“Lucy, I’m home,” Taeg called from the foyer. A moment later, he and Maya strode into the room, clad in matching dark jeans and black shirts. While her top was sleeveless and fitted, his was a T-shirt emblazoned with the words NO MERCY.
Taeg hit Keegan with his somber gaze. “Yo, bro. Where’s the rest of the gang?”
“I sent Brynn, Aegin, and Amara ahead with Bram and Reiver,” Keegan said.
Taeg gave a sympathetic wince. “Let me guess—Brynn is pissed as hell about that.”
“Yup.” They’d fought long and hard, in fact. She’d wanted to remain by his side, no matter what. But in the end, he’d talked her into going after pointing out how much easier it would be for just him to get away from anyone the Council might deem to send. The last thing he wanted was to be separated from his family, but he would do anything to protect them. Anything.
Amara had wanted to stay and wait for Ronin, but she’d recognized that Brynn needed her more right now. Good thing, too. He couldn’t imagine how pissed she’d be if she found out Ronin had gone to scan out the portal on his own.
“So what’s going on?” Maya asked.
Keegan and Dagan filled the two of them in on the events of the past several hours. When Dagan got to the part about Belpheg, Taeg’s brows furrowed. He stalked across the room and snatched up the whiskey bottle, taking a heavy swig before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“What the fuck does this fae want with us?” Taeg asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Keegan replied grimly.
The ring of Dagan’s phone shattered the momentarily silence. He slid it out of his pocket, then lifted his gaze to the rest of them. “It’s Ronin.”
“Put it on speaker,” Keegan ordered.
“Hey, where are you?” Dagan answered. “I’m back at Keegan’s condo… Keegan, Taeg, and Maya are here. Let me put you on the speaker.”
Keegan only waited long enough for Dagan to push the button before saying, “Where are you?”
“Back in the state,” Ronin’s voice sounded out.
Keegan exchanged a glance with Taeg. “Back in the state?”
A beat of silence. “I took the portal to the coordinates we were given.”
No less than Keegan had feared, though he was still pissed about it.
“You’re an asshole,” he growled at the same time as Dagan muttered, “You stupid fuck.”
Taeg let out a somber chuckle. “I happen to agree with both of them, but perhaps the better question right now is, what did you find?”
“Let out to a small Romanian village,” Ronin responded.
Keegan lifted a brow. “Romania?”
“We were just there less than two weeks ago,” Taeg muttered.
“Yeah, well…I flew around until I spotted a castle. ‘Bout a half an hour from the village. It was teaming with the essence of Others.”
Keegan scratched his jaw, scruffy with several days’ growth, and leaned against one of the armrests of his black leather sectional. “You think this is the place?”
“No doubt about it. There was an invisible shield surrounding the place. I tried to fly through it and ended up getting bounced back like I’d launched myself into a bowl of Jell-O.”
Damn it. Keegan shook his head, trying to quell his anger at his brother. “So you just fly right up to the freaking place without any care for the fact you might be stepping into a trap?”
“I was careful,” Ronin countered defensively.
Yeah, right. “I wonder if Amara would agree.”
Another beat of silence. The Ronin asked, “Is she there?”
Much as he’d like to let his bastard brother stew in worry, Keegan said, “No. She went up to the hideout with Brynn, Aegin, Bram, and Reiver.”
“Oh.” The relief in Ronin’s voice was palpable. “Listen, I was too far to say with 100 percent certainty, but there was a man walking the grounds, and he looked a lot like Mammon.”
Keegan bit back the automatic growl that threatened to rise in his throat. No need to note how his brothers stiffened at the mention of Mammon. That fuck was definitely on the top of their least favorite person list.
“It’s no less than we expected,” Keegan finally responded. “We know Mammon was broken out of jail by some dark fae, and who else but the guy we’re hunting had enough power to do that?”
“So…” Maya strode over to where Dagan stood by the bar. She tugged the whiskey bottle from his grip and took a delicate swig. “What are we going to do?”
