The blonde curls, the blue eyes, and the slender, tall frame made memories rage through me. Her feminine curves were dressed in a canary-yellow dress with a cape draped over her shoulders. A wave of magic filled the room. Petra Kallan was at Vulthus’s castle, and the lack of chains or shackles around her body made it clear she was here not as his prisoner, but as his ally.
“You always resort to cheap tricks, Olwen,” she purred. “Did you really think that you could send out your daughter asking around about Vulthus’s whereabouts and it wouldn’t get back to us?”
I gritted my teeth. Peony had betrayed us. I couldn’t say I was surprised, but it still sucked, especially since Vulthus now suspected that I was in the room, using glamour to hide my true form.
Atticus inched closer to me and so did the other fae guard, but I knew that staying in this room and fighting against two powerful beings at once would be of no use. In one second, everything had stacked against us. Atticus straightened his hands and moved them apart. I got the meaning. We needed to separate Petra and Vulthus.
Letting her talk would cost our lives.
Olwen snapped his gaze to me, and I jumped in front of the others, gathering my ice in my chest. I was a step ahead of the Summer princess. I had trained against moving targets.
Petra jumped to the left as I pushed past Atticus and the guard. I summoned three ice daggers and let them fly. They struck her flowing dress, pinning it to the wall behind her. I darted past her and into the hallway, ice bees buzzing around me. I was abandoning my prime target for now, but I knew I had to flee now to win the battle.
“They’re escaping!” Petra shouted.
“Guards!” Vulthus shouted, glee in his voice.
The two vamp guards, who had let us into the castle, leapt at me, fangs bared. The cloud of ice bees split at my nod, swarming around them. Cursing, they backed into the walls.
I took the first turn I could and when I saw no guards, I reined in my magic and let the swarm disappear. Pressing myself into an alcove and the safety of shadows, I slowed my breath. I needed to calm down and figure out the next step.
I glanced down my clothes to discover that my glamour still held. Okay, that was good. Now, I needed to get Petra and Vulthus away from each other, or we’d have no chance against them. Something crashed back in the throne room. Shouting followed. Soon reinforcements would arrive—ours and Vulthus’s.
Before I could move, a thorny vine shot down the corridor, an inch past my shoulder. I pressed harder into the wall. My gamble had paid off. Petra had separated from Vulthus and was coming for me.
The vine retracted. “Come out, Onyx. I know it’s you. Face me, or do you prefer the guards to drag your sorry ass to Vulthus?”
Damnit. I’d revealed myself with my powers and reaction to her. Shit. At least, Vulthus didn’t want me dead, not yet, just as I had suspected. I couldn’t say the same. My body was buzzing with hatred, begging me to attack Petra. But I remembered all the training Atticus had given me. If it seemed too good to be true, it was. This screamed trap. Petra hadn’t come alone. I might not be able to see the vamps, but they were ready in this fortress, in position to pounce. Petra fought dirty. She’d never do a one on one fight. So I stayed put in the alcove as she moved past me like a yellow, poisonous butterfly.
“You realize the vamps can smell you, don’t you?” she sing-songed from farther down the hall, reminding me to pull out the mini vial Olwen had given me and the guards. I sprayed the perfume onto myself to hide my fae scent.
I realized my mistake immediately, but it was too late.
Vines shot at me, and this time, they stopped and curved into my hiding place. They wrapped around me, yanked me into the pale light, and twirled me up toward the high, curved ceiling. Oil lamps and stone bricks swirled around me as thorns dug through my thick fabric and wrapped around my armor. They spun me around, and I hung upside-down. Blood rushed into my head.
Petra stared up at me, an insect trapped in a spider’s web, vines still attached to her open palms, laughing as thorns poked through my clothes. Her bright eyes flashed with hatred. “You will get what you deserve, you dirty whore.”
Vamp guards bolted out of the shadows, boots clacking. A dozen in total stared up at me. I didn’t have much time. Hot pain flashed all over my body from the thorns. I needed a diversion, and who better than volatile Petra?
