The Cursed (The Unearthly)

by Laura Thalassa

  Ho-bag.

  I tracked the woman’s movements with the senses I still had. She came right up to me, and I stiffened. Her hand brushed the back of my head and I flailed against her.

  “Stupid girl,” she hissed, “I’m removing the cloth from your mouth, so that we can talk.”

  I stilled at her words. If she took off the gag, then I’d be able to glamour her.

  She untied the material and the bed dipped as she sat down next to me.

  Fear made my skin flare up quickly; the siren in me was especially receptive to dark emotions. “Untie the rest of me,” I beckoned in that eerie voice.

  And she laughed.

  “Proserpine, that does not work on me. Do you not remember our first meeting at the club?”

  I hadn’t thought of it, but of course. Why would she allow a siren to speak if she could fall under my influence?

  I worked my jaw, my mouth sore. “Are you going to take off the rest of the bindings?” I asked when she leaned away from me.

  “You only need your mouth to talk.”

  I ground my teeth together. “Fine, then if you want to chat, don’t call me Proserpine.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not my name.”

  “It would’ve been,” she said, “had my sister not pressed your parents to change it to something else.”

  “Your sister?” I asked, and then I cursed at myself. Stop chatting with the enemy.

  “Yes. She and I don’t exactly see eye-to-eye.”

  “And she knew my parents?” I couldn’t help myself, curiosity pushed me to ask the question. That and the slim hope that I might be able to talk my way out of this mess.

  “She knows you,” the woman answered.

  I breathed in her scent, but I smelled nothing. “You are not human, are you?”

  “No,” she said.

  “Then what are you?”

  “I’m a fate.”

  Chapter 24

  Andre stared at the map as he held the phone to his ear.

  “Andre?” Ivan said when he answered the phone.

  “What do you have for me?” Andre asked. No formalities. He didn’t have time for them.

  “Grigori took the day off.”

  Andre ran a hand through his hair. “He took her.” Grigori might’ve also taken the shapeshifter—perhaps even the fairy. Andre hadn’t seen either since he’d risen.

  “Andre, be reasonable.”

  “Don’t tell me to be fucking reasonable. Listen to me: I think I have an idea where they’ll be.”

  “You are claiming that one of our officers has kidnapped and intends to harm another officer of ours.”

  “Yes, I am, and I’m right.”

  “Andre crime and punishment may work like that in your circles, but it doesn’t work like that—”

  He wanted to throttle Ivan. This was exactly why he loathed the Politia, and why his word meant very little in this network of supernaturals. They were so goddamn dense, clinging to their classicist beliefs even in the face of evidence.

  Andre slammed a fist against the wall of his office. “Take down the following information, or so help me Ivan, I will have you wrung out to dry within the week.”

  “Fine,” Ivan responded gruffly, “but no promises that our officers can get to it.”

  “Fuck you. When the crime is exposed, mark my words: I will make sure you pay for any inaction on your part.”

  Andre ended the call and threw the phone across the room. The Politia was out; this would be solely up to him.

  He left his office to grab weapons and ammunition. He’d need all the arsenal he could bring along with him. Tonight, Andre would be fighting the devil.

  “Morta,” I whispered.

  “In the flesh.”

  She was the fate that cut the thread of life; she was also the fate that was in the devil’s pocket.

  This was really effing bad.

  Even tied up I managed to scramble away from her.

  “You’ve made my life difficult these last few months,” she said. “Not that I don’t enjoy a challenge every now and then.”

  “What have you done?”

  She patted my knee, and I tried not to flinch at her touch. “Let’s just say that I’ve steered your life back on course.”

  Back on course? “Back on course from what?”

  She didn’t answer, and in her silence I thought of all the strange coincidences and unlikely situations I’d been in since I left Peel Academy. “How much of my life have you meddled with?” I asked, terrified of her answer.

  “‘Meddled with’? You court my wrath, using those words. I am a fate. I direct the flow of life. Everything that has led you here, to this moment, has been my doing.”

  “So the murders … ?”

  She made an impatient sound. “I am the fate of death—need you ask?”

  “My involvement with this case?”

  “Me,” she said.

  “My status as a demonologist?”

  She guffawed at that. “Definitely me.”

  I sucked in my cheeks at the insult in her words. She’d been leading me like a lamb to slaughter.

  She cleared her throat. “I’m not going to spend all evening discussing my actions. They mean little except that you are here now, about to fulfill your destiny.”

  I swallowed. “What are you going to do to me?”

  “What do you think the fate of death is going to do to you? I’m going to deliver you from your flesh.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Andre swiveled around to see Gabrielle’s friend, Oliver, sashay into his room. Guess he hadn’t been taken after all.

  “No you’re not,” Andre growled, taking a menacing step towards him. There’d be no survivors tonight except him and Gabrielle—and perhaps Caleb, if the boy had also been taken. Andre sure as hell wasn’t going to put another friend of Gabrielle’s in danger.

  “Yes, I am,” the fairy insisted.