Ronin took an audible breath. “I scouted the surrounding area.”
Taeg let out an angry growl and started to pace the room. “Ronin, you’re an asshole.”
“You can ream me out for that later,” Ronin said drily. “The shield surrounds the property like a snow globe. It covers the castle and the surrounding grounds, including the forest fronting the castle and up to the edge of a wide lake that protects the entire backside. Several acres of land.”
“Okay.” Resisting the urge to let out a loud sigh, Keegan scratched his chin. “Any suggestions?”
“We’ve still got the sword,” Taeg offered.
Several months ago, right after Keegan and his brothers had captured Mammon, Taeg had begun to search for an item that could destroy the Book of the Dead, the ancient spell book Brynn was bound to. When her ancestor had created it, he’d made it from indestructible metal, but it was far too dangerous an object to continue existing. Especially since Brynn was connected to it.
Through his research, Taeg had discovered that the famed sword Excalibur was not only real, but could be used to cut through any object. With Maya’s help, he’d found the sword and destroyed the book. What no one save Keegan and Taeg knew was that even though the book had been destroyed, the spell had become embedded in Brynn’s mind, ready for her to call forth its power to raise the undead at any time. Not that he ever planned on that happening.
However, as they’d discovered in the time since then, the sword had all sorts of uses. For instance, it could cut through impenetrable shields, like the one Belpheg had placed around his castle.
“This Belpheg dude is bound to know we still have the sword, isn’t he?” Dagan pointed out as he leaned his weight over the wooden bar. “Why put a shield up in the first place?”
Keegan shrugged. “Maybe for general protection. Or to limit whatever sort of invasion he might expect us to pull.”
“Given his powers, he’d probably sense the moment we cut through the damn shield and know exactly where we are,” Ronin’s weary voice sounded out.
When the muscles in Keegan’s shoulders twitched, he popped his back. What he needed right now was sleep. They all did. But that wasn’t going to happen. Not for a while, he suspected. “Considering the fae’s goal is to lure us to him, and given the impressive scope of his powers, I have a feeling he’s not too worried about us successfully invading him.”
Which sucked. Big time.
“I have another idea.” The quiet timber of Ronin’s voice suggested he wasn’t too happy with whatever it was.
“What is it?” Keegan asked.
“When I touched down on the side of the lake surrounding the rear of the property, I was able to go several feet into the water before getting kicked back. But…when I tried to swim under, the barrier wasn’t there.”
Dagan stood to attention, his interest clearly piqued. “The shield doesn’t extend beneath the water?”
“No,” Ronin said. “Only thing is, like I said before, the lake is wide, and the shield extends for quite a distance. When I tried to pop up for air, I couldn’t. Damn near drowned hauling my ass back to the shore.”
It wasn’t hard to read the look on Dagan’s face. Keegan gave voice to the same concerns. “Wouldn’t this fae know what we are? Why would he leave the lake unprotected knowing that one of us can breathe underwater?”
Taeg locked gazes with him, his expression calculating. Finally he shrugged. “Maybe he doesn’t know ex
actly what each of us is.”
“Or maybe he doesn’t realize his shield doesn’t extend beneath the water,” Ronin said.
“Either way, we can’t just leave her there,” Dagan said, his voice hard.
“Of course not,” Ronin snapped. “Whatever happens, whatever secrets she’s kept from me, in my heart she’s still my sister.”
Keegan exchanged a loaded glance with Taeg. Much as the most selfish part of him might like to argue with Dagan and Ronin, they were right. Lina was Ronin’s family, and by extension, their family. If there was one thing they’d learned from dealing with their evil father, it was that you didn’t abandon your family unless they truly deserved it, the way Mammon had. Whatever Lina’s faults, she was worth saving. Even if he wanted to howl in agony at the thought that he was placing his own life, his future with Brynn and Aegin, in danger.
In the end, Brynn would understand. Oh, she wouldn’t be happy about it…but she’d understand.
“I’m going in,” Dagan said, his jaw setting in the particular way it did when he was determined to do something. “I can get her, I know I can.”
