Coven Keepers (Dark Fae Hollows Book 10)

by Thea Atkinson

  “What are you doing?” I shrieked, terrified at hearing the fear in my voice. “You left him alone.”

  The tears were burning now, and I had to blink to break the film of fire over my eyes. Water ran down my cheek.

  “I had to get him something to eat,” he said. “What the fuck is going on, Everly? What exactly are you doing here?”

  I peered up at him through a wash of water and somehow found a way to squeeze the words past a voice box tight from the strain of not crying.

  “Saving your ass,” I wailed, and then collapsed into his arms because the floodgates had opened and I couldn’t stop the rush of tears.

  Chapter 16

  He made a sound that could have been one of sympathy and compassion if I could believe I was worthy of it. It was only when he put his arms around my shoulders and pulled me to his chest that I truly understood that whether I was worthy or not, he was going to give it to me. That made me cry harder. I wailed into his shirt, rubbing my nose over the material. I clung to him as though I were sinking beneath the kraken’s waters.

  I couldn’t believe he was letting me do it, and even more surprising was that he was rubbing my back, sending that hot palm up and down my spine, stopping every now and then to give me a small squeeze. After a time, he finally laid his palm against the back of my head and burrowed his fingers into my hair. They found a tender spot around my occipital bone and massaged it.

  I wanted to stop crying, but every time I tried, I trembled from the effort. What was wrong with me? I shivered all over. A coldness had coiled around my ankles.

  “It’s alright,” he said, shushing me. “Everything is okay. The boy is okay. You’re okay.”

  “Nothing is okay,” I said.

  I felt him ease away as the palms of his hands moved to cup my chin, the long fingers stretching up past my ear into my hairline. His forehead met mine so gently it made my chest squeeze with something entirely different than grief and fear. My throat ached. The arms that were already flown around his shoulders tightened of their own accord, as though they were compelled by something other than my own mind. When the tip of his nose rubbed against mine and then burrowed down to my throat, finding my pulse, I caught my breath. I was sure he could feel it racing.

  “I won’t let anything hurt you,” he murmured into my collarbone. “You or the boy.”

  The tone was too compassionate to be real. Too kind. There was some sort of longing in the voice that didn’t make sense to me. It reminded me of Gus and the brigands and something else, something that sent a smoke signal of Freya up through my psyche. I couldn’t sort it out. It didn’t make any sense.

  All I knew was it terrified me.

  I yanked away from him, scrambling backward until my palms reached Uriel. Everything spun in my vision, but I grabbed the boy anyway, pulled him close. I held him against my chest, shielding my solar plexus and my aching stomach with his little body. I wet my lips. Tried to get up and fell back to the asphalt again.

  I felt Ari’s hand on my shoulder.

  “You better tell me what’s going on,” he said and then pulled something yeasty smelling from his pocket. Uriel grabbed for it past my shoulder, wolfing it toward his mouth without a word. His smacking all but echoed in the darkness beyond.

  “I’m here to save you,” I said again and felt better hearing that it sounded half-normal. The crying jag was obviously over. I couldn’t imagine what had set me off in the first place. Stress. Trauma. Freya always told me the body had its own way of coping whether we wanted it to or not. Well, I had given in, and now that I was over it, it was time to finish this burdensome task.

  “Save me?” he said. “I don’t need saving.”

  “Oh,” I said. “But you do. You don’t understand. I’m here to help you.”

  I heard him scuffle to his feet and as he loomed over me, his lumen peeked out from inside his shirt. Had the feeling he was looking at me from behind that light.

  “I don’t need your help. I don’t need anyone’s help.”

  “But you are the chosen one,” I said, pushing to my feet and adjusting Uriel onto my hip. I staggered and barely caught myself on Ari’s arm. He steadied me and reached for the boy. I handed him over because he grown surprisingly heavy. Too heavy for such a small thing.

  “I’m from Avalon,” I said, puffing out my chest. “I’m here to bring you somewhere safe.”

