by JL Madore
My gaze was drawn straight to Rowan, sitting in the Nobles box across the open forum. He was alive and unscathed. I breathed deep for the first time in half an hour.
His gaze locked on mine. I nodded and he tilted his head so slightly no one would have noticed. He glanced to my right. Ydorus, dressed in full Strati garb, moved up my flank and slid the hilt of a second dagger into the palm of my hand.
“Princess Grace,” one of the attendants said, waving to Zale. She’s here, he mouthed, pointing and turning with a light of excitement. “Praise the gods, Princess Grace. The nuptials are about to begin.” With a firm hand at my back the little man whisked me through the crowd. “We’ve had people searching for hours. Your intended feared you had met with some ill fortune.”
“Yes. I’m sure Zale was beside himself.” I climbed the stairs, joining the Eligibles and their mates waiting for their married lives to begin. The murmurs of the crowd rose as the actors fell silent and still. Ahh, I had everyone’s undivided attention.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, folks,” I said, finding Rheagan perched in her seat of power at the side of the stage. The Queen sat straighter but made no move against me. Her gaze narrowed. Any moment she could flip her wrist and her Strati army would come down on me like hail. Stall. I needed more time. “As you’ve probably heard, a lot has been going on.”
Zale cursed and stormed to my side. He wrenched my wrist and towered over me, his threat as palpable as the smell of fear mixed with his fury. “I don’t know what you’re up to,” he said, “but you’re an Eligible and in a few minutes, we’ll be married and you will do as you’re told.”
I shook my head. “I can’t marry you, Zale.”
Zale’s cold, dark eyes narrowed. “Now is not the time for grandstanding. This is your celebration day of your sixth cycle. The laws are absolute. Go sit with your sisters—”
I laughed and pulled my wrist free of his grip. Ydorus situated himself to the side, not far from Rheagan’s throne.
I gained a bit of distance from my betrothed and raised my voice. “Poor Zale, so worried about me tarnishing his image by coloring outside the lines. Regretting your vow to marry me? Well don’t worry about the nuptials. Been there, done that, got the Noble husband to prove it, fuck-you-very-much.”
Rowan strode onto the stage and moved close behind me.
“In fact, I’am quite pleased with the upgrade. Oh, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because like you say . . . the laws are absolute.”
Rowan kissed the top of my head. “Thank you, darling.”
Zale’s glower moved from me to Rowan and back to me. “You’re lying.”
I shook my head and tapped the rhinestone camera glued to my forehead. “No, I’m not. Priest. Rings. Blood bond, blessing of the gods, the whole deal. Too bad we don’t have time to watch home movies.”
I stepped to the center of the theatre and faced the crowd. “Citizens of Attalos, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Alexannia Grace, the long-lost Eligible you’ve all been whispering about. As of this morning, I am also the wife of Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House.”
The audience erupted in a wave of mumbling chaos.
Since I had everyone’s attention, I held up my arm and willed the golden brand on my arm to glow. “I am also a Talon Enforcer and newly consummated member of the Noble Council. It is in that capacity that I declare martial law and suspend the Queen’s reign.”
Voices exploded as Strati soldiers rushed the stage and Rowan, Ydorus and I spread our stances. I glanced over my shoulder to see Rowan windmilling a sword and three Strati moving in. Ydorus was similarly occupied to my left.
And then everything suddenly stopped.
The Strati halted mid-attack and assumed a ready stance. Following their line of sight, I pivoted to the approaching Queen. She practically floated across the stage in her floor-length red gown. It was a grace shared by her brother and niece, though I’d been slow to make the connection.
“Well, well, Alexannia, it seems you have quite a lot on your mind today. I would love to hear it. After all, I believe it is my right to face my accuser, is it not?”
I lowered my blade but remained ready to strike. “I know who you are, Rheagan. It took me a while, but—”
Her head tilted back as melodic peals of laughter echoed in perfect resonance throughout the amphitheatre. She clapped slowly, laughing as if there weren’t hundreds of citizens, soldiers, and Eligibles watching.
