by Elle Cross
Havoc, my unofficial weapons master sneered at Ranek. "I had a bright idea for other places, but I wanted her to be able to walk comfortably."
I blushed and smacked him with the back of my hand.
His nimble hands grabbed mine, and pulled me to him, crashing my body into his. He held me gently, though nuzzling my neck before kissing it. "You look amazing in this, my queen." His gruff voice and rough hands against my skin made my chest tighten, my nipples straining against the cloth.
I angled my head so I would get a kiss from him, lipstick be damned, and he was more than happy to comply.
When he grabbed my hips and threatened to toss my skirts up and have his way with me, Enver came over and promptly tapped Havoc on the shoulder. Whatever Enver did fizzled out Havoc’s libido quickly.
Havoc growled deep in his throat, his tattoos whipping to life on his skin. "Man are you serious? Talk about cock blocking."
"Exactly. We don't have time for this. When we get back from our mission of rescuing souls that are important to Karina, then you can fuck her, but not before that. Understood?"
I smothered a laugh at how silly he sounded. Havoc glumly agreed, and moved off to put his tux on. I snuck a kiss, deepening it to remind him that it was his turn when all this was done. He whimpered, then walked away.
I turned toward Enver. "Okay, so what did you do? Did you really...?"
He shrugged. "Being Primus has its privileges." He kissed me chastely on the cheek. "But he was right. You're beautiful in your dress." He kissed me again, this time pressing himself against me, crushing me to him so that I was sure that the imprint of his front was on me, his hand securely at the nape of my neck.
"If you mess up my hair," I murmured against his lips, "I will banish you from my bed for a month."
He laughed against my mouth, but I noticed that he stepped away from me and the threat of ruining my hair.
"All right, I think we're as pretty as we've ever looked. Cordell did a great job, so let's not waste the energy he spent helping us." I sent a secret prayer to the Oracles to watch for him.
I looked from one man to the other. There was something about the clean and simple lines of their tuxes, with their wild hair and tattooed hands, necks, and faces, and multiple piercings that just got to me. And then I realized what Havoc was wearing.
A delicious shiver threatened to break free. "Are you wearing a fucking kilt?"
He smoothed his hand over his thigh as if the kilt had just magically appeared on his body. "Why, yes my queen, I guess I am."
Heat trickled over my body starting from my scalp down to my toes. I blinked, the image of him standing there forever scorched into memory. I swallowed. Hard.
"Let's hope this all gets done very, very quickly." My voice came out strangled and breathy, and I turned away and got the hell out of the door and into the fresh air.
Karina
The spires of the Labyrinth House belied its depths. Most of the "good" stuff that the Goblins who managed this house did that they didn't mind being out in the open was showcased out here. The spires were crystals that spiraled up into the heavens, collecting the light and refracting them down into tiny rainbows that seemed to float in the air around the open ballroom.
The men didn't like it, but they were to spread out. Enver stayed at my side, one hand pressed firmly at my lower back. I couldn't blame him, I didn't allow him with me in front of the Power Broker, it would kill him not to be with me now, at my side guarding me.
The thing was, we didn't want to scare off any potential people who would invite us to the auction house in case our search fell through.
I knew enough not to eat anything at a Goblin Dance. My mother entertained Goblins every now and again, and they mentioned to me that Goblin food was basically a snare for future marks that they wanted to transport into their fold.
I was also surprised the first time I saw them. They weren't the boorish looking lumps of clay that were often featured in kid's story books, but they were long and lean, and dare I say beautiful. The biggest difference between them and their Elvish or Sylvan counterparts were their affinity toward rotten things. They had a mouth full of the equivalent of shark teeth. Row after row of it. And if you weren't careful, you could end up as their dinner.
At least the Elves and Sylphs were pretty much vegetarian, if they ate anything physical at all. They tended to thrive on power, rather than any physical sustenance.
The Goblin's minions, the dwarves and trolls, tended to be identified with Goblins a lot and probably why they were often construed as Goblins themselves.
It would have helped to know that Goblins were as ugly on the outside as they were on the inside.
I heard the trill of discordant metal and bells tinkling and realized that they were calling for attention.
There was the head of the house, and he was dressed in the traditional white that marked them as followers of death. I thought they kind of took that a little too far, but that was just me.
"Welcome, honored guests." Even his voice reminded me of a snake slithering through the forest floor. It was rough yet silky. Oddly hypnotic.
I shook my head as if trying to clear it. As I did, it was like a splash of cold water in the threads that I shared with my men.
How did I know I was being manipulated? I kind of always assumed it. But to the rest of them, I said,
Havoc hissed in my head.
He knew how to make me hot and bothered in the middle of a murderous situation. That man had a talent.
I chose not to listen to the Goblin lord, and clapped my hands at the appropriate time. And then, when the trill of raucous melody played, Enver swept me up into a dance that was in keeping with Goblin tradition: complete and utter discord.
