Rogue Fae

by C. N. Crawford

  Terrifying, spiked iron instruments lined the walls—a gallery of torture.

  And there—in a shadowy corner—I found Adonis.

  At the sight of him, the world tilted below my feet.

  Nails pinned him to a wooden wall—nails driven through every inch of him, each one wrapped in Devil’s Bane. The agony must have been unbearable.

  My blood roared in my ears.

  Blood streaked his golden skin, staining the floor. Only his perfect face was unmarred. His eyes were closed, dark lashes sweeping against his cheeks.

  I heard nothing now except the beating of my own heart. A shock of guilt slammed into me, as if I’d been the one to do this to him. That vision I’d had of him—the one where I’d been tearing his flesh off his bones—I’d enjoyed it. I closed my eyes, trying to shut it all out.

  “Ruby!” Yasmin’s voice this time. “We have to get out of here.”

  “I know.” Hot tears poured down my cheeks, but I forced myself to think logically. How would I get the nails out of him? I had control over plants, but definitely not iron.

  I’d need some angelic intervention.

  “Kratos!” I screamed.

  He was by my side in the next moment, feet thudding on the stone floor. He still gripped Muriel in his arms.

  “They’re almost here—” He stopped short at the sight of Adonis.

  “Can you get the nails out of him?” I asked, panic rising. “Fast?”

  The angelic horde thundered over us, and Yasmin was yelling something about blocking the entrance.

  Without another word, Kratos nodded, then launched into an Angelic spell. The words tumbled from his lips. They rattled chaotically in my mind, but I could see the spell working—drawing the nails from his body. They clattered to the floor, and Adonis’s ruined body started to slump. I rushed forward, catching him in my arms.

  Without the Devil’s Bane, he could heal on his own. But with that poison coursing through his veins, he’d be out of commission for weeks, his body decaying….

  Instinct took over, and I slid my arm under his neck. His blood soaked my clothes, and I pressed my mouth to his in a kiss. Gently, my lips moved over his, and my ancient magic ignited between us. As I kissed him, I could feel myself pulling the toxins from his body into my own. Devil’s Bane wasn’t poisonous to a fae—in fact, it filled me with a strange sort of energy.

  I heard Adonis moan—a low sound, either pain or pleasure, and his tongue brushed against mine. His eyelids slowly opened, and his fingers moved over my arm, tightening. He pulled away from the kiss.

  “Ruby,” he whispered.

  Hazel and Kratos were shouting, urging us to get going, but I had to make sure Adonis could move.

  “Can you heal yourself now?” I asked.

  Pain etched his features, and his dark magic began to writhe around his body. It skimmed over my skin—cold and soothing at the same time, like a blanket of night. Magic curled around us.

  My gaze flicked to the ceiling, where Kratos had sealed the opening, buying us a little time.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Adonis.

  He pulled himself from my embrace, then rose to his full height. “Of course I am. I was doing fine.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “It’s Muriel we need to worry about.”

  Kratos still held Muriel in his arms. “We can worry later. We need to leave now.”

  “Speaking of which,” Hazel interjected. “How the fuck do we get out of here?”

  Adonis pointed to the far side of the room, where an iron maiden stood before a bare stone wall. “I think there’s a tunnel behind that wall that leads to the upper levels. I haven’t had much chance to explore, but I spent three days listening to water drip behind the walls. I think I may have gone temporarily insane.”

  “Can someone smash through the walls?” asked Yasmin.

  Adonis pulled Muriel from Kratos’s arms to start healing her.

  Kratos pressed his ear against the wall. Then, he backed away, chanting in Angelic.

  As he did, the metal door above us groaned open, and panic tightened my throat.

  They’re here.

  I closed my eyes, and warm light burst from my body. I vibrated with the magic of the Old Gods—with blood and moss and the forgotten secrets of buried bones. The beast, taking down the angels, light exploding from within me until I thought I might die from the power of it all.

  This time, Hazel snapped me out of it with fingernails digging into my skin.

