by Smith, HD
He meant the apartment I’d shared with Jack. He’d needed Sorrel’s help to find it and then he killed him. “You killed your brother for the location of my old apartment?”
“He had the access codes and I couldn’t let him tell you before I had a chance to secure the locket.”
“You could have taken it and left Sorrel alive. Your brother didn’t need to die.”
“There was no time. You’d called Sorrel’s phone and then Cinnamon’s before I was able to get the locket. I had to remove him from the equation and then return as Sorrel or you’d get suspicious.”
“Since you wound up dumped in this pit, I assume you took the locket? When?”
“After X’s men took me and the girl, I was sent for the locket and given very explicit delivery instructions.”
“Why would X want Jayne’s pendant?” I asked, expecting Mace to give his opinion, but Sage was compelled to reply.
“It’s the Heart of Fallen. It holds great power and the one who possesses the Heart is the true ruler of the fourth realm.”
Was X trying to prove his claim by having the pendant? The owner said Thanos delivered Sage to the fight. “Who did you give the pendant to?”
“Mab.”
“Mab? How is she connected to this?”
“There was a girl, another like Sydney, but with blond hair. She was there to take the locket. She said something about X not deserving it, but then Mab arrived and she ran,” he said.
I wasn’t surprised that Faith would want the pendant, but why was Mab there? And how did Faith know X was having Sage steal it? Then I remembered Marcus Winchester, Faith’s inside man. She could have had him give Sage instructions on where to take the locket and then waited there for him. But how did Mab get involved? “So Mab has the pendant?” And she ordered Thanos to take Sage to the fights, but I left out that detail.
“I remember nothing after Mab arrived,” Sage said.
“Mab’s involvement makes no sense. She could have requested the pendant from me at any time.”
Mace interrupted my Q and A. “What about Mother’s spell?”
I raised an eyebrow. “What about it? Sorrel’s already dead.”
“Mother’s never wrong,” Mace said. “She said we needed it to save Sorrel.”
“From what? He’s dead.”
“Or trapped in Sage,” Mace countered.
“Like a chimera?” I asked.
Mace shrugged. “I don’t see how it’s possible, but if Sage is stronger and mother wanted the spell for Sorrel, then it must be necessary.”
I released Sage and stepped back. Closing my eyes, I stepped my presence into the in-between. I thought of the spell book and it appeared. The twin of the one unique came to mind. It was simple enough, but the wording was odd.
Keeping the spell in mind, I opened my eyes and returned to my body. The spell remained hovering in the air.
I read the spell in English. “Harnessed wind of shared souls. Break your bond and be twofold. Twin of one, unique no more. Split the flesh of hidden form.”
Sage cried out. His body contorted in a way that looked as if his spine might snap and flexed in several back-breaking movements so violent they were hard to watch. Within seconds, a ghost-like version of Sorrel began to split from his brother. Sage screamed as his twin tried to pull free. As I watched the excruciating transformation, the smell of blood from the pit turned my stomach.
Another piercing cry broke the air. The tiger was wailing in agony. I glanced through the opening in the door and saw the beast being split in two. Unlike Sage, there was no ghostly version of a second tiger to emerge.
Sorrel’s wails drew my attention. His transparent blur continued to contort as it split. It took ten minutes for him to separate from Sage. In the aftermath, Sage’s body collapsed. Seconds later, Sorrel’s ghost screamed out as his body twisted and turned until skin and bone replaced the ghostly shell. Sorrel collapsed beside his brother.
Chapter 20
The spell hovering in the air before me started to disintegrate. It was gone quickly and I realized I couldn’t even remember it. I knew I’d cast it, but I couldn’t remember the words. I scanned through my memory, something practically etched in stone after a spell I cast last spring, but not one word of the spell came to mind.
“Mace,” I said. “Can you remember the words of the spell?”
“No. Was that supposed to happen?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I have no idea. Other than knowing I cast the spell, I can’t remember anything about it.”
