He appears tall and solidly built, in his mid-thirties perhaps. But I know FTCs. Just by the set of his gaze upon me, I can tell this fucker is ancient. Thousands of years old. Older than my mother. Or Jack. Probably the oldest of our kind I’ve ever met. He’s handsome, if you go for the chiseled, imposing type. His features are overtly masculine; a square jaw, Roman nose and strong forehead. What might be dark blond hair—it’s hard to be sure of the exact shade in this light—hangs wildly to his shoulders. The color of his eyes, though, is too intense to mistake, a grass green that flickers to bloodred even as I watch. Something cold stirs in my gut.
Suddenly, I’m fighting the instinctive urge to back up into Luna or hell, maybe all the way to fucking Iowa. Instead, I straighten my spine.
“Okay, I give up. Who are you?”
“Cerunnos, my child.”
Luna stiffens at the name but doesn’t comment. It stirs something in my memory, but I can’t quite place it. “In my experience, people who say ‘my child’ are never playing with all their marbles. No offense, Pops.”
Lifting a brow, the man turns to someone standing in the thick shadows next to the throne. Someone my eyes missed. “She’s exactly as you said.”
Tyr steps forward into the weak light, the ever-present sardonic smile on his face. The assassin shrugs. “I told you, she’s one of a kind.” That smile looks oddly tight. Almost forced. He’s not happy I’m here. I wonder if he’ll try and protect me or if his orders don’t cover this. My eyes go back to the man on the big chair.
“We are pleased—” He seems to be addressing Luna now, not me, but I interrupt anyway, feeling squirrelly.
“Your usage of the royal ‘we’ isn’t real impressive, either. It makes you sound like a pretentious asshole.”
Cerunnos only raises an eyebrow, his voice mild. “I was referring to my compatriots. Those that reside in the dark around you, not as willing as I to reveal their identities.”
I flinch, unable to keep from looking around the chamber. It is deathly quiet, but now that he’s made me aware, I slowly start to pick out the silhouettes scattered around the room, standing with an expectant stillness, like puppets waiting for their strings to be pulled. One appears to be a sprite, glittering faintly, then there’s the form of a lanky man leaning against the far wall, his posture suggesting disdain, a veiled woman in one corner…I can’t make any of the others out.
“Are you quite done whistling in the dark, little girl?” Cerunnos’s cool words have me pressing my lips together tightly, my hands clenching at my sides. He has the kind of voice that makes knees and bowels go watery. I wonder what poor sap has to clean the floors in here and get a brief flash of Mike Rowe with a mop and pail.
Cerunnos waits, but when I say nothing, he turns back to Luna.
“The bounty is yours.” His voice holds an edge. A man concluding a distasteful transaction. One that he considers beneath him.
“We don’t want the bounty. We want what was promised to us before, the cure!” Luna’s tone is low and vehement, even a little desperate.
Cure? What the hell is this?
“A promise that was made to your mate. His death rendered it null and void; you are only due the bounty that has been offered to all.” He gives an imperious jerk of his head when Luna opens her mouth again. “I really would not protest further, wolf. Working with your kind leaves a bad taste in my mouth as it is.”
“I’m sure it does.” Luna’s lip curls, her chin lifting as a faint hiss fills the chamber, but the sound quiets before I can get a bead on it. “Fine, we’ll take your money. But I won’t forget this, Cerunnos.” She sneers the name, her face shining against the darkness around us, pale despite the biting bravado of her words.
She strides from the chamber, a few shadows slipping away from the walls to follow her. Cerunnos’s eyes also follow my old friend, red, cold and clinging.
“What was she talking about? A cure? A cure for being a werewolf?” Surely not.
“Oh, don’t I wish? No, a cure for moon madness, Persephone. The poor things do seem to be plagued with the disease lately.” There is a predatory satisfaction in those eyes that are bright green when they flick back to me. What he says is true. Moon madness was unheard of until about a hundred years ago, when it began spreading to devastating effect. I’ve heard speculation that over half the werewolf population is now affected. I think of Owen’s white-laced yellow eyes and shudder at the thought of Luna succumbing to the disease.
