by A. K. Koonce
Agatha sways to the front of the crowd in a beautiful blue gown and matching shawl with her new male friend in tow. She smiles at Rime’s comment, and I still can’t help but wonder if she planned my future all on her own.
Did she leave them out there in her garden for me? Did she know I needed love in my life more than ever? Or was it truly just a coincidence.
Kain’s slower to walk toward me and wrap me up in his arms. For some reason my gaze shifts to his crimson hair and I can’t imagine his dragon without its pale white horns. I can’t believe he gave up something so important to the shifter world. Sure, they’re just horns, but to dragons they’re a status symbol. And Kain, his status was … considerable in size.
And he gave it all away. I lean into his shoulder without comment.
That’s a lie. I actually mumble under my breath and he hears every word. “I cannot believe you did that.”
His laugh shakes through him but he just holds me in silence.
From over his shoulder, I spot Sinister. He watches us as three men claim me as their own. A sinking feeling pulls at my stomach, but then rumbling words are in my head.
He picked out this ring, Low. Sinister arranged it. He picked this ring out. For you. He’s not jealous. He isn’t hurt. Chaos presses his temple against the side of my head and then his words are mixing with Kain’s.
His low timber fills my thoughts with a tickling feeling in my mind. I want you to keep it and wear it. This ring is a symbol of devotion. I’d have given up anything for you. I’d give up my ability to shift just to have you. All of us would give away all our magic to have you. Sinister included. Promise me you’ll keep it, Arlow.
I push the ring more firmly into place as my eyes close slowly. “I promise,” I whisper to all three of them.
It’s the sweetest moment.
Until she speaks.
“They’ll ruin you. Fill your head with false promises. A mating ritual takes a month to gather the supplies from all corners of the continent. I only lasted three weeks with Kain. I can’t imagine you’ll last longer than that.” Narrowed eyes lock onto the four of us.
I’ve never in my entire life hated someone as much as I fucking despise Brylee. I can’t even properly fucking hate her because I can’t see her right now.
I push out from between the three shifters. Chaos’ fingers trail against my palm but he does release me. On slow steps I walk closer to her, her father lingering behind her like a protective shadow. Agatha’s white eyes shift from me to the girl in front of me and then back again.
An eerie calm steadies the rapid beating of my heart and a smile carves my lips. I want her to know how pathetically awful she’ll be for the rest of her ugly existence.
“Someday some poor shifter is going to mate with you, Brylee. He’ll put up with you and he’ll try to love you but he never truly will.” Magic cackles in my palm, demanding to be released. Her attention flickers to the sparking white color flickering in my hand. “Just know that Kain would have. Kain would have tried to love you every day. He wouldn’t have given up because he’s just not the type. So, I want to thank you for screwing up so monumentally. Without you and without your disgusting little flaws, I never would have met these perfect men. I never would have gotten to call them mine.”
Because they are. They’re mine.
Her mouth thins as she opens it to sneer another offensive thing. But I cut her off.
“I’ll be here for another month. I’ll be here until the mating ceremony. While I’m here…” My gaze lifts to her father behind her before lower down to look at her big eyes. “…don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t throw out your judgmental fucking hate everywhere. Because someday that nasty mouth of yours is going to get you hurt, Brylee.” The fuming magic in my fingers snaps out in a slash of color. It strikes against the ground right at her feet. A shrieking cry slips out of her as she backs up against her father’s chest.
I never even blink.
She walks away with storming steps. And I don’t see her for the remainder of the long and happy festival.
It’s a perfect birthday. And now I know it’s going to be a perfect month ahead of us too.
Fifteen
Deadly Magic
That night, I hear her voice a moment before I wake. A chill runs down my spine, alerting me to something I can’t see but I can feel all around me.
Petty threats do nothing, Arlow. Actions. Actions are what define us. Let me show you what you should have done. Let me show you the errors of your ways.
