by JL Madore
Julian cursed. “We need to be damn sure before I order a Talon force to surge Behind the Veil.”
I’ll take you to check it out, Savage said.
“No. I don’t trust you.”
There’s no one else here that has clearance Behind the Veil. Jade. Galan. Castian. Samuel. Everyone’s a little busy right now. Are you willing to risk your mother’s life based on your bias about me?
“You’re hiding something. Lying about something.”
Everyone is hiding something, Zophia. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the same thing you do.
Hearing Savage say my name surprised me. He’d never called me anything but Fate or fucking Fate.
Look, if you’re right, Rheagan is getting hold of your mother as we stand here debating. Let’s get gone.
I nodded. “Yes, of course. You’re right. Let’s go.”
Flashing was a crude and jarring mode of travel compared to dematerializing, but I was in no position to complain. My ears rang, the ever-present knot in my stomach tightened, and the palace grounds spun until the effects settled. The result was the same, however, and that was all that mattered.
“Follow me.” I dematerialized and headed to my mother’s compound. The moment I hit the walkway outside the little, ivy-covered cottage, Savage was beside me.
Dandy squawked a panicked shrill inside and in the back of my mind, I hoped Savage’s presence was a case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
A dreadful foreboding told me I would soon find out.
As the door swept open, Dandy flew into my arms, tromping and flailing for a perch. Feathers flew, his wing hit me in the face, and I nearly dropped him.
Savage withdrew dual knives and stormed toward the dark hall to the bedrooms. The sight of the hulking warrior racing into my mother’s private space brought dark blotches before my eyes. Despite my body’s thoughts to the contrary, fainting wasn’t an option.
“Mother?” I cried. “Where are you?”
My sneakers skidded on the wooden floor of the master bedroom, my scattered gaze skimming over the dark space. The canopy bed, the reading nook, the shadowed corners.
“Mother? It’s me, Zozo. I’m here.”
But she wasn’t.
At least not anymore.
If not here, where else might she be? Savage sheathed his blades, the action softening his menacing appearance to only slightly less deadly.
“Castian may have taken her to the palace. He has several guest suites in the private quarters of his wing.”
Then that’s where we need to be.
Taking form on the terrace outside Castian’s suite, my heart sank. The glass doors to Castian’s private wing hung open, and my worst fears took hold. With the God of gods tending to Jade in the Realm of the Fair, those doors should be sealed. No way would he ever allow access to Abbey when he wasn’t here.
The alarm sounded a heartbeat before the terrace doors flew open and palace staff started flooding out. Dozens of workers dressed in full livery emerged. En masse, they hemorrhaged from the grand façade, scurrying down the marble steps to the grounds below. They looked as frightened as the deer on the lawn scrambling away from the exodus.
I caught the arm of a Brownie as he reached the marble steps. “Pim, what’s happened?”
“We are invaded, Mistress.” His complexion faded from its usual lilac to a sickly puce. “By all manner of reeking beasts.”
Scourge. Oh, gods. Somehow, they were here.
“Savage, we need to . . .” Where was Savage? A thunderous crash inside preceded the smashing of glass.
The state of Castian’s private living room made little sense. Half a dozen Scourge soldiers battled the Palace Guard. The stench of rot contaminated the air and clung foul to the back of my throat.
I gagged as the guards struck the decaying Raiders. Chunks of soulless bodies landed in heavy, wet heaps across velveteen sofas and glass-topped side tables.
Maniacal male laughter twisted the knot in my stomach. By the window, Abaddon held Savage pinned by the throat. Matched evenly in size and build, Abaddon gloated with a level of sadistic pleasure I’d never seen.
Savage’s mind exploded with a bombardment of violent emotion. This was personal. I was right about that. But I may have been wrong to question his allegiance.
I thrust my hands out and knocked Abaddon back.
Savage drew a gulping breath and despite looking winded and shaken, regained control. The two locked back together, grunting and clawing at each other as much like animals as Aust’s wolves as they set upon prey.