“Not without the rest of us.” When Dagan, Taeg, and Maya looked at him, Keegan took a deep breath. “We’ll do it, together. The four of us.”
“Four?” Maya let out a gruff laugh and walked over to the sectional. She dropped herself onto it and crossed her arms. “I don’t think so. I’m going.”
When Taeg looked as if he would argue, she quickly added, “After all, I can see through glamours. You’re probably going to need my help over there.”
Taeg’s mouth snapped shut, and his eyes took on a dejected expression. “Much as I’d like to argue that, she’s got a point.”
Yeah. She usually did.
“So it’s settled then.” Keegan rose to his full height and stalked across the room to the bar. He snatched up the whiskey bottle and took a big swig. “Now we just need a plan.”
…
Inky tendrils from a lightning storm curled across the midnight sky, illuminating the craggy tops of the countless towers topping Belpheg’s expansive castle. From their precarious positions atop a copse of trees that lined the outer forest, Dagan and Ronin observed the rear of the massive stone structure. The air in this part of the world was surprisingly warm, and Dagan had to admit there was something very picturesque about Romania. It held a completely different sort of charm than his adopted home of New York City.
Perfect home for a lunatic dark fae with impossible powers, apparently.
It was certainly secluded enough. The forest here on the rear of the property opened up to the lake that spanned the length of the castle and was twice as wide. Thick forest led directly up to the castle walls on both sides. For most people, this meant that entry would need to be gained from the front side, which consisted of yet more forest leading out to acres of manicured grass and lawn.
“I feel like freaking Spiderman,” Dagan muttered as he readjusted his grip on the spruce he clung to.
Ronin let out a chuckle. “You and Taeg have become total movie addicts since moving onto Earth.”
“Not like they had such a thing as television back on Infernum,” Dagan answered defensively. Yet another reason why Earth rocked in comparison.
Ronin looked back toward the castle and sobered, as if he too had just remembered they were now fugitives. With all the Lina stuff going on, they’d been blessedly distracted from that particular reality. At least there was one point in their favor. The portal they’d taken here was located less than an hour from the hideout Keegan had built in upstate New York. If they rescued Lina—no, once they rescued her—it wouldn’t be a long ride back to their new home. Or tricked-out cave, in this instance.
Dagan refocused on the looming castle. What could Lina possibly be suffering in that place? What horrors was she being subjected to? Much as he might want to think she was being treated well, if Mammon was around, the odds were pretty slim. Prior experience had taught him that all too well.
“We’ll get her back, bro,” Dagan murmured.
“I know,” was Ronin’s quiet response.
Or they would die trying.
“Ready?” Ronin asked. When Dagan nodded, Ronin muttered, “I sure hope this works.”
That made two of them.
Ronin depressed the button on his earpiece to turn it on. “Keegan, can you hear me?” After a moment, he said, “Okay, so we’re good to go… Yeah, we’ll meet back at the rendezvous spot in one hour.” He followed that with a grim, “Good luck.”
He pressed the button again and turned his gaze to Dagan. “Our back-up has arrived and is in place.”
“Sweet.”
Keegan had gotten friendly with a rayamara, a winged demon, who operated as a mercenary back in the city. Rayamaras were rare and prized for their ability to fly, and apparently the mercenary had been able to find a few friends who could act as flying guards. Their services hadn’t been cheap, but no doubt they’d come in handy.
“Maya completed her search,” Ronin continued. “Other than the shield, she didn’t detect anything magical outside the property.”
“Good.” That meant no booby traps.
Not for the first time, Dagan thanked his lucky stars that Taeg had found Maya. Her ability to see through glamours had come in handy more than once.
After they’d taken the portal to Romania, Keegan and Ronin had flown them to the site of the castle. Dagan had ridden on Ronin’s back, all the while grateful that the gravity of the situation didn’t lend itself to gabbiness, since Ronin was pretty much still not speaking to him. Keegan had supported Maya, who held onto a backpack containing Excalibur and Taeg’s clothes.