He still insisted in a bit of a waltz though, considering. I obliged so that I can go through the motions and not have to worry about thinking about the steps.
"Have you seen any allies, my queen?"
He meant ghosts, and no. For some reason, I didn't see them or sense them like I usually would have done in the Shadow Realm. It was frustrating. I didn't even realize Cordell was a ghost until he practically had to spell it out for me like I was some sort of idiot child!
Something about that fact niggled at the back of my mind, but I didn't want to think too deeply about it. Enver twirled me in one, two, three spins and I collapsed against his chest laughing.
"Well, well, that looked like fun."
It was a comforting voice which automatically brought up alarms. He was not the Goblin lord of this house, but close. He didn't look like a Goblin though, but as we all knew looks were deceiving, especially with this lot that focused on exchanging souls like trading baseball cards. Like who the fuck did that?
I saw the scorched markings on his sleeves. The white hair. The high forehead. He wasn’t quite the man in white from Club Sin, but he was close enough that I wasn’t surprised if he was part of the entourage.
I swallowed, and clamped down my shields tight.
The men's outrage was palpable against my shields. I apologized, not knowing how to moderate that. I guess I needed to figure that out, too.
"I see from your emblem that you're here as the guest of the Power Broker, Lord Brakka. I haven't seen him in ages, and he doesn't usually miss out on this sort of thing. What with some of the things that we planned on revealing here at River STX."
Then I realized what I was doing. "Forgive me, I don't know your name?"
"Oh my dear, names are so tedious."
"Well they're also convenient. Otherwise
we resort to choosing names for people. Like one person might call you bastard, the other could call you dickhead, and that would just be confusing."
There was a moment of dead silence. One second's pause. I swear that I could hear my life slipping from me in that one second.
And then, he blinked his eyes and sound crept back in.
"You're a silly girl, aren't you?" He smiled wide, and I saw my death in it. "Why don't you choose a name for me, and I'll tell you if I approve."
The only name I could think of was the lord of the deeps that battled an earth wizard. He may have read that same book, though, since the elvish races liked the way they were portrayed in other people's works. So I changed it just a bit. "Durin?"
He blinked again. "Surprising again. I actually do not mind that name, and find it acceptable to wear for a time. So, you and your entourage may refer to me as Durin."
I had my shields down so tight against him, that I couldn't even feel my own men. I saw them, though at the very edges of my periphery.
"So?"
"So, what?"
"So, how about a dance?"
He extended his hand, and even with the shield I could feel Enver seething at my side. He could do nothing about this turn of events though, because this is what we were doing here: trying to find him, and those like him trading in souls. And perhaps finding the ones that I wanted to find.
Raya. Una. More Oracles if needed.
I planted a huge smile across my face, felt it stretch out the corners of my mouth, push the apples of my cheeks up into my eyes. "Of course, I thought you'd never ask."
I slipped my hand in his, and was glad for the gloves on my hands, and the knives that were sheathed along my forearms. Of course, I had no doubt that he was packing weapons as well, but I at least knew that if I held on to his hands, the less likely he would be to wield them.
At least that was the idea.
The crazy harmony of the next song started and he swept me up in a slow dance that turned sensual really fast. I realized that without the music it felt odd, but I was dancing the tango with him. Which meant that he was well into my personal space, and I knew more about his personal spaces than I cared to.
He flipped me over, and then bent me back into an unusually deep dip, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was contorting me around on purpose. And if so, why, especially if he thought I was part of Lord Brakka's entourage.
And then, there was that smile again. “So, now that you've got me all to yourself, why don't you just ask me for whatever it is that you've been dying to ask me."
Confused, I wondered what he was talking about. "I don't know what you mean? I don't have anything to ask of you."
"Hm, so that wasn't a lie, so that's good to know. Of course, that means I'm deeply disappointed, because now I feel like you're kind of stupid."
And then I got pissed. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"
"Ah! There is the fire I heard so much about!"
Truly confused it was like I was looking at him for the first time. "You’ve been looking for my Lord, it seems, Lady Brightling. And here I am at your service.”
Karina
THOUGHTS RUSHED THROUGH MY mind. This was the man that supposedly took the Oracles. But for what purpose?
And where?
If he took them deeper in this labyrinth, there was no way I'd be able to go in and see where he would go...well, I could but then I'd never make it back out.
Which was not what I wanted—lost and alone stumbling around in shadow spaces and places that they called The Forgotten Corridor? No thank you!
I realized that he was waiting for some answer. Like some acknowledgement from me or something. My mother was amazing with people like this one. Always able to pivot and maneuver however she needed.
Me? I was too busy hiding from the world, feeling weak and powerless to even realize that I had something. Knew something.
Cordell said that if I just needed anything, I just needed to ask.
Could it really be that simple?
"I'm thirsty. Does this ball have anything to drink?"
