by Kimber White
“Your wedding,” she interrupted me. “Did you enter it willingly?”
“I’m sorry?”
She flapped her hand in a gesture of impatience. “Was your life in danger?”
“All of our lives are in danger,” I said. “Every Fae in existence. Our world is collapsing. Young Olen’s father, King Olen, has tried to cover that up for as long as I’ve been alive.”
“How dare she speak that way about my father!” Olen snapped.
“It’s the truth and everyone here knows it!” I shouted. “It’s why you’re here!”
Olen came in close. “Stop talking right now if you want to keep breathing.”
There was desperation in his voice. Some switch flipped inside of me. The hairs prickled along my spine.
“Liall,” Olen said. “You asked me to help you bring Liall to justice.”
“And you’ve failed,” Daedra said, her voice booming. “We are unconcerned with what you do with your wife if that’s what she chooses to be.”
Bile rose in my throat at the word.
“Madame,” Olen said. It shocked me that he interrupted Daedra. For whatever reason, he appeared to be bargaining for my life. “Zendra is our best chance of bringing Liall to answer for his crimes once and for all. Only she knows how to find him.”
“What do you propose?” Daedra said. Her tone had gone from anger to boredom.
“I’ve already set a plan in motion,” Olen said. “The last piece of the Clavia is in possession of a wolf shifter by the name of Edward Kalenkov. He has agreed to sell it to me.”
His words hit me like a punch to the chest. It took everything in me not to shout down Olen as a liar. Only I had no sure footing here. Would it help me or hurt me to defend Edward?
“In exchange for what?” Daedra asked.
“He believes I’m willing to hand over my wife.”
Panic set in. I pulled against the chains.
This got Daedra’s attention. Her eyes flashed. She peeled back the hood of her robe. She was the oldest female Fae I think I’d ever seen. Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent. She had jet black hair peppered with streaks of white. She rose from her chair and stepped around the bench. No, not stepped. Glided. It scarcely looked like her feet touched the ground.
“Keep her still,” Daedra said. Adrenaline rushed through me. Olen put strong hands on my shoulders and pulled the chain taut.
Daedra’s breath licked my cheek. She gathered my hair in her hand and pulled it to the side. She slipped one finger beneath the metal collar and inspected the base of my neck.
“I can smell him on her,” Daedra said.
Olen let out a low growl. His skin glowed.
“She hasn’t been marked,” Daedra said. “But...I take back what I said. I’d say this one is worth quite a lot indeed.”
She looked at Olen. “You can have her. But first you’ll produce Kalenkov. Preferably alive, but I can work with dead.”
Olen gave her a solemn nod.
“And when you bring Liall and the rest of his line to me. Then, you can have this one if you still want her.”
“She still has value,” Olen said. “There are still too many Fae who hold Liall’s family in regard they don’t deserve. King Olen brokered this marriage to bring peace. I believe we can still achieve it.”
Daedra nodded. “One day. That’s all we can afford to spend on this. Do you understand?”
“I do,” Olen said.
Daedra let me go. She turned her back on me, then raised her hands. In a flash of blinding light, she and the rest of the tribunal disappeared.
I rounded on Olen. He’d left slack in the chain.
“Peace? You’ve never wanted peace,” I said. “You’re only interested in wiping my family out.”
“They brought that on themselves,” he said. “And you helped. And now you’ll all know there’s nowhere far enough you can run. I’ll find you every time, Zendra. Because you’re mine!”
He jerked me close to him. “I’ll never be yours,” I said.
“Careful, wife,” he said. “You heard what Daedra said. By the end of the day tomorrow, I’ll have bought and paid for you.”
“She has no authority over me,” I said. “This isn’t home. I’m not bound to you by any law here.”
He tilted his head and smiled. “You’re either incredibly stupid or naive, Zendra. Daedra is the law here. Don’t you get it? She’s the Ring! For now, at least. Once your father serves his sentence, mine can quell the resistance back home once and for all.”