I abandoned the chaos and ran into the corridor. If Castian had entertained my mother or brought her here before he went to help Jade, she might be in one of the guest suites.
Focused on getting to my mother, everything disappeared around me. She would be all right. She had to be. The rubber soles of my sneakers slapped against the hard, polished floor.
She would be all right.
The hit came from nowhere. Knocked sideways, I crashed into the wall and crumpled. My elbow cracked against the polished floor. A shooting pain exploded up my arm.
I lost track of what . . .
I blinked back to consciousness, trying to see beyond the spots invading my vision. A boot kicked my hip, and I rolled face first against the wall. The attack continued.
A menacing growl vibrated from across the room. My heart shuddered, panic pumping through my cells. I struggled to roll over, tried to see what would attack next.
In the next heartbeat, my attacker was gone, and Kobi’s demon stood next to me, wings up, his skin smoking.
He held no weapon, but then the light caught the curve of his talons. He was the weapon.
“Thank you,” I choked out. “Glad you’re here.”
“I’ve got these assholes, Zo,” the demon said.
Somehow, I pulled myself to my feet. I slipped on a smear of bloody marble and used the wall to catch myself. Where was the blood from? I took a scattered inventory. A hot stream of moisture slicked the side of my face and neck.
With a bloody hand against the wall, I hobbled as quickly as I could manage. Fire radiated elbow to shoulder. Broken. Or badly dislocated. I was more concerned with the head injury. If I blacked out, I’d be of no use to my mother.
The doors to Castian’s guest rooms were closed and free of the stench of Scourge. Hope flickered in my gut that maybe they hadn’t discovered her whereabouts. She might be safe in one of those rooms.
The hair on my arms raised as I breathed in.
Magic. Original Three powerful, but not just the signature of Castian and Dane. Rheagan was here. I sensed her presence.
Following the surge of her energy in the air, I passed the guest chambers and headed straight into Castian’s private bedroom. I must have cursed or gasped or something because my father turned the moment I crossed the threshold.
“What a surprise. Have you come to see us off, darling?”
Dane held the upper arm of two women. On his left, my mother struggled, lashing at his hold. On his right, my aunt Abbey strode beside him offering no resistance.
Abbey’s burgundy locks hung to her hips, her arms wrapped around an ancient book. She cradled the tome against her chest as if it were the most precious thing in all the realms. Decades had passed since Jade’s mother had held any sentience but watching her now, I couldn’t comprehend . . ..
She was awake, standing, breathing, yet when she looked at me, there was no light of recognition in her eyes. She regarded me as if I were a piece of furniture in the room. I was a stranger.
No. She was.
Before I could reason how Rheagan could possess a human, Dane’s power surged. He vanished, and Abbey and my mother disappeared with him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Hey there, lacy girl. Welcome back.” Kobi hovered over me where I lay on the sofa. He wore his Talon leathers, his arms and neck covered in blood, and his hair disheveled, as if he’d run his fingers through it like a madman.<
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I struggled to get up, and my body screamed in agony. I fell back, and when the room settled, I searched for the source of his injury. “What’s happened to you? Are you all right?”
“Not my blood, but thanks for the worried look. Can you dematerialize and heal yourself?”
Heal myself? My stomach heaved, my head throbbing beyond anything I’d ever suffered, my arm numb and aching at the same time. Time and place came back to me. “My mother . . . and Abbey. Was anyone able to follow them?”
“I’m sorry, Zo. But we’ll find them, I swear.”
“What about Savage? Where is he?”
“He got you settled and waited with you until I arrived. Where he is now, I have no idea.”
I stared at the empty dais where my aunt had lain for almost two decades. “I need to speak to Castian.”
Three cracks of lightning struck. The power of the bolts, hitting in angry succession, shook the palace. The crystals on the overhead chandeliers sent prisms of light dancing around Castian’s sitting room, tinkling a little melody.
My stomach rolled along with the ominous growl of thunder. “Who told him?”
“Reign needed him to send a team up here to help. It didn’t matter who told him, though. He was bound to lose his shit.”