I considered the other six spells at the back of the book and wondered if they were also one-shot spells. I’d practiced Summon and Dismiss, and those hadn’t disappeared. This one was different.
Sorrel, lying naked on the dank floor, moaned. I crouched down to check on him. Sage, curled into a fetal position, clutched his head and groaned loudly. I helped Sorrel to his feet and motioned for Mace to assist Sage.
Sorrel didn’t seem to care that he was naked. I, on the other hand, had seen way too many naked people in this bloody pit for my liking. Sage didn’t look much better in the tattered clothes practically falling off of him. He hadn’t looked good after the tiger fight, but now he looked as weak as a kitten.
Sage’s natural beauty was keeping him from looking like a punch-drunk prizefighter, but he looked like a shell of his former self next to Sorrel. His eyes were sunken and dull, and although the room was dimly lit, he was squinting as if the light streaming in from above the pit was too bright. Shrugging from Mace’s hold, he stumbled away from Sorrel to lean against the iron door.
“Oh my god,” Sage said, gagging when he saw the remains of the dead tiger.
Pushing away from the grizzly sight, he closed his eyes and leaned his back against the stone wall.
“What happened to that?” Mace asked, glancing at the remains of the big cat.
“Apparently,” I said, “the spell was designed to split two entwined souls. Unfortunately, the beast wasn’t meant to be two.” I wasn’t happy the cat was dead, but it couldn’t be undone. “I supposed we should be happy the same thing didn’t happen to the twins.”
At that comment, Sage leaned to the side and hurled, making the room that much more disgusting.
A battle cry came from my right as Sorrel lunged at Sage. He threw punches and kicked. Sorrel wasn’t play-fighting and Sage was too weak to do much but try to block his brother’s attack.
I let it go on for a few minutes, ignoring the fact that one of them was naked. Unlike the druid Roger, Sorrel was at least a fine specimen of male beauty—chiseled from marble came to mind. And Sorrel had every right to be angry. Sage had killed him and stolen his power.
When it was clear that Sage was unable to even block the punches, I yelled, “Enough.” I separated them with my will.
“You bastard, you killed me,” Sorrel spat.
“I had no choice,” Sage screamed.
“Enough,” I yelled again. “We have bigger problems right now.”
They both turned to glare at me.
“She’s right,” Mace said, stepping in between them. “Someone has been manipulating us. Cinnamon is still trapped. We save her, then kill X.”
“Yes,” Sage sneered, his words dripping contempt, “because that worked out so well last time, Brother.”
Sage was referring to last spring when they killed their father’s oldest hellspawn and somewhat half-brother Junior. As punishment, their father banished them to Purgatory and then Mab trapped them in a castle for months, which would have been indefinitely had I not claimed them.
“You,” Mace growled, “should remember your place, Brother. You have lost your advantage.”
I pushed all three of them against opposite walls and held them there. The rose on my hand brightened and the vine on my left arm started to appear. I tamped down my rage when Gizelle’s mark flared. “We will figure this out, save Cinnamon, stop X, and get Sydney back, but no one is killing anyone without my permission. Do you
all understand?”
Mace bowed his head as if subservient, but he didn’t fool me. “Of course, my queen. Our priority is to save Sydney.”
Sage and Sorrel both looked at Mace. They raised their eyebrows in surprise and then looked at me. I let the shine run across my eyes, hoping they would understand who was in charge. When they didn’t challenge my authority, the vine slowly started to recede.
“Do I need to explain things more fully,” I asked, “or do you both plan to cooperate?”
They glanced at Mace again and then nodded. I dropped my will, letting everyone go.
Sorrel stood with his arms crossed over his bare chest. Sage, who was practically naked himself because of the rips in his clothes, also did nothing to manifest new garments.
I was over the Full Monty routine.
I snapped my fingers. In an instant, Sage’s ripped clothes were replaced with jeans and an untucked white button-down shirt. Just for fun, I dressed Sorrel in the exact same outfit.
“Are you joking?” Sorrel asked.
