by Amelia Shaw
“Exactly. I think it’s time to change that.”
I shook my head and barely restrained myself from slapping him. “No. If you want to go after him, you do it alone. Without me. I’m leaving.”
I stepped up to the guys and climbed over their mass. It took effort and so much pain to reach the other side. Fin took out probably twenty of them. And not little dudes either.
Fin stayed where I left him. I gave him one last chance to join me so we could go, but he crossed his arms over his chest, and I supposed it was answer enough. So, I turned my back to him and limped toward the staircase. If another group of henchmen came down, I would be toast, but it beat standing shoulder to shoulder with a man who’d already betrayed me once. What kept him from throwing me to the wolves a second time?
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I glanced back one last time. Fin stood staring at me the entire way.
Then he called out to me, “Do you know how a mage gets his power?”
I hesitated, hand on the banister, shaking with the effort to haul myself upward. Fucking hell. While I learned about him, he’d also learned about me, and my insatiable need to know everything. How a mage got his powers had long been a question I’d wanted answered.
I held onto the rail and turned to face him again. “This better not be some damn trick.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “No tricks. If you don’t want to go kill the Black Mage after I explain, then I’ll take you home. Hell, I’ll carry you the entire way.”
I didn’t owe this bastard anything. In fact, if we were keeping score, things were the other way around. Except I really wanted to know the answer.
I let go and limped back toward him. “If I die here because I stayed here for story time, I will haunt your ass until you die. I don’t even care if you live until you’re two hundred.”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
I poked his chest. “Yeah, and fifty years ago there was no such thing as fae either.”
He waved at the room and I squeezed past him inside. “Make it fast. I have a date with an entire bottle of your most expensive wine and Holly’s cheesecake.”
He closed the door and stepped closer to me. When he didn’t start speaking right away, I shook my head. Why did I always fall for his shit?
“You’re just fucking with me now.”
As I passed him to leave, he tugged my non-injured arm gently back toward him. “No, please. I’m sorry. It just takes me a second to get it out. I wasn’t sure where to start... to summarize it all.”
“How about you just spit it out? I’m sorry, but I don’t have compassion in me after the night I’ve had.”
He forced air through his nose in a long, loud exhale. Then he met my eyes. “To be succinct, mages get their power from the fae. To become a mage, you must capture a person who carries fae blood in their veins.”
“How does a person know if they have fae blood?”
He shrugged. “There is no way to know unless you already have strong fae magic. Not everyone with fae blood does. Most people’s lineage is so diluted they carry only miniscule amounts.”
The wheels turned over in my adrenaline-pumped brain. “Does the amount of power a mage has correlate to how much fae magic they have before?”
Questions tumbled in my mind and I stepped toward him, still turning the information over.
“What is the process? If they don’t know if they have fae blood wouldn’t an attempt to turn be a death sentence?”
Fin nodded slowly. “It’s considered a sacrifice. They sacrifice the purest parts of themselves to embrace the taint of Magus magic. It’s a disturbing macabre process with bloodletting and often death.”
“But why risk it?”
“Would you risk your life to have access to magic?”
I considered his question. Would I risk my life to have enough power to avenge my parents’ death? I didn’t even need to consider the answer; of course I would.
I would give my life for the revenge I’d craved for years, power or not. Which is why I stood here, arm probably broken, a fae at my side. I came to get revenge, and I’d almost walked out without it. Let my anger and pride impede my goals.
I took a step toward Fin and met his eyes. “If fae people were transforming themselves into something else, where does that fit in with your life? Why would you feel the need to get involved?
His slight smile turned brittle, and he reached for my hand. “You’re right. If it were simply people transforming themselves, I wouldn’t pay any attention to it. I wouldn’t care. Except someone, and I believe it was the Black Mage himself, who discovered during the sacrifice, that fae power can be transferred to another mage.”
His thumb traced the ridge of my knuckles and I focused on not reacting. After all, I was still supposed to be angry with him. If they’d caught him...
“I assume they have ways of incapacitating a fae? Especially those with minimal power.”
He nodded and watched our entwined hands. “Yes, they do. Various means and methods they’d developed over years of catching and killing my people.”
I let out a long sigh and lifted his chin so I could meet his eyes. “If I were considering this new information, that you could be caught and your power stripped, I might, maybe, understand why you’d leave me to fend for myself so you could focus your energy on catching Esteban. I’m not saying I forgive you for it, nor that you won’t be paying a long time for it, but I understand a little better where your head work was at.”
He nodded. “This matters to me. I’ve watched the Black Mage destroy my people. Women, children, even babies swallowed up to his sacrifices before they could discover the extent of their power. Mages live by one code—to build their magic to its pinnacle. Some reach it. After all, it takes a powerful mind to control magic, and the more magic the stronger a person needs to be. Others take too much and die. The Black Mage sucks in the souls of my people and he has yet to falter.”
I dropped his hand and straightened my shoulders the best I could. “Then I guess we better go get this asshole before he has the chance to take anyone else.”
“Are you well enough to continue?”
I snorted. “Of course, now that I’ve agreed to follow you into hell, you check on me. Smooth.”