In order to conserve both Ronin’s and Keegan’s energy, rather than relying on one of them to fly him over, Taeg had dissipated into air and followed along in that form. It was a pretty awesome trick that only an air sylph—or in Taeg’s case, a sylph hybrid—could perform. It also meant that once he rematerialized, he was buck-ass naked, hence Maya carrying his clothes.
Once they’d arrived at the castle, Ronin and Dagan had landed here to scout the rear of the property while Keegan flew Maya around for an extensive visual scan of the entire area. Now that it was completed, Keegan would drop Maya off at the meeting spot they’d designated in the forest. Then he, along with Taeg and the mercenaries, would continue on foot to the edge of the shield, where they would cause a distraction by using Excalibur to rend the barrier and hopefully alert Belpheg to their presence.
Meanwhile, Ronin was going to drop Dagan off by the lake. Dagan would sneak into the castle, undetected, if all went according to plan, and find Lina.
Yeah, there were way too many variables to this fucking plan. So what. He wasn’t going to fail.
He wouldn’t allow it.
“I’m ready,” Dagan said. “You gonna circle back around to join Keegan and Taeg?”
Ronin nodded. “If all goes well, I’ll make it through that barrier and be on the other side to collect you both.”
“Good.”
Despite his anxiety over Lina, Dagan’s throat constricted with the acknowledgement that his brother was putting so much trust in him. After all they’d gone through, the fact that Ronin was trusting him to save Lina could only mean one thing: he really did believe in him.
And I won’t let you down.
With a flick of his shoulders, Ronin grew his full, white wings. They extended from the long, jagged slits that had rent his dark, fitted shirt the first time he’d grown his wings upon landing in this dimension. One powerful stroke was all it took to propel him toward Dagan. He snatched him up, and they soared toward the edge of the lake.
The wind whipped through Dagan’s hair, carrying with it a bite of chill. Demons didn’t feel heat and cold in the same way humans did, and that was a good thing, because when Ronin touched them down at the edge of the water the air grew measurably cooler.
Dagan dropped to the ground to remove his boots, then rose an
d slipped his T-shirt over his head. After a moment’s hesitation, he cast his jeans off too, leaving him clad in nothing more than a pair of tight black boxer briefs. Any more clothing would only interfere with his swimming, and he’d have to worry about leaving a dripping trail of evidence inside the castle if—no, once—he made it inside.
When Ronin bent to snatch up the items, Dagan stopped him with a hand to his shoulder.
“Wait.”
Ronin stilled. The guarded look in his eyes suggested he wasn’t in the mood for idle chit-chat, but Dagan had something that need to be said.
“Just in case, I want you to know…”
Hell, why was it so freaking hard to share his feelings? Probably yet one more thing he could thank that heartless bastard Mammon for.
Dagan took a breath, not quite meeting Ronin’s gaze before continuing. “The way I acted with women in the past, it was never about them. I guess it in a way it was a method of protecting myself. But Lina…with her, things are different. She’s not a one-night-stand. She’d never be that… I—”
“Dagan.” Ronin lay his hands atop Dagan’s bare shoulders, his voice soft when he said, “We can talk about this later. Go get her. Please. Make sure she’s safe.”
His tone communicated everything he didn’t say. Ronin was trusting him. Forgiving him. Letting him know that no matter their argument, they were still blood.
“I won’t let you down,” Dagan said.
Ronin squeezed his shoulders, a shadow of a smile crossing his lips. “I know.”
He let go, and Dagan turned to wade into the cool water. Although enough moonlight shimmered down to create silver scales along the rippling waves, he couldn’t see more than a few inches into the water. Good thing the castle was a straight-shot ahead. Besides, he’d seen conditions worse than this before. Going into that Welsh lake to retrieve Excalibur—twice—had been no picnic.
After several feet, in about waist-high water, he encountered the invisible barrier Ronin had mentioned. It bounced him back like a rubber ball.
Call of the Siren (Demons of the Infernum) (Entangled Edge) Page 15
