by H. D. Gordon
Realizing she hadn’t answered his question, she said, “He wants me to bear him a child, Theo. Claimed it’s a debt owed to him by the Stormsong family.”
Theo’s lack of response made Surah sit up straighter in her chair. Her voice came out sharp again. “Did you know about this?”
Theo sat across from her, obviously buying time to choose his next words carefully. “Your father mentioned it to me when I was a boy,” he said. “He didn’t say exactly what the deal was, but he told me I’d need to look after you someday. Said there was a debt that you shouldn’t have to pay. I was so young, I didn’t think much of it at the time.” Theo smirked without humor. “All I really heard was that you needed me. I guess I just held onto that part.”
Surah didn’t know what to say to this. She didn’t doubt the truth of Theo’s words, but that didn’t mean they weren’t nearly as shocking as hearing that a Dark Lord thought he was entitled to impregnate her. She suddenly understood Dagon’s hate for her family all these years, and all the lies her father must’ve told her to keep her in the dark.
Her voice sounded far away when she spoke. “My father promised you my hand before he died, isn’t that what you said?”
Theo hesitated, then nodded. “Actually, King Syrian promised me your hand when we were children, but he was going to force you to marry me if I saved you from Black Heart when he took you captive.” The Head Hunter looked down at his hands, his voice taking on a quality Surah had never heard before. “But I failed. Samson saved you that day, didn’t he?”
He looked up at her with his gray eyes, his handsome face more open than she’d ever known it to be. Her stomach swirled a bit uneasily as the sudden realization came to her that she did not hate Theodine Gray, that maybe she’d been just misunderstanding him all this time.
“Yes,” she answered. “Samson saved me.” She didn’t add that Charlie had also played a role in her rescue. A huge role, in fact. He’d used his love for her to break the chains of Black Magic his brother had used to hold her. She suspected Theo knew this anyway, and there was no need to rub salt in the wound.
“But you know that I was looking for you?” Theo asked. “And not just because your father promised me marriage… but because I couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to you.”
Surah only stared at him. “All these years, Theo,” she said, “and you tell me these things now? Why? I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t know if I can trust you. I don’t know anything right about now.”
Theo scooted forward on his chair, resting his muscled arms on his legs, his gray eyes as grave as the dead. “I told you. I finally see that there’s only one way into your heart. I can no more force you to love me than I can force the sky to turn green and the grass blue. I’ve done some things, my queen… some things I’m not proud of. I haven’t always been the most honorable of men. I’ve hunted and I’ve killed, but I’ve always loved you, and even though there’s a part of me that wants to, I can’t seem to stop.”
“Theo, I… I don’t know what to say.”
Theo stood, looking down at her with a compassion she would’ve thought was beyond him, and placed a hand gently against her cheek. His fingers were rough and calloused, but warm. “You don’t have to say anything,” he whispered.
Just then, there was a knock at the door to the study. Both of them jumped, startled out of the moment. Surah was partly relieved. She wasn’t sure she was comfortable with whatever emotions she was starting to feel toward the Head Hunter, and with the effects of the Black Stone still holding her, she couldn’t trust any of her emotions right now.
She told the caller to enter, and in stepped Noelani and Lyonell. They looked at Theo and Surah, and Noelani’s eyebrow quirked, but she only bowed to her queen. “Glad to see you’ve returned safely, your majesty,” she said.
Surah didn’t miss the slight edge to Noelani’s voice, and she couldn’t say she blamed her. Noelani and Lyonell were Surah’s personal guard, and Surah was not an easy Sorceress to keep an eye on.
“I always do,” Surah said, giving her usual response.
Lyonell spoke up now. “We thought you’d like to know all of the Lords and Ladies have moved to safe spots, and the Hunters are spread out across the land, protecting the people.”
Surah nodded, hearing the anxiety in her guard’s voice loud and clear. “Good,” she said. “It’s imperative that the people know they’re protected…”
“You should’ve seen the look on some of the royals’ faces,” Theo said. “If we get through this, your court won’t be happy, my queen.”