  A growl of warning rumbled at the back of Andre’s throat. “Don’t push me, fairy. I still haven’t forgiven you for touching her.”

  The fairy came right up to him, ignoring all the warning signs that indicated Andre was not to be reckoned with. “I know exactly how long Gabrielle and Caleb have been gone, and I’ll only tell you if you take me with you.”

  Andre ground his teeth together. The audacity of this one. It was barely tolerable. “I can get that information from other sources.” Like his servants.

  “But you won’t.”

  Andre’s nostrils flared in anger. Now was not the time to test his patience.

  Oblivious, the fairy plucked the map from Andre’s hand. “So, where are we going?”

  “What makes you think I’m going anywhere?”

  Oliver lowered the map enough for Andre to see his raised eyebrows. He pointed to himself. “Fairy.”

  He’d made his point. Fairies were notorious for involving themselves in everyone else’s business.

  “How long were you eavesdropping?” Andre growled.

  Oliver gave a shrug of one of his shoulders. A non-answer.

  Andre folded his arms, clenching and unclenching his jaw to keep his anger in check. “I will imprison you here if I have to. You are not coming with me.”

  The fairy dropped the map and leaned forward, his eyes glittering with interest. “How does she resist you?”

  Andre turned from the fairy. He needed to stop talking and get his weapons strapped on. Back holsters for the twin blades that he favored in battle, and a belt to tuck in several throwing knives …

  Behind him the fairy shrieked. “Oh my God, I know where we’re going! I always wanted to visit too!”
>
  Damn it all to hell. “You are not going, fairy,” Andre said, opening his closet to retrieve the supple leather gear. He began sliding the back holster over his shoulders when Oliver spoke again.

  “This trip will take you hours to reach her. She could be dead by then.”

  Andre paused for the barest of moments. Gabrielle, dead. It was unimaginable.

  “Take me with you, Andre, and I can get you there in twenty. All you’d need to do is drive us to a certain haunted forest.”

  Andre glanced over his shoulder at the fairy. “What, exactly, are you proposing?”

  Oliver flashed him a mischievous smile. “I think you already know.”

  I’m going to deliver you from your flesh.

  That was quite … blunt. And terrifying beyond belief.

  “You don’t need to do this,” I said to Morta.

  “Of course I do. I’ve been planning this for centuries, for millennia even.”

  “Please, there must be another way for you to get what you want. One that doesn’t involve killing me.” Believe in us, believe in free will. Andre’s words ran through my mind.

  She laughed and grasped my chin, pressing her fingers into my cheek. “You are Pluto’s unwilling bride, through and through.”

  “I’m no one’s bride,” I ground out.

  She ignored my response and instead patted my cheek. “Rejoice my dear, for tonight, you ascend. Tonight you become queen of the Underworld.”

  Andre pushed his car as fast as it could go, which was still pathetically slow. The storm continued to rage, and the roads were slick with snow and ice. What should’ve been a short drive to Hoia Baciu, the haunted forest on the outskirts of Cluj, was already taking much longer than usual.

  This better work.

  Next to him Oliver bounced to some song on his iPod, singing along.

  Even if he and the fairy pulled this off, they still might be too late. And so help him God, if he was, there would be hell to pay.

  Reaching over, Andre pulled out one of the fairy’s earbuds. “You might as well play your music from the speakers,” he said. He could hear the sound just as well from the fairy’s earbuds. At least the car’s acoustics would take away that horrible tinny edge to each song.

  “Really?” the fairy said.

  Andre glanced at him, then back at the road. He wasn’t going to extend the offer twice.

  But then again, the fairy wasn’t one to turn down an opportunity. Oliver synced his iPod to the car’s sound system, and a playlist titled “Kicking Ass and Taking Names,” flashed along Andre’s screen.

  At that, Andre smirked. The fairy had style. He’d give him that.

  The fairy cranked up the volume and whooped. “Evil bitches beware, we’re coming for you!”

  Andre’s grip on the wheel tightened as he sped through a light, his smirk morphing into a sly smile. The thought of all the carnage to come …

  Evil beware, indeed. I am coming for you, and I am hungry for your blood.

  “What if I don’t want to become queen?” I asked.

  “What you want matters little,” Morta replied.

  “Well, the devil can go screw himself. I’m not marrying him.”

  “Do not speak of him that way,” she hissed.

  Tou-chy.

  “I’m not marrying him,” I repeated.

  “You are if you want your friend to live.”

  I went rigid. “Caleb? Where is he? What have you done to him?”

  “He’s safe, so long as you cooperate.”

  This all had the horrible echo of Samhain. But unlike Samhain, I didn’t have Leanne to help me figure this one out, nor did I have Cecilia working behind the scenes to save my life. The devil had upped his game, and I was on my own.

  “You are going to cooperate?” she asked.

  I hesitated, then nodded. I couldn’t do it again, couldn’t allow others to sacrifice themselves so that I could live a bit longer before I met the devil.

  “Why does he want me so badly?” I asked.

