by Maya Daniels
“Okay.” I drag out the word, but uneasiness is already shriveling my lungs.
“The courtless Fae, to be more specific.” The Fae turns his furious gaze on me, and my blood curdles in my veins from that look.
“So, they … I mean we are guardians of it?” A hysterical giggle bursts out of me. It’s not that bad if it’s a guardian thing. I can live with that. I’m a half blood and the stupid thing didn’t like me. Big fucking deal. I hate the damn stone too, so we are even.
“Serpentine can be found only in one place, even for the courtless Fae.” All of a sudden Zoltan is a chatty Cathy when any other time you have to pry words out of his mouth.
“What, were you a Fae in your previous life or did they hire you as a PR?” I hiss at him then bite my tongue hard to shut myself up and stop talking.
The sound coming out from Daren is pained but I don’t move my glare away from the infuriating male. I mean, what the fuck really? Can’t they just come out with it and say whatever it is? I’m already pruning inside and soon enough I’ll turn into a husk from the unknown. It’s my ass on the line here, so I deserve to know if that damn stone can kill me. Or why it wants to kill me might be a better question. The permanent smirk tilts up Zoltan’s lips but it’s not the like before. It looks practiced, fake.
“The throne of the courtless Fae is made of serpentine.” Fenrir sounds like his life is leaving him with that sentence. “It’s the only serpentine in all the realms.”
My mouth opens then closes a few times.
“And now comes the question of how you ended up in a possession of it.” Voice full of suspicion, Zoltan pushes off the wall.
“My father gave it to me, which I already said.” Seeing him walk toward me, I lift off the chair, not wanting to have to crane my neck to look at him. “I didn’t hide who gave it to me.”
Astara steps between us but Zoltan throws her away with a shoulder, sending her body into Fenrir. I’m too shocked at the murderous look on the vampire’s face to react or even think of defending myself. I never expected him to look at me this way, and at this moment I understand why everyone is afraid of him. I’ve seen him pissed but it has never been aimed at me, until now.
He strikes fast as a snake, his thick, strong fingers wrapping around my neck and lifting me off the ground. On reflex, my hands jerk to his wrist, my nails clawing and scratching his skin in hopes he will let go. With the air being cut off from my lungs, dark spots dance at the corners of my eyes, and my legs kick wildly, the tips of my boots scraping over the floor. My chest is burning for oxygen, but my head is already filled with cotton and I can’t think. The others are shouting trying to get him to see reason but he uses his mind fuck powers muting them up. It never even occurs to me to fight him back. Not until the entity sharing my body perks up.
Fury like I’ve never known before blasts through me. How can anyone dare to think they can hurt me twice? The world is bathed in pulsing red lights. Flashes of a feral Zoltan draining my blood play on repeat, flickering like an old movie in front of me. It feels like I’m being reminded of what he almost did not long ago. The instinct to breathe disappears, leaving the knowledge that I don’t need oxygen to live. It should freak me out, but Zoltan is still squeezing my neck like he wants to pop my head off and I can’t think straight. My head tilts to the side, my vision expanding and retracting until it settles down, and the Daywalker’s eyes widen in shock.
“Na dèan an Daywalker seo.” Goosebumps cover me head to toe from the sound of my voice.
“Don’t do this, Daywalker,” Fenrir translates, his voice strained like he is the one being choked to death. He might be compelled to speak since he was under Zoltan’s influence until now.
“Is urrainn dhomh do mharbhadh gun smaoineachadh.” The hissing and sinuous quality of the foreign sounds coming out of my mouth chill my soul.
“I can kill you without thinking,” Fenrir chirps this part a little too eagerly, and a grin stretches my lips. “She can in this state, just so you are aware.”
With a harsh jerk, Zoltan drops me from his grasp and stumbles back, a horrified expression twisting his handsome face. A trickle of pain that he will be disgusted by me tries to push through, but I’m not in control of my body or my actions at the moment. Just a passenger in my skin suit going for the ride. I watch him calmly with my hands hanging limply at my sides while many expressions fleet through his features, until he clenches his jaw so hard I can hear his teeth grinding and scraping together.