“And if we don’t,” Surah said, “I don’t have a court to be unhappy with me.” She met the eyes of the three people in the room. “I understand that you may not agree with my decisions, and I know it’s because you all care about me and this kingdom, but without the faith of my people, I’m no queen, and whether it puts me in danger or not, I have to do what I feel is right.”
Surah paused, her eyes flipping between her two personal guards and the Head Hunter. “However, I won’t force you to stay for what’s coming next, and I won’t blame you if you want to leave. I’ve sent orders to the remaining Hunters to stay within the castle walls, no matter what comes next.”
Noelani’s mouth fell open to protest, her spiky hair sticking out on her head and her toned arms crossed over her chest, but Surah cut her short with a single look, and Noelani’s mouth snapped shut with an audible click. It wasn’t often Surah used this commanding way of hers, but when she did, it was nearly undeniable.
Surah continued, “I’m ordering the three of you to do the same. Stay within the walls of the castle. The protective Magic is strongest here, and you should be safe… but if the enemy does get inside, use the tunnels to escape, or teleport the hell out of here. Take whoever you can and hide among the humans if you must.”
A stunned silence hung over the room for several long moments, everyone too shocked and submissive to speak against this.
At last, it was Theo who spoke up. “My queen,” he began slowly, warily, “with all due respect, you must know we can’t do that.”
Surah’s gaze snapped to the Head Hunter and whatever he saw behind her eyes made him flinch just slightly. Subconsciously, Surah recognized this as abnormal, because Theodine Gray was not a man who scared easily. A tiny voice in her whispered that perhaps she was being more affected by the Black Stone than she realized, but it floated away almost as soon as it had landed.
“You will do that, Lord Gray,” Surah said, her tone allowing for no argument. Her face fell just a touch, and her voice softened as she looked at each of them in turn. “I can’t have anyone else I care about dying on me,” she said. “I need to know you’re safe.”
Lyonell spoke up for the first time. “So you’re going to take on an army of Fae and Demons by yourself? That’s your plan?”
A smile pulled up one side of Surah’s face, a darkness flashing behind her eyes the way lightning flashes across a black night. Unconsciously, her hand slipped beneath her fine cloak, and her fingers wrapped tightly around the Black Stone, which pulsed warmly under her touch. She’d never been more angry and filled with battle lust in all her life… and she’d never felt so powerful.
She’d be damned if she would lose anyone else to this mess. So she nodded to her longtime friend and told him that was the plan precisely. She would take on the Fae and Demons, and anyone else who dared challenge her as well.
Surah Stormsong did not know it, but all three people in the room that day did not know just who exactly they should be worried for—their queen, or the rest of the world.
CHAPTER 31
CHARLIE
Charlie stood at the door of Aria’s apartment, trying for the millionth time to just reach his hand up, turn the damn knob, open the blasted door, and leave. And for the millionth time, he found he could not.
“What curse have you placed on me, child?” he asked the Halfling girl.
Aria was
sitting on her kitchen counter again, her legs folded beneath her and an amused grin on her face. She sipped slowly at a cup of tea before answering. Her nonchalant attitude was beginning to drive him crazy.
“Cool your pants, grandpa,” Aria said. “I didn’t place any curse on you. I just made you keep a promise. You told your queen you’d stay with me, so that’s what you gotta do.”
Charlie threw his hands up, having the strong urge to just kick the damn door down but completely unable to act upon it. It made for a confused and infuriating feeling. He stalked over to Aria, pointing back at the door. “Open that door, young lady,” he demanded.
The girl quirked an eyebrow at this, her pretty face clearly amused at the approach. “It’s not even locked,” she said.
“You know what I mean.” Charlie deflated a little, seeing that trying to force the girl to comply was pointless. “My brother is tryin’ to kill the woman I love, Aria. You gotta let me go.”
The amusement slipped off her face, and she looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite make up her mind. After what felt like forever to Charlie, who reminded himself not to push (he didn’t know much about Halfling teenagers, but if they were anything like all the other teenagers he’d met, pushing them to do something often had the opposite effect) Aria sighed and pushed her red-brown hair out of her face.
