“I believe,” I began slowly, even as the car began to slow and park behind a sleek black Range Rover—Romulus leaning casually against the back, “I will not find her lacking—” I held up my hand to stop Merlin from responding. “I cannot fault you for knowing me, Merlin. But Ella calls to me in a way that reaches to my core. She is more than her body to me and that terrifies me.”
Merlin’s eyes were wide with a familiar vulnerability. I ducked my head and steadied myself.
“I think she calls to us each this way,” I continued. “And I am only beginning to understand how dangerous that could be to us. To our way of life.”
“But she’s worth it,” he said, adamant. I nodded and the driver opened his door.
“She is,” I agreed, and gestured for him to exit. “Now, let us find her and make her know that.”
He slid out of the car, my words having reassured him and myself. I began to brace myself to the reveal of her face, knowing that I could be a bastard without intention. But as Merlin declared, she was worth the effort and I would not be the cause of more pain for her.
Merlin led us up the stairs, Romulus falling in step beside me with a single tilt of the head. Silent purpose connected us. The warlock pounded on the front door and we waited, knowing the calm before the storm was nearly over. I could taste magic on the air and I heard Romulus growl low in his chest.
We stood together as knights holding the last defense, an unknown but powerful enemy preparing to charge. A calm settled over me, the static chaos running over my skin lowering to a soft hum.
The door was opened by a balding butler, his mouth set in a firm line of disapproval.
“We are here to see Eleanora Bediver,” Merlin said, his voice infused with the magic of a command. The man nearly wilted under the onslaught.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” a voice from deeper within called, and the butler nearly fell out of the door in his haste to flee.
Merlin radiated power and Romulus and I fed off of it. I could see Romulus fighting the urge to shift into his lycan form and my own fangs descended, my hands curling into fists. We followed the warlock into the mansion and met Madam Jupiter, who stood regally in the middle of the marble hall.
She raised her chin in defiance as she felt our powers flood the room. There was no possible way she could ever expect to take us on. Not even with her two daughters’ assistance, who I could sense at the top of the stairwell, watching us anxiously.
“Where is she?” Romulus demanded, his voice cracking with anger.
“The burdens of her life were too much for her to bear,” Madam Jupiter said, the woman’s cold eyes narrowing as she looked between us. “She has been sent away somewhere to live in solitary peace. I do not understand why she should concern you three. Especially you, Merlin. The only daughter of mine that should hold your interest is Titania.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t ever going to happen, lady,” Merlin drawled out as he crossed his arms. “You see, Ella is very special to each of us. I told you I’d call on you today to check on her.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes with a short laugh. “I never expected you to actually care about someone as weak as Ella. Why don’t you three join me in the dining room and settle your fears. I assure you she will be taken care of in a place where she cannot hurt anyone.”
My mind raced as I processed her words, and then cold anger filled my stomach. There was only one place that those in the magical world would send those too broken and dangerous. It was little more than a stone prison on a forgotten island off of the arctic coast of Canada.
“You sent her to the fucking Storm Cape?”
There was a poignant silence before I realized that I was the one who’d spoke. My nails bit into the flesh of my palms and I focused on it. Otherwise, the fury building within me would break and I would paint the walls with Madam Jupiter’s blood.
“It was for the best,” she responded, her voice finally showing a hint of trepidation.
Romulus broke, his lycan form tearing through his clothing as he howled in anger and pain.
Storm Cape was a death sentence to anyone who was sent there, no matter the syndicate or the wealth of the family. The thought of our Ella being tossed into a stone cell and forgotten by the world as she was allowed to fade into insanity before death took mercy on her . . . I shook with rage.
Merlin shouted as I ran forward, a blur to everyone, faster than even Romulus in his lycan form. I grabbed Madam Jupiter by the throat and slammed her against the wall, her feet dangling off the floor as I hissed in rage. She scratched at my grip but with Ella’s blood power, I healed as fast as her nails gouged my skin.
Screams from above us pierced my ears but I did not let their mother go.
“Give me a single reason why I shouldn’t tear your throat out in front of your daughters right now?” I demanded.
“Brom . . .” Merlin warned me as he slowly approached.
I knew that if I killed her like this, it would be an act of war between the syndicates but I was beyond caring.
The woman struggled to speak and I relented my grip enough to let her speak.
“She is our destruction,” she choked out, tears streaming from her eyes, her face flushed red.
“We know her ancestry,” Merlin said, and he put his hand on my shoulder—grounding me.
“Then you know how dangerous she is,” Madam Jupiter gasped.
Soft footsteps sounded behind us and then her daughters were there, tears in their eyes as they grabbed at my arm. The brunette looked at us, terror in her eyes, while Titania watched her mother in fear.
“She’s in the harbor. They only took her at dawn earlier,” Beatrice said. “She’s not gone yet—please, let our mother go! She only was doing what she thought was right.”
“No, she was acting out of greed and lust for power,” I snarled, but snatched my hand away, the older woman falling into her daughters’ arms and collapsing to the floor, coughing until she retched.
“Let’s go,” Merlin said, and the three of us stormed back out the front door.