“A while?” she said. “In a mere week, you discerned what these mice have been scurrying around for almost thirty years. I was right to choose you.”
“I told you before I won’t—”
She waved her hand at my words. “You did, but you also didn’t understand what I was capable of at the time.”
Images of Tham bombarded my mind, his attack at Haven, his death in my room, his pyre burning until the silhouette of his body was consumed by the flames. I struggled for breath, the ache in my chest and back debilitating.
Sirens screeched in the distance.
Rheagan spun to speak to one of her soldiers. With her distracted, my mind cleared. I realized then that Rowan had gripped my shoulders and was urging me to fight the mindfuck that bitch was unleashing on me.
I steadied and nodded to him that I was tight. She wouldn’t get inside me again, or if she did, I’d at least be prepared.
Pivoting back to me, Rheagan raised a delicate hand. “I tire of this game, Princess. You’re much stronger than your mother, but still no match for me. Realize that before more people you love get hurt.” Pointing a long, slim finger toward the back wall of the open theatre, she waited.
I glanced up, then back, ready for the distraction to be a trick. It was the tone of Rowan’s curse that had me taking another look. No. No. No!
A hundred feet above the level of the stage, at the highest part of the amphitheater wall Terran, Coal and Elani were dragged to their feet. They stood bound and helpless against the Strati soldiers guarding them.
The blood pounding through my mind plummeted from my head and I fought not to faint. She had them. How could she—then I saw him. Estes. Estes descended the stairs, a wicked grin on his traitorous face.
“Why?” I cried. “I thought—”
His laughter sent shards of fury through my betrayal. “For a trained soldier, you were too easy to fool. Your need for someone to trust made you gullible.”
“But you helped me with Tham and with Tasso.”
He hit the bottom tier of steps and joined us on the stage. “I needed to show your mother what you were capable of, Princess. A credit to your father’s raising. At first, I thought Bruin was the special one of you four. But that wife of his, more trouble than I anticipated. I learned a lot from them though. Mistakes that won’t be repeated.”
My muscles tightened. “What the hell are you talking about? Who are you?”
With cruel delight dancing in his dark eyes, Estes swept his hand down the length of his body and the mirage he wore wavered and disappeared. The acrid scent of dark magic singed my nostrils as his visage changed.
“Abaddon.”
My mind spun with the reality of what I’d stumbled into. The Scourge’s big play. They’d been searching for a way to resurrect Rheagan for millennia and Abaddon had done it. Here, isolated from the Realm of the Fair, taking over the lives of these people. Abaddon had somehow broken the banishment Castian had imposed on his sister and raised her to life again.
I glowered at the woman who should have been my mother. “You won’t get away with this. Your attempts to take over the realms didn’t work back then and won’t work now. Castian will never allow it.”
Intense hatred flooded the Queen’s beautiful face until she was almost unrecognizable. “You will help me, child, one way or another.” An evil chill hit me like a wall and I staggered back into Rowan. You just need to be reminded the price for denying me what I want.”
Rheagan raised her hand toward the top
of the wall and two Strati nodded. In a frenzy of arms and fists and streaks of red capes Terran was flung up and over the back wall.
I lurched forward but before I could make it more than a few steps Coal and Elani were pulled into position.
Oh gods, no. Not them too.
The chaos in the amphitheatre raged on as the city’s sirens wailed. Eligibles, Nobles, and citizens stampeded toward the exits. Dozens of rebel Strati drew weapons as Ydorus barked out commands and a violent rush of palace guards, soldiers and citizens joined our fight.
With nothing in my sights but Coal struggling at the top rail of the theatre I launched for the steps. I pushed hard, dodging the scatter of people and leaping over marble benches when the stairs were blocked.
Heavy footfalls followed my every move. Rowan was right there with me, racing to help his sister, taking my back.
“Castian!” I screamed as a steady stream of frantic citizens pushed us back from our goal. “Your fucking Pantheon is influencing the shit out of these people. Get in this game. Please, Castian.”