Drinking was fine. More than fine. For all their enchantments in their food and their wordplay being as dangerous as duels, their wine was among the finest in all the realms. We had always kept a bottle of Goblin wine on hand at my mother's court. To be thirsty at a Goblin dance seemed to be a major social faux pas. I barely had time to speak the words, and then suddenly a butler nearly floated to me to offer his services.
"Wine, your majesty." He poured and offered drink. I acknowledged him, and color seemed to flow into his cheeks.
Ghosts. All of these servants. They were all ghosts, or most of them.
I realized my mistake then in looking for them earlier. They lacked the halo here. They looked, smelled, and even felt like...normal. They could pass for Shades.
Dead in one realm, alive in another one.
As I slipped a coin into his hand, cautiously sliding my finger across his palm, he was as real and solid as anyone else I'd touched.
The server bowed to me, and asked if I would like anything else. Another type of drink perhaps. I realized that I hadn't sipped my drink. I downed it quickly—I was thirsty and it was delicious—and I asked for more. A specific label, something I remembered that my mother had that was both delicious and more expensive.
"The Lady Brightling has discerning tastes. Would you like to do a wine tasting? We hold a fair lot of the best bottles in this house."
I was sure he did. After all, this house was full of nearly every corner of the known worlds, intersecting like mismatched jigsaw puzzle pieces to form this crazy labyrinth. A deterrent for anyone who would steal or try to break into this house for any reason.
Like my men and I wanted to do.
I did a quick sweep of the room. They each were keeping themselves occupied, not making it obvious that they were keeping an eye on me. They were dancing, gambling, and more or less mingling like the proper entourage they were. An entourage and not an Inner Circle for a queen.
And an invitation to a private wine tasting seemed the perfect excuse to leave and get some other bits of information from the house. And maybe get him alone to drain him dry and get some information from him. Exactly what we planned. Of course that meant I had to wonder what else was going according to plan and what was going to be a trap.
If this was what it would be like to play politics, then I didn't want any of it.
"You know what I'd heard through the grapevine. You know, from your mother?"
I somehow didn't think that I would want to hear what he had heard through the grapevine.
"I heard that you, Lady Brightling, were an expert duelist. Undefeated." He twirled me around. "Why is that?"
I shrugged. I barely knew or understood my own powers. By rights, I should have been defeated multiple times over. For some reason, like the Oracles liked to tell me, I kept winning. I was okay with my weapons, and with my sword—nothing compared to Havoc and the others of course—but there was something to it. Toward the middle of the battle, when it seemed like my opponent would win, they would begin to fade and as the duel wore on, I would begin to get stronger.
I was never at my most energized and glowy as I was at the end of a duel. Of course, my mother and the rest of the court were always pleased.
We did have a duel or two when there were Goblins visiting, but I didn't think much of it. They might have been the grapevine that he was talking about since it wasn't like my mother to talk about business and family in the same conversation.
Especially something about me or Morana.
She was still a traditionalist about that. What happens in our Courts, stay in our Court. And what happens within the family, definitely stays there.
I tried to remember who the visiting dignitary could have been. Was it the time that I drained that person dry? Or was it the time I just shattered my opponent and the rest of his house was in awe?
"Everyone knows that
Thana's court is one who takes rules and killing very seriously. I’d heard that your wins had been challenged, too? To make sure you weren’t cheating?"
I accidentally on purpose stepped on his foot. I smiled as if I didn't know that I did that.
"Cheating? I was the one who got challenged to duels constantly, sometimes without warning." The Killing Circles grew up in response to a challenge, at least in the Nightmare Court. No one would have been able to breach that circle. Not even by my mother the Queen.
"Surely as a Death Hand, you see that you had an upper hand, so to speak, in those duels."
I shrugged. Being a Death Hand was after the fact. After killing multiple people and being undefeated in duels. It didn't mean that I had power that was conferred on to me.
"Again, I didn't call out those people. The duels came to me. And I won. Every. Single. Time."
I wondered about that. All the time. I didn't know why my powers grew as theirs faded toward the end. But that was what happened. It was the only pull that I had, the only surge of strength and feeling that I experienced at that court.
Aside from the revels.
I both feared it and loved it. And in loving it, I feared myself. Feared what I was becoming.
I knew what it was like to be changed by a court. To be influenced by the sovereign. I saw how some of the things that were weaker and wandered into the Nightmare Court grew twisted, and some even breaking. I thought I'd be like one of those people.
But I just chose to Fade, and be less than, rather than be okay with draining people dry. It was exhausting.
"I'm glad you think so, Lady Brightling. Because I had always wanted to see how that worked."
An odd feeling rushed through me. A trill down my back.
"How you win, of course. We all would like to see."
And then, he twirled me around, and I spun to a stop paces away from him. He snapped his fingers, and the lights dimmed around me. Whatever natural light that had glowed in from the windows dimmed like the illusion it was.