Mace laughed and I snapped my fingers again to give him the same look as the others. He raised an eyebrow and tried to change them back, but I stopped him.
Sage tried to leave, but my protection spell was keeping everyone in the building, which reminded me of the sleeping people upstairs.
“We’re all staying together until this is resolved,” I said, looking at each brother in turn. “And no one leaves until I say so.”
I got three very annoyed eye rolls, but I could live with that.
Closing my eyes, I stepped outside my body. Leaving the boys with my body in the pit, I returned to Cinnamon’s penthouse apartment.
She was just as I’d left her, a lifeless mannequin. I was about to slip to her location when a symbol shimmered across a small section of a long wall. I didn’t see enough of it to read before a man covered in the same red glowing light as I’d seen on Ronin’s master stepped out of nowhere. It was a portal of some sort, but nothing I’d ever seen before. He touched the wall and the symbol appeared again. This time I could read it: Open, but it immediately switched to Locked.
His glow faded and I could finally see the man beneath the power. He was above-average height and dark red hair streaked with blond as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. He was dressed in a very expensive suit. His eyes were a whisky brown with flecks of gold, which made Parker Rosen a very ruggedly handsome man. Of course, Parker Rosen didn’t exist. I caught the faintest green shine as he turned to face Cinnamon, but I didn’t sense he was a Fallen descendant. I didn’t sense he was Ancient either, but Faith had no reason to lie about that—at least not one that I could think of.
He was older than I’d expected, or at least older than someone Cinnamon usually dated, but that was a farce. She wasn’t dating anyone. Thinking back to what I knew about him, Ronin said X hired him to militarize his operation. That would have been five or six weeks ago, after Ronin had left Mab’s service. That was also around the time that he and Cinnamon started dating.
Had he just been some random businessman using a magical edge to take over Underworld businesses before that? Had Faith’s connection to him during Raven’s death been the only thing that changed him? He thought he was the true ruler of Fallen. Had he been affected when I reawakened the realm? How had he lost his memories?
There were too many questions I didn’t know the answers to.
X made his way over to Cinnamon, who was still unresponsive in the chair. She hadn’t even twitched when he entered. He pushed her hair behind her ear and she immediately blinked. Smiling up at him, she eagerly awaited his kiss.
“I love you,” he said, pulling her head forward for a long, deep kiss. A whip of red energy lashed out from X, twining around Cinnamon as they embraced.
Cinnamon was too jaded to be impressed by a simple declaration of love, but she was clearly enamored by him. Her shoulders relaxed as the tendril of his power coiled around her.
When he finally pulled back from the kiss, I used my persuasive voice. “Cinnamon,” I said, “ask about Sage.”
Luckily, X didn’t appear to sense me.
Cinnamon, still looking lovingly into his eyes, said, “Where’s Sage?”
X’s brows dropped. “Hasn’t he returned from his errand? I was expecting—”
Pouting, Cinnamon shook her head. “Expecting what?”
“Nothing,” he said, obviously blowing her off.
Crap, X must have expected to get the pendant from Sage, but now he knew Sage never returned with it. “Cinnamon, tell him Sage is at the Wild Hare getting drunk. Tell him you must go retrieve him.”
Cinnamon blinked, as if remembering something, and then pressed her lips into a flat line and said, “He stopped by the Hare. I’ll have to go get him or my queen will be pissed. You can spare me for the evening, can’t you? I promised Claire he wouldn’t drink.”
“Well—” X started to say, but was cut off before he could tell her no.
“Oh, it’ll only take a little time to fetch him,” she said, smiling up at X.
He touched her face and her smile faltered—she was getting that glassy look again.
“Cinnamon,” I yelled, and she snapped out of her stupor.
She pushed up from her seat, knocking his hand away. “It’ll only take a little while. Then I’ll be back and we can hang out.” She went to the hall table and picked up her purse. Pulling out her phone, she dialed a number. “Yes, I’ll need a car.” She hung up and looked back at X. “I’ll be back soon, love.” Before he could argue, Cinnamon leaned forward and stole another quick kiss. “Later, baby.”