“Is that you asking for help?” Rowan grunted behind me as we were blocked by Strati. He clocked his guy in the face with the hilt of a sword. Blood spattered across the shimmering gowns of the crowd. A lucky elbow to my cheek had me seeing stars. I blocked my foe’s follow up and shattered his kneecap with a well-placed boot.
My thighs burned, my face stung and those goddam sirens were ringing in my head. Only three tiers left to climb.
No. Zale had joined the Strati. Together, they lifted the sobbing children. It happened so fast. Before I could get to them, Coal and Elani were flipped over the back rail.
Gone. My boy . . . gone.
Zale turned back from the ledge and flashed me a triumphant smile.
I slammed into him. The hot singe of steel pierced my side, but didn’t touch my agony. I clubbed him behind the ear as my knee connected with his quad. The bastard was strong but more wife-beater than fighter. He snagged one wrist but I kept the other free. Palm thrusting his jaw was like slamming my hand into stone.
His knee jabbed my ribs. Over and over. My vision spotted out and a thundering whoosh filled my head.
Do. Not. Pass. Out.
Quick jerk and I flipped around his leg, grabbed his balls and twisted so hard I swear I almost ripped the suckers off. The hiss of his breath was so fricken satisfying. While he wheezed and curled like a shrimp, I locked my hands around his throat.
“Face your reckoning, motherfucker.”
His chest heaved and his throat flexed. A hard twist and his neck snapped in my clenched fingers. Cold eyes widened as his lips stretched off his teeth in a sneer that ensured I wouldn’t be sleeping for a week.
The crack to the back of my head knocked me stupid. I tried to shake my head clear. Fuck. Rowan was down, his face obscured by a bench.
Scrabbling, I pulled Zale’s blade from my side and staggered to my feet. The half of my body that I could feel, screamed in protest. Vertigo sent me listing to the side. “Hang on, Rowan. I’m coming.”
Ydorus and his men battled the Queen’s Strati in every direction.
My knees cracked against the stone floor. “I’m here, Doc. I’ve gottcha.”
Rowan’s bloody face blurred behind a wall of despair and I laid my head on his chest. The rise and fall was slight and then nothing moved at all.
Till death us do part.
My body erupted in blinding agony. Writhing, I screamed as early-morning light pierced the blue sky above the transparent dome. Pain burned though me. It blinded. White spots and tears obscured my vision. Let death come. I was done anyway. I’d failed.
They were dead because of me.
The inconsolable grief of my vision paled to what twisted in my soul. Now, I could make out their faces: Tham, Terran, Coal, Elani and my beloved Rowan.
I would never breathe again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Giving up so soon, child?”
Blinking past the blood in my eyes, I dragged my sights up the scarlet silk gown of my enemy. I bared my teeth. The fire in my spine was debilitating. My entire body trembled beyond my control. “Fuck you, bitch. You want me dead? Have at it.”
Rheagan laughed, the chorus of her voice cutting through the waning battle. “Dead? Never have I wanted you dead, my foolish Alexannia. I want you broken.”
The gleam in her eyes made my blood burn in my veins. I swiped blood, tears and snot from my face and pushed up to my hands and knees. “You are insane. I claim my Right of Vengeance as wife of Rowan and mother of Cole. I claim your life as mine to take.”
“You won’t kill me.” She cooed, pacing a slow circle around Rowan’s fallen body. I shifted, repositioned to place myself between him and her. She smiled. “Kill me and you kill your mother. She’s in here you know. Still fighting to regain control. A tenacious thorn in my side. Much like you.”
“You’re lying.” I choked and spat blood.
“Willing to take that chance? You love with a depth and loyalty few comprehend. It’s a weakness I enjoy exploiting.”
I spat blood and eyed Rowan’s dagger lying discarded by his shin. “Love and loyalty are strength. Not that a hollow . . . egocentric bitch would understand.”
She chuckled, her long hair shining blue-black in the dawning sun. “Then I shall exploit that strength until you take your place with my forces. Bruin, your Were-king brother would be a dangerous target, as would your father, Reign, but Julian, the gentle genius of your family or Jade, pregnant with twins . . . they could easily be the next pawns in our game. And after them, we have Galan, Aust, Lia, Nash—”
I lunged.
