by Jasmine Walt
“I do,” I said, accepting the cup that Thelia poured for me. I’d only had it once, but I remembered liking it well enough. It was too hot to sip just yet, though. “Are we here to discuss your offer of letting me into the coven?”
Darcia regarded me over her tea cup as she gently blew a breath across the top layer of hot liquid. “I see you wish to get right to the point,” she said slowly. “In that case, I will tell you why I called you here. It has come to my attention that the warlock Devon Randall has met an unpleasant end, and that you are responsible. I know you are unfamiliar with our ways, and the Accords that govern us, but acting on your own that way, without approval of the local coven or the regional council, is a punishable offense.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said flatly, setting my drink on the table. If this is how this conversation was going to go, I wasn’t about to pretend we were old friends out for tea. “Captain Randall did go missing, but he hasn’t met any kind of ‘end’ that I know of. No body turned up, and I have no idea what happened to him. I wasn’t involved.”
“There’s no point in lying, Brooke,” Thelia admonished. Gone was the almost sisterly affection she’d shown earlier—her expression was stern now. “We saw him going into your apartment not that long before he went missing.”
“Of course, if you were to join the coven, I would make sure that you were not prosecuted,” Darcia said smoothly. “But should you refuse, I have pull over the authorities here, including the local prosecutor and courthouse. I can make things very difficult for you.”
“Are you serious?” I hissed, keeping my voice low so as not to make a scene even though I wanted to shout at her. “You really think that threatening me is going to make me want to join your coven? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I am merely informing you of the consequences,” Darcia said calmly, folding her hands atop the table. Her eyes glittered as she regarded me, much the way a cat looked at its prey before pouncing. “You’re on thin ice with poor Detective Baxter as it is. Adding Randall to the mix would no doubt be devastating for your career. I am offering you a way out, Brooke. Besides,” she added, her voice growing intense as she leaned in. “You and I both know that you belong with us, rather than those filthy fae. We are better equipped to teach you what you need to know so you can survive in this harsh world.”
“The way I see it, you’re no better than the fae,” I spat, rising from my chair. Darcia’s eyes widened at my blatant defiance, and I curled my lip at her. “You’re not the only one who’s been trying to blackmail me into dancing to your tune, and I’m tired of it. You all can fuck off. I’m not a bone you all can fight over like a pack of dogs. I’m my own person, and I don’t need you.”
“You’ll be sorry for this,” Darcia hissed as I grabbed my bag.
“Not likely.”
I tossed on my coat, then strode out the door. Let them do their worst, I seethed, walking up the street. The way things were going right now, they could get in fucking line with everyone else who wanted a piece of me.
Chapter 21
When I got home, I put on jogging shorts and went for a run. The cold air and exercise helped burn off some of my fury, and the beautiful architecture and waterfront scenery helped settle me a bit.
Yes, I was being yanked around in every direction, but so far, I’d managed to keep myself alive. Plus, my powers had grown, and I was learning more about the supernatural community. That was what I wanted, wasn’t it? And nothing worth getting in life came easy. I would deal with whatever life threw at me and toss all this crap back in fate’s smug, laughing face.
After looping the neighborhood back to the apartment, I found a handwritten note sitting on my kitchen counter, along with a raven feather. I swept the feather aside and lifted the note to read the bold, elegant script.
Well done on collecting the first three artifacts in such a short time. Do hurry up and get the final one. I will be waiting.
Disgusted, I crumpled up the note and feather, and tossed them both in the trash. Whatever happened, I was not handing the artifacts over to the Morrigan. Just thinking about that woman made my skin crawl. I owed my allegiance to Maddock—he’d done a lot for me, and even if he did have ulterior motives, he was still the only one not blackmailing me.
I took a shower to wash off the sweat, then finally managed to get the chest open and the artifacts out. I set them atop my bed, then sat cross-legged and examined them. Since the objects were shaded, they gave off no magical signature. If I didn’t know what they were, I would think they were just decorative pieces.