“There won’t be a home anymore,” I said. “So, you can have your kingdom of ash, Olen.”
The smile hadn’t left his face. I took a halting step backward as the pieces fell into place. Olen was playing both sides against the middle. He wasn’t trying to bring me back to the Fae realm. He was trying to bring the Fae realm here.
“You mean to get rid of the Ring,” I said.
He shrugged. “Not get rid of. They have their use. And they’ve set up an infrastructure here. No need to reinvent the wheel, as they say.”
“Edward will never give you what you want,” I said. Gods. I had to find a way to warn him. If Olen had agreed to sell me to him for the medallion, Edward was walking into a trap.
Though it tore at me, I hoped Edward hated me now. I prayed Olen’s words and the knowledge of what I was to him had killed whatever love Edward had for me.
Because if it didn’t, he’d be dead by the next sunset.
Chapter Twenty-One
Edward
I couldn’t help Nadia’s tears. Milo had his arm around her as she held the medallion.
“I can’t promise you it will hold,” she said, sniffling.
“It’s held so far,” I said. “Both Zendra and Olen have tried and failed to take this thing from me.”
Nadia pressed the cracked disk between her hands. The only side effect of her magic was the slight lifting of the hair from her shoulders. It had been Payne’s idea to have her reinforce the binding spell around the thing.
“Here,” she said. “It’ll keep that hunk of metal around your neck. But it won’t keep them from killing you and dragging you off while you wear the thing.”
I smiled and leaned in to give her a quick hug. Milo stood mute beside her. He was furious with me but knew better than to try and stop me.
“I’ll see you soon, cousin,” I said, though I had no idea if that were true.
He shook his head. “You’re risking your damn neck for a woman who’s been lying to you from the beginning.” His words came out as a growl. I’d heard them all before.
I put a hard hand on Milo’s shoulder. “This is fate, Milo. You want logic?”
“It’s almost midnight,” Nadia said.
“Right,” I said. “Time to go.”
I stepped away from Nadia and gestured for Milo to come with me. Payne and the others were back at headquarters. They were still trying to come through with more intel on the kind of power Olen had. I’d told them everything I could about Zendra, but knew they may not trust it.
They judged me for it. Though she’d ripped my heart out, I still held on to the belief that I knew what Zendra was. I was about to bet my life on it.
“I need you to keep Nadia as far away from this as possible,” I said. “I can see her wheels turning.”
“I know,” Milo said. “She just hates seeing you running blindly into this. She’s not alone.”
“I’m not blind,” I said. “And I’ve faced Olen twice and pushed him back.”
“That’s when Zendra was helping you,” he said.
I smiled. “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t think she’s been lying and helping me, can you?”
Milo grimaced. “I just hate everything about this.”
“I know,” I said. “But can you stand there and tell me you wouldn’t have done the same if this were Nadia we were talking about? Hell, you have done the same.”
Milo’s hand on my s
houlder felt heavy. I had a thousand other things to say to him and none at all. It was time to go.
I climbed into the SUV and left Milo and Nadia standing arm in arm on the front porch of the safehouse. Two vehicles pulled out after I did. They were instructed to follow at a loose distance. My backup.
I took a right turn heading back to the rendezvous point at the base of the Kilauea. The following cars would set up a command post a quarter of a mile down the road. They were there if anything went wrong.
I checked my rearview mirror. The lead car flashed his headlights. It was Roy Lassiter, the tiger shifter, behind the wheel. In any other circumstance, I would have trusted Roy with my life. I handpicked him for this mission.
And I’d lied to them all.
I kicked up dust and took an unexpected turn. Roy and the other car tried to react. But, I slammed on the brakes and dove out of the driver’s seat. Before Roy and the others had a chance to catch up, I’d be long gone.
I raced across an open field, heading for the woods. Zendra’s fear snaked through me. She was close by but somehow felt a thousand miles away.