  “The witch’s isle,” he said. “What do the witches want with me?”

  “You’re lumen,” I said. “Why do you hide it?”

  “Why do you think?” he said. “In this city people, will do anything for light. You’ve seen it. The last thing I need is a horde of nefarious no-good thieves running me down for it.”

  “So you decided to be on the side that did the hunting,” I said.

  “Better than being the hunted.”

  “But you are being hunted,” I said. “Haven’t you figured it out? Even Gus complained that the grim ones kept bothering them after you joined. They’re onto you. They might not understand what they’re seeking, but they’re trolled in by your light and its energy.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” he said.

  “Is it?” He had taken to walking away, and I was hard on his heels, following the bit of light still leaking from his shirt.

  “The Dark Fae general told me there was an immortal light that they were seeking. I think they’re using the grim ones to spread the search net. And they’re close, Ari. They’re very close. I had to tell them it was the boy—”

  He spun around then. Before I could halt my pace, he was in my face.

  “You told him the boy was valuable? How could you do that?”

  “To save you.”

  “I told you I don’t need saving. And I certainly don’t need your kind of help. The boy doesn’t either.”

  “Well, whether you like it or not,” I said. “All sorts of badness is coming for you. They want what you have and they plan to harness it. Even if it kills you. And it will,” I said. “It really will.”

  “I can handle myself.”

  I was close enough that I could see his face. Uriel’s light was shining up on it, playing across his features. I looked him straight in the blue eyes. They really were the most magnificent shade. The brow so straight and even. The jawline cut so perfectly. He was beautiful. Beautiful enough to be the chosen one carrying the immortal light. I knew he had skill as well as beauty. Strength. But it wasn’t just that.

  “There’s more, isn’t there?” he said, narrowing that sharp gaze. “Some thing you’re not telling me.’

  I sighed, and he swung away from me. “I knew it,” he said. “Whatever it is, forget it. I work alone and I stay alone.”

  “Not anymore,” I said. “The Dark Fae Coalition knows about the light. If you keep the boy with you, you’re in danger.”

  His gaze went again to slits. “So we’re both in trouble. Seriously? And you think you can protect us, when it’s your fault we’re in this mess?”

  I was swaying on my feet by then, reaching for something to hold onto. This argument was taking its toll on me.

  “Protecting him was what I was doing when you found me. I couldn’t…I couldn’t let them have him.”

  He snorted. “Even more proof that you’re the last person to save anyone.”

  “He’s safe, isn’t he?” I said, nudging the dead Fae at my feet. “I took this beast on, didn’t I?”

  I felt perilously close to tears again, and I wasn’t sure why. I imagined he’d be a little more impressed, maybe even congratulate me for saving the boy from the likes of a magical creature with really badass skills. It hadn’t exactly been easy to take down a Fae at all, let alone one with the kind of weapon he carried.

  Knowing I was close to tears again made me furious. I kicked the dead Fae, stomped my foot, and then ran at Gus’s body for good measure. I nudged it with my toe.

  “And this bastard,” I said. “This bastard has refused to die no matter h
ow many times he’s struck, despite being attacked by the grim ones. Despite you slitting his throat from ear to ear, and here I finally managed the unmanageable. What do you say to that?”

  “I never slit his throat,” he said.

  I glared at him, knowing full well he could see me perfectly in Uriel’s light.

  “You did,” I said. “I saw it.”

  “Not ear to ear,” he said, tapping a place just beneath his left ear with his thumb. “Just above his jugular, in his collateral veins.”

  “That’s ludicrous.”

  “Is it?” He shrugged. “It’s a slower bleed.”

  “Then it’s insidious,” I said, quietly examining how I might feel about Gus suffering and realizing that I really didn’t care.

  “Not insidious,” he said from behind me. “Smart.” He tapped his temple and moved closer;

  “Smart because you thought someone else might come behind you and kill him and take the hit to their lumen?”