“Do you want me to tell you what I did to Preston?” I asked, pulling my mouth into a wicked smile and suppressing a wince of pain.
More vines shot from Petra’s fingers, lashing against me, but I could barely feel the whipping, protected by the other vines that squeezed my body, cutting off my circulation. I needed to hurry. Already, expanding my chest was hard and lightheadedness filled me.
“So, you finally admit it?” Petra’s eyes were wide with fury.
“He tried taking me through the portal. Your precious brother told me he’d use me for breeding. He tried to force himself onto me, so I unleashed my ice magic and stabbed him in the heart.” With each word, I let out more cold, more frost. The vines around my torso began to wither and loosen, but not fast enough. I needed a few more seconds. “When he was dead, I considered pushing him over the cliff and into the lake.”
“His body, I need to recover his body,” Petra muttered. She squeezed her eyes shut and trembled with grief. Agony overtook her, and the vines around me tightened in response.
I had to stay with it. The guards waited behind Petra, watching in amazement. “But then I decided that this was too good for him. Instead, I had a vampire drain him, turn him, and then I watched Preston burn in the morning sun.”
“No!” Petra unleashed her magic, vines flying into the walls, into the vamp guards, and into me as I broke my final bindings and fell through the green storm.
I crashed to my feet as the world filled with vines. The vamp behind Petra, a stocky male, struggled against the onslaught as Petra released a pained scream. I had a second chance to slip away. I thought of Preston trying to violate me and let the anger come as plants crashed around me, shielding me from Petra and the vamps. Instead of channeling my fury into ice, I let my body shift into one of the male vamps. My chest grew broader, my legs grew longer, and my curves disappeared. I now wore a plain black uniform.
I stood, taller than before and pushed away the vines. Petra sank to her knees, vines all falling to the floor, some burying the guard whose form I had taken. The corridor had turned green and thorny with her grief.
“Where is she?” a female vamp yelled, whirling around herself.
“She must’ve escaped,” another replied, rising slowly.
“Find her!” Petra shouted, tears and mascara streaming down her face.
The group took off down the corridor, and I followed them, separating at the first junction. This ruse wouldn’t last long. I had to find the fae servants and free them. Yes, my revenge was important, but not as important as saving the lives of innocent fae.
I was about to turn another corner when a strong hand wrapped around my mouth and pulled me back from behind.
22
Onyx
I jabbed my elbow behind me, striking my opponent hard as he pulled me into what appeared to be a small library, but he didn’t let go. I might’ve taken the form of a vamp, but I still wasn’t as strong as one. My glamour could only go so far.
“Onyx. It’s me.”
The vamp’s smooth, low voice swept over me, compelling me to drop the glamour. I let it fall away as emotion swelled in my chest, and I shrunk, losing height by the second. Once again, I was Onyx Logan.
I whirled, heart swelling. Could it really be him?
A tall, well-built blond man stood inches away and trained his arctic blue eyes on me. I blinked. This had to be a trick of the light. I was imagining things in the dimmed room.
I blinked, but he remained. Thorsten. Alive.
I studied his body, the leather jacket that was open to reveal a tight gray shirt and the outline of
his unhurt muscles. Thorsten took my arms and squeezed, no sign of any injury plaguing him.
“You can’t be here,” I gasped.
“I know. It wasn’t easy to get in. What did Olwen do to you?”
My jaw dropped. Somewhere distant in the mansion, guards shouted.
Thorsten shouldn’t have survived what I’d done. He’d taken multiple daggers to his torso and chest. Had I somehow missed his heart?
More importantly, he shouldn’t be here. I had tried to murder him. On the bridge, a part of me had wanted to, a part of me that was savage and vicious.
“He gave me a mind manipulation potion,” I choked out.
He nodded and ran his hand through his hair. “I heard rumors that Olwen creates some of the vamps’ blood crystals—”
“He does.” I bit my lip. “Thorsten, I’m—”
He hugged me tightly, cutting off my next words. “I know you’re not evil, Onyx. I could see it in your eyes. You didn’t want to attack me. Why else would Olwen’s guard have been there? I saw him drive you to the bridge.”
