So Dark the Night

by Elle Cross

  On the flip side, I’d never seen her happier and more approachable as she was once she had formed her own Winter Court. After I’d claimed my own men last night and committed to building my court, I could see why there may have been a change to her demeanor.

  Karina

  Surely a place that is called ‘The Promenade’ meant that there was something fun and interesting to look at as one walked up and down the street. Yet the only thing of interest were street vendors hawking their junk merchandise to anyone who made the horrible decision to make eye contact with them.

  What surprised me even more was that a few of them were able to pull me out of a crowd. Like they could see me or something. And beyond that, like I was somehow approachable.

  Was my resting bitch face too rested?

  That thought made me smirk.

  It did play into the theory that I had been fading so I was essentially like a ghost to the Shades; maybe now that I was full of power and more weighty, I was more…visible?

  I wondered if there was an in-between state where I could be full on power yet also forgettable. I was sure Havoc had the answer to that.

  Instead of asking him, he kissed my forehead, and already I felt shielded.

  “There you go, my queen.”

  Well, that was easy. The street vendors stopped hawking their wares at me and I was finally able to enjoy window shopping.

  The area here wasn’t too bad. I missed the other city though, since that was a truly walking city whereas this one was decidedly a drive-then-park-and-walk kind of city.

  At least the Shades here were mostly harmless, although there were a few that gave off the weirdest energy. They seemed ordinary and mom-like, but those were the ones with the craziest mojo. Like they would be the type to torture and kill people in their basement in between Parent-Teacher Conferences. I steered clear of those.

  I didn’t know what I was looking for, but that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Enver and West wouldn’t have enjoyed this aimlessness as much. But that was why Havoc was with me. Both he and Taran had more of that outdoorsy, ranger spirit within them, and indulged my shopping and people-seeing.

  Plus, who would mess with me with someone like Havoc at my side? He was barely civilized-looking in the Nightmare Court. Here in the bright light of day among Shades in the Shadow Realm, his menace was palpable. It went beyond the fact that he had tattoos all over his body or that he displayed them proudly considering he didn’t wear a shirt and only wore a sleeveless leather vest. It was because his disgust was obvious, sneering openly at all the frou-frou displays.

  I found it endearing.

  And Taran? Well, most people slid their eyes over him, convincing themselves that this mountain of a man with double swords strapped to his back didn’t exist.

  After a day of promenading and checking out the lay of the land, I had to admit defeat. It was only frustrating because it seemed almost right, especially with the same kind of buildings and layout. But nothing here called to me.

  At least I could cross out this main downtown area as being familiar at all from the dream walk. That was some kind of progress. The disappointment got to me though, and I yearned for rest and being part of the group again, and so motioned for us to get home.

  I didn’t know if it was the waning light of sunset, but something winked at me in the city skyline.

  The thing that caught my attention was a tall building with a golden top. Seeing it there was like a punch to the gut. I knew that building. That’s where I wanted to go.

  Why it took me all day to notice it was another matter. “Is this the first time I’m seeing that building?”

  Havoc grimaced. “Yes. That building was not there even moments before. And I suppose that’s what we’ve been looking for all day? Some creepy building that’s been hiding in plain sight during the day?”

  I looked at him and grinned. “Aw, come on, you know you’re curious now.”

  “You know what happens to princesses who were overly curious in those fairy tales your mom read you?”

  “They kicked ass and lived happily ever after?” I cocked my eyebrow at him.

  Taran chuckled, draping his arm over my shoulders. “Good one, my queen.”

  Havoc smiled despite his misgivings. “Yes, I suppose they did.” In the light, his usually amber eyes were startlingly golden.

  Butterflies stirred in my stomach, and I swallowed, blinking away before I started a public orgy with my men.

  I had never been attracted to him before he came barging into my life again here in the Shadow Realm. We were friends, closest in age, which made us gravitate toward each other in the Nightmare Court. And now? I couldn’t imagine him away from my side. I wanted to trace my finger over all the ink that covered his body.

  I wasn’t projecting, but our bonds transferred our emotions easily, and he felt all those mushy thoughts I had of him. I couldn’t miss the way his body angled toward me, the tilting of his head just then. How Taran squeezed me closer.

  I kept us on task. “Come on. The building is right here, and if it looks sketchy, we could just leave.”

  “Or we’d immediately be attacked, and be-spelled, and stuck inside a strange building that no one else would be able to see.”

  I blew a raspberry at him. “You are such an ‘up’ person, you know that?” I pulled him along. “If I’m wrong, feel free to spank me.”

  “I live to serve you, my queen.” His voice tinged dark. The way he said those words made my nipples perk up.

  I was never going to get used to my body reacting to him this way. When did he get to be hot? Or had he always been hot, and I’d only just noticed him because I was too busy being numb in Nightmare Court?

  These were important questions that I was afraid could never be answered. Like one of those ‘tree falling in the woods’ kinds of questions.

