Kingdom of Storms (The Desert Cursed Series Book 8)

by Shannon Mayer

  The ice drake leapt forward and shoved her face against mine. “You would face down the Beast from the East? You think you can kill him?”

  Her blueish white scales drew my eyes like crystal, but it was her violet eyes, so like Lila’s, that I couldn’t escape. “I have to. There is no choice now.” And as the words left my mouth, I knew that they were truth. There was no choice. I was on a runaway horse headed straight for a demon that everyone was terrified of.

  Whether I liked it or not.

  The ice drake tipped her head to the side. “We will carry you down the mountain. For a price.”

  Vahab snorted. “You don’t have room to negotiate. You’re trapped here, and we are freeing you. You should just say thank you.”

  Said the Jinn who’d been trapped and said he wanted to negotiate his freedom with extra perks. Even if he’d been lying, the irony was still there.

  The lead female wrinkled her lips up over her mouthful of teeth. “Good luck then, escaping down a mountain that is unscalable for any who do not have wings, or ride an ice drake.”

  I shoved Vahab to the side. “He’s not in charge here.”

  “Good, I was worried for you that a stupid man like that might be running your life.” The ice drake eyed me up. “What is your offer?”

  “The three of us taken down the mountain and to the desert edge where my horses wait,” I took a breath, “you gain your freedom. I have a better chance at—”

  The castle listed hard, and we were all thrown to the right, slammed into the blue stone walls.

  “Get on, we will discuss when we are free!” the ice drake shouted. I didn’t wait for another offer. I ran to her side and leapt up onto her back. Whatever the cost she would demand, I would pay it. Because there really was no choice.

  She turned, rolling back on her haunches and spinning hard to the left, almost losing me in that first quick move. I grabbed hold of her as best I could, squeezing her with my legs and gripping the long, soft scales that fluttered down her neck.

  The leader of the ice drakes leapt forward, straight toward a wall that dissolved as her nose touched it. “See, we could leave.”

  Something wasn’t adding up here. I didn’t know what yet, but I had a feeling we’d find out soon enough.

  Yup, soon enough came rather quick.

  13

  The female ice drake I was riding leapt out of the castle as the stones began to crumble down, the entire structure imploding on itself.

  “Lila!” I yelled her name, hoping she would hear me. She would get out; I was sure of it. A shiver wracked me as the cold of the mountains slid through my thin clothes.

  I blinked, realizing we weren’t running straight downhill. Not really. The membranes under the ice drake’s legs had caught the wind and we were kind of floating and falling at the same time. Here and there the ice drakes hit the ground, a chunk of rock, a lump of snow, and bounced back up again as they let gravity take over.

  “This is lovely!” Vahab yelled across at me as his hair kind of floated up around his head. He looked mad, as if he were in some sort of psychedelic dream.

  I clung harder to the ice drake and said nothing.

  It was not lost on me that the ice drake had perked up when Vahab had said he was a Jinn, and that I was half-Jinn.

  What were the ice drakes doing, staying with Pazuzu if they hadn’t wanted to be there?

  A screech cut through the air, that turned into a snarling growl. We were in between floating bounds and the ice drake below me tensed.

  “That is the price,” she shouted. “Kill the Ijiraq. The shapeshifter with a thousand shapes, and all the malevolence of a demon! They nearly wiped our herds out.”

  “Oh, is that all?” I muttered as I twisted around but could see nothing. “Where is it?” Wouldn’t a creature like that be large enough to take on the ice drakes? I couldn’t imagine it staying small.

  “You cannot see it straight on, you can only see it from the corner of your eye!” she said. “They were created by Jinn, so you can rid us of them!”

  I looked across at Vahab. “This is on you! Get rid of it!”

  He held up both hands, palms up. “I cannot.”

  “WHY NOT?” both I and the ice drake yelled at the same time. A shimmer to my left, right in the corner of my eye stilled me.