Tears brimmed my eyes and tumbled down my cheek.
Kobi knelt beside the sofa and brushed away my tears with his thumb. “Zo, you’re in pain. Focus on healing yourself.”
Focusing on my own condition sickened me further. My elbow, my hip, my head. I’d failed my mother and Abbey when they needed me. They were in the hands of Abaddon, Rheagan, and my father.
My father. My stupid father. It didn’t matter that I thought little of the man who sired me. I’d always hoped that one day he would prove himself and earn my respect.
“It all hurts too much.”
Kobi straightened and looked to the other warriors in the room. “Leave us. Give us ten.”
When we had the room to ourselves, he eased himself over me and slid into the space at the back of the sofa. Gently, he rolled me to face him and pulled me into his arms. “Zo, I’m going to help you, ’kay? Deplorable thing that I am, I can leach your heartache, so you can heal yourself. It’ll hurt a little at first, but I swear, if you trust me, it’ll be over quickly.”
I met his gaze as his eyes flashed scarlet and his incisors grew. A shiver jolted through me. Trust was tough for me.
“Sorry,” he said. “This isn’t really a second date kinda thing to expose you to. You can say no, and I’ll understand. Even if you allow it, it’ll likely kill what’s been brewing between us. It’s just . . . you can help your mom if you’re back on your feet and that’s what’s important. Let me do this for you, Lacy.”
I heard the doubt in his voice, saw the vulnerability in his swirling gaze. He was exposing me to something of himself, but what I saw wasn’t deplorable.
“I trust you,” I said, and strangely, it was true. Where had Kobi come from that I would offer myself up to him not knowing what would happen next. “Go ahead. You be you.”
He fingered my blouse down to my shoulder and brushed my collarbone with his lips. “The more you relax and give me, the better this will work for you.”
He sank to my collarbone, his breath warm against my skin.
I cried out as his teeth sank into flesh and muscle. The pain, sharp at first, soon dissolved into a bizarre sensation of tingling throughout my entire system. Invasive. Seductive. A Siren’s call for my cells to release things better left buried.
I tensed.
The sensation increased. Images flashed.
The pain inside me welled. Like toxic bubbles in a glass of acid champagne, pain rose and gathered. It followed Kobi’s call. I wanted him to take it, but at the same time, didn’t. I was afraid, and it hurt. The judgment. The rejection. The betrayal.
He growled, pulling my body against his with a strong arm. His hips ground against mine, his erection unmistakable. Sweet mercy, how could he possibly be so turned on? The world was crumbling around us; warriors might be back at any moment; we were both broken and bloody and . . .
His groan of pleasure awoke my own hunger. I pressed my hand against the straining fly of his leather pants and a sadistic steel rod pulsed against my palm. This was Kobi’s nature. Primal and raw. Consuming my pain fed the demon inside him.
“Take it,” I breathed, giving myself over to him. My nipples hardened, ached to be noticed, teased, sucked on. “Take it all.”
Kobi swallowed, sucking greedily. Gods, the sound that he made, the growl vibrating out from between the teeth buried in my shoulder. His hips rocked as he consumed the acid of my life’s heartbreak and left me with a euphoric lightness. A relief of a weight taken.
Too soon, he reared back, fangs extended. Eyes aglow, the muscles in his neck strained, he was fierce and terrifying. He was the most incredible vision of passion I had ever witnessed. The vulnerability I’d heard in his voice still haunted me.
“You’re safe with me too, demon,” I said, recounting his words from before. “One-hundred percent.”
With the physical and emotional agony of my mother’s abduction drained, I dematerialized without issue and knitted my injuries back together upon the steps of the Hall of Destiny. Taking the ascent on a run, I pushed my hands in front of me, and the doors flew open. The thundering echo had all three of my sisters squealing and ducking for cover.
“Did you know?” I shouted, studying one to the next.
Zinnia straightened and scowled. “What are you doing here? You’re banned from—”
I threw my hand up and pinned her to the wall behind her. When Zana raised her hands, I pinned her too.
