by Olivia Ash
Mordecai laughed. Full-bellied, loud, boisterous. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be there. This is something I gotta see.” He turned and continued on to whatever or wherever he was set on before Damien stopped him.
All that was left was getting Kaiser to join in on the fun.
Damien made his way to the grounds after checking the rest of the barracks for him and not finding him. As he reached the door, Kaiser entered and stared at his brother with a look of confusion.
“Just the man I was looking for,” Damien said with a smile.
“Do I want to know?” Kaiser asked.
“Got a challenge for you,” he said, joining his brother’s side. “Are you interested?”
Kaiser shrugged. “Sure, why not.”
“That was easy! Beat me to the training room.” Damien took off.
He laughed as he heard Kaiser curse behind him. However, Kaiser had beaten him to the training room. Damien walked in as all three brothers looked at each other and then to him.
“Well,” Mordecai said, “we’re all here. Now what?”
“A wager,” Damien said, voice dark and a hint of a smile toying with his lips.
“On…?” Kaiser said.
Damien held up a finger and wagged it in front of him. “First, the rules. No cheating. We face off with each other, ultimate winner gets to spend time with Sadie.”
“What if the winner was already next?” Steele asked.
Damien nodded and said, “Then his time doubles.”
“What if Sadie doesn’t go with it?” Kaiser asked, crossing his arms in front of him with his feet shoulder-width apart.
“I think she will.” Damien walked to the center of the room. “Any other questions?”
“What if the loser’s time was next?” Mordecai asked.
Damien chuckled. “Then it sucks to be the loser. He’ll lose the time.”
The looks on his brothers’ faces were priceless. They all appeared eager to get started and seemed to unconsciously flex their muscles and stretch their wings. Good. He needed this, and so did they.
“Anything else?” Damien asked, knowing he had his brothers right where he wanted them.
Mordecai nodded. “Yeah. Who’s first?”
Damien pointed to him. “You and I will fight each other, and Steele and Kaiser will fight at the same time. Winners from those rounds will then fight and whoever wins that match will be the winner.”
“Simple,” Steele said.
Kaiser snorted.
“Ready?” Damien asked.
Each of the brothers faced their opponent and took their battle stance. Mordecai’s glare was meant to shake his nerves, but instead, he winked and that set Mordecai to attack.
His brother, unsurprisingly, shifted into shadow right as Damien’s fist was set to collide with his jaw. The shadow form shifted to behind Damien, and he kicked his leg back into Mordecai’s gut as he shifted back into his natural form. Mordecai grunted.
“You’ll have to try harder than that, brother,” Damien said as he shifted his stance to face him again and prepared for another attack.
“Fair enough,” he said, shifting to shadow and moving quicker.
But Damien wasn’t caught off guard so easily and landed a blow to his brother’s chest, again as he solidified. Mordecai leveled his gaze on him after he recovered from the hit. Damien chuckled and shrugged.
Mordecai charged him, knocking Damien to the ground, where they wrestled, landing punches to each other’s sides and flipping over to try and dominate the other. Damien couldn’t help laughing.
Now that’s the spirit!
He even landed a good hit to Damien’s jaw, which fueled his fun even more. Damien put Mordecai in a headlock to which he received a well-played elbow to the ribs.
“I thought you said no cheating?” Mordecai asked, voice dark with a hint of anger.
That only roused Damien more. “I haven’t cheated. I’m just better than you, brother.”
“Oh yeah?” Mordecai shifted to shadow again and solidified a few feet from Damien. He had summoned his staff and held it aimed at Damien’s head.
Damien climbed to his feet and stood tall, nose angled in the air. “Your move.”
“Checkmate. Submit.” Mordecai jabbed his staff at the air between them.
He chuckled and said, “Never.” And charged.
Mordecai swung his staff toward the back of Damien’s knees, which he knew was coming. He had counted on him to try and disarm him by knocking him to the floor. He stretched out an arm at the last second before hitting the ground and hooked Mordecai’s knee, pulling him down as well.
They landed with a thump, the air being knocked from the both of them. Damien laughed again. “You still haven’t beaten me, yet!”
“Oh, don’t you worry,” Mordecai said as he landed a knee to Damien’s gut. “I’ve only just begun.”
As they wrestled, Damien thought about this being exactly what he needed.
Chapter Thirty
Steele
As Damien and Mordecai sparred, Steele faced off with Kaiser. It was an incredibly fun fight considering Kaiser had a hard time working through Steele’s illusion.
He had made it so Sadie was the one he fought. It was endearing and somewhat pathetic how quickly Kaiser’s eyes softened at the image. Steele pranced around Kaiser, slowly circling him and watching the amusing display.
That was until Kaiser flipped around and nailed a punch to Steele’s cheek. That knocked him back a few steps and the illusion faltered. Damn, he’d have to be prepared for that in the heat of battle. Illusions could be very powerful and useful, but one unlucky swing of a fist or weapon could cause trouble for him.
Steele rubbed his cheek and smiled. “Not bad, brother. I didn’t think you would be able to break away from that one.”
