So Dark the Night

by Elle Cross

  He seemed to know his effect on me. “Later, my love.” He raked my earlobe with his teeth before placing a chaste kiss on my cheek.

  That man knew how to flip my switches. I was standing there just fine, and then I wanted to throw him down and ride him until we were both breathless. His hand came up to my face, pulling me in for another kiss when we were interrupted.

  Ranek coughed. “Thanks for not killing me. Don’t mind me while I grow another windpipe.”

  I sighed while Enver chuckled at me. “Remember you stopped the fight. He’d be dead now, and you’d be riding me like you imagined,” he whispered, voice low.

  “You saw that?”

  The darklight shimmered in his eyes. “We’re bonded, of course I did.” He swept his finger over the place where one of the tattoos had bloomed. “And for the record, so did they.”

  Havoc had clearly been paying attention, because his gaze met mine and he waggled his brows at me, making me laugh. “Any time, my queen.”

  I ignored the flush that ran over my face, and nodded toward the house. “Let’s take him inside.”

  “How do we know he won’t, you know, leave or be otherwise troublesome?” Havoc sneered in his face.

  “And here I thought I was fruity and generic.”

  “Didn’t I ask you nicely to go die?”

  The look on Ranek’s face was mutinous.

  Something stirred in my belly. Something that I didn’t want to acknowledge, not yet. But there was a buzzing that pulsed down my left arm. A whisper in my ear spoke words of power.

  Enver cupped my face. “My queen?”

  I raised my hand, and repeated the words. Jets of black ribbons flew out of my hand, wrapping around Ranek. They didn’t stop until he was wrapped head to toe and he was a floating, wriggling mass. Whatever he was saying was lost in the muffling shadows.

  Living shadows.

  My shadows.

  From my power.

  “Well. That should do to ensure that he behaves, right?” One moment I was elated, hands on my hips, and the next the world tipped back.

  I was cradled in West’s arms. He had caught me before I fainted. Again. “You got the quick reflexes, West.” I giggled.

  He kissed me, pushing power through our joined lips. “There’ll be more, soon.” West bent shadows to walk Taran and me to the house, leaving Havoc to contend with traveling with the rest.

  West wanted to tuck me in bed. I told him the Great Room, because that would be comfortable enough to sit and interrogate Ranek. He thought it would be too comfortable for Ranek.

  I rolled my eyes. “Look, I’m already feeling better.” My fingers were warm again thanks to coffee. Of course, my argument might have been stronger if I weren’t sitting in Taran’s lap with his arms around me, absorbing his heat. “Besides, this place is meant to entertain guests.” Really, why even have vaulted ceilings if you couldn’t entertain?

  “Guests. Friends. Family. Yes. Entertain to your heart’s delight. Interlopers with questionable origins? No.” He gestured to the still squirming and floating form of Ranek who was held between Enver and Havoc, both of whom grunted in agreement with West. “As your Advisor, the reasonable course of action would be to crush this man with your newly-found powers—beautiful work, by the way, my queen—and then let us feed you for the rest of the day.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Havoc chimed in.

  I sighed. Taran patted my leg in comfort. “Taran, do you think I’m unreasonable?”

  “Unreasonable? No, of course not, my queen.”

  “So you agree we could have a conversation here with Ranek?”

  “Oh, no, I don’t agree with that at all.”

  I flailed my arms. “Well why did you say that you thought I wasn’t unreasonable?”

  “I thought you meant in general.” He kissed my cheek.

  I smacked my face with my palm. They were messing with me. They all were.

  “West, do you want like a dungeon or something where this man can be restrained behind bars so you can question him? Is that what you would prefer?”

  He blinked. “Well, now that you say it, I actually would like that.”

  I exhaled my intention, and felt the house shift and respond to me. I rose from my seat on Taran’s lap. “Well, let’s go.” I extended my hand out to West, and he took it so we could travel to the destination in my mind.

  Karina

  We were downstairs in the newly created dungeons. West walked around in awe. “Okay, then. This will do.”

  Havoc was more vocal. “Damn, where’d this come from?”

  I shrugged. “West wanted a dungeon. I asked for a dungeon. The house provided a dungeon.” I gestured to a cage, and Enver wordlessly guided the wrapped up Ranek into it. The cage door shut with a satisfying clink of metal.

  Havoc waggled his brows at me. “Can I get my own dungeon? I promise it’ll just be for fun.” He looked at me meaningfully. The thought of being restrained while he had his way with me made my heart flutter.

  Enver pat his back. “So long as you’re the only one we chain and beat, sure.”

  “I’d be okay with that, though.”

  I shook my head at their banter. I raised my arm and called the shadows back into me, spinning them away from Ranek. He was left wrung out and gasping for breath on the cell floor. I gestured to West, ‘he’s all yours,’ then found a seat.

  Taran was quick to sit down first so that I could sit on his lap again. I tucked his arms around me like he was a big blanket.

  “I know what you are and where you come from,” West started. “You’re a Vagari Prince far from home. Tell me what the fuck you were doing near my queen?”