I nestled into Thorsten’s wide chest. He had healed despite taking multiple ice spikes. Or did he? Maybe Petra was making me hallucinate. It could be another trap. A tremor went through me, and he tightened his grip on me. “Are you real?” I whispered.
“Yes. I faked death in the river. I knew if it didn’t, you’d come after me. So I lay still as my wounds healed slowly. I reached my car just before the sun rose. I took a few more days to fully recover. I wanted to come to you earlier, but I needed to be in full strength in case Olwen had done something permanent to you.” His arctic gaze looked right into my soul. “But I never doubted you. I knew it wasn’t your fault.”
I couldn’t let my guard down. “Prove you are you. Petra’s here, and she’s playing games.” I forced myself out of his grasp and backed to the door. I had cruelly made Petra bathe in Preston’s death. She might be doing the same to me. What if she had used glamour to take on Thorsten’s form?
“She and Vulthus have banded together.” Thorsten eyed the door, which he had closed to the corridor.
“Prove that you are Thorsten,” I repeated, arms at my sides, shaking. Petra might be playing a cruel joke or worse Olwen was testing my loyalty. If I broke the oath, he could break his end, hand me over, and get out of here unscathed. I backed away from the image of Thorsten. “My loyalty is to Olwen now.”
Hurt flashed across Thorsten’s features. “What do I need to say to prove to you, I am me?”
When I didn’t reply immediately, he said, “How about we met for the first time on Nocturnal Academy’s grounds. You were trying to escape but realized that you wouldn’t survive it. I let you back into the castle using a secret door near the gym.”
I tilted my head, trying to figure out if anyone else might know about this. Other guards could’ve seen us and for whatever reason chosen not to interfere.
“I was the one who flooded the room with light on the day of the Wild Hunt.”
My breath caught. Nobody knew about that besides Thorsten, Lily, and me.
“I was ready to strangle Kassius and Kayden when I found them in the wine cellar with you.”
I had not uttered the last thing to even Lily, and the twins would never talk about failing to bed me and being thrown out by a simple guard.
This was Thorsten. He was alive. My heart pumped life through my veins.
“I believe you.” I stepped forward.
Thorsten gave me a small smile. “Good. I know where Vulthus keeps his servants. We can free them. Get them to help us fight.”
Before I could reply, loud noises reverberated through the castle again and something shattered. Olwen’s guards had arrived and were clashing with the vamps. We had no time to make up. Love could come later, if we survived.
If I accepted Thorsten’s help, I might not get out of here alive. But if I didn’t, the same could happen, and I could lose him for good.
Blair and the other fae might slow us down, but she could also use her fire magic to help us.
“Onyx, we can free them and get them out.” Thorsten pulled me into a kiss.
I inhaled his fresh mountain scent as he rubbed his hands along my back, holding me close, and the remainder of my doubt melted away. This was Thorsten. No one else could ever make the icy wall I had built around me crumble this fast. I wrapped my arms around him, merging with him. Everything I had tried to suppress came back to life. Yes, I wanted revenge, but not at any cost. I wasn’t Olwen’s pawn. I made my own decisions.
I pulled away from Thorsten. “Where are the servants?”
Thorsten smiled. “That’s the Onyx I fell in love with.”
His confession made my breath hitch, but now was not the time to dwell on it.
Thorsten must’ve realized the same, because he said, “Follow me. This place is full of secret corridors that Vulthus uses.”
Something else shattered nearby, and we paused at the library door, waiting. When things quieted, Thorsten opened the door, peeked out, and waved me down the silent corridor. The fighting was taking place somewhere else in the castle.
Thorsten inched along the wall as I stayed behind him. He felt along the stone bricks until he found one that gave. He pushed it in and the wall swung open to reveal a secret door similar to the one at Nocturnal Academy, which moved along tracks. We slipped inside a narrow walkway made of stone and reeking of dust. I held in a sneeze as Thorsten slid the door shut behind us, and darkness descended.