“It’s a low blow, even for you, to use Sadie as a weapon.” Kaiser kicked toward Steele’s gut, but he quickly blocked the blow and landed a punch to his brother’s chest.
“Come now, we all love Sadie… just some of us are weaker than others,” Steele said and dodged the blow that would’ve landed on his nose. He laughed.
“What’s the matter Steele? Can’t fight without cheating?” Kaiser teased.
Steele stopped laughing and stood still, serious as ever then, cast an illusion that created six of himself while he charged at Kaiser.
“There’s the challenge I was looking for,” he said as he dodged blows from all the fake Steeles.
One landed in his gut, and he gripped Steele’s wrist and twisted, rolling out of the way so that he stood behind him, still holding onto the hand.
“Not bad brother,” Steele said, gritting against the sharp stabbing sensation shooting through his wrist. “But not good enough.”
Steele bowed forward, taking Kaiser along, flipping him onto his back on the floor then quickly climbed on top of him, pinning his hands to the floor and making noises from his throat to get a ball of spit to drip onto his brother’s face.
Kaiser said, “You wouldn’t dare.”
Steele gulped and smiled. “Well, now I have to start over.”
Kaiser bucked Steele off of him. Steele rolled to his feet and stood, ready for the next bout of action his brother was bound to deliver him.
Steele loved this game. He needed to thank Damien when he got the chance. It was a nice break from the tension of planning, war, fight, and planning some more. Plus, it gave him a sense of closeness he had missed from his years of estrangement from his brothers. Ever since Zagan killed their brother, Cedric, they had been at war with each other. Distrusting of their own blood. Part of him had wondered if his brothers truly hated him. Or if they still wished he had been in Cedric’s place. But when Sadie came into their lives, things changed—he changed.
His brothers weren’t his enemies. Either way, it was their father who drove the wedge between him and his siblings. Soon, that threat will be gone, and they could be a family again.
They moved
well together. And they fought well together. Even against one another. Somehow, Steele even knew that they worked best together, fighting side by side as opposed to fighting individually.
His father may have believed them weak and unworthy to succeed his throne, but the four of them were a formidable force when together. Perhaps Zagan actually feared that truth. Well, he wasn’t going to let their father or anyone else get in their way or separate them, especially now that they had Sadie to protect. And they’d do it as a family.
He missed his brothers, though he would never admit to it out loud. And this was exactly what he needed. Time with them.
Chapter Thirty-One
Sadie
Sadie decided training would do her some good. Help her work out the kinks in the current plan. However, when she walked into the training room, she stopped mid-step and stared at her men practicing coordinated training and moves.
As she watched, she noticed how each of them complemented the others in terms of strength and power. They worked well together as a team.
Some of the sigils on Mordecai’s body glowed and shifted. His hands turned to shadow, extending a dark, shadowy substance as a barrier between them and the practice target. That allowed Kaiser to zoom through, under the cover of his brother’s shadowy darkness, and hit the target with a blast of fire.
Hmm… Sadie considered that a deadly combination against any foe on the battlefield. She was impressed with that move.
Damien wielded his sword blindfolded. Steele had the look of concentration on his face and she wondered if he was using his telepathic abilities to guide his brother in striking down opponents. He moved well. And he managed to disarm each target set up around him. The constant coordination with his brother would make it easy for him in the midst of a crowd to take down any target.
In this moment, she realized she made the absolute best decision in choosing all four of them. That decision gifted her the four most powerful warriors to fight beside her. And that made her feel even stronger and more capable to handle anything that came her way.
After waiting a few minutes to see if any of them would realize she was there, watching them, and none of them having done so, she cleared her throat.
The men stopped what they were doing to face her. Each of them smiled.
“Having fun?” she asked, faking pointed expressions at them and standing with her arms crossed over her chest, though her cheeks fought against her on hiding the smile that pulled at the corners of her lips.
They separated from one another and stood a bit straighter, fixing their clothes and hair as they stood. Damien said, “We were just spending a little time playing around. That’s all.”
Steele shook his head. “Essentially, yes. We were having fun.”
“So, who won the bet?” Mordecai asked.
“What bet?” Sadie asked as she narrowed her eyes on the men. When they told her, she groaned and rolled her eyes. “Stop using me as your reward! I’m not a toy or a prize. Sheesh.”
“What brings you to grace us with your presence?” Kaiser asked.
Sadie sighed. “I spoke with Astrid about the weapon. And it looks like it will likely be guarded, just like everything else we have tried to get.”
Damien said, “Fret not, my dear. We have ways of being able to get through creatures. If Astrid can’t tame ‘em, we certainly will.”
“Yeah,” Mordecai said, “But having the former would help Sadie with her forces.”
She nodded. “That’s very true. However, we shouldn’t assume Astrid would be willing to do so. She should be asked first. Though, I would love to see her in action some more. This would be a great opportunity.”
The men agreed, and she felt relieved. Now on to the next item on the agenda.
