Smoke and Ritual (Beautiful Dark Beasts Book 1)

by Melissa Sercia

  As expected, the Luminaries were already waiting for us at the top of the hill. With painted faces, they stood motionless, even as the drums beat loud behind them.

  Shade stepped forward, his white hair slicked back and tied into a top knot. “Welcome back. I assume you are here to hold up your end of the bargain?”

  “The Aether does not bargain,” Chaos spat.

  Shade flashed him a devious smirk. “Does she no longer speak for herself, also?”

  Chaos started toward him. I reached out and grabbed his arm, my eyes pleading with him to remain calm. “Let’s not make this worse.”

  He clenched his fists, never taking his eyes off of Shade, but nodded in agreement.

  I turned back toward Shade. “You will be reinstated as agreed upon, but I need you to do one more thing for me. I’m told that you dabble in dark magic. I need you to reverse a spell.”

  “And why would I do that? What’s in it for me?” He picked a piece of lint off his jacket and singed it between his fingers.

  His arrogance was starting to annoy me. Who did these coven leaders think they were? And a misfit outcast leader no less, acting like a king. “Your life for starters. Basil wants your head, and she has a gravedigger chomping at the bit to tear it off. She’s on her way here now.”

  His eyes widened and all the color drained from his face, taking the smug smirk with it. “You—you set me up.”

  “No. I’m giving you a gift. Show me how to destroy the gravediggers and we both get what we want.”

  Shade licked his lips, stifling a bitter chuckle. “I underestimated you. I don’t know whether to be impressed or offended.”

  “Consider yourself lucky that you are still breathing,” Sapphire snapped.

  I had no idea why she hated him so much. The veins in her neck popped out at the mere mention of his name.

  He circled her slowly, sniffing at her hair, taunting her with his passive aggression. “I have paid my dues for what I did in my past. As you can all see from our banishment. Besides, your memory might be a little hazy. Weren’t you all of six years old?”

  She gripped helm of her sword, her knuckles whitening. “I remember perfectly.”

  This was going to get out of hand fast. I placed a gentle hand on her back. “Saph, now is not the time. We will deal with this later, I promise you.”

  She stepped back, but kept her eyes glued on Shade, muttering under her breath.

  “It seems you have a lot of people who want to kill you. I can prevent that, but you will need to do as I ask.”

  Shade eyed me with contempt. “I think you are forgetting that I can take away the gift I gave you. The fire can be snuffed out, so to speak.”

  He was starting to grate on my last nerve. I raised my hands and released the fireflies. They swarmed and buzzed, lighting up the sky above us. Inhaling deeply, I pushed out a blast of air, knocking half of the Luminaries over to their knees. With a flick of my wrist, the sky cracked and a light rain poured down upon us. Shade’s eyes grew wide with horror. He fell to his knees as the ground shook around him and his followers.

  I snapped my fingers and everything went still. “You were saying.”

  He ran a hand through his soaking wet hair. “How…how is that possible?”

  I crept toward him and pulled him up off the ground. “You did not give me the gift of fire. It was already within me. You simply helped awaken it. I drank the Elemental potion and completed the ritual.”

  “You are the true Aether…”

  “The one and only. Now, are you ready to take down the gravediggers?”

  Shade straightened his stance, lifting his chin and pressing his shoulders back. “Of course. Just keep Basil away from me.”

  “Wow, you must be quite the ladies’ man,” Chaos taunted.

  Shade snapped back, “There is nothing ladylike about her, believe me.”

  A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered the look in her eyes when I refused to drink with her. “What did you do to piss her off?”

  He paused, parting his lips to speak, then pursing them. His gaze trailed off into the distance. “I took something away from her.”

  “So give it back.” Chaos shook his head in disgust.

  Shade jerked his chin toward us, his nostrils flared. “I can’t. It’s already broken.”

  “Oh, don’t tell me you are talking about her heart. That would just be way too cliché.” Chaos had a way of pushing the right buttons at the right time.