“Look, I can’t break the promise I made to your queen,” she said, and when Charlie threw up his hands again, she cut him off with a look. “But if you recall, the only thing I promised was not to let you follow her and to keep you with me.”
The implications of this dawned on Charlie, and his heart sank a little at the same time as it lifted. “So I can leave, but I can’t go after her, and you gotta come with me?” he asked.
Aria nodded, but didn’t say anything else.
Charlie sat down on one of the chairs in the living room, rubbing his hands through his hair. While this was a loophole, it was not a great one. Charlie wasn’t exactly sure where he needed to go to accomplish what he needed to accomplish, but he was sure that it was dangerous. How could he ask this girl to come along, and put her in danger?
He couldn’t, that was the answer. He didn’t know much about her, but from what he did know, she was just a girl, a child, really, having only lived seventeen years of life. For someone as old as Charlie, this was the equivalent of infancy. Also, she was a Peace Broker, and she’d fulfilled her mission. If she were to step outside those orders, and get further involved, she could lose her job. Again, Charlie couldn’t be sure of this, but from what he’d seen, the girl didn’t have anyone—no family, no support system—outside of her organization. No pictures of parents hung on the walls, no sign of siblings.
Charlie looked over at her and saw that Aria was watching him, as if she could see these thoughts and assumptions playing out in the air above his head. Her pretty face was free of emotion, and as she looked at him, she breathed in deeply and spoke the kindest words any stranger had ever spoken to him, despite the fact that Charlie had lived nearly a thousand years of life.
“I’ll go with you, Charlie,” she said, sweet voice soft and low. “Wherever you think you need to go… I’ll go with you.”
For a heartbeat or two, Charlie was stunned into silence. “I can’t ask you to do that,” he said at last.
“You didn’t,” said the girl. “I offered.”
“Why? Overlookin’ the fact that it’ll be dangerous, couldn’t you get in big trouble with your superiors?”
She shrugged, but in that small gesture Charlie could see that this offer was beyond generous on her part, and would certainly lead to trouble for her, in one form or another.
“I understand wanting to do something you’ve been ordered not to do,” she said, her face blank again, as if slipping into an unreadable mode had become second nature. “Especially when it involves someone you love.”
Charlie shook his head. “Isn’t there another way? Can’t you just take off whatever Magic you put on me to make me stay with you?”
Aria only blinked at him. “I told you, I can’t break my promise. We both go, or we both stay. It’s up to you.”
Charlie cursed, rubbing his jaw. He appreciated the offer, but it was a bad position to be put in. In order to help Surah, who he loved so much it hurt sometimes, he would have to put this girl in harm’s way. There was no right choice here, no good way to go.
Hopping off the counter, Aria went over to a closet in the corner of the room and opened the door. She disappeared inside for a moment, and then returned dragging a trunk behind her. It scraped across the wood floor of the apartment. When she was in front of the couch, the trunk in between her and the chair Charlie was occupying, she took a seat and began putting in a combination on the lock that was securing the trunk.
Charlie watched in silence as the girl opened the top and removed five shinny throwing stars.
“Whoa,” Charlie said. “What’re you doing?” The stars were beautiful, but dangerous weapons.
“I’m taking the weight off you,” she said. She gave the trunk a little kick with the toe of her boot. “Pick a weapon. I’m assuming we’ll need them. Don’t have any guns, though. Hate guns.”
In fact, most Supernaturals hated firearms, and there was Magic in the other realms that kept them from working, but Charlie thought that was beside the point.
“Aria, I—” he began, but she cut him off.
Tucking a long iron knife into her boot, she said, “Look, I’ve made the choice. We’re going to help Surah, and we’re going to put an end to Tristell. She needs to be stopped, and I’m done sitting on the sidelines. To hell with my orders.”
“You could die,” he replied flatly.