X was still gaping as she left the apartment. Checking his watch, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “I’ll be sooner than I expected, but I’ll need to leave again. There’s unfinished business here. Move the meeting up … Has the interrogation netted anything? … Give her more lotus juice … then inject her with it, she can’t puke that up. Move the meeting … Fine, I’ll meet at their building. Just get it done. I’m heading back.”
I had to get Sydney out of there before he figured out she couldn’t give him what he wanted.
I opened my eyes and returned to my body. X had a meeting, but he was planning to go back and see Cinnamon later, most likely to get the pendant from Sage. We had to get her sorted before that happened and make a plan before X figured out the truth about Sydney.
I laughed when I saw what the boys had done to their matching outfits. Mace removed the button down, leaving him in a James Dean-looking jeans and white t-shirt ensemble. Sage was still wearing his, but the sleeves were turned up. Sorrel had opted to unbutton his, giving them all a very different look.
Sage was also looking healthier. His color was returning and the dark circles under his eyes were receding.
“Cinnamon is headed to the Wild Hare. We’ll intercept her and try to break the spell X has over her.”
“X has Cinnamon?” Sorrel asked.
“X is Rosen,” I said and then brought everyone up to speed. “Cinnamon’s been dating him this whole time. His hold is strong and his power was potent enough to make Sage kill you, so obviously he’s dangerous.”
“How is this connected to Sydney?” Sorrel asked.
“He thinks she’s Faith Dragon, Mab’s enforcer and her untouchable. She had an encounter with him six weeks ago, and it made him remember things about his past. He wants more of that information and he thinks Faith can give it to him. Part of these memories have him believing he’s the Fall King, which is why he wants the locket—the Heart of Fallen, according to Sage. I’m not sure if the operation he has going on in Underworld is directly connected or something he had going on before his encounter with Faith.”
“Why not get Sydney first?” Sorrel asked.
“Because I need all of Gizelle’s children close.” I rubbed the spot on my arm where Gizelle’s curse usually warmed. I explained to Sage and Sorrel what I’d told Mace. Faith had threatened them and I needed to k
now she couldn’t get them. Thanos was another issue, but I believed Gizelle would do everything in her power to protect him. I couldn’t afford to worry about him. “Link hands,” I said and they all looked at me with the same disgusted expression. Using my will, I pulled them within range and forced their hands into the center.
Grabbing them, I slipped us to the Wild Hare, completely forgetting about the sleeping people above in the pit.
Chapter 21
It didn’t take Cinnamon long to arrive at the Wild Hare. She walked in as if she owned the place—her usual approach. She was as beautiful as ever. Her “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” style hadn’t changed in fifty years and the little black dress would always be in fashion.
I put up a protection spell as soon as she was inside the bar. She wouldn’t be allowed to leave until we had an understanding. Glancing around, she eyed the four of us nervously.
I stood to greet her, but the twins and Mace remained seated.
“Brothers,” she said cautiously.
They all nodded, but didn’t respond.
“Claire, do be a dear and tell me why we’re all here. I feel as though I’ve missed a memo.”
I smiled. “Who is Parker Rosen?”
With a wicked grin, she said, “My boyfriend. You know that.”
“Where is he from?”
She continued to smile, but hesitated. From the look on her face, I imagined she was trying to remember. “He’s from New York.”
“Where was he born?”
Her smile faltered. “What is this about?” she asked. When I didn’t immediately respond, she tried to leave, but my protection spell stopped her. “Let me leave,” she demanded.
“No.” I walked toward her. Cinnamon took a step back, but I stopped her with my will.
Her voice had a shrill panicked tone. “What do you want?”
“The truth,” I said.
Her eyes widened and a static energy buzzed in the air around her. Chairs scraped the floor behind me. I used my will to stop the boys from approaching. Bringing her closer, I raised my hand to her cheek and locked my eyes with hers.
