a valley, was a little village. “I guess we go that way?”

  Seb shrugged. “You tell me? Can you still sense Tay?”

  “Are you serious? I’m not a bloodhound.”

  “But you are part dragon. We’re excellent trackers, and our Shedim blood makes us fearless warriors with instincts honed for survival. Trust our instincts now. Trust in what we are.”

  Could I? Closing my eyes, I opened up my senses, filtering through the various fragrances: honey, mint, a briny, sharp scent of rushing water. No. No and no, and then an irresistible and completely male aroma hit me. Taylem. “I found it. Shit. I actually found it.” I set off in the wake of Tay’s signature scent. “This way.”

  Seb followed with an amused chuckle.

  “Can you do it too? Track?”

  “I do it because you do it.”

  “What does that mean?”

  His jaw was super tense again. “It means that my interaction with the world is governed by your existence, and your tether to it is governed by mine.”

  We climbed down a hill blanketed in tiny purple flowers. “Because I’m made of flesh and bone and you’re made of ether?”

  “Yes. I’ve spent years thinking about why I’m what I am and you’re what you are, and there’s no definitive answer. Creation saw fit to make us this way, and that’s the only fact. Does it bother me that my experiences are tainted by yours? Does it piss me off that your vocabulary seems to sit on the tip of my tongue? No. Because we are what we are.”

  The village came into view, all cobblestones and thatched roofs, all hey let’s go get water from the well and bake some actual bread.

  “I feel like we’ve been thrown back into some kind of fairytale.”

  “This is the heart of the troll realm? This is where the troll bloods come to connect with their power? I’d have expected caves and more grrr,” Seb said.

  “My thoughts precisely.”

  “I know.”

  “Okay, now that’s just creepy.”

  His turquoise eyes bore into mine for a long beat, and then he slipped his hand into mine and a ripple passed over my skin. “Let’s look the part, shall we?”

  My scalp crawled. “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for ... Ah, there it is. Check it out.” He glanced down the length of me.

  I followed his gaze to find myself dressed in some kind of peasant outfit. “Really?”

  “Look around, Wila. We need to blend.
”

  He was right. The people wandering around the village were all dressed in simple peasant clothes.

  “Fine, but what about you?”

  He winked. “I get to be invisible.”

  “They can’t see you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why can’t I be invisible?”

  “Flesh and bone, remember, and even though we aren’t physically here, your psyche knows what you are and will cling to the laws of physics.”

  “You, on the other hand, defy it.”

  His grin was part cocky, part impressed. “Shall we go liberate your lover?”

  “Damn straight.” I strode into the village, hot on Tay’s trail. Where are you, babe? Where the fuck are you?

  3

  Taylem

  “Tay. Baby, you awake?” Tonya’s deep, sultry voice drifted into the bedroom.

  I stared at the ceiling numbly. What the fuck was my problem? I had a beautiful woman who adored me, a home, a solid job at the mines, and we’d be officially mated tomorrow, so why did it feel like there was a rock on my chest? Why did the sound of Tonya’s voice instill dread rather than longing?

  “Babycakes.” Tonya stood in the doorway, a frown on her heart-shaped face.

  Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head, and she was wearing one of my shirts, which came down to mid-thigh on her. She was beautiful, so why did I want her to go away?

  “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “I have a better idea,” she said, crawling up onto the bed.

  My stomach clenched, not with anticipation but with dread. Wrong. This felt wrong.

  “How about I make you come?” She reached for my boxers, and my hand whipped out lightning fast to grasp her wrist.

  “Tay!” She looked up in shock. “Babycakes.” She pouted prettily. “Let me taste you?”

  No. Just ... no. “I need to shower.”

  She sat back on her haunches. “You never minded dirty sex before.”

  Before ... when had before been? A sharp pain lanced through my head. Before ... there had been something before ... Someone. A flash of green eyes, a whip of dark hair. My chest ached with longing, yearning, and a low moan slipped from my lips.