His forehead crumpled as he stared down at me. “Well, if we want to get into the nitty gritty, how about you explain why you let that blood-sucking fiend kiss you? Kiss you!”
I crossed my arms to steady myself. “I didn’t let him kiss me. He pressed his lips to my skin. I didn’t agree to it, nor did I like it. If you were watching, you would have seen he wanted to do much more than kiss me. If he’d had his way, I’d have been bent over his desk.”
Fin’s mouth flopped open, and it satisfied me until he spoke. “You’d have let him touch you that way?”
I smacked him halfheartedly. He barely twitched.
“You dick. The only reason I let him touch me at all was for you. So cut the bullshit so we can finish this and I can go home.”
More words, mostly curses, piled up in my mind, and if we weren’t about to face down the strongest mage in the world, I would have let them fly. But I didn’t.
I gave Fin one last punctuating glare and waved at the doorway. “Do you have a plan, oh sanctimonious one?”
“I had a plan when we started the night. This house is impossible to navigate, so now the plan seems to be open all the doors until we find the right one.”
“You mean the one with a bunch of mages inside who mean to sacrifice you and steal all your mind-melding magic?”
He blinked. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound like a great idea at all.”
Just like a man... never stop for directions.
I poked at my shoulder. “Can you cut off any more pain here? I’m going to need to actually fight if we are getting out of here in one piece. I won’t be any help to you if you get nabbed. Then I think we need to strip the weapons off
the goon squad out there and load up the best we can.”
I walked over and surveyed the pile. “Can you pick out the smallest of these guys and take off his clothes?”
Fin sputtered from behind me. “What?”
I waved my hand Vanna White style down my ripped-up gown. “You think I want to fight any more in this? Plus, I need actual boots and a place to carry weapons. In this getup, I’m limited to one knife in each hand.”
Without further argument, he dug out one guy and dragged him in the room. No blood pools. Excellent.
New clothes in hand, my pride took a hit as I needed Fin to help me get out of the dress.
“This is another moment we will never mention again. It didn’t happen and if you say a word about it, I’ll remove your tongue.”
“Understood,” he said, the ghost of a smile on his lips.
Probably not just from my words. I wore nothing but a pair of underwear beneath the dress. Thankfully, my rack had always been small enough to go without a bra.
Once I’d donned the new clothes and shoved the weapons in various pockets, I felt more like myself.
The door of the room opened and the woman in sequins from the bathroom stood in the doorway, inside the ring of fallen men. “You two done, or do you need a minute for a happy ending?”
Chapter Eighteen
The woman walked into the room and kissed Fin right on the mouth. Her ruby red tipped nails cupped his cheeks and held him in place.
There were few times in my life I’d been speechless. This was absolutely one of them. Also, oddly jealous. My inner landscape has been pretty well maintained. When I’m being a total asshole, I usually know. Where this jealousy stemmed from, I wasn’t quite ready to admit to myself.
I cleared my throat, and the woman stepped away from Fin, who hadn’t moved an inch since she placed her hands on his skin.
His voice shook when he spoke one word: “Olivia.”
Speechlessness solved.
“Esteban’s ex is your inside man? I thought you said... hang on. Didn’t she die?”
The color leached from Fin’s face as he stared at her. “I thought... I thought you were dead.”
She giggled and turned those crazed eyes on me. Yes, you can definitely tell a woman’s level of crazy from the gleam in her eyes. And this woman was next level psycho. I’d thought so when I saw her in the bathroom. Now, I didn’t doubt my original assessment.
“You have a new toy.” The woman said. “She’s so little and cute. I saw her on the dance floor earlier but didn’t have time to say hello.”
She grabbed my face and kissed me in the same psychotic way. I’d never had preference one way or the other between men and women, but this creature’s tongue in my mouth made me gag and pull away.
She tasted like blood and dark magic. How had Fin gotten involved with her in the first place?
Her sequins sparkled under the low light and her hair hung lovely and perfect down her back. She circled me once and returned to Fin, who remained completely immobile. Every twitch she made, he tracked with his eyes. I wanted to snap him out of it. But how?
“Well, Olivia.” I stepped up and threaded my arm through Fin’s. “It was a pleasure to meet you, but we have previous engagement.”
Fin shook himself and glanced down at me as if he couldn’t quite figure out our circumstances.
Olivia pressed into his other side, twining her hand around his neck as if I didn’t exist. “Fin, baby. You wanted me on the inside. Well, I’m on the inside now.”
Finally, Fin snapped out of it. “At what cost? You’ve given up your heritage, your people, for what? A taste of power? The ability to gain more only by murdering your own kind?”
She licked the side of his neck, and he jerked out of her hold.
Olivia laughed. “You were always so righteous, Fin. No room for anyone else but your precious people. Where are they now? Who is here helping you? No one. Well, this human, but I don’t count pets as actual help.”
Bitch did not just call me a pet.
I stepped up, and she met my advance. In her heels she towered over me. Even if I wore my own, she would still have half a foot of height on me. Didn’t matter. I would hit tall people and short people. They all fell the same.