  “Not her heart…her lover’s. It was a long time ago. She clearly hasn’t moved on.” Shade clenched his jaw.

  Did Shade actually feel bad? The faint trace of regret flickered in his eyes. “Who was it?”

  He looked down at the ground. “Fox.”

  Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. “That is why you were ostracized? Because you broke up Basil and Fox?”

  He lifted his head, eyes hardened. “You would think banishment would have been enough for her. I was part of the Seraphine coven. When Basil learned of Fox’s betrayal, she made her agree to kick me out. So I started my own coven and we’ve been here ever since.”

  “No wonder the three of you are all so unpleasant. It makes perfect sense now.” Chaos snorted out loud, pleased with his own assessment.

  “Laugh all you want, but I did love her.” Shade glared daggers at him.

  Sapphire was not convinced. She unsheathed her sword and dug it in the ground in front of him, drawing a line in the dirt. “I vote to let Basil kill him.”

  “No, he’s not worth it.” I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t just Basil and Echo who had been breaking the rules. I turned to Seven. “Can you send for Luna?” I hated to even think it because Luna had been so kind to me, but if she had a gravedigger, I’d have to deal with her too.

  Shade eyed Sapphire with contempt. “So, what now? You have no idea how angry she’s going to be when she realizes that this is a trap.”

  “The only thing you need to be concerned about is deactivating her gravedigger. I’ll take care of the rest.” Getting all the coven leaders to hand over their strongest line of defense was one thing, making sure they didn’t kill again was another. This was going to be a long night.

  A smaller ship than I was expecting carried Basil into the docks of Malta. Accompanied only by her gravedigger, she stomped up the hill in a fury.

  Shade fidgeted next to me. I could hear his heart pounding as she approached. Glaring daggers at him, she curled her hand into a fist and raised it up, ready to unleash some sort of magic storm upon him.

  I stepped in front of him, blocking her view. “This isn’t going to go down the way you thought it would. I’m only going to say this once. Stand down.”

  Basil waved her hands around, her nostrils flared. “Get out of my way, girl. This is between me and Shade.”

  I didn’t move a muscle. “Now it’s between all of us. You need to let this go. Hurting him will not bring Fox back to you.”

  “No, but it will make me feel better. Step aside.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t do that.”

  “We had a deal,” she snapped.

  “No. You made a demand. I’m no longer taking demands from any of you. We have much bigger things to worry about than your thousand-year-old vendetta.”

  Basil’s mouth dropped open. “How dare you? I helped you awaken your magic and this is the thanks I get? Maybe I should remind you of my power.”

  Chaos stepped out of the shadows. “Yeah, about that.” He flicked his wings wide open and flapped. A gust of wind pushed outward, knocking Basil onto her knees.

  I spun around, grabbing Shade by the shoulders and thrust him toward the gravedigger. He shot forward and latched on to her back, reaching around to press his thumbs into her hollow eye sockets. As he began to chant, his eyes rolled back into his head. Basil cried out, reaching toward her gravedigger. Chaos flapped his wings again and sent her flying backward. She crashed into a decapitated statue and slid down onto the
dirt.

  The gravedigger flailed frantically in Shade’s grasp as the rest of us watched, speechless. Basil’s face twisted in horror as Shade lowered her gravedigger to the ground, her body lifeless.

  He hovered over her for a moment before wiping his brow and letting out a sigh of relief. “It is done. She’s gone.”

  Basil cried out in agony. “What have you done? Must you take everything from me?” Shade lowered his head in disgust. Though, I wasn’t sure if it was disdain for her, or just his own self-loathing.

  I would try to reason with her, hope that there was some small shred of humanity left in her. “Basil…these things are not natural. They shouldn’t have been created. I ordered him to end them. All of them.”

  She screamed, jumping to her feet, and lunged toward me. Sapphire slipped in between us and pressed the tip of her sword to her throat. “I wouldn’t take another step if I were you.”

  I reached for her, hoping she would see the gesture as a sign of peace. “You need to calm down. How many more of them are there?”