My head tilts as I realize, I’m not dreaming. Her voice is in my mind like my own rational thought. From beneath the pile of protective shifters, I shove out of the blankets. Kain groans as I push out from under him. Chaos and Rime sleep soundly. Quietly I step out into the hall.
Silence streams through the darkness of Myla’s house. Not a noise is heard. My steps are slow as I cross the floor through the living room and I pause there next to Sinister. His eyes open the moment I’m in front of him. His crimson eyes shine in the shadows.
“What are you doing, Arrie?” His gruff voice waves slightly as if he’s more worried than his smooth features portray.
“I don’t know.” Confusion swells within me. It’s an intuition, I think. It’s … I know exactly what it is.
It’s magic.
Sometimes I’m head strong and sometimes I’m a down right idiot, but I’m not stupid enough to walk out blindly to the voice that’s calling to me in the dead of night.
“Will you come with me?” My messy mind finally clears, and my gaze settles back onto the loyal demon.
“Yeah.” He stands and searches the darkness for his shirt. “Just give me a minute and we can go do whatever it is you need to do.”
His voice sounds far off as her words circle my mind once more about what I should have done.
And then I’m walking toward the sound of it. The door opens as if my own hand isn’t the one turning the knob.
“Arlow, wait.” Sinister’s stumbling after me into the night, just as barefoot as I am. “Fuck, it’s freezing out here. Are you out of your mind? Arlow, what are you doing?” And on and on his voice drones, but the words are a swaying sound.
My thin skirt shifts against my thighs and my feet lead me to a feeling that’s pulling through the air. Soft cold flakes fall from the sky. They lie thickly along the ground, gathering up with each snowflake that slips down from the heavens.
I don’t even notice though. All I feel is the magic around me. Inside me. It’s like a line of life that I can’t see, but I feel it like it’s wrapped around my soul and double knotted. A white puff of air slips across my dry lips and I stop the moment I see her.
Big eyes are filled with fear when she finally looks at me.
“Arlow? It’s you, isn’t it? It was your voice. You’re the one doing this. I should have known.” Brylee’s lip curls with disgust but her hands shake at her sides, a telling sign of the distress that’s wrecking her slender body. “Did you lure me out here to kill me? Just like you did Natalie? That’s impressive. Makes you feel like a worthy mate, doesn’t it? Lashing out at human women. I may be human, but I’m deserving. At least I’m not a fucking murder like you.”
“That’s enough.” Sinister takes a step forward, but he’s too late.
Her scream tears out of her throat and her body curls in on itself. Bones crack and crumple and as she sinks to the white snowy ground with a cry of agony I drop down right along with her. My eyes are wide, my hands extended but unsure of what to do.
“Don’t—Don’t touch her.” Sinister’s body wraps around me, his arms holding mine down at my sides. “This is something powerful. We shouldn’t be here.” His body pulls at mine, but my feet refuse to move. “Arrie, let’s go. Get the fuck up.”
I shove him away and he stumbles too easily beneath my touch. Because he’ll never force me to do anything I don’t want to. And I know it.
My fingers tremble and the way her bod
y is contorting in bizarre angles is hard to look at. My stomach turns and I think I might be sick, but I force the power out of my palms in steady waves. I have no idea what entity is causing this. I only know what the end result will be.
All I can do is ease her pain. That silence ripping scream of hers dies against her quivering lips the moment my calming magic sinks into her. My chest hurts. It hurts so fucking bad from all the sickened and pitying emotions I’m locking away within it, but I ignore the way my stomach turns with thickness and my chest tightens with terror.
I hated Brylee but no one deserves this.
I feel the way my magic is mixing with the darker energy of whatever else is twirling in her frail body. It’s a dense and revolting tangle of dark magic and no matter how hard I try, it claws up into me.
My eyes close the moment I feel it enter my chest.
And then there’s only the quiet of the night.
Until there’s not.
“What the hell did you do?”
Carlin’s eyes never leave his daughter’s still and contorted body. My hands lower at my side slowly, reassuring him that I’m not a threat.