Cerunnos is watching me, a curious look on his face, almost a kind of longing.
“What? Jeez, you’re freaky enough without looking at me like that. Tyr, you should’ve told me what a creeper ran the Dark Council. I wouldn’t have been so curious. Now that I’ve seen him, I’m ready to go. Laters.”
Cerunnos smiles, pressing his fingers to his chin, avidly taking in my every word. But his eyes flare red again and the fine hairs on the back of my arms rise and go stiff. The air behind me stirs and before I can turn I’m lifted off my feet.
My knees slam painfully into the uneven stone, my jaw snapping together hard enough to make my teeth ache. I twist my head to look behind me, but nothing and no one is there. When I face front again, Cerunnos is smiling, his eyes back to that poisonous green.
“A little respect, if you please, Persephone.”
“I’m not really the bowing and kneeling sort. Your pet assassin here should’ve told you that.”
“Oh, he did. He told me everything about you.” Tyr’s black eyes glitter in the shadows and I wonder how he dares play this game with such a man. Or maybe it’s not Cerunnos he’s playing with. Maybe I’m still the mouse and he’s laying another trap.
I decide to push a bit. Make Tyr sweat. “Uh-huh. Did he include the part where he gave you guys up? Told me who hired him?”
Tyr doesn’t blink and Cerunnos’s smile only widens. “Silly girl. I wanted you to know who was after you, I wanted to make you reckless and afraid. After all, those who profess to love you certainly haven’t been talking, have they? Why wouldn’t they warn you?”
I ignore the dig. They may be fucked up, but if this son of a bitch thinks I’m going be a clichéd fool who lets an enemy destroy their faith in their family, he’s got another thing coming. Despite how pissed off I am at my mom, and my sisters, we’re not going there.
“Nice try, thanks for playing. But the end game is still you wanting me dead, right? Assassin boy there failed. Twice.”
“He’ll have a chance to redeem himself shortly. No need to wait for your ‘trial’ when you deliver yourself so willingly into our midst.”
I swallow, my eyes flicking to Tyr. His expression doesn’t so much as flicker at Cerunnos’s words, but his fingers tighten on the hilt of his sword.
“I didn’t come here to die, you know.” I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but I try to put enough conviction in the words to make us all believe it. “I want answers.”
“Do you really think to get them and leave here alive?” Okay, so I’m not fooling anyone.
“Maybe I don’t.” I hold his gaze. His eyes gleam red again and I swallow hard. “But you’re scared of me. All of you, hiding in the shadows. Pissing your collective Underoos because of one poor little witch.” I turn, throwing my words around the room. A surge of collective anger stirs through the cold stale air, along with a touch of unease. Interesting.
“Scared, are we?” Cerunnos lifts a hand, looking amused as the cavern stills again.
“Sure you are, it’s why you want me dead. The whole reason for your bounty. But how do you know I won’t use that power right now to get away—or take you all out here and now? Maybe that’s even why I came here in the first place.”
There is a definite spike in the tension in the room now. I can’t help but smile. Cerunnos, though, only shakes his head, leaning forward in his throne, his grin far wider than mine.
“Why don’t you call that terrifying power then?” he says, in a patronizing tone that ha
s my gut churning with rage. “Go on.”
We stare at each other for long moments. Like a hangman’s noose, the tension draws tight around my throat until I can barely breathe, let alone speak. I’ve no idea how to reach the elemental magic I touched that night on the beach, and there is a part of me that never wants to touch it again.
He steeples his fingers under his chin, resting it on the tips. “I thought not, little witch. Whatever power you drew on that night, you have no true command of it yet. And we do not intend to give you the chance to learn.” He gives Tyr a meaningful look before turning back to me. “I must say, I find it terribly interesting that your first elemental weapon was ice. Just like your old lover’s.” His eyes gleam red again. “Where is Frost, anyway? He will be most disappointed to miss this. After all, he’s more invested than any of us.”
