by Brenda Trim
When he was first told to select a weapon that spoke to him, Ryker recoiled. He wasn’t opposed to using weapons, but he had no desire to use them for Gullvieg’s benefit. A crossbow and broadsword were the most comfortable in his hand but didn’t make his blood sing like Brokk’s twin blades did for him.
“Are we avoiding Seth?” Ryker whispered to Brokk.
Nodding, Brokk stood up when the other assassin turned a corner. “I hate that male. He’s a pompous asshole.”
“You’re not wrong. Let’s get to the brambles leading to the Edge,” Ryker suggested.
They crossed the space faster when they started moving again. Neither of them wanted to encounter the others. It was best to avoid being ordered to do something if students were found out of their rooms.
Ryker hadn’t been using his invisibility like Brokk suspected, but his comment made Ryker try to pull his friend into his invisibility without touching him. His skills kept expanding and growing with each day. Not many knew what was happening thanks to the amulet from Shineah. Ryker shared it with his close friends and Maurelle.
Calling his powers came easy to him and he was reaching out to his friend in seconds. Right as Ryker opened his mouth to share his success they heard rapid footsteps behind them. They were far too light to belong to one of the assassins. Regardless, Ryker had no desire to be seen by anyone.
Wrapping his hand around Brokk’s mouth, he forced his friend to stop moving and snuck behind a tree. A moment later, Calla and another female hurried around the corner.
Without thinking, Ryker let go of Brokk and stepped in Calla’s path. When she emitted a high-pitched scream, Ryker slapped his hand over her mouth. “Shhh. It’s me and Brokk. Please tell me you aren’t the one escaping,” he told her then lifted his hand trusting she wouldn’t make any more noise.
“I can’t stay here anymore, Ryker. It’s awful, and my family needs me. I have to go back and tell my parents that the King was unearthed at last.”
“What do you mean the King is unearthed? Who is it?” he blurted before he could censor himself. Now was not the time to delve into a lengthy discussion. Assassins were roaming the school searching for an escapee.
“He’s at the school. I’m certain of it. I felt his power settle and promptly lost it, but that doesn’t matter. He’s here. I know it,” Calla informed him.
“Come on, Cal. We need to go right now. We can’t get caught,” her friend urged her by tugging on her sleeve. The female didn’t look familiar. She wasn’t wearing a school uniform, so there was no telling if she attended the academy or not.
“Who’s over there?” Seth shouted in their direction.
Ryker’s heart started galloping in his chest and sweat broke out over his brow. “You have to take off. They have orders to kill you,” he whispered to Calla and her friend.
“What?” she screeched.
Seth rushed toward them and Ryker reacted immediately by pulling up his power and activating his invisibility. Instead of wrapping it around himself he threw it at Calla and the other female.
Seth tossed a knife toward the females a second before Calla blinked and went invisible. A sharp cry startled Ryker, making him jump.
“Where’d she go?” Seth barked. Several other of the bravo unit rushed to the area.
Ryker shared a glance with Brokk. A second later, Ryker stumbled as if hit with sledgehammer. He didn’t see Erik lift his arms and cast a nullification spell, but there was no mistaking the energy signature or the way it obliterated his casting.
Routinely during class professors cast spells interrupting their powers. There was a slight chance he could have counteracted Erik and maintained his invisibility, but it was slim. It wasn’t something he’d mastered yet.
Calla lay there bleeding with a blade in her gut while her friend huddled close to her. Ryker hurried forward and picked up Calla up to prevent further injury. “What are you doing?” Erik objected.
“Taking her to the infirmary,” Ryker replied.
“Our orders were to eliminate the traitors,” Seth reminded him at the moment he thrust his sword and behind him. Calla’s friend cried out as his weapon slid into her chest.
Ryker’s stomach dropped to his feet while Calla whimpered and clung to his neck. He was about to swing his broad sword through Seth’s neck. There had been no need to kill her. She was an innocent that did nothing wrong.