Maddock never did tell me what the Miotal Sorcóir’s power was, I mused as I ran my fingers over the tiny runes etched into the metal cylinder. Would he teach me to read these at some point? What about the faerie language he used for spells? Did the witches use the same language for their own spells, or was it a variation? They sounded similar, but then again, they both sounded like gibberish, so for all I knew, it was completely different.
The statue of the woman, which Maddock had called the Moirtéal Dealbh, had tiny runes inscribed into the folds of her clothing that were identical to the ones on the Miotal Sorcóir. And when I looked closely at the Baill Foirne, I noticed similar etchings there as well.
Was this some kind of spell that needed to be spoken aloud to activate the artifacts? My heart sank at the thought. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t be able to use them against the Morrigan. So then how was I going to defend myself against her?
I would just have to make her see reason, I decided. Surely there was something else I could give her that she would want instead. Aside from my life. Maybe I would just hand over the artifacts to Maddock right away, so that I wouldn’t be able to give them to her when she came to get them. If he knew the truth, he could include me in whatever protection the statues offered.
I frowned. Something told me it wouldn’t be that easy. Even without the obstacle of how furious Maddock would be, or how he still harbored negative feelings toward me for something I’d done to him in a previous life, I sensed that this contract I’d entered with the Morrigan would have no easy way out. Uncle Oscar had told me as much, and he had no reason to lie about that.
My phone buzzed, and I glanced down to see a text from Maddock.
Get ready. I’m coming to get you in ten minutes.
Showtime.
“Well, this is a nice change of pace,” I said, looking around. We were standing on the side of a mountain on some kind of Mediterranean island, outside of a cave that was hidden from view by a copse of olive trees. Below, white, sandy beaches beckoned, and clear, aquamarine water stretched for miles in every direction. Serious paradise. “Where are we?”
“Sardinia,” Maddock told me. When I blinked, unable to fathom where that was, he added, “It’s a large island that’s considered part of Italy.”
“Oh.” I glanced toward the cave entrance, which was barely visible from where we stood. “How do you know the artifact is in here?”
“I’m quite familiar with this cave,” Maddock said. “A hundred years ago or so, it was part of the lands owned by a group of mystics, some of which are still around on the island. The cave has bottomless fissures that they used for prophecies, so they often used this space.”
“Interesting.” I took a few steps forward, then frowned when Maddock didn’t follow. “Aren’t you coming?”
“No.” Something flickered in Maddock’s eyes. “I had a falling out with Sharina, the woman who led them at the time, and she cursed this cave because it was where we had our…ah…interactions. I cannae set foot inside.”
I snorted. “So you’re asking me to walk into your sex nook and retrieve the artifact for you. No wonder you needed me to come along even though you have that wand now.” I wasn’t sure if I should be annoyed or amused.
“Indeed,” Maddock said flatly. His expression went stony, a usual indicator that he wasn’t going to discuss the subject further. “The f
ourth artifact is the Snoite Eibhir, a granite stone roughly the size of a dinner plate. Ye will know it when you see it.”
“Right,” I muttered. “Because of the runes.”
“There should be no danger to ye,” he continued. “But be careful not to fall into one of the fissures.” He pulled a flashlight from an inside pocket of his jacket, and handed it to me.
“This makes me feel very safe,” I said, brandishing the flashlight as a weapon. It was a good thing I had my guns with me.
Maddock rolled his eyes. “Go. Ye’ll be perfectly fine.”
Despite his assurances that nothing in the cave could harm me—aside from giant fissures that might swallow me whole—I approached the entrance with apprehension. After all, retrieving the last three artifacts hadn’t been a walk in the park. There’d been danger associated with each retrieval, and this was the final one. Wasn’t there some kind of rule that the final step on a quest was always the hardest one? Or did that only apply to video games?