  A Vagari? They were like myth, a people who live in the In-between and had no allegiance to any Court in any Fold except to themselves. My mother’s consort used to tell me stories about them, how they were masters of straits. Every pathway was open to them somehow. They had no land, no queen, no allegiances that kept them in line.

  They seemed unreal to me.

  Ranek, for his part, got himself up to a kneeling position. He didn’t acknowledge West’s words, and instead looked straight at me. His gaze pierced into mine. What I suspected was true: his power awoke in my presence, ready, willing, and eager to bond with me, provide for me. Become mine to command if I wished it.

  I ignored the call. “Answer my Lord’s question.” I shaded my demand with power.

  His head bowed in answer. “Damn you’re stronger than I imagined.”

  “I’m used to being underestimated. It’s why I always win. Fair warning.”

  Taran automatically pushed comfort into me, knowing that my duels were always a source of bitterness. I was mostly over it.

  It was hard not to be when I was bonded with my Inner Circle.

  Enver caressed my face, love pouring into our shared thread just between us.

  I flushed at the thought. I laced my fingers through his and kissed each knuckle.

  A strangled sound broke my reverie. “I meant no offense. Please.” Ranek was supporting himself on his hands and knees again, sweat pouring out of him.

  I blinked and imagined releasing a rope at the end of a game of tug of war. The effect was immediate: Ranek was better able to breathe again and sat up.

 

  Havoc snorted.

 

  “Talk,” West said.

  Ranek nodded. “We heard rumors, of the Lost Queen. Some have even asked us to find her. We thought it was a myth. My sister though. She knew it wasn’t a myth.”

  The look in his eyes… I was getting a bad feeling.

  “Your majesty, you asked why I’ve come? Simple. You are a bounty.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  The bonds between my men and I constricted. I felt their powers rising, their darkness deepening. They were ready to tea
r this prince apart, the veils of the universe be damned.

  “It’s true, your majesty. You’re a bounty. Some powerful people thought that you would be the perfect person to find the other Oracles. To recover those who were lost.”

  He was evading again. He spoke the truth, yes, but there was something there. A measured step that he was carefully avoiding. “And why in the hell would I be the perfect person for that?”

  He looked around like he thought I was the one acting clueless. “Are you trying to test me right now? You are favored by The Oracles. You attract ghosts to you. I don’t know how you manifest power, but as Queen of Shadows, I will guess that you pull light into you and project it to your people, among other things. It is obvious to me that you are an Oracle apparent or blessed in their line.”

  I blinked at his words. Oracle apparent? Blessed in their line? My father must have been more than just a fertility god.

  Shock had blanked out all other thoughts.

  Taran ran his hands up and down my arms.

  Enver placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let me?” he asked quietly.

  I nodded.

  Then, to Ranek, he said, “You mentioned bounty? How much and from whom?”

  Ranek let out a deep breath. “I can’t say who, but I have this to show you.” He pulled something out like a coin and flipped it outside of the cell. West caught it and handed it to Enver.

  In his hand, the coin lit up and expanded. It showed a bounty notice with possible sightings of me. He scrolled along, revealing a lot more information than I expected. None of them mentioned that I was here at Circle City, thank goodness. But that one sentinel could have broadcast my location to its masters already.

  At least the bounty mentioned that my retrieval ought to be alive, no exceptions. Thank the gods for small favors.

  I motioned that I would like to hold the coin, and Enver gave it to me. I rolled it in my fingers. “And what now? You are here to retrieve me?”

  “No, your majesty, I’m here to kill anyone else who tries.”

  Well, that was plot twist. “Why would you want to help me? Tip wages for a bartender keep you in the high life?”

  Then something dark over his face. “We’re looking for the same thing, and I figured you’d be able to find them when you weren’t festering away in someone’s retrieval jar waiting to be transported to whoever took out this bounty.”

  That gnawing feeling again. Taran comforted me. “How do you know what I’m looking for?”

  He got close to the bars. Enver waited for me to just say the word and end this person’s life.

  But there was something there, and I wondered about it.

  Ranek opened his palm. “Cut me.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  At the same time Havoc replied, “Well thank fuck!” He whipped out a knife too quickly to see from where, and slashed across Ranek’s proffered hand.

  Ranek fisted his palm so that blood dripped along Havoc’s knife as he spoke words of power.

  The surface of the knife wavered.

  “Quick, someone grab me a bowl of water,” I asked. A pitcher and bowl appeared in a grotto by the cell. Enver filled the bowl with water. Havoc dropped his knife in the bowl.

  The images that we were meant to see were magnified now.

  As the ripples died down, I was finally able to see who this was.

  It was unfortunately exactly who I expected.

  Karina

  THE GIRL WAS NO more than ten, perhaps even younger, with eyes that captured the green of summer grasses. Freckles dotted across her nose and sprinkled her cheeks. Her hair was dark with fiery red streaks that laced through it.

  It constricted my heart to see it.

  The girl, my dream walker companion.

  Taran brushed his fingers through my hair. Enver placed his hand on my shoulder. They all offered comfort and love in answer to the ache in my chest.