Rowan’s orichalcum dagger surged in my palm and slid through silk. I followed the thrust, ramming until the tip hit the marble pillar at her back. I twisted. And lifted.
Mustering all my remaining strength, I gutted the woman who should have been my mother. Blood streamed from the wound in my side. I couldn’t feel my limbs. On adrenalin alone, I held fast. This woman would die.
As long as air filled my lungs I would bring her down.
I locked my knees and listened to the portal sirens. “The gates to the Realm of the Fair are open. I summoned your brother too.”
Fury flashed in her dimming eyes. She’d underestimated me and finally realized it.
“Castian will come and if you’re still breathing, he’ll take care of you himself.” Laughter bubbled up from my gut at the shock in her expression. I winced as the pain in my back redoubled. “It’s over for you, bitch.”
The two of us sank to the stage floor. Purple blood pooled onto the stage floor and I had never seen anything more beautiful.
“You may have won the battle, child, but the war is yet to come. Revel in your victory. It will be short lived.”
Like a living horror movie, the wound in her gut exploded in a blinding glow. Golden mist spewed straight into the air. A moment later, it was gone and I was left with the empty shell that was once my mother.
I wanted to scream, to somehow change what the evil of the realm had put into motion, but the world went dark.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Death was a cruel bitch and largely predictable. Except for when she exercised her malicious sense of humor. I opened my eyes a crack, not sure what to expect. No glorious white light surrounded me in warmth, no clouds, harps or angels, nor was Alyssa there to escort me into the legendary gardens of the ‘After’.
Nope. Navy sheets twisted around me, as I lay crowded and hot in Rowan’s bed.
Coal, curled like a kitten, balled up tight against my chest and belly. He had both his hands wrapped around one of the wooden training dirks we used with the younger students at the Academy. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth making him look younger than he did when he was awake.
I blinked and swiped them clear and blinked again. Was I dreaming? Were we both dead? I didn’t care as long as he was with me.
Warm, soft fingers brushed my cheek and
I tore my gaze away from my boy. Jade spooned around him, facing me, her emerald green eyes glittering like two backlit gems. “He hasn’t left your side. He’s been so worried about you.”
“How,” I croaked.
Jade smiled. “We stormed the city searching for you. Bruin, Cowboy, and Savage were lead group and making their way to the palace when they saw the first body fall from the amphitheatre wall. They didn’t get there fast enough for your friend . . . but when the two kids went over, Bruin and Cowboy materialized and snatched them right out of the air.”
I ran my fingers through the crazy cockerel comb of ginger-red hair and thanked Castian, all the gods, and even the Fates, that Weres had been part of the lead group. No race could materialize with the accuracy of the Weres, and probably no men other than Bruin and Cowboy would have attempted a mid-air rescue.
I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around it, Coal and Elani had been saved. Not Terran though. I died a little thinking about him never mashing up sayings again, never playing hide and seek with me or being teased by his parents.
“And Rowan? Have preparations been made for him?”
Jade propped herself up onto her elbow. “Not necessary. Castian restored him for what you suffered at the hands of his sister. A life given for a life taken, he said.”
I swallowed as the room spun. “Rowan’s alive?”
“A little browbeaten by Reign, Bruin and Julian, but he’s held his own and is still breathing.” The weight from her pregnancy had crept into the rounds of her cheeks. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it was plain.
The deep grumble of Bruin’s bear, snoring and huffing at the back of my neck startled me. The heat from his long, lush fur warmed my back. He’d come. After all that had been said and all the anger, he’d come when I needed him.
“Nobody browbeat him,” someone mumbled from behind Jade. I saw it then, over her hip hung the arm of my other brother. I knew that beautiful shade of brown anywhere, deep mocha with a hint of cream. But—Julian never left Haven. I mean in the fifteen years he’d lived on our mountain he had never left the grounds. Ever.