Thorsten took my hand and squeezed reassuringly, then led me along a pitch-black maze. Cobwebs brushed against me, and I shuddered. My fae nature hated the tunnels, but I could easily imagine Vulthus slithering through here like a snake to ambush servants and guards who displeased him.
Thorsten and I made turn after turn, descending steps, stopping at the faint sounds of shouts, and moving again once the coast was clear. At last, light invaded the tunnel as another door slid open.
Though the light was faint, I squinted and stepped through the threshold. The basement of Vulthus’s castle was damp, and the disgusting stink of mildew hung in the air. The floor and walls were packed with dirt, and stumps of previously tall candles burned along the walls.
But worst of all were the cages. There were lots of them. Thorsten and I froze, surveying the seven by seven iron contraptions. Each held a dirty cot and a bucket probably used for bathroom purposes. About six cages stood in each row. I wasn’t sure how many rows in total there were. Some cages stood empty, but others had occupants.
I stepped forward. Fae occupied half the cages, most of them wearing plain gray uniforms. Male and female fae slowly turned up their heads at us, but most didn’t get off their cots. They were the walking dead. Former husks of themselves.
There was no way they could help us fight. They would only complicate everything, but we couldn’t simply leave them here to rot.
“Where are the keys?” I asked as I searched the cages for a familiar bob of flaming red hair. I found it near the corner of the basement. Blair, also wearing a gray uniform, turned her head up at me. She stood, unlike most of the other fae, and her dead eyes landed on me.
“Onyx?” she mouthed, her voice a barely audible whisper.
“The keys.” My heart swelled. Blair was still alive, and she seemed a bit better off than the others.
“Over there.” Blair pointed to a door that led to a small guard office. I flung the door open, ready to fight. But there were no guards. The guards who managed the prisoners were probably off fighting Olwen and his reinforcements. All hands were on deck. Thorsten and I searched the desk. Luckily for us, the keyring was inside a drawer. Clearly, the vamps didn’t think the fae servants could do much damage, which didn’t surprise me given the state they were in.
I took the keys, which were also iron, and ran to Blair’s cage, holding my breath against the smell of the room. I unlocked and tossed the padlock to the floor. The fae stirred and muttered. Slowly, the zombies w
ere coming back to life.
“Onyx!” Blair shot out of her cage and wrapped her arms around me. She felt thinner. Weaker. But her grip was warm, almost hot, and I knew she’d spent time honing her fire abilities. “What are you doing here? And who is this vamp?” She turned her gaze to Thorsten as the mutters in the room increased.
“It’s a long story,” I said, unable to contain my smile. “We’re ending Vulthus tonight. Can you help us?” I wondered how many scars Blair now carried under her gray uniform, mental and physical. The whipping she’d gotten at Summer Prep for trying to escape had only been the beginning.
As she stepped away from the cage, Blair held out her palm and summoned a ball of dancing fire. Light fell on the surrounding cages. Thorsten took the keys from me and unlocked the puzzled fae. He went to work, explaining the situation to them.
Blair extinguished her fire. “I’m all for ending Vulthus, but do you really think we can take him on?”
She hadn’t heard about my abilities. I smiled and lifted my own hands, gathering the moisture of the basement. I sensed all eyes on me as the muttering died down. Even Thorsten went silent. “We need to catch up on a lot of things.” I let a dozen stakes float around my palms.
Gasps went through the basement. Fae drew closer, mesmerized by the sight. The stakes sparkled in the pale candlelight, offering something they hadn’t felt in a long time: hope.
I was hope, not evil.
Letting the stakes vanish, I took Blair’s hand. Olwen could do what he wanted, but I wouldn’t let him take Thorsten, Lily, and Blair from me.
“Come on.” I took Blair’s hand. “With our fire and ice combined, we will end Vulthus.”
23
Onyx
I turned to Thorsten. “You need to get the fae servants out. They can’t fight in their condition.”
The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset] Page 56