His smile widens when I say nothing, a sick feeling rising in my throat. “My my, he was right? You still have feelings for him. How droll. I thought him terribly arrogant—and a bit mad, to be honest. But I can see now he was telling the truth.” Cerunnos tsks lightly. “You are amusing, child. Do you imagine you’re protecting him? Did Frost make you think that he’s been intervening on your behalf?”
I shrug, even as my insides clench. “Jack says a lot of things. I’ve learned to ignore most of them.”
He leans back, lacing his fingers over a hard, flat belly, his satisfaction evident. “Frost is the one that marked you from the very beginning. The first of us to realize what you were. Without your Jack, we’d not be standing here right now.”
The words swirl around and around in my head, but their full meaning eludes me.
“And what’s that, exactly? What will I become that you’re all so afraid of? And so help me, if you say dangerous—”
“Dangerous? Yes, Persephone. As is any child that plays with matches. And that’s what you are. A witch child dabbling in magic best left to her betters. Your kind isn’t worthy of true magic.” A quick murmur of agreement sweeps around the room then settles, like the mountain sighing around us.
“Oh my god, is that what you all are? Some FTC version of the KKK? Talking about ‘true’ magic and acting as if witches and werewolves are beneath you. I bet you’re racist against vampires, too. How fucking blasé.” My sneering incredulity brings more titters from the creatures around us. Well, fuck them.
There is what sounds like a muffled chuckle to my left. The lanky man I noticed earlier has his fingers pressed to his lips, his eyes twinkling mischievously in the dark, before he withdraws again into the shadows. I turn my eyes back to Cerunnos. “I don’t even want your stupid ‘true’ magic. My own suits me just fine.”
“Really?” Cerunnos is finally losing his cool, his lip curling. “Be honest now. We all know you’re a rather pathetic witch, Persephone, with nowhere near the potential of your sisters. Isn’t that why you’re trying to harness elemental power, so you can rule them all?”
His words make my cheeks burn and my eyes sting, but I force a shaky laugh. “Rule them all? Dude, I am not Sauron and you’re sure as hell no Frodo. I’m not trying to harness a damn thing. Your elemental magic came looking for me, not vice versa. You want it? Take it back.”
“We plan to,” he waves Tyr forward, “along with your life. Enough of this prattle. Get on your feet, witch, and prepare to die.” He looks around the chamber as if seeking a consensus, there are murmurs and several nods.
Tyr steps forward, a grim look on his face, one hand on the hilt of his sword.
I jump up, or rather stumble to my feet. As I do so the truth stone, still in my jean’s pocket, heats, then suddenly pops free and rolls right across the rocky floor to land at the edge of Cerunnos’s dais. I stare at it in shock. How the hell did that just happen?
Every eye in the room follows it. There are several gasps and another soft chuckle right behind me.
Cerunnos leans slowly forward and picks the stone up. It glows eerily against his fingers. The expression on his face goes from incredulous to apocalyptic.
“Where did you get this?” If he was creepy before, now he’s gone full-on Hannibal Lecter.
I make a show of patting my pockets, looking puzzled. “How’d that get in there? Never seen it before.”
I don’t look at Tyr, though it takes every shred of willpower I have. Cerunnos does. His eyes shifting from green to red and back again.
“We have a traitor here, and I will find who.” He whispers softly, a hissing threat that slides through the room like a poisonous snake making everyone present shiver. Cerunnos’s gaze never leaves Tyr’s face.
“Kill her. Now. I want her head.”
“Hey, let’s not be hasty,” I say, stepping away from the throne, looking around, thinking desperately for something else to say, but for once coming up blank. Thank goodness I didn’t come here with only my mouth for backup.
My fingers slip deep into my old coat pocket to the tiny piece of paper that warms as my fingers pinch it, activating the spellwork contained within.
There are gasps around the chamber as yours truly disappears from sight. I smile and flip off the man on the throne, even though he can’t see me as I walk past on tiptoes. I’d like to snatch the truth stone back, but I can’t take the chance. Getting the fuck out of Dodge is my first and only order of business now.
Cerunnos shakes his head, looking weirdly pleased, his gaze a few paces off of where I actually am. I’m poised to sprint for the opening in the mountain when his next words freeze me in place.