  The body was that of a huge man, thin and wiry, covered in no fur even in this cold weather. Symbols I couldn’t quite read were etched across his narrow, bony chest. His eyes flashed red right before he tipped his head back and let out that screeching roar that cut through everything.

  “Kill it, Vahab!” I said. “Don’t tell me you can’t! You’re the first Jinn, the most powerful Jinn!” Maybe appealing to his ego would do the trick. Or maybe not.

  Vahab shrugged. He fucking shrugged. “Do you think that Asag let me keep my powers, any more than he let you keep yours?”

  “Go as fast as you can!” I yelled at the ice drake.

  “I am, but it is not just the Ijiraq!” She tipped her head to the right.

  A howl of another creature spun through the air and I twisted to the other side to see a lumbering, massive bear-like creature with deep blue fur. It ran on four legs that were wide and splayed for the snow, and had a three-pronged tail with hooks in the end of it.

  And it was, of course, coming straight for us. I scrambled for my hip and the few weapons I had, one of which was a grenade set for my shotgun. I yanked the pin on one, and threw the seemingly harmless ball at the oncoming beast.

  “Flatten!” I yelled. I had no idea if they could slow our downward trajectory, but it was worth trying.

  The herd of ice drakes tucked their legs in tight and instead of floating down the mountain we were suddenly full on falling.

  We hit the snowpack and sunk under the first layers of it as the grenade went off.

  The concussion rippled through us, throwing us all sideways even under the snow. Like being in the water, I tumbled away from the ice drake, losing her in the chaos. Reyhan gave a screech, but she was still in her bag on my back.

  As the world calmed, I pulled myself up out of the snow. No longer white, it was flecked with the blood and guts of the bear. But where was the Ijiraq? I scanned the area as ice drakes popped up from the snow and shook themselves clean. I kept looking from the corner of my eye as my body tensed, feeling the beast near even though I couldn’t see it.

  I can help.

  Lilith’s whisper was right there, and I reached for the handle, stopping just shy of it. “I don’t think so.”

  Instead, I pulled two short daggers that I always kept for backup. They would have to do.

  “You cannot kill it with mortal weapons!” the female ice drake said. “It is magic or nothing.”

  “Nothing it is then!” I said, and then I paused as a thought hit me. When I’d had the flail and shifted while I carried it, the weapon had made me stronger but wasn’t able to take over. Would it be the same with Lilith?

  I shrugged out of the backpack holding Reyhan as Lila swept into view. I tossed her the kid. “I’m going to try something.”

  “Not even a hello? How are you? What the hell happened? I mean, let’s be honest, I found you nice and easy, only you would think it a good idea to toss a grenade on the side of a freaking mountain! Do you know that you’re triggering a landslide? And it’s coming fast?” Her words tumbled over and over at a speed I could barely keep up with.

  “I love you too, glad you’re safe, now I have to kill something.” I blew a breath out and shifted into my jungle cat form. I’d held Lilith before when I’d shifted, but I’d not noticed any extra power or strength. That being said, she’d been quieter then.

  I closed my eyes and drew in a breath. The Ijiraq was to my left. I spun, eyes open but not looking at it. There it was in the corner of my vision, reaching for one of the ice drakes that was struggling out of the snow. I leapt sideways and tackled it to the ground, and the fucker disappeared from under me.

&
nbsp; “Side of your eyes, Lila, can you help me spot it?”

  “I can,” Fen answered as he landed on my back, his claws and long tail tightening around me.

  Good enough. I would take his help.

  “Left,” he yelped and I spun, swiping with my claws as fast as I could without looking. The Ijiraq screeched as I caught a leg, and dug in deep to the flesh and tendons.

  But before I could get a second blow, I looked too close at it, and the beast was gone again.

  “It’s bleeding!” Lila yelled. “I see blood on the snow now even though I can’t see the body or wounds! Hurry, the snow is coming down faster!”

  That had to be good—except for the avalanche, of course. “Come on then!” I snarled and let out a roar of my own.