  He shrugged.

  “So you left him alive,” I said. “So that he could come attack us again? And you say you don’t need protection?”

  “Look,” he said. “All I know is before I was perfectly safe. I managed to stay under the brigands’ radar by staying in plain sight. Now I’m off running and exposed thanks to you. I’d say I was better off without you “saving me” and so was the boy.”

  “It was just a matter of time before they got to you, you have to know that. If I found you, they will too. You’re lucky I got to you first.”

  “Lucky?” He laughed. “Look at you. Your color is already waning. You look like a dying lumen. Pale. Sickly. Just like everyone else who has used up too much light energy.”

  Dying. I closed my eyes, focusing on my limbs, my core, trying to assess their strength. Instead, I saw myself throwing light out ahead of me as I ran to seek him after we’d escaped the bus, blasting the grim ones as though I had a renewable source when I knew very well we didn’t use our magic with such blatant disregard on the isle. I knew what was happening. I should have known it earlier. The weakness, the crying.

  I’d killed two living things in an incredibly brief time. With Coventina rising from her grave and infecting the ground and air with her dark energy, no one was immune from the threat of going totally dark. I’d been foolish and used up too much of my magic just to see, and when I needed it to defend myself, there was nothing at hand to replenish it. Now I was in no shape to care for the boy at all. I had no choice but to help them both find Avalon.

  I swallowed nervously, determined not to show my fear as I realized exactly what was happening to me. Stiffening my back, I tilted my chin, determined.

  “Yours isn’t dying, though,” I said, pressing the point home and feeling ever more certain that there was some hope at least. “Because we both know yours doesn’t die no matter how many people or Fae you kill.”

  I peered at Uriel as he toyed with his lumen and something whispered inside me, some response I hadn’t known was possible. I wanted his light. I could almost feel how rejuvenated I would be if I could just access it. Trouble was, I couldn’t access it. I didn’t have a lumen. My light came from the magical source, and I had no idea how to replenish that without the coven’s aid. But I did know one thing right then. I understood in that moment just how tempting it might be for someone wasting to want to rejuvenate by stealing or buying someone else’s. I felt terror for the boy, then, like I’d not felt it before—even with Gus reaching for him or the Fae tracker deciding to betray me by grasping for him.

  “You need to let me get you to Avalon where you can be safe,” I heard myself say. “You and the boy.”

  “Then what?” Ari said, stepping close enough that when he put his hand on my chin and tilted my face upward to catch his eye, I could see a strange expression on his face. My heart hurt just looking at it.

  I sighed. “Then the coven will help you harness your light and seek some balance. Save you. Save us all.”

  By the way his brow furrowed, I could tell he was thinking this over. I had no idea that he would place his mouth on mine and massage my lips with his until I opened them, eager to taste whatever flavor he carried with him that could make me think of beaches and darkheart pears all at once. I was surprised to discover he tasted of cinnamon and that his mouth was hot and hungry as it moved over mine. I felt my knees go weak, my throat ached. Something in my stomach quivered and I pressed closer, unable to stop myself from molding against him.

  He pulled away only after I felt my entire body sag with compliant desire and my foot hooked his ankle, tugging him closer so fiercely that my cheeks burned.

  I was shocked into just staring at him as he looked down at me. My mouth was still open, lips puckered the way he had left them, a strange tingling making its way down my spine.

  “That was something, little one,” he rasped out, and his voice was as thick as my mind felt. “I’m going to miss you,” he murmured and spun on his heel.

  “Wait,” I said, bolting forward, confused and anxious. “Where are you going? I just told you I could save you.”

  He looked back over his shoulder. “I don’t think so,” he said. “You’re a magnet now for the Fae. They won’t stop once they realize you’ve killed their tracker, and they won’t stop looking for the boy.”

  He tucked Uriel closer into his shoulder, cutting off the boy’s light. “You should have stayed on the isle, little one. Like I said. No one wants full light. It can be painful to see everything too clearly.”