  “You’ve been fated to be together for a very long time, and he’s impatient to make you his.”

  Ugh, barf in my mouth. “Why would he care about me at all?” I asked. “He’s the devil.”

  “He’s Pluto,” she corrected me, “and he is not all evil.”

  “Agree to disagree,” I mumbled.

  “It doesn’t matter. Within the hour, you’ll be his.”

  Chapter 25

  “Fuck, shit, goddamnit, bloody-fucking hell.” Andre kept going.

  There was an accident, a huge goddamned accident, blocking the one road they needed to take to get to Hoia Baciu. Even now he could hear the crunch of metal as cars ahead of him slammed on their brakes a second too late.

  The fairy whistled. “That’s not good.”

  Andre ran his hands through his hair. His options were limited at this point. Every moment they lost now brought Gabrielle closer to death.

  He stared at the pileup in front of him. Even as he watched, he heard the skid of cars behind him, and the crunch of metal as they slammed into one another. The wreckage was only getting worse with each passing second. It was a small miracle they hadn’t hit his car—yet. Other than completely abandoning his vehicle, he could only think of one alternative.

  Andre opened his car door up and got out, crossing his fingers that no one would total his car before he had the chance to get back in it.

  “What are you doing?” the fairy called after him.

  Andre didn’t bother looking behind him when he answered. “Clearing the road.”

  My throat seized up. Within the next hour? I began yanking against the ties, not caring that the enemy sat next to me.

  “Don’t bother,” Morta said, “those bindings are enchanted. Only I can remove them.”

  Still I struggled. What other option did I have?

  Morta sighed. “It’s always got to be hard with you, doesn’t it?”

  “You don’t know anything about me,” I snapped.

  “I know everything about you, mortal, and it’s best you don’t forget it. I am doing you a kindness, making you into a queen and a goddess.”

  “You can take those titles and shove them up—”

  The air shifted, and then Morta’s hand connected with my cheek, whipping my head to the side. The sound of the slap echoed throughout the room long before the pain blossomed.

  “We’re done here.” The bed rocked as Morta stood up.

  “Wait!” I begged. I wasn’t ready to die.

  Her footfalls moved away from me.

  “Fate can’t be the only reason he wants me!” I yelled after her.

  Her footfalls stopped. “You’re right, it isn’t. You tip the scales in his favor.”

  Your lifeblood drips, the scales tip.

  “In favor of what?” I called after her, dread settling into my bones.

  The door clicked shut in response, and she was gone.

  Once he’d moved the cars aside, Andre got back into his own. Some idiot driver had ended up ramming into his car from behind. What was that, two accidents and a busted steering wheel all within a week? Even for him that was an impressive amount of damage.

  But it didn’t matter. Andre would wreck all of his cars getting to Gabrielle if he had to. He stepped off the clutch and shifted the car into first.

  He could feel the fairy’s eyes on his face.

  “What?” he said.

  “You moved those cars … with your bare hands.”

  “And?” he asked, shifting gears.

  The fairy raised his eyebrows and began fanning himself, his leg jiggling furiously. “Lucky fucking siren,” he said, under his breath.

  Andre gunned the en
gine, letting off only a little when the car lost traction. He cast a glance at Oliver. “Not lucky, fairy. Cursed.”

  “Please,” I begged at the door, willing the fate to return. “I promise to be respectful if you come back.”

  I listened.

  Nothing.

  I growled out my frustration. Damn my bound legs. I doubt Morta had even locked the door. Not when I’d have to roll my way out of here. Which was tempting … but no.

  I scooted up to the bed’s headboard and leaned against it. Morta hadn’t slipped the gag back on me, and that was a mistake I was going to fully exploit. She might be immune to my voice, but anyone else in the area wouldn’t be.

  I cleared my throat. Did I want to do what I was considering? If it didn’t work, I might end up worse off.

  Worse off than dying and marrying the devil?

  I leaned my head back as a hum built in the back of my throat. Tendrils of my power snaked to the surface of my skin. The siren was awake, and she was a formidable monster when I embraced her carnal cruelty.

  A smile curled along my lips as my power built. What I was about to do would be different from the glamour I’d used in the past.

  Tonight, the siren was going to sing.

  “Stop here,” Oliver said.

  Andre pulled onto the shoulder of the road, and he and the fairy got out. He nodded to the back of his car, where he’d stashed extra weaponry. “Might be a good idea to arm yourself, fairy.”

  Rather than responding, the fairy leaned inside the car and grabbed a gun from the back seat.

  He held the gun up to the light, a gleeful smile forming along his lips. “Now I am one badass bitch,” he said, posing with it. “Is it loaded?”

  Andre nodded, leaning inside the car to grab the weapons he couldn’t wear while he drove.

  “I’ve never used one before,” the fairy said.

  Andre pushed away from the car. When he turned to face Oliver, the fairy was flipping the gun over in his hand, staring at it curiously. Giving a fairy a gun was a supremely bad idea—especially this one—but Andre didn’t really have the patience to regret his decision.