Brokk stepped forward and put his body between Ryker and the other males. “This one wasn’t in the lead. It seemed as if they were both under the control of something else. If you waited, I could have told you that.”
Erik stepped in front of Seth and looked at them both. “What do you mean?”
“It seemed as if they weren’t on control of their actions,” Brokk continued. “No way would Calla here take off before the date I set up with her. She came after me for months until I finally agreed. Those aren’t the actions of a traitor.”
Calla was staring at her friend bleeding out on the ground. “Play along,” Ryker whispered in her hear. Louder he said, “Pick her up, Brokk. We’re wasting time. We need to get them both medical care immediately. I have no idea if it’s possible to detect outside influence, but I won’t be the one to disappoint the Headmistress.”
Brokk bent over and picked Calla’s friend up while Erik gave orders to continue patrolling then fell into step with Ryker and Brokk as they headed to Titania’s clinic. Inside, Ryker seethed that one or both of these innocent females would die.
They needed a plan and help overthrowing Gullvieg, but he refused to stand by any longer while innocent Fae lives were lost. He had no idea exactly what he was going to do, but he was not going to tolerate this any longer. His people deserved better.
Chapter Twenty
Maurelle watched Ryker pace back and forth in her room. When he’d barged into her room covered in blood half an hour ago, she’d jumped up and tried to lead him to the medical clinic before he told her it wasn’t his.
“Is Calla going to be okay?” she asked as she sat on her bed with her knees curled to her chest and her arms wrapped around her calves. Her throat was tight, and her stomach lurched.
“I have no idea. Titania had to address her friend who was worse off with a stab wound through her lower chest. This tyranny ends now. I refuse to be anyone’s patsy. And, I will never kill an innocent being.”
Maurelle had never seen Ryker so worked up. Even in her vision of him before they met as he’d fled from the collectors; but he wasn’t angry like that moment. Energy radiated off of him in waves. It was both comforting and frightening. It seemed as if Ryker could flay the skin from her bones with a mere thought.
“What are you going to do about Gullvieg?”
Ryker stopped walking and lowered his head. “I am going to confront her. She must know she cannot control me or the others.”
“That’s not a good idea. She will lash out at you and your mother.”
Ryker’s head rose and Maurelle would have stumbled at the rage in his eyes if she was standing. “I don’t give a fuck. It is deplorable that she forced her assassins to murder females for wanting to leave the academy. This is not a prison.”
Maurelle shot to her feet when Ryker turned and headed to her door. It was the middle of the night and they would get in trouble if he walked out her door. “Stop. You can’t do this. I can’t lose you, too. Please.”
“It is not possible for me to stand by, Braveheart. I have a deep connection to every element in our realm and I feel the imbalance. I don’t know why, but I am driven to correct what I can,” Ryker explained as he cupped her cheek. She melted into him, leaning her face into his palm. Her eyes drifted closed when he pressed his lips to hers.
His affection and determination poured through their connection. At the moment she expected him to deepen the kiss, he pulled away. He was heading out the door forcing her to run to catch up.
Within a few steps, Ryker disappeared from her view. When one of her dormmates open
ed their door, she quietly apologized. The delay cost her as the main door to their room opened and closed. Maurelle hurried into the hall and paused listening for his footsteps.
“Dammit,” she cursed when silence greeted her. Deciding she would head to his room, she started down the stairs. She reached Ryker’s dorm and was about to knock when Brokk came up behind her.
“What are you doing here?” He hissed.
“Looking for Ryker. He said…some things,” she told him.
“He’s not here. The ward around our door hasn’t been disturbed since we set it before leaving tonight,” Brokk replied.
“I have to stop him before he makes a mistake,” Maurelle blurted as she walked past Brokk and descended the massive staircase.
“What is he going to do?”
Maurelle glanced over at Brokk and shared his worry. “He’s going to stop you know who,” she said evasively. She had no idea if there were magical listening devices throughout the dorms, but she refused to take any chances.
“Fuck,” Brokk cursed and increased his footsteps.