  I could cup her face, but my hands would just work through the illusion that Ranek brought up.

  “What’s her name?” I whispered, entranced at the dancing and laughing image of her. She was so happy. She was not so when I’d seen her.

  “Raya.”

  “Raya,” I repeated, burning her face and name into my soul. “I know her.”

  She was dull-faced and solemn when I did, though. And then I thought about it. Maybe she was not trying to tell me to follow the bad man, though that was what had happened in my dream walk.

  Maybe she had wanted me to find her—

  “You are her brother?”

  He blinked at me like I had just slapped him in the face. “Yes.”

  I explained that she had come to me, while in dream. She was the one who showed me the club, with the building and the man. I thought that she had wanted me to find the man.

  “No, that was exactly what I didn’t want. If you had gone up to him that day, you would already have been a goner. He’s the one that basically wants you. For what purpose, I don’t know, but I doubt it was for anything good.”

  He was pacing now, rubbing his chin in contemplation. “Also, you weren’t dreaming, and I definitely saw you. You were there.” He looked at me meaningfully, as if to say did you need more proof about your connection to the Oracles? “It’s why I recognized you the other day. Wait did that mean that Raya was with you at the time?”

  “Yes.”

  He stopped pacing then, his brows furrowing. “She came to you. And walked you to me.” His voice was dull as he pieced together the conclusion I had already come to.

  His sister. Raya. Was dead.

  And her ghost sought me out to find her brother.

  He shook his head then, like he would shake off my words. “No, that’s not right. If she were dead, I would know.”

  I felt more than heard a whisper. A quiet little thing that drifted and danced around Ranek. His sister was there, at his side, and he was unable to see. She looked at him with a sad expression on her face.

  I didn’t know how to break it to him that his sister was there standing right next to him.

  I bit my lip, unsure of what to say. Raya, though, turned to me and solemnly placed her finger to her lip. She stepped back then, layers and layers of veiled shadows wrapped around her until she disappeared from my sight.

  Ranek shivered at her passing, but walked it off.

  If she didn’t want her brother to know she was there, I wasn’t going to reveal it to him.

  “Tell me why I cannot find the building again. I tried to go there the last two days and it was nowhere to be found.”

  Ranek stopped his pacing. “Are you trying to tell me that you are still trying to find that Club? Did you not get that going there would mean your death?”

  I could appreciate that he was trying to keep me from death. Really. But I had a different relationship with death; it wasn’t anything I feared. It was separation from the life you had once lived, true, and it hurt like hell most times.

  But I would not tolerate anyone, Prince or no, making my decisions for me. If this was going to be our interactions, he would have no part in my Inner Circle. Advise, counsel, argue… fine. Refusing to give me information so I could make my own decisions? Unacceptable. “I thank you for your commentary. Now tell me what I fucking wanted to know.”

  He finally figured out that I was pissed off. He stopped his pacing to finally look at me. Really look at me.

  Something went through his dense skull because instead of his usual backhanded snarkiness, he opened and closed his mouth wordlessly. He looked kind of like a fish out of water. Which was exactly what he was right now: a little fish trapped in a cage surrounded by sharks.

  He looked from each of my men, and then back to me. To his credit, he stood his ground, even when he bowed his head.

  “Forgive me, your majesty, if I seemed evasive. I will tell you what you want to know.”

  Karina

  The Club wasn’t stationary, at least
not in the traditional sense. It rolled through the veils of space and time as a bolt hole, a gathering place for tremendous power. The Remnant Gods of this world often used bolt holes as places to play, where they could unleash themselves and not worry about weakening the shields against Chaos and other Elder gods that always seek new feeding grounds.

  I understood only half of what he said, mainly the parts about Chaos and veils. Even our own mythologies explained the importance of managing the veils and leashing power and keeping Chaos at bay. It was why we stayed in the Fold. It was rich in power and it manifested in physical ways.

  The other stuff? All I knew for certain was my mother’s court in the Fold, and our hell, the Shadow Realm. I said as much.

  He laughed. “What you know as your hell or Shadow Realm, is neutral territory for the most part. It’s more than just the dumping ground of Shades. It is home to many lost or deposed tribes that didn’t quite fit in from their own realms, and so is called by different names. The Remnant Gods are known to the mortals, but live in their own enclaves. The mortal Humans get to live relatively boring and clueless lives.

  “Passage between the worlds that intersect at certain points.” He drew out overlapping circles. “Sometimes, there are points that intersect. The places outside of the intersection are in a different space. These places of intersection are like here.”

  “Then why don’t Shades see us?”

  “Because they’re weak minded as you said. Unless they were god-blessed, most walk behind a veil in their own mind, clouded and blind, even if you were walking right next to them, most can’t see you. They’d talk to you when you see them, but then forget you were even there when you leave them. They’d have a foggy recollection of you after you leave their presence.”

  Something about the way he described that made me feel very uncomfortable. “Wait, you’re describing ghosts and how ghosts interact.”

  He shrugged. “Well, that’s accurate, is it not? People from a different realm interacting or trying to interact with people from another and some just can’t hear or see because the veil is too strong, even in their mind.”