  Being in the Shadow Realm made everything feel different.

  I needed to stow all this away to process for later. I wasn’t going to deal with it now and I needed my wits about me so that I didn’t inadvertently make Havoc right about this place being trouble, when I just should have been paying attention.

  I turned down an alleyway that I knew wasn’t there before. The familiarity was undeniable. I picked up the pace, eager to relive the path from my dream, when Taran held me back. With his hand at my throat, he pleaded through our bond.

  Havoc, who had been walking beside me, grasped my shoulder. A silent gesture to say that he was walking ahead of me. With Taran’s hand at my throat holding me against his body, I couldn’t do much other than agree.

 

  A funny memory popped into mind.

 

  He launched Nergal from his forearm. It was one of his sentinels, a pony-sized dragon that feasted on spells and magicks. Havoc nodded us along, and we walked in single file in Nergal’s wake.

  The alley spat us out right where I had envisioned during my dream. There were people already milling around outside, with girls in various states of undress. My feet involuntarily pulsed with pain at the sight of their heels. I cut through the line and through the front door. I had a feeling that this place was somehow not in the same realm as the Shades and the Shadow Realm. Therefore I wasn’t as invisible as I usually was to the Shades. Yet no one stopped me as I marched right in.

  I had this idea that you could get away with anything if you just had the right attitude. That, and if you were sandwiched between two Lords of Power, especially if one of them looked like he was daring anyone to piss him off.

  The music thumped. People laughed and danced, either of their own free will or under the direction of alcohol or drugs. Nothing seemed out of place.

  At least, nothing until I saw the bartender. He was exactly the same bartender as the one I’d seen in my dream walk, even down to his fashionably shaggy, chin length brown hair, high cheekbone
s, and green eyes.

  Why did they smolder? That was exactly how he looked at me too. Like he was trying to set me on fire.

  His black shirt strained over his muscles as he wiped down the glasses.

  Screw whatever Havoc thought about curiosity. I marched right over to the bar.

  “Lemme guess,” he called out to me when I was close enough to hear him. “Hot and Bothered?”

  I blinked. There was no way he’d have been able to know that. “Excuse me?”

  He set out a glass then proceeded to mix all kinds of liquids together to create something that looked like sunset in a glass. “Hot and Bothered. New cocktail raging the scene from an up and coming mixologist,” he said it clearly like he referred to himself. He nodded at the glass. “Try some.”

  Before I could respond, Havoc grabbed the glass and drained half of it. “A little fruity and generic for my taste, not sure if it’s quite your taste, my queen.”

  I choked down a laugh. Clearly, Havoc was referring to more than just the drink. The bartender looked like he wanted to strangle Havoc; Havoc sincerely wished he would try. I made a show of setting the glass aside untouched. “I don’t suppose you know the owner of this club?”

  As I said that, a hidden panel whispered open in the mirrored walls, and a little entourage stepped out. It triggered memories of the dream, though I was convinced that my dream was definitely not just a dream. The man that emerged in the middle of the entourage was a full head taller than the rest, dressed all in white, with long white hair to match.

  I think he felt I was there, and for some reason, he was trying to find me too because he slowed like he was looking for someone in the crowd. I wanted him to see me and take me upstairs like he had in my dream. I didn’t want to find out what was waiting up there, but this overpowering need to follow compelled me through the crowd that swallowed me up.

 

 

  Even as Taran and Havoc called after me, I dashed after the entourage. It was hard to get by the crowd, but I was determined to reach him.

  The bartender stood in front of me, just as the man in white swept his gaze my way.

  Are you kidding me?

  I wanted to push around him, but the bartender kept blocking my way, and by the time I got around him, the owner was gone.

  “Dude what the hell was that for?” Taran and Havoc were already at my side. I hadn’t gone too far.

  The bartender looked past my shoulder, raising his brow at my guard more than me. “You are welcome.”

  I felt the rising heat coming from Havoc. This man was a breath away from dying.

  “What the fuck did you just say?” I asked him.

  “You are welcome,” he said. “You don’t want that guy’s attention, trust me.”

  “And what, I want yours?”

  “Seriously, lady, you do not want that guy knowing who you are.”

  I had already figured that out myself, but I was not about to tell this guy that. Sometimes you needed to talk to people you didn’t want to in order to get stuff done, like save lives.

  Besides, I didn’t want some random guy getting all up in my face thinking that he could make my choices for me. I barely tolerated that from the men already in my life, and I sure as hell didn’t allow my mother to do it. This guy would surely not get that privilege from me.

  I didn’t need to be distracted by all this other stuff though. I could feel that the moment had passed. And, there was totally something going on here. Or there had been. Whatever it had been, I felt it pass.

  I was so frustrated, I was not above punching this random Shade who had no idea what he just interfered with.

  “My queen, let’s go. He’s not worth it.” Havoc stared him down, and did something that only translated in whatever ‘I’ve got a bigger dick’ thread that they shared.