Despite how badly I look like one in this terribly poorly timed moment.
“She didn’t—” Sinister’s words are cut off so quickly I barely have time to react.
“You fucking killed her.” It’s the last thing the cool and calm Lord says before his body collides into mine.
Big hands close around my throat. The stars I admired so much just days ago become spotted with the disorientation of my vision. My nails sink into his cheeks and I shove at the crazed shifter. I can’t focus on how wide his erratic eyes are dilated. Or the way his arms tremble with so much reckless strength.
I’m focused entirely on controlling the rising power within me. The foreign dark magic that’s swirling inside me rears up, and I know if I don’t tramp it back down this crazy mother fucker will burn me at the stake just for my title as a mage.
I have to control myself. I have to keep my innocence. I have to remain calm. I cannot fight back with magic. It will not end well for me. I can’t do it.
Even as he tries to murder me with his bare hands.
The grip around my neck scrapes against my skin as he’s hauled off of me. Stinging breath meets my lungs. Water streams down the side of my face as I blink up at those shining beautiful stars.
My head tilts and all I can see is the steely strength that’s contracting the hard muscles of Kain’s bare back. His fists hold his leader up by the wrinkled collar of his shirt. The tightness of Kain’s jaw clenches harder as he tips his chin up to Carlin.
“Do not ever put your. Fucking. Hands. On. Her.” The seething sound of his voice cracks with uncontrollable rage.
Rime lowers himself at my side, pulling me up against his chest as we both stare, wondering if Kain is seconds away from murdering the village’s alpha male.
“Kain put him down.” Chaos’ tone is calm and he inches closer but he never touches Kain.
When I look up, I realize how many people are standing around us.
Several dozen people crowd around me, Rime, and the dead girl who I hate.
“It was her,” someone whispers.
“She killed her,” another person hisses.
On and on those assaulting accusations swirl around me, lashing at my exposed skin as I shiver against Rime’s chest. Sinister stands a few feet away and he takes a single step closer to me, but I shake my head at him.
I’ve been accused before. I’ve been burned at the stake—not that they succeeded with that burning. And they’ll take anyone associated with me. The knot in my stomach tightens so hard that I think I might vomit.
I tried so hard to be a better person. I tried so fucking hard to hide all the ugly battered parts of myself. And for a second—for a single shining second—life was perfect. Only for it to come crashing down around me.
Slowly Kain lowers Lord Carlin. The man’s knees wobble when his feet touch the ground and his blinking eyes stay focused straight ahead, never once managing to look to the right where his daughter lies. His chest shudders as he takes uneven breath after uneven breath.
“I tried to help her,” I whisper. Rime’s arms tighten around me the moment the quiet words slip from my lips.
“Don’t. Don’t you dare talk to me.” Carlin jars past Kain, his shoulder locking hard with the shifter. “Skovence, take her to the holding center. I’ll deal with this in the morning.” His throat tightens hard and then he spins on the crowd of watchers. “Everyone else go back inside.” His voice is a shaking growl that barks out so loudly people start moving the moment he speaks.
And then big hands are wrapping around my upper arms. “Come with me, please,” Skovence says in calming way.
“Skov, you know she didn’t do this. Low would never harm someone.” Aggie steps close to my side and Rime never once loosens his hold on me.
All I can think about is how Agatha is so sure that I’d never harm someone. But she wasn’t there to see the mess I made in Kreedence’s blood.
“Agatha, it’s just standard precaution. Nothing’s going to happen to her. We just need to go over some questions.” The confident and assured way he says it makes even me a believer. Skovence really knows how to defuse a situation. He has a paternal or grandfatherly way about him, and it makes me completely believe what he says … even if deep down I don’t.
His hold on me pulls at my arms, but I don’t move an inch. Rime’s head tilts to the side as he stares eye to eye with the second in command. The coldness that I remember seeing in the ice dragon’s features way back when we first met is right there on the surface now. It’s a deadness in his gaze really. An emptiness that’s chilling to see.