  “I’m not telling you anything,” she spat. The veins in her neck bulged with fury.

  Chaos stared down at her, expressionless. “Tell us what you know and I might ask for leniency for you with the Elysium Court.”

  Basil looked around, wild-eyed. “You would report me?”

  “You broke the one rule. The humans are not to be harmed. You will answer for this crime, but you can make it easier on yourself if you help us find the rest of them.” I had never seen Chaos so focused. His eyes were cold, emotionless. With clenched fists, he looked as if he might snap Basil’s neck at any moment. It was as much endearing as it was terrifying.

  Sapphire pressed her blade deeper into Basil’s throat. “Or I could just end you right now.”

  Basil’s face drained of color. She licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Each coven leader has one. Yes, even your precious Luna. We made them ten years ago, after the Blood War. We did it for protection.”

  A wave of nausea came over me. “Protection from what? You’re Elemental witches.”

  She hesitated, her lips quivering as she rolled her tongue around in her mouth, sucking at her teeth while she deliberated. “For protection…from you.”

  Did I hear her right? My mouth dropped open. They were frightened of me?

  Everyone fell silent. The air between us was thick with uncertainty. In the midst of all this, one thing I knew for sure was that fear made people do unpredictable things. And Echo spread that fear like wildfire throughout the covens. This whole time, she knew that I was at Sanctum, oblivious to my own destiny. Until Chaos came. That’s why she sent the harpies after me. She knew that I would become the Aether and ruin her plans to take this world for herself. So she poisoned the covens against me. She even turned the gods against me.

  “It was Echo who exposed my mother and father to the gods, wasn’t it? She was jealous of her. It was Echo’s fault that our ancestors have been condemned to Purgatory.” My hands shook with rage.

  Basil made a sound that was half snort, half snicker. “Ding, ding, ding. That is why the covens have been at odds with each other. She said that you would rise up one day and take revenge on all of us. I guess that day has come.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I—I’m not looking for revenge. I’m just trying to make things right. I want the same thing you do. To release our ancestors into Elysium where they belong. I never wanted a war.”

  Chaos flew into a rage. He pounded his fists on the ground before charging toward Basil. Sapphire stumbled back as he wrapped a hand around Basil’s throat, his eyes darkening. “You are going to help us fix this or I swear to Apollo, you will never utter another sinful breath. There will be nothing left of you but a pile of dust.”

  She shook uncontrollably, averting her eyes away from him.

  “Let her go.” My heart was beating so fast, I thought it might burst from my chest.

  He didn’t flinch. “Not until she swears an oath.”

  My knees wobbled as I inched forward. I placed a gentle hand on his arm. “Chaos, please. For me, let her go.”

  He grunted but did as I asked, throwing up his hands as he released her. Basil doubled over, clutching her throat. She peered up at me, sweat beading down her brow. “What do you want from me?”

  A soft breeze rustled in my ears, sending a tiny shiver up my spine. Everyone waited on pins and needles as I weighed her fate in my hands. “Justice.”

  Twenty-Three

  A crowd of Luminaries had gathered around me as Luna arrived with her gravedigger in tow. She crept carefully up the hill, her lips pursed. Shade stood at my side, his head hanging down. It didn’t take a psychic to see that he was mentally exhausted. His hair was matted against his forehead as the scorching Malta sun beat down on us.

  Luna’s eyes were clear and crisp like the sea she sailed in over. She bowed her head and pushed her gravedigger toward Shade. “Forgive me. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  I nodded, and this time, without struggle, Shade used his magic to deactivate her gravedigger—a barbarian of a man with broad shoulders and legs the size of tree stumps. Shade guided his body to the ground as it trembled and then went limp.

  My eyes filled with tears as I wondered what this man’s life would have been like if he had not been turned into a monster. Even one human casualty was too many. This was not their war and they did not deserve to get caught in our crossfire.

  Luna let out a deep breath. “I accept whatever punishment you think is necessary.” Her eyelids fluttered and her irises changed to a pale lavender.