  When I opened my eyes again, I stared at the shimmering shield above us, my body trembling. It had worked—at least, until Aereus broke through it again.

  Thunk. Thunk.

  “Let’s move.” Kratos stood before a crumbled wall—where rock and dust had crashed to the floor to reveal a hollow cavern.

  As I ran for it, someone blocked my path. Adonis had healed Muriel completely. But unfortunately for me, she kind of looked like she wanted to murder me.

  Her cheeks reddened, and she pointed at me. “You betrayed us.”

  “Not now, Muriel.” I pivoted to move past her, but she grabbed me by the hair.

  In the next moment, I found myself entangled in an avalanche of dress ripping, face-scratching, and hair-pulling.

  Really? An angel who had witnessed Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden—and this was how she fought? Like a pissed off fifth-grader? Disappointing.

  I shoved her hard, then punched her once in the jaw. She staggered back, her hand on her face. “You gave up our location to Aereus, didn’t you, animal?”

  “If she had,” Adonis barked, “she wouldn’t be here rescuing us, would she?”

  Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

  Muriel went silent—pouting at me, pretty much—but she wasn’t stopping me, at least.

  I pushed past her, running with the others into a dark stone passage. Not just one passage—a network of dank tunnels that branched off around us like spokes on a wheel.

  Around us, the palace’s alarm bells rang loudly, reverberating in my skull. And once more, the sound of a shattering shield rang out.

  The sound of Aereus’s Angelic spells traveled to us, and as they echoed through the passage, a wall of flames rose up around us. Smoke billowed through the air, and I screamed for my sister.

  Aereus wanted to burn us alive, and chaos reigned.

  A powerful wave of Adonis’s icy magic rippled through the passages, snuffing out some of the flames. Still, black smoke bloomed all around, and I doubled over, coughing uncontrollably.

  “Hazel!” I choked out, tears streaming from my eyes.

  Aereus’s powerful voice boomed through the passage, and a fresh wave of flames roared around us, black smoke choking the oxygen out of the air.

  A battle of Angelic words clattered and roared around me—fire battling ice, the smoke only thickening.

  “Hazel!”

  A burst of coughing wracked my body, and smoke filled my lungs, until dizziness clouded my mind completely.

  Chapter 10

  I woke with a sharp intake of breath, filling my lungs with mercifully clear air. Iron dust covered my body, sapping my strength.

  “Hazel,” I gasped, but she wasn’t near me. I was lying in Adonis’s lap, looking up at his perfect face. He was still shirtless, and I could see the scars and gashes all over his chest. He’d hidden his midnight wings, making himself a little less conspicuous.

  “Are you okay?” His gray eyes searched mine.

  “Where’s Hazel?” I rasped.

  “Kratos got her out of the building. She’s fine. You sucked in a lot of smoke.”

  The alarm bells still rang around us, and I pushed myself up to look around. We were in the marble hall with all the medieval art and confessional booths, and it seemed eerily still in here.

  Adonis went still, frowning. “Someone’s coming.”

  In the next moment, he was on his feet, pulling my hand toward one of the confessional booths. We hur
ried into it. It smelled of ancient wood in there, and light poured through the latticework onto ornate carvings in the dark oak.

  A half-empty bottle of wine stood on a crooked chair. Seemed an angel had been indulging a bit in here.

  In the cramped space, Adonis’s powerful body pressed against mine. He leaned down, his dark power caressing me until I wanted to pull off my soot-covered dress and wrap my legs around him.

  Focus, Ruby. You’re about ten seconds away from death by angelic horde.

  “I had a feeling you’d come for me here.”

  “I thought you were doing fine and didn’t need me?”

  He went quiet for a moment. “That’s not entirely true.”

  “Once we get outside, I’ll need you to fly out to the Jardin des Tuileries just long enough that we can make sure everyone is there. Then, we get out of France as fast as we can. But we need to wait until the coast is completely clear.”

  Outside, footfalls and the sounds of Angelic commands echoed off the ceiling. They were hunting for us, sending my heart into a wild race.