“Did you know that Dane is in league with Abaddon and Rheagan? Did you conspire with him to get me out of the way, so he could kidnap my mother and Abbey?”
“Let me down,” Zinnia snapped. “How dare you.”
“How dare me? You think I’m the one to be threatened? You three opened the door for Dane to start a coup for control of the Pantheon. My only question is whether you were too stupid to realize his plan or if you were in on it?”
Zora looked like she might move to defend Zinnia, but I shook my head. “I am far more powerful than you three, and you know it. I can do this all day. Tell me. Are you in on it?”
“What are you talking about,” Zora said, her eyes wild. “Daddy would never—”
“Get your head out of your ass.”
Kobi snorted beside me. I guess the vernacular of Haven was rubbing off on me. “Dane has betrayed Castian, helped Rheagan possess Abbey, and together they kidnapped my mother. Were you part of it, or no?”
“No!” they shouted in unison.
I dropped Zinnia and Zana to the floor and stomped to the bowl of Past. Swiping across the surface, I called forth the events of Jade’s life for the past few hours. “The first thing the three of you are going to do is remove the restriction on my entry to the Veil. Then you’re coming with me to Haven. You will stabilize Jade’s powers again and stay there to ensure the twins survive this.”
Zinnia laughed. “Why in the realms would we do that?”
I pointed to the image on the undulating surface of the seeing bowl. “Because Jade’s attack lured Castian away from my mother and Aunt Abbey. You paved the way for this. You three and Dane put this in motion the moment you had me removed from my life.”
“We didn’t know this would happen.” Zora gasped.
Zinnia shook her head. “You can’t honestly believe we’d go against Castian.”
“Can’t I?” I stepped away from the Seeing Bowls and propped my hands on my hips. “Seems to me, being daughters of the God of gods holds more prestige than nieces. In Castian’s current state of mind, how hard do you think it would be to convince him you three were looking for a social upgrade?”
“You couldn’t.”
“You’d honestly set us up?”
“But we’re sisters.”
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Now it was my turn to laugh. “Oh, please, we’ve never been sisters. It just took me eons to realize it. Now, get your silk-covered asses to Haven and help Jade. Say nothing to her about her mother’s abduction. If anything happens to her or her babies, I will tell Castian my version of things, and we’ll let the chips fall.”
Kobi laughed beside me. “And in this scenario, you be the chips, bitches.”
“Are you as aroused as I am? I want to rip your leathers off.”
Kobi snorted and pulled me to the side as several Talon warriors passed us on the way into Reign’s war room. Cowboy tipped the brim of his black hat, smirking as he went into the briefing. Damn, I forgot how acute Were hearing was.
“It’s the leaching,” Kobi said, leaning close. “I’m afraid with an incubus demon, all roads lead back to sex. It doesn’t usually hit this strongly; then again, I’ve never leached a goddess before. I’m sorry.”
I watched the way his lips moved, just inches from mine, and fought the urge to claim his mouth. “I’m okay with an altered libido, just not at this moment. Is there any way to turn it off?”
He raised his palms to the wall on either side of me, caging me in with his body. The lift of his arms exposed a tanned band of skin between his t-shirt and the top of his leathers.
I gripped his hips. “Not helping. I want to drop to my knees and explore your belly with my mouth. Undo these stupid pants and bite your—”
“Zophia?” Aust said, jogging up the corridor. “Sweeting, I heard what happened Behind the Veil. How can I be of aid?”
Kobi stepped back as Aust joined us. Aust’s nostrils flared, and he paused. “Apologies, I interrupted a private moment.”
“Nah,” Kobi said, shrugging off his jacket and draping it over his arm in front of himself. “Good timing, Highborne. There’s work to be done. Come on. We better get inside.”
I wanted to whimper as those two gorgeous, virile men ushered me into a room filled with a dozen other physically perfect males. This leaching effect had unleashed something truly wanton in me.
“Later, Lacy,” Kobi whispered, as he pushed in my chair. “I’ll even you out as soon as we get a chance. You’ve got this.”