They were crossing the massive entryway and outside within moments. The moon was still high in the sky and the weather was frigid, making her shiver in her thin nightshirt. She should have grabbed her jacket, she thought.
“Where does Gullvieg live?”
Brokk pointed to a building across from them. “That’s her residence there.”
Without bothering to quiet their movements, they ran across the grass and stopped at the side of the small building. Brokk pushed her behind his body and poked his head around the side. When he didn’t pull back immediately, Maurelle figured that the coast was clear.
Darting around the male, she moved around the home and headed to the door. She heard Brokk’s low curse before he was behind her. The desire to turn around and head back to her room was so strong that she stopped and had taken three steps in the direction they had come from before a hand on her arm stopped her progress.
“It’s a spell,” Brokk explained. The moment their skin touched her desire dissipated enough for Maurelle to recall her goal of getting inside Gullvieg’s house. “She uses it to keep nosy students out of her domain.”
“And, you’re able to withstand it because you’re one of her assassins,” Maurelle realized.
“Yeah. Now, let’s stop Ryker,” Brokk encouraged her.
Nodding, Maurelle allowed Brokk to lead her by his hold on her arm. They were at the door and through it in a matter of seconds. Once inside, the urge to go back to the dorm fled completely.
“I’m okay now,” she whispered.
The slamming of wood against stone made her yelp and Brokk jump with a curse. It was Ryker. There was no mistaking his presence. Taking off down the hall, she saw him crouched in the doorway at the end.
“Ryker,” Maurelle shouted. When he looked over his shoulder and then flew backwards, she realized her mistake. Ryker hit the wall and slumped to the ground right as a snarling face filled the empty doorway.
Searching around, she looked for a weapon of any kind. Before her eyes landed on a fireplace poker, Brokk rushed past her. Grabbing the iron pole, Maurelle hurried to join the fight now in progress.
Ryker was dodging and ducking blows from a male while Brokk fought against another. “Duck, Ryk,” Maurelle shouted right before she swung her make-shift sword. The weapon met flesh and made the male stumble to the left. He bumped into the wall and turned her way.
Maurelle tried to focus and call water to aid her while swinging the poker wildly. Ryker continued past her toward the room. She heard him shout the command to stop. Power filled the residence, nearly freezing them all in place.
Only Brokk and Maurelle were able to continue moving. When her poker connected with the male’s skull and penetrated the bone before hitting grey matter, it registered that Ryker’s declaration was carried out to those that fought against him.
Maurelle’s stomach turned, but she couldn’t stop to ponder that she just killed a male. The sight that greeted her when she entered the bedroom stopped her in her tracks.
Ryker was glaring at Gullvieg who was cowering next to a tunnel in the floor. There was a trap door sitting open, exposing a set of stairs next to the Headmistress. It had to be her escape route.
“You will not harm another Fae ever again,” Ryker announced. With each word spoke, his wings glowed, and black markings appeared in the thin membranes. They weren’t there before, but Maurelle had no doubt this was confirmation of her suspicions about Ryker’s identity.
“Ryker. You don’t have to do this,” Maurelle pleaded with him.
When Ryker turned her way, she saw the glow in his eyes matched his wings. And, the amulet he wore under his shirt was bright orange beneath the fabric. “This cannot continue, or we will lose our realm entirely.”
Maurelle heard the truth in his words and closed her mouth. Brokk stopped next to her and watched with wide eyes.
“Your days of selling your kind to the humans is over,” Ryker told the Headmistress.
Gullvieg was shaking her head from side to side and opening and closing her mouth. “How is it possible? You can’t be the King. The royal family was eliminated years ago.”
Maurelle watched Ryker stiffen right before a muscle ticked in his jaw. He clutched the amulet and lifted his head. She had no doubt he considered what the Headmistress said. She knew the moment he accepted the truth.