  “I can hear your heart pounding,” he whispered, warming my ear.

  “Because my brain keeps trying to remind me of what Aereus will do to us if he finds us.” I swallowed hard, and I traced my fingertips over one of the scars in his chest. Anger ignited when I thought of the agony Adonis must have endured. I wanted to drive nails right through Aereus until his enormous body ripped into pieces. Adrenaline surged through my veins. “Not to mention what he’s already done to you.”

  Adonis stroked his hand down my chest, until it rested over my heart. “Calm yourself. You won’t be able to think clearly if your emotions are overwhelming you.”

  Right. Panic was the enemy of strategy.

  That said, the feel of Adonis’s hand on my chest wasn’t exactly calming—in fact, it sent my heart racing for a different reason. My breath sped up. “You’re not helping me control my emotions, you know.”

  “I’m not?” he purred.

  He traced his hand lower over my body, and warmth surged through my core. Heat and raw power radiated off his body. He was like a dark star, luring me in with his gravitational pull.

  I shook my head. “Not exactly.”

  He stroked his fingertips down my spine, and my back arched.

  “Well, Ruby. As much as I want to touch you in all the right places and listen to your heart race faster, maybe we should formulate a plan.”

  I was practically panting now. “Oh, yeah?”

  “You’re the one with the power of the Old Gods. And I know from personal experience that powerful emotions will cloud judgment and lead to ruin—”

  “Wait, what? Just generally feeling emotions leads to ruination?”

  “Just trust me.”

  “If there’s a horseman equivalent of a psychologist, you might want to meet with one at some point.”

  He pulled away from me, and I regretted the loss of his warmth.

  “Whatever you do,” he said, “try to stay calm until we can get out of Paris. Don’t think about Aereus’s torture machines, or the nails he drove through my bones. Think about—whatever it is you think about when you get that faraway look in your eyes. I’ve watched you closely, and I’ve seen the smile on your lips while you think about something.” His dark brows drew together. “What exactly is it that you think about?”

  Nothing weird. You. Naked, with soup. “Plants.”

  “Plants.”

  I nodded.

  “Funny,” he said. “I think about the same thing.”

  “You do?” Interesting, because mine was a lie.

  “When I need to master my emotions, I think about my garden. The anemones, the myrtle trees, the river. It’s my home, the place that has belonged to me and always will.”

  “That’s … adorable. You daydream about your garden?”

  “It requires my careful touch and my protection. It rewards me with beauty and comfort, and watching it thrive makes my heart joyful.”

  “You feel very strongly about your flowers. Careful, or gardening could lead to your ruination.” I peered through one of the cracks, watching as the angels continued to stream through, searching for us.

  “You’ll need to glamour us to get us out of here.” He looked through a crack. “Once the soldiers clear out of here.”

  “My magic won’t work with all the iron dust covering my skin.”

  Adonis snatched the bottle of wine from the chair. “We’ll just have to wash it off, then.” He pulled down the top of my dress, exposing my bare skin beneath it. His exotic magic raised goosebumps on my skin, and even as the angelic soldiers hammered over the floor outside, I found myself completely transfixed by his eyes on my naked skin.

  Adonis began pouring the wine over my chest and shoulders. Then he stroked his hand down my body, washing off the dust with the wine. Adonis tipped the bottle, and the red wine dripped over my body, washing off the dust with it.

  As he did, I let my gaze roam over his body. I winced at the sight of his bare torso. His wounds were healing quickly, but I could still see every place where Aereus had gouged his skin with iron, all the divots and indentations. Aereus had scarred every inch of his golden skin.

  “This must have been agony.”

  I expected him to brush it off like he usually did.

  “It was,” he said instead. He pulled my dress off the rest of the way, until I was standing in nothing but my underwear. Another slow pour of wine, and his hands roamed over my skin, washing off all the iron.

  I reached up, brushing my thumb over his cheek. “When I kill Aereus, I’ll make sure it’s painful.” In fact, I wanted to tear Aereus’s head off his body and batter him to death with his own skull.