“Math,” I hiss at him, still smiling.
“Good,” the Fae translates and gives Zoltan a wide berth, skirting around him to get closer to me.
“I know what math means.” The vampire glares at Fenrir, and everyone sags when he releases the influence he had on them.
Fenrir jerks a shoulder up, unimpressed at Zoltan’s hostility while giving me side-eyed glances. I can feel the prissy entity slowly retracting from my mind, shrinking back in my chest where it resides. The last thing to disappear is the light-bright colors in my vision and I almost miss them when they’re gone. The world looks dull and washed, everything lacking the vibrancy and life I see through the dragon eyes. Well, it looks dull until I lock gazes with Zoltan. Nothing can dull the too-intense color of his blue eyes.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” I rasp when pain slams me like a sledgehammer, my neck burning from the inside.
“How is it you have that stone?” There is still accusation in Zoltan’s tone but his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows thickly.
“Why does it fucking matter you crazy asshole? You almost killed me!” I regret screaming because it shreds the inside of my throat more. It hurts like a bitch.
“Because no one has seen that throne in centuries.” Zoltan roars in my face, forcing me to flinch. “And no one but the royals had access to that stone. Do you know what the royal Courtless Fae are? Heartless assassins, with no remorse who care about no one else apart from themselves. I understand now everything you said to be the truth.”
I jerk back like he slaps me.
Well, fuck. Here I go again at the top of the to-be-killed-on-sight list.
“Yay!” I pump my fist in the air, but sadly no one joins my little celebration of insanity.
Chapter 15
“Are you sure about this?” Fenrir asks for the fifth time, and all I can do is sigh.
“Yes, Fenrir. I’m sure.” Rubbing little circles on my temples doesn’t help at all with the splitting headache that gives me a second heartbeat pounding behind my eyes.
After our little drama in Daren’s kitchen, Zoltan leaves to go who knows where and the rest of us stand in stunned silence. It lasts exactly two minutes before everyone starts talking at once, and when trying to tell them to stop shouting doesn’t work, I promptly faint. Yes, I know, not one of my finest moments, but everything got to be too much and my brain just switched off. It was lights out for. Then I wake up to everyone still arguing between each other.
I have no idea how I convinced them to head out and find my mother but here we are. Zoltan decided to join us but he kept as far away from me as possible. All of us crammed inside an SUV. Daren looked too smug pulling out from around his house with the vehicle, fretting around it like a mother hen. I expected him to start kissing the hood of the car. It was priceless to see his face when Tenebris decided to grace us with his presence after being missing.
The panther shoved Daren out of his way, jumping through the driver’s door and scratching the shit out of the leather seats with his claws until he settled in the back seat. Right now, I’m squished against the window and the door is stabbing my hip and ribs on one side, while Fenrir jabs his elbow in my arm on the other. Astara and Leo are in the same situation on the other side of Tenebris, all because the feline refused to move from the center of the seat. He sits perched straight like a freaking Egyptian statue of Bast as he stares through the windshield unblinking. He is not fazed by my glares either. Typical cat.
&
nbsp; “We can’t be sure that you can go through the wards.” Astara sounds irritated but I know it’s not at me. The Alpha is the reason for her agitation.
I hide my grin.
“We can try.” I’m willing to try anything just so I don’t have to deal with the rest of the shitstorm my life is turning out to be. Shredded by deadly wards? Count me in. “Worst case scenario, I die. It’s a win, win,” I add it a little too cheerfully.
Zoltan stiffens in the passenger seat.
When the vampire’s shoulders bunch up so he can turn around to look at me, the panther makes a horrible sound in his throat, which changes his mind. My arms pebble and I give Tenebris a quick glance, but he is staring daggers at the back of Zoltan’s head. He can’t know what happened between Zoltan and me because he wasn’t there. Or so I think anyway. Maybe he enjoyed the show too much to intervene. No one can say that cats are not assholes no matter the size.