I flicked the flashlight on as I entered, and the white beam illuminated the pitch dark interior. The entrance was narrow, little more than a tunnel, and I had to crouch as I eased my way in. My fingertips curved around the growths of stone on the cave walls as I attempted to keep my balance on the wet slate ground beneath my feet.
As I walked, I wondered exactly why this final artifact had remained undisturbed for so long. It wasn’t hard to see why the first three had remained relatively safe—the first one was under the protection of vampires, the second one cursed by a terrible monster, and the third one locked away in a remote part of Faerie and guarded by a hoard of unseelie creatures.
But this fourth one was in a cave all alone, a cave that only seemed to be cursed to keep Maddock out. What was stopping anyone else from coming in here and snatching it?
The tunnel widened into a real cavern, and I stopped, shining my flashlight to make sure I wasn’t about to walk into anything, and to see if the stone was around. Water dripped from cones of limestone above, splashing on the spikes of stone surrounding me. I wouldn’t die if I slipped, but it would hurt. Regardless what Maddock had said, I needed to be careful.
Besides, he had a way of hiding the real dangers of things from me if he thought I might not agree to do it. As I wove through the cones of calcium buildup, I revisited what he’d said. There should be no danger to ye. The fae couldn’t lie, but I found myself questioning what else he could have meant by that. It seemed pretty straight forward…
A few feet deeper into the cave, a green glow emanated from the distance, identical to the one I’d seen from the third artifact in Faerie. Could that be the fourth artifact? Was I now able to “see” magical objects like this, when I focused my attention, now that the talent had been awoken in Faerie?
Grinning, I took a step toward the light, thinking that I was home free already. But a low growl shook the cavern, and I froze, my blood turning to ice. What the fuck?
“Who’s there?” I called, drawing my vampire gun.
A huge, black shape bounded across the cavern out of nowhere and landed right in front of me. I shrieked, stumbling backward, my shoulder crashing into one of the stalagmites. But the ache in my muscle tissue did not concern me nearly as much as the huge, three-headed black dog with glowing red eyes perched in front of me, ready to pounce. Even crouched, he was twice my height, and looked like he could swallow me in two good bites. Ropes of drool dangled from the center one’s maw as it snarled, and the one on the left leaned in to sniff me.
“Nice doggy,” I said nervously as sweat trickled down my spine.
The Cerberus. This was the fucking Cerberus. Damn it, Maddock! If I couldn’t even get a little Chihuahua to like me, then right now, I was royally screwed.
“I’m not here to do anything bad,” I tried anyway. “Just trying to take you away before someone else bad comes to get you.”
Whatever the huge dog smelled coming off me did not appease him, because he swiped at me, his claw raking across my arm. I cried out as pain exploded up my forearm, and jumped back as he opened his maw wide, clearly intending to take a bite out of me.
Unwilling to become dinner, I squeezed off a shot directly into his mouth. The beast howled, rearing back as the bullet struck him from the inside—but it was tiny in comparison to his big body, and I doubted it had hit anything vital.
Adrenaline gave my feet wings, and I rocked back to my feet, then bolted past the Cerberus as he howled and shook his heads. I dipped between two protruding cones of limestone, catching my balance on them a few times as my feet slipped on the slick cave ground. But even as my hands ached nearly as much as my shoulder, I remained focused, heading straight for the glowing light at the end.
There was nothing for it—I had to get the artifact out of here. Maddock couldn’t get in, and if I didn’t grab the stone, there would be no end to this madness. I hadn’t come this far to start over.
The ground shook behind me, and the Cerberus bayed as it gave chase. My heart felt like it was going to burst in my chest, and I glanced around frantically, searching for a way out of its path. Anything to buy me some time to get to the artifact.
A foolish plan came to mind, but there was no time to think of an alternative—the beast was going to be on me in seconds. I put in another burst of speed, then flung myself into one of the fissures, pretending to jump to my death. But instead, I twisted my body so that I would land on the narrow ledge I’d spied about six feet down and scrabbled for purchase against the rocky walls so that I didn’t topple over.