Bounding over loose rocks and fallen logs, I raced down into the valley. I’d never been to the meeting point before but would have recognized it anywhere. Olen left a trail for me. Or maybe a trap.
I pulled up short where the stream widened. Just up ahead, I could hear rushing water. The river wasn’t far. Beyond that, I would find a high cliff and a waterfall. At the base of it was where I’d find Olen.
I clutched the medallion around my neck. It had already begun to glow.
Zendra.
Could she hear me? Was I sealing my doom by even calling to her?
I warred with my wolf to keep him quiet for now. I needed my head, not my fangs. I narrowed my eyes and tried to spot movement through the trees. Finding none, I squared my shoulders and began the slow climb down.
I trained every sense on Zendra. Was that her scent clinging to the path? Had she tried to leave me a trail of breadcrumbs?
I froze. Three strands of white-blonde hair clung to a bare branch two feet ahead of me. I reached for it. Zendra’s smell went through me. If I closed my eyes, I could feel her body pressed against mine.
Then, the air went out of my lungs as something sucker punched me from behind and knocked me to the ground.
I shifted on the way down, digging my paws into the soft earth. I circled, ready to kill.
A pair of blue eyes pierced the darkness. They were a match to my own. For half a second, I thought it was a trick. Olen had taken on my wolf’s shape. Then, my foe’s familiar scent revealed the truth.
The white wolf, a twin to my own, shifted. My brother Erik rose on two legs and came toward me, eyes flashing.
I shifted. “What the hell are you doing?” I said.
“Saving your ass,” he whispered. “Did you really think I was going to let you deal with this on your own?”
I sputtered instead of answering. Rage boiled through me.
“You have no idea what you’ve done. I promised to come alone. And you’re...you’re supposed to be on your honeymoon with Nova.”
Erik smiled. “Well, it was her idea for me to come. She practically kicked my ass out the door. But, she had a point.”
I shook my head. “No,” I said. “You don’t understand. If Olen finds out you’re here, he’ll kill Zendra.”
Erik clenched his jaw. “So he says. The only reason you’re here at all is because of her. Is it true, brother? Is she really your fated mate?”
My shoulders dropped. “Yes,” I said.
Torture went through his eyes, then he set his mouth into a grim line. “Then let’s go get her.”
“I told you,” I said. “I have to go alone.”
Erik smiled. “Well, that’s the idea. Nova’s idea, I mean.”
“What? My God, you didn’t bring her here, did you? It’s too dangerous.”
“No,” he said. “But let me ask you, does this Olen know about us? I mean, about me?”
I narrowed my eyes. A new plan formed in my mind.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I mean, Zendra knows I have a brother.”
Erik’s lopsided grin widened. The plan might be brilliant. And God help us both, it might just work.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Zendra
“Olen!”
Edward’s voice came to me through the fog. I could barely breathe. My vision clouded over. My body shook.
For hours since the tribunal, Olen had kept me chained to a wall in a dark room. No food. No water. No hope.
The night air chilled me to the bone. He dragged me forward. I couldn’t get my legs to work. I’d been cramped in a corner for far too long.
“Olen!”
I tried to answer, to scream a warning, but no sound would come out.
“If you call to him before I tell you. If you try to warn him, I’ll cut your throat.”
Olen’s lips brushed my ear.
He’d covered my mouth with duct tape and threw a foul-smelling hood over my head. I’d tried to shift, but since I couldn’t see, I couldn’t latch onto a target. Now, I was barely strong enough to walk.
But, he was here. Even through the burlap hood, I could smell a wolf shifter close by. Olen let go of me. I dropped to the ground, sinking into a pile of wet leaves.
There was a river close by. I could hear rushing water. The smell of wet earth reached my nostrils through the heavy material. I tried to sit up. The chains around my shoulders were too heavy.
He’d used Dragonsteel. If I’d been only human, the weight of it would have crushed me by now. Though dragon magic held no power over me like it did shifters, I didn’t have the strength to break free of it any more than I would have had it been normal iron.