“Wait,” Merlin said, and pointed towards the horizon. Black smoke was drifting into the sky, coloring the evening sky in an ominous darkness. “That’s the direction of Pelham Bay, isn’t it?”
I closed my eyes, going deep within myself, before sending my mind out across the city and towards the fire—seeking out Ella’s blood.
I looked to Merlin and Romulus.
“Ella is there,” I confirmed. “And so is a Phoenix.”
Continue Ella’s story in book two, Deck of Shadows.
Part II
Deck of Shadows
The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire…
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 45
Chapter 1
Merlin
People were staring at the harbor in horror and morbid fascination. Flames had spread from boat to boat, impressive considering they were all fucking metal. The crowd gasped, the sounds of metal warping sounding like animals crying out as they were dragged towards death. Even this far away, the air was hot with unnatural heat, and black smoke clogged the sky, covering the area in darkness. It fucking terrified me that Ella was in there, and it pissed me off that her family put her there.
Romulus had gotten himself under control and shifted back into human form, thank fuck for that. The last thing we needed to deal with was a bunch of terrestris fainting at the sight of a fully changed lycan. Still, I had to grab him by the shoulder when he tried to shove through the crowd. That got me a growl and I glared right back at him.
“None of your thrilling heroics, Romulus,” I ground out as Romulus stepped into my space, his thick brows bent in anger. I shoved him back, one hand to his chest with a bite of magic to show I wasn’t fucking around. I pointed at the fire. “The last thing Ella needs you to do is start a fucking war by charging
in there. There are warlocks in there, guarding the ship and dealing with the fire. You go jacking off into there, full of your lycan testosterone, and you won’t see Ella ever again because you’ll be dead. Fucking use that brain of yours.”
I willed the man to understand, to think about the entire situation before he made any rash decisions. I didn’t drop eye contact; this was a challenge almost as surely as if I’d gotten into a ring with him. I didn’t want to be his fucking alpha but I sure as fuck wanted him to listen.
“What do you propose?” Brom’s cool and collected voice made both of us look to the vampire. He wasn’t looking at us, but past the crowd. He looked as if he may as well have been asking where we wanted to eat that night for dinner.
Romulus grunted and stepped back. Fucking finally. The man was smarter than he seemed, but sometimes he let his beastly side take over.
“You can’t go in either,” I said, and Brom nodded. The ass had probably already known that and come up with a plan. Hopefully it was along the lines of the one forming in my head. “You two help me get past the police line. I get in, confront the fuckers since I can take them out without bringing a war down on us. I find her and get her out.”
“And the phoenix?” Romulus growled, his Irish brogue so thick I almost didn’t understand him. He was more torn up about Ella being in there than I’d thought. Not that I didn’t think he’d cared at all, but damn, she’d taken us hard.
“Fuck the phoenix,” I said. “I care about Ella. I’ll get her the fuck out of there. Phoenixes aren’t to be fucked around with. I don’t consider it cowardly to say I’d rather not meet it.”
“A wise decision,” Brom agreed, and studied the police line. “Ready now?”
I bounced on my toes, my chest buzzed from my magic, and I leaned my head from side to side, cracking my neck. I hadn’t had a proper magical fight in years, not since I came back to New Londinium. I shouldn’t have been excited, but I fucking was. I nodded to Brom, curious to as how the vampire was going to help me get past the policemen. He jerked his head to the side, and I strode past him, balling up my fingers, then stretching them out repeatedly.
When I was about ten feet away from the two, I heard a woman yelp, and then Brom called for help. I raised an eyebrow, curious as to what the vampire had done, but as two officers pushed into the crowd, I slipped through the line and into the port.
Metal burning has this distinct smell. It’s a combination of steel, phosphorus, and even sulfur. It’s tangy and rich and terrifying. Because if a fire is so hot that metal is burning, everything else is fucked.
I pushed on, marching through the aisles of stacked box cars towards the ships where I hoped Ella had gotten out. If the crew of the ship to Storm Cape had abandoned her to the flames, I would mete out such a retribution to them and their kin that it would echo through the ages. Sweat beaded on my forehead, but the air had grown so hot it was evaporating before I had to worry about it. My shirt was beginning to cling to my skin but I refused to take off my jacket, not when I might still need it.
I turned a corner and finally found four men in rough denim and flannel shirts holding back the flames from the ship before us. The fire was hottest here, an inferno against my face, my skin drying and tightening under its onslaught. The roar of the flames was tremendous, and so like that of a massive waterfall. But hell, it was hard to breathe—the oxygen was being stolen from my lungs it felt like, stolen away to fuel the flames even hotter.
“Gentlemen,” I shouted, and one looked over his shoulder at me, hands raised up as magic flowed from them into an iridescent barrier.
“Stay back,” he ordered, his brow frowning in concentration.
“I’d feel bad for inconveniencing you,” I said, dipping my head as if in regret, “but”—I pointed towards the ship—“I need to get in there.”
“Not happening, dude,” another one said. “Not sure if you can see it, but there’s a fucking phoenix blowing shit to hell right now.”