  “At least my time here wasn’t wasted.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Aereus has no idea how keen my hearing is,” he said. “I listened in to his conversations with Johnny,” he continued, letting the wine run over me. “And I know what they have planned. Aereus wants to call down an angel known as Metatron—ruler of the Heavenly Host.”

  With the iron washed off my bare skin, Adonis sat down on the bench. He pulled me onto his lap.

  Slowly, he ran his fingertips inside the top of my panties.

  “We need to get outside,” I breathed.

  “We will.” He kissed my neck, and a hand ran up my thigh.

  With his hands moving over my wet skin, I could hardly focus.

  “Metatron,” I repeated, trying to remember how to use words.

  “The voice of the gods. Leader of the Heavenly Host. Ruthless.”

  His fingers moved higher, and my back arched. “Bad news, I take it?”

  “He hates humanity,” he added. “Hates demons, hates everything that can speak except angels.”

  Adonis’s intoxicating scent curled around me, making my skin hot, my knees weak. As I gazed at his perfect face, I found my tongue running over my lips, and Adonis seemed transfixed by the movement.

  I felt his magic intensifying around me, thrumming up my spine and over my breasts.

  Adonis leaned in closer, licking some of the wine off my neck. I wrapped my arms around his back.

  “There,” he said, his breath warming my skin. “All clean.”

  “Apart from the wine.”

  Another stroke of his tongue on my neck, and molten heat warmed me from the inside out.

  “Adonis,” I managed. “We need to go. They’re waiting for us.”

  “We’ll finish this later.”

  I rose and snatched my dress from the floor. I pulled it on. My underwear stuck to my wine-damp skin. It’d be a cold trip over the English Channel.

  “Before we go out, I’m going to create another decoy. We can at least confuse the angels as much as possible.”

  I closed my eyes, letting my mind fill with images of the Garden of Eden and the scent of crushed grapes. The air felt heavy with rain. Then, I imagined Adonis—his golden skin, his tatt
oos, his pale gray eyes and graceful sweep of midnight wings.

  I called to mind an army of him, each one physically perfect—except for the scarred skin. And by the side of each Adonis, I created a red-haired Ruby in her tattered dress.

  I opened my eyes, then stood on my tiptoes to peer out the latticework window. There, outside, an army of us had stormed the Louvre. Aereus and Johnny would be completely confused. At least, I hoped.

  “Want to have a look?” I asked.

  Adonis peered outside and quirked a smile. “You can do this?”

  “Not to brag, but I’m pretty amazing.”

  He frowned. “Is that how you see me?”

  “Pretty good, right?”

  “Not quite as devastating as the original, but you can work on it.”

  “This is why people get you confused with that dude who fell into the river looking at his own face.”

  “Narcissus. Completely different. Not nearly as good-looking.”

  “Stop talking. I need to glamour us now.” I closed my eyes, and my body tingled as magic rippled over us.

  I opened my eyes, and it was almost with a sense of regret that I watched him transform from a beautiful horseman into an ordinary angelic soldier. My own hair lightened from bright red to blond, my red-stained dress shimmering into a clean white gown.

  When the glamour had completely taken hold, Adonis cracked open the confessional door, peering out. “Even with the illusions, we’ll still have to move quickly. Johnny and Aereus will be able to smell you.”

  I stiffened. “Me in particular? Not you?”

  “Fae have a particular smell. It wasn’t so strong before, but with those gemstones, it’s intensified.”

  This was news to me. “What do fae smell of, exactly?”

  “Moss and dirt.”

  I blinked. “Is there not a better way you could have phrased that?”

  “I happen to love the smell.” He held up his hand, signaling for me to wait, until he whispered, “Now.”

  He pushed through the door into the hall, and we fell in line at a safe distance from the army of us. It was too bad I couldn’t glamour them to smell like a forest floor, I supposed.

  We broke into a run in the hall, moving among the illusions, until we reached an intersection of halls.