I managed to find a handhold, but only one of my feet caught the ledge properly. The other hit hard against the edge, crumbling the stone and sending the particles into the abyss. I gritted my teeth, holding onto the stone beneath my aching fingers with as much strength as my bruised hands could muster.
Holding my breath, I inched the foot that managed to stand on the ledge closer to the wall, then pulled up my other foot beside it. My entire body trembled as I watched the Cerberus stupidly lunge into the hole behind me. Its claws scratched the air beside me on the way down, and I pressed my body closer to the wall of stone, a sinking feeling in my gut that the Cerberus was about to pull me down with it.
His claws snagged the back of my shirt, ripping the material, but despite the tug, I managed to hold tight until the creature’s body passed mine. His panicked howl faded away as he hurtled down into the endless abyss, and I let out a sigh of relief. I would have felt bad for the Cerberus’s unexpected demise if the bastard hadn’t been trying to kill me.
I waited until I’d stopped shaking like a leaf, then slowly—carefully—climbed out of the hole. It took me a good twenty minutes to get out despite the short distance, mainly because I was terrified of making any repeat mistakes and joining the Cerberus in a pile of blood and bones below. By the time I got out, I was shaking again and covered in sweat.
Exhausted, I collapsed onto the ground, resting my head against the cool stone. The artifact was just ahead, I knew. But was there any point in getting it still, if the Cerberus was dead? Wasn’t that the whole point of having it? Someone must have activated the artifact and put the Cerberus on guard here. Probably if I continued traveling farther into the cave, I would find something else of value.
Not gonna happen, I told myself as I got to my feet and closed the rest of the distance between the fissure I’d jumped into and the artifact. I picked up the stone and hefted its weight. This thing was enough trouble as it was, and who was to say there weren’t more traps ahead? I wasn’t Indiana fucking Jones. I was a cop.
With the stone tucked under my arm, I wove through the stalagmites as quickly as I could, just in case there really were any other monsters lurking about or the Cerberus somehow survived the fall and climbed back up. I burst out into the light, panting hard, and drew in a deep breath of salty ocean air.
“Are ye all right?” Maddock was in front of me in an instant, grabbing my bleeding arm. His eyes were wide with concern. “What h
appened in there?”
“The Cerberus happened,” I snarled, pain ripping through my limb as Maddock touched the wound. “Someone clearly activated the artifact and set it to guard the place. You should have prepared me for the possibility that I’d have to fight a three headed monster dog.”
“I apologize,” Maddock said, and for once he actually looked regretful. He pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket, then worked at clearing away the blood on my arm. I averted my gaze from the gash—it was huge and looked as though it was going to need stitches. “I didna think the Cerberus would actually be guarding the inside of the cavern, since the mystics do still use it. Or at least I thought they did.” He frowned as I hissed. “He really got ye good. How did ye manage to defeat him?”
“I tricked him into jumping into one of the fissures,” I said. Despite the pain, my blood heated as Maddock’s fingers brushed against my arm. I’d worn a weapon harness instead of my jacket, and the sleeves of my shirt only went to my elbow, leaving my forearms vulnerable.
“I didna know,” he repeated, and hell if he didn’t sound sorry.
I held back another wince and looked up at him. “I know. Fae can’t lie. You said what you believed was true. But please tell me that wasn’t for nothing.”
“For nothing?”
I hefted the stone in my other hand. “What’s the point of having this thing, if the Cerberus is dead?”
“The Cerberus is immortal,” Maddock said, then pressed his hand on my wound and spoke a few words. I cried out as a burning pain rippled up my arm, but when Maddock pulled his hands away, there was some kind of strange, blue substance holding the wound closed. Also, the pain faded away, leaving me with a curiously numb sensation.
“What the hell did you do to me?” I asked, poking at it gingerly.