  I thought he’d run off then; I prepared myself to sprint after him, but that horrible keening sound lifted in the shadows around us, and I knew we’d waited too long.

  He knew it, too, and swore in unison with me.

  “Fuck,” we both said at the same moment and then we started running toward the blackest part of the shadows, me hoping I was aiming for the docks and the beach and him just running as though he knew every dark shadow or didn’t care.

  The grim ones were here, and if they were, the Dark Fae wouldn’t be far behind.

  Chapter 17

  We ran headlong more than we ran strategically. At least, it was how it felt. I followed the sound of his feet thudding the pave and of his breath as it rasped ahead of me in the darkness. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to ditch me as he dodged down one alley and another. I had to trust he was leading me somewhere and not into the wall of a building or some open well in the middle of the street that I would end up tumbling into and wrenching an ankle.

  My lungs burned through their oxygen much faster than normal. Before long, I had to pause to hang over my knees, dragging in air as it whistled in my chest.

  I couldn’t hear him running anymore, and I strained to make out the telltale signs of labored breathing but only heard my own. I had no idea where I was. I couldn’t even see the winking lights of weak lumens that would indicate we were anywhere near the quayside buildings. I told myself the darkness was because we were between buildings and not that he had lured me closer to the centre of the city to ditch me where the grim ones were the thickest.

  The sting of frustrated tears prickled my eyelids. Although I couldn’t hear the clicking or keening sound of the grim ones, I couldn’t bring a shred of hope to my breast. I’d found and lost the chosen one. Worse, he refused to be the chosen one…as if he had a choice. As if I did.

  I could only see one option ahead of me, and that was to use my magic again to see where I was and to locate him. I’d have to find a way to take him forcibly if I couldn’t convince him, and the thought of that made me feel drained.

  I sank down to the asphalt because reserves of energy were being wasted by my legs. Inhaling as deeply as I could, I marshalled the power from around me and from that spot within that ignited every beat of my heart. It was difficult, energy-sapping work, but I managed a small spark at the tip of my fingers. Buoyed by the hope that I had some magic left, I shook out my hands and tried again.

  I lifted them above me,
this time waggling them to feel the static that carried in the air and bid it come to me. I felt as though I was a tree in the wind, swaying to and fro to gather what I could. I felt a tingle, then a burning. I had gathered enough, I thought, that I could send a bolt into the air and let it rain over me.

  “Stop,” someone said.

  Ari.

  I could have wept. Damn it. Maybe I had.

  His boots shuffled across the pavement toward me.

  “You’ll troll them in,” he said and crouched in front of me. I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear the direction his voice came from. I turned to it.

  “What other choice do I have?” I said, swiping my cheeks and the wet that covered them into my hairline. “The darkness is coming whether we like it or not. Too soon, it will take over even the uninfected. Unless we do something. Unless I do something.”

  “You mean like bait yourself like a hook with your magic? What will that solve?”

  “I don’t know where I am,” I choked out. “I needed to find you.”

  There was a long silence, and it drew itself out with painful clarity. There was no sound around us, and if the grim ones waited in the dark, even they were dying to hear whether he would speak.

  “I know where we are,” he finally said. We, as if he hadn’t abandoned me.

  I snorted and hiccupped all at once. “You left me here,” I said. “Ran off.” I realized as I said it how much it bothered me, and I hugged my midriff to stop it from trembling.

  “I wouldn’t have let them hurt you,” he said, and I felt him tugging at my arm, trying to yank me to my feet. “Damn, you’re heavy for such a little thing.”

  “Muscle,” I said by way of explanation as I tried to make my legs obey me.

  “Not some soft and fluffy young thing, are you?” he said, teasing as though we had all the time in the world to joke with one another even when then the grim ones were closing in on us. Just knowing he would take the time to tease me made me realize how bad off I must be.

  I tried to stand but found my legs had gone soft. I sighed. That didn’t bode well at all.