Light filled the room and Ryker’s body lit up like the noonday sun. It filled Maurelle with peace and hope. Ryker’s shoulders went back, and his wings lifted into the air. “Who is responsible for killing my parents?” Ryker’s energy felt like razors cutting Maurelle’s skin as he spat the demand at Gullvieg.
It wasn’t a surprise when the female couldn’t keep her mouth shut. “There was a group of us that wanted to control our fate.”
Ryker stalked toward the female with slow, measured steps. “You had my parents murdered to gain power?”
Gullvieg climbed to her feet and lifted her chin in defiance. “You wouldn’t understand with your ability to control every Fae ever born. It isn’t right that one family has so much power over the rest of us.”
“And, yet you took that power and have used it to make slaves of all Fae.” Ryker accused.
Maurelle knew what he said was true when Gullvieg flinched and glanced around the room then to the escape hatch.
“Don’t even think about it. You won’t get very far,” Ryker promised her.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she insisted. Her lie was apparent from her shaking body. The energy in the room changed when Ryker started glowing. “We will not allow you to take the throne and rob us of our power.”
“Who is in this with you?” Ryker loomed over the female in a threatening manner.
The Headmistress muttered something under her breath and her hands glowed green. Maurelle was shouting, “Watch out, Ryker,” at the same moment Gullvieg lifted her hands and waved them his way.
The light sped toward him and he stood firm, not dodging the blow. Right as it was about to reach him, Gullvieg waved a hand and redirected it to Maurelle. There was no time for her to jump out of the way. She’d made her way next to Ryker and was standing too close.
The energy hit her shoulder and sent pain rocketing through every cell of her body. A scream left her mouth as her body started spasming. Agony stole every thought from her mind. She heard Ryker tell Brokk to grab her and braced herself for more pain.
Her back arched when Brokk’s hand landed on her arm, but the pain faded quickly. It took several seconds for the fog to clear and when it did, she thought she was seeing things. Green and blue energy soared around the room, destroying objects in their path.
Green light burst against the wall near Brokk’s head sending plaster and drywall into the air. It tickled Maurelle’s lungs and she started coughing the same time Brokk did. Bending down, she kicked one leg in Gullvieg’s direction, trying to knock her on her ass. She misse
d and fell into the splits.
Green energy sliced through her thigh a moment later and blood spurted out, drenching the floor around them. Rolling to the side, she clutched her injury. Brokk stood over her while Ryker’s gaze connected with hers. His rage seemed to hit another level entirely.
Unfortunately, he was too focused on her and one of the Headmistress’s spells hit his side. Blood gushed from the wound before he called on his power over the water element and stemmed the flow. Turning his head, Ryker tossed what seemed like a hundred spells at once at Gullvieg.
Several hit her in the chest and her energy fizzled before emitting a loud pop and disappearing. That made the smug smile slide right off Gullvieg’s face. The female muttered another word and light flew toward the window. Maurelle wondered why she sent the spell to the window.
A scream echoed before being cut off suddenly. Maurelle jerked her head around to see Gullvieg on fire slumped over the tunnel opening.
“What happened?”
Ryker knelt next to her. “How are you feeling? We need to get you to Titania.” She wrapped one arm around Ryker’s neck while keeping the other on her leg.
“What do we do now?” Brokk asked as he followed them down the hall. “We can’t leave the bodies here. Someone will find out it was us.”
“We burn the entire place down,” Ryker announced. “I have no intention of anyone discovering our identity.”
Maurelle’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re the Fae King.”
Ryker met her gaze and kissed her lips before lifting this head. “I’m not sure why, but yes. I am. I felt power flood me when we were first together and again just now. It might be because I look like their son. I’m not really sure, but I plan on getting answers from my mom as soon as possible.”
“I think I always knew there was something special about you,” Brokk interjected. He was right, Maurelle realized. From the vision she had of him she was drawn to him and now she knew why.
Ryker paused and sent fire to the various rooms of the house. “Hold onto my arm. I’m going to make us invisible,” Ryker told Brokk. They left the blazing house and rushed into the quad. The sky was lightening with the coming dawn.