  I knew it was petty, but I got a kick out of the bartender taking a step back from Havoc’s dead-eyed stare.

  I stomped out of the club. “Let’s get back before the others worry.”

  Ranek

  The Queen of Shadows was more magnificent than even my wildest dreams could have imagined.

  I had seen her last night. When a goddess walked among mortals, you paid attention. She had worn nothing but a gossamer slip that revealed her body, yet made you want to see more. Her dark hair tumbled around her like a cloak fit for royalty. The strap had slid down her shoulder as if to draw even more attention to the glyphs of power that graced over her delicate clavicle and shoulder in artful scroll.

  I had wanted to taste them, to lick and bite them like a starving madman.

  And then her gaze had locked with mine. It was like a desperate tug in my gut had taken my breath away. I knew in that moment that if she had asked for my beating heart, I would have dug into my chest with my bare hands to give it to her.

  Her eyes—amethyst pools rimmed with gold—had troubled me. They had looked so lost, so sad, that I wanted to kill whoever made her feel that way.

  She had blinked, then she was gone.

  A moment later, I had felt her again, saw that slip of a dress climbing upstairs to certain destruction. I had never moved so fast in my life. One second, she had been across the room, a sea of dancing bodies between us, and the next, I was right behind her, ready to pull her back and away from the monster I’d been tracking.

  But she had slipped from my fingers.

  I had not doubts that she was the Lost Queen that I was assigned to find.

  I had feared for her until now.

  She blazed—there was no other word to describe it—in her glory, ten times more potent than she had been last night. The call to be with her, to go to her and protect her was more than I could stand.

  I had to stop her from following after the Power Broker. That way led only to certain danger.

  I wanted to rip her guards apart for letting her so close to danger. Except they had something that I didn’t have.

  Her.

  Her power flowed through them.

  They were hers and anything I would have done to them would have ended me.

  And as if I needed reminding, her guard, the rabid one with the living tattoos, snapped at me,

  The fury he laid on me cut through the stupid assumptions I’d had about who protected whom in a court.

  Maybe a queen’s guard did more than protect her body.

  I needed to know more about this queen that could command that level of loyalty, of love, that I felt when he said, ‘my queen.’

  Karina

  I DESPAIRED IN EVER completing my mission for this girl.

  The Major Cases squad had always said: the first seventy-two hours were critical. Well, it was basically past that time now, and I had no more leads.

  Her file was even more blurry than ever, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  I tried finding that building the next day and the day after that but it never showed up again.

  I could kill that bartender.

  Soothing calm came through my bonds, and I took it for what it was worth.

  I slipped out on to the sun porch with my full cup of coffee and I checked out the ghost that lingered along the property line again. He’d been better since he had shared those images with me during my dream walk. But today, he was twitchy again. Like he had somehow reverted back to his past self.

  I wanted to figure out what was bothering him, since he had known the girl before my dream walk. Maybe he heard or found something else in the ghost grapevine.

 

  I couldn’t accept that. Especially since he was now having a conniption fit and became more distinct. He was a kind of squat professor type and he angled toward me before lunging. The last time a ghost acted like that…

&nb
sp; I whipped around and saw the shimmer line form.

 

  I heard someone yelling, “Duck!” A swing arced over my head as I dropped to the ground. When I got up, it was that damned bartender, and he had beheaded a Hunter.

  Dammit, that was too close. A Galgalim, a floating sphere-shaped monster with a ring of eyes around it. It was used often as a sentinel. Who knew what it might have already seen and recorded to its masters?

  The bartender turned to me, lowering his sword. “Hi, I’m Ranek,” he said with a wave.

  Whatever else he was going to say died in his throat as Enver tackled him to the ground.

  Havoc and Taran pulled me behind them. West paced around the fighters, waiting to see what action he could get in on.

  Two Princes of power clashing was a rare treat. Usually, there would need to be fail safes to ensure that their powers wouldn’t build to the point of damaging the veils or the innocents. Maybe a clash of princes here in the Shadow Realm would be different?

  The blur of action and electricity between them built up energy that arced bolts of lightning across the sky.

  The other men shielded me from their sight, and I had to work to get to the front.

  They looked evenly matched, both strong.

  But Enver had that edge of darkness that overpowered the other Prince and brought him down to his knees. Enver pulled back his arm, ready to unleash for his killing blow.

  “Stop,” I spoke it aloud, but felt like the command had come from outside of myself.

  Enver paused, shifting his gaze to meet mine just to be sure of what he’d heard.

  “Stop. Please. He saved us.” I gestured feebly to the destroyed thing that had been near me, but hadn’t gotten further. The ghost was a little smudgy, but he was still more distinct than he ever had been, not that any of the men could see.

  When I didn’t know what Enver would do next, he just dropped his hold on the other Prince, and walked to me and pulled me to him, kissing me hard until I was breathless. He followed it up with something more soft and gentle, something that made my body stir.