  “That is for the gods to decide. Thank you for not making this difficult,” I replied.

  She nodded and let Seven guide her over to stand next to Basil. Chaos rubbed his temples, his eyebrows pinched together. “That leaves two more. We need to move quickly before they figure out what we’re up to.”

  Shade cleared his throat. “I’ll go. Fox and I have a long history. I can handle her.”

  I was grateful that he was being cooperative, but Shade always did what Shade wanted for his own agenda. “Sapphire and Seven will go with you. No offense, but I still don’t trust you.”

  Chaos clapped his hands together. “Diego comes with us. We can’t risk him getting seen in Italy again. His pack made it very clear that he is not welcome there.”

  Diego stuck out his chin. “I am in the room…”

  “Whatever. Arya, it’s time to go, my love.”

  I looked around at all the faces—some filled with fear, others full of rage. It was a collection of outcasts, misfits, and thieves—all brought together by magic. Most of us didn’t even like each other, but here we were, committed to something much bigger than all of us.

  Seven gave my shoulder a light squeeze. “We will meet you in New York once it’s done. Be careful, little one.”

  I forced a smile in an effort to seem more confident. “I will be.”

  I let Shade place a binding spell on Luna and Basil just before he set sail with Sapphire and Seven toward the Seraphine coven in Italy. With both Elemental coven leaders powerless and unable to use their magic, we loaded them onto Luna’s ship, calibrating it toward New York City.

  Chaos and I huddled together in a quiet corner of the ship. With his strong arms wrapped around me, I nuzzled closer to his chest, content to just stay there forever.

  “I’m in awe of you,” he whispered. His warm breath tickled my ear. I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy.

  “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

  “So modest. When we first met, you were afraid to open your wings. Now you are commanding entire covens.”

  I felt my cheeks redden. “I have no idea what I’m doing, really. Everything has happened so fast. I couldn’t have gotten here without you, you know?”

  He raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Oh, I am well aware of that.”

  I giggled and playfully poked him in the stomach. “Who’s
modest now?”

  Chaos cupped my face in his hands, teasing my senses as he delicately traced my jawline with his fingertips. His eyes flickered with hunger, passion. “I want you right now,” he whispered.

  A tingle spread through my body the instant his lips came down on mine, firm and urgent. I wanted him more than ever. With his hands tangled in my hair, he pulled me deeper into his embrace. I breathed out, a slight whimper as his tongue danced around mine, tantalizing every nerve in my body. In a frenzy, I pushed him toward the stairwell, unbuttoning his pants as we crashed into the cabin below deck.

  My back smacked against the wall as he hoisted my legs up around his waist and pressed into me, gasping as he filled me, the heat rising between my thighs. My pulse racing, I squeezed myself around him, surrendering to him.

  His lips were soft but firm as he kissed me with wild fervor. Our fingers locked above my head as he placed my palms against the wall and pushed himself deeper inside. Our bodies rocked, swaying back and forth like a raging sea. Burying his face into my neck, he let out a deep moan. I cried out in ecstasy as wave after wave of pleasure reverberated throughout my body.

  I clutched the back of his head as he kissed my neck, my breasts, tracing his tongue over every inch of my flesh. Heat radiated over my flesh as our bodies slipped in and out of each other, my heart pounding in my ears. I dug my nails into his back as he flooded me, biting down on my shoulder to stifle a scream. I arched my back, pressing my hips into his as the tingling turned to an explosion. I let out a cry, my legs tightening around his waist.

  My chest heaved with each erratic breath I took. He lowered my legs to the floor but kept his hands firmly gripped around my waist to keep me from buckling. My muscles twitched and trembled.

  He kissed my cheek. “I’m so in love with you.”

  I felt flush, a sudden shyness coming over me. “I love you too,” I murmured.

  Chaos beamed back at me with a grin wider than I’d ever seen. “I know you do, darling. I mean, who wouldn’t? I am a god after all.”