“Yeah, and there’s a girl—Eleanora Bediver—on that ship, and you’ll have a bigger problem than a phoenix if I don’t get her.”
The one that looked over his shoulder dropped his hands and faced me, an incredulous look on his face.
“You’ve got to be fucking crazy,” he stated. “That Bediver woman is the phoenix.”
I blinked. I blinked again. Then I shrugged.
“Then it sounds like you’d better let me through,” I said. My mind was reeling. Ella was the phoenix? But for as many questions as that inspired, it inspired more relief. She’d be able to survive these flames if she didn’t burn herself out from within.
But the dude was shaking his head. “No can do. I’ve got orders from Jupiter. No one sees her.”
I raised my hands to the side as if I were showing I was unarmed. “Yeah, well—I’m Merlin Moitessier. So, what’ll it be? Her wrath or mine?”
My name made him pause, and even two of the other warlocks looked back at us nervously. I sighed the moment I saw him decide where his loyalties lied.
He snapped out a hand, the air ripping towards me as his attack of brute magical force flew. I raised my arms, crossing them before my face, watching him between my hands, and his attack flowed around me like a gentle wave of water. I dropped my hands, grinning sadistically at him.
“You stand between me and the woman I love,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “You just made the wrong fucking decision, you cancerous stain of warlock.”
I kicked my foot out, as if breaking down a door, and magic arced like lightning between us. The warlock didn’t even have time to scream as he was thrown through the magical barrier and against the searing hot side of the ship. His body clung there for a moment, the air shimmering from the heat and the magical barrier, the heat melting him to the side. Gravity reasserted its power and dragged him down until he disappeared between the dock and the ship.
The barrier fell as the other three warlocks were frozen in shock before they turned to me, anger in their eyes. I was probably going to hell, but damn, I was excited. My blood burned nearly as hot as the fire beyond. I hadn’t been able to lash out at anyone for all the rage Jupiter and the Syndicate’s schemes had filled me with. But fighting these men would do well enough.
I rolled my neck, my face tight from the heat, but I grinned all the same. “Think carefully, boys.”
The one on the left brought his hands together in a wide clap just as the one on the right spiraled his palms together, crafting and shooting out a sphere of magic at me. I spun on my toes, my hands stretched out as if I were a giddy child, as their magic swarmed me. I absorbed their attack, leeching away the energy and feeding it into the tornado growing around me. On my third spin, I stopped, bristling with magic, and smirked. “Or not.”
I charged them, even as they fell backwards away from my attack. I punched the right one, my magic slamming into him moments before my fist, cracking his jaw and sending him to the ground, motionless. I felt magic hammering against my back and I swept my leg out, taking out the man. I spun around on him and grabbed him by the shirt before flinging him up towards the sky, my magic boosting him like a high-octane rocket. I looked to the last man, who stared at me with fright. I stood up, and his companion’s body slammed into the earth between us.
He jumped, horrified at the mangled body at my feet. I cocked an eyebrow.
He ran.
“One of them had sense,” I said, and shook my head. I turned towards the ship, gathering my magic around me in a shield. I layered the magic between me and the ground, levitating me, while also wrapping it around me—keeping me safe from the heat but also acting like a magical oxygen tank.
I looked up and my breath was stolen anyways.
Ella stood at the edge of the ship, flames streaming off her as if she were a glorious wrath-filled goddess. Her gown was in tatters, burning away, and her mask was gone. I knew, in that moment, I would never see a more beautiful sight than she. She looked down at me, her face a mask
of scars and fury, and I did what any sensible man would do.
I dropped to my knees in supplication.
Chapter 2
Eleanora
The world around me was bathed in flames; I heard the shouts of people through the near vacuum of air surrounding me. The men who had been my captors had tried to confine me with their magic, but my fire burned through their enchantments and they’d fled in terror.
My power distilled fear and it made me feel drunk with freedom. No longer would I be regulated to the staff quarters. No longer would I be ignored and pushed to the side. I would bring a reckoning to Madam Jupiter and all those who stood in my way.
I paused on the deck of the ship, my magic protecting me from injury, as I watched the world burn around me. I wondered at my sanity, because I didn’t feel any remorse or shame for the destruction I was causing. It was simply what was meant to be. The phoenix within me was greedy, it wanted to devour the world around me. Each flame leaping upwards was a movement of joyous consumption.
The ship vibrated and groaned underneath my feet as I felt the magical barrier form. It was of no importance; their attempts were futile, but they would learn that soon enough. I closed my eyes and let the flames caress me with their gentle warmth as I fed them with my magic, spurring them to leap from ship to ship.
I could spend eternity within the heart of the fire and only emerge once the city was destroyed. The phoenix magic inside of me shouted with glee—the destruction of everything was its dream, and thus, it was mine.
The magical barrier fell, and I cocked my head, curious as to the reason. I walked to the edge and saw that three of the men fought a single familiar form. The warlock dispatched two of them with efficient brutality and the last one fled. I felt the man gathering his magic around him and I blinked as my overwhelming rage dampened. It was Merlin.
Beautiful Secrets: The Complete Trilogy Page 15