  The ground around us rumbled and I took a step back.

  Everything happened too fast for me to stop. That step back took me to the edge of a cliff I didn’t see. The Ijiraq tackled me, and we went over in a burst of snow, blood and teeth as the avalanche I’d triggered slammed into us. I closed my eyes and clawed and bit at the beast, feeling my way to its belly as we fell. If it was the last thing I did, I would kill it. Screeching, the Ijiraq clawed and bit back, but I wasn’t about to back down now.

  I was going to regret this, maybe I’d hit the rocks at the bottom, maybe I’d die for real this time.

  I didn’t know.

  I almost didn’t care and as I felt that sensation of apathy, I knew that Lilith still had some hold of me in this shape too.

  Our freefall stopped suddenly, and the Ijiraq let go of me, pushed away.

  Or maybe torn away was a better word for it. I peeked with one eye, already knowing what had happened. The feel of a dragon’s talon was something very specific, and I peered up at Fen as he undulated above me. He’d shifted to his larger form to save me.

  “Do not get used to it,” he grumbled.

  I bared my teeth in a cat grin. “Thanks.”

  We waited as the avalanche continued past us, the ice drakes navigating it as if it were flat, not undulating ground.

  A shiver coursed through me, dancing along my limbs and making them shake like I’d touched something electrical.

  Only a few heartbeats passed before the snow was done with its freefall. Fen set me down where the ice drakes waited and then he flung what remained of the Ijiraq out into open air. I could see it now, clearly. Limbs limp, fur no longer taking any sort of shape other than what it was in that moment.

  “Is it dead?”

  “Yes.” The female ice drake came up to us. “That one is dead. Your strength, half-Jinn, has saved us.”

  I shifted back to two legs, my wounds healing as they did when I went between shifts. Grimacing, I wobbled and reached out to her for balance. Lila landed on her back. “Zam?”

  “The Ijiraq’s bite is terrible,” the ice drake said. “She will need to rest.”

  Need to rest? The words tumbled through me. “Can’t. We have to go. Meet Balder.” Even as I spoke my strength fled, my breath came in gasps and I fought to stay upright.

  Arms tucked around me, and I was lifted up onto the back of a dragon. I rolled my head to see Vahab smiling down at me, and his hand slid up way too far on my ribs.

  “Fen and I will take her.”

  “Mother fucker . . .” I managed as Lilith raged on my back.

  How dare he touch you like that?

  I didn’t disagree but my body was too busy fighting off whatever mojo the damn Ijiraq had shoved into me.

  “What the actual fu—” Lila yelled as I was manhandled—in the most literal of sense.

  “Fen,” I whispered the dragon’s name and he sighed.

  “I can’t stop him, Zam. I’m sorry.”

  So that said a lot about their relationship. “Where are you taking me?” That’s what I wanted to ask, what I got out was ‘where’.

  “Anywhere I wish,” Vahab stroked a hand over my head. “I’ve been alone a long time. I’m looking forward to this.”

  He . . . did he really mean to think he’d take me like this?

  I closed my eyes. Not because I’d given up, not by a long shot. But because I would need my strength when I cut his balls off and fed them to Lila.

  14

  Maks

  He stayed in that cave against the edge of the sea for a full day while the Storm Queen and her cronies searched the water for his body. Or he assumed that was what they were searching for. Goddess only knew what she’d do if she got a hold of a body where she thought the balls were still somehow usable.

  A shudder rippled down his spine and he tucked himself deeper into the tight crevice that he’d found. The rocks dug into him on all sides, but that was better than being out in the open where he could be picked off.

  Marsum sat beside him, incorporeal but there. Or maybe it was just his mind breaking and so he called up the one person he knew would never truly let him be.

  “All this water, and not a drop to drink,” Marsum said. “What will you do when your thirst drives you out?”

  The question was valid. But Maks had no answer for it. “Tell me again about Soleil and Nico.”