“I take it you still see her, Tyr.”
I spin around. Tyr is staring directly at me, only a step away, his eyes blank as he raises that cursed blade. “Yes,” he murmurs.
Oh shit. I always knew the invisibility spellwork was a long shot, but now that I’m faced with the consequences of my actions, I can’t seem to catch my breath. My stomach drops to my toes. An odd glow encases the weapon from hilt to tip, like flames made of crimson shadow.
This is what I had expected to happen, though I hadn’t admitted it to myself when I walked out of T&T this morning. Maybe I even wanted it to happen. All because I was scared my nightmare version of Luna was right.
A clean end might be best. At least then no one else will get hurt.
Except me, of course.
With a deep breath, I lift my chin and look Tyr in the eye. “You keep that thing properly sharp, yeah? Wouldn’t want to be hacked at with a dull blade.”
The assassin doesn’t smile or return my banter, his lips pressed in a tight line, his gaze like black glass. Tyr has tried to save me more than once, but whatever his monetary motivations, I’m pretty sure this time he’ll have no choice but to follow through.
Whatever the assassin’s thinking, it doesn’t show on that dark face. When he cuts the sword at my throat, I dodge instinctively, but it’s already too late. With a clever back slice, Tyr sends the tip of the blade slicing deep into my hip and stomach. The steel is colder than I expected and my mouth opens in surprise. It happens so fast it doesn’t feel real.
Until my blood splatters to the floor. There is no pain, only a wave of heat and a sudden weakness that has me going to my knees again. The fall feels like it takes forever, but it must be hard and fast because my glasses fly off my nose and shatter on the rock as the world tilts sideways and my cheek slams into stone. Tyr’s sword flares above me blazing white, except for my blood licking along the edges.
Dammit. I wish I could’ve kissed Jack one more time. Even if he is a bastard, I would’ve liked to take the taste of his lips with me.
The blade descends, like a sparkler streaking against a summer sky…
10
The next thing I know, Carly’s voice is in my ear. “C’mon, Seph. Wake up.”
There is no cold stone floor beneath me, no sword above. We’re hauling ass down Highway 61 in Ana’s Volvo. At least I assume we are. With my glasses gone, everything is a semi-diffused blur that makes me feel sick. Shit. Being without my glasses g
ives me vertigo worse than riding with Jack on the wind. Combined with what just happened, this is not a good mix.
“Pull over. I’m going hurl.” A minute later, I’m dry heaving over and over above the dirty snow at the side of the road, Carly’s arm around my shoulder, her hand gently holding back my hair.
The next word out of my mouth is the obvious one. “How?”
“You butt dialed us.”
I rub a hand over my mouth, staring at her. She shrugs, but her face is so pale I can see every freckle.
“It’s true. We could hear everything. Jett finally showed up in time to get you out of there. But as soon as she knew you were gonna be okay, she took off. Something is definitely up with her. Jack was here, too, but he left a few minutes ago. Said he needed to get something. What were you thinking, Seph?”
I shake my head, swaying. How do I answer that?
Throwing an arm around my shoulders, she leads me back to the car. I lean back against it weakly, unwilling to go back inside where I can see Ana talking agitatedly into her cell. I take in deep lungfuls of freshly minted air. There is a low-level burn in my gut and along my hip, but I can tell Carly’s healing is nearly complete.
“I wanted answers.”
“Yeah. Jack said.” Her accusing look makes me wince, but Carly isn’t one to go off. I’m sure she’s leaving that to Ana.
I sigh. “That man, Cerunnos. Have you heard of him?”
She shakes her head slowly, red-gold curls glowing in the bright sunshine. But a line forms between her delicate brows. “No…but it sounds familiar somehow. Like a name I should know but that I’ve forgotten.” Her voice trails off and she looks out over the lake, shining now in the dazzling light, a satin blue handkerchief dusted with glitter.
“Tyr killed me. Or he would’ve if you all hadn’t shown up.” I’m still having a hard time with that. Yes, he’s an assassin and all, but the guy has had numerous opportunities to end me and he’s always pulled his punches. Why go for the gold star now?
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