“Rime, let her go, my friend.”
I feel it before I see it. Frost stings my skin where his hands press against my body. White scales inch quietly up his arms, clacking against one another like armor piecing together right before our very eyes.
“I want you to be careful with your decisions right now, Rime,” Skovence warns in a gentle tone. His voice is steady, but I note the way his fists reflexively tighten at his sides.
Still those scales crawl up my mate’s skin. Massive white wings burst out from his back, shadowing across the man’s shocked features in front of me. Rime’s body shakes against mine and I can tell he’s trying to control something primal inside of him; a battle that he and I both know he’ll lose.
Before Rime can make a decision he’ll regret in the only home he’s ever had, a beast of fuming black smoke and fiery red eyes leaps in front of us. Big paws hit Skovence’s chest hard, tackling him to the dirt. Growls rumbling with wafting heat emitting from Grim’s sharp snapping teeth. Pandemonium erupts. More shifters grip ahold of the hellhound’s thick fur. A barking growl rips from the beast’s throat. Jagged teeth sink into a thrashing arm. A masculine scream and a howl echo into the night at the same time.
And then, someone stabs him.
“Stop!” I fling myself from the safety of Rime’s body the moment the small blade sinks into my sweet hellhound’s flesh. A whimpering sound carries for several seconds and I wrap my arms around him, pulling the beasts massive body against mine.
It’s not fatal. It’s nothing more than a papercut for a demon. It’s my fault though.
All of this is my fucking fault.
Slowly that warm, burning fur fades away. My eyes clench closed and the tension in my body dissolves as Sinister’s palms push down my spine. I feel defeated in my friend’s strong arms.
My life is always like this.
I should have known this village would be no different.
I should have known better than to think I could be happy here.
“Take the girl. And take her fucking dog,” Carlin orders.
Once more someone pulls at my arms, and despite Rime’s pummeling fists, and Chaos’ fuming anger, and Kain’s continuous arguing, this time I go. I don’t resist.
Because it looks like I’m about to ruin Sinister’s life. For a second time.
Sixteen
Just a Misunderstanding
Like mortal idiots, they put me in a metal cell, they lock their little pathetic mortal lock and they look like they feel real good about their choices in life as they turn their backs on me. Two other cells are side by side with ours but we’re alone in the cozy jail cell. Sinister cocks a dark brow at the lock and the smooth metal bars.
“You’d think they’d at least try to imprison us.” Without much thought, his tattooed hand slips through the bars and he rips the hanging lock right off its latch.
“Sinister,” I hiss at him.
“What?” His arms raise defensively, one hand still holding the warped and broken padlock.
“Can you just come sit down and pretend to be a cooperating …”
“Prisoner? A cooperating innocent bystander? A cooperating wrongfully fucking accused? This entire thing is ridiculous. I cannot believe they put you in here.”
“It’s just a holding center.”
“It’s a prison, Arrie.” He finally takes a seat at my side on the old wooden bench.
“Yes. Yes, it’s fucking prison.” My voice trembles, my jaw locking in place as I try to think through the pounding headache thundering through my skull. My fingers twirl the sharp onyx ring on my middle finger over and over again. The jagged, beautiful stone scrapes against my skin with each twist and yet I don’t stop.
“Do you think your mates will come save the day?” Sinister looks out the small barred window. Sunlight beams across his face in golden colors as white snowflakes flurry in from the outside. I shiver against every cold shift of the wind.
It’s very much like a shitty prison, if I’m being honest.
“I hope not.” We all just have to cooperate right now.
I just need to breathe through this. I’ll just tell them that I didn’t do it. Something, much, much stronger than myself did this. I can’t screw up. The very last thing I want is to take Kain, Chaos, and Rime away from their family. They left once before because of a woman; I won’t let that happen again because of me. I’d never forgive myself.