  Marsum sighed. “They are the first demons, created . . . or come into existence, however it happened. And they have always and forever wanted this world to be home to their children. If they save you, then you are bound to them in a way that you cannot break until you return a favor that they see fit.”

  “Even though I asked them not to.”

  “That is the nature of those two. They don’t have to be asked. They can give a boon and call in on it later. Asag was a favorite of theirs.” Marsum’s voice flickered as did his body. “They want him to rule. I just can’t understand why they would save you? I mean . . . unless there is something in you that they want too?”

  Maks was hoping that perhaps, perhaps this was just a terrible fever dream as he lay dying on the rocks. A figment of his imagination that would never come to fruition.

  Beyond that, there was one thing he knew he had to do. He had to get back into the castle. It was the only place where there would be water and food, and more places to hide.

  The sun had dipped below the edge of the horizon and the water and rock around him grew dark.

  With the clouds above blocking out the light from any stars or the moon, it would be the best chance he had at sneaking back into the Storm Queen’s castle. “Did you know her well?” he asked Marsum before he could catch the question and swallow it down.

  “We corresponded some,” Marsum said. But nothing more.

  Maks tipped his head and one ear toward what he was now considering a figment of his imagination. “Am I related to her?”

  “Gods no. I wouldn’t send any of my Jinn to her.” Marsum snorted. “It was of no benefit to me.”

  Of course that was the reason why.

  Maks slid out of the crevice and stretched, his vertebrae popping and cracking as he drew in a deep breath. Above him the jagged rocks presented plenty of handholds and toe footings to climb. The more concerning part of the climb would be being seen and picked off before he made it to a window.

  And then that window needed to be in a place that he could hunker down and work from.

  “Fuck,” he whispered as his hands bled and ached. The longer he waited, the worse the pain would get. If he missed, though, or slipped off the edge of the window he’d be dead. For real this time

  He wiped his hands one at a time on his shirt, in an attempt to take the worst of the blood off. That was all he could do, though.

  One deep breath and he leapt out for the window ledge. His fingers slid sideways, and he bit back on a scream as his body went.

  “Pull hard,” Marsum said as if he were training Maks once more.

  Flexing his body, the momentum of the slip still there, he curled his feet toward his head and the window ledge. The world tipped upside down and then as suddenly as he’d been sliding to his death, he was on his knees and staring out at the crash
ing waves.

  He scooted backward and bumped into a closed window. “I can’t believe that worked.”

  “Me either.”

  Maks glared at his father. “And you didn’t think to talk me out of it?”

  Marsum shrugged. “It was that or the water, and we both know you wouldn’t have made it far. You might be able to swim, but you live in a desert. It is not a strong skill of yours. Never mind the beasts that live below the waves.”

  Not wrong, the ass was not wrong.

  Turning, Maks fumbled with the window, managing to get it open. He slid into the dark room, closed the window behind him and took a deep breath.

  Ointments and herbs, the faint tang of a wood flame.

  He was in the apothecary of the white-haired old woman who’d made the drugs for him so her mistress could bang him.

  A low string of curses whipped out of him as he searched the room for a hiding place, a weapon, anything that could help.

  Across the worktable were a few small knives—nothing that he would consider better than his fists—crushed herbs, powders, and a piece of paper with scrawled words he could not decipher, the edges burnt.

  Footsteps turned his head and he shifted, diving for the cover under the low shelves on the darker side of the room.

  “Idiot girl!” The door flung open and a waft of fresh air came in with her. Maks watched, eyes narrowed so as to not pick up the gleam of any candles. “She thinks I can just drag in another Jinn like this?” She snapped her bony fingers for good measure. “Kindness, and food. If she’d done a little work, that last one would have been putty in her hands. But no, she wants to break them, to force them to love her!”

  Her words were not exactly quiet. He wondered just how dangerous this old woman was, seeing as she didn’t seem particularly afraid of the Storm Queen. Her feet drew close to the shelving unit he was under and he pulled back further while Marsum chuckled in the background.