“Get out of his face before I remove you.” I told her.
The dark buzz of magic vibrated in the air before I hit the wall behind us and slid down in an ungraceful heap. My arms and shoulders screamed in fresh agony and I lay there to collect myself. No shame in staying down until I could stand back up.
At least, that is what the chief used to tell me when he would watch my hand to hand sparring matches. He’d always been the hardest on me. He told me every chance he got people would underestimate me because I was small and I was a woman. Even other women.
I turned my head to stare at Fin and Olivia. He batted her hand away from his face and spoke low enough I couldn’t catch the words.
No, it’s cool. I’ll lay here after your girlfriend tossed me around like a rag doll. No problem.
I sat up and Olivia gestured my way. “See, she’s fine. I barely touched her.”
Fin came over and lifted me carefully under the elbows. “Are you all right?”
“Define all right. I’m about two seconds from shanking your girlfriend, but overall, not bad.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Really? Are you able to continue?”
Mentally and physically, I’d tapped out a whole fight ago. But what choice did I have?
“I don’t know if even you have enough magic to trick my brain into thinking my arm won’t fall off.” I told him.
“Always so dramatic,” he whispered.
Olivia cleared her throat. “As touching as this little show is, there is someone waiting to meet you, Fin. I’m supposed to take you directly to him.”
I met Fin’s eyes, trying to relay how fucked we both were. He only gave me a sad smile and ran his thumb over my cheek.
“I’d be delighted to meet your friend, Olivia. Please, take us to him.”
He guided me next to him, his hand on the small of my back. Olivia’s eyes flashed as she surveyed us.
Despite her choices, this woman still wanted Fin. She hadn’t realized yet Fin would never touch her again. That knowledge was enough to get me through the walk behind her down the hallway. She led us around a corner at the end of the hall, opposite the stairs and through several doors.
“Watch your little pet, Fin. I’d hate for her to get lost in here.”
I reached out to snatch her by the hair, but Fin intercepted my hand and lowered it back to my side without a word.
“You know she’s a bundle of crazy on the clearance rack, right?” I whispered.
He met my eyes and smiled. All right, as long as he knew we were about to walk into hell following a psychopath.
We arrived at an elevator and Olivia turned to face us. I wanted to jump back, put some space between us. Even a foot of space wasn’t enough.
“We’ll go up in a moment,” she said, and cocked her head at us.
Fin’s hand still rested on my lower back and despite our current differences, I needed his steadying presence.
When her eyes narrowed at Fin, I knew the next words out of her wicked red lips wouldn’t be kind. “Have you visited your sister lately?”
His entire body went rigid beside me. Even his hand clutched closed around the back of my stolen black t-shirt.
“I hope you’re being a good big brother,” she said, with a flirtatious pout.
She stumbled one step back and then stood as if someone had held her waist and squeezed in a giant hand. It looked like something out of a horror movie.
I touched Fin’s shoulder. “Hey, calm down. We need her to take us to him before you can kill her. Scratch that. We need her to take us to him before we flip on who gets to kill her.”
Olivia sagged and took in a ragged breath. Once she composed herself, she threw her shoulders back and tossed her h
air behind her shoulders.
“Naughty boy. You’ll pay for that.” Her eyes darted from Fin to me. “And I know the credit you can’t afford to use.”
The elevator made a ding and the steel doors slid open with a soft whoosh. She stepped inside and blocked the number panel.
Fin led me inside and positioned us on the opposite side of the elevator.
“You didn’t have to do this,” he said.
At first, I thought he spoke to me. But when I looked up, he’d solidly fixed his gaze on Olivia.
Only the sound of the elevator interrupted the weighted silence.
She finally answered him. “You know nothing about the sacrifice. And you know nothing about the choices I’ve made. I can sleep soundly at night with mine. Can you say the same?”
This pair had a history, but I didn’t enjoy being out of the loop. Especially if what Olivia knew about Fin could be loaded as emotional ammunition. She’d hit him right between the eyes.
“How long is this elevator ride going to be, anyway?” I asked, deflecting her attention from him. “This house is only like four levels.”
Her unhinged gaze slid to mine. “Ugly and stupid. Fin, you sure know how to pick ’em.”
I lifted my chin and grinned at her. “Esteban doesn’t think I’m ugly. At least that was the impression I got as he slid his lips down my neck.”
Her eyes narrowed. “An act. He had to lure you and Fin. Everything he’s done tonight only pulled your strings. As always, he has you right where he wants you.”
The elevator stopped with a soft jolt, and the doors opened. It was an underground cave version of a ballroom. Goons in black uniforms lined the outer edges of the room, along with a few people still in tuxedos.
We weren’t walking out of this place alive.
I lingered in the elevator, but Fin tugged me forward. Olivia sauntered to the middle of the room. She turned and waved us forward. “Come on in. We’ve been waiting for you.”
I gripped Fin’s arm and looked up into his face. His features matched my own grim ones.
“This isn’t good,” I whispered.
“Agreed,” he said. “If you have a chance to run, do it. Leave me and get out.”