“We will find a way in, Franky.” Daren puts as much confidence in his words as he can while clutching the steering wheel like he wants to strangle it. I bet he is imagining it’s Tenebris’s neck. “If we can’t, I’ll make us one.”
“Did you happen to see how many of them are in the place?” Zoltan turns his face addressing the Fae.
My stomach clenches tight when the lights we are passing play on his high cheekbones and full lips. His thick, long lashes create shadows on his skin and no matter how upset I am with him for his behavior, I must admit only to myself that he is absolutely breathtaking. And you told him you just used him for a quick fuck you dumbass. I bite the inside of my mouth hard when my inner voice decides to be a jerk.
“I saw a handful on the outside parameter, but I can’t be sure how many are inside.” Fenrir shifts next to me, jabbing me again with his elbow. “I’m certain they are guarding someone because they were strategically placed. Two at the front, three on the roof, and three at the back. Even if I missed one or two that could’ve been walking around at the time, that’s still a number we can deal with.”
With a grunt of affirmation, Zoltan turns away, making me miss his stupidly handsome face. I groan at my own idiocy, shaking my head when Fenrir looks at me with a raised eyebrow. You can’t get more pathetic than this. A male tries to drain you dry and you have sex with him. Then he tries to strangle the shit out of you but your heart speeds up just looking at him. Maybe one of these days I will realize I have a serious problem. Stockholm syndrome I think the humans call it. That’s it.
“What about Stockholm syndrome?” Astara leans forward to look at me around Tenebris, her eyebrows lifted all the way to her hairline.
Damn it, I must’ve spoken out loud.
“Nothing.” Murmuring under my breath with my cheeks burning in embarrassment, I turn to stare out the window.
“Left here.” Fenrir leans forward, eagerly saving me from further questions. “We can leave the car a block down and go the rest of the way on foot. It’s open space around the place, they’ll see us if we drive further than that.”
Gnawing on my mouth, I hold my breath just like the rest of them. With all the pent-up energy I’ve been pushing to the back of my mind just so I don’t have to deal with it, I pray to anyone who will listen that Roberti is here. I’d love to take my anger out on him. Or Alex. I’ll take that asshole as a second-best option, too.
Daren glides the cumbersome vehicle to the side of the road behind an abandoned van with graffiti covering it and bricks instead of wheels. We all pile out as fast as we can, stretching out the kinks in our muscles from being lined up like sardines inside. The last to come out is Tenebris, gracefully jumping from the back seat as fresh as a daisy. Frowning, I watch him stretch, arching his back this way and that without a care in the world. What’s his deal anyway?
“Is there a reason the cat is tagging along?” I aim the question at Fenrir under my breath, but Tenebris pauses in his twisting, one of his ears twitching my way.
“With all that’s been happening, I forgot to say anything about it.” Rubbing the back of his neck, Fenrir looks flustered. My eyebrow crawls up my forehead and he gives me a sheepish look. “Ever since he gave his oath, he has been in his shifted form. What Azgor was shocked about was the fact that Tenebris never comes close to the Academy. We all knew he was somewhere in the forest around it, but no one has seen him in a very long time.” His eyes flick to the panther, who is paying close attention to our hushed conversation while pretending otherwise. “Until now.”
“Another first. Go me!” I grumble but cut off everything else I am about to say when Tenebris snaps his head my way.
“I don’t think you understand, Hellion.” The Fae gives the panther an apologetic look. “I don’t think he was aware that he would be sacrificing his human form when he was asked to give the oath. Even the Board had guards posted around them who were tight for years after that. The fact that he came now … for you …”
He doesn’t have to say the rest. I’m well aware how all this will look to the old jerks sitting up on their highchairs. Not that I need another reason for them to hate me, but why the hell not. Just one more thing going against me.
Tenebris is still watching me with his jewel-colored eyes unblinking, and I can’t help but wonder what is going through his head. Does he see me as something that is at the Academy to stir the pot, something that is nothing more than entertainment for the Board, or is it more than that? The fact that he was in that forest when I first went through it doesn’t surprise me at all. A lot of things are lurking between those trees. Things I never want to come across. But that means Soren knew. And if that ancient Fae was aware, I have a bad feeling that he had something to do with all of this.