“Hand over the Clavia,” Olen shouted. He was several yards away from me, to my right. I craned my neck, trying to orient myself to his voice.
“First, I want Zendra,” Edward said. His voice sounded ragged, almost foreign to my ears. But, his familiar scent reached me and my heart soared. Soared, then broke anew.
“No,” I whispered. “He’ll kill you.”
“You’ve tried enough of my patience,” Olen shouted, his voice echoing.
“If you’ve killed Zendra, you’ll never lay hands on this medallion,” Edward said. “You’ll be trapped here forever. And I know you can be killed, Olen.”
Olen’s laughter gutted me. Edward still didn’t understand what was at stake. It was all my fault. My lies would be the death of him. Then they would be the death of me and everyone else I loved.
I struggled against the chains. If I could only stand. If I could get my legs to work, maybe I could get far enough away. I could distract Olen and give Edward time to get the advantage.
“I need to see her,” Edward said. “Prove to me that she’s safe, and I’ll give you this medallion. I swear it on my life.”
“Your life isn’t worth anything to me, wolf,” Olen said.
“No,” Edward said. “But the medallion is. You know you can’t break through the magic binding it to me. Even if you kill me, you won’t be able to remove it. Your only play here is handing Zendra over. Then, I don't much care what you do.”
No. Gods. No.
Leaves crunched as Olen walked closer to me. He jerked me to my feet.
“Don’t try anything,” he said. “You know exactly what I’m capable of.”
He dragged me forward. I stumbled over rocks and brambles. Then light blinded me as Olen ripped the hood off of my head.
I blinked rapidly and squinted. Edward stood on the other side of the stream, his stance wide, his wolf eyes glinting a hard blue.
Energy focused around Olen. I could feel him gathering his power.
“You can’t kill him,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Olen said. “And I can make you watch.”
“Zendra?” Edward’s voice was strained. I blinked to clear my head.
“I’m s
orry,” I choked out. “I’m so sorry.”
“The medallion,” Olen said.
Edward stepped forward. He pulled the medallion from around his neck. I felt the one on Olen’s heat up, drawn to the power of its missing pieces. It began to lift off Olen’s chest and spin.
“Drop it on the ground in front of you,” Olen demanded.
He held a knife to my ribs, concealed by the jacket he wore.
“If you warn him,” Olen said to me through gritted teeth, “I’ll send him through.”
“No,” I gasped. “You can’t.” If Olen tried to send a non-Fae through a portal, it would literally turn Edward inside out, but he wouldn’t die. Not right away. He might linger in agony for eons. It was the worst kind of death imaginable.
Edward took two steps forward. The medallion hung slack in front of him and swung with his gait.
Olen’s medallion jerked sideways, pulled to the right.
The right?
I narrowed my eyes. Something was wrong with Edward. His medallion should have pulled forward as it tried to join with its missing pieces.
It was wrong. His scent. His eyes. A heartbeat filled my ears but didn’t match the pulse thrumming in a vein on Edward’s neck.
Then, my whole body pitched sideways as the blow came from behind.
Fangs, fur, red eyes. The massive white wolf caught Olen by surprise, sinking his teeth into his arm. Olen’s blood flowed and sprayed all over me.
I saw double. Edward stood before us, holding the medallion out. But Edward’s wolf had just ripped into Olen.
No. Not Edward, the man standing in front of us looked just like Edward, but it wasn’t him. I should have known. I should have sensed it.
“The Clavia!” Olen shouted.
The man who wasn’t Edward shouted to me. I scrambled to my feet. My arms were still pinned to my sides with the chain. But, somehow, I found the strength to move.
I dove into Olen, knocking him to his back. The medallion dangled from his neck. I did the only thing I could and grabbed it with my teeth.
Its magic poured through me, breaking the chains binding me. I was still weak, but I held tight, not letting the medallion fall. I took it from my mouth and rolled away.