“I’m not as easy to kill as I look,” she snapped back. “Are you gonna tell me where we’re going?” She wasn’t looking at him now, but staring fixedly into the trunk as she removed weapon after weapon and tucked them into various parts of her clothing. Her movements were calculated and relaxed, robotic.
Charlie sat back in his seat, in awe of this girl, and curious about what else there was to her story. He’d never met anyone like her, and knew instinctually that her willingness to help had to be personal at least in part. She’d said she knew what it was like to want to break orders, especially when concerning a loved one, and he could see in the green of her eyes that she was no stranger to loss.
At last, he reached into the trunk and pulled out a knife, tucking it into his boot and pulling his pant leg over it. Aria held out a long iron dagger, and he took it with some hesitation. Iron was toxic to Fae, a weapon wielded when one meant to kill, and he had a feeling Aria knew this.
“We’re going back to the Fae Forest,” he answered at last.
Aria nodded once, her face set and her mind decided.
Charlie took the blade and stared down at it. “I’ll still need the silver one,” he said.
The girl studied him a moment, forearms resting on her thighs as she leaned forward on the couch, sitting very still and eyeing him in a way that made him almost uncomfortable.
After some time had passed, how long Charlie was unsure, as he was a bit lost in his own thoughts, Aria said, “Why will you need the silver one too, Charlie?”
Charlie had a feeling the girl knew the answer to this question already, but he replied anyway. “Because silver works best on Sorcerers, and I’m gonna kill my brother… put an end to this mess once and for all.”
Aria gave another single nod, then swept her long hair up off her neck and tied it deftly into a knot at the top her head. “I won’t judge you for that, Charlie Redmine,” she said. “So long as you don’t judge me for whatever happens tonight. Do we have a deal?”
Charlie wasn’t sure what to think of this, and he didn’t miss the ominous way the Halfling girl said it, but he had a feeling that lost loved one of hers might have something to do with it.
When Charlie hesitated, the girl sighed. “You’re not the only one who
has business to attend to in the Fae Forest, okay? I’ll be straight with you, I need you as much as you need me. Now hold out your hand and tell me we have a deal, and let’s get this show on the road.”
He would never be sure if he held his hand out to the girl that day with complete willingness on his part, but hold out his hand, he did. “We got a deal,” he said, and the two of them shook on it.
CHAPTER 32
SAMSON
This was the deal he’d made, and there was no way to run. He hated himself for even wanting to, for even feeling the fear that was swirling through his chest, but hating it did not make it go away. He needed to focus, or he was dead before the fight even began.
Samson stood in the clearing now, along with all the other felines in the pride. Cats, large and small (small being a relative term, mind you) sat and lounged around. Some of them lay in tree limbs that edged the clearing, others on huge flat rocks that got pleasantly warm under the day’s sun.
This day’s sun was sinking below the tree line, the dark blue hue of twilight descended over the earth without heed of what was to follow. Soon, every star in the endless sky would be visible, and the man in the moon would look down and witness a ceremony that only Great Cats and moons ever got to witness.
He could feel all the eyes on him, though cats had a way of seeming to be paying little attention when in fact they were rapt. There was an energy to the green, clean air of the jungle, a certain silence that seemed to speak of a reverence for what came next.
Mila stood beside him, and Drake, King of the Beasts and his opponent on this fateful evening, stood on his other side. As the last of the light leaked out of the sky, the King spoke to his people in the way of the Great Cats, his deep, imposing voice sounding in their heads as though it were their own.
“My children,” Drake began, addressing the pride the way in which he’d been addressing them for hundreds of years, “Tonight a battle for the throne will commence. Two cats will face each other with all of you as witness, and one cat will emerge your leader. If this should be the last time I stand before you, know that it has been an honor to rule a pride such as ours, and that each of you has made me proud in your own ways.” He paused here, his head tilting slightly as he looked at Samson. “That includes my opponent, my possible successor. Let us not forget what could happen should our kind go without strong leadership, and let us show the respect that is deserved to both tonight’s victor and loser, no matter which cat takes which title. As always, I can promise I will fight as hard as I can.”