“Let’s go, we’ve lingered enough.” Daren breaks through my musings and I finally look away from the panther.
Following close at the mage’s heels, I ignore the fact that Zoltan is walking as far away from me as possible. Convincing myself that it doesn’t bother me and that his hoovering is only one thing pissing me off about him, I keep my gaze straight, focusing on where we are going. The neighborhood looks mostly abandoned. Industrial buildings line both sides of the street, their chained fences locked with heavy padlocks, trash sprinkled around the front yards, and the windows boarded with nailed-on plywood. Vandals have had the time of their lives painting over the walls or ripping the plywood off and leaving it hanging askew at random. The salty tinge in the air is teasing my nostrils, mixing with the stench of urine and making me wrinkle my nose.
It’s impossible to miss the place we are going. The Fae said it had wards to keep everyone away. What he forgot to mention is the tall walls like some damn high security prison with barbed wire stretched between metal poles all around it. Scratch that, not metal poles. Silver poles. I give him a glare but Fenrir just shrugs, grinning at me like a fool. And they keep saying I’m the one with a death wish. On top of that, we stayed at Daren’s house longer than necessary so the night is almost gone, the sky already lightening from pitch black to some stupid shade of gray that is laughing in my face at the fact that I’ll go blind here if I don’t get out of dodge by the time the sun comes up. The stakes just went up a notch for Franky.
Another typical day in the life of Francesca Drake in other words.
Daren lifts a hand, stopping our silent progression. Turning to face us since we followed behind him, he points left and right of the building, showing us two fingers in each direction. It’s good that we are splitting up. Eagerness stirs in the pit of my stomach, and when Leo and Astara peel off to the right, Fenrir tugs on my arm and pulls me along with him to the left. So no Zoltan, see if I care. Tenebris slinks along my thigh, coming with me with his tail lashing the air.
I peer over my shoulder one last time to see Daren and Zoltan move like wraths towards the tall metal gates before we turn a corner around the high walls. The mage is already moving his hands in front of him, thick liquid like lava bubbling between them. Rushing to catch up with Fenrir, I swallow the uneas
e I feel about this. I’m just used to the infuriating vampire breathing down my neck, that’s all. I don’t need him next to me to get this done.
We reach the middle of the wall, the bricks stretching long on both sides. The Fae stops craning his neck up and I follow suit. It’s easily three stories high, and when I look back at his face a groan rumbles from my chest to see him smiling from ear to ear. Not rock climbing again. Playing Spiderman once was enough to last me a lifetime.
Fenrir jumps up, agile like a damn circus performer as he crawls on the wall with incredible speed. His ass tightens with each shift of his legs and I’d have to be blind not to look at it. Until he stops moving and my eyes snap to his face. The Fae winks at me, his white teeth blinking from his wide smile. Cursing up a storm—I might’ve invented a word or two in the process—I search for a place to grab so I can start climbing. I feel bad for Leo because if Astara breaks a nail she will no doubt will blame it on him.
Deciding on a brick, my knees bend slightly to jump for it. I bite down the scream that lodges in my throat when the panther shoves his head in my ass and gives me a hard push. Scrambling up the wall, I keep telling myself that regardless of him being a shifter and having a higher intelligence than a panther would have, Tenebris, at the moment, is an animal. Well more animal than human in any case. There is nothing weird about having him stick his head between my legs. Nothing at all. He is just trying to help. It’s a good thing this happened because I reach the top where Fenrir is waiting for me without realizing it. My arms and legs are burning so I don’t complain much when the Fae grabs my arms and pulls me the rest of the way up like a rag doll.
We both crouch on the top of the wall, the barbed wire an inch from our faces. The panther crawls up last, slinking on his belly further away to give us enough space without pushing us over. The building on the other side of the wall looks too ordinary to be hosting the likes of Roberti or the hunters I can see pacing at the front and on the roof. Blades glint in what’s left of the moonlight, which tells me they are armed to their teeth. This might not be as easy as we originally thought.