“That’s not all. We need to take care of the garden and Hecate. With the allies here, I don’t want them prancing off and stumbling across her. She’s stayed beyond her welcome. Something needs to be done.”
Kaiser stepped forward. “Not that I don’t agree with something needing to be done with the ghost. I have to say that I’m not okay with you going in there again. At all. You nearly died the last time. There’s a very real possibility you won’t make it out again.”
She nodded. “True. But I have to put my foot down. Ghost or no. She’s in my home and will not threaten me.”
“What’s the plan, Captain?” Mordecai asked.
“First, you need to shower. Let’s run a check on the barrier and get some supplies gathered. We’ll need to plan how to get the staff and set a date for that. Once we have the staff, we’ll figure out a way to deal with Hecate.”
The men agreed, and they set off. Sadie stared at the empty room and wondered about the way her men moved together as a unit. She didn’t want to see harm come to them and wondered if there was a way to make sure they would be safe during the upcoming battle.
She considered a war plan. One they all could agree on. But for now, the barrier needed tending to. The wards needed checked, and she needed to make sure they first set a plan for the staff.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Steele
Having had that impromptu sparring session with his brothers, Steele felt more level-headed to face the succubi without pushing them away and losing them as allies completely. He strode down the hall to their door and knocked. No one answered.
Frowning, he opened the door and found that they were all in a circle, on their knees, crying. The lights were dimmed, and the shadows seemed to move with a life of their own. That unsettled him as he knew there were very few reasons for succubi to cry. One was to lure men to their deaths by catering to their natural need to rescue damsels in distress, not to mention their need to protect. And reason number two was when a death occurred.
With the recent change in their bargaining, Steele was leaning more toward the first rather than the second. Besides, this fortress was safe for everyone. No one could have possibly died.
“Nice try, ladies. Crocodile tears don’t work on me.”
Deseree stood, turned, and faced Steele, sniffing and wiping her eyes with the tips of her fingers. “This isn’t some ploy to get you in bed, you idiot. Kinna is dead.”
His eyebrows knitted together. “Who?”
She leveled her gaze on him, eyes turning red. “Kinna. My best servant and adopted daughter. She was who I chose to succeed me.”
Steele shook his head then wove his way through the weeping collection of women to the mound at the center of them covered by silks and jewels.
“What happened?” he asked, unable to hide the anger in his voice.
“Isn’t it obvious?” the queen asked. “Your queen killed her.”
Oh shit. This isn’t good. Steele had to defuse the situation and fast. There was no way Sadie did this. He had to make her see that too. “Deseree, what makes you think Sadie killed your servant?”
“She’s jealous of what we had. She is trying to keep you under her thumb and control you. Can’t you see that?”
He sighed and placed his hands on the tops of her arms. “Please, try to understand she isn’t like Hecate. She’s different. And I know that’s hard to accept with the history.”
“She’s enchanted you, Steele. You’re too under her spell to realize what she’s doing to you. Look at what she did to Kinna!”
“How do you know Sadie is responsible?” he asked, trying to maintain his patience during her time of need but really getting annoyed that she was convinced Sadie had ulterior motives.
Deseree pressed her lips tightly together and went to the body and pulled on the sheet that covered her favorite servant. Deep gouging claw marks slashed open her neck and some on her torso. The poor girl’s eyes were fixed on fear.
“She never came back after we sent her for wine. Another one of my servants found her.” She sniffed as weeping continued even louder.
“Sadie didn’t cause this. But I promise, I will get to the bottom of this.”
“It has to
be. Who else could have done such a horrible thing?” Deseree asked, falling into sobs once more.
Steele tried to think of any of the other allies in the fortress that would have the ability to create such wounds and came up short. He shook his head. “I will find out. As soon as I know, you will be the first I tell. Meanwhile, prepare her for her journey. As payment for your services in the coming war and for the trouble of losing your best servant, I will bring you fine silks and even rarer and finer gems than those previously promised.”
“What about an uptick in power. It will help us in the battle.”
Of course, they would still push for sex with him. “No,” he said. “I highly suggest you follow my original instructions and stay in this room. I’ll see to it that you are provided drink and food.”
“I’m afraid you will have to do better than gems and fabric. If you cannot promise us that and our safety by giving us what we need to protect ourselves, then we have no choice but to return to our own home.” Deseree kept her words even, and never shifted her gaze from his eyes.
She was serious.
Despite his efforts otherwise, it seemed they would lose his allies after all. He still needed to find out what happened to the girl and why. And he would. Regardless if they stayed or not. If someone was sneaking around killing off allies, that meant Sadie could be in danger as well. And that was not something he was willing to bargain for.
He turned on his heels without another word and left.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sadie
As soon as Sadie walked through the front door of her fortress, Steele had glued himself to her side. Though it seemed odd for him to constantly be near her, rather, practically on top of her, she didn’t think much of it. Kaiser was equally as attached at the hip for a bit after she returned from her trip to pick up Astrid. It seemed like his way of getting a little more time with her. So